Full Time Faculty
Adjunct Faculty | Department StaffLet us introduce ourselves; we're the full-time faculty with whom you'll be studying and learning. Our very brief biographies are summarized below. Please stop in to see us personally; most of our offices are in Morrison Hall.
To contact any faculty member via e-mail, please select the link on his/her name.
Diane Bliss
Associate Professor;Special Assistant to Chair; MA (English )Binghamton University; BA (Creative Writing/ Environmental Concerns
& Philosophies) Hartwick College; AAS (Forest Technologies) SUNY College
of Environmental Science & Forestry. Teaches Freshman English I &
II, Technical Writing (for Occupational Therapy Assisting), Philosophy, Religious
Concepts, and British Literature.
Melissa Browne
Full-Time Instructor; BA English, Ohio Wesleyan University, MA Teaching of English, Teachers College. Teach Basic Writing Skills II, Freshman English I & II, and English Literature: 19th and Early 20th Century.
Deborah Chedister
Full Time Tenure Track; BA English, Colorado State University, Master of Science in Second Language Learning, SUNY New Paltz. Teaches ESL, developmental writing courses, and Freshman English I. Also teaches non-credit ESL classes for SUNY Orange.
Anthony Cruz
Full-Time Instructor; MSED English, Fordham University; MAT Music Education, H. Lehman College (CUNY), BA Music Education, The Graduate Center (CUNY). Teaches Basic Writing Skills II, Freshman English I & II, and Contemporary Short Story.
Sheila Donnelly
Associate Professor; MA+ (English) SUNY New Paltz; BA (English) Mt.
St. Mary; post-graduate studies in 17th Century British Literature and 20th Century Writers. Previously taught at Mt. St. Mary College and SUNY New Paltz. Teaches Contemporary Short Story, Contemporary Poetry, American Literature I, Survey of English Literature I, Developmental & Freshman English I & II, Technical Writing for Med Lab Tech, CLEP Preparation, Analysis and Interpretation of Literature, Women Writers, and Understanding Poetry. Publications include essays on Elizabeth Madox Roberts and William Faulkner. Contributing Editor for The Heath Anthology of American Literature.
James Givant
Professor; MA (English) University of South Carolina; BA City
University of New York. Teaches developmental and Freshman English; Philosophy.
Sandra Graff
Full Time Tenure Track, Reading; MAT (English Education) Fairleigh Dickinson University; BA (English) SUNY Albany; post-graduate reading work at Jersey City State College and SUNY New Paltz. Published poetry and a chapbook. Teaches Developmental Reading.
Alex Jakubowski
Interim Department Chair, Associate Professor; MA (English) SUNY Binghamton; BA (English/American
History) SUNY Oswego. Teaches Developmental Writing, Freshman English I &
II, Technical Writing (Electrical Technology), Science Fiction, Fantasy Fiction; Journalism:
Mass Media and online courses, American Literature I & II.
Kristen Katzin-Nystrom
Full Time Instructor (English) BA in English Literature/minor in Woman's Studies from San Francisco State University; Masters in English Literature/concentration in Medieval anchorites, visionaries and philosophers. Teach Developmental writing, English I and World Literature.
Abigail Kreitzer
Professor MA (English) University of California; AB (English)
Cornell University; post-graduate study University of California and SUNY
New Paltz. Teaches Developmental Writing, Freshman English; African-American, World & American Literature, Journalism: Mass Media and Drama.
Full Time Tenure Track, Bachelor of Science in English Education, New York University, Master of Fine Arts in Fiction Writing, Goddard University; teaches Basic Writing II, Freshman English I and Freshman English II.
Kathleen Malia
Professor; Ph.D. (English) University of Notre Dame; M.A. (English) Gannon University;
B.A. (Speech-Drama) Marietta College. Teaches Modern Drama, Contemporary Drama, Freshman
English I & II, Developmental Writing.
Stephen Meagher
Full Time Instructor, BA Drama and Theatre, McGill University; MA Contemporary Canadian Novel, McGill University; PhD, Eighteenth Century British Literature, University of Buffalo. Teaches Freshman English I and II, Developmental English, Contemporary Short Story and British Literature I (to 1800). Currently revising his dissertation, Promise in Early, Eighteenth Century England: Reading Hobbes and Addison, for publication. He has presented papers at NEMLA and ASECS conferences on Canadian and British literature.
