Faculty & Staff

The program is designed and implemented through the Producing Concentration. The Producing Curriculum Coordinator is Don Smith who founded the program with the late Bob Enrietto who sadly passed away shortly after Christmas 2003. Mr. Enrietto was a thirty year veteran of studio producing and a member of the Director's Guild of America (DGA). His Los Angeles contacts read like a "Who's Who" of the LA movie business. In addition, several part-time instructors from the business join the team in Los Angeles.

Jon Katzman was named Director of Semester in Los Angeles in August 2004. Mr. Katzman received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and an Executive MBA from The Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has nearly 15 years experience in the entertainment industry, including three years at Warner Brother's as Director of Comedy Development and Director of Current Programming for television shows including Lois and Clark, The George Carlin Show, and Full House, three years as Vice President of Television at Regency Television, and most recently as an Executive Producer for television programs developed for Discovery Home and Leisure, FX, and VH1.

Jon has also served as adjunct faculty for the Semester in L.A. program for the past year, where he started the sit-com program, and has held the position of executive liaison to the Warner Brother's Writer's Workshop and The Writer's Boot Camp. In addition, he has served as a consultant for the Broad Foundation on human resources for the 80 largest urban school districts in the country.

Faculty

Van Spurgeon (Screenwriting)
After winning a screenplay competition at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Van Spurgeon moved west to embark on a career in entertainment. Since then, he has worked in film and television with directors Jeremiah Chechik, Roland Joffe and Vondi Curtis Hall. His film credits include GOODBYE LOVER with Patricia Arquette and REDEMPTION starring Jamie Foxx. He is currently producing a film for Beacon Pictures in Santa Monica, California

Craig Gore (Producing & Adaptation)
Craig was raised on an island off the coast of North Carolina, and spent three years studying English at Cape Fear College. He then moved to Chicago and transferred to Columbia, where he received a degree in Fiction Writing in 2000. After graduating he moved to Los Angeles and read scripts for Film Artists Associates, while working as a research assistant for Oscar-winning Screenwriter and novelist, William Kelley. Craig then took a job as Office Manager for Columbia’s “Semester in LA” program at CBS. He has a writing partner (another Columbia alum), a literary manager, and is currently optioning books and adapting them to pitch for TV/Film projects. Craig is the lead instructor for the Producing class, as well as the specialized “Adaptation” session, which focuses on optioning the rights to books, comics and life stories.

Jon Katzman (Television Comedy)
Jon began his career working for Channel 10 in Australia, and then moved back to the States where he was admitted into the prestigious NBC associates training program reporting to chairman Brandon Tartikoff.  While at NBC, Katzman assisted Tartikoff with the development of shows such as “Shannon’s Deal,” “Saved by the Bell,” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”  He held the posts in comedy development and current programming at Warner Brothers before moving on to become the first television executive and eventually the senior vice president of long-form programming at Regency Television. While at Regency Jon developed “Roswell”, “Noriega”, “How to Marry a Billionaire”, and many other projects.  After leaving Regency he produced “The 5 Coolest Things” with Matt LeBlanc, “The Man in the Mirror” and “Redemption”.  Katzman is currently the resident director of Columbia College Chicago’s prestigious Semester in L.A. program. 

Richard Whitley (Television Drama)
Richard Whitley began his career by co-writing the cult classic ROCK ‘n ROLL HIGH SCHOOL for drive-in movie legend Roger Corman. He then co-wrote and co-produced the horror parody PANDEMONIUM for United Artists, starring Judge Reinhold and Carole Kane. This lead to writing screenplays for Tri-Star, Universal, Warner Bros., MGM and 20th Century Fox, as well as scripts for director Amy Heckerling, producer Joel Silver, director Joel Schumacher, producer Dave Madden, producer Pat Proft, director Neal Israel, and producer Aaron Russo. In television, Richard was a story editor on ABC TV’s Emmy nominated series HOMEFRONT. He also wrote on the hour long dramas, SPACE: ABOVE & BEYOND, MILLENNIUM, ROSWELL and THE OTHERS, as well as pilots for CBS, Showtime and NBC/DREAMWORKS. He’s written on ROSEANNE, ARLI$$, THE DAILY SHOW and was a writer/producer on Michael Moore’s Emmy nominated series TV NATION. He’s also written episodes of Disney’s highly acclaimed animated series’ RECESS and LLOYD IN SPACE

Jack Gilbert (Television Comedy and Television Drama)
Raised as an Air Force Brat, Jack's education is a unique mix of a B.A. in English from Ohio U, a Certificate of Screenwriting from UCLA Extension, and an M.A. in theology from Fuller Seminary. He began working in the Industry as story analyst for the William Morris Agency and NBC, and consulting on projects such as Batman Forever and The Addams Family. He spent ten years helping run the Warner Bros. Writers Workshop, the industry’s most prestigious television writing program, whose graduates include My Name is Earl's creator Greg Garcia. As well as being an Adjunct Professor for Columbia College with Semester in L.A., on the CBS lot, Jack has taught screenwriting outside the States from Canada to Jordan and is an Adjunct at several Southern California universities.

