In 2008, Isabel started working as a part-time multimedia faculty member alongside Pilar Lewis and then became full-time in 2012. In 2014, the Graphic Arts department merged with the Multimedia department, and she is now the only full-time faculty for both departments. Most of her time is spent keeping the curriculum for these departments up-to-date and ensuring that both programs remain cutting edge. But her passion is for teaching and empowering students from all walks of life.
She is proud of having developed a high-caliber advisory board for her department that has helped direct the focus of technology and the "soft skills" that are most in-demand. Isabel enjoys talking about the development of a curriculum for Interface Design, helping further a curriculum for designing and developing video games, and advancing courses in digital media theory, mobile app development, and drone technology. She also worked with students and librarians on a series of videos entitled "Student Voices" that documents an honest account of marginalized and underrepresented students at the college. These are just a few of her most gratifying accomplishments while working at Ohlone.
She is an occasional lecturer at educator conferences across the country, recently on ways to advance a digital media curriculum using open source technologies, and she will co-moderate a panel discussion on developing and improving learning pathways at the upcoming Digital Media Conference in Santa Clarita, CA, this June.
She has broadened the scope and participation of one of Pilar Lewis's favorite events, the Annual Ohlone College Multimedia and Graphic Arts festival. This year's festival takes off on May 11, 2018, and anticipates over 130 submissions with 33 awards for excellence juried by industry professionals.
While she admits to working extremely hard as the sole full-time faculty for Multimedia and Graphic Arts, she would also be the first to concede that she would not have accomplished so much on her own. She owes much of the program's success to the dedication and hard work of her outstanding part-time faculty, who have donated countless hours to events like the San Mateo Maker Faire, the Multimedia and Graphic Arts festival, and to going above and beyond their duties as part-time instructors to ensure that their students succeed in a highly competitive and widely expanding industry. Working alongside so many devoted teachers is both exhilarating and inspiring.
In her (minuscule) personal time, Isabel enjoys backyard farming, growing her own food, spending time with her husband, Sean, her son, Kip, and their adorable Taiwanese Mountain Dog, Apple. Together they hike, backpack, and collaborate on theatre-work and artwork. Isabel and Sean have worked together as artists since 1994, and if you would like to see some of their edgy/performative/activist artwork you can visit their portfolio website: http://www.life-art.org.
Ohlone celebrates Isabel’s dedication, diligence, and enthusiasm for her students, department, and craft. Congratulations!
