Members of the Executive Board include nine officers: President, First Vice-President, Second Vice-President, Treasurer, Public Information Officer, Conference Chair, Immediate Past President, BIPOC Caucus Representative, Registration and Membership Coordinator, and Student Caucus Representative.
Other positions are are appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Executive Board. You can find Other IAFA Officials here. Prequisites received by board members, other officers, as well as division heads associated with the conferences are listed here.
PresidentDavid Higgins Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, FL, USA |
First Vice-PresidentNovella Brooks de Vita
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Second Vice-PresidentCarrie J. Cole
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TreasurerSean Nixon iafa.treasurer@fantastic-arts.org
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Public Information Officer |
Virtual Conference DirectorOghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki
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Immediate Past PresidentDale Knickerbocker iafa.pastpres@fantastic-arts.org
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BIPOC Caucus RepresentativeJoy Sanchez-TaylorLaGuardia Community College, New York City, New York, USA
Joy Sanchez-Taylor is a Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY) whose research specialty is intersections between science fiction, fantasy, and critical race studies. Her book Diverse Futures: Science Fiction and Authors of Color (2021) examines the contributions of late twentieth and twenty-first century U.S. and Canadian science fiction authors of color to the genre. She is currently working on a book forthcoming from Ohio State University Press in July 2025 titled Dispelling Fantasies: Authors of Color Reimagine a Genre.
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Student Caucus RepresentativeAylin Walder iafa.studentcaucus@fantastic-arts.org
Aylin Dilek Walder (she/her) is a research assistant and lecturer at the University of Cologne (Germany). Her research focuses on speculative fiction in film studies, queer studies as well as in ecocriticism and postcolonial studies. She has published on cultural appropriation, (Polish) fantasy and the ecoGothic. Her work has appeared in edited volumes such as The Palgrave Handbook of Global Fantasy. She is co-editor for the annual proceedings of the Inklings Society e.V. and an assistant editor for Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies. |
Novella Brooks de Vita has adored her involvement with ICFA since she first attended the conference in 2008. She is currently at the fairly-end-stages of her Ed.D. in Curriculum & Instruction and Higher Education Administration while adjunct teaching developmental reading and writing at Houston Community College. Novella has made extensive presentations on literature including comics, film, theatre, literacy, and pedagogy. Her published book scholarly chapter and essays include "Wiz Kids: An Exploration of Pedagogy in the World of Harry Potter” in Palgrave-Macmillan’s Teaching and Learning on Screen: Mediated Pedagogies, “Made into Nothing: Surviving Multifaceted Vulnerability” in The Maroon, “’You Have Forever Changed My Life’: The Need for Academic Rigor in Teaching Humanities in a Global Society” in Humanities Bulletin, and "African American College Preparation through Reading in Secondary Schools," "Beloved and Betrayed: Survival and Authority in Kindred" and "Abiku Babies: Spirit Children and Human Bonding” in The Griot. In addition to scholarly publications, Novella has published poetry in the Guild Press anthologies Forced from the Garden: Poetry and Short Prose by Women, Full Circle Twenty-Two and Full Circle Twenty-Three. Her previously published short fiction includes the speculative "Cacie's Prism" in Love and Darker Passions and horror-sci fi "My Bogeyman" in Tales in Firelight and Shadow, anthologies published by Double Dragon. In addition to administrative educational support roles as a graduate student for TSU’s Student Academic Support Services and the Thurgood Marshall School of Law’s Center for Legal Pedagogy and behind-the-scenes work in various creative productions throughout the years, Novella has engaged in research, planning, logistics, outreach, and event management for a range of scholarly and creative engagements, including Texas Southern University’s “Incarceration Patterns of African and Latino America” conference, “Addressing the Tex-Book Controversy” community forum with Texas State Representatives, “Identity Crisis/ Mission Statement: Are We an Urban Learning University?” faculty symposium, Before They Die! documentary screenings and panel, “A Discussion of the DREAM Act with Gaby Pacheco,” a Gloria Rolando film festival featuring the Cuban filmmaker at TSU, as well as planning and producing Mystery Monday Movies, Knit Wits, Kitchen Capers Readers’ Circle, River Park Riverside Shakespeare Workshop, Youth Arts Festival, Wabruda Hidden History Quiz Bowl, Dance Dance Revolution Branch Tournament, Dead Man’s Chest Pirate Party, a Fruits Basket program, and AniméAfternoon while working in a county library system. Novella has worked on making experiences accessible and relevant to those she has served in previous roles and hopes to support such goals' success in her current role.
Sean Nixon holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado where he currently works as a researcher in nonlinear waves and optics. Research topics range from topological insulators and parity-time symmetry to perturbation theory and asymptotic techniques. Beyond his scientific work, Sean is also the author of several semi-academic articles that explore the connections between math and pop culture such as "Fractal Characterization in Pixar's Inside Out" and "The Rick-est Rick, the Multiverse, and P-hacking". Sean is the artist of the webcomic Hollow Oak University, the author of short plays performed at the Paragon Play Festival (and at ICFA), and long-time ICFA attendees may be vaguely aware of his presence as the conference A/V monkey from 2010-2021.
Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki is an African speculative fiction writer, editor and publisher from Nigeria. He has won the Nebula, Otherwise, Nommo, Locus, Asimov reader's award, British and World Fantasy awards and is a multiple Hugo, Sturgeon, British Science Fiction,
Dale Knickerbocker is Linda E. McMahon Distinguished Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures at East Carolina University, where he teaches Hispanic languages, literatures, and cultures. He is an associate editor of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts and Alambique, and a member of the editorial advisory boards of Extrapolation, Brumal (Spain), and Abusões (Brazil).
Registration and Membership Coordinator
