Faculty at Becker

Faculty excellence is at the core of the Becker College academic experience. Becker College professors care deeply about the success of each student and are committed to providing one-on-one attention and support. Full-time and adjunct professors bring extensive academic, career, and life experience to the classroom. Their focus is on helping students excel, both inside the classroom and beyond.  Above all, they strive to bring out the highest potential of each student.

Faculty Excellence in Action

Becker faculty form innovative cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaborative Center for Integrated Teaching in Higher Education (CITHE).

Kerri Augusto, Ph.D, professor of education and psychology, Susan Nava-Whitehead, Ph.D, assistant professor of science and education, along with Joan-Beth Gow, PhD, assistant professor of biology at Anna Maria College, publish “Bewitching Ideas Influence Learning: An Evaluation of an Interdisciplinary Teaching Experience” in the July/August 2011 Journal of College Science Teaching.  (vol. 40, No. 6, pp. 65 – 69)

This article describes the interdisciplinary case-study teaching approach which the professors used in combining biology, psychology, and American history courses which focused on the case study, “Salem’s Secrets,” (Nava-Whitehead and Gow 2008).

Dawn M. Ward, Ph.D., professor of graphic design and visual arts, edited and introduced Jack Kerouac’s lost novel, The Sea is my Brother, published for the first time, by England’s Penguin Classics, in November 2011.
Dr. Dawn Ward received her bachelor of arts in journalism from Northeastern State University in 1985 and her graduate degrees—a master’s in studio art and a Ph.D. in art education—from New York University. She taught at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, Northeastern State University in Oklahoma, and Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire before coming to Becker College in 2007 as an associate professor of graphic design and visual art. » Read more

The Sea is My Brother in the news:
The Guardian– November 2011
Metro – November 2011
Huffington Post– November 2011

Vladimir Pistalo, Ph.D., associate professor of liberal arts, garners international acclaim for his best-selling novels. Vladimir Pistalo, Ph.D., associate professor of liberal arts, has authored 10 books and numerous stories. His most recent novel, Venice, was published in 2011 and is a bestseller in his native country of Serbia. In December 2011, Venice was on the shortlist of novels in the running for the NIN Literary Award for best novel of 2011.
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Margaret Delano, D.V.M., associate professor of veterinary science, has presented at many conferences, including the 2012 Massachusetts 4-H Rabbit Workshop and the 2010 American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado.

Dr. Delano’s 2010 panel presentation “Successes and Challenges in Developing Higher Education Programs for Laboratory Animal Science” highlighted Becker’s programs along with those from Front Range Community College and Drexel University. Focusing on “the trend toward increasing levels of biosecurity and introduction of sophisticated new technology, as well as increased demand for staff,” the presentation provided the opportunity for attendees to gain insight from experienced educators.
Dr. Delano has served on the AALAS Educational Resources Committee since 2008 and is the current chair of that committee.
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Professor Kevin Woods, chair of the Criminal Justice and Legal Studies Department, and a retired police officer, was honored with the Massachusetts Coalition of Police (MASS C.O.P.) President’s Award in 2011, for his more than 32 years of service with the Millbury, Mass. Police Department.
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Sharon DiPasquale, instructor of nursing, was a member of the inaugural class of the Faculty Institute for Gerontological Nursing, established by the Massachusetts Senior Care Foundation in collaboration with the University of Massachusetts Lowell Department of Nursing.  DiPasquale, was one of ten nursing faculty members selected to participate in this initiative to expand the state’s capacity to educate more nurses to provide quality care in long term care facilities.
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James Belpedio, D.A., professor of history and government, is a frequent contributor to historical, film, and popular culture encyclopedias and presents his work at conferences across the country.
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Linda Denault, Ed.D. professor of education and interim assessment coordinator, contributed two chapters to Creative Solutions to Contemporary Challenges in Small and Rural Schools Across America, published in 2010, with Dr. Nicholas Young and Dr. Christine Michael as editors.
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Calin Galeriu, Ph.D., adjunct professor of science and mathematics, published the article, “Magnetostatics Analysis, Design and Construction of a Loudspeaker,” in the journal,  The Physics Teacher, 48, 537 – 540 (November 2010).

Dr. Galeriu was recognized in 2009 as an “Unsung Hero” by the financial services company, ING, for his Nintendo in the Classroom project that uses handheld game consoles for mathematical computations, graphing applications, and computer programming. Dr. Galeriu also teaches math at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School.
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Anna Titova, Ph.D. has been appointed the chair of the Mathematics Department. Educated in St. Petersburg, Russia, and at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), where she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees, Anna Titova specializes in undergraduate teaching and learning of mathematics.
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Janardan Kumar, Ph.D. has been appointed the chair of the Science Department. Dr. Kumar is also a professor of microbiology who has published research in several scientific journals. He has succeeded in making insulin-producing cells, using adult human skin fibroblasts, an important discovery in the fight against diabetes.

Maria Calkins, Ph.D. has been appointed associate professor of psychology.

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Adriano Marzullo, Ph.D., assistant professor of mathematics completed the dissertation, “On the Periodicity of the First Betti Number of the Semigroup Ring Under Translations,” Pure Mathematics, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri  in 2010.
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Sheila McAvey, Ph.D., professor of English earned certification for grading the GRE argument task portion of the test’s analytical writing section.
Dr. McAvey published, “Sensational Behavior:  Masculinity and Female Desire in Charles Lever’s Sir Brooke Fossbrooke (1866)” at The American Conference for Irish Studies National Meeting, at State College, Pa. in 2010.
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Scott Niemi, MFA, assistant professor of design, was one of 60 artists chosen to create artwork for the new UMass Ambulatory Care Center which had its ribbon cutting in September 2011. Niemi has six paintings permanently displayed there. Two were specifically commissioned and the rest were purchased from the Collins Artworks gallery. He is also currently working on a commissioned painting for the North Shore Children’s Hospital in Boston.
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Paul D. Cotnoir, Ph.D., accepted an invitation to serve as a judge for the 2012 Nation STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Video Game Challenge.
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Sarah Mosier, director of the First Year Experience, will present, “First Year Course Assistants: Successful Mentoring Model for First Year Student Success,” at the 32^nd Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience in February 2012.

Susan Franz, adjunct instructor of design, was selected to present at the Boston Accessibility Unconference on the topic, “Motion Graphics and Cognitive Science: Communicating Successfully in a Rich Media World” in September 2011.

The IT accessibility unconference brings developers, usability professionals, web designers, other IT professionals, and end-users with disabilities together in an informal, non-threatening environment to learn from each other and to promote universal design of and accessibility to IT.
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