Staff Profiles

Michael Faber

Multimedia Specialist and Lab Manager

Michael is a 2005 Duke grad and a longtime patron and staff member of the Multimedia Project Studio. After working as a consultant for the MPS for two years as a student and producing a multitude of multimedia-related projects for his visual arts degree, Michael graduated with a B.S. in Math and no idea what to do with his life. So he spent the next year continuing to work as a Senior Consultant at the MPS and refine his design skills. In July 2006, he assumed the post as Multimedia Computing Specialist for OIT and took over control of the Multimedia Project Studio.  He is the project manager for Froshlife, is on the DDI Operations committe and generally has his hands in anything multimedia-related on campus.  He’s got big plans for the lab, and is always looking for suggestions.  Outside of Duke, he spends his free time pushing vectors and pixels around for his freelance design business, cooking up a storm, or practicing brazen acts of charcuterie.

Tim Yoon

Economics, Public Policy, 2012
Tim is from the San Francisco Bay Area. He loves to chill – from playing Jack Johnson tunes on his guitar to snowboarding down the slopes of Lake Tahoe. Since middle school, Tim has been fascinated with multimedia in all forms. From making high school tribute videos for his friends to Photoshopped pictures of various nature scenes to making music recordings with Garageband – Tim is always down to explore new software that speak to his eclectic passions.

Lawrence Evalyn

English major, Arts of the Moving Image certificate, 2012

Lawrence’s interests careen wildly from the ancient to the cutting-edge. His first venture into multimedia was an iMovie documentary about the Latin epic the Aeneid. His most recent was a Final Cut film short inspired by Petrarch, the Italian Renaissance poet who coined the sonnet form. In between he’s hand-coded a website about Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, and used Illustrator to draw poster interpretations of favourite poems. He also has fond memories of Photoshop and InDesign from high school journalism, and burns a mean DVD.

Alikiah Barclay

Public Policy, 2013

When he took the elective Movies in 8th grade, Alikiah world was opened by the joys possible through in multimedia production. As the years passed on he also found it to be a useful at communication tool. He’s excited to share what he has picked up along the way, and gaining more skills. If you’re at MPS West laying down a track he’d be happy to be featured or background vocal. He’s also a member of the SLG Ubuntu, an America Reads and Counts Tutor at Carter Community School, and a member of a host of finance related organizations at Duke.

Billy Baumgartner

Economics, 2014

Three of my biggest hobbies are film production, music production, and photography. I have made many films, ranging in topic from a 30 minute short horror film about zombies to a documentary illustrating conditions and culture in rural Haiti. I also produce classical, hip-hop, dubstep, and house music, and DJ at parties around campus and Durham. I also play club lacrosse at Duke and my favorite color is purple.

Likhita Kommidi

Economics, Markets and Management, 2013

Likhita first started working with web design and desktop publishing tools in high school as editor of the school newspaper. It quickly developed into a passion, and she has since been finding new ways to creatively apply her skills and learn more about multimedia software. She was assistant design editor for the Chronicle for a while and helped design layouts for some undergraduate journals on campus. Currently, she works for DiDA (Duke Innovative Design Agency) and is Publicity Chair for Duke Habitat for Humanity. Eventually, she’d like to end up working for Disney.

Fola Omofoye

Chemistry, 2012

I got interested in multimedia back in middle school when I first discovered POWERPOINT! and its ability to do animations, transitions aka a slideshow! This led to a love for making slideshows that continued through HS and even here at Duke! It wasn’t long till that grew into combining all forms of media leading to a new found hobby of production, editing, and playing with cool software. I am a wannabe AMI certificate student, and so I’ve taken a couple of the Arts of Moving Image classes. I haven’t done too many projects except videos for classes, or videos with Duke Africa etc. I’m new at this game, but I’ve had my share of problems with iMovie, Final Cut Pro, so I’d be more than happy to assist with anything, and if I can’t figure it out, we can certainly google it together

Samir Rao

Economics, Psychology, Finance, 2013

Samir has been enjoying multimedia production since he was handed the camcorder on his first family vacation. From lightsaber wielding soap opera video editing for Spanish class to website design for a video game studio to animated motion logos for a local company, Samir has explored a range of creative multimedia projects. Whatever your project, Samir is happy to lend a hand.

Richard Cao

Undecided, 2015

My first experience with filming and editing movies (my forte if you will) occurred while I was a young fish in high school and since then have fallen in love with art of making movies. I taught myself Photoshop in order to fulfill a nerd fantasy; Superman teaming with Spiderman anyone? Football is another one of my life passions, so when I’m not watching or playing football somewhere, I’ll help any of your MPS questions.

Austin Powers

Undecided, 2015

Austin has been editing video on computers since third grade and working in television since fourth grade. He’s produced quite a few videos since then, including silly PSAs, dryly informative news pieces, and even his boss’ wedding. In middle school, he was a television weatherman. He’s worked in every position from anchor to director, cameraman to editor. He’s also an award-winning theatrical lighting designer. Along the way he’s picked up fluency in Apple’s Final Cut Studio suite, Adobe Photoshop, and a smattering of other tools you might call his “digital toolbox”. He is interested in a major somewhere in the realm of history, law, and political science. Austin has always enjoyed helping others with their multimedia projects, and yes, he was born before the movies.

Chris Dieguez

Masters in Divinity, 2014

Chris is a grad student at Duke Divinity and a long-time lover of photography. He is experienced with Photoshop, Final Cut, and Power Point, and can put a sleek edge on any presentation. In his free time, he enjoys photographing landscapes and wildlife, biking, and (of course) surfing Wikipedia for hours on end.

Isalyn Connell

Visual & Media Studies Major, Neuroscience Minor, Markets and Management Certificate, 2014

Isalyn is a sophomore from New York City. She absolutely loves anything that allows her to be creative—from doodling on all the margins of her notebooks, to designing her own clothes. She is a self-taught graphic designer and photo editor working primarily with Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, but is always down to explore the unknown as well. Her love for the medium stems from magazines, of which she devotes an entire closet to at home. Her two idols in life are Grace Coddington and Sofia Coppola, and her dream is to be either a creative director of a publication or an indy filmmaker. In addition to working in the MPS, she is an editor of DMIX magazine on campus and a member of Delta Gamma.

Michael Kelly

Computer Science major, Finance minor, 2014

Michael has been creating and designing websites since he was 12 and loves anything related to web development. Since then, he’s worked on his own as a freelance programmer, creating everything from a website to sell raffle tickets for his sister’s gymnastics team to a portal for a New York radio station. Outside of all things web development, Michael likes hanging out with his friends and running.

Hanna Meteferia

Visual and Media Studies Major, Markets and Management Certificate, Womens Studies Minor, 2014

On an average week, you can find Hanna running between salsa dance practice, teaching at Club Blvd Elementary school, or training at the gym training for a half-marathon . She knew coming into Duke that she wanted to pursue filmmaking but had no experience or any idea of where to start. After trying a handful of interesting visual arts courses, and studying film production abroad in Italy, she discovered her love for film editing and post-production motion graphics. At Duke, Hanna leads projects in the Center for Documentary Studies, and spends a large chunk of her time at time at the MPS Lab both for work and classroom projects. She wants to create a study at Duke using film and photo editing/retouching techniques to observe how female subjects perceive women in everyday life and the entertainment industry. She hopes to someday be a food journalist/beach yoga instructor/travel guide writer/owner of two Bernese Mountain dogs.