School of Advertising

Advertising Faculty

Three dogs depicted in humorous advertisements about bathroom habits and social interactions.

Ross Patrick

Chief AI Evangelist and Director & Creative Lead
School of Advertising

Ross Patrick is a creative director, strategist, and educator leading the charge in AI-powered advertising. As Director and Creative Lead of the School of Advertising at Academy of Art University, he launched the first AI for Advertising courses in the world—pioneering a new creative model that fuses strategy, copywriting, and art direction with generative AI.

Over the past three years, Ross has redefined what modern ad education looks like. His students don’t just study theory—they write briefs, develop campaigns, and produce award-winning TV commercials using AI tools like ChatGPT, Midjourney, Runway, and ElevenLabs.

From AI-assisted concepting to fully realized spots, Ross’s curriculum reflects how real agencies work today—and how they’ll work tomorrow. As the tools evolve, so does the thinking: smarter workflows, sharper ideas, and faster execution across every media touchpoint.

Under his leadership, Academy of Art students have swept the San Francisco ADDY Awards two years in a row, producing work that stands out nationally for its creativity and innovation.

Ross brings 20+ years of agency experience to the classroom, helping students—and the industry—rethink how great ideas are made in the age of AI.

Ross Patrick

Doug Van Praet

Executive Director, Schools of Brand Communication
Executive Director, School of Marketing, Communication and Design

Doug Van Praet is an industry best-selling author and globally recognized brand strategist known for pioneering the application of behavioral science to creativity, marketing, and business innovation. His book Unconscious Branding: How Neuroscience Can Empower (and Inspire) Marketing was named one of Inc. Magazine’s “Top Ten Marketing Books.”

He has worked with many of the world’s leading brands, including Apple, Nike, Volkswagen, Toyota, Adobe, and Procter & Gamble, as well as guided fundraising initiatives for global nonprofits such as World Vision, Mercy Ships, and Concern Worldwide. Doug writes regularly for Psychology Today and has contributed to Fast Company.

His insights have been featured in Time, Forbes, BBC News, The Telegraph, The Economic Times, NPR, Business Insider, and Big Think. His strategic leadership has been recognized through top industry honors including CLIO Awards, Cannes Lions, Effies, and the David Ogilvy Gold Award. Doug holds dual B.S. degrees in Advertising and Psychology from Syracuse University and an M.A. in Psychology from Pepperdine University.

Douglas-Van-Praet

Anna Villano

Executive Director, Schools of Brand Communication
Executive Director, School of Graphic Design

Anna Villano is a graphic designer, creative director, educator, and academic leader whose career spans architecture, branding, advertising, digital media, and social strategy. She currently serves as Executive Director of the School of Brand Communication and the School of Graphic Design at Academy of Art University, leading curriculum, faculty initiatives, and industry-focused programs that prepare students for evolving creative careers.

Before moving into academic leadership, Anna held creative roles at FCB, VaynerMedia, Deutsch LA, and Rapp, developing campaigns for Taco Bell, Volkswagen, Microsoft, Neutrogena, Unilever, Toyota, and P&G. At FCB, she helped create Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos Tacos campaign, the brand’s most successful product launch at the time. Later, as a Creative Director at VaynerMedia, she led teams producing innovative social campaigns for globally recognized brands.

Anna previously taught graphic design and digital media at UCLA. She is passionate about helping students develop their creative voices, build professional-level portfolios, and navigate careers across design, branding, advertising, and emerging technology. Her work has received digital design recognition, and she has served as a judge for the American Advertising Awards.

She holds a B.A. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, and an M.F.A. in Media Design and Communications from ArtCenter College of Design.

Anna-Villano

Part-Time Faculty

Cristen Cassell

Cristen Cassell

Bachelor of Arts University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, California, English)
Ben Heller headshot

Benjamin Heller

Ben Heller headshot

Benjamin Heller

Ben is a writer and Creative Director with extensive experience at some of the world’s biggest (and smallest) ad agencies and tech companies. He’s written and produced everything from big budget TV spots to 140 character Tweets, covering subjects that range from financial services to pro sports, energy conservation to travel, software to sports cards, dog food to human food.

His copywriting career began at smaller digital shops in New York, and grew at larger agencies including Arnold Worldwide, Ogilvy & Mather and BBDO. At Ogilvy, Ben learned from some of the ad industry’s best minds while working on IBM’s iconic Smarter Planet campaign. He then followed some of those minds to BBDO where he was a Creative Director on the Pedigree account for a number of years, in addition to working on SAP, HP, Mobil 1, Major League Baseball and more.

Now in the Bay Area, Ben has spent time freelancing with agencies and startups, and as a Creative Director at Mekanism, where he helped lead the Charles Schwab account and create campaigns for Instagram, Meta, HotelTonight, Silicon Valley Bank, Sling TV, eBay and more. He also acted as the Lead (and only) Writer at Alt, defining the voice of a startup for investing in high-end trading cards. In addition to advertising, Ben has written about sports and pop culture for ESPN, CBS Sports, Grantland, MLB.com, Time Out New York and other publications.

