Department Administration
Michele Jaquis
Acting Department Chair, Professor
mjaquis@otis.edu
Interdisciplinary artist, educator, and academic administrator who has been teaching in various departments at Otis since Fall 2000. Trained in the expanded field of sculpture (installation, video, performance art), Jaquis combines strategies of conceptual art, documentary, and social practice to examine the complexities within personal and social relationships, identity, language, and communication across a wide range of media. Her work has been presented at conferences, film and video festivals, galleries, museums, and alternative spaces primarily throughout Southern California, but also across the U.S. and in Australia, Canada, Ireland, England, New Zealand, and South Korea. With over twenty years of teaching at the college level, she has also taught art to adjudicated and at-risk youth and adults with developmental disabilities and was a therapist of Applied Behavior Analysis for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
Hazel Mandujano
Assistant Department Chair
hmandujano@otis.edu
Hazel Mandujano is a Los Angeles artist and designer. She received from Otis College both a BFA in Fine Arts and an MFA in Graphic Design, graduating as a member of the first MFA Graphic Design cohort at Otis. In 2015, she co-founded mandujano/cell with her partner, the artist Juan Capistran. At mandujano/cell, Hazel and Juan published artist books and catalogs and curated 16 exhibitions both nationally and internationally, with a focus on exhibitions by BIPOC artists. Hazel has led publicly accessible workshops for Big City Forum, Talleres Publicos, Cal State Dominguez Hills Praxis Program, Museum of Latin American Art, Orange County Museum of Art, and Slanguage, and has taught design courses and workshops at Otis, Cal State L.A., and Cal Arts.
Riah Buchanan
Director of MFA Graphic Design and Associate Professor
buchanan@otis.edu
A part-time faculty member serving at Otis for over 10 years, Riah Buchanan teaches BFA and MFA Graphic Design students in both studio and theory seminars, and brings extensive teaching experience in UX/UI, experimentational media and technology, and branding to the department. She holds an MFA in 2D Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art and is pursuing a PhD from the Center of Digital Art and Experimental Media at the University of Washington. Her previous experience includes working at the American Civil Liberties Union and Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.