Alumni Council

Launched in fall 2012, the Alumni Council represents the interests of our diverse alumni base with the principal goals of strengthening alumni connections with each other and to the College.

2012 – 2014 Members

	Judithe Hernandez (’74 MFA Fine Arts) is a pioneering artist of the Chicano Art and Los Angeles Mural Movement of the 1960s and 70s. She became the only female member of the influential collective known as “Los Four" which included classmate Carlos Almaraz. She has exhibited extensively in the United States, Europe, and Mexico, including the ground-breaking first exhibition of contemporary Chicano Art in Europe: Le démon des Anges. Her public works include the Los Angeles Bicentennial Mural (1981), the only mural commissioned by the Los Angeles Bicentennial Committee to officially commemorate the 200th anniversary of the city's founding in 1781. She has served as a faculty member and in college administration at several major universities in California and Illinois, including: California State University, Long Beach; the University of California, Santa Barbara; Occidental College; the University of Illinois at Chicago; and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

	Kent Twitchell ('77 MFA Fine Arts) is one of the most respected and recognized outdoor urban muralists in the world. He has painted over 100 portraits within some 30 exterior murals across the United States including the Julius Erving Monument in Philadelphia; Los Angeles monuments to visual artists Edward Ruscha, Jim Morphesis, Lita Albuquerque and Gary Lloyd; and the L.A. Chamber Orchestra on three nine-story walls overlooking the Harbor Freeway in downtown Los Angeles. Portraits of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan are included on segments of the Berlin Wall included in the Wende Museum’s Wall Project located on Wilshire Boulevard across from LACMA. His work is also shown in museums, galleries, books, movies, magazines and public spaces throughout the world. Twitchell was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Otis in 1996.

	Bruce Yonemoto (’79 MFA Fine Arts) is an internationally exhibited multidisciplinary artist. His work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Film Institute, and The Rockefeller Foundation. In addition to a mid-career survey exhibition at the Japanese American National Museum and inclusion in the 2002 Corcoran Gallery Biennial in Washington, D.C., Yonemoto has had major solo exhibitions at the InterCommunication Center in Tokyo, the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. His work is in the permanent collections of MOMA, Cornell University, and the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Yonemoto is Professor of Art at University of California, Irvine.

	Alison Saar ('81 MFA Fine Arts) is a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, an Artist Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and a City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Artist Fellowship. Recent solo exhibitions of her work have been shown at the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art & Design, and Madison Square Park in New York City. She has had key exhibitions at the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, L.A. Louver, and Pasadena Museum of California Art. Saar is the daughter of celebrated African American artist and former Otis faculty member Betye Saar and painter-conservator Richard Saar. She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Otis in 2010.

	Cynthia Vincent (’88 Fashion Design) began her Twelfth Street by Cynthia Vincent brand in 2002 after more than two decades of working in the fashion industry. She launched her previous brand, St. Vincent, in 1993, the same year she was awarded the Rising Star award. Twelfth Street became an instant hit among socialites and celebrities including Gwyneth Paltrow, Rachel Bilson, and Scarlett Johansson. In 2005, the designer expanded her Twelfth Street line to include shoes, belts and other accessories. Cynthia is currently serving as a mentor in the Fashion Design department at Otis.

	Eleana Del Rio (‘89 BFA Fine Arts) is currently the director of Koplin Del Rio Gallery in Culver City. Eleana immediately joined Koplin Gallery upon her graduation from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in 1989, with a BFA from the Fine Arts Department. As of January 1, 2003, Eleana Del Rio fully acquired Koplin Del Rio Gallery and continues to build upon the foundation of exhibiting seminal artists with a strong focus in contemporary realist painting, drawing, and sculpture, including Otis Alumni - Mineko Grimmer, Sarah Perry, Sandow Birk, Peter Zokosky and Kerry James Marshall. Koplin Del Rio Gallery is currently in its 30th year in business.

	Sandeep Mukherjee (’96 BFA Fine Arts) was born in Pune, India, and received his MFA from UCLA. Recent solo exhibitions include: Brennan & Griffin in New York, Project 88 in Mumbai, Sister and Cottage Home, and Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles, and the Pomona College Museum of Art in Claremont. Mukherjee has been included in group exhibitions at MOCA Los Angeles, the UCLA Hammer Museum, and the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco among others. His works are in numerous public collections, including those of MOCA, Los Angeles; MOMA, New York; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the UCLA Hammer Museum. Mukherjee is Associate Professor of Art at Pomona College and is a California Community Foundation Award Fellowship recipient.

