Students & Graduates

Our Students
Our students bring a vast spectrum of experience to their studies. Some teach in community colleges; others teach at 4-year colleges and universities. Many are preparing for career change coming from the government, the military, or the business world. 

Some graduates fulfill their goal of becoming faculty members. Others advance to administrative positions. Currently graduates serve as faculty, department heads, deans, provosts, and vice presidents in institutions around the country.  They have published work based on their dissertation research.  Please review our Research Abstracts Link for information about their contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Our students have published in Community College Week, Community College Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, ERIC, and other professional venues.  All students are required to submit proposals, presentations, or drafts for publication during their participation in the program.

Here are some of the interesting ventures our Higher Education Program students have participated in as well as their accomplishments:

Yolanda Barbier received the Marymount University Alumni Club Leadership Award.  She earned her B.A. in Communications with a minor in Business Administration at Marymount in 2004. Barbier is the chair of Marymount’s Black Alumni Network, which promotes black alumni participation, scholarship, and leadership in the Marymount University community. She founded the first black alumni chapter and spearheaded the Black Alumni Network Book Scholarship, helping raise enough funds to award four scholarships in fall ’08. Barbier is also president-elect of the Alumni Association Board and consistently works to enhance the Board’s visibility among MU alumni.

Kevin Christian facilitated the "African American Community College Presidents - Leadership in the 21st Century" session at the National Council on Black American Affairs Leadership Development Institute for African American Midlevel Administrators in Community Colleges.  Moreover, he presented at the Hillsborough Community College in Tampa at their conference "Black, Brown and College Bound - Strategies, Best Practices, and Model Programs to Strengthen the Future of African-American and Hispanic Males." 

Martin Dada presented his paper titled Internationalization of Higher Education in Africa: A critical review of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) at The Challenging Globalization Conference at the University of London, Royal Holloway.

Eva DeCourcey accepted a position as Graduate Studies Extended Learning Program Coordinator at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Becky Ericson, Astronomy Lab Coordinator for the Department of Physics and Astronomy, presented a workshop and a poster paper in summer 2007 at the Cosmos in the Classroom conference at Pomona College, Pomona CA.  This Astronomical Society of the Pacific sponsored the conference.

Laura Hill was promoted to the postion of Executive Director of University Advancement at the Virginia International University. 

Barry McManus recently published an article in Crime and Justice International (July/August 2007, Volume 23, Number 99) for Sam Houston State University's Criminal Justice Center. The article, "Interviewing the Islamic Extremist," offers a balanced picture of the 9/11 tragedy and how the highjackers could have possibly been identified and stopped.

Alan More took on an additional role at Mason this January in University Career Services (UCS) as the Employer in Residence for US Government Programs.  UCS has had an Employer in Residence for Corporate Programs for several years, which has been filled by a retired Exxon Mobil Executive.  Alan's position emanated from his CTCH 885 Non-teaching Internship last fall, when he helped UCS develop and run a number of programs to attract students to public service careers and bring Federal agencies to campus. Alan spent 32 years as a Federal employee, including two assignments overseeing recruitment.  Part of his job this semester has been to raise the visibility of Federal careers and Mason's initiatives to help students find appropriate positions.  His and Mason's efforts were featured in two recent articles in the Washington Post and in Universum USA's Webfeet (See links below).

Washington Post, Federal Page -  26 March 2009

More Young People Lining Up for Government Jobs

Universum USA's Webfeet

Joan Giampa Petro exhibited her painting "Ipod" at the 2008 Mid-Atlantic New Painting Exhibition at the University of Mary Washington Galleries.  The exhibition was juried by John B. Ravenal, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. 

Joan also participated in a museum show at Rawls Museum Arts, an affiliate of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The exhibition, Contemporary Virginia Painters, Process Unveiled, ran from January 11th 2008 through February 22nd 2008.   This show may travel in conjunction with the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for two years.

Dr. Vicki Salmon, Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs for the College of Visual and Performing Arts and an alumna of the Higher Education Program, published a chapter titled "Preparing Future Teacher-Scholars" in the book Academic Cultures: Professional Preparation and the Teaching Life by Modern Language Association.  Dr. Salmon also gave a presentation at the International Studies Association, Annual Convention, in New York City in February 2009 titled "Reviewing the Past and Anticipating the Future" as well as presented at the Conference on College and Composition and Communication is San Francisco in March 2009. Her presentation was titled "The New Wave of Graduate Student Writer."

Nicole Sealey spoke at Virginia State University during their celebration of Black History Month titled "Carter G. Woodson and the Origins of Multiculturalism."  Inspired by research she has done as a masters student in the HEP program (particularly in her History of Higher Education, Higher Education Law, and Student Services courses), Nicole presented a reflection of the struggle for equal opportunity in higher education. The presentation reviewed historic and current effects of political and legal sanctions as these events opened up education for minorities in the United States; created a respect for diversity in Higher Education; and facilitated a discussion on ways that Higher Education can continue to foster learning in diverse environments in spite of new challenges on the landscape for underrepresented minority groups.

Marilyn Sharif began her Doctor of Arts degree in Fall 2007 with a focus on international higher education. She hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts, with distinction, and her Master of Arts degrees in sociology at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. She has worked professionally for the US Bureau of the Census, The British Council, her husband's international management consulting business, and has extensive experience in the Middle East. Since 1994, Marilyn has worked at George Mason University as an Academic Advisor in the School of Management (SOM). She is SOM's undergraduate liaison to the Management faculty, the Office of International Programs and Services, the Office of Global Education, and Mason's University Scholars Program. She has been active in advising SOM's undergraduate students in the China 1-2-1 program. This fall, she will electronically advise SOM students at Mason's campus in Ras Al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Marilyn is a member of Phi Beta Delta, an Honor Society for International Scholars. She resides in Fairfax, Virginia with her husband Faysal and her elderly mother. Faysal and Marilyn have four adult children and two grandchildren.

Alison Thimblin was featured in the May 27th issue of USA Today (See link).  The article covers Alison's Algebra I learning community, which is a remedial math course taught on the main campus of Northern Virginia Community College.  A student who took the course this past spring "credits professor Alison Thimblin for breaking down math concepts in a way she could understand."  In fall 2008, Alison took an internship for her DA requirement, where she developed and taught a similar learning community for Algebra II.  

Rebecca Walter received the 2008 Spirit of King Award on January 30, 2008, in a ceremony held in the George W. Johnson Center's Dewberry Hall.   The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Planning Committee honored Ms. Walter because of her commitment to the development of a multicultural campus community through her advocacy for equality and justice.  She is the Associate Director of Faculty Partnerships and Curriculum Development for the Multicultural Research and Resource Center as well as an adjunct faculty member with the Department of Communication.