Summer 2011 Deans, Faculty, Staff

Dawn Anderson (Registrar/Assistant to the Academic Dean)

Dawn Anderson earned her doctorate in mathematics education in 2002 from the University of Georgia with additional graduate certificates in Women’s Studies, and Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies, and her M.S. in curriculum and instruction from University of South Florida in 1993. She currently inspires adolescents as a teacher at Albemarle High School. Prior to her current teaching position, she served in various roles at the UVA Women’s Center and the University Internship Programs Office. She continues to teach a course on Women and Global Change for the UVA BIS Program. She has taught a wide range of courses in the fields of mathematics, secondary education, qualitative research, Women’s Studies, and organizational behavior at several universities including the University of Tampa, University of Georgia, University of Pittsburg and California State University, Fullerton. One of her passions is international education. She sailed around the world as a faculty member with Semester at Sea in 2002, and spent January 2004 in Thailand on a Fulbright. She also cotaught a course on gender issues in South Korea in summer 2005, and codeveloped a study abroad program in El Salvador on women's community activism. In Summer 2007 she served as Assistant to the Academic Dean and Registrar with Semester at Sea. She is experienced in curriculum development and consulting, and has authored published articles and presented her scholarship at all levels.
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Lawrence Butler (Global Studies)

Associate Professor of Art History, Department of History and Art History, George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia. PhD in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania (1989), MA in Art History from Oberlin College (1980) and BA in History, Oberlin College (1978). A Medievalist, Byzantinist and Islamicist by training, his research interests are in the Byzantine and Islamic architecture of the Mediterranean, Chinese art, and the material culture of the Silk Road. Scholarly publications include book chapters and articles on the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, mosques and Islamic identity along the trade routes of Asia, Chinese art and Confucianism, and museum studies. Professional awards include George Mason University’s Teaching Excellence Award (2004), and the Phi Beta Delta honorary society for international education (2005). Prof. Butler has lived and studied in Turkey (Fulbright fellow, 1982-3), Italy, and Britain, with extensive study-travel and tour leadership experience throughout the Mediterranean, Europe and Asia for the Smithsonian Institution and several universities. This will be his fourth voyage with Semester At Sea.
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Ingrid Bianca Byerly (Anthropology/Ethnomusicology)

Ingrid Bianca Byerly, a South African interdisciplinary scholar, holds teaching affiliations in the Department of Cultural Anthropology, the Office of the Dean of Academic Affairs and the Pre-Major Advising Center at Duke University. Her advisory focus lies in Research Design (for students returning from study, volunteer and fieldwork abroad programs) and the Senior Honors Theses (for students graduating with distinction); and her teaching focus is in Freshman Seminars. She has offered courses in literature, anthropology, ethnomusicology, study skills, public speaking and intercultural communication in South Africa, England, Russia and the United States. She has also held the position of lecturer and Course Director of the International Regent Courses in Oxford, England, for ten summer sessions. A fellow of Sigma Xi and the American Council of Learned Societies, her interests include filmmaking (for which she was awarded the Panasonic Individual Videomakers’ Award in London for When Nations Meet), and the investigation of protest music in Apartheid South Africa (for which her research received the Charles Seeger Prize in Toronto, Canada from the Society for Ethnomusicology). She is presently completing a book on ‘The Music Indaba of South Africa’ and a guide for students entitled ‘To a Certain Degree: The Art of Graduating.’
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Roy Campbell (History)

Roy B. Campbell is Associate Professor of History at Presbyterian College in South Carolina. After completing a BA in History from Wingate University (95), Campbell spent a year on a Fulbright in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, where he researched the indigenous population’s nationalist struggles against the joint rule of France and Britain. He next pursued his graduate studies at Florida State University, earning an MA in Asian History (99) and PhD in Modern Chinese History (02). His general research interest is the Western experience in China, and he is currently revising his manuscript on the rise of student consciousness at Yale’s mission school in China during the May 4th era. He teaches broadly on many areas of the non-Western world including China, India, the Middle East and North Africa, as well as on the themes of colonialism, violence, and revolution. At Presbyterian College, Campbell has led student groups abroad to China, Vietnam, England, Ireland, Turkey, Israel, and Egypt. After years of hearing about his students’ great experiences on Semester at Sea, Campbell is excited to be teaching on the Summer 2011 voyage! Accompanying him will be his wife Suzette and their two adventurous sons, Dakota and Skye.
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Joseph Chapman (English)

Joseph Chapman studied English and philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he earned his B.A. in 2005. He received his M.F.A. in creative writing from University of Virginia in 2008. From 2007 to 2008, he served as the poetry editor for Meridian magazine and was awarded the Academy of American Poets prize in 2005 and 2007. In the fall of 2008, he taught creative writing and literature for Semester at Sea. For the past year he has been working on a book of poetry that fuses pop culture, linguistics, and the critical language of film studies within the form of the short lyric. These recent poems attempt to alternate between the sincerity of the Romantic tradition and postmodern irony. He currently teaches in the Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies Program at U.Va.. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, Cincinnati Review, and BOMBLog.
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Helen Cho (Anthropology)

Helen Cho is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Davidson College in NC. She received her B.A. in anthropology and B.S. in chemistry from the University of Illinois-Urbana and M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Missouri-Columbia. As a biocultural anthropologist, she specializes in human skeletal biology of contemporary and archaeological populations, and her dissertation was on bone loss in Imperial Romans from the Isola Sacra necropolis near Rome. Cho has conducted osteological research in Mexico and Korea; taught bone histology workshops at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington D.C., Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán in Mexico, and American Academy of Forensic Sciences conferences; and participated in archaeological expeditions in Syria, Cyprus, and U.S. At Davidson she teaches a wide variety of courses, including human evolution, medical anthropology, race, primatology, human ecology, forensic anthropology, and osteology. Cho also teaches a comparative skeletal anatomy course through the Maderas Rainforest Conservancy in Ometepe Island, Nicaragua. In addition, she serves as a forensic anthropology consultant for the Medical Examiner Office in Charlotte, NC and has worked on forensic cases from Korea. Her publications include book chapters and journal articles on bone biology of diverse populations with clinical and forensic applications.
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Rebecca Cooper (Librarian)

Rebecca Cooper holds a B.A. from Gettysburg College, an M.A. in Art History from Southern Methodist University, and a Masters of Library Science from the Catholic University of America. As the Architecture and Instruction Librarian at U.Va., Rebecca works with students doing a broad range of interdisciplinary research. She particularly enjoys teaching faculty and students about the many research tools available to them, and helping connect researchers with the information they need. Rebecca is looking forward to sharing the learning experience with the shipboard community, and to helping voyagers get the most out of their classes and travels.
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Kenneth Cushner (Education)