	Marco Rios (’97 BFA Fine Arts) is an artist who works in sculpture, photography, video, and performance. He received his MFA in Studio Art from the University of California, Irvine. His work has been exhibited at LACMA; Artists Space in New York; LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions); and Estacion, Tijuana, Mexico. Recent shows include Death's Boutique at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco; Mixed Signals, a traveling exhibition organized by ICI (Independent Curators International); This is Killing Me, a group exhibition at MASS MoCA; a solo show at Simon Preston Gallery, New York; and most recently, Despair Beyond Despair, a solo project at LAXART, Los Angeles. In 2007, he was a recipient of the California Community Foundation Fellowship. In 2008, he was selected as one of the James Irvine Foundation Visions from the New California awardees, and in 2009 awarded an ARC grant from The Durfee Foundation.

	Lan-Chi Lam (’98 Communication Arts) is the Interactive Design and Strategy Manager for Los Angeles Metro (LA’s transit authority). Her team is responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining Metro’s customer-facing online properties that include websites, blogs, social media, mobile web, mobile apps, and developer data. Lan-Chi is a design professional with 15 years of experience spanning news, media, software, internet, technology, and government. Prior to Metro, she held full-time positions at Apple, MSNBC.com, and EMC/Documentum. Her work in the private and public sectors has garnered recognition from LA Weekly, Time Magazine, Fortune Magazine, and the Webby Awards.

	Denny Hooten (’01 Digital Media) has an MBA in Economics from Pepperdine University. His business experience includes the following: Director of Business Development for Imaginary Forces; Producer/Editor of International Science Documentaries for Global Science Productions; Professor of Advertising and Communication, Louisiana State University; and Marketing Director for Africa Harvest, a non-profit organization that uses technology to feed people in Africa. He has also held positions as a Project Manager and Corporate Trainer for Davita Inc. and Director of Business Development for Nutragenetics. Denny has been teaching marketing and business practices to artists at Otis College of Art and Design since fall of 2011 and started teaching marketing to entrepreneurship students at Pepperdine University in the fall of 2012.

	Dolly Davis (’03 A/L/I) is Senior Project Designer at Fluidity Design Consultants and has recently returned to Otis as a teaching assistant in the A/L/I program. She holds a MArch degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. At Fluidity, Davis develops water feature designs for projects such as the Hearst Tower, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dubai Festival City and the newly opened Grand Park in Los Angeles. Previous work has included designs at Urbanlab in Chicago for the Flood Death Valley research project and residential designs for OJMR Architects and R+D Architects.

	Scott Derman (’05 Toy Design) spent six years developing toy ideas for such Mattel brands as Max Steel, Pixar's Cars, Toy Story, Batman and Green Lantern. Currently, Scott is a Project Designer for Mattel’s Franchise Development division where he works with multiple teams to conceptualize new content and launch franchise strategies. By bridging the gap between product and storytelling, his goal is to create new toyetic brands that have seamless, meaningful connections that live through multiple transmedia touch-points.

	Joe Kennedy (’07 Digital Media) is a freelance concept artist, illustrator, and storyboard artist. Employers and clients have included top Los Angeles studios and game design companies such as Klasky-Csupo, Zoic Studios, Troika Design Group, Brand New School, and Riot Games.

	Lilit Pilikian (’09 Product Design) is currently a User Experience Designer working in the Digital and Commercial Innovation department at Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. She previously worked for several years in consumer electronics where she designed accessories for music players, smartphones and tablets. Lilit has also served as Production Designer on films and commercials, creating sets, props, and wardrobe.

	Renata Marchand (’10 Fashion Design) is currently launching her own brand of children’s clothing called Petite Marchand. She previously worked as Designer for Innovation at Hurley where she was responsible for Phantom Protect, Hurley's Technical Outerwear Program, as well as design and technology for their wetsuits and board shorts, and oversaw brand collaborations. Marchand holds a BFA in Public Relations from the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado in São Paulo, Brazil, and studied Film, Theatre and Television at UCLA.

	Albert Valdez ('10 BFA Fine Arts/A.C.T.) is the Education Coordinator for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s OnSite School Program. As an active artist, he has participated with various organizations in facilitating community based projects and murals. His studio resides in Culver City where he participates in the monthly Art Walks.

	Cole (C.W.) Moss (’11 Communication Arts) works as a storyteller and designer. He recently published the illustrated satire Unicorn Being a Jerk with HarperCollins, and the sequel Why Unicorn Drinks will be released January 2013. He co-curates the performance and installation gallery Mastodon Mesa. He is currently working to start a non-profit elderly outreach program called Graham.