People

Oberlin College faculty and staff 4D Liberal Arts participants have included Wendy Kozol, Holly Handman Lopez, DeSales Harrison, Chris Trinacty, Emily Barton, and Ed Vermue. Lorain County Community College participants included Kim Karshner, Gregory Little, Ryan Corrigan, Hikmat Chedid, Craig Semsel, and Scott Zitek.

4D Liberal Arts Leadership Team

Dr. Laura Baudot, Oberlin College Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences and Director of StudiOC,joined the Oberlin English Department in 2005. She was instrumental in developing applied-learning opportunities in literary studies and the humanities more generally by collaborating with Oberlin Library staff to create a program in book arts and book history. The Oberlin College letterpress studio, housed in the main library, is often referred to as the campus humanities lab. Now in her second year directing StudiOC, Baudot in that capacity works with faculty to develop learning community themes as well as programming. In her current role as Associate Dean she chairs Oberlin’s educational plans and policies committee (an elected faculty governance committee charged with approval of changes to curricular programs). In addition, she is the director of the Gertrude B. Lemle Teaching Center. Her work in these various capacities positions her as an effective leader in curricular innovation that encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration. Baudot serves as project director, spearheading assessment and managing the budget.

Dr. Abby Aresty joined the Oberlin Conservatory’s Technology in Music and Related Arts (TIMARA)program in 2017 as Technical Director and Lecturer. Aresty is a composer and sound artist who uses technology to facilitate unexpected interactions among people, the built environment, and the natural world. Her projects are playful, meditative listening interventions that seek to provoke audience reflection on habitual listening practices in contemporary sonic environments. Aresty’s site-specific installations have been featured in local and national news outlets; Paths II: The Music of Trees, a temporary installation in Seattle’s Washington Park Arboretum, was featured in an interview with Melissa Block on NPR’s All Things Considered and was hailed as “otherworldly” and “sometimes eerie, sometimes transportingly lovely,” by the Seattle Times. Aresty has presented her research in the United States, Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong, in conferences including ICMC, Balance/Unbalance, ISEA, and Sonic Environments. She has held fellowships at the Studio for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University, Grinnell College, and the Acoustic Ecology Lab at Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute of Design and the Arts. As an educator working at the intersection of the arts and technology, Aresty’s courses include integrated, project-based learning activities that utilize maker technologies; in the 4D Liberal Arts initiative, Aresty has served as project coordinator and assists in developing and leading faculty workshops.

Dr. Brenda Pongracz joined Lorain County Community College in August 2018. Since joining LCCC, Dr. Pongracz has worked to forge new partnerships and opportunities for students, both at LCCC and after graduation. Prior to becoming Dean of Arts & Humanities at LCCC, Dr. Pongracz held a range of positions in community college leadership that focused on student career and academic success. As Assistant Dean for Creative Arts at Cuyahoga Community College, a college-wide division, Dr. Pongracz worked closely with college leadership to support retention and completion and improve student learning. In this role, she promoted collaborative relationships between faculty within Creative Arts and other academic divisions, forged partnerships with local employers to grow experiential learning opportunities in the arts and led other deans in an effort to assist students with degree planning and transfer options. Prior to that role she served as Manager and then Director of the Enrollment Center at the Tri-C Westshore Campus, providing her with a familiarity with student services, advising, and financial aid. She earned her doctorate in Higher Education Leadership from Walden University and has a distinguished background in music and vocal performance. She has an M.A. in Vocal Performance from Temple University and an M.A. in Music History from Cleveland State University.

Kelly Zelesnik is currently the Dean of the Engineering, Business & Information Technologies Division,the Nord Advanced Technologies Center and the Campana Center for Ideation & Invention at Lorain County Community College. She was appointed to serve on LIFT’s (Lightweight Innovations for Today, Manufacturing USA Institute) Expert Educator Panel in January 2017. She also supports workforce and educational programming for Manufacturing USA institutes including Next Flex and DMDII (Digital Manufacturing & Design Innovation Institute). Ms. Zelesnik is Chair Emerita, United States Fab Lab Network (USFLN) and has served as co-principal investigator for the NSF funded Weld Ed ATE. Prior to her appointment as Dean, Ms. Zelesnik was a member of the faculty and coordinator of the Applied Electronics Technologies program which is TAC (Technology Accreditation Commission) of ABET (Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology) accredited. She has held a number of engineering and management positions in industry, focusing her professional interests on medical devices and power systems. She is a proud graduate of Cleveland State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and received a Masters in Engineering Management from the Gordon Institute of Tufts University.

Zelesnik and Pongracz work with LCCC Arts & Humanities faculty and Digital Fabrication faculty to revise curriculum and include 4D aspects. In addition, they assist with student and faculty recruitment to collaborate with Oberlin during the workshops. Zelesnik and Pongracz also oversee grant activities including scheduling, coordination, budget, and other additional requirements to ensure the success of the grant.