WRITTEN BY SPENCER WINDES

We don’t always end up where we thought we would in life. This is true of alumni in all kinds of study. While some people employ their studies directly in their career, many end up working in a field that has nothing to do with what they learned in college. Or at least that’s how it can appear.

An arts education can mean working in the arts, and it can also mean using your education in unexpected ways. Earlier this year, we asked our alumni to tell us what they are up to — not just what shows they are rehearsing, what recitals they are preparing, what pieces they are creating, but how they are applying their arts education in whatever work they’ve taken up. Here are a few stories of the work our alumni are doing, both in and out of the arts.

Jed Workman flies helicopters in Alaska for a living, but the photos he takes are used to study avalanches.

Jed Workman (Art & Art History BFA ‘98) is a perfect example of this. While getting his BFA in the ‘90s, he also spent a lot of time on the nearby ski slopes. After graduating, Jed headed off to Alaska, where he now runs a helicopter skiing operation, Valdez Heli Ski Guides. How is he putting his art study to work? Jed focused on photography in his studies and he uses those skills in his business.

“This job and my photography are the culmination of studying and skiing in Salt Lake City. I have been using photography to document avalanches which have appeared in ‘The Avalanche Review’, the publication of the American Avalanche Association that promotes avalanche safety.”

Jed’s partner Leighan Falley is also an artist, a painter who uses Jed’s photographs as a frequent subject. They recently held a joint art show of painting and photography together. Art is woven into Jed’s life while he makes a living by helping people access some of the remotest wilds in America.

Live performance is a major employer of arts grads, but not always in the ways students may have planned. Bella Dixon (Theatre BFA ’25) came up through the Department of Theatre’s Stage Management program, but rather than run a traditional theatre, she’s just taken a job working at a ballet company in Philadelphia, Ballet X. “Dance has always been a huge part of my life,” Bella explained. “I spent years dancing before I fell into stage management — shout-out to 2019’s ‘Something Rotten’ for helping me start that journey. During my time at the University of Utah, I made it a priority to stay connected to the art form however I could. From working with Ballet West, Ririe-Woodbury, and the U’s School of Dance, just to name a few. Now, with this move, I’m facing a big change. I sent out over 300 applications in search of the right fit. Many went unanswered, but this one didn’t, and I’m truly happy to be joining BalletX. Getting the opportunity to work with such a spectacular company less than a year after graduating with my BFA feels surreal. It’s frightening, it’s exciting, and it feels like a leap worth taking.”

Bella’s not the only stage management alum to end up in ballet — Liz Wiand (Theatre BFA ’23) is doing so close to home as the Stage Manager and Production Operations Coordinator at Ballet West in Salt Lake City. And Bella won’t be the only U arts grad in the City of Brotherly Love either. Max VanNocken-Witmer (Dance BFA ’25) is now a stage manager at the Philly Fringe Festival.

Several grads have ended up plying their trades on the high seas. Laney Marsella (Theatre BFA ’21) is a Production Stage Manager for Virgin Voyages, leading a team of technicians and performers aboard a luxury cruise line. She’s not the only one afloat: Chloe McLean (Theatre BFA ‘23) is currently a vocalist with Princess Cruises, Jazmin Viquez Delgado (Theatre BFA ’24) is a performer on Disney Cruises, Abby Davis (Theatre BFA ’22) works with Oceania, and Sydney Stephan (Theatre BFA ’21) with Holland America.

Back on solid land, John Michael Peterson (Theatre BFA ’18) is in the national tour of “The Outsiders,” and Alexis Lilley (Theatre BFA ’22) is doing the same with “Back To the Future,” while Erin Diehl (Dance BFA ’22) dances with a production of “The Music Man.” Brooke Heubner (Dance BFA ’18) has performed more than 1400 shows at “Excalibur” on the Las Vegas strip, and Brian Craig Nelson (Dance BFA ’14) is performing in Can Can’s "Ooh La La!" at the New Paris Theatre in Portland, OR.

