Faculty Profiles

Professor Matthew Sage is a multimodal artist who has worked across many genres and forms; from writing poems for Rocky Mountain National Park, to collaborating as a musician and sound designer with acclaimed performance artist Pope.L at the Art Institute of Chicago, to operating an internationally acclaimed private press record label out of his basement for nearly a decade. Sage makes work interested in exploring how historical forms interact with modern technology. Schooled in classical poetry, Sage transmits his interests in fine arts and classical historicism into new technological manifolds. He has performed at the MOMAPS1 in New York, and has worked extensively with the Art Institute of Chicago as a performer and graduate ambassador. 

Adam is an accomplished director with a long history developing critically and nationally acclaimed new work. He brings credits and assistant credits at Steppenwolf, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Court Theatre, CityLit, Redtwist, The Side Project, Bristol Riverside Theatre, South Bend Civic Theatre, and leading companies across Chicago and the east coast. One of Chicago’s leading voice and dialect coaches, Adam has vocally designed nearly sixty productions in Chicago with his work praised by Chris Jones of the Chicago Tribune as “remarkable." As an arts leader, he has helped to build, shape, and support major institutions such as Bristol Riverside Theatre, Hartford Stage Company, and William Morris Endeavor. Adam previously taught at Columbia College Chicago and Northwestern University before joining NEIU. In addition to his time on campus, Adam continues to serve young artists as the head of musical theatre at Actors Training Center in Wilmette. His other interests include his wife, young son, a dog and cat, baseball, golf, crossfit, and his amazing neighborhood in Evanston. MFA-Directing, Northwestern University, BFA-Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. 

Leslie has been working as an Artist/Educator in the Midwest Region for over a decade. In addition to working on stage and screen and off, she works as a voice-over artist, audio book narrator, and amateur photographer. She is a proud member of Actors' Equity. Some regional theatres include Williamston Theatre, Tipping Point Theatre, Performance Network Theatre , The Henry Ford Museum, Metropolis Performing Arts, Idle Muse, Dandelion Theatre and Quest Theatre Ensemble.

2018-               Assistant Professor, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, Illinois

2017-2018      Visiting Instructor, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington

2010-2017      Graduate Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

2009-2010     Adjunct Professor, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

2007-2009     Instructor, Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana, Mérida, Yucatán, México
                          Colegio de Negocios Internacionales, Mérida, Yucatán, México
                          Study Abroad Instructor, Ohio University, Mérida, Yucatán, México

2005-2007     Teaching Assistant, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

Dr. Casey Holtschneider completed her PhD in social work at the University of Illinois at Chicago and joined the social work faculty of NEIU in August 2016. Dr. Holtschneider has twenty years of social work practice experience, and is the former director of an emergency shelter, transitional living program, and aftercare program for unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness in Chicago, Illinois. While in this position, she worked with a team to successfully transition the organization to a trauma-informed, youth-centered model of practice and she has received awards for her individual contributions in this process at both the state and national level. She has subsequently trained other social work professionals and organizations across the country on how to initiate and sustain similar change within their own practice context. Before coming to NEIU, Dr. Holtschneider was part of the Child Welfare Research Collaborative at the University of Illinois at Chicago, a research team examining foster care placement stability as well as services promoting successful transitions after emancipation for older youth in the child welfare system. Dr. Holtschneider’s current research focuses on improving services for young people through the implementation of intervention models that are youth-driven, evidence-guided, and grounded in anti-oppressive practice. She is also the cofounder and executive director of the LYTE Collective, a nonprofit organization supporting young people experiencing poverty and homelessness in Chicago, IL. Dr. Holtschneider teaches in both the BSW and MSW programs with a focus on policy and practice courses. 

Dr. Aguado earned a Ph.D. in Social Work from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a bilingual/bicultural clinical social worker with more than 15 years of practice and research experience in the field of HIV/AIDS. Her research interests focus on the social and cultural determinants of sexual health and retention in HIV care.

 G. "Max" Maxin IV works also a freelance theatrical designer in Chicago & is one of the co-founders of Another Door Theatre Project. Favorite Design Credits include: Gypsy, Little Women, Cabaret, Bare (Another Door); Urinetown (Jeff Nomination Lighting), Three Days of Rain, Next to Normal, (BoHo); The Nance, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Angry Fags, Design for Living, The Submission, Book of Merman (Pride Films & Plays); First Date (Royal George); Spamalot (Nightblue);  From These Fatal Loins, Home Before Dark  (The Ruckus), & Story of a Story (The Untold Story) (Underscore).

Dr.  Petersen was most recently heard singing the role of Mimi with Opera Columbus in their production of La bohème. She also appeared with Opera Columbus last spring in their main stage production of La Traviata as Annina.  Season 2015/2016 highlights include concert performances with several chamber orchestras throughout Utah performing concert repertoire including Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer 1915, Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas brasileiras No.5, and the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah. She has appeared as Musetta in Bay View Music Festival’s production of La bohème and in the spring of 2014, Katherine sang the role of Valencienne in the Opera Columbus OOTE production of The Merry Widow. With the Russian Opera Workshop in Philadelphia, she performed the title roles in Rachmaninoff’s Francesca di Rimini and Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet. Her other roles include Pamina, Die Zauberflöte; Micaëla, Carmen; The Mother/Sandman, Hänsel und Gretel; Una Conversa, Suor Angelica.

An active pedagogue and teacher, Katherine is currently Assistant Professor of Voice at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago where she teaches Studio Voice and Diction for Singers. She holds a DMA in Voice Performance from Ohio State University where she studied with Scott McCoy. During her time at Ohio State University, Katherine was head of the Swank Voice Lab for Research and Pedagogy and taught several courses including Voice Pedagogy and Advanced Measurement Techniques for Voice. She co-hosted the 2014 NATS Summer Intern Program and the 2015 International Voice Pedagogy Summit. Katherine’s doctoral dissertation “Russian Repertoire: Developmental Perspectives” investigates the paucity of Russian Song Repertoire in the American voice studio and recital hall. From her research, Katherine has created a repertoire selection guide and lecture recital to better acquaint singers and teachers with Russian Art Song.

In June 2017 Katherine will travel to Toronto, ON to participate in the NATS Summer Intern Program, an intensive training program that seeks to pair expert and recognized master teachers with talented young members of NATS.