CFA has added six new faculty members to our CFA family this year. These faculty bring with them world-renowned expertise and experience that will further the LMU and CFA missions to provide students with a humanistic liberal arts education that fosters a desire for knowledge, lifelong learning, and leadership.
“We are excited to welcome such talented faculty this year in the areas of music, communication studies, marital and family (art) therapy, theatre arts and dance,” said Bryant Keith Alexander, Ph.D., dean of the LMU College of Communication and Fine Arts. “Each of these distinguished faculty members bring a breadth and depth of both academic and professional experience that will expand our pedagogical offerings for students. They offer our college a diversity of experience that is only enhanced by the racial, ethnic and gender range of their embodied lived experience and presence in the world.”
DAVID S. CARTER
Assistant Professor
Music
David S. Carter earned his doctorate in music composition at Northwestern University, where his principal teacher was Lee Hyla. Prior to his graduate music studies, he completed a J.D. at the University of Southern California and a B.A. in English Literature at Yale University. Before joining LMU, he taught at Northwestern and North Park University. His works have been performed or recorded by the JACK Quartet, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Ensemble Court-Circuit, and Ensemble Signal, among others. He won the Iron Composer competition at Baldwin Wallace University, Northwestern University’s William T. Faricy Award, and second prize in the Rhenen International Carillon Composition Competition.
He has had works performed at the Northwestern University New Music Conference (NUNC! 3), June in Buffalo (2014 and 2011), the 2008 Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory, Music07 at the University of Cincinnati, and the 2007 Bowdoin International Music Festival. His music theory research focuses on the analysis of form in popular music, and he has presented scholarly papers at the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (U.S.) conference, the College Music Society National Conference, and the Nief-Norf Summer Festival.
MATTHEW DEWEY
Clinical Assistant Professor
Communication Studies
Matthew Dewey is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Media in the Department of Communication Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Dewey also teaches in the Journalism program and is working to build pedagogical and practice-oriented intersections between the two programs. As a former public access television practitioner, professor Dewey’s work looks at telecommunications policy and technology, media geography and urban development, and community storytelling practices to understand political agency through media practices.
His latest work can be found in Flow Journal and in the journal, Television and New Media. Before coming to LMU, Dewey taught in the Department of Communication and the Urban Studies Program at the University of California San Diego and the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University. He teaches classes ranging from video production to critical communication theory. He earned his B.A in Mass Communication/ Journalism, an M.A. in Communication Studies from Boise State University in Boise, Idaho, and a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California San Diego.
JOYCE YIP GREEN
Instructor
Marital & Family Therapy
Joyce Yip Green earned her Ph.D. in International Psychology, Organizations and Systems concentration at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and received her Master’s degree in Marital & Family Therapy/Clinical Art Therapy at Loyola Marymount University. For over 20 years, she has worked as an art therapist serving individuals and families across the lifespan. Her extensive experience includes program oversight of community-based programs serving children 0-5 and their families as well as the mental health programs at several community college health centers in LA County. She has worked on national initiatives to identify cross-sector core competencies for multidisciplinary service providers of the Birth-age 5 population. Green has presented nationally and internationally on her cultural research examining socialization goals and parenting beliefs of Rwandan infant caregivers and recently published an edited book chapter, “The Rwandan way of parenting: Promoting a culture of peace.”
KARYN LAWRENCE
Clinical Assistant Professor
Theatre Arts & Dance
Karyn Lawrence is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Theatre Arts and Dance Departments. She earned a B.A. in Drama and a B.A. in Psychology & Social Behavior from the University of California Irvine in 2009. She earned her Master of Fine Arts Degree in Lighting Design from the University of California Irvine in 2012. Karyn is a theatrical and entertainment lighting designer. Selected regional/local theater credits include Center Theatre Group, South Coast Repertory, La Mirada Theater, East West Players, Ebony Repertory Theatre, Boston Court Pasadena, The Pasadena Playhouse, International City Theatre, Antaeus Theatre Company, and Arizona Broadway Theatre.
She is the resident lighting designer for the New Swan Shakespeare Festival in Orange County. In addition to lighting for the stage, she is Radiance Lightworks’ lead architectural lighting designer for Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood. Her work has also been seen internationally in Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Romania.
MEAGAN PRAHL
Instructor
Theatre Arts & Dance
Meagan Prahl is an actor, artist, and educator originally from Cleveland, Ohio. She earned her B.A. in theater from Case Western Reserve University and her M.F.A. in acting from Brown University.
Most recently she taught acting, solo performance, voice, dialects and speech at the Claremont Colleges. She is excited to join the Lion family as a full-time instructor of theater.
LAURA SMYTH
Instructor
Theatre Arts & Dance
Laura Ann Smyth earned her B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Dance from The University of Calgary and received a Journalism Certificate from Mount Royal University. After relocating to the United States from Canada to earn her M.F.A. in Dance from the University of California Irvine, Smyth performed with Regina Klenjoski Dance Company and went on to become a member of Donna Sternberg and Dancers as well as Jazz Antiqua Dance and Music Ensemble and Brockus: RED. Smyth is currently a Doctoral Student in Dance Studies at Texas Woman’s University where her research is centered on the intersection of embodied rhetoric, Black radical thought and dance forms of the African Diaspora, specifically jazz- informed movement practices. Passionate about the preservation of jazz dance and its role in the academy, Smyth has presented at the International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference, The World Dance Alliance Conference (WDA), and the National Dance Education Organization Conference (NDEO) addressing these topics.
After spending three years as an Assistant Professor of Dance at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA, Smyth is overjoyed to be returning to Southern California. Smyth, still actively engaged in her own performance career, loves seeking out and creating projects that blur the antiquated boundaries between concert and commercial dance. Smyth holds a Simonson Method Teaching Training Certification (SMTT) and has been a Pure Barre Boutique fitness instructor for eight years.
