26 Aug HU Hires New Director of Digital Media Arts
Phillip Hall has come aboard the Huntington University faculty as Director of the Digital Media Arts Program and Assistant Professor of Digital Media Arts. He brings a wealth of experience in animation.
He realized his dream to animate on feature films when he was hired to work at Blue Sky Studios on “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.” He then went on to work at Rhythm and Hues Studios on “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel,” and “Yogi Bear.”
Hall has also worked on next-gen games for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 as a cinematics animator for Vicarious Visions (a subsidiary of Activision) on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. He also worked as a facial animator at Image-Metrics, contracted by Rockstar Games for “Red Dead Redemption.” Moreover, he has taught a variety of character animation classes as a fulltime instructor at the Art Institute of California–San Diego.
Professor Hall started his career as a 3D Generalist/ Character Animator at International Game Technology where he worked on various licensed games including “Indiana Jones,” “Back to the Future,” “Soul Train,” and “The Addams Family.” In February 2008, he short animation “Bupkis, My Dear Watson” won the monthly character animation competition on 11Secondclub.com.
Hall graduated from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, and earned a Masters from the Miami International University of Art and Design.
After 24 years as part of the Huntington University community, Steve and Twyla Lee have relocated to Colorado Springs. They are now professors in the Focus Leadership Institute. Their actual title is “Senior Fellows for Marriage and Family Life Studies.”
Tanner Babb, Instructor of Psychology (undergraduate and graduate levels). Babb spent three years as a child and adolescent case manager and as a marriage and family therapist with the Bowen Center in Huntington, Ind. After earning a Psychology degree from Huntington University, he went on to obtain a Master’s in Education, with a focus in marriage and family therapy, from Indiana University. He is currently finishing his dissertation for his PhD in counselor education and supervision at the University of Toledo. Babb is also a licensed Marriage and Family Therapy Associate.
Rev. Rick Leone, Assistant Professor of Social Work. Leone has worked in a variety of places, accumulating an interesting resume:
Dr. Laura Gerig, part-time Instructor in Psychology. Gerig will teach half-time in the psychology department. She has previously taught psychology at Taylor University. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Taylor University, and a master’s degree and a PhD in school psychology from Ball State University. Her doctorate specialized in neuropsychology. Her areas of interest are child development and psychological assessment.