PNCA Welcomes D. Jean Hester as New Director of Admissions
January 05, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 3, 2012
Contact:
Lisa Radon, Communications Specialist
Pacific Northwest College of Art
lradon@pnca.edu, 971 255 5528
Becca Biggs, Director of Communications
Pacific Northwest College of Art
bbiggs@pnca.edu, 971 255 5511
PNCA Welcomes D. Jean Hester as New Director of Admissions
PORTLAND, OR – January 3, 2012 – Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is pleased to welcome D. Jean Hester as its new Director of Admissions. Hester comes to Portland from Los Angeles, where she has lived for the past two decades working in education and the arts as well as doing web development for NASA and Fortune 500 companies. With her breadth of experience, Hester brings a unique perspective to the recruitment and retention efforts that will be her purview. As an educator, having taught at institutions including California Institute of the Arts, Otis College of Art and Design, and Loyola Marymount University, she has first-hand knowledge of the student experience and challenges. At the same time, she has a solid background in strategic and tactical use of technology as a marketing tool, having recently developed marketing strategies and an interactive touch-screen information booth for the Web Design and Interactive Media program at the Art Institute of California, where she has taught for the past five years.
“We are very excited to have Jean join the PNCA community; she brings with her an expansive art practice that encompasses drawing, video, sound, performance, and installation,” says Kavin Buck, Vice President of Enrollment Services. “Being awarded the 2011 student choice Outstanding Faculty Member at the Art Institute of California highlights her dedication and commitment to arts education as both a teacher and mentor. Added to these qualifications, Jean brings with her a professional reputation for thoughtfulness, organization, collegiality, and hard work.”
With an MFA in Art and Integrated Media from California Institute of the Arts and a BFA in Cinema from University of Southern California, Hester is also a curator and working artist whose projects and work engage communication, interaction, and language.
The hire of Hester represents a further step in the expansion and consolidation of recruitment and student services within the College’s Enrollment Services department. This reorganization under Buck, who came to PNCA from UCLA earlier this academic year, anticipates PNCA’s plan to double current student enrollment, which has already tripled in the past seven years. It comes as the College has expanded graduate studies to include MFA programs in Visual Studies, Collaborative Design, Applied Craft and Design, a new Low-Residency MFA in Visual Studies, and an MA in Critical Studies and Creative Research. The growth of both graduate and undergraduate study (PNCA recently introduced a new BFA major in Video and Sound) and the attendant increased enrollment coincide with PNCA’s plan to expand into a new campus building currently in development in Portland’s Creative District on the North Park Blocks.
About Pacific Northwest College of Art
Since its founding in 1909, Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) has become a leader in innovative educational programs that connect students to a global perspective in the visual arts and design. In addition to its 10 Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees, PNCA offers graduate education with an MFA in Visual Studies, a Low-Residency MFA in Visual Studies, an MA in Critical Theory and Creative Research, and an MFA in Collaborative Design, as well as an MFA in Applied Craft and Design developed in collaboration with the Oregon College of Art and Craft.
PNCA is actively involved in Portland’s cultural life through exhibitions and a vibrant public program of lectures and internationally recognized visiting artists, designers and creative thinkers. With the support of PNCA+FIVE (Ford Institute for Visual Education), the College has a partnership with the nationally acclaimed Museum of Contemporary Craft. For more information, visit pnca.edu.