Faculty Profiles & Leadership Team

Faculty Profiles

Aryn Bartley

• Ph.D., English, Michigan State University
• M.A., English, Michigan State University
• B.A. (with honors), English and Anthropology, Michigan State University

My experience with honors programs began when I entered the Honors College at Michigan State University as a freshman in 1995. I am certain that the smaller class sizes, emphasis on self-directed learning, and camaraderie produced by spending time with a cohort of peers directly impacted my success in school. During college and between my undergraduate and graduate degrees, I worked in a range of paid and unpaid positions: as an editorial assistant for a history journal, a desktop publisher, a park ranger, a health clinic assistant, and (briefly) a Peace Corps volunteer.

I began teaching when I started graduate school in 2003, and have taught writing and literature courses at Michigan State University, Radford University, and (since 2013) Lane Community College. My students at Lane are thoughtful, passionate, and articulate; I love teaching here. I have published articles on human rights, ethics, and politics in fiction and nonfiction, as well as articles focused on teaching strategies. Along with the above topics, I am currently exploring public- and community-based writing pedagogies, narrative medicine, and the health humanities.  

Kathleen Caprario Ulrich

• University of Oregon - Zelij Design Course with Jean Marc Castera
• New York Studio School - Painting with Elaine deKooning and Wayne Theibaud, Drawing with Nicolas Carone, Sculpture with George Spaventa
• Art Students League of New York - Painting with Theodoros Stamos
• New School of Social Research, New York
• Newark School of Fine & Industrial Arts - Textile Design Certificate, Painting with Mary Abbott
• Newark Museum School, New Jersey

In the late 1970's I moved to Oregon from New York City and began my professional career as a studio artist and art educator. The experience of studying with artists such as Wayne Theibaud, Mary Abbott and Theodoros Stamos, as well as a semester abroad through the New York Studio School has informed both my artwork and my teaching approach. That approach focuses on exploration, analysis and application through studio work to give the student a well-rounded sense of the concepts presented and the opportunity to authentically realize those ideas creatively in their work. Critical thinking combined with media and art-making is the process through which the student will grow and demonstrate the necessary learning outcomes. The late American design icon, Milton Glaser is quoted as saying that the purpose of art is to "inform and delight." I whole-heartedly agree!

Richard Glover

• Ph.D., Chemistry, University of Oregon
• M.S., Environmental Science, University of Nevada, Reno
• B.S., Environmental Science, Humboldt State University

In teaching environmental science I enjoy helping students explore the bioregion surrounding them, partner with campus stakeholders to do scientific research in my classes to help build their identity as a scientist and treat the campus as a living lab. Additionally, I work with students and sustainability groups to incorporate sustainable practices across campus, aligning campus policy/practice to external benchmarks (like the UN SDGs), and promote food security. I began teaching Environmental Science courses at Lane in the Fall of 2019. Prior to that I was an Environmental Science and Chemistry faculty member at Bellevue College, in Bellevue, Washington for 6 years. In my free time I like to be outside whether biking, skiing, hiking, or camping. Additionally, I am an avid gardener and like to grow (and cook) open pollinated vegetables (ask me about the Learning Garden Club).

Marge Helzer

• Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Oregon
• M.S. Anthropology, University of Oregon
• B.S. Anthropology with honors, University of Oregon
• A.S. Forestry, Pennsylvania State University

Marge Helzer studied forestry at Penn State University and anthropology at the Universityof Oregon. She has worked as a professional archaeologist for the UO Museum of Natural and Cultural History and has taught at the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, Central Oregon Community College, and Lane Community College. Marge has been a full time anthropology instructor at LCC since 2005. Her work as an archaeologist and paleoethno botanist is on going and frequently involves collaborations with researchers at the UO, Bureau of Land Management, US Forest Service, and private archaeological firms.

Marge admires Jane Goodall for her inspired leadership and commitment to environmental conservation and social justice. She states the best advice she received was from a friend who told her to get a broad, liberal arts education when she was trying to decide what to study at the University of Oregon. Her hobbies include gardening, hiking, reading, and spending time with her family.

