Experience It.

Social Sciences Faculty

James Brace, M.S.W.

Associate Professor and  Acting Chair, Social Sciences Department

Jim BraceJim Brace joined Medaille College in 1997 after nearly twenty-eight years of community service to children and families. Mr. Brace was the director of child protective services in Erie County, NY from 1991 until 1997.

Brace earned a master of science degree in education from Canisius College and a master of social work degree from State University of New York at Buffalo/School of Social Work. Additionally, he is licensed by the New York State Education Department to practice social work. He is a member of the National Association of Social Workers and continues to serve community organizations in Western New York.

Mr. Brace has taught in the Departments of Child and Youth Services, Education, and Social Sciences of Medaille College. Additionally, he has taught social work courses at Daemen College and SUNY at Buffalo/School of Social Work. In addition to teaching, Mr. Brace has supervised master of social work students in community settings since 1990.

He has provided extensive service in faculty government and serves as the Faculty Athletic Representative to the National Collegiate Athletic Association.



Kim Carr, J.D.

Associate Professor

Kim Carr joined the Medaille College faculty in 1992. Prior to that she earned a B.A. in history from the State University College at Buffalo and immediately thereafter earned her J.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School.

After working for the law firm of John Papsidiero, she turned her attention toward the criminal justice system and teaching. As a faculty member at Medaille she spearheaded the development of the criminal justice degree program and teaches primarily criminal law and criminal procedure law.

In addition to her teaching duties, her current endeavors include further curriculum development in the criminal justice degree program. Additionally, she has expanded her attention to include teaching in the inter-disciplinary studies department, learning assessment within that program and participating in a new mentoring program for incoming freshmen.

Kim has served on numerous committees for the College including the Promotion and Tenure Committee and the Grievance Committee. Her favorite honor is having been invited on several occasions by student honorees to attend with them and their families the TRIO Honors Convocation.

Timothy Dzierba, Ph.D.

Professor

Timothy DzierbaDr. Timothy Dzierba has taught at Medaille in the Departments of Social Sciences, Liberal Studies and General Education since 1972. He has previously taught at Daemen College, Cornell University, and the United States Naval Reserve Center. He earned a Ph.D. in history from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1983, with a dissertation topic of "Organized Labor and the Coming of the Second World War, 1937-1941." He teaches courses in United States History, the History of Buffalo, War and Peace in the Nuclear Age, Hollywood's America, and the history of terrorism. Dr. Dzierba has been listed as a public policy expert in business and labor in The Annual Guide to Public Policy Experts¸ published by the Heritage Foundation, since 1990. His recent research trip to the Middle East was sponsored by the U.S. State Department.



Charles Fieramusca

Visiting Instructor

Charles Fieramusca returns to Medaille, having previously taught criminal justice courses including Criminal Investigations, Introduction to Criminal Justice, and Juvenile Delinquency, and Serial Killers. He had a 30-year career in the law enforcement field with the Buffalo Police Department and the Erie County Sheriff's Department. A graduate of SUNY Buffalo and Erie Community College, Fieramusca served as a patrolman, lieutenant, precinct commander and Chief of Narcotics for the City of Buffalo before taking command responsibility as the Chief of Homicide and Crimes Against Persons Bureau for the Buffalo Police Department. He is also a graduate of the 124th session of the FBI National Academy.


Judith Horowitz, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Associate Vice President and Dean, School of Adult and Graduate Education

Judith HorowitzDr. Judith Horowitz 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).


Daniel Kotzin, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Daniel Kotzin Dr. Daniel Kotzin (daniel.p.kotzin@medaille.edu has been passionate about history since he attended the University of California at Irvine, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in history. As he continued his graduate studies in history at New York University in pursuit of a Ph.D., Dr. Kotzin became increasingly interested in American ethnic history and examing American history from a global perspective, particularly the ways in which Americans have tried to influence other nations.

