Anna Marie Piersimoni is a digital media specialist who currently teaches entertainment media at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) in the Cinema TV Arts Department and at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln (UNL) Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Art. Her courses range from lecture classes such as “New Directions in Digital Media” and “Media and “Society” (criticism and theory) to hands-on introductory production classes in digital filmmaking at CSUN. AT UNL she teaches narrative storytelling and has taught StoryLab and other innovative project-based course in development of story within cross-platform “proof of concept” projects. She holds a BFA from The Hartford Art School in Hartford, Connecticut and an MA in Media Psychology from Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA.

Formerly, as a television writer and producer for broadcast network, cable, and public television, Anna Marie Piersimoni worked for ABC Entertainment, KCET Los Angeles, and E! Entertainment Television. Earlier, she was active in the areas of independent film and video arts and founded and/or managed several non-profit organizations, including IMAGE Film & Video in Atlanta, where she ran the Atlanta Independent Film and Video Festival. In a decade-long position as Director of Internet Communications, Media & Technology for the American Film Institute, Anna Marie was responsible for all web production and Internet-based electronic publishing at AFI, including its Digital content Lab, a K-12 screen education program and new initiatives in on-line and broadband development, strategy, and marketing. She has presented as numerous industry conferences, such as NAB, SSIGGRAPH and Digital Hollywood. She is a member of the TV Academy, SAG-AFTRA and the California Faculty Association.

As a media industrial professional with experience that spans fine arts, film, broadcast television, as well as digital, online, and interactive media, her approach to teaching is informed by respect for both traditional discipline and an embrace of innovation through experimentation. In lecture and project-based courses, Anna Marie presents examples ranging from classic films and television to YouTube videos, livestreaming, projection mapping, the Metaverse, artificial intelligence and all our new realities: VR, AR, XR, Mixed R…WhateVR.