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Sara Atwood
Assistant Professor, Engineering & Physics Department
Contact Expert 

• Engineering education
• Women in engineering

Sara Atwood teaches primarily mechanical engineering courses. Her research involves experimental, computational and failure analysis of materials and designs used in orthopedic devices. Also, she researches engineering education methods to improve the confidence and performance of underrepresented students in engineering; creativity as a factor in the recruitment and retention of engineering students; and K-12 outreach to introduce children to engineering. Atwood earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in engineering sciences from Dartmouth College and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.

Jean-Paul Benowitz
Director of Student Transition Programs; Assistant Director of Academic Advising; adjunct faculty member, Department of History
Contact Expert

• American history
• Local/regional history
• Political history
• Presidential history

Jean-Paul Benowitz teaches first-year and Honors seminars and courses in the History and Religious Studies departments. He earned a bachelor's degree n history at Eastern Mennonite University and a master's in history at Millersville University where he wrote his MA thesis on the history of the Horse and Buggy Mennonites of Pennsylvania. He served as a scholar in residence at the College's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. Benowitz is a Ph.D. candidate at Temple University. His dissertation is a biography of U.S. Congressman James Wadsworth Symington (D-MO).

David Bowne
Associate Professor of Biology
Contact Expert 

• Climate Change
• Evolution
• Endangered Species

David Bowne teaches General Ecology, Conservation Biology, Geographic Information Systems, and the introductory biology courses Molecules, Cells, and Animal Systems and Principles of Ecology, Evolution, and Diversity of Life. Bowne conducts research on how land use impacts ecological processes in a variety of systems. Of note is TurtlePop.

Ambassador John B. Craig
Ambassador in Residence
Contact Expert 

• U.S. National Security Policy
• National and international counter narcotics policy
• National and International counter terrorism policy
• Middle East Policy
• Middle East history, culture, politics and economics

 Select appointments and accomplishments:

• 1998 appointed by President Clinton as US Ambassador to Oman
• 2001 Special Assistant to President George W. Bush
• 2002 Scholar in Residence at Elizabethtown College
• 2013 Ambassador in Residence at the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking
• 2010 Ambassador in Residence at Elizabethtown College
• 2011 Director of the Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking

Kurt DeGoede
Associate Professor, Engineering & Physics Department
Contact Expert 

• Biomechanics
• Sustainable development
• Teaching engineering

Kurt DeGoede's research interests are in the areas of biomechanics and modeling dynamic systems. He has been developing low cost systems for movement assessment and therapy in occupational therapy and physical therapy clinics. DeGoede also has published biomechanics papers on falls and fall injury. These seven papers have been cited more than 250 times. Prior to teaching, DeGoede worked several years as a project manager at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Michigan. He has developed a study abroad program in West Africa in which the program connects E-town engineering and business students with students at the University of The Gambia to develop technologies and social business plans for launching local West African s tart-up companies . DeGoede earned his doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.

>>> Select media featuring DeGoede

David Downing
Professor of English
Contact Expert 

• C.S. Lewis
• J.R.R. Tolkien
• American Civil War

David C. Downing is the director of the Professional Writing program. He teaches creative and professional writing, as well as a first-year seminar on quest narratives. Downing grew up in Colorado and earned his Ph.D. at UCLA. He has written four award-winning books on C. S. Lewis, and recently published a historical novel which features Lewis, Tolkien, and their friends as characters. The website for his novel is www.lookingfortheking.com.

Oya Dursun-Ozkanca
Associate Professor of Political Science; Director, International Studies Minor
Politics, Legal Studies & Philosophy Department
Contact Expert 

• Turkish foreign policy
• European politics and the European Union (EU)
• International organizations
• Middle East politics and the Arab Spring

A doctoral graduate of University of Texas at Austin, Oya Dursun-Ozkanca's research interests include Turkish foreign policy, South East Europe, transatlantic security, European Union and peace operations. She is the author of two books -- The European Union as an Actor in Security Sector Reform (Routledge 2013) and External Interventions in Civil Wars (co-edited with Stefan Wolff, Routledge in 2014) as well as a number of scholarly articles in leading peer-reviewed journals, such as Foreign Policy Analysis, Civil Wars, European Security, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, French Politics, Perspectives on European Politics and Society, and Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, and various edited volumes. Dursun-Özkanca served as a LSEE Research on South Eastern Europe Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics in Summer 2013. During the 2015-2016 academic year, she was on sabbatical leave through a sabbatical research grant received from the Institute of Turkish Studies at Georgetown University to work on a book manuscript on Turkish foreign policy in the Western Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean.

