Fifty-one new faculty members have joined Coastal Carolina University for the 2008-2009 academic year. A listing of new faculty members by academic college follows:

Spadoni College of Education

Linda Anast-May is a visiting curriculum and instruction associate from Ball State University, where she is an assistant professor in educational leadership. She earned a Ph.D. in educational leadership at Vanderbilt University. She has a long record of administrative leadership in the public schools, including serving as a superintendent of K-12 schools for more than 10 years in Michigan and Illinois.

Sarah Banks is a visiting assistant professor in recreation from Appalachian State University. She earned a Ph.D. in parks, recreation and tourism management from North Carolina State University. Her scholarship focuses on tourism related impacts, sustainable tourism and recreation resources, community planning and international ecotourism.

Jeannette Brelsford is a lecturer of physical education and health. She received a master's degree in physical education curriculum and instruction from Lock Haven University and instructional technology from Bloomsburg University. She has extensive experience teaching physical and health education in the public schools. Most recently, Brelsford served as a physical education pedagogy instructor at Lock Haven University. She specializes in the application of technology in physical activity settings.

Fredanna M'Cormack is an assistant professor of health promotion. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in health education from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). M'Cormack specializes in international health care and education, completing her most recent research in anemia of select populations in Sierra Leone. She earned a master's degee in food and nutrition from SIUC and is a registered dietician and certified health education specialist.

Timothy Meyler is a lecturer of physical education teacher education. He earned a master's degree in adapted physical education from East Carolina University, and most recently has been an adjunct faculty member at Appalachian State University. Meyler was a K-12 physical education teacher at all levels for 14 years and has been active in professional associations and grant writing. In 2008, he was recognized as the "teacher of the year" in his North Carolina school district.

Thom O'Mara is a lecturer of education and coordinator of clinical experience for teacher education. He received a master's degree in elementary education at Plymouth State College. Most recently, he served as department head for early childhood education at Eastern Shore Community College. O'Mara is also a former director of early childhood programs and the child care center at Herkimer County Community College.

Mary Kate Powell is a lecturer of health promotion. She earned a master's degree in public health at the University of South Carolina. Since 2003, she has been working as a grant and project coordinator for Horry County Schools, focusing on safe and healthy schools and communities. Powell also has experience as project coordinator for the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. She is a certified health education specialist.

Renarta Tompkins is an assistant professor of education. She earned a Ph.D. in literacy development from Emory University. She is from Mississippi State University, where she was an assistant professor in literacy and language arts. Tompkins has 14 years of public school teaching experience, particularly as a reading specialist working with elementary at-risk students. Her scholarship focuses on reading programs and the role of literacy in empowering minority communities.

Russell Vaden is an assistant professor of education. He earned a Ph.D. in educational psychology and research from the University of Memphis. A licensed school psychologist, Vaden has spent six years in public schools and has considerable experience in community mental health settings. At the college level, he has taught a variety of courses in human development and psychology and has significant experience in career counseling and assessment.

Sandra Wilson is an assistant professor of physical education and program coordinator. She earned an Ed.D. in physical education pedagogy and adapted physical education from the University of Virginia. She was formerly an associate professor of physical education at Winthrop University and has experience teaching and coaching in the public schools. Her research interests are of inclusion, student engagement and professional collaboration.

Edwards College of Humanities And Fine Arts

Orville Vernon Burton is the new Burroughs Chair of Southern History and Culture. Burton earned a bachelor's degree at Furman University and a Ph.D. in American history from Princeton University. He taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 34 years as professor of history and sociology. He was senior research scientist for the university's National Center for Supercomputing Applications. Burton has published more than 100 articles and authored or edited 13 books, including the acclaimed "The Age of Lincoln."