Stacey Kiser

• M.S. Ecology, University of Oregon
• B.S. Zoology, Oregon State University

I started teaching as a graduate student and got hooked through a biology education grant. Improving biology education turned out to be my passion that continues today. I will serve as the president of the National Association of Biology Teachers in 2014. Community colleges play a vital role since at least half of all college students in the U.S. take their only science courses at a two-year school.

I didn't attend a community college as a student. I discovered Lane during grad school and set my sights on getting a job here. I taught a semester at a private liberal arts college in Wisconsin during a sabbatical and could not wait to get back to my classes here at Lane. The diversity of students and the help I can give them is a true joy.

Personal hobbies: baking (especially cheesecakes), sailing trips in the San Juan Islands, cheering on my Beavers

Caroline Lundquist

Known to her students as Dr. L., Caroline Lundquist is a philosopher and educator. After receiving her PhD in philosophy from the University of Oregon, she chose to stay in the Eugene community-- her childhood home. She teaches ethics courses for the Clark Honors College and the Prison Education Program at the University of Oregon. She is also the Managing Editor of Hypatia, a journal of feminist philosophy.With her friend and colleague Paul Bodin, she leads public philosophical discussions and philosophy discussions for children. Caroline loves to write, and has presented and published work on such topics as love, kindness, regret, pregnancy, ethics in science fiction, and film noir. Caroline lives with her husband, who teaches high school science, and her two highly philosophical children. When she isn’t teaching or writing, she loves to read, game, cook, sew, and (most of all) work in her garden.

Sarah Lushia

• 
  M.A. and Ph.D. English Studies, Illinois State University
• B.A. English, SUNY Plattsburgh

I have a Bachelor's degree in English from SUNY Plattsburgh (with a year of National Student Exchange study at Cal State, San Bernardino), a Master's in English from Illinois State University, and a PhD in English Studies from Illinois State University. My dissertation focused on Black American women's life narratives as they appear in picture books, allowing me to combine my favorite areas of literary study: women's, Black American, and children's literature and life narratives. I also have a strong background in Minority Rhetorics and a passion for teaching.

As an undergraduate, my participation in the Honors Program at SUNY - which began when I accidentally registered for an honors course - transformed my life in many wonderful ways, and is the reason I decided to pursue graduate school. My ability to participate in the Honors Program at LCC is a privilege and offers me a way to "pay forward" the gifts that my own honors teachers gave to me so many years ago.

I enjoy riding carousels, hiking, camping, the cliched long walks along the ocean, reading, hanging out in bookstores and coffee shops, spontaneous adventures, road trips, yard work, and the quickly disappearing art of composing and sending snail mail. My favorite animals are giraffes and turtles. I hope to someday visit Alaska, Ghana, and Ireland.

• Sarah's ePortfolio

Anne B. McGrail

• 
  Ph.D. English Literature University at Buffalo
• M.A. English Literature University at Buffalo
• B.A. English and Psychology University of Massachusetts Boston

I’m excited to teach in Lane’s Honor’s Program this year. I was fortunate to be in an honors program as an undergraduate at a large urban public university, and I benefitted from the social and academic experience offered through that program. The honors cohort model provides a support network--for taking courses, for studying and socializing, and for engaging in long-term projects. I like getting to know students as they move through the program. There’s a real possibility for a sense of community to grow.

I have been at Lane for 20 years, and in that time I have taught 17 different writing and literature courses--face-to-face, online, and hybrid. This year, in addition to WR122, I am teaching an online class entitled Reading, Writing, and Digital Culture (Spring 2020). My teaching and research interests include how humanities disciplines are changing in our current digital culture and how this is changing higher education as a result. I maintain a blog and am co-editing a book exploring how colleges, universities, libraries, and museums are responding to the Age of Information. I am on sabbatical until Spring 2020 studying how to use humanities at community colleges to improve the connections between 2-year and 4-year colleges.

• Anne's blog

Gerry Meenaghan

- M.S. Kansas State University: Academic Advising Administration

As an undergraduate, I tutored international students attending the University of Oregon's American English Institute for over a year. I then spent over a year in the Kyrgyz Republic teaching high school students English as a Foreign Language (EFL) as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer. After that, I spent six years in Japan teaching high school students EFL through the Japan Exchanges in Teaching (JET) Program and on a private contract. In the interim of my time in Central Asia and Japan, I worked as a Job Coach, placing clients with developmental disabilities in employment sites throughout the Rogue Valley in Southern Oregon.

