Faculty

Flavio Rizzo

Biography

Flavio Rizzo has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and an Italian Laurea in Cinema Studies from Roma Tre University. Before joining Champlain College, Flavio was an Assistant Professor in the Center for Global Communication Strategies at the University of Tokyo where he was part of its faculty in the Japan in East Asia Program. He also taught Comparative Literature and Film Studies at the City University of New York.

Flavio is also a writer and filmmaker. Among other works, he has a documentary on Pier Paolo Pasolini (recognized with the Cinema Avvenire Award during the 53rd Venice Film Festival) and a documentary on the Coca Wars in Bolivia.

His research is currently focusing on cinematic and literary representations of seclusion; it concentrates on exploring contemporary forms of seclusion by putting the radical act of retreating from the world into the larger context of contemporary hyper-connectivity, networked and narcissistic digital narratives, and both commercially motivated and sincere forms of neo-spiritualisms. As part of this study, he has been tackling the Hikikomori phenomenon in Japan; he focuses on the juxtaposition of what he sees as postmodern hermits and the hyper-connected container in which they live. He is interested in analyzing the very specific iconographic space that emerges from this encounter-collision.

His areas of concentration rotate around interdisciplinary approaches and include:

He is a staunch supporter of Lazio, the team that in 1900 brought football to the city of Rome.

Publications & Abstracts

2021 “Re-inventing isolation, Imagining the other in seclusion” Essays in Otherness – Aarhus University, co-author

2019 “Unlocking Hikikomori: an Interdisciplinary Approach“Journal of Youth Studies, Volume 22, No 06, Taylor & Francis, co-author

2018 “Migrant Crisis: One Day We Will Have a Language for This“Africa is a Country, May 2nd

2016 “Hikikomori: the Postmodern Hermits of Japan“ Warscapes, June 14th

2016 “Student-Centered Teaching: Writing Through Passion“Komaba Journal of English Education, Volume 7, University of Tokyo, co-author

2015 “The New Paladins of the Humanities: A Warning“ Warscapes, June 28th

2013 “Toward a Loss of Language“ Huffington Post, Oct 2nd

2013 “Thoughts in Exile: Beyond Berlusconi’s Sex Trial“ Huffington Post, August 6th

2013 “Minister Kyenge and “Good’ Colonialism“ Warscapes, July 31st

2013 “Navigating Italian Shame“ Huffington Post, July 21st

2013 “The Story of Wikileaks?“ Warscapes, June 30th

2013 “Shipwrecked in Whole Foods“ Warscapes, June 1st

2013 “Holding America Hostage“ Huffington Post, February 8th, co-author

2012 “On Ignorance and Prankumentary: Adrift in the Central African Republic” Warscapes, October 15th

2012 “Filming the Green Wave: a Delicate Space of Brutality“ Warscapes, October 3rd

2012 “Compromising Iranian Cinema“ Warscapes, May 29th

2011 In Danger, San Francisco: City Lights Books Translator of literary essays by Pier Paolo Pasolini

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Frank Robinson

Biography

Who his Frank Robinson? He is the son of Frank Robinson and Ruth Jackson, the brother of Janice and Jack, the father of Teresa, and the grandfather of Kendra and Ethan. He has graduated several times, including a B.A. in history, a M.S. in journalism, and a Ph.D. in Inter-Disciplinary Studies (history, education, English, and women’s studies) from Ohio University. He has taught high school history and been a basketball coach. He completed the Boston Marathon, kayaked Lake Superior’s Isle Royale National Park, and rafted the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. He bikes and swims regularly; one of his all-time favorite bike rides was the Ride the Rockies Bike Tour in Colorado. He is an amateur landscape photographer. As much as he as been blessed with life since 1965 as an administrator or professor, he thinks he could have been happy as a 3rd grade teacher, constitutional judge, newspaper columnist, geologist, or operating a backcountry guide service in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. He once played most sports (except skiing which he failed) and especially enjoy the basketball season (high school, college, and Boston Celtics). He likes mountains more than beaches, books more than movies, and interesting class discussions more than lectures. He likes preparing for class. He likes teaching because he likes learning. He learns before class when he prepares and he learns during class from his students’ feedback, comments, and questions.

