Realizing the Vision:
College Reorganization

CCR member bios

Wolfgang Bauer currently serves as the chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.  He joined the MSU faculty in 1988 and has a dual appointment at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. He has served two terms on faculty/academic council; member of the Mathematics review committee; member of Gifted And Talented Education advisory board; Quantitative Biological Modeling Initiative executive committee; Integrative Studies advisory committee.  External committee work:  international advisory committees for German national lab GSI and French national lab in Saclay; member of Texas A&M physics external review committee; member of approximately  30 international conference organizing committees (chaired 11); numerous NSF/NRC/NATO panels; chair of American Physical Society DNP education and outreach committee; chair of Midwest physics chairs organization; reviewer for all major international journals in nuclear physics; proposal reviewer for numerous federal and state agencies; organized national nuclear physics summer school. His research is in nuclear physics and astrophysics.  He is a co-PI on the LON-CAPA project. He has authored an introductory physics textbook on cd-rom, edited 14 other books, two virtual university courses, and an advanced placement course for high school students.

Thomas Berding is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Painting Area in the Department of Art and Art History.  His creative research focuses on using the syntactic and connotative space that lies between figuration and abstraction, material and image. He has exhibited and lectured on his work extensively and is the recipient of various awards including an NEA Fellowship in Painting and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award.  He teaches at all levels in the undergraduate and graduate studio art programs.

Howard Bossen is a professor in the School of Journalism and an adjunct curator in the Kresge Art Museum. He has served on the University Committee on Academic Policy, the University Committee on Faculty Affairs, the Advisory Committee to the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and chaired the College of Communication Arts and Sciences Dean's Advisory Council. In addition to teaching School of Journalism courses in photojournalism, publication design, visual journalism and documentary research methods, he has had extensive involvement over the last 25 years in photography and media-related study abroad courses. He will be teaching a history of photography course for the Department of Art and History of Art next fall. He was the recipient of a Fulbright-Garcia Robles Senior Scholar Fellowship to Mexico and in 2002 was the Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University. He is currently the guest curator at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh for an exhibition and book on the American photographer Luke Swank.

Anna Celenza, Associate Professor of Musicology, is the author of two scholarly books: The Early Works of Niels W. Gade: In Search of the Poetic (2001) and Hans Christian Andersen and Music: The Nightingale Revealed (forthcoming 2004).  Also known for her award-winning series of children's books, her work has been featured on nationally syndicated radio and TV programs including NPR's Todd Mundt Show , C-Span's Book TV , and the BBC's Music Matters .  In 2002, she was awarded MSU's Teacher Scholar Award for her outstanding achievements in research and teaching.

Darren Davis is an Associate Professor of Political Science. He is the Director of the Program in Public Opinion and Political Participation in the department of Political Science, and he has served as the Director of Graduate Studies in Political Science. He is currently the chair of the College of Social Sciences Urban Design Team. His research and teaching interests involve political psychology, public opinion, political behavior, elections and voting, and racial politics.

William Donohue is a Professor in the Communication Department, and came to MSU in 1976 from The Ohio State University where he received his Ph.D. in Communication. His research interests focus on negotiation, dispute resolution, interpersonal relations, and injury prevention. He has served on UCAP and various other college and departmental committees.

Fred Dyer is Professor and Chairperson in the Department of Zoology. He came to MSU in 1986 after a Ph.D. from Princeton and a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale. His research primarily involves the study of vision, communication, and spatial cognition in animals, especially honey bees. He has long been an active participant in the MSU Ecology, Evolution, and Behavioral Biology (EEBB) Program, and currently serves on the Executive Committee and Seminar Committee of the program. In addition to his biological studies, he has collaborations with faculty in Psychology, Computer Science & Engineering, and Linguistics through the MSU Program in Cognitive Science. These collaborations involve the interdisciplinary study of decision-making in humans, animals and machines. This is the focus of an NSF-funded IGERT training project in cognitive science, which Dr. Dyer has directed since 2001.

