Honored for their excellence in teaching and scholarship, their contributions within the community and their passion for inspiring excellence in others, Virginia Wesleyan proudly recognizes a new class of Batten Professors.
Connie Bellamy, Professor of English and Director of American Studies, is a native of Pearisburg, Va., and has been a member of the faculty of Virginia Wesleyan College since 1992. She previously taught at St. Lawrence University, Clarkson University, the State University of New York and at Mary Washington College. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Antioch College and a doctorate in English from McGill University and was previously Managing Editor and Associate Editor of Fiction International magazine. Recently, she co-edited a volume entitled The Lost Saranac Interviews, which includes rediscovered conversations with significant American writers such as Joyce Carol Oates, Russell Banks and Gail Godwin; and she is presently at work on The Plight of the Writer, based on a series of interviews with the Director of the Literature Program of the National Endowment for the Arts. Over the years she has edited a number of volumes in a series highlighting excellence in student writing at Virginia Wesleyan. These include: Ode to Friendship and Other Essays, Tropical Landscape: Student Writing at Virginia Wesleyan College, New Student Writing at Virginia Wesleyan College, Reality Check and Other Essays, Dream Child and Other Essays, Woman in Red and Other Essays, and The Making of A Southerner & Other Essays. She is past president of the American Association of University Professors.
Lisa Carstens, Associate Professor of English and Associate Dean of Inquiry-Guided Learning, earned her doctorate in English at the University of California, Irvine and a bachelor’s degree in English and Theater from Occidental College. Her research and teaching interests include Anglo-American Modernism, 19th- and 20-th century British literature, contemporary postcolonial fiction, women’s and gender studies, critical theory, and expository and creative writing. She has published most recently on the literature of Virginia Woolf and William Styron and has presented numerous professional papers at national and international conferences on, among other subjects, James Joyce, J. M. Coetzee, and the influence of turn-of-the-century reproductive science on the cultural reception of British suffragettes. In addition to her current role as Associate Dean, Dr. Carstens has previously served as coordinator of the English Department, Director of the Winter Session and Chair of the Humanities Division.
Doug Kennedy, Professor and Coordinator of the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, and Associate Dean for Campus Recreation, received a B.S. from the University of Delaware, M.S.Ed. from Southern Illinois University, and an Ed.D. from Temple University. He has twice been the recipient of the College's Samuel Nelson Gray Distinguished Teaching Award. He has also received the Fellows Award from the Virginia Recreation and Park Society, as well as the Outstanding Alumnus award from Southern Illinois University. His professional service has included serving as President of the Virginia Recreation and Park Society, Chair of the National Council on Accreditation, leadership of two educational delegations to Uzbekistan, and more than 100 presentations at conferences and symposia. His book, "History of Recreation," was recently published and he is currently writing an analysis of Campus Recreation.
Rita E. Frank, Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Committee on Advancement and Tenure, earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Maryland College Park, an M. Ed. in Early Childhood Education from Temple University, and a B.A. in English from The George Washington University. Passionately interested in the scholarship of teaching, she has had two of her courses selected as national models by the Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology (Society for the Teaching of Psychology). Currently, she is collaborating on a review article that will challenge a key assumption of Solomon Asch’s classic work on independence and conformity. Active in the Virginia Academy of Academic Psychologists for many years, she has served as Treasurer and as President of that organization.
Maynard Schaus, Associate Professor of Biology and Special Coordinator of Undergraduate Research, received his B.S. in Biology from California Lutheran University and his Ph.D. in Zoology from Miami University (Ohio). Dr. Schaus’s research on the role of fish in lake nutrient cycles has been published in several peer reviewed journals. Since 2004, he has taken 11 students to Florida to study the effects of a large scale fish removal on the nutrient cycles of Lake Apopka. He has been involved with the campus green roof project, to examine the effects of green roofs on the nutrient content of runoff water. He has also worked with students on applied ecology projects examining use of nest boxes by wood ducks and the use of highway undercrossings by mammals. He has received funding from the St. Johns River Water Management District, and in collaboration with other Virginia Wesleyan faculty members has received funding from EPA and NSF.
2006 Batten Professors
Joyce Blair Easter
Christopher Haley
Lee Jordan-Anders
Daniel S. Margolies
2005 Batten Professors
David G. Garraty
Joyce Bernstein Howell
Lawrence D. Hultgren
2004 Batten Professors
Karen A. Bosch
Clayton J. Drees
Steven M. Emmanuel
Kathy Merlock Jackson
Paul M. Resslar
Craig S. Wansink