The Office of the Provost has announced the promotion of several faculty members to full professor effect the fall 2023 semester.
College of Arts and Humanities
Rachel DeSoto-Jackson
Theatre, Dance, and Performance
I was thrilled to join IUP in 2016 specializing in applied theatre in a university community that embraced such a unique and experiential discipline. Applied theatre utilizes nontraditional applications of theatre and theatrical techniques which means my teaching has a wide range from training acting students to portray patients in healthcare simulations to teaching performance for social change to inspire community dialogue. I continually seek ways to incorporate my creative research in the classroom which has included connections with global artists stemming from my work with the Smithsonian Latino Center, Latinx Theatre Commons, and Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed organization. One of my most rewarding experiences at IUP has been a collaboration between applied theatre, nursing, speech-language pathology, and nutrition to create interdisciplinary healthcare simulations that engage students from each of the disciplines.
My current research centers on inclusive teaching practice and the utilization of applied theatre for enhancing empathetic communication. One of my favorite classes to teach, THTR 361 Performance of Caring, incorporates this research—I love teaching non-majors how to apply these theatrical techniques directly to their field and seeing the immediate connections they make in their learning. This love of teaching led me to my current role as the director of the Center for Teaching Excellence at IUP. One of my favorite features of CTE programming is the Reflective Practice workshop series that offers opportunities for faculty to engage in active dialogue and learning on current topics in teaching in addition to the faculty academies that offer professional development courses.
I am grateful to my colleagues and my global community of artists and scholars for the many collaborations that have been the foundation of my professional experience. And a special heartfelt thank you to my husband for the many years of support—from late nights in grad school to long days of teaching at IUP and most recently supporting the birth of our daughter in April—all of which enabled me to pursue such a rewarding career.
Alison Downie
Philosophy and Religious Studies
I first remember wanting to be a teacher when I was 10 years old. At the time, what attracted me was the beautiful cursive handwriting of my fifth-grade teacher and the promise of writing on chalkboards.
As a young adult, my desire to teach developed into a dream of becoming a university professor. But, since I was not yet able to question any aspect of the religious paradigm in which I had been formed, including the view that raising questions was itself evidence of bad character, I assumed that I had to choose between having a family and pursuing that academic dream.
I chose to have children and stayed home to care for them for about a decade, sometimes hiring babysitters so that I could browse and read in a nearby academic library. My youngest child’s first day of kindergarten was also the first day of a graduate course for me. That course began my many-years-journey toward earning a PhD in systematic theology at Duquesne University and eventually becoming a Religious Studies professor at IUP.
Graduate education was life-changing for me as I articulated, explored, and considered many religious and meaning-of-life questions and multiple responses to them. Though I never achieved beautiful cursive or used dusty chalkboards, my passion for teaching and scholarship continues to center on examining assumptions and raising questions that never have one answer.
My scholarship investigates how practices and teachings in various Christian traditions affect people, positively or negatively, both inside Christian churches and in the public sphere. My recent scholarship investigates how understandings of sin entwine with cultural definitions of normalcy and function to shame many whose experience lies outside those bounds, in particular, those living with serious mental illness.
Tanya Heflin
English
One favorite early memory was waiting with my mom at a local park for the library bookmobile to arrive—the excitement I felt in selecting a stack of new books to read was electric! In the days before the internet, the bookmobile was my lifeline to learning about a world beyond the rural locale where we lived. My enthusiasm about how reading freely in literature from around the world can expand one’s understanding, empathy, and experience continues to inspire me in teaching literature and writing at IUP.
Arriving at IUP after earning my PhD in English at the University of Southern California, I have taken great pleasure in designing undergraduate and graduate courses that draw from the breadth of literature, and I focus on creating active learning experiences that pique my students’ interests while posing challenging questions about human experience. All my literature courses—including courses centered on life-writing, archival research, suppressed or “hidden” voices, feminist speculative fiction, indigenous literatures, postmodern literature, literary and narrative theory, fairy tales, graphic memoirs, and the novel as genre—are designed to present students with literary and theoretical works that will inspire them to analyze writers and characters whose lives are different from their own. Likewise, I design my writing courses for first-year undergraduates—many of whom are first-generation students hungry for the growth that college brings—to help them seek new experiences, understand diverse places and cultures throughout the world, and acquire clear strategies for writing their own stories to reach readers, as well.
