RTF Staff

Administrative Manager

E-mail: rachel.walker@austin.utexas.edu
Office: CMA 6.120D
Phone: 512-471-4058

Rachel Walker assists the Department Chair, managing all of the administrative functions of the Department. She is responsible for the instructional budget, course scheduling, human resource management, department scholarships and internships, faculty promotion and award nominations, and miscellaneous projects of all kinds. Rachel also works closely with the communications coordinator to develop department publications and large-scale events and acts as a liaison with the College's academic advisors for academic planning and course management.

Rachel earned her B.A. in English from the University of Texas. An avid music fan, she can often be found in the front row of a live show around Austin. She lives in a log cabin east of town and loves fussing over her chickens, ducks, cats, sheep, honeybees and Great Pyrenees dogs.

Financial Analyst

E-mail: Wendy.stuessy@austin.utexas.edu
Office: CMA 6.120B
Phone: 512-471-4136

Wendy serves as a full-time accountant and purchaser for all the department accounts.

Office Manager

E-mail: marisela.campos@austin.utexas.edu
Office: CMA 6.120
Hours: M-F 8 am - 5 pm
Phone: 512-471-4191

As RTF's office manager, Marisela Campos serves as the first point of contact with students, faculty, visitors, and the general public, responding to inquiries via department phones, email, and walk-in traffic. For RTF students, she helps them find campus filming locations and obtain production insurance, and she manages the student engagement website/social media pages. For faculty, she provides support with obtaining room keys and business cards and organizing calendars, course instructor surveys, grade reporting, and peer teaching reviews. RTF's physical space is her domain as well, as she manages room reservations, furniture requests, office equipment maintenance, and supply orders.

Marisela recently received her B.S. with High Honors from the University of Texas at Austin RTF program in Spring 2019, where she focused on producing. Some of her producing credits include short films, The Adventures of… from director Sophia Loffreda, and The 11th Order from director Joshua DeFour. She is excited to be part of the department and hopes her unique perspective as a recent graduate allows her to connect and support faculty, staff, and students.

Media Librarian/Administrative Assistant

E-mail: Lee.Sparks@austin.utexas.edu
Office: CMA 6.168
Hours: M-F 10 am-4 pm
Phone: 471.1906

Lee, a 1997 Summa Cum Laude graduate of RTF, has served as the RTF Media Librarian since 1998. In addition to serving the RTF Graduate and Faculty communities, he coordinates RTF film and video class screenings and is the RTF Media Library purchasing agent. Lee also manages faculty travel, visiting speaker arrangements, reimbursements, pro card purchases, and vendor payments.

Recreationally, Lee is an avid consumer of American comic books and hates the pretentious term 'graphic novel.' When not enjoying genre films from other countries, he cleans up after his cats.

Senior Programs & Communications Coordinator

E-mail: ewakeman@austin.utexas.edu
Office: CMA 6.104
Phone: 512-471-6617

Elana manages all content updates for the RTF website, coordinates department-sponsored summer camps and workshops, manages social media outreach, coordinates the Longhorn Denius showcase and other RTF initiatives, and produces promotional materials for departmental events.

RTF feels like home to her: she has a background in film and worked in the industry in various roles after earning her M.F.A. in film production from Florida State University. She also holds a B.A. in English, with a concentration in film studies, from Duke University.

Before coming to the department in August of 2012, she worked as Publications Manager at UT's Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk. In her spare time, she has been studying Hakomi, a form of mindfulness-based psychotherapy; raising her energetic son; and helping her hard-working husband with his brewery, Orf Brewing.

Graduate Coordinator

E-mail: stacybrodie@austin.utexas.edu
Office: CMA 6.116
Phone: 512-471-3532

Stacy administers the four graduate programs in Radio Television Film; MFA in Film Production, MFA in Screenwriting, MA in Media Studies and PhD in Media Studies. She is the first point of contact for prospective students seeking information about the programs and admission procedures. Additionally, she assists students as they navigate their degree requirements and connects them with campus resources to ensure their academic success and well-being. She manages student records, tracks student progress, coordinates student employment, processes scholarships and travel awards, oversees registration, plans events for the various program cohorts, addresses students concerns and keeps students informed about the Graduate School’s policies and procedures. She works closely with the Graduate Advisors and with the Media Studies, Production, and Screenwriting area heads on matters related to student fellowships, admissions and recruitment, student professional development and student year-end reviews.

Prior to joining RTF, Stacy served as the longtime Graduate Coordinator in the College of Fine Arts. Before moving to Texas, she was head of bookings and manager for the multi Grammy Award winning Magic Shop Recording Studio in New York. During this time she coordinated many historical restoration projects for the studio such as the Alan Lomax in Haiti box set, Rolling Stones’ Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!, Newport Folk Jazz and Film Festival and Dischord Records; and booked clients such as Roger Waters, Arcade Fire, Burning Spear, Kurt Vile, Norah Jones for live sessions. She also served as the Studio Manager for Soundtoys, where she provided sales support to many music and film industry clients including George Martin and Skywalker Sound, and planned showcase events at the NAAM and AES trade shows. She is a member of the NAGAP, The Association for Graduate Enrollment Management and WAM, Women’s Audio Mission. She graduated from New York University.

Administrative Associate

E-mail: bert.herigstad@austin.utexas.edu
Office: CMA 6.120
Hours: on leave for September; 10 hours a week, beginning in October

Before retiring (August 2019), Bert was the full-time office manager for the Department of Radio-Television-Film since the fall of 1997. He has been assisting the office staff part-time since October. Bert is most proud of meeting a troubled student or faculty member and leaving them with hope.