Dr. Kenneth Cushner is Professor (Full) of Intercultural Teacher Education at Kent State University. He received his doctorate from the University of Hawaii in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in cross-cultural psychology while on scholarship through the East-West Center. He is author or editor of 7 books as well as numerous chapters and journal articles in the areas of international and intercultural education and training, including Intercultural Interactions: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed. (Sage Publications, 1996), Human Diversity in Education: An Integrative Approach, 6th ed. (McGraw-Hill, 2009), and Intercultural Student Teaching: A Bridge to Global Competence (Rowman Littlefield, 2007). He is a Founding Fellow and immediate past President of the International Academy for Intercultural Research, and former Director of COST – the Consortium for Overseas Student Teaching. A former Fulbright Scholar (Sweden, 2008), he has taught in schools in Switzerland and Australia in addition to the United States, has led international travel programs for educators and children on all seven continents, and served as Coordinator of Teachers at Sea during the Summer 2010 voyage of Semester at Sea.
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Siân Davies-Vollum (Geology)

Siân Davies-Vollum is an Associate Professor of Geoscience in the Environmental Science program at the University of Washington-Tacoma (UWT). Born and educated in the UK, she has a BA and Ph.D. in Geology from Oxford University, and an M.Sc. in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, London. Her research focuses on sedimentology of river environments and the plant-based material that they preserve. She has conducted field research in North America and Europe, and has participated in geological field trips in South America, South Africa and Asia. Recently, she has been researching interdisciplinary environmental issues in Washington’s Puget Sound. Professor Davies-Vollum has been very involved in curriculum development at UWT. She developed the Geoscience component of the Environmental Science program, and was a founding faculty member of the freshman general education curriculum. She has taught a variety of courses in environmental science and geology, including field courses in the US and UK, and has published a number of pedagogical research papers. She taught on the SAS summer 2003 and fall 2009 voyages and is pleased to be sailing again with her husband and daughter.
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Matthew Davis (English)

Matthew Davis is director of the Core Knowledge Foundation Language Arts Program. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia, where he wrote his doctoral dissertation on the eighteenth-century English man of letters Samuel Johnson. He has taught at UVA and the College of William & Mary and recently held a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of St. Andrews. He has published scholarly articles on Shakespeare, Milton, Samuel Johnson, and Robert Frost. He is also an authority on early reading instruction and a veteran editor of text and trade books for children. His editing credits include What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know, What Your Fifth Grade Needs to Know, What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know, the Pearson Core Knowledge History and Geography series (grades K-6), and more than a hundred titles in the Core Knowledge Reading Program (grades K-2). He has studied abroad in the former Soviet Union and traveled extensively in Europe and North America. He will be traveling with his wife Susan and their two daughters.
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Susan Davis (Politics)

Susan M. Davis is an Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs at the University of Virginia, where she has held various legal and policy roles since 1999. She was engaged in the private practice of law for five years before joining the University of Virginia as an Associate General Counsel and Special Assistant Attorney General. From 1999 to 2004, she defended the University in numerous federal and state court actions involving student claims of discrimination and deprivation of constitutional rights. Since 2004, Davis has advised the Division of Student Affairs on various topics including freedom of speech, student disciplinary matters, hazing, sexual assault, and education and health records privacy. She has authored numerous university policies in these areas and has contributed to several pieces of state legislation impacting Virginia institutions of higher education. She has served as a guest lecturer in university law and higher education courses and is the primary advisor to the University’s student-run Judiciary Committee. She holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from Temple University. As a student, she participated in three semesters abroad in Spain and excavated Roman ruins on an archaeological dig in Mallorca. More recently, she has enjoyed exploring Mayan ruins on family trips to the Yucatan Peninsula, Belize, and Guatemala. She will be sailing with her husband Matthew and their two intrepid daughters.
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Tracy Ehlers (Anthropology)

Tracy Ehlers is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Denver where she has taught since 1987. She is the author of Silent Looms: Women and Production in a Guatemalan Town, based on her research in a developing Mayan community. Her second book, Sugar’s Life in the Hood, tells the life story of an entrepreneurial African American woman trying to get off welfare. She collaborated with England’s Granada Television to produce a documentary film based on her work in Guatemala for their award-winning series, Disappearing World. In 1995, Ehlers was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Costa Rica where she studied microenterprise and taught at the National University. It was there that she began to be interested in the anthropology of tourism. In 2001, Dr. Ehlers won the University Scholar/Teacher of the Year Award at DU. She is founder and director of Women Work Together, a non-profit organization that partners with community leaders to empower rural women and girls in highland Guatemala.
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Gustavo Fares (Spanish Literature/Studio Art)

Fares is a Professor at Lawrence University, where he specializes in Latin American and cultural studies. A native of Argentina, he received a J.D. Law Degree, from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, in Argentina, a Master in Foreign Languages and Literature from West Virginia University, and a Ph. D. in Latin American Literature with emphasis in cultural studies from the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of four books, among them Imagining Comala. The Space in Juan Rulfo’s Works (Peter Lang, 1991), and Contemporary Argentinean Women Writers: A Critical Anthology (U. P. of Florida, 1998, with E. Hermann). Fares has published numerous articles and has presented more than ninety papers on topics such as literature, visual arts, Latin American cultures, women studies, and border studies. In 2004 he was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, in Mendoza, Argentina, where he taught a graduate seminar on culture and identity. In 2006 he traveled throughout Asia with a Freeman Grant from Lawrence University. He taught in the SAS Fall 2008 Voyage. In addition to teaching, Fares is also an accomplished visual artist. He holds a Professor of Painting and Drawing degree from the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes “Prilidiano Pueyrredón” from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and a Master in Painting and Lithography from West Virginia University. He has had numerous solo and group exhibits, both in the United States and abroad, and has taught several university courses on visual arts.
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David Fernandez Díaz (Spanish)

Originally from Barcelona, Spain, David holds a licenciatura (Bachelor and Masters degree) in Philology, a Master's in Cognitive Science and Language (University of Barcelona), a Master's in Spanish Literature (SUNY Binghamton) and currently, he has completed his 2nd year PhD in Spanish Literature at the University of Virginia. He is going to do his dissertation on 18th and 19th Century Spanish literature with particular emphasis on Spanish / Catalan Romanticism under the supervision of David T. Gies. At present, he is working on two articles on Clarin's La Regenta and Roja's La Celestina. He has taught from introductory to intermediate and advance levels of Spanish at different universities and has traveled to Spain, England, Switzerland, Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and the United States. When he is not dreaming being on the ship or learning more about UNIX-like operating systems, David reads literature, history and philosophy.
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M. Müge Finkel (Politics)

