Academic Affairs Leadership & Staff
Dr. Robert Tudor |
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| Title | Acting Provost, Vice President of Academic Affairs |
| rtudor@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5176 |
| Dr. Robert Tudor serves as Acting Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. Prior to his appointment as Acting Provost he served as Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and was also a professor and the Director of Vocal Activities in the School of Music. Prior to his appointment as Dean, Dr. Tudor was the Chair of the Department of Music at Shepherd University from 2012-2019. His multifaceted career has included work as a professional singer, educator, and non-profit executive, including leadership positions at Jacksonville University (JU), The Florida International Festival, The Association of Boarding Schools, American Classic Voyages, and Levine School of Music. Robert served as Chair of the Division of Music at Jacksonville University from 2006 to 2012. While there, accomplishments included partnering with Jacksonville University’s College of Fine Arts Dean and Board of Trustees to lead a $.5 million a Kawai Elite Performance Instrument Collection (EPIC) partnership campaign, and developing recruiting strategies to double enrollment of music majors. Within the College of Fine Arts he partnered with the Chair for Visual Arts and Vice President for Academic Affairs to develop clearer procedures for faculty to report creative and intellectual activities, and co-led an initiative with colleagues from the Division of Theatre and Dance to generate annual collaborative performance projects. Advocacy, entrepreneurship, and external partnerships have been his greatest priorities. He has empowered faculty to develop service-learning courses that develop skills in entrepreneurship and arts education. He partnered with organizations like the Jewish Community Center of Jacksonville and the Chamber Music Series at the Church of the Good Shepherd (among others) to bring innovative, student-driven programming to wider audiences. He also participated in fundraising campaigns with Family Promise of Jacksonville – a non-profit, interfaith hospitality network providing temporary assistance, hospitality and case management for families with children experiencing homelessness. In 2011, he directed The Rhythm of Life – a music theatre and dance collaborative, proceeds of which benefitted The Boys’ Home Association and Family Services of Jacksonville. As Director of Opera and Music Theatre, he served as musical director for JU productions of Company, Oklahoma!, Ragtime, and Chess, and stage director for Dido and Aeneas, Chess, The Apple Tree, The Gondoliers, and created innovated opera and music theatre workshop productions annually. As a singer, Robert has been praised by The Washington Post for his “powerful singing voice,” and “notable acting skills”. He has performed opera, musical theatre, cabaret, and concert works throughout the United States. Roles have included Papageno in The Magic Flute, The Lecturer in Dominick Argento’s monodramatic opera A Waterbird Talk, Freddy in My Fair Lady, and Murdoch in Titanic – A New Musical. Concert works include the Requiems of Faure and Durufle, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Schubert’s Mass in G, and Saint-Saens’s Christmas Oratorio. Robert is a regular guest artist with the Montana Early Music Festival, and artist and instructor at the annual Helena Choral Festival in Helena, Montana. A champion of innovative performance practice, Robert designed thematic art song recitals and concert works employing simultaneous projections of visual media (including paintings, sculpture), inspired by the poetry of the text, and performed them in the Washington, DC area, and in venues in North Florida. He created the role of Gouvenor Morris in Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia’s commissioned work Nancy, by Garrison Hull, and premiered an orchestral work for baritone and oboe soloists by Lawrence Moss, entitled Dawn to Dawn – Five Poems of the Tang Dynasty. Robert received a Doctorate in Musical Arts in Voice Performance from the University of Maryland, College Park; a Master of Music from the University of Miami, and Bachelor of Music from Stetson University. Awards include a 2003 Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, 2004 Artist of the Year from Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia, and 2009 Institutional Award for Excellence from Jacksonville University. |
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Dr. Jason Best |
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| Title | Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and Academic Strategic Partnerships |
| jbest@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5331 |
| Dr. Jason Best serves as the Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and Academic Strategic Partnerships. He is also a professor of astronomy and astrophysics and the director of the Shepherd University Observatory. A member of the Shepherd University faculty since 1997, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University and a Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University. He has served on the national Council on Undergraduate Research’s Task Force on Integrating Research into the Curriculum and on the National Advisory Committee for the PRAXIS Earth and Space Sciences Examination, as president of the West Virginia Academy of Science, as a member of the Shepherd University Board of Governors, and as president of the university Faculty Senate. He was a member of the 2015-2016 American Council on Education Fellows Class, focusing his fellowship project on research efforts at primarily undergraduate institutions. Dr. Best was recently appointed to the Higher Learning Commission’s Peer Review Corps, and currently serves on the Shepherd University Foundation as both a board member and member of the Executive