COACH Annette Polan
Annette Polan has a B.A. in Art History from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia and completed graduate work at the Ecole du Louvre and the Tyler School of Art. A professor emeritus from the Corcoran College of Art + Design, Polan is known internationally for her portraits of leaders in industry, government and the arts, including Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, (former) West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton, and Edward Villella for the Miami City Ballet.
Polan has taught and lectured on her work and contemporary American portraiture in Europe, Asia, and Australia and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad.
Recently Polan conceived, organized and chaired Faces of the Fallen, an exhibition of 1323 portraits by 230 American artists to honor servicemen and women who died in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In recognition of her support of the men and women of the Armed forces and their families, Ms. Polan was awarded the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Outstanding Public Service Award. For more information, please visit www.annettepolan.com or read the article on The Washington Post.
PHOTOGRAPHER Taisie Berkeley
Taisie Berkeley has a B.A. in Art History from Hollins University, an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University, and an M.F.A. in Photography from the University of Delaware.
Specializing in profiles of people, Berkeley is a storyteller who combines text and images to capture her subjects’ lives. In 2005-6, she was a Fulbright Scholar in India, documenting impoverished women’s unique, inspiring journeys. There she exhibited her project at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi.
Subsequently, Berkeley has lectured at the World Bank, was Hollins’ 2006 International Women’s Day Speaker, and exhibited at Hollins’ Eleanor B Wilson Museum in 2008. Berkeley previously appeared on CBS This Morning to discuss another documentary project, What Do I Look Like?, for which she twice won Washington, D.C.’s “Dateline Award” for Excellence in Journalism at the National Press Club.
PSYCHOLOGIST John Murray
John Murray has a Ph.D. in Psychology from The Catholic University of America and has taught psychology and human development at several universities in Australia and the U.S. over the past 30 years. He is a Research Fellow in Psychology at Washington College, Emeritus Professor at Kansas State University, and Visiting Scholar at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School.
Murray has studied social and cognitive development in children and adults and has published about 100 articles and 14 books on various aspects of human development. His recent research has been focused on studying children’s brain activations (using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging—fMRI) while viewing video violence.
His current interests include measuring the ways in which creative experiences, such as the Capital ArtPorts workshops, influence the thought processes of adults by enhancing their willingness to take risks and openness to new experiences.
PSYCHOLOGIST Ann Murray
Ann Murray has a B.A. in Philosophy from Hollins University and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She is Associate Professor of human development at Kansas State University.
At Kansas State University, she teaches courses in human development and assessment. She has become somewhat of a “guru” for developing and delivering online courses and has received national awards for teaching excellence from the University Continuing Education Association. She has numerous presentations and publications of her studies in parent-infant interaction, language development, and attachment.
In addition to her human development research, she has carried out program evaluation studies for community programs to determine the impact of interventions. Currently, she is interested in measuring how the promotion of playfulness in Capital ArtPorts workshops impacts creativity in adults.
