Susan Chess
The Music Supervisor in the Department of Dance since 1978. She has earned her bachelor’s, masters and PhD in music education from Ohio State. Chess has given so much to the department, including but not limited to composing, teaching, accompanying, supervising and scheduling.
Carrie Cox
Has been production manager since 2006 teaching dance majors the intricacies of technical theatre and fostering their appreciation for the art of production. An alumna of the BFA program from the 1990s, Cox is now pursuing her MFA to merge her lighting, writing and teaching talents.
Oded Huberman
Interdisciplinary production manager shared between ACCAD and dance, has been working with the Department of Dance since 2012. He has a BA in dance from the Folkwang Universitat in Essen, Germany. Huberman is a certified master of stage technology with a background in European contemporary theater and dance performance.
Dori Jenks
External relations coordinator, is an alumna of the department with a BFA (1983) and BS in education (1984). She received her MFA from UC Irvine where she was a Javits Fellow. After a career as both educator and artist, Jenks now focuses on arts administration and advocacy for the Department of Dance.
Toby Kaufmann-Buhler
Joined the Department of Dance in summer 2014 as media manager. He has an MA from the Royal College of Art in London, England, and was most recently media specialist for Wisconsin State’s Laboratory of Hygiene. He is also an independent media artist.
Elijah Palnik
Staff musician and videographer, is a native of Columbus, Palnik attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He returned to Columbus and began working in the Department of Dance as an accompanist in 2013, while carrying on a varied musical career as percussionist, songwriter and video artist.
Amy Esther Schmidt
Has been the academic program coordinator since 2013. Both an undergraduate and graduate alumna of the Department of Dance; she was a dance minor when she received her BA in theatre, and completed her MFA in dance in 2008.
Lindsay Simon
Joined the Department of Dance in 2013 as costume designer. She received her BA from Denison University and her MFA from The Ohio State University Department of Theatre. Simon has been designing costumes for over nine years.
Deb Singer
Became administrative manager in summer 2014. She most recently was the operations, stage and tour manager for Trey McIntyre Project. The Department of Dance is most grateful for her skills in stage management and HR /fiscal operations. She has a BA in theatre from Otterbein College.
