New Deans and Faculty 2005-2006

New Deans
David R. Evans
Vincent F. Orza, Jr.
Lois L. Salmeron

New Faculty
Susan J. Barnes
Marc J. Blitz
Mary Price Boday
Julie Cowgill
Nurl L. Creager
Scott Davidson
Jason Foreman
Larry Guerrero
Erik Heine
George (Fritz) Kiersch
Rick Allen Lippert
Becky McMillan
Timothy Olsen
Marilyn Kay Sandel
Dennis Schneider
Don Skinner-Noble
Tracy (Beth) Stetson
Moose Tyler
Judith Willoughby
Linda K. Wisener

Not Pictured
Hilda Crane-Smith
Sylvia Wairimu Kang'ara
Edward J. Kionka
Carla Spivack
Deborah Tice

New Deans
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David R. Evans Dean, Petree College of Arts and Sciences Professor of English	B.A., Pomona College M.A., Ph.D., University of Virginia David Evans comes to OCU with fifteen years of teaching experience, most recently as a professor of English and chair of the Department of English, Speech, and Journalism at Georgia College & State University. Prior to his years in Georgia, he taught for ten years at Cornell College in Mt.Vernon, Iowa. Evans completed two post-doctoral fellowships at Yale University and participated in two National Endowment for Humanities Summer Institutes for College Teachers, Evans is originally from Los Angeles. His special interests include rare books, golf, New Mexico Hispanic devotional art, other folk art (especially Turkish), travel, textile and other visual arts, and home renovation.
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Vincent F. Orza, Jr. Interim Dean, Meinders School of Business Professor of Marketing	B.S., M.A.T., Oklahoma City University M.Ed., Ed.D., University of Oklahoma Vince Orza is well known on the OCU campus as a former trustee and highly active alumnus of the university. His teaching experience includes sixteen years on the faculty of the Univeristy of Central Oklahoma, where he taught marketing and economics. Prior to that he taught at Oklahoma City Community College and Del City High School. Orza, Jr. is founder, chairman, and CEO of Eateries, Inc., and was voted one of the top performing CEOs in 1998 by Restaurant Business Magazine. He is an author, award-winning television news anchor, and former Oklahoma gubernatorial candidae. Orza is originally from Milford, Connecticut, and lists travel as one of his special interests.
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Lois L. Salmeron Assistant Dean, Kramer School of Nursing Professor of Nursing	Diploma in Nursing, St.Francis Hospital B.S.N., M.S.N., University of Oklahoma HSC M.A.T., Oklahoma City University Ed.D., Oklahoma State University Lois Salmeron came out of retirement to join the faculty and administration of the Kramer School of Nursing. She is professor emeritus of Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City, was the in-service education coordinator at Deaconess Hospital in Oklahoma City, and has worked as a nurse in Kansas and Oklahoma. In 2003, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame for implementing the first distance education nursing program in Oklahoma. Among her many other awards are the national Distinguished Professional Service Award from the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nursing, and the Graham Waite President's Award from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, District VII, in recognition of outstanding research and educational contributions in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, which she received in 1989-the first nurse to ever receive this award. Salmerson lists her special interests as needlepoint, sports, cooking, knitting, physical fitness, indulging her grandchildren, reading, and traveling to the mountains.

