Media contact:
Leah Spellman
APR Director of Communications
Columbus College of Art & Design
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Columbus College of Art & Design is pleased to welcome four new faculty members for the 2021–2022 academic year, including a renowned comic artist, a broadly skilled designer, and two talented filmmakers. Craig Campbell, Dem Lashawn Keilu, Kingsley Nyarko, and Charmaine Sutton join the college’s full-time faculty, bringing their expertise and industry knowledge to CCAD’s Comics & Narrative Practice, Film & Video, and Interior Architecture & Design programs.
“Faculty are uniquely able to impact students in the moment as teachers and for years to come through curriculum development and program assessment,” says Provost Julie Taggart. “Adding new and diverse perspectives to our teams will undoubtedly add breadth to what we do to prepare our students for the workplace and careers they will pursue in the future.“Not only are the chairs of Film & Video, Interior Architecture & Design, and Comics & Narrative Practice excited to have new full-time faculty members, but all of our programs benefit as these faculty bring their experience and perspectives to institutional conversations.”
Craig Campbell, Assistant Professor, Comics & Narrative Practice
CM Campbell received his BA in Fine Art with a studio emphasis at San Francisco State University and his MFA in Comics at California College of the Arts. His work as a comics artist can be most prominently found in editorial cartooning for publications like Hyperallergic and The Margins. He previously served as AICAD Fellow at CCAD.
Dem Lashawn Keilu, AICAD Fellow and Visiting Faculty, Film & Video
Dem Lashawn Keilu’s current interest is in telling Black stories within a diverse range of artistic disciplines, while also giving a platform for other artists to express their own experiences through their work. Keilu works as a filmmaker, designer, painter, writer, and furniture designer. He holds a BA in Architecture from Morgan State University, an MA in Social Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and an MFA in Filmmaking, also from MICA.Keilu, of New York City, is a 2013 Artscape Student Awardee, a 2013 AIA Emerging Design Professional Awardee, a 2015 Gensler Architecture Impact Awardee, a 2015 Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab Fellow, a 2016 Rose Fellowship Finalist, a 2016 Winter Warnock Baltimore Social Innovation Winner, and a 2021 AICAD Fellow. See more of his work at petelephants.com
Kingsley Nyarko, Assistant Professor, Film & Video
Kingsley Nyarko graduated from University of Ghana with a BA in Fine Arts and went on to earn a postgraduate certificate in Marketing Management from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration. After working at New York University Accra (Ghana) for five years, teaching and coordinating study abroad programs, Nyarko’s desire to learn and do more brought him to Ohio University School of Film, where he earned his master’s degree in Film Producing and Directing, with extended experience in cinematography.Nyarko has worked on many shorts and feature films, including: The Right To Remain, Homophobia, Uber Father, Desire, and Turn Over, along with many film competitions. His films examine culture, diversity, race, identity, religion, and family life. He has also worked extensively on sound design with John Butler, Cinema Audio Society Member. Nyarko is the instructor for the Film Columbus Teen Screenwriting Workshop & Competition and the City Producer of the 48 Hour Film Project in Accra, Ghana.
Charmaine Sutton, Visiting Faculty, Interior Architecture & Design
Charmaine Sutton earned her Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design from Drake University and a Master of Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. Sutton is an interior designer whose broad experience in graphic design and marketing informs her teaching. Sutton is on the Board of Directors at the Childhood League Center, and has served on the Executive Committee for The Center for Architecture and Design in Columbus. She was among the architects and designers who participated in the CBUS Ideabook Project, a collectively produced exhibition and publication that won an Excellence Award from the American Institute of Architects. She teaches Design Methods Studio and Lighting Design at CCAD.Hiring this outstanding group of diverse and talented faculty members represents an intentional first step in a larger process to transform and support CCAD faculty members' professional growth and excellence with an emphasis on equity- and inclusion-focused expansion. Over the past year, college leaders have worked closely with the Presidential Commission on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion to overhaul CCAD’s hiring practices with the explicit goal of increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the faculty and staff to better reflect the diversity of the student body.
“It is essential that we build an intentionally inclusive community at CCAD where students regularly interact with faculty who look like them and relate to them through shared experiences,” says Chris Mundell, Vice President for Institutional Engagement and Chair of the Presidential Commission on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. “Increasing faculty and staff diversity at every level is a long-term commitment that will require sustained attention, thoughtful strategy, and resources to achieve. This effort is just one component of a larger DEI Action Plan that calls for bold and proactive actions to reshape curriculum, foster an inclusive campus culture, and improve equity and inclusion in all areas of the college.”
