The Radio, Television and Film faculty do what they teach. They are highly dedicated and talented individuals with national reputations in their fields. The faculty includes award-winning film and video makers, documentarians, media industry specialists, scriptwriters, published authors and internationally recognized scholars. Because they draw on many years of experience in their fields, they bring the real world into the classroom with them every day.

Their professional connections open up outstanding opportunities for internships in radio and TV stations, media networks, production facilities, corporate media departments, and the local, regional and national film and video industry.

RTF Faculty

Joseph Bierman, Department Chair
B.A. Rowan University
M.F.A. New York University
Ph.D. Regent University

Dr. Bierman teaches Film Production 1, 2 and Advanced Filmmaking, Screenwriting, and Contemporary International Cinema.

His research interests are in film production theory and international film production practices, particularly in the former Soviet Union and Ireland. Dr. Bierman’s films have appeared in more than 40 film festivals and he has won the CINE award for two of his films "Araby" and "The Telltale Heart". His most recent film “The Open Window” had its premiere at the 2008 New Jersey International Film Festival at Rutgers University.

Sheri Chinen Biesen
B.A. University of Southern California
M.A. University of Southern California
Ph. D. University of Texas at Austin

Professor Biesen is author of Blackout: World War II and the Origins of Film Noir (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), described by American Historical Review as, "the most detailed and thoroughly researched interpretation of this era's American film noir." She has contributed to Film Noir Reader 4, Gangster Film Reader, Film and History, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Literature/Film Quarterly, Popular Culture Review, The Historian, Television and Television History, and edited The Velvet Light Trap.

She teaches American Film Directors, Film History II, Film Noir, Film Genres, Gangsters/NeoNoir, Film History I, and RTF Research & Criticism.

Keith Brand
B.F.A. West Virginia University
M.Ed. Temple University

Professor Brand teaches Radio Broadcasting I and Television Production I.

His research interests include community media, low power FM, and regulation of the media. Mr. Brand is host of "Sleepy Hollow" on WXPN FM, the artistic director of the Seven Stars Music Festival, and a member of "The HIX", a local band.

Mike Donovan
B.A. New Jersey City University
M.A. New York University

Professor Donovan teaches The Television Industry and TV History and Appreciation. Mike is the first professor to occupy the King Family professorial chair in the college.

His research interests include TV history and programming.

Ned Eckhardt
B.A. Colgate University
M.A. Case Western Reserve University

Professor Eckhardt teaches Television Documentary Production, Advanced Television Production, and Television Program Packaging. He is an award-winning documentary maker. His latest documentary, "Seabrook Farms Remembered," was funded by the New Jersey Historical Commission and is being distributed nationally by the publisher Holmes & Meier. He is currently writing a text on documentary production entitled "Life in the Lens".

Richard Grupenhoff
B.A. Xavier University
M.A. Purdue University
Ph.D. Ohio State University

Dr. Grupenhoff teaches Film Production, Film History, and African-American Film History. He is the author of The Black Valentino: The Stage and Screen Career of Lorenzo Tucker. He coordinates the student/faculty exchange program between Rowan University and the University of Osnabrueck, in Germany.

His main research interest is African-American film history.

Ken Kaleta
B.A. Villanova University
M.A. Villanova University
Ph.D. New York University

Dr. Kaleta teaches Film History and Appreciation I and Movie Industry. He has written several books: Hanif Kureishi - Postcolonial Storyteller, David Lynch and Conversations with Hal Hartley. He co-produces with Professor Mike Donovan the "Talking Pictures" series which brings working industry professionals to the College to speak to our students.

In addition, Dr. Kaleta continues to research independent filmmaking and local Philadelphia area filmmakers.

Judith Lancioni
B.A. College of New Rochelle
M.A. Ohio University
Ph.D. Temple University

Dr. Lancioni teaches Film History I, RTF Research and Criticism, Images of Women in Film, and Television Program Packaging. She has published articles on The Civil War, Billy Elliot, Desperate Housewives, Survivor, Star Trek, and Visual Rhetoric.

Her research interests include films of Ken Burns, reality television, documentary theory, gender issues in film, science fiction genre in film and TV, and magical realism.

Diana Nicolae
B.A. University of Bucharest
M.F.A. University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Professor Nicolae teaches Television Production, Advanced Television Production, and Documentary Production. She is an accomplished documentarian, with professional experience in broadcast journalism, radio, and advertising.

Her interests include Documentary production, International Journalism, and Eastern European politics.

Chandrasekhar Vallath