Professor Finkel is Assistant Professor of International Development at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA) at University of Pittsburgh. She completed her PhD in Political Science at the University of Virginia, specializing in Comparative Social Policy and Japanese Politics. She completed her MA in International Relations from International University of Japan in Japan, and her BA in Political Science from Bogazici University in Turkey. Prior to joining GSPIA, she worked as a Social Development Specialist at the World Bank for the Middle East and North Africa Region, and consulted for the International Food Policy Research Institute. She has worked on various development projects in Yemen, Egypt and Morocco. Her areas of expertise are Community-Driven Development, especially related to youth and women’s issues; Social and Environmental Impact Assessment; Country Social Analysis; Participatory Program Development; and Gender and Development. Among her publications are What Makes a Camp Safe: the Protection of Children from Abduction in Internally Displaced Persons and Refugee Camps, Co-authored with Simon Reich (2008); “Voices of the Youth: Background Papers and Country Case Studies from Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Yemen” , and “Securing a Future for All, Middle East-North Africa Regional Social Development Strategy” both co-authored with the MNA Social Development Team for the World Bank.
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William French (Religious Studies)

William French is an Associate Professor in the Theology Department at Loyola University Chicago. His courses also support Loyola’s Peace Studies Program and its Environmental Studies/Sciences Program. He received his BA in History from Dickinson College, an M.Div. degree from Harvard University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. His main research interests are religious ethics, war and peace issues and ecological ethics and policies. He has written widely on just war theory, religion and violence, global climate change, ecological security, the Catholic natural law tradition, Biblical views of nature, and on comparative religious ethics. During college he spent a year studying in Italy and he has traveled throughout Europe, the Mideast, and South Asia. He participated in a summer seminar on Holocaust Studies at the Yad Vashem Center in Jerusalem. In the summer of 2010 he taught a course on war and peace in Europe and the Mideast at Loyola’s campus in Rome, Italy. He has received the Sujack Award, one of Loyola’s highest awards for teaching.
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Chris Galea (Business)

Chris Galea is a father, educator, outdoor enthusiast, house designer/builder, globe-traveller and blue-sky sailor. He is also an entrepreneur who has started a number of successful businesses – along with a couple spectacular failures! Chris currently owns and operates a property management and hospitality business that he started 10 years ago. As an educator, Chris is an Associate Professor at the Gerald Schwartz School of Business at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. He obtained his MBA from Western’s Ivey School of Business (London, Ontario) and his PhD from Lancaster University’s School of Management (Lancaster, UK). Chris’ research focus is primarily in the area of management learning and sustainable development. He has written a number of papers on the subject and is editing his fourth book on business and sustainability. Chris was also part of the founding faculty of the Sustainable Enterprise Academy at the Schulich School of Business at York University in Toronto. Besides an abiding love of travel – over 50 countries and not counting – Chris gets by in a few languages which has greatly increased the learning that comes from immersing oneself in foreign lands and cultures. He looks forward to a continued journey of learning and teaching during the SAS Summer 2011 voyage.
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Julia Hansen (English)

Julia Hansen holds a B.A. in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. In the fall of 2010, she will begin a PhD program in English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, where her intended focus is Nineteenth-Century American women’s poetry and poetics. Her own poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner, and Southeast Review; she received the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2008, and was recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. While her scholarly research is focused on women poets living in the United States during the nineteenth century, she is also intrigued by the transatlantic exchange of literature, and by the permeable boundaries between “national” literatures and genres. She is pleased to return to the MV Explorer, having sailed on the fall 2008 voyage.
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Gearold Johnson (Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science)

Gearold R. Johnson is the Emeritus George T. Abell Endowed Chair in Engineering and Professor Emeritus at Colorado State University where he was professor of mechanical engineering and computer science. He co-founded the Solar Environmental Engineering Co. and was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Village Earth from 2003-2007 where he oversaw sustainable community development projects in the State of Kwara in Nigeria, Nicaragua, Peru, India, Indonesia and the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation in South Dakota. From 1992 until 2002, he was an advisor to the Director-General of UNESCO in Paris, France on engineering education. As a professor at Colorado State University he was the recipient of many outstanding teaching awards including five departmental awards, three college awards as well as the college’s first award for Innovation in Teaching. Johnson holds degrees from Purdue University: a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering, a M.S. in Engineering and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. He has published over 180 refereed journal papers, book chapters, articles and research reports.

Andrew Kahn (Drama)

Drew Kahn is Chairman and Full Professor of the Theater Department at Buffalo State College where he teaches acting, voice, movement (President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching/SUNY) and directs main stage productions (Kennedy Center Award). He is the Founding Director of The Anne Frank Project, an annual tolerance conference at Buffalo State College that utilizes the wisdom of Anne Frank as a springboard for the intense examination of genocide, hatred and intolerance through the interdisciplinary lens of the liberal arts. He presents nationally and internationally on the universal language of theater and the intersection of the arts and genocide as a means towards meaningful social change—most recently in Rwanda, Russia and Mexico. Drew has extensive acting experience in regional theatre and off-Broadway (part of Andre’ DeShields’ original cast of Saint Tous), feature film (Paramount Pictures’ Necessary Roughness) as well as several television and commercial credits. In Buffalo, New York, Drew was the host of WKBW-TV’s (ABC) AM Buffalo for six years, hosted the WNED (PBS) documentary Saving a Landmark: The Darwin Martin House (Telly Award) and has numerous local stage credits including Lobby Hero, A Cat On A Hot Tin Roof and Baltimore Waltz (ArtVoice Artie Award). He received an MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University and a BA in Drama from San Diego State University. His favorite roles are husband to his wife Maria and dad to his children Sam and Nate.
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Jon Kastendiek (Biology)

Jon Kastendiek is an Associate Professor in the biology department of James Madison University in Harrisonburg VA. He received his Ph.D. in marine ecology from UCLA in 1975. His research interests are in behavioral, population and community ecology. He has conducted research in a number of marine and terrestrial environments including coral reefs, kelp forests, subtidal soft sediments, temperate forests and under Antarctic sea ice. He is also interested in human impacts on the environment and has studied the effects of a nuclear power station on its local marine biota. At JMU he teaches courses in ecology and evolution as well as an invertebrate zoology course.
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George Klosko (Politics)

George Klosko is Henry L. and Grace Doherty Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia. He was both an undergraduate and graduate student Columbia University, and taught at Columbia and Purdue Universities before coming to the University of Virginia, where he has been since 1983. As a graduate student, he spent a year in Oxford as a Columbia University Traveling Fellow, and has been a visiting faculty member at Central European University, in Budapest. He works in both normative political theory and the history of political thought. His books include Political Obligations (Oxford, 2005) the Second Edition of The Development of Plato's Political Theory (Oxford, 2006), and The Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy (forthcoming), which he edited. Political Obligations received the David and Elaine Spitz Award from the Conference for the Study of Political Thought, for the best book in liberal and/or democratic theory published in 2005.
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Sherry Kraft (Psychology)

