Academics at MBC
Faculty
Patricia C. Westhafer
Professor of Education
Dr. Patricia C. Westhafer completed her baccalaureate degree at James Madison University and taught middle school mathematics, science, and language arts. After earning her master’s degree in reading, she was a Title I reading specialist for Staunton City Schools. Dr. Westhafer received her doctorate in education in 1985 from the University of Virginia and has been a faculty member at Mary Baldwin College since that time. Dr. Westhafer was chair of the Education Department for 15 years and has shepherded many students into their own classrooms. Her experiences include teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Dr. Westhafer has served on numerous college committees including the Education Committee, Committee on Teaching and Learning, Faculty Status and Evaluation Committee, Educational Policy Committee, President’s Committee for Academic Planning, Master of Arts in Teaching Planning Committee, and the Program for the Exceptionally Gifted Program Planning Committee, to name a few. Dr. Westhafer is also a member of the steering committee for the Mid-Valley Consortium for Teacher Education. At the local level, Dr. Westhafer is a charter member of the Valley Alliance for Education and has served as a member of the High Schools that Work Project and Delivery Team. She has served as president of the Shenandoah Valley Reading Council and has been on the board of directors of the Virginia Reading Association.
Dr. Westhafer has given papers at local and national conferences including the Shenandoah Valley Reading Council, Virginia Association of Colleges for Teacher (VACTE), American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), and the Mid-Valley Consortium for Teacher Education. In June 2004, Dr. Westhafer was invited to present “High Quality Teacher Preparation: Beyond the Textbook” at the 18th 4Mat Renewal Conference in Chicago, IL. At the February 2005 AACTE conference in Washington, D.C., she presented a paper entitled “Collaboration: The Path to Preparing Highly Qualified Education Professionals.” Dr. Westhafer is a certified 4MAT trainer and has trained teachers around the state in the 4MAT Model. Dr. Westhafer’s research interest is in preparing pre-service teachers to address rigorous content standards and the diversity of students.
James C. McCrory
Professor of Education
I graduated from the University of Virginia in 1972 with a BA in psychology, then remained in Charlottesville for the next eight years to earn an MEd to teach in the public schools for four years, and to earn an EdD in 1980. Following five years working as an assistant professor of education at Birmingham-Southern College, I moved back to Virginia to begin teaching at Mary Baldwin College. Along the way, my wife and I have been raising four children.
My greatest joy at MBC is teaching. Though I am full time in the Residential College for Women, I have been fortunate enough to also teach students in the Adult Degree Program and Master of Arts in Teaching Program. Professional activities through the years have included serving as president of two state level associations, one of which was the Virginia Association of College and Universities with Teacher Education. I was one of four authors of the position statement of the American Association of College and Universities with Teacher Education.
I have written papers and made presentations at national conferences, but my highest professional joy has been in the college classroom with MBC students as well as getting into elementary school classrooms to observe MBC students successfully teaching.
T. Lowell Lemons
Associate Professor of Education
After spending several years as an administrator in public schools, becoming a member of the Mary Baldwin College faculty has allowed me to return to my teaching roots. While leadership in education plays an important role, there is nothing more critical, or fulfilling, than the learning process between teacher and student. It is because of this belief that I have refocused my professional career on teaching.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Tech, I served as a high school science teacher. During the first five years of teaching I completed a Master of Education degree at the University of Virginia in the area of school administration and supervision. Shortly after completing the U.Va. program, I began an assignment as assistant principal at Warrenton Junior High School in Fauquier County, Virginia which lead to the principalship of that same school. My involvement at the school continued for 14 years. During that time I also completed a Doctor of Education program in education leadership at George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. After three years as assistant superintendent for instruction in Fauquier County my family moved to Waynesboro, Virginia where I served as school superintendent for 13 years.
There have been many wonderful professional opportunities and experiences for me which I enjoy sharing with the students at Mary Baldwin in the hope that they will become committed and effective in the mission of teaching. The chance to serve on several boards including the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the National Basic School Network, the Virginia Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Vocational Technical Center, and the Central Shenandoah Valley Regional Governor’s School are among those opportunities. In addition, I have attended and presented at numerous professional conferences and taught graduate classes as an adjunct faculty member at James Madison University, Shenandoah University, Eastern Mennonite University, and University of Virginia. However, most beneficial has been the chances to observer, interact with, and form relationships with many great teachers.
