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| Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil is an Assistant Professor of English and serves as director of the Inquiry and Expression program. She earned her B.A. from Hope College and her M.Ed. from Aquinas College. Her doctoral studies at Western Michigan University involved a critical examination of the history, rhetorical force, and application of the term "best practice." One of her main research interests is the teaching of writing, and she has explored concepts such as peer review, audience, teacher development and technology within this context. Her scholarly work has appeared in Language Arts Journal of Michigan, Teaching Literature in Virtual Worlds: Immersive Learning in English Studies (Routledge 2011), and The Doctoral Degree in English Education (Kennesaw 2009). Gretchen is married and keeps busy with four daughters: Nola (7), Marcelle (4), Andra and DeeDee (twin babies). |
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| Pamela Dail Whiting has served as the Interim Director of the Inquiry and Expression program. She also teaches Humanities, writing, and literature courses for pre-service English teachers, and writing courses for continuing education students. She began teaching at Aquinas in 1989 and taught cross-listed English and Education courses as well as Creative Writing at the Emeritus Center. Before teaching at Aquinas, she taught as an adjunct for Michigan State University and Grand Valley State University and as a high school English teacher in Michigan and Massachusetts. Her areas of interests include writing and English courses for prospective teachers. As College Chair for Michigan Council of Teachers of English, she is actively involved in professional development programs for English teachers. Her writing has been published in the Language Arts Journal of Michigan, and she edited the children's literature textbook, An Invitation: Children's Literature published 2001. |
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| Steve Beauclair earned a B.A. in philosophy at Marquette University and holds Master's degrees in Spanish, international management, and education. He has conducted action research on journal writing in the ESL high school classroom. In addition to twelve years teaching at the secondary level, Beauclair has taught at the University of Toledo, Ohio, and at the Inter-American University in Ponce, Puerto Rico. In 2009, he completed doctoral studies in Anglophone literature of the Caribbean at the University of Puerto Rico. |
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| Dr. Brooks is currently Director of the Humanities Program and Professor of English at Aquinas College. In addition to Humanities, he has taught in the freshman year Inquiry and Expression program and a variety of English courses, including 20th century British, Irish, and American literature, the Grammar of Modern English, and several introductory survey and genre courses. Brooks earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Binghamton University (N.Y.) in 1988 and joined the faculty at Aquinas in 1989. His most recent publications are concerned with globalizing the study of culture. He is also the faculty advisor for The Saint. |
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| Dr. Chesley earned his Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. He joined the faculty of Aquinas College in 1987. Dr. Chesley teaches 17th- and 18th-Century British Literature, Creative Nonfiction, and Business Writing. He is known around campus for his belief that Pride and Prejudice is the best novel ever written in English. He also has a special interest in helping students to prepare their creative nonfiction for publication. When he is not busy writing his own creative nonfiction, Dr. Chesley follows the fortunes of his favorite automotive racing team, Ferrari. |
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| As a member of the English Department, Dr. Coogan teaches courses in her specialty areas of medieval literature and women's writing, as well as courses in fiction and composition. Her primary research interests are the Paston letters and Chaucer. A lover of travel, Dr. Coogan has studied in England and Austria and has enjoyed a semester as faculty director of the Ireland Program. Before coming to Michigan in 1989, she lived and studied in upstate New York. She has taught at Grand Valley State University and joined the Aquinas faculty in 1991. |
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| Jennifer Dawson, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, earned her B.A. in English from the University of Michigan, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Michigan State University with an emphasis on Early American Literature and Victorian Studies. She taught at Michigan State University and Grand Valley State University before joining Aquinas College's faculty in 2001. While her main area of scholarly interest is American Literature and culture before 1900, her academic passions include studying women writers, conduct manuals, periodical literature, captivity narratives, letter writing and all aspects of cultural history. In 2008 and 2011, she applied her background in Irish Literature and History to co-directing the AQ Ireland program. Over the years, she has been active in Student Affairs: co-chairing the President's Academic Integrity Committee in 2007 and helping with the Common Reading Program which she began chairing in 2010. Being appointed Associate Dean of Student Affairs in 2011 formalized this commitment to fostering student development and promoting academic integrity. Currently, Dawson balances her schedule between teaching and working in the Dean of Students Office. Off campus, she is an avid reader, an ardent organic gardener, and a busy mother of two very active children who share her dream of returning to Ireland. |
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| Michelle Derose joined the English department full-time in August 1999 to use her specialty in post-colonial literature and theory to teach the world and African-American literature courses. She is also the director of the Insignis Program for Honors students, advisor for the Novel Experience, and an active poet. Her publications include both original poetry and scholarly work on poetry. She earned her Ph.D. with a focus Caribbean epic poetry from the University of Iowa in 1996, where she learned to imagine ocean waves in the undulations of the cornfields and to love bicycling along those cornfields. Besides teaching, writing, and bicycling, Michelle loves any outdoor activity that requires neither motor nor ball and spends most of her free time hiking, canoeing, backpacking, or cross-country skiing with her husband, Myron, son Parker and their two dogs and a cat. |
