PCA&D welcomes new faculty for Fall 2025

Pennsylvania College of Art & Design is pleased to welcome the following faculty members to the College for the Fall 2025 semester: 

Matthew Apol

Matthew Apol is an artist living and working in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his partner Melanee, their son Hudson, their dog Kona, and their two cats, Bolt and Flop. He makes work about systemic manipulation relating to governing bodies, tribalism, belonging, and late-stage capitalism. In 2021, Apol received his MFA in Studio Arts from Syracuse University.

He would like to see the David by Michelangelo before he dies. 

Molly Egan

Molly Egan is an illustrator based in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared throughout the world in magazines, in books, on clothing, and even on cookies. She is best known for her pattern-filled sketchbooks that she chronicles on Instagram. Egan also creates her own line of colorful paper and home goods. Some of her clients include: Disney, Samsung, Adobe, Facebook, Aperol, and the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Cortland Ellis

A freelance character designer, storyboard artist, and comic artist, Cortland Ellis also spent more than a decade as a Multimedia Designer specializing in motion design. He’s been fortunate enough to work on movies, TV shows, comics, video games, and commercials with companies like Dreamworks, The Line Animation, Skybound, and Nathan Love.

Alexis Harp

Alexis Harp is a professional accountant and healthcare full-stack developer. She has more than a decade in financial management with a career that started even before finishing her BS in Accounting at the University of Baltimore. She later went on to graduate from Ireland’s Trinity College Dublin, studying Finance, where she published her formal thesis on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting. When not following her pedagogic passion of teaching fundamental finance to soon-to-be young professionals, she resides in Lancaster, enjoying watching and picking apart TV shows with her partner and their cat (and landlord) Kyra.

Cedric Hill

Cedric Hill has always loved telling stories. He is a distinguished figure in film and theatre, celebrated for his extensive work as a writer, director, and producer. His notable achievements include a 2024 Emmy nomination for Medical Civil Rights, a Best Short Film award at the American Pavilion at Cannes in 2022, and being shortlisted for the 2016 Academy Awards for short film. In 2005, he founded To & Fro Productions, a company renowned for its commitment to crafting compelling and sophisticated narratives. As the executive producer, Hill is involved in nearly every aspect of the production process, from script development and budgeting to casting and directing. Under his leadership, To & Fro Productions has amassed a remarkable portfolio of award-winning feature films, shorts, and theatre productions over the past 15 years. He has also recently completed filming the feature film Two Peas in a Pod as Director and Producer. Hill has collaborated with renowned talents such as Maggie Reed, Marcia Gay Harden, and Sutton Foster, and his work has graced major venues like the Public Theatre, NJPAC, and the Marjorie S. Deane Little Theatre (West Side Y). He is contributing to academia while also working on two documentaries: Ballad of a Black Mother and Service with Pride. He is a member of The SDC (The Stage Directors and Choreographers).

Tim Magenta

Tim Magenta is a Philadelphia-based artist who earned his BFA from Millersville University in 2014 and his MFA from American University in 2018. He has attended residencies at the Chautauqua Institution and at GlogauAIR Berlin, where he deepened the experiences and perspectives that continue to shape his artistic practice. In recent years, Magenta has drawn inspiration from the world around him, embarking on multiple cross-country road trips dedicated to capturing the evolving American landscape through plein air painting. This current body of work reflects the tension and interplay between his upbringing in an urban environment and the romanticized vision of the American landscape.

Paige Mehrer

Paige Mahrer is an illustrator based in Philadelphia. She has worked as an illustrator with clients such as CELINE, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Refinery29, Inverse, Bloomberg Businessweek, VICE, and Food52, among others. In addition to working as an illustrator, she maintains a practice of self-publishing zines and comics. Her comics have also been published by Colorama, Wobby Club, TXTBooks, Plum Press, Hue, and VICE.

Krittika Mittal

Krittika Mittal is a graphic designer and illustrator from New Delhi, India, whose practice dives into daily life’s overlooked yet intimate moments. Her work captures the beauty of fleeting emotions and experiences, creating immersive spaces that invite viewers to see themselves within the art. With an ability to blend idyllic, colorful scenes with whimsical elements, Mittal’s style evokes a gentle warmth, often portraying a vibrant, visually rich world that subtly hints at deeper personal narratives. She has been working in this field for more than seven years.

