School of Advertising

BFA Faculty

Ellen Shakespeare

Co-Director of Advertising

Ellen Shakespeare is an accomplished freelance writer, and has worked with distinguished advertising agencies including The Bomb Factory, Goodby Silverstein, Cole & Weber and Ogilvy & Mather. Her client list includes Rhino Records, Ford Motor Company, Samsung and Avia. She conducted her undergraduate studies at Western Michigan University and Art Center College of Design where she received respectively her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees. Ellen received her Master of Arts degree in English from Kent State University. Prior to joining Academy of Art University, Ellen spent the last several years working as an Advertising Instructor at Art Center College of Design.

Roland Young

Co-Director of Advertising

Roland Young has been teaching since the late 1960's and continues to inspire students and professionals alike. Roland began his design career at Capitol/Angel Records in 1964 under the guidance of Louis Danziger. He later moved to A&M Records as creative director where he produced some of the music industry's finest album covers and advertising campaigns. Prior to joining Academy of Art University as a full time professor in January 2009, Roland spent 2008 as a professor at the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. Currently he is Design Consultant at Meryl Pollen Design whose clients include Suzanne Felsen Jewelry, Rolling Greens Nurseries, and Getty Museum. He remains a Design Consultant for Ppaper Design Magazine in Taipei, Taiwan.

Susan Block

Online Director of Advertising

Susan Block has worked in advertising for her entire life, even while attending the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City on a full tuition scholarship and graduating with honors.

She began her career as an Assistant Art Director at Harper's Bazaar magazine and went on to become the Art Director at Family Health magazine. She left Family Health to tour with the Rolling Stones — an offer she couldn't refuse. Her boyfriend was one of their video photographers, and what an experience that was! Surviving the tour, Susan returned to NYC to partner in Progressive Designers (PD), a graphic design studio specializing in branding.

A year later, in 1977, Susan was invited to teach at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City — another offer she couldn't refuse. Susan left PD to teach but her love for advertising led her to create Circle, Square and Triangle (CS&T), a niche-advertising agency in NYC specializing in Fine Arts, Fashion, and Jewelry Advertising. Her client list includes Aventura, Ella Baché, Erté, Maseraté, Miró, Picasso, and Helen Woodhull.

Her work for CS&T notwithstanding, Susan is committed to design education. Many of her students have gone on to top-level positions as art directors and creative directors in the world's leading advertising agencies. From 2000–2006 Susan chaired the Communication Design Department at FIT, the second largest department in the School of Art and Design, with 650 students and 70-plus faculty.

A well-known consultant in the industry, Susan is quoted on book covers and in various publications, guest lectures at other colleges, taught at Marywood University in its Communication Design Master's Program, and chairs and judges industry and student competitions. Susan holds memberships in the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the Art Directors Club (ADC), the One Club, the Society of Illustrators (SI), the Society of Publication Designers (SPD), and the Type Directors Club (TDC). She has also served on the boards of both SPD and TDC.

Mark Edwards

Associate Director of Copywriting

Mark Edwards has been a successful, award-winning copywriter for more than 20 years. His work has been recognized in shows as diverse as The One Show, the Addys and the Direct Marketing Association's Echo Awards.

His career took off when he landed a coveted position at the legendary New York agency Ally & Gargano. A freshly-minted University of Texas graduate, Mark found himself rubbing shoulders with his industry heroes, people whose work he had studied mere months before. From there, he moved onto Grey where he quickly excelled in direct marketing becoming a vice president and associate creative director at age 30. Next he transitioned to San Francisco and joined the management team of local agency M. Gould & Co. He helped transform it from an independent shop with a dozen employees into the west coast hub for McCann Relationship Marketing with over 500 staff members and worldwide creative responsibilities for McCann's largest client Microsoft.

Mr. Edwards has had work appear for some of the world's best-known brands, including Aetna, AMD, Apple, Bank of New York, BMG Entertainment, Charles Schwab, Chase Manhattan Bank, DeBeers, Dove, Dunkin' Donuts, EMI Records, Harry Winston, Intuit, Lucent, Microsoft, Saab, Showtime, Sony, Starbucks, Sun Microsystems, Time Warner and Wells Fargo.

Cameron Maddux

Associate Director of Account Planning

Cameron Maddux is the Associate Director of Account Planning for the Academy of Art University's School of Advertising, one of the largest ad schools in the country. An Account Planning superstar, Cameron's career has included stints at Haggin Marketing, JWT and Slingshot.

Cameron received his BA in English from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and his MA in Advertising with a focus in Account Planning from the University of Texas, Austin. Cameron's career has included stops in Dallas as an account executive/strategic planner at Slingshot, a brief hiatus from advertising in Chicago at Wrigley Field (in the front office), then onto JWT as an account planner. Next, Cameron moved to San Francisco and began work at Haggin Marketing, a mostly direct marketing firm.

Cameron has helped shape brands such as Verizon, Cellular One, Pizza Inn, Jack Daniel's, Starbucks, GM, The Department of State, The British Council, and many more.

In his role of Associate Director of Account Planning, Cameron has made it his mission to reshape, redesign and rekindle the students view and love of planning. Cameron's passion for Account Planning and account planning education is unrivaled. He is currently teaching six sections of both graduate and undergraduate account planning and has masterfully mentored recent grads into varying positions within planning departments across the country.

David Wong

Full-Time Instructor

Originally trained as an architect, David Wong graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. After spending a decade designing everything from elderly housing to airports, David shifted gears and went into Advertising. He attended the Academy of Art and quickly developed an advertising portfolio.

In 1989, he won the prestigious Gold Pencil in the Student One Show Competition. He was quickly snapped up by Geer DuBois Advertising in New York. From there he went to the Philadelphia office of Earle Palmer Brown. Then he came home to San Francisco and agencies such as McCann-Erickson, Darien & Kilburg, Hampel/Stefanides and Foote Cone & Belding. In 2002, he took on the role of Group Creative Director at Schadler Kramer Group Advertising, Las Vegas.

Over the years, his accounts have included AT&T Wireless, BASF, Borgata Casino, Resort & Spa, Fantastic Foods, Gordon Biersch, Jaguar, Laguna Seca Raceway, Montage Resort & Spa, NEC, Omni Hotels, Philadelphia Daily News, San Jose Sharks, Sony, Taco Bell, Togo's, Turner Broadcasting, Wells Fargo, and Wolfgang Puck restaurants.

David's work has been recognized in the One Show, Communication Arts, Graphis, the LA Art Directors Show and the SF Show.