All of these performers might end up in scenes built by a squad of Theatre-alumni prop builders, including Elizabeth Webb (Theatre BFA ’24), Erin Murphy (Theatre BFA ’22) or Mae Hinton-Godfrey (Theatre BFA ’25).

In addition to her work with the Sphinx Organization, Olivia Custodio and fellow alum Kelsie Jepsen created the hit show “Welcome to Fat School.”

David Meikle’s work is sold in galleries across the Southwest, as well as being featured in “Asteroid City” by Wes Anderson.

Sometimes working in the arts means doing the indirect work that makes art happen. Claudia Restrepo (Music DMA ‘18) was recently granted tenure as Assistant Principal Librarian with the New York Philharmonic. Larissa Trout (Dance BFA ’02) may have a modern dance degree, but she works in the arts now through nonprofit management — in March 2025, she was appointed Executive Director of Spy Hop, a Salt Lake City–based organization that serves young people ages 8–25 through mentorship and training in film, music, audio, and design.

Rachel Gates (Dance BFA ’10) followed the nonprofit path as well, as Program Director of the Alabama Dance Council. Katherine Eppink (Dance BFA ’14) not only works as a Principal Dancer for Ballet Vero Beach in Vero Beach, Florida, she also serves as Ballet Vero Beach's Director of Marketing. David Meikle (Art & Art History BFA ’94, MFA ’06) didn’t go far from home; he’s a celebrated art director right here at the U. He’s also a successful working artist with work featured in Wes Anderson’s film “Asteroid City.” And while Ron Allen (Art & Art History MA ’04) may be retired, he still contributes by helping to organize the largest gallery tour in Santa Fe, NM.

Alex Bowden (Theatre BFA ’19) makes her mark as a Resident Stage Manager at the Teatro Zinzanni in Chicago. Fusing circus arts, cabaret, and fine dining, the show demands razor-sharp coordination and an adventurous spirit — qualities Alex brings in spades.

Olivia Custodio (MM ’14) does her nonprofit work for the Sphinx Organization — focused on increasing representation in classical music and celebrating excellence, Sphinx programs serve beginner students, seasoned classical music professionals, cultural entrepreneurs, and artistic administrators by addressing the systemic lack of access within Black and Latino communities. While she’s helping to fund the arts, Olivia is still making plenty of it herself — she works with the Salt Lake Acting Company on their popular summer show, sings with the Salt Lake Symphony, and recently starred in a show she created with fellow U alum Kelsie Jepsen (Theatre BFA ‘06) called Welcome to Fat School.

Elli Legerski was nominated for an Oscar for her short film, “Jane Austin’s Period Drama.”

Alums Abby Ellis and Beth Kearsley worked on “The Lake,” a documentary about the fate of the Great Salt Lake that was a hit at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

Rick Page works as a Director of Photography on the Utah-filmed horror movie “Slay Day,” set for release in 2027/on the sitcom “The Paper.”  Paper photo, credit John P. Fleenor

Chad Pinckney uses his art BFA to design movie posters, including for 2026’s thriller “By His Hand.”

Art is everywhere, and Chad Pinckney (BFA ’17) has found his niche making it for Hollywood. A 2017 grad in graphic design, Chad’s specialty is making movie posters — he’s designed artwork for movies including “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and many more. He has his own design firm now that specializes in independent films, including many coming out of Utah.

Chad isn’t the only Utah grad working in Hollywood. Elli Legerski (Film & Media Arts BA ’12) has put her film degree to work quite directly as a film producer. In 2025, she produced the Oscar-nominated short film “Jane Austin’s Period Drama.” She’s not the only grad with a career directly tied to the film industry. Abby Ellis (Film & Media Arts BA ’11) was just at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival with the documentary she directed, “The Lake,” which also featured alum Beth Kearsley (Film & Media Arts HBA '21) as Assistant Editor. Distinguished Alumni Rick Page (Film Studies BA ‘94) works as a director of photography, currently shooting season 2 of the comedy series “The Paper.”