Matt Kierscht (Music Producing)
Matt Kierscht has worked as Music Supervisor/Manager for many popular television programs including “America’s Next Top Model” (UPN), “The Fugitive” (CBS), “The West Wing” (NBC), "The Drew Carey Show" (ABC) and Last Comic Standing (NBC). He recently completed work on the feature film “Bonneville” starring Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen and Tom Skerritt.  Prior to creating his own music supervision company, he was Manager of Music at Warner Bros. Television.  There he was responsible for supervising all areas of music on multiple television series, specials and long-form programming.  During his tenure, he received an award for Outstanding Achievement and Performance.  He has also held positions at Columbia/Tri-Star, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Merv Griffin Enterprises and Warner Bros. Records. He has worked with several famous musical artists, including Roger Daltrey, DMX, Missy Elliott, Biz Markie, David Crosby, Eric Benet, Busta Rhymes, Beth Hart, Dave Koz and Macy Gray.  As Executive Producer for Dreamworks, he had an album that went to #3 on Billboard’s Top Soundtracks Chart.  He has also been awarded with the RIAA Nettwerk America/Capitol Records reward for 500,000 copies sold of Coldplay’s Parachutes.  He has lectured at the USC School of Music, Columbia College, California Copyright Conference, Association of Independent Music Publishers

Gilbert Shelton (Directing)
Gil Shilton began his career at CBS News, Toronto & Global Television News writing, editing, and field producing news and sports stories for local and national broadcast. He has directed such notable television movies as The Void,  Touched by a Killer, Devil Winds, among others. He has Directed episodes for Law & Order, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Xena, Quantum Leap, La Femme Nikita and The Twilight Zone to name only a few.
   
Dodie Shepard (Costume Design)
Dodie Shepard began her career as an assistant costume designer on the film My Fair Lady. Since then she has been nominated twice for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Costuming for a Miniseries or a Special. She was costume designer on Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Star Trek VI, the Gumball Rally, Mission Impossible television series, and Dracula: Dead and Loving it.

Craig Stuart Garfinkle (Music Composition)
Craig Stuart Garfinkle’s  journey to music composer began early when at the age of seven he was so frustrated by his piano lessons that he began making up his own melodies. By the time he started high school, piano had taken a back seat to guitar as his main instrument, but his desire had been cemented and continued on in college. Garfinkle has composed for hundreds of network television projects, TV movies, film trailers, and video games.  He was also part of the composing team (headed by Stephen James Taylor) for Disney's Raw Toonage, and the sole composer for the KAET/PBS production Visions of Arizona. Both programs received Emmy nominations for outstanding original score. Currently he is creating music for the NBC series, The Office as well as numerous other notable programs.

Susan Wrenn (Marketing)
Susan Wrenn has spent the past twenty years in the strategic marketing of film, television and music, most of it as Senior Vice President and Media Director for Paramount Pictures.  Setting media strategies for “Titanic”, "Braveheart", “Runaway Bride”, “Forrest Gump”, “Save The Last Dance”, “Jackass: The Movie” and many others, she was responsible for the planning and execution of over $300 million a year in media activity, as well as the associated integrated marketing efforts.  In addition to developing and executing both the broad upfront negotiating strategies as well as the individual film strategies for all releases, Susan was also responsible for pitching and bringing the NBA finals into motion picture marketing (“Mission Impossible”).  Sitting on the Viacom Marketing Council for many years, she conducted Viacom’s first cross-company audit of media assets.  Susan has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for thirteen years.  She is currently co-owner of  Target Approach, a consulting firm addressing strategic sales and marketing challenges and opportunities.
 
Lynn Griffin (Production Design)
After graduation from Northwestern State College in Natchitoches, LA in ’69, Lynn began her career in theatrical design at The Midland Community theatre in Midland, Texas, working as a Summer Assistant.  Unable to resist the lure of Hollywood, she migrated West in 1970 and landed her first job in the industry with a production company that made television commercials.  Her first client as a designer was Lawn Boy Lawn Mowers.  Several commercials and non-union movies later, she connected as an Assistant Art Director on many Variety Shows.  Among them, The Bobby Darin Show, Tony Orlando & Dawn, Barbara Eden, Dinah Shore Specials, Burt Reynolds Specials, Award Shows, and America’s Junior Miss Pageant, receiving an Emmy nomination for the Andy Williams Christmas Show.  She assisted on such TV classics as Sanford & Son and Good Times. Her first Network Series on her own was Alice, which lead to Flo, Perfect Strangers, The Hogan Family, Full House, Step By Step, Getting By, Two of a Kind, The Kirk Cameron Show and most recently, Yes, Dear, That’s So Raven, Still Standing and Half & Half.  In June of ‘06, she set and taught the curriculum for the first Production Design Class for Columbia College’s Semester in L.A. program. Lynn has done over 25 Pilots for Television and lost count of series episodes at 1,700. She is active in environmental and animal rights causes and was one of the founders of the California Wildlife Center, a rescue and rehabilitation facility in Malibu, CA.  Lynn is a former Board Member of the Malibu Township Council and is currently Vice President of the Malibu Road Association.

Brad Mott (Theater)
Brad Mott has a B.S.S., Theater from Northwestern University. He is also a freelance actor.

Andrew Hill  (Music Composition)
Andrew Hill is the music supervisor/consultant for Andy Hill Film + Music in Los Angeles, California. His clients include Disney, Warner Bros., Paramount Classics, Jim Henson Co., TNT, Fox Animation, and NBC. Mr. Hill supervised the music for Paramount’s My First Mister, Disney’s Annie, and Warner Brothers’ Message in a Bottle. Prior to this, he was vice president of music production for Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, where he oversaw worldwide recording projects for Beauty and the Beast, Sister Act, and The Lion King. He was also operations manager for The Reel Thing of California post-production house, and production manager of the Film & Video Department of Columbia College. Mr. Hill was a Grammy Award recipient in 2000, and his first novel, 'Enoch’s Portal', was published in 2001.