UAT Faculty

Professor Belanger is the Program Chair for General Education/Core and teaches across several areas in the Humanities, including literature, creative writing and composition, and cultural studies. During his career as a writer and editor, he has served as chief editor for The Journal of Advancing Technology, coordinating editor for a reference series on the 2000s, and written numerous articles on history and culture for print and online journals. Two films have been adapted from his works (a stage play and a short story), and he was the screenwriter of a Department of Justice documentary on the end of segregation in Arizona. He is in the third year of completing a novel—The Boy in Ruins—that should only have taken him one year to write, if he’s being honest. He is also the cowboy in a Violent Femmes video directed by a UAT alum.

Selected Credits
- The Journal of Advancing Technology (editor-in-chief)
- The 2000s in America (Great Neck Press, coordinating editor) 
- "Fast Horses" (actor, short)
- My Apocalypse (screenwriter, feature based on original play)
-  "Splitsville" (screenwriter, short based on an original short story)

Provost Bolman has focused his career upon the profound need for a substantial and diverse workforce within Arizona and the nation. As its long-standing provost, Dr. Bolman has built the University of Advancing Technology (UAT) into a unique, all-STEM institution that marries the best of a traditional, small, private college with the genetics of innovation that come with agile technology organizations. As an educator, he has focused on cultivating a base of technology students and future inventors. As a technologist, he has worked to create a university where the culture of innovation and creation is so regular and celebrated that the goal for each student is to graduate having worked on numerous teams and built complete solutions again and again.

Dr. Bolman has researched, written and spoken on the nature of technology and how to successfully lead innovation. He is an alumni of Valley Leadership and currently serves as its Past Board Chair. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Arizona Technology Council and the AZPBS community board.

Professor Bolman has over 30 years of volunteer and professional experience in the performing arts including theater, modern dance, ballet, and orchestra. With over fifteen teaching experience, she considers her greatest accomplishments to be her alumni. Whenever an alumnus comes back to ask her opinion on something they’ve created, or requests her notes on a current project then she knows that she's contributed to their professional development and success. Her alumni have gone on to work on such television series as “Game of Thrones," "Once Upon a Time," and "The Crown," and have worked on feature films including the Avengers franchise, "Avatar," and "Sharknado." 

In 2021, Professor Bolman's short story The Professor's Lesson will be published in Malice Domestic 16: Mystery Most Diabolical. Final Curtain is in Malice Domestic’s 2020 anthology Mystery Most Theatrical.  Another mystery short story, Carne Diem(2019), is published in Anthony Award-winning Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible. Her short mystery Death on Tap (2017), is published in Sisters in Crime Desert Sleuths Anthology, SoWest: Killer Nights. Check out her recipes and writing tips included in Recipes to Kill For (2019). She has also edited projects that include prize-winning short films and published novels.

Professor Bolman loves everything about writing, theater, and film. Each medium provides a different viewpoint for connecting with an audience.

Dr. David Brokaw specializes in the cultural and social history of the United States. His classes include - The History of Mass Media, The History of Madness, The History of Race & Class in America, and The Twilight Zone & Postwar America. Additionally, Brokaw teaches U.S. history survey classes and a course on contemporary global issues. He believes using music, popular culture, and digital media are great ways to make a history class come alive and spark critical thought and discussion. His current project, "Televising the American Nightmare: The Twilight Zone and Postwar Social Criticism” analyzes the ways writers and artists attempted to elude censorship during the 1950s and 60s by cloaking social commentary in science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Brokaw has lived and worked in a variety of places, including Spain, England, Turkey, and Russia. He's passionate about understanding the social implications of technology and media throughout history and into the 21st Century and loves teaching history to technology students!

Jeremy grew up right here in Arizona. He is a UAT graduate and former Student Ambassador. The passion he has for technology started with being the lead programmer for his robotics club in high school. He takes part in capture the flag and hackathon competitions.  In his free time, he likes to play Dungeon & Dragons and video games.

