Faculty Biographies

Jayne K. Drake is currently an Associate Professor of English, Associate Dean for Graduate Affairs, and Director of the Master of Liberal Arts Program in the College of Liberal Arts at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA. She has held a number of other administrative posts at Temple, including Vice Dean of the College, Director of the Teaching Enhancement Center, to name a few. She has been active in many other leadership roles in the University, including University Honors Oversight Committee, Committee on Advising, Advising Policies Council, the Undergraduate Bulletin Committee, and various administrative and faculty search committees. Dr. Drake is passionate about her students and has been publicly acknowledged for outstanding teaching, the most recent recognition being the College of Liberal Arts "Excellence in Teaching" Award.

As a NACADA member, she currently serves as the co-Chair of the Administrative Division and sits on the NACADA Council. She chairs the Advisory Board charged with revamping NACADA's Faculty Advising Training Video, and she recently presented a webinar on "Successful Components of a Faculty Professional Development Program." For more than two years, she chaired NACADA's National Awards Committee, and has presented at various regional and national conferences. Her interests include advising administration, faculty and staff rewards and recognition for advising, assessment of advising, and technology in advising.

Drake earned her Ph.D. in English at The Pennsylvania State University. Her teaching and publication interests include seventeenth- through nineteenth century American literature, the history of the printing and publishing in America, and literary research methods. She has published numerous articles and reviews in these fields and written books on American Literary Periodicals and John Greenleaf Whittier. She has also served as an editor for the Modern Language Association's Annual International Bibliography.

Rich Robbins received his B.A. in Psychology from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, his M.A. in General Experimental Psychology from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from University of Nevada, Reno. Rich served as a full-time psychology/behavioral sciences faculty member for four years, followed by a move into higher education administration and adjunct teaching for the past 10 years - first as Coordinator of Academic Advising at Washburn University for five years, then as Director of the Undergraduate Academic Services Center at West Virginia University for three years, and now as Director of Engineering Advising at Cornell University since 2004. His initial exposure to academic advising came as a Graduate Assistant Advisor while at West Chester University. Rich has developed advising programs at two separate institutions and headed advising programs at four institutions, receiving the NACADA/ACT Outstanding Institutional Advising Award in 1998 and the NACADA Research Grant Award in 1999 as well as several campus advising awards. He has served as Chair of the Kansas Academic Advising Network, Chair of the NACADA Research Committee, and has been a member of numerous NACADA task forces, advisory boards, and committees. He is currently a member of the NACADA Board of Directors, the Editorial Board for the NACADA Journal , serves as chair of the NACADA Summer Institute Advisory Board, and is a member of the NACADA Consultants' Bureau. Rich previously served as the elected NACADA Administrative Division Representative and member of the NACADA Council. He was a facilitator at the first two NACADA Administrators' Institutes, co-chaired the first NACADA Assessment Seminar in 2004 and served as a facilitator at the 2005, 2006, and 2007Assessment Institutes as well as a faculty member at the 2006 NACADA Summer Institute. Rich has over 80 presentations at professional conferences and numerous NACADA Journal book reviews and articles. In 2004 he served as editor for the NACADA monograph Giving Advice to Students: A Road Map for College Professionals , and is co-author of the 2005 NACADA CD Guide to Assessment in Academic Advising. Rich also serves as a manuscript reviewer for the peer-reviewed Journal of College Student Retention and regularly acts as a professional reviewer for textbooks in various areas of psychology. His teaching interests include introductory psychology, health psychology, medical sociology, research methodology, and parapsychology, while his areas of emphasis in academic advising include evaluation and assessment, retention, undecided students, high-achieving students, research methodology, and grant writing. In addition to his academic advising roles, he is also a lecturer in the Psychology Department at Ithaca College. And, by the way, he is a black belt in taekwondo.

Marsha Miller, a NACADA member since 1988, joined the NACADA Executive Office staff in 2002 as Research Coordinator and now serves as NACADA's Assistant Director for Resources and Services.

A history major, Marsha was a peer advisor in the College of Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She earned a Master of Arts degree in Learning Disabilities at the University of Iowa and a Master's degree in Counseling from Emporia State University.

Marsha worked at Cloud County Community College for fourteen years in various capacities. She taught developmental skills and education courses, served as ADA compliance officer, and advised education majors and undecided students. Upon completion of her duties as Chair of the faculty committee charged with restructuring Cloud's advising and academic support services, Marsha was appointed as the first director of Cloud's Advising Center that received the NACADA Outstanding Advising Program award and the Noel-Levitz citation for Excellence in Student Retention. Her institutional research of student persistence indicators led to her appointment as Director of Student Services as Cloud's Geary County Campus where she oversaw admissions, assessment, advising, financial aid, registration, and student records.