Donald Parker
Professor; ABD (English) New York University; MA (English) North
Texas University; BA (English) North Texas University. Publications include articles, interviews, introductions, reviews, and poems in books and magazines such as The Southern Review; Interviews with Malcolm Cowley; Mathew Arnold, Man of Letters; Contemporary Poetry; Manhattan Mind; Insight. Co-founder and co-editor of several magazines: The Hart Crane Newsletter; The Visionary Company, A Magazine of the Twenties; Espirit; and Wordsmith, A Journal of Poetry and Art. Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching (1990); Fulbright Exchange Teacher (The Netherlands), 1994-95. Teaches Freshman English II, Creative Writing: Poetry, Contemporary Poetry, Contemporary Short Story, American Literature.
Susan Pendergast
Assistant Professor (Reading); Master of Science in Special Education (with Reading
coursework emphasis), Mt. St. Mary; Bachelor of Arts in English, Mt. St. Mary;
Associate of Arts, SUNY Orange. Teaches Developmental Reading and Developmental
Writing..
Geoffrey Platt
Professor; MA (English & Comparative Literature) &
MPhil (Philosophy) Columbia University; BA (English) Long Island University.
Publication: Developmental Writing textbook. Teaches Developmental Writing, Freshman
English, Film & Literature, World Literature, American Literature, Intro to Mythology, Philosophy & Ethics.
Anne Sandor
Assistant Professor; Writing Consultancy Coordinator, MFA (Creative Writing) Vermont; BA (English) Vassar; AA, SUNY Orange. Teaches Developmental Writing, Freshman English, Contemporary Novel, and Creative Writing Fiction, Technical Writing and teaches a number of online courses.
Patricia Sculley
Assistant Professor; Developmental Mentor, MA (English), Fordham; BA (English) St. John's.
Teaches Developmental Writing, Freshman English, Women Writers, Children's Literature.
Christopher Slichta
Full Time Tenure Track; MA English, SUNY at Buffalo; BA in English, Rutgers
University; coursework in Advanced Swahili, Buffalo State College. Teaches
Developmental and Freshman English, American Literature.
Meredith Sloan
Full Time Tenure Track; BS & M Ed in English Education, University of Central Florida. Teaches Developmental Reading, Developmental Writing and Freshman English I.
Joel Solonche
Assistant Professor; MA (English) SUNY New Paltz; BS (Music Education)
New York University. Publishes poems in wide variety of magazines and journals. Teaches Developmental Writing, Freshman English, Contemporary Novel, Contemporary Short Story, Contemporary Poetry. Co-author of "Peach Girl: Poems for a Chinese Daughter."
Linda Stroms
Professor/Assistant Chair ; MA (Comparative Literature)
City University of New York; AB (English) Brandeis University Teaches African-American
Literature, Contemporary Drama, Developmental Writing, Freshman English, ESL
Judy Svensson
Full Time Temporary; Bachelor's of Science in English Education, University of Arizona. Master's of Science in English from SUNY New Paltz. Teaches Basic Writing II, Freshman English I and II, Contemporary Short Story, Contemporary Novel, and World Literature.
Elaine Torda
Assistant Professor; Honors Coordinator; MA (English), Concordia University, Montreal;
BA (English) St. Michael's College; post-grad certificate in TESL, St. Michael's
College; study abroad, Wroxton College, England. Teaches accelerated Contemporary Novel, Honors Philosophy, Honors Contemporary Poetry, Honors Freshman English, Children's Literature, World Literature II, International Literature (Honors & Regular), Honors Seminars.
Mary Warrener
Associate Professor;ABD, MA (English) SUNY Buffalo; BA (English) Mt.
St. Mary College. Teaches Developmental Writing, Freshman English, World Literature,
Introduction to Myth, Shakespeare, Technical Writing; online courses
Kathleen Wright
Professor; MS (English) SUNY Buffalo; BS SUNY New Paltz; AA (Orange
County Community College); post-graduate work (English) University of New
Hampshire. Chancellor's Award For Excellence in Teaching (1992), two Fulbrights for Summer
Study Abroad (Mexico & India), and two National Endowment of the Humanities
Scholar Awards. Teaches English as a Second Language, Freshman English, International
Literature, and Contemporary Novel.
English
Alex Jakubowski
Interim Department Chair
(845) 341 - 4057
SUNY Orange
115 South Street
Middletown, NY 10940