ADULT DEGREE PROGRAM FACULTY
Tiffany Barber; Assistant
Professor of Education, Adult Degree Program; BA, James Madison
University; MEd, PhD, University of Virginia
Karen Dorgan
Associate
Professor of Education
Dr. Karen Dorgan holds a BA from the College of William and Mary in elementary education. She also earned both a MA in education from William and Mary and a Certificate of Advanced Study in school administration. Her EdD is from the University of Virginia, where her degree was in curriculum and instruction, with emphasis areas in mathematics education and philosophical foundations of education.
Prior to coming to MBC, Dr. Dorgan taught in grades 5 – 8, primarily in mathematics and science. She was employed for a number of years in York County, VA, at both the elementary and middle school levels.
Since 1994, Dr. Dorgan has been a part of the faculty at the Richmond campus of the Adult Degree Program. She works as an advisor to students in ADP and in the Post-Baccalaureate Teacher Licensure program. In addition, she has taught a variety of courses in the Master of Arts in Teaching program.
An active member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Dr. Dorgan has presented at numerous regional and state conferences. Her research interests include the teaching of geometry, and her last sabbatical was spent studying the role of geometry (and methods for teaching that area of mathematics) in the elementary school curriculum of the Netherlands.
James Harrington
Professor
of Education
Dr. James Harrington came to Mary Baldwin College in 1983 and served
as director of the Adult Degree Program from then until 1992. Since
joining the education faculty, Dr. Harrington has taught in the Residential
College for Women, the Adult Degree Program, the Post Baccalaureate
Teacher Licensure Program, and the Master of Arts in Teaching Program.
His academic specialties include governance and public policy in education
and he teaches Foundations in Education, Literature for Children and
Adolescents, Meaning and Purpose in Teaching and Learning, and Public
Policy in Education. During his sabbatical in the spring semester of
2008, Harrington will serve as Scholar in Residence in the Virginia
General Assembly, working with the Education Committee of the House
of Delegates to observe the legislative process first hand.
Dr. Harrington served for nine years on the Staunton City School Board,
including three different terms as its chairman. Dr. Harrington believes, “it
is vitally important that teacher preparation programs be closely aligned
with the needs and aims of the school divisions in which our graduates
will teach. It is a single privilege to be associated with the preparation
of so many fine individuals who will become tomorrow’s teachers
in our community and throughout the Commonwealth.”
Pamela
R. Murray
Professor of Education
Dr.
Pamela Murray completed her BA in English at the University of Illinois
with high honors and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Upon graduation, she
taught middle school language arts and reading in Massachusetts and
earned an MEd in reading from Boston State College (now University
of Massachusetts Boston.) She worked as a program specialist in education
at the Division of Continuing Education, University of Virginia and
then as Director of Continuing Education at Roanoke College. She joined
the Mary Baldwin College faculty in 1985, and has been an advisor in
the Adult Degree Program, Post Baccalaureate Teacher Licensure, and
the Master of Arts in Teaching. In 1987, she completed her PhD in higher education administration
at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Murray has served on many committees at Mary Baldwin College. She currently chairs Adult Degree Program Faculty Review and serves on Faculty Status and Evaluation, Master of Arts in Teaching Policies, and the Education Committee. She has been active for a number of years in the Association for Adult and Continuing Education and served as international president in 2004.
She is very committed to making careers in teaching available to working adults in Roanoke, and to continuing to help to build and enhance the quality of Mary Baldwin College’s excellent programs in education. She is also a member of Roanoke Valley Thera Pets, an organization which trains therapy dogs to help improve children’s reading skills in the Roanoke City Public Schools http://www.therapyanimals.org and a member of the Education Committee of the Art Museum of Western Virginia http://www.artmuseumroanoke.org/.
Nicole Oechslin; Associate
Professor of Education, Adult Degree Program, Faculty Advisor ADP; BA,
Newcomb College; MEd, EdD, University of Virginia
Roger Wilborn; Assistant
Professor of Education; Adult Degree Program, BS, Ferrum College;
MDiv, Duke University Divinity School; DMin, Drew University
