Instructors
Watkins' graphic design department consists of both full-time and adjunct faculty, all of whom are working industry professionals. Adjuncts bring to the classroom their experience and current knowledge of the field, especially critical in the areas of Web and multi-media design.




Michael Niblett
Chair
B.F.A, Texas Christian University,Graphic Design.

M.F.A., University of Oklahoma, Printmaking

Michael Niblett has twenty-five years of experience in the graphic design field and has developed a personal portfolio of high profile, award-winning design. As Owner/Creative Director of Michael Niblett Design, Fort Worth, Texas, he developed highly conceptual design solutions for corporate clients such as American Quasar Petroleum Company, Pratt Hotel Corporation (Sands Hotels and Casinos), Arch Petroleum Co., American Cometra, Inc. and Lomak Petroleum, Inc. Michael Niblett's work has been published in the most coveted design annuals and industry publications including Graphic Magazine's Design Annual, Art Direction Magazine's Creativity Annual, PRINT Magazine's Regional Design Annual, HOW Magazine's Design Annual and the American Corporate Identity Design Annual. His identity work can be found in such books as The Big Book of Corporate Identity, Print's Best Letterheads and Business Cards 4, The Big Book of Design Ideas and Global Corporate Identity, among others. He has also won numerous local and regional ADDY Awards and a Gold ADDY at the national level. Regional design competitions sponsored by the Dallas Society of Visual Communicators, The Art Directors Club of Houston, and the communication Arts Society of San Antonio have also recognized his work with Merit Awards. Before coming to Watkins, Michael Niblett was a tenured professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas where he was nominated for the Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award by the College of Fine Arts.

Dan Brawner
Assistant Professor
B.F.A., Middle Tennessee State University,Graphic Design.

M.A., Syracuse University, Illustration.

Nashville-native Dan Brawner has created winning illustrations for clients including Bridgestone/Firestone, Children’s Television Workshop, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s, Lifeway, Simon & Schuster, Sonic, Thomas Nelson, U.S. Postal Service and Zondervan. Frequently published in PRINT Magazine’s Regional Design Annual, his work has received awards from the New York Society of Illustrators, Advertising Age, National Educational Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, as well as numerous local and regional Addy awards. Brawner’s character designs, commissioned by Porter/Novelli-New York for BASF, have marched as larger-than-life cartoon characters in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Among his book projects is The Prayer of Jabez for Kids, named by Publisher’s Weekly as the best-selling children’s book of 2002. Also an active fine artist, Dan’s painting, “Anima,” received the Juror’s Choice Award at Huntsville Museum of Art’s 2005 Red Clay Survey: Triennial Exhibition of Contemporary Southern Art. Recent drawings and paintings are currently included in group exhibitions in Nashville, New York and Rome, Italy.

Visit his web site

Siri Nadler
Associate Professor
B.A., George Washington University

B.F.A., Tyler School of Art, Temple University

M.F.A, Tyler School of Art, Temple University

Siri Nadler grew up in the small vibrant artists community of Roosevelt , New Jersey , where she was surrounded by professional painters, folk singers, illustrators, playwrights, architects, poets, and musicians. Siri attended the George Washington University where she earned a BA in elementary education and later attended the Tyler School of Art, Temple University in the suburbs of Philadelphia . At Tyler she attended the BFA program in graphic design. She was accellerated into the MFA program in graphic design and graduated in 1993. Siri began her career working for Cooke and Shanosky in Princeton , New Jersey where she worked on annual reports, corporate identities, catalogues and posters. She became an Art Director for a large ad agency in Princeton and an Art Director for Discovery Channel and the Learning Channel in Bethesda , Maryland . Siri began her teaching career at the Towson University in Towson , Maryland where she taught for seven years. She began teaching at Watkins School of Art&Design in the fall of 2006. Siri's work has appeared in Print Magazine Regional Annual, Print Books, Graphis Logo, and David Carter’s Creativity 24. Her illustrations have appeared in UTNE magazine and in two books on poetry.




Jim McAnally
Instructor
B.F.A., Brimingham Southern College-Graphic Design & Art History (1989)

M.F.A., Louisiana Tech University-Graphic Design (1992)



Judith Sweeney O'Bryan
Instructor
B.F.A., Parsons School of Design, Graphic Design (1980)

M.A., Belmont University-Education (2006)