Relatedly, my research specialization is women’s literature from the nineteenth through twenty-first centuries with a focus on the intersection between literature and psychology, and recent publications include works on fairy tales, banned books, graphic memoirs, and archived diaries and scrapbooks.
I love the work I do because I know how literature and writing can inspire and transform, and I take great joy in sharing that inspiration with my students at IUP.
Timothy Hibsman
English
In every class, I make sure students understand the purpose and objectives for all of our assignments and activities. I had a flashback to my old grade-school teacher who asked me what my future objective was in life—she asked me where I saw myself decades from now. I told her that I was interested in three career options: hockey player, pirate, and evening newscaster. Little did I know that IUP would help to get me close to these goals.
Decades later I now play ice hockey with some alumni and students in the Jurassic League and am also the faculty advisor for the IUP Ice Hockey team (1st place CHMA Championship). I have taught Nautical Film and Literature at IUP, Sichuan University (Cheng Du, China), and Kyungpook National University (Daegu, South Korea). Furthermore, in addition to multiple book and journal articles on nautical leadership, I gave a lecture on female pirates (leadership and financial attributes) off the coast of Malta with Semester at Sea.
Finally, I chose newscaster because even as a child I liked to share valuable information. Every day I focus on practical applications and career-beneficial strategies and information in my classes. My Technical Writing course takes a professional and business writing approach. My Introduction to Legal Writing familiarizes students with legal documents such as legal briefs, power of attorney forms, contracts, etc.). The research writing courses prepare students to do quick and effective research in their future courses and careers. I believe this teaching environment is perfect for me to achieve past goals and I look forward to continuing to learn and grow as a professor in the years to come.
Melanie Holm
English
I like details—the smaller, the better—a predilection that led me from entire days spent building intricate Lego structures with my brother in Northern California to MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While my intellectual interests broadened into math, literature, and French majors, I remained focused on the details of what I studied. In each case, I wanted to understand and explain units of knowledge, whether numbers or words, at their most fundamental level. When taking a course on Romanticism, I became fascinated by metaphors and their legacies in literary language. It was not evident to me then that metaphors would become the focus of my professional life, but good metaphors rarely yield their secrets at first glance.
Drawn to graduate school in the humanities, I attended Rutgers University as a Transliteratures Fellow in the comparative literature program, where the close study of metaphor as an agent of skepticism became the focus of my research. After a fellowship year at Universität Konstanz, I completed my doctoral thesis, “Useful Fictions,” which examined the multitiered wordplay of writers like Swift, Fielding, Sterne, and Byron. During my post-doc at Fordham, I expanded my research on the relationship between skepticism and metaphor across the early modern European while developing pedagogies to help students slow down the reading process and savor the details, work that I continue in my teaching, talks, and publications at IUP.
I became an assistant professor at IUP in the Department of English in 2014 and have continued probing poems and novels with my undergraduate and graduate students, all the while reflecting on these initiatives in a series of articles in the field of digital humanities and, moreover, working on my first full book manuscript: Leaving Lucretia: The Heroines of Margaret Cavendish. IUP students always surprise me; their candor, creativity, and enthusiasm in the classroom inspire me as a teacher, scholar, and member of our rich and varied community of learners.
Linda Jennings
Music
My musical journey began at age six with cello lessons from my mom who first fostered my love of music. However, it was in my undergraduate studies at UW–Madison under the mentorship of cellist Parry Karp, that I discovered not only my passion for cello playing, but also the great joy of chamber music. While a doctoral student at UT–Austin, I taught in the internationally recognized music education program, the IUP String Project. Here I found the tools needed to share my passion for music with students, the basis for my teaching today at IUP.
Since joining the IUP faculty in 2001, I have presented traditional string chamber repertoire and collaborated with living composers, premiering and promoting new compositions to expand the repertoire for future generations. In addition to bringing this music to the IUP community, I performed for audiences across the United States and in Thailand, Haiti, Canada, England, Indonesia, and Mexico.
