Archives

Nicholas Eastman

• Ph.D., Georgia State University
• M.A.T., Southern Illinois University
• B.A., Southern Illinois University

Julia Manor

• Ph.D., University of Minnesota
• B.A., Macalester College

I study animal cognition and neuroscience. My courses focus around these two areas as well and include: Learning and Behavior, Behavioral Neuroscience, Sensation and Perception, Drugs and Society, and Inside the Animal Mind. My lab tests a number of species including rats and dogs. We love trying to understand what animals are thinking! Outside of the college, I spend time with my own animals and enjoy performing in community theater.

Matthew Knoester

• Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Ed.M., Harvard University
• B.A., St. Olaf College

I became an educator because I find it endlessly fascinating. There are so many angles to think about teaching and education at all levels, from how to build trusting relationships with students, to thinking about ways to pursue research and inquiry with students, to analyzing educational policy. I began my career as a teacher at the high school level, then later became an elementary school teacher, then pursued a Ph.D. and became a college professor. Most of my K-12 teaching was in the Boston Public Schools. But my graduate work, research, and family connections brought me back to the midwest, and to a focus on educational research and teaching pre-service teachers. I teach courses generally focusing on literacy, elementary curricula, differentiating instruction, and educational assessment.

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.

Ian Stepleton

• B.A. in English, Ripon College

I am an adjunct instructor of journalism as well as a Ripon College graduate (1998). I teach three courses: IDS 211 (Journalism 1), IDS 213 (a workshop course for the College Days newspaper) and IDS 215 (Hollywood Journalism vs Real-World Reporting). My teaching is informed by my more than two decades of experience as a local journalist, including 14+ years as editor of the Ripon Commonwealth Press (where I started as a reporter in 2000). During that career, I earned 50+ first-place awards for writing, photography, design and more in the Wisconsin Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest, and led the Commonwealth to multiple Best Weekly Newspaper honors. I have taught journalism at Ripon College since August 2016, and was honored with the Faculty/Staff Mentor Award in 2018. Currently, in addition to my adjunct role at Ripon College, I serve as a public relations coordinator for an area library.

Brian Azinger

• M.A. in Physical Education, University of South Florida
• B.S.E in Physical Education, Truman State University

Charles Stephan

Steven Sorenson

Education

• Juris Doctorate – Marquette University Law School, Milwaukee, WI
• BA – Luther College, Decorah Iowa

Jean Rigden

• M.A.E. in Educational Leadership, Marian College
• B.S.E. in Elementary Education, University of Wisconsin- Whitewater

I am an educator. I taught middle school for 9 years in three different school districts. I was a k-12 principal for 8 years. I began working at Ripon College in the Spring of 2010. I am licensed in Wisconsin as a Principal, Curriculum Director, Pupil Services Director, and 1-8 Grade Elementary Teacher and Math Teacher Grades 1-9. I teach courses in math education and the student teaching seminar. I have a Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education from UW-Whitewater and a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from Marian University. I grew up in Fond du Lac and have only lived in Wisconsin.

Sandra Polcyn

• M.A. in Education, Olivet Nazarene University
• B. Mus., K12 Instrumental Music Education – Lawrence University
• A.S., UW-Fox Valley

William Nelson

• B.A. in Music Education, University of Wisconsin Parkside

I have been the clarinet and saxophone instructor at Ripon College since 1993. I was the band director at Ripon Middle School from 1988-2020. This fall I will be the band instructor at Xavier Elementary School in Appleton, and Seton Catholic School in Sheboygan. I am an active jazz performer throughout Wisconsin and I am a master adjudicator with the Wisconsin School Music Association.

George “Skip” Wittler

• Ph.D., University of Texas
• M.A., University of Montana
• B.A., Carleton College

Patrick Willoughby

• Ph.D., University of Minnesota
• B.S., University of Northern Iowa

I am an Associate Professor of Chemistry with a particular focus on organic synthesis. I teach Organic Chemistry courses along with Catalyst 120. I enjoy mentoring research students in the development of new methods for the synthesis of pharmaceutically-relevant molecules.

Robert Wallace

• Postdoctoral Fellowship (Aquatic Ecology), University of Washington
• Ph.D. Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire (Aquatic Ecology; Invertebrate Zoology)
• B.S. University of Rhode Island, Kingston

I have two professional passions, teaching and research; both revolve around aquatic ecology and invertebrates. While I have retired from formal teaching, that calling continues after a fashion. For the past eight years I have been active in the Green Lake Association, whose singular focus is on improving water quality in Green Lake (WI). However, I am still an active researcher, specifically with rotifers. These tiny (≤2 mm), invertebrates play vital roles as consumers, scavengers, and predators, eventually falling prey to insects and fish. Thus, their energy and nutrients pass up the food chain. Rotifers may be found anywhere liquid water is present for even a few days. While some inhabit near-shore marine waters, most rotifers are commonly found in inland waters, including lakes, ponds, streams, ephemeral desert basins, irrigation ditches, tire tracks, glacial meltwaters, and the water film of soils and plants. My research has included many of those habitats, but recently it has focused on deserts. Aquatic life there is caught between a duality: wet now and evaporating, soon to be dry for an indeterminate time, but to be wet again.

During the wet phase, rotifers and other invertebrates must prepare for inevitable drought by producing resting stages that withstand prolonged dryness. Deserts are also windy places and when storms sweep across the landscape they kick up dust from the dry basins and can transport resting stages long distances. We are interested in who survives transport and whether they can successfully colonize a new basin.

Mary Unger

• Ph.D., in English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• M.A. in English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• B.A. in English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Touorizou Hervé Somé

• Ph.D. Social Foundations of Education, State University of New York at Buffalo
• Master’s degree in business with a specialization in project management (online), Aspen University
• M.A. African Literature
• B.A. Sociology-Anthropology, University of Ouagadougou
• B.A. African Literature

Barbara Sisson

• Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Pediatrics, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute (formerly Children’s Memorial Research Center), Chicago, Illinois
• Ph.D., Northwestern University
• B.A., Lake Forest College

I am a developmental biologist interested in how cartilage cells get their shape. My lab studies this using zebrafish as a model system for human facial birth defects. I teach Introductory Biology, Scientific Writing and Communication, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, and Cancer Biology.

David W. Scott

• M.A. in Mathematics, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• B.A. in Mathematics, Pomona College

The son of a Ripon College chemistry professor and associated with the college since 1962, I’ve worked with students since 1980. I served as men’s soccer coach from 1980-1995, left that when I was Director of Coaching Education for the Wisconsin Soccer Association to be assistant coach for 25 years at Marian University, and have now returned as assistant coach here. However, I began teaching part-time in the math department in 1982 and have taught full-time since 1984. In addition, for more than 20 years I have taught a fencing course for the college. I have also played trombone many semesters in the college jazz ensemble or the college orchestra.

For much of my time here our department had a philosophy that we should all be able to teach essentially any of the courses we offer in mathematics, and I have taught all of them multiple times with only a couple of exceptions. I have also taught a large number of courses in computer science over the years, developing our first courses in artificial intelligence and algorithms, as well as teaching programming in a variety of languages. I particularly like teaching courses in discrete math, algebraic structures, and geometry and topology (my area of study in graduate school), but I always teach the course in secondary teaching methods. I have great interest in education, and have served for 20 years on the Ripon school board. I am especially interested in students who want to be teachers at any level.

Henrik Schatzinger

• Ph.D., Political Science, University of Georgia
• M.A., Political Science, University of Kansas
• B.A., Political Science, University of Kiel, Germany