Internal Advisory Committee

Gayla Bauer Blaisdell has been on the faculty of Central Washington University since 2008 where she is an Associate Professor and is the Vocal Area Coordinator. She has a vibrant studio of aspiring singers and directs the nationally award-winning CWU Opera Ensemble. In addition to her work at CWU, Gayla is a sought after masterclass clinician and pedagogue in the areas of vocal performance, opera directing and feminist musicology.

In addition to teaching, she has maintained a busy performance schedule. Gayla appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival and made her Carnegie Hall debut as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the American Composers Orchestra. She has sung in many major New York City venues including Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, and Symphony Space, among others. In New York, she performed regularly with the Azure Ensemble, a contemporary chamber ensemble and was featured in a recital at the Kosciuszko Foundation by the American Accent Concert Series. Gayla often appears with the CWU ensembles to premiere contemporary works and collaborates with colleagues from CWU and around the country in recitals here in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere.

Gayla has appeared at Benaroya Hall in Seattle as the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana by Orff, the soprano soloist in the Hovhaness Magnificat and as a featured soloist in a concert with the Seattle Wind Symphony. She was a soloist with the Synergia Northwest Ensemble in McCaw Hall. Gayla has appeared with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra several times; performing orchestrated Schubert lieder, as the soprano soloist in the Verdi Requiem and a concert of Verdi and Wagner arias and duets with her tenor husband, Tor Blaisdell. Gayla joined the Wenatchee Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro as the Countess. Soon, Gayla will be releasing a CD of vocal/piano music featuring music written by Elaine Ross and a set of songs by Stephen Paulus.

Gayla holds a Ph.D in Vocal Performance from New York University where she was a member of the NYU Adjunct Voice Faculty for seven years. She has established herself as a scholar in feminist theory and opera presenting her work at national and regional venues since the completion of her dissertation in the field. She holds a Graduate Diploma in Opera and a Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from New England Conservatory and a Bachelors Degree in Voice and a Bachelors Degree in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music. Gayla also trained at the Steans Institute at Ravinia, Tanglewood, Opera North, the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Italy and Dorian Opera Theater.

Degrees:
New York University
Ph.D Vocal Performance

New England Conservatory
M.M. in Voice Performance
G.D. Opera

The Eastman School of Music
B.M. Voice
B.M. Music Education

Anne Cubilié moved to CWU in August of 2013 following 10 years working for the United Nations. Dr. Cubilie was Director of the William O. Douglas Honors College (DHC) for two years, moving to the position of Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and Extended Learning in 2015. After two years as Associate Provost, Dr. Cubilie returned to her position at the DHC to work more closely with students and faculty on the shared educational mission of the university. At the United Nations, Dr. Cubilie worked in humanitarian response and development policy both at headquarters and in the field. She joined the United Nations from Georgetown University, where she was an assistant professor. Throughout her time at the United Nations, Dr. Cubilié maintained close ties to the academy and consistent interest in bridging the gap between academic research and the political and policy considerations of international aid.

Dr. Cubilie has lived and worked in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Egypt. Her book, Women Witness Terror: Testimony and the Cultural Politics of Human Rights, reads a testimony by women survivors of war and human rights abuse through critical frameworks of ethics, trauma, and witnessing. While most people consider testimony to be that of an individual telling her story to give voice to the stories of all those who experienced the event, Dr. Cubilié considers the very instability of the narrative testimonial voice to be a generative source for a more engaged and less purely juridical consideration of human rights. In her work for the United Nations – ranging from the collection of survivor testimony in Afghanistan to policy guidance for an emergency response to major reports and funding documents – she maintained an insistence on remembering the individual within the broadest international discourses. She has co-edited a special issue of the journal Discourse on "The Future of Testimony," has given numerous lectures both in the US and internationally on testimony, ethics, human rights and trauma, was awarded a Fulbright Research Fellowship and has served as a joint United Nations/American University of Cairo visiting scholar conducting research into women’s relationships to state structures. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and her BA from the University of Oregon, graduating from the Robert D. Clark Honors College.

