Elected Board Members Bios and Statements

2007 Board Members:
Richard Gray, Chair
Tom Fischer, Vice Chair
Cass Fey, Secretary
Therese Mulligan, Treasurer

Ruth Adams
Steven J. Bliss
Joann Brennan
Rebecca Cummins
Carlos Diaz
Hannah Frieser
Elizabeth Greenberg
Lawrence McFarland
Valerie Mendoza
Betsy Schneider
Jim Stone
Nancy Stuart
William Tolan
Michelle Van Parys
Terri Warpinski

All board members are elected for four-year terms. Nominations for board members are due in May to the national office. Elections take place in the fall. The election of board members is staggered, so each year some board members roll off the board while new members are elected.

Roll off schedule | Board Nominations info + bios | Recent Years of Board of Directors

BIOS AND STATEMENTS

RUTH ADAMS

Ruth Adams is an artist and educator, and has been an assistant professor of Photography and Digital Art at the University of Kentucky since the fall of 2000. She has been involved in SPE since 1998 and has been the treasurer for the Midwest Region for the last three years. Her work deals with issues of intimacy and privacy, approaching these issues through both self-portraiture and still life. She is best known for startling portraits of organics and loves combining new imaging technologies with the traditional sensibilities of a photographer. Ruth has exhibited nationally and internationally, won numerous awards and grants, and her photographs hang in numerous private and public collections such as Centro Cultural Pablo de la Torriente Brau, Ciudad de la Habana, Cuba, The Contemporary Art Museum of ZULIA, MACZUL, Maracaibo, Venezuela, the Robert A. Peck Arts Center, Riverton, Wyoming, the University of Kentucky, Truman State University, and the University of Miami. She holds an MFA in Photography and Digital Art from the University Of Miami, a BFA in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology, and a BS in Computer Science from Syracuse University. An experienced photographer, digital artist, and educator, Ruth has developed a reputation as a dynamic instructor and an innovative artist, and has enjoyed introducing students and patrons of the arts to the world of digital applications and traditional photographic possibilities.

I have been involved in SPE since my first year of graduate school. Initially, as a new photography student, taking advantage of the incredible learning experience of having my work reviewed by amazing photographers who could give me fresh vision on where my work was headed. Then later, by taking advantage of the wonderful opportunities to network, interview and job-hunt. Right from the start I found the organization and the conferences invaluable. Since graduating in 1999 I have continually increased my involvement in SPE. I have served in the Mentor program for graduating MFAs, have presented at the last two Midwest Regional conferences and been a portfolio reviewer for the last two National conferences. In addition, I have served as the Midwest Regional Treasurer for the last three years. Having degrees in Computer Science, Photojournalism and Fine Art Photography gives me multiple perspectives and this will help me bring to the board concerns from many of SPE’s diverse constituents. Also, being only 6 years out of graduate school allows me to be cognizant of both student and faculty issues and therefore will allow me to make sure we are addressing and servicing both groups. SPE is an invaluable, living organization that has grown and changed dramatically over its lifetime. I would like to be a part of the group that helps it to remain stable through the inevitable growing pains of this new digital age and helps plan for its diversification and exponential growth with the welcome addition of new media and video artists. It is my wish to take my involvement with SPE to another level through contributing my ideas and perspectives as a member of the national board.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2006)

STEVEN J. BLISS

Steven J. Bliss is an artist and educator currently residing in Savannah, GA. There he is the chair of the photography department at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Shown nationally and internationally, Steve’s personal work has received recognition in the field from groups and organizations including Polaroid Corp., the Georgia Arts Council, the Southern Arts Federation and the NEA. He has been involved with SPE for the last 20 years; for the past 4 years he has served the organization as a member of the board of directors. During his tenure there he co-chaired the Savannah national conference in 2001 and he now chairs the Service to the Field Committee.

