Meet Our Instructors
Dani Bowman
MBA Global Strategy & Leadership, BFA Animation
Dani, who is on the autism spectrum founded her company, DaniMation Entertainment, at age 11, and has been working professionally since she was 14 and started teaching animation summer camps at age 15.
Dani has gone on to graduate from Woodbury University with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts (BFA) magna cum laude in Animation in 2018 and Master’s of Business Administration summa cum laude in Global Strategy and Leadership in 2020.
She presented both her junior and senior thesis animated shorts at San Diego Comic-Con. Dani is currently working on getting a PhD in Psychology focusing on autism with her research thesis based upon quantifying the impact on her students from her past 10 years of peer teaching.
Brenna Verner
AA Computer Art and Animation, AS Animation and Game Art, BFA in Film and Video
Brenna Verner teaches character design and computer animation to students with and without disabilities ranging in age from 6-22 using industry standard software such as Toon Boom Harmony.
She graduated magna cum laude from Florida Atlantic University where she earned her B.F.A. in Film, Video, and New Media. She also earned an A.A degree in Computers Arts and Animation and an A.S. degree in Game Art and Animation from Miami Dade College with highest honors as well.
Chris Castillo
BFA Animation
Chris is an animator, character designer and story artist. He has a BFA in Animation from Woodbury University from Burbank, CA and has more than 3 years of experience in teaching animation to young children and young adults on the autism spectrum.
Since 4 years old drawing with his etch n’ sketch art, cartoons were always huge facets of his life. As long as he can remember in school, Chris was always your typical best artist in the classroom. Disney films like “Beauty and The Beast” and the “The Lion King” fascinated him growing up along with non-Disney films like “An American Tail”. More importantly, he was interested in watching the behind the scenes content that took him through the process of creating an entire film. The art and amount of drawing completely captured Chris’s attention through his high school and early college years.