Sherry Kraft is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia and adjunct faculty member in the Curry Programs in Clinical and School Psychology at the University of Virginia. Prior to her full-time private practice, Dr. Kraft was a faculty member in the above UVA clinical psychology doctoral program and Director of the Center for Clinical Psychology Services. She received her BA from the University of Michigan and her MA and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. Clinical specializations include adolescent development and emotional well-being, co-parenting after divorce, and managing custody and parenting issues in “high conflict” separated/divorced families. Other research and professional issues include ethical issues in mental health work with minors, risk-taking behaviors in adolescent girls and young women, and the effects on children of exposure to parental conflict. Dr. Kraft has served as President of the Central Virginia Academy of Clinical Psychologists and member of the Executive Committee of the Virginia Psychological Association. She is active in many civic organizations in Charlottesville and currently serves on the boards of Womens Health Virginia, Charlottesville Hadassah and the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival. She is also active politically and served as co-chair of the Charlottesville Democratic Party. She currently chairs the Road Back PAC and enjoys working on political campaigns. Dr. Kraft has lived and worked abroad in Israel and in Switzerland. She loves to travel and is excited to be sharing this voyage with her husband, who is teaching, and with her daughter, who is a student.
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William H. Lucy (Urban Planning and Architecture)

William H. Lucy, Lawrence Lewis Jr. Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the University of Virginia, is the author of Foreclosing the Dream: How America’s Housing Crisis Is Changing Our Cities and Suburbs, Planners Press, 2010, and Tomorrow’s Cities Tomorrow’s Suburbs (with David Phillips), Planners Press, 2006. Currently he is working on manuscripts about Planning Theory for Practice and Government Capabilities in Metropolitan Areas. During the 2010-2011 academic year at the University of Virginia, Professor Lucy is teaching Sustainability and Adaptive Infrastructure, Planning Theory and Practice, Public Policy Alternatives for Limiting Climate Change, and Affordable Housing. He is treasurer of a non-profit organization, Alliance for Community Choice in Transportation. In 2008 He completed a term as a member and Chair of the Charlottesville Planning Commission. He has been chief policy advisor to three mayors; some of those experiences are described in Close to Power: Setting Priorities with Elected Officials. In 2010 he completed a term as Associate Dean for Policy in the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Syracuse University, an M.A. in political science from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in philosophy from Knox College.
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Kathleen Manning (Education)

Kathleen Manning is a professor in the Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) Program at the University of Vermont (UVM). Summer 2011 is her second SAS voyage having sailed as the Student Affairs at Sea Program’s first faculty coordinator in summer 2010. Her early career included work in residence life, student unions, activities, orientation, and judicial affairs. She has a Ph.D. in higher education from Indiana University; an M.S. in counseling and student development from SUNY Albany; and a B.A. from Marist College. Well-traveled, Dr. Manning went to China and Hong Kong on Fulbright Fellow and Fulbright Senior Specialist Awards. NASPA honored her in 2005 as a Pillar of the Profession and in 2007 with the Outstanding Contribution to Literature/Research Award. She has written or edited six books including One Size Does Not Fit All: Traditional and Innovative Models of Student Affairs Practice. Dr. Manning is the Executive Editor of the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. She has taught in the HESA graduate program since 1989 during which time she was awarded the Kroepsch-Maurice Award for Teaching Excellence, the 2009 Hero Award from LGBTQA Services, and 2009 Outstanding Faculty Women Award at UVM.
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Thomas McKinnon (Economics)

Thomas McKinnon is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His Professional Degrees are BA in History and Political Science, Southern State College; MEd in Secondary Education, University of Arkansas; MA in Economics, University of Illinois; and PhD in Economics, University of Mississippi. His research is in the areas of History of Economic Thought, Economic Education and International Eonomics and he has published more than one hundred referred articles in scholarly journals including Economic Inquiry, International Advances in Economic Research, and Journal of the Southwestern Society of Economists. He has had considerable experience teaching in various countries. After the breakup of the USSR, he and other economists under the auspices of the National Council on Economic Education taught short courses on market economics in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Croatia and Kazakhstan. He taught four semesters in Pedarno del Grappa, Italy with a consortium of universities under the auspices of the University of Kansas. He has also taught summer courses in Costa Rica, Mexico and Canada as well as Semester at Sea in spring, 2006. Professor McKinnon has received awards for teaching and research from the Economics Department, the College and the University for Teaching Excellence. He received further recognition for teaching from the Southwestern Society of Economists and the National Council on Economic Education.
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Charles Morris (Psychology)

Charles J. Morris is an Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Provost from Denison University, a liberal arts college in Ohio, where he taught for 30 years. He was recognized for outstanding teaching on a number of occasions throughout his career and received a Teaching Excellence Award from his alma mater upon his retirement. He earned a B.S. degree in Psychology from Denison University and his M.A. and Ph.D from the University of Missouri. His primary teaching interests are human learning & memory and genetics & behavior. Current research activities focus on aging and memory and the use of standardized test scores to evaluate Florida's schools. He has also published research on the application of learning principles to classroom instruction. Professor Morris taught during the Fall 2009 voyage of the MV Explorer. He and his wife Carol have also traveled extensively during the past 10 years, including month-long visits to Scandanavia, France, Italy, Greece, Spain/Portugal, Russia, British Isles, and the Galapagos Islands.
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Martina Musteen (Business/Commerce)

Dr. Musteen is Associate Professor of management and entrepreneurship at the San Diego State University (SDSU). She earned her Ph.D. degree in management from the University of Kansas (KU), MBA from CIMBA, Italy, and bachelors at the European Division of the University of Maryland in Heidelberg, Germany, where she graduated summa cum laude. Dr. Musteen has won multiple awards for her teaching both in KU and SDSU. In 2008, she was awarded a prestigious national teaching award – the Olympus Emerging Educational Leader Award and, in 2009, she won the Faculty Recognition Award in Teaching for the College of Business Administration. This year, Dr. Musteen was awarded the Outstanding Teacher recognition by the SDSU Senate. Dr. Musteen teaches courses in strategic management and international entrepreneurship in the undergraduate, graduate and executive programs. She has also taught seminars in Taiwan and Italy. An active researcher, Dr. Musteen presented her papers at numerous international academic conferences. Her work appeared or is forthcoming in the Journal of Management, Journal of World Business, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Management International Review, British Journal of Management and Journal of International Business Studies.
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Duane Osheim (History)

Duane Osheim (History) received his BA degree in History from Luther College, an MA from the University of Nebraska (History) and a PhD degree from the University of California at Davis (History). He has taught Medieval and Early Modern European History at the University of Virginia since 1974. A specialist in the social and cultural history of Italy, he has won the Dissertation Prize of the Society for Italian Historical Studies and a Rome Prize Fellowship of the American Academy in Rome. His work has especially concerned the social and cultural influences of religion and the impact of epidemic diseases on Renaissance culture. His publications include A Tuscan Monastery and it Social World, Beyond Florence: the Contours of Medieval and Early Modern Italy (co-editor and contributor) and Chronicling History: chroniclers and historians in Medieval and Renaissance Italy (co-editor and contributor). Although he and his wife have spent a number of years in Italy and travelled extensively there, they are excited at the prospect of comparing what they know of Italian life to the cultures of the other lands of the Mediterranean.
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Tracy Pintchman (Religious Studies)

