Team

Leadership & Staff 

annie buckley
Director. Professor, School of Art and Design; Director and PI, Prison Arts Collective and VISTA

Annie Buckley

Annie Buckley is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and the founding director of the Institute for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Justice at San Diego State University, where she is a professor of Visual Studies. She is the founder and director of Prison Arts Collective (PAC), which has brought arts to over 10,000 people in 17 prisons since 2013, and VISTA (Valuing Incarcerated Scholars through Academia), the first SDSU BA offered in a state prison. Buckley is internationally recognized for her work in the field; select awards include formal recognition in the California State Senate; Outstanding Professor, the highest faculty honor, at CSU San Bernardino; and the inaugural Public Impact Award for research at SDSU. She has raised over $7 million in grants, including from the Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, California Arts Council, and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. She is the editor of Higher Education and the Carceral State (Routledge, 2024) and author of Changemakers’ Guide to Prison Arts Programming (Routledge, 2026). Buckley has a BA with academic honors from UC Berkeley and an MFA from Otis College of Art and Design.
kishuana
Associate Director. PhD, Assistant Professor, Public Humanities and African Diaspora Studies

Kishauna Soljour

Kishauna Soljour is an Assistant Professor specializing in Public Humanities and African Diaspora Studies. She earned her Ph.D. in History from Syracuse University in 2019, where her dissertation won multiple awards. Dr. Soljour’s research focuses on cultural, political, and social change in diasporic communities. She is the Associate Director of the Public & Oral History Center at SDSU and also serves as Associate Director for the SDSU Institute for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Justice.
kristi
Assistant Director. Prison Arts Collective

Kristi Williams

Kristi has been a Teaching Artist with PAC since 2021, teaching in two prisons and leading design courses at SDSU’s VISTA program at Centinela State Prison in 2023–24. She is passionate about expanding access to education and the arts. In her role as Assistant Director, Kristi supports PAC’s prison programs across California and works with the team to support participants, facilitators, and Teaching Artists. Kristi is an Australian-American designer with an MFA from SDSU and a BA from Monash University.

tatiana
Program Assistant

Tatiana Dunne

Tatiana Dunne graduated from SDSU in May 2025 with a B.A. in Psychology and Art. She began working with Prison Arts Collective (PAC) as an intern and has taught at numerous sites including California Institution for Men (CIM), Richard J. Donovan Correctional Facility (RJD), and the Naval Consolidated Brig in Miramar. Currently, she focuses on program development and administrative support as a full time Program Assistant. In the future, she plans to return to school and continue working with populations that lack access to the arts.

brooke headshot
Design Associate

Brooke Florian

Brooke Florian is a multimedia artist and the Design Associate for the Institute for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Justice at San Diego State University, where she graduated in 2022 with a B.A. in Art. She began as an intern at the Prison Arts Collective (PAC) in 2022, later joining full-time and supporting the Institute as well. Brooke has organized an art exhibition, taught art courses at a California State Prison, and manages PAC and IAHSJ’s social media, websites, and design.


Project Leads

Africa World Documentary Film Festival

‘Niyi Coker, Professor, Television, Film, and New Media

 
Holistic Learning in HEP

Annie Buckley, Director, VISTA, and PI, Holistic Learning in Higher Education in Prison

Additional Team: Mir Aminy, Emma Bailey, Malia Kohls, Kim Krass, Jennica Paz, Kishauna Soljour, Tereza Trejbalová

 
Prison Arts Collective 

Annie Buckley, Founding Director, Prison Arts Collective

Kristi Williams, Assistant Director, Prison Arts Collective

 
Tuyo Theatre

Peter Cirino, Associate Professor is the Performance area Head for the School of Theatre, Television and Film.

 
Social Justice Murals

Kristal Bivona, Associate Professor Department of Classics and Humanities  

 
Valuing Incarcerated Scholars Through Academia

Annie Buckley, Director and PI, VISTA

Tereza Trejbalova, Strategic Partnerships and Operations Lead, VISTA

 

Affiliated Faculty

Amy Schmitz Weiss, Professor, Journalism

Ava Aviva Avnisan, Assistant Professor, Multimedia

Chuyun Oh, Professor, Dance Theory

Erica Redner-Vera, Assistant Professor, Criminal Justice

Jess Humphrey, Professor, Dance

Jessica McGaugh, Assistant Professor, Television, Film, and New Media

Katherine Splide, Professor and Chair, Sycuan Institute of Tribal Gambling

Kristal Bivona, Associate Professor Department of Classics and Humanities

Mary Posatko, Assistant Professor and Graduate Advisor, Television, Film, and New Media

Rati Kumar, Assistant Professor, Communication

Shawn Flanigan, Professor, Public Affairs

Temple Northup, Director of the School of Journalism and Media Studies

Tiffany A Dykstra-DeVette, Associate Professor, Communication