Coastal Carolina welcomes new faculty members
E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration
John N. Davis, a visiting assistant professor of management, earned a bachelor's degree from the United States Military Academy, an M.B.A. in entrepreneurial management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. Most recently, he taught at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. His research focuses on the study of charismatic leadership from a systems dynamic perspective. His work has been published in numerous journals, including The Leadership Quarterly and the Strategic Management Journal. Davis holds the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Richard Monroe, assistant professor of management, earned a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering technology from Southern Technical Institute, a master's degree in engineering management from Western New England College and a Ph.D. in engineering management from Old Dominion University. Monroe was an associate professor of technology systems at Eastern Carolina University. He has published articles in Business Process Journal and the International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Systems, among others. His research interests include supply-chain management, process improvement, systems design, telecommuting and change management.
Robert F. Salvino, assistant professor of economics, earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in economics from Georgia State University. Salvino was previously a research associate at the Fiscal Research Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at GSU. He also served as a financial research consultant for the CThree Group in Atlanta. His areas of research include urban and regional economics, public finance and applied microeconomics.
Erika Engel Small, assistant professor of management, earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Louisiana State University and a Ph.D. in industrial and organizational psychology from the University of Tennessee. She has published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology and awaits two forthcoming book chapters on cognition in teams. Her research areas include team processes, leadership, trust and conflict.
Kenneth Small, assistant professor of finance and certified financial analyst, earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Coastal Carolina University, an M.B.A. from Texas A & M International, a master's degree in economics and a Ph.D. in finance, both from the University of Tennessee. His research has appeared in the CPA Journal, the Journal of Economics and Finance and numerous other publications. His research interests include financial market liquidity and corporate governance. Small is a native of Aynor.
Srinivasan (Srini) Venkatraman, assistant professor of management information systems, earned a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Madras, India, an M.B.A. from Andhra University in India, and a master's degree in management and administrative sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is working on a doctorate degree in information systems from the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas. His research has been published or accepted for publication in leading industry journals such as Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes. His areas of research concern deviant use of information technologies in the workplace, justice in the workplace, behavioral decision-making and information technology and healthcare. An elephant enthusiast, Venkatraman adopted two elephants in South India and visited local schools to educate students about the importance of elephant conservation in the Earth's ecosystem.
Spadoni College of Education
Krystyna Nowak-Fabrykowski is an associate professor of education and director of the master's program in early childhood education at the Spadoni College of Education. She earned a master's degree from the University of Lodz in Poland, a Ph.D. from the University of Warsaw and a diploma for teaching French at Sorbonne University in Paris. She completed post-doctoral training at Laval University in Quebec. She has published more than 20 articles in journals in England, Canada, the United States and Poland, and has presented her research in Greece, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland and Canada. Her major research interests are the symbolic representation of children, the teaching of orphan and foster children, and the development and assessment of caring dispositions in pre-service teachers.
Denise Forrest, assistant professor of middle school education, earned a bachelor's degree and master's degree in mathematics education from Ohio State University at Columbus. She previously taught at Ohio State University at Newark, working with elementary and middle school pre-service and in-service teachers. Her research focuses on understanding the professional development and practice of mathematics teachers' verbal communication.
Nancy Gallenstein, associate professor of elementary education, earned a master's degree in curriculum and instruction at Montana State University and a Ph.D. in education from Utah State University in 1995. She has taught at various universities including the Texas A&M system and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She taught on the elementary education level in Cincinnati for seven years and has 24 years of experience in the field of education. Her research interests are in the area of inquiry learning strategies in mathematics and science.
Dodi (Julie) Hodges, assistant professor of special education, earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in special education administration and special education from Indiana University-Bloomington. She completed post-doctoral work at the Indiana Institute on Disability and Community, working with schools to become more inclusive. She has taught at Western Michigan University, Indiana University-Bloomington and Bowling Green State University. She served as the Disabilities/Mental Health Services coordinator for the Kalamazoo Michigan Head Start Preprimary program and as a consultant for the Michigan Head Start Association. Her research interests include high-incidence disabilities and accessing the general education curriculum for all students.
Cathy Jones, assistant professor of early childhood education, earned a bachelor's degree and master's degree in early childhood education from Marshall University, and a doctorate in education leadership from West Virginia University. Prior to Coastal, Jones served as the early childhood lead coordinator at the West Virginia Department of Education. She has led the initiative to design, implement and oversee the W.Va. universal pre-K system, which is ranked sixth in the nation by the National Institute of Early Education Research. She has taught preschool, kindergarten, special education and higher education and held administrative positions including education coordinator for Head Start and executive director of a multi-county child development agency.
Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts
Steven Madden, professor of communications and chair of the department, received a bachelor's degree in mass communication from the University of South Florida, a master's degree in conflict management and training and development from New Mexico State University, as well as a Ph.D. in communication studies with a minor in management from the University of Southern Mississippi. He has worked for NBC and various radio stations covering such events as the Iditarod. He spent 10 years at Clemson University helping to build its successful communication program and two years at Appalachian State University. His areas of research include communication audits, organizational cultural ethnographies, service learning and conflict.
Gary Carson, assistant professor of communication, earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Alderson-Broaddus College, a Master of Divinity from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in communication from the University of South Florida. At Coastal he will be teaching courses in organizational communication, introductory communication and communication theory along with others as needed or developed. His areas of research include issues of organizational identification and the use of rhetoric within organizational settings.
Jason Ockert, assistant professor of creative writing, will teach fiction and other creative writing and literature courses in the Department of English. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida and a Master of Fine Arts from Syracuse University. He is the author of the short story collection "Rabbit Punches," and his fiction has appeared in many journals, including The Oxford American, Black Warrior Review and the Mid-American Review. Jason's most recent story is included in the 2007 anthologies "New Stories from the South" and "Best American Mystery Stories."
Nozomi Irei, assistant professor of English, earned a bachelor's degree from Evangel University, a master's degree in English and related literatures from the University of York in the U.K., and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has published articles comparing East Asian, European and American writing and philosophy. Her research and teaching interests include the comparative study of Western and non-Western literatures and philosophies; minority and emergent literatures; and genre and mode studies.
Cynthia Port, assistant professor of English, earned a bachelor's degree from Barnard College, a master's degree from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. She has published several articles on 20th-century British and Anglophone literature, and her teaching interests include British literature, modernism, postcolonial literature, and gender studies. She held a postdoctoral lectureship at the University of Pennsylvania and taught at the Curtis Institute of Music and at Ursinus College.
Becky Childs, assistant professor of linguistics, earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida, a master's degree from North Carolina State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Georgia. At Coastal she will be teaching a range of courses, including introduction to linguistics, sociolinguistics and modern grammar. Childs was previously on the faculty at the University of Newfoundland. Her specialty is sociolinguistics, and her research centers on varieties of English spoken in the American South.
Aneilya K. Barnes, assistant professor of history, earned a Ph.D. in history at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Her doctoral thesis deals with the gendering of sacred architectural spaces in the Roman world. She is a veteran teacher of surveys in world history and Western civilization at both the regular and honors level. Her research interests include women and religion in the ancient Mediterranean, the social history of architecture and the history of religions.
Brandon Palmer, assistant professor of history, earned a bachelor's degree in history and a master's degree in international and area studies from Brigham Young University, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Hawaii. Palmer was a visiting assistant professor at Ohio University for two years. His specialty is Asian history and his research interests include the Korean population in the United States as well as Imperial Japan's mobilization of Korea during the Second World War.
Jeffrey Jones, assistant professor of music with an emphasis in vocal studies, earned a bachelor's degree in music performance from the University of North Texas and Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees in opera and vocal performance from the University of Arizona. Jones held positions as instructor in applied voice at the University of Arizona and Grand Canyon University. As an artist he has an extensive performance experience with the Arizona Opera, the Arizona State Lyric Opera Theater, the Catalina Chamber Symphony, the West Valley Sym-phony and the Phoenix Bach Choir among other professional engagements. He has recorded with the Phoenix Bach Choir, the Meridian Chorale, the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Robert Shaw Chamber Singers.
Min Ye, assistant professor of politics, earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Renmin University in Beijing, China, a master's degree in political science at the Foreign Affairs College of China, Beijing and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. His major fields of study have been in international relations, East Asian Studies (China, Japan and North/South Korea) and political data analysis (statistics). He has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Monica Bell, assistant professor of theater, earned an M.F.A. in acting from the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee, enrolled in the Professional Theatre Training Program and subsequently completed three years of training in the Suzuki Method. She was previously on the faculty at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities in Greenville and at Kent State University as an assistant professor of acting and directing. Her professional credits include directing for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and the Warehouse Theatre in Greenville. Her acting credits include major roles with the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, Syracuse Stage, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Theatre Virginia and the Utah Shakespearean Festival.
Cynthia Farnell, assistant professor of art, is director of the Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery at Coastal. She earned an M.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design, a bacheor's degree in fine arts from Auburn University, and a Certificate of General Studies of Photography from the International Center of Photography in New York City. She has curated numerous exhibitions of art from a variety of cultures and time periods and has written on art for exhibition publications and individual artists' projects. She was recently awarded a prize for Best Arts Writing or Criticism for 2006 by the Rhode Island Press Association. Farnell is also a visual artist and exhibits her work nationally and abroad.
