KAFI ORGANIZATION

Nancy Woods

Producer - Vice President for Extended Learning,
Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Nancy Woods is the producer of the animation festival and vice president for extended learning at Kalamazoo Valley Community College. She has held numerous executive positions at the College over the past 30 years. In her current position, she has oversight of the Arcadia Commons Campus in downtown Kalamazoo including the Kalamazoo Valley Museum and Center for New Media. Woods is also responsible for off campus and continuing education programming. She has a history of successful start up ventures for the College including establishing an institutional research office, assuming governance of the local history museum, instituting a child care service for students, establishing an enrollment management function, developing a continuing e d center for health careers, and is the co-creator of KAFI.

Ellen Besen

Creative Director - Director, Zachary Schwartz Institute for Animation & Filmmaking

A former faculty member of Sheridan College's School of Animation (1987-2002), Ellen Besen has over thirty years of experience working in this field. Highlights of her career include directing award-winning films for the NFB, broadcast work on animation for CBC Radio and film curating for such organizations as the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her films have been shown in multiple international festivals and at such institutions as MOMA, and her film analysis workshops are featured regularly at KAFI and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. She writes on animation storytelling for Animation World Network and on all things animated for POV Magazine. She is director and head mentor of The Zachary Schwartz Institute for Animation Filmmaking (Zed-Ed), an online school specializing in storytelling and writing for animation. Recent work by her students includes the award winning "Slide" by Sharon Katz. She is currently working on her first book, an overview of animation storytelling techniques.

Van Muse

Director - Arcadia Commons Campus Dean of Instruction and Director of the Center for New Media, Kalamazoo Valley Community College

Van Muse is the Dean of Instruction and Director for Center for New Media at the Arcadia Commons campus of Kalamazoo Valley Community College. He also is the Operations Director for KAFI. He earned his Ed.D in Higher Education Administration and M.A. in English from Auburn University and his B.A. in English from Ohio University. His work experience has been in college recruiting, higher education issue analysis and forecasting, marketing, print and web design, faculty development, and higher education management.

Maggie Noteboom

Operations Manager

After 30 plus years working for a Fortune 500 Company in Management, Maggie Noteboom retired to find herself bored and eager for new challenges. She enrolled at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in a Photoshop class where she first learned about KAFI from the instructor. It did not take long for Maggie to get hooked on KAFI. The next picture shows Maggie as KAFI’s Conference Coordinator for the Educators Conference in 2003. Since then she has worked on the 2005 festival, and now as Operations Manager for KAFI 2007.

Maggie graduated from Nazareth College in Kalamazoo Michigan with a B.B.A. in Computer Information Management and a M.A. in Business Management. During her time with the Fortune 500 Company, she managed several internal business service departments, developed FDA compliance systems and processes, served as Division Training Specialist and implement various internal process improvements as Project Manger. Maggie received the company’s Gold and Silver Awards for Process Improvements, is certified as a trainer for Zinger Miller: Team leader and Effectiveness, Seven habits of highly Effective people, Situational Leadership, Inside-Out Coaching, and Self-Directed Work Teams.

Valerie Eisenberg

Cartoon Challenge™ Coordinator

Valerie has been involved with the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International since its creation in 2002, first as the volunteer coordinator and later as grant writer and operations manager. She is currently coordinator of special projects at the Center for New Media and is serving as grant writer and coordinator of the Cartoon Challenge™ for KAFI 2007. She has a total of thirty years of administrative experience, including coordinator of the Masters of Public Administration program at Michigan State University, and administrative assistant to John Fetzer and the Fetzer Foundation. She recently retired as director of visitor services for the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.

Erin Underwood

KAFI Educators Conference Coordinator

Erin Underwood is a senior at Western Michigan University majoring in Organizational Communication and plans on graduating April 2007. KAFI is her second event Coordination Internship; the first was working with the Director of the School of Communications at WMU, Steve Rhodes. When she first heard about the internship at KAFI for the Educators Conference Coordinator she knew she had a great opportunity in front of her. She hopes to one day own her own event coordination company.

Pete Rix

Graphic Designer

Pete Rix is the Graphic Designer for the Kalamazoo Animation Festival International 2007. He graduated from Western Michigan University in 2002 with a B.A. in Art. After a few years, Pete decided to continue his education and began attending Kalamazoo Valley Community College for graphic design at the Center for New Media. Pete plans on continuing his education while working in the field.

Stuart Swope

KAFI Web Developer

Stuart is a former Kalamazoo Valley Community College student. He currently is a Junior at Western Michigan University, pursuing a bachelor's degree in Computer Science Theory.

Ben Davidson

Data Administrator

Heather Olsen

KAFI Marketing / Sponsorship Coordinator

Heather is a senior at Western Michigan University majoring in Organizational Communications and will graduate April 2007. She completed two internships before coming to KAFI; a two year project at Menominee Business Development Corporation and with Marinette-Menominee Area Chamber of Commerce. Heather hopes to increase her leadership and marketing skills along with organizational skills during her KAFI internship. After graduation, she plans on entering the business world in Event Coordination and Public Relations.

Elias N. Banschbach

KAFI Volunteer Designer

Elias is a current student at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, majoring in Graphic Design, with special talents in technical design and illustration. He is also the creator of the KAFI ‘Hand” mascot that appears on our stage. Elias’ favorite mediums are: pen, pencil, acrylic paint, wood and paper.

Jackie Ball

KAFI Volunteer Coordinator

An English major with a concentration on creative writing, and an art minor with a focus on documentary film-making, Jackie hopes to graduate from Kalamazoo College in June. As a result of a recent and dramatic change in life goals, she plans to one day make a living as an actress in musical theater. Aside from being this year's volunteer coordinator and being a teacher's assistant for various creative writing courses, Jackie studies operatic voice as well as co-hosting, co-producing and co-writing K College's new comedy-variety show: Almost Live. Jackie's proudest accomplishment to date is the co-creation of the Game of (advanced) Cupcakes. If you see her around, you should ask her how to play.

Amanda Rice

KAFI Volunteer

My name is Amanda Rice I am 21 years old and I am a student at KVCC. I am majoring in Marketing and I plan to transfer to a university this fall to complete my bachelors degree. My role here as a KAFI Intern is to help out Valerie and Maggie as much as possible. I also update lists, call local sponsors, continually update the online marketing efforts, and gain sponsorship opportunities within the community. A lot of my efforts are focused on students and a younger generation of animators. I help out with local opportunities to make KAFI a household name in Kalamazoo among students and also everywhere in the world.

Noah DeSmit

Data and Videographer

Carl Kloster

Video Productions