HRHC Officers

Joanna Gonsalves (Ph.D., Clark University) is an associate professor of psychology at Salem State College. She is the coordinator of the Collegeâ€™s Honors Program and the chair of the Council on Teaching and Learning (CTL), a committee at the forefront of pedagogical innovation at Salem State. She has conducted research concerning service learning outcomes and adult cognitive development. She serves as the Budget Officer for the state-wide Commonwealth Honors Program which supports excellence in honors education at Massachusetts state colleges, community colleges and universities.Â In her home city of Woburn, MA Joanna has served as an Alderman-at-Large for the past eight years.

This is my sixteenth year as Honors Director at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown, NJ. I am also a member of the English Department, with one foot in Women’s Studies. Since I have been in honors, our enrollment has increased more than 50% and our honors curriculum grew from just two honors seminars to an eighteen credit curriculum. I served as Faculty Representative for the NRHC 2006-8 and local chair for the Morristown conference in 2008, coordinating the City as Text Experience. It was my pleasure to serve as the emcee for the beginning and wrap-up sessions of City as Text in Harrisburg. I have been inspired by Bernice Braid and her work, which led me to join the NCHC Faculty Institute: Borders, Barriers and Barrios in exploring the Sonoran Desert and its peoples from Tucson to Mexico in March 2008. I try to incorporate City as Text elements into my courses as a result. I feel very lucky to work with Honors Program students. Their vitality energizes me. I want to meet their needs as best as I can and provide the best learning experiences inside and outside the classroom. I look forward to serving the honors students of the NRHC.

From the time she became Honors Program director in the fall of 2001, Shirley has used the wisdom, creative ideas, and standards of the regional and national Honors councils to improve her home institution's Honors Programâ€”a partial list of examples includes summer reading, orientation retreat off campus, student presentations at honors conferences and other experiential learning, honors lounge, library space and graduate borrowing privileges, greater capstone project/thesis support, holistic admissions standards, and a two tier program to accommodate transfer and late-blooming students. Most recently, she advocated and secured a re-configuration of university scholarships to attract and retain Honors students, and instituted an assessment cycle. Committed to the Honors mission of innovation in undergraduate education, Shirley led honors and non-honors faculty development in interdisciplinary learning; this past year, the undergraduate faculty adopted integrative learning as the keystone of a new General Studies curriculum for all students. In cooperation with the graduate school, Honors launched a pilot research program involving Honors students with graduate faculty research. She welcomes the opportunity to give back to the organization which has given her much guidance and collegiality.

As director of the University Honors College at William Paterson University Susan oversaw the transformation of a 30 year-old Honors program into an Honors College. She is an historian of seventeenth century Europe and her area of research is women and poor relief in France. Her book, Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-Century France, was recently published this Spring in Ashgateâ€™s series on Women and Gender in the Early Modern World. In the history community A member of the Planning Committee for the tri-annual Attending to Early Modern Women conference, she serves as Treasurer to the Society for Early Modern Catholic Studies.

Before coming to William Paterson University, Susan spent eight years at Long Island Universityâ€™s CW Post campus where she served as the coordinator of the Honors Programâ€™s Humanities Track and Merit Scholarship program. She was also a member of the Honors Advisory Board, which helped to make policy decisions for the Honors Program, and selected the classes the Program offered to its students. Susan taught honors sections of Western Civilization, as well as upper division classes (including Genius and Deviance in the Renaissance and The Family Early Modern Europe) in the Honors Program. While she has about a yearâ€™s experience directing William Paterson Universityâ€™s Honors College she has experience working with an Honors Program, and with Honors students. While at Long Island University Susan also served as Chair of the History Department for two years, and led the committee that built the Universityâ€™s Gender Studies program.

Ben Moritz is the Honors Director at Mansfield University, where he is also the First-Year Coordinator and Assoc. Professor of Music. Since taking over the Honors Program three years ago, he has revamped the curriculum to reflect the Program’s core values of encouraging intellectual curiosity, developing critical thought, and fostering academic excellence. At the heart of these changes has been a focus on developing extracurricular opportunities for students to engage in creative problem solving, above and beyond the curricular components. Ben has been active in the NRHC and NCHC, presenting workshops and presentations at conferences for both groups, and attending the NCHC New Honors Program Director Summer Camp in Ames, Iowa. Developing effective Honors experiences and curricula specifically for performing arts students is a prime interest of his, as well as developing effective assessment tools for Honors Programs that not only serve the needs of the program, but serve larger institutional needs as well.

