College of Communication & Fine Arts
Dr. Michael Thrasher
Michael Thrasher currently serves as Dean of the College of Communication & Fine Arts
and Professor of Music at Troy University. He previously served as Associate Dean
for Academic Affairs, Director of Graduate Studies, and as Interim Dean at the Florida
State University College of Music. His past experience includes administrative and
faculty positions at the University of Texas at Tyler, North Dakota State University,
North Central Texas College, and in public school music education.
As an academic scholar, Thrasher is a recipient of a Fulbright International Education
Administrator award to Germany. He also serves as an associate editor and contributing
author for the Oxford Handbook of Musician Health Advocacy, which is currently in development. He has presented papers and lectures at conferences
of the Performing Arts Medicine Association, College Music Society, National Association
of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, and National Association for Music Education.
He has been featured as a presenter or performer at numerous conventions of the International
Clarinet Association, including at festivals in Ohio, Georgia, Sweden, Spain and Belgium.
His scholarly work has been published in various journals, including the Journal of Performing Arts Leadership in Higher Education, Planning for Higher Education, The Department Chair, The Clarinet, Saxophone Symposium, Medical Problems of Performing Artists, and the NACWPI Journal.
As a performing clarinetist, Thrasher has performed in symphony and opera orchestras
in various states, including the Tallahassee Symphony (Florida), Shreveport Symphony
(Louisiana), Fargo-Moorhead Opera and Symphony (North Dakota), Texarkana Symphony
(Texas), and the Longview Symphony (Texas). He has also appeared as a recitalist and
chamber musician in locales from Florida to California.
Deeply devoted to service and to the advancement of higher education, Thrasher is
a 2024 recipient of the Algernon Sidney Sullivan Award, which recognizes those who
"act as humble servants, placing service to others before self-interest." He has served
as a member of the Board of Directors of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra and the
East Texas Symphony Orchestra, and he also serves as a Minister of Music at Immanuel
Baptist Church in Tallahassee. He is currently a visiting evaluator for the National
Association of Schools of Music.
Thrasher holds the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Northwestern State University,
and both the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University
of North Texas.
Prof. Tori Lee Averett
Associate Dean, College of Communication & Fine Arts
Tori Lee Averett brings a strong and committed voice for collaboration and integration
of different ideas, people, and groups in and through the arts, education, and community.
She holds the B.M.E. and M.S. in Vocal/Choral Music Education and the B.S. in Theatre
from Troy University, and she holds the M.F.A. in Playwriting and Poetry from Georgia
College. Tori is an accomplished performer, director, choreographer, writer, musician,
and teacher. She has presented at regional and national festivals and conferences
in the areas of education, theatre, arts integration, and creative writing, and regularly
serves as a resource person for artists and educators. She has received national and
regional honors from the Kennedy Center-American College Theater Festival, and she
is a national recipient of the Chair Academy’s 2021 Idahlynn Karre Exemplary Leadership
Award. Tori was selected by the Alabama State Board of Education to represent Theatre
in the Alabama Arts Course of Study revision, approved and adopted in 2018. Tori is
an active artist and performer, a singer/songwriter with two original albums released
and several more in production. Her research interests include arts integration, interdisciplinary
and multicultural arts, and diversity and inclusion through the arts and arts education.
Tori directs the Summer Spotlight performing arts series, coordinates the Summer Arts
Academy in Pietrasanta, Italy, leads the Pied Pipers children’s theatre troupe, directs
various productions, and heads up the Integrated Arts program. Tori is a member of
the Troy Arts Council Board of Directors, and she serves as a resource person for
the Johnson Center for the Arts and several other local and community arts, civic,
and education organizations. She currently serves as Department Chair and tenured
Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Troy University, as
well as Associate Dean for the College of Communication & Fine Arts. Tori is a proud
native of Brundidge, Alabama.
Greg Skaggs is an active artist who has shown his work throughout the south and southwest
and internationally. Notably, he was selected to show nationally in New American Drawings
and regionally in Drawing on Alabama, both showcased up-and-coming talent from the
United States and throughout the South. Selected works were also chosen for “Urban
Wild” at the Contemporary Museum of Art in Mobile, Alabama, and “Uncommon Territory
– Contemporary Art in Alabama” at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art. Skaggs was selected
to be a part of a group show at the Ogden Museum of Art in New Orleans. He is also
a member of IC3 (International Center of Collaboration and Creativity), which has
worked on projects in Halmstad, Sweden. He served on the Board of Trustees at the
Wiregrass Museum of Art from 2008 – 2015 and currently serves as the Vice-President
for Communications for FATE (Foundations in Art: Theory and Education). Skaggs also
was appointed to serve on the curriculum board for Advanced Placement–The College
Board (associated with Educational Testing Services) and spends part of his summer
as a reader for AP Studio in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Other exhibitions include a solo show at the Birgit Nilsson Galleri, Örebro Konstskola,
Örebro, Sweden; and collaborations with McMaster’s University in Hamilton, Canada.
Skaggs has also collaborated with artists from Örebro, Sweden; London, England; Tel
Aviv, Israel; and Bremen, Germany.
Born in Longmont, Colorado – to the parents of oil tycoons and cattle barons – and
living much of his life in Texas and Oklahoma, Greg Skaggs serves as Professor and
Chair of the Department of Art & Design at Troy University. Greg holds undergraduate
degrees in Graphic Design and Art Education, and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from
the University of Oklahoma.
Kirk Curnutt joined the faculty of Troy University’s Montgomery campus in 1993 and
was for the first stretch of his career the youngest tenured professor in the system.