Diane Ebert-May is a Professor in the Department of Plant Biology at Michigan State University. She provides national leadership for promoting professional development, evaluation and improvement of faculty, postdoctoral teaching fellows, and graduate students who actively participate not only in their own discipline-based research, but also in creative research about teaching and learning. Her recent publications describe scientific teaching, disciplinary-based research strategies to assess learning, and long-term change in alpine tundra plant communities. She teaches plant biology in PLB and environmental science in Integrative Studies. Ebert-May contributes to the educational initiatives of Ecological Society of America, served on the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Evaluating Undergraduate Teaching, the NRC Committee on Integrating Education with Biocomplexity, is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is an advisory board member of the National Academy of Engineering's Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education, and a board member of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Stephen L. Esquith is professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy. He has been elected to Academic/Faculty Council, chaired the University Committee on Faculty Tenure, and chaired the University Graduate Council. In addition to Philosophy Department courses in social and political philosophy and the philosophy of law, he has taught a range of courses on war and morality and another course on self, society, and technology, all in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities. He has been a Fulbright scholar in Poland, and has designed several community service-learning projects involving K-12 collaborations. He is currently working with graduate students and faculty in Philosophy, the College of Social Science, and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources on a new interdisciplinary doctoral specialization in ethics and development, and he will be leading a new study abroad program in Mali on the same topic.

Marilyn Frye is University Distinguished Professor and associate chair of the Department of Philosophy.  She has been elected to Faculty Council, has served on the University Graduate Council, and the College of Arts and Letters Advisory and Graduate Committees.  She has also served at both college and university level on ad hoc planning and advisory committees and awards committees.  She has served off and on for many years on the Women's Studies Advisory Committee, and has taught feminist theory courses in the Women's Studies program.  She has served on doctoral guidance committees both in the Philosophy Department, and for students in Anthropology, Psychology, American Studies, Social Work and Educational Counseling. She has taught courses in the Center for Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities focusing on philosophical ideas in literature.  She has served as an elected representative to the Board of Directors of the American Philosophical Association, and also as the chair of its Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession. Her recent research has been on social ontology-the nature of social categories.

Lynne Goldstein is professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology. She has chaired the Search and Screen Committee for the Dean of the College of Social Science and served on the Search committee for the Chair of the Department of Sociology. In addition to Anthropology Department courses on the archaeology of Eastern North America and on mortuary practices, she has taught a range of courses on ethics, public policy, and professionalism in anthropology. She serves as Social Science liaison to the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. She is currently working with students and faculty in the American Indian Studies Program, as well as the Center for Great Lakes Culture

Jeff Grabill is Associate Professor and Director of Professional Writing in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures. He is also Co-Director of the Writing in Digital Environments (WIDE) Research Center. He teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate writing programs, and his research explores the use of advanced information technologies in community contexts for civic purposes.

Claudia Holzman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology in the College of Human Medicine at MSU. She is involved in reproductive and perinatal research, and is the PI on an NIH-funded study that has enrolled 3,000 women in mid-pregnancy from five Michigan communities to assess biologic and psychosocial factors related to the risk of delivering prematurely. Her research at MSU has included collaborations with other MSU researchers in the basic sciences (microbiology, immunology, genetics, pathology, environmental toxicology, neuroscience), clinical sciences (neonatology, obstetrics, family practice, nursing, psychiatry), and social sciences (sociology, psychology, anthropology). She has served on numerous faculty search committees, the CHM Promotion, Tenure, and Reappointment committee, the University Hearing Board, the CHM Self-Study Task Force, and the CHM Women and Minority Advisory Committee.

Brad Love is a School of Journalism student in the mass media Ph.D. program. His research interests focus on media effects and health communication. The former newspaper reporter also serves as a graduate representative to the Academic Council as well as vice president for university relations for the Council of Graduate Students. During his previous degree programs at the University of Florida, he served on the graduate school curriculum committee and the university library committee.

Nancy Marino came to MSU in 1993 from the University of Houston, where she had been chair of her department and a long-time member of their (very active) Faculty Senate. She was several times elected to the Executive Committee of the Senate, which met once a month with the Provost and the President. At MSU she has been Acting Chair, Associate Chair, Graduate Advisor, and member of CAC and CGC. She works in both the literature and history of Spain in the fifteenth century, and her book in press is entirely historical in nature. She has not taught an interdisciplinary courses here.

