Undergraduate Studies Community

Senior Instructor II
PhD – English, University of Nevada, 2002; MA – English, University of Northern Colorado, 1992; BA – English, Southern Oregon University, 1989

Deb is an energetic instructor who loves helping students achieve their best work. She has taught a wide array of composition courses and is inspired by good literature and storytelling. Her University Seminar theme centers on the literature of war and follows up on ideas first explored in her PhD dissertation, A Strange New Consciousness: The War Writings of Mrs. Humphry Ward. Deb’s service to SOU includes being Program Chair, Faculty Senate Secretary (and member), Senate Advisory Council member, and a member of committees and/or task-force groups linked to financial aid, academic standards and excellence, textbooks, technology, First-Year Experience, veterans, and mentoring/tutoring in a campus environment. Deb knows SOU! She has given her time and leadership to Future Farmers of America, Jackson County 4-H Organizations, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of America, Habitat for Humanity, Toys for Tots, Northwest Seasonal Workers, and the Jackson County Fair as well as volunteering her can-do attitude for innumerable sports teams, fundraisers, and community events.

Office: Computing Services 214
Phone: 541.552.6267
E-Mail: dbrown@sou.edu

Instructor, Student Success Coordinator

Office: Central Hall 259
Phone: 541.552.6624
E-Mail: derre@sou.edu

Instructor
PhD – Theatre (History and Criticism), The City University of New York, 1991; MA – Theatre (Acting and Directing), Portland State University, 1976; BA – Speech and Theatre, Portland State University, 1973

For the past 20 years or so, Alan has been enjoying teaching courses in Speech, Communications, and Theatre at several colleges and universities including New York City College of Technology, Westchester Community College, and Yeshiva University. However, before moving into the academic world, he was the Program Director at the American Theatre Wing in NYC where he was responsible for running the Wing’s Educational and Community outreach programs as well as assisting the Executive Director with the planning and execution of events related to the Tony Awards. Prior to working at the American Theatre Wing, Alan worked professionally in the theatre as an actor and stage manager. He has worked under numerous Equity contracts (Off-Broadway, LORT, CORST, TYA, SPT). As a performer, he has worked Off-Broadway in the original production of The Fantasticks, and regionally at the Barter Theatre and Meadowbrook Theatre, among others. As a stage manager, he has worked at New York City Ballet, Forbidden Broadway, TheatreWorks USA, and The Mountain Playhouse. In his free time, Alan is a wood carver, creating art pieces out of wine barrel staves and other reclaimed wood.

Office: Central Hall 029
Phone: 541.552.6260
E-Mail: hemingwaa@sou.edu

Instructor
Ph.D. – American Studies, Purdue University, 2011; Master of Urban Planning, New York University, 1999; MA – English, Purdue University, 1993; BA – English and Political Science with minor in French, Purdue University, 1991

Jamie is a passionate teacher who creates learning environments where students thrive. She has taught in South Central Los Angeles and the South Bronx as a part of Teach For America; at the International School of Stuttgart, an International Baccalaureate school; at Lane Community College; at Purdue University; and, since 2013, at Southern Oregon University in English and Writing, Education, and Undergraduate Studies. As a teaching supervisor, Jamie mentored 21 SOU MAT students, collaborated with 36 cooperating teachers, and observed student-teachers at 15 middle and high schools across seven school districts. Her research interests include representations of race and ethnicity, African literature, social policy, social justice, and education reform. Her PhD dissertation studied U.S. discourse on Patrice Lumumba and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Jamie has worked in the nonprofit sector in New York City at Carnegie Corporation, the National Center for Children in Poverty, and the Phipps Community Development Corporation. She is a founder and board member of Pollinator Project Rogue Valley and contributed to SOU becoming the world’s first Bee Campus. Jamie serves on SOU’s Sustainability Council and on the Distinguished Teaching Award Selection Committee. Jamie has lived in Germany and Switzerland, studied in China, and traveled on four continents.