I believe that in the last five years the national board and executive officers have worked very hard to bring maturity and purpose to a (relatively) loosely structured organization that has had the occasional lapse of continuity and institutional memory. Directly relevant to that is the fact that retaining professional people in key positions has been a constant struggle. However, we have seen good progress on this issue and it should be our goal (in my opinion) to continue that progress to the point that SPE functions in ways that go beyond our yearly regional and national meetings. I think the membership of the board has been remarkably united toward that end. Further, I believe that the Services to the Field Committee is a wonderfully apropos place to work on said goal, to affect the future of the organization in a manner that will be positive and beneficial for the membership as a whole. For these reasons, I would appreciate very much the opportunity to return to the board this spring. This is said with the obvious acknowledgement that I have yet to accomplish all that I have desired to do in this context. However, with four more years and a deity or two on our side, who knows what may be possible!
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2004)

JOANN BRENNAN

Joann Brennan is Chair of the Visual Arts Department and Associate Professor of Photography at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. For the past fifteen years Joann’s photographic work has explored the complex relationship between wildlife and human concerns. In the spring of 2003 Brennan was named a Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Before arriving in Denver Joann taught photography and digital imaging at The School of Art and Design/Alfred University in Alfred, New York and Princeton University in New Jersey. She is an active member of the Society for Photographic Education, serving on committees for the national board and participating in regional conferences. Joann was co-founder of Progetto Perugia, a studio art program in Perugia Italy. She received her BFA and MFA from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, MA. Selected exhibitions and publications include, International Fototage, Contemporary American Photography, Mannheim/Ludwigshafen, Germany, Paradise Paved, Painted Bride Art Center, Philadelphia, PA, Princeton University Art Museum, Center for Photography at Woodstock New York, European Photography Magazine and Photo Review.

During the keynote address at the 2005 SPE conference in Portland Oregon, Barry Lopez asked us all to consider the meaning of citizenship, charity and devotion to ones work in our roles as artists, scholars educators and professionals in artistic fields. As I sat at the edge of my seat breathing in every word of that keynote address I was reminded again of what a terrific and vital organization SPE is. SPE has helped to define and expand the role of photography and media arts in contemporary culture while inspiring critical dialogue that has shaped artistic education both nationally and internationally. I first joined SPE over 15 years ago when I was in graduate school studying photography and since that time I have attended national and regional conferences across the country. I have served as the chair, secretary and treasurer of the northeast and southwest region. I have served as a committee member on the conference committee and portfolio review committee for the Las Vegas national conference. I have given panel presentations and imagemaker talks for many national and regional SPE conferences. In the fall of 2004 I co-chaired a very successful and exciting regional conference titled “The Educated Eye” for the southwest region. I am an enthusiastic supporter of the goals and mission of SPE and believe that as an organization SPE inspires citizenship, charity and devotion to one’s work. I would welcome an opportunity to be elected to the National Board and would work with great enthusiasm to ensure an exciting future for the organization and help to create fantastic opportunities and experiences for SPE members.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2006)

CASS FEY

Cass Fey has been curator of education at the Center for Creative Photography, located at the University of Arizona, for the past ten years. Her love of photography started in the darkroom as an undergraduate studio and art history major at the University of New Hampshire and, while in graduate school, she relished passing that enthusiasm on to middle and high school students. Today, as a museum educator, she uses the center’s galleries and print viewing area as classrooms to encourages, faculty, students and the general public to explore the infinitely enriching ways in which artists communicate their ideas through photography. This experience continues to broaden her understanding of the history, applications and possibilities of photography as a medium of creative expression.

