Drew Petersen ’94 of Middleton, Wisconsin, was elected president of the University of Wisconsin System’s governing board Friday, June 7. He will determine committee memberships, sign contracts and represent the Regents in front of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the state Legislature during his one-year term. Petersen was appointed to the board by former Republican […]
Tara LaChapell ’92, executive director of informational technology, will be part of the panel “Women in Leadership: Driving a Culture of Inclusivity” June 25 at the ACUHO-I 2019 Conference & Expo in Toronto, Canada. More information can be read here.
Nature has always been a central part of my life. I was lucky enough to turn this passion for the natural world into a career as a scientist and educator in the field of biology. My areas of research focus broadly on evolution, ecology and conservation. Specifically, I study a group of fascinating plants that inhabit some of the most inhospitable North American desert areas, the wild buckwheat (Eriogonum). Additionally, the complexity and rarity of the tallgrass prairie ecosystem have always interested me. Currently, students in my research lab at Ripon College are investigating the diversity of insect pollinators (bees, butterflies, etc.) in prairies of Wisconsin. There is still a lot we can learn from the species around us!
At Ripon College, I teach courses ranging from Introductory Biology and Environmental Studies to advanced courses in Plant Diversity, Flora and Vegetation, and Conservation Biology.
I started teaching at Ripon College in 2019, joining the math and computer science department with a specialty in applied mathematics. At Ripon, my teaching focuses on mathematical modeling (including modeling within courses like calculus), statistics and data analysis. I have also been able to do both modeling and research projects with senior math majors as part of their senior thesis.
Before coming to Ripon, I taught at Beloit College, and did research in computational neuroscience in Tokyo and Boston. My research includes action potential propagation across gap junctions (with applications to epilepsy), and neocortical processing during sleep. I use both mathematical modeling and data analysis extensively in my research.
While I was always drawn to math because I always loved puzzles, I also love music because I love to sing. While in college, I wanted to become an opera singer, and studied many languages and theater along that goal. I still sing, on occasion, and am always up for a puzzle or a game!
American soprano Erin Bryan has been praised for her “deft” operatic characterizations and a voice that is “a lyric soprano of exceptional beauty.” Recent engagements include Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Anne Sexton/#2 (Transformations), and the Governess (The Turn of the Screw), and she is featured as Young Anne/#1 on the recently released world-premiere recording of Conrad Susa’s Transformations. An advocate for new music, she enjoys frequent collaboration with living composers, including the Midwest premiere of Laura Schwendinger’s Kay Ryan Songs and the world premiere of Dangerous New Avenues, a chamber duet for soprano and percussion by Justin Giarrusso. She has just completed her second season with the innovative Fresco Opera of Wisconsin, where she was heard in works by Mozart, Verdi, Floyd, and Bellini.
Dr. Bryan holds degrees from Lawrence University, where she studied with Steven Spears and Patrice Michaels, and the University of Louisville, where she studied with Edith Davis Tidwell. She earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in vocal performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied with Paul Rowe. Her research concentration is largely in the area of vocal repertoire, with particular emphasis on eighteenth-century opera.
As a member of the music faculty at Ripon College, Dr. Bryan instructs courses in applied voice study, vocal pedagogy, lyric diction, and musicology, and she also enjoys regular collaboration with both the school’s choral program and the theatre department.
I serve as the director of bands and music education at Ripon College. I direct the Symphonic Wind Ensemble – our main concert band – and the Rally Band, our athletic band. I also teach all of our music education courses, and oversee the music education major. Other courses that I teach include music history and theory courses, and music technology. Like most professors at Ripon, I also contribute to our Catalyst curriculum. My research interests focus on the social structures within school bands, including social induction, belonging, and hazing.
I have a Bachelor of Music Education from UW – Eau Claire, and a Masters in Music and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from UW – Madison. Before Ripon, I taught for five years at UW-Richland, and for thirteen years in Wisconsin’s public K-12 schools.
