Arnold T. Blumberg
Publications Design, 1996
Doctor of Communications Design, 2004Arnold T. Blumberg ('96, '04) is Managing Editor of Gemstone Publishing, an information resource for the comics and collector communities co-founded by Steve Geppi, the world's largest distributor of comic books. At Gemstone, Arnold writes about science fiction, entertainment and the business of collecting for the online magazine FAN Universe. He has also written, edited, and designed several books in the Gemstone series of price guides, including The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and Hake's Price Guide to Character Toys.
Arnold completed an English degree with Honors at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 1993 and the M.A. in Publications Design in 1996.
Shirley J. Brewer
Creative Writing & Publishing Arts, 2005Shirley Brewer loved her UB experience. "UB enhanced my life in multiple ways. I learned how to PLORK! Plork is a combination of play + work, and is the keystone of the creative writing program at UB." (In fact, Shirley won the first UB Creative Writing Award for Excellence in Plorking!) "I have always been a creative person," she says, "and UB helped me expand and celebrate and nurture my Creative Core." UB enriched not only Shirley’s writing and design skills, but her thoughts and ideas, as well. "Dr. Carol Peirce's Gifts of the Goddess class led me to explore dimensions of my own personality. I now think in Goddess vocabulary: Who will I be today — Aphrodite or Athena?
"All my professors were pure gold, and I still miss the joy and feedback and diversity of my experiences in class." To prove how much she enjoyed her UB experience, Shirley brags that "in my three years at UB, I never missed a single class!"
Today, as an adjunct professor, Shirley teaches undergraduate writing part-time at UB, and is developing her own small business, Poetic License, where she writes personalized poems for all occasions, and is plorking away on a poetry manuscript. She remembers this Marcel Proust quote, which she picked up from Professor John Wilson: The real voyage of discovery rests not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. "That's the essence of my UB experience," she says; "new eyes to illuminate the creative possibilities of each new day."
Proving that there are many ways to plork in everyday life, in 2007 Shirley won a chocolate truffle naming contest, sponsored by Truffles by Emily of Baltimore, for her suggestion of "Choco Lemon Tango."
Sean Cohen
Publications Design 1997Sean Cohen ('97) worked as a Web designer for The Brook Group, a local design firm with clients including America Online. He left the Brook Group to become a chief interactive designer for the Space Telescope Science Institute, where his graphics have been featured on CNN. He also freelances for various clients, including the prestigious Baltimore advertising firm of Trahan, Burton, and Charles.
In 1998 Sean was one of two Robert W. Deutsch Foundation Fellows in the School of Communications Design, pursuing a research project on 3-D applications to computer interface design.Sean is now a Partner with the Baltimore communications agency idfive.
Rick Heffner
Publications Design 1996Rick Heffner ('96) is founder and principal of the Washington-area design firm Fuszion Art + Design. Organizations such as the Broadcast Designers Association, Print Design Annual, the Addys, CTAM, DESI and The Art Directors Club of Thailand have recognized his talent by honoring Rick for his corporate identities.
Prior to founding Fuszion, Rick served as Senior Design Manager for Discovery Communications, Inc., parent organization of The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, and Animal Planet. He managed and art-directed all collateral materials for Discovery's in-house design group, whose projects included press and affiliate kits, brochures, T-shirts, CD-ROM packaging, logos and much more. He also worked as a designer with Supon Design Group, one of the most notable and recognized studios in the Washington, D.C. area. Rick holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in graphic design from Shepherd College.
Rick has served on the board of directors for the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, and is a member of the Broadcast Designers Association and the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
Su-Cheng Lee
Corporate Communication 1995
Publications Design 1997Su-Cheng Lee ('97), a native of Taiwan, added a B.S. in Corporate Communication from the University of Baltimore to her initial degree from Chih Lee Business College in Taipei. She then enrolled in the Publications Design M.A. program. Crave, the PubDesign Seminar project for which Su-Cheng developed on-line content, won the 1997 Phillips Award for best work in new media.
Shortly afterwards, Su-Cheng became an electronic designer for Manugistics, a knowledge engineering firm in Rockville, Maryland, where she has since been promoted to senior design associate.
Elizabeth Lichtenstein
Publications Design, 1997Elizabeth Lichtenstein ('97) came to the Publications Design program after finishing a B.A. in philosophy at the University of Delaware. She won the program's highest honor, the Ampersand Award, which is given to a student who shows exceptional distinction in all facets of publications design—writing as well as graphics, thinking as well as practice.
While working on her M.A., Elizabeth designed print and electronic graphics for the Johns Hopkins University Press and did Web work for Maryland Public Television. She also collaborated on the design for Professor Stephanie Gibson's electronic journal, media ecology. Upon graduation Elizabeth was hired by the prestigious Baltimore design firm Rutka Weadock, where she worked primarily on print projects. She left Baltimore to take a job with the Public Broadcasting Service, where among other things she designed the Web site for the Teletubbies. Her next move was the international on-line design firm IXL Communications, where she is a senior designer.
Elizabeth serves on the board of the Baltimore-Washington chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Artists.
Theresa Segreti
Publications Design, 1986Theresa Segreti ('86) Ms. Segreti entered the M.A. program as a writer and former schoolteacher and came out a publication manager for Baltimore's leading arts institutions.
Her Seminar project was a magazine called Back Roads, a publication focusing on American small towns where many U.S. residents grew up or still live. Distinguished in design and presentation, this project won the competition for its year. Ms. Segreti went on to intern with Ed Gold at the prestigious advertising and public relations firm Barton-Gillet. She then became Art Director for the publications department of the Walters Art Gallery, from which she moved to the American Visionary Art Museum shortly after it was founded.
School of Communications Design professor Ed Gold once said, "If we ever wanted to point to the perfect model for the kind of graduate we try to turn out here, Theresa Segreti is it."
Jessica Schultheis
English, 2005Jessica Schultheis ('05) had recently completed a four-year enlistment in the Navy as a Cryptologist when she transferred to UB as an English major. Her plan was to go into publishing, but, as she says, "I didn't have a clue where to begin. UB's faculty helped me to not only learn the intricacies of the English language, but also apply those skills to my own writing and editing."
During her time at UB, Jessica worked with UB's Creative Writing and Publishing Arts director, Kendra Kopelke, as an editor on Passager, a national literary journal published at UB. About her experience with Passager, Jessica says, "I was fortunate enough to work with a group of UB women whose passion for the written word spread to everyone around them. A one-semester internship turned into a two-year joyride filled with thousands of poetry and fiction submissions from all over the country. To see such a fabulous collection of words bound together by paper was wonderfully fulfilling for me."
Shortly before her graduation, Jessica was hired as the Editorial and Production Coordinator at the U.S. Naval Institute in Annapolis. The Naval Institute Press publishes about 70 titles each year ranging from battle histories and biographies to ship and aircraft guides and novels. As the Editorial and Production Coordinator, it is her job to create and maintain individual book schedules, hire and oversee various book packagers, and assist the managing editor with proofing each title for accuracy and consistency.
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