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| Karthik Aghoram is an Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences. Born and brought up in India, Dr. Aghoram gets his Southern roots and love for teaching from Tallahassee, FL, where he attended Florida State University for his doctorate. After a 5-year stint as a research associate at NCSU, he joined Meredith to teach Cell Biology and Biochemistry, along with freshman-level Biology courses. He does research on how crops respond to drought stress, and on isolating a potential anti-HIV drug from an African herbal. In his free- time, he likes to cook spicy food and hang out with his family. |
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Steven Benko Dr. Benko joined the Meredith faculty full time in 2007. He teaches courses in Ethics, Religious and Philosophical Ethics, Biomedical Ethics and courses on contemporary religious culture. In those courses he focuses on the intersection between religion and literature, film, music and technology. His research interests include ethical subjectivity; posthuman identity and community; comedy and religion/ethics; and religion and contemporary culture. His current research interests focus on the ethics of comedy, artificial nutrition and hydration in end of life care and online subjectivity, focusing specifically on Facebook. Dr. Benko is the faculty advisor for the Meredith chapter of Theta Alpha Kappa, the national honor society for religious studies.
Degrees held: B.A. Loyola Universtiy, New Orleans; M.A., Syracuse University; M.Phil. and Ph.D., Syracuse University.
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| Clyde Frazier has taught at Meredith approximately forever and written book reviews and op-ed columns on an occasional basis for the News and Observer and other newspapers. He recommended that Meredith adopt a critical thinking requirement at the first faculty meeting he ever attended and it has been an important element of his courses ever since. He also incorporates current issues into every course and is thrilled to have the opportunity to teach a first year seminar that combines these two long time interests. When he wasn't teaching, he built his own house and at one time aspired to grow everything he ate. He long ago came to his senses, but he's still a serious gardener. |
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Warner Hyde Since childhood, the excitement of fine art and the natural world has been a driving force in my life’s path. Time is and has been spent in the woods as an aspiring naturalist and in the galleries from a young age with desire to create meaningful visual communications. The love and connection of human life in its relation to the botanical and animal realms leads to many unusual and molding experiences. During high school this included participation in saving endangered loggerhead sea turtles in the summers, working in funeral homes, a full studio art curriculum, and competitive archery tournaments. From Spartanburg, S.C., I then moved to Brevard, N.C. to attend college earning a B.A., and a minor in ecology. It was during these years that I was exposed to the world of orchids and simultaneously to that of ceramics. Time outside of the classroom was spent working at a large commercial orchid nursery, at the Penland School of Art and Crafts, and assisting a local wood-fire ceramic artist, Judith Duff. After graduation I became a resident artist at the Odyssey Center of Ceramic Arts in Asheville, N.C. Then I became involved with the American Orchid Society as a Student Judge, while making a living from my ceramics and orchid sales. The total of these experiences made it possible for me to be a graduate student in ceramics at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in 2006. I also taught ceramics at the Greenville Museum of Art in Greenville, S.C. during my graduate work as well as adjunct and resident work at various institutions. My wife, Raiford, and I moved back to Brevard in the summer of 2006 where I joined the Brevard College faculty teaching ceramics and art history while Raiford earned her K-12 art licensure. Since 2007, I am an Assistant Professor of Art at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C. We currently live in Pittsboro, NC, which is a creatively rich community and has brought much freedom to our lives and art. We are blessed by our 4 year old daughter, Lucy Boone, and our son Warner Hudson, born July 8, 2010.
My current artistic interest is in creating site-specific natural installations which are created and exhibited in the outdoors.
