Faculty Bios - Faculty

Lesley A. Northup, Ph.D. (Catholic University)
Interim Dean and Associate Professor of Religious Studies. With research and teaching interests in American religion, ritual studies, mythography, and popular religious practice, Dr. Northup covers a number of different bases in her field. Her writing is curiously diverse, including books on women's ritualizing, the 1892 Book of Common Prayer, and documentary materials of North American religions, as well as articles in areas too numerous to remember. Dedicated to pedagogical innovation and improvement, she has served on innumerable committees and boards in the interest of better serving students and has won lots of awards.

John S. Kneski, M.Arch. II (Syracuse University)
Associate Dean of Curriculum, Study Abroad & Research and Senior Fellow. Prof. Kneski also teaches in the School of Architecture and as an affiliated faculty member of the European Studies Certificate Program. Associate Dean Kneski has represented the The Honors College at the state level as the President of the Florida Collegiate Honors Council (FCHC), and FIU at the national level currently as an elected Councilor of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) based in Washington D.C. Prof. Kneski studied architecture at the University of Miami, the Uniwersytet Jagiellonski (founded in 1364) in Cracow, at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice, and at the Architectural Association in London. Upon receiving a terminal degree in architecture from Syracuse University, Prof. Kneski worked in the firm of Norman Jaffe & Associates Architects in New York. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and is licensed by the State of Florida Board of Architecture and Interior Design. In his career as an architect and preservationist, he has been published in numerous journals including Metropolis, Preservation Today, and Architecture. He was the author of the report that lead to the creation of Miami's fourth historic district, Spring Garden and is currently completing a book on botanical and anthropological studies conducted in New York by Thomas Jefferson.

Juan Carlos Espinosa, Ph.D. (University of Miami)
Associate Dean and Fellow of The Honors College. Juan Carlos Espinosa is a political scientist with degrees from the University of Miami and Florida State University. Research interests include the Arts and Political Expression; Culture, Politics and Migration; and Civil-Military Relations. Espinosa has published work on numerous topics including articles in The Journal of Latin American Affairs, Problems of Post-Communism, Cuba in Transition, and the journal Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana published in Madrid. He has appeared as an expert on local, regional and world politics on dozens of media outlets at the local, national, and international level including ABC's Nightline, British Broadcasting Corporation, The Miami Herald, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Toronto Globe and Mail. Espinosa is also a musician, sound artist and composer of contemporary classical music. He is currently working on a collaborative intermedia project with artist Xavier Cortada that will take place in Antarctica in January 2007.

José Rodríguez, M.S.Ed (University of Miami)
Assistant Dean of Student Services. Jose Rodriguez received both his Bachelor of Science in Communication and his Master of Science in Education (with an emphasis in higher education/enrollment management) from the University of Miami. Jose comes to the Honors College with seven years experience in academic advising and administration. While at UM, he worked in the Department of Psychology; and in 2005, he came to FIU’s College of Business Administration. In 2006, he received a professional award for best presentation by the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA).

Irma T. de Alonso, Ph.D. (University of York, England)
Professor, Economics. She has won several FIU awards in the areas of teaching, advising, research, and service. In addition to her association with the Department of Economics and the Honors College, she is also affiliated with Caribbean and Latin American studies, the Women's Studies program, and the Freshmen Interest Groups (FIGs). Her reseach and teaching areas include Economics of the Caribbean, Women, culture and economic development, Quantitative methods, and Principles of Economics. Additional information may be found at http://www.fiu.edu/~alonsoi

Daniel Alvarez, M.A., M.T.S.(Harvard University)
Instructor, Religious Studies. Daniel Alvarez graduated from Stetson University in 1976 with a degree in European History. He pursued his graduate work at Harvard University, earning two masters' degrees with special emphasis on theology and philosophy. After working a few years in college administration in Boston, Massachusetts, Dan has devoted himself to teaching since his return to Miami in 1994. He has been a faculty member at FIU since 1999. In addition to core coures in religion analysis and world religions, Dan teaches courses on the Reformation, Protestantism, Mysticism, Violence and the Sacred, and Religion in America, among others. In 1998 he published "On the Possibility of an Evangelical Theology" in Theology Today, and his paper, "Rupp in Perspective" will appear in the forthcoming April issue of Philosophy East and West.

