Mary Anne Funk on Route 66 during her move from Virginia to Portland, Oregon. Photo by Mark Funk
Mary Anne Funk
Job Title: Instructor
Departments: Multimedia and Community Education
Department Websites: https://www.pcc.edu/programs/multimedia https://www.pcc.edu/community
Phone: 971-722-3298
Email: mary.funk@pcc.edu
Office Hours: By appointment only. To schedule a meeting, use my calendly link at: https://calendly.com/mary-funk-pcc/office-hours Office hours change quarterly.
I have learned in life that each moment is a moment in the bigger picture of our journey.
Through the experiences I have had and the different paths they took me on, I learned to look at every turn as an opportunity to learn, to create and to grow.
Teaching is my heart-work and creating a student centric learning environment is very important to me. From the time that I was in 5th grade, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. At that time, I wanted to be a physical education teacher. It was my pathway up until I was a senior in high school when I aged out of foster care and had to make different choices for myself.
I didn’t know then, how many different paths my life would take me before coming full circle and ending up doing what I was most passionate about doing, teaching, albeit teaching something completing different.
Teaching Philosophy:
- Create content that puts accessibility at the forefront of the design.
- I am working on a balance of information and lessons that are taught in a way that takes into consideration the different learning abilities that everyone has.
- Accessibility is very important to me. Please let me know at any point in the class if there is anything more that I can do to make my course content and lessons more accessible for you.
- Provide a student-centric learning environment to provide a space where your interests and goals are brought into our lesson plan.
- Provide a space for students to discover what types of projects they are most passionate about.
- Teach the importance of storytelling in our everyday lives.
- Provide a space where we have interactive discussions that lead to expanding our knowledge of the impact that media representations and digital media content have on our everyday lives and how this knowledge applies to the work we produce.
- Teach the importance of accessibility in media.
My Path at PCC
I started teaching at PCC in the Multimedia Department in the Fall of 2020. My first course was the Writing For Multimedia class. Since then, in the Multimedia program, I’ve taught: Intro to Multimedia, Interactive Storytelling, Podcasting, Digital Media Foundations and now this Online class that you are in, Advance Multimedia Project Development. I also teach classes in the Community Education Department.
I was first introduced to PCC, in 2018, by one of our long time instructors, Seth Bloombaum. I met Seth at a 360
video workshop we were both taking at NW Documentary on SE 3rd Avenue in Portland, Oregon. At the time, I was working on getting my graduate degree in Multimedia Journalism at the University of Oregon in Old Town Portland. I was just getting started in immersive storytelling, after being introduced to this methodology in a class at the University of Oregon.
In July of 2019, I ran into Seth again at a Design Reality meet-up. We spoke about the work he was doing to introduce immersive media into the Multimedia Department at PCC and I spoke to him about the work I was doing with immersive audio. Our conversation progressed into us discussing my desire to teach a class at PCC. Which, as you know, is what I’m doing now.
Education:
B. A . Mass Communications with a minor in Anthropology at Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho
M.S. Multimedia Journalism at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism, Portland, Oregon
Areas of Expertise
Photography / Photojournalism / Visual Anthropology / Audio Storytelling / Interactive Storytelling
Mary Anne Funk has a background in Photojournalism, Visual Anthropology, and Multimedia Journalism. Her core focus is on documenting the lived experience of individuals living in poverty, housing insecurity, and living with chronic illness.
In my personal work as a documentary storyteller, my passion is about getting to the heart of who someone is, understanding why we end up where we do and documenting the human condition and perseverance with an understanding that we are more than just a single moment in time. It is in every piece of work that I do.
My core focus is on documenting the lived experience of individuals living in poverty, housing insecurity and living with chronic illness.
Every story has been told from the individual’s lived experience and a collaboration between myself as a storyteller/ethnographer and the individuals and organizations sharing their story.
I was born and raised in Upstate NY with the majority of my childhood life growing up in foster-care and poverty. My birth mother suffered from severe depression that often left her incapable of caring for us. My mother also suffered from multiple heath issues.
I feel that my personal life experiences have lead me down this path and provided a trust and bond with everyone who has shared their story with me.