In my teaching, I have focused on mentoring students to become more invested and curious in their learning process by helping them design strategies to reach their goals. To this end, I founded the IUP String Project, a community outreach music program, and developed a new course to support the teacher-training program embedded in the program. The program was designated a High Impact Practice at IUP by the Center for Teaching Excellence.
On the international teaching level, I collaborated with two leading music organizations in 2014—the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra and the Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra—creating and leading two pioneering cello festivals. As the first events of these kinds for cellists in Thailand, these festivals provided a forum for cello teachers and students to develop their cello skills in exploring the future of cello playing in Thailand. I received the IUP College of Fine Arts Outstanding Researcher Award for this project.
I look forward to furthering my scholarship and educational opportunities for IUP students.
Karen Scarton
Art and Design
I was the kid rearranging and painting her bedroom again and again. Still, it never occurred to me to turn my enthusiasm for design into a profession. I was doing something in the healthcare field, no doubt. It wasn’t until I was filling out my college applications that I had a moment of panic. It just didn’t feel right. Long story short, I ended up “finding” interior design during my freshman year in college. It was the perfect blend of creativity and problem-solving.
Upon graduation, I worked in the kitchen and bath design industry. I loved what I was doing, but after a few years I couldn’t help but think that I wanted to teach design to others. At the time, it admittedly seemed like an impossible journey. But, with the encouragement of my husband, I began my MS in interior architecture at Chatham University. During this time, I was given the opportunity to teach a night class at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. This position solidified that teaching was my passion. In 2006 I was afforded the opportunity to teach at IUP while earning my doctorate in administration and leadership studies in higher education. From there, I have never looked back.
For me, it is all about my students. They challenge me to perfect my approach to teaching and inspire my pedagogical research. I love teaching hands-on studio courses. It is in this environment that I feel like I make the biggest impact, draw from my own professional experience, and thoroughly prepare my students for whatever their futures may hold.
I am grateful that I not only get to live out my dream of being an interior designer but also help to produce countless successful designers every year. Our alumni are now our greatest supporters and advocates. It is truly a rewarding place to be.
Matt Vetter
English
My aspiration was not always to teach writing. It was more simple, romantic even: to be surrounded by writing and writers—to read and wrap myself in the magic of language. Teaching writing at IUP became the vehicle for accomplishing that dream. As a young child, I was a voracious reader and, later, a constant writer. When I was four years old, I was struck by a car on the street in front of my house. A broken leg and long cast later, I was much less mobile than before. I found company then, and long after, in books. I fell in love with language and never fell out. I took up writing short fiction and poetry in high school. I read and admired writers like Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Kerouac. I went to college and majored in English, which started the long journey towards the doctorate. I made myself useful, so to speak, building a research agenda in writing studies, digital rhetoric, and somewhat unexpectedly—the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. I used my research to become better equipped to teach writing in innovative and critical ways, learning how to teach others to be writing educators along the way.
After earning my PhD from Ohio University, I joined IUP in 2016. I was happy and threw myself into the work. In the past seven years, I’ve had the opportunity to teach 13 different courses across five programs in English, direct 20 dissertations and theses to completion, advance my research agenda, and publish widely across both academic and creative genres. Receiving a letter of retrenchment in 2020, after being promoted to associate professor, made me appreciate my position even more. I am grateful to my colleague who voluntarily retired so I could continue teaching, and I feel fortunate to be promoted to full professor.
College of Education and Communications
Kalani Palmer
Professional Studies in Education
The path to finding my purpose has been filled with highs, lows, bumps, and detours. In fact, growing up in the Pittsburgh neighborhoods of St. Clair Village and Beltzhoover, I never imagined that I would find a passion for scholarship and teaching at IUP because I didn't know it was possible. Yet here I am.
My journey began with working in health and human services. Since 1998, I have worked with "at risk" youth, typically developing children, atypically developing children, adults, and families in multiple settings. After years of direct service and clinical work, I took on administrative leadership roles in research and education settings. As I flourished professionally, my interest in leading scholarly endeavors grew. This ultimately led to a PhD program and a faculty position at IUP. My post-secondary education includes a BA in art/art education from Carlow University and two graduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh. I earned an MS in applied developmental psychology with a concentration in program design and evaluation and a PhD in applied developmental psychology. My dissertation examined the impact of education and income on parenting for Black mothers.
