Semester at Sea - Spring 2009 Faculty & Staff

Spring 2009 Faculty & Staff

Reg Garrett - Academic Dean

Reginald H. Garrett is Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia. He received his Ph.D. in Biology at the Johns Hopkins University in 1968 and joined the faculty at the University of Virginia later that year. In 1975, he was a Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Vienna, Austria, and in 1976, a visiting scientist in the Department of Genetics, Cambridge University (U.K.). In 1983, Professor Garrett returned to Cambridge and the Department of Genetics as Thomas Jefferson Visiting Fellow in Downing College. In 2003, Prof. Garrett was Professeur Invité at the University of Toulouse (France) and the CNRS Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology.

Prof. Garrett taught marine invertebrate zoology and coral reef ecology for 20 years in the Bahamas and Mexico, and he has traveled informally in the West Indies and Central America as a biology tourist. He is co-author of A Field Guide to the invertebrates of San Salvador Island, Bahamas. Prof. Garrett's research interest is focused within biochemistry and molecular biology. His research investigations are reported in more than 40 articles in peer-reviewed science journals. He is the author, with his colleague, Charles M. Grisham, of a widely used textbook, Biochemistry, the fourth edition of which will appear in 2008.

Prof. Garrett has an abiding interest in science education and has taught biochemistry for 40 years. Over the past decade, he has brought science to non-science majors through his course, Principles of Nutrition. He is also a strong advocate of study abroad opportunities for science majors. The Spring, 2009 academic program will include required courses for science majors so that they can enjoy the exceptional Semester At Sea opportunity and maintain satisfactory progress towards their degree requirements. The theme of the voyage will be Migrations. Early human evolution and the human odyssey that populated the planet from our Africa origins will provide the impetus to explore subsequent movements of humans around the globe in response to biological, political, economic, and cultural imperatives, as we ourselves circle the world.

Read a letter from the Academic Dean to the voyage community.

Les McCabe - Executive Dean

Les McCabe joined the Institute for Shipboard Education (ISE)-the parent organization of the world-recognized Semester at Sea (SAS) global study abroad program-in August 1987. A widely recognized expert on both the academic and social value of global education, and the intricacies of shipboard safety and risk management, McCabe served as Director of Operations and Chief Operating Officer prior to assuming the role of President and CEO in November 2006.

McCabe has led the program through a reorganization of the ISE Board of Trustees, the integration of the historic ISE Foundation into the ISE/SAS program as a non profit, 501(c)(3) organization, the attainment of a long-term lease for the current ship, the MV Explorer (a 24,000 ton vessel that is among the fastest ocean-going vessels in the world), and the creation of a new academic partnership for the program with The University of Virginia. As President, he has led the effort to increase and reorganize the Semester at Sea staff to increase the fiscal strength and the outreach of an effort that has served over 45,000 alumni over its 45-year history as the premier program in transglobal shipboard education. As Board of Trustee chairman, Rick Rickertsen of Pine Creek Partners Venture Capital recently remarked, "We have in our new President Les McCabe, the intellect, the dedication, and the extraordinary expertise to accelerate the reach and the quality of Semester at Sea for decades to come."

A native of Claremont, California, McCabe holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California at Irvine, a Master's Degree in social work from The University of Washington, a second Master's degree in Public Administration from Seattle University, and a Ph.D. in Administrative and Policy Studies, with an emphasis in global education from The University of Pittsburgh. After seven years of dedicated service to the clinical needs of children and families in the Seattle area, McCabe joined the Institute for Shipboard Education in Pittsburgh, PA when the program's academic sponsor was The University of Pittsburgh.

Faculty

Staff

Faculty

Deirdre Bird (Business/Commerce)

Deirdre Bird is assistant professor of marketing and Chair of the Department of Marketing at Providence College School of Business, Providence, Rhode Island. She has previously taught at Northeastern University in Boston; American University of Armenia, Intercontinental University of America, London; ESCEM-Tours, France, ESC-Lille, France, and continues to teach in a visiting capacity at ESC-Reims, France. Dr. Bird holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Purdue University, W. Lafayette, Indiana, an M.B.A. from University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a B.Com. from University of Natal-Durban, South Africa. Dr. Bird's research and course work focuses on international marketing, global marketing of luxury brands and marketing for non-profit organizations. She has published in journals such as Journal for Global Competitiveness, American Society for Competitiveness, Thunderbird International Journal of Business and International Journal of African Historical Studies. She is a member of American Marketing Association, International Academy of Business Disciplines, American Society for Competitiveness and Academy of International Business. She is originally from Zimbabwe, and has lived and worked on four continents. This is Professor Bird's second voyage with Semester at Sea.
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Aniseh Burtner (World Dance)

W. Aniseh Khan Burtner is a professional dancer, choreographer and instructor of world folk and ethnic dances. Her area of expertise is primarily in dances of the Pacific (Hawaiian Hula and Ori Tahiti), but she has teaching and performance experience in Latin dances (Puerto Rican Salsa, Cuban Son and Brazilian Samba) and African dances (Haitian and West African traditions). She has performed with professional dance companies in California, Spain, France, Tahiti, Washington DC. Now in her home city of Charlottesville, Virginia, she teaches all levels of dance skill, men and women as well as children in weekly classes. She founded the Mou'a Vahine Polynesian Dance Company in 2003, and the group performs original choreographies throughout Virginia. Additionally, she is a featured performer on 3 published video productions, as well as a musician on Signal Ruins, a DVD piece by composer Matthew Burtner. She was the electric bassist in the San Francisco-based salsa/hip-hop band Santero, performing live and on the album "Arawaks and Maroons" which was recorded by the Grammy-winning producer Greg Landau.
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Matthew Burtner (Music)

Matthew Burtner is Associate Professor of Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia where he is Associate Director of the VCCM Computer Music Center and Director of Undergraduate Programs in Music. As a UVa Teaching+Technology Fellow and as leader of the Interactive Media Research Group, he develops new music technologies for educational and creative application. His music explores ecoacoustics, interactive multimedia, and rhythm and noise-based musical systems. Originally from Alaska, Burtner lived in Australia, Santa Fe, New Orleans, Paris, Baltimore, Barcelona and Palo Alto before relocating to Charlottesville to the University of Virginia He studied composition, computer music, saxophone and philosophy at St. Johns College, Tulane University (BFA, summa cum laude, 1993), Iannis Xenakis's UPIC-Studios, the Peabody Institute/Johns Hopkins (MM, 1997), and Stanford University/CCRMA (DMA, 2002). Burtner's original compositions have received numerous awards and prizes including first prize in the Musica Nova International Competition and a 2008 Howard Foundation Fellowship. He composes music for a range of multimedia contexts employing video, dance, theatre, acoustic instruments and computer sound. His music has been performed widely, at major festivals and venues throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Among recordings for DACO (Germany), The WIRE (UK), MIT Press (US), Innova (US), Centaur (US), and Euridice (Norway), his music appears on two critically acclaimed solo CDs: "Portals of Distortion" and "Metasaxophone Colossus". He has conducted major artist residencies at IRCAM/Centre-George-Pompidou, Paris; Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff; Phonos Foundation/Pompeu Fabra Universidad, Barcelona; Musikene, San Sebastian; Cite des Arts, Paris; and the University of Washington, Bothell. Performers and organizations commissioning his music include Integrales (Germany), San Diego New Music (USA), Ascolto (Germany), Spectri Sonori (USA), Peabody Trio (USA), Phyllis Bryn-Julson (USA), MiN Ensemble (Norway), Musikene (Spain), German Ministerium for the Arts (Germany), Think Thank (USA), Augsburg Mozart Festival (Germany), Jerome Foundation (USA), CrossSound (Alaska), and others.
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Jodi Cohen (Speech Communication)