Returning from Japan in 2009, I secured employment at Lane Community College, where I worked in the Counseling Department as an Academic Advisor for Science, Math, Engineering, and Computer Information Technology for three years. In 2012, with my teaching, job placement, and higher education experience, I secured a position as a Cooperative Education (Co-op) Coordinator for Science, Math, Engineering, and Computer Information Technology. Since that time, I have worked with hundreds of community college students in a number of degree programs, and hundreds of human resources and hiring managers in a wide variety of industries. I have learned a great deal about what employers are looking for in entry-level professionals, and what makes community college graduates successful at obtaining gainful employment.

I love working at Lane Community College because I wouldn't be where I am today were it not for the amazing American institution of the community college. My Irish father and English mother arrived in the in 1961 with the equivalent of an 8th grade education and a nursing certificate from a trade school, respectively. By enrolling in San Mateo (Junior) College, my father was able to work his way through a GED and an A.S. degree, and then transfer to a university, where he earned B.S. and M.P.H. degrees. I see my father's grit, determination and bravery in LCC students every day, and work hard to ensure that they have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream the way my father did.

When not teaching, I enjoy the outdoors, especially hiking, backpacking, identifying and collecting medicinal wildflowers and edible mushrooms, and increasing my knowledge of the natural world through reading and study. I am also very active. I love to run, bike, and swim, and have completed numerous long-distance endurance events, including an Ironman-distance triathlon on the Japanese island of Sado. Learning and goal-setting are important themes in my life, and I hope to model these themes to my students.

Tim Shaner

• Ph.D. English, State University of New York at Buffalo
• M.A. Creative Writing, Antioch University (London)
• B.A. History, Fort Lewis College (Durango, Colorado)

Thanks to my brilliant history professor, Dr. Thomas Eckenrode, I chose history as my undergraduate major at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. FLC had a student population of about four thousand at the time and that meant small classrooms with dedicated professors. It was the perfect atmosphere for this budding, insecure academic and it’s similar to the one I have treasured at Lane Community College. When I began my teaching career in my late thirties at the University of Louisville, I thought back to professors like Dr. Eckenrode as models for my own teaching and his example meant that the classroom was a space not only of learning but of creativity, improvisation, and, dare I say, fun, as well. As a teacher, one didn’t have to be all high-minded and professorial to be effective, yet, at the same time, that didn’t mean expecting anything less but the best from students. We were all in it together, which meant that students shared as much a responsibility for the success of the course as did the professor. For students, that meant keeping up with the readings and writing assignments and being prepared to contribute to classroom discussions. For the teacher, that meant creating a space for students to express their ideas and to learn from each other’s differences and shared concerns as well as from my own knowledge of the field of study and the life experiences I brought to the classroom.

Because I had also discovered the delights of literature and the challenges of writing poetry in my undergraduate years, I chose to pursue a Master’s of Arts in creative writing rather than history. A friend who was pursuing her Masters in Sociology at the Free University of Berlin at the time suggested I study abroad and, since much of my childhood was spent overseas, first in Madrid, then in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then later, after high school, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, it seemed like a logical next step, which is how I ended up enrolled at Antioch University’s Creative Writing Program in London. Years later, I continued my education in poetry by pursuing a doctorate in English in the Poetics Program at SUNY-Buffalo, which was known at the time as a hotbed for poet-scholars interested in the avant-garde and innovative poetry.

