New Faculty for 2023-24

NEW FACULTY: Pictured from left are Mary Harmon, Alec Stinnett, Blake Haas '21, Herb Schmidt, Tiffany Springer '03, Marnee Fieldman, Sabino Luevano-Ortega, Brian Park, Peter Rule and Arren Duggan.MONMOUTH, Ill. – Fall semester classes are now in full swing at Monmouth College, and included among the 13 new faculty members who are helping to teach those classes are four familiar faces who either studied at Monmouth or served as visiting assistant professors a year ago.

Blake Haas ’21, lecturer of kinesiology, is one of two new faculty members who graduated from Monmouth. Haas is working toward a master’s degree in public health from Western Illinois University. Most recently, he was a graduate assistant at WIU, and he’s also worked as a paraprofessional.

After graduating from Monmouth in 2003, Tiffany Springer attended Western Illinois University, where she earned a master’s degree in education and educational leadership and a doctorate in educational leadership. The visiting professor of educational studies was principal of Silas Willard Elementary School in Galesburg, Illinois, prior to returning to Monmouth.

Also new to the educational studies department is Arren Duggan, who earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education (K-6) and anthropology, a master’s degree in elementary mathematics education, and a doctorate in educational studies with a concentration in mathematics education, all from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, where she served as an instructor, team leader and mentor.

Between them, Monmouth’s departments of accounting, business and economics have added four new members. Brian Park, assistant professor of economics, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in that field from Korea University and a doctorate in applied economics and management from Cornell University, where he served as a graduate research assistant.

Herb Schmidt, senior lecturer in business and economics, earned an associate’s degree from Southeastern Community College, a bachelor’s degree in business administrations from Iowa State University, an MBA from Western Illinois University, and a doctorate in business administration from St. Ambrose University. Schmidt was a full professor of business at Iowa Wesleyan University.

Marnee Fieldman, associate professor of accounting, earned a bachelor’s degree in that field from the University of Illinois and a MBA from the University of Chicago. She most recently served under Product Manage and Accounting at Hawkes Learning in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

Saadullah Bashir, assistant professor of quantitative analysis and applied economics, earned a bachelor’s degree in humanities and social sciences and an MBA from Lahore University of Management Sciences, and is currently working on his doctorate in politics and economics from Claremont Graduate University. Prior to joining Monmouth’s faculty a year ago, Bashir taught economics at the University of Redlands and University of La Verne.

Like Bashir, Joshua Gentzke was also on Monmouth’s faculty last year. The new assistant professor of religious studies earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies with a concentration in cultural studies, comparative literature and religious studies from State University of New York at Buffalo, a master’s degree in history of religious studies from Universiteit van Amsterdam, and a master’s degree and a doctorate in religious studies from Stanford University. Prior to coming to Monmouth, Gentzke was a visiting assistant professor of religious studies and integrative arts and humanities at Michigan State University.

Five other academic departments each added one new faculty member. The communication studies department welcomes Reginald Bell Jr., who earned a bachelor’s degree in religion and business administration at Birmingham-Southern College, a master’s of divinity in Black church studies and homiletics from Emory University, and a doctorate from the University of Memphis. Bell comes to Monmouth from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Mary Harmon, visiting assistant professor of English, double majored in biology and English at St. Ambrose University before attending Loyola University in Chicago, where she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in English. Prior to coming to Monmouth, Harmon served as the editorial assistant for the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, American Academy of Dermatology Case Reports, and the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology International.

Sabino Luévano-Ortega, assistant professor of Spanish, earned a bachelor’s in literaturas Hispánicas from Universidad de Sonora (México), and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Hispanic studies from the University of Houston. Luevano-Ortega was a visiting assistant professor of Spanish at Millsaps College prior to joining Monmouth’s faculty.

Alec Stinnett, assistant professor of psychology, earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northern Illinois University, a master’s degree in experimental psychology from Western Illinois University, and a doctorate in experimental psychology from Texas Tech University, where he also served as a graduate lab instructor.

Peter Rule, visiting assistant professor of theatre, earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and theatre from Knox College and a master of fine arts degree in scenic design from Carnegie Mellon University. Rule taught theatre at Theil College and was a teaching assistant and scenic designer at Carnegie Mellon prior to returning to western Illinois to teach at Monmouth.