New faculty welcomed
This is a list of new faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences, with the exception of the mathematics, philosophy, and religious studies departments. Those and the other four colleges will be highlighted in subsequent issues of this newsletter.
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Biological Sciences
Paul W. Barnes is the Rev. John H. Mullahy, S.J., Chair in Environmental Biology, a plant physiological ecologist who studies plant responses to the environment and the ecological consequences of global environmental change. He is a graduate of Augustana College and the University of Nebraska.
Julie Gauthier, a full-time visiting assistant professor, received her Ph.D. in 1998 in comparative immunology from the University of Maryland Center of Marine Biotechnology. She was awarded a postdoctoral fellow at Johns Hopkins where she studied iron metabolism in the malaria parasite.Her research focus has been on host-parasite interaction mechanisms in marine bivalve mollusks. Gauthier will teach core lecture and labs in the fall.
J. Michael Guill, a full-time assistant professor, earned his B.A. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia, a M.S. from Tulane, and a Ph.D. from Tulane. His research emphasis has been on population ecology of freshwater fish species. Guill will spearhead the revision of the common curriculum biology courses and teach in the major's core and elective curricula.
Communications
Amy Boyle, a part-time instructor, teaches writing for public relations. With nearly a decade of experience as a marketing communications specialist, Boyle serves as director of client services at Logan Marketing and Communications. Boyle has a B.A. in communications from Loyola University and a M.A. in communications from Louisiana State University.
Duane Prefume, a part-time instructor, will teach production theory and practice lecture and lab. Duane graduated from Loyola with a B.A. in communications. A multiple Emmy winner, he spent most of the past decade shooting, editing, and directing several award-winning projects for WWL-TV and more recently his own company,Digital Bayou HD Productions, a local video service to specialize in high-definition production.
David Weber, a part-time instructor, will teach production
theory and practice lecture and lab. He attended Loyola and studied communications
and broadcast production. He worked nearly eight years at WWL-TV as senior
writer/producer in the station's promotions department. He and Duane
Prefume owned Digital Bayou HD Productions.
Drama and Speech
Anne James, a full-time assistant professor of theatre, brings more than 15 years of experience as a professional actor in New York and Los Angeles. She received her M.F.A. in Drama from the University of California, Irvine and her B.A. in acting from California State University, Fullerton. James' career has spanned all mediums: theatre, television, film, commercials, and print. She is also the founder of Integrated Artistry, which prepares actors for auditions and interviews, as well as professionals and with dialect reduction, speech preparation and media coaching.
Education and Counseling
Latoya Anderson Pierce, part-time instructor, will teach two graduate counseling courses. She received both a B.A. in psychology and a M.S. in counseling from Loyola. She is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in counselor education at UNO.
Walter Breaux, III, part-time instructor, will teach a graduate counseling course. He received a B.S. in psychology and a M.A. in mental health counseling from Xavier University. He is currently enrolled in the Ph.D. program in counselor education at UNO.
Lori Despaux, part-time instructor, will teach two undergraduate courses in reading/language arts. She received a M.S. in reading from Loyola and served as a graduate assistant for technology in the Department of Education and Counseling while pursuing her master's degree. She received the award for Outstanding Graduate in Reading for 2003-04.
English
Mark Lane, a full-time instructor, received his B.A. from Tulane University and his M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Montana. He teaches creative and expository writing and literature.
John T. Sebastian, a full-time assistant professor, received an B.A. and M.A. from Georgetown University and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. Sabastian was awarded the Stephen and Margery Russell Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2003 by the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell. He was also an inaugural Mellon Graduate Fellow at Cornell's Society for the Humanities. John teaches the literary traditions of the Middle Ages in a variety of languages from Latin to Old-Norse Icelandic, but focuses primarily on the literatures of medieval Britain.
History
Sara Butler, a full-time assistant professor, has a Ph.D. from the Dalhousie University in Canada She recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Honors Program
Lynn Koplitz is the director of the University Honors Program. She teaches freshman-level general chemistry and upper-level analytical courses. After earning her Ph.D. at Princeton, she taught and did research at Pomona College and UCLA.