Tracy Pintchman is a professor of religious studies and director of the International Studies Program at Loyola University Chicago. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from University of California at Santa Barbara, an M.A. from Boston University, and a B.A. in film studies from Cornell University. Her main area of research is Hinduism, with a focus on both goddess traditions and women’s ritual practices, but her interests in religious studies are wide-ranging. She has lived in France and India and has travelled throughout Europe, the Mideast, and South Asia. In summer of 2010, she taught a class on the religions of the modern Mediterranean world at Loyola’s campus in Rome, Italy. Her scholarly publications include a number of articles and book chapters as well as four books: two monographs, The Rise of the Goddess in the Hindu Tradition (1994) and Guests at God's Wedding: Celebrating Kartik Among the Women of Benares (2005), and two edited volumes, Seeking Mahadevi: Constructing the Identities of the Hindu Great Goddess (2001) and Women's Rituals, Women's Lives in the Hindu Tradition: Domesticity and Beyond (2007). She has received two teaching awards.
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Emilie Roman (French)

Emilie is from Aix-en-Provence, France. She holds a Master's in History of the Mediterranean, European and African worlds, a Master's in American Civilization and Literature and a Master's in French Language and Literature. Her main research interest focuses on Time and Memory in visual materials. Emilie spent a year at Washington College in Maryland, researching her thesis concerning the Bicentennial of American Independence. After her second Masters at the University of Provence, France, she became a French Teaching Assistant at the University of Virginia, and then a Grad student in the French department of this same University. She has taught from introductory to intermediate and advance levels of French. She has traveled to Morocco, Spain, England, Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany, Canada, Mexico and the United States. When she is not traveling Emilie enjoys learning about anything and everything.
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Edmund Russell (History/Science, Technology, and Society)

Edmund Russell is an associate professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society and in the Department of History at the University of Virginia, where he has taught since 1994. He received his bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He has published three books and many articles related to environmental history and the history of technology. His research has focused on the environmental history of war and on the role of evolution (especially in populations of non-human species) in human history. Mr. Russell’s books include War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to Silent Spring (Cambridge University Press) and Evolutionary History: Uniting History and Biology to Understand Life on Earth (Cambridge University Press). Mr. Russell’s research has won five prizes, including the Leopold-Hidy and Rachel Carson Prizes from the American Society for Environmental History and the Edelstein Prize of the Society from the History of Technology. His teaching has been honored with three awards, including the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award. Mr. Russell worked for two and a half years in the Philippines as a volunteer and as a researcher, was a visiting fellow at Cambridge University, and is a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University.
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Jeanne Nicholson Siler (Writing Center)

Jeanne Nicholson Siler began writing professionally as a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch while earning an undergraduate degree at the College of William Mary. Daily and weekly newspapers assignments soon had her interviewing toxic waste opponents, centenarians, school board members and Captain Kangaroo. She earned a master’s degree in anthropology in 2003 from the University of Virginia with research into why journalists are quick to write about bones, books and Native Americans, but not necessarily theories of cultural difference. Jeanne has taught non-fiction writing to out-of-school adults, communication practices to factory workers, first-year composition to college students, anthropology to fourth-graders, and assisted international Ph.D. candidates with academic writing. She is the author of Fayette Street, A Hundred-Year History of African American Life in Martinsville, Virginia, a 2006 publication that capped a two-year, grant-funded community history project, and now works at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jeanne speaks Dutch, thanks to a year spent living in the Netherlands.
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Michael Timko (Biology)

Michael P. Timko is currently a Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia and Director of the Distinguished Major Program in Human Biology. He received a BS from the Rutgers College of Agriculture and Environmental Science in 1975, studied genetics and plant breeding at Michigan State University, and earned his PhD from Rutgers University in 1980. He held postdoctoral positions at Brandeis University and Rockefeller University, where he was involved in some of the seminal studies of gene expression in plants and the construction of transgenic crops. He joined the faculty at the University of Virginia in 1986 where he teaches courses that integrate his interests in plant biology, food and nutrition, human health and health policy. He directs an internationally recognized research program that uses functional genomics for the molecular improvement of crops for Africa, develops novel nutriceuticals and therapeutics to treat human disease, and studies the effects of harm reduced tobacco products on human health. His work is supported by various national and international granting agencies and private foundations. He has authored or co-authored over 100 research papers, book chapters and review articles and holds multiple US and world-wide patents in agricultural and nutritional biotechnology. In 2009 he was recipient of the Hartwell Foundation Individual Biomedical Research Award for his work on probiotic-based therapeutics. He previously sailed on the Fall 2008 voyage.
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Drew Adelman (Living Learning Coordinator: Intercultural Competency and Diversity)

Drew is a doctoral candidate in the Ph.D. program in Counseling Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin (UT). He has a M.A. from the College Student Personnel Program at the University of Maryland, College Park, and over 10 years of experience in counseling, crisis management, and curriculum development in student affairs programs. He currently serves as the Program Director for the Diversity Education Institute at UT and has experience conducting workshops on identity development, homophobia, sexism, fighting racism, issues of gender identity, cultural competency, and social justice advocacy and leadership. Prior to returning to grad school he had 5 years of experience in residence life at the University of California, Irvine, as well as two years working in drug intelligence with the U.S. Dept. of Justice. While born and raised in Tucson, AZ, Drew did his undergrad at the University of Virginia. Drew is an adventure travel enthusiast, and served as Resident Director and Coordinator for Diversity and Spirituality for the Spring 2007 voyage of Semester at Sea. He’s ecstatic to set sail, once again, aboard the MV Explorer. Back to Staff List

Judy Andrews (Assistant Librarian)

Currently Judy is the librarian for Century High School in the Portland Oregon metro area; she has served as librarian for the U.S. Government Printing Office, James Madison University and Reed College. During her career she has worked in the areas of government information, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and information literacy. Judy received a B.A. in Social Science from San Jose State University, a M.L.S. from the University of Hawaii, Manoa and studied Medieval History as a graduate student at the University of Oregon. As a librarian being a bridge between students and the information they are seeking is one of the most important parts of her job. Two of her passions are information literacy and ballet. She looks forward to exploring many new places and being part of the community of learners. Back to Staff List

Paul Clay-Rooks (Living Learning Coordinator: Religion/Spirituality)

Paul is currently completing a Th.M. at Duke University specializing in the intersection of Christian thought and contemporary culture with a particular interest in categories for journeying with others as they explore the important religious and spiritual questions that claim their lives. He is particularly invested in serving university students in this capacity and worked closely with students, faculty and staff on matters of religious/spiritual import during his tenure as Interim Associate Chaplain at the University of Richmond. In addition to his university chaplaincy experience, Paul has served as an Assistant Dean of Admission for his alma mater and has over five years of experience in residence life at a variety of institutions. He holds a M. Div. from Virginia Union University and a B.A. from William and Mary. Paul is excited to join the staff and looks forward to an amazing, transformative journey.
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Saskia Clay–Rooks (Living Learning Coordinator: Career Development)

