New faculty for 2005-06 profiled

August 15, 2005

Dr. Gary A. Baker will be joining the Lyon faculty this semester as an assistant professor of psychology. Dr. Baker has had 14 years of academic work experience. Most recently, he was an assistant professor of psychology at William Penn University where he taught a range of psychology courses, worked with six committees and served on the Board of Directors for Crisis Intervention Services as well as chairing the Grant Review Committee. He has also served as a psychology instructor at the University of South Carolina at Aiken and as a graduate instructor at the University of Mississippi.

Dr. Baker has had more than a decade of research experience, including as a research assistant to Dr. Marilyn Mendolia in the Social Psychology lab at the University of Mississippi.  He has studied and worked with those suffering from alcoholism, cocaine abuse, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Dr. Baker received his B.A. degree in psychology at the University of Toledo and his M.S. in psychology at Augusta College. He received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology, with a concentration in social psychology, at the University of Mississippi

Dr. Baker has had five scholarly publications. These have been published in such noteworthy magazines as the Journal of Psychology and the Journal of Social Behavior and Personality.  In addition, Dr. Baker has helped with, planned and headed 15 presentations for numerous committees and organizations.

Dr. Baker is affiliated with the American Psychological Society, the Society of Personality and Social Psychologists, the Society of Southern Social Psychologists and the Southeastern Psychological Association.

Dr. Brooks Blevins will be coming back to Lyon this year as an assistant professor of history. He previously served as the director of regional studies at Lyon College, a position  he held since 2002.
He also served as director of the Lyon College History Project during the 2000-2001 academic year. His History of Lyon College: 1872-2002, was published in 2003 by the University of Arkansas Press.

He also has held teaching positions at Mississippi State University - Meridian campus and Ozarka College in Melbourne.

Dr. Blevins, a native of Izard County, earned a B.A. in history at Lyon College, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1992 and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history at Auburn University.

He is the author of two books and co-editor of another. Author of Cattle in the Cotton Fields: A History of Cattle Raising in Alabama (University of Alabama Press, 1998); Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and Their Image (University of North Carolina Press, 2002). He is co-editor along with Gene Hyde of Life in the Leatherwoods by John Quincy Wolf (University of Arkansas Press).

In addition, Dr. Blevins has had several articles published in the Alabama Review and the Arkansas Historical Quarterly. He has also made numerous presentations across the South.

Dr. Blevins is a member of the Agricultural History Association, Arkansas Historical Association and the Southern Historical Association.

Dr. Blevins is married to Sharon Webb Blevins, who holds a degree in physical education from Lyon College, and they have a son, Bryan. 

Rev. Dr. Thomas Carpenter will begin his tenure track appointment as professor of education this year at Lyon College. He has served as a visiting professor and coordinator of secondary education at Lyon for three years.

Dr. Carpenter has had 25 years' experience in higher education and 15 years' experience in public education. He has taught over 45 classes at seven different universities, including NYU, UCLA and Lyon.

Dr. Carpenter received his B.S. in social science in 1964 from New York University. Iin 1973, he received a Ph.D. in Human Development & Social Relations from New York University.  In 2003, he received an M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. 

Dr. Carpenter has a formidable background of work experience is a diverse range of areas. His career history includes working as a teacher in New York City, as the executive director for Health and Human Services for the Puyallup Tribe in Tacoma, and as a research administrator for the state of Washington's Department of Licensing. He had a private practice in Seattle dealing with alcohol and substance abuse and providing therapeutic mental health and was a professor and director of graduate studies at City University in Bellevue. He also served as a professor at Heritage College and Antioch University, both in Seattle.

He was president of the Columbia Institute, which helped to build partnerships among educators to improve the practice of education. He served as a Chaplain for the Washington Alliance of Black School Educators. After that, he served as a pastor for St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church in Marked Tree, and now serves as pastor for St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Tuckerman. While at Lyon, he has been involved with a number of organizations including Amnesty International, the Convocations Committee and the Liberal Arts in Teacher Education (LATEC) program.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Carpenter has been responsible for 35 publications and presentations all over the country including “Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, 50 Years Later;” “Post 9-11 Witnessing for Christ in Islamic Countries:  A cross-cultural approach while awaiting the return of the Prince of Peace;” and “Where are the teachers of color – Examining the myths and realities of the minority teacher shortage.”  He writes a bi-weekly column for the Batesville Daily Guard whose themes focus on African-American, religious and political issues.

Dr. Carpenter is currently a member of the Ministerial Alliance of African American Ministers. He has served on a number of organizations and committees.

David Koch will be returning to Lyon this fall as instructor of Mathematics. He has taught at Lyon College for 10 years as a part-time instructor and more recently as a visiting instructor of mathematics

Koch graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in mathematics from Lyon College in 1993.  In 1995, he received his M.S. in mathematics from UALR in Little Rock.  He is currently working on his Ph.D. in Computational Science. He has completed all coursework and passed his candidacy exams, and is currently working on his dissertation.

