Faculty & Staff Directory

Miranda Sarachine Falso, Assistant Professor of Biology, earned her doctorate in Pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh. Her dissertation work focused on proteomic methodologies to identify markers in the nuclear matrix of ductal carcinoma in situ and tamoxifen resistant breast cancer. She recently completed a postdoctoral research position with the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Her postdoctoral research utilized accelerator mass spectrometry to answer a variety of biological questions such as understanding cell and protein turnover in human tissues. Her primary research interest lies in understanding the long-term effects of exposure to low levels of endocrine disrupting compounds found in the environment during early stages of development.

Eleanor Hart (Noel) Feeley is the Theatre and Gallery Manager at Penn State Altoona and facilitates the administration and programming for a 400-seat theatre, galleries, dance studio, scene shop and conference spaces. She serves on the Board of the Pennsylvania Rural Arts Alliance, the Altoona Community Theatre and the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art. In the past, Noel has worked as a lighting designer, a grants program specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and as a theater and museum non-profit arts administrator.

Irene Ferrara joined the engineering faculty at Penn State Altoona in August 1995. Currently, she is the Coordinator of the Electro-Mechanical Engineering Technology program, a position she has held since January 2005. In the past, she has taught classes in computer-aided design, programmable logic controllers, quality control, career preparation and job skills, and materials science. Irene received her B.S. in Engineering Science from the Pennsylvania State University and her M.S. in Mechanics and Materials Science from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Brooke Heidenreich Findley, Assistant Professor of French and Women's studies, earned her Ph.D. from Duke University. Her research specialty is in medieval literature, with a strong secondary interest in feminist theory and a particular focus on portrayals of medieval women. She is currently working on a book entitled "Poet Heroines in Medieval French Narrative: Gender and Fictions of Literary Creation." She teaches French language, literature and culture, medieval literature, and Women's Studies.

Sam Findley, instructor in classics and ancient
Mediterranean studies, earned his doctorate in the
Department of Classical Studies at Duke University.
His dissertation is entitled “Theognis, Tibullus,
and the Effacement of Poetic Self.” His teaching
interests include Latin, Greek, classical studies, and
mythology.

Richard Flarend earned his Ph.D. in physics from Purdue University in 1997. Main areas of interest include accelerator mass spectroscopy and alternative energy systems.

Carrie Freie is Assistant Professor of Education at Penn State Altoona. She earned her PhD in Social Foundations of Education at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York in 2005. Her research uses qualitative methodology to study student identity in high school and college settings, focusing on social class, race and gender.

Selected Publications:

Freie, C. (2007). Class Construction: White Working-Class Student Identity in the New Millennium. Lanham MD: Lexington Books.

Freie, C. (2010). Considering Gendered Careers: The Influence of Resilient Mothers and Sisters upon White Working-Class Young Women. Ethnography and Education 5(3): 229-243.

Freie, C. (2012). Breaking the Bank: Stories of Financial, Cultural and Academic Struggle from
First-Generation College Students. In Dangerous Counterstories in the Corporate Academy: Narrating for Understanding, Solidarity, Resistance, and Community in the Age of Neoliberalism. Eds. Emily Daniels and Bradley Porfilio. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Courses: EDTHP 115 Education in American Society
EDTHP 416 & SOC 416 Sociology of Education
EDTHP 297 Multicultural Perspectives: Families, Communities and Education
EDTHP 497 Media, Popular Culture and Education