Huntington University

Dr. Natasha Gerolami serves as the head librarian of the J.W. Tate Library and also holds a faculty appointment in the department of Communication Studies at Huntington University.

In joining Huntington University, Professor Gerolami furthers a successful career in library sciences and academia, bringing extensive knowledge and a wealth of expertise in library management, collection building as well as all other aspects of librarianship. Natasha’s research interests in information ethics, intellectual property and the philosophy of communication models helps to ensure that our university library compliments Huntington University’s curriculum in Communication Studies, Ethics, Gerontology, Philosophy, Religious Studies and Theology

Prior to joining Huntington Univeristy, Natasha worked as a faculty member in the Master of Library and Information Science program at the University of Western Ontario in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies. Most recently, Natasha has successfully completed her Ph.D. in Library and Information Science (LIS). Her dissertation, entitled The Architecture of a Virtual Library: a Deleuzian Approach to Information Studies, examined the underpinnings of information policies and ethical positions that govern the production, distribution and use of information.

Dr. Janis Goldie is the Chair of the Communication Studies program at Huntington University. Dr. Goldie comes to Huntington University from the Faculty of Communication and Culture at the University of Calgary where she completed her PhD dissertation in political communication. Her dissertation investigated the discursive role of public inquiries in responding to political scandal in Canada.

Prior to her PhD work, Dr. Goldie earned an Honours B.A. in English, Rhetoric and Professional Writing and a Minor in Political Science from the University of Waterloo and later earned a Master of Arts in Communications from the University of Calgary.

Dr. Goldie has published on war and memory, privacy and the internet, and research ethics and has been awarded various honours throughout her academic career, including a Security and Defence Forum scholarship, the Queen Elizabeth II scholarship and the Dean’s Entrance Scholarship. In addition, Dr. Goldie has been active in the scholarly community, disseminating her research at various conferences over the years as well as working as a peer reviewer for several journals, in addition to facilitating and moderating various scholarly activities. Believing that research should be connected to the community, Dr. Goldie has acted on several boards in the Calgary community over the last few years and hopes to engage in the local Sudbury community in the same way. Her research interests include Political Communication, Discourse Analysis, Media and Culture as well as New Media Theory and Policy.

Dr. Collis Machoko was born in Zimbabwe and pursued his education in both Zimbabwe and Britain where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and a Bachelor Arts, Master of Arts as well as a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Zimbabwe. He also earned a Diploma in Christian Systematic Theology from Bishop Gaul College in Zimbabwe.

He worked as an Anglican parish priest in Zimbabwe for close to ten years and later joined the University of Zimbabwe as a professor in 2000. Before joining the Huntington University faculty, Dr. Machoko taught at Trinity College at the University of Toronto, the University of Winnipeg, the University of Manitoba and at Providence College in Manitoba.

He is an exuberant and passionate scholar of religion and culture with forthcoming publications entitled A Reinterpreting of Christianity in Terms of African Traditional Religion: Jesus as Ancestor and African Traditional Religion and Christian Water Rituals: an Integration of two Rites of Passage into Jesus Christ to be published by the Edwin Mellen Press.

In addition to his commitments to teaching and scholarship, Collis brings a wealth of experience as an Anglican priest with past service to the Anglican Dioceses of Toronto and Rupert’s Land in Winnipeg, Manitoba. As well, he is an advocate of social justice and an active volunteer, serving both his local community and humanitarian issues at-large.

The Rev. Dr. John Mathew teaches the World’s Living Religions (RLST 2205) and The History of Religion and the Arts (RLST 3215) at Huntington University. His research interests include ecumenism, missiology, interfaith dialogue, and religion in the twenty-first century. He also is currently writing a book on First Century Asian Christianity.

An ordained minister in The United Church of Canada, John currently serves Canfield United Church. He serves as a member of the McGeachy Scholarship Committee of The United Church of Canada. In 1993, as a member of the United Church’s National Interchurch-Interfaith Committee, he represented the church at the 100th Anniversary of Chicago World’s Parliament of Religions.

John was born and brought up in the first-century Mar Thoma (Apostle Thomas) tradition in Kerala, southwest India. He studied at the University of Kerala’s University College and Loyola College of Social Sciences, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; Free Church of Scotland College (Edinburgh, Scotland), Queen’s Theological College, Queen’s University (Kingston); St. Paul University (Ottawa) and at the Graduate Theological Foundation, South Bend, IN. He also was the recipient of the Merrill Fellowship at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Pastor-Theologian at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey and guest minister at the Cathedral Church of St. Machar, Aberdeen, Scotland.

John and his wife, Joyan, have one son, Bram, who received his B.A.(Hons.) and M.A. degrees at Laurentian and M.A. from the University of Manchester, England; he is currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.

Trudy Medcalf is an Envision instructor currently teaching in the Gerontology Department. During the 2010-2011 academic year, Trudy will serve as a full-time assistant professor in Gerontology at Huntington University. Her doctoral research, completed at the University of Western Ontario, asked “What do elders have to teach about the experience of growing old?” Her work is participatory and elder-centred. She is passionate about making a significant contribution to our understanding of the experience of old age and intends to be one of many whose work in gerontology will change the face of aging.

Trudy has been an educator for many years, first in the public school system as a teacher, counselor and administrator. She has worked as a grief counsellor for a hospice and delivered programs on work-life balance to women administrators of York University. She has been an instructor in the Psychology Department of Sheridan College, a lecturer in the Faculty of Education of the University of Western Ontario and a researcher with the Sheridan Elder Research Centre. She is the mother of two splendid adult children.

Lorraine Mercer, Assistant Professor in the Gerontology program has and continues to teach a number of courses, including Optimal Aging, Internship in Gerontology, Theories and Models of Counselling, End of Life Care with Older Adults, Public Policy for Canada’s Aging Population and Practicum and Thesis at Huntington.

Professor Mercer is keenly interested in research areas that include spirituality and aging, end of life care, and gerontology in higher education. In addition to her teaching and research work at Huntington, Professor Mercer is the Director of the Lougheed Teaching and Learning Centre of Excellence and is a volunteer trainer with Warmhearts and the Vale Inco Hospice.

Most recently, Lorraine Mercer has been honoured with the inaugural Theodore K. Jewell Alumni Award for Distinction in Leadership from the Huntington University Alumni Association.

Lorraine is currently working on her doctorate degree in Human Studies at Laurentian University. Over the years, she has earned a Master of Arts Degree in Sociology from Laurentian University, Gerontology Certificates from both Huntington and Cambrian College, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Individual and Family Studies from The Pennsylvania State University.

Miroslava Tripaliouk teaches as a sessional member of the Gerontology faculty at Huntington University. Miroslava was a practising MD in Ukraine for eight years before moving to Canada in 1995. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Gerontology at Laurentian University and a Master’s Degree in Health Professional Education at the University of Toronto. Her principal research interest while attending the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto was online research and education. She also was a research assistant with the Department of Theory and Policy Study in Higher Education.

Among her current research interests are healthy aging, healing, alternative medicine, and dementia. She also serves as a volunteer at the Alzheimer Society, Cancer Sociaty and the Ukrainian Senior Center.

Karen Quemby is a part time public education coordinator for the Alzheimer Society of Muskoka as well as a sessional lecturer for Huntington University’s Gerontology department at Georgian College in Barrie. In addition she is employed part time by the Cottage Country Family Health team as their Health Educator. After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Gerontology and Sociology she completed her Master’s degree in Gerontology specializing in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.