Undergraduate Fine Art Alumni Career Panel

The Undergraduate Department of Fine Art is hosting the 2nd Annual Alumni Career Panel.  The event is one aspect of the department's programming that is designed to inform, engage and equip undergraduate fine arts majors with information about career opportunities and creative experiences after their time at Penn. The panel will be moderated by Ken Lum, Professor and Director of Undergraduate Fine Arts, and  include alumni that work in a variety of professional fields and artistic disciplines.

This year's panelists are:

Erick Guerra, City and Regional Planning Professor at Penn. Class of 2001

Erick Guerra is an Assistant Professor in City and Regional Planning at University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches courses in transportation planning and quantitative planning methods. He has published recent articles on the economic performance of US urban rail systems, suburban transit investments in Mexico City, land use and travel behavior, and the role of land use in promoting high ridership and cost-effective transit service. His current work focuses on the relationship between suburban land use and car ownership and driving rates in developing-world cities and contemporary planning for self-driving cars and other automated transportation technologies in the US. As a practicing researcher and consultant, Erick has worked on a diverse range of planning-related topics, including housing investment and financial remittances in Sub-Saharan Africa; urban form and successful transit investments in the US; informal transportation in medium-sized Indonesian cities; and cross-border planning on the Island of Ireland. Erick holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California Berkeley, a Master’s in Urban Planning from Harvard University, and a BA in Fine Arts and French from the University of Pennsylvania. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gabon from 2002 to 2004. Website: http://erickguerra.net/

Rebecca Simon, Artists/Painter, Class of 2005

Rebecca Simon is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She was born in 1983 and grew up in Syracuse, New York. She received a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. The following year, Rebecca attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received a post-baccalaureate certificate in painting. In 2010, Rebecca received her MFA from Hunter College in New York City. Rebecca has participated in the Chashama North Artist Residency in Pine Plains, NY, and the NARS (New York Artist Residency and Studios Foundation Residency) in Brooklyn. Her work has been exhibited in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Westchester, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Edinburgh. She received her first solo show at the Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, New Jersey in 2014. . Website: http://rebeccasimonart.com/

Aura Seltzer, Designer, Clas of 2009

Aura Seltzer is a designer at Happy Cog, where she makes beautiful, responsive websites and design systems for clients like Ben & Jerry's, Coldwell Banker, and Harvard University. She earned an MFA in graphic design from Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. Website: http://www.auraseltzer.com/