Nine new full-time faculty joined the College of Visual and Performing Arts for the 2025-26 academic year. One of the faculty members is the college’s new chair of the Department of Drama.

The new full-time faculty members are:

• Adrienne Dagg is an assistant professor of studio arts (painting) in the School of Art. Her creative work and research focus on pushing the boundaries of traditional figurative painting. She has exhibited her work throughout Canada and in the United States, with recent solo shows at the Art Incubator Gallery, Harcourt House Artist Run Centre in Edmonton; Bau-Xi Gallery in Toronto; and FAB Gallery in Edmonton.
• Meris Drew is also an assistant professor of studio arts (painting) in the School of Art. Her paintings, like the swampy Floridian landscape where she grew up, are places where volatile organic systems crisscross with science, storytelling and magical thinking. Her work has been featured in recent solo exhibitions at Stellarhighway (New York), Fried Fruit (Wilmington, Delaware) and Bottom Feeder Books (Pittsburgh).
• Eleanor Holdridge is a professor of drama and the new chair of the Department of Drama. She has directed plays for over 30 years, most recently Ken Ludwig’s “Baskerville” at the Alley Theatre in Houston. Her upcoming directing projects include a workshop of Ludwig’s “Napoleon at Pemberly” at the Alley Theatre and “The Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” at the Olney Theatre in summer 2026.
• Li “Lily” Jiang is an assistant professor of fashion design in the School of Design. Her research focuses on using innovative technology to promote sustainable design and development in the apparel industry. As a research assistant at Iowa State University, she conducted research, created prototypes and conducted user testing for a fit-adjustable nursing bra, which resulted in the university’s first-ever apparel design patent.
• Quran Karriem, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, is a media theorist, electronic musician and installation artist concerned with the intertwined histories and futures of automation, race and cultural production. Recent essays include “Algorithmic Images and Recursive Epidermalization,” (MIT Press, 2025) and “Machine Learning and Deep Remixability” (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025).
• Jacob Kerzner, an assistant professor of musical theater in the Department of Drama is a pianist, arranger, conductor, scholar and singer whose interests span from preserving the Great American Songbook to advancing new work on the musical stage. Most recently, he curated and performed for the 2025 Gershwin Centennial Concert at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor and will be music directing and arranging for “Tribute: Elton John” at The Encore Musical Theater Company.
• Michael Francis McBride is a professor of practice of musical theater in the Department of Drama. He is a master class educator of varying styles/techniques, including ballet, jazz, musical theater and basic tap, and was a principal dancer at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where he served as the company’s class teacher (ballet, modern and jazz).
• Adam Raymonda, a professor of practice in film in the Department of Film and Media Arts, is a freelance producer, sound designer and composer whose clients include Netflix, Vogue, SoFi, iHeart Radio and Audible. He is also a founder of Rogue Dialogue Productions, where he pioneered the art of immersive fiction podcasts.
• Kyra Stahr, an assistant teaching professor of conducting and choral studies in the Setnor School of Music, is a visionary conductor, educator and vocalist who has built her career empowering singers to embrace their potential with confidence and fostering community through song. She is also a Doctor of Musical Arts candidate in choral conducting at the University of Miami and a conducting fellow with Spire Chamber Ensemble.