Forming your Committee

The most important consideration when beginning a thesis, starred paper, creative work or portfolio is the selection of at least three graduate faculty members to serve as committee members.  The student's adviser will often be one of the committee members.  Each graduate student, after consulting with her/her adviser, should ask two other graduate faculty, based on each member's potential value in the area of research undertaken to serve.  The student's selected committee must be comprised of:

• The program adviser or committee chair
• A graduate faculty member from the program department
• A graduate faculty member from a related department (outside reader)

These committee members must be approved graduate faculty members.  A listing of graduate faculty members is available on-line in the graduate bulletin.  Faculty who have volunteered to serve as outside readers are listed below.  The outside reader need not have expertise in the student's specific topic.   However, selection of an outside reader should complement the discipline.

Aviation
Dr. Jeff Johnson, Interests:  Airline pilot training, corporate aviation, airport development, post-secondary aviation education, aviation security and anti-terrorism

Biological Sciences
Dr. William Cook, Interests:  Ecology, patterns of biodiversity, interactions between humans and communitites of other organisms
Dr. Timothy Schuh, Interests: Developmental biology, cancer biology, molecular biology
Dr. Maureen Tubbiola, Interests:  Mammalian physiology and reproduction

Chemistry
Dr. Jack McKenna, Interests: Demonstrations (chemical), kinetics, thermodynamics

Child and Family Studies
Dr. Glen Palm, Interests:  Parent and family education
Dr. Fatemah Zarghami, Interests:  Family studies

Communication Studies
Dr. Jeffrey Bineham, Interests: Rhetorical theory and criticism, cultural studies/analysis of popular culture, philosophy of communication
Dr. Margaret Pryately, Interests:  Japan, Slovenia, second language issues, intercultural communication, conflict, community affairs and neighborhood issues
Dr. Roseanna Ross, Interests: Communication and conflict, mediation, organizational communication, interpersonal/relational communication, group/team building, experiential learning/education theory or application, study abroad, service learning, internships, faculty development, consulting, training, coaching storytelling
Dr. Daniel Wildeson, Interests: General, rhetorical studies, ethics

Community Psychology
Dr. Michael Mayhew, Interests:  Marriage and family therapy
Dr. Niloufer Merchant, Interests:  Multicultural counseling, group work, qualitative research, counseling adolescents and adult women
Dr. Eric Rudrud, Interests:  Behavior analysis, educational/school psychology, and supported employment
Dr. Kimberly Schulze, Interests:  Autism, special education, social skills training, fetal alcohol syndrome

Counselor Education & Education Psychology
Dr. Robert Murphy, Interests: Behavioral medicine, health psychology, intelligence testing, behavior therapy, experimental and evaluation methodology, statistical analysis, stress management, behavioral school counseling

Community Studies
Dr. Margaret Villanueva, Interests: Social responsibility, adult education, educational leadership

Criminal Justice
Dr. Dick Andzenge, Interests:  Organization and administration
Dr. John Campbell, Interests:  Law enforcement
Dr. Douglas "Lee" Gilbertson, Interests:   Research courses, private security and homeland security
Dr. Stephen Hennessy, Interests:  Criminal justice, law enforcement and cultural diversity training
Dr. Richard Lawrence, Interests:  Corrections, juvenile justice and research
Dr. Robert Prout, Interests:  Criminal behavior
Dr. Francis "Barry" Schreiber, Interests:  Criminal justice, corporate crime and research
Dr. Charles "Chuck" Seefeldt, Interests:   Criminal law
Dr. Edward Sieh, Interests:  Criminal justice, corrections

