Advisory Council The CADVC Advisory Council (CADVCAC) is a select group of esteemed and invested stakeholders who provide guidance on the Center’s programmatic and strategic direction and supports its institutional priorities. Membership is on a rotating term basis. The CADVCAC relaunched in 2025-2026 with rotating term limits and Kathy O’Dell, Associate Professor Emerita, as Chair. CADVC Advisory Council Chair Dr. Kathy O’Dell, Associate Professor Emerita of Visual Arts (second from left) with advisory council members Steven McAlpine and Brittney Barbour (third and second from right) socialize with UMBC and CADVC colleagues at an advisory council coffee hour in May, 2026. Photo: Tedd Henn About Brittney Barbour Brittney Barbour is a multidisciplinary artist and cinema programmer from Washington DC. Working primarily in time-based media, her work seeks to continue storytelling traditions that center African diasporic history and culture. Her films, video installation, work have been featured at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Virginia Film Festival, and the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage. She holds a Bachelors of Science in Communications and is currently pursuing her MFA in Intermedia and Digital Arts at UMBC. Photo Credits: Ke’Shaun Whitehead About Maleke Glee Maleke Glee is a cultural worker, curator, writer, and professor whose practice explores the intersections of popular culture, vernacular expression, and fine art. In early 2026 he curated the UMBC annual faculty show “absolute alternatives” at the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture. His writing has appeared in books, exhibition catalogues, and arts journalism including an essay in CADVC’s latest publication “Vignettes in 3 Sessions: KaMag at CADVC,” and his curatorial and leadership work includes posts with the Banneker-Douglass-Tubman Museum, STABLE Arts, and The Studio Museum in Harlem. He also consults with small and mid-sized cultural institutions on strategic planning and community-based projects. Photo Credits: Tyra Mitchell About Preminda Jacob Preminda Jacob is an art historian of modern and contemporary art, specializing in the social and political aspects of public visual culture and on the history and theory of the art museum. She currently serves as the Associate Dean of Research and Community Engagement for UMBC’s College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Dr. Jacob has published several articles, including “The Cultural Politics of India’s Other Industry,” edited by Selvaraj Velayutham, Routledge, 2008. Dr. Jacob has received three fellowships to support her research, including a J. Paul Getty Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the History of Art and the Humanities, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship from the Center for Media, Culture and History at New York University, and a Provost’s Research Fellowship from UMBC. Dr. Jacob holds a Ph.D. in art history from the University of California, Los Angeles, and was educated in India and the U.S.A. Photo Credits: UMBC About Renique Kersh Renique Kersh is a strategic leader with more than 25 years of highereducation experience. Dr. Kersh has been a leader in student success andengagement with a strong commitment to creating experiential equity,providing leadership development, and building strong teams. Prior to her roleat the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, she served as the VicePresident for Student Engagement, Success and Diversity at SimmonsUniversity in Boston. In addition, she has held mid-level and senior-levelleadership positions at North Central College, Northern Illinois University,University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Dr. Kersh has provided visionary leadership at both public and privateinstitutions, engaging university stakeholders in the critical and collaborativework required to ensure that students are transformed by their experiencesboth in and out of the classroom. Her commitment to outcomes has resulted inretention gains, reductions in equity gaps, reductions in barriers to studentsuccess, increases in engagement for underrepresented students inundergraduate research, and service learning experiences, as well as themerging of academic support and career services to increase efficiency andthe level of service delivery. Dr. Kersh earned her B.A. in Communications from Oakland University, herM.Ed. in College Student Personnel from the University of Maryland, and herPh.D. in Community Health from the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign. She is a mother of two boys, John and Jayden. About Christine Mallinson Christine Mallinson is Assistant Vice President for Research and Scholarly Impact at UMBC, where she is also Professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program and Affiliate Professor in both the Department of Education and the Department of Gender, Women’s + Sexuality Studies. A Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America, she previously held a term as the UMBC Lipitz Distinguished Professor in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. She is a Research Leader Fellow with the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities Council on Research (APLU-CoR) and co-founder and co-chair of the Humanities, Arts, and Social Science Research Leaders Network (HASS-RLN), a national network of university-based senior research leaders advancing research in the humanities, arts, and social sciences. Photo Credits: Marlayna Demond About Steven McAlpine Steven McAlpine is Assistant Teaching Professor in the Individualized Study (INDS) Program at UMBC, as well as a faculty member for the Alex Brown Center for Entrepreneurship. He teaches ENTR 340 Innovation and the Socialpreneur, as well as interdisciplinary projects such as INDS 430 Role Playing Game Design and the Kinetic Sculpture Project. His team entry for the 2025 Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race won the Art Award from the American Visionary Arts Museum. Steven leads a drum circle at UMBC and plays in the local band South Rolling. About Dr. Kathy O’Dell Kathy O’Dell is Associate Professor of Visual Arts Emerita, UMBC. Art historian, curator, and critic focused on performance art, public art, issues of violence, and the importance of the esoteric, she is author of the book Contract with the Skin: Masochism, Performance Art, and the 1970s (1998) and curator of Kate Millett, Sculptor: The First 38 Years (1997) and Gun Show (2017) at the CADVC. She currently reviews public art for BmoreArt and is writing a book titled DOT: A Short History of a Big Point, while sitting on numerous boards and committees for local arts organizations. About Karin Oen-Lee Karin Oen-Lee is an Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at UMBC as well as a curator and museum educator whose work focuses on transmediatic and transcultural art practices that defy easy categorization. Her current area of focus is a book project that investigates new media experimental artistic practices in early Reform Era China (1978–1989). Previously Director of the NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore, head of NTU’s art history department, and a curator at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Oen-Lee foregrounds supporting artists’ research practices, transdisciplinary collaborations, and the historiography of art and its institutions as modes of curation and knowledge production Photo credit: Jonathan Lee About Dr. Lowery Sims Lowery Stokes Sims is an independent curator and art historian, who served on the education and curatorial staff of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1972-99), as executive director and president The Studio Museum in Harlem (2000-2007) and retired as Curator Emerita from the Museum of Art and Design (2007-2015). In 2022 she curated “Oletha DeVane: Spectrum of Light and Spirit” at UMBC’s Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, with a publication by the same name coming out in 2024. She received her B.A. in art history from Queens College in 1970, M.A. in art history from Johns Hopkins University in 1972 and her PHD in art history from the Graduate Center, City University of New York in 1995. Sims was Visiting Professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University (2018-2020) and the 2021-22 Kress-Beinecke Professor at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Photo Credits: Grace Rosellii, Pandora Boxx Project. About Niels Van Tomme Niels Van Tomme (he/him) is an independent curator, writer, and lecturer who works at the intersection of contemporary culture and critical social awareness. He previously served as director and chief curator of Argos Centre for Audiovisual Arts in Brussels (2018–2024) and De Appel in Amsterdam (2016–2018), where he led periods of institutional renewal while advancing ambitious artistic programs. Earlier in his career, he worked as a curator for Bucharest Biennale 7 (2014–2016), the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture in Baltimore (2011–2016), and Provisions Learning Project in Washington, DC (2008–2011). Van Tomme’s practice explores interdisciplinary approaches to curating, with a particular focus on hybrid and process-based exhibition formats and public programs. His projects have been presented internationally at venues including Akademie der Künste (Berlin), Artists Space (New York), Tallinn Art Hall (Tallinn), The Kitchen (New York), Gallery 400 (Chicago), Värmlands Museum (Karlstad), and P! (New York). Photo credit: Photo by Sonja Simonyi
