@ Our Best
Recently Published Faculty, Alumni, Staff, and Learners
Learners & Alumni
Doctoral
Anthony F. Ciuffo, Ph.D. 2007 is an active partner in the M & V Provisions Company, Ridgewood, NY, one of the major food distributors in that tri-state area. He has written several business-related journals and publications, including: “Writing a Business Plan, “Business Development,” and “Starting your Own Business Workshop,” and was instrumental in starting 12 successful business enterprises. His current book is titled Family Business Research Journal: Balancing Family and Business.
Joseph Dragun, Ph.D. 1997, a psychologist in Brighton, Michigan, recently published Falling in Love is Not Enough: Keeping Your Love Alive Forever. He spent a number of years exploring change and the effectiveness of groups, while helping individuals improve their relationships with their spouses, families and work mates.
Dragun was the financial officer and president of the board of directors of Adult Learning Systems (ALS). During his eight-year tenure, ALS grew from 15 employees to a 200-employee, multi-state, service organization.
Richard Gilbert, Ph.D. 1990 authored Poems of Consciousness: Contemporary Japanese and English-Language Haiku in Cross-Cultural Perspective (Red Moon, March 2008). He presented "Did the Frog Jump Into the Old Pond?" during the 100 Bridges: Haiku North America 2007 in Winston-Salem, NC in 2007. Haiku North America is one of the largest gatherings of Haiku poets in the United States and Canada. In 2006, Gilbert was awarded a two year grant from MEXT (the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) for research on modern Japanese Haiku.In 1997, he moved to Japan to pursue Japanese Haiku research; and is currently Associate Professor, Department of British and American Language and Literature, at Kumamoto University. His interviews with gendai haijin (contemporary Haiku poets) now living in Japan are collected on the Web site Gendai Haiku.
Sally Harcourt Haven, Ph.D. 1974 authored, The Life and Loves of Alexandra (Xlibris, March 2008). Haven taught in New York at Skidmore College, SUNY-Albany; and Elmira College, before she retired.
Patricia Maiden, Ph.D. 2001 joined Arc of Onondaga as Program Development Coordinator and will help in the development of new Arc programs and services. Arc of Onondaga is the largest provider of services for people with developmental disabilities in Onondaga County, New York, serving over 3,000 individuals and their families at 37 local sites. Maiden is also co-chair of the Electronic Communications committee of the State Society of the Aging of New York (SSA), charged with implementing and maintaining electronic communications to SSA members and the public through the SSA website, the SSA listserve, and SSA mailbox. Both the Journal of Jewish Aging and Gerontology and Geriatrics Education have published articles by Maiden.
Carter McNamara, Ph.D. 1996 won the gold medal in the Axiom Business Book awards in January 2008 with his book, Field Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development. His leadership model was selected by Microsoft Corporation for its world-wide, high-potential leadership development program.
McNamara is founder and developer of the Free Management Library, used worldwide by people who have need of free information and materials in regard to for-profit and nonprofit business, management and organizations. He is co-founder of Authenticity Consulting L.L.C for nonprofit capacity building and nonprofit business development, and provides consulting, training and publications for nonprofits across the globe. See www.authenticityconsulting.com.
Masters
Jennifer Foerster, M.F.A. 2007 was one of five poets to be awarded the Stanford Creative Writing Program’ Wallace Stegner Fellowship. She was selected from over 1,000 applicants from the United States and 15 other countries. The two-year fellowship program covers tuition and health insurance and provides each of the fellows a $26,000 per-year stipend; and will start this autumn. Foerster has been the recipient of the Truman Capote Fellowship, the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony Fellowship, the Naropa Summer Writing Program Fellowship, and the Vermont Studio Center Mill Atelier Fellowship. She has been published in Red Ink, Tribal College Journal, Shenandoah, Atlantis, The Cream City Review, Ploughshares, Passages North, and To Topos: Poetry International. Foerster is a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma; and is also a graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Faculty
Andrew Harvey, CPD (ret.), Ed.D, Professor/Faculty advisor at the Los Angeles Academic Center was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Award for his book, Leadership: Texas Hold ‘em Style; BookSurge Publishing, October 2007. The Hoffer Award honors freethinking writers and independent books of exceptional merit. Harvey served in law enforcement for 25 years, the last 12 as a captain with a Southern California police agency; and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy, the California POST Command College, the West Point Leadership Program; and is recognized in California as a master instructor. He has been published numerous times in national and international publications; is a recognized expert in leadership and career development; and has served as an instructor in command leadership at the Los Angeles Police Department Academy. Harvey has appeared as a leadership authority on television and radio, including the internationally-broadcast Bloomberg Business Television Show, and the nationally syndicated Joey Reynolds Radio Show. His first book, The Call to Lead: How Ordinary People Become Extraordinary Leaders, received national attention. Through his company, Andrew Harvey Seminars, he provides leadership training and consulting to individuals and organizations throughout the nation. See www.thecalltolead.com.
Geof Hewitt, adjunct faculty, Montpelier Center, also serves as Writing/Secondary English Consultant to the Vermont Department of Education. He is also part of the Discover Writing Company, Shoreham, Vermont; and provides discover writing workshops designed to provide a comprehensive and sustained program in professional development for teachers. His latest book, Hewitt's Guide to Slam Poetry and Poetry Slam, which comes with a DVD that shows slams in progress and provides a roadmap to creating a successful slam, now bears the 2008 Mom’s Choice gold seal of excellence for 2008. Honoring excellence, The Mom's Choice Awards® is an annual awards competition that recognizes authors, inventors, companies, parents and others for their efforts in creating quality family-friendly media, products and services.
Hewitt’s poetry slams are informal, lighthearted competitions where audience members are chosen at random to judge three-minutes-or-less presentations of original poems.
Laban Carrick Hill, adjunct faculty, Undergraduate Program, Montpelier Center, recently published America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the 60s (Little Brown 2007), which was selected as a 2008 New York Public Library book for the teenager; is a distinguished selection for Best Books of 2008, Bank Street College, New York; and won the 2007 Parenting Publications Gold Award.Hill will be a correspondent for PEN at the PEN America World Voices Festival, April 29-May 4. PEN America is a journal for writers and readers. Hill lectured on the 1960s at The Dalton School in New York City on April 11; read at Dobra Tea House in Burlington, Vermont on April 16; and will read at the Phoenix Bookstore in Essex Junction Vermont on May 2.. Hill is the author of more than 25 books, including the 2004 National Book Award Finalist Harlem Stomp! A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance, a book he researched for more than a decade. Hill has also taught writing at Columbia University, Baruch College, and St. Michael’s College in Vermont. He is currently teaching at Pine Manor College Solstice MFA in Writing program. In 2008, Hill's poem Dave the Potter will be illustrated by acclaimed artist Bryan Collier and published as a picture book. His young adult novel, Casa Azul, based on the Frida Kahlo painting Self Portrait (with Monkey and Hummingbird) was selected as a New York Public Library 2006 Book for the Teenager. His poems have been included in the Contemporary Poetry of New England anthology and in numerous literary magazines, including Tar River Review, the Denver Quarterly, and American Letters & Commentary. His Reader’s Companion to Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections (SparkNotes) appeared in print in 2003. He has also written critical biographies for Scribners American Writers and British Writers.