>>> Select media featuring Dursun-Ozkanca

Rachel Finley-Bowman
Associate Professor and Department Chair
Education Department
Contact Expert 

• Peace education
• Social studies and history education
• Northern Ireland

Prior to her tenure at Elizabethtown, Rachel Finely-Bowman was an associate professor of history, chair of the Department of Secondary Education and co-director of the Honors Program at Delaware Valley College. Finley-Bowman has presented her scholarly work in several publications and at numerous regional,national, and international conferences. She was the recipient of the 2009 Kappa Delta Pi (International Honor Society in Education) Teacher of Honor Award. In 2013, she began her second term on the Executive Board of the Pennsylvania Council for the Social Studies  and was a 2012-2013 fellow of the Education Policy and Leadership Center.

J. Edward Frick
Clinical Supervisor, Education Department
Contact Expert 

• Education
• Teacher preparation
• Leadership
• Ethics and Values

Ed Frick is a clinical supervisor within the Department of Education at Elizabethtown College and also serves as a faculty member (Manager – Evaluation Faculty for Educational Leadership) within the Teachers College of Western Governors University. He has 20 years of service within public education as an administrator and teacher. Frick was recognized as Pennsylvania State Assistant Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Pennsylvania Association of Elementary and Secondary Principals in 2007. He has previously been published in the Pennsylvania Administrator, The Beacon - Journal of the Pennsylvania School Study Council, the Journal of Educational Alternatives - Principles, Practices, and Leadership, Northwest Journal of Teacher Education, Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, Educational Leadership and Administration: Teaching and Program Development, Northwest Journal of Teacher Education, and the Impact Journal. Ed also serves as a School Board Director for a local school district.  Frick's research has focused on connectedness, technology, and social capital within the educational context. 

Shannon Haley-Mize
Assistant Professor, Education Department
Contact Expert 

• Special education
• Educational technology
• Autism and emotional behavior disorders

Shannon Haley-Mize completed doctoral study in special education with an emphasis in emotional and behavioral disorders at The University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. Past experience includes work with students in a psychiatric day and inpatient treatment setting, federal grant administration, and service-learning program development. She also completed a graduate degree in early childhood education and served an educator, early interventionist and administrator in an inclusive early childhood education setting. Her research interests include new literacy studies, technology integration in P-16 education and use of technology to support successful teaching and learning.

Mark Harman
Professor of English and German; Professor of International Studies
Contact Expert 

• European literature and culture
• Ireland
• Germany

Ireland native Mark Harman's award-winning literary translations include: Franz Kafka's The Castle, which won the Lois Roth Award of the Modern Language Association, and Kafka's Amerika: The Missing Person; Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet; Hermann Hesse's Soul of the Age; Robert Walser's Rediscovered and other works by a range of contemporary German-language writers. Harman's writings on Irish and German literature as well as translations have appeared in print and online publications such as The New York Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement (London), Partisan Review, Sewanee Review, New England Review, Los Angeles Review of Books. His reviews of Irish and German books have appeared in newspapers such as The Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, Irish Times (Dublin) and the Washington Post.

Colin Helb
Associate Professor, Communications Department
Contact Expert 

• Popular culture
• Popular music
• Internet culture

Colin Helb earned his doctorate from Bowling Green State University's American Culture Studies Program with emphases in critical media studies and popular culture. Helb is active with the Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association (PCA/ACA) and the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association.

Armenta Hinton
Equity and Title IX Coordinator
Contact Expert 

• Title IX
• Equity
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Black Studies

Armenta Hinton is an active presenter with a broad range of experience that includes 15 years working in Germany and England. She has been an active administrator, teacher and performer and has served on numerous arts boards including  the Birmingham Royal Ballet and the Birmingham Opera Company. Dr. Hinton is co-editor of “Persistence and Memory,” a collection of essays on diversity with reflections written by Derald Wing Sue, and she contributed a chapter to the book “Preserving HBCU’s Million Dollar Legacy”. Hinton earned a bachelor's degree in music history and piano from Alabama State University and studied at Roosevelt University’s Chicago Musical College. She earned her post graduate certificate in psychotherapy from Birmingham City University and her doctoral degree in Leadership and Change from Antioch University.

