Penn State Greater Allegheny has hired three new faculty to supplement its teaching staff. Joining the PSUGA faculty ranks in 2007-08 are (in photograph left to right): James Pritchett, Instructor in Mathenmatics; Lori Hepner, Assistant Professor of Integrative Arts; and Johnathan White, Instructor in History.
Ms. Hepner completed her M.F.A. in Digital Media from the Rhode Island School of Design. She received her B.F.A. in Professional Photographic Illustration from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Hepner also completed studies to earn a Collegiate Teaching Certificate at Brown University and completed courses in photography and sculpture at the University of Chicago.
While at the Rhode Island School of Design, Ms. Hepner received the 2005 President's Award for Teaching and at the Rochester Institute of Design she was awarded the Outstanding Undergraduate Scholarship Award.
Since 2005, Ms. Hepner has been an Assistant Professor of New Media Design at the State University of New York College at Cortland. Previous teaching experience includes instructing at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University. Her creative works have been selected for invited and juried exhibitions both in this country and abroad.
Joining the staff of the Academic and Career Excellence (ACE) program at Penn State Greater Allegheny for the academic year is Instructor in Mathematics, James Pritchett. Mr. Pritchett joins the ACE staff from a position as associate teacher and mathematics tutor in the Wilkinsburg School District. Previous teaching experience also includes service as an adjunct faculty member in algebra and fundamental mathematics for the Boyce Campus of the Community College of Allegheny County.
Mr. Pritchett received an M.S. in Nuclear Engineering from Howard University and completed his undergraduate work in Physics from Alabama A & M University. He worked for 25 years for Westinghouse Elecgric Company where his duties included core design and safety analysis and as lead training specialist with the Core Technologies Department in the Nuclear Fuel Business Unit.
Johnathan White, PSUGA's new Instructor in History, is currently completing his doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh. White expects to complete defense of his doctoral dissertation, "The 'Riff' Between Us: An Analysis of Pittsburgh's Black Musicians Union, Local 471," during the 2007-08 academic year.
Mr. White earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science at Clark Atlanta University and completed his M.A. in History at the University of Pittsburgh, concentrating in U.S. and African-American history. An eight-time recipient of Pitt's Minority Summer Research Fellowship, White also received the K. LeRoy Irvin Minority Fellowship and the Provost Fellowship from the University. Serving as a teaching assistant since 1998, White has taught a variety of college level history courses at the University of Pittsburgh including U. S. History, African-American history, the History of Sport and Western Civilization courses.