New Faculty
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Susan J. Barnes Assistant Professor of Nursing	A.S., Northern Oklahoma College B.S. Nursing, University of Texas at Arlington M.S.N., Ph.D., University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Susan Barnes has served as director of health and wellness at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, director of nursing and health texhnology at Cochise College in Douglas, AZ, and director of graduate nursing at Souther Nazarene University. Her special interests include her children and grandchildren; mammals of all kinds, especially dogs, cats and horses; and out-door activities.
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Marc J. Blitz Assistant Professor of Law	A.B., Harvard University J.D., Ph.D., University of Chicago Prior to arriving at Oklahoma City University, Blitz was an associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Washington, D.C., and served as a research and teaching assistant at the University of Chicago in the areas of writing, political science, and philosophy. His areas of interest include constitutional law, administrative law, media law, national security law, intellectual property, and political philosophy.
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Mary Price Boday Associate Professor of Dance	B.F.A., M.F.A., University of Oklahoma Boday has danced in New York City with the Leonard Fowler Ballet, Mary Anthony Dance Theatre, Pearl Lang Dance Company, the Larry Richardson Dance Company, the Gaku Dance Company, and in Switzerland with the St. Gallen Stadt Theatre Ballet and the Zurich Ballet. She has taught at Harkness Ballet, the University of Illinois, Cornish College, and Slippery Rock University. She founded and was artistic director of The Illinois Ballet. Her special interests include puzzles, crochet, and the Cherokee Tribe.
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Julie Cowgill Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice	B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Arizona State University In spring 2005, Cowgill successfully defended her dissertation, “Negotiating Magic: Cultural Reproduction and Commodification in the Production of Dreams for Children with Chronic Illnesses.” She has served as a faculty associate at Arizona State University since 2001, and was director of the Writing Mentorship Program from 1994 through 2000. Her areas of interest in teaching include violence and victimization; women, law, and social control; criminology; research methods and statistics; law and society; and domestic violence.
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Nurl L. Creager Assistant Professor of Spanish	B.A. University of Central Oklahoma M.A., Ph.D., University of Oklahoma Nuri Creager’s areas of interest are twentieth-century Latin American literature, especially women’s literature, and French culture and literature. She has taught Spanish at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Central Oklahoma. As for special interests, she admits, “I’m a closet fiber artist. I love to design and knit beautiful and complex sweaters, scarves, hats, etc. Design requires critical thinking and planning. The knitting is a meditative Zen experience, and it produces beautiful tangible results.”
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Scott Davidson Assistant Professor of Philosophy	B.A., Kansas State University M.A., Ph.D., Duquesne University Scott Davidson has taught philosophy at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, West Virginia University, and Duquesne University. His special interests include French philosophy and ethics.
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Jason Foreman Assistant Professor of Theater Scenic & Lighting Design	B.F.A., University of Oklahoma M.F.A., California State University Jason Foreman has taught at Rice University in Houston, Sam Houston State University, and The University of New Orleans. He has also worked as a professional lighting scenic designer, scenic painter and technical director for Evangeline Theatre Company, Southern Repertory Theatre (New Orleans); Shepherd School of Music, Houston Shakespeare Festival, Omayra Amaya Flamenco Dance, Express Children’s Theatre (Houston).
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Larry Guerrero Chair of Education and Kinesiology Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Exercise Studies	B.S., M.Ed., Oklahoma City University Ed.D. Oklahoma State University Larry Guerrero was an assistant professor for eight years at Angelo State University in Texas prior to coming to OCU. In 2002-2003, he served as president of their faculty senate. Guerrero earned his undergraduate and master’s in education degrees from OCU and was the assistant baseball coach here from 1991 – 1993.
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Erik Heine Assistant Professor of Music	B.M., Illinois Wesleyan University M.M., University of Arizona Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin Erik Heine has served as assistant instructor and graduate teaching assistant at the University of Texas and the University of Arizona. He recently had a paper accepted for an international conference celebrating the 100th anniversary of composer Dmitri Shostakovich’s birth. Heine’s interests include film music, twentieth-century Russian and English music, and popular music analysis. Outside his field, his interests include European soccer, films, football, cooking.
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George (Fritz) Kiersch Artist-in-Residence Film Production and Studies	B.A., Ohio Wesleyan University Fritz Kiersch has taught at Oklahoma City Community College and at the Los Angeles Theater of Arts. He has directed ten feature-length films, over fifty hours of episodic television and specialized programming, and hundreds of commercials. Among his awards are a special jury prize at the International Science Fiction Film Festival of Brussels and a bronze medal—television commercial category—from the International Film and Television Festival of New York. He was executive director of the Oklahoma Film Institute and continues as co-chair of the Oklahoma Cinema Studies Consortium.
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Rick Allen Lippert Instructor of Mass Communications	B.A., M.A., University of Central Oklahoma Rick Lippert brings 30 years of experience in the television and video/film industries to Oklahoma City University, as well as teaching experience from Oklahoma City Community College and the University of Central Oklahoma. He has won numerous awards in regional and national video competitions, and his thesis screenplay won top honor in the department and later won an honorable mention at a Writers’ Digest competition.
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Becky McMillan Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics	B.B.A., Baylor University M.P.P., Ph.D., University of Chicago M.Div., Duke Divinity School Becky McMillan taught Economics of Poverty and Inequality and Statistics at the Public Policy Institute at Duke University while conducting economics research in North Carolina related to the church. She is a United Methodist Pastor in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference. Her special interests include horses.
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Timothy Olsen Assistant Professor of Music	B.M., Concordia College M.M, M.A., D.M.A., Eastman School of Music Olsen was acting university organist at Cornell University, where he taught organ and music theory. He also taught sight singing, organ, and harpsichord at Ithaca College. He won the ’02 National Young Artists Competition in organ performance. As part of the prize, he performed 35 solo organ concerts and recorded a CD on the NAXOS label. His interests include sacred music and the quality of music in worship, Baroque instrumental music, and Renaissance sacred vocal music.
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Marilyn Kay Sandel Artist-in-Residence Dance Pedagogy	Marilyn Kay Sandel has been an adjunct instructor at Oklahoma City University, a visiting instructor at the University of Oklahoma, and has directed Classical Ballet School in Oklahoma City for more than 25 years.
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Dennis Schneider Visiting Instructor of Opera and Music Theater	B.A., M.A., Oklahoma State University Dennis Schneider has been an adjunct professor at Oklahoma City University and at Oklahoma City Community College. His professional experience includes acting in and directing theater in New York City and working as an associate producer for television programs in Los Angeles.
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Don Skinner-Noble Assistant Professor of Biology	B.S., Ohio State University M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University Ph.D., Ohio State University Before coming to Oklahoma City University, Skinner-Noble served as a postdoctoral fellow at Oklahoma State University. His research there was on metabolism, nutrition, behavior, and wellbeing of meat-type chickens. He has been a regular guest lecturer for a number of courses including Poultry Production, Animal Genetics, Reproductive Anatomy, and Applied Animal Nutrition.
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Tracy (Beth) Stetson Assistant Professor of Accounting	Ph.D., University of Oklahoma M.S., Golden Gate University J.D., University of Oklahoma B.B.A., University of Oklahoma Beth Stetson has served as a visiting assistant professor at Cameron University and as a graduate assistant at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to that, she was a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Los Angeles and a senior trial attorney for the IRS District Counsel in Southern California She is from Jones, Okla., and lists reading nonfiction and bicycling as special interests.
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Moose Tyler Instructor of Mass Communications	B.A., M.L.A., Oklahoma City University Moose Tyler was a senior media planner and account coordinator at Young and Rubicam in New York City prior to returning to Oklahoma. She was a copywriter at Jordan Associates in Oklahoma City before joining the faculty at OCU.
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Judith Willoughby Professor of Choral Conducting and Music Education	B.M. Northwestern University M.M. Temple University Judith Willoughby as enjoyed numerous guest conducting engagements in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean and throughout North America. Her previous teaching appointments include Northwestern University School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Boyer College of Music at Temple University, Westminster Choir College of Rider University, and Central Connecticut State University. Willoughby is originally from Cleveland, Ohio
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Linda K. Wisener Clinical Instructor of Nursing	A.S., Oklahoma City Community College B.S.N., M.S.N., Southern Nazarene University Prior to her teaching career, Linda Wisener was a practicing clinician to registered nurse in cardiac critical care. She was the first RN recipient of the Stephen Covey Seven Habits Golden Goose Award at Baptist Medical Center and nurse employee of the year in ’00 for Integris Baptist Heart Hospital. Her special interests include church functions and community projects such as helping at the Senior Citizen Center and helping with home-remodeling projects through the Christmas in April and July Organization.

