12 New Faculty Members join Hood Professors this year

by Maya Douglas

Hood College will welcome 12 new professors onboard for the 2017-2018 school year, according to a message from the Provost.
The additions will include six visiting assistant professors, including Dr. Carol Jim who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hood College. Jim will be returning to teach in the computer science department.

Visiting professors will also include Dr. Robert Casas Roigé in the Foreign Language department, Dr. Nora El-Bilawi and Daniel Shea in the Education department, Dr. David Hixson in the Art and Archeology department, Dr. Molly Moreland in the Psychology department and Dr. Margaret Oshai in the Nursing department.
Also joining the team will be five assistant professors in the subjects of counseling (Dr. Stephanie Dailey), social work (Dr. Michelle Gricus), accounting (Dr. James Hua), cognitive psychology (Dr. Molly Moreland) and mathematics (Dr. Van Nguyen).
Dr. David Steinberg will be joining as an associate professor of organizational leadership.
The academic affairs staff also brought on new additions for the school year. In the Center of Academic Achievement and Retention, Lisa Copenhaver is now the Director of Student Success and Kristel Ehrhardt has been hired as a math skills and tutoring coordinator.
Dr. Lisa Littlefield is the director of the Center for Career Development and Experimental Education, and Tanya Williams is the now the assistant director of assessment.
Three faculty members received tenure this August. Professors David Gurzick of the Business department, Elizabeth MacDougall in the Psychology department and Katherine Orloff or the Communications department earned a tenure that became effective on the first of August.
Faculty members receiving promotions include professors Kristy Calo as associate professor of education, Heather Mitchell-Buck as associate professor of English, Dianne Graves as associate professor of psychology and Tricia Strickland as associate professor of education.
A number of staff will be taking sabbaticals this this year including associate professor of journalism Liz Atwood, who will be using the spring semester to finish a novel.
Other professors taking sabbaticals include Liza Algazi Marcus, Eric Annis, Elizabeth Knapp, Ellen Koitz, Xinlian Liu, Lynda Sowbel, and Stephen Wilson.
In addition to faculty changes, the Maryland Higher Education Commission has approved Hood to offer as Master of Science in Cybersecurity, according to a press release for the Hood Marketing department.
The program will serve as a sub-discipline of computer science and information technology and is a 30 credit program.
“Students will learn about computer forensics, defending networks and firewalls, and configuring and deploying new systems,” said George Dimitoglou, associate professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science and Information Technology at Hood.