Your faculty

GURU exists largely due to the strength of its faculty and operations staff. Here are the people who make GURU what it is.

Owen Brierley – Executive Director

As Executive Director, Owen Brierley oversees the process of recruiting, welcoming and educating all of Guru’s students, sending them off into the world once they’ve successfully achieved their diploma.

Since taking the reins at Guru, Owen's primary goal has been to create a culture of continuous learning. His contributions include inviting alumni to contribute to the school and pioneering a series of weekly instructor mentorship sessions. His vision for the future is to expand Guru to include multiple digital media diploma programs.

Owen is also a digital media producer. His recent experiences include various projects with GystWorks and serving as the Multimedia Development Coordinator for Alberta Learning's LearnAlberta.ca project, a repository of digital learning resources for the K-12 sector.

Instructors

Beth Quirie – Core Instructor

Beth Quirie is a Guru graduate who loved the school so much that she decided to stay. Originally a volunteer after graduation, Beth was hired on as a core instructor due to her sunny personality and extensive web technology skills. She’s our youngest instructor, but is nonetheless critical to Guru’s success.

Beth’s specialty is web design, and she loves showing Guru students fun and interesting aspects of design. She also runs Sweetie Creative, her own freelance design company, on the side.

JoAnne Simons – Core Instructor

JoAnne Simons brings over 20 years of print media experience to the Guru classroom. Her expansive technical skills include typesetting, graphic design and pre-press. If you have a print-related question, JoAnne is your ever-exhaustive knowledge base.

JoAnne has worked for a variety of printing companies throughout her career. She has also worked on freelance projects for a select clientele. She is a highly creative individual and a huge asset to the Guru team.

Dave McQueen – Core Instructor

Dave is GDAC's raster-man. Dave brings a mountain of energy and enthusiasm to the classroom. He has been working with PhotoShop for so long he can't remember life without it. Dave has played many roles in his professional life from entrepreneur to product evangelist to champion of learning. Dave has a passion for learning and creativity.

Dave teaches PhotoShop, InDesign, Premiere and After Effects in ways that few have exeprienced before.

Heiko Ryll – Session Instructor

Heiko Ryll is Guru’s rich media expert. He also handles Illustrator, animation and some advanced web content. With a wealth of creative experience under his belt, from jewelry design to commercial art airbrushing, Heiko draws inspiration from all aspects of life.

Heiko believes in keeping things simple. To this end, he employs a holistic approach to design instruction in order to keep complicated areas of study accessible. He shares this approach with several local institutions in order to aid as many students of digital media as possible.

Chris Caldwell – Session Instructor

When it comes to project process, Chris Caldwell is one of the best. With over 10 years of industry experience under his belt, Chris instills real-world expectations and conditions into his lessons to better prepare Guru students for the professional world.

Chris has a Bachelor of Design degree from the University of Alberta. When he’s not teaching at Guru, he runs his own company, Caldwell Creative. Recently, he’s taken up scuba diving in order to spend some time away from the computer.

Christine Frost – Session Instructor

Christine brings her passion for Art History into the classroom. Her knowledge of contemporary art helps Guru students explore what influences today's design trends. Christine's classes are both discussion and experience focused. It's not enough to just talk about the art, it is vital that you experience it as well. Trips to various art centres in Edmonton round out the whirlwind tour of the last 100 years of art history.
Christine has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and works as a full-time graphic designer in Edmonton.

Giuseppe Albi – Session Instructor

Giusseppe is one of our fundamentals of drawing instructors. Sometimes a quote is the best bio. Here's one from an old friend.

"Giuseppe Albi has covered a lot of ground as an artist. Nearing his 60th birthday, the long-time Edmonton-based painter can look back at a career that saw him shift from his training as a sculptor to colourful abstract paintings, then migrate to creating painterly weavings that split the difference between two- and three-dimensional art, to his most recent shift to painting two-dimensional works without traditional canvases. “This is 30 years of painting experience coming into play in these works,” says Albi, an Italian-born artist who’s lived in Canada since 1951. “In this series I’m painting directly on polystyrene squares, a material in the family of thermal plastics that shrink and contract at the same rate as acrylic paint, and I’m letting the paint just flow off the edges.” After the paint dries, Albi peels off these free-floating images from his studio counter-tops and mounts them on coated aluminum sheets which are then framed. The goal in this newest series of work is to produce a running series of paintings with a new take on colour. Albi is thrilled with how this particular technique has allowed him to seamlessly produce work in large and small formats. Influenced by a recent trip to Italy and a move to a new downtown Edmonton studio space, Albi is allowing his love of urbanity and architecture to create work that mimics this cosmopolitan density."