She mentors students in the fields of photography, art history and museum education and recently facilitated a showing of advanced photography student work at the center. She has been an active member of SPE, serving on the Publications Committee from 1998-2002. She has presented talks and moderated panels at every national conference since 1999 and has offered additional sessions at Southwest regional conferences. At SPE 2002 - Las Vegas she moderated a panel discussion on the Garry Winogrand Game of Photography and at SPE 2003 - Austin she gave an overview of Lauren Greenfield’s Girl Culture, an exhibition and book project for which she created a comprehensive electronic faculty guide. This educational resource is part of her series of online faculty guides that invite educators across the curriculum to introduce their students to the work of Lisette Model, Aaron Siskind, Max Yavno, Ansel Adams, Hansel Mieth, Otto Hagel, Danny Lyon, Lynn Davis, Tseng Kwong Chi and Debby Fleming Caffery, among others. She served on the organization committee for the 1999 national conference in Tucson and also co-presented a session on Writing and Photography with her frequent collaborator, the head of the Honors College Composition Program at the University of Arizona. She is a member of the National Art Education Association, has presented several sessions at their national conferences and published the instructional resource, Examining the Art of Photography, in their professional journal in 2002. She is interested in serving on the SPE board because she greatly values the organization’s resources and network of talented individuals throughout the field and she would like to contribute her experience as a teacher, museum educator, program facilitator and student mentor. If elected, she would bring the unique perspective of using museums and original photographic works as educational tools to her active participation in the leadership of SPE.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2004)

TOM FISCHER

Since earning his MFA at Stanford University in 1987, Tom Fischer has been a teacher and an artist. He is currently a professor of photography and department chair at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Tom has also served as dean of the school of media arts where he managed the academic operations of eight departments with more than 70 professors and 2200 students. His work is held in numerous public and private collections and has been shown in more than 60 exhibitions in galleries and museums in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Tom has received numerous honors for his work, but he is most proud of the collaborative educational, environmental, and community projects that he has organized in recent years. They include historic preservation and documentary projects in the U.S. and Europe, photo management for the Olympic Games, and photo documentation of environmental issues in the western states. His creative teaching and collaborative educational projects have resulted in three nominations for the CASE, US Professor of the Year. Tom has been a member of SPE since 1985.

The Society for Photographic Education is my favorite organization. It has provided my students and me with information, resources and inspiration. I now find myself in a position to contribute time and energy to the institution that I have enjoyed so much in the past 20 years. If given the privilege to serve on the board I can only promise a positive attitude and a willingness to work as many hours as it takes to achieve the goals of the membership. I do have significant skills in administration that will be valuable as the SPE enters what I see as a period of refinement and growth. I envision opportunities for enhanced intra- and interorganizational communication, expansion of the SPE’s advocacy for education and the arts, redefinition of the nature of student membership, and development of new programs. I commend the current leadership of the SPE for the positive direction of the organization. The society functions well as a gathering place for the exchange of ideas on the various significant topics of teaching, history, theory, and practice. We are on the right track and I would like to be elected to the board to put my creative organizational skills to good use.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2006)

HANNAH FRIESER

Hannah Frieser is the director of Light Work, a non-profit organization in Syracuse, NY, dedicated to the support of emerging and underrepresented artists working in photography and related media. Hannah has worked with SPE for over twelve years. Having held many responsibilities within the organization, including onsite conference coordinator at SPE’s national conferences and membership registrar, she continues to bring her expertise to SPE's newsletters and website. She was recently chosen to co-chair an SPE national conference with Miriam Romais, executive director of En Foco.  The conference, tentatively scheduled for 2010, will focus on diversity and multiculturalism. Hannah is a photographer and book artist. Her work can be found on her website at www.hannahfrieser.com.

Statement
Stepping into SPE’s national office as an undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Arlington, I had no way of knowing that this was to be a life-altering moment; yet over a decade later I still feel as excited about SPE as I did on that first day. Volunteering in the office with then executive director Lee Hutchins opened my eyes to the importance of this organization that provides a network of colleagues, friends, expertise, and shared enthusiasm for photography. I went from volunteer to conference staff, to onsite coordinator at the national conferences, membership registrar, and news/web editor. Along the way I have made some of the best friends imaginable. Having just attended my thirteenth national conference (in a row), I am thrilled to see the momentum that is building up within the organization. Through the commitment and vision of the national office and the board of directors, SPE now enjoys financial stability and the capacity for healthy growth. Many important changes have already come to pass. The new corporate identity has put a fresh face on the organization, and soon these changes will be reflected in SPE’s website and publications, while exposure has already been completely redesigned. A national conference planner was hired, and many changes behind the scenes have had a considerable impact. This is a great time for SPE. 