Once at IUP, I was mentored by amazing women in higher education. One woman that I am particularly grateful for is Fredalene "Freddie" Bowers. She was a champion for parents at IUP and when she retired, I continued her legacy of making IUP more accessible to parenting students. Today my work focuses on increasing access to and success in higher education with an emphasis on nontraditional, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and minority students. In the last seven years, I have helped secure $1,453,657 in external funding for projects that support the local community, inclusive curriculum changes, inclusive system changes, as well as student growth, persistence, and graduation.
I am honored and privileged to support students who, like me, may discover what is possible for them in life through higher education.
Brittany Pollard-Kosidowski
Counseling
I was born into a family that prioritized being of service to others. This core value led me to many early career interests and volunteer stints. As an undergrad at Syracuse, my love of writing won out for a short time, and I majored in magazine journalism. I tacked on a sociology major too, though—just to be safe.
As an eventual clinical mental health counselor, I enjoyed my work, but I didn’t love it. Something was missing. My favorite parts of my job involved facilitating therapeutic groups, working creatively with underserved populations, and engaging in systemic advocacy. My master’s program mentor casually said to me one day “Have you thought about a PhD?” I laughed. I blushed. I shook my head. I was a student who never raised my hand in class, trembled giving presentations, and avoided at all costs having to ever ask my professors any questions. One day, I got brave, circled back to my mentor, and ventured to ask a rushed string of them: “Really? Me? A PhD?”
I was fortunate to teach regularly throughout my time as a doc student and to finally find work that energized me, challenged me, and kept me coming back for more. I put my counseling skills to use in an entirely new way, stepped wholeheartedly into finding and presenting my authentic self to the world, and built meaningful, grounding personal connections. I also established research and service agendas centered around the things that had sustained me in my clinical work—advocacy, group work, and creativity.
After eight years at IUP, I’m grateful to still be doing work in service to others. Work that helps students to find and use their voice; work that initiates a ripple effect of real change; and work that, I believe, helps make the world just a tiny bit better. At IUP, I’ve found my place—and I’m grateful to be here.
College of Health and Human Services
Sadie Miller
Criminology and Criminal Justice
Like many of my students, crime shows such as Law and Order and Criminal Minds were regular fixtures on my TV. While not realistic, these shows fed my interest in crime. When it was time to consider my career path, I chose to focus on forensic psychology and pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Wittenberg University (Springfield, OH). During college, I started to find interest in the other side of crime, victims. Entering graduate school, I chose to concentrate on those who are often an afterthought in our offender-focused criminal justice system, the victims.
I attended Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA) for my master’s and doctoral degrees. As I completed a master’s thesis on the sexual victimization of college women, I was unsure of what direction I wanted to go with my career. In my first semester of the PhD program, I taught an introduction to criminal justice course to undergraduates. It was then, that I found a passion for teaching. Additionally, I was exposed to working with victims’ organizations in the community such as the victims’ compensation program of Georgia.
I joined the faculty in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at IUP in the fall of 2014. I instantly found my home at IUP! Growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, I see a lot of myself in my students and feel I can relate to many of their experiences. I have continued my efforts to help my students and the field of criminology/criminal justice better understand victims of crime and the importance of supporting them. My research areas of interest are centered on victims of crime, the etiology of victimization/revictimization, and victims’ services as well as pedagogy research. I find importance in incorporating my research into my classroom and taking any opportunity to talk about victims in my courses.
I would like to take a quick moment to thank my parents for always supporting my education; my academic mentor, Leah Daigle at GSU, for being an amazing role model, co-author, and friend; and my husband for finding the lighter side in my morbid obsession with all things crime.
Kristi Storti
Kinesiology, Health, and Sport Science
The great American poet Robert Frost was once quoted as saying “I am not a Teacher, but an Awakener.” When Mr. Frost stated this, he was describing his philosophy of teaching that refutes simply filling students with facts. I would like to think of myself as an awakener of the next great generation of health professionals whether it be in the realm of public health or exercise science. I thank my former mentor for being my “awakener.”