Kirsten Johnson
Associate Professor, Communications Department
Contact Expert 

• Television news
• Citizen journalism
• Social media and news

Kirsten Johnson's research interests include citizen journalism, perceived credibility on websites and user-generated content, and she teaches courses primarily on video production and broadcast news writing. Johnson has presented nationally and internationally on citizen journalism, authored several papers on citizen journalism and user-generated content, and has written a chapter titled Citizen Journalism in the Community and the Classroom for the book Public Journalism 2.0: The Promise and Reality of a Citizen-Engaged Press. Also, she co-edited the book News With a View: Journalism Beyond Objectivity. Prior to teaching, Johnson worked for nearly a decade in local radio and television. She began her media career at KRNT and KIOA radio in Des Moines as an on-air personality and board operator. She then worked as a news producer at WOI-TV (the ABC affiliate in Des Moines), and at WGAL-TV (the NBC affiliate in Lancaster). She has a bachelor's degree in broadcast news from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa., a master's degree in telecommunications from Kutztown (Pa.) University, and a Ph.D. in information science and technology from Drexel University in Philadelphia.

David Kenley
Professor of History
Director, Center for Global Understanding & Peacemaking
Contact Expert 

• Modern China
• Modern Japan
• Modern Cuba
• Migration Studies

David Kenley has taught at Elizabethtown College since 2004. His research focuses on the history of Asia, particularly modern China. Kenley is the author of New Culture in a New World (Routledge Press) and other works dealing with Chinese intellectual history and diasporas in world history. He earned his doctoral degree at University of Hawai'i, his master's at University of Utah and an additional bachelor's degree at Brigham Young University.

>>> Select media featuring Kenley

Kyle Kopko
Assistant Dean for Academic Achievement and Engagement
Associate Professor of Political Science
Director of the Honors Program
Director of the Pre-Law Program
Contact Expert 

• American politics
• Pennsylvania politics
• Law school admissions
• Presidential elections
• Religion and politics (including Amish and Anabaptist politics)
• Supreme Court
• Vice presidents

Kyle Kopko teaches courses on American government, constitutional law and judicial politics. His research has been featured in numerous regional, national and international media outlets including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, National Public Radio, Politico Magazine, Time, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel, CTV and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Kopko has published in the following peer-reviewed journals: Election Law Journal, Judicature, Justice System Journal, Political Behavior, Politics & Religion and Presidential Studies Quarterly. He is co-author of “The VP Advantage: How Running Mates Influence Home State Voting in Presidential Elections," Kopko serves on the board of directors for the Northeast Association of Pre-Law Advisors. He earned his doctorate from The Ohio State University in 2010, with a concentration in judicial politics and public law (American politics). Website: www.kylekopko.com  Twitter: @KyleKopko

Dmitriy Krichevskiy
Assistant Professor of Economics
Contact Expert 

• Economics
• Entrepreneurship

Dmitriy Krichevskiy earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Florida International University. Before coming to Elizabethtown, he taught at Miami Dade College.

>> Select media featuring Krichevskiy

Jeffery D. Long
Professor of Religion and Asian Studies
Contact Expert 

• Hinduism
• Buddhism
• Inter-religious relations

Jeffery D. Long has been teaching at Elizabethtown College since 2000. He has expertise in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, as well as other topics related to meditation, spirituality and interfaith dialogue. He also teaches a course on the religious significance of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Long is the author of three books (A Vision for Hinduism, Jainism: An Introduction and The Historical Dictionary of Hinduism), as well as numerous articles, papers, and book reviews. He has presented in a variety of national and international venues and speaks regularly in India and Japan. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School.

>>Select media featuring Jeffery D. Long

Michael G. Long
Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies
Contact Expert 

• Civil rights
• Peace studies
• Jackie Robinson
• Fred Rogers

Michael G. Long is the author or editor of several books on civil rights, politics, and religion. He has a special interest in the genre of letters and is the editor, most recently, of I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters (City Lights Books); and Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall (Amistad/HarperCollins). He is a popular speaker, with engagements from the National Archives in Washington, D.C., to the City Club of San Diego, and has appeared on C-Span and National Public Radio.Long’s book on Jackie Robinson was selected as a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly, and his works have been featured or reviewed in The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Book Forum, Ebony/Jet, and other major media outlets. He has a doctoral degree from Emory University.

