Take a moment to meet the newest members of our college community!
Joining the schools of Music, Art & Art History, Theatre & Dance and Architecture & Community Design, these accomplished educators bring a breadth of national and international experience. Through teaching, creative practice, and leadership, they offer new ideas and interdisciplinary expertise that enhance student experiences and support their success.
Damon Caldwell, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Architecture
Damon is a native of northern Louisiana and has a Bachelor of Architecture from Louisiana Tech University (1991) and a Master of Architecture from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (1993).
He has practiced in Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Berlin, Germany, in several offices, including Studio Daniel Libeskind and Franklin D. Israel Design Associates. Before retiring in 2025, he was a tenured associate professor in the School of Design at Louisiana Tech University, where over his 26 years of teaching he taught at all levels of undergraduate and graduate education in architecture and interior design. He served as the graduate coordinator and primary integrated design instructor for the professional Master of Architecture degree, and he also taught several courses in architectural history. His research focuses on material, organization, structure, facades and pattern across a range of scales and surfaces in architecture and related design.
Most recently, he finished as a visiting instructor at Kent State University’s College of Architecture and Environmental Design, teaching fourth-year studios in integrated design, materials courses and graduate theory courses.
William Downs, Assistant Professor, Drawing
With a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Atlanta College of Art, followed by a multidisciplinary MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Downs' educational background has laid a strong foundation for his innovative approach to art. Throughout his career, he has garnered recognition for his history and dedication, receiving prestigious awards such as the Mount Royal School of Art Award, Artadia and The Working Artist Project at MOCA GA.
Downs has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts at the University of Alabama at Birmingham; Band of Vices Gallery in Los Angeles, California; Derek Eller Gallery in New York City; the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta, Georgia; and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. His works have been included in group shows at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, whitespace, and the Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia; the African American Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
Downs’s art is in the collections of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis; Clark Atlanta University Art Museum and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia; the Microsoft Collection in Seattle, Washington; the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. Downs continues to captivate audiences with his deep exploration of form, line, and movement.
Dr. Derek Ganong, Assistant Professor, Classical & Jazz Trumpet
Dr. Ganong is a multifaceted trumpeter, educator and technologist redefining the boundaries of genre and discipline. As Assistant Professor of Jazz & Classical Trumpet at USF, he mentors both Jazz and Classical trumpet students while balancing a rigorous freelance schedule.
An elite performer across all genres and styles, Derek holds principal symphonic positions while remaining a sought-after recording artist and collaborator on the jazz, contemporary, chamber and commercial music scenes. He is the leading authority on the Laurie Frink trumpet method and a pioneer in music production pedagogy. Dr. Ganong holds degrees from UCLA, NYU and the University of Miami, spanning trumpet performance, ethnomusicology and computational science.
Justin Giarrusso, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Music Theory
Justin Giarrusso composes contemporary art music that fuses elements of classical and musical theatre practice. His music is characterized by light textures and is driven by formal structure. Giarrusso’s works also frequently involve collaboration across artistic fields and incorporate interdisciplinary thought.
He composed an opera, “A World Apart,” in collaboration with Houston-based playwright Michael Weems. The opera was staged and premiered by the North American New Opera Workshop (NANOWorks Opera) in Ohio, and Juventas New Music Ensemble programmed part of the opera as a concert work in Boston. Recently, the Tower Duo premiered the flute & saxophone version of “Marble & Blood” at the Heidelberg New Music Festival and Symposium, and the University of South Florida Clarinet Ensemble premiered “Greater than the Sum” at ClarinetFest® in Dublin, Ireland.
Dr. Giarrusso started teaching at USF in 2019 as adjunct faculty, offering courses in aural skills, music theory pedagogy, orchestration, tonal counterpoint and post-tonal analysis. Dr. Giarrusso is a graduate of Florida State University (D.M. in Music Composition), the University of Louisville (M.M. in Music Composition) and Ohio Wesleyan University (B.A. in Music Theory). He has studied under the guidance of Clifton Callender, Steve Rouse, Jennifer Jolley, Clint Needham and Jason Bahr. For more information, please visit www.JustinGiarrusso.com.
Dr. Bomin Kim, Assistant Professor, Architecture
Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach to infrastructure and equity, drawing on urban design and data science to understand how physical and social systems shape health, cohesion and resilience in historically marginalized communities. Working across St. Louis and Los Angeles, her research has been supported by the Mellon Foundation, Novo Nordisk and the Los Angeles Bureau of Engineering and Mayor's Office.
Before joining USF, Bomin taught at Washington University in St. Louis and Parsons School of Design and worked as the building science and sustainable designer at Sasaki Associates. She holds a graduate degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a doctorate in Sustainable Urbanism from Washington University in St. Louis.
Amanda Stuart Mackensen, Assistant Professor, Scenic Design
Amanda has been a scenic designer and scenic artist for over 15 years designing across the country. She has designed for venues that include the International City Theater, El Portal and the Apollo. Along with her love for art and design, teaching has always held a special place in her heart. She is looking forward to watching students grow as young artists and creators.
Before moving to Florida to paint for Epic Universe, she was a professor at Cal State Dominguez Hills and taught at CSArts San Gabriel Valley. Amanda holds an undergraduate degree in Theatrical Production and Design from Cal State Fullerton and a master's degree in fine arts from Pennsylvania State University.
Roshni Nair, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Animation
Roshni is a visual artist, animator and educator. She holds an MFA in Animation from Rochester Institute of Technology and works across animation, moving image and interdisciplinary practices. Her experience includes creating animation for film, commercial and game projects, alongside an independent practice informed by perception, environment and everyday life.
Drawing inspiration from nature, ordinary encounters and moments of curiosity, her work explores the relationship between observation and imagination. Through animation and moving image, she creates narratives and visual worlds that draw from both lived experiences and imagined possibilities. Working across mediums, she allows each project to develop through its own process and form.
She teaches animation courses, where she encourages students to build technical proficiency alongside curiosity, experimentation and confidence in their creative work.
Through both her creative practice and teaching, Roshni is interested in exploring perspectives and sharing stories. Her work is informed by close observation, experimentation, and an ongoing curiosity about people, places and environments.
Clayton Strange, Assistant Professor, Architecture
Clayton is a U.S. Registered Architect and principal of Strange Works Studio, where he works at the intersection of architecture, urban design and landscape. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) from the Syracuse University School of Architecture and a post-professional Master of Architecture in Urban Design (MAUD) with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he was awarded the Druker Traveling Fellowship, the Award for Academic Excellence in Urban Design and the Award for Design Excellence in Urban Design.
He is the author of Monotown: Urban Dreams Brutal Imperatives (ARD Publishing 2019), which examines the development and transnational legacy of the Soviet single-industry town and was awarded the 2020 John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize for significant contributions to the study and understanding of garden history and landscape studies and was a finalist for the 2023 On the Brinck Book Award at the University of New Mexico. His design work has received both professional and academic awards and has been featured by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Incheon Housing and City Development Corporation.
Prior to founding Strange Works Studio, Clayton’s professional experiences included projects in Brazil, China, Canada, the U.S. and South Korea at firms such as Safdie Architects (Boston), Somatic Collaborative (New York) and IROJE Architects + Planners (Seoul).
Before joining the University of South Florida, Clayton was a faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Virginia and Lebanese American University. He has lectured at professional and academic venues in the U.S. and around the world including the Birla Institute for the Indian Institute of Architects, University of Calgary, Chinese University of Hong Kong, IIT Kharagpur, the Moscow Living Cities Forum, Yale NUS College and Zhejiang University.