Guru Digital Arts College Faculty

Owen Brierley - Executive Director

Owen took on the role of Executive Director in 2008. He has been enthusiastically developing the school's programs and faculty. He is honoured to have so many talented and dedicated professionals share their knowledge and skills with the students at Guru.  

Owen Brierley has been a full-time Digital Media Producer based in Edmonton, Alberta for the past 15 years. Owen's recent experience includes: co-creating Keys2Drive as part of GystWorks, co-creating an Alternative Reality Game for the tween audience called the Central Institute for Exploration with Hotrocket Studios; game design and project leadership of a Serious Game for service rig workers called Simulynx for Terris-Hill Productions; and serving as theMultimedia Development Coordinator for Alberta Learning's LearnAlberta.ca project, a repository of digital learning objects for the K-12 sector.

Owen's roles typically have involved leadership, creative facilitation, strategy, forecasting, analysis and design, and user experience design. Owen is an active speaker and champion of the digital media industry in Alberta.

Core Instructors

Konn Lavery (www.konnlavery.com)

Being a part of the team since February 2010, Konn Lavery has expressed his interest in animation and rich media to the school. During his time as a student at Guru, Konn discovered that he enjoyed teaching and helping his fellow students with their dilemmas.After graduation, Konn was a natural fit with the rest of the Guru team and is now a part of the faculty. He teaches the production process of animation. He also has his fingers in various industry coding languages such as Actionscript 3 and PHP.When Konn is not teaching he finds a lot of his spare time is filled with freelance work and staying up to speed on the industry. He also enjoys his time telling stories and creating quirky characters who would befriend Tim Burton’s creations.

Dave McQueen

Since 1995 Dave McQueen has been teaching the skills of using Photoshop and InDesign. Dave is such a Mac geek that he once owned his own Apple computer dealership. His enthusiasm for Adobe and Apple is only matched by his dedication to his motorcycles and photography. Dave’s ebullience in the classroom and enthusiasm for InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere and AfterEffects is contagious. As one of Dave’s students, it is difficult not to get excited about your next creative project.

Lee Nielsen (www.humanate.com)

Lee is a core instructor in both the Digital Illustration and Sequential Art program as well as the Digital Media Production program. He brings the rigor and discipline needed to help our students develop the necessary skills to survive in the creative professional industries. Lee's range of experience coupled with an innate understanding of teaching makes him a powerful mentor.

Lee Nielsen is an interdisciplinary artist from Calgary. In 2008 he received a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the Alberta College of Art and Design. He has exhibited locally and nationally and has work in private collections in Canada and the United States. In addition to painting and drawing he is the sole proprietor of Humanate Enterprises, a business that deals with art, illustration, design and related projects. Other art practices involve experiments with photographs and sound/musical compositions.

Special Guest Instructors

Nat Jones (www.natjones.com)

The creator of our Digital Illustration and Sequential Art program, Nat is an internationally revered comic and graphic novel creator.  Guru is thrilled that Nat has come on-board to develop a program that covers the creative professional aspects of illustration and balance that with practical business strategies to allow an artist to survive in today's world of digital media. Nat's direct industry experience is a perfect fit for Guru, and as a bonus... he is a ZOMBIE rockstar!

Lisa Hagen

Once upon a time, Lisa was a full-time instructor for Guru. Lisa returns to Guru after several years in the industry working as COO of QuickSpace. She brings a level-headed deliverables focus to Guru. Her classes helps students understand workflow and productivity. Lisa is the consummate GeekGirl. 

Heiko Ryll - Part-Time Instructor (Adobe Expert)

Born a creative soul, Heiko Ryll is a 12 year veteran of digital media production and education. Heiko has augmented scope of teaching topics by becoming a nationally certified snowboard instructor. Underneath his numerous tattoos Heiko is a passionate learner who is continuously cultivating his understanding of what makes great educational experiences. Heiko seeks to make every learning opportunity a memorable event that connects with his students.

Barbara North - Creative Process

Barb is an army brat turned comedienne. Her experience spans writing, stang-up comedy, and voice-overs for a variety of cartoons. Barb is fascinated by the world of digital media and is eagerly exploring how the worlds of traditional media and digital media connect. Her enthusiasm for helping people discover their own natural style of storytelling is boundless and it is evident in the invigorated attitudes of her students.

Christine Lesiak - Creative Process

Christine Lesiak is a physicist turned performer, and co-founder of the Edmonton-based theatre company Small Matters Productions (www.smallmatters.ca). She has extensive training in modern clown, and writes and performs physical comedy shorts and full-length shows for adult audiences. Christine is passionate about using improvisation, physical impulse work, and personal mythology exploration to unearth the hidden idea and discover one's personal creative process.