After receiving his Ph.D. from New York University, he taught history at Beth Tfiloh Dahan High School in Maryland and then Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, where he emerged as a leader among the faculty in promoting active learning in the classroom. He has also been nationally recognized for his success as a teacher in Who's Who Among America's Teachers. Dr. Kotzin’s biography, Judah L. Magnes: An American Jewish Maverick (Syracuse University Press, 2010) explores the life of Judah Magnes, an American Jew who served as the first Chancellor of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and later emerged during the 1930s and 1940s as the leading advocate for peace between Jews and Arabs. Kotzin’s biography reveals the difficulty of transplanting American ideas and values to the Middle East.

Dr. Kotzin is now an assistant professor at Medaille College in the Social Sciences Department and Chair of the Interdisciplinary Studies Department, and teaches a variety of history and general education courses. Currently he is writing articles on history pedagogy and beginning research on the history of the Jewish community in Buffalo, looking specifically at the papers of Rabbi Isaac Klein which are housed in the archives at the University of Buffalo.

Bridget Marinaccio, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Bridget MarinaccioDr. Bridget Marinaccio has taught Psychology at Medaille since 2003, and is the director of the Mental Health Counseling program. She earned a master of science in counselor education from Canisius College, and a Ph.D. in counselor education from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Marinaccio is a New York State Licensed Mental Health Counselor, a national board certified counselor, and a New York State Marriage and Family Therapist. As a counselor in private practice, she has extensive experience working with couples, families and children. She was elected a member of the American Counseling Association's Professional Standards Committee in 2004, and also serves as regional coordinator of the New York Mental Health Counselors Association.



Paul Parsons, Ph.D.

Professor

Paul ParsonsDr. Paul Parsons has taught at Medaille since 1977, serving as a Health and Human Services and General Education professor, along with multiple administrative duties. He earned a master's in counseling from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He established the Child and Youth Services major, which was unique in New York State, and has developed two degree programs, five certifications, and over 35 courses with specializations in human development, chemical dependency, and bereavement counseling. Parsons edits the award-winning, refereed Journal of the Professional Counselor, and has been nominated for President-elect of the New York Counseling Association. He has published an anthology, Death, Dying, Loss and Change. Parsons has performed local community service at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, the Erie County Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Headway, and the United Way.



Anne Pfohl, M.S.Ed.

Visiting Instructor

Anne PfohlAnne H. Pfohl has taught in the fields of counselor education and psychology for the past twelve years. In 1999 she earned her master’s in counselor education from St. Bonaventure University. Currently in the dissertation phase of her Ph.D. in counselor education, Pfohl will be graduating in December 2010 from The Ohio State University. Pfohl has taught such courses as Counseling Techniques, Social Psychology, Group Counseling, Psychological Statistics, Theories of Counseling, Abnormal Human Behavior, Career Counseling, Child Development, Human Sexuality, Foundations of Mental Health Counseling, and a apecial topics course in trauma. Pfohl has also provided supervision and classroom instruction for counseling students’ field placements in Practicum and Internship experiences. Pfohl has worked extensively as an educator and consultant in the field of HIV and AIDS human services, and provides professional training through the New York State Department of Health, AIDS Institute. Pfohl has served as the Mental Health Coordinator for the Pride Center of Western New York, and was a member of the core staff for the North Atlantic Teaching Institute for Sexual Health Educators. Finally, Pfohl’s areas of interest in research and scholarship include psychological help-seeking; trauma and its impact on individuals and society; learning communities; the human-animal bond; and counseling the Deaf. She has published in such professional journals as The Journal of Counseling Research and Practice, The Clinical Supervisor and The Journal of the Kentucky Counseling Association.

Todd Riniolo, Ph.D.

Professor

Todd RinioloDr. Todd Riniolo began teaching in the Department of Social Sciences at Medaille in 2001, and earned his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. He has an extensive list of publications, ranging from research methods to cognitive psychology. The courses he teaches include parapsychology and pseudoscience, the psychology of adulthood, and the application of psychology to law.



Ross Runfola, J.D., Ph.D.

