Blake Madden joined NCSSM in August 2024 as an Instructor of Photography on our Morganton campus. Blake specializes in location photography and has nearly 40 years of experience as an award-winning professional photographer. Blake began his career as a photojournalist. He started as a freelancer for the State Times and Morning Advocate in Baton Rouge, LA; became a staff photographer at the Houma Daily Courier, a small daily owned by the New York Times in the deep south of Louisiana; and then moved on to The Augusta Chronicle in Georgia, where he also worked as photo editor. Capturing the “decisive moment” was always the goal then, and he continues to rely on that skill today in his commercial photography work.
Blake received a Master of Arts in Teaching with a concentration in art from Western Carolina University. In addition to his work as a commercial photographer, Blake was a full-time photography instructor and ran the photography department at McDowell Technical Community College before retiring in August 2023.
Blake has two daughters who share his love of art, music, and movies. When not taking pictures for clients or personal projects, he enjoys the great outdoors, travel, and motorcycling throughout the Blue Ridge Mountains and beyond.
Humanities
Layla Aldousany
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Carrie Alter
Instructor of Studio Art
Marcelo Aranda
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Kate Auger
Instructor of Photography
Kate Axelrod
Program Associate
Erudiel Bernal
Instructor of World Languages
Sarah Booker
Instructor of World Languages
Michelle Brenner
Instructor of Humanities
David Cantrell
Instructor of Humanities
Jane Cantwell
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Kristin Connor
Instructor of Spanish
Chad Cygan
Instructor of Choral Music
Christy Davenport
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Katy Doll
Instructor of American Studies
David Dry
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Mark Dubois
Instructor and Interim Chair of Humanities (Durham)
Alexa Garvoille
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Fiona Gillespie
Instructor of Spanish
Kyle Hudson
Instructor of Humanities
Steve Jones ’83
Instructor of Humanities
Neal Keesee
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Chad Keister
Instructor of Economics and Social Science
Jim Kirkpatrick
Instructor of Music
Fayez Kurdi
Instructor of World Languages
Scott Laird
Instructor of Music and Chair of Fine Arts (Durham/Morganton)
Hong Li
Instructor of Chinese
Courtney Long
Instructor of Visual Arts
Margaret McDowell
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Tatiana McInnis
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Ormand Moore
Instructor of Humanities
Katie Moulder
Instructor of Humanities
Amanda Moulder
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Meredith Murphy ’02
Instructor and Chair of Humanities (Durham)
William Nessly
Instructor of American Studies and Asian-American Studies
Tess Nielsen
Instructor of Choral Music and Drama
Robert Noffsinger
Instructor of Spanish and Humanities
Javier Pabón
Dean of Humanities
Liz Peeples
Instructor of Humanities
Carolina Perez
Instructor of Music
Martha Regalis
Instructor of Humanities
Evan Rowe
Auditorium Technical Director
Meltem Safak
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Adam Sampieri
Instructor of Drama
Tonya Smith ’89
Instructor of Spanish and Humanities
Marc Sprintz
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Keegan Storrs
Instructor of Spanish
Natsuko Suwa
Instructor of Japanese
Cecile Tougas
Instructor of Latin
Ying-Hua Tsai
Instructor of Chinese
Qian Wang
Instructor of Chinese
John Woodmansee
Instructor of Humanities
John Zimmerman
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities and Interim Chair of Humanities (Morganton)