Suheir Daoud is a lecturer of politics. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science and international relations from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, a master's degree in international development and social change from Clark University in Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in political science from Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has worked as an adviser and assistant for the Israeli Knesset. Her research interests focus on Palestinian women's issues, and her new book titled "Reshaping Politics: Palestinian Women in Politics in Israel" will be published by the Florida University Press in 2008.

Mary Edwards is a lecturer of English. She earned a master's degree from Salisbury University and is a specialist in composition. She is also a Coastal Carolina University alumna, having earned a bachelor's degree in 2005.

Ronald Green is a lecturer in Asian religions in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies. He earned a Ph.D. in Buddhist studies and a master's degree in religions of South Asia from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also earned a master's degree in Japanese literature from the University of Oregon; a graduate certificate from the Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Meiji University, Tokyo; a master's degree in sociology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; and a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

Elizabeth Howie teaches art history. She earned a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an M.F.A. in ceramic sculpture from Louisiana State University. She previously taught art history at Wake Forest University. Howie specializes in modern and contemporary art with an emphasis on the history and theory of photography. Her research interests include work on photography and melancholy, colonial photography and visual representations of prostitution.

Yun Sil Jeon is a lecturer of Spanish. She earned a Ph.D. in Spanish studies from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a bachelor's degree in language and modern literature from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. She was vice director of the Latin American Studies Center at Chulalongkorn University, where she also taught and coordinated Spanish courses.

Jennifer Karash-Eastman is lecturer of Spanish. She earned a master's degree in Spanish literature and linguistics from Florida State University and a bachelor's degree in Spanish from the same institution. Her teaching experience includes working in private schools in New York and Virginia, in addition to Horry-Georgetown Technical College's Early College Program. She has worked professionally and as a volunteer in the areas of bilingualism and technology for language learning.

Stephanie Miller teaches art history. She earned a Ph.D. from Indiana University in the history of art, specializing in Italian Renaissance art. She has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Maryville University in St. Louis and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Miller has worked at the National Gallery of Art. Her continuing area of research is the enamel terra cotta sculpture of the 15th century artist Andrea della Robbia and his monumental works at the Francisca monastery at La Verna, Italy. She is in the process of co-editing a volume of essays on the Italian Renaissance domestic interior.

Joe Oestreich is an assistant professor of English, specializing in creative nonfiction. He was most recently a visiting assistant professor at Pacific Lutheran University. He earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from Ohio State University. His articles have appeared in Sports Illustrated, Esquire and a number of literary journals including the Cimarron Review and Barrelhouse.

Kate Oestreich is a lecturer of English. She earned a Ph.D. in English from Ohio State University and is a specialist in British literature and feminist literary theory. She was most recently a lecturer at Pacific Lutheran University.

Talbot Easton Selby will teach photography. He received a M.F.A. in visual arts from Clemson University and a B.F.A. in photography from Delta State University. Easton's work reflects his Southern heritage, religion in the South and other regional ideas. In July, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters honored him with its award for photography for his body of work titled "An Unconscious Reality." Recently, the Delta Center for Culture and Learning featured one of his photographs for a poster promoting Blues Festivals in Mississippi.

Donald Sloan is the new chair of the University's Department of Music. He was previously at Ashland University for 16 years, where he was professor of music and chair of that department. Sloan is an award-winning composer of vocal, orchestra and chamber music, including the Ohio Composer of the Year for 1998 by the Ohio Music Teachers Association. In addition to his work as a composer, Sloan has also been active in the field of computer music standards. He taught previously at Binghamton University. After composition studies at Cornell University, he studied at Fontainebleau and in Paris with Nadia Boulander, Henri Dutilleux and Robert Levin. He completed his formal education at the University of Michigan and at the Eastman School of Music.

Sara Sobota returns to Coastal Carolina University as a lecturer of English. She was previously the director of The Writing Center. She earned a master's degree in English from the University of North Carolina -Wilmington and most recently served as associate editor of Grand Strand Magazine.