Favorite Quote

“Certain questions which grown-ups deem unanswerable begin as answers which children find unquestionable.”

—Walter Kirn, Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever (2009)

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Esther Rosbrook

Biography

Esther Rosbrook, EdD., MSci is a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, Organizational Development, and Human Resources scholar-practitioner and consultant. She has been teaching at Champlain College since 2017 and has over twenty years of professional experience in international corporations and higher education.

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David Rous

Biography

David Rous has taught history and interdisciplinary studies at Champlain since 2006, specializing in firstyear courses such as Concepts of the Self, Concepts of Community, and the Firstyear Inquiry: Reading, Writing, and Gender in Pop Culture. He attended Colorado College and the University of Vermont. His research includes popular culture, post-war American history, the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War, and European Colonialism. His interests include reading, hiking, soccer, modern languages, and arguing.

Distinctions & Awards

Francine Page Excellence in Teaching Award 2016

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Eric Sample

Biography

Eric Sample teaches Fundamentals of Music, Film Scoring, and Synthesis & Sound Design. He also facilitates the recording studio at Champlain College.

He is thrilled to have just completed a worldwide sabbatical, researching the music of the African diaspora and traveling to Cuba, Brazil, Kenya, Ghana, Gambia, and Senegal. He received his initial music training on the island of Jamaica, starting at the Jamaica School of Music before studying privately in Kingston with the amazing Michael Dyke (a lifelong mentor). After leaving Jamaica, Sample moved to the bright lights of New York City, and freelanced at 100+ different advertising agencies over a five-year period, getting a fascinating look at the New York media and marketing landscape.

A relentless lifelong learner, Sample has attended the following schools: the Jamaica School of Music, the Brooklyn Conservatory, the School of Visual Arts, UC Berkeley, the Berklee College of Music online, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Sample also loves architecture and design, having designed the layout of the Champlain Music Studio and his parents’ cottage. He is looking forward to his next project (with his mentor) entitled “Rock Hall Trilogy,” a cross cultural musical extravaganza featuring Love, Sex, Death and the Devil—all set in the teeming vibrant wondrous land of Jamaica.

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Gary Savard

Biography

Gary has over 30 years experience as a software engineer and 25 years teaching college. He is a successful entrepreneur and has a passion for passing his knowledge on to his students.

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• Leading Geeks
• Mythical Man Month

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Eileen Schiffer

Biography

Eileen Schiffer is an Industrial Organizational Psychologist (PhD) who has been fortunate to have had a wide range of opportunities to support students’ and clients’ in their pursuits of their professional goals. Those experiences have included individual counseling, comprehensive project management, program development and evaluation, and training and support of others who shared a commitment to facilitating academic and professional growth of students and clients.

She began her career consulting for several Fortune 100 companies, creating career resources centers and services, developing leadership succession programs, and counseling and coaching employees at all levels in their career planning processes, including those who were in crisis as a result of organizational reductions in force. Eventually she transitioned into higher education, where she has served as a professor, course designer, program administrator and innovator, and faculty trainer, mentor and coach.

Since her transition to the world of academia, she has been an advocate and driver for high quality online adult education. She has developed processes, guides and tools that facilitated faculty and student transitions during significant change initiatives. She has served as the Curriculum Specialist for School of Business undergraduate and graduate programs, as a contributor to the School of Business Strategic Planning, Curriculum Mapping, and Accreditation processes, and as Faculty Lead for both Development in Excellence Initiatives and for New Faculty Onboarding and Support. In the past few years, as a Higher Education Consultant, she has partnered with Instructional Designers at several Universities in the creation and revision of undergraduate and graduate online courses across multiple disciplines. The focus in each of those roles was on program innovation, quality assurance, and ““ always – on support of faculty and students.

She is a lifelong learner. She has completed graduate hours in education and assessment, curriculum development, instructional design, research methods, and psychometrics, and earned a graduate certificate in Sustainable Food Systems Management. She also participated as a selected member of a year-long Online Teaching Innovations Cohort, focused on assessing and improving online course quality, and served an appointment as a peer reviewer of submissions made to the Scientific & Paper Review Committee of the Global Conference on Business and Economics. She has published articles in Faculty Focus, Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, and Supervision.