Regina C. Bailey, M.F.A. (Pratt Institute)
Special Projects Coordinator, The Wolfsonian Museum. Prior to this position she had been the Associate Director of the Art Museum at FIU and the Curator of Collections at the Bass Museum, Miami Beach, Fl. She has overseen accreditation for both the Art Museum and the Bass Museum and the American Association of Museum has used her policies and procedures and hurricane plan for their technical assistance program. She is a peer reviewer for AAM and has served as panelist for Art in Public Places for Dade County and the State of Florida and the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs. She is a member of the American Association of Museums and the American College and University Museums and Gallery Association. Ms. Bailey has been teaching since 1991.

John Bailly, M.F.A. (Yale University)
Instructor, The Honors College. John Bailly’s work explores the random nature of information and the manner in which we process it. Utilizing juxtapositions of diverse data and multiple historical references, Bailly’s work intends for us to reflect on the manner in which we conceptualize our realities. Born in Slough, Buckinghamshire in 1968, of a French father and American mother, he was raised in Paris, Aix-les-Bains, Long Island , Lyon, and Miami. He received his MFA in painting and printmaking from Yale University in 1993, and is a Fellow of The Honors College at Florida International University. Based in Miami, his work has been exhibited at University of Maine Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Texas State University, and several other institutions in the US. He was awarded the 2006 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual and Media Artists and a 2006 State of Florida Individual Artist Grant. In 2007, Bailly and critically acclaimed poet Richard Blanco produced a collaborative project, Place of Mind. He founded and directs Aesthetics & Values in The Honors College at FIU. He lectures and teaches workshops at universities throughout the US.

Martha M. Barantovich, EdD.( Florida International University)
Adjunct professor, Education. Martha is a native Miamian who received all three of her degrees from FIU. Her Bachelors is in Business Administration and she received her Masters in Special Education. Following her Masters degree, Martha taught at Miami Southridge Senior High School for nine years, where she was awarded the Sallie Mae Beginning Teacher of the Year award. She taught for 5 years in varying exceptionalities classrooms and then in a school within a school setting for at-risk students. While at Southridge Senior High, Martha’s interest in educational policy was peaked and she returned to FIU to seek her Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction: Instructional Leadership. While attending the annual AERA conference in Chicago in 2003, Martha’s interest in inequity of social structure in education was fueled by attending one of the sessions. She has since been focusing on comprehending the political process of education policy and the resulting disparities in education. She hopes to follow in the footsteps of her mentor, Stephen M. Fain, and one day attend the Skip Barber Racing School.

William K. Beesting, Ph.D. (Florida State University)
Senior Fellow and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Studies. He came to FIU in 1983 as the coordinator for academic advising, when responsible for all 225 freshmen. As FIU grew, he developed the Academic Advising Center and served as the first director. Realizing that good advising did not matter if good teaching was not occurring in the classroom, he wrote the proposal for the Academy for the Art of Teaching, now a permanent office at FIU. With Rick Schwartz, another Honors College Faculty member, he founded the Journal for the Art of Teaching to promote thoughtful dialogue about teaching. He still serves on the editorial board, serves as faculty advisor to Alpha Omicron Pi and Phi Kappa Phi, and has worked on the SGA Constitutional Revision Committee, Hispanic Heritage, and American Heritage Week. With a small group, he developed and is a founding national board member of the National Association of Fellowships Advisors, an organization devoted to helping students receive highly competitive national scholarships such as the Rhodes and Truman. In 2007, he received the Commander’s Award for Public Service, the fourth highest award the Army can grant a civilian.