Chris Todd teaches 3-D design and is also the studio tech for the Department of Visual Arts. She earned a B.F.A. in theater design and technology from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and an M.F.A. in woodworking and furniture design from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She previously taught at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina, the Peters Valley Crafts Center in New Jersey and at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Todd has exhibited her work in many juried and invitational shows.

Melissa Urso is a lecturer of Italian. She earned a bachelor's degree in Italian and a master's degee in romance languages and literatures with a concentration in Italian from SUNY-Stony Brook. Her teaching experience includes working as adjunct at Stony Brook and the College of New Jersey, in addition to several years in school districts in New Jersey. Among other honors, she is the 1989 American Association of Teachers of Italian national contest winner.

Paula Vincini is a lecturer of English and the assessment coordinator for the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts. She earned an Ed.S. from the instructional systems technology program at Indiana University and was most recently an instructional design specialist at Tufts University.

Dylan Wittkower is a lecturer in business ethics for the Department of Philosophy. He was a visiting assistant professor in philosophy at Sweet Briar College. Wittkower earned a master's degree in philosophy from Vanderbilt University. He also earned a bachelor's degree in society and the human condition, with concentrations in philosophy, sociology and history from the University of Redlands, Johnston Center. He specializes in applied ethics, social and political philosophy, and late modern philosophy.

Frederick Wood is an assistant professor of politics who earned bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from the University of Albany, SUNY, and is pursuing a Ph.D. in political science at Michigan State University. He has extensive teaching experience in American politics, public law and political methodology. His research interests focus on the interrelationship between society and the law, and the effect of mass-elite linkages on policy outcomes.

College of Natural and Applied Sciences

David Aguilar is an assistant professor of computer science. He is a recent graduate of the doctoral program of the University of South Florida. He has a background in artificial intelligence and neural networks, although his Ph.D. dissertation and recent work have been about the design and implementation of benchmarking procedures for cell phone performance. His research interests include locations-based services, wireless networks, performance metrics for mobile devices and application development.

Silvia Atim is a visiting assistant professor who will teach introductory and organic chemistry lectures and labs. She earned a bachelor's degree from University of Bucharest, Romania, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of North Texas. She taught at Morehead State University.

Craig Boylstein is an assistant professor of sociology. He earned a master's degree in sociology from Indiana University at Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida. He was employed with the North Florida-South Georgia Veterans Health System as a health research scientist. Areas of interest and expertise include aging and gerontology, medical sociology, quantitative methods and social psychology.

Brian Bunton is an assistant professor of physics. He earned a bachelor's degree from Clemson University and a Ph.D. from Duke University. Bunton is a nuclear and particle physicist who conducts computer simulation studies of the nucleus.

Chad Casselman is a lecturer of computer science. He earned a bachelor's degree from Coastal Carolina University, a master's degree from North Carolina State University and an M.B.A. from Webster University. He has been an information technology professional for eight years.

Monica Cicciarelli is a lecturer of mathematics. She earned a master's degree from the College of Charleston and a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida; both degrees are in mathematics. Cicciarelli previously taught at the College of Charleston and the Art Institute of Charleston.

David Duncan is an assistant professor of mathematics. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His area of research is in pure mathematics with particular interest in ergodic theory and graph theory.

Jean French is an assistant professor of computer science. She was previously a lecturer of computer science and worked as the Coastal Carolina University Web manager (Webmaster). She also taught graduate courses for Nova Southeastern University and Champlain College. French earned a bachelor's degree in environmental geosciences from Boston College and a M.B.A. with a concentration in management of computer information systems from the University of Massachusetts/Boston. She is pursuing a Ph.D.in Computer Information Systems.

Jenna Hill is an assistant professor of marine science with interests in fluvial, coastal and continental shelf morphology, sedimentation and stratigraphy. Her research focuses on the influences of climate, sea level and tectonics on landscape evolution. Hill earned a bachelor's degree in geology and environmental studies from Oberlin College and spent two years working at the U.S. Geological Survey in Woods Hole before attending Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where she earned a Ph.D. in earth science.

