JAWAN JENKINS, Baritone and Assistant Professor of Voice at UNLV. He received his training early as a member of the Boys Choir of Harlem. He has performed with Opera San José, Seattle Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Atlanta Opera, Kansas City Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Las Vegas, Vegas City Opera, Albany Symphony and Georgia Symphony. An advocate for new works, he has premiered opera roles and song cycles by living composers. As a researcher, he developed a guide for voice teachers working with transitioning voices. He is currently researching vocal disorders and rehabilitation among singers. Jawan obtained his Bachelor’s from Prairie View A&M University, Master’s and Doctorate of Musical Arts from The University of Texas at Austin.
MARINA SHALTOUT is a multimedia artist who combines sculpture, found objects, video, photography, and installation to explore female archetypes through mythology, cinema, and pop culture, as well as her own personal experiences. Shaltout received her MFA from the University of Arizona and her BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has completed residencies at the Creative Centre in Stodvarfjordur, Iceland and at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally in venues such as the Royal Photographic Society in Bristol, Alte Munze in Berlin, the Cinematograph in Innsbruck Austria, the Living National Treasure Museum in Tokyo, the Czong Institute in Gimpo South Korea, the Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson, the Tampa Museum of Art, and the Billboard Creative exhibition in Los Angeles. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and is the Program Coordinator for the Fundamentals Area. https://www.marinashaltout.
MONA NAHM is a filmmaker specializing in Production Design. She is also the principal of Studio Moyu, an architecture and interior design practice dedicated to creating spaces that tell meaningful stories. She holds a BFA in Film Production from Loyola Marymount University, an MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA, and an MFA in Interior Design from the New York School of Interior Design, bringing a unique interdisciplinary perspective to her work. With a deep commitment to design and storytelling, Nahm’s work reflects history, character, and intent. She believes that every space tells a unique story and strives to uncover and amplify these narratives through thoughtful, purposeful design. After a long career in independent cinema, she now finds immense joy in teaching and supporting the growth of aspiring designers and filmmakers.
WILLIAM BORICH, Holding a B.A. in Music from Morehead State University and an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Iowa, Will Borich is overjoyed to be a part of the faculty at UNLV. Before UNLV, Will was working for Cirque du Soleil as a Lighting Technician at 'O' at The Bellagio while also maintaining a successful freelance design career within corporate and live music events. With experience ranging from pyrotechnic work at Walt Disney World to touring on a bus with pop bands, Will is looking forward to preparing the students within the Entertainment Engineering and Design program for success as they start their own professional careers within the entertainment industry.
MARCOS AMADO PETROLI is an Italian-Brazilian architect, urban planner, preservationist, and architectural historian. He was a co-founder of the architecture firm Ponto 6, Atelier de Projeto, in Porto Alegre, Brazil; the founding curator of the award-winning Prometheus Journal at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago; and has been actively involved with do.co.mo.mo, a non-profit organization concerned with the preservation of the Modern Movement. Among his grants and awards, Dr. Petroli received a fully funded doctoral scholarship from the Brazilian “Science Without Borders” government program (2015–19), the honor of a “Best Presented Paper” prize (WASET, Paris, 2021), and IIT’s “College of Architecture Best Defended Dissertation Award” (2021).
JOY OSMANSKI was born in South Korea and raised in the Pacific Northwest. After graduating from college with a degree in writing and studio art, she was working as a graphic designer when she decided to audition for a community production of Our Town. She was cast as the lead and caught the eye of the Artistic Director at San Jose Rep, where she then did two plays and became a company member of Red Ladder, the theatre’s outreach program. Joy then pursued her MFA at UCSD, one of the top programs in the country. She moved to LA following graduation and began what has been an over 20-year career in tv, film, theatre and voiceover. Recent credits include the latest in Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone universe 1923, Ghosts on CBS, Boots on Netflix, Stargirl, and the Fox animated series Duncanville. Joy loves to teach and has worked with students at UCSD, UCSB, Emory University, and now UNLV. She loves playing monster with her kids, exploring new locales, and eating pretty much anything. You can find her @joyosmanski on IG and at joyosmanski.com.
JORDAN DREW began her dance training under the tutelage of the late Timothy M. Draper at the Draper Center for Dance Education in Rochester, New York. While training, she was awarded many prestigious honors, including the “Hope Award” and “Top 12 Finalist” at the Youth America Grand Prix Finals in New York City. She won scholarships to both the American Ballet Theater Summer Intensive and the Paris Opera Ballet School. In 2008, she continued her training at Alonzo King’s LINES Ballet Training Program, performing in King’s ballet “Long Flat Dry Plain” at the Monaco Dance Forum in Monte Carlo. Later, she went on to join the San Francisco-based contemporary ballet company dawsondancesf until 2017. Jordan recently finished 7 years as the principal character role of “Eleanor Rigby” in The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. Jordan has since joined The Ballet Championships of America as both a judge and educator and as a Cirque du Soleil Casting Partner.
KRISTEN KEACH is an Assistant Professor of Art History, Faculty-in-Residence, at UNLV. She earned an M.A. in Modern Art History from UC Davis and a Ph.D. in Italian Studies, with a Designated Emphasis in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, from UC Berkeley. With a background spanning both visual and literary histories, her research explores the intermedial relationship between image and text. Her publications focus on Italian literary works of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries and their transhistorical and transcultural visual representations, as well as the history of early modern female artists. At UNLV, Kristen will teach the Survey of Art History courses, as well as special topics including Ancient Roman, medieval, Italian Renaissance, and Baroque art.