Jodi Cohen is a Professor at Ithaca College, received her MA in Speech Communication from Colorado State University and her PhD in Speech Communication from The Pennsylvania State University. She teaches courses in the practice, theory, and criticism of public communication. Her publications address the synthesis of critical and social-scientific research methods, the synthesis of classical and postmodern theories of rhetoric, the role of rhetoric in democracy, and critical studies of specific texts. Her most recent work focuses on the rhetoric of environmental risk. She has a strong record of service at the college and in the local community. Most notably, she has coordinated First Year Seminar Program at Ithaca College, chaired the Humanities and Science's curriculum committee, and the committee that developed the General Education Program. She just completed a seven year term as president of the Board of Directors of the 7th Art Corporation of Ithaca, a non-for-profit organization that manages two film exhibition theaters in Ithaca. She has independently traveled through many countries in South America, Africa, and Asia; and to a lesser extent, Europe.
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Sergio Conetti (Physics)

Sergio Conetti, a Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia, received his Physics Doctorate from the University of Trieste, the northern Adriatic Italian city where he was born and raised. His scientific career has been in the field of elementary particles, working on experiments at the highest energy accelerator laboratories around the world; an exception was a parenthesis as a meteorological officer, when drafted by the Italian Air Force. In 1973, in the context of a Canadian initiative to establish a strong particle physics research program, he moved to Montreal's McGill University and, during his tenure, contributed extensively to the growth of the newly formed Canadian Institute for Particle Physics. In 1989 he joined the faculty at the University of Virginia, where he co-founded an experimental particle physics group, a field of fundamental research until then not represented at UVa. Sergio Conetti has performed experimental work at CERN (the European particle physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland), the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Batavia, Illinois), the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) and the Deutsches Electronen-Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg, Germany. Highlights of his research, where he played leading roles in several international collaborations, include measurements of lifetimes and other properties of charmed quarks, stringent limits on neutrino oscillations and studies of subtle differences between matter and antimatter. This last topic was the subject of a collaborative effort between the University of Virginia and the Italian Frascati National Laboratories, initiated while spending a sabbatical year in Rome as Research Director. During a previous sabbatical in 1988 he helped establish the Lecce section of the Italian Nuclear Physics Institute. Sergio Conetti has co-authored over 100 papers in refereed scientific journals and has presented the results of his research at numerous international meetings and conferences, including a month-long series of lectures in the People's Republic of China. His teaching has covered a broad range, from advanced graduate courses to introductory courses for non-science majors, including the popular USEM's "Bricks and Mortar of the Universe" and "Does Antimatter Matter?"
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Terry Crawford-Browne (Politics))

Terry Crawford-Browne was born in Ireland in 1942, but grew up in Libya until, at the age of 17, he moved to Minnesota to attend the University of Minnesota from which he graduated in 1967 after majoring in International Relations. He began a Masters program at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and married Lavinia. They returned to Minnesota in 1970 where he began his career in international banking with First National Bank of Minneapolis. He was recruited in 1974 to return to South Africa by Nedbank, where his final position was Regional Treasury Manager in Cape Town. He relinquished his banking career in 1986 to advise the South African Council of Churches and Archbishop Desmond Tutu on banking sanctions as a non-violent strategy against apartheid. He represented the Anglican Church at South Africa's Defense Review during 1996-1998, and has subsequently led civil society opposition to the arms deal. The arms deal scandal is considered to be South Africa's counterpart of Watergate, and led to the dismissal from office in September 2008 of President Thabo Mbeki.
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Edward "Ted" Eaton (Drama/Theatre)

Dr. Eaton was graduated with a PhD in Theatre History from Bowling Green State University (Ohio). Since then, he has taught Theatre and English at Quincy College, Lesley University, and Emmanuel College in the Boston area. He also was on the faculty, specializing in Stage Combat, at Emerson College and The New England Conservatory. Last year, Dr. Eaton was the Visiting Honors Professor and Artist in Residence at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. His publications and presentations have focused on the impact of primary documents on our understanding of theatre history and its surrounding social context. Dr. Eaton has directed and staged violence for stage and screen in New York, New England, regionally, and internationally.
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Richard French (Economics)

Professor French received the doctorial degree in economics at the University of Oklahoma. He specialized in banking and finance at The Graduate School of Business at New York University, and post doctoral study in economics at Harvard University. His academic positions include faculty appointments as assistant professor at the University of Florida, associate professor at the City University of New York, Professorial lecturer at The George Washington University, and Professorial lecturer at the State University of Irkutsk, Russia; and the Siberian American Department of Management under the auspices of the University of Maryland University Collage. His work with the U.S. government included research positions with several agencies including the Economic research Service at USDA, The General Accounting Office, and the Department of the Treasury. While at Treasury he was assigned to The Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation as an economic advisor to the Saudi Minister of Finance. Most recently he was posted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury as the macroeconomic advisor to the Minister of Finance of Romania. At request of The American Ambassador and The Romanian Minister of Finance he published an extensive study exploring the size and composition of the Underground Economy in Romania. His dissertation: Estate Multiplier Estimates of Personal Wealth at the State level, was published by the University of Florida Press. He was an Associate Editor of The Review of regional Studies.
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Graeme C. Gerrans (Chemistry)

Graeme (Gus) Gerrans is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Virginia. He was educated at Rhodes University, South Africa (B Sc Honors in Chemistry) and Cambridge University, England (Ph D in Chemistry). During his career he has worked in the chemical industry and for the Chemical Industries Association in South Africa. He has taught undergraduate chemistry at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa and at the University of Virginia. He has also advised graduate students in organic chemistry and in chemical education at the University of the Witwatersrand. He has held visiting professorships at the California Institute of Technology (1972), the University of Illinois (1979), the University of East Anglia, England (1986) and the University of Virginia (1990). Amongst the awards that he has received are the Convocation Distinguished Teacher's Award (University of the Witwatersrand) and the Education Medal (South African Chemical Institute). He has published over 80 papers and is the co-author, together with P and R Hartmann-Petersen, of "Encyclopedia of Science and Technology," (New Africa Books, 2007).
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Michael Goldweber (Computer Science/Mathematics)

Michael Goldweber (mikeyg) is an associate professor in the department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH. Mikey attended Boston University receiving both a B.A. in Mathematics and a B.S.B.A. in Finance. Following this, and a short stint working in industry, he spent a year living in Israel. Upon returning from Israel he received both a Masters and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Dartmouth College. A respected and active participant in the computer science education community, Mikey's current research focus is in systems virtualization. As a senior member of the V2 research project, he helped develop Virtual Distributed Ethernet (VDE) and ViewOS among other virtualization tools and techniques. Currently he is developing a series of projects allowing for the use of VDE in undergraduate curricula. Mikey was a visiting lecturer for six months in 2003 at New Zealand's University of Technology (UNITEC), and a visiting researcher for six months in 2004 at the University of Bologna in Italy. Having lived and worked on four continents, he is looking forward to being a part of the unique educational experience of Semester at Sea.
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William Greenfield (Sociology)

