Associate Professor
Associate Chair, AEMM
Supervisor, Leadership

Biography

Mary is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has been featured on PBS, cable television, and at festivals in the US, Canada, and Europe. Her arts management expertise has been put to work most recently on the Talking Pictures Festival, which debuted in 2009. She continues as a member of the festival’s planning committee, pre-screening jury, and film programming advisor.

Integrating her professional expertise into her academic endeavors, Mary is an advocate of a cross- and trans-disciplinary approach to the arts and media. Her research on the impact of media convergence, multitasking, and the millennial student on teaching and learning began when she was selected to be a National CASTL Institute Scholar. This initial research forms the basis from which Mary continues to investigate how the convergence of the live, performing, visual, and media arts has resulted in a new arts management aesthetic and business model. The International Journal of Arts Management has published her collaborative work on this subject.

Mary frequently participates in academic and cultural events and conferences speaking on the topics of arts management education, leadership in the arts and media, and artistic convergence. She has been a guest speaker at The New School, the University of Louisville, the Arts & Business Council, the Association of Arts Administration Educators, and the 29th International Conference on Critical Thinking. In spring 2013 Mary will be a visiting professor teaching in the Arts Management program at the Nordic Institute of Stage and Studio, Oslo, Norway.

Additional engagements include being a program evaluator for the Illinois Humanities Council; a judge for screenwriting competitions, film festival submissions, and the local Emmy awards competition; a reviewer for the Journal of International and Cross-Cultural studies and the International Journal of Arts Management; and a reviewer of a financial management textbook published by Pearson Education.

Mary launched mgf consulting ltd. in 1998 and partners with senior executives on developing strategic communication, operational, and positioning plans. Clients have included The August Jackson Company, Ariel Capital Management, Ideassociates LLC, and Lillstreet Arts Center.

As associate chair of AEMM, Mary works closely with the chair in the regular operations of the department. She oversees all curriculum-related activities, the academic team, and faculty development initiatives. Mary also coordinates the undergraduate Advanced Management concentration and AEMM’s leadership courses, both undergraduate and graduate. Mary holds a BA in Theatre from Loyola University and MA in Film/Video from Columbia College Chicago. A life-long learner, Mary completed the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Management Development Program and earned a Certificate in New Media Management from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

Email: mfilice@colum.edu