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Contributors
Prabha Betne is an Assistant Professor in the Mathematics Department.
Previously, she worked as a research statistician at Columbia
University and as a credit risk manager for Citigroup. She has a
Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of Missouri and a Master’s
degree from the Indian Statistical Institute, India. In view of math
reforms, her current interest involves developing strategies to teach
math through a problem-solving approach.
Wenjuan Fan teaches in the Academic ESL program. She has taught
ESL classes clustered with Introduction to Business and Gateway,
ESL paired with Group Communication, ESL paired with Principles
of Accounting, ESL paired with Introduction to Computers and
their Applications, ESL paired with Desktop Publishing, and ESL
paired with Math.
Ximena Gallardo C. is an Assistant Professor of English. Her first
book, Alien Woman, co-authored with C. Jason Smith, has been
awarded the 2005 Popular Culture Association Ray and Pat Browne
Book Award for excellence in research in popular culture.
Seán Galvin is the Director of the LaGuardia Liberty Partnership
Program. He is also an urban folklorist, the author of What’s This
Got to Do with Quilting: Nine Stories of Southern Women Quilters Living
in New York City and the co-author of Jews of Brooklyn as well as
numerous academic articles on Faeroese and Scandinavian ballads,
ethnic breadmakers, foodways, and the Virgin of Guadalupe. He is
an adjunct Associate Professor in the Communication Skills
Department.
Unn Hidle is an Assistant Professor of Nursing. She is the coordinator
of Maternal-Child Health and she teaches maternity and pediatric
nursing. She holds a Master’s degree in Nursing from Hunter
College with a specialty as a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner.
She is currently completing another Master’s Degree in Education,
also from Hunter College.
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Contributors • 65

Liz Iannotti is the Academic Coordinator and an instructor at the
English Language Center Day Intensive Program in Adult and Continuing
Education. She teaches listening, speaking, and writing
classes and has led numerous faculty development initiatives. Liz is
currently experimenting with incorporating student-created digital
storytelling projects in her ESL courses to build communication
skills. To view Liz’s digital story sites go to
.
William J. Koolsbergen is Director of the Theatre and Communication
Option of the Liberal Arts Program. He has a Ph.D. in Theatre
from The Graduate Center, CUNY. In addition to his national work
in Learning Communities with Phyllis van Slyck, he is a professional
actor who most recently appeared in an episode of Law and Order.
He is working on a book and one-man theatre program, When I
Was Beautiful.
William F. Kurzyna became a full-time member of the Communication
Skills faculty in September 2001. He is working towards a doctorate
in Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center. He
has also appeared in several plays produced at LaGuardia, among
them Death of a Salesman, Mother Courage, and Medea.
George McCormack completed his doctoral degree at Columbia
University’s Teachers College with a specialization in Remedial
Mathematics. He has been a member of the LaGuardia faculty for
two years and serves as the at-large faculty representative on the
College Senate. His current interests include the origins of the new
math curriculum and video streaming web-based tutorials.
Carol Montgomery teaches Speech/Communication courses to
native and non-native speakers of English at LaGuardia. She teaches
a methods course, Teaching Second Languages Across the Content
Areas, for future ESL and foreign-language teachers at New
York University. She has also taught at Nanjing University and
Shanghai University in the People’s Republic of China
66 • In Transit

Paula Nesoff began her career at LaGuardia Community College in
1982, when she joined the Division of Cooperative Education to work
on a grant to mainstream students with disabilities into internships.
Paula continued to work as a Cooperative Education Faculty member
for fourteen years. In 1997, she transferred to the Natural and Applied
Sciences Department’s Human Services Programs where she teaches
courses such as Orientation to Human Services, Principles of Human
Relations, Community Dynamics, and Field Placement Seminars.
Jorge A. Perez holds an Ed.D. in Mathematics Education from
Teachers College, Columbia University and a Master’s in Mathematics
from Universidad Tecnica del Estado (UTE), Santiago, Chile.
He is the author of a textbook on Abstract Algebra published by
UTE, and the co-author of a textbook in basic algebra and two in
college algebra. Before teaching at LaGuardia, he taught mathematics
in Chile at a school of engineering and at a teachers college, both
part of the UTE.
Marie Sacino is an Associate Professor in the Cooperative Education
Department. She has a strong interest in career development,
in designing and developing new courses, and in experiential education.
Her new projects include teaching online seminars, helping
students create ePortfolios, and working with students in the new
Fundamentals of Professional Advancement course.
Reneé Somers is an Assistant Professor in the English Department.
During this past year, she completed two book manuscripts: “Edith
Wharton as Spatial Activist and Analyst” (Routledge) and “Film,
Television and Contemporary Culture” (forthcoming, Longman).
At LaGuardia, she has taught Basic Writing, Composition, and The
Short Story.
Carolyn Henner Stanchina is a Coordinator and Instructor in
LaGuardia’s College Now program. She completed her DEA
(Diplome d’Etudes Approfondies) at the Universite de Nancy II,
France, where she taught for 6 years. She has been involved in
ESL/EFL and teacher education projects at CUNY and various sites
abroad since 1973. Her current interest lies in the integration of
autonomous learning and thinking, technology, and materials
development. She is co-author of Grammar Dimensions, Book I.
Contributors • 67

Sonja Tanner completed her Ph.D. in Philosophy at the New School
for Social Research. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Philosophy
at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. A member
of the Humanities Department at LaGuardia for the last six
years, Sonja taught Philosophy and Critical Thinking courses. During
her time at LaGuardia, she was an active participant in a number
of learning communities and helped lead learning community
workshops at regional conferences.
Melinda Thomsen teaches vocational ESL in the Center for Immigrant
Education and Training. Her article, “Writing for an Audience:
Interviews of Working New Yorkers,” is forthcoming in the
TESOL Perspectives on Community College ESL Series. Melinda’s
poetry has been published in journals such as The New York Quarterly,
Rattle, Main Street Rag, Spitball: Baseball Literary Magazine, and
the anthology Blues for Bill: A Tribute to William Matthews.
Ting Man Tsao teaches composition and literature in the English
Department. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the State University
of New York at Stony Brook. His dissertation “Representing China
to the British Public in the Age of Free Trade, c. 1833–1844” examines
the intersections between Britain’s popular representations of
China and its foreign policy during the Opium War. His scholarly
and creative work appears in Victorians Institute Journal, Writing
Macao: Creative Text and Teaching, Peer English (in press), and The
History Teacher.
Phyllis van Slyck is a Professor in the English Department with a
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature. She has published essays on Henry
James in The Henry James Review, Criticism: A Quarterly for Literature
and the Arts, and in literature anthologies. She has published on
the pedagogy of learning communities in College English, Change
Magazine, and AAHE Monographs. At LaGuardia, she has designed,
taught in, and coordinated liberal arts clusters for more than a
decade. She is currently coordinating a pilot liberal arts assessment
project.
Francine White is an Assistant Professor in Cooperative Education
where she teaches classes related to the internship experience. She
has a Master’s in Business Administration from Dowling College.
She has been researching and experimenting with teaching civic
engagement. She is interested in social justice and community
issues and is currently working on a number of projects in this area.
68 • In Transit