In 1995, while sitting in a lecture at the University of Pittsburgh for my master's in exercise physiology, my passion was awakened. This lecture first identified physical activity as a potential positive risk factor in the prevention of type 2 diabetes and would lead me to enroll at the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health and complete my master of public health and doctorate in epidemiology. I would spend the next several years working to bring the disciplines of exercise physiology and epidemiology together. That one lecture led me to being part of the groundbreaking Diabetes Prevention Project, the only randomized clinical trial to show that 150 minutes of physical activity and a low-fat diet could, indeed, prevent type 2 diabetes—the first of many epidemiological puzzles to be solved in my career.
In 2014, I was appointed assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Health, and Sport Science and appointed as the director of the BS in Public Health program in 2020. I have enjoyed bringing my love of exercise science and public health together at IUP with the hope of awakening and cultivating the next great promoters of health. My research has also brought these two disciplines together by working with IUP’s Institute for Rural Health and Safety to examine the prevalence of health risk, physical activity, and sedentary behaviors among first responders. This research aims to promote health in those who are our first line to pre-hospital care.
I love the work I do at IUP because I get to be the “awakener” and share my experiences with my students. Thank you to my family, friends, colleagues, and most especially, my students. I wouldn’t be here without you!
Kopchick College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics
Nicholas Deardorff
Geography, Geology, Environment, and Planning
My professional interests include physical volcanology, petrology, geochemistry, and GIS. My research involves examining eruptive processes of volcanoes in both subaerial and submarine environments. I am interested in explosive eruption dynamics of submarine arc volcanoes, the resulting deposits, and geochemical exchange between magma and seawater and magma and hydrothermal fluids. I am also interested in lava flow morphologies and using remote sensing techniques, such as LiDAR, to quantitatively analyze volcanic terrains. Additionally, and most recently, I have helped create a statewide collaboration with geology faculty across PASSHE to offer a summer geology field course that accepts students from any PASSHE university and is taught by geologists across the state. I also designed and manage our Scanning Electron Microscopy Lab at IUP.
Recently my love of volcanoes reached a peak when in Iceland over the summer helping to run an experiential field course for students from the Honors College. While near Reykjavik we were able to witness an active volcanic eruption at the Fagradalsfjall volcano. While I teach many geology courses (e.g., Introductory Geology, Mineralogy, Geochemistry, Natural Disasters, etc.), teaching in the field is my absolute favorite form of teaching. Seeing students get their hands dirty, often pushing themselves physically to limits they didn’t realize they had, and observing them truly transform into geologists is extremely rewarding. Geology and IUP have allowed me to get my boots dirty exploring Colorado, Oregon, Newfoundland, and now Iceland (to name a few), and I will forever be grateful.
Wanda Minnick
Safety Sciences
Walking through Johnson Hall in the 1990s as an undergraduate student, I always knew I wanted to return to IUP and be a professor in the Safety Sciences Department. My dream was always to teach one day; it was just quite a journey to get there.
Upon arriving at IUP in 1992, like many students uncertain of what path to take, I changed my major several times until I heard about the high placement rate for graduates from the Safety Sciences program—sign me up! Wow! Did this decision broaden my horizons. I enjoyed working for large corporations as a safety professional for many years helping to guide safety initiatives for both upstream and downstream manufacturing processes. I worked with amazing people and learned so much from them. However, the best was yet to come, knowing that I would pursue becoming an instructor at IUP.
I was hired as a full-time temporary faculty member in the Safety Sciences Department in 2008. It has been such an honor to work for the department in which I earned my first degree. I have worked with the most kind and inspiring colleagues, many teaching me about research, grant-writing, and in general, "academia," all topics not really discussed in general industry. Like us all, I have been touched by the dedication and dreams of so many students. I feel blessed that I have had a little bit of influence in their life journeys, they have certainly influenced mine.
There are many people to thank. I honestly do not know how full professorship would have been a reality without the loving support, care, and flexibility of my husband, parents, and children. I am forever grateful to them.