Northeast Region Honors Council 2010-2011 Officers
President		President-Elect
Ms. Julia Fennell		Dr. Joanna Gonsalves
Community College of Allegheny County	jfennell@ccac.edu	Salem State College	jgonsalves@salemstate.edu
Julia is a member of the English faculty at the Community College of Allegheny County, a multi-campus institution serving the greater Pittsburgh area. She has been active in Honors at her institution for the past six years, first as Honors Campus Coordinator for three years and now as Honors Director for the last three. The CCAC Honors Program has grown nearly 500% since she took over as Honors Director in 2005, due to a great extent to the idea sharing made possible through the regional and national Honors conferences. She attended all of the national NCHC conferences since beginning in Honors in 2002 and currently serves on the NCHC Teaching and Learning Standing Committee. She completed the NCHC Faculty Institute on Assessment and Evaluation in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 2006 and the NCHC Faculty Institute on Technology in Honors in Conway, Arkansas, in 2007. Julie gained valuable experience co-chairing the City as Text at the Northeast Regional Honors Conference in Pittsburgh, PA, in 2006 and looks forward to the opportunity to serve the Northeast Regional Honors Conference.		Joanna Gonsalves (Ph.D., Clark University) is an associate professor of psychology at Salem State College. She is the coordinator of the Collegeâ€™s Honors Program and the chair of the Council on Teaching and Learning (CTL), a committee at the forefront of pedagogical innovation at Salem State. She has conducted research concerning service learning outcomes and adult cognitive development. She serves as the Budget Officer for the state-wide Commonwealth Honors Program which supports excellence in honors education at Massachusetts state colleges, community colleges and universities.Â In her home city of Woburn, MA Joanna has served as an Alderman-at-Large for the past eight years.
Vice-President		Executive Secretary/Treasurer
Dr. Margaret Roman		Dr. Shirley Shultz Myers
College of Saint Elizabeth	mroman@cse.edu	Gallaudet University	shirley.shultz.myers@gallaudet.edu
This is my sixteenth year as Honors Director at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown, NJ. I am also a member of the English Department, with one foot in Women’s Studies. Since I have been in honors, our enrollment has increased more than 50% and our honors curriculum grew from just two honors seminars to an eighteen credit curriculum. I served as Faculty Representative for the NRHC 2006-8 and local chair for the Morristown conference in 2008, coordinating the City as Text Experience. It was my pleasure to serve as the emcee for the beginning and wrap-up sessions of City as Text in Harrisburg. I have been inspired by Bernice Braid and her work, which led me to join the NCHC Faculty Institute: Borders, Barriers and Barrios in exploring the Sonoran Desert and its peoples from Tucson to Mexico in March 2008. I try to incorporate City as Text elements into my courses as a result. I feel very lucky to work with Honors Program students. Their vitality energizes me. I want to meet their needs as best as I can and provide the best learning experiences inside and outside the classroom. I look forward to serving the honors students of the NRHC.		From the time she became Honors Program director in the fall of 2001, Shirley has used the wisdom, creative ideas, and standards of the regional and national Honors councils to improve her home institution's Honors Programâ€”a partial list of examples includes summer reading, orientation retreat off campus, student presentations at honors conferences and other experiential learning, honors lounge, library space and graduate borrowing privileges, greater capstone project/thesis support, holistic admissions standards, and a two tier program to accommodate transfer and late-blooming students. Most recently, she advocated and secured a re-configuration of university scholarships to attract and retain Honors students, and instituted an assessment cycle. Committed to the Honors mission of innovation in undergraduate education, Shirley led honors and non-honors faculty development in interdisciplinary learning; this past year, the undergraduate faculty adopted integrative learning as the keystone of a new General Studies curriculum for all students. In cooperation with the graduate school, Honors launched a pilot research program involving Honors students with graduate faculty research. She welcomes the opportunity to give back to the organization which has given her much guidance and collegiality.
Faculty Representative		Faculty Representative
Dr. Susan Dinan		Dr. Benjamin Moritz
William Patterson University	dinans@wpunj.edu	Mansfield University	bmoritz@mansfield.edu
As director of the University Honors College at William Paterson University Susan oversaw the transformation of a 30 year-old Honors program into an Honors College. She is an historian of seventeenth century Europe and her area of research is women and poor relief in France. Her book, Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-Century France, was recently published this Spring in Ashgateâ€™s series on Women and Gender in the Early Modern World. In the history community A member of the Planning Committee for the tri-annual Attending to Early Modern Women conference, she serves as Treasurer to the Society for Early Modern Catholic Studies. Before coming to William Paterson University, Susan spent eight years at Long Island Universityâ€™s CW Post campus where she served as the coordinator of the Honors Programâ€™s Humanities Track and Merit Scholarship program. She was also a member of the Honors Advisory Board, which helped to make policy decisions for the Honors Program, and selected the classes the Program offered to its students. Susan taught honors sections of Western Civilization, as well as upper division classes (including Genius and Deviance in the Renaissance and The Family Early Modern Europe) in the Honors Program. While she has about a yearâ€™s experience directing William Paterson Universityâ€™s Honors College she has experience working with an Honors Program, and with Honors students. While at Long Island University Susan also served as Chair of the History Department for two years, and led the committee that built the Universityâ€™s Gender Studies program.		Ben Moritz is the Honors Director at Mansfield University, where he is also the First-Year Coordinator and Assoc. Professor of Music. Since taking over the Honors Program three years ago, he has revamped the curriculum to reflect the Program’s core values of encouraging intellectual curiosity, developing critical thought, and fostering academic excellence. At the heart of these changes has been a focus on developing extracurricular opportunities for students to engage in creative problem solving, above and beyond the curricular components. Ben has been active in the NRHC and NCHC, presenting workshops and presentations at conferences for both groups, and attending the NCHC New Honors Program Director Summer Camp in Ames, Iowa. Developing effective Honors experiences and curricula specifically for performing arts students is a prime interest of his, as well as developing effective assessment tools for Honors Programs that not only serve the needs of the program, but serve larger institutional needs as well.