>> Select media featuring Michael G. Long

Susan Mapp
Professor and Chair, Department of Social Work
Contact Expert 

• Human trafficking
• Domestic minor sex trafficking
• Human rights
• child maltreatment

Susan Mapp is the program director and chair of the Social Work Department at Elizabethtown College. She has written a book on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking and two books in the area of human rights: Human rights and social justice in a global perspective: An introduction to international social work (currently in press for a second edition) and Global child welfare and well-being. She is the author of numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed articles on a variety of topics, including the impact of war on children, violations of women's human rights, law enforcement awareness of human trafficking, as well as issues relating to the child welfare system. She has presented her work at national and international conferences.

E. Fletcher McClellan
Professor of Political Science
Contact Expert 

• American government
• Presidential studies
• American politics and popular culture

E. Fletcher McClellan has been a member of the Elizabethtown faculty for more than 30 years. He served in many leadership roles at the College, including Dean of Faculty from 2010 to 2016, Interim Provost on two occasions, and department chair. He was a lecturer in political studies at the Queens University Bader International Study Centre in East Sussex, England, in fall 1999 and an American studies lecturer at the Dalian University of Foreign Languages, Liaoning Province, China, in spring 2008. He holds a doctoral degree in political science from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

McClellan teaches the senior capstone in political science and legal studies, as well as courses in American government, public policy and public administration. He has presented dozens of papers at professional conferences in such areas as the American presidency, politics and film, and teaching and learning in political science.  His recent publications include a 2016 article on outcomes assessment for PS: Political Science & Politics and a chapter on curriculum models in undergraduate political science for the Handbook of Teaching and Learning in Political Science and International Relations (2015). Co-authored with Dr Kyle Kopko, Dr. Christopher Devine and two Elizabethtown students, his article on the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the New England Journal of Political Science was featured December 2015 in the New York Times.

In addition, McClellan is actively involved with the Political Science Education section of the American Political Science Association, serving as a member of the PSE executive council from 2010 to 2014.  He conducts external reviews for political science programs in the Northeast. He offers commentary on current politics for area media outlets.

Mike Mitchell
Executive Director, The High Center
Contact Expert 

• Family Business
• Strategic Planning
• Business Governance

Mike Mitchell is the executive director of The High Center at Elizabethtown College. Prior to joining  the High Center, he was an owner of Amelia's Grocery Outlets and served as president and CEO of the company from 1997- 2012. He oversaw all aspects of the grocery chain's $50 million dollar business and a 100,000 square foot warehouse in Leola, Pa. Mike, his father, Melvin, and his brother-in-law Jeff, grew the business and expanded the concept from a couple of small Weaver Chicken Outlets into a full line grocery outlet chain. Mitchell is a graduate of Elizabethtown College and has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.  Prior to joining Amelia's in 1996, he worked as a marketing manager for several packaged goods companies including Heinz, General Mills, and Unilever.

Emma Neuhauser
Professor of Finance
Contact Expert 

• Finance
• Economic topics in China
• Chinese culture

Emma Neuhauser teaches in the areas of corporate finance, financial institutions and markets. Her research interests are corporate finance, corporate governance, financial engineering and securities, financial institution and markets, and investments. She has held a variety of positions at a number of institutions including Redback Networks Systems Canada Inc. and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. She brings with her experience as a quantitative research analyst, system verification engineer, business consultant and project manager. Prior to teaching at E-town Neuhauser taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a member of the American Finance Association, Financial Management Association and Global Association of Risk Professionals and has earned several prestigious awards for her work. She has served as speaker to local communities on issues related to finance and economics, family culture, and social and economic developments in China. Neuhauser has lived and worked in Canada, China and Singapore.

Richard Newton
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Contact Expert 

• Religion in American Life
• Biblical Interpretation
• African American Culture
• Identity Politics

Richard Newton teaches in the Religious Studies program at Elizabethtown College. His scholarship looks at how religion makes difference and makes a difference in the world. His current research examines Alex Haley’s Roots as a modern American scripture. An innovative teacher-scholar, Newton draws on experiences ranging from anthropological study among the Yucatec Maya to archaeological fieldwork in Israel-Palestine to his work in various church settings. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the American Academy of Religion, the Society for Comparative Research in Iconic and Performative Texts, and the Institute for Signifying Scriptures. Newton earned his bachelor's degree from Texas Christian University, his master's of divinity degree from Southern Methodist University and his doctoral degree from Claremont Graduate University. Active on the academic blog scene, you can read more of his work at sowingtheseed.org.

