Fashion Design Program

Elena Chirkova

Adjunct Professor of Fashion

Elena Chirkova has over 25 years of experience in the fashion, modeling and TV industries. Her love for fashion started when she began sewing at age 8 and designing her own clothes at age 11. She became a professional model at age 14, and worked for years as a runway, print, TV and commercial model. At age 20 she began work as an instructor for models in Eastern Europe and California. Throughout her career Elena has worked with professional well-known European designers, learning how to work with clients and make the dress fit with the client’s personality.

Elena’s Master’s degree in Education and Bachelor’s degree in Fashion, combined with her successful career as a model, led to the foundation of Dance in Style in 1998, a design company specializing in ballroom dancewear. In 2007, Dance in Style successfully relocated from Russia to the U.S. and expanded to skate wear and rhythmic gymnastics competition costumes. Elena's creations appeared in Season 5 of "Dancing with the Stars" and a San Diego "Dancing with the Stars" event.

Elena loves to share her industry experience with the San Diego community, serving as Theatre Production Designer for many shows in the area, intern advisor at STAR Repertory Theatre in Escondido, and instructor at Carlsbad High School. She has taught costume and fashion design at Palomar College since 2015, and at JPCatholic since 2024.

Jacqueline Gold

Professor of Art

Jacqueline provides instruction in Life Drawing, Portrait Drawing and Painting and Anatomy in her San Diego studio and provides instruction with life drawing and anatomy to the in-house animators at Sony Online Entertainment. She has worked as an illustrator for a product manufacturing company whose clientele included such well-known motion-picture studios as Disney, Warner Brothers and Lucas Films. There she applied her talents to designing products related to such films as The Little Mermaid, Hercules, Pocahontas, Winnie the Pooh, and the Star Wars Trilogy.

Jacqueline received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration under the direction of Dick Oden at California State University Long Beach, and an MFA from the Laguna College of Art and Design.

Max Hulburt

Professor & Chair of Visual Arts

Max is a JPCatholic alumnus and was one of the first students of the school’s Animation and Game Development programs. He received his MFA in Animation and VFX from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Max worked for CBS Interactive - GameSpot.com, creating motion graphics and animations in addition to live video and graphics production at E3 and ComicCon. Max works as a 3D artist for 'Junior Giants Foodiecats,' a series of educational, animated short films for the San Francisco Giants youth program. He specializes in 3D modeling and texturing with additional skills in rigging, lighting, animation, and rendering.

Cristina Weinheimer

Adjunct Professor of Graphic Design

Cristina is a seasoned Creative Director and partner at ConceptZombie LLC, a leading advertising and design agency in Southern California. She spearheads 360° marketing campaigns for organizations such as Ronald McDonald House Charities, Habitat for Humanity, Orange Catholic Foundation, and the Catholic Community Foundation of San Diego. With over 13 years of senior-level designer expertise in the advertising industry and a diverse portfolio of 60+ brands, including Mint Mobile, Toyota, Mattel, Bank of America, Nestle, Constellation Brands, the CA Lottery, and Guthy-Renker, Cristina excels at capturing consumers' hearts through her prowess in graphic design, art direction, copywriting, branding, corporate identity, retail marketing, and designing for consumer packaged goods. Her experience spans multiple outlets, including print, digital, social, TV, radio, podcast, and experiential spaces. Her creative vision extends beyond the traditional realm, collaborating with renowned musical artists like Maren Morris and Kenny Chesney to curate immersive VIP experiential spaces on tour, and crafting interactive environments for events such as the Long Beach Grand Prix, UFC, Top-Rank and Golden-Boy Productions boxing events.

Cristina holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Advertising from the Art Institute of California - Orange County and has worked for companies like Mint Mobile, The Marketing Arm, Alcone, and RAPP.

Marc Burch

Adjunct Professor of Business & Launchpad Mentor

Marc is a founder and VP of Business Development at ComoBlue - a software application development company for Social Networks. He helped develop ideation, social gaming and product strategy for Facebook and mobile applications. He managed the business development and partnerships with Facebook and mobile developers, ad networks and companies. He served as Entrepreneur-in-residence, subject matter expert, judge and mentor for funding grants at the Center of Commercialization of Advanced Technology for Homeland Security. He is also an angel investor and executive entrepreneur providing early-stage capital. He has over 20 years of marketing, sales, business development, strategic partnerships and executive management experience in technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Actra (Netscape and GE Joint Venture), and MarketFirst. While at Actra, he managed an aggressive sales channel which helped Actra grow to a $127 million market valuation before the Netscape acquisition. At MarketFirst, he helped grow the company to over 240 employees with a $450 million valuation.

Joe Connolly

Professor & Chair of Business

Joe brings diverse and broad start-up operations experience from his work in the alcohol [spirits, beer, and mead] industries. He has been a Chief Operating Officer, a Director of Production, a Sales & Distribution manager, logistics coordinator and brewer. He is highly skilled in creating systems out of the chaos of startups. Joe has an MBA focused in Entrepreneurial Business from John Paul the Great Catholic University.