Dillon Samuelson

Dillon Samuelson is an illustrator and painter with particular interests in folklore, history, and mythology. He graduated from the Fine Art program at York College of Pennsylvania in 2014, and the following year was awarded the third annual Appell Fellowship at Marketview Arts. He currently lives and works in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Lee Sperry

Benjamin Lee Sperry is an interdisciplinary artist working in the traditions of photography, painting, printmaking, installation, and performance. He studied photography at Harrisburg Area Community College before completing a BFA in Visual and Critical Studies at the School of Visual Arts in New York. While there, he was given The Chairman’s Merit Award and was the recipient of an Alumni Scholarship Award. He then went on to the University of Delaware, completing an MFA in Painting and Printmaking, and was awarded a solo exhibition at The Delaware Contemporary. He has participated in artist talks at The Church Foundation in Sag Harbor, University of Delaware’s Colloquium program, and has been a featured guest on the ArtShow podcast with Craig Stover. Sperry’s work has been shown at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture in New York, Heit Gallery in Berlin, Divisible Projects, James Oliver Gallery, The Delaware Contemporary, Project Gallery, The Brink Gallery, and was included in Shifting Forms, 5 Decades of Abstraction at the  Susquehanna Art Museum alongside Helen Frankenthaler, Chakaia Booker, and Sol Lewitt. In 2024, Sperry participated in the Pedvāle Artist Residency in Sabile, Latvia.

Lily Twining

Lily Twining has recently joined TAIT as a Project Director. Before TAIT, Lily was the founder and owner of Blackbird Production Services, Ltd. She comes with more than 20 years of experience working in all areas of the entertainment industry, serving in roles such as Technical Producer, Project Director, and Technical Manager. On Broadway, Lily has worked on productions such as Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark, Rocky Broadway, and If/Then Musical. In the cruise industry, she has worked on productions with Holland America Cruise Line, Disney Cruise Line, and Virgin Voyages. Twining has also worked on experiences such as National Geographic’s Experience Mars, NFL Experience in Times Square, and Jean-Michelle Basquiat: King Pleasure. She has taught at the New York City College of Technology and the Yale School of Drama. Internationally, Twining has opened themed entertainment attractions at Tokyo Disneyland and at Universal Beijing Resort, where she served as the Project Director for How to Train Your Dragon: Untrainable.

Macy West

Macy West is a Philadelphia-based painter and art educator making work about hope not yet realized, using abstraction as a means of refiguration. Her paintings deal with sight, literally, and as a metaphor for knowing. Sight, as mediated by the biological limitations of human anatomy, is incomplete, meaning we rely on abstractions to make sense of material and immaterial reality. West’s paintings generate abstractions that reorganize the perceivable in an effort to understand the whole from the parts. She received her MFA from Tyler School of Art and Architecture in May 2025 and her BFA from Louisiana State University in May 2021, where she also concentrated in Biological Sciences with special attention to the intersection of art and science for visual communication. From 2021-2023, Macy taught high school art and physics at a private school in Covington, Louisiana, an experience that reinforced the relationship between education and her artistic practice. Recent shows include her solo show Manifold at Temple Contemporary in 2025 and To hear to view, a group show at IceBox Project Space curated by Anthony Elms.

Autumn C. Wright-Hess

Autumn C. Wright-Hess is an artist and educator living and working in York, Pennsylvania, and the surrounding areas. She spends most of her free time making art, baking, gardening, and hanging out with her husband and dog. In 2017, she graduated with her Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Indiana University. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Millersville University in 2011 with a concentration in Printmaking and Drawing. Wright-Hess has attended artist workshops at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, The School of Visual Arts in Chautauqua, New York, and a photography study abroad program in Japan. Her artwork is a product of close examination of natural objects, experimentation with new materials, and is informed by the history of scientific and private collecting. She engages themes centering on biology, microscopic and macroscopic systems, memory, and iconography to create multimedia artwork about the natural world. Wright-Hess has shown her work nationally as well as internationally, including shows in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Italy, and Japan. You can find her artwork at www.autumncwright.com or on Instagram at @autumncwright.