PSA Faculty
Douglas Berggren has a B.A. from Carleton College, an M.A. from Oxford University, and both an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Yale University. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He has received a Fulbright Scholarship, a Danforth Fellowship, and a Yale Junior Sterling Fellowship. He has taught philosophy at Carleton College, at Yale University, and at New College of Florida, where he was a charter faculty member and is currently a Professor Emeritus. Since his retirement, besides participating in the Pierian Spring Academy, he has continued to teach occasionally at New College, to sponsor senior theses, and to sit on baccalaureate committees. Berggren has published articles in different philosophy journals, presented papers at various professional meetings, and was President of the Florida Philosophy Association.
[ back to top...]
Len Blanchard, though a native of Connecticut, went south to attend college and has been a southerner ever since. He earned his B.A. at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at Emory University. In addition, he has pursued graduate studies in American Literature of the South at Wake Forest University. Dr. Blanchard has been teaching in the Department of Language and Literature at Manatee Community College since 1999. Previously, he taught at the high school level in North Carolina and at the high school and college levels in Dallas, Texas, for a few years before beginning to write and teach as a training and management developer in a corporate environment. He was employed for 11 years by The Southland Corporation, parent of 7-Eleven Stores and headquartered in Dallas. Dr. Blanchard also worked several years as an independent consultant writing business plans for entrepreneurs around the nation. His work as an independent consultant brought him to Sarasota in 1992, when he decided to make Sarasota his home. Since 1991, Dr. Blanchard has published more than 200 poems in small press magazines around the nation. In 1996, 1998, and 2004 he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in poetry. In 2001, he published An American Passion, an epic poetic narrative on the life and killing of the mystic Sioux warrior Crazy Horse, and his collection of poems, Provocations of the Birds and the Beach, was published by Bellowing Ark Press in 2005. Dr. Blanchard is listed in Marquis Who' s Who in America, Who' s Who in the World, Who' s Who in Business and Finance and Who' s Who Among America' s Teachers.
[ back to top...]
Phillip Buck earned a B.A. and M.A. in English and Literature from California State University, Hayward, and completed his doctoral course work in the administration of higher education at Colorado State University, Fort Collins. Over the past 25 years, he has taught English, literature, and Biblical studies at a number of colleges and universities, including California State University at Hayward, Regis University in Denver, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Front Range College in Westminster, Colorado. He was a Department Chair of English and Literature at Front Range College from 1983 to 1987 and Dean of Arts and Humanities from 1987-2004. Each spring from 1986-2004, he conducted a series of six special lectures in Biblical Literature for students in the Department of Humanities at Front Range College.
[ back to top...]
Anne Castellina was born in Massachusetts, educated throughout the country, and graduated from Huntingdon College. She retired from the National Park Service in 2005 after 33 years as a Ranger, Historian, Instructor, and Superintendent. During her career she worked in parks in FL, NY, WV, Washington, DC, and Alaska.
Michelle Christides has a B.A. in Economics and M.A. in European Studies from the University of Michigan. She completed her doctoral course work at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was invited to attend a yearlong experimental seminar "to humanize medical education," sponsored by Johnson & Johnson. She taught at Golden Gate and California Sonoma Universities before conducting an import business from France (where she had been raised in a U.S. diplomatic family), which transformed into Culture Shock consulting, during the 1980s. She then attended the C. G. Jung Institute Zurich for two years, and completed her personal analysis before entering private practice in adaptive stress to trends in globalization. In Sarasota, she is a full-time artist in oils and is doing research into the impact of professionally conducted, cultural programs on the health of older adults, after attending a summer program at Shands Hospital, University of Florida, in order to implement an arts program in hospitals and clinics in our community.
[ back to top...]
Owen Comora has been an avid amateur birder for over 50 years. Eight years ago he originated the popular Bird Interpreter program at Myakka River State Park, where he volunteers as the Senior Bird Interpreter. He leads many Birding “Hotspots” field trips.
