Faculty

Dorothy Ann Blatnica, V.S.C., Ph.D.
Dr. Blatnica has been involved in interdisciplinary studies for the past fifteen years. Her doctoral degree is in American Studies, and she teaches in the Department of Religious Studies, which also engages interdisciplinary scholarship. She has taught graduate students in the Master of Arts in Ministry program at Ursuline College and has had the opportunity to teach non-traditional-aged students for many years. She looks forward to engaging the beginning MALS students in the Introduction to Liberal Studies course.

Anthony Cafarelli, Ph.D.
Dr. Cafarelli has published and currently teaches courses in health services management, long term care administration, macroeconomics, and human resource management. His Ph.D. is in urban education. His dissertation examined the effects of a liberal arts writing-intensive core curriculum on traditional-aged female freshmen students' self-esteem, self-efficacy, critical thinking/problem-solving skills and perceptions of future success. He currently is Program Director of both Health Services Management and Long Term Care Administration. He also manages and coordinates the Human Resource Management Program within the Department of Business Administration.

Christine DeVinne, O.S.U., Ph.D.
Sister Christine DeVinne has considerable experience in critical thinking and rhetorical theory and has developed courses in these areas for the MALS Program. She serves as Director of the Ursuline Studies Program, the interdisciplinary core curriculum for Ursuline College, and teaches in the English Department. Her research interests lie at the intersection of life-writing and American literature.

Beth DiNatale Johnson, Ph.D.
Beth DiNatale Johnson is Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Ursuline Studies Program.

Catherine E. Hackney, Ph.D.
Dr. Hackney is Dean of Graduate Studies at Ursuline College. Her professional experience includes responsibilities as a faculty member in the College of Education Educational Administration Program at Kent State University, a principal and curriculum director in Ohio and Michigan public schools, and a teacher of middle grade children. Dr. Hackney has published a number of articles and book chapters that reflect on her research with women in educational leadership. She continues to pursue studies into nontraditional dispositions of leadership and serves as a board member of the American Educational Research Association/Research on Women in Education Special Interest Group.

Timothy Kinsella, Ph.D.
Dr. Kinsella has published and taught in interdisciplinary studies over the past fifteen years. His Ph.D. is in American Studies, and he has taught in an Urban Studies program, including Master's level courses on the city in history. He teaches regularly in the interdisciplinary core curriculum at Ursuline College and plans to teach the Values and Expression course in the MALS program.

Constance Korosec, Ph.D.
Dr. Korosec has published four books and specializes in social and psychological aspects of fashion. She lectures in merchandising, design, museum collecting, and restoration of costume and textiles. She is collaborating on the development of the proposed Master of Arts in Historic Preservation and Decorative Arts at Ursuline College. She looks forward to working with students on the graduate level.

Olga Lombardi, Ph.D.
Dr. Olga Lombardi was born in Molise, Italy and immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio. She earned her B.A. from Ursuline College and the Sorbonne, in Paris, her M.A. from Case Western Reserve University, and her doctorate from the Union Institute and University of Cincinnati. Postgraduate studies continued at Notre Dame College, Lake Erie College, and Case Western Reserve University. She is the author of several published articles, translations, and the latest, a book entitled Social Awareness And Political Awakening Among The Peasants And Fishermen Of Sicily As Reflected In Giovanni Verga's Novelle (December, 2005). Dr. Lombardi has taught for thirty years for the Ursuline Sisters: 12 years at Villa Angela Academy and 18 years at Ursuline College. Presently she is Associate Professor and Chairperson of Modern Languages and Literatures and teaches half time in the Ursuline Studies Core Program and part time in the MLS graduate program.

George Matejka, Ph.D.
Dr. Matejka has extensive classroom teaching experience in the field of philosophy. His dissertation offered a philosophical interpretation of Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose and examined the issue of how literature can function as a means of communicating ethical values. He also has considerable background in curriculum issues, having served as chair of the Educational Policy and Planning Committee and as chair of the Philosophy/Theology Division at Notre Dame College of Ohio.

Gary E. Polster, Ph.D.
Dr. Polster is an award-winning author (Inside Looking Out: The Cleveland Jewish Orphan Asylum, 1868-1924) who has taught sociology and anthropology courses for over 31 years. He has done fieldwork and taught in the West Indies at the University of the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas and has lived with and studied fortune-telling Gypsy culture in Chicago. His areas of specialization include minority and ethnic studies and child and family studies.

Celeste Wiggins, Ph.D.
Dr. Wiggins teaches in the English Department, specializing in American Literature. Much of her doctoral work was done in the area of film. She has written on both literature and film and recently created a film course, "The Novels of Edith Wharton: Text into Film," for the Ursuline College Continuing Education Program. Celeste was the former Director of the Ursuline Studies Program.