(Posted July 14, 2003)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Eight members of the Juniata College faculty received promotions in the 2002-2003 academic year recently at the annual Juniata College Board of Trustees spring meeting.

Celia Cook-Huffman, W. Clay and Kathryn Burkholder Supported Associate Professor of peace and Conflict resolution, was promoted to full professor; Grace Fala, associate professor of communication, was promoted to full professor; John Bukowski, assistant professor of mathematics, was promoted to associate professor; Dennis Johnson, assistant professor of environmental science, was promoted to associate professor; Lorraine Mulfinger, assistant professor of chemistry, was promoted to associate professor; Belle Tuten, assistant professor of history, was promoted to associate professor; Paula Wagoner, assistant professor of anthropology, was promoted to associate professor; and Lizabeth Wiinamaki, assistant professor of criminal justice/social work, was promoted to associate professor.

Cook-Huffman, who came to Juniata in 1990, also is the associate director of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. Over her career, she has worked with the college community, local churches and local school districts teaching mediation and conflict resolution skills, and providing community mediation services under the auspices of the Baker Institute.

Her research focuses on the impact of social identity on conflict and the relationship between gender issues and conflict. She received the Juniata Junior Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award in 1996. She earned a bachelor?s degree in peace studies and conflict resolution from Manchester College and earned a master?s degree in peace studies from the University of Notre Dame. She was named an International Scholars Program Fellow, and earned her doctoral degree at Syracuse University.

Fala came to Juniata in 1992, teaches courses in public speech, small group presentations, interpersonal communication, intercultural communication, and rhetoric. She earned a bachelor?s degree in speech communication and a master?s degree in philosophy, both from West Chester University. She earned a doctoral degree in speech communication at Penn State University. Before coming to Juniata, she taught communication courses at at Penn State's Delaware County Campus, Villanova University and West Chester University, and was an elementary school music teacher.

She received the 1998 Beachley Award for Distinguished Academic Service for faculty with less than six years of service from Juniata College and received the Kathryn DeBoer Distinguished Teaching Award in 1992 from Penn State. She also recived the Institute for Women Graduate Award in 1986, and received Juniata?s Woman of the Year Award in 1997. She also has supervises the college?s annual Soap Box Speeches, the Great Orations (GO) program, and the Alternative Ways of Loving (AWOL) program.

Bukowski came to Juniata in 1997 after earning a master?s degree and doctorate in applied mathematics from Brown University. He earned a bachelor?s degree in math and physics from Carnegie Mellon University. His primary research interests are in continuum limits of particle systems, partial differential equations, ordinary differential equations, and dynamical systems. He also has a side interest in Fibonacci numbers. He is a member of the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Association for Women in Mathematics.

In 1998-99, he was a Fellow of Project NExT, a national program sponsored by the Mathematical Association of America for new faculty interested in improving the teaching and learning of undergraduate mathematics.

He remains active in the community, serving as pianist for the Juniata College Catholic Community and Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Huntingdon. He sings with the Choral Union and Chamber Choir at Juniata, and he plays cello in the college?s String Ensemble.

Mulfinger came to Juniata in 1999 from Penn State where she has served as an affiliate assistant professor of kinesiology since 1996. She earned a bachelor?s degree in