Three faculty members of the College of Arts & Media (CAM) are being honored this spring for their exemplary contributions to the college, their respective disciplines, and the students they teach.

“Institutions of higher learning measure success through the impact teaching, scholarly and creative pursuits, and service and leadership have on the lives of our students and within our communities. We, within the College of Arts & Media, are fortunate to see the impact of this work every day and to spotlight excellence where it can be witnessed,” writes Mark Rabideau, Senior Associate Dean of Faculty and Student Affairs.

CAM’s 2026 Faculty Excellence Awardees

Storm Gloor – recognized for Excellence in Teaching by a Tenure/Tenure Track Faculty Member 

Melissa Furness – recognized for Excellence in Research-Creative Work by a Tenure/Tenure Track Faculty Member 

Dina Bodaubay – recognized for Excellence in Teaching by an Instructional, Research & Clinical Faculty Member 

These three CAM faculty members will be advanced to CU Denver’s Office of the Provost for consideration in the campus-level faculty awards that are awarded each year. 

Get to Know the Awardees

Storm Gloor, MBA

Associate Professor, Music Business Program Director

Storm Gloor teaches a variety of music business classes that are of great interest to students interested in the business aspects of music and entertainment. This semester, Gloor offered the Business of Taylor Swift, Music Cities, Music and Entertainment Marketing, and the CAM Internships course. Next semester, Gloor will offer a new class: AI and the Future of Arts & Media, along with the popular The Beatles course. Gloor has been teaching at CU Denver since 2006, and witnessing students advance through their coursework and graduate, then find success in their lives is what motivates him to continue teaching.

Gloor has a reputation for being a great teacher. “If someone were to come to me and say, ‘How do I be a good teacher?’ I would tell them, ‘Be a rock star,’” Gloor explained. “We get up in front of students who come for a show. They have, say, an hour and 15 minutes with us. You have to open strong. You have to be entertaining. And you have to know that about five minutes into it, you’re going to lose them if you don’t manage your set list.” Also known for his approachable mentoring style and dedication to helping his students, Gloor says if he could grant all of his students one wish, it would be “a guarantee that their professional goals would be reached.”

Melissa Furness, MFA, MA

Professor, Art Practices Program Director

Over the past few years, painter Melissa Furness put together two major solo exhibitions—one an expansive, mid-career review at the Arvada Center that ran last summer, and the other at Kiechel Fine Art in Lincoln, Nebraska. These solo shows gave her the opportunity to “meditate” on her work, which she describes as exploring “a complex past as embedded within the present, drawing from experiences of place and site.” Furness is currently developing a new body of work which explores “patterns that repeat from the past and carry on with us into a gluttonous present where we have found that we are harming nature as well as ourselves with supposed innovation,” she says.

In CAM, Furness teaches all levels of painting and drawing as well as the Advanced Art Practices class for BFA thesis students who are creating work for their upcoming thesis exhibition in May. Furness is looking forward to taking students to study in Florence and Rome for the Painting & Drawing in Italy study abroad class in fall 2026. Having taught students at CU Denver since 2007, Furness says the unique population of students hailing from all different cultures and backgrounds creates a wonderful environment and inspires her to keep teaching. “It is an amazing thing to help provide [students] with a sense of community and belonging that will affect their lives for years to come,” she writes. Furness says if she could grant all her students one wish, it would be “the gift of more worry-free time to be creative. And by worry free, I mean support for their monetary needs, mental and physical health, as well as space.”

Dina Bodaubay, DMA

Lecturer

Dina Bodaubay teaches applied and group piano classes as well as a film scoring class. Teaching at CU Denver since 2009, Bodaubay is motivated by her students’ growth and her passion for making music. “I pass on what I’ve learned over the years and give them the tools to express themselves, and together we get excited about creating beautiful music in the classroom. Being part of my students’ artistic development is deeply rewarding,” she says. Students describe Bodaubay as being kind and invested in their musical development. “If I could grant my students one wish, it would be for them to realize their creative potential, trust their ideas, and find their voice,” Bodaubay writes.

Outside of her teaching responsibilities, Bodaubay practices the crafts of film scoring and composition. Her film scoring credits include “Womanhood: The Series” (2022), which is a comedic mini web series directed by former CAM film faculty member, Jessica McGaugh. Bodaubay also collaborated with Andrew Bateman, a CAM film faculty member, for his film “Go Down, Diller” (2025), about a security officer, Diller, who is dealing with anxiety as a single father to a teenage daughter. Bodaubay is also composing a string quartet.