Professor

Dr. Ross RunfolaDr. Ross Runfola is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude graduate of the University of Buffalo where he also earned his M.A., Ph.D. and J.D. degrees. He is an award-winning professor, attorney, poet and journalist, including a piece for the New York Times which was unanimously selected by the nation's sports editors as the best sports feature published in any newspaper or magazine in the United States. He has published hundreds of  academic and popular articles, film scripts and two books, co-writing the textbook Understanding Sociology (2006) and previous to that co-edited the landmark Jock: Sports and Male Identity. He has done post-graduate work at Oxford University and Stanford University. In 1995, Dr. Runfola won first place in the Greater Buffalo Oral Poetry Slam and, is a popular, if not controversial, reader in Buffalo as well as other cities.

Among the many journals his poems have been published in are the Bottle of Smoke Press Six-Pack #2 , nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize in Poetry, the Bukowski Review and X-Ray Press #10 which is displayed in the British Museum of Modern Art. He has a chapbook of poems, Up Against the Poetry Establishment: Poetry That Makes Me Literary Road Kill by the Tainted Coffee Press scheduled for publication in 2007 as well as a full-length poetry book by the same press (Ed Kauffman, Ed., GPP Reader: Selections From the Poets of the Guerrilla Poetics Project (2007), and, a selection of poems in a compilation to be published by the Guerrilla Poetics Project (GPP) of which he is a founding member (www.guerrillapoetics.org). Quercus Review has described GPP as the next step in the evolution of poetry following the Harlem Renaissance and the Beats. Dr. Runfola has been selected for every Who's Who he is eligible for, including but not limited to Who's Who in The World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American Law and Who's Who in American Education and, has achieved the highest rating for a lawyer in both knowledge and ethics after an anonymous survey of judges and lawyers, in the legal "bible"- Martindale-Hubble. In addition to this prodigious body of work in many areas, he has been cited many times for his charitable endeavors including selection as "The First Annual Community Hero Award" by the United Way for his work as a lawyer, professor, writer and poet for the disenfranchised poor and, forgotten. Runfola maintains a personal web site.





Uhuru Watson, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Uhuru WatsonDr. Uhuru Watson joined the Medaille faculty in 1979 as "Dr. Robert Victor Watson." Dr. Watson legally changed his name to "Uhuru" in 1980 upon completing and receiving his Ph.D. in political science from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He also received his M.A. in political science from SUNYAB and his B.A. in political science from Kent State University. [The term "uhuru" is Swahili and means "freedom.”]

Dr. Uhuru [his preferred appellation], has taught a wide range of courses in Medaille College's Social Sciences, Government Services, Liberal Studies and General Education curricula. He taught at the Collins, Wyoming, and Wende Correctional Facilities from 1986 to 1993. He was an adjunct instructor in the Political Science Department at Buffalo State College from 1998 to 2005. He has also taught courses at SUNYAB, Erie Community College (City and South Campuses), Niagara University, and SUNY Brockport. He taught at the University of Houston from 1974 to 1976.

Uhuru has made many topical presentations and presented papers at various venues and conferences in Western New York. Illustrative of these topics and papers are: "Identity Dialectics: African Americans' Struggle for Authenticity," and "Black Electoral Politics in the 1990's."

His travel to Senegal in 1988 focused on his learning experiences with the Wolof. He has made 3 subsequent trips to South Africa, each lasting 30 days. In South Africa, he lived in the village with the Tsonga-speaking, Shagaan.

Dr. Watson was instrumental in establishing the first commemoration of African History Month at Medaille College. He has been the recipient of the Faculty Member of the Year Award and was listed as one of the "Top Ten Instructors in Western New York" in the Buffalo News Magazine in 1987. His current research focuses on “Students’ Attitudes Towards Africancentric Studies."

Dr. Uhuru’s "educational dream," is "that Medaille College students receiving Baccalaureate Degrees in Criminal Justice, Education, Human Services, and Psychology will have taken at least one course that is Africancentric based."