The Team

Dr. Laquana Cooke

Director of iCamp

Dr. Laquana Cooke is a Professor of Digital Rhetoric at WCU. She is a digital media scholar, instructor and designer whose work has been exhibited and presented at national conferences and game expositions. She has over 20 years of experience in developing and facilitating media and STEAM-based programs for nonprofits, secondary, and higher education sectors.

Digital Storytelling

Dr. Jeremy C. McCool is an Assistant Professor of Digital/Global Media. McCool has a background working as a radio personality and has taught several courses at both IUP and West Chester University including Media Technology, Radio Production, Public Speaking, Introduction to Communications, Media, and Culture, and a course he developed called Digital Storytelling. McCool’s research and writing revolve around media representation and socially conscious hip-hop messaging. He is also a children’s book author. 

Dr. Randall Cream

Game Development

Brought to WCU with expertise in Digital Humanities and New Media, Cream has studied games for much of his career, designing and developing the Humanities Gaming Institute: Serious Games for Research and Pedagogy.

Video Production

Niger Miles is a Director of Photography and Colorist and Executive Director of Storymarq Productions where he is the creative powerhouse with a highly technical and mastered skill set, from creative direction, comprehensive branding and design, to the full range of video creation, from filming, lighting and directing to all stages of post production and finishing. He is based in Brooklyn, NY.

Digital Journalism

Earl Hopkins is an award-winning arts and culture reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer, focusing on the institutions, trends, and trailblazers shaping the city. Before landing at The Inquirer, Earl wrote for the Austin American-Statesman and The Columbus Dispatch. His podcast Outside The Margins, focuses on pop culture, with interviews of hip-hop artists, athletes, and comedians, and entertainers. Earl is an active member of the NABJ and Society of Professional Journalists. 

Dyan Neary

Audio Podcasting

Dyan Neary is a writer, investigative reporter, and professor from New York City. Her feature stories and essays have appeared in New York Magazine, ElleThe New York TimesNPRThe New York Review of Books, Writer’s Digest, and elsewhere with a focus on mass incarceration, child welfare, and health and medicine. Most recently, she was the writer, reporter, and host of the Serial/New York Times podcast series “The Preventionist”, which launched in October 2025. She is an associate professor of journalism at West Chester University of PA, where she serves as faculty advisor to its award-winning campus newspaper, The Quad. She has also taught creative writing in correctional facilities, and created WCU’s first Inside Out journalism course at Chester County Prison, which she will teach in Fall 2026.

Dr. Michael Burns

College Readiness & Climate Manager

Dr. Michael Burns is an Associate Professor of English with specialization in Composition/Rhetoric and African American Rhetoric(s). Since 2023, he has served as the Chair of the English Department. In his spare time, he edits kernel objects for his sons’ Linux machines.