Team

Leadership & Staff

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 has received numerous grants and awards for her work including recognition in the California State Senate for PAC, Outstanding Professor at CSU San Bernardino, numerous NEA Grants for PAC and a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation for VISTA. She has a BA from UC Berkeley and MFA from Otis College of Art and Design.

Creative Marketing Lead

Brooke Florian

Brooke Florian is a multimedia artist and Creative Marketing Lead 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, website, and communications-related content.

Program Manager

Danica Teniozo

Danica is the Program Manager of IAHSJ. She holds a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Public Health and is finishing her Master’s of Arts degree in Education- Counseling this year. She brings extensive administrative experience to her role, having worked in both clinical and office settings. Her experience spans diverse tasks including coordinating office operations, managing schedules, supporting staff members, handling recruitment processes and monthly grant reporting.

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.

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.

VISTA Coordinator

Phillip Howard

Phillip Howard is the VISTA Coordinator for the Institute for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Justice at San Diego State University. He brings several years of experience in administration, customer service, and youth rehabilitation, having previously worked at one of the juvenile detention facilities in San Diego. Phillip holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, and is excited to apply his diverse background to support students in completing their degree programs.

Strategic Partnerships and Operations Lead, VISTA

Tereza Trejbalová

Tereza Trejbalová is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Affairs with expertise in criminology and criminal justice. Her research explores the lived experiences of incarcerated people and advances critical pedagogy. Within the Institute for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Justice, Dr. Trejbalová leads strategic partnerships and operations for the SDSU-VISTA BA completion program at Centinela State Prison. She also serves on the Holistic Learning for Higher Education in Prison (PEP) team, supported by The Mellon Foundation.

Advisory Council

PhD, Professor and Director, School of Music and Dance

Kevin Delgado

Kevin M. Delgado is Associate Professor of Music at San Diego State University, where he coordinates World Music and Ethnomusicology. He earned a B.M. in jazz performance from SDSU and advanced degrees in Ethnomusicology from UCLA. Delgado has researched Afro-Cuban music and culture through 11 trips to Cuba since 1996. He has published in journals and contributed to encyclopedias. As a bassist and percussionist, he’s performed with artists like Tito Puente and co-directed a U.S. State Department jazz tour to Bolivia in 2004.

PhD, Interim Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters

Michael Borgstrom

Michael Borgstrom is an Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Letters and Professor of English and Comparative Literature. He served as Chair of English and Comparative Literature from 2014-2019, co-founded and co-directed SDSU's LGBTQ Research Consortium, and recently served as Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning.

PhD, Professor, School of Theater, Film, and Television

'Niyi Coker

Niyi Coker, Jr. is the founding Artistic Director of the African Arts Ensemble and has served as Visiting Artistic Director for several theatre companies worldwide. His works include Ouray, Endangered Species, and Preemptive. Coker has written and directed award-winning documentaries like Black Studies USA and Ota Benga – Human at the Zoo. He founded the Africa World Documentary Film Festival and authored two books. Coker is the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor at the University of Missouri.

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

Peter Cirino

Peter has started two theatre companies locally. The Collective Multi-Cultural Theatre and TuYo Theatre a Latinx commons. Peter restarted and reconfigured the Asian American Repertory Theatre. AART was invited to be in residence at the La Jolla Playhouse for two productions. Peter created a curriculum for the Old Globe’s Meta program which was implemented throughout the the San Diego school system. Peter has worked International in developing and touring SDSU productions to Mexico City, Vera Cruz and Oaxaca. The productions would be created by the SDSU students from personal narratives that were collected by the previous year’s students in Mexico. Peter has also developed two courses that prepare the actor/actress for a professional career. Along with a Stand-Up comedy and Sketch comedy course.

Fellows

Jennica Paz, Associate Professor, Counseling & School Psychology

Tereza Trejbalova, Assistant Professor, Public Affairs

Ginny Oshiro, Research Coordinator, Prison Arts Collective

Jarret Keith, Faculty, Mellon Research Fellow

Mir Aminy, Program Director, Project Rebound, CSUF

Affiliated Faculty

Amy Schmitz Weiss, Professor, Journalism

Ava Avnisan, Assistant Professer, Multimedia

Chuyun Oh, Associate 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

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