Professor Clark has the passion and talent to work within multiple areas of technology and find the opportunities in the intersections of technologies in order to solve problems or find innovative solutions that create new products. One of his greatest strengths is looking at situations from different perspectives and applying different models of thinking to arrive at creative solutions. Throughout his tenure at UAT, he has applied these abilities to create curriculum, programs, software, and projects resulting in successful completion and positive impacts to those involved, both clients and colleagues. Professor Clark specializes in game program development, product development and project leadership.

Dr. Brendly Clark-Singleton earned a doctorate in Administration and Management from Walden University and Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Ottawa University, Phoenix Arizona in Human Resources Management, and a certificate in Industrial Psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. As past adjunct faculty with Ottawa University International programs, Brendly instructed in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Beijing, and Singapore in their BBA and MBA programs. 

Professionally, Dr. Clark-Singleton spends a great deal of time working with Minority, Women, and Disadvantaged business owners in small businesses, 501 c (3) development, strategic planning, and organizational/employee development. Her goal is to increase their effectiveness and efficiency. 

Other work-life experiences include 15 years in mental health program design and implementation with adults and children and 20 years of leadership experience in the K-12 elementary and Alternative Middle and High arenas as an Executive Director, Superintendent, Associate Superintendent, Principal.

Dr. Jill Coddington is a professor and Advancing Computer Science (ACS) Program Champion at UAT, teaching courses in AI, web, computer science, and robotics.

She received a bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado, an MBA from the University of Phoenix, a master’s in Software Engineering from Regis University, and her PhD at the Union Institute in Mathematics and Applied Computer Science.

Dr. Coddington is a rocket scientist who started coding doing trajectories for the Navy as a contractor. After that, she switched to video game programming for 10 years, then worked in business analytics, and finally business programming before becoming UAT’s lead in ACS.

Dr. Cofrancesco is an experienced strategist, evaluator and professor of strategic management and leadership. He has spent years working in the management consulting industry, skilled in strategy formulation, program development and evaluation, oversight and accountability, and research. Professor Cofrancesco’s PhD is focused on strategy formulation and strategic cognition. He is currently publishing a paper on strategic cognition that won the Best Paper Award from the Academy of Management. He has taught business to the U.S. Peace Corps in the former Soviet Republic of Turkmenistan (Central Asia), and as an entrepreneur, Dr. Cofrancesco has created both small private and small nonprofit organizations.

Professor Rae Crusoe built her first website in ASP over 20 years ago as a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems student at Arizona State University. She volunteered to reverse engineer a Perl website and took to the Internet to learn how to build the website and database. Professor Crusoe has a Master of Science degree in Information Management, also from Arizona State University. Rae has taught a number of IT courses online, along with developing websites in the banking, financial services, economic and non-profit fields. Professor Crusoe has seen the IT field change quite a bit from her first ASP website to today’s mobile development focus.

Professor Rawad Habib has a Master of Science in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering with an emphasis in Management Information Systems. Rawad also maintains certificates in FinTech and Blockchain Development and has participated in Ethereum Blockchain Developer Bookcamp with Solidity. Rawad has a strong background in Fullstack and Blockchain development.

Dr. Henry has always had a firm belief that gaming - video games in particular - can be used to change the world for the better. In addition to teaching Game Design and Programming at the college level, he studies how educators and corporate trainers can take advantage of games and video-game technologies to improve learning, retention, transfer, and performance. In other words: he's interested in building games that help players "level up" in real life. Dr. Henry specializes in Game Design (content/narrative design and systems design), scripting/programming, project management, team leading,  production and GSD/TCOB.

Professor Hinton teaches AI, Augmented Reality, Mobile Application development, and the Art of Computer Programming. He has been writing code since 1980 and working as a Software Engineer since 1990. During his first quarter of a century as a software engineer and trainer at Fortune 100 companies in the U.S. and Europe, he had a behind-the-scenes seat determining how turning caffeine into code drives different industries.

Having worked almost 15 years at IBM for part of his career, he knows ancient technology such as UNIX, CP/M, DOS, and OS/2. One of his hobbies is software archeology and exorcisms on retro computing.

Other and more normal hobbies include traveling with family, practicing traditional martial arts, and MST3K.

He also has numerous industry certifications, including MCP, MCT, MCSE, and MCSD. Currently, he is earning his second master’s degree.