My name is Deb MacKenzie, and I teach in the Music Department at Ripon College, as well as accompany all ensembles, juries and recitals. I have degrees from the University of Iowa (B.M. Music/Music Therapy) and UW-Madison (M.M. Piano Performance and Pedagogy). I enjoy watching students progress in their fields of study, and love watching their growth. I am married with four children, a son-in-law and a grandson.
Ripon alumnus Dr. Zachary Morris ’02 recently received a prestigious scientific award of $200,000 to advance highly innovative research projects with implications for human health. The Greater Milwaukee Foundation presents the awards through its competitive and longstanding Shaw Scientist Program to early career faculty to advance highly innovative research projects with implications for human health. […]
William C. Jordan ’69, the Dayton-Stockton Professor of History at Princeton University, received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Harvard University. Jordan is a medieval historian. At Princeton, he also has been director of the Program in Medieval Studies, director of the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies and chair of the history […]
President Zach Messitte is chairing a panel in Florence, Italy, June 3. The panel will be held during the Robert Kennedy Human Rights Italy/Gonzaga University School of Law Conference on Freedom of Expression as a Human Right. More information can be found here.
“Seven Keys to Baldpate,” a radio play adaptation, will be presented May 31 through June 2 at the Ripon Public Library. It is presented by Ripon Summer Players in its 23rd season and is sponsored by the Ripon College Department of Theatre and the Ripon Noon Kiwanis. The “mysterious melodramatic farce” is adapted from the […]
Inspiration for a national security studies senior presentation came from a summer spent studying in Morocco for Stephanie Verbockel ’19 of Grand Chute, Wisconsin. “The Checkered Experience of Battling Islamist Terrorism: An American vs. MENA Response and How to Coordinate for Greater Success,” explored differences between American and MENA (Middle East-North African) region perspectives and […]
Rick Estberg ’75 of Severna Park, Maryland, recently published his first book, Berlin Daze: Tales of a Cold Warrior on the “Island of Freedom”. Estberg graduated from Ripon College with a degree in combined foreign language and earned his master’s degree in international relations from Boston University. Berlin Daze recounts the time Estberg worked as […]
A career goal of working in community outreach for a professional sports organization inspired the senior seminar research of Eric Fels ’19 of Hubertus, Wisconsin. Fels, who had a double major in exercise science-sports management and history and a minor in economics, examined the impact community outreach programs of National Basketball Association (NBA) teams has […]
“Feminist Epistemology: Knowing Through Stories” was presented by Morgan Makar ’19 of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, as part of her Department of Philosophy senior seminar course. Makar had a double major in business management and philosophy and a minor in criminal justice. Her research was inspired by her own personal experience being a woman studying philosophy, […]
Ripon College is ranked the No. 2 school in Wisconsin focused on studies of political science and government, according to the website Collegefactual.com. “A university or college focused on your major means you are very likely to have great opportunities awaiting you after graduation,” the report states. “It’s difficult to beat Ripon College if you […]
The Fox Valley Battalion of ROTC, of which the Ripon Red Hawks Company is a part, will hold its spring commissioning ceremony at 3 p.m., Friday, May 24, in the field house at Willmore Center. Graduated commissionees will be sworn in as second lieutenants in the U.S. Army. Those from Ripon College are Nathan Faucett […]
A public art project by Mollie Oblinger, associate professor of art, will be unveiled May 25 along a newly created section of the Kinnickinnic River Trail in Milwaukee. An article about the project was published May 15 on the Urban Milwaukee website. Oblinger will attend the noon unveiling which will be held in conjunction with […]
Lisa Mahnke ’92 of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, was profiled in a release on the Associated Press Business Wire May 9, 2019. Mahnke has joined Bicycle Therapeutics as senior vice president and head of clinical. Bicycle Therapeutics is a biotechnology company pioneering a new class of therapeutics based on its proprietary bicyclic peptide product platform. Mahnke […]