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    Dan Byrne


    Dan Byrne received his PhD in geophysics from Columbia University in 1991. After teaching in France and Mexico, then working as a computer programmer, he came to Westminster in 1997 as the faculty technology liaison/web developer. In 2000, he accepted a faculty appointment in the Computer Science program. In addition to teaching many classes in computer science, he taught geology, biology, environmental studies, and art. His research focused on cybersecurity, cryptology, and computational physics. In addition to his numerous professional accomplishments, he was an accomplished sculptor and an imaginative writer. Dr. Byrne retired in 2020.


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    Mary Jane Chase


    Mary Jane Chase approached her career at Westminster in reverse, beginning as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences (1999–2013), then moving to a professorship in the History program. Through all the challenges and triumphs that she faced as dean, including the construction of the Meldrum Science Center and the launch of new programs such as the McNair Scholars Program, the Neuroscience major, and the Gender Studies minor, Dr. Chase remained involved in her field of study, French Renaissance history. When she joined the teaching faculty, she brought fresh approaches to learning. For instance, she embraced Reacting to the Past role-playing games, and she collaborated with students on original research into the religious geography and iconography of Amiens. Dr. Chase retired in 2020 and returned to her native state of Michigan, though she still roots for the Stanford Cardinals and the Westminster Griffins.


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    Richard Collins


    Richard Collins, Professor of economics, finds it ironic that he is leaving Westminster College amid the COVID-19 pandemic, seeing how he began his time at another pivotal time in world history: 2 weeks before 9/11. Rich was one of the original members of the newly constituted Faculty Senate and served on the original Planning and Priorities Committee. He fondly remembers many trips abroad for May Term Study Experiences and MBA trips, gathering with colleagues at school receptions, and interacting with students outside the classroom.


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    Peter Conwell


    Peter Conwell received his PhD in physics from the University of Utah. Then, Peter worked for 2 decades as a research scientist on academic and commercial teams investigating artificial intelligence, neural networks, and speech recognition. In 2003, he joined Westminster’s Physics program, where he taught physics for scientists and engineers, optics, analytical mechanics, electrodynamics, electronics and electric circuits, and other classes. He helped lead the program’s adoption of research-based active learning methods to improve student engagement and success. He published the open source textbook, Mathematical Tools for Physical Sciences, and served for many years as director of the 3-2 Engineering program. Dr. Conwell retired in 2020.


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    Janet Dynak


    After 15 years of K-12 teaching in Michigan public schools (Lansing, Cheboygan) and in Germany with the Department of Defense Dependent Schools (Wiesbaden, Augsburg), Janet Dynak returned to Michigan State University to complete her PhD in Teacher Education/Literacy in 1990. For the next 7 years, she taught as an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Western Michigan University, receiving associate professor status with tenure in 1996. Her national and regional presentations and publications, many written in collaboration with teacher education candidates and their mentors, centered on a 3-semester, high school-based teacher education program in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The teacher education candidates became members of the high school team, completing their coursework and student teaching on-site.


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    Lesa Ellis


    Lesa Ellis graduated from Westminster College before earning a doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Oregon. She joined the faculty of Westminster’s Psychology Program in 2002 and founded the Neuroscience Program in 2007. A winner of the Gore Excellence in Teaching Award, she taught courses such as Advanced Topics in Neuroscience, Human Brain Development, and Research Methods in Neuroscience. She also developed the popular WCore class, “Yep, Brains are Cool!” She mentored many students in the McNair Program, often collaborating with them on research projects investigating the processing of emotional stimuli, among other topics. As a passionate advocate for educational equity, Dr. Ellis received a Campus Leadership Award, as well as an Unsung Hero Award from the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.


  • Diane Forster-Burke

    Diane Forster-Burke


    Diane completed both her BS and MS in nursing at the University of Utah. Before joining Westminster in 1985, she worked as a staff nurse at Cottonwood Hospital (prior to its closing) and as the public health nursing director in the Tooele County Health Department.
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    Helen Hodgson


    Helen Hodgson earned her PhD in nineteenth-century American literature from the University of Denver. Helen then came to Westminster in 1987 as an adjunct faculty member in the English program and the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business. In 1992, after helping to design the Master of Professional Communication (MPC) program, she joined the full-time faculty as the chair of that program.