Student Representative		Student Representative
Mr. Joe Gallagher		Ms. Carleigh Dettorre
Gallaudet University	mcquaide@windstream.net	Point Park University	crdetto@pointpark.edu
After growing up as a military brat and attending different colleges, I transferred to Gallaudet University, electing to join in the Honors Program. I am a junior, majoring in Psychology with a minor in Biology. After attending the Northeast Regional Honors Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I developed a desire to get even more involved by representing and leading Honors students in this region. Living in different regions of the country and even internationally while I was growing up has allowed me a broad range of experiences and perspectives. Currently, I am a resident assistant in the freshman dorm on the campus, where I work closely with diverse freshmen, including the Honors freshmen group. And I have begun working with the Honors Program Director and the Capstone Coordinator to redesign the Honors Program in order to increase retention and graduation rates in University Honors. While my experiences at different colleges should help my service to my own program and to the region as student representative, I also hope to facilitate exchanges among students about the diverse Honors programs our region has so that each of us can gain knowledge of ways to strengthen our own programs. Finally, I am currently doing a Capstone project on neuroplasticity and American Sign Language for aphasic patients with limited language capabilities. I plan to continue my studies in that field of study after graduating from Gallaudet University by attending medical school and pursuing a career in medicine and neuroscience. Born a hard worker with a warm and resilient personality, I take on challenges up front.		Since my freshmen year, I have been very active in Point Park University’s Honors Program, and I want nothing more than to continue my ongoing dedication to the program by becoming an NRHC Student Representative. Point Park University is a small, liberal arts college in downtown Pittsburgh with a lot to offer each individual student, and I have certainly made sure that I have taken care of every advantage given to me. My freshman year, I was the freshman representative to the Honors Student Organization along with being active in our student-run radio station, WPPJ, where I co-hosted my own radio show. I also was, and continue to be, an active member of Confluence Psychology Alliance, The Outdoor Adventure Club, and The Body Christian Fellowship. My sophomore year, I served as secretary to the Honors Program and created a new club on campus known as the Point Park Community Service Club. As Vice President of that organization, I have formed alliances with charitable groups such as Pittsburgh Cares and Habitat for Humanity, along with facilitating an opportunity for students interested in serving others to come and share their experiences and ideas. Also throughout my time at Point Park, I held an At-Large Representative position and a Sophomore Commuter Representative position on the United Student Government, where I was an active member of the Communications and Finance committees. I feel that I have a lot of experience that makes me a well-rounded person who has mastered the skills of time management, dedication, and ambition. I am double majoring in both Psychology and Biology, with the intention to head to medical school after college. I believe that experience gained from serving as a representative on the NRHC will help me become a better learner and leader, and I hope to be able to offer what I am able to the very valuable program.
Past Presidents
Immediate Past President		Past President
Dr. Nicholas Hunt-Bull		Dr. Jon A. Schlenker
Southern New Hampshire University	n.hunt-bull@snhu.edu	University of Maine at Augusta	JonS@maine.edu
Nicholas has been involved in Honors teaching for a number of years, both at UNC-Greensboro in North Carolina, and at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester where he has taught for the last four years. Taking over as director there this year, he has had significant administrative experience outside honors, working on such projects as designing the new governance structure for SNHU, and serving on the University Curriculum Committee for the last three years while we developed a new core curriculum. He is vice president of his church, and as advisor for the Debating Society as SNHU, he was honored as Advisor of the Year last year. In his first year as honors director at SNHU he obtained a part-time support person, fixed a dysfunctional record system, revitalized the recruiting, increased the scholarship funds, and started two significant campus-wide discussion series. As part of developing his knowledge base in Honors, he also attended the summer institute in Lincoln. After the meeting in St. Louis he volunteered to join the Small Colleges committee of the NCHC and submitted a proposal for a Developing in Honors session that he hopes to co-ordinate next year.		Jon Schlenker is a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology and Director of the Honors Program at the University of Maine at Augusta. he has been a full time faculty member since 1970, with 32 years at UMA, and director of the honors program for 21 years. Jon has been very active in honors education and served as faculty advisor to the Phi Theta Kappa for associate degree students for twenty years, and was associate director of our honors program before assuming the director's position. Jon has been a member of the Northeast Regional Honors Council since 1988, and has participated in many annual conferences during that time. Nationally, he has been active in the National Collegiate Honors Council since 1986. He has presented at the annual conferences, moderated sessions, and served on panels at almost every conference since 1987. He was co-chair of the Two-Year College Committee, chair of the Technology and Honors Committee, on the Executive Committee, and on many other committees. Most recently he was elected Vice-president and subsequently served as President-elect, President and Immediate Past President. Jon was also planning chair for the 2006 Conference in St. Louis. Maine has a statewide honors council and Jon served president on three occasions, having the responsibility to coordinate an annual honors weekend.