Dr. Soraya Bartol
Assistant Professor of Marine Biology
Virginia Institute of Marine Science
Bartol received her Ph.D. from Virginia Institute of Marine Science and has taught courses at the University of California, Los Angeles and worked on postdoctoral research at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Mass. She says she has always been fascinated with how marine organisms sense their surrounding environments and how they then use this information to make choices. She especially enjoys working with sea turtles, knowing that her research could be valuable in the conservation of an endangered species.
Dr. Richard E. Bond
Assistant Professor of History
Johns Hopkins University
Bond received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. where he specialized in the history of the colonial Atlantic world. His teaching interests range broadly and include slavery and African-American life, religion, colonial culture and even pirates. His current research focuses more narrowly on free and enslaved African-Americans in colonial New York. Bond says that moving to a small, liberal arts college is exciting for him because the college fosters an environment of exchange and learning.
Dr. Angela Fournier
Assistant Professor
of Psychology
Virginia Tech
Fournier received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. She is currently completing her pre-doctoral clinical internship with Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Va. Her research interests are in behavioral community intervention and treatment outcome. Fournier says she is particularly interested in studying college alcohol abuse prevention and the psychosocial impact of human-animal interaction.
Dr. Craig Jackson
Assistant Professor of Psychology
Florida Atlantic University
Jackson received his Ph.D. in social and personality psychology from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Fla. He has worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the psychology departments at Randolph-Macon Woman's College and Lynchburg College. Jackson's research interests include social cognition, particularly impression management and impression formation, the assessment and consequences of person-environment fit and group dynamics.
Travis Malone
Assistant Professor of Theater
Bowling Green State University
Malone comes to Virginia Wesleyan from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, where he is a Ph.D. candidate in Theatre and Film. Prior to his doctoral work, Malone served as a writer and producer for a post-production facility in Los Angeles, Calif. There he wrote television commercials, produced music videos and helped develop creative content for DVDs. Malone is excited about the opportunity to share his enthusiasm and professional experience in the arts with the Virginia Wesleyan community. He will direct the spring theater production of "Servant of Two Masters."
Olena Prokopovych
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Cornell University
Born and raised Chernihiv, Ukraine, Prokopovych came to the United States in 1990 to do her undergraduate studies at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. She pursued graduate study at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. where she is currently a Ph.D. candidate. Her interests broadened to include American government and the politics of medicine and health care.
Dr. Paul Rasor
Director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom
Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Instructor
of Religious Studies
Harvard University
Rasor comes to Virginia Wesleyan from Pendle Hill, a Quaker study center in Philadelphia, where he was Associate Dean and Teacher of Biblical and Religious Studies, and where he previously served as Director of the Religion and Social Issues Forum. Having split duties, Rasor will also fill the Directorship for the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom, left open by the deceased Catharine Cookson. Rasor earned Bachelor of Music and J.D. degrees from the University of Michigan, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. After practicing law for six years, he turned to full-time teaching as Professor of Law at Washburn University in Topeka, Kan. Fourteen years later he returned to school to earn a Master of Divinity degree and a Ph.D. in The Study of Religion from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. His additional teaching experience includes Andover Newton Theological School, the Harvard Divinity School and law programs in Mexico and England.
John Rudel
Assistant Professor of Art
University of Georgia
Rudel received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga. He has served as a Visiting Lecturer of Art at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. and an Assistant Professor of Art at William Carey College in Gulfport, Miss. His artwork is a blend of traditional drawing and painting combined with digital imaging. His work has been shown in venues such as the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Ga., the Miami University Art Museum in Oxford, Ohio and the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Miss.
Dr. Kathy Stolley
Assistant Professor of Sociology
George Washington University
Stolley received her Ph.D. in Sociology from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Along her journey to Virginia Wesleyan, she worked as a contractor supporting NATO, a social science analyst intern at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Web master of a sociology site and a Virginia State Police Trooper. Stolley edited the applied journal Social Insight: Knowledge at Work. She is the author of The Basics of Sociology and is currently co-editing a two-volume historical and cross-cultural encyclopedia of adoption.
Dr. Susannah Walker
Assistant Professor of History
Carnegie Mellon University
Walker received her Ph.D. in social and cultural history from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa. Her dissertation, which she is developing for publication, is titled "For Appearances' Sake: African- American Women's Commercial Beauty Culture from 1920 to the 1970s" and examines the relationship between beauty standards, consumer culture and racial politics in the middle decades of the 20th century. Before coming to Virginia Wesleyan, Walker taught at Shady Side Academy (an independent school in Pittsburgh), the University of Prince Edward Island (on Canada's smallest province, located in the Gulf of St. Lawrence) and at Carnegie Mellon University. She enjoys teaching U.S. history survey courses as well as more specialized courses in women's and gender history, cultural history and African-American history.
Dr. R. Cathal Woods
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Ohio State University
Woods received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in Ancient Greek Philosophy. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Dublin, Trinity College.