Fred Blevens, Ph.D. (University of Missouri)
Professor, Journalism and Mass Communications. Dr. Fred Blevens is a leader in the emerging discipline of news literacy, which responds to the glut of digital information by empowering citizens with tools to critically analyze information that shape global opinion. Most recently, he has extended his research into archival theory, examining serious credibility issues associated with private corporate public relations archives being housed in major research university libraries. Dr. Blevens teaches skills and concept courses in journalism, including law, ethics, newswriting and history. In Fall-Spring 2009-10, he will teach a news literacy course in the Honors College. During the past 25 years, he has founded or been a director or faculty member of three university-based residential workshops for Hispanic and American Indian high school students, including the Peace Sullivan/James Ansin High School Workshop in Journalism and New Media at the University of Miami. His teaching has been recognized at three universities and in 2001, the Freedom Forum named him National Journalism Teacher of the Year. For nearly 20 years, Dr. Blevens was a reporter and editor at major metropolitan newspapers in Tampa, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Houston. He is co-author of Twilight of Press Freedom: The Rise of People’s Journalism and is past president of the American Journalism Historians Association and the Southwest Education Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Gwyn Davies, Ph.D.(University College London)
Associate Professor, History. Dr. Davies teaches a diverse portfolio of courses covering the Classical world. His research interests include the recording and explication of Roman siege systems (his monograph Roman Siege Works was published in 2006) and understanding the mechanisms of imperial supervision and control in upland and desert environments. He is also interested in superpower interactions in the ancient world and in conceptual models of frontier management. Dr. Davies specializes in the Roman Army but is also interested in comparative aspects of warfare over a broad chronological range. He co-directs the Yotvata Roman Fort project in the Arava Valley, Israel, where his excavations have investigated a Diocletianic quadriburgium and the subsequent early Islamic occupation of the site. In 2005, he won a university teaching award.

Charmaine DeFrancesco, Ph.D. (Florida State University)
Associate Professor, College of Education, Department of Curriculum & Instruction. Charmaine DeFrancesco came to FIU in 1989 as the Counseling Consultant for the Athletics Department after developing one of the first academic support programs for student-athletes at FSU. In 1991, she joined the College of Education as a faculty member and since then, has received several awards for her excellence in teaching. As a certified consultant in the area of Sport Psychology, she has had the opportunity to train athletes, coaches and teachers from the youth sport to professional levels. She has been a member of the United States Olympic Committee's (USOC) Sport Psychology Registry. She has published and presented several papers related to her scholarship interests which typically focus on individuals and groups often absent from the sport limelight: the exploited (collegiate student-athletes); the forgotten (injured athletes); the mistreated (children and youth); and the trivialized (females). She is very much interested in the academic success of students and the social aspects of the teaching and learning process throughout the lifespan. Examples of her scholarship can be found in: The International Journal of Sport Psychology, The Journal of Sport Behavior, The College Student Journal, The Sport Psychologist, The Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Strategies, and Education.

Stephen M. Fain, Ed.D. (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Founding Professor, College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies and Director of the Ed.D. program in Curriculum & Instruction: Instructional Leadership. He has served FIU as the Director of the University's self-study for its initial accreditation, Chair of the Faculty Senate for 4 years, founder of FIU’s Institute of Jewish Studies and as a member of more than 20 University committees and task forces. Currently he serves on the Athletic Council. He served the College of Education as Associate Dean, Department Chair and Founder of the Taiwan Doctoral Program. Professor Fain’s scholarly and academic interests are grounded in curriculum theory and history. Among his publications are two co-edited texts, five chapters in books and articles in professional journals. He is a contributing editor to World Book Encyclopedia. His latest co-edited book, Schooling in Public Spaces: The Cultural Politics of Space will be published in the fall of 2003. He is currently working on a book responding the Four Freedoms espoused by FDR in the wake of 9/11. He has been invited to present lectures and papers across the United States, Canada and South America. Additionally, he has taught and lectured in , Brazil, Israel, Peru, Taiwan and Uruguay. Professor Fain is a past president of the American Association for Teaching and Curriculum. He holds a B.S. from Rutgers University, an Ed.D. from Teachers College, Columbia University and he has successfully completed the Introductory Race Car Driving Course offered by the Skip Barber Racing School.