Committee. He chairs the university Institutional Review Board, and serves as Shepherd’s Accreditation Liaison Officer. As part of a multiyear National Science Foundation-funded grant beginning in 2015, Dr. Best established the Shepherd hub of the Pulsar Search Collaboratory, an initiative designed to remotely teach high-school students across the nation to conduct research on data obtained by the Green Bank Telescope. Dr. Best’s research publications and presentations are in fields as diverse as galactic evolution, the large-scale structure of the universe, virtual reality, and the evolution of Renaissance cosmology. In addition, he has been awarded many research grants from federal and state agencies, has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Research section and in West Virginia Science and Research’s Neuron journal and Scientist Spotlight Video Series, and has served as a grant reviewer and research referee for numerous national and international journals and agencies. |
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Dr. Richard Stevens |
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| Title | Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs and Dean, School of Graduate and Professional Studies |
| rstevens@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5651 |
| Dr. Richard Stevens currently serves as the Assistant Provost for Faculty Affairs and Dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies and Faculty Affairs at Shepherd University. Dr. Stevens was instrumental in the development of the CSDA program and has taught in the program since 2006. He joined the program as a full-time faculty in 2008. Collaboration between Student Affairs and Academic Affairs has resulted in 20 assistantships. He has focused much of his energy on social justice and multicultural issues. He co-founded Shepherd University’s Civility Response Team and serves as Sexual Assault Victim Advocate. He has been a national presenter on sexual orientation and gender identity topics and has training as a sexual assault victim advocate and sexual harassment prevention trainer. Dr. Stevens was recognized with as the 2010 Shepherd University Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award. He was recognized in 2012 as one of ACPA’s Diamond Honoree for service to the association and profession and 2016 with the Annuit Coeptis Award for contributions to the profession. He received the 2016 Storer College Faculty Award for his social justice work in and out of the classroom. He is a member of Chi Sigma Alpha-Student Affairs Honorary, Phi Mu Alpha, Phi Kappa Phi,and Mensa. Dr. Stevens received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, his M.S. from Iowa State University and his BA from the College of William and Mary. Dr. Stevens and his husband currently live in Herndon, VA. In his spare time, he enjoys Taekwondo, running, MMOs, and genealogy. |
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Dr. Amy DeWitt |
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| Title | Assistant Dean, Student Academic Enrichment. |
| adewitt@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Dr. Amy DeWitt has been appointed as the Assistant Dean for Student Academic Enrichment beginning the spring 2022 semester. Dr. DeWitt joined the Department of Sociology and Geography in the fall of 2008. She has taught a variety of courses, including Family, Research Methods, Ethnic Relations, Demography, Social Problems, Sociology of Education, and General Sociology. She also team-teaches within the Women’s Studies program. Dr. DeWitt’s interests are primarily rooted in gender portrayals, particularly in children’s media. She is completing a Master’s in College Student Development and Administration, and she possesses a Master’s in Educational Administration and Supervision; this coursework has inspired new areas of interest in student success. Having traveled extensively and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Poland, Dr. DeWitt has a strong interest in cultural studies and cross-cultural adaptation. |
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Dr. Heidi Hanrahan |
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| Title | Assistant Dean, Interdisciplinary and Integrative Studies |
| hhanraha@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5250 |
| Office | Knutti 201C |
| Dr. Heidi Hanrahan has been appointed to the role of Assistant Dean, Interdisciplinary and Integrative Studies beginning the Spring 2022 semester. Dr. Heidi Hanrahan joined the Department of English and Modern Languages in the fall of 2007. She previously taught at the University of Richmond and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned her B.A. in English and history from Roanoke College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in American Literature before 1900 at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Her teaching and research interests include nineteenth-century American literature, early American literature, women writers, composition, and nineteenth-century British literature. She has published articles on Lydia Maria Child, Harriet Jacobs, Grace King, and Sherwood Bonner and is currently working on a larger project on nineteenth-century writers and their editors. |
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Dr. Sharon Mailey |
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| Title | Dean, College of Nursing, Education, and Health Sciences • Director, School of Nursing |
| smailey@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5341 |
| Educational History: Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.); The University of North Carolina Masters of Science (M.S.); Joint Program with the School of Nursing and the School of Public Health at The University of North Carolina Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program; University of Rochester Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN); Berea College Research Interests and Expertise: Competencies Opioid Epidemics Rural Health Policy and Economics Health Administration |