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    Steve Hurlbut


    Steve has a Bachelor’s degree from Lewis and Clark College (Portland, Oregon) and an MBA from the University of Utah. He also completed a year of post-baccalaureate studies in accounting and passed the 1981 CPA examination. After several years working for community development organizations in Portland, he managed a micro-finance program in a very rural area of Burkina Faso as a Peace Corps volunteer. After his volunteer service, he spent the next five years as Associate Peace Corps director for programs in Burkina, Ghana, and Benin. He spent the next year as a founding staff member of the first Peace Corps program in Russia. Upon his return to America, he was managing director of the Center for International Business Education and Research at the University of Utah.


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    Ronald Mano


    Ronald M. Mano, PhD, CPA, CFE has a long and storied accounting career in Utah. His Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and his MBA are from the University of Utah, where he later returned as a faculty member for 12 years after working at Hansen, Barnett & Maxwell CPAs (now Eide Bailly) and Ernst & Ernst (now Ernst & Young) in Salt Lake City. He received his PhD from the University of Nebraska.


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    Ken Meland


    Ken Meland finished his time at Westminster in December 2019. Ken taught in the Management program at the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business since the fall of 1985. He taught virtually every management course in the curriculum along the way and is the only faculty member who taught in all 3 areas of management: strategy, operations, and organizational behavior. In addition to teaching, he kept busy with several other capacities: management division chair multiple times; trip leader for MBA cohorts, including trips to Italy, the Netherlands, South Africa, and 5 separate tours of China; serving on college-wide committees; and delivering segments of the Leadership Certification program, training managers from companies such as Mountain America Credit Union and Discover Card.


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    Michael Pacanowsky


    Michael Pacanowsky came to Westminster as the professor of business innovation in August of 2013. He served as the founding director of the Center for Innovative Cultures, which organized dozens of high-quality events over the years to host speakers and discussions about strengthening organizational culture. Every season featured a signature gathering, drawing attendance from local, national, and international business leaders: Collaborative Culture Summit in the fall, Summer Inquiry, and Tools and Practices workshops every spring. Local business leaders also had the opportunity to gather monthly at the Center for Innovative Cultures’ Culture Roundtable discussions.


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    Rob Patterson


    Rob Patterson graduated from the  University of Utah with a BA Finance degree. He completed his MBA with an international emphasis at Brigham Young University. He later became a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Prior to joining Westminster full-time in 2004, he had over 20 years of finance, industry, and leadership experience. His experiences, ranging from owning his own business to working as a finance officer for two of the world’s largest organizations (General Electric and BHP Billiton), gave him unique perspectives on organizations of varying sizes. His last full-time industry experience was with Franklin Covey, where he was the CFO of Franklin Covey’s International Businesses, then later Vice-President of International Strategic Projects.  He also managed the Canada, Mexico, and Brazil offices. He was able to enrich the classroom with real-world personal experience and practical knowledge. 


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    Chris Quinn


    Christopher Quinn completed a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was appointed to a faculty position at Westminster in 1994 and served as the Director of Music throughout his career at the College. A winner of the Gore Excellence in Teaching Award with more than 40 years of experience as a professional educator, he taught a wide range of classes, including Aural Skills, Music Theory, and Choral Conducting. He built the Music program from a small minor to a thriving major, in part through his work as conductor of the Chamber Singers and the Community Choir. These popular ensembles toured widely, singing in such world-class venues as Carnegie Hall and Notre Dame Cathedral. Dr. Quinn composed Westminster’s alma mater and conducted the Chamber Singers every year at Commencement. In 2014, he was named the Florence J. Gillmor Professor of Music in recognition of his impact and commitment to Westminster College.


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    Alan Rogers


    Alan Rogers’s tenure with Westminster spans over 5 decades. He joined the faculty at Westminster College as an Accounting professor in 1978. Alan spent the next 38 years sharing his extreme passion for accounting curriculum with the students he dedicated his professional career to. Alan is a gifted, enthusiastic, and dedicated teacher. He has a keen talent of simplifying accounting concepts and creating interest by illustrating tangible and memorable examples. Outside of his continually high-energy classroom, Alan has spent countless hours mentoring and helping thousands of students succeed in their academic and professional endeavors.


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    Judith Hall


    After a first career as a high-school science teacher, Judy Hall earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine from Texas A&M University. In 1990, she accepted a faculty position in Westminster’s Biology program. She taught courses in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, bacteriology, genetics, ornithology, and more. Judy served on the board of Tracy Aviary for many years, and her ornithological expertise led to invitations to lecture and teach in Guiana, Brazil, and other countries. Both in Utah and abroad, she developed captive breeding programs for threatened and endangered species. Dr. Hall served as chair of the Biology program and helped launch the Environmental Studies program. She was also instrumental in developing Westminster’s successful Undergraduate Research program. She retired in 2016.