Ellen McCallum is Associate Professor in the Department of English, where she has taught interdisciplinary courses in feminist studies, literary theory, visual cultural studies and CIS-AH, in addition to Twentieth-Century American literature. Her research interests include feminist, narrative, and psychoanalytic theory, continental philosophy, cultural studies of technology, aesthetics, and experimental writing. She has served on CIS-AH advisory committee, Steering Committee for the Women's Studies Graduate Specialization, and the Undergraduate, Graduate, and Policy Committees in the Department of English.

Merry Morash focuses her research on gender, crime and justice, and has recently been involved in research on wife battering among Asian immigrant groups in the U.S. and on women offenders. She formerly served for ten years as Director of the School of Criminal Justice and was helpful in the development of a joint program with Fisheries and Wildlife and in forensic sciences. She also has been active in Women's Studies, and is currently teaching the Contemporary Criminological Theory course, which draws on several disciplines. She currently serves on the School of Criminal Justice Faculty Advisory Committee, is Chair of the School of Social Science Advisory Committee, and is in her third year on the University Graduate Council. She also is active on the Urban Design Team, which is drafting recommendations for a program in global urban studies at MSU.

Lynn Paine is associate professor in the Department of Teacher Education and an adjunct faculty member in Sociology. In addition to teaching courses related to comparative education, teacher learning, feminist analyses of education, and social foundations in Teacher Education, she has taught in the Women's Studies Program, helped develop and teach a transcollegiate course (Growing Up in Three Societies), and taught a graduate seminar in Sociology of Education in the Sociology Department. She currently serves on the College of Education's Faculty Advisory Committee, has served on and chaired the Teacher Education Department's Advisory Committee, has been a member of the Asian Studies Center's Advisory Committee, and is currently a member of the Women's Studies Advisory Committee. This year she is participating as a member of the steering committee for the International Studies and Programs Area Studies Review. Her interdisciplinary experience while at MSU also includes her serving on a search committee in James Madison and on a university-wide search committee for positions in mathematics education. Her current work, which is focusing on teacher development and new teacher induction, includes participation in the induction team of the Teachers for a New Era project, an effort bringing together faculty from Education, Arts and Letters, Natural Science, and Social Science to develop a new induction program for graduates of MSU's teacher preparation program.

Robert T. Pennock is associate professor in Lyman Briggs School and the Department of Philosophy, as well as the Ecology, Evolutionary Biology Behavior program and the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. He teaches courses on the philosophy of science, with special focus on evidential and ethical issues in biology. He has served on Academic/Faculty Council and is on the cross-college committee that proposed and administers the Science, Technology, Environment and Public Policy Specialization. He has research collaborations with faculty in zoology, computer science, electrical and computer engineering, chemical engineering, the division of math and science education, and other departments.

David Prestel is Professor of Russian and Chair of the Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages. He coordinated the Russian language program at MSU from 1983 to 2000, as well as instruction in Polish and Bulgarian (1997-2000). He has served on the CASID Advisory Committee, the Advisory Committee of the Center for European and Russian Studies and was Acting Director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies in 1995. He is currently Co-Director of the Civil Engineering Study Abroad Program in Volgograd, Russia and serves on the Area Studies Review Steering Committee and the CLEAR Advisory Committee. From 2001 to 2003 he was president of the Early Slavic Studies Association. His research interests include Early Slavic Studies and Russian language pedagogy.

Nora J. Rifon is an Associate Professor in the Department of Advertising. She conducts consumer research for the industrial sector in addition to her academic research program. Her academic research interests include consumer response to sponsorships and cause related marketing strategies, corporate reputation, and the development of consumer trust. In addition to teaching in the interdisciplinary Mass Media Ph. D. program, she collaborates with students and faculty across campus. She has served as a consultant to the Michigan Office of the Attorney General, and presently serves as Privacy Executive on Loan to the State of Michigan. Professor Rifon is on the editorial review boards of Psychology & Marketing, The Journal of Consumer Affairs, and The Journal of Interactive Advertising, and is a Faculty Associate of the MSU Quello Center for Telecommunication Law and Management.

Neal Schmitt is Professor of Psychology and Business and Chair of the Department of Psychology. He was a member of Committee on Research and Graduate Education and has served on various departmental and College of Social Science committees. His teaching interests have included Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Psychometrics. He has worked with graduate students and faculty in a variety of departments and colleges on campus including Human Medicine, Nursing, Education, and Business. He is currently working with a group of graduate students and faculty on a project designed to assess students academic potential in noncognitive domains. Most of his research and projects have been funded by external work organizations.