Curriculum and Instruction (Teacher Development)
Dr. Judith Davison-Jenkins, Interests:  Reading literacy, content area reading, English Language Learner (ELL) education
Dr. Jan Frank, Interests:  Instructional strategies, middle/secondary education, diversity/social justice, classroom management, curriculum and change theory
Dr. Dave Heine, Interests: Literacy, literacy education, second language learners
Dr. Stephen Hornstein, Interests: Qualitative studies, ethical and honest use of research data, standardized testing, education in developing countries, democratic classrooms, building cultures of democracy, using math as a tool for meaning-making and critique, civic and social education, local/oral history
Dr. Francis "Frank" Kazemek, Interests: Literacy education, children and young adult literature, history of education, philosophy of education, literature and history, psychology, social work, gerontology
Dr. Beverly Kochmann, Interests: Science education, mathematics education, special education, and child and family studies
Dr. Terry Miller, Interests: Literacy, diversity, middle school education
Dr. Linda Scott-Halverson, Interests: Cooperative learning (national consultant), conflict resolution and cooperative learning as it relates to various diversity issues, constructivist instruction particularly in science education
Dr. Ramon Serrano, Interests: Gang violence and violence in the schools, literacy education and English as a second language.
Dr. Lalita Subrahmanyan, Interests: K-12 education, higher education, educational foundations, multicultural education, global education, comparative education, informal or non-formal or adult education, gender issues in science, philosophy of science, sociology of science, minorities and women in science and engineering, South Asian studies, women's studies (particularly women of color), Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.), ethnomusicology, music education

Economics
Dr. Orn Bodvarsson, Interests: Labor economics, microeconomics
Dr. Mary Edwards, Interests:  Regional and urban economics
Dr. Philip Grossman, Interests:  Experimental economics
Dr. Nathan Hampton, Interests:  Natural resource and environmental
Dr. Patricia Hughes, Interests:  Econometrics
Dr. Andrew Larkin, Interests:  History of economic thought

Educational Administration and Leadership
Dr. Janine Dahms-Walker, Interests: Leadership, law, ethics, special education, finance
Dr. Christine Imbra, Interests:  Qualitative research, higher education, leadership, violence, school safety, bullying
Dr. Frances Kayona, Interests: Performance appraisal systems (supervision); curriculum and assessment development; curriculum and assessment leadership practices; program evaluation; research design; organizational theory; school reform, accountability, and change; human resource administration

English
Dr. Caesarea Abartis, Interests:  General
Dr. Frances "Frankie" Condon, Interests:  General, social responsibility, women's studies, ethnic studies
Dr. Glenn Davis, Interests:  Medieval languages, literatures and culture
Dr. Judith Dorn, Interests:  General
Dr. Christie Gordon, Interests:  Curriculum and instruction
Dr. Philip Keith, Interests:  Communications, rhetoric
Dr. Constance Perry, Interests:  American history
Dr. Suzanne Ross, Interests:  Biology, mass communications (journalism/non-fiction)
Dr. David Sebberson, Interests: Rhetoric, literature,communication, interdisciplinarity
Dr. Marya Teutsch-Dwyer, Interests: Second language acquisition and use, bilingualism and child bilingualism, identity (re)construction in a second language culture, language, power relations and a second language environment, general linguistics, applied linguistics

Environmental and Technological Studies
Dr. Anthony Akubue, Interests:  Energy technology, technology and third world development, technology transfer
Dr. Michner Bender, Interests:  Environmental soil science, green house gas emissions from soil, manure management, nutrient cycling and water quality
Dr. Kurt Helgeson, Interests:  Affordable housing, construction, process improvement, rural development and technology education
Dr. Miguel "Michael" Karian, Interests:  Appropriate technology, deep ecology, ecopsychology, environmental education, renewable energy
Dr. Balasubramanian Kasi, Interests:  Environmental and technology education, financial management and investing analysis, general manufacturing materials, science and engineering
Dr. James Nicholson, Interests:  Communications, computer-aided design, graphics, manufacturing and production engineering
Dr. Charles Rose, Interests:  Lakes, water quality and wetlands
Dr. Anthony Schwaller,  Interests:  Assesment, contemporary teaching strategies, energy technology, technology and social change

Foreign Languages
Dr. Luz Consuelo Triana-Echeverria, Interests: Issues in Spain and Latin America, social class, race, women and gender topics, humanities, arts, philosophy, literature, languages, history, psychology, anthropology

Geography
Dr. Edward Addo, Interests:  Tourism, rural and urban geography, regional econ., Canada, Africa
Dr. Randal Baker, Interests:  Tourism development, community development, outdoor recreation
Dr. Mikhail Blinnikov, Interests:  Biogeography, conservation, phytolith analysis, GIS, Russia
Dr. Elizabeth Leppman, Interests:  Cultural and political geography, geography of religion and food
Dr. Benjamin Richason, Interests:  Remote sensing, cartography, soils, GIS
Dr. Jeffrey Torguson, Interests:  Cartography, GIS, physical geography, Asia
Dr. David Wall, Interests:  Economic and political geography, urban planning, Latin America
Dr. Lewis Wixon, Interests:  Climatology, physical geography, MN culture and ethnicity, Europe

