Honors Faculty
The Frederik Meijer Honors College features eight permanent full-time faculty, two half-time Faculty-in-Residence, the Meijer Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and dozens of exceptional faculty drawn from departments and programs across campus.
Full-time Honors Faculty
These faculty all teach the majority of their classes in Honors and have their offices in the Niemeyer suite.
Coeli Fitzpatrick
Chair and Professor of Philosophy in Honors
Office Address: 125 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-3748
Email: [email protected]
Coeli Fitzpatrick is Professor of Philosophy in the Frederik Meijer Honors College and Chair of the Honors Faculty. Originally from Phoenix, Arizona, Professor Fitzpatrick received her B.A. in Philosophy from Regis University in Denver, Colorado and her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Binghamton. She teaches several courses in the program, including two first-year sequences, The Middle East Beyond the Headlines and The Making of Meaning, and an integrative seminar on Islamophobia. Her publications include the award winning edited volume Muhammad in History, Thought and Culture as well as writings on Edward Said and Orientalism. Professor Fitzpatrick's current research focuses on the transmission of Arab intellectual history in the West, Muslim Spain and Orientalism.
Ellen Adams
Associate Professor of Art History, Honors College
Office Address: 126 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-8134
Email: [email protected]
Ellen Adams is Associate Professor of Art History in the Frederik Meijer Honors College. Originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Professor Adams received her B.A. in Art History from the University of Delaware, her M.A. from Hunter College (City University of New York), and her Ph.D. in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She teaches several courses in the program, including the first-year interdisciplinary sequence Dangerous Ideas, The Bloodiest, Darkest Hour, and I Love the 80s. Her publications and presentations concentrate primarily on modern and contemporary artists. Prof. Adams’ current research project focuses on American women artists active during the New Deal.
Jeremiah Cataldo
Professor of History in Honors
Office Address: 121 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-3470
Email: [email protected]
Jeremiah Cataldo is Professor of History in the Frederik Meijer Honors College. He earned his Ph.D. in Religion and Culture of Ancient Israel / Hebrew Bible from Drew University, a Master in Philosophy from Drew University, a Master in Ministry from Bethel College, and a B.A. in Religious Studies from Bethel College. He is the author of numerous books and journal articles, including Disembodying Narrative, Imagined Worlds and Constructed Differences in the Hebrew Bible, Biblical Terror, A Social-Political History of Monotheism, Breaking Monotheism, and A Theocratic Yehud. A strong supporter of cultivating well-roundedness in mind and body, he enjoys backpacking, woodworking, and training in different martial arts, such as jiu-jitsu and muay thai. He teaches several courses in the Honors College, including the first-year sequence Borders, Bodies, and Rights (with Max Counter).
Maria Cimitile
Professor of Philosophy in Honors
Office Address: 132 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-2838
Email: [email protected]
Maria Cimitile is Professor of Philosophy in the Frederik Meijer Honors College. Professor Cimitile earned her A.B from the College of the Holy Cross, her M.A from Villanova University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Memphis. Trained in European philosophy, her scholarly and teaching interests are in feminist philosophy, political theory and logical thinking. Professor Cimitile is a GVSU award-winning faculty member for teaching excellence and has held a number of leadership positions at the university, including Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic and Students Affairs. Professor Cimitile teaches the first year interdisciplinary sequences The Making of Meaning, the Honors 350 course Justice Served, as well as Sex Matters, and Ancient Philosophy in the Philosophy Department, and The Ethics of Digital Culture in the Digital Studies minor.
Dorothy Danko
Instructor of Accounting and Faculty-in-Residence in Honors
Office Address: 127 Niemeyer
Phone: 616-331-7397
Email: [email protected]
Kurt Ellenberger
Professor of Music in Honors
Office Address: 123 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-8075
Email: [email protected]
Kurt Ellenberger is a pianist, composer, and author whose work includes music for a wide range of ensembles. His writings include a jazz theory book, other pedagogical writings, and many essays that appear in his arts blog entitled Also Sprach FraKathustra, which was published by The Huffington Post–Arts and Culture until 2017. He is currently a Contributing Writer and Editor at All About Jazz, and is also the Managing Editor for the International Association of Schools of Jazz’s “Journal of Applied Jazz Research."
He has recorded on Innova Recordings, Ghostly International, and Challenge-A Records (the Netherlands), among others, and has been hailed as "a gifted pianist who combines the lyricism of Bill Evans with the energy of Keith Jarrett." He was a member of the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, whose recordings of Terry Riley’s “IN C: Remixed” and Steve Reich’s “Music for 18 Musicians” were featured in The New York Times, as well as in many of the nation’s leading publications, including The New Yorker. Ellenberger is a faculty member in the Frederik Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University, where he has been teaching since 1999. He is also a Fulbright Scholar who taught in Austria at the Kunstuniversität Graz (University of the Arts in Graz).