Christina Denison, a first-generation college student, is a Wildcat through and through having earned both her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Central Washington University. Before becoming part of the team in the Douglas Honors College, Christina worked as a legal assistant; however, when CWU offered her an opportunity to do something a bit different she jumped at the chance. Starting as an office assistant in the Honors College, Christina took every opportunity she could to learn and do more which resulted in becoming the Secretary, then the Academic and Student Success Coordinator, the Assistant Director, and now the Associate Director of the DHC. She is currently working on her EdD in Education Leadership at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho.

Christina enjoys spending time with her two daughters and her husband Jim, a local attorney. In the winter months, when not spending time with her family, you will find her shushing down the runs at Mission Ridge Ski & Board Resort in Wenatchee. All the other months she spends time wishing it was winter.

Dr. Allyson Rogan-Klyve holds a BA in chemistry and religion from Hamline University, a M.Ed in science education from the University of Massachusetts, and a PhD in science education from Oregon State University. Dr. Rogan-Klyve joined CWU as an assistant professor in 2016. Dr. Rogan-Klyve is a faculty member in the Science Education Department and serves as the Upper Division Coordinator in the William O. Douglas Honors College. Dr. Rogan-Klyve’s research focuses on understanding high leverage teaching practices in the K-12 science classroom as well as developing pedagogies to teach these practices to novice teachers.

An artist-scholar, Emily Rollie's work spans theatre practice and scholarship, finding ways for each area to fuel the other. Dr. Rollie completed her PhD in Theatre from the University of Missouri, and received her Master’s degree in Theatre Production at CWU, where she directed The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a touring children’s production, for her MA thesis project.

Her primary research areas include women and feminist theatre, Canadian theatre, directing practice and theory, and theatre for social change. She has had work published in Theatre Annual: A Journal of Theatre and Performance of the Americas, Theatre Journal, Canadian Theatre Review, SDC Journal (peer-reviewed section), Theatre Survey, and Theatre History Studies. Most recently, her article “‘And we are here’: Performance, Reality, and Canadian National Identity in Electric Company Theatre’s Tear the Curtain!” was nominated for the ATDS Vera Mowry Roberts Award, and her article on directing feminist solo women performers appeared in the edited volume About Directing (edited by Anna Migliarsi). Her current book project considers the ways Canadian women directors negotiate issues related to power, gender, and other intersectional identities in their artistic work.

As an artist/director, Dr. Rollie has directed in venues around the country and spent five years as the artistic director of Independent Actors Theatre (IAT), a "purposefully nomadic" theatre company, which became known for its annual short Women's Play Festival (the plays are short, not the women!). She also was the associate director of the Troubling Violence Performance Project (TVPP), a group dedicated to opening lines of communication about issues of relationship violence through the performance of personal narratives, for four years, and she began a second branch of TVPP in 2014.

An active member of multiple professional organizations, Dr. Rollie is the focus group representative for the Directing Program, part of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). She also is a member of the Executive Board of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR) as well as a member of the new CATR Task Force on Adjunct, Graduate Student, and Alternative Academic Career Advocacy. She regularly attends and has held positions for the Mid-America Theatre Conference. She is also an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and serves as an assistant editor for the SDC Journal – Peer Reviewed Section.

Maya Jewell Zeller is the author of the interdisciplinary collaboration (with visual artist Carrie DeBacker) Alchemy For Cells & Other Beasts (Entre Rios Books, 2017), the chapbook Yesterday, the Bees (Floating Bridge Press, 2015), and the poetry collection Rust Fish (Lost Horse Press, 2011); her prose appears in such places as Brevity, Bellingham Review, and Booth Journal. Recipient of a Promise Award from the Sustainable Arts Foundation as well as a Residency in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, Maya has presented her work internationally at the University of Oxford and in Madrid at the Unamuno Author Festival. Currently, she teaches writing for Central Washington University and edits for Scablands Books, and is at work on a memoir called “Raised by Ferns.” Find her on Twitter @MayaJZeller or visit mayajewellzeller.com for more info.