Our Team
The minds behind Creativity@Emerson
Thomas Vogel is a Professor of Marketing Communication at Emerson College. He received his MFA and BFA degrees at the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart and his BS in Media Technology Engineering at the Stuttgart Media University. He completed his PhD with Summa Cum Laude at the University of Tübingen, Germany. His dissertation “Developing Creative Literacy – The long-term Impact of Creativity Training” explores the lasting effects of college-based creativity training.
Carol Ferrara is a sociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor in the Marketing Communication Department at Emerson College. Drawing upon her diverse academic and professional expertise in anthropology, diversity, pluralism, religion, education, and business, her teaching in Marketing Communication encourages students to apply their creativity in how the social sciences can be leveraged to help make marketing and business better, smarter, and more socially and environmentally responsible.
Sharon Topper is an MBA with more than 20 years of driving the go-to-market strategy, business development, and communications efforts of major public companies and start-up ventures. She started her technology career in global marketing and business development for Mercury Interactive (NASDAQ: MERQ, sold to HP in 2006. Sharon’s creativity operates at the intersection of security, enterprise software, media, telephony, consumer tech, food tech, and others.
Dr. Naa Amponsah Dodoo’s research is driven by a deep curiosity around the intersection of behavioral traits, digital communication, and their impact on persuasion. She examines how social media spaces shape consumer psychology across both online and offline realms, with particular attention to how contextual dynamics and personal ethos impacts engagement. By deconstructing the frameworks of digital communication in how messages are crafted and interpreted – her work highlights creativity as a central force in shaping meaning and influence in contemporary media ecosystems.
Dr. Robin Danzak is a faculty member in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses and mentors student research. In Robin’s undergrad course, Arts, Health & Community, students participate in arts-based qualitative research and design community art experiences. Robin’s research has explored bilingual writing among adolescents and adults at the intersection of language, culture, and identity. She has also investigated the adoption experience through qualitative, arts-based methods that foreground images and storytelling. A bilingual educator who previously taught Spanish and lived in Chile and Italy, Robin brings a global flair to her teaching. She is deeply committed to community-engagement and project-based learning, and fostering creativity as a pathway to meaningful social impact.
Steve Himmer, Sr Lecturer II and Writing Studies Program Director, is the author of the novels The Bee-Loud Glade, Fram, and Scratch, and the novella: The Second Most Dangerous Job In America. His fiction and essays have appeared in journals and anthologies including EPOCH, Barrelhouse, Hobart, Los Angeles Review, The Millions, and Post Road, among others. Across his writing and editorial work with the web journal Necessary Fiction, he explores creativity as both craft and inquiry – an evolving practice of language as well as narrative experimentation. His work reflects a sustained commitment to creative risk-taking and to expanding the possibilities of contemporary storytelling.
Dr. Rhiannon Luyster is a developmental psychologist whose research centers on autism, with a longstanding focus on early social communication and language development. An author of the Toddler Module of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2), her work examines how creativity unfolds via communication in early childhood, particularly among neurodiverse learners. Supported by major national foundations and published in leading peer-reviewed journals including Developmental Psychology, Development & Psychopathology, Journal of Child Language, her research bridges rigorous scientific inquiry with a commitment to a nuanced understanding of human development. At Emerson, she teaches courses in research methods, autism, and developmental psychology, inviting students into hands-on clinical research and fostering creativity in both scientific thinking and educational practice.
Brenna McCormick is a creative strategist focused on branding, marketing, creativity, and collaboration, and serves as Senior Executive-in-Residence and Director of the Business of Creative Enterprises (BCE) major in Emerson’s Department of Marketing Communication. She brings over 10 years of digital agency and consulting experience to courses including Creative Collaboration, Creative Thinking & Problem Solving, Marketing the Creative Enterprise, and the SMC Capstone, applying academic best practices to real-world industry challenges. In 2023, she received the Alumni Award for Teaching Innovation for her empathy and passion in the classroom. Outside of teaching, she consults with mediaman and leads workshops through her company, The Paper Compass, sharing strategic divergent thinking skills that foster creative confidence and breakthrough thinking.
Russell Newman is an Associate Professor with tenure in Emerson College’s Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies and the author of The Paradoxes of Network Neutralities (MIT Press, 2019). He is also a Faculty Associate at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. His work explores the political economy of media, media policymaking and governance, neoliberalism, and activism surrounding communications policy. He previously served as Research and Campaign Director at the nonprofit advocacy group Free Press, focusing on media and telecommunications policy. In addition to his scholarship, he spent several years as a freelance multimedia designer, worked as a production designer for independent films, and was active in noncommercial radio in Boston for nearly a decade. He earned his Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School and his bachelor’s degree from MIT.
Ilana Ransom Toeplitz, Assistant Professor in Performing Arts, is a NYC and regional theatre director, choreographer, writer, and teaching artist specializing in new musical development and musical comedy. Known for shaping bold new work and world premieres, she has overseen the development of hundreds of new musicals from idea to full production. On Broadway, she served as Assistant Director on Violet (2014) and as SDCF Fellow on The Prom (2019). She has directed world premieres with Lincoln Center, The Drama League, NYMF, the Adrienne Arsht Center, Berkshire Theatre Group, York Theatre Company, 54 Below, and Boston Center for the Arts. Ilana has razor-sharp timing, a sensitive ear for musicality, and believes in the joy of a rehearsal room that brings out the best in her collaborators.
Paul Turano, Associate Professor in the School of Film, Television and Media Arts, is a visual artist working in film, video, sound, new media, installation and participatory art. He has exhibited throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, and locally at the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Harvard Film Archive and Peabody Essex Museum. Recent screenings include the Pirate Cinema screening at the Maldives Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Mykonos Biennale, New Filmmakers New York at the Anthology Film Archives, VideoEX in Zurich Switzerland, WRO Media Art Biennale in Warsaw Poland, the Alchemy Film and Moving Image Festival in Harwick, Scotland, L’Alternativa in Barcelona, Spain, and Festival des Cinémas Différents et Expérimentaux de Paris, France. His work explores our relationship to natural environments in both local and global ways.