What I bring to SPE is great enthusiasm, organizational skills, administrative experience, and familiarity with just about every aspect of SPE from the national office to the conferences, publications, and the website. As member of the board I will work to create a strategic plan, explore grant writing, expand the website’s functionality, and address our members’ changing needs. I will participate in shaping SPE, so that it can remain vital to the next generation of photographers, many of whom are working entirely within the digital realm. I will support SPE in its commitment to diversity and explore possibilities of collaborations with other organizations, and I will continue to support SPE as one of the most important organizations in art photography and education.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2007)

DIANA GASTON

Diana Gaston, Associate Director of San Francisco Camerawork, joined their staff in summer of 2001. She oversees the Programming Committee, contributes to the curatorial direction of the organization, assists with grant writing and in the production and editing of the organization’s publication Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts. Her previous museum experience of more than a decade includes her tenure as Curator at the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego and as Curator of Prints and Photographs at the University Art Museum at the University of New Mexico. She has organized numerous museum exhibitions, including the nationally traveling “Abelardo Morell and the Camera Eye,” “Susan Rankaitis: Drawn from Science,” “In Studio: Han Nguyen,” and “Still Rooms & Excavations: An Installation by Richard Barnes.” She has published numerous exhibition catalogues, and regularly writes exhibition reviews and contributes to artist monographs. She received her M.A. in Art History from the University of Kansas, and had curatorial internships at the National Museum of American Art and the Walker Art Center.

The mission of SF Camerawork is to stimulate dialogue, encourage inquiry, and communicate ideas about contemporary photography and related technologies through exhibitions, publications, and innovative artistic programs. Like the objectives of SPE, our curatorial objectives center around the work of emerging and mid-career artists, and our programs reflect this interest in new photography. In my curatorial role I am actively seeking underrepresented and emerging artists; and by serving on the SPE Board, I would have a much greater opportunity to locate and represent work by promising young artists and writers. As an artist-run organization, Camerawork has always aligned itself with the photographic community, serving as a forum and a training ground for photographers and curators. I would be very interested in building upon this service by serving on the national SPE Board.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2002)

RICHARD GRAY

Richard Gray is Associate Professor of Photography in the Department of Art, Art History & Design and Director of the Center for Creative Computing at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana. Richard's artwork explores the relationship between photography, technology and human identity with an interest in the role science plays in redefining the contemporary self. He has taught photography and exhibited his photographs in the United States, Canada and Germany for twenty-five years. Richard's current project Human Factors was exhibited at the U. S. Government Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, 2006; and Internationale Fototage Festival, Mannheim, Germany, 2005. Human Factors is included in the Midwest Photographers Project at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago. Richard has received regional fellowships from Arts Midwest/National Endowment for the Arts and the Indiana Arts Commission. He has served on the Board of Trustees for the South Bend Regional Museum of Art, South Bend, IN. Richard received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York.

For nearly four decades, SPE has been a premier organization dedicated to fostering the creative and intellectual development of photographers, artists and educators. Photographic practice has evolved dramatically during this time to encompass all visual arts, including many new interdisciplinary approaches, technologies and theoretical positions. SPE has responded with initiatives and programming that have addressed many of these concerns. As a national board member I am interested in seeing that SPE continue to be a vital forum for all the varied perspectives on photographic image-making that have made it so successful. Our organization should reflect the diverse community of professionals and students that it serves. I am also interested in working to expand SPE’s constituency to include other artists who work with photographs, enlarging the dialogue of how camera-based images can function within the larger context of the visual arts. Photographic education too has changed and it will be important for us to continue to debate the ways we come to educate our students in an ever-changing visual and technological culture. I have participated in SPE for about 20 years during which time I have been both a regional and national conference presenter, portfolio reviewer and peer reviewer for the 2002 Las Vegas conference. Over the years I have come to value greatly both the friends I have made at SPE and the creative individuals that have inspired me in this organization. I would very much enjoy serving the SPE membership and will work hard to contribute to our future. See you in Austin!
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2003)

