Meet GC’s Newest Faculty Members

September 22nd, 2010 by

‘Class’ of 2010-11

Georgetown College is pleased to have two of its alumni among seven new faculty members this fall. Kenny Sibal ’04 and Robert Bevins ’98. Here are the “lucky seven” – hopefully, lucky for them, lucky for GC – along with some interesting factoids on each:

Dr. Robert Bevins Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology (Georgetown College ’98, BS; University of Kentucky, PhD) The first course he officially taught was here at Georgetown as an adjunct, and this will be the first year he will be seeing students that took Bio 100 from him as freshmen graduating this May.
Kenny Sibal Assistant Professor of Communication & Media Studies (Georgetown College ’04, BA; Western Kentucky University, MA; PhD in progress, Ohio University) Kenny played on the GC National Football Championship Teams in 2000 and 2001. He uses his football experiences as part of his teaching, incorporating how athletes tell stories.
Dr. John Henkel Assistant Professor of Classics and General Studies (College of William and Mary ’02, BA; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ’05, MA; University of NC at Chapel Hill ’09, PhD) John spent the first year after his PhD teaching in a study abroad program for Classics students in Rome, Italy (actually the same one he had gone to as a student). Most of the course was taught on-site, which meant that he traveled three days a week, and spent week-long field trips in Sicily and around Naples. He likes to garden, and makes wine as a hobby. Oddly enough, this dovetails well with his professional interests, since his dissertation was on a Latin poem about farming (including growing grapes for wine-making).
Dr. Sue Hill Visiting Assistant Professor of Graduate Education ( University of South Carolina ’74, BA; University of Texas at Dallas ’84, MS; Texas A & M ’98, PhD) Sue’s dissertation research was done in a woman’s prison and everyday for 18 months she had to go through the same checkpoints and procedures as prisoners do. Sue was a Religion major who was working as an aide in a kindergarten classroom and over the weekend the teacher, who was an older woman, died. They begged her to take over the class and thus started her teaching career.
Dr. Yvonne Niemann Visiting Assistant Professor of Graduate Education (Southern Illinois, Carbondale ’60, BS; University of Louisville ’71, ME; University of Louisville ’77, Sp. Edu; University of Louisville ’07, PhD) After teaching 30 years in public school Yvonne retired and took a few years off to travel. She then went to U of L to work on grants. She was teaching Master’s level students and taking a few classes. The next thing Yvonne knew she had completed courses for her doctorate and was writing her dissertation. This goes to show that even grandmothers can go back to school and successfully complete Ph.D.’s! She again tried retirement, but missed being in the classroom, and began working part time for the LBD Fieldwork component at Georgetown and next thing she knew was teaching classes.
Dr. Kristine Roinestad Assistant Professor of Mathematics (St. Mary’s College of Maryland ’04, BA;Virginia Tech ’07, MS; Virginia Tech ’10 PhD Candidate) Kristine said she is severely “directionally” challenged and literally would be “lost” without a GPS. At Virginia Tech, her classes usually would exceed 40 students. Here at Georgetown, Kristine is thrilled to have small classes, which allows her to get to know her students better and provide more individualized instruction.
Ivan Ivanov Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science (University of National & World Economy Sofia, Bulgaria ’00, BA; Central European University Budapest, Hungary ’01, MA; University of Vienna ’02, MAIS; University of Cincinnati ’08; PhD) Originally from Bulgaria (Sofia), Ivan would always keep a small souvenir to remind him of places and countries he would visit or where he was affiliated with an institution such as a folder, rocks, flowers, coffee.