Staff

Phone: 540-887-7039 — Fax: 540-887-7187 — E-mail: earlycollege@mbc.edu

Stephanie Ferguson, PhD
PEG Director
After earning her bachelor’s degree in education from Millersville University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Ferguson (formerly Nugent) began teaching middle and high school reading and English, both in Pennsylvania and in Louisiana. Six years into her teaching career, she found a position working with gifted children grades 6–8 and got her first glimpse of Mary Baldwin’s Program for the Exceptionally Gifted. Dr. Ferguson was working on her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Southeastern Louisiana University at the time, and she investigated PEG while she focused on gifted studies as a concentration for her degree. She completed her doctorate — with a concentration in gifted studies — at The University of Southern Mississippi. Her dissertation on moral development and self-concept among gifted residential high school students explored many of the elements present in MBC’s Program for the Exceptionally Gifted. She has done extensive research on social and emotional issues of gifted students, about which she has published a book, Social and Emotional Teaching Strategies, a textbook chapter, “Affective Education: Addressing the Social and Emotional needs of Gifted Students in the Classroom,” and several journal and newsletter articles. In her spare time, she enjoys entertaining her three cats, Neko, Joss, and Jain, writing (both for work and pleasure), reading, needlework, and riding motorcycles with her husband, Bruce.

Christy Baker
Associate Director of Student Life
Christy Baker graduated from James Madison University with a BA in speech communication and minors in Spanish and English. She began working with PEG in 2000 as a Residence Life Coordinator, transitioning to Director of PEG Student Life in 2008. Christy is a member of the Administrative Processes Improvement Team at Mary Baldwin College. She also represents PEG and MBC on the Boarding Schools Social Activities Committee. One of Christy’s favorite aspects of working with PEG is collaborating with students and staff to create a varied and exciting activities calendar each month. In her spare time, Christy enjoys shopping, reading, and spending time with her husband, Mike, and their two children.  

Candice Barnack
Assistant Director of Operations
Candice Barnack graduated from Mary Baldwin with a B.A. in Business Administration and a minor in Management in 2007.  Prior to coming to PEG she worked as Faculty Resource Coordinator in Pearce Science Center.  Candice was a Capstone participant for her Senior project on Staunton-Augusta-Waynesboro's Habitat for Humanity for which she volunteered for many years.  She is also an active volunteer with several other community organizations.  When she has free time, she enjoys spending it with her husband and two children.

Margaret Bivans
Assistant Director of Admissions
Margaret Bivans is a proud graduate of Mary Baldwin College where she received a BS in Biology. Originally from Rockville, MD she decided to stay in Staunton after graduation because she fell in love with the Shenandoah Valley. She began working for the college in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions in September 2010. When an opportunity opened to work with the Early College programs, Margaret was eager to get to know the families interested in the program and joined the staff soon after. She loves working through the admissions process with Early College students and hopes to pursue a Master’s degree in higher education administration. In her spare time, Margaret helps to run a restaurant with her boyfriend in Waynesboro, VA.

Sharmeka Williams – Residence Staff Assistant
Sharmeka Williams is a senior graduating May 2012 at Mary Baldwin College. She will be completing her education with a Major in English and double minors in Education and Leadership Studies. Also, she will be graduating from the Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership Program at MBC. During her time at Mary Baldwin she has committed herself to VWIL, as well as other positions such as Senate and Student Advocate in the Mary Baldwin community.  Sharmeka is actively pursuing the fifth year Master’s in Teaching program offered by MBC and is eager to graduate with her Master’s in 2013.

Once school is complete, she will be committing herself to working with children, something that she has always found pleasure in doing. She often expresses her passion, “I have always wanted to teach. I view teaching and education as a way to positively affect children all over the world, and if I can change a life with that avenue, my purpose has been fulfilled. My inspiration comes from wholeheartedly believing that this is what I was born to do. My role as an educator, mentor, and trusted advisor will provide an outstanding environment for all students that will learn under my instruction” (Sharmeka Williams). She is definitely looking forward to building connections and working with all of the PEG students this year!

Celi Oliveto – Residence Staff Assistant
Celi Oliveto is a graduate of Fairmont State University and pleased as punch to be current student of the Mlitt/MFA Shakespeare in Performance program. While in college she decided to turn her love of playing dress up and telling stories into a major. She holds one bachelor of arts in French and a second bachelors of arts in education with teaching certifications in oral communication and English, but has no idea what to do when she grows up. Celi has a dangerous love of baking apple pies from scratch and working out to Zumba. She is looking forward to meeting and working with the PEG girls this year!

Kelly Rose Spessard –Resident Staff Assistant
My name is Kelly Rose Spessard and I am the RSA on the 4th floor. I graduated from MBC in 2010 with my BA in electronic Art and Design and a minor in History. I received my Masters in the Arts of Teaching from MBC in 2011. I enjoy creative activities, listening to music, and reading! This is my second year working with PEG, and I am very excited to meet new faces and welcome those which are returning.

Stephanie Ward – Residence Life Coordinator
Stephanie Ward (Ingram) was reared in the beautiful mountains of Roanoke Virginia. Stephanie has a younger sister Juanita also enrolled at MBC this fall and a 11 year old niece Skylar who recently relocated from Richmond VA. "Mama Steph" is the nickname given to her by the students upon her arrival at Mary Baldwin College in Aug 2008.  At 38 years old she returned to complete her bachelors degree and lived as a traditional residential student. As a recent 2010 graduate of MBC with a BA in Sociology her ultimate goal is to work as a counselor with Hospice, and to teach adjunct at a local college. Stephanie is enrolled in the Masters of Education Program at MBC and working as a RLC within the PEG Program. Education is an important component of life. Once obtained it cannot be taken from you. Education is power! It brings my heart joy to assist in empowering young ladies, into becoming great women.

Clara Giebel – Residence Life Coordinator
 in music and English from Houghton College, a small liberal arts college in Western NY where studies and friendships are strong and students make their own fun. When not rehearsing or studying, she is most likely to be found writing good old fashioned letters, musing philosophically, constructing spontaneous crafts, playing music in her church, reading picture books or making something good to eat. She hopes to live her life spreading peace and joy, and teaching the love of the arts, maybe in London. 

Lia Razak – Resident Staff Assistant
Lia Razak is a recent graduate of NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, where she received a BA in Shakespearean Studies. An internship at the great Blackfriars Theatre brings her to Staunton, where she was lucky enough to be offered a position as a residential assistant on the PEG dorm. An alumna of many a CTY semester (a program similar to PEG but run as a summer camp), she is excited to be on the other side of this exciting educational opportunity, and looks forward to shepherding and guiding students to both achieve their very best, and not make any of the same mistakes she did as an impressionable teenager on a college campus. She enjoys knitting, reciting Shakespeare to random passers-by, and hosting dance parties. She dreams to one day run the Educational Department at the Globe Theater in London, and hopes that her time on the PEG dorm will give her the opportunity to start work on her life's goal: teaching young people about the fabulousness of Shakespeare. She also occasionally puts on a cape and cowl and fights the scum of the Gotham underworld by night, but that's not especially relevant to her work here at MBC — unless, of course, the girls have any knowledge of where the Joker may be hiding.