H. Scott Fingerhut, J.D.(Emory University)
Assistant Director, Trial Advocacy Program, FIU College of Law. Scott Fingerhut earned his Bachelor’s Degree in American Government and Music from the University of Virginia and his law degree at Emory. After serving proudly as a Miami-Dade prosecutor, Scott entered private practice, concentrating in trial and appellate criminal defense. Past President of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Miami Chapter and Immediate Past Chair of The Florida Bar Criminal Procedure Rules Committee, Scott currently sits on the Executive Council of The Bar’s Criminal Law Section and is a member of the Florida Bar Journal and News Editorial Board as well as The Bar’s Standing Committee on Continuing Legal Education. Scott also serves on the Board of Directors of Friends of the Miami-Dade Drug Court and chairs – now for the third straight year – the Dade County Bar Association’s Criminal Court Committee. In addition to the practice of law, Scott has taught full time since 2000, first holding an appointment with FIU’s School of Policy and Management teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in criminal justice. He is now Assistant Director of FIU Law’s Trial Advocacy Program, teaching Trial and Pretrial Litigation and Advocacy, Criminal Procedure, Advanced Criminal Procedure, Florida Criminal Law and Procedure, and the Criminal Law Clinic. A frequent lecturer and author on liberty and justice issues, Scott is consistently named among the region’s top criminal defense lawyers – including, most recently, by Best Lawyers in America. Among his many honors, however, remaining most dear to his heart are his students, who have voted him Professor of the Year for the past two years, back-to-back.

Stephen M. Fjellman, Ph.D.(Stanford University)
Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Anthropology and Senior Fellow of the Honors College. Dr. Fjellman is a post postmodernist, seeking some understanding in the world without throwing up his hands in random dismay. When pressed, he claims to be an anthropologist. His most important field site is World Disney World. He is a member of the Church of Baseball, the Mickey Mouse Club, and the Fellowship of the Ecology of Mind. He has published in 11 fields and subfields, among them linguistic, mathematical, psychological, and social anthropology, social theory, African Studies, culture studies, science fiction studies, technology studies, American studies, and Disney Studies. Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney World and America is worth reading. Among his works is A Little Baseball Music: Journey to the Heartland, available at this website. He has won all the teaching awards available at the University and his main life interest is in undergraduate education. He is Co-Director of the Honors College Study Abroad Program in Italy.

Rubén Garrote, M.A. (Florida International University)
Instructor, The Honors College. Rubén Garrote is an Honors College alumnus and a graduate of F.I.U.’s Religious Studies Department. He has taught for the department for the past two years, receiving several awards for teaching and academic excellence. Mr. Garrote’s research interests in the history of religion are varied, ranging from early Christian heresies, Grail romances, fin de siècle Western occultism and Afro-Cuban traditions to North European mythology and economic, political and ritual theory; and his current projects include coauthoring histories on Independent Catholicism and the pioneers of entheogenic exploration. He is convinced that there is a real world out there, with objective laws to be discovered, much to the chagrin of his colleagues.

Bernard S. Gerstman, Ph.D.(Princeton University)
Professor of Physics. Dr. Gerstman’s research is in theoretical and computational biophysics and he has been invited to speak about his research at conferences and institutions around the world. He runs two different research groups. One group investigates the non-linear dynamics of entropy versus enthalpy that underlies the ability of proteins to fold to their biologically functional native state. The other group investigates the effects of laser energy on biological tissue with a specific emphasis on the visual system. Prof. Gerstman has served as Chair of the University’s Institutional Review Board that determines if research projects treat their human subjects in an ethical manner. He is currently Chair of the Faculty Research Council. Prof. Gerstman has taught a wide range of physics courses and received numerous teaching awards. He has taught different levels of the Honors College and greatly enjoys the interactions with the students and his fellow instructors.

Devon L. Graham, Ph.D. (University of Miami)
Dr. Graham co-teaches the Everglades and Amazon courses offered through The Honors College. He is also President of Project Amazonas, Inc. (www.projectamazonas.org), a Peruvian-American non-profit that focuses on humanitarian, educational, research and conservation work in the Peruvian Amazon, and which operates four field stations in the Amazon. Dr. Graham's background is in tropical ecology with particular interests in botany, ornithology, fisheries and sustainability - he has been working in the Peruvian Amazon since 1994. In addition to his biological interests, Dr. Graham has been working with the Peruvian Ministry of Health and with the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and Rivers of the World (row.org) to develop boat-based clinic visits to remote Amazon communities which otherwise do not have access to modern health care - a current project is the building of a steel-hull medical ship for the Amazon. At the same time, he is working with local communities in the Amazon to preserve the traditional knowledge and languages of indigenous peoples.

Andrew Grof, M.A., M.L.S. (Fordham University)
Professor Grof has been a University and Social Sciences and Humanities librarian at F.I.U. since 1982 and adjunct professsor in the English Department since 1983. His advanced degrees are in philosophy and library science, and his interests include literature, philosophy and theories of education. He has published in both academic as well as literary journals and fancies himself something of a novelist, no novel of his having seen the publishing light of day just yet.