Koch is part of the Upward Bound Math-Science Program Lyon as a summer instructor and is responsible for creating and implementing programs in mathematics.  These classes focus on using applications of math, such as cryptography, computer programming, and rocketry, which uses math to project and plot rocket trajectory.

Koch has received both the Lyon College Mathematics Award and the Lyon College Seibert Fellowship in 1993, and the UALR Outstanding Mathematics Graduate Assistant Award in 1995.

Koch’s work experience includes a five-year teaching appointment at Cave City High School where he chaired the mathematics department. He was a part-time instructor at UACCB and at Ozarka College.

Koch has served on the Personnel Policy Committee and Mathematics Curriculum Committee at Cave City, as well as the Athletic Committee at Lyon College. He is the a member of the UALR chapter of Phi Kappa Phi and a member of the Lyon College chapters of Alpha Chi and Kappa Delta Pi. 

Dr. Nathan Ponder will be joining the faculty this year as assistant professor of Mathematics. He has most recently been employed as an assistant professor of mathematics at Louisiana Tech University.

Dr. Ponder received his B.S. in Mathematics in 1984 from Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. He has an M.A. in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and an M.S. in mathematics from the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, Texas. He holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Tulane University in New Orleans.

Dr. Ponder worked as a schoolteacher for Southern Baptist International Missions, where he taught in Trujillo, Peru, assisted in hunger relief programs, and directed a church music program.  He also has worked as an assistant actuarial analyst for Fireman’s Fund Insurance in Novato, California.  He served as an assistant professor at the University of Montevallo. At Louisiana Tech University, he taught Calculus I-IV, Differential Equations, Real Analysis, Complex Variables, and Trigonometry, and was involved heavily with curriculum development and university service.

Dr. Ponder is a member of the American Finance Association.  He has been faculty advisor for both Pi Mu Epsilon, the mathematics honor society, and the student chapter of the M.A.A.  He also has been Faculty Senate Representative.  He was the Institutional Policies Committee elected representative and vice chair. He was also the Project Coordinator for a $125,000 Louisiana Systemic Initiatives Program, which funded grants for the professional development of area high school mathematics teachers.

Mr. David Wood will be joining the Lyon faculty this fall as an instructor in Spanish. Wood received his B.A. in history at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and his M.A. in history at California State University in Sacramento. He received an M.A. in Spanish Literature from Louisiana State University in 1998.  He is currently working toward his Ph.D. in Spanish Literature at the University of California at Los Angeles, and is writing his dissertation.

Wood received the Goodrich-Taylor Graduate Assistantship from the Friends of the LSU Libraries at Louisiana State University. He received both the Research Fellowship and the Summer Research Fellowship within the Graduate Division from the University of California in Los Angeles.

Wood’s work experience includes working as an archivist’s assistant at the California State Archives for three years. He was a graduate assistant at the special collections in the Hill Memorial Library at Louisiana State University. He spent the summer of 1999 working as a copy editor for the Oral History Program at UCLA. In  2001-2002, he was the editor-in-chief of Mester, the graduate student literary journal at UCLA.

He has taught courses ranging from language to literature to history. These include Beginning and Intermediate Spanish, Survey of Spanish Literature from 1700-1898, and the History and Civilization of Spain.

Wood has served on the Graduate Student Association and as Curriculum Committee Representative at UCLA. He also served on the oral examination committee for Lower Division language instruction.

Wood is responsible for three publications including an upcoming book review, “Nada by Carmen Laforet,” published in World Literature and Its Times 5, Spanish and Portuguese Literature and Their Times, and “Family, History, and Nation in Raza and Nada” in the Annual of Foreign Films and Literature, An International Journal on Films and Literature.  He has written four conference papers.

In addition to English and Spanish, Wood can read French, Portuguese and Italian. His research interests include modern Spanish literature, European and Latin American Modernism and Literary Theory.

Mortar Board chapter awarded national foundation project grant

Lyon College’ s Order of the Tartan Chapter of Mortar Board will receive a $300 Chapter Project Grant from the Mortar Board National Foundation to assist in their organization of an annual early fall leadership conference for 50 high school students in the region. With this project, the chapter hopes to facilitate the development of area students’ leadership skills and offer assistance to regional schools.

Area high school students, however, won’t be the only ones honing their leadership skills. During this conference, Mortar Board members will be running daylong workshops as well as creating mentoring relationships with the students throughout the entire school year. This yearlong involvement is intended to refine Mortar Board members’ leadership and service skills and to enhance communication among the Lyon chapter, area guidance counselors and potential Lyon students. In addition, the project aims to provide continuity among chapters as one year’s chapter will plan the following year’s conference.