Penelope Miller, assistant professor of art education, earned a bachelor's degree, M.F.A. and Ph.D. in art education from Ohio State University. She was previously the head of art education and assistant professor at Edinboro University. Miller led art education in the Department of Art at Edinboro University to accreditation by the Pennsylvania State Department of Education, NCATE and NASAD. Her research interests are in urban art education issues.
College of Natural and Applied Sciences
Brian Bunton, a visiting assistant professor of physics, earned a doctorate degree from Duke University. He was the recipient of the Graduate Teaching Fellowship while at Duke. His research focuses on the use of effective field theories in quantum chromodynamics to explain and predict particle phenomena at particle accelerator facilities.
Jason Eastman, an assistant professor of sociology, earned a master's degree in sociology and a doctorate degree in inequality and social justice from Florida State University (FSU) in 2004 and 2007, respectively. Eastman was a graduate instructor at FSU, a lecturer at Buffalo State College, and an adjunct professor at Niagara University.
Derek Elgin, assistant professor of organic chemistry, earned a bachelor's degree from Winthrop University. He will complete his Ph.D. in 2007 from the University of South Carolina. He has experience teaching both introductory and upper level chemistry courses and plans to build an organic chemistry research program. He will be teaching mostly organic chemistry and upper division chemistry courses. His research focuses on the pyrazoles and supramolecular chemistry (e.g., how large molecules interact through chemical interactions).
Vladislav Gulis, assistant professor of biology, earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Belarus State University and a Ph.D. in biology from Belarus State University and the Institute of Experimental Botany. His postdoctoral research at the University of Alabama focused on leaf litter decomposition and microbial activity in freshwater ecosystems. His research interests include the role of microorganisms in carbon and nutrient cycling in aquatic ecosystems and the effects of inorganic nutrients and eutrophication on fungal/bacterial biomass and on production and organic matter decomposition.
Katherine Hicks, a lecturer in physics, earned a bachelor's degree in physics at Guilford College and a master's degree at the University of Arkansas. She will be teaching introductory physics and physical science for non-majors. Her specialty is eclipsing binary stars.
Marlee Marsh, a visiting associate professor of biology, earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Converse College and a Ph.D. in biology from Clemson University. She was awarded Clemson's Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award in 2007. Her doctoral research focused on the immune response of Gulf killifish to nematode parasites.
Michael McColm, a visiting assistant professor of biology, earned a master's degree in environmental studies from Humboldt State University and a Ph.D. in educational administration from the University of California at Riverside. McColm served as executive director of the Jatun Sacha Foundation in Quito, Ecuador, a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation, management of ecologically important habitats and to environmental education and community development. McColm's research background is in tropical biology and conservation management.
Tadele Mengesha, assistant professor of mathematics, earned a Ph.D. from the Department of Mathematics at Temple University. His area of research is in applied mathematics with particular interest on calculus of variations and its applications.
Dale Quinn, mathematics lecturer, earned a master's degree from the University of Kentucky and a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University. Prior to his graduate work in mathematics, he was an engineer for Ford Motor Company for more than 20 years.
Louis Rubbo, assistant professor in physics, recently had a post-doctoral position at the Pennsylvania State University, where he conducted research in gravitational wave astronomy, which uses measurements of events such as black hole collisions to experimentally verify Einstein's theory of general relativity. He earned a Ph.D. in physics from Montana State University in Bozeman. In addition to his teaching experience, Rubbo has been involved with developing new educational materials such as hands-on activities in gravitational wave astronomy and public outreach activities for K-12 students. He will be teaching introductory astronomy and physics, as well as continuing his research in graviton astronomy.
Bart Snapp, assistant professor of mathematics, earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was involved in course development. His research interests are in the area of commutative algebra, particularly the study of homological conjectures. He has also done some work with computer algebra systems.
Tessa Weinstein, assistant professor of mathematics, earned a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the University of Colorado at Denver. She previously taught at Purdue University where she has been conducting research as a postdoctoral research assistant. Her background is in continuum mechanics and materials modeling.
Jie Zhou, assistant professor of mathematics, earned a Ph.D. degree from the University of Georgia. His research interests are wavelet analysis, numerical analysis and splines.
Jay Zeltner, mathematics lecturer, earned a master's degree from Shippensburg University and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study from Virginia Tech. He is also working on a second master's degree in operations research from Florida Institute of Technology. Zeltner has taught mathematics at the college level for 16 years, the past nine at the University of South Carolina.