Meet the Team

Annika Nelson

UC San Diego Craft Center Manager

Annika Nelson, M.A., has her Masters in Education with a focus on Dual Language Education from San Diego State University. She has worked as a professional artist, arts educator, and arts administrator for her entire career, most recently as the Director of the Department of Arts, Humanities, and Languages and Digital Arts at UC San Diego Extension.

While majoring in studio art at UC Santa Cruz, Nelson also studied at the renowned university of applied arts, Hochschule fur Angewandete Kunst in Vienna, Austria. After graduating, she turned her focus to arts education and illustration. At the Children’s Museum/Museo de los Niños in San Diego, she created and managed numerous classes and art-making activities for young people in her role as art director.

Nelson has illustrated a number of books including "Folk Wisdom of Mexico "(Chronicle Books, 1994), "Canto Familiar" (Harcourt Brace, 1995), and "Colors of Me" (Sleeping Bear Press, 2011). Her work has appeared in numerous publications for diverse companies and organizations, such as Patagonia, Elite Racing, McMillan Companies, Aesthetics Inc. and the Arthritis Foundation - San Diego Chapter. Her growing list of public art installations includes the interactive murals at Rady Children's Hospital Clinics and a sculpture series at the Tidelands Park in Coronado, California. Her latest installation includes three whimsical bicycle racks along 101 in Leucadia, California.

To contact Annika, please email anelson@ucsd.edu.

Suzanne Lussier

UC San Diego Craft Center Studio Coordinator

Before earning a Post Baccalaureate Certificate in Ceramics at the Oregon College of Art and Craft and a Masters of Fine Arts at The University of Montana, Suzanne developed an art program as a Teach for America corps member in Washington DC. During this time, she also earned Masters in Teaching from the American University, Washington DC. Her sense of curiosity, along with an interest in living abroad, brought her to Santiago, Chile where she lived, worked and traveled for two years before re-settling in California in 2016. Suzanne has served on the Board of Directors for the National Council on Education in Ceramic Arts (NCECA) and has shown her work both nationally and abroad.

To contact Suzanne, please email slussier@ucsd.edu.