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| Barrett Koster completed his Ph.D. in Computer Science at North Carolina State University and has a B.S. in Engineering from Swarthmore College and an M.S. in Computer Science from Duke University. Koster runs the Math and Computer Science dedicated computer lab and he has taught more than 20 different courses on a wide related—but not all. He has conducted research in artificial intelligence, human language and speech understanding. His current research is on a theory to unify the two remaining discordant areas of physics. He enjoys hobbies in cartooning, quilting, dancing, yoga, playing music, making musical instruments, bicycling and photography, among others. |
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Bill Landis graduated with a B.S. from Guilford College, and received his M.S. and Ph.D. in foods and nutrition from University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He was a faculty member at Ball State University in Indiana before coming to Meredith College in 1996. Landis is the program coordinator for the foods and nutrition program, and is the director of the M.S. program in nutrition. His interests and research background includes local and organic foods, sustainable diets and methods of food production, vegetarianism, and sports nutrition.
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Monica McKinney has taught in the Department of Education for the past ten years since completing her Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her background is in elementary education and she has done extensive research on the arts and education. Her current interests focus on English language learners. “Issues in education fascinate me. Parents want the ‘best’ for their children but don’t agree on what that is. I’m excited to be part of this opportunity to talk about how we balance the needs of so many diverse children, the desires of their parents, the requirements of an ever-changing workforce, and the evolving needs of our society.” |
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| A teacher of French and medieval studies, Brent Pitts has always been interested in history, languages, and cultures. In grade school, when homework was done, he compiled a book of free-hand maps of most world countries. Dr. Pitts hopes to visit Turkey, Syria, Israel, and Libya soon. His area of scholarly specialization is Anglo- Norman language and literature. His critical editions of Le Livre des regions (a 13th-century geography) and Revelacion (a 13th-century Apocalypse poem) have been published recently, and this past spring he submitted for publication a critical edition of Estoire de l'Evangile, a 13th-century gospel harmony. His current project is a modern English translation of Estoire. |
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| Carla Ross received her graduate education at the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Georgia. She has been teaching communication courses for 27 years and focuses on relational communication. Some of her favorite courses to teach include: Interpersonal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, and Intercultural Communication. She most recently has conducted research, publication, and teaching in the area of forgiveness in relationships. She is also very interested in how technology is affecting our communication with the people we have interpersonal relationships with. She is the Mom of 9 year old Hannah and a cock-a-poo dog named Pasta. Just ask and she’d be glad to show you her pics on her i-phone! |
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Julie Schrock has been a member of the Department of Education for the past eight years. After ten years of public school teaching in special education, she completed a Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her current interests focus on the inclusion of students with special needs and academically/intellectually gifted students. “Public education impacts everyone and, as a result, most people have strong opinions on education issues. Freshmen are in a unique position to critically examine the education they received and also to broaden their perspectives based on new information and experiences. I’m looking forward to being a part of that process.” |
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Margarita Suarez joined the faculty at Meredith College in 2001. She received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Religious and Theological Studies from Northwestern University, a Masters of Divinity from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Theatre from Fordham University. Dr. Suarez teaches a range of courses in the Religious and Ethical Studies department in the areas of religion and culture, gender and Religion, Christian thought and Biblical Studies. Her primary area of scholarship is on Religion in Cuba. She lives with her husband, David, a psychologist, and her son, Rubén, who has just graduated from the UNC School of the Arts High School with a specialization in Classical Ballet. They have a dog, Riley, and two cats, Zoë and Noodle. Outside of school she enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, going to movies, theatre, ballet and traveling. |
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Curt Tomczyk is the youngest and only male child in a family of strong, successful women. He has his MFA from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and is a third year Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Dance and Theatre. Tomczyk is honored to have an opportunity to lead a course on critical thinking that combines the power of art in society with an omnipresent topic of great relevance to women. “There will be no lecturing or posturing of material. Every assignment or moment in class is an opportunity to critically explore, reflect, reveal and discover something about you, society and truth.”
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| Michiko Yamada assistant professor of mass communication, joined Meredith's faculty in 2005. Her areas of focus includes analysis of media messages by semiotics which is the interpretation of signs. An author of Multicultural Society and Intercultural Communication, published in 2002, Yamada wrote Chapter 6: Mass Media (TV commercials) and Intercultural Communication. She has presented at numerous conferences, including the National Communication Association Annual Convention and International Communication Association Annual Conference.
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