Elizabeth Gansen
Associate Professor of Modern Languages & Literature and Faculty-in-Residence in Honors
Office Address: 124 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-8769
Email: [email protected]
Elizabeth Gansen is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Frederik Meijer Honors College and Assistant Professor of Spanish. She received her B.A. in Spanish and Comparative Literature and M.S. in Library in Information Sciences from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from Yale University. Professor Gansen teaches several courses in the honors sequence, including two first-year sequences, Food for Thought: Facts, Fictions, and Factions, and Spain in Europe. Her first book, Natural Designs: Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and the Invention of New World Nature, was published in 2023 (U of Pennsylvania Press). Her current book project, provisionally titled Moorish Songs and African Djembes: The Caribbean Areíto in a Trans-Atlantic Context, positions the song-and-dance areíto with regards to similar contemporaneous cultural traditions to better understand how Europeans first perceived it and how the form developed over time.
Leifa Mayers
Associate Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in Honors
Office Address: 134 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-3219
Email: [email protected]
Leifa Mayers is Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies in the Frederik Meijer Honors College. Professor Mayers has a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and Feminist Studies (University of California, Santa Cruz) and a J.D. (Loyola University Chicago). Her research and teaching focus on law and public policy, gender and racial justice, and LGBTQ rights. Professor Mayers teaches the first-year interdisciplinary sequence Seeing and Being Seen: Surveillance, Technology, and Self and the integrative seminar Debating Social Issues: Media, Public Opinion, and Public Policy.
Melba Vélez Ortiz (La Profe)
Professor of Communications in Honors
Office Address: 130 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-3469
Email: [email protected]
Dr. Vélez Ortiz's areas of research are communication ethics and global environmental communication. Her work examines the ways in which the long-term success of conservation efforts depend upon fundamental shifts in cultural values, in aesthetic and moral communication, and in shared understandings of how the individual fits into social and ecological communities. In addition, Dr. Vélez Ortiz has researched and published in the areas of African studies, rhetorical theory, Latin-American/Caribbean/Latina-o philosophy and intellectual history. She has published numerous articles and book chapters on multiple disciplines such as writing studies, environmental communication, Latin American philosophy and communication ethics. In 2020 her book, Maatian Ethics in a Communication Context, was published by Routledge Press and in 2021 Kendall-Hunt published Communication Ethics: Activities for Critical Thinking and Reflection, a book she co-authored with Tammy- Swenson-Lepper. Bert Ballard, Michelle Leavitt, Lori Carron, LeeAnn Bell-Macmanus and Spoma Jovanovic. Currently Vélez Ortiz is continuing her investigations into ancient African contributions to rhetoric and communication ethics through her work on a third book titled On Kushite Rhetoric.
Peter Wampler
Professor of Geology in Honors
Office Address: 134 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-2834
Email: [email protected]
Peter Wampler is a broadly trained environmental geologist and geomorphologist with a background in both academic and government regulation of mining and storm water. He received his PhD in 2004 for work on human- and climatic-induced changes along the Clackamas River in Oregon. As a professor at GVSU, he has worked with undergraduate and graduate students on applied geoscience research: 1) evaluating GVSU’s storm water runoff footprint and assisting in designing Best Management Practices (BMP) for GVSU; 2) investigating water resources and groundwater contamination pathways in rural Haiti; 3) evaluating human impacts to river systems resulting from dams and other structures; and 4) Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to create household radon hazard maps for Michigan using geologic data. He has traveled to Haiti numerous times since 2007 to work on water resources issues and safe water interventions. He previously led GVSU students on a 4 week study abroad to Haiti.
Daniel Williams
Meijer Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Office Address: 129 Niemeyer
Phone: (616) 331-2493
Email: [email protected]
Daniel Williams, EdD, is the fifth Meijer Endowed Chair in Entrepreneurship and Innovation for the GVSU Frederik Meijer Honors College and has over 20 years of leadership experience working to advance justice through education, philanthropy, community engagement, and equity-centered design thinking. Through his work as President + CEO of the Steelcase Foundation, Daniel has led efforts to drive and support large-scale social change. Prior to this, Daniel worked towards equity and innovation in his roles as President + CEO of the West Michigan Center for Arts and Technology and co-founder + principal of Grand Rapids University Prep Academy. He earned his Doctorate in Interdisciplinary Leadership from Creighton University, an MEd in Educational Leadership from Eastern Michigan University, and a BA from University of Iowa.
Honors Associates
Honors also draws many exceptional faculty from around campus.
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