ELIZABETH GREENBERG

Elizabeth Greenberg is an artist, teacher and an administrator living in Thomaston, Maine. She has been the director of photography programs at The Maine Photographic Workshops and Rockport College since 2000, and an instructor in both the undergraduate and graduate programs at the college. Elizabeth received her BFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design. Following undergraduate school, she spent her first summer in Maine at The Workshops, thus beginning a long-term relationship. After serving as his teaching assistant one summer, Arnold Newman hired Elizabeth as his assistant and studio manager. Elizabeth worked for Mr. Newman in New York for a number of years. Elizabeth went on to assist a number of other well-known photographers in New York and to work in the commercial world on her own.

Elizabeth began teaching photography in 1994. This experience inspired her to pursue a career in arts education. In 1998, Elizabeth returned to graduate school and was awarded an MFA in Visual Arts from Vermont College in 2000. In addition to teaching summer workshops and courses in photography and professional development at Rockport College, Elizabeth has also taught at The New School for Social Research, NYC, The Baum School of Art, Allentown, PA and Lafayette College, Easton, PA.

As a practicing artist, Elizabeth has exhibited across the United States. Last year she curated a traveling exhibit Alternative Visions and this September she will be part of a group show at the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts. Her work involves ideas concerning memory and our relationship to the past, particularly our tendencies to idealize or to romanticize it. In her photographs, she transforms ordinary places into imaginary landscapes with fictionalized histories.

Elizabeth first became involved with SPE when she attended the national conference in Dallas in 1997. She has attended the national conference nearly every year since and became a member of SPE in 2000. Believing firmly in the philosophy and mission of SPE, Elizabeth has become increasingly more involved in its work. She chaired the 2003 SPE northeast regional conference held in Rockport, Maine.

As a member of the national board for SPE, Elizabeth would bring her boundless energy, strong organizational skills, and her dedication and commitment to the fields of photography and education. She is very interested in expanding the SPE community, keeping the organization infused with new members, and involving students in the organization and its various programs. She is also interested in helping to develop a stronger structure and basis for the communication of ideas and the sharing of photographic work.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2005)

LAWRENCE MCFARLAND

I received my BFA degree in photography from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1973. I then attended the University of Nebraska, working with Jim Alinder and received a MFA in 1976. Since that time I have worked at nearly every possible institution trying to continue my process of making photographs. I have taught at a two-year “Associate Degree” institution (Colorado Mountain College), at a workshop (Apeiron Workshop), as a “Visiting Artist/Teacher” (Kansas City Art Institute), adult education (University of Arizona) and finally a tenured teaching job since 1985 at the University of Texas. I have also been honored to receive three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships over three decades, 1978-79, 1984-85 and 1990-91. I continue to make photographs and in fact I am writing this from the field in Wyoming as I make new work during the hot summer of 2003. I have also been fortunate with other grants and projects over the years. I have talked to and made friends to many great people over the years and this process forever blesses me. I continue to make landscape images of how we, as a culture, nurture our planet. I continue to be in awe of the world and the beauty/power of how powerful this responsibility of life continues to be day after day.