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Dr. Ben Martz |
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| Title | Dean, College of Business |
| bmartz@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5007 |
| Dr. Ben Martz is the Dean of the College of Business. e also holds the Edward L. Snyder Endowed Chair in Business. During the 2021-2022 academic year, he served as the Interim Provost/Vice President of Academic Affairs. Ben received his B.B.A in Marketing from the College of William & Mary; his M.S. in Management Information Systems (MIS) and his Ph.D. in Business, with an emphasis in MIS, from the University of Arizona. He was one of the founding members, as well as President and COO, of Ventana Corporation – a technology, spin-off firm from the University of Arizona – incorporated to commercialize the groupware software product GroupSystems. In 1994, GroupSystems won PC Magazine’s Editor’s Choice award for best Electronic Meeting System software. In 1995, Ben was an Ernst & Young nominee for Entrepreneur of the Year in Arizona. Ben’s teaching interests include problem solving and creativity, business analytics, software development, groupware and team-based problem solving. He has published his groupware research in MIS Quarterly, Decision Support Systems, and the Journal of Management Information Systems and his student learning and problem solving research in Journal of Cooperative Education, Journal of Computer Information Systems and the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education. | |
Dr. Robert Warburton |
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| Title | Dean, College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics |
| rwarburt@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5106 |
| Dr. Bob Warburton is an honors graduate of the University of Essex at Colchester, completing research with Professor Ken Douglas, in the UK. Dr. Warburton earned his Masters and Ph.D. in the laboratory of Professor David Seybert at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. After completing an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship in the the laboratory of Professor Jeffrey Frelinger of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill he came to Shepherd. Currently Dr. Warburton divides his time between his role as Dean, working with the the members of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and teaching Biochemistry while carrying out collaborative research in Molecular Immunology studying cellular models in the pursuit of developing effective Breast Cancer Immunotherapies. As Chair of the Pre-Professional Advisory Committee, Dr. Warburton works closely with students preparing for professional careers in Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Veterinary Medicine. His passion is in making sure that he provides the resources that Shepherd students need to succeed and are prepared to take the next steps in their chosen career. |
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Ginny Haddock |
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| Title | Budget Officer |
| vhaddock@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5140 |
| Ginny has worked at Shepherd University for ten years. Previously, she worked at St. James Brethren Church as Treasurer and Admin Secretary, Calvary Christian School and Doctors Care in various positions (Myrtle Beach, SC). She was the co-owner/bookkeeper for Haddock Paving for 35 years. | |
Ms. Sara Maene |
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| Title | Director, Institutional Research (Temporarily reporting to the President) |
| smaene@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5112 |
| Office | Ikenberry 104A |
| Ms. Maene earned her B.A. from Wellesley College, double majoring in both physics and astronomy. She earned a Master’s degree in astrophysics and a Postgraduate Certificate in institutional research from Penn State University. After several years as the Application Systems Specialist for Penn State’s University Testing Services, she came to Shepherd. She then worked for several years in I.T. Services, first as the Information Technology Assistant specializing in UNIX and Mac operating systems, and then as the Data Network Specialist. Since 2005, she has served as the head of Shepherd’s Office of Institutional Research, which provides institutional data to federal and state entities as well as the university community. While at Shepherd, Ms. Maene has been professionally active in numerous disciplines. She is a member of the national Association for Institutional Research, is currently Shepherd’s representative to the WV HEPC’s Data Policy Advisory Council, and was a member of the inaugural board of directors of the West Virginia Association for Institutional Research (WVAIR). She has published and presented numerous research papers in the field of scientific visualization. She has also served as a NASA JPL Ambassador to the Solar System and the Vice-Chair of Shepherd’s Classified Employees Council, as well as an officer of Shepherd’s chapter of Phi Kappa Phi. | |
Valerie Wright |
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| Title | Academic Affairs Coordinator |
| vwright@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
| Phone | 304-876-5176 |
| Valerie graduated from the Castleton State College in 1998 with a bachelor’s degree in Developmental Psychology and Elementary Education. Val taught fourth grade for five years before taking time off to raise her children. She returned to the education field as the Administrative Assistant to the Principal of a middle school, where she worked for 11 years. She moved to West Virginia in 2021 and began working at Shepherd as the Administrative Assistant for the Departments of Communications, History and English and Modern Languages before taking the position with Academic Affairs at the end of 2022. | |