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Christopher Cramer

• D.M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison
• M.M., University of Wisconsin-Madison
• B.F.A., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

As a soloist and chamber musician, classical guitarist Christopher Cramer has performed in the U.S., Canada, and Asia. Recent concert engagements have taken him to major cities including Boston, Montréal, Singapore and Taipei among others. From the renowned National Concert Hall in Taiwan to the extraordinary Eastman Museum in New York, concert season highlights have included featured performances at a variety of unique and historic venues including the prestigious National Taiwan University, Suzuki Guitar Singapore, Bibliothèque publique Eleanor London Côte Saint-Luc, the National Music Museum, as well as a broadcast performance on Wisconsin Public Radio’s acclaimed Sunday Afternoon Live from the Chazen concert series.

From college campuses to performing arts centers, Dr. Cramer has presented numerous solo recitals featuring an expansive repertoire that includes masterworks of the past as well as newly composed works by contemporary composers. Dr. Cramer made his concerto debut performing Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto in D major for guitar and strings with the Madison East Orchestra. More recently, he has appeared with the Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez. As a chamber musician, Dr. Cramer has performed with a variety of instrumentalists and ensembles including the Beloit College Masterworks Chorus, the Edgewood College Chamber Singers, the St. Norbert Abbey Choir, the St. Norbert College Chamber Singers and Men’s Chorus, and the UW-Madison University Opera. Dr. Cramer also performs regularly, both nationally and internationally, with award-winning soprano Yi-Lan Niu. An advocate of new music, Dr. Cramer has collaborated with and premiered works by a number of contemporary composers including Hong Kong composer Chiwei Hui, New York-based composer Alexander Nohai-Seaman, and Texas-based composer Blake Henson.

Dr. Cramer currently serves on the faculty at Beloit College, Ripon College, and St. Norbert College where he founded and heads the guitar program. He also serves as the director of guitar instruction at the Madison Academy of Music in Madison, Wisconsin. In addition to academic teaching, Dr. Cramer also presents programs in schools and community centers for those interested in learning more about the guitar and its music.

Dr. Cramer began his music studies at the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc where he won a number of awards including the UW-Manitowoc County Fine Arts Award in the Area of Music. He went on to complete his undergraduate training at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music where he won first place in the annual WCM scholarship competition in classical guitar. Continuing his studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Cramer earned both his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in music performance. While at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Cramer undertook an intensive study of instrumental conducting, ultimately leading to a doctoral minor in the discipline and the opportunity to work with the UW-Madison Symphony Orchestra.

Marco Rhein

Rhein graduated from Ripon with a major in biology and a minor in education, before going on to earn his master of science degree in educational leadership from UW-Milwaukee. After obtaining his degree at Ripon College, he taught at both Markesan High School in Markesan, WI, and Brooklyn Center High School in Brooklyn Center, MN.

Coach Rhein currently resides in Ripon with his wife, Stephanie, and their dog, Ringo.

Captain Paul Klotz

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.

Abby Schmidt

My name is Abby Schmidt and I will be an Adjunct Instructor in the Music Department teaching the Choral Union course during the 22-23 school year. I grew up in Wisconsin and graduated from Hortonville High School. I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from The University of Miami in Florida and my Master’s Degree in Music Education from The University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Throughout my career I have taught many different things including middle and high school choir, middle school band, elementary general music, jazz choir, show choir, musical theater, and steel drums. I began my career teaching in the Hortonville Area School District and taught there for 13 years before moving to my current position as high school choral director at Winneconne High School. This year will be my 9th year teaching in Winneconne. I also enjoy being involved in performing groups and have been a member of newVoices Chorus in Appleton, acted in many community theater productions, and played in various area instrumental ensembles. I live in Greenville with my husband and my 6 year old daughter who will be in Kindergarten this school year. My husband is also a music teacher and currently teaches middle school and high school band in Weyauwega-Fremont. In my spare time I enjoy reading, traveling, and spending time with my family and our cats. I am excited and honored to be joining the Ripon College community this year.

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.

Bryan Nell

• Ph.D. from University of Oregon
• B.A. from Ripon College

I grew up in St. Germain, Wisconsin, and graduated from Ripon with a degree in chemistry in 2009. I earned my Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Oregon in Eugene in 2014. My dissertation research focused on the synthesis of tetraphosphine macrocycles and their corresponding coordination chemistry, mostly focused on iron. I taught general chemistry and organic chemistry at the university and classes at a community college and Oregon State University. In 2016, I started a postdoctoral fellowship in the lab of Rebecca Abergel at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, preparing sulfur-based analogs of the HOPO-type molecules that are well known to capture radionuclei. I then was an assistant professor in chemistry at the University of Minnesota Morris, before returning to teach at Ripon College. I enjoy golf, woodworking projects and being outside with my wife, daughter and pups.