Steven M. Nolt
Senior Scholar, The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies
Contact Expert 

• Amish
• Mennonites
• U.S. religious history
• U.S. immigration history

The author or coauthor of 14 books on Amish, Mennonite and Pennsylvania German history and contemporary life, Steve Nolt is widely recognized for his scholarship on Anabaptist groups across North America. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Notre Dame. His Amish-related research has taken him into several dozen settlements across seven states and Ontario and has focused on community formation and history, economic and social change and the role of technology in Amish life. He also has published articles on topics such as mental health care programs reaching Amish clients and on Amish involvement with international aid organizations. Nolt’s publications include The Amish: A Concise Introduction (2016); A History of the Amish (3rd ed., 2015); Seeking Places of Peace: A Global Mennonite History (2012, with Royden Loewen); and Amish Grace (2007, with Donald Kraybill and David Weaver-Zercher). With Donald Kraybill and Karen Johnson-Weiner, he wrote The Amish (2013), the definitive study of Amish society and cultural diversity.

Jean Pretz
Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology
Contact Expert

• Creativity
• Decision Making
• Intuition

Jean Pretz focuses her research on creativity and intuition. She is interested in the relationship between creativity and critical thinking and success in college. She also studies decision making with an aim to understand when intuition is insightful and when it is irrational. Participants in her studies have included engineers, nurses, military leaders and soccer players. Pretz has published in many peer-reviewed scholarly journals including Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts and Journal of Behavioral Decision Making. At Elizabethtown, Pretz teaches courses in neuroscience, decision making and a seminar on intelligence and creativity. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology and music from Wittenberg University and her master's degrees and doctoral degree in psychology from Yale University.

Brenda Read-Daily
Assistant Professor of Engineering
Contact Expert

• Environmental Biotechnology
• Environmental Engineering

Brenda Read-Daily teaches courses in the Engineering and Physics Department. Her research interests include biological nitrogen removal in agricultural and wastewater treatment systems. She is currently working to develop a passive, low-cost biological treatment system for improving nitrogen removal rates in agricultural drainage. Additionally, she investigates environmental engineering education methods. Read-Daily earned her doctoral degree in environmental engineering at the University of Notre Dame.

Maureen Riley-Behringer
Assistant Professor of Social Work
Contact Expert

• Intercounty and Domestic Adoption and Foster Care
• Early Childhood Trauma

Maureen Riley-Behringer’s research interests include how early trauma impacts children’s behavior, emotion-regulation and ability to manage stress once in the foster or adoptive family. She has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on a variety of topics related to adoption and the public child welfare system and has presented her work at local, national and international conferences. She earned her doctoral degree in social welfare from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Jonathan Rudy
Peacemaker in Residence
Center for Global Understanding and Peacemaking
Contact Expert 

•   Peacebuilding Program Monitoring and Design
•   Nonviolent Social Change Strategy
•   Mindanao, Philippines
•   Somaliland

With more than more than twenty five years of working in 30 countries in Asia and Africa, Jon Rudy has focused his efforts at peacebuilding and conflict transformation on a grass roots and middle-out communities. He is Senior Advisor for Human Security at the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Current projects include:

•   Facilitating adult peace education in Mindanao, Philippines
•   Teaching at the University of Hargeisa, Somaliland
•   Teaching on human centered security

Jon has a master's of arts in religion with a graduate certificate in conflict transformation from Eastern Mennonite Seminary/University in Harrisonburg, Va. He has a bachelor's degree in international development, and an associate degree in industrial arts and minor in communications from Bethel College in North Newton, Kansas. Jon regularly blogs about his trips to Africa and Asia.  

Michael David Silberstein
Professor of Philosophy
Contact Expert 

• Science and Religion/Values
• Foundations of Physics - time travel, quantum mechanics, relativity theory
• Neuroscience and Society

Michael Silberstein's primary research interests are foundations of physics, foundations of cognitive science and foundations of complexity theory respectively.  He is especially interested in how these branches of philosophy and science bear on more general questions of reduction, emergence and explanation. He also loves film and writing about film whenever possible. In short, as a scholar he is an eclectic freak and dangerously unfocused for today's Academy. Silberstein is equally eclectic as a teacher. His regular course offerings include: philosophy of science, foundations of physics, introduction to cognitive science, philosophy of mind, philosophy and film, and science and values. He also is a founding member of the Cognitive Science program and permanent Adjunct in the Philosophy Department at the University of Maryland, College Park, where he is also a faculty member in the Foundations of Physics Program and a Fellow on the Committee for Philosophy and the Sciences.