Professor William D. Greenfield, Ph.D., holds the rank of Emeritus Professor at Portland State University. He received his doctorate in Educational Leadership in 1973 from the University of New Mexico. His undergraduate degree is in English Literature from Miami University. He has served as a Professor at Syracuse University, Kent State University, Louisiana State University and Portland State University. Areas of expertise include: leadership training, qualitative research methods, and organizational development. Dr. Greenfield is the recipient of Penn State University D. J. Willower Center for the Study of Leadership and Ethic's 2006 Award of Excellence. Dr. Greenfield is the author of several textbooks and over 80 journal articles on leadership and leadership development. He has lectured extensively and his work is frequently cited in professional journals and at conferences. Professor Greenfield consults with hospitals, schools, businesses, and non-profit organizations in the area of leadership and organizational development. From 1991-92 Professor Greenfield was a Fulbright Scholar in Thailand where he taught courses and designed curriculum at Chiang Mai University. He has been an invited lecturer at universities in Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, and Lebanon. Professor Greenfield currently resides in Mexico where he is involved in building basic shelter for those in extreme poverty.
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Carl Grindstaff (Sociology)

Dr. Carl Grindstaff is a Professor Emeritus from the Unversity of Western Ontario where he taught for over 30 years in the fields of Sociology and Demography. He also served for five years as chair of the Sociology Department at UWO. Professor Grindstaff also has taught at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia; The University of Miami in Miami, Florida; and The University of California at Davis. His awards include an appointment as a senior fellow at the Population Institute of the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, and a teacher of the year award from the University of Ontario Faculty Associations. His major field of research is in the field of Demography with more than 50 research articles and conference presentations and six research monographs and edited books. "Dr. G" was a member of the Spring 2005 Semester at Sea voyage and he is looking forward to another special educational experience with the students, other faculty, and lifelong learners.
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Louise Harmon (Law/Philosophy)

Louise Harmon is a professor of law at Touro Law School on Long Island. She received her B.A. from Indiana University, her J.D. degree from the University of Texas at Austin, her LL.M. from Harvard Law School with an emphasis on legal history, and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University. She is the author of Cultivating Intelligence: Law, Power and the Politics of Teaching (New York University Press, 1996, with Deborah Post) and Fragments on the Deathwatch (Beacon Press, 1998). Professor Harmon has also published many scholarly articles for law reviews, covering a wide range of topics from medical ethics, the visual arts, law and literature, evidence, women and the law in India, and legal history. Professor Harmon is the co-founder of the only study abroad law program in India, located in Shimla and Dharamsala, and has taught both Buddhism and Hinduism in that program for eleven summers. She has also taught classical Chinese philosophy in Touro Law School's summer abroad program in Xiamen, China for four summers. In 1999, Professor Harmon taught medical ethics at the medical school at University College, Cork in Ireland for a semester, and in 2003, she was a Senior Research Fellow for a semester at the Center for Indian Studies at SUNY University at Stony Brook. She has also served as a member of the Huntington Hospital Biomedical Ethics Committee for the past twenty years.
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Nasim Jawed (Religious Studies)

Nasim A. Jawed is currently a Professor Emeritus at California State University, at Chico, California. He received his Ph.D. in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from UCLA, in 1974, and has been teaching courses in Islam and the Middle East for over thirty years. Over his tenure at Chico State, Professor Jawed introduced almost a dozen new courses in History and Religious Studies. He founded the University's inter-disciplinary Program of Middle Eastern Studies, and was given the "Intra-University Professor" award for multiple years. The focus of his research and writings has been Islam, in its religious and political dimensions. His book, Islam's Political Culture (University of Texas Press, 1999), examines political and ideological aspects of contemporary Islam.
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Jon Kastendiek (Biology)

Dr. Jon Kastendiek is an Associate Professor of Biology at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. He received both his B.A. and Ph.D from the Zoology Department of the University of California at Los Angeles. He has over twenty years of experience conducting field research in a number of different marine habitats such as Pacific coral reefs, Southern California kelp beds and subtidal sand beaches, and under Antarctic sea-ice. He has also conducted environmental impact studies on the effects of a nuclear power station on marine communities. He has traveled extensively and studied natural history in South America, Africa and tropical Australia. Recently he has studied the patterns of forest regeneration in a temperate deciduous forest in Virginia.
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Anne Kinney (East Asian Studies)

Anne Kinney is Full Professor of Chinese in the Department of East Asian Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Virginia. She received a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. She specializes in the literature and social history of early China. Her books include Representations of Childhood and Youth in Early China, Chinese Views of Childhood, and The Establishment of the Han Empire and Imperial China. She studied Chinese language and literature in Taiwan from 1976-1979 and did graduate work at Peking University from 1982-1984. She is currently chair of East Asian languages, Literatures and Cultures.
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Dan Kinney (English and Comparative Literature)

Dan Kinney is Professor of English at the University of English. He earned his highest honors BA in English and Classics (Greek) at Yale and proceeded to Clare College, Cambridge, as a Paul Mellon Fellow for a further degree (MA), primarily in classical philosophy; he came back to Yale for a Renaissance Studies Ph.D., winning Yale's Porter Humanities Dissertation Prize for his Ph.D. thesis on More. Specializing in the fortunes of classical texts and ideas in the culture of Early Modern Europe and since, he has edited and written extensively on More and Erasmus and on the rhetoric of Renaissance cultural experiment, co translated and edited Petronius' Satyrica, and launched pathbreaking websites devoted to Ovid's Metamorphoses in Image and Text and to polymath Abraham Cowley's expansive engagements with the culture of Civil War England. He is currently working on generic experimentation in seventeenth century England and the many ways novels especially resist and refunction traditional forms like the epic.
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Marquisa LaVelle (Anthropology)

Marquisa LaVelle teaches courses in Biological Anthropology as well as Human Variation and Evolution using a biocultural perspective of our species' past and present. Recently retired, she is Emerita Professor of Anthropology at the University of Rhode Island. Her degrees include a BA degree in social psychology from the University of California and an MA in cultural anthropology and a Ph.D in biological anthropology from the University of Michigan. Her major research interests are in international nutrition and health with emphases on longitudinal studies in non-Western populations. She has done field research in Samoa, the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Belize and among Warlpari communities in Central Australia. Her publications include articles on obesity, malnutrition, adolescent development and heath outcomes ("Are There Long-Term Health Consequences of Seecular Trend in Early Menarche?"), as well as current examples of evolution in modern populations ("Human Growth and Continuing Evolution in Modern Populations").
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Fred Levine (Art History)

