The CAH Advisory Council provides guidance, feedback, and support to the directors. Its members are drawn from departments and units across campus in the arts, humanities, and adjacent fields.
Renee Billingslea
Art and Art History
Renee Billingslea is a Teaching Professor in the department of Art and Art History. She received her Master degree in Photography from San Jose State University as well as served in the United State Peace Corps in Kiribati, Central Pacific. Billingslea is a visual artist whose art work addresses issue of injustice and white privilege. She exhibits her work Internationally and nationally.
Jeffrey Bracco
Theater and Dance
Jeff is a director, actor and playwright who has worked in both the United States and Europe. He has directed numerous professional theatre productions, including his own play, ShakesPod at the Edinburgh Fringe, two world premieres in Paris, and he directs regularly in the Bay Area. He has written or co-written several produced plays, most recently, Truce: A Christmas Wish from the Great War (co-written with Kit Wilder). Jeff trained at the Jacques Lecoq International School of Theatre in Paris and earned his MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. He is a Teaching Professor in Directing, Acting and Musical Theatre and also a proud alumnus of SCU.
Nicole Branch
University Library
Nicole is the Dean of the University Library at Santa Clara University. In her time at Santa Clara, Nicole has also held the positions of Associate University Librarian, Head of Instruction & Assessment, and Assessment Coordinator & Instruction Librarian. Prior to becoming a librarian, Nicole worked for over a decade in non-profit organizations that advanced educational and racial justice in public schools and districts in the East Bay and San Francisco– work that continues to inform her approach to librarianship. Nicole’s scholarship focuses on the intersections of critical theory, research methodologies, and information literacy.
Haruka Umetsu Cho
Religious Studies
Haruka is a teacher and scholar whose interests span Christian theology, East Asian literature, feminist/queer theories, and post/decolonial studies. Her book projects focus on themes of the Divine, eros, and bodies and analyze how, in the context of modernism and neo/colonialism, those themes have been transmitted, reinterpreted, and transformed in Japanese literary and artistic space.
Evelyn Ferraro
Italian Studies (Modern Languages & Literature)
Evelyn teaches interdisciplinary courses in Italian language, literature, and culture, as well as Italian American cultural history. Her research, situated within Transnational Italian Studies, examines Italy’s migratory and colonial histories and their legacies, uncovering marginalized voices and tracing transnational connections that reshape ideas of identity and memory. She currently focuses on California Italian American narratives, women’s voices, and the intergenerational transmission of memory. She also serves as Faculty Director of the Unity Residential Learning Community, fostering student engagement at the intersection of diversity, civic life, and the humanities.
Tony Hazard
History
Tony Hazard is Professor of Ethnic Studies (and History by courtesy). He teaches courses on United States History and the Black Freedom Movement. He has been a postdoctoral fellow in Science in Human Culture at Northwestern University and an Inclusive Excellence Postdoctoral Fellow at Santa Clara University. He is the author of Postwar Anti-Racism: the United States, Unesco, and “Race” (Palgrave, 2012) and Boasians At War: Anthropology, Race, and World War II (Palgrave, 2020). He is currently working on his third monograph titled Afro-Indigeneity, Family Remembrance and the Narragansett of Rhode Island.
Andrew Ishak
Communication
Andrew is interested in questions around culture, time, teams, and communication. His recent work includes Abouna, a film series that explores identity and communication in a bicultural church community. He has also written about sports teams and emergency response units. Andrew served as Director of the Undergraduate Core Curriculum (2021-24) and currently serves as Faculty Athletics Representative for SCU.
Kirstyn Leuner
English
Kirstyn identifies as a literary recovery scholar and centers her work on finding and sharing marginalized voices that are under-studied for a variety of reasons. She primarily publishes on eighteenth-century women writers and book history, and she is director and co-editor of The Stainforth Library of Women's Writing (stainforth.scu.edu). She is currently writing a book about women and divorce in the eighteenth century. Ask her about letterpress printing and book arts opportunities at SCU for students and/or faculty.
Scot Hanna-Weir
Music
Scot is Director of Choral Activities, conducting the University's two major choral ensembles and Artistic Director of the Santa Clara Chorale, an auditioned community choir celebrating its 60th anniversary season. In addition to his conducting engagements, Scot is also an active composer with particular focus on fusing electronics and choral performance and addressing issues of social justice and inequity through choral literature.
Past Faculty/Staff Advisory Council Members
2024-2025
Andrew Ishak, Communication
Jeffrey Bracco, Theatre and Dance
Nicole Branch, University Library
Meilin Chinn, Philosophy
Sonia Gomez, History
Scot Hanna-Weir, Music
Kai Harris, English
Haruka Umetsu Cho, Religious Studies
2023-2024
Lauren Baines, de Saisset Museum
Nicole Branch, University Library
Meilin Chinn, Philosophy
Justin Clardy, Philosophy
Sonia Gomez, History
Allia Griffin, Ethnic Studies
Scot Hanna-Weir, Music
Kai Harris, English
Mythri Jegathesan, Anthropology
Brian Thorstenson, Theatre and Dance
2022 -2023
Lauren Baines, de Saisset Museum
Nicole Branch, University Library
Justin Clardy, Philosophy
Allia Griffin, Ethnic Studies
Scot Hanna-Weir, Music
Kai Harris, English
Angela Holzmeister, Classics
Mythri Jegathesan, Anthropology
Brian Thorstenson, Theatre and Dance
Michael Whalen, Communication
2021-2022
Bruno Ruviaro, Music
Katherine Aoki, Studio Art
Sharmila Lodhia, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Danielle Morgan, English
Daniel Turkeltaub, Classics
Kristin Kusanovic, Child Studies
Karen Peterson-Iyer, Religious Studies
Nicole Branch, University Library
Justin Clardy, Philosophy
2020-2021
Aldo Billingslea, Theatre and Dance
Bruno Ruviaro, Music
Katherine Aoki, Studio Art
Sharmila Lodhia, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Danielle Morgan, English
Daniel Turkeltaub, Classics
Kristin Kusanovic, Child Studies
Karen Peterson-Iyer, Religious Studies
Nicole Branch, University Library