Faculty & Staff

Chris Seng has worked in higher education for 31 years focusing on enrollment management efforts aimed toward student success. At the end of 2021, Chris will retire with “Emeritus” status from Colorado State University. Directing the Office of the Registrar at CSU, Chris led a department of outstanding student-success-focused individuals who teamed with faculty and staff from all departments on campus to implement initiatives to meet undergraduate access, enrollment, and completion goals of the University. Most recently Chris served as project manager for the Colorado State University System office leading a multi-campus initiative to consolidate student information system operations across institutions.

Chris has extensive consulting experience through work with the U.S. Department of Education and several other higher education institutions. He has presented at many state, regional, and national conferences and provided analysis and recommendations to software vendors and colleagues as they develop solutions for campus student administrative ecosystems.

In 2017, Chris and his family enjoyed the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (and now it’s happening again!) to sail with Semester at Sea. Chris served as a member of the voyage leadership team working as the Academic Advisor/Registrar. Chris’ wife Stephanie joined the Global Studies team and their 3 children were all students on the voyage.

There is no better place on earth than aboard a Semester at Sea ship, and Stephanie Seng is excited and grateful for the adventures that lie ahead in her role as the Field Director on this, her third SAS voyage. Stephanie had the privilege of sailing with her mom on the Spring 2020 SAS voyage while helping to navigate the challenges of the pandemic as the Assistant Director for Faculty Led Programs. Though not the voyage she had expected, she will always cherish the experience, appreciating the herculean efforts made by ISE/SAS staff and leadership to keep voyagers safe and feeling inspired by the resilience of the shipboard community as they bonded together through diversions and ultimately an early end to the journey. In Spring 2017, Stephanie sailed on her first SAS voyage with her husband, Chris and their three children, Will, Jonah, and Olivia. While the kids were all college students, Steph worked on the Global Studies team and Chris was the Academic Advisor/Registrar.

Stephanie currently serves as the Director of the Center for Family and Couple Therapy at Colorado State University where she supervises and teaches student therapists and manages their community-based therapy center. She is also the director and one of the founders of the CSU Child Trauma and Resilience Assessment Center. This growing center provides assessments and recommendations for youth across the state who have experienced complex trauma. Stephanie is especially honored to be an Aspen Institute – Ascend Fellow working to improve the lives of Colorado children and families.

After graduating from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Interpersonal Communication, Stephanie married Chris and they made their first home together in Guinea, West Africa, where they served as Cooperative Extension Agents in the United States Peace Corps. Captivated by the beauty, climate and outdoor living in Colorado, the couple made their home in Fort Collins in 1992, where Stephanie pursued an MS in Human Development and Family Studies/Marriage and Family Therapy. Prior to her current position, Stephanie worked at the Center for Neurorehabilitation Services specializing in treating patients and families who have experienced neurological illnesses and injuries and in her own private practice.

When not sailing, Steph loves to spend time with her family hiking, camping, skiing, playing volleyball and board games, and playing with their dogs, Cache and Juniper. She feels especially fortunate to have both Chris and her mom, Linda, who will be sailing as a lifelong learner, joining her on the Spring 2022 voyage.

Elizabeth Faulk, MD is our newest addition to the Spring 2022 voyage! She is an Emergency Medicine physician with over 25 years of experience in emergency departments ranging from Level I trauma centers to tiny rural facilities. She started her training in General Surgery and was lucky enough to follow this with a fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at New England Deaconess hospital, one of Boston’s Harvard Hospitals group. During this time she began practicing emergency medicine, and she never looked back, becoming Board Certified in the process. She met her husband, Pete Hernandez, a paramedic /firefighter (who will be traveling with her), in Arizona, where she was Chief of a small Emergency department in Page, on the edges of Lake Powell and the Navajo Nation. They embarked upon a round the world trip at that time, backpacks in hand, and didn’t come home for almost 4 months. They loved the adventure, the people, and the cultures along the way, and they hope to come full circle now, caring for all the generations on board ship while all revel in the newness of adjacent beautiful countries and cultures. She also pursues the practice of hatha yoga and super conscious meditation and you might see her on deck doing just that!