I am excited to delve into IUP’s next chapter with all of you!
Jonathan Warnock
Geography, Geology, Environmental, and Planning
I was always a dinosaur kid; birthday cards going back to age two are all T. rex and Triceratops. The fascination stuck and, like many of my generation, was given new life with the 1993 release of Jurassic Park in theaters. It followed me to high school, where teachers introduced me to paleontologists at local universities.
This led to dual undergraduate degrees in biology and geology from Northern Illinois University at the turn of the millennium. While I quickly found an opportunity to do some dinosaur work, digitizing the skull of a juvenile T. rex, life pivoted quickly into the ocean. I began a research project on diatoms, single-celled algae whose fossils provide a detailed climate record from ocean mud. This work carried me through graduate school and a post-doc, with work ranging from the Antarctic continent to the coastal Baltic Sea.
I found my way to IUP in the fall of 2015. I’ve had the great opportunity to modernize and reconstruct core geology courses as well as to develop new materials on campus explaining climate change to our undergrads. Continuing work in the diatom and dinosaur worlds, I have maintained a strong cohort of students in my lab generating data, presenting their work nationally and internationally and publishing novel science. I’ve given IUP undergrads from a variety of majors the opportunity to do field work and excavate bone at Jurassic National Monument every summer since I started. Seeing the light and inspiration in students’ eyes doing this work is a tremendous reward. I’m looking forward to new opportunities in Kopchick Hall to watch knowledge and realization bloom in students’ faces.
Majed Zreiqat
Safety Science
Three things have always fascinated me since youth: fixing things, learning, and teaching. Being able to troubleshoot broken tools and equipment taught me patience, to be focused, and to trace the circuit which has its own consequences (sweet electric shocks, lol). Being relentlessly curious was the reason to seek knowledge and learn about life, which was the drive and reason to pursue my PhD. My teaching career started at a very early age as well by providing free science tutoring to my relatives, friends, and neighbors. This fostered my passion for teaching and still drives me onward. I offered free tutoring when I was an MS student at IUP and a PhD student at West Virginia University and continue gratis tutoring today as a faculty member.
I pursued my graduate degrees in the field of occupational safety and health by first obtaining my MS at IUP in 2006 and PhD at WVU in 2014. I was overjoyed to receive an offer from IUP to join the Safety Sciences Department as a faculty member while completing my PhD at WVU. For me, teaching is a daily responsibility that I strive to execute with joy, passion, and commitment.
We can’t be successful in our professional lives without the endless support of our loved ones and family members; my lovely wife, Jehan, my funny son, Jerees, amazing brother Nashat, supportive sister-in-law Cathy, my sisters Salwa and Samia, my brothers back home in Jordan, my nephews Laith, Firas, and Faris, and friends. A huge Thank you and gratitude to my colleagues in my departments who made my tenure at IUP smooth, enjoyable, and family oriented.
Student Affairs
Jessica Miller
Counseling Center
“She could never go back and make some of the details pretty. All she could do was move forward and make the whole beautiful.” (Terri St. Cloud)
This quote sits in my office and describes why I was drawn to working with college students when I began my career. College is an opportunity for so many of our students to move forward from their past. College is a developmental time for dynamic change. It is a time of hope and growth. However, college comes with its own obstacles and students often stumble on their path to self-discovery. It is not a painless process, especially if students are facing mental health struggles and trauma. Students often lose a sense of power and control through the trauma they experience. My goal is to empower students along this journey and to ensure that these obstacles do not prevent them from getting an education. My role as a faculty psychologist is outside the traditional four walls of a classroom, but the emphasis is still on education not only with students but with the campus community.
I am grateful to IUP for giving me the opportunity to advocate for students when they may not be ready to advocate for themselves and seek to empower them to overcome this sense of powerlessness. And I am forever grateful for my many colleagues who share my vision of a beautiful future for our students at IUP.
Promotions were also announced for the following faculty promoted to associate and assistant professor:
Associate Professor
Nicole Buse, Department of Management
Andrea Palmiotto, Department of Anthropology
Andrew Bryan Seal, Department of Safety Sciences
Assistant Professor
Jeffrey Santicola, Department of Management