Mary Beth Heffernan is Professor of Sculpture, Photography and Interdisciplinary Art at Occidental College, where she is Department Chair of Art and Art History. Heffernan earned her BFA at Boston University in 1987, where she was awarded the Kahn Career Entry Award. She earned her MFA in the Photography Program at California Institute of the Arts in 1994, and was appointed to the Fellow in the Studio program at the Whitney Independent Study Program in 1994-95. Heffernan’s social practice PPE Portrait Project to humanize the frightening protective gear worn by Ebola workers in Liberia garnered international recognition on NPR, PRI, the BBC, the Los Angeles Review of Books, CSNBC and many other outlets. The project was also featured in Tiffany Schlain’s 2015 film The Adaptable Mind. Awarded the inaugural 2016 PAC/LA Contemporary Artist Grant@ The Huntington and the 2010 COLA Individual Artist Fellowship, Heffernan’s work has also been supported by grants from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, the Durfee Foundation and Light Work. Heffernan’s art is included in numerous private and public collections, including The Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens, the Hammer Museum/Grunwald Center Collection, Light Work of Syracuse, NY, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and New York City Library. She is represented by Sloan Projects of Santa Monica. [Photo: Marc Campos]