Colleen’s interests include sustainable food systems, global nutrition, public health, and foodways. Her passion for this discipline stems from curiosity about the physiological and psychological interplay associated with health behaviors, and the relationship among food, culture, and society. It is a dynamic field where everyone has a voice, opinion, and story to share. The influence among social, environmental, historical, political, and economic variables on food, nutrition, and health is complex and constantly evolving and responding to change. The Semester at Sea voyage will provide a unique platform to explore these interacting factors through a global comparative framework. Colleen looks forward to sharing this journey with you and her partner, Jeff!

June Cotte is Professor of Marketing at the Ivey Business School, Western University. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Ulster, and has taught at the Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business across the world (North Carolina, China, Thailand, Germany, and Kazakhstan), the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, and the University of Connecticut.
Professor Cotte’s research interests focus on behavioral issues, including why and when people will pay more for ethically produced products, how people perceive time and how that influences their behavior at work and at leisure, family influence on behavior, and consumption issues in gambling.
She is also a leader in the Marketing field and is currently the President of the Association for Consumer Rese

Ken taught in schools in Switzerland, Australia, and the USA before becoming a professor of international teacher education. He has been a Fulbright Scholar to Sweden and Poland, and a visiting professor in China, Serbia, Bahamas, and Australia. Ken has traveled with young people and teachers on all seven continents. Ken serves as Executive Director of the Int’l Academy for Intercultural Research; has become active with Givat Haviva, an Israeli organization devoted to Arab and Jewish reconciliation; and the Orkeeswa School, a Maasai community school in northern Tanzania. This will be his 6th voyage with SAS.

Roger Hanna has designed 200 sets for theater, dance, and opera since 1990. He is an associate professor at Colorado State University, where his students and he collaborate to design all departmental productions for the School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.
Hanna’s off-Broadway work at the Mint Theater Company has been recognized by four Henry Hewes Design Award nominations, three Drama Desk nominations, and the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Set Design. His 30 opera designs have been seen at Sarasota Opera and in five prominent NYC venues.

Dr. Tim Hibsman is very excited to serve on the Semester at Sea voyage. In Spring 2025, he will be serving as the Director of the onboard Writing Center and teaching Business Communications and Non-Fiction Writing.

Dr. Tim Hibsman has always had a sense of adventure and desire to experience different cultures. In 2014 he taught Professional Communications and Nautical Film & Literature at Sichuan University in Cheng Du, China. In 2016 he taught Sports Film & Literature at Kyungpook National University in Daegu, South Korea. Dr. Tim Hibsman is a Professor of English at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

He is delighted to be joining the program for an amazing adventure.

Laurie McConnico is marine biologist and native Californian who grew up in Fresno (the hot, land-locked central valley). Her interests in marine biology developed as a child, often camping along the coast with her family (although her mother never liked to admit to having once tolerated camping). At her home campus, Laurie teaches marine biology, general biology and field studies courses, including some in Baja, Mexico. She has received several awards for teaching and faculty excellence over the years and is passionate about field courses that take her students throughout California and abroad. Research and professional highlights, so far, include diving 2 miles below the ocean’s surface, nerding-out on algae anywhere she can, and of course sailing with Semester at Sea!

Dr. Preece’s research and teaching centers on both the Entrepreneurship and Business & Society fields of specialty. Most recent research has focused on the challenge of Arts Management (music, theater, opera, dance) including areas such as partnerships, sponsorship, funding, marketing, etc. Stephen is a successful entrepreneur, having founded The Jazz Room in Waterloo, Ontario (now in its 13th year).

Ursula Quillmann is passionate about the role the ocean plays on shaping the Earth’s environment, our climate, and life. She began her career in researching the link between ocean and abrupt climate changes during the past 12,000 years in the northern North Atlantic. Today, she focuses on investigating how human activity affects ocean environments.
Ursula sailed on Semester at Sea for the first time in Spring 2017, a voyage that crossed the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans. Here she witnessed first-hand some of global challenges human activities created. She firmly believes that we can work towards solving global challenges we created. In Spring 2022, Ursula sailed as part of the Global Studies team on the first SAS voyage since Covid was declared a pandemic.