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Emerging Creatives Alumni: Where are They Now?

Oct 17, 2025 3:00-4:15pm Eastern/noon-1:15pm Pacific

For over a decade, a2ru’s Emerging Creatives Student Summit has been bringing outstanding students together from across disciplines and around the a2ru network to develop their interdisciplinary collaboration skills and to work in teams to create arts-integrated projects responding to a yearly theme. Ahead of the November 3 deadline to nominate students for the 2026 Summit “Rewilding” at Michigan State University, we are bringing together three Emerging Creatives alumni whose multi-faceted careers embody interdisciplinarity, curiosity, and collaboration to share their academic and professional journey, and discuss how the Emerging Creatives experience shaped their professional interests and their approaches to their work.

The Emerging Creatives alumni highlighted in this session include:

  • Aaron Colverson, Postdoctoral Fellow in the UCSF Memory and Aging Center and ethnomusicologist
  • Patricia Mullaney-Loss, Social Science Analyst for the National Endowment for the Arts and dancer
  • Vernelle Noel, Lucian and Rita Caste Assistant Professor in Architecture and Director, Situated Computation + Design Lab at Carnegie Mellon University

View the Recording

Panelists

Dr. Aaron Colverson graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2009 with a BM in Professional Music. After graduating, he moved to Nairobi, Kenya for two years, embedding himself in East African musical traditions and cultures. He returned to the USA in 2014 and completed a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the University of Florida, with partnering research in Neuropsychology. Aaron researches music and dementia as a Postdoctoral and Senior Atlantic Fellow with the University of California, San Francisco. Aaron is also a Courtesy Research Scholar with the University of Florida’s Center for Arts in Medicine.

 

 

Patricia Mullaney-Loss (she/her) is a dancer, dance teacher, data analyst, researcher, movement analyst, and personal trainer. She performs locally in DC with collaborators and choreographers, as well as with dance company, Heart Stück Bernie. She is currently a social science analyst at the National Endowment for the Arts and was previously research manager at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Patricia is a Certified Movement Analyst (L/BIMS) and a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT-NASM/Biomechanics Specialist). Occasionally, she teaches dance courses at American University and works as a trainer for individuals. Patricia holds bachelor’s degrees in dance and government and politics, and a master’s in public policy from the University of Maryland.

 

Vernelle A. A. Noel, Ph.D. is the Lucian and Rita Caste Assistant Professor in Architecture at Carnegie Mellon Architecture. She is a computational design scholar, architect, artist and Director of the Situated Computation + Design Lab. She investigates traditional and digital practices and their intersections with society. Using interdisciplinary approaches, she builds new frameworks, methodologies and tools to explore social, cultural and political aspects of computation and emerging technologies for new reconfigurations of practice, pedagogy and publics. Her work has been supported by the Graham Foundation, the Mozilla Foundation, and ideas2innovation (i2i), among others. She is a recipient of the DigitalFUTURES Young Award for exceptional research and scholarship in the field of critical computational design, and gave a TEDx Talk titled, “The Power of Making: Craft, Computation, and Carnival.” Vernelle holds a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University, a Master of Science in Architecture Studies from MIT, a Bachelor of Architecture from Howard University, and a Diploma in Civil Engineering from Trinidad & Tobago. Vernelle has held positions at Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Stuttgart, the University of Florida, Penn State University, MIT and the Singapore University of Technology & Design, and has practiced as an architect in the U.S., India and Trinidad & Tobago. She is currently a board member of The Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA).