MFA Program for Working Professionals: Faculty

Study with the Best

Working with designers, illustrators, and other art professionals is the easiest and most effective way to learn how to produce career-advancing work and obtain your MFA degree.

Our "Get Your Masters with the Masters" MFA Program offers a rare opportunity to receive personal, hands-on training from leaders in the design and illustration fields.

Current and past faculty have included:

Design, Advertising and New Media Instructors

Allan Beaver was a founding partner of Levine Huntley Schmidt and Beaver. He has won Gold medals in the Andy, Clio, AIGA, Cannes, Art Directors Club and The One Show competitions and is a past president of both the Art Directors Club and The One Club.

Ed Brodsky is the former director of Marywood University's Masters of Fine Art program. He has lectured around the world, won more than 100 creative awards and is a past president of the Art Directors Club.

Steven Brower is director of Marywood University's Masters of Fine Art program. He is an award-winning author and designer. He lectures nationally and is the former Creative Director of Print magazine, which won two National Magazine Awards during his tenure. Woody Guthrie Artworks, co-authored by Brower and Nora Guthrie and designed by Brower, won a Silver prize in the Foreword Awards and the top prize in the New York Book Show, both in the fine art category.

Seymour Chwast, regarded as one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century, is founder of the world famous Push Pin Studios.

Rodrigo Corral is an award-winning designer who has crafted some of the most memorable book covers of the last decade. He is currently the Creative Director of Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG).

Stavros Cosmopoulus has been consistently named by Ad Day as one of America's outstanding creative people. He has been the dominant creative force behind three major ad agencies.

Ray Cruz is an expert custom lettering and type designer. He has received over 30 graphic and type design awards from TDC, AIGA, ADC and other art associations.

Bob Gill was a founding partner of Pentagram Design, London. His books on design are classics and his iconoclastic illustrations and designs have earned him induction into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame.

Keith Godard is an environmental and graphic designer. He has had several books published and designed the wall murals for the 23rd Street (N/R Line) subway station in New York City.

Gregg Greenwood, principal designer/owner of Dataharvest of New York City, a design shop with a focus on website production, identity development and packaging design. He's created sites for Sony music artists and Epic records, teaches at SVA and publishes photography.

Jeffrey Keyton is the VP Off-Air Creative Director of MTV. He heads a team that consistently wins Gold, Silver and Bronze awards in all major competitions.

Luba Lukova is a Bulgarian designer/illustrator. Her posters appear in museum collections around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Muse des Beaux Arts in Mons, Belgium.

Barbara Meyer is an internet illustrator/designer, Former Creative Director of Microsoft's San Diego Sidewalk and Warner's People Online; she has won the San Diego Journalists Award of Illustration.

Alex Ostroy has done work for Sony, V2 Records, Todd Oldham, MTV and Nike. His work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, WIRED, the Art Directors club, Young Guns show, and has won Silver from the Society of Publication Designers.

Tony Palladino has worked at advertising agencies as a Creative Director, and independently for corporations. He is in The Art Directors Hall of Fame, and his work is in various museum collections including MoMA. He was the recipient of the SVA Master Series Award in 1999 .

Robert Reitzfeld was an art director at several prominent advertising agencies prior to forming his own. His commercials are in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He has won over 500 creative awards.

Hank Richardson chairs the design and Electronic/Digital Art Program at Portfolio Center in Atlanta, one of America's most highly rated design schools.

Jessica Weber heads a design and marketing firm. She has been teaching design since 1980 and is a past president of the Visual Communications Education Fund of the Art Directors Club.

Judith Wilde teaches design at Kingsborough C.C./CUNY. She co-authored the classic Visual Literacy and has won awards from the AIGA, Art Directors Club, the One Show and the Print annual.

Illustration Instructors

Guy Billout is one of America's most imitated and influential illustrators. His unique conceptual style has earned him Gold and Silver medals from the Society of Illustrators.

Lisa L. Cyr is an accomplished multidisciplinary artist and author with a content-driven approach. Cyr has authored seven books on art and design, including the cutting-edge, mixed media bestseller entitled Art Revolution. She also writes for many of the creative industry's leading art publications. Cyr lectures regularly about successful promotion strategies, marketing opportunities and entrepreneurial endeavors for the creative industry.

Peter Fiore is a past president of the Society of Illustrators. He has won their Silver medal as well as more than 65 other awards from the most prestigious national competitions.

Dian Friedman is a leading painter whose commissioned portraits have included General Charles de Gaulle, President Eisenhower, Ralph Lauren and Pope John Paul II. She is also one of America's top sports illustrators.

Jean Govoni is a former Creative Director and board member of Ted Bates, London. She also worked at Saatchi and Saatchi and McCann Erickson before starting her own advertising and design firm.

Rudy Gutierrez is a renowned educator and illustrator who works in advertising, editorial and publishing. His many awards include the NY Book Award for Cover Design and a Gold medal from the Society of Illustrators.

Melanie Hall is a widely exhibited children's book illustrator who has been featured in major art and publishing journals. The Mazzas Museum purchased one of her original pieces of book art.

Megan Halsey has illustrated nearly 40 children's books. She is a graduate of our program, has been lauded by The New Yorker, Children's Book Council, American Library Association, and has won two Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold awards.

Stuart Leeds' illustrations have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post and The Village Voice. His ironic cartoons appear regularly in The New Yorker.

Liz Lomax, a three dimensional illustrator in New York, is widely recognized as one of the leading figures in her field. She creates award-winning hand-sculpted illustrations for advertisements, magazines, newspapers, books and album covers.

Zina Saunders is an artist and writer whose work can be seen in national magazines and newspapers like Mother Jones, The Utne Reader, The Progressive, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic. Her Broadway theater posters have graced the billboards of Times Square. 

Christopher Zacharow is one of the most sought after conceptual illustration teachers in New York City. A classically trained painter and illustrator he has been featured in many major magazines around the world.