History
Dr. Robert Galler, Interests:  American Indian history, U.S. history, American west
Dr. Jeffrey Mullins, Interests:  Early America, African Americans, intellectual history, science and medicine
Dr. John Ness, Interests:  East Asian history, world history
Dr. Mary Wingerd, Interests:  Immigration, labor, urban history, 19th-20th Century U.S., public history

Information Media

Dr. Jeanne Anderson, Interests:  Critical thinking and electronic text/e-learning and intercultural issues in education training
Dr. Doris Bolliger, Interests:  Learner-centered teaching approaches, professional development and web-based education and training with emphasis in communication and interaction in the online environment
Dr. Thomas Hergert, Interests:  Visual literacy, multimedia, e-learning, instructional design
Dr. Fred Hill, Interests:  Human resources training and development, instructional design and wellness
Dr. Christine Inkster, Interests:  School library media centers, integrating media and technology into curriculum, literacy and qualitative research
Dr. Steven Malikowski, Interests: Information ecology, instructional/information technology user choices, behaviors and results
Dr. John Theis, Interests: Online course evaluation, technology literacy, competency requirements of instructional design graduates
Dr. Merton Thompson, Interests:  Impact of school library media center on student learning
Dr. Karen Thoms, Interests:  Instructional design, faculty development, visual literacy and active learning

Mathematics
Dr. Nick Fiala, Interests:  Design theory, graph theory, combinatorial optimization

Music
Dr. Kristian Twombly, Interests: Theoretical analysis, technology and the arts, popular music, new media and the arts, interdisciplinary arts
Dr. Terry Vermillion, Interests:  Theoretical analysis, historical context, interviewing, transcription

Philosophy
Dr. Michael Shaffer, Interests:  Philosophy of science (physics and biology), epistemology (learning theory, rationality), logic (mathematical and informal)

Psychology
Dr. Marlene DeVoe, Interests:  Life-span developmental psychology, cognitive-affective development, emotions and aging
Dr. Jody Illies, Interests:  Industrial-organizational psychology, leadership, problem solving and biographical data
Dr. Christine Jazwinski, Interests:  Social psychology, helping and altruistic behavior and the psychology of the Holocaust
Dr. John Kulas, Interests:  Industrial-organizational psychology, affirmative action and newcomer socialization
Dr. Joseph Melcher, Interests:  Cognitive psychology, learning, memory expertise and human factors
Dr. Zoa Rockenstein, Interests:  Educational psychology, intellectual giftedness, creativity, and women's issues
Dr. Leslie Valdes, Interests:  Cognitive psychology, visual attention and memory

Sociology and Anthropology
Dr. John Alessio, Interests:  Exchange theory, gender equity, animal rights, social problem theory
Dr. Kimberly Barton, Interests:  Sociological thought, political sociology, sociology of culture (religion & medicine), social inequality with a concentration on racial discrimination.
Dr. Tracy Ore, Interests:  Class, race, sustainable agriculture, social movements and teaching pedagogy
Dr. Thomas O'Toole, Interests: African topics, African history
Dr. Elizabeth Scheel,  Interests:  Sociology of the body, gender and violence, prison reform, deviance, criminology and juvenile delinquency/youth empowerment
Dr. James Sherohman, Interests:  Sociological practice, social psychology, symbolic interaction, evaluation
Dr. Jiping Zuo, Interests:  Sociology of family, gender, China

Statistics and Computer Networking
Dr. Tirthankar Ghosh, Interests:  Network security and computer networks
Dr. Lin Li, Interests: Optical networking design and optimization, computer networks and survivability
Dr. Richard Mowe, Interests:  Computer networking and computer science education
Dr. Amos Olagunju, Interests:  Computer network security, non-parametric and educational statistics, design and analysis of experiments, educational research and evaluation
Dr. Leonard Onyiah, Interests:  Experimental design, survival analysis, applications in biology, medicine and population dynamics
Dr. David Robinson, Interests:  Bootstrap, density estimation, queuing theory and simulation
Sister Del Marie Rysavy, Interests:  Cooperative learning, education, learning, teaching and technology
Dr. Sarjinder Singh, Intersts:  Survey sampling