Education:

Bachelor of Science, Boston University (Boston, Massachusetts, Film & Television)
Terry Jones

Terry Jones

Terry Jones

Terry Jones

  • The Creative Process
  • Short Form Writing

Position: Instructor in the School of Branding

Industry Credits:

  • Addy Awards, Outdoor, Print, Television 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
  • Bay Area Grammy Award, Television Advertising
  • Photography exhibit at The Domain, 2015

Links
Dan Kohler headshot

Dan Kohler

Dan Kohler headshot

Dan Kohler

Position: Instructor

Industry Credits:

  • Won a RACie Award from RAMA for Creativity, Innovation and Excellence in Digital Media Web: Potbelly Website.
  • Won an Emmy and expanded Madison Square Garden MSG Network’s audience from 9 to 50 million homes through rebranding.
  • Won the prestigious Leo Intel Award – Leo Burnett agency’s top accolade for strategic excellence throughout the 94 office global network – for a significant thought leadership case irrefutably connecting award-winning creative with superior real-world business results.
  • My leadership of the growth of the CMAB account at Deutsch was profiled in the MBA textbook, Advertising & Promotion, by Belch.
  • Lecturer on social media marketing at Loyola University Chicago.
  • Won an Effie award two years in a row for McDonald’s for being the world’s top brand for marketing effectiveness, globally.
  • Won Cannes Lions awards for various clients’ creative work, in multiple categories.

Links
roger muller

Roger Muller

roger muller

Roger Muller

  • Art Direction
  • Short Copy for Campaigns
  • Midpoint Portfolio
  • Digital Branding and Advertising

Position: Part-time Instructor

Industry Credits:

  • 20+ professional American Advertising Federation ADDY Awards, a Webby, and mentor of a D&AD Best of Design award.
  • As an Instructor at ArtU, I’ve mentored students to 100’s of American Advertising Federation, ONE Show/Clio, and/or D&AD Pencil awards opening doors to creative jobs in the industry. I love seeing our students succeed.
  • Creative Director for technology, retail, and nonprofit accounts including: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), ARROW Electronics, Blue Endeavours/Whalefall, Community Housing Partnership/HomeRiseSF, Dell, Hawai’i Visitors Bureau, HEB Grocery Company, LIKHA, Litton Space and Range Operations including contracts for both NASA and the Department of Defence, NxTrend Technology, Pacific Harley-Davidson, Ringmaster Software, SHARP Microdevices, Schott NYC, Signal Processing Technologies (SPT), Varian Associates, Varian Medical Systems, and more.
  • Guest Lecturer, University of Hawai’I Manoa, Department of Art
  • Showing artist at the Gleeson Gallery, San Francisco

Links
Johanna Pino

Johanna Pino

Johanna Pino

Johanna Pino

  • Creative Strategy
  • Humans, Not Consumers

Position: Adjunct Instructor

Industry Credit:

  • Art Director and employee #3 for a start-up (Bonfire Communications) that worked on internal campaigns for Starbucks, Nestlé, and Genentech that later sold to Lippincott Advertising
  • Created a Creative Services Department for a Consumer Research firm from scratch
  • Quoted in “Designing Brand Identity” by Alina Wheeler 2009 (3rd edition)
  • Served 2 years on an Equity Learning & Action Working Group for my local School District
  • Co-founded a nonprofit to advocate for students and train school staff about student rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act

Links
Ellen Shakespeare

Ellen Shakespeare

Ellen Shakespeare

Ellen Shakespeare

  • Copywriting
  • Short Form Writing

Position: Instructor

Industry Credits:

  • Former Co-Director School of Advertising

Links
Cybele Zufolo headshot

Cybele Zufolo

Cybele Zufolo headshot

Cybele Zufolo

Position: Instructor

Industry Credits:

Cybele Zufolo holds an MA Degree in English Education from Columbia University Teachers College and a BA Degree in English/American Literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Cybele studied in France at the University of Poitiers for her junior year abroad.

The Creative Process, Designing Careers, Creative Persuasion and Non-Fiction Essay Writing for the Multilingual Writer, Freshmen Symposium and Composition for the Multilingual Artist. Cybele has developed curriculum for The Creative Process and Short Form Writing. Cybele spoke on a panel about technology and writing and has interviewed various artists.

Cybele has taught Poetry and Literature at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, Olivet University and the New York Institute of Technology from 2006-2010. More specifically, Cybele taught at the Borough of Manhattan Community College from 2006-2010, teaching English Composition 101, English 201 Intermediate Literature, Modern Poetry, Introduction to Shakespeare and The Short Story for the Winter intersession. Cybele taught at the New York Institute of Technology from 2007-2010 teaching Essay Writing, English Composition 101, 201, Seminar in Poetics, and the Modern Novel.

Cybele is the author of Ocean Sounds in New York a collection of poetry, essays and non-fiction prose about Dance, Family, Love, Identity and Performance.

Cybele is the co-founder of the Word Performances literary reading series and she produced a documentary about the show.

Cybele is a National Endowment for the Humanities grant recipient in Shakespeare studies. Cybele’s writing has been published in the BMCC (City College of New York) Faculty Journal, Bay Area Generations, Out of Our and Quiet Lightning. Cybele has performed her writing and poetry at the Lit Crawl, Beast Crawl, Literary Speakeasy, Passages on the Lake and more. She has appeared in films, plays and voice overs while working in the business world at various corporations including CBS Interactive.

Cybele is a former very young dancer with the New York City Ballet Company. Cybele studied ballet at the School of American Ballet for seven years growing up in New York City. Cybele performed in a musical variety show in Ikaho, Japan for five months in her 20’s.

Links