Professor Hromas is an accomplished, senior marketing professional with broad admissions, financial aid and operations experience. He enjoys the challenge of overseeing all aspects of marketing from concept to final execution, as well as, the coordination of staff, vendors, and third-party affiliates. Professor Hromas' areas of expertise include: strategic business planning, regulatory and compliance, research and trend analysis, operational capacity, brand awareness and management, public relations, creative development, budget planning and management, SEO/SEM and social media, crisis management and leadership.

Professor Jones is the lead Cyber Instructor at the University of Advancing Technology and is a software developer who currently creates applications for law enforcement. He is also an AZ Peace Officer Standards and Training certified General Instructor as well as a public speaker. He earned a BS, in Computer Information Systems from Park University in 2013 and an MA, in Intelligence Analysis with a focus in Cyber Security in 2014. Professor Jones has been the recipient of recognition from the El Paso Police Department, State Of Texas, Texas Military Forces, Chandler Police Department, and others.

Professor Jones is also active in the community as the founder of the Phoenix Linux Users Group Cyber Security Meetup and regularly teaches members of the public a myriad of topics related to Cyber Security. His audience includes students, teachers, law enforcement, military, government officials, and concerned members of the public with a strong desire to learn what is going on in the world of technology.

Professor Marquit has over 13 years of game industry experience both teaching and creating professional quality art for videogames. He has worked for both Rainbow Studios (THQ) and Big Bang Entertainment (Sony Online Entertainment). During Professor Marquit's time with these companies he shipped 6 games including Pixar's Cars, Free Realms and Star Wars Clone Wars Adventures. He has also worked as a free lance artist doing such things as graphic design, web development and architectural renderings.

Professor Marquit started teaching in 2008 at Collins College in both their Game Production and Graphic Design degrees. He quickly learned to love teaching and it has since become a passion. 

Professor Merka is currently Senior Staff Designer and Product Owner for Sony San Diego Studios. Steve graduated with a BFA from the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, AZ where he studied Game Design and Game Art.
 

Professor Merka joined Sensory Sweep Studios in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2006 and was placed on the studio's very first in-house title. While at Sensory Sweep, he worked on a number of titles, and contributed systems designs which were used company wide. In 2009, Steve left Sensory Sweep and co-founded an independent studio in New England known as Atomic Kat Studios. I served as the Lead Gameplay Designer for an unannounced PC title that looked to innovate the First Person Shooter genre.

After departing from Aomic Kat Studios, In 2010, Professor Merka joined 38 Studios as a Content Designer and Principle Designer working on the Project Copernicus MMO. In July 2012, he joined EA Sports, creators of the NCAA Football franchise, Madden Football franchise, as well as other notable sports games. Steve has also served as the lead designer for Madden's mobile game (Madden NFL Mobile). Where his team managed to make such an impression that they were picked as the most successful game, within the ENTIRE company one year, and earned a company award for most innovative. This included all studios under EA.

Dr. Miles has been teaching in UAT's Cyber Studies program for over 15 years. He is the principal of Peak Security in Colorado. His background in technology and information security is extensive and includes teaching at Black Hat, serving as editor in chief at The Security Journal and being a security consultant.  

Professor Miles enjoys custom woodworking and is a Master Craftsman. His skills date back to when he was growing up and working with his father, who instilled a deep pride in workmanship and customer service.

Professor Moore is  the owner of Training Studio, a small indie game development studio in Arizona. Adam focuses on internship programs and helping college graduates launch their careers in the game industry. Adam also founded and currently chairs the University of Advancing Technology's academic chapter of the IGDA.

Professor Moore's Bachelor's degree was focused on Game Design and his Master's degree was in Game Production and Management. 

Professor Jake Perrine graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree, Honor’s Degree, and Master’s Degree all in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Arizona. Jake's professional experience involves working in the Neural Movement and Control Laboratory for 4 years looking at Haptic Virtual Reality investigating perceptual signals and rehabilitative applications. 

