Lisk Feng
Director + Faculty MFA Thesis

Lisk Feng is an award-winning illustrator originally from China and currently based between Baltimore and New York City, where she works as a freelance artist. She earned her MFA in Illustration Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014. Since then, she has built an internationally recognized career, collaborating with leading publications and global brands including The New Yorker, Apple, Penguin Random House, Airbnb, The New York Times, Chanel, and Wells Fargo.

Her work has received widespread acclaim and numerous industry honors, including Medals from the Society of Illustrators, the Communication Arts Excellence Award, a 3x3 Medal, and recognition from American Illustration. In addition to editorial and commercial projects, Feng has illustrated several acclaimed children’s books published by Phaidon, Enchanted Lion, Flying Eye Books, Abrams Books, and Kids Can Press.

In 2017, she was named one of the ADC Young Guns by the Art Directors Club, recognizing her as one of the world’s most promising young creatives across disciplines. She was later included in Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Art & Style category in 2019. That same year, her illustrated book Everest received the prestigious BolognaRagazzi Award. In 2020, she was honored with a D&AD Silver Pencil Award for excellence in design and visual communication.

Beyond her artistic practice, Feng has also played an active leadership role within the illustration community. She served as Co-Chair of the Society of Illustrators in 2023 and became Chair of the organization’s 2024 annual competition.

http://liskfeng.com 
@liskfeng

Mai Ly Degnan
Faculty MFA Studio

Mai Ly Degnan is an award-winning illustrator and educator based in Baltimore, MD.  She earned her BFA in Illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design, and later her MFA in Illustration Practice at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she currently teaches full-time.  Mai Ly creates illustrations for editorial, advertising, licensing, and book publishing clients. Her work consists of bright colors, patterned details, and "slice of life" illustrations that celebrate of everyday people in their day to day lives. Outside of her freelance and teaching practice, she also enjoys spending time with her husband, son, and two pugs.

Her work has been recognized by The Society of Illustrators of New York and Los Angeles, American Illustration, and 3x3.  Selected clients include Huffington Post, Washington Post, Readers Digest, Baltimore Magazine, Oprah Daily, Quarto Kids, Alba Editorial, Cosmopolitan UK, Norman Rockwell Museum, Boston Globe, Time Magazine, Harper Collins, NPR, VICE Magazine, Magic Cat Publishing, La La Land Australia, and more.  

Mai Ly is represented internationally by the Anna Goodson Illustration Agency.

mailydegnan.com 
@mailydegnan 

Kerry Roeder
Faculty Critical Seminar 1 & 2

Kerry is a historian of graphic illustration and print culture, with an emphasis on 19th and early 20th century art. Previously, she was a guest curator and Luce curatorial fellow in American Art at the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, where she curated Freer’s Global Network in 2022, Dewing's Poetic World in 2020, and co-curated Whistler in Watercolor in 2019. Her book, Wide Awake in Slumberland: Fantasy, Mass Culture and Modernism in the Art of Winsor McCay (University Press of Mississippi, 2014) was nominated for an Eisner Award. Her articles have appeared in American Art and The Comics Journal, and she contributed essays to A New Literary History of America and The Comics of Chris Ware: Drawing is a Way of Thinking. She previously taught at George Mason University, George Washington University and the Corcoran College of Art, and held fellowships at the National Portrait Gallery and the Library of Congress. 

She received her PhD in Art History from the University of Delaware; her MA in Art History from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her BA in English Literature and Art History from Trinity College.

Whitney Sherman
Founding Director Emerita

Trained as a photographer, having worked as an art director, publications designer, and VP/Creative Director, Whitney Sherman served as undergraduate Chair of Illustration at MICA for 10 years.

She was Co-Director of Dolphin Press & Print @ MICA for 17 years, is proprietor of Whitney Sherman Illustration, and partner in Pbody Dsign producing limited edition illustrated home goods. Her award-winning illustrations have received recognition from the Society of Illustrators/NY; American Illustration; Communication Arts; Print Regional Design; Print Casebooks and others. Her Breast Cancer Research stamp is the first semi-postal issue and the longest running USPS issue in history raising over $100 million for research so far. She conducts lectures and workshops internationally, and served as President of ICON5, the national illustration conference.

She is associate editor and contributing author of the History of Illustration, and the author of Playing with Sketches, which has been translated into Chinese, Korean, German and Russian. In 2020, she was awarded the Distinguished Educator in the Arts from the Society of Illustrators/NY. She is an avid collector of vintage ceramics, miniatures and odd material culture. She shares her home with her husband Paul and tuxedo cat Shelby.

whitneysherman.com
pbodydsign.com

@pbodydsign + @whitneysherman