Fred Levine is Professor of Art History at Palomar College in San Marcos, CA. He has authored numerous publications and spoken widely on a vast range of issues in art and cultural studies both in the United States and overseas. Levine completed his undergraduate studies at New York University and received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Washington University in St. Louis. He has taught at the University of Texas, Austin, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. As a Fellow in Art History at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia he explored a vast range of Aboriginal sacred sites in often remote areas throughout the country. Fred remained in Australia for five additional years as Lecturer in Art History and Theory at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, where he also served as Associate Dean and Director of the Graduate Program at the Tasmanian School of Art. Fred has lectured on cruise ships for twenty years, including the past thirteen years as Art and Architecture lecturer with Crystal Cruises and has sailed more than 100 voyages. He has traveled extensively visiting more than 80 countries on six continents.and has taught two Semester Abroad programs at the University of London. Spring 2009 will be his third voyage on Semester at Sea.
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Fred Mabbutt (Political Science)

Fred R. Mabbutt is a retired Professor of Political Science from UCLA, where he taught Constitutional Law. Formerly with California State University at Long Beach, he taught Comparative Politics and International Relations and was the recipient of a Distinguished Teaching Award in the Political Science Department and an Outstanding Educators Award from Notre Dame University. He is the author of several books and numerous articles, including publications in American law journals and The Nation. Professor Mabbutt previously sailed with Semester at Sea on the Fall 89, Fall 92, Spring 96, Fall 03, and Fall 07 voyages, and has travel experience in North Africa, Europe, Asia, South and Central America. He received his B.A. from California State University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate School and University Center.
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John Mueller (Psychology)

John Mueller has been a Professor of Applied Psychology at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, since 1990. He previously spent 22 years in the Department of Psychology at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He recently retired, but continues to teach on a part-time basis in on-line and campus courses. Dr. Mueller received a Ph.D. and a MSc in Experimental Psychology from St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri, and a Bachelors degree from the University of Missouri, Columbia. Dr. Mueller's research has been in human learning, the role of emotional states as factors in performance and cognition, aging and cognition, technology and stress, and face memory. His teaching has been in cognitive psychology, history of psychology, educational technology, stress and coping, aging, and research methods. Dr. Mueller is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science, on the Board of Directors of the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship, and a member of many other psychology organizations. He has published over 100 articles on human learning and cognition in various professional journals, book chapters, educational software packages, and numerous papers at professional meetings. He has served in various editorial capacities for several journals, including the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Anxiety, Stress and Coping, Journal of Experimental Education, Journal of Research in Personality, Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, and Technology, Pedagogy, and Education. Although Dr. Mueller has participated in several conferences in the U.K., Germany, New Zealand, and a sabbatical in Australia, this is his first voyage with Semester at Sea.
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Joyce Salisbury (History/Religious Studies)

Joyce E. Salisbury is Professor Emerita from University of Wisconsin - Green Bay, where she taught and served as Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Director of International Education. Professor Salisbury has a PhD from Rutgers University in Medieval History. Salisbury is an award-winning teacher who received the prestigious national Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) award for excellence in 1991 in addition to other teaching awards. Professor Salisbury is a prolific author whose books include the award-winning Perpetua's Passion: Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman, The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages, and the widely-used textbook, The West in the World. Salisbury has considerable international experience, including growing up in Brazil and Mexico, doing research and guiding students to Europe and Tunisia, lecturing on cruise ships around the world, and teaching on Semester at Sea in Spring 2007.
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Allan Schoenherr (Global Studies)

Allan Schoenherr is a retired Professor of Ecology at Fullerton College in southern California. He also has taught a variety of ecology classes at the University of California, Irvine, and California State University at Fullerton. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Southern California, and his Ph.D. from Arizona State University. He was honored as Teacher of the Year (2000) at Fullerton College. A recognized authority on California, he is the author of two major books on the state. A Natural History of California (University of California Press, 1992) is a 772-page compendium on the plants, animals, and geology of California. His more recent publication, Natural History of the Islands of California (University of California Press, 1999), is a 491 page discussion of all the islands of California including those in San Francisco Bay. He is coauthor of the third edition of The Terrestrial Vegetation of California. An accomplished nature photographer, he has provided the photographs to illustrate his books and he has received two awards for his images of California Gray Whales. His academic interests are in ecology, evolution, biogeography, and endangered species. Among his scientific writings are articles on the Population Ecology, Ecology of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, the Colorado Desert, Desert Conifers, and the California Islands. He also has written articles on amphibians, reptiles, and freshwater fishes. He is an authority on the desert pupfish.
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Faye Serio (Studio Art)

Senior Lecturer from St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, Faye Serio has been teaching courses in traditional, digital, and non-silver photography, computer art, and studio arts for over twenty years, and she has given numerous workshops dealing with creating art on the computer. As an active artist, she has exhibited her work in more than seventy-five shows and has frequently won awards for her photography. Her images have appeared on book and scholarly journal covers. The source for much of her art comes from travel experiences, especially while living and travelling abroad. During her first Semester at Sea experience in Spring 2005, Professor Serio shot over four thousand photographs, displayed many in shows. She received her B.A. in Fine Arts from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, and her M.F.A. in photography from the University of Notre Dame.
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John Serio (English)

John N. Serio is a Full Professor of Humanities at Clarkson University. He is a specialist in modern American poetry and has edited The Wallace Stevens Journal for over twenty-five years. Among his publications are Teaching Wallace Stevens: Practical Essays, The Cambridge Companion to Wallace Stevens, and a forthcoming edition of Selected Poems of Wallace Stevens. In addition, he has edited two collections of poetry for young people, Wallace Stevens and The Seasons. Professor Serio has been the recipient of several NEH grants as well as two Fulbrights, one to Greece and one to Belgium. He has won awards for his scholarly articles and his journal editing. He is a confirmed shellback, having taught in the Semester at Sea program during the Spring 2005 voyage. Professor Serio holds a B.S. in English Education from the State University College at Buffalo, an M.A. in English from Northwestern University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame.
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Mark Shadle (English/Communication)

Mark Shadle is Professor of English-Writing at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, Oregon. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Colorado College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Iowa, where his dissertation focused upon the writing of Ishmael Reed. He is the co-author of Teaching Multiwriting: Researching and Composing with Multiple Genres, Media, Disciplines, and Cultures, has published numerous book chapters, including "A Pinata of Theory and Autobiography: Research Writing Breaks Open Academe" in Research Writing: A Sourcebook for Teachers, as well as poems and many journal articles, including "Schama and the New Histories of Landscape" in Postmodern Culture. He has been the recipient of a Stanford University Seminar on Theoretical Approaches to Ethnic Literature, an NEH Summer Seminar in American Indian Written Literature, NEH Summer Institutes on The Transatlantic Slave Trade and Mayan Worlds throughout Central America and a Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar on Sustainability and Environment throughout Brazil. Current research and writing interests include the theory, criticism and rhetoric of place and travel, and the role of music in world literature. Memberships in professional organizations include The Rhetoric Society of America, the National Council of Teachers of English and the Modern Language Association. Professor Shadle has traveled extensively in over 50 countries.
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Robert Smith (Geography)