Mary Jane De Genaro received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and her M.A. from Teacher s College, Columbia University. She has served as a consultant for National Piano Foundation, International Piano Foundation, Henson Associates, and the MIT Seymour Papert Hennigan School Project. Ms. De Genaro is the founder of the Greenwich Arts Council, Greenwich, Connecticut. She also designed and developed MusicShapes, children s software for Apple Computer. In addition, she has written a novel (Call It Paradise, published by Kensington Press, 1995), and composed the original musical, Rajah, which was produced by Royal Palm Players, Boca Grande, Florida, in 1997.
[ back to top...]
Robert J. Dinkin received his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. For 33 years (1968-2001), he taught at California State University, Fresno, where he specialized in American political history. He is the author of five books on American politics including Campaigning in America: A History of Election Practices (1989), and most recently Election Day: A Documentary History (2002).
[ back to top...]
Jeanne Dubi Before moving to Florida in 1997, Dubi lived in New York City and was VP/General Manager of Harper’s Magazine. As president of the Sarasota Audubon Society she devotes much of her time to birding and conservation of bird habitat in Sarasota County.
Marjorie El-Kadi has a M.A. in English from Hunter College and a M.A. in Media from The New School. She is a professional actress, EQUITY, AFTRA, and has performed in the U.S. and abroad. Some of the venues include Baalbek, Lebanon and Edinburgh, Scotland. For ten years she was the hostess and producer of Fifty Plus, an award-winning New York City Cable Television series. Earlier, she did the English short-wave nightly broadcast from Baghdad, Iraq as well as several Voice of America broadcasts. She is the author of a movie/play: City of Hope.
[ back to top...]
Henry Ettman earned his M.A. in sociology and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Nevada Reno. He has taught sociology and psychology at the University of Missouri, University of Nevada and at Portland, Oregon' s Lewis and Clark College and University of Portland, among others. He has studied and done extensive research in the sociology and psychology of jazz, and has over 45 years of experience as a professional jazz musician. He has worked extensively in arts administration and jazz presenting, including a 12-year presidency of the northern Nevada jazz society, For the Love of Jazz.
[ back to top...]
John Goodman Boston University Professor Emeritus of Music Theory and Composition and Director of “Second Sunday at Selby”; lecturer for Selby Library’s “Master and Masterpieces of Music”; President of Sarasota Concert Association; Sarasota Music Archive
board member.
Alan Grindal, M.D., received his undergraduate education at Northwestern University and his medical degree from the University of Illinois. His neurological training was obtained from the Medical College of Virginia where he served as an Assistant Professor. He has practiced neurology in Sarasota since 1978.
[ back to top...]
Ellen Hampshire was born and educated in Lancashire, England. She emigrated to Montreal, Canada, where she earned a B.F.A. in Art History. Her studies focused on the art history of carpet weaving of the ancient Near East.
Terry Hornblow, M.D. graduated from Columbia College in New York and Albany Medical College. He undertook two years of training in Internal Medicine and then a three-year residency in Neurology in the program run by Dr. Norman Geschwind of Harvard University, whose particular interest was behavioral neurology. Dr. Hornblow entered private practice in clinical neurology on the staff of Hartford Hospital, where he remained until 1999. His duties at Hartford Hospital included teaching residents and interns. He and his wife have been in Sarasota for four years.
[ back to top...]
Si Isenberg B.A.- Syracuse U.; Graduate studies at Syracuse, and Columbia; Citation Theatre Arts Columbia, Brander Mathews Playhouse with Sam Wanamaker on establishing The Globe Playhouse, London. Edited Shakespeare Bulletin. Publications: Fancies and Goodnights, A Shakespearean Journey. Secretary Drama Desk, Editor of Stages, The National Theatre Magazine.