During his twenty-two years in the capital city, he helped developed first the television
distance learning initiative and then the English department’s online major and its
writing courses. In 2016 he relocated to the Troy campus to oversee English offerings
throughout the entire system. Thanks to his time in Montgomery, his research interests
have focused on F. Scott Fitzgerald. For many years he served on the board of the
Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery and since 2013 has served as the executive
director of the international F. Scott Fitzgerald Society. He is the author of several
works of fiction and criticism on not only Fitzgerald, but also Toni Morrison, William
Faulkner, the 1970s, and popular music. He teaches both online and on the Troy campus,
focusing on creative writing, American literature, senior seminar, and—finally, after
many years of begging the School of Music to permit him—the history of rock ‘n’ roll.
Robbyn Brooks Taylor is the director of Hall School of Journalism & Communication,
where she also teaches undergraduate, master's and doctoral students. She earned both
her B.S. in Broadcast Journalism and M.S. in Strategic Communication from Troy University
and completed her Ph.D. in Communication at Regent University. Dr. Taylor specializes
in mobile journalism and multimedia journalism techniques, and also works with the
department's broadcast, advertising and public relations students. Dr. Taylor was
the student publications adviser for Troy's student newspaper, The Tropolitan, and the school's yearbook, The Palladium until June 2022 when she became the school's director. Before joining the Hall School's
faculty, Dr. Taylor worked as a photojournalist at WSFA in Montgomery, a reporter
at WNCF in Montgomery, a reporter, mobile journalist, columnist and editor for Freedom
Communications in Northwest Florida (The Destin Log, The Northwest Florida Daily News and The Crestview News Bulletin), an international spokesperson and media coordinator for People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals in Washington, D.C. and as managing editor of The Messenger in Troy. Dr. Taylor has garnered awards for her journalism writing both in Florida
and Alabama, and has won top paper awards from divisions in the Southern States Communication
Association, the National Communication Association and the Religious Communication
Association. Dr. Taylor is currently the immediate past-chair and nominating representative
of the Political Communication Division of the Southern States Communication Association,
the president-elect of the Southeast Journalism Conference and on the editorial board
of Artifact Analysis.
Dr. Hui-Ting Yang is Professor of Piano at Troy University John M. Long School of
Music, where she serves as the Director and the Coordinator of Applied Studies.
As an active performer and educator, she has performed, lectured, and conducted master
classes throughout the Czech Republic, Korea, China, Taiwan and the United States.
In summers 2015, 2016, and 2018 she was invited to give recitals, lectures, master
classes, and to teach applied piano in several schools in China, including at the
Sichuan Normal University, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Nanjing
University of Arts, Nanjing Normal University, Southwest University, Chongqing Normal
University, Guangzhou Normal University, and Shandong University at Weihai. She also
performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with the Symphony Band as the first concert
of the Steinway Artist Concert Series at Troy University in April 2015. In 2018 she
collaborated with the Symphony Band again performing the Shostakovich Piano Concerto
No. 2 and Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue, and Riffs. In September 2012 she recorded three
chamber works by Ladislav Kubík with mezzo-soprano Phyllis Pancella and violinist
Karen Bentley Pollick. In November 2016 Dr. Yang and Ms. Pancella performed a recital
in celebration of Kubik’s seventieth birthday in Prague and recorded several his works,
including 24 HAIKU for mezzo-soprano and piano, and Gong for mezzo-soprano, alto flute,
piano, and electronics. In June 2010 she performed seven solo recitals throughout
the Czech Republic, including performances at the highly acclaimed Cesky Krumlov International
Music Festival and the Artist Concert Series in Děčín.
She has also performed at numerous conferences and festivals including “The Days of
Contemporary Music” festival in Prague, Parma New Music Festival, the Festival of
New Music at the Florida State University, the Society of Composers Inc. National
Conference, International and National Conferences of the College of Music Society,
and the Florida State Music Teacher’s Association Annual Conference. Her recordings
are available through Kum Seoung Records, Parma, Arco Diva, and Neos.
In Spring 2022, Dr. Yang was selected as a Troy University Chancellor’s Fellow and
has been an advocate of the faculty/staff training and readiness in student mental
health crisis since then. She is the recipient of the 2016 Steinway & Sons Top Teacher
Award and the recipient of the Orpheus Award from the Iota Nu Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha
Sinfonia Fraternity at Troy University in 2018. She also received the Troy University
2009 Faculty Senate Excellence Award.
Hui-Ting Yang is a Steinway Artist and an inductee of the Steinway and Sons Teacher
Hall of Fame 2023. To visit the Steinway & Sons Artist roster go to: http://www.steinway.com/artists/hui-ting-yang
Dr. Kelly Suero is Chair, Associate Professor of Spanish, and Coordinator of Troy
Online Spanish. She is the author of Technology and Gendered Genre Evolution in Latin America: Writers, Bloggers, Activists,
and Floggers and “Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo: Breakthrough DNA Advances in the Fight for Human Rights,”
which details her collaboration with the five-time Nobel Peace Prize-nominated group,
Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo. Her other works include several articles and two Spanish-language
textbooks, Nuestra Voz: An Introduction to the Spanish Language and ¡Aprendamos! Spanish for Beginners. Dr. Suero’s research interests encompass Technology in Literature, Southern Cone
Literature, Literary Genres, Human Rights, Latin American Politics and Policy, and
Indigenous Studies. Alongside her scholarship, she has received the Ingalls Award
for Excellence in Classroom Teaching, a once-in-a-lifetime award nominated and voted
on by students at Troy University. Dr. Suero is also an avid supporter and leader
of study abroad programs; since her appointment at Troy, she has led programs to Argentina,
Uruguay, and Peru.
Celia Lotierzo
Administrative Assistant
(334) 808-6805
clotierzo@troy.edu
Marie Herndon
Administrative Assistant/Operations
(334) 670-3869
mherndon@troy.edu