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| Gary Eberle, professor of English and member of the English department, is the author of several books, including The Geography of Nowhere: Finding One's Self in the Postmodern World (Sheed & Ward, 1994); Angel Strings, a novel (Coffee House, 1995); A City Full of Rain, short stories (Xlibris, 2001), and Sacred Time and the Search for Meaning (Shambhala, 2003). His newest book is Dangerous Words: Talking About God in the Age of Fundamentalism (Boston: Shambhala/Trumpter, 2007). Eberle has twice been selected by the Student Senate as Outstanding faculty member of the year, and in 1994 he received an award from the Aquinas College faculty for outstanding scholarship. He developed the Insignis Program for Honors Students in 1985 and directed it for 12 years. His journalism and fiction have won awards locally and nationally, and his novel Angel Strings was named a “best book” by the New York Public Library in 1997. Active professionally, he has been president of the Mid-East Honors Association, the Michigan Honors Association, and is currently an officer of the Michigan Association of Departments of English. A more extensive biography and critical notes may be found in the on-line version of Contemporary Authors. |
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| Kristin Graef, M.A., is an adjunct assistant professor at Aquinas, and has taught I & E and Humanities since 2004. She earned her M.A. at Ball State University in Indiana, and her B.A. at Wittenberg University in Ohio. Her interests include Romantic and Victorian literature, and art and music history. Kristin has enjoyed lifetime European travel, and hopes to return one day with her two sons, Eliot and Jay. Her poetry has been published in The Wittenberg Review, America Sings, and Wordriver, and has won national poetry contests. |
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Michael Miller attended Western Michigan University and received his B.A. in Creative Writing with a double major in Medieval Studies. He attended the University of Southern California where he earned his Masters of Professional Writing. After USC he worked in Los Angeles and New York for the Entertainment Industry as a Development Assistant and Writing Collaborator and also as the director of operations for a Business Management CPA firm. Michael has taught as an adjunct at Aquinas since the spring semester of 2010 and also teaches at Grand Rapids Community College and Davenport University. When he isn’t teaching he is an avid writer having published poetry, short fiction, and essays with numerous one-act play productions, awards, and several screenplays optioned for production consideration to his credit. |
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| Lynnea Page-Jenkins attended Western Michigan University and received her B.A. in Creative Writing with a double major in Women's Studies. She also received her M.F.A., with an emphasis in poetry, from WMU. While at Western she worked for New Issues Poetry and Prose as an assistant editor. She volunteered for Third Coast Magazine as a poetry editor for two semesters and taught English as an adjunct for three semesters. Lynnea has been teaching adjunct at Aquinas two years, this will be her third fall. She has also been teaching at Grand Rapids Community College for going on two years. Lynnea has a four-year-old daughter and loves to run. |
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| Brian Parsons has been with Aquinas College since the Fall of 2009. In addition to teaching I&E he is the writing specialist for Student Support Services, located in the lower level of the Wege Center. He earned a B.A from DePauw University and completed his M.Ed from the University of Cincinnati with a focus in Secondary Education. Prior to joining Aquinas, Brian spent five years teaching high school English in Cincinnati, Ohio. When not at Aquinas, Brian and his wife try to keep up with their three-year-old daughter and three-month-old son. |
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| Molly Patterson joined the Aquinas faculty in fall of 2005. She completed her graduate work in political science at the University of California, Irvine. Her political science interests include participatory forms of democracy, citizen education and development, and issues of power and social justice. |
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| Beth Shelley teaches I & E at Aquinas. She earned her Bachelor's degree in English from Albion College, where Shakespeare became a passion. After a few years in Washington State and South Korea, she returned to Michigan and earned her Master's degree in English from Grand Valley State University. |
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| Dr. Wickering is a cultural anthropologist. Her research among Bedouin women in the Sinai desert of Egypt led to her interests in gender, indigenous peoples, oral culture and tourism. Dr. Wickering joined the faculty of Aquinas College in 1999 and joined the Sociology department in 2005. Along with cultural anthropology, Dr. Wickering teaches writing and courses in Women's Studies. |
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Mariette Van Garderen, M.Ed.
E-mail: mjv002@aquinas.edu |
| Mariette Van Garderen began working at Aquinas as a writing center tutor in 2009. She earned a B.A. from Calvin College where she studied Art Education and Spanish. Having an interest in technology and learning, she graduated from Grand Valley State University with an M.Ed in General Education including an emphasis in Educational Technology. Mariette has over eight years of experience working as a technology professional in K-12 schools. Her most recent experience includes several years of combined experience teaching adult learners in ESL, General Education and Visual Communications. Her interests and hobbies include biking, gardening, graphic design, photography, writing and Spanish. |
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| Bradford Winkler has been at Aquinas since 1979. He is a graduate of Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1996. He also holds degrees from Bowling Green State University and Michigan State University in student affairs administration. He served in student affairs positions at Aquinas as Director of Residence Life from 1979-87, Associate Dean of Students from 1987-90, and Dean of Students from 1990-2008. Since 2008, Brad moved full-time to the faculty as Associate Professor In-the-College. He is a licensed attorney in the Michigan and federal courts. He teaches a variety of law classes in Political Science, Business Administration, Graduate Management, Education, and Health, Physical Education, and Recreation. He also teaches a section of I&E and coordinates the Moot Court class in which students compete against other undergraduate students in appellate argument. He serves as an advisor to students preparing for legal careers and serves as advisor to the Pre-Law Club. |
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