Marsha has presented at national conferences of various student services organizations, published articles, served as an advising consultant, received outstanding teaching awards, and co-authored chapters in Advising as a Comprehensive Campus Process and Advisor Training: Exemplary Practices in Developing Advisor Skills.

In her position as NACADA Assistant Director for Resources & Services, Marsha is the Executive Office liaison to the NACADA Research Committee, directs the NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources (that, among other things, houses handbooks from 300+ institutions), serves as the NACADA Journal Book Review Editor, manages the publication of NACADA monographs and books, is copy editor for Academic Advising Today, coordinates NACADA members surveys, and answers member questions regarding advising related concerns.

Rusty Fox is Vice President for Student Development Services at Tarrant County College Southeast Campus in Arlington, Texas; that campus' Chief Student Affairs Officer. In that role he supervises the managers and teams of Registrar, Counseling, Testing, Library, Instructional Media, Graphics, Health Services, Disability Support Services, Campus Learning Center, Writing Center, Student Activities and Events, Student Organizations, Disciplinary Actions, and the college Orientation program for a campus of 10,000 students. During the previous 10 years he served as Dean of Student Development at TCC and Oklahoma City Community College; and before that as Director of Advisement and Counseling at Oklahoma; and Coordinator of Academic Advisement and adjunct Faculty member at Brookhaven College in Dallas.

Fox earned his B.A. in Speech Communications from Texas A&M University-Main Campus and his M.S. and doctoral coursework in Counseling from Texas A&M University-Commerce, where he was named an Outstanding Alumnus this past year and where he also completed intensive post-graduate work in crisis intervention and clinical supervision of master and doctoral level counselors-in-training. His counseling internships were with court-referred probationers, university students, and in-patient adolescents and their families at Cedar's Psychiatric Hospital. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Capella University.

Fox has twice served as the national chair of the Two-Year Colleges Commission and as faculty for the NACADA Administrator's Institute. Through NACADA's Consultant's Bureau he has worked with colleges and universities in Missouri, Georgia, Colorado, and Texas. He and Dr. Margaret C. (Peggy) King have just completed co-authoring a chapter in the new Jossey Bass publication, Fostering Student Success in the Campus Community due out this year. Having joined the faculty of this Institute seven years ago, he has enjoyed facilitating work groups on ethics, career theory, student development, supervision and advising administration.

Tom Brown served for 27 years as a Student and Academic Affairs educator, most recently as Dean of Advising Services/Special Programs at Saint Mary's College of California . In addition to developing and administering Saint Mary's nationally recognized undergraduate academic advising program, Tom was responsible for the College's orientation programs for parents and new students, academic achievement and support programs (e.g., services to students with disabilities, tutoring services, programs for students on probation), the Offices of Asian-Pacific, Black, Hispanic, and International Programs, and pre-law advising. He also developed the High Potential Program, which provided access and support to students from historically underrepresented ethnic and socio-economic communities, and whose graduation rates consistently exceeded those for the general student body. When Tom left Saint Mary's in 1998, the students and faculty established The Dean Thomas Brown Advising Award , which is presented annually to a faculty member at the College. Tom currently is the managing principal of an educational consulting group that has served more than 300 colleges and universities in the US and abroad.

Tom Brown has served in a number of elected positions in NACADA, including co-chair of the 1990 National Conference, chair of the Multicultural Commission, and Vice-President for Commissions. In 2000, NACADA presented him with the Service to NACADA Award . In addition to numerous keynote addresses, workshops and paper sessions at NACADA, FYE, N4A, NODA, and other conferences, Brown has been an invited presenter on international educational exchange at regional and national meetings of NAFSA:Association of International Educators, the Institute of International Education , and the National Association of College Admissions Counselors. He also served as chair of the Pre-law Advisors National Council.

Tom has authored or co-authored a wide range of conference papers, chapters and articles related to academic advising, international education exchange, and supporting the achievement and success of students of color, under prepared students, and other at-risk cohorts. His most recent publication, "Developing Administrative and Instructional Faculty to Put Students First," will appear in Fostering Student Success in the Campus Community (Anker, Fall 2007). He has also been invited to write a chapter for the revised Academic Advising Handbook , "Critical Concepts in Advisor Training and Development."

Joanne K. Damminger is the Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs at Rowan University in New Jersey. Dr. Damminger's work focuses on strengthening academic advising and designing first-year and sophomore-year experiences to increase student satisfaction, success, intentional learning and retention. Joanne works with new students, transfers and existing students to design comprehensive support programs that ease student adjustment and increase success in and out of the classroom. Additionally, Joanne coordinates freshman and transfer orientations and other major events.