Robert J. Kelly has a B.S.E.E. and an M.S. from Johns Hopkins. He also has an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. While he has been a teacher of statistics, Kelly has over 40 years experience in systems engineering and physics. For 20 years he was a U.S. technical advisor at international meetings for the Federal Aviation Agency, and is currently a part-time consultant for the agency. He has over 35 publications.
[ back to top...]
Arthur S. Kesten has a B.S. from New York University and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. He is currently President of Nanocap Technologies. He was employed by the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory (1955-1963) and the United Technologies Research Center (1963-1997) where he held several key scientific positions including their Associate Director of Research and Director of Research Programs. In 1997, he was named by the United Technologies Research Center as its Distinguished Engineer of the Year. He taught for many years at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
[ back to top...]
Peter Koenig holds degrees from Harvard University, Cranbrook Academy of Art, and the Massachusetts College of Art. A painter and mixed-media artist, he has held university teaching and administrative appointments in Michigan, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts among others. In Australia, he was Dean, College of Art, Prahran College. He has been the curator for more than 200 exhibitions and is the author of over 300 articles on art for major newspapers and magazines in Massachusetts and Florida. His honors include a Fulbright Fellowship and a U.S. Bicentennial Grant.
[ back to top...]
Ted Koszarski is founder and executive director of the Veterans Memorial Archive, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to videotaping and preserving the memories of World War II and other veterans. The VMA supports a web site, vetarchive.com, that features video streaming clips from some of the 550 interviews conducted to date. Ted has had a life long interest in military history. He spent a career in the advertising and broadcasting industries and holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin.
[ back to top...]
Richard LeVene has a B.A. in Speech and Drama from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and an M.F.A. in Theatre Performance from the University of Georgia. The theatre has been a part of Richard' s life since he started working for a summer theatre in Illinois while still in high school. After spending several years working as a professional actor/director he found himself as Chairman of the Theatre Department at Florida Southern College. He recently retired from that position and now calls Sarasota home.
[ back to top...]
Margaret Lowman "Canopymeg" Lowman, Ph.D., climbs trees for a living. Currently serves as Director of Environmental Initiatives and Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at New College of Florida. Has written four books, including her most recent "It's a Jungle
Up There."
James McCartney is a retired long-time Washington correspondent and columnist for the Knight-Ridder Newspaper chain. He is a graduate of Michigan State University and holds a master' s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. He covered foreign affairs under eight presidents traveling extensively throughout the world. He covered 10 U.S.-Soviet summit meetings, traveled extensively in the Middle East and became a specialist in the nuclear arms issues. In recent years he has taught at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
[ back to top...]
John Mellon has a B.A. from Clarion University and an M.Litt. and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. Over the years, he has taught at the undergraduate and graduate levels, lectured, and led discussion groups on poetry, drama, fiction, and non-fiction.
[ back to top...]
Marvin Mills received his B.A. from Queens College. He then went on to Columbia University where he received an M.A. in philosophy, another in architecture, and a third in the history of architecture. He has taught the history and theory of architecture and architectural design at Ohio University, Pratt Institute, Tuskegee Institute, City College of New York, Pace University and the University of South Florida. Beginning in 1956 and continuing until the early 1990s, Mills worked as a professional architect.
[ back to top...]
Stan Nikkel earned his doctorate in Urban Sociology at the University of Maryland and taught at George Washington University, Maryland and the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He co-authored a college level textbook used throughout the country. He founded and managed a multi-cultural service organization in Boston, The Urbanistics Foundation, which served over 4,500 clients from 58 countries. His historical research culminated in a book entitled The City of Presidents about the history of Quincy, Massachusetts, the Adams family hometown. He is personally familiar with trips we will be discussing; he has biked 500 miles on the Santa Fe Trail and the entire length of the Erie Canal and canoed on the Missouri River exactly 200 years, to the day, after Lewis and Clark arrived at the site of Fort Benton, Montana.
[ back to top...]
Neil O'Neill earned his B.A. in English and History from Ole Miss, M.A. in History from Northwestern University. Ph.D. in British history from the University of Virginia. He studied abroad in England and Mexico. He taught at various schools before taking an early retirement to concentrate on his first love -- Roman History.
