Monica Cappiello, Assistant Professor, 3D Modeling and Animation

Assistant Professor Monica Cappiello has over 9 years of educational experience, including titles such as Dean of Academic Affairs, Full-Time Faculty, and Department Director of Media, Animation and Games. Industry companies she has worked for include PBS, Red Giant Studios, Mendez Foundation, and Pixellex Studio.  Several of her works have been awarded at film festivals.

Monica has earned a B.A. Studio Arts and Digital Media, as well as a minor in Astronomy at the University of Virginia. She also have a M.F.A. in Animation from Savannah College of Art and Design.

On her off time, she has a digital persona called Academic Phoenix, where she creates digital tutorials ranging from modeling, texturing, lighting and AR. She currently has over 30k subscribers in YouTube. Furthermore, Monica volunteers for SIGGRAPH since 2015 taking up multiple roles including VR Theater Director, Immersive Pavilion subcommittee, and Education Liaison.

Samples of Monica’s work can be seen at https://www.mcdigitalgallery.com

Isabel Reichert, Assistant Professor, UX/UI Design, Digital Media Theory

Assistant Professor Isabel Reichert has taught for over 15 years at colleges and universities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, and is currently the program coordinator for the Ohlone College Graphic Arts and Multimedia department.  Prior to joining Ohlone, she taught courses in art, design and critical theory for California College of Arts (CCA), the University of California at Santa Cruz and the San Francisco Art Institute.  Alongside her teaching, Isabel worked as a graphic designer for web, print, and interactive media and multimedia artists/ filmmaker. Her work has been screened at international film festivals and her multimedia artwork has been featured in galleries and museums internationally.

David Folker, Instructor, 3D Modeling, 3D Animation

David Folker brings years of experience in 3D Modeling and 3D Animation to Ohlone College. Born in Canada, he moved with his parents to SoCal at an early age. David is an explorer, an amateur herpetologist, ornithologist, zoologist, and entomologist, interests instilled in him by his biologist dad.

David received his BA from San Jose State University. He has taught at Ohlone for many years and is beloved by his students. He teaches MM-121A 3D Modeling, MM-121B 3D Animation, MM-123 #D Printing and MM-121C Advanced 3D Modeling and Animation.

Raymond Pajek, Instructor, Graphic Design

Raymond Pajek enjoys sharing his passion for illustration and design with students that are seeking these skills within the multi-disciplined areas of multimedia and graphic arts. With over twenty years as an Art Director for top firms in San Francisco and New York, Raymond spends his professional time these days at the innovative creative studio he founded in the East Bay, helping to hatch unorthodox ideas to spark public conversation about critical issues like energy sustainability, climate change and habitat preservation. He recently crafted a new brand identity to help the City of San Jose achieve its goal of becoming a world center of clean technology innovation.

Alejandro Jauco, Instructor, Game Design

Ohlone game design instructor Alejandro Jauco brings an extensive background in the tech industry to his classroom. Currently the Principal Architect of Infor Silicon Valley Innovation Labs, he has worked in such capacities as president of Spidergram Corporation, director of 3D Multimedia Hardware and Software at Fujitsu Microelectronics, senior staff at NVIDIA and engineering manager at Sun Microsystems. His interests are video game development, Big Data and the Internet of Things.
Alejandro teaches MM-118 Introduction to Video Game Design and MM-119 Video Game Development at Ohlone.

Dr. Sarah Wang, Instructor, Graphic Design, UX/UI Design

Dr. Sarah Wang received her PhD in Art Education at the Ohio State University, specialized in multimedia design, design thinking and design pedagogy.
Sarah believes that design is a conversation, and a way to connect people. As a freelancer designer, Sarah participated in many projects, including designing websites for business and NGOs, creating educational interactive features for kids, designing logos and branding systems, and taking part in conceptual design projects for SONY, GE, and NISSAN.
Besides her journey as a designer, Sarah loves to share her expertise with students. Respecting and stimulating the individual creativity of each student is at the heart of her teaching philosophy.

Mark Kitchell, Instructor, Film Production

Mark Kitchell, Producer/Director/Writer of “BERKELEY IN THE SIXTIES” — a documentary film about the protest movements that swept America during the 1960s was nominated for an Academy Award, won the prestigious Audience Award at Sundance, the Dupont-Columbia Award, the National Society of Film Critics’ vote as the Best Documentary of 1990, and other top honors. Mark teaches the Digital Video production class here at Ohlone.