Caryl Myers Grof, M.S. (Florida International University)
Caryl Grof began her career at FIU in 1981 as Coordinator of Special Programs in Undergraduate Studies (then known as Lower Division Programs). She was responsible for the pre-collegiate Vested Interest Program and the Faculty Scholars Program, the precursor to the Honors Program. Ms. Grof has been associated with the Honors College since its inception as a program in 1990. In 1997, when the Honors Program evolved into the Honors College, Ms. Grof was named Assistant Dean. For several years she has taught in the Freshman Honors course.

Arthur W. Herriott, Ph.D.(College of Wooster)
Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry. Coming to FIU in 1973 when all its classes were taught in two buildings, Dr. Herriott initially taught organic chemistry and environmental science and conducted research in phase transfer catalysis and organophosphorus chemistry. After a few years, he began to focus more on institution-building instead of molecule-building, serving as an Associate Dean for 12 years, as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for 13 years, and as Interim Executive Vice Provost for 2 years. Following a short sabbatical, he has returned to the first love of all faculty – the opportunity to work with students.

Marilyn Hoder-Salmon, Ph.D. (University of New Mexico)
Associate Professor, English. Her scholarly teaching and research interests include U.S. women writers 1860-1930, women and film, women's narratives of war prose, girlhood in prose, and theory of artistic adaptation. Her publications include Kate Chopin's 'The Awakening': Screenplay as Interpretation, and she is currently co-editor of a series of reprint novels by British author Phyllis Bottome. From 1982 to 1999 Dr. Hoder-Salmon was director of the Women Studies Center, and she is the founding chair of the B.A. in Women's Studies and the Film Studies Program. Awards include a Fulbright-Hays award to India, United Nations delegate to the 1995 conference on Women in Beijing, and other honors for projects on behalf of women's issues.

Suman Kakar, Ph.D. (University of Florida)
Associate Professor, Criminal Justice. She has won several FIU awards in the areas of teaching, research, and service. Dr. Kakar has been honored with the Who’s Who: America’s Best Teachers: Who’s Who Among America’s Best Teachers. 2002 – 2005. Dr. Kakar has greatly contributed to research in her field. She has authored numerous articles that examine the role of child abuse and family environment in juvenile delinquency. She has authored several books including Child Abuse and Delinquency, and Criminal Justice Approaches to Domestic Violence. Her research interests focus on family dynamics, juvenile delinquency, minorities, and violence prevention. Additional information may be found at http://www.fiu.edu/~kakars

Scott Kass, MA, MS (Florida State University)
University Librarian and Adjunct Instructor in the English Department. Scott Kass has led a dual career at Florida International University, having spent 30 years as both a research librarian and writing instructor. Twice the recipient of the University’s Excellence in Teaching Award, he has developed and taught advanced research and writing courses to hospitality students at BBC as well as FIU’s programs in Luzern, Switzerland, and Tianjin, China. He served as the Interim Associate Director of Libraries. Before coming to FIU in 1977, he worked in the music publishing industry as a textbook editor, book designer, advertising copywriter, music engraver, and graphic designer.

Peter A. Machonis, Ph.D. (Pennsylvania State University)
Associate Professor, Modern Languages. Author of two books on the history and evolution of the French language, Professor Machonis is currently focusing on the modern history of the French language and the diversity of socio-linguistic situations where French is spoken outside of France. In addition, Machonis has worked extensively on the English lexicon, especially idiomatic expressions, and was featured in the Lexicon-Grammar Workshop in Beijing during l’année de la France en Chine in 2004. His present research involves exhaustive descriptions of English phrasal verbs for Natural Language Processing. Finally, as an expert in Experiential Learning, he edited the National Collegiate Honors Council monograph on innovative applications of City as TextTM learning strategies entitled Shatter the Glassy Stare. As director of the FIU à Angers, France Summer Study Program, Professor Machonis also sends FIU students to the Loire Valley for total French immersion courses and family stays. At FIU, he teaches courses in French phonetics, history of the French language, historical linguistics, and in the Honors College, co-teaches an inter-disciplinary course on the Florida Everglades (visit the course website here: http://everglades.fiu.edu/fiu/idh4007/index.html )..