“I am a photographer, it is my job, it is what I do and it is my passion. Being a photographer is a very difficult but important job. It has always been magic to me. Photography can lift you to the clouds or slam you head first into the ground. I cannot think of anything else that I would rather do.” I attended my first SPE conference in 1970 at the University of Iowa. It was in conjunction with Refocus which took place at the university. I was so excited to find so many other people in the country as passionate about photography as I am, that I just keep coming back year after year. After attending many SPE conference’s, I took on the responsibility of chairing the 2003 Austin conference, American Vision. We have grown larger as a committed group year after year. We do not always agree with one another but it is the love of photography that keeps bringing us together. I am interested in securing an endowment for SPE so we, as a group, can continue to support each other, grow into the future and change as the media demands. I am also very interested in setting up a guide for future conference chairs of the national conference. I will always respect and represent the members of SPE to make this a better organization for everyone.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2004)

THERESE MULLIGAN

In July 2003, Therese Mulligan joined the faculty at Rochester Institute of Technology, as a professor in the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences. She is coordinator of the institute’s MFA program in Imaging Arts and director of the School’s Gallery. Previous to this appointment, Therese served as the curator of photography at George Eastman House for eight years and continues to contribute to the museum’s exhibition and publication projects. She has organized numerous exhibitions, as well as authored and edited articles and publications on historical and contemporary photography, including The Architect’s Brother: The Photography of Robert ParkeHarrison (2002); Digital Frontiers: Photography’s Future at Nash Editions (2000); and the upcoming 2004 traveling exhibition and publication Site Seeing: Photographic Excursions into Tourism.

For the past three years, it has been my privilege to participate on the national board of SPE. I have served in multiple capacities, the most recent as Treasurer, working with the board to ensure the future financial health and growth of our organization. Today, with a balanced budget in hand, SPE’s future is both bright and flourishing. As a curator, historian and educator, my board involvement has enabled me to further my skills, while deepening my commitment to enlarging the extraordinary activities of our organization. With enhanced outreach, programs and, most importantly, increased service, SPE strengthens its role as the critical forum for photography in its myriad of forms. Uniquely, it supports the educational needs of the professional and student alike, providing one-of-a-kind opportunities for personal and career development. It would be an honor to continue to contribute to the all-important role SPE plays in our creative and educational pursuits as a member of the national board.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2004)

BETSY SCHNEIDER

Betsy Schneider is Assistant Professor of Art at Arizona State University.  Her work is collected and exhibited nationally and internationally, and addresses issues of culture, childhood, time, taxonomies and the body. It utilizes a wide range of formats, from APS to large format, and takes a number of forms, from large inkjet prints to machine c-prints to video installation. An article on her work was featured in the Spring 2005 issue of exposure. She has presented and reviewed portfolios at regional SPE conferences and served as a mentor at two national conferences. She has lived in Prague, Copenhagen, London and Trondheim, Norway, is a member of the Association of Fine Art Photographers in Norway, is Chair of the Board at The International School of Arizona and teaches a winter break photography course in London. She attended the University of Michigan (BA), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA) and Mills College (MFA).

Statement
Never before has educating people to be visually literate, critical and creatively engaged with imagemaking been a more important career. This applies not only in the art and photography worlds, but also in the wider culture and society. At the same time, the demands now in both art and education are greater than ever; there are more of us and we face an increased market mentality towards everything from art spaces to university education. This has increased the sense of individualism, isolation and competition. The need for SPE's strong community and engaged non-commercial support of the creation of and exchange of ideas around photography has never been more vital.

I would very much welcome the opportunity to use my skills, energy and ideas to be a part of the board community working to help SPE continue to be a strong and relevant organization. As a board member I would work to help SPE increase its international membership and involvement with international concerns. I'd also like to see SPE take a more active role in helping emerging artists by offering alternatives to the expensive juried shows and portfolio reviews. I'd like to see SPE sponsoring or supporting publications of member work and reaching out to make the organization more accessible to adjuncts and others outside institutions.

