Martha Barry-Plotkin, M.A.
Lecturer in Modern Languages
Martha Barry-Plotkin is a lecturer of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Elms College. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish from Amherst College and her Master’s Degree in Spanish Linguistics and Literature from Harvard University. She was a Teaching Fellow at Boston College and Harvard University who attended the Instituto Internacional in Madrid and the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. She has previously taught Spanish and Latin American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Springfield College, Bay Path University, American International College, and Springfield Technical Community College. Additionally, Martha has worked and consulted to develop job training and career counseling programs in various corporate and community organizations. Martha is a creative writer, musician, and vocalist who has created, produced, and recorded educational music for language-learning programs. She has been performing with the Dan Kane Singers and the Pearls for the past 25 years in the greater Springfield-Hartford-Northampton area, and she has three children who share her passion for music.
Tom Cerasulo, Ph.D.
Chair of Humanities & Fine Arts; Professor of English
Dr. Cerasulo teaches courses in American literature, cinema studies, and writing. He has published on film adaptations, on ethnicity, and on the cultural history of American authorship. Recent scholarly work appears in Arizona Quarterly, MELUS, Studies in American Culture, Twentieth Century Literature, American Writers, The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Fiction, and Critical Companion to Eugene O’Neill. He is the author of the book Authors Out Here: Fitzgerald, West, Parker, and Schulberg in Hollywood (University of South Carolina Press, 2010). He is currently working on a manuscript on writers and the television industry.
Daniel Chelotti, MFA
Associate Professor of English
Dan Chelotti is a widely published poet and author. He is the author of the poetry collection x (McSweeney’s) and two chapbooks of poetry, The Eights (Poetry Society of America) and Compost (Greying Ghost Press). His poems have appeared in many journals, including POETRY, jubilat, Boston Review, A Public Space, Fence, North American Review. His articles and interviews have appeared in Huffington Post, Kenyon Review Online, Los Angeles Review of Books. Chelotti has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes, and has received grants and fellowships from the Slovenian Arts Council and the Colraine Writers’ Workshop. In 2014, a poem that originally appeared in iO: A Journal of New American Poetry was selected by AE Stallings for a Best of the Net award. On campus, Dan is the faculty adviser to Bloom, the college’s literary magazine. He directs programs at The Blue House, and runs the Visiting Writers series.
Jasmine Hall, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Dr. Hall’s fields of interest are Victorian and modern British fiction, literary criticism, and popular culture. She has published and presented papers in Dickens Studies Annual and Studies in Short Fiction, as well as in collections on Victorian literature and detective fiction.
Joyce Hampton, Ed.D.
Vice President of Academic Affairs
Dr. Joyce Hampton is a senior administrator with 30+ years of progressive responsibility in Catholic higher education/academic affairs, with an emphasis on teaching, academic program development, student success initiatives, and collaboration with academic and student affairs colleagues to strengthen curricular and co-curricular learning in support of the mission.
Brian Kiernan, M.F.A.
Lecturer in Art
Brian has taught all levels of studio art classes in drawing, painting, color theory, and design for the last 7 years. In addition to being a half time faculty at Elms College he also runs Creative Spark an adult art education program in Indian Orchard, MA. Previous work experience includes teaching at Springfield Museum and AIC college as well as working in exhibitions and education at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum from 2007 – 2014. In the last few years he has completed several permanent display commissions for Mayo Clinic, Boston Children’s Hospital, Yale New Haven Health, and UMass Medical Memorial Center. Most recently he took part in a large scale art exhibit displayed at the quarantine centers in Worcester, MA. He is currently represented by several galleries in New England and New York including L’Attitude Gallery and Boston Art in Boston.
Michael McGravey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Director of the Institute for Theology and Pastoral Studies (ITPS)
Dr. McGravey earned his doctorate in systematic theology from Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA). He holds a master’s degree in theology and religious studies from Villanova University and a bachelor’s from Gannon University.
Laura McNeil, Ph.D.
Director of the Honors Program, Professor of History
Laura McNeil is the director of the Honors Scholar Program and a professor of history at Elms College. She received her B.A. from Hampshire College and her Ph.D. in history from Boston College. She offers survey courses in European and world history, and upper-level courses in her areas of specialization, modern Ireland and Britain. She enjoys travel and good food. As such, she has led study-abroad trips to Ireland and Italy, and enjoys offering unusual experiential-learning classes, most notably HIS250: “A Taste of Freedom,” a historical and culinary exploration of the American immigration experience.
Jason Burke Murphy, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Dr. Murphy joined the Elms College Philosophy Department in fall 2010. Previously he taught philosophy, ethics, and political theory at Saint Louis University, Saint Louis Community College, Webster University, and Goethe-Universitat in Frankfurt, Germany. He was a research fellow in computer ethics at SLU School for Professional Studies, and held doctoral and teaching fellowships there in the Department of Philosophy. His areas of specialization are social/political philosophy, contemporary German philosophy, and ethics. Murphy has been published in The Monist and Basic Income Studies. He has served on the executive committees of the US Basic Income Guarantee Network and Basic Income Earth Network.
Damien Murray, Ph.D.
Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences and Professional Programs, Professor of History
Damien Murray is the Dean of the School of Arts, Sciences and Professional Programs and a professor of history at Elms College. He’s an experienced academic with over 20 years of teaching, scholarship, and administrative service.
Amber Scoon, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Art
Academic Degrees: · PhD in Philosophy, Art and Critical Theory (PACT) from European Graduate School (Switzerland/ Malta), 2011. · Master of Fine Arts in Painting and Mixed Media, American University (Washington, DC), Two-Year Program in Italy, 2004. · Bachelors of Science in Studio Arts, New York University (NY, NY), 2002. · Continued Education: Masters Degree Courses in Sustainable Cultural Heritage from The American University of Rome (Rome, Italy) and The United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). (Rome, Italy).
Reverend Mark Stelzer, S.Th.D.
College Chaplain, Professor of Humanities, Special Assistant to the President for Catholic Identity
Father Mark Stelzer is a native of Springfield, Massachusetts and a graduate of that city’s Sacred Heart Elementary and Cathedral High School. Fr. Mark prepared for the priesthood at Saint John’s Seminary in Boston where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and Master’s degrees in Theology and Divinity. He was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Springfield in 1983.
