Meet the New SOM Community Team

As Summer 2020 gets into full swing, we are so excited to welcome our Community Outreach Team!

Note from Joey: When School of Motion started, the goal was to create a place where anyone could come to learn the technical and creative skills needed to succeed in Motion Design. We knew that it would be important to create and run amazing classes, but we didn’t realize just how important it would be to cultivate a welcoming and vibrant community around those classes.

Last year, Brittany Wardell joined our team and has supercharged the student experience here ever since. She’s helped to create a strong vision for what our community can be like in the future, and to help her make that vision a reality, we’ve recently brought on three heavy-hitters who we’d like to introduce.

The Team

BRITTANY

Brittany, the woman who started it all! Brittany came to School of Motion after working in development for a nonprofit, handling Alumni Relations. She's also had some fun side jobs like being a Zumba instructor for three years or being a brand promoter for Dunkin’ Donuts. Every job Brittany has worked has been with companies with whom she's identified, whether it’s the mission or the culture. Brittany cares deeply about providing the best student experience possible, providing opportunities, and lifting the students and alumni up.

FRANK

Cuban-born Motion Designer Frank Suarez has been with School of Motion since 2018 as a Teaching Assistant in many of the courses. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from Miami International University of Art and Design, earning a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Visual Effects and Motion Graphics. During the past decade, he has worked as a motion designer in-house for studios and as a freelancer. His clients have included VH1, History Channel, Oxygen, The Bible Project, Crossway. Frank has a passion for teaching and for connecting with others. He genuinely cares for students to receive the guidance that many of us could not get in the earlier days of motion design. He is “animado” (excited) to contribute full time to making School of Motion a great place for students to launch their motion graphics career.

ELLA

Ella Matutis-Degal is SUPER excited to be a part of the team! She’s a well-rounded customer advocate with over 6 years of experience in customer support and customer success roles at fashion and ed-tech startups. As a recovering performer and singer who used to perform in front of large audiences, her purpose was to support and connect with people. Interestingly enough, she’s ecstatic to do the same, here, at School of Motion! She’s passionate about empowering others to be their best selves, helping them achieve their goals and have an overall positive learning experience!

KYLE

Kyle Hamrick has been orbiting School of Motion for a few years as a student, multi-course TA and content contributor. He is extremely excited to now have the opportunity to put all his attention into collaborating with this talented team. After a decade of running his own small studio as an Emmy-winning motion designer & video editor, Kyle has lately been spending more time focusing on in-person and online teaching appearances, answering technical questions, and looking for ways to elevate the motion design community as a whole. He’s happy to have found a way to utilize these pursuits (and his love for After Effects puns) by engaging and working with the mograph community at School of Motion.

Why we are investing in our community

School of Motion is investing in this team so that we may provide our community with more opportunities to connect with one another. Each of these team members bring a unique combination of experience and passion to create new programs aligned with our initiatives that are fully focused on strengthening the motion design community as a whole. We are here to listen, to help and to learn.

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