Meet the Excel Oxford/Tuscany Staff

Susannah Grossman (Archeology and Classical Studies): University of Pennsylvania, B. A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, History of Art and English, minor in Classical Studies. Her senior thesis, which examined the changing role of Brutalist architecture in contemporary British architectural history, qualified her to receive honors with distinction in her major. She currently teaches Archaeology, English and History at the Archer School for Girls, a private middle and high school in Los Angeles. She has tutored middle school students in language arts and writing, and served as a teaching assistant for a variety of art and architectural history courses. This is her first summer with Putney Excel.

Tom Kane (Director): Northwestern University, B.S.; American Conservatory Theater, M.F.A. Tom is an educator and theatre professional with extensive educational leadership experience. For over twenty years he has worked with teenage actors at the Storm King School in New York, the American Conservatory Theater and the Hamlin School in San Francisco, Camp Laurel in Maine, and the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Tom has been directing the Oxford/Tuscany program since 2000; previously he co-directed the theater program at Excel at Williams. Tom is currently the Head of the Theater Department at the Middlesex School where he lives with his wife, Samantha, and daughter, Zoe. This will be his thirteenth summer with Excel.

JP Obley (Drawing and Painting, Travel Photography): California College of the Arts, B.F.A. JP lives in Portland, OR where he teaches digital photography and digital printing at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. He has exhibited his photographs nationally and internationally. His next show will be in June 2009 at the Manifesto Gallery in Oakland, CA. JP came to education via commercial photography and a brief stint at the internationally circulated Transworld SNOWboarding Magazine. Currently, he is helping to design a new educational curriculum incorporating technology and the arts at P.N.C.A. with a plan toimplement it in the 2010/2011 school year. In his spare time JP enjoys riding bikes, snowboarding and, of course, being in the studio.

Lutz Robbers (Art through the Ages, Architecture through the Ages): Universitat Bonn, B.A.; Freie Universitat Berlin, M.A.; Princeton University, Ph.D. candidate. Lutz is currently pursuing his doctorate in Architecture at Princeton, where he has been a teaching fellow instructing Princeton undergraduates in architectural theory and history. A citizen of Germany, Lutz is fluent in German, French, and English. He has worked for the Red Cross and Mercedes-Benz in Delmenhorst, Germany, and as an assistant to the editorial staff of several German radio and television companies. He was the founding coordinator of Studentenwerk Bonn, a student housing organization. Lutz enjoys soccer, basketball, running, and windsurfing. A resident of Paris, he worked at the “Cité de l’architecture et de la patrimoine”, France’s national museum of architecture, and at the German Forum of Art History. He is currently teaching for Columbia University, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Paris. This will be Lutz’s eleventh summer with Excel.

Damen Scranton (Creative Writing, Print Media): University of California at San Diego, B.A. in Theatre/Creative Writing, and M.F.A. in Acting. Damen was one of two U.S. recipients of a Princess Grace Award for Acting in 1996. Since 1997, Damen has worked as an actor, playwright and teacher for the Irondale Ensemble Project - an improvisation-based, political theatre company in its 25th season in NYC (www.irondale.org). As an actor, he has also performed at the Lincoln Center Theater in NYC, the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, and the Granary and Firken Crane Theatres in Cork, the Republic of Ireland, among others. As a playwright, Damen has had four plays produced in the U.S., Ireland, and Northern Ireland. He has taught courses in Shakespeare, acting and creative writing at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, UC San Diego, Manhattanville College, Marymount College in Manhattan, numerous NYC public high schools, and the Port Stewart Community Center in Port Stewart, Northern Ireland. He has also worked as a sportswriter for the Pasadena Star-News (circulation 45,000) and is a self-diagnosed international and political news junkie. This is Damen's seventh summer with Excel Oxford/Tuscany.

Elizabeth (Lizz) Schumer (RA, Travel Photography): B.A., St. Bonaventure University. Lizz graduated last December with a B.A. in journalism/mass communications and a minor in theatre. After studying Shakespeare at Somerville College at Oxford the summer after her freshman year and exploring black and white 35mm photography, history of Italian cinema, Franciscan philosophy, and Italian language at the Umbra Institute in Perugia, Italy the spring of her sophomore year, Lizz decided the near-fatal bite she received from the travel bug will probably never fully heal. As former vice president of the Alpha Psi Omega theatre fraternity at St. Bonaventure, Lizz adores theatre in all its incarnations and currently works as Communications Director for the Subversive Theatre Collective. She also works as a freelance reporter and photographer for Buffalo.com and Auxiliary Magazine, does public relations work for Buffalo State College, and blogs compulsively.

Jesica Thavarajah (International Relations, History of World War II): Florida International University, B.A. International Relations magna cum laude and certificates in National Security Studies and Law, Ethics, and Society,. American University, M.A., International Peace and Conflict Resolution. European history has always been one of Jesica’s great passions, which is what led her to focus her degree on Europe and the European Union. She volunteered at a refugee camp in Slovakia as it entered the European Union and was able to see first hand the impact of the European Union on its member countries. Jesica began traveling internationally when she was two and has traveled all over the world including extensive travel in Western Europe, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Hungary. Jesica’s personal interests in music and art have led her to be a radio DJ and to curate an exhibition of Miami artists. This is Jesica’s second summer with Putney. She led the Cultural Exploration program in Switzerland, Italy, France, and Holland in 2008.