Doug Van Hoewyk is an assistant professor of biology. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology from Bates College. After working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and DeCode Genetics in Iceland, he earned a Ph.D. in botany from Colorado State University. His research applies genetics and molecular biology to study how plants respond to stress, survive in their natural habitat and can be manipulated to better serve society. His current interest is in learning how plants may be used both as a renewable source of biofuels and phytoremediation.

Deborah A. Hutchinson is an assistant professor of biology. After earning a bachelor' s degree in biology from the University of San Diego, she moved to Virginia where she earned a master's degree in biology and a Ph.D. in ecological sciences from Old Dominion University. She has worked as a postdoctoral research associate at Old Dominion and Cornell universities.

William Jones is an assistant professor of computer science. He earned a bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree from Clemson University. Jones was previously an assistant professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and an adjunct professor at Clemson University and Tri-County Technical College. His research interests include parallel computing, computational grids, job scheduling, performance evaluation and modeling and discrete event simulation.

Megan McIlreavy is an assistant professor of psychology. She earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from Virginia Tech. She has been a visiting professor and Franklin Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow at the University of Georgia. Areas of interest and expertise include infant and early childhood development, specifically visual and auditory patterns of attention.

Deborah Perkins is an assistant professor of sociology. She joined the University faculty in January 2008. She earned a master's degree in sociology from the University of North Carolina Charlotte and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. After earning a Ph.D. she was employed at the University of Tennessee as a senior research associate for the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment. Areas of interest and expertise include social justice, social change, poverty and inequality, race, class and community studies.

Terry Pettijohn is an assistant professor of psychology. He earned a master's degree and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Georgia. He was an associate professor at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa. Areas of interest and expertise include evolutionary psychology, mate selection, relationship formation and interpersonal attraction.

Alison Pierce is a lecturer who will teach introductory chemistry labs. She earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a master's degree in biochemistry from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

Nicholas Pritchard is an assistant professor of statistics. He is pursuing a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of South Carolina. In addition, he holds a master's degree in statistics from Mississippi State University. His area of research is in group testing with particular interest in the geometric model. He has also worked in the area of categorical data analysis.

Erin Rickard is an assistant professor of computer science. She was previously a lecturer and graduate teaching assistant at Coastal Carolina University.

Dane Scott is a lecturer who will teach introductory chemistry labs and act as curriculum coordinator for chemistry labs. He earned a bachelor's degree from Northeastern State University of Oklahoma and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Oklahoma State University.

Nyeita Schult is a lecturer of mathematics. She earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in mathematics from Purdue University. Previously she taught at Jefferson Community College in Louisville, Ky., and at St. Petersburg College in Clearwater, Fla.

Deepa Wani is a lecturer of statistics. She earned a master's degree in statistics from the University of South Carolina. She earned an M.B.A. in operations management and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Mumbai, India. Prior to her graduate work in statistics, she was a research analyst for one of India's top business houses for four years.

Kehui ("Kevin") Xu is an assistant professor of marine science and a marine geologist whose research centers on the flux and fate of fluvial sediment from the land to the ocean. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in marine geology at Ocean University of China. He earned a Ph.D. in marine science from the College of William and Mary. He has been involved in a range of interdisciplinary projects studying sequence stratigraphy, sediment transport, surficial processes and numerical modeling in both the Yangtze River and East China Sea and the Mississippi River and Texas-Louisiana Shelf.

Wall College Of Business Administration

Philip Little is the new chair of the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics. He earned a D.B.A. from Louisiana Tech University. Previously, he was professor of accounting at Western Carolina University where he was associate dean for advancement for the College of Business, director of the M.B.A. program and director of the Master of Accountancy program. He received several teaching awards at Western Carolina. In addition, he has been active in research and in professional service and consulting activities.