Office: Computing Services 234
Phone: 541.552.6112
E-Mail: hicknerj@sou.edu

Instructor
MA – English (Rhetoric & Composition), Portland State University, 1993; BA – English, University of California at Santa Barbara, 1991

Laura is an experienced and dedicated teacher who has worked with university students since 1992. Her strong, gentle leadership guides students to pursue their passions with confidence and perseverance. Her interests have led her to publish works of nature writing, travel journalism, and educational medical writing. In graduate school, she specialized in Literature of the English Romantic poets, Early 20th Century American novelists, and Rhetoric and Composition. As a lifelong learner, Laura has been able to connect her talents as a writer, grant writer, organizer and compassionate teacher to help those who are differently abled and those who are seeking medical and/or caregiving information. Laura’s current research interests and skills have led her to volunteer in the community as an Internationally Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) and La Leche League Leader, collaborating with healthcare professionals in Southern Oregon Lactation Association (SOLA). Laura serves on SOU’s Planning Board, the Strategic Planning Committee and the University Curriculum Committee. She is active in the piloting course designs for non-traditional learners and contributes her expertise to peer mentoring, and support programs and initiatives (Bridge Program, First-Year Mentors, resource centers on campus, and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACES) training.

Office: Computing Services 231
Phone: 541.552.8411
E-Mail: jessupla@sou.edu

Instructor
MFA – Creative Writing, Vermont College of Fine Arts, 2015; MS – Environmental Studies, University of Montana, 2005; BA – Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1999

Melissa is a writer, teacher, farmer, and community activist. She owns and runs, Barking Moon Farm, with her husband and two children in the Applegate Valley. For many years, she has worked as an educator, including as an agricultural extension agent for Oregon State University as well as a freelance creative writing teacher and mentor. Her creative nonfiction essays have appeared in Guernica, Mid-American Review, Bellingham Review, River Teeth, Sweet, Split Lip, New Delta Review, Numero Cinq, Terrain.org, Wildness, and Hobart among other publications. Her book reviews and critical essays have appeared in VIDA Review, Essay Daily, The Rumpus, Numero Cinq, and Terrain.org. A forthcoming (2018) work will be in two anthologies: They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing from Black Lawrence Press and WAVES: A Confluence of Women’s Voices from a Room of One’s Own Foundation. Her work has been awarded an AWP Intro Journals Award in creative nonfiction and is also a notable essay in the 2016 Best American Essays anthology. Her first book, Tracing the Desire Line, is in submission to publishers. Also in the works is a new book in about Mary Austin, wildness, beauty, and the feminine. Melissa’s work can be read here.

Office: Computing Services 231
Phone: 541.552.7015
E-Mail: matthewm2@sou.edu

Instructor
Juris Doctor (JD) – Law and Government Certificate, Willamette University College of Law, 2013; BA – Politics, History and Legal Studies, University of San Francisco, 2005

Matt works to equip students with the skills needed to clearly articulate their own ideas and to express them to a variety of audiences and in any situation. Though once pursuing his own law practice, Matt is inspired by teaching and has taught at Rogue Community College and Southern Oregon University, focusing on leadership skills, expository writing, research writing, and interpersonal communication courses. Because of his background and training as a lawyer, Matt draws on the rhetorical and logical foundations of legal analysis and encourages his students to apply these concepts to their own disciplines. Matt continues his scholarship on topics and inquiry related to freedom of speech, mass hysteria, and family law. He is a member of the Oregon State Bar and currently sits on the Community Works Board of Directors.

Office: Computing Services 210
Phone: 541.552.6142
E-Mail: morealim@sou.edu

Student Success Coordinator, Undergraduate Studies
MS – Applied Psychology, Southern Oregon University; BA – Economics, University of California Los Angeles

Office: Computing Services 215
Phone: 541.552.6809
E-Mail: nickeldo@sou.edu

Instructor
MA Ed – Endorsed in English and ESOL, Seattle University, 1996; BA – English, Boston College, 1989

Amy is an accomplished and enthusiastic instructor who is passionate about honing teaching and learning excellence. She designs curriculum, coaches teachers, and encourages deep learning involvement using multimedia approaches, and facilitating the hands-on and real-life application of any work. Amy has worked with talented and gifted learners, and with ESOL learners as part of American cultural exchanges and with the Peace Corps. Amy is moved by the beauty and emotionality of language (particularly the beauty of poetry) and by the soulful, reciprocal, and powerful adventure of the teaching-learning practice. She is open to adventuring to new vistas – both in her teaching practice and in the real world having traveled through 18 countries and having lived in both Hungary and Northern Ireland. Amy is a conversational speaker of Hungarian/Magyar and German/Deutsch.