Freesia McKee

• M.F.A. from Florida International University
• B.A. from Warren Wilson College

I teach the course “Ecopoetics: Artistic and Ecological Connections” and work on two projects: a collection of poems about “multiple Midwests” and how the specific places we live and the identities we hold vary our experiences of being Midwesterners; and examining the city of Miami’s juxtapositions of climate crisis and splendor from the point of view of a city bus passenger. I was born and raised in Milwaukee. I have a BA in gender and women’s studies from Warren Wilson College and an MFA in creative writing from Florida International University. Most recently, I worked as an instructor of English at Western Illinois University. I have also taught writing at Johnson & Wales University, Florida International University and through many community organizations. I write about power and place through poetry, creative prose, hybrid work, book reviews and literary criticism. I won the 2018 Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry and a 2020 Christopher F. Kelly Award for Poetry through the Academy of American Poets.

Kevin Lunginbill

I am teaching History 281 – World History to 1500 during the fall semester. I received my Ph.D. from Northern Illinois University in 2022, and specialize in the history of modern empires. My dissertation research is focused on the history of the British Empire in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Umer Hussain

• Ph.D. from Texas A&M University

I am an interdisciplinary sport management scholar who uses a social justice lens to understand how the social world impacts individuals’ lives and frames their experiences in the sporting and eSports context. This lens guides my research, teaching, and service and informs my ultimate goal of understanding and dismantling the underpinnings of social inequity based on gender, race, religion, socioeconomic class, sexual orientation, and other dimensions of identity. The combination of my expertise as a social-psychologist (who primarily studies phenomena at the socio-individual level of analysis) and as a transnational scholar (who primarily study phenomena at the cultural level of analysis) uniquely positions me to ask questions, examine topics, and explore assumptions often neglected in mainstream sporting/ business paradigms and conversations. I not only examine the experiences of individuals but how those experiences relate to and stem from larger social processes and structures in the sporting context. In so doing, I forge new ground by contextualizing people’s everyday lives within the society in which they live. Currently, I am teaching courses in the realm of business and sport management at Ripon College.

John P. Harden

• Ph.D. from Ohio State University
• M.A. from Ohio State University
• B.A. from CUNY-Hunter College

I received my doctoral degree in political science from Ohio State University. I am originally from Staten Island, New York. My research focuses on the role individuals play in foreign policy, and I specifically study how the degree to which a leader is narcissistic influences their approach to international security. I enjoy teaching courses within the sub-fields of international relations, political psychology, data science and presidential history. I also enjoy staying active in my local community, working out, running, playing video games and spending time with my partner, Austin, and our rescue dog, Teddy.

Yukiko Grine

Originally from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, I am the music director of the Oshkosh Youth Symphony Orchestra Inc. I teach orchestra at Oshkosh North and West high schools, a position I began in 2007, and am department chair of the Oshkosh West High School Music Department. I began my violin studies at an early age and received a bachelor of music degree in violin performance from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. I hold a Master of Education degree in curriculum and instruction and completed my Wisconsin teaching certification at Lawrence University.

Scott Elford

I have been a freelance percussionist in central Wisconsin for 25 years. My work includes orchestral performances with the Fox Valley Symphony, Wisconsin Philharmonic Orchestra, Weidner Philharmonic and more. I also have been the percussionist on the national tours of Broadway shows including runs of “Wicked,” “Newsies,” “Anastasia,” and “West Side Story.” I maintain a private studio and have been the clinician at high schools around the state.

Peter Conlon

Jeremy Adolophson

• Ph.D. from UW-Milwaukee
• M.A. in communication and socilology, Northern Illinois University
• B.S. from Northern Illinois University

I earned my Ph.D. in communication with an emphasis in rhetorical studies and media criticism from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. My areas of research include fandom, music and religious identity, and popular culture. I’ve published research on Christian heavy metal music, the political and public backlash against The Dixie Chicks, an overview of the culture wars, and the politics pertaining to comic book censorship. I enjoy media; collecting physical media such as DVDs and blu rays for my home film library; reading with favorite authors including Patrick Rothfuss, Stephen King, Cormac McCarthy and Jasper Fforde; and fishing. I spend my summer fishing for walleye, bass and pike in the Upper Peninsula with my wife’s family, and for salmon out of Algoma.

Victoria N. Folse

• Ph.D., Research Methodology Concentration, Saint Louis University, School of Nursing
• M.S., Adult Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing
• B.S.N., Illinois Wesleyan University