Pete E.C. Markowitz, Ph.D. (College of William and Mary)
Professor of Physics. Professor Markowitz joined FIU in 1995. He carries out nuclear and particle physics experiments at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in Virginia and the European Center for Nuclear and Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. His research interests focus on the the source of gravity, extra dimensions, black holes, quark structure of nuclei, dark matter, dark energy and the electroproduction of quarks and anti-quarks (or matter and anti-matter). A series of experiments measuring strange quark effects in atomic nuclei are mapping out the behavior of these elusive and unstable particles. The experiments use high energy accelerators to bombard various target materials and then to measure the subsequent particles which are produced. During his time at FIU he has taught Nuclear Physics, Intermediate Classical Mechanics, Modern Physics Laboratory, and the introductory physics sequences, as well as a FIG and the Freshman Experience course.

Brian Peterson, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Brian Peterson has a doctorate in European History from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He has published articles on the politics of working-class women in the Weimar Republic and the regional bases of voting for the National Socialists. He is a designated “Founding Professor of FIU” and began teaching here during the first year of classes in January, 1973. He teaches one of the largest courses at FIU, World Civilizations, with many graduate teaching assistants both in classroom and online formats. Brian also puts out a daily newsletter dealing with educational reform in the public schools, the community colleges and the state universities. Over the years, he has worked with teams of FIU students through the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship Studies to suggest many changes in the local public schools which ended up being implemented, including the community service requirement for high school graduation and having every student read an hour a day.

Mary Lou Pfeiffer, L.L.M., M.A.(St. Thomas University School of Law, Florida International University)
Adjunct Professor, Religious Studies. Mary Lou holds advanced degrees in Intercultural Human Rights Law (LL.M.) and Religious Studies (M.A.), with undergraduate degrees in Biology and Religious Studies. Her courses include First Year Honors at BBC, Second Year Honors, “Breaking Out of Bounded Rationalities,” and two upper level Honors’ classes: online “Seven Deadly Sins,” and Biomedical Ethics. She attended the UN Sub-commission on Human Rights for Indigenous Working Peoples in Geneva for several years and owns an art glass studio. She studied architectural glass in Germany with top European glass artists. Her allied health career as a certified breast biopsy specialist and mammographer spanned twenty years. Her areas of research are human rights law, indigenous sacred sites, earth ethics, biomedical ethics, studies in breast cancer and asbestosis. She has completed a manuscript on the Miami Circle and is involved in two works, a project based on her uncle’s original “V” mail letters from World War II and a novel about her experiences as a Navy pilot’s wife. She sits on the Advisory Board for the College of Arts and Sciences, the Friends of Environmental Studies, and is President of the Women’s Studies Board of Advisors. She is the recipient of the FIU Alumni Torch Award, the Bronze Torch Society and two Outstanding Service awards from the Religious Studies Department. She has two sons: a Miami-Dade County paramedic/firefighter, and a chef in Hawaii and many pets, dogs, cats and birds.

Darden Pyron, Ph.D. (University of Virginia)
Professor, History. Prof. Pyron served as the first chairman of the department from 1971-1977 and has taught here ever since. He is currently one of the most senior faculty members at the institution. He teaches courses in intellectual history, Western Civilization, Greece, the American South, the Civil War, and contemporary or twentieth century American history and culture. He taught in the Honors College for three years and created a course called Creativity and the Human Condition. He has won the University Teaching Award twice and the TIP award twice, and loves teaching. He writes books about American cultural history and the American South, including Recasting "Gone with the Wind" in American Culture and Southern Daughter: The Life of Margaret Mitchell. He most recently published a biography of the performer Liberace, called Liberace: An American Boy. The two biographies were very widely reviewed in the popular press. The former has been translated into Czech and German and was also a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. He will be working on another biographical project, an edition of the memoirs of the Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman, to be called General Sherman's War of the Rebellion. For hobbies, Prof. Pyron bikes, lift weights, and gardens, raising orchids and other tropical plants. He has biked to work regularly for over 22 years and spends the summers in North Carolina at a little cabin on a creek that has been a retreat for 25 years.

