Academic Deans
Douglas Howard, Ph.D.
Professor, Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dr. Doug Howard (dhoward@medaille.edu) joined Medaille in 2005 as Vice President for Academic Affairs, at which time he was also appointed professor of humanities. A graduate of Miami University (Ohio), he received his Ph.D. degree in English from the University of Rochester, after which he joined the faculty at St. John Fisher College, where he served for over 25 years as a faculty member and administrator before coming to Medaille.
Dr. Howard’s research and teaching interests have centered on Shakespeare and English drama, and his publications include The Plays of Samuel Foote (Garland Publishing, 1983) and Philip Massinger: A Critical Reassessment (Cambridge University Press, 1985). More recently, Dr. Howard has taught and written about twentieth-century American culture, including a range of subjects from the early black independent film to printmaking in the Great Depression. An avid art collector, he has also curated more than twenty art exhibitions, mostly focused on upstate New York modernists working from the 1930s to the 1970s. His catalog essay, “At the Margins of Modernism: Rufus J. Dryer and Kathleen McEnery” appeared in The Art of Kathleen McEnery (Harnett Gallery, 2003).
As an academic leader, Dr. Howard has focused on working with faculty to develop, assess, and sustain curricular innovation, and on fostering collaboration between academics and student life. In 2002, his work on first-year programs was recognized by the Policy Center on the First Year of College in their designation of “Institutions of Excellence in the First College Year.” Since 2003, Dr. Howard has served as one of twenty resource faculty selected nationally to facilitate the National Summer Institute on Learning Communities at the Evergreen State University (Washington).
Judith Horowitz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Dean of the School of Adult and Graduate Education, and Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management
Dr. Judith Horowitz (jhorowitz@medaille.edu) received a Ph.D. in biopsychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, and has continued studying the relationship between brain and behavior. She has published over two dozen articles in the areas of depression, Parkinson’s Disease, schizophrenia, and drug addiction. She has received extramural funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Association for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, and the Parkinson’s Foundation. She has taught in Medaille's Psychology Program since 1997, and now serves the College as the Dean of the School of Adult and Graduate Education (SAGE).
Norman Muir, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, and Dean, Undergraduate Education
Dr. Norman Muir (nmuir@medaille.edu) joined Medaille College in June 2004 as the undergraduate academic dean. Since receiving his Ph.D. in literature from SUNY Stony Brook in 1984, he has served as a full-time faculty member or academic administrator at three other small, private, independent colleges. His scholarly interests remain in the areas of sixteenth and seventeenth century British literature, with an emphasis on Elizabethan and Jacobean comedy. He continues to research and write about the influence of the theological doctrine of Christian Patience on Renaissance and seventeenth century literature through John Milton.
Dr. Muir has taught a variety of college writing and literature courses, ranging from developmental English to technical writing and from introduction to literature classes to a senior seminar in the novels of William Faulkner. While at Centenary College in New Jersey, he received the Lindback Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence after being nominated by his students. He has also had the good fortune of traveling to China twice in recent years to teach for short periods of time at five Chinese universities.
As an academic administrator, his primary interests are in academic program development, experiential learning, strategic planning, improving teaching and learning, and the assessment of student learning and institutional effectiveness.
His family includes his wife of thirty years, Donna, and his adopted daughter, Alexa Grace Fuyan Ting Muir, born in Changting County of Fujian Province in southeastern China. Alexa is in the fourth grade and already smarter than her father! Also living in the family residence are his mother, Joyce, and a gracefully aging parakeet of 13 years, Oliver.
He is a lifelong New Yankee fan with a passion for baseball. When not watching a Yankee game on television or playing with Alexa, he can be found indulging his interest in Italian Renaissance art and literature.
Francis M. Murphy, Ph.D.
Professor, Founding Dean of the School of Education
Dr. Fran Murphy (fmm32@medaille.edu) began at Medaille in the summer of 2006.
Prior to coming to Medaille, Dr. Murphy was an associate professor at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY, where he was the chair of the Education Administration Program and a co-author of the Doctoral Program in Executive Leadership.
Dr. Murphy was a teacher in elementary, middle and high schools in special education and in English before becoming a principal and a superintendent of schools for 23 years. He served as a school superintendent in Scarsdale, NY; Williamsville, NY; Rome, NY; Conway, NH; Owego, NY and Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Dr. Murphy was New York Superintendent of the year in 1987.
His most recent publication is a book entitled, It’s About the People, Stupid: A Customer Service Self-Defense Manual, published by LINUS Publishing Company in New York, 2007.
Dr. Murphy completed a bachelor’s in science degree in psychology at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY in 1969 and a Ph.D. in instructional design, development and evaluation from Syracuse University in 1980.
Brad Hollingshead, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Foundational Learning and Assessment
Dr. Brad Hollingshead (bhollingshead@medaille.edu) joined the Medaille faculty in 2000, and has taught college English since 1989. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Duquesne University, with specializations in nineteenth-century British literature and critical theory. His B.A. in English is from Ohio Dominican University. Dr. Hollingshead teaches undergraduate courses in British literature, theory, and composition. He also teaches graduate courses in narrative inquiry theory and the essay tradition. His research interests include British Romanticism; Victorian Prose; Marxist, feminist, postcolonial, and poststructuralist theory; film; and Hip Hop culture. His scholarship has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, and he has been invited to speak at national and international conferences on a wide range of topics, including literature, film, and rap. His most recent scholarship focuses on the relationship between British Romantic literature and Marxist theory. His manuscript, ‘The Political House that Jack Built’: Romanticism and Marxist Kritik, was solicited by Routledge Press for publication in its series Studies in Literary Theory and Cultural Criticism.
Dr. Hollingshead has also served as the coordinator of outcomes assessment since 2003. As coordinator, Dr. Hollingshead has led efforts to create and implement the college’s Student Learning Assessment Plan. He was the chief author of the plan, which was commended by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
Dr. Hollingshead has been recognized for educational excellence throughout his career, most recently receiving the Dr. Brian R. Shero Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award in 2005.