Professor Peters received her bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University in secondary education mathematics and her master’s degree in education from Northern Arizona University. She has also taken math graduate classes through Texas Tech University.  After teaching high school math in a public school for 11 years, she taught English overseas in a remote town in China, before joining the family at University of Advancing Technology as a mathematics professor in 2016.  She has co-developed courses for business mathematics and a joint math and science course, along with teaching everything from college algebra to calculus.

Dr. Daniel Pike is an English professor at the University of Advancing Technology and the author of two Science Fiction novels: The Wolf of Descarta (Zharmae, 2013) and Betrayal at Phobos (Zharmae, 2015). He has also contributed to Race and American Film: Voices and Visions that Shaped a Nation (Greenwood, 2017) on the topics of Middle Eastern representation, imperialist narratives, and race in the Rocky films. He currently studies Medieval Literature and is focused on the influences of the English vernacular artes moriendi and ghostly chivalry on the insular Arthurian legend of the 14th and 15th centuries. His first peer-reviewed publication concerning Arthurian legend, "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Armed with Virtues in the Face of Death," has been accepted into the journal Etudes Médiévales Anglaises and will be included in issue 98.

Professor Portillo teaches Game Art & Animation at the University of Advancing Technology with a specialty in project management, course development, 2D and 3D game art asset creation, and production. Aside from teaching, he owns Thinkjorge Designs specializing in advertising art and assisting with art direction for technology start-ups.

Specialties:
Game Project Management
Game Art & Animation Course Development 
Design Consulting 
3D and 2D Design Aesthetics
Graphic Design
Game Asset Creation & Integration 
Web Design 

Software Proficiency: 
Autodesk 3Ds Max ( Video Game Modeling, Animating, Texturing and Rigging) 
Adobe Photoshop (Image manipulation and Digital Painting) 
Adobe Illustrator (Vector Art and Product Design)
Adobe After Effects (Animation composting) 
Adobe Sound Forage (Audio Development)
Unreal Game Engine (Game Asset Integration) 
Pixelogic Zbrush (High Poly Modeling)

Professor Prater has  been working as an application architect in the financial sector. He has previously taught chemistry and Capstone research classes for 5 years at Highland High School in Gilbert, AZ. Before this, Matt made radioactive PET (Positron Emission Tomography) drugs at Cardinal Health for 13 years, working in quality, manufacturing and R&D positions. The drugs were used in diagnostic applications in the treatment of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and heart disease. As all the drugs Professor Prater made were radioactive, he had to use robotic synthesis systems to carry out the chemistry. This is where he got hooked on software and embedded systems.
 

Professor Prater has obtained his M.S. Software Engineering at Regis University and his M.Ed. from Arizona State University as well as a B.S. in Chemistry from Western Michigan University.

In his junior year of high school, Professor Ratliff took a game design class expecting an easy A - instead, he found an exciting challenge and a dream career. Blake went on to university and pursued accelerated courses, earning two game development degrees in four years:

Professional Masters in Games Development from Abertay University, 2019
Bachelor of Science in Computer Gaming Technology from Anglia Ruskin University, 2018

Professor Ratliff was a lead tutor for a STEM education company called Fire Tech Camp. He helped to write Fire Tech Camp's "3D Game Development with Unity" course, trained dozens of other tutors to deliver it, and taught it to hundreds of students aged 13-17. After finishing school, Blake moved to Norman, Oklahoma to make educational games for the K20 Center, a nonprofit arm of the University of Oklahoma that writes and reviews curriculum, provides leadership and development training, and performs educational outreach mostly within Oklahoma.

Professor Aaron Rodriguezis an Air Force Veteran which has served in military and contract support for various government agencies including supporting worldwide security efforts. Aaron has planned and managed Computer Incident Response Teams (CIRT) and multiple cyber training operations.  He has several years of information technology background with a specialty in cyber security and information protection. Aaron graduated from Grand Canyon University with a Bachelor's in Information Technology and a Masters's in Cyber Security and Information Assurance. 

Professor Bill Slater began his career in video production and editing in 1994 at KTVK Channel 3 in the ENG department cutting the broadcast news stories. After 18 months of cutting news/feature packages on five minute deadlines for Good Morning Arizona, he entered post production at Editmax in Phoenix.