Joanne teaches in the Masters for Counseling in Educational Settings Program. She enjoys teaching Career Development in Educational Settings and Research I and II for the masters. Joanne likes helping masters students identify and complete action research projects that improve educational settings as part of their final thesis portfolios.

Joanne earned her Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at Rowan University . Her research and publication interests include integrating career exploration in higher education curriculum and designing and implementing support programs for students. She has a Master of Arts Degree in Student Personnel Services and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Elementary Education, also from Rowan University .

NACADA has been one of Joanne's primary organizational focuses for the past ten years. She is currently a member of the Consultant's Bureau Advisory Board and has held numerous positions including Region Two Membership Liaison, Finance Committee member, and Chairperson of Member Career Services.

Joanne presents nationally on the topics related to advising, first-year experience, creating living/learning communities and helping students to become intentional learners.

She has presented nationally and regionally on career counseling topics such as Integrating Academic Advising and Career Life Planning, Resume Writing, Interviewing and Job Searching. Joanne has created and facilitated numerous workshops for students and classes at Rowan including the topics of Leadership, Learning Communities, Self-Assessment and Interpretation, Mentoring and Job Searching.

Wesley (Wes) R. Habley has held numerous positions at ACT, Inc. and is currently the Principal Associate and Coordinator of ACT's Office of State Organizations. He received his BS in music education and M.Ed. in student personnel from the University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, and his Ed.D from Illinois State University in educational administration. Prior to joining ACT, Habley served first as an academic advisor and later as the Director of the Academic Advisement Center at Illinois State. Habley also served as the Director of Academic and Career Advising at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

Habley has recently published a series of four reports based on ACT's national retention study, What Works in Student Retention? Along with Virginia Gordon, Habley edited Academic Advising: A Comprehensive Handbook. He is the editor of the monograph on ACT's third, and author of monographs on ACT's fourth, fifth, and sixth National Surveys of Academic Advising. He contributed chapters to Developmental Academic Advising and Faculty Advising Examined. Additional published material has appeared in the NACADA Journal, The Journal of College Student Personnel, NASPA Journal, NACADA Monograph Series, the Jossey-Bass New Directions Series, and several monographs published by the First Year Experience Program at the University of South Carolina.

Habley has served as a consultant or workshop leader at more than 125 colleges in the U.S., the Middle East, and Canada. He originated the NACADA Summer Institute on Academic Advising in 1987 and continues to serve on the faculty and as chairperson of the Advisory Board.

Habley is a charter member, past president and past treasurer of the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) and is the recipient of NACADA's awards for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Academic Advising and Service to NACADA.

Kathy Stockwell, Associate Dean, Business Division and Faculty Advising Coordinator, has been a faculty member in the Business Technology area for 21 years, a faculty advisor for 15 years and currently advises students in two of our accelerated evening programs. Stockwell has been involved with the original development of our faculty advising guidelines and is currently working with a task force to revise those guidelines. In addition, she has helped design and has recently revised the 12-module faculty advising training program used at her institution. Stockwell received the FVTC Outstanding Advisor Award in 1998 and received a NACADA Outstanding Advisor Award the same year.

Susan Campbell earned her undergraduate degree in speech and theatre from Ball State University, her M.S. Adult Education from the University of Southern Maine, and her Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Since arriving at the University of Southern Maine in 1977, Susan has held a number of administrative positions including serving as the coordinator of an off-campus center, director of summer session, director of financial aid, and director of admission. She became the director of academic advising in 1993 and was promoted in 2001 to her current position as Executive Director of the Division of Advising and Academic Resources.

In her role as Executive Director, Susan has responsibility for the functional areas of academic advising, support for students with disabilities, learning foundations (developmental studies, tutoring, first year seminars), and academic assessment. She also serves as the chair of the university's First Year Experience Committee. Susan's reputation as a change agent, or "utility in-fielder" (as her president refers to her), has led to the receipt of USM's Distinguished Professional Staff Award in 1998 and to her involvement in staff development activities both on and off campus on topics related to leadership and academic advising. Susan teaches an undergraduate peer leadership seminar and also coordinates the student affairs concentration in USM's masters in Adult Education Program where she is an adjunct associate professor.

Susan is active in regional and national NACADA activities. In addition to participating in regional and national conferences as a presenter, Susan has also served as site chair, evaluation chair, and conference chair for Northeast Region 1, is currently the Chair of the Advising Administration Commission, and has been a participant in the organization's Professional Development Task Force and the planning committee for the Advising Administrator's Institute. Susan contributed a chapter to The Distance Learner's Guide (1999) published by Prentice-Hall.