Now an Independent Geographic Consultant, Robert Smith served 31 years in the U.S. Department of State as a geographer. After receiving his PhD in Geography from the Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill he became the U.S. government's geographic expert responsible for negotiating U.S. maritime boundaries and establishing U.S. claims to marine jurisdiction. Dr. Smith represented the U.S. at numerous United Nations conferences pertaining to the law of the sea. He oversaw and was the principle author of the State Department's Limits in the Seas studies. He is the author of a book on the Exclusive Economic Zone, co-author of two books on excessive maritime claims and currently is the co-editor of the American Society of International Law's International Maritime Boundaries volumes. Dr. Smith has taught the Political Geography of the Oceans course at Georgetown University. He has provided expert testimony in both U.S. Supreme Court cases and in international courts. As a geographic consultant he advises foreign governments, oil and gas companies, and international law firms on all aspects of ocean policies and planning and developing strategies for exploring and exploiting offshore resources, including risk assessments. Smith participated in mapping the Arctic seafloor while on board the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker, Healy, during the summer of 2007.
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Joan Strouse (Sociology)

Joan H. Strouse received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Educational Policy Studies in 1985. Her area of specialization includes adjustment and transition challenges for immigrant and refugee populations and improving the educational opportunities for historically marginalized groups. Since the awarding of her degree she has served as a Professor at Portland State University (PSU) in the Graduate School of Education. Professor Strouse is also an affiliated faculty member in PSU's departments of Applied Linguistics, Women's Studies, and International Studies. In 2007 Dr. Strouse was awarded the rank of Emerita Professor. The 3rd edition of her book, "Exploring Socio-Cultural Themes in Education" was published in 2006. While on sabbatical in 1991-92 Dr. Strouse was a research associate at Chiang Mai's Tribal Research Center in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Dr. Strouse has received Fulbright-Hays Awards and has traveled to Turkey in 1998 and N. Yemen and Tunisia in 1989 to further her research. In 2002 Professor Strouse was recognized for her enduring work with the Portland Public Schools-Migrant Education Project and received the "Urban Impact Award" from the Council of Great City Schools and the Council of Great City Colleges of Education. The Mayor of Portland, Oregon appointed Professor Strouse as Commissioner to the Metropolitan Human Rights Commission in 1994. Dr. Strouse has led Portland State University Senior Capstone Service-Learning projects in Latin America. Currently Dr. Strouse is living in central Mexico where she is involved in several NGO's that promote educational opportunities for young rural Mexican women.
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Sarah Swank (Biology)

Dr. Sarah Swank is Full Professor of Biology (Emerita) at Bridgewater College. She received her B.S. degree in Biology from James Madison University; M.A. in Biology from the University of Virginia and the Ph.D. from the Ecology and Evolution Program of the University of Southern California. She has a strong background in marine ecology and environmental science. Her current teaching interests include Ecology, Evolution and Zoology. Her recent research interests relate to the ecology of terrestrial plant communities. She does field-oriented research using both descriptive and experimental approaches. She has studied shrubland communities under varying degrees of stress in places like California (see Ecology 72: 104-115) and Chile, the effects of deer on forest regeneration in Virginia and rain forest ecology in Peru, Costa Rica, and Australia. Dr. Swank particularly enjoys introducing students to ecology by allowing them to learn through personal observation. She has taught a series of short field courses in Tropical Ecology involving travel to San Salvador, Bahamas; Costa Rica and East Africa.
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George Thomas (Linguistics)

Professor Thomas received his B.A. and his Ph.D. in Russian from the University of London in the United Kingdom. Since 1969 he has been teaching at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, specializing at first in Russian language and linguistics and later branching out into Slavic and general linguistics. He has taught introductory courses in linguistics as well as upper level and graduate courses in sociolinguistics, language planning, applied linguistics, languages in contact and historical linguistics. His main field of research has been in the area of language contact, language planning and lexical enrichment. Most of this research, published in 34 articles and three book-length monographs, has concentrated on Russian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene and Serbo-Croatian. However, in 1991 he published Linguistic Purism, a much cited book dealing with the efforts around the world to combat unwelcome influences (usually foreign) on standard languages. Among his recent academic interests are the study of areas of linguistic convergence (Sprachbund) as well as pidgins and creoles. Since his formal retirement in 1999 at the rank of Full Professor of Linguistics he has continued to teach and maintain an active research profile. His major work in progress at the moment is a book on the linguistic history of Europe. He has studied, taught and lectured throughout eastern and western Europe, North America and South Africa and has traveled widely in Europe, eastern and southern Africa and the Americas.
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Jody Tompson (Business/Commerce)

Associate Professor and Director of the Naimoli Institute for Business Strategy, The University of Tampa, Tampa, FL. Bachelor of Science (Finance and English), Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, 1987. Ph.D. (Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship), University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 1995. Dr. Tompson's research has been published primarily in academic journals that focus on strategic management and entrepreneurship. Specifically, his research addresses the decision making methods used by management teams when they develop new strategies. He has also written several case studies that focus on start-up companies in the board game industry, the biodiesel industry, and the macadamia nut industry. From 1996 - 2000 Dr. Tompson lived and worked in Hamilton, New Zealand. During that time he was a Senior Lecturer in the School of Management Studies at the University of Waikato. During that time he gave academic presentations at conferences in New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore. While working at the University of Tampa, he led study tours to China in 2006 and 2008. Groups of MBA students visited companies in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong.
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Staff

Bob Balsley (AV Coordinator)

Bob Balsley began teaching at 15 years of age. He studied music theory with S Drummond Wolfe at College of Marin and received a B.A. from The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He taught Jazz Guitar at UW Green Bay for 17 years and currently teaches a Digital Media program a Northeastern Wisconsin Technical College. He has recorded numerous CD's and performed with artists as varied as Chuck Berry, Randy Brecker, The Green Bay Packer Band and Bobby Vinton. His nationally known Guitar Summer Camp draws students from around the world and is held annually at St. Norbert College. He has written numerous articles for Guitar Player and Fingerstyle guitar magazines. His first Mel Bay book is the popular "Understanding Guitar Chords" and his newest book "Understanding Guitar Chord Progressions" uses the same approach to a new subject while preserving many of the same themes. He was on the spring 2007 Semester at Sea Voyage where he played for Archbishop Desmond Tutu's welcome reception and conducted a guitar workshop at the University of Capetown. He also organized the "Rock the Boat" onboard student/staff band, played concerts in Viet Nam and Japan and shared relevant music styles for other destinations. View video clips of Spring 2007 SAS concert. Visit Bob's web site or email him at [This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots; you need JavaScript enabled to view it]
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Kate Berge (Living Learning Coordinator)

Kate Berge graduated in May 2008 with an M.S. in Applied Educational Psychology and Counseling with a concentration in College Student Development from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. She also holds a B.A. in Psychology from Ithaca College and was a participant on Semester at Sea during the Spring 2004 voyage. Kate's past work experience includes serving as a Resident Director for the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and as a Program Assistant for a Northeastern University Study Abroad Course in Ghana, Africa. She is currently involved with an organization called Windsor Mountain International where she leads student travel and leadership programs in New Hampshire and Hawaii with high school students. Kate has also traveled extensively in South East Asia, and taught English in Northern Thailand. She is a member of the Boston Area College Housing Association and the National Association of College Personnel Administrators (NASPA). In addition to Kate's dedication to international travel/study abroad, she enjoys camping, the outdoors and SCUBA diving.
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Annamarie Black (Assistant to the Academic Dean/Registrar)

