Studio Team
We are proud that the Studio is guided by a vibrant community of interest made up of more than 50 faculty, staff, and students, and our co-directors. Together, they help shape the vision, priorities, and direction of The Studio, ensuring it meets the needs of our campus community. Their collective input supports everything from planning the space and selecting digital tools to designing workshops, consultations, and other support services. Led by our co-directors, their collaboration helps make The Studio a hub for digital innovation, creativity, and community-driven projects across Wake Forest.
Meredith Farmer
Faculty Director of the Studio
Associate Teaching Professor of of Core Literature
Gale Family Faculty Fellow
Brianna Healey
Managing Director of the Studio
Associate Director of Academic Technology
Information Systems
Brianna Healey
Managing Director
is the Associate Director of Academic Technology, a division of Information Systems. Her role is to promote digital literacy on campus and to teach storytelling through digital tools and technology. She has been crafting digital stories through various mediums like short films, music videos, podcasts, website design, and documentary films for over 25 years. She trained non-film and video students to produce a documentary film called Utopian Dreams, stories of the Susquehanna River, at Bucknell University. The film was aired on WVIA, a PBS member television station. She was also part of a five-student team that produced the documentary film, Coming Home: The C.A.R.E. Program, which examines the re-entry process through a program designed to help ex-offenders after they are released from prison. The film was used to promote the new program to the federal court system. Brianna’s digital portfolio can be viewed on Vimeo.
Meredith Farmer
Faculty Director
(meredithfarmer.org) is an Associate Teaching Professor of Core Literature who is also affiliated with Environment and Sustainability Studies. Her current project, “Melville’s Leaks: Science, Materialism, and the Reconstitution of Persons,” is under advance contract with Northwestern University Press. A related edited collection, Ahab Unbound: Melville and the Materialist Turn was published by the University of Minnesota in 2022. Her next book project, “Reading the Weather in the Nineteenth Century,” is a scientific, cultural, and literary history of the “American Storm Controversy” and related attempts to model climate change. Farmer’s research has been supported by the American Philosophical Society, the Bakken Museum of Electricity, the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the Science History Institute, and the Smithsonian Institution. As a teacher and scholar her focus is on the nineteenth century and the ways that it helped shape the present moment. Her current teaching interests include the history of slavery in our community here in Winston-Salem and the ways that rhetoric about the environment in the nineteenth century contributed to our current climate crisis. Projects produced by her classes can be viewed athiddentown.org andenvironmentaldestruction.org. Farmer hopes to build on work that she did in the Studio for Instructional Technology Lab (SITES) at UNC, helping other faculty members develop assignments that teach students to create podcasts, digital essays, and even short documentaries—ideally as public-facing projects that engage ethically with community partners. Visit her websitehere.
Sidney Beeman
Manager of Advanced Learning Projects
is the Manager of Advanced Learning Projects, a division of Information Systems. In this role, she supports faculty and students in the effective use of digital media to enhance teaching, learning, and research. With a background in documentary filmmaking and nearly a decade of experience in video storytelling, Sidney brings a creative lens to academic technology initiatives. She collaborates closely with faculty across disciplines to develop innovative digital storytelling projects, interactive media, and pedagogical resources that support transformative learning experiences. Her work has been recognized at regional and national film festivals, including multiple official selections and an Audience Award for both documentary and animation. She was associate producer on the feature documentary Sweet Appalachia: The Story of DelFest, which recently premiered on PBS and can be viewed here. More of her work can be found at sidneybeeman.com.
Katelyn Lacor
Digital Innovation Studio Intern
Katelyn is a second-year MFA student in Wake Forest University’s Documentary Film Program interested in using digital storytelling to make under-discussed aspects of our cultural history more accessible to wider audiences. Her work focuses on synthesizing archival materials into long-form nonfiction projects, with technical specialties in Adobe Premiere Pro and color correction.
Lyla Holstein
Digital Innovation Studio Intern
Lyla Holstein is a sophomore at Wake Forest University majoring in Psychology with a minor in Business. Originally from the Washington, D.C. area, Lyla brings a strong interest in film and digital media to The Studio team. This past summer, she worked as a Production Assistant on the documentary Where the Mountains Sing, where she gained experience in community outreach, social media, communication, and video editing. Lyla is excited to continue developing her skills in film and digital media while supporting the creative and collaborative work of The Studio.