Vicky Jeudy ’03
Actress, Known for Janae Watson in Orange is the New Black
Major: Theatre Arts
Vicky Jeudy is best known for her breakout role on the American comedy-drama hit series Orange Is the New Black as Janae Watson, a former high school track star who, after one wrong turn, becomes an inmate at Litchfield Penitentiary.
Vicky got her start in the entertainment world competing in beauty pageants. She was a top 25 semi-finalist in the Miss New York USA competition, where she took home the title of Miss Photogenic. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts, her interest shifted from pageants to acting. Vicky landed her first few roles in small independent films. Through these projects, she learned that her emotionally nuanced performances — coupled with her professionalism — would create fast opportunities for her future as an artist.
Born and raised in Queens, NY and of Haitian descent, Vicky is an activist at heart. She believes that as an artist, she should express her world views through each of her character portrayals.
Vicky is an avid reader in holistic health and when not on set, can be seen empowering the youth in her urban community. She enjoys boxing in her free time.
Dr. Christine Mullen Kreamer ’75
Deputy Director and Chief Curator
The National Museum of African Art
The Smithsonian Institution
Major: Art History
Dr. Christine Mullen Kreamer is deputy director and chief curator at the National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. Her numerous exhibitions and publications explore art and ritual, gender, African systems of knowledge, and museum practice, and they bridge the disciplines of art history, anthropology, and museum studies. In addition to research in Togo and South Africa, she has worked on museum exhibitions and training projects in Ghana and Vietnam.
Christine received her doctoral degree from Indiana University. In addition to articles and essays on traditional and contemporary African arts and museum practices, her more recent exhibitions and co-authored publications include: Conversations: African and African American Artwork in Dialogue (2014); African Cosmos: Stellar Arts (2012); Lines, Marks, and Drawings: Through the Lens of Roger Ballen (2013); Inscribing Meaning: Writing and Graphic Systems in African Art (2007); and African Vision: The Walt Disney-Tishman African Art Collection (2007). She is also a contributing author for an essay on connoisseurship in the 2014 edited volume Visions from the Forest: The Art of Liberia and Sierra Leone and two essays in the 2011 edited volume Representing Africa in American Art Museums (University of Washington Press, 2011).
Renee Levine ’10
Sound Designer for National Tours and Broadway
Major: Theatre Arts
Renee Levine graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre Arts. She is currently a member of the stagehand union International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) specializing in audio. Her first job out of college was traveling with the Big Apple Circus as the sound assistant. Since then, Renee has been a part of the audio departments for numerous Broadway tours, including Elf, Hello Dolly starring Sally Struthers, We Will Rock You, Grinch, Matilda, and many others. She has also had the opportunity to work in New York for The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and for the Broadway production of Kinky Boots. She is currently on the road with the national tour of Bullets Over Broadway.
Katharine McKenna
Artist and Gallery Owner
Major: American Studies
Born in Berkeley, CA and a long time resident of Woodstock, NY, Katharine McKenna divides her time between the Hudson Valley and the American West. Her luminous landscape paintings reveal a profound attachment to the natural geology and essence of place in her paintings of Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Arizona. Monumental rock formations meet flat plains; angular roads eerily cut through landscapes seemingly uninhabited; endless sky and natural geometries dominate. Katharine's influences are evident: Gauguin and van Gogh in color and line, Bonnard in flattened pattern, and Georgia O'Keeffe in the skillful fusion between the abstract and the figurative. "My goal is to create indelible images that are uniquely individual; each with their own identity, personality, and purpose, while at the same time exhibiting a recognizable voice."
Katharine's inspiration is rooted in childhood experiences with her paleontologist father, whose expeditions with the American Museum of Natural History in New York exposed her to the American west: a territory that represents to her the concept of wide open spaces, dirt roads, and the last frontier. Museum exhibitions include the Rockwell Museum of Western Art, the Booth Western Art Museum, the Yellowstone Art Museum, the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, the Museum of Northern Arizona, and the Desert Caballeros Museum. Her paintings happily reside in permanent collections of the Rockwell Museum, the Museum of Northern Arizona, the Booth Museum, the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum, and at the Desert Caballeros Museum in Wickenburg, AZ where she recently won the People's Choice Award 2015 at Cowgirl Up! Exhibition. Katharine has a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies with a concentration in Anthropology from Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, and a Master of Industrial Design degree from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. She has worked in a variety of disciplines over the years, including museum exhibition design, computer user interface design, and color consultation. Katharine currently teaches painting and color at the Woodstock School of Art in Woodstock, NY. She serves on the boards of Pratt Institute, the Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, and the Arts Society of Kingston, Kingston, NY.
Donna Suchan Smeland ’93
Freelance Producer
Major: Communication Media
Donna Suchan Smeland has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry. She has produced countless hours of television for networks such as ABC, NBC, PBS, MTV, VH1, IFC, Sundance Channel, and Comedy Central. She specializes in production management for both studio and reality series, variety specials, live music events, and charity benefits. Since 2006, she has been a producer on the Emmy Award Winning Variety Telethon Night of Too Many Stars: America Comes Together for Autism Programs which provides education and support for local families affected by autism. Most recently, she produced NBC's last two critically acclaimed live musical events Peter Pan Live! and The Wiz Live! She is a member of the Paley Center for Media, as well as a voting member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS – The Emmy’s).
Beyond television, Donna has managed events for organizations including Microsoft and the Museum of the Moving Image. She is currently producing the 2016 International Brotherhood of Teamsters Convention. A lifetime member of the Girl Scouts of the USA, she is also a member-at-large of the board of directors of the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County since 2012, and is currently the board chair elect. Donna holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Media with departmental honors, cum laude, from SUNY New Paltz. She is an active member of her local church and the head of its fundraising committee. In her spare time, she resides in East Yaphank, NY with her amazingly patient husband, Val, and three unruly cats.
Kristine Corso Tolmie ’06
Art and Design Department Chair
The College of Saint Rose
Major: Printmaking
Kristine Corso Tolmie joined the faculty of the Center for Art and Design at The College of Saint Rose 18 years ago as an adjunct lecturer, and has taught a variety of studio, graphic design, and art and learning classes. In 2008, she was appointed an assistant professor of art for printmaking, and in 2012 was promoted to associate professor, responsible for all undergraduate and graduate printmaking. For the past three years, she has served as the program director of the Saint Rose Summer Pre-College Visual Arts Experience.
Tolmie holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Graphic Design, a Master of Science in Education degree in Art Education, K-12, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from SUNY New Paltz in 2006. In 2013 and 2014, she served Saint Rose as summer co-chair at the Center for Art and Design, and since May 2015, has served as the art and design department chair. Tolmie’s prints have been exhibited regionally, nationally, and internationally in Haifa, Israel and Seoul, Korea. A collaborative broadside print project with Tideline Press of Long Island, NY is included in the Rare Book and Manuscript Collection housed in the Butler Library of Columbia University. She resides in Albany, NY.