Annamarie Black is on leave from the University of Virginia where she recently served as the executive assistant to the interim dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She has worked for the university for almost 14 years in various capacities including executive assistant to the vice president and provost as well as the coordinator for the Teaching Resource Center. Annamarie is also a graduate of the University of Virginia where she received a B.A. in English. In 2003, Annamarie was accepted to Lynchburg College's graduate counselor education and in January 2006 completed her M.Ed. in Counselor Education with an emphasis in community counseling. She is a member of Chi Sigma Iota, the international honor society for students, professional counselors and counselor educators. Her area of expertise is women and addiction and she recently was a member of a team that presented on addictive eating at the American Counseling Association's pre-conference institute in Honolulu, Hawaii, March 2007. She has always been an enthusiastic traveler but has only been to one of the countries on this voyage, China in 1998.
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Joseph Brazas (Conduct Officer)

Joe is retired from the Los Angeles Police Department where he served for 28 as a field sergeant, Assistant Watch Commander, training coordinator, and leader of the vice unit. He is a court certified Drug Recognition Expert and recipient of the Police Star for bravery in the line of duty. He holds an AA degree in topographical drafting and land surveying and a BS degree in Urban Studies from California State University, Northridge. Joe has served as Conduct/Security officer on three previous SAS voyages. Together with his wife Susie, he has taught English in Lithuania and China, and they have hosted several foreign teachers and students at their home in northern California. Joe is a custom cabinet maker, a youth basketball referee, and an avid sports enthusiast, skier, and hiker. He enjoys travel and looks forward to yet another exciting voyage. "It never gets old. I love this program!"
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Karen Brazas (Lifelong Learners Coordinator)

Susie is a retired high school English, psychology, and creative writing teacher. She received her BA degree from Gustavus Adolphus College. She has taught English in Lithuania and in China where she created the ESL curriculum and was the Foreign Expert Coordinator at Tongshenghu International Experimental School, a private boarding school in Changsha, Hunan Province. Since her retirement she has also been a private tutor and a volunteer in the Nevada County Literacy Council, Search and Rescue Support Team, and Music in the Mountains Symphony Auxiliary. She is an avid walker and has participated in several of the Susan G. Komen Foundation's 3-Day/60 Mile events. Susie has sailed on three previous SAS voyages, serving as a volunteer in various capacities. She enjoys writing about her travels, and many of her SAS travel journals have appeared in local newspapers. She can't wait to chronicle more SAS adventures!
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Jason Cha (Living Learning Coordinator)

Jason Cha is currently serving as a Resident Director at the University of Maryland College Park which is about an hour away from his hometown Reisterstown, MD. Jason went to North Carolina State for undergrad where he majored in Business and minored in Spanish. He worked full time in the corporate setting for a couple of years in Durham, NC before returning to school to pursue working in the field of education. Jason received a grad degree from the University of Vermont where he worked in Res Life and discovered his interest working with underrepresented student groups and multicultural identity. Before returning to Maryland, he spent a year working in Res Life at UC San Diego in La Jolla, California. Jason enjoys working in areas of multicultural student development and faith identity development within student affairs.
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Lavinia Crawford-Browne (Administrative Assistant)

Lavinia is Personal Assistant to Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, a position she has held for the past twenty two years. She comes from Cape Town, South Africa but is not a stranger to the US having spent close on five years in Minneapolis. She is passionate about her country having been close to the coal face of the struggle against apartheid and served the Archbishop when he was chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 2006 she compiled and edited the book, Tutu as I Know Him published by Random House (S.A.). She enjoys choral singing and is a certified labyrinth facilitator.
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Nicole C. Cowley (Assistant IT Coordinator)

Nicole Cowley is a business analyst for Prudential in Hartford, CT. Originally from High Bridge, NJ, she holds a B.A. in Advertising and Public Relations from Penn State and an M.A in Educational Administration from California State University, San Bernardino. Although this will be her first voyage with Semester at Sea, Nicole studied abroad for one semester at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia during her undergraduate career. Nicole enjoys all outdoor activities including scuba diving, hiking, bicycling, and geocaching.
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Kevin Dostal Dauer (Living Learning Coordinator)

Kevin is a Coordinator of Residential Life at the University of Minnesota, a position he has held since 2000. Kevin received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Science in Student Counseling and Personnel Services from Kansas State University. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Higher Education at the University of Minnesota. Kevin's focus in residence life has been on student organizations and leadership in addition to supervising both residence halls and undergraduate apartments. He has been actively involved in supporting the University of Minnesota's creation of socially just communities in residence life. He recently completed a three year term of service as a regional advisor to a national student organization, and has served on regional and national commissions in ACPA and ACUHO-I. Kevin's recent focus has been the challenges that international students face in transitioning to the U.S. higher education system (especially within the context of residential life) and creating mentoring partnerships between international and domestic students. The focus of his doctoral program has been U.S. study abroad programs and the pervasiveness of parental influence in student decision making. In regard to Semester at Sea, Kevin is particularly excited about working with the Students of Service group.
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Gary Dukes (Dean of Students)

Gary Dukes is vice president for student affairs at Western Oregon University where he has served in that capacity for the last five years. Prior to working at WOU, Gary served as the Dean of Student Life and Development at Colorado State University - Pueblo. Gary has also worked in housing and new student programs at Southern Oregon University, the University of Washington, and Georgia Tech. Gary received a BS in Psychology from Oregon State University, his M.Ed in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from the University of Vermont, and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Washington. Gary also teaches in the Freshman Year Experience program and has taught introductory English and writing courses. Gary's latest quest is following the Colorado River from source to sea. He spends his summers hiking or kayaking different segments of the river. Gary will be joined on Semester at Sea with his wife Kathy and two children, Madeleine who will be 13, and Harrison, who is 10.
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Carol Erdwins (Counselor)

Carol Erdwins is a clinical psychologist with The Women's Center in Vienna, Virginia. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and held the position of associate professor in the department of psychology at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, until retiring in 2004. While at the university she taught courses in the psychology of women, communication skills, and psychotherapy; she also has supervised and served as dissertation chair for over 20 doctoral students in psychology. Most of her own research focused on women's adult development and how women balance work and family roles. As a staff psychotherapist at The Women's Center she sees both women and men as well as couples in psychotherapy as well as supervising graduate students' work with clients. This is her first voyage with the Semester at Sea program, but she has previously traveled to many countries in Europe, Asia, and South and Central America
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Benjamin Gelb (Living Learning Coordinator)

Benjamin Gelb graduated from Penn State with a Degree in Recreation and Park Management. He began his career working as a Hall Director at Alfred State College, then moved to the West Coast. He earned a Masters in Public Administration from the California State University, San Bernardino in 2006. While working on his masters he was planning large scale programs for the Universities Housing Office and. Currently Benjamin works as a Hall Director for the University of Connecticut. He has lead outdoor trips for students, and advised many student clubs and organizations throughout the years. Benjamin has many hobbies including scuba diving, hiking, and playing the guitar (poorly).
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Georgia Grant (Campus Store/Textbook Coordinator)

