Faculty

Mark Ahola
MT-BC, Instructor of Creative Arts in Therapy

Mark Ahola holds a BA from the University of Illinois and an MM from Illinois State University. He is a board certified music therapist and has taught part time at RSC since 1999. Besides working at Wildwood School, he maintains a private practice in the Capital District. He has clinical experience with children with neurological disorders, adults with psychiatric disorders, senior citizens with Alzheimer's-type dementia, and clients in palliative care. He is an active member of the American Music Therapy Association.

David Baecker
Assistant Professor of Theatre

David Baecker is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Russell Sage College. He is also a communications coach with the New York State Defenders Institute and teaches for the Arts Center of the Capital District. Past Sage productions include Twelfth Night, Nymph Errant, Noises Off, The Threepenny Opera, Nickel and Dimed, Stop Kiss, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Boston Marriage, Anton in Show Business, Proof, The Turn of the Screw, The Visit, Whose Life Is It Anyway? and Cell Cycle. Locally, David has directed a staged reading Jack Casey's The Trial of Bat Shea for the Rensselaer County Historical Society, Humble Boy for Theatre Voices, a staged reading of Silence in a Circular Rainbow for NYSTI and a cabaret for the Rensselaer County Republican Party. He has also acted as producer for Leigh Strimbeck's production of MIRROR MIRROR and director for Byron Nilsson's Mr. Sensitivity at the New York Fringe Festival. For the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School in Colorado, David has directed Nickel and Dimed, The Laramie Project, Mad Forest, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, The Overcoat, Peter Pan andThe Wind in the Willows. As an actor, David has worked with the New York State Theatre Institute, Theatre Voices, the Asolo Theatre Festival, New York Stage Originals and Actors Theatre of Louisville. David has an M.F.A. in Acting from Florida State University and a B.A. in Theatre from Washington University in St. Louis.

Leigh Davies, ATR-BC
Assistant Professor of Creative Arts in Therapy, Coordinator of Creative Arts in Therapy

Leigh Davies is the coordinator of the Creative Arts in Therapy program at RSC. She is a registered, board certified art therapist with more than 20 years of direct supervisory clinical experience working with preschoolers, school age children, adolescents, adults, families and the elderly. She has taught at the graduate and undergraduate levels and maintains a small private practice.

Kelly Jones

Assistant Professor of Art Education

Kelly Jones earned a BFA in painting from the Pratt Institute and an MS Ed in Art Education from the College of Saint Rose. Committed to art education, she taught K-12 art in public schools for 15 years. Additionally, she has experience teaching art in museum settings and through enrichment programs for high need students.

Michael Musial
Chair, Creative & Performing Arts Department
Edith McCrae Professor of Fine Arts, Associate Professor of Music, Coordinator of Theatre and Musical Theatre

Michael Musial is the coordinator of the theatre and musical theatre programs at Russell Sage College. Music directing credits include Candide, Children of Eden, The Secret Garden, A Chorus Line, Into the Woods and Sweeney Todd. He music directed A Tale of Cinderella for NYSTI's 2001 New York State tour and was musical director for their 2002 world premiere production of Magna Carta. He is a member of the duo-piano team Musial and Musial, and is also the director of the College Consortium Singers at Russell Sage.

Jane Benedict Roberts
Professor of Dance

Jane Benedict Roberts has been a professor of dance at Sage since 1976. She holds a BS from RSC, an MA from Columbia University and an MPA from Sage Graduate School. She has produced many events including: "Looking at Dance" with Carolyn Adams, David Vaughan and Dan Wagoners; "Looking at Ballet", a symposium on Ashton and Balanchine 1926-1936; Robert Kovich and Myth Dances; Ellen Cornfield and Cornfield Dance; "Choreographers and Collaborators Parts I & II"; "Making Dances with Sounds & Silence", "Dance Millennium" and "Dancing Before the Snow Flies, Part I."

Ellen Sinopoli
Studio Artist in Dance

Ellen Sinopoli founded the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company in 1991, after settling in the Capital Region from Boston and New York City. As the artistic director and choreographer, she has created 35 new works for her dancers. The company is the resident dance company at The Egg in Albany. Beyond her role as artistic director and choreographer, she is noted for her talents as a master teacher and for her efforts to educate young people about dance. She is a teaching artist for the arts-in-education Institute for the Capital Region and North Country Sites. In addition to RSC, she has taught at Skidmore College, Union College, Albany Berkshire Ballet, Saratoga City Ballet and Guilderland Ballet.