Faculty & Staff Directory

Alexander Doster Hilshey, Instructor in Electrical Engineering, earned his Master's of Science in Electrical Engineering at the University of Vermont ('12) and is also an alumni of Penn State Altoona ('09). Alex's research focuses on quantifying the impacts of Plug-in Electric Vehicle (PEV) battery charging on electrical distribution infrastructure. His research areas also include PEV charging impact mitigation, known as smart charging, and forecasting PEV charging load. His additional interests include smart grid technology, clean energy generation, numerical methods, and chaos theory. His industry experience include mechanical engineering design work at McLanahan Corporation, where he designed bulk material sampling equipment.

Deborah Kimmel Hommer joined the business faculty at Penn State Altoona in August 1998. Currently she is the Coordinator of the Business degree program, a position she has held since May 2000. Ms. Hommer has designed and taught classes in information systems, team-building, business statistics, and project management. Deborah received her B.S. in Business Management from the Pennsylvania State University and her MBA with an Information Systems focus from George Washington University.

Dr. Barbara Hong holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University in Cross-Categorical Studies with a special focus on Mild/Moderate Disabilities and Psycho-Educational Assessment. She has also earned three Master degrees in Policy & Administration, Instructional Practices, and Learning Disabilities from Columbia University. She holds certifications in Special Education, Principalship, and District Administration & Supervision. Dr. Hong has over 25 years of experience working with people with disabilities (e.g., in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Taiwan, Qatar, Cypress, Turkey, Guatemala, Sweden, Tunisia, Somalia, Ireland, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania). Her work has appeared in journals such as Teaching Exceptional Children, Texas Reading Report, Preventing School Failure, National Council of Professors in Educational Administration, Journal of College Student Retention, Journal of College Student Development, and International Journal of Learning. Her publications and training materials have been translated into Spanish for the indigenous teachers in Central America as well as in Lithuanian and Arabic. Her research has been focused on college students with disabilities and the impact faculty have on helping students develop self-regulation. Dr. Hong is very active in the community and has been invited to sit on several committees such as the Local Interagency Coordinating Council which coordinates early intervention services for children and families with special needs in three counties and the Smart Start Parenting & Literacy Committee which supports parents of young children in promoting literary awareness. She has also been invited to sit on the Centre County Cooperative Extension Family Living Program Development Committee to represent multicultural families community in advising the county Family Living Educator about programs that meet the needs of the community. Dr. Hong has recently been awarded the Senior Fulbright Scholarship to Qatar and the Fulbright Inter-Country Lecturer to Cyprus. She has also been invited to be the first Honorable Visiting Scholar at the Taipei Municipal University of Education. Most recently, she received the prestigious Teacher of Honor award by the International Education Honor Society, Kappa Delta Pi.

Hai Huang, assistant professor of civil engineering, graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a doctorate in the area of railroad civil engineering. His research focuses on advanced computational modeling, evaluation and maintenance, and sustainable materials for railroad infrastructure. He also has research experience in fatigue and healing of materials and geosynthetic reinforcement. He has conducted his research in China, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He has multiple publications in the Journal of Transportation Research Record as well as other engineering journals. He will make significant contributions to the railroad research and education at Penn State Altoona and will be a contributor to bring the new RTE degree on board.

Julia Hudson-Richards, assistant professor of
history, earned her doctorate from the University of
Arizona. Her dissertation is entitled "The Orange
Proletariat: Social Relations in the Pais Valenciano,
1860-1939," and her research interests include
Modern European History, Comparative World
History, and Comparative Gender. She previously
served as adjunct professor in the Department of
Humanities and Human Sciences at Point Park
University.

Justin Michael Huffman, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, earned his doctorate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His primary area of research lies in the biosynthesis of natural products, with a special interest in polyketides. His doctoral work focused on Fum6p, which represents the first characterized example of a fusion P450 with a known physiological function, has been investigated for the role it plays in the biosynthesis of fumonisin mycotoxins. In addition, Justin also investigated the regulatory and biosynthetic mechanisms of the antimycotic HSAF (heat stable antifungal factor). He plans to continue his studies on polyketides and extend his investigations into alkaloid natural products following similar paradigms.

David Hurtubise completed his Ph.D. in mathematics at Stanford University in 1995, and he has been at Penn State Altoona since 1997. His current research interests include applications of algebraic topology, dynamical systems, and homotopy theory to problems in classical mechanics and linear control theory.