Georgia Cobb Grant is the Subcontract Administrator for the Office of Sponsored Programs at the University of Virginia. She drafts and negotiates all collaborative subcontracts provided to other institutions under research grants and contracts received at UVA. Before coming to her present job, she worked in a variety of positions involving accounting and financial management. For many years Georgia served as a volunteer mediator at the community mediation center in Charlottesville. She received her B.A. from Mary Washington College and her M.Ed. from the University of Virginia. Foreign travel has always been a favorite pursuit for her, as it provides the opportunity to be removed from the ordinary and to experience life, free of one's own well worn preconceptions. She loves to eat and cook and is looking forward to collecting ideas and ingredients from around the world and meeting the people who cook and grow the food. Georgia is also an enthusiastic sailor, hiker and cyclist
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Dale Hoff (Dependent Children Coordinator)

Dale is currently a self- employed Construction contractor in Seattle Washington and owner of Hoff Construction Co. After receiving his BA in English/Education at Seattle University in 1975, Dale taught secondary education for 5 years. In 1980 he started his construction business and is currently in his 28th year of business. Dale enjoys creative writing and song writing. This is his third trip on Semester at Sea and his third time as Dependent School Coordinator.
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Janetta Jamerson (Counselor)

Janetta Jamerson is a licensed Clinical Psychologist serving students at the University of Tennessee Counseling Center in Knoxville, TN. She received her B.S. from Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, TN and earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY. She completed her predoctoral internship at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. In addition to college counseling centers, her professional experience includes psychiatric inpatient hospital and community mental health work. She works therapeutically with individuals, couples, and groups and is active in training and outreach, particularly focused on promoting diversity and inclusion on her campus. She is passionate about people, social justice, music, and good food. Since Janetta has never been "west of the Mississippi," she feels very blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of this great adventure!
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Luke Jones (Assistant Executive Dean)

Luke Jones served most recently as the Assistant Director for New Student Programs at Washington State University in Pullman Washington. In this role he plans and implements orientation for over 4,000 students each year, plans events for the Week of Welcome and organizes the University Convocation. Luke also has experience in admissions, residence life, and campus involvement. In the fall of 2004 he served as a Resident Director on the first full voyage of the MV Explorer. Luke earned his PhD in Higher Education from WSU in May of 2008 with an emphasis in student Affairs. In addition to his PhD, he also holds a BA in Communication (98') and an MA in Higher Education (03') from Washington State University. Luke has a background in television and advertising and has worked with MTV's Real World/Road Rules. He is passionate about international experiences which transform the individual and result in new ways of viewing one's self and the world. His wife, Melanie, and his two daughters, Abiona (3 years) and Lilian (6 months) will also be sailing on the voyage.
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John Knecht (Nurse)

Joan Knecht RN, MS Cedar Crest College, Cornell University BSN, Rutgers University MS. Retired Professor of Nursing at County College of Morris, NJ and Santa Fe Community College, NM. Currently adjunct professor of pediatrics. Emergency Department (Level I Trauma Center) staff nurse 22 years Morristown, NJ. Worked in all hospital areas over nursing career. Extensive national and international volunteer work as nurse over past 20 years. Third SAS journey; previous trips in Spring '91 and Fall '98. Traveled on three different SAS ships, including Alaska and Caribbean voyages. Has visited 66 countries and 47 of the United States. Member of National Honor Society of Nursing, awarded "Distinguished Alumna" Cedar Crest College for humanitarian volunteerism.
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Mark Lazaroff (PR/Communications Coordinator)

Mark currently works at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he serves as an aide to the President's senior advisor on environment, energy, and natural resource issues. He graduated from The George Washington University in May 2008 with a BA in International Affairs and dual concentrations in the Middle East and Conflict and Security. He will be starting law school in the Fall of 2010. Mark is originally from Cherry Hill, NJ and enjoys playing tennis, reading, and loves to talk politics and current events. This will be his first voyage with Semester at Sea.
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John Lewis (Physician's Assistant)

John C. Lewis has ten years experience in emergency medicine. John has owned and operated an urgent care clinic in Montana and worked in a metropolitan emergency room. Currently he holds a full time position in Internal Medicine with Dr. Jack K. Lewis M.D., P.C.- Internal Medicine, as well as a part-time position in a Hispanic family practice, Total HealthCare- Family Practice, and an urgent care center, Heartland Emergicare- Urgent Care. John received his bachelor's degree from Oregon State University and his master's from University of Nebraska Medical Center. John is married to Sage Lewis. Sage sailed as a student on the Spring 1998 voyage.
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Ann McKee (Physician)

Ann McKee MD -- Graduate of University of Washington with BS in cell biology 1977 and medical degree 1981 and family medicine residency 1984. Staff physician at Group Health Cooperative since 1984 with a practice that includes the full scope of family medicine including pediatrics and obstetrics and geriatrics. Previous SAS voyages Fall 1998 and Spring 2002 with family which includes husband Dale Hoff daughter Heidi Hoff and sons Peter and Michael Hoff.
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Bradford Miller (Living Learning Coordinator)

Brad Miller is currently the academic director of an international school in Florence, Italy. He holds an A.B. in Classics from Harvard University, an M.A. in Latin from the University of Florida, and an M.Ed from Stanford University. He has served as the dorm head in boarding schools for several years and for the past five years had been working as teacher, dean, and coach at private schools in the Southern California area. This past summer Brad also helped run week-long bike tours of Tuscany for an active travel company. He has been the director of the ASA Programs summer experience in Florence, Italy the past five years, and has worked in educational administration for both year-round and summer programs for the past eleven years. Brad's passions include playing ice hockey and coaching football.
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Katelyn Osmond (Assistant Field Office Coordinator)

Kate Osmond is a master's candidate at SIT Graduate Institute working towards her Master of Arts in International Education. Kate graduated from Connecticut College with a B.A. in Anthropology. While at Connecticut College she studied abroad in Western Samoa, sparking her interest in travel and education abroad. Her work has ranged from reef conservation in Belize, to teaching Special Education, to volunteering with AmeriCorps for the Rhode Island Mentoring Partnership. Kate also spent a year in China working for WorldTeach as an oral English teacher and in summer 2008 returned to China as a group leader for the Experiment in International Living. Aside from working and studying in Belize, Samoa and China, Kate has traveled extensively in Southeast Asia and Africa and around the United States.
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Shirley Portillos (Living Learning Coordinator)

Shirley Portillos, more well know as Shirl, has worked at Colorado State University since 1996 for the Housing and Dining Services Department. Shirl has worked more specifically within Residence Life. During her last twelve years at CSU, Shirl has directly supervised full time Residence Directors, classified staff and Student Affairs in Higher Education graduate students. While at CSU, Shirl has served on a plethora of committees including Students of Color Leadership Retreat, Multicultural Leadership Retreat, Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, Cesar Chavez, Gender Inclusive Floor Committee, Safe Zone Committee, Oxfam Hunger Banquet, Campus of Character Committee, Cinco Cinco Committee, CSUnity (annual service project), Silent Solidarity and the list goes on. When Shirl started at CSU in 1996 she directly oversaw five of the ten residence hall on campus, then she moved on to overseeing all of the student conduct in the residence halls and even served as the Director of Student Conduct for the entire campus for 6 months. Shirl then moved on to working with the student leaders on campus and attended several student leadership conference with the Residence Hall Association and the National Residence Hall Honorary. Shirl again moved on to her current job assignment where she created the GUIDE (Gaining Understanding through Involvement, Diversity and Education) program which provided training, education, activities, events and programs for residence hall staff and students in the areas of leadership, involvement and diversity. Before returning to Colorado State University in 1996, Shirl spent time at Northern Arizona University from 1993-1996 where she worked as an Area Coordinator and worked directly with eight residence halls on campus. Prior to her time at NAU, Shirl worked at the University of Washington, as a full time residence director from 1991-1993. Before going to work at UW, Shirl worked at Northern Arizona University from 1988-1991 where she served as a full time residence director while working on her graduate degree in Educational Psychology and Counseling (which she obtained in 1991 from Northern Arizona University) Prior to NAU, Shirl entered the college world as an undergraduate student at Colorado State University in 1983 where she graduated with her undergraduate degree in Spanish with and emphasis in Latin American Studies. Currently, Shirl serves as the Diversity and Social Justice Chair for the AIMHO region. Shirl has also been apart of ACPA, NASPA and ASJA conferences in years past. Shirl's areas of interest lie within the social justice realm ad she hopes to open up a ranch for inner city kids someday soon.
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Jerry Pratt (Videographer)