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Monica M. Smith
Director of Diversity and Inclusion
Contact Expert 

• Diversity and Inclusion
• Cultural Competence
• Cross-cultural Immersion

Monica Smith provides educational opportunities, programs and services within the College that are inclusively and culturally relevant to diverse groups of people. She has been promoting diversity and inclusion understanding in K-12 and higher education for more than 15 years. She has more than 20 years of direct social work practice and supervisor experience in child welfare, family services and mental health agencies. Smith was a faculty member for 14 years with administrative duties related to multicultural affairs and faculty development. She earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Eastern University and her master’s and doctoral degrees from University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation, “A Pilot Study of Cross-Cultural Immersion as a Pedagogical Approach for Teaching Cultural Competence,” considered the effects of cultural immersion on knowledge, values and skill development in undergraduate students. Smith’s central area of scholarship is culturally competent practice and best practices in diversity and inclusion. She joined Elizabethtown July 2016.

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Michael Swanson
Director, Theatre and Dance Division
Associate Professor of Theatre
Contact Expert 

• Dramatic literature
• Directing and acting
• Film history
• Theatre
• Shakespeare

Locally, Michael Swanson has directed at the Ephrata Performing Arts Center (EPAC), Mount Gretna Playhouse (for Theatre of the Seventh Sister and Greta Music), Millersville University and Oyster Mill Playhouse. His 2014 production of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at EPAC was named best play of the year in south-central Pennsylvania by BroadwayWorld.com, and he also received recognition as best director.  Before Elizabethtown, Swanson taught at Western Illinois University, Fresno City College, the University of Arizona and Franklin College, where he was director of theatre and first chair of the fine arts department. Swanson is intensely involved in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF), a national organization of college and university theatre programs; he is former chair of KCACTF Region III (the Great Lakes states), where he was awarded the KCACTF Gold Medallion for his long-time service. Swanson is an associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. He earned a doctorate degree at The Ohio State University, an MFA in directing at Wayne State University, and a bachelor’s degree from Hamline University.

Juan Toro
Associate Professor of Education
Contact Expert 

• Teacher education
• Portfolio assessment

Juan A. Toro has more than 30 years of experience as a teacher educator. At Elizabethtown, he teaches courses in child development, foundations of teaching and learning, and assessment and evaluation. He has a doctorate degree in curriculum and instruction from The Pennsylvania State University, a master of science in education from Western Illinois University and a bachelor of science in biology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.

Hossein Varamini

Professor of Finance and International Business
Director of International Business
Contact Expert 

• Foreign Exchange Markets
• Foreign Direct Investments

Hossein Varamini joined the College in the Fall of 2000 as the Director of the International Business Program after holding a similar position at a different institution for over ten years. His primary teaching areas are International Business and Finance. In addition to his individual research publications in the fields of foreign direct investment and foreign exchange markets, Dr. Varamini has published articles with other colleagues and with his students. Some of his articles have been published in the American Journal of Business, Journal of East-West Business, Journal of Global Business, Journal of International Business and Economy, Journal of Economics, Journal of Applied Economics and the Journal of Current Research in Global Business. He is a member of the Academy of International Business, Academy of Finance and the Association for Global Business..

Jesse Waters
Director, Bowers Writers House
Contact Expert 

• Creative writing
• 20th century American poetry
• 20th century American post-modern fiction

Runner-up for the Iowa Review Fiction Prize and a finalist in the DIAGRAM Innovative Fiction Prize, Jesse Waters is a recipient of a 2003 NC Artist's Grant to attend the Vermont Studio Center and a winner of the 2001 River Styx International Poetry Contest. Waters' fiction, poetry and nonfiction work has been nominated for multiple Pushcart Prizes and has appeared in such journals as 88: A Journal of Contemporary Poetry, The Adirondack Review, Coal Hill Review, The Cortland Review, Cimarron Review, Concrete Wolf, Iowa Review, Plainsongs, Magma, River Styx, Slide, Story Quarterly, Southeast Review, Sycamore Review and others. His first book of poems, Human Resources, was released by Inkbrush Press in February of 2011.