Distinctions & Awards

Recipient of Champlain College merit award and recognition for Exemplary Teaching.

Publications & Abstracts

• Schiffer, E. F. (February, 2018). Time-saving tips for teaching large online classes. Faculty Focus Premium.
• Schiffer, E. F. (November, 2017). Teaching adult students with considerable professional expertise. Faculty Focus.
• Schiffer, E. F. (2017). The dreaded team assignment: developing essential leadership skills. Techniques: Connecting Education & Careers, 92(4), 30-35
• Schiffer, Eileen (February, 2017). Tapping into the power of your introverts. Supervision, 78 (2), 23-26. (February, 2017)
• Schiffer, E.F. (Feb, 2013). Tips for online instructors: Managing files, feedback, and workload. Faculty Focus.
• Schiffer, E.F. (Feb, 2013). The learning relationships of online education. Marylhurst University Blog.
• Schiffer, E.F. (May/June, 2012). Is an online MBA a worthwhile investment in your future? Oregon Planner’s Journal (23-24).
• Schiffer, E.F. (2011). Resistance to Change: Implications of Individual Differences In Expression of Resistance to Change. Dissertation. University of South Florida, 123; 3443923

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Paul Schnabel

Biography

Paul Schnabel is an actor/director based in Vermont. In his long career, he has performed in leading theaters throughout the US and Europe and appeared in many feature films and shorts. More recently, he has shifted focus from performance to teaching. His work with Courageous Stage in Middlebury has taken him statewide as a teaching artist in schools at all levels. He has been at Champlain College since 2019 teaching directing and acting. He particularly enjoys working in this department and considers it his mission to strengthen the directing and acting components.
He is a long-standing member of the internationally acclaimed Riot Group out of NYC and has toured extensively with them. As part of the Riot Group, he has garnered many awards over the years, including twice for Best Ensemble from the Stage in London, and 5 Fringe First Awards from the Scotsman in Edinburgh including a First of the Firsts Award. He was a finalist for an Irene Ryan Excellence in Acting Award, and awarded Best Actor in the Vermont Stage and Screen awards.
He is co-founder and past president of Off Center for the Dramatic Arts, an incubator performance venue in the New North End of Burlington.
He has been a member of SAG AFTRA for over 25 years.

Distinctions & Awards

Irene Ryan Excellence in Acting Award, finalist
Vermont Stage and Screen Awards Best Actor, winner
Scotsmen Fringe Firsts Awards x4
First of the Firsts Award
The Stage London Best Ensemble x2
Herald Angel Awards x2

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

Favorite Quote

“The stars are matter. We are matter. But it doesn’t matter.”

—Don VanVliet

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Gary Scudder

Biography

During his 20+ years at Champlain Professor Scudder has taught classes on topics such as history, literature, art, evil, film, and a variety of classes dealing with the Islamic world. He initiated and ran Champlain’s award-winning Global Modules program. In addition, he has created, taught, and led student classes with trips to Jordan, India, Zanzibar, Sri Lanka, Spain, and Portugal.

Distinctions & Awards

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Vermont Professor of the Year, 2010.

Community Contribution Award, National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education (NITLE), 2010.

Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education for Internationalizing the Curriculum, 2008-2009.

Edward Phelps Lyman Professorship, Champlain College, 2007-2008.

Teaching About Islam and Middle Eastern Culture Seminar, CIC Grant, Amman Jordan, January 2005.

Georgia Board of Regents Distinguished Professor for Teaching and Learning, 1999-2000.

Outstanding Award for Teaching, Georgia Perimeter College, 1997-1998.

Most Appreciated Faculty Member Award, Georgia Perimeter College, 1993-1994.

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

• Charles Dickens, Bleak House
• Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet
• Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

Favorite Quote

“It was in vain that I lingered before the hawthorns.”

—Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

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Michael Sealy

Biography

Mike is the Creative Director of his own graphic design business in Burlington, Vermont. Following the completion of his Studio Art degree at the University of Vermont, Mike has been working in the local design community. Working in small design companies as well as medium sized agencies, he has more than 25 years of experience fulfilling clients’ needs. Mike is a versatile art director and graphic designer, making sure every detail is scrutinized from project conception through completion, constantly striving to deliver better solutions for his clients.

