- Professor
- Communication Studies, Film/Media
- Phone: 401.874.9016
- Email: maryhealey@uri.edu
- Office Location: Davis Hall, Rm 209B
- Website
Biography
Mary Healey Jamiel is a Professor of Communication Studies and Film/Media in the Harrington School of Communication and Media at the University of Rhode Island. She helped build URI’s Film/Media program from the ground up. In 1998 she designed the university’s first documentary production courses, and in 2000 she joined the new program as its first faculty member. Since then she has created courses in video editing, comedy, eco filmmaking, athlete short films, and advanced documentary production.
Her investigative documentary Holy Water-Gate (2004) was one of the first films to expose decades of cover-up of clergy sexual abuse. The film premiered on Showtime, aired in six other countries, and won a CINE Golden Eagle. Her next feature documentary, Searchdog (2016), is streaming on Apple and Amazon, follows a Rhode Island state trooper who trains shelter dogs for search and rescue. It won Best of the Fest at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Boston Film Festival, and it aired on Rhode Island PBS. She has also made dozens of short films, including the animated short Milo & the Ginormous Dream (2020), and was a producer on Best Judgement: Ladd School Lessons (2024).
Jamiel also writes for the screen. Her current projects include Bloomer, a feature film inspired by true events, and Dogstar Jam: The Scent of Music, an animated musical.
Research
Independent filmmaking, public health, missing persons Search & Rescue K9s, the prevention of the sexual exploitation of children, coastal and environmental sustainability, animal welfare, the human/animal bond, animal cognition.
Education
- M.A., Emerson College, 1994
- B.A., Rhode Island College, 1990
Selected Publications
Director, Producer, Cinematographer “SEARCHDOG Trailer” 3 x 2, 1.5 min (2017), “SEARCHDOG” 88 min (2016), “RELIANCE: The Inside Story of Search & Rescue Dogs” 63 min, “Garbage Patch” 5.5 min (2015), “Hidden in the Leaves” 28 min (2009).
Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, “Ten Films on Global Climate Change”(10×4) (2008), Director, Producer, Cinematographer, “Holy Water-Gate” (2005).