Charles Steinfield is a professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, Media, and recipient of MSU's Teacher-Scholar award (1992) and Distinguished Faculty award (2001). He has served on the University Committee for Academic Policy and the University Distinguished Doctoral Fellowships selection committee, and was acting chair in Telecommunication in 1998-99. He conducts research in the area of social and organizational uses and effects of communication and information technologies with support from the National Science Foundation. He has developed and led a study abroad program on telecommunications in Europe, and was a Fulbright Scholar to France. He teaches courses in telecommunications technology and business, and has helped to develop both undergraduate and graduate interdisciplinary programs in this area involving the Colleges of Communication Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and Business.

Judith Stoddart is associate professor in the Department of English and Coordinator of the University Fellowship Programs in the Graduate School. She has served on the Executive Committee of Academic Council, the University Task Force on Graduate Student Mentoring and Research, and has chaired the University Graduate Council. She also currently works as one of the certified mediators in the MSU Mediation Service. Her research focuses on 19th-century theories of subjectivity and aesthetics, and she has published on nationalism, history and sociology in the period. She teaches courses in literature and cultural theory in the Department of English, and has taught a CIS-IAH course on the cultures of capitalism.

Ralph E. Taggart is professor in the Plant Biology and Geological Sciences departments. He has served numerous terms on Academic Council, has served on and chaired the University Committee on Academic Governance, the College of Natural Science Advisory Council, and the Geological Sciences Advisory Council, departmental curriculum committees, and a range of ad hoc committees. He has taught a wide range of courses including integrative studies, general biology, advanced undergraduate and graduate courses, and a trans-collegiate course (NSC491H, Critical Incident Analysis) for honors students. His research has focused on the reconstruction and dynamics of ancient plant communities.

Francisco A. Villarruel is a University Outreach Fellow and a Professor of Family and Child Ecology at Michigan State University. He is also a senior research associate with the Institute for Children, Youth, and Families and with the MSU's Latino research institute-the Julian Samora Research Institute. Villarruel's research focus is generalized into three areas: Latino youth and families, positive youth development, and developmental contextualism. Villarruel has received numerous awards and distinctions during his career, including a W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Fellowship, an MSU-Lilly Foundation Teaching Fellowship, the HACU-ETS Policy Fellowship, and the 1996 MSU Teacher-Scholar Award for dedication and skill in teaching and scholarly promise. He is one of the members of the Great Plains Integrative Distance Alliance (GP-IDEA) consortium that has successfully established an online master's and teaching certificate program in youth development. He is also the chair of the National Hispanic Education Alliance (NAHE).

Steven Weiland has been at MSU since 1992 as Professor of Educational Administration (in Higher Education) and Teacher Education. From 1995 to 2002 he was also Director of MSU's Jewish Studies Program in the College of Arts and Letters. He began his academic career in English and American Studies but migrated to the study of adult development and the problems of education. Between his faculty roles in English (at other Big Ten institutions) and coming to MSU he was director of a national association of state cultural and educational agencies. He teaches courses in biography and life history, research methods, and adult career development (online) and he leads the College of Educations' Spencer Foundation sponsored project in research training. As part of his MSU Jewish Studies appointment he taught courses in English and IAH. His current research focuses on intellectual careers and life writing.

Pamela Whitten , Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Telecommunications at Michigan State University. She is also a Senior Research Fellow for Michigan States Institute of Healthcare Studies. In her current position, Dr. Whitten is responsible for conducting technology and health-related research, as well as teaching graduate and undergraduate telecommunications courses. Dr. Whitten's research focuses on the use of technology in health care with a specific interest in telehealth and its impact on the delivery of health care services and education. She has served as the principal investigator on more than a dozen federal and state-funded telemedicine research projects. Her research projects range from telepsychiatry to telehospice and telehome care for COPD and CHF patients. The interdisciplinary nature of Professor Whitten's research has allowed her to work closely with a number of faculty from multiple colleges and departments, particularly within the fields of medicine and health. Dr. Whitten brings this interdisciplinary approach to her teaching (recognized through a 2002 Michigan State University Teacher-Scholar Award) and her research activities (recognized through a 2004 American Medical Womens Association Local Legend selection).