Saskia has nearly a decade of experience as a higher education administrator helping students to clarify and achieve their academic, career and personal goals. She currently serves as Senior Career Specialist at the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment where she was recognized as Staff Member of the Year in 2010. Previously, Saskia worked at the University of Virginia in career services where she received an Innovation Excellence Award from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) for a professional development conference she created. The students with whom she works find her to be warm, practical and resourceful. Saskia has a M. Ed. from the University of Virginia and B.A. from the College of William and Mary. In her personal time, Saskia enjoys reading, eating out and traveling. She spent part of her childhood in Germany, studied aboard in Ghana while in college and has visited nine other countries.
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Kerry Day (Living Learning Coordinator: Health & Wellness)

Kerry is excited to be sailing on the summer 2011 Semester at sea voyage. Kerry has traveled and lived all over the US. While living in NY during undergrad she was awarded a scholarship to travel to Moscow, Russia to do a variety of service learning projects. While gaining her M.Ed. (College Student Affairs Leadership) from Grand Valley State University she had an internship with Accommodations at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Kerry was also involved in a graduate study abroad program in Puebla, Mexico. Professionally, Kerry has worked at Skidmore College in up-state NY as the Hall Director and Program Coordinator, FYE living-learning coordinator at the University of Alaska – Anchorage and is currently the Towers North Hall Director at the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Kerry has a passion for health and wellness which includes being involved in outdoor sports and activities. She expects this voyage to be a life changing experience for all.
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Michael DeTerra (Videographer)

Michael is very excited to be sailing on his second voyage this summer since the December 2010 Enrichment Voyage. His first experience aboard the MV Explorer took him to Central America and the Panama Canal as a freelance videographer while still pursuing a degree in Communication from the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at Washington State University. He plans to graduate in May 2011 with an emphasis in broadcast production and the determination to take the world by storm... or ship.
Michael has worked at Northwest Public Television alongside a great team of producers and professionals to create local and national programming for the past 2.5 years. Outside of the classroom, Michael also has experience with several production companies across the U.S. and projects that range from Animal Planet and SyFy series to national and international documentaries. Among other accolades, Michael was recently the recipient of a grant commissioned by the Beef Checkoff and the National Cattleman’s Beef Association to produce an independent documentary highlighting beef production across the Western United States.
Sailing with the MV Explorer is Michael’s favorite experience of any past accomplishment. He looks forward to capturing your memories onboard the ship and across the world.
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Amy S. Diestelkamp (Living Learning Coordinator Graduate Student Intern: Leadership)

Amy is a second-year Master's student in Higher Education Administration at Rowan University in New Jersey. She has a B.A. in Political Science with a concentration in Public Administration from Auburn University in Alabama. Amy spent the spring of 2008 studying abroad in Italy with the Joseph S. Bruno Auburn Abroad in Italy program, earning an international minor from Auburn University. This experience sparked Amy's love of travel and inspired her to pursue a career in higher education. Amy was also very involved with Greek Life and her sorority, Gamma Phi Beta at Auburn. She served in various positions, including Administrative Vice President. Recently, Amy has joined Alpha Epsilon Lambda Honors Society for graduate and professional students. In her free time, Amy is learning Italian and experimenting with cooking. She is also very close to her family and enjoys spending time with her brother and two sisters whenever they can all get together. Amy is looking forward to her first voyage with Semester at Sea and cannot wait to share her own study abroad experiences and create new ones with her fellow sailors. Andiamo!
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Jami Edelheit (Communications Coordinator)

Jami is an entrepreneur highly skilled in business development, marketing, and public relations. She is the founder of Evergreen Capital Investments which helps to promote, build strategic alliances and raise capital for projects both domestic and international. Her company focuses on sustainable and alternative energy projects. She travels coast to coast to conferences reporting on new trends in the industry. She is the founder of "Global Kidz", an international environmental and self-esteem program for kids. She is an avid traveler and loves exploring, hiking, yoga, photography and people. This will be her second voyage with the MV Explorer. Her first was an inspiring and enriching voyage to Central America which traveled through the Panama Canal in December 2010. Jami's passion is to live with purpose, work with purpose and travel with purpose. Semester at Sea fulfills that vision. She is excited about making new connections with people globally, writing about the different cultures and being part of the shipboard community. An experience of a lifetime-Carpe Diem! Back to Staff List

Rita Enders (Field Office Coordinator)

Rita Enders completed both undergraduate and graduate studies at San Diego State University. She has teaches computer workshops in Palm Desert, CA, while maintaining an extensive private computer client base. Additional teaching experience includes a private university in Phoenix, AZ plus over 2500 Elderhostel students. Her love for education and travel found a connection to Semester at Sea Shipboard Education. Rita has sailed in various positions in 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. You will see her checking out local food markets and textile locations to compliment her interests in cooking, weaving and spinning. She is a Palm Desert resident since 1986. Summers are devoted to personal world travel, her lake home in northern British Columbia, Canada, and continued learning.
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Debra Griffith (Assistant Dean of Students)

Debra is currently the Interim Director of the Educational Opportunity Program at San Jose State Univeristy in Northern California. Prior to her role in EOP she served as the Director of Student Conduct & Ethical Development at SJSU. Debra is passionate about contributing to student success as an administrator through her leadership as a social justice educator.
Debra is an alumnus of Long Island University (Brooklyn Campus), where she received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. She then went on to study Counseling and Student Personnel at San Jose State University and was awarded a Master of Arts degree. Currently, she is a doctoral candidate in Organizational Leadership at Argosy University. Her research interests include racial differences in speech and socialization of women of color in upper administration positions in higher education.
Debra is excited to sail on the summer 2011 voyage and to participate fully in the entire experience.
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Staci D. Gunner (Assistant Dependent Children Coordinator)

Staci is currently the Interim Director for the Office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development at San Jose State University. Prior to her judicial affairs positions, she worked in Service Learning, Residence Life, and at a Women’s Center. She holds a B.S. degree in Communication and Rhetorical Studies from Syracuse University where she also minored in Cultural Anthropology and English and Textual Studies. She earned her M.A. degree in Student Affairs Administration in Higher Education from the Ball State University Teachers College. Currently, she is enrolled in the Communication Studies graduate program at San Jose State University where she is studying dialogic and nonviolent communication in cross-cultural contexts.
Staci has been blessed to travel through her tenure in higher education; still this will be her inaugural voyage with SAS. For fun, she enjoys film, cooking (and eating!), music, reading, social justice education, softball, and yoga. Back to Staff List

Jennifer Hicks (Administrative Assistant)