James R. Riach, Ph.D.(University of Georgia)
Adjunct Instructor, Environmental Studies and Medical Anthropology lecturer at the Colleges of Medical Sciences and Pharmacy at NOVA Southeastern University. Dr. Riach’s research and teaching interests include the interconnections between ecosystem health and human well-being, with a focus on the Amazon and South Florida regions. In 1994 he arranged and translated a cultural exchange between members of the Cayapas, an Ecuadorian rainforest culture group, and the Miccosukee of South Florida. Curious about the varied traditional beliefs different cultures have regarding the nature of the universe and human’s role in it, he does not restrict himself to just one interpretation of reality or to just one disciplinary approach to studying it. His work combines multiple theories and methodologies from anthropology, epidemiology, medicine, ecology, and geography. He has worked on health and environmental projects among indigenous rainforest cultures including the Cayapas and the Siona-Secoya of Ecuador and the Aguaruna and Yagua of Peru. As a member of Project Amazonas, Inc., a humanitarian and environmental research and education non-profit organization, he has helped develop integrated strategies to address health, conservation, and development needs in the Peruvian Amazon. He has an interest in incorporating field-based educational programs, communications technologies, and distance learning to assist in such efforts.

William Ritzi, M.S ( Florida International University)
Instructor, Art Education. William Ritzi has been a faculty member in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at FIU for the past 18 years. He spends fall and spring enthusiastically teaching and painting, while his summers are spent painting on the outer banks of Cape Cod, MA. He is a third generation Floridian and a summer resident of Provincetown, MA. Mr. Ritzi is a graduate of Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University, where he studied painting, printmaking and art pedagogy. The focus of his teaching at FIU is curriculum and pedagogical practices in visual art, relating to child and adolescent development. He has received awards for teaching including T.I.P., Excellence in Teaching and Merit Awards. His artistic passion and creative research lies in the mediums of painting and printmaking. His oil paintings of vivid seascapes, coastal scenes and still lifes have been influenced by a fortunate life spent along the Atlantic shores of both Florida and Cape Cod. Mr. Ritzi has exhibited his works at the Ormond Memorial Museum in Central FL and the Provincetown Art Museum in MA, and has been a guest artist at Walt Disney’s EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival: Art in the Garden. He has also juried or judged many art exhibitions throughout Florida and the Northeast. His paintings are in private and public collections and have been included in numerous shows in Florida and Cape Cod. He is currently represented by Coconut Grove Gallery in Miami, FL, Jacob/Fanning Gallery in Wellfleet, MA and by Hughes Gallery in Boca Grande, FL.

Bennett Schwartz, Ph.D. (Dartmouth College)
Professor, Psychology. Dr. Schwartz conducts research on human memory, with an emphasis on metamemory-- that is, the processes that allow us to monitor and control our own memory abilities. He also focuses on the interaction between memory and consciousness. Dr. Schwartz conducts research on memory in non-human primates that has focused on whether or not great apes, such as gorillas, can remember specific events from their lives. He has written, co-written, and edited three books, and has published widely in Experimental Psychology journals. He won a TIP award for teaching excellence way back in 1997.

M.O. Thirunarayanan, Ph.D. (Arizona State University)
Associate Professor, Learning Technologies, Curriculum and Instruction. In addition to his administrative responsibilities, he currently also teaches learning technologies courses at the doctoral level and advises doctoral students. His current interests include researching the integration of technologies in educational settings to facilitate teaching and learning, the impact of technologies on education, and various other issues related to education. Recent publications include Technology and Degree Inflation and From Thinkers to Clickers: The World Wide Web and the Transformation of the Essence of Being Human, both in Ubiquity.

John Tsalikis, Ph.D.(University of Mississippi)
Associate Professor, Business/Marketing. John Tsalikis specializes in Marketing Research and has developed the e-course in Marketing Management. He has performed extensive corporate teaching including for Motorola and Cordis. He has also taught in Bolivia, Mexico, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and England. John has twenty-one refereed journal publications and was the first to use conjoint analysis in ethical research. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Business Ethics. In 2002 he received an award for Outstanding Senior Faculty Researcher. He has developed his own outdoor advertising business and performed several market research projects for the Bank of Mississippi, the Miami Youth Fair & Exposition, the Miami Film Festival, and SAMY cosmetics among others. John was a member of the Greek national basketball team.