Mike loves the creative energy inherent in education; he enjoys staying involved, having taught graphic design and web design as an adjunct professor since 2014.

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Marie Segares

Biography

Marie Segares is a career intrapreneur in the non-profit health and education industries with expertise in program development, launch, and expansion. Her experience includes deployment as an assistant officer in the Community Relations unit at the American Red Cross in Greater New York during Disaster Response 787 (September 11 World Trade Center); managing administrative operations of a federally-funded public housing community health center for an academic medical center in the South Bronx; co-founding a public high school in Downtown Brooklyn; and developing an online bachelor’s degree-completion program for a faith-based, historically Black college in Dallas.

Dr. Segares earned her AB in Sociology from Barnard College, her MPH in Sociomedical Sciences with a concentration in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention from Columbia University, her MBA in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, and Leadership & Change Management from New York University, and her EdD in Organizational Leadership Studies from Northeastern University. Dr. Segares has taught business, entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, human resources, management and organizational behavior, marketing, health education and public health, and health care management courses at the undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, and graduate levels in traditional/face-to-face, online, and hybrid learning environments. Her previous appointments were as an associate professor and director of the MS in Management program at St. Francis College and as an auxiliary professor and coordinator of the Health Care Management MBA program at Molloy College.

Dr. Segares is also an artisan entrepreneur, creating digital content to self-publish and for major crafts manufacturers and publishers. Her areas of research interest include artisan entrepreneurship, creative business, microenterprise, leadership, small business marketing, and gender and diversity in entrepreneurship and organizations.

Publications & Abstracts

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RMOcEWyWDomWOefX0yLzqk514dxlOZRc/view?usp=sharing

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Daniel Selicaro

Biography

Daniel Selicaro is an Assistant Professor and Program Director for Technology at Champlain College Online. He oversees bachelor degree programs for Software Development, Web Design and Development, and Computer Science, as well as the graduate program in Software Engineering and Project Management.

Dan has been at Champlain College since 2007, and has been teaching web design and development for Champlain since 2015. He began his career in print journalism as a newspaper reporter, and was the news editor for Upside magazine and the Red Herring magazine in California. After moving back to the East Coast, he worked on digital marketing at Champlain College, and was an active part of two redevelopments of the College website, champlain.edu, before he took a role in the Information Systems department.

Outside of Champlain, Dan runs his own website development company, and is on the board of directors for several local organizations — including as marketing chair at the Fellowship of the Wheel mountain biking club, the Green Mountain Montessori School, and the Essex United Soccer Club. He is an avid mountain biker, and loves to spend his time adventuring in Vermont with his two young children.

Distinctions & Awards

Outstanding Community Partner Award, ODI, 2009; Intercultural U Program 2013

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Erik Shonstrom

Biography

Erik Shonstrom is the author of several nonfiction books, including Wild Curiosity, The Wisdom of the Body, and I Probably Should’ve Brought a Tent. He has an MFA from Bennington College.

Publications & Abstracts

• Wild Curiosity
• The Indoor Epidemic
• The Wisdom of the Body: What Embodied Cognition Can Teach us about Learning, Human Development, and Ourselves
• I Probably Should’ve Brought a Tent

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

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Kristen Shull

Biography

Kristen Shull received her MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies, class of 2020. Her comics are featured bi-monthly in the state-wide free newspaper Seven Days. Her self-published books include three volumes of diary comics, three issues of a fantasy comic anthology, and several comic zines. She’s been teaching at Champlain College since Spring 2022.

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Warren Sides

Biography

Warren Sides is a professor of mathematics in the division of Information Technology & Science. In addition to mathematics, he has a passion for social justice and innovative teaching methods.

He is an active member of the American Mathematical Society and participates in a number of events related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as well as curriculum development and experiential learning.

Distinctions & Awards

Edward Phelps Lyman Professorship Award 2023

Professional & Scholastic Affiliations

American Mathematical Society

Recommended Reading, Listening & Viewing

Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O’Neil

Curriculum Vitae

READ MY CV

Favorite Quote

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

—Max Planck

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