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Hilda Crane-Smith Clinical Instructor of Nursing	B.S.N., M.S., University of Oklahoma Crane-Smith has served on the faculty of the University of Central Oklahoma and the Oklahoma State University-Oklahoma City. She has also worked as a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma.
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Sylvia Wairimu Kang'ara Visiting Professor of Law	LL.B., University of Nairobi LL.M., Ph.D., SJD, Harvard Law School Sylvia Wairimu Kang’ara was a doctoral fellow at Harvard University and an associate at White & Case LLP in New York City.
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Edward J. Kionka Visiting Professor of Law	B.S., University of Illinois J.D., University of Illinois College of Law LL.M., Columbia University Law School, 1974 Edward J. Kionka is professor of law emeritus at Southern Illinois University School of Law and has taught law at University of Illinois, Northern Illinois University, St. Louis University, University of San Diego, Emory University, McGeorge School of Law, Washington University, University of Hawaii, University of Michigan, and Columbia University. He was an associate at Leibman, Williams, Bennett, & Baird and a partner at Norton & Kionka. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a member of Scribes and the Appellate Lawyers Association.
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Carla Spivack Assistant Professor of Law	B.A., Princeton University J.D., New York University, School of Law Ph.D., Boston College Carla Spivack was a fellow at New York University, School of Law, and a former associate at Cadwallader Wickersham and Taft in New York City and at Choate Hall and Stewart in Boston. She also clerked for the Honorable Robert Flanders, Jr., while he served on the Supreme Court of the State of Rhode Island.
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Deborah Tice Assistant Professor of Computer Science	B.S., Central State University M.Ed., University of Central Oklahoma Ed.D., Oklahoma State University Deborah Tice has served as an adjunct professor at OCU and an instructor and consultant at Oklahoma City Community College and the University of Central Oklahoma for over ten years. She has also authored or coauthored numerous textbooks and chapters on subjects related to the Microsoft Windows operating system.