Earl E. Pollock is a partner in the Chicago-based law firm of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal. He received a B.A. from the University of Minnesota and a J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law. Before entering private practice, he served as law clerk to Chief Justices Vinson and Warren of the Supreme Court and then as Assistant to the Solicitor General in the Department of Justice in Washington.<
[ back to top...]
Paul Sarno is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the Columbia Law School. Stemming from his undergraduate days, he has nurtured a fascination with Southeast Asia. Through wide ranging readings for forty years, five visits, (the latest in May -June, 2007)and membership in both the Asia Society and the Burma Studies Group, he has been engaged in a systematic effort at a better understanding of these countries.
[ back to top...]
Irwin Starr is a 45 year veteran broadcaster. Involved in Radio, Television, Publishing and the Internet, his primary career role was in local television station Management. B.A. and M.A. from The University of Michigan he taught at Earlham College, Richmond IN.
Brenda Terriswas named Executive Director of The Sarasota Season of Sculpture in February 2007. She has more than 25 years of marketing and communications experience.
Lee Daniel Snyder has earned degrees at Williams College, B.A., 1955; Union Theological Seminary, M.Div., 1961; and Harvard University, Ph.D., 1966. He has taught at Ohio Wesleyan University, 1963-69; New College of Florida as Professor of Medieval-Renaissance History 1969-2003, and Dartmouth Dante Institute, 1988. He has submitted the following manuscript for publication: "Dante' s Search for Truth and Love, Creation of Christian Epic, An Historian' s View."
[ back to top...]
Joyce Stith, as a Professor of English at Kent State and California State University at Hayward, was drawn to film by her love of literature and her experience on stage in the States and in Mexico, where she moved in 1987. There she was director of the film program at the Biblioteca Publica de San Miguel de Allende. Also passionate about art history, Joyce now lives in Sarasota and travels in the summer to the great art museums and drama festivals of America and Europe.
[ back to top...]
Morton Stith has B.A. and M.A. degrees from Wayne State University and a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Wisconsin. He has taught art history in a number of American universities including Wayne State University, University of Kansas, and Wichita State University and is a professor emeritus from California State University. He has also served as art professor and high sierra guide with Maryland Institute and College of Art and chairman of the department of art history at the Instituto Allende. He served as Resident Director of the eighteen California State Universities in Spain.
Noreen Wald AKA Nora Charles published ten novels for Berkley Prime Crime. Death Rides the Surf, (June 2007) is the latest in her
best-selling Senior Sleuth Series. Noreen taught at the Smithsonian, the CIA and the Writer’s Center in MD.
Miles W. Williams was a member of the Peace Corps from 1963-1965, serving in Colombia. He returned to attend graduate school at Vanderbilt University where he received a Ph.D. in political science. He has taught at Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, Southern Illinois University, Vaxjo University in Sweden, as well as Halmstad College, also in Sweden, at the Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies in the Netherlands, and at Central Missouri State University. He has written numerous articles and manuscripts on Latin American politics as well as immigration and refugee policy.
[ back to top...]
Greg Zaritsky was born in Kiev, Ukraine (then USSR). After receiving his B.A. and M.A. from Kiev Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Grigory moved to the United States. Among his musical activities were: American Symphony Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonia, New Russian Orchestra, Soviet Émigré’ Orchestra, and Springfield Symphony Orchestra.
Stan Zimmerman is a journalist who has wrestled the news in radio, television, newspapers and newsletters. As a writer, he has placed stories in several magazines. As an author, he has written three books (one of them cited in the June issue of Scientific American). He has covered city halls, county courthouses, Congress, the Pentagon and overseas assignments. His awards include citations from the National Press Club, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Arleigh Burke medal from the U.S. Naval Institute.
[ back to top...]
Enquiries please call: 941-716-2471 or e-mail: info@pierianspringacademy.org