Tess Nielsen
Instructor of Choral Music and Drama
Morganton
Joined NCSSM in July 2023
Tess Nielsen joined NCSSM in July 2023 as an Instructor of Choral Music and Drama on our Morganton campus. She is a choral and music theater educator with interests in music industry and digital media. Tess previously served as a performing arts director in independent and public schools. With a background in contemporary and classical music, her experience includes choral conducting, accompanying, recording, and producing. As a choral musician, Tess served as Continuo Arts Conducting Fellow, launched Rowan Community Music School chorus, and led Ranney School and Frederica Academy choral programs. As a music theater educator, she has directed over 25 school and community productions. Tess frequently serves as a choral clinician and adjudicator. She is active in The National Association for Music Education and holds Orff-Schulwerk certification. As a performer, she appeared in professional productions across the East Coast as well as Europe. When she’s not onstage or backstage, she and her family love the outdoors, animals, travel, and are on a quest to hear and make new songs.
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
Leah Barlow
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Erudiel Bernal
Instructor of World Languages
Sarah Booker
Instructor of World Languages and Chair of Humanities (Morganton)
Michelle Brenner
Instructor of Humanities
Liz Calderón
Instructor of Spanish
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
David Dry
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Mark Dubois
Instructor of Humanities
CJ Fleming
Instructor of Humanities
Alexa Garvoille
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Fiona Gillespie
Instructor of Spanish
Kyle Hudson
Instructor of Humanities
Alina Hunt
Instructor of French
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
Andre Minkins
Instructor of Drama
Ormand Moore
Instructor of Humanities
Elizabeth Moose
Dean and Instructor of Humanities
Amanda Moulder
Instructor of American Studies and Humanities
Katie Moulder
Instructor of Humanities
Meredith Murphy ’02
Instructor and Chair of Humanities (Durham)
William Nessly
Instructor of American Studies and Asian-American Studies
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 and Chair of Humanities (Durham)
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