Archives

Richard Gerstein

• B.S. in Economics from Miami University, Oxford, OH

With over 30 years of leading some of the world’s largest and most trusted brands, I launched my career at Procter and Gamble (P&G) in brand management. My time at P&G included the US headquarters working on several billion-dollar brands, five years working in Europe, and eventually leading P&G’s first significant move into the digital realm with a customized online beauty brand start-up. I then led some of the fastest-growing beauty products, including Nexus Haircare and Tresemme, before moving into retail, leading marketing for Sears and Kmart, followed by a time leading the Strategy and Marketing for HP’s computer and mobile business.

After a period leading the development of my own start-up company Zigmail, I moved into consulting where I founded the Brand CHARGE, LLC, working with Private Equity and Publicly traded companies to evaluate potential acquisitions and help drive growth on existing brands. I also work with early-stage technology companies providing strategy, marketing, and fund-raising expertise. I will be teaching one class this fall, BSA 300 02 Dept. Studies: Business Management Through the Lens of Entrepreneurship. Green Lake has been my family’s summer destination for the past 20 years, and I have now made it my primary residence with my wife, Ami. I am a board member of the Green Lake Yacht Club, enjoy sailing, traveling, and having my three sons visit here during the summer.

Mary Avery

• MBA from University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
• B.A. from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Miracle-Rose Toppar

• Ph.D. from Iowa State University
• M.S. from Iowa State University
• B.S. from Iowa State University

During my doctoral program at Iowa State University, I specialized in agricultural economics, labor economics and applied econometrics. My research concerns the impact of transgenic cotton adoption on cotton production in sub-Saharan Africa. My former students at Iowa State and Drake University inspired me to explore the impact of mobile games in economic education on serious gamers. I enjoy ballroom dancing and art.

Jandelyn Dawn Plane

• Ph.D. from University of Maryland-College Park
• M.S. from UW-Milwaukee
• B.A. from Wartburg College

I recently retired as a computer science faculty member at the University of Maryland College Park where I had been since 1989. I moved back to Wisconsin to be closer to family and now live just outside Ripon with my mother, husband and son. With graduate degrees in both computer science and education, I focus on computer science curriculum, pedagogical methods and underrepresented populations in computing. For 15 years early in my career, I worked on State Department-funded projects building computing degree programs at universities in sub-Saharan Africa and Afghanistan. After that, I became the founding director of two centers (Iribe Initiative for Inclusion and Diversity in Computing (I4C) and Maryland Center for Women in Computing (MCWIC)) both of which emphasize improving diversity, equity and inclusion in the computing fields through K-12 outreach education, current student support and research.

Erin C. Munro Krull

• Ph.D., Tufts University
• M.A., Tufts University
• B.A., Connecticut College

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!

Fan Zhang

• Ph.D., West Virginia University
• M.B.A., West Virginia University
• M.A. in economics, West Virginia University
• M.S. in finance, West Virginia University
• B.S. in economics, Shandong University, China

Peter Sensenbrenner

• M. in health administration, Washington University (St. Louis, Missouri)
• B.A., Denison University

I have been a resident of Ripon since 1984 and an adjunct professor, off & on, since 1992. My focus was business, entrepreneurship, and the relationship of business to society. Recently, I developed a course to introduce students to techniques and styles of management.
My vocation was hospital management, then COO of a 1 million square foot distribution warehouse, and an executive director of a Red Cross Chapter.

Thomas Keuler

• B.B.A. Accounting, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Professional Certification
• Certified Public Accountant

Soren Hauge

• Ph.D. in Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• M.A. in Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• B.A., in Economics, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota

I’m an applied microeconomist with a liberal arts background who likes to connect the theories and data of economics with the wider world of people and ideas. I grew up mainly in Pennsylvania and Upper Michigan before studying in a liberal arts college in Minnesota and graduate school in Wisconsin. Travel across the world and research in several Latin American countries inform my teaching of international and development economics courses. In environmental economics and history of economic thought, I connect economics with other ways of seeing the world in natural science and history. I also dig into the big picture of economic concepts and data with students in principles of macroeconomics and intermediate macroeconomics, as well as Catalyst seminars. My two children grew up in Ripon where my wife and I enjoy living.