Bill has been a videographer/director/senior editor/post production supervisor at numerous post houses in Phoenix, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, winning 36 Telly Awards, 2 Advertising Federation Awards (Addys), 2 Electronic Media Awards (EMAs) for corporate, industrial, radio and TV commercials (local, regional, national) long and short form documentaries, cause-related videos (Alice Coopers Solid Rock Teen Center, HomeBase Youth Service, Fresh Start Womens Center, The Prem Rawat Foundation) Casino del Sol, Little River Casino, Sandia Resort & Casino and Rolling Hills Casino radio and TV spots, Don Bluth Group, Steyer Content, Warner Brothers, Pearson Education, Apple Computer, Microsoft, City of Phoenix, The Rio Salado Foundation and hundreds more

From 2001 to 2004 Professor Slater taught NLE editing for video and audio at The Art Institute of Phoenix. He opened his production/post production studio Edit Alchemy in 2000. Bill is a qualified on Avid Media Composer, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro 7 & X, Discreet Smoke, Quantel Editbox, Adobe CC and more.

Professor Slater is currently globally shooting and editing for Seattle-based Steyer Content with projects in India, Brazil and the UK.

Dr. Mark “the Shark” Smith is motivated and self-directed. He possesses excellent analytical and interpersonal skills to complement his work ethic. He loves an environment that is challenging, rewarding and promotes teamwork, cooperation with accomplishment; a very professional and pleasant demeanor compliments these skills. He always wants to achieve his fullest potential in any industry and thrive with new challenges.

Professor Lynn Understiller is a dedicated professional artist/animator with over 30 years of experience in 3D & 2D art/animation digital and traditional production, always on time and on budget. She has worked on concept art and commercial Illustration since 1976, and is proficient in Maya, Max, MotionBuilder, ZBrush, Photoshop, Substance Painter, Aftereffects, and Illustrator, as well as various proprietary, audio, post-production, mocap and other programs.

She is an artist in both traditional methods and new techniques, including sculpting, painting, animation, film, stage, graphic design, and illustration, with diverse styles from photorealism to cartoon/caricature. She has worked on a number of award-winning products and has numerous IMDb credits in more than 40 Live Studio and field productions. For gaming, Professor Understiller works with UE4, Unity, Crytek, and proprietary game engines. She is a 3D & 2D Senior/veteran mentor, skilled in game development for Xbox and PS3.  

Her specialties include cut Scenes requiring character modeling, rigging, animation, facial, lip-sync, environments, lighting and particle FX (real-time or pre-rendered). Professor Understiller is also a certified ScrumMaster.

Dapzury Valenzuela is a marketing and design professional with over 20+ years of industry experience and 15+ years as a post-secondary educator. She is the Art Direction Professor at the University of Advancing Technology. She also runs the Student Innovation Project for all majors helping them to create, develop and present their tech-based product or service. She works in both traditional and digital formats using the Adobe Creative Suite with a specialty in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

Dapzury is also a Brand & Marketing Consultant through her LLC, Haute Pro, helping people, startups and businesses reach their goals through her extensive knowledge in brand development, inbound marketing, and visual content creation. Her clients range from STEM-based academies to virtual reality in fashion.

Specialties:
Branding (Logos)
Graphic Design
Inbound & Content Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Art & Creative Direction
Project Management
Web & UI Design
Business Development
Entrepreneurship & Startups

Dr. Ellen Yarborough grew up in Wells, Maine and attended college in Boston, MA, where she studied English and Communication. In 2002, Elle moved to Arizona where she studied for he M.A. degree in the Interdisciplinary Studies program at Arizona State University. Dr. Yarborough recently completed a doctoral degree in English Education with a focus on the impact of technology on composition pedagogies. 

Professor Ron Zabawa has a MS in Mechanical Systems Engineering, a MBA and a BS in Engineering. Ron is a fixture in our Maker's Lab at the University of Advancing Technology. Ron is certified in Six Sigma (green belt), SolidWorks operation, Manufacturing, Robotic Assembly Cell, Additive Manufacturing and Automation Focal/Instructor. Professor Zabawa has earned awards from Collins Aerospace.