Since moving to Eugene in 2005 with my wife and daughter, I have taught writing courses at LCC and Umpqua Community College and I have continued my passion for writing poetry, publishing Picture X (Airlie Press, 2014), a collection of poems written from an environmental and political perspective, and I Hate Fiction: A Novel (Spuyten Duyvil, 2017), which was inspired by Austrian novelist Thomas Bernhard’s Concrete, a novel about writer’s block, which I wrote when I was struggling to write my dissertation. I am currently working on my manuscript, Radio New Flower, which is about my five plus years (from the age nine to fourteen) in Addis Ababa (translated as “new flower” in Amharic), and on a second novel currently titled Love in the Time of Climate Denial. Since I believe that poetry involves more than writing and publishing one’s work, I have been active in the local writing community by founding and curating A-New Poetry Reading Series at the Downtown Initiative for the Visual Arts (2008-2014) and, from 2017-2019, co-curating the Windfall Reading Series at the downtown Eugene Public Library.

Eileen Thompson

• Ph.D. English, University of Oregon
• B.A. English, University of Puget Sound

I've been an instructor at Lane Community College since 1994 (as an adjunct for over 10 years before being hired as a contracted faculty member), teaching in the Department of Writing and Literature of the Language, Literature and Communications Division. In my tenure at Lane, I have taught both composition and literature courses and have served as project coordinator for a number of college-wide interdisciplinary instructional initiatives, including the Strategic Learning Initiative, Learning Communities and Reading Together.

I completed a PhD in English at the University of Oregon with a specialization in Modern British Literature. My dissertation explored the influence of W.B. Yeats as a literary predecessor in the work of three contemporary Irish women poets.

Rosemarie Tillman

• 
  Certification Cultural Competency Training, Washington State University Extension
• PhD Educational Policy & Management, University of Oregon
• CAS Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation, Syracuse University
• MS Instructional Design, Development & Evaluation, Syracuse University
• MS Speech Communication, Syracuse University
• BS Speech Communication, Syracuse University
• AAS (with Honors) Radio/Television, Onondaga Community College

I am originally from Syracuse, NY, but since I have been hanging out in Oregon for the last 20 plus years, I feel like an Oregonian. I do not know how many years have to pass before I can lose the term “transplant”. I do know that at this point Oregon feels more like home than Syracuse.

I prefer that current students call me Professor Tillman. There are a host of reasons for this preference that I typically explain the first day of class. I have been a part-time faculty member for over 25 years, teaching in Oregon, New York, and New Jersey in a variety of higher educational settings. At various times I have affiliated with as many as four institutions within one academic term.

I am engaged with a variety of professional associations, such as the American Educational Research Association, Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture, Association of Practical and Professional Ethics, and the Western States Communication Association.

I am also a certified Cultural Competency Trainer and nationally offer seminars and workshops. I conduct research on faculty work life, give presentations, pursue publication, guest lecture, engage in institutional professional development, serve on committees, and teach face-to-face as well as online.

Occasionally I can be rather regular about Bible Study, lap swimming, aqua aerobics, walking, HIIT, circuit training, and biking. I try to incorporate at least two of the fitness activities into every term. I used to include racquetball, lacrosse, and tennis in the line up, but with my schedule changing every term I have a hard time holding on to partners. My spouse used to play with me when we lived in New Jersey. He refuses to play since we moved back to Oregon. I think he's scared!

Honors Leadership Team

• Lori Areford, Advisor, Counseling Department
• Patrick Blaine, Dean, Curriculum, Assessment, and Grants Development
• Claire Dannenbaum, Honors Librarian
• Stacey Kiser, Faculty, Science
• Gerry Meenaghan, Faculty, Cooperative Education
• Kimberly Parzuchowski, Faculty Coordinator, Lane Honors Program
• Eileen Thompson, Faculty, Language, Literature & Communication

"The Invitation to Inquiry honors seminar was a great experience for me. It went against my expectations of what college was about in a good way. It required a high level of engagement and involvement from students and encouraged us to question our assumptions, and it gave me a place to relate to others who were invested in their learning process. That seminar took our learning to a much deeper level for all of us, and for me personally it enhanced my college experience by helping me to focus on my own learning more than just the grade. It gave me a personal incentive to think critically and to ask difficult and meaningful questions so that I could really own my learning.

If you are motivated to really challenge your learning at a deeper level, then the Honors Program is a great choice. I really appreciate being a student at Lane because it's a nice bridge or stepping stone between high school and a large university where you can get the support you need and integrate your learning into your life, personal experiences and the world around you."

-- Cheyne Dandurand, Former Honors Student