Office: Computing Services 233
Phone: 541.552.7035
E-Mail: schachtam@sou.edu

Senior Instructor II
PhD – Materials Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005; BS – Materials Science, Northwestern University, 2000

Ellen is a dedicated educator and scientist whose teaching is enriched by extensive, international travels and engagements to investigate and discuss the changing climate system and emerging alternative energies with fellow scientists. At SOU she has taught courses in Physics, in Honors College, and in Green House and University Seminar. She is currently a Board member of the Geos Institute, a local non-profit organization composed of climate change scientists who work throughout North America to consult cities and regions in climate change adaptation, sustainable forestry, and water management. Since 2006, she has focused heavily on science outreach for women and minorities and taught a variety of undergraduate studies, physics, and engineering courses and is a part of Advocates for Women in Science, Engineering, and Math. Prior to beginning her career at SOU, she was supported by a Chateaubriand Fellowship and served at a National Center for Scientific Research laboratory in Marseille, France.

Office: Science Building 179
Phone: 541.552.6489
E-Mail: sieme@sou.edu

Associate Professor
Ph.D. – Genetics, Oregon State University, 1995; BS – Forestry, Michigan Technological University, 1977; Post-Doctoral teaching and research, Carleton College, 1993-1999

John is an educator, biologist and artist. In his distinguished teaching career at SOU, he has instructed lower division biology and biology lab courses as well as undergraduate communication, thinking and information literacy courses. John continues to teach in University Seminar and Biology labs. However, recognizing a long suppressed passion for artistic creation, John abandoned his formal biology scholarship (genetic regulation of plant developmental patterns) in favor of expressing patterns in nature and environmental concerns. His scholarly focus has shifted towards pursuing the creation and dissemination of his mosaic art. John’s art making has led him to international acclaim where he has been recognized with many awards and with invitations to exhibit and to teach the artistry and craft of glass mosaics. John’s success as an artist has led him to travel extensively in the United States and to Turkey, Italy, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and the Netherlands. His work can be seen at Rogue Mosaics.

Office: Central Hall 029
Phone: 541.552.6342
E-Mail: sollingj@sou.edu

Senior Instructor II
PhD – History, University of Notre Dame, 1992; BA – Biology, BS – Chemistry, University of Oregon, 1982

Craig began his academic career in the chemical and biological sciences, but his fascination with the humanistic side of scientific inquiry led him to pursue a master’s in the history and philosophy of science and a doctorate in European History with an emphasis in the history of science and medicine. His PhD dissertation examined the ideas and science of Ilya Metchnikoff, the eccentric Russian pathologist who became one of the first immunologists and who popularized yogurt as a health food in the early 1900s. After a postdoctoral position at Stanford University studying the history of recent immunology, Craig taught for ten years at the Lyman Briggs School of Science at Michigan State University, where he embraced “The Best of Both Worlds” by teaching the history and philosophy of science and medicine to pre-science and pre-med majors. Moving back to the Rogue Valley in 2001, he soon found himself teaching at SOU, where he developed a University Seminar course that focuses on the art, science, and ethics of medicine. His hobbies include bodybuilding and aquaria keeping.

Office: Computing Services 212
Phone: 541.552.8438
E-Mail: stillwec@sou.edu

Senior Instructor I; Program Chair, University Seminar
PhD (ABD) – Transformative Studies – California Institute of Integral Studies; MA – English Literature, University of Oregon, 1985; BA – English & BA – French, University of Oregon, 1983

Elizabeth’s research interests center on the nature of learning, the art and craft of teaching, and the quality of education. In a changing world, how do we sustain, innovate and energize our knowledge and our wisdom? Her dissertation research explores how the elemental and essential qualities of tricksters inform teaching theory and practice. Elizabeth’s modus operandi with teaching is to grapple with ideas and information in ways that help us to dialogue, to be more aware of the shared and systemic interconnections that shape our lives, and to appreciate and manage ambiguity. She embraces learning with diverse, inclusive, and transdisciplinary perspectives because big questions require wide-ranging scrutiny. Her work is defined by curiosity, creativity, playfulness, empathy, and a deep and abiding love of the natural world. Elizabeth’s inquisitive nature and commitment to lifelong inquiry have led her to explore arts-based research, storytelling and narrative, folklore and mythology, indigenous music, food politics, social justice, ethology, positive psychology, and especially the transformative potential of education in its many forms.

Office: Computing Services 216
Phone: 541.552.8406
E-Mail: whitmane@sou.edu