advisory committees

eDream is guided by the generous contributions of campus faculty and community consultants who serve on its committees.  These include the Institute's steering committee, visiting creatives committee, doctoral program committee, and Biennial Scholarly Symposium and Festival committee.

Advisory Committee


Donna Cox

Chair, Director, National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) and eDream; Michael Aiken Endowed Chair and Professor, School of Art + Design

Gabrielle Allen

Associate Dean for Research and Research Education, and Director of the Bureau of Educational Research
Associate Director of NCSA
Professor of Astronomy

Antoinette M Burton

Professor of History
Professor of Gender and Women's Studies
Center for African Studies
Center for Global Studies
Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Anita Chan

Assistant Professor, Media and Cinema Studies
Assistant Professor, Institute of Communications Research

Ed Feser

Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost

Sahil Kumar 

Student Advisor, Design for America

Mike Ross

Director, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA) and Associate Dean, College of Fine and Applied Arts

Ed Seidel

Director, National Center for Supercomputing Applications

John M Toenjes

Associate Professor and Undergraduate Director, Department of Dance

Michael Bernard Twidale

Graduate School of Library and Information Science
Department Affiliate, Computer Science Research
Associate Professor, Information Trust Institute
Fellow, Academy of Entrepreneurial Leadership
Faculty Affiliate, National Center for Supercomputing Applications

David Weightman

Senior Faculty member, Industrial Design, School of Art and Design (A+D)

Former Members


Thom Dunning

Former Director, NCSA and the Institute for Advanced Computing Applications and Technology (IACAT)

External Advisory Committee


Jerry Fiddler

Co-Founder of Wind River
Chairman of Solazyme
Principal of Zygote Ventures

Robert Graves

Former Dean, College of Fine and Applied Arts (FAA)

Marc Snir

Michael Faiman and Subaro Muroga Professor,
Department of Computer Science,
College of Engineering; Co-Director,
Universal Center for Parallel Computing Research

John M. Unsworth

Vice Provost, Chief Information Officer, University Librarian,
Professor of English – Brandeis University

Jan Slater

Dean, College of Media (LAS)