I am very excited to have been nominated this year, and it would be a tremendous honor and pleasure to be able to serve as a member of the board for SPE.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2007)

NANCY STUART

Nancy Stuart is Executive Vice President and Provost at the Cleveland Institute of Art. She earned her PhD from SUNY Buffalo Graduate School of Education in 2005. Her dissertation entitled: The History of Photographic Education in Rochester, N.Y. 1960-1980 was based on oral histories collected from twenty-six photographers and teachers who worked or studied in the upstate area. An excerpt was published in the spring 2006 issue of exposure. She is one of six (volume) editors for the fourth edition of the Focal Press Encyclopedia of Photography due to be released in 2007.  Nancy first taught photography at Lansing Community College (1975-1984) then Rochester Institute of Technology (1984-2002), which included numerous administrative positions within the School of Photographic Arts and Sciences. Her latest photographic project DES Stories: Faces and Voices of People Exposed to Diethylstilbestrol was published by Visual Studies Workshop Press in 2001. She currently serves on the board of directors of The Friends of Photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Statement
SPE has been a part of my professional and creative life for my entire career. I have witnessed its growth and transformation as an organization while it has contributed to my own growth as an imagemaker, educator, and administrator. My SPE service involvement to date has been modest. I have co-chaired a regional conference in the past, served as a mentor at a national conference, and recently presented at a regional in Columbus. After years of teaching at the college level, my current work is primarily in college administration.  At this time I have extensive experience coupled with increased flexibility in my time commitments. I am hoping to contribute back to the organization that has meant so much to me. At my current school I am responsible for a $14 million dollar annual operating budget, 72 full-time professional staff and 45 full-time faculty members teaching in sixteen disciplines. I feel I can have a positive impact on the board through my skills in budgeting, strategic planning, fundraising and communication. 
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2007)

JIM STONE

Jim Stone is Associate Professor of Photography at the University of New Mexico and has been involved with SPE since 1975. His photographs have been exhibited and published internationally, and collected by the Museum of Modern Art, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among many others. He is author or co-author of four books, A User's Guide to the View Camera, Darkroom Dynamics, A Short Course in Photography (with Barbara London), and Photography , 8th Edition (London, Upton, Stone, Kobré, Brill), that are in wide and continued use for university-level courses. There have been three monographic books of his photographs, Stranger Than Fiction (Light Work, 1993), Historiostomy (Piltdown Press, 2001), and Why My Pictures are Good (Nazraeli Press, 2005).

Statement
Long ago I was offered a contract to write a photography textbook that, eventually, I actually completed. I sought advice about contracts from a friend with experience in publishing. He told me to look for what wasn't there. Although not easy to follow, it was very good advice.

What isn't there, in SPE, is enough information. Now that the conferences are dependably well-run, and exposure has turned into the journal we deserve, the organization's efforts should be directed toward mining the information potential of its membership. We, the instructors, and our students and potential students should be able to find, through our website, where one can study photography in Minnesota, who were Harry Callahan's or Nathan Lyons' graduate students in 1976, or whether last year's posted faculty position search at Arizona State University was filled.

We need a wiki—a website to which any member can easily contribute—to capture an anecdotal history of the organization and the field before any more of it is lost. The currently available lists of founders, conferences, and board officers is a good starting place. I would like to help move the organization in this direction by serving on its board.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2007)

WILLIAM TOLAN

William Tolan’s work has been widely exhibited and is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Fogg Art Museum, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts in Photography from New York University and his Masters of Fine Arts from Arizona State University; he currently teaches at Austin Community College and St. Edward's University and serves on the Board of Directors of the Texas Photographic Society. Tolan was the Assistant Director of The Light Factory in Charlotte, North Carolina, and a photo editor in New York City. He has taught extensively. A complete résumé can be viewed online at williamtolan.com. Tolan recently coordinated and moderated the panel discussion entitled “The New Workflow: Educational Institutions Transitioning to Digital” at SPE's National Conference in Portland, Oregon, and was a portfolio reviewer there as well.

We are currently going through tremendous changes in the making and teaching of photography. SPE can be an important resource for all of us as we make the transition from traditional to digital photography. I've been a member of SPE for over 15 years, and even before that an issue of exposure inspired and informed my becoming a teacher of photography: the 1980 Fall & Winter special double issue on education. I believe the national and regional conferences of SPE are vital to the organization’s mission and interaction with its constituents. But SPE has a broader reach, both nationally and internationally, through its publications and website. SPE’s website, especially, should serve as a larger resource in our efforts to be the best educators and students we can be in these changing times. If elected to serve on the Board, I will focus my main efforts on helping grow both exposure and spenational.org. My experiences with other non-profit organizations have made me acutely aware of the importance of development; therefore, I will also join in efforts to establish an SPE Foundation that would ensure good fiscal health through lean times and encourage growth. Through the years SPE has been an inspiration to me, a source of community. It would be an honor to be able to give back to an organization that has meant so much to me.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2006)

MICHELLE VAN PARYS

I vividly remember attending my first Southeast regional conference in Valle Crucis, NC in the early 80’s. I was impressed by both the quality of the program offerings and the camaraderie of the group. Since that time, I have had the chance to attend many more regional and national conferences to find that the quality of programming and the overall conference experience has been highly variable. Having just organized the SE Regional SPE this fall in Charleston, I can recommend that we prepare a kind of “guide book” for those contemplating a future conference – regional or national. As it is, conference organizers must reinvent the wheel at each new location. If selected as a member of the SPE Board, one of my priorities would be to work to improve the overall quality and consistency of the conferences through the preparation of a conference guide. After all, our conferences should be a great source of information and inspiration. We need to work to ensure that the conference experience is not marred by poor planning or avoidable mishaps.

As a one-person photo department within a liberal arts college setting, I have had to learn to create facilities where once there was a janitor’s closet and how to navigate within the Byzantine bureaucracies of academic institutions. I have also experienced the joys of seeing fledgling students take flight during the course of a semester – the transformation that I feel I can call on for advice and guidance. I would like to return the favor by providing service as a national board member of SPE, working to create an organization that is even more responsive to the needs of its members.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2001)

TERRI WARPINSKI

Terri Warpinski lives in Eugene, Oregon, where she is the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Community Engagement at the University of Oregon. Her administrative portfolio includes among other assignments the University’s two museums, the Oregon Bach Festival, Continuing Education and the University of Oregon Portland campus. Terri has held a faculty appointment as a Professor of Art at the UO since 1984, moving into administration in 1997 as the Associate Dean of the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Prior to joining the faculty at Oregon, Warpinski taught at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In addition Warpinski also has extensive experience in teaching workshops, field schools, and study abroad programs addressing a range of topics from the landscape to alternative and historic photographic processes. She holds a BA degree from the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay, an M.A. and M.F.A from the University of Iowa. Warpinski has been on the national board of directors for the Society for Photographic Education since 2000, and has been serving as the Chair of the Board since March 2003. In 2005 Terri co-chaired with Phil Harris the SPE National Conference in Portland featuring Barry Lopez as the Keynote Address. Warpinski was the recipient of a 2001 Fulbright Resident Artist Senior Fellowship to Israel, where she continued her photographic response to desert environments and taught at the Arava Institute. Other recent activities include a residency at the Ucross Foundation in Wyoming, and a large scale, commissioned installation for the Port of Portland.

I have been involved in SPE (in some form or another) since 1979. My direct experience bridges not only 21 years, but also three regions – the Midwest, Southeast and Northwest. My original interest in the organization was piqued under the influence of Professor Jerry Dell while still an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. During these past conferences where I lived and additionally presented at a Southwest Regional Conference. I served as the Northwest Regional Director for 5 years in the late 80’s, and in 1990 chaired one of our more successful (by numbers) regional conferences. What do I have to offer SPE? Well, I am a grassroots gal. I’ve been around. I have seen good times and bad. I am a hard worker. I am fast and loose with (usually) good ideas… and I do admit and take responsibility for the bad ones as well. And most importantly, in these last years in administration I have acquired the perspective necessary to step outside of one’s own interests/self-interest in order to work for the good of the whole.
(Source: SPE Election Slate 2001, revised 2006)

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