Jerry Pratt is a filmmaker who has excelled at collaborating on projects where he constantly gets to learn. He is from Portland, Oregon and most recently, co-edited & consulted on a 13 episode dramatic series produced entirely in Nairobi, Kenya for the M-Net Network. In addition to working with A-list Directors like Gus Van Sant and others, he has Produced Travelogue documentaries on three world voyages with Semester at Sea in Spring, 02, 03 & 05. He holds a B.A. and a B.F.A in Psychology and in Film from the University of Arizona and has won national level awards for many projects that he has Produced/Edited.
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Rebecca Rowland (Field Office Coordinator)

Becca Rowland holds a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Since university, she has spent ten years traveling the globe. Her love of ship life and travel began on the SS Universe Explorer where she spent five years traveling through Central America and Alaska. Then she continued her adventures on the Ocean Explorer I on a world voyage that visited all seven of the world's continents. She has also lived for a year each in Osaka, Japan; Waterford, Ireland and most recently in Christchurch, New Zealand. Becca lives to explore the world and is currently sailing on the Fall 08 Semester and is very excited to be continuing her adventure on the Spring Semester.
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Kenna Schoenherr (Assistant Field office Coordinator)

Kenna Schoenherr has a degree in Health and Safety Administration from the University of Southern California. She has worked in a University setting for the last 20 years . Twelve years at Fullerton College as a Biology Technician and 8 years as a Health and Safety Administrator for California State University, Fullerton. She sailed on Semester at Sea Spring 95 and Fall 2002. Kenna has also sailed on numerous Enrichment voyages. She retired in January 2008.
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Nathan Stone (IT Coordinator)

Nathan Stone holds an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan and a B.S. from Duke University, where he majored in Economics and Public Policy. He joins Semester at Sea from Washington, DC where he was the Director of Information Systems for the Government of Puerto Rico's mainland U.S. offices (PRFAA). He previously worked in business and technical roles for the U.S. Senate, the Rossing Foundation in Windhoek, Namibia, and the luxury hotel industry. Originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan, Nathan enjoys competitive sailing and was a student on the Fall 1997 voyage.
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Lisa Vardaman (Assistant Librarian)

Lisa Vardaman currently is the Education Reference Librarian at Troy University. Lisa started to work at Troy University after completing her MLIS degree from the University of Alabama (Roll Tide). Lisa also holds a bachelor and master degree in Early Childhood Education from Auburn University Montgomery. Before the library experience her degree's in early childhood where used to teach kindergarten and second grade for three years in the Alabama public school system. Lisa enjoys traveling and learning about different parts of the world. She also loves the water and is currently completing her scuba certification.
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Laurie Vesalo (Living Learning Coordinator)

Laurie Vesalo is currently the Counselor & Disability Coordinator at The Art Institute of New York City. Her MA is in Counseling/Student Development with an emphasis in College Student Affairs from Eastern Illinois University (2002) and her BA is in Secondary Education from The University of Akron (1999). Prior to her current position she has worked as Senior Residence Life Coordinator at Pace University and as a Resident Counselor at Fashion Institute of Technology. Also, Laurie volunteers as a Province Director for Alpha Gamma Delta Fraternity. Laurie has been to 40 of the 50 United States and about 20 countries (30 after this voyage!) She believes education and travel go hand-in-hand. Laurie loves to write and is keeping a blog to record her experiences with Semester at Sea. If you have read "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, you know all about personal journeys and finding happiness throughout the quest. Semester at Sea reminds Laurie of this story, especially since the first port-of-call will be in the region of Spain where the young shepherd started his journey. Bon voyage!
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John Weakley (Photographer)

John Weakley is a freelance photographer specializing in documentary and commercial advertising photography. Over the past ten years he has documented the remnants of Route 66 and the role it played in the development of the modern interstate system, the great bazaars of the Middle East and their significance to the overland trade routes between Europe and Asia, and the effects of the SARS epidemic on the daily lives of people in Hong Kong. His commercial clients have included FTD, The Container Store, and the Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Society. Having been an exchange student himself, John fully appreciates the cultural diversity acquired through study abroad programs which allowed him to expand his world perspective and learn to see points-of-view different from his own. Currently John lives in Chicago, IL.
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Sarah Wibe-Norris (Living Learning Coordinator)

Sarah Wibe-Norris resides in Santa Cruz California, where the Redwood forest meets the ocean. For the past three years, Sarah has worked at the University of California Santa Cruz as a Coordinator for Residential Education.
Prior to UCSC, Sarah worked as a Resident Director at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA and as an Assistant Director of Residence Life at Rhodes College in Memphis, TN. Sarah earned her Masters in Educational Administration Emphasis Student Affairs and Leadership at the University of the Pacific. Sarah earned her Bachelor of Arts undergraduate degree in Communication Studies/Women's Studies at California State University Northridge where she also worked as a Special Projects Coordinator, Hall Coordinator, and Program Coordinator for a Mediation Center. Sarah holds a position in NASPA Region VI and co-chairs Northern RAP (RA Conference) for WACUHO. Sarah is thrilled to combine her passion for education, activism, art and exploration on this voyage.
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Andrea Young (Living Learning Coordinator)

Andrea grew up in Auburn, Massachusetts, which is about 1 hour west of Boston. She has one younger brother, a 4-year-old niece, Hannah, & a 6-month-old nephew, Jacob. Andrea received her BS in Communication Studies from Northeastern University in Boston. After college, Andrea travelled to about 30 universities across the United States working as a Leadership Consultant for a Greek organization. Andrea then drove almost 3,000 miles away to Arizona State University in Tempe where she received her MEd in Higher & Postsecondary Education. Andrea held Assistant Community Coordinator and Community Coordinator positions in the Department of Residential Life during her 3 years in Arizona. Her next position brought her to The City of Brotherly Love, where she has been working as a Resident Coordinator at LaSalle University in Philadelphia. Andrea volunteered in New Orleans post-Katrina and spent one month travelling through 10 European countries in the fall of 2006. In her free time, Andrea volunteers for an organization called Back on My Feet, which promotes the self-sufficiency of Philadelphia's homeless population by using running as a means to build confidence, strength, and self-esteem. Andrea also just completed her first half-marathon in the fall of '08. Also, since Andrea is from the Boston area, she is determined to get everyone to use the term 'wicked' by the end of the voyage.
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