Staff
Lynn Sperring, Executive Director, Career Development
Lynn Sperring joins us as Executive Director for the Joseph Myerhoff Center for Career Development. Lynn has more than 16 years experience in career counseling in art and design school settings, as well as a decade of career department management. She is committed to partnering with MICA's academics to serve the unique needs of students and alumni from each program of study.
Lynn is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), whose background in mental health lends the perspective of leading and empowering with empathy. She has contribute to professional organizations including the coordination of the AICAD multi-school virtual career fair during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and she has also participated in multiple National Career Development Association conference, completing continuing education to stay current in best practices as an LPC with focus on career development.
Lynn enjoys traveling, practicing Spanish, creating mixed media art, swimming, and hiking. She lives in Bel Air, MD with her husband, 2 boys, and multiple pets.
Lehna Huie, Mount Royal College of Art ’21, Assistant Director, Career Counselor | lehnahuie.com
Schedule an appointment with Lehna on Calendly
Lehna is an alum of Mount Royal's Interdisciplinary Arts program at the Maryland Institute College of Art '21 where she also studied at the Hoffberger School of Painting.
In 2023, Lehna was a participant of Elsewhere Studio Residency and Museum of Contemporary African Diaspora Art and Asian American Alliance-Bandung Residency. In 2022 Lehna was named Artist Changemaker with Global Fund for Women and was an Inaugural resident of Stoneleaf Retreat Art Mamas Residency. That same year, she represented the USA in the Hague Contemporary Art Fair at Quartair Gallery in The Netherlands.
Lehna has received multiple awards including the Space for Creative Black Imagination Makers & Research Fellowship and Artist Changemaker Award with Global Fund for Women. Trained through the Joan Mitchell Foundation, her practice includes work as a legacy specialist, preserving intergenerational artist archives and oral histories.
Stacy Stube, Director, Creative Entrepreneurship
Schedule an Appointment with Stacy on Calendly
Stacy Stube (she/her) has been working in the luxury fashion and manufacturing sector between the USA, Europe, and Asia for over 20-years. Stube holds a masters from the University of the Arts London in Fashion Entrepreneurship which was completed in a joint New Creative Ventures program with London Business School.
For the past five years, the social impact-driven entrepreneur has worked to revive what is left of Baltimore's garment industry through SEW BROMO, a global fashion trade school.
Stube is inspired to support others looking to reimagine industries through art in a way that infuses the world with an abundance of mission-driven social entrepreneurs.
Joy Weems, Program Manager, Creative Entrepreneurship
Joy Weems (she/her) is the program manager for creative entrepreneurship in the Ratcliffe Center for Creative Entrepreneurship.
Joy earned her bachelor's in marketing from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and has worked in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. Prior to this role, she worked as an executive assistant for a workforce development organization catering to underserved populations and a marketing assistant for a financial education advisory firm.
As a new MICA employee, Joy brings to her role an appreciation for the arts and a desire to connect students to valuable entrepreneurial experiences/ opportunities and vital financial knowledge. Joy is a quiet force in the office, helping to support curricular initiatives for the First Year Fellows in creative entrepreneurship and collaborating with her Ratcliffe colleagues to build out effective programming and resources for the Center.
When she's not working, Joy enjoys catching live concerts, dining out, watching sitcom reruns, staying active, thrifting, and finding fun things to do around Baltimore with her family.
Aishwarya Chandrasekar, Associate Director, Creative Entrepreneurship
Aishwarya Chandrasekar (she/her) is a multidisciplinary professional bringing together the arts, entrepreneurship, project management, and social impact. Her experiences working in non-profit organizations, entrepreneurship instruction, and as a visual and traditional artist have cultivated her ability to utilize business skills to support creative, mission-driven individuals and ventures.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and Business Management, with a minor in Neuroscience, from the University of Maryland, and a Master's degree in Social Anthropology from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her educational and research background is centered around questions of human behavior, value systems, and social entrepreneurship, with her artistic practice exploring visual representations of similar concepts through drawings, embroidery, and interpretations of kolams, a traditional South Indian art form.
Through her role at the Ratcliffe Center for Creative Entrepreneurship, Aishwarya is excited to support MICA artists and creatives in gaining entrepreneurial skills, building financial sustainability, and embarking on socially-impactful entrepreneurial journeys.
Sarah K. Benning, Assistant Director, Creative Entrepreneurship
Sarah K. Benning (she/her) is a Baltimore based artist entrepreneur focusing on hand embroidery. Working with both paint and fiber, she blurs the line between reality and imagination building complex compositions of layered color and tactile surface patterns. For over a decade, her studio has straddled the line between personal artistic practice and commercial DIY business successfully connecting her audience and customers with a deeply enriching creative outlet and love for a universally human craft. Sarah has shared her work in markets, exhibitions, and creative workshops across North America, Europe, and Chile. Her work has been featured by Martha Stewart Living, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the Washington Post, and many more domestic and international publications. She has worked with clients such as Oatly, Amaro Mentenegro, and The Crafter's Box. In 2019, Sarah's work was profiled by author Sara Barnes in the book Embroidered Life: The Art of Sarah K. Benning. Sarah is thrilled to be joining the RCCE team as Assistant Director and looks forward to the opportunity to share her experience and support community members through MICA Art Market programming.
Meagan Zink Denham ’ 05, Assistant Director, Internships
Schedule an appointment with Meagan on Calendly
For many years, Meagan Zink Denham (she/her) has supported students and alumni navigating their professional journeys through her work in MICA’s Career Development Office. She has held multiple roles in the office as its services developed and expanded to better support the changing needs of artists and designers in today’s world. As the Assistant Director for Internships, Meagan manages MICA’s for-credit internship program and MICAnetwork, a creative opportunity database and career services management system. She is a multidisciplinary artist and MICA alum from General Fine Arts. Meagan loves nurturing her ever-growing collection of plants, gardening, crocheting, and outdoor adventures.
Ingrid Nuss Pyne, Admin Coordinator
Ingrid Pyne (she/her) is the admin coordinator for the Career Development office. With a degree in art history, she started her career out at the Washington Project for the Arts, helping DC area artists find opportunities and gain better name recognition. Throughout her career she has worked in both the non-profit and for profit sectors, and brings strong communication and organizational skills to her role. Her position in the Career Development Office is a truly full circle moment, and she is looking forward to bringing her energy and passion for the arts to assist MICA students in finding rewarding pathways through their studies and beyond. In addition to her work at MICA, Ingrid is also a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and loves to exercise, read, go to gallery shows and museums, spend time outdoors, and cook. She spends her time between Columbia, MD with her husband, 2 children, and 2 dogs and Baltimore, MD with her girlfriend.
Peer Career Advisors
Our peer career advisors (PCAs) are undergraduate students who are trained in the numerous resources available to students and professional artists.
You can also schedule a virtual appointment with PCAs via Calendly. Please note PCAs do not hold Drop-in Hours May-August.