Jennifer is a Special Projects Administrator for Camp Lincoln/Camp Lake Hubert in northern Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis, moving there after college in Colorado and growing up in Chicago, Illinois. She holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, and a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her love of experiential/ adventure travel started when she sailed on the Spring 1991 Semester at Sea Voyage. Since then she has participated in three Enrichment Voyages: the Amazon River, the Panama Canal, and the Caribbean. Other travel highlights include a 14-day bicycle tour of Greece combined with a 7-day cruise (upon which the bicycles also went!), chaperoning a high school Russia class to St. Petersburg and Moscow, and multiple alumni travel opportunities with the SAS to Kenya/Tanzania as well as Hong Kong & mainland China. Jennifer believes the best way to learn about things unknown or unfamiliar is to experience them in person. Visiting, eating, seeing, smelling and hearing new places leaves lasting impressions, and alters how a person sees the world around them. Back to Staff List

Jenni Kraft (Living Learning Coordinator, Student Intern: Leadership)

Jenni is currently working as the Graduate Research Assistant of Special Events in Career Services at Texas State University-San Marcos. She has received her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing at Texas State University. Currently Jenni is working on her Masters in Student Affairs and Higher Education at Texas State University. This year she was awarded the San Antonio College and University Career Centers Association (SACUCCA) Graduate Student Achievement Award. Jenni is a member of the Texas Association of College and University Student Personnel Administrators. Her expectations of the voyage include embracing other cultures to become a global citizen, learning and gaining hands on experience in the field of student affairs, making new lifelong friends, and having a blast!
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Tiana Lindberg (LLC Student Activities/Recreation Intern)

Tiana is currently working as a Graduate Assistant in Residential Life at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences located in Boston, Ma. She received her Bachelor's degree in Sociology from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, FL and is currently working on her Master's Degree in College Student Development and Counseling from Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Tiana recently accepted a position in the First Year Advising Department for her practicum next year at Berklee College of Music located in Boston, MA. This will be Tiana's first experience with studying abroad and she is excited for the changes and experiences it will bring her. In her free time Tiana enjoys hiking, camping, traveling, swimming and has recently found a love for Zumba! She hopes to bring all her excitement for adventure and discovery to the MV Explorer.
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Jeanne E. Manese, Ph.D. (Psychologist)

Jeanne is serving as the Director of the Counseling Center at the University of California, Irvine. She has over twenty five years’ experience in higher education and has practiced clinically as psychologist in educational, hospital, and private consultation and she is the current Chair of the American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program Training Advisory Board. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Maryland, College Park with a specialization in Counseling Psychology. She is Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 17 and 45). Dr. Manese sailed with Semester at Sea in Spring 1999 and is interested in the global application of Counseling Psychology. She is very excited to return to SAS to engage in service learning, cultural exchange, and field based experiential learning.
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Donald E. Maurer, MD (Physician)

Dr. Maurer is Board-Certified in Emergency Medicine with thirty years experience in this specialty. He has served as Emergency Department Director and Hospital Chief-of-Staff at Multicare Medical Center in Tacoma, Washington. His volunteer activities have included medical missions to remote communities of Northern Laos. He is interested in integrative medicine and the mind-body connection, and lectures publicly on how stress affects health and well-being. Dr. Maurer teaches the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course at the University of California in Irvine to both health professionals and patients. He is looking forward to his first journey with Semester At Sea and getting to know the shipboard community. Back to Staff List

Kathy McCarrell (Alumni & Development Coordinator)

Kathy is currently the Director of the Heroes and Healthy Families program which provides combat stress conferences for Marines around the world. Kathy is passionate about the prevention of child maltreatment and recently returned from a month in Dubai where she served as a Fulbright Scholar assisting the country in the development of their first child protective services system. She is the former Director of the Harbor-UCLA Child Crisis Center and the Orange County Child Abuse Prevention Center. Her academic experience includes 14 years as an adjunct professor of Social Work/Sociology at Chapman University in California. Kathy earned her Masters degree in Social Work at the University of Houston, Texas. She has appeared on several television shows including Leeza Gibbons, Home and Family, CNN, Fox News and MTV as a commentator and consultant. Her favorite role is mother to her precious 13 year old daughter who is an experienced world traveler.
Kathy has sailed on three prior Semester At Sea voyages, most recently as a faculty member on Summer 2009, preceded by Spring 1990 as a Living Learning Coordinator, and her maiden voyage in Fall 1980 when she sailed as a SAS student. Back to Staff List

Evan Meyer (Photographer)

Evan is a professional photographer living and working in the Denver area. He is the founder of Evan Meyer Photography, specializing in sports and landscape photography. His favorite destination is the nearby Rocky Mountains, where there are always new photo opportunities to be had and an abundance of mountains to be climbed. He graduated from the University of Denver with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, with minors in math and physics. He enjoys hiking, fishing, skiing, traveling, camping, golfing, and having grown up in Minnesota; he is a dedicated Twins fan. Evan previously sailed on the fall 2008 voyage around the world, and is looking forward to getting back on the ship for another incredible experience with the entire shipboard community.
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Omar F. Miranda (Living Learning Coordinator: Academic Success)

Omar is a PhD student in English Literature at New York University who focuses on Romantic-era literatures and post-colonial theory. In addition, he proudly works as a part-time hall director at Barnard College, Columbia University. Omar has his M.A. in English from Boston College and his B.A. in German and Politics from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fl. He has had various positions in university administration including Residential Life at New York University and Boston College and international student advising at the University of Miami. As an exchange student, Omar studied Germanistik at the Universität Leipzig for a year and English Literature for two terms at the University of Essex in Britain. While in Germany, he taught English and Spanish at Berlitz Language Center and at the Volkshochschule in Leipzig. Most recently, he has taught First Year Writing at Boston College and Literature and Composition at the Juilliard School. He has traveled extensively throughout Europe—especially Eastern Europe—and spent a while in South Africa. He is thrilled to share his love of travel and teaching with SAS students while incorporating and enhancing his previous experiences of the Mediterranean during the exciting Summer 2011 voyage!
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Ryan Ubuntu Olson (Assistant Dependent Children’s Coordinator)

Ryan recently graduated from the Clinton School of Public Service with a Masters in Public Service. Olson is currently serving as the Communications, Outreach and Mobilization officer for the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia. While at the Clinton School, Olson worked in Nairobi Kenya on human rights trainings for LGBTI populations and also worked with an NGO at the United Nations to address LGBTI human rights. Olson also received his BA in sociology and PR from Gonzaga University. Olson has lived in Florence, IT, volunteered in The Gambia, Africa, and sailed aboard Semester at Sea spring 2007 alongside Archbishop of South Africa, Desmond Tutu. Olson has previously worked with the Matthew Shepard Foundation providing online support for disenfranchised youth. Olson was the director of a youth program for minority youth in Arkansas. Olson has also worked at Walt Disney World Resort as a Jungle Cruise skipper. Olson most recently has been awarded an “Outstanding Commitment” award by the Clinton Global Initiative University for his commitment “Beyond Pride: Activism Through Public Service”. Olson was awarded the “Making a Difference” award by the Matthew Shepard Foundation in 2006 and also named “Future Gay Hero” by the Advocate Magazine. Back to Staff List