— Gilbert A. Bouchard

Marliss Weber – Session Instructor

Marliss has a passion for communications. As one of Guru's Business Communications instructors, Marliss has a keen understanding of digital media. As the Arts & Entertainment Editor for SEE Magazine in Edmonton, Marliss is fully aware of the changes in the print media world and how today's communications must be prepared for a variety of publication formats.

Randy Brososky – Session Instructor

Randy is a digital media producer who has a theatre background. His understanding of the power of presentation, thinking on your feet, and helping clients make an impact on their audience all stems from his roots on the stage. Randy brings a variety of interesting stories and experiences for students to better understand what to do and not do in the industry.

Quinn Kurenda – Session Instructor

Quinn is a recent graduate of Guru who has a background in Marketing. Now, working in the industry Quinn comes back to teach students about the unique perspective he now has on Marketing, sales, and client relationships.

Lonneke Silver – Session Instructor

Lonneke is a Guru graduate who is willing to tackle any challenge presented to her. She often comes back to pinch-hit for us and is always a rock star in the classroom. Lonneke is a compassionate and empathetic instructor who knows first-hand the intensity of the Guru program. She is a strong advocate for the continuous improvement of the program and is always willing to help out students who are struggling.

Scott Meunier – Instructional Mentor / Session Instructor

Even teachers need teachers. That's why Scott Meunier is such an important part of the Guru equation. Scott serves as our Instructional Mentor, aiding with instructional design and curriculum development. He also passes on his skill with illustration tools to Guru's students.

Scott is a veteran middle school, secondary and adult educator. He's also a freelance illustrator and artist. Scott's goal is to help all students "become what they are" by showing them parts of themselves that they didn't know existed.

Special Guests

Over the past year we have had the privilege of spending time with industry professionals who are making a difference in the digital media industry. Here are some of the wonderful special guests who have made an impact on our student's:

• Lori Billey & team - RED Communications
• Wei Yew - Wei Yew Studios
• David, Ian, Christy -MKM Marketing
• Marie Hohner - Vision Creative Inc.
• Tom O'Reilly - Field Law

Operations

Meghan Cooper – Office Manager

Meghan Cooper is Guru’s den mother. As Office Manager, Meghan handles the day-to-day operations of the school, which include accounting, registration and administrative duties. She’s also the first point of contact for new students. In a way, she’s the face of Guru.

More importantly, Meghan makes sure that everybody at Guru is taken care of. You can count on Meghan to do whatever she can to help out in a pinch, whether you’re faculty, a student or an interested applicant.

Erin Hazen – Marketing Manager

Erin Hazen handles all of Guru’s promotions. From developing advertising campaigns to running information sessions and liaising with students, Erin is arguably Guru’s biggest supporter. She does everything she can to make sure people know what Guru is up to.

Erin is also the Marketing Manager for the Edmonton Sun, and is the brain behind the recent “Read Red” campaign. If she were any more positive and upbeat, sugar would have a new name.

Michael Rousseau – Writer

Michael Rousseau is a veritable walking dictionary. He serves as Guru’s chief wordsmith, where his duties include blog upkeep, web writing and the occasional bit of advertising copywriting.

In addition to handling Guru’s writing needs, Michael conceptualized and planned Dr. Max’s Digital Media Extravaganza, an Alternative Reality Game that Guru hosted for The Works festival. He’s also agreed to teach basic writing skills to Guru’s students, adding his unique perspective as a writer to Guru’s design experience.

Jillian Anderson – Guru Enthusiast

Jillian Anderson is Guru's #1 fan. Her job is to help promote the school by talking with prospective students, visiting schools and spreading the good word in general.

Jillian has contributed a lot to Guru's success through feedback, input and assistance. She produced rich media content for Dr. Max's Digital Media Extravaganza and has also aided with some of Guru's advertising campaigns and promotions.