DALLAS TWP. — Misericordia University recently awarded tenure and promotion to six members of the faculty. Those tenured and promoted to associate professor are Anna Fedor, Ph.D., chemistry; Jessica Sofranko Kisenwether, Ph.D., C.C.C.-S.L.P., speech-language pathology; Jodi Piekarski Loughlin, D.Ed., teacher education; Susan McDonald, Ph.D., social work; Ryan Weber, Ph.D., fine arts, and Joshua D. Winneker, J.D., business.
Dr. Fedor is the chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and has been a member of the faculty since 2008. She teaches courses in chemical principles, inorganic and physical chemistry, and oversees a research program for undergraduates in the areas of physical and computational chemistry. Her research interests include far-infrared, mid-infrared and Raman spectroscopy, and computational modeling of biological models by using molecular dynamics simulations. She has made presentations at more than a dozen national and regional meetings of the American Chemical Society. She also oversees the annual “Things that Go Boom in the Night,” a student outreach program that offers Halloween-themed chemistry experiments to the public. In addition, she is the chemistry and biochemistry representative on the committee planning the construction of the new Frank M and Dorothea Henry Science Center on campus. A Wilkes-Barre area native who resides in Dallas, she earned her Bachelor of Science at The Pennsylvania State University and her doctorate at Syracuse University, both in chemistry.
An alumna, Dr. Kisenwether earned her Bachelor of Science in psychology and Master of Science in speech-language pathology. She completed her Ph.D. in communication sciences and disorders at The Pennsylvania State University with a specialty in speech science, including sub-specialties in areas of dysphagia and voice. A member of the faculty since 2015, her research focuses on subjective and objective measures of speech, voice, dysphagia and dysfluency. Dr. Kisenwether has published a book chapter, several articles in numerous peer-reviewed journals, and presented her work at numerous international, national and state conventions. She is also a certified Institutional Review Board Professional and serves as chair and administrator for Misericordia. Dr. Kisenwether has worked as a speech-language pathologist in both Pennsylvania and New York in pediatric and adult outpatient and acute care settings. She resides in Dallas.
Dr. Loughlin holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Moravian College, a Master of Education from Bloomsburg University and a doctorate in adult education from The Pennsylvania State University. She holds both a reading specialist certificate (K-12), and an elementary education certificate. A resident of Shenandoah Heights, she joined the Misericordia faculty in 2011. During her career, she served as an elementary teacher, reading specialist, federal programs coordinator and Title 1 coordinator at Shenandoah Valley School District. She teaches a range of courses at Misericordia, including reading methods, classroom management, language arts methods and collaborating with families. She has published scholarly work in Pennsylvania Teacher Educator, and presented at the Pennsylvania Council for Exceptional Children’s 59th Annual Convention and numerous Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Education (PAC-TE) conferences. She is the Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education counselor and chair of the Academic Policies Committee at Misericordia, as well as a school board director at Shenandoah Valley School District. In addition, Dr. Loughlin is a member of the Pennsylvania School Board Association, PAC-TE and International Literacy Association.
Dr. McDonald, who serves as the chair of the Department of Social Work, joined the faculty in 2013. The Kingston resident has her doctorate in social work from Fordham University, a Master of Social Work (MSW) from Marywood University, and a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice from King’s College. She holds a social work license in Pennsylvania and is a Certified Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapist. She served as Misericordia’s director of field education for social work. Dr. McDonald previously served as professor of the MSW program for Temple University in Harrisburg, and program director of social work at Alvernia University. She has presented at conferences across the U.S. and in Belgium, China and Bosnia-Herzegovina. An article on narrative therapy with older adults was published in Today’s Geriatric Medicine magazine and she was a contributing author on the book, “Contemporary Issues in Childhood and Adolescence: Narrating Ecological Perspectives,” being published with Columbia University Press.
A resident of Hawley, Dr. Weber joined the faculty in 2013. He has a Ph.D. in music history and theory from the University of Connecticut, and a Master of Arts in music theory and a Bachelor of Arts in music from Queens College – The City University of New York. Dr. Weber also serves as a member of the faculty of the Medical and Health Humanities Program at Misericordia. He recently authored the book, “Cosmopolitanism and Transatlantic Circles in Music and Literature,” and presented details at an international music and political science conference in Athens in 2018. The book explores nationalism around 1900, and how music and literature helped nations create a source of identity. He has presented at the University of Huddersfield, England, and the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In addition, he edited a related volume of essays by leading scholars in the journal Nineteenth-Century Music Review, published by Cambridge University Press.
Professor Winneker holds a Juris Doctor magna cum laude from Seton Hall University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Muhlenberg College. A member of the faculty since 2013, he teaches all legal courses in the undergraduate and graduate programs in the Department of Business, including Business Law, Sports Law, Regulation of Sports Gambling, Law, Ethics and the Legal Environment, Legal Aspects of Administration and Regulation of Human Resources. He previously taught at the University of Delaware, where he won the Student Choice Excellence in Teaching Award for the Lerner College of Business & Economics. Prior to teaching, he practiced corporate litigation in New York City at several international law firms, including Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. His research focuses on sports law and he has published a number of research papers with prominent schools throughout the country, including University of California, Berkeley; University of Virginia and University of Texas at Austin. He resides in Chester, New Jersey.