Faculty & Staff Directory

Patricia Jabbeh Wesley earned her Ph.D. in Creative Writing and English from Western Michigan University, a Master of Science degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a BA in English from the University of Liberia. She is the author of three books of poetry: "The River is Rising" (Autumn House Press, Pittsburgh, 2007), "Becoming Ebony," (SIU Press, 2003) and "Before the Palm Could Bloom: Poems of Africa" (New Issues Press, 1998). Her second book, "Becoming Ebony" is a 2002 Crab Orchard Award winner. Dr. Wesley has won several other awards, including the World Bank Fellowship, the Victor E. Ward Foundation for Literary Excellence Award, 2001, the College of West Africa Alumni Association Award for Literary Excellence, 2006, the Irving S. Gilmore Emerging Artist Grant from the Kalamazoo Foundation among others. She is a regular featured author and speaker both in the US and internationally, and her poetry has been critically acclaimed by many reviewers. Patricia has published works in many US and international journals and anthologies, including the "New Orleans Review," "Crab Orchard Review," "English Academy Review of South Africa," "The Prometeo Magazine," "Medellin," "Colombia," "Echoes Across the Valley: Poets of Africa," (Kenya), "Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania," "Approaching Literature: Writing, Reading, Thinking," among others. Patricia is currently Chair of MLA's Division on African Literatures. Her interests include creative writing, poetry, African, African American and Diaspora literatures and the Liberian civil war. She is presently working on a memoir of her Liberian civil war experiences.

James Julian, instructor in biology, is a doctoral candidate in the Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Penn State. His teaching interests include courses in vertebrate anatomy, physiology, and evolution in ornithology, mammalogy, and herpetology, as well as teaching experience in vertebrate zoology. He has delivered a series of seminars for the Clearwater Conservancy non-profit land stewardship organization.