Tracy Patton (Living Learning Coordinator: Community Service and Learning)

Tracy just recently returned from The Republic of South Africa where she lived for the last two and a half years as a Schools and Community Resource Specialist as a volunteer with the US Peace Corps. She has a BA in International Studies from the University of the Pacific (awarded May 2003) and a MA in Education Administration-Leadership Student Affairs also from the University of the Pacific (awarded May 2005). Her expectations of the voyage are to continue to learn and grow on a personal and professional level from this dynamic opportunity.
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Debra K. Resling (Living Learning Coordinator)

Debbie is the current owner of Resling Sportscript, Inc., a freelance agency in Colorado Springs which has provided court reporting services for the past 30 years locally and for national sports organizations. Some of her clients include U.S. Soccer, United States Anti-doping Agency, Amateur Athletic Union as well as the United States Olympic Committee. She holds national professional licenses as a Certified Real-time Reporter, National Registered and Merit Reporter as well as certifications in Colorado and Alabama. She was an exchange student to Brazil, speaks Portuguese fluently and has traveled through the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. Deb is an alumna of SAS having previously sailed on past semesters as well as reunion and enrichment voyages with her husband Rich of 35 years. Her hobbies include art, languages and world travel. She is excited to be sailing with Semester at Sea again this summer.
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Richard J. Resling (Community Resource Officer)

Richard J. Resling (Community Resource Officer) was born in raised in Westhampton Beach, NY. Rich went on to graduate with BS Degree from SUNY Buffalo State in Criminal Justice. He travelled to Colorado Springs in 1971 and began a career with the Colorado Police Department. During his career he served in all areas of the law enforcement including uniform and investigations and 5 years as the Press Spokesman. With his police experience he was asked to coordinate the staff security for the US Olympic Team delegations at the 1992 thru 2000 Olympic Games. After a diverse and rewarding career, he retired at the rank of Lieutenant in 1999. Rich is an alumni of the SAS having sailed on Spring ’99, Summer’05, Spring ’08 and several Seminars at Sea Reunion and Enrichment voyages. He is a current National officer for the US Section. He rides each year in a cross country horse ride with the Pike Peak Ranger Rider and remains active in the Colorado Spring Community. He has been married to Debbie for 34 years and together they love to travel and explore with Semester at Sea. Back to Staff List

Chris Ryan (Assistant Field Office Coordinator)

Chris holds a BA in Economics from the University of Rhode Island. Since graduating in 2008 he has worked in a consultative role to colleges and universities for improving recruiting strategies and increasing enrollment figures. This position has taken Chris to many different areas across the United States but he is very excited to gain more international exposure with Semester at Sea. Chris’s passion for travel began aboard the MV Explorer as a student during the Fall 2007 voyage and has been fortunate enough to have visited over 35 countries in various parts of the world since that time. Originally from New Jersey, Chris now resides in Boston and plans to pursue an MBA this Fall. He is very anxious to start another journey aboard the ship and looking forward to all the experiences that come along with it.
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Jeffrey Schnell, PhD (Psychologist)

Jeffrey is a licensed staff psychologist at Loyola Marymount University (LMU), Los Angeles, as well as a clinician in private practice and consultant to reality television producers. Dr. Jeff holds three degrees in psychology, beginning with a Bachelor’s Degree at Pepperdine University in 1996. He completed his Master of Arts in Multicultural Counseling at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2002, and after internships at the Family Service Agency of Santa Barbara and the University of California, Los Angeles, was awarded his Ph.D. in Counseling/Clinical/School Psychology at UCSB in 2005. That same year, Dr. Jeff accepted a postdoctoral fellowship at LMU’s Student Psychological Services, and began his private practice while receiving specialized training in cognitive behavioral therapy at Cognitive Behavior Associates in Beverly Hills. In 2007, Dr. Jeff started work as a consultant in reality television, traveling to Gabon, Africa and Tocantins, Brazil with the cast and crew of Survivor. Dr. Jeff is an avid traveler and has visited over 50 countries on five continents, including a semester of study in Heidelberg, Germany, and participation in an archaeological dig in the Golan Heights of Israel.
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Gabrielle M. Schoppa (Textbook Coordinator)

Gabrielle is presently a French and Technology teacher at J.P. Burley Middle School in Charlottesville, Va. She will be sailing with her husband Len Schoppa and two daughters Melina and Isabelle on the Summer 2011 voyage. The Schoppa family previously sailed around the globe on the Fall 2008 voyage. On the 2008 Fall voyage, Gabrielle served as the Dependent Children Coordinator.
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Deni Stavreva (Assistant Field Office Coordinator)

Deni graduated from the University of Sofia in Bulgaria obtaining a master's degree in higher education. She came to ISE in 2000 and works in the field office. Back to Staff List

Diane Thompson (Nurse Practioner)

Diane is from Seward, Alaska. She currently works independently in a remote oil field camp along the Arctic Ocean. She is responsible for 300 oilfield workers and for training EMS volunteers in preparation for emergent and mass casualty situations in a harsh arctic environment). She also does per Diem work for her local home town clinic and for Native Health in Alaska villages. She has worked internationally on Sakhalin Island, Russia. Diane is NCCPA certified and belongs to her local PA association as well as the National Association. Diane sailed with her husband Marv in the Fall of 2007 with SAS and is thrilled to have been chosen to return. Back to Staff List

Susan Sheridan Timko (Textbook Coordinator)

Susan received her BA in Special Education from Marywood University and her M.Ed in Special Education from Northeastern University. She has held positions as an Administrative Assistant in the Occupational Health Program at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Department of Life Sciences at Rockefeller University. Presently Susan is a reading specialist intervention teacher for the Albemarle County Public School system in Charlottesville, Va. She is also the mother of four sons. This will be Susan's second voyage with Semester at Sea. Back to Staff List

Ian Vollum (Dependent Children Coordinator)

Ian is a self-employed yoga teacher specializing in kids yoga. He is also the retail manager of YogaJoyProject. He has an eclectic work history ranging from landscape gardening to pre-school teaching. He has a BA degree in Psychology from the University of Washington, (Tacoma), an AS degree in Early Childhood Education, and has published in an international journal in ECE.
Ian is a seasoned traveler with two previous S.A.S. voyages behind him. He was born and raised in England, and has lived and worked in France before moving to the US eighteen years ago. He is constantly motivated to visit new and exciting places and is humbled to be a part of the SAS staff team for Summer 2011.
For fun, Ian enjoys yoga, hiking, people watching, climbing, badminton and beach time with his 6 year old daughter.
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