New Faculty 2014-15
David Arndt
David Arndt has a B.A. from Yale and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from U.C. Irvine. He has taught literature and philosophy at universities in Pennsylvania, Turkey and California, and now leads seminars for the Collegiate Seminar program.
Kristen Beck
Kristen Beck joins us from the University of Arizona, where she held a three-year teaching postdoctoral fellowship. She earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Texas at Arlington, and she specializes in homological properties of commutative rings. This fall, Kristen teaches Differential Calculus and The Art & Practice of Mathematics.
Andrew Conner
Andy Conner is an assistant professor in math and computer science specializing in various aspects of algebra. He happily arrived at Saint Mary's following a postdoctoral fellowship at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., and he did his graduate work at the University of Oregon. Andy teaches Math Readiness and Number Theory.
Chi-An Emhoff
Chi-An Emhoff comes from UC Berkeley to join the Kinesiology Department. Her areas of specialty include exercise physiology, health promotion and nutrition, with research focus in carbohydrate metabolism and endurance training. She teaches Introduction to Kinesiology, and Health & Fitness Education.
Katherine Field
Katherine Field taught English composition and English literature at Holy Names College and Contra Costa College prior to coming to Saint Mary's to teach in the Composition Department. In addition to teaching English, she writes books for young adults.
Cynthia Gordon da Cruz
Cynthia Gordon da Cruz is an adjunct assistant professor in the Justice, Community and Leadership Department. She earned her doctorate in Education Policy, Leadership, and Instructional Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research examines community-engaged scholarship in higher education institutions.
Emily Klein
Before arriving at Saint Mary's, Bay Area native Emily Klein was assistant professor of English at Birmingham-Southern College in Alabama. Here in the English Department, she teaches courses on modern drama and performance, film, women's and gender studies and composition. Her new book, Sex and War on the American Stage: Lysistrata in Performance 1930-2012 was published by Routledge this spring.
Alex LaGatta
Alexandra LaGatta teaches geology and environmental science in the Earth and Environmental Science Department. She received her doctorate from Columbia University, where she studied the chemistry of Mexican volcanoes, the process of mantle melting and the recycling of material through plate tectonics.
Daniel Larlham
Daniel Larlham, assistant professor in theater, is a performance-maker and scholar with a Ph.D. from Columbia University and an M.F.A. from New York University’s graduate acting program. He taught for five years at Yale University's Theater Studies Program. In his first year, Daniel will teach acting, comedy, voice and Collegiate Seminar, and will direct Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Person of Setzuan this spring.
Marlene Mahony
Marlene Mahony has been teaching rhetoric, writing, literature and English as a Second Language since 1998. She received her M.F.A. in creative nonfiction from University of San Francisco, and both her M.A. in British literature and her TESOL certificate from San Diego State University, where she taught in the Rhetoric and Writing Department full time for six years. She earned her B.A. in English literature from University of San Diego. She has been in USF’s Rhetoric and Language Department since 2005 and now teaches Honors English at Saint Mary’s, where she focuses on rhetoric and social justice.
Andrew Mount
Originally from Liverpool, England, Andrew Mount comes to Saint Mary's from New York City, where he has lived since 1997. Andrew is an artist and scholar who teaches in the Art & Art History department. His was trained as a painter, and continues this practice along with creative research in photography, installation and printmaking. Andrew earned his doctorate (Ed.D.) from Columbia University, where he focused upon Participatory Art Practice. This fall he is teaching advanced drawing, advanced painting, studio foundations and gallery exhibitions.
Natasha Munshi
Prior to joining the Management department in the School of Economics and Business Administration, Natasha Munshi was an associate professor at Wright State University in Ohio. She researches on topics related to Strategic and Social Innovation and will teach Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation to EMBA students this fall.
Maria Pascuzzi
Maria Pascuzzi is a Biblical Scholar who specializes in the letters of Saint Paul. She has taught in graduate schools and was a tenured associate professor in the Theology and Religious Studies Department at the University of San Diego. At Saint Mary’s, Maria is teaching Introduction to the Bible and Its Interpretation as well as Jesus and His Teachings courses.
Jim Pesavento
Jim Pesavento joins us from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Michael Botchan's laboratory working on DNA replication. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in Biophysics and Computational Biology, focusing on mass spectrometric analysis of proteins and their post-translational modifications. Prior to joining the Biology Department as and Adjunct Professor, he taught at Saint Mary's as a lecturer for two years. He is currently coordinating the Biology 1 laboratory sections, teaching Biology 1 lecture and a lab section, and teaching both the lecture and lab components of an upper division molecular biology class (Biology 137).
Terence Pitre
Terence Pitre was formerly an Associate Professor and Deloitte Faculty Fellow of Accounting at the University of St. Thomas-MN. Terence is now a member of the Accounting Department in SEBA, and he will be teaching Introduction to Financial Accounting (Accounting 1) for undergraduates as well as Managerial Accounting (GMAN 506) in the Executive MBA program.
Kirsten Schwartz
Kirsten Schwartz has been teaching writing and argumentation part-time at UC Berkeley and other local colleges for 20 years, first as a graduate student in Berkeley's Rhetoric Department, then later as lecturer and instructor. She is an adjunct professor in the School of Economics and Business Administration. Kirsten’s mission is to help business majors and MBA students learn to make arguments in the business world, both written and spoken; she is teaching two undergraduate and one graduate course this fall.
Selby Wynn Schwartz
Selby Wynn Schwartz joins us from Columbia University, where she taught as a lecturer and co-director of new pilot programs in Writing & Gender Studies and Writing & Human Rights. Last year, she was also a Visiting Scholar in Performance Studies at NYU. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in Comparative Literature and focuses on dance, gender, and social justice. This year, she is teaching Collegiate Seminar and a Jan Term course on Public Art.
Matthew Swanson
Matthew Swanson, M.A. is in his first year as Director of Forensics for the Macken Debate and Speech team and Adjunct Professor of Communication for Saint Mary's College. He received his degree in Communication Studies from San Diego State University and focuses his research in Civil Communication.
Kathleen Tierney
For the past three years Kathleen M. Tierney, Ph.D. has been a post-doctoral teaching fellow at Stanford University, teaching seminar courses in the Introduction to Humanities and Thinking Matters Programs. Kathleen received her doctoral degree in religious studies at Stanford with a focus on modern western religious thought and comparative religious ethics. She joins the Saint Mary's College community as a Visiting Faculty in Liberal Arts, teaching in the Collegiate Seminar Program.
Mary Vradelis
Mary Vradelis draws on 20 plus years of experience as an executive director and board member of several Bay Area nonprofits. In addition to her position as adjunct associate professor in SEBA, she is a consultant and coach with Sequoia Consulting, which focuses on management and leadership coaching for individuals, executives, board members and key management staff. She has a B.F.A. in theatre, a M.A. in therapy, and an Executive MBA from St. Mary's (2008).
Joe Zeccardi
Joe Zeccardi joined SMC as a lecturer for the Collegiate Seminar Program in 2008 before taking his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University at Buffalo. His research interests resemble a Venn diagram of aesthetics, virtue theory, and writing in the disciplines. In addition to his continuing work for the Seminar Program, he facilitates Writing Circles for the Center for Writing Across the Curriculum and serves as the Writing Specialist for CWAC and Seminar.
Deanna Zibello
Deanna L. Zibello joins the Department of Performing Arts as its first tenure-track professor in Technical Theatre and Design. Deanna spent the last three years teaching at Gonzaga University. She holds an M.F.A. from the University of Washington, and is also an award-winning scenic designer.