Jordan Overman (Film & Media Arts BA, Spanish BA, ’10) is working on the technical side of things, running OVERRIDE, a specialty camera company focusing on drones, arm cars, gimbals, and robots.

Every year, College of Fine Arts graduates pass on their skills, techniques, and knowledge to others. In addition to working as a dancer and choreographer, Vixy Rader (Dance BFA ’16) teaches dance to K-12 students at the Waterford Dance Academy. Elle Johansen (Dance BFA ’15) is the new owner of her own dance studio, Artistic Endeavors Dance in Millcreek. Shayla Bott (Dance MFA ’06) continues to add to Utah’s dance culture as a professor of ballet at BYU, and Jessica Baynes (Dance BFA ‘19) is teaching at The Dance Academy of Southern California. She recently graduated with her Master of Education with emphasis in Arts & Learning and Human Development from Harvard University and is currently working towards her Dance Performance MFA ‘27 from the Trinity Laban Performing Arts School. Candido Jessee Abeyta (Music BA ‘19, MM ’22), in addition to studio and live work as a saxophonist with bands like Neon Trees, teaches music at Hawthorne Academy in West Jordan, UT. Kaitlyn Crosby (Theatre BFA ’24) is now a Graduate Teaching Associate at The Ohio State University, and Lauren Carn (Theatre BFA ’25) instructs the talented kids at the Salt Lake Arts Academy.

Derek Myler (Music BMus ’18) who is on the tenure track as an Assistant Professor of Music Theory at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC, recently produced a research video about music in the children’s television series “Bluey!”

Haley Parsons ran off to France, where she works as a performer at Disneyland Paris.

Jordan Tolman performs as a vocalist and pianist with the United States Marine Corps Fleet Bands. Here he performs in France.

Marie Degan Erickson created a new form of dog training called “Bond Weaving.”

Jessica Liu dances with Nationaltheater Mannheim in Germany.

Of course, some arts grads are doing things that sound cool as hell. Mykenna Maxfield (Art & Art History BFA ’24) puts her degree to work every day as a tattoo artist. Haley Kathleen Parsons (Dance BFA ’24) ran off to Paris to perform as a character at Euro Disneyland. Meghan Gibson (Theatre BFA ’23) has also headed out for Europe, starting her own business as a wedding and elopement photographer in Edinburgh, Scotland. Nikayla Nielson (Theatre BFA ’24) is spending the summer in France after being awarded a Chateau d'Orquevaux Artist Residency, and Jessica Liu (Dance BFA ’19) is a dancer with Nationaltheater Mannheim in Germany. Jordan Tolman (Music BMU ‘21) performs in Europe as well, but he performs pretty much everywhere with the Marine Corps Fleet Bands.

Alison Hagen (Theatre BFA ’24) gives Taylor Swift-inspired tours of New York City. Emily Beatse (Theatre BFA ’21) manages a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas. Macey Mott (Theatre BA ’98) works as a travel agent, but she also recently completed her intimacy direction certification training. And Marie Degan Erickson (Theatre BFA ’19) hosts the podcast “Bark, Book & Broomstick,” discussing the intersection of dog training and witchcraft!

It’s not always A to Z with an arts degree. Lots of arts grads go immediately to work in their field of study. Others might work in the arts, but in a capacity they didn’t anticipate. Some take their arts training to work with them in fields far from traditional artistic endeavors. Some save their muse for their off hours.

In the rapidly changing world we live in, there’s something timeless about the arts. Entire fields of work are disappearing and new ones are being born. But those who learn to master a craft, to put on a show, to execute a vision, will always have a leg up in the world. They may end up doing what they dreamed of doing when they found their way to art school. Or they may not. But whatever they do, they can bring that education to bear in their work, their lives, and their community. CFA grads do that every day.