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    Colleen Sandor


    Colleen Sandor hails from Buffalo, New York and is a long-suffering Sabres hockey fan. She earned her BS from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York in 1986 and her PhD in counseling psychology from the U of U in 1996. Dr. Sandor completed psychoanalytic training at the International Institute of Psychoanalytic Training (IIPT) in 2014 and is currently the co-chair of IIPT. Dr. Sandor joined the faculty in 2002 and co-founded the MSCMHC program in 2007. She was chair of Psychology from 2007-2013 and chair of MSCMHC from 2014-2020. Dr. Sandor teaches Individual Counseling, Substance Abuse Counseling, and Multicultural Counseling. She also supervises and mentors students helping them learn and grow into young professionals in the field. Dr. Sandor also writes about diversity issues, specifically psychoanalytic couples therapy with LGBTQ patients, couples, and parents.


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    Bob Shaw


    Bob was the Dean of the School of Education from 2007 to 2014. During this time, he helped to implement faculty initiatives that created the Educational Studies major and the Master of Arts in Community Leadership, which expanded the Master of Arts in Teaching program. Bob came to Westminster after 30 years at Brown University in Rhode Island, where he was on the education faculty and served as associate dean of the college. He earned his BA in Psychology at Occidental College and his PhD in Educational Psychology from the University of Chicago. After retirement, he and his wife Sarah returned to Rhode Island where he runs road races, hosts international Fulbright students at the various colleges in the state, and volunteers with an income tax assistance organization.


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    Gretchen Siegler


    Gretchen Siegler joined Westminster in 1994 to teach in the social science program. She taught professionally since 1983, along with conducting archaeological and ethnographic research. Her PhD specialty was in the anthropology of religion and social movements, but she was hired as a “generalist” because she also had a background in psychology and sociology. She immediately created an anthropology minor while developing and teaching classes related to diversity in the sociology major.


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    Barbara Smith


    Barbara Smith completed her doctorate at Texas A&M University in 1996. She joined Westminster’s psychology department in August that year. Barbara taught courses in child development, adolescent psychology, parenting, among many others. Her research interests ranged from attachment styles to adolescent reading choices and high-impact learning practices. She served as chair of the Psychology program and as coordinator of the college’s Learning Communities and the First-Year Mentoring Program. Continuing her focus on improving the first-year student experience, she was also instrumental in creating WCore, the college’s innovative and transformational liberal education program.


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    Jerry Van Os


    Dr. Jerry Van Os started as an adjunct professor of accounting at Westminster College in 1983. In 1988, he started as a full-time associate professor of accounting and later, in 1991, became a full professor of accounting. In addition to serving as an admired and respected teacher, Jerry served as an administrator for 23 years, in roles as varied as MBA director, director of competency-based programs, and associate dean of the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business. 


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    Michael Vought


    After earning his doctorate in Theatre Arts, Playwriting at the University of Utah, Michael Vought joined the faculty of Westminster College in 1996. Together with Nina Vought, he built the Theatre Program from a small minor into a thriving major that emphasizes the integrated wellness of the whole artist. He taught classes in Acting, Directing, and Dramatic Theory and Criticism, as well as the legendary May Term class, Vegan Revolution, which gave students the opportunity to cook delicious and healthful meals in the Voughts’ home kitchen. He directed more than fifty theatrical productions at Westminster, including Challenger Deep, for which he authored the script. The Voughts co-founded the Salt Lake Fringe Festival in 2015. Michael Vought received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Utah Theatre Association. 


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    Nina Vought


    After earning her MFA in Theatre Arts, Scenic Design at the University of Utah, Nina Vought joined Westminster College in 1995 as Technical Director and Resident Designer. She accepted a full-time faculty position in Theatre Program in 2005. Together with Michael Vought, she built what had been a small minor into a thriving major that emphasizes the integrated wellness of the whole artist. In addition to classes in technical theatre, she regularly taught The Performer’s Body and The Yogic Experience, which helped generations of students discover the profound interconnections of body and mind. She designed costumes and sets for more than fifty theatrical productions at Westminster. The Voughts co-founded the Salt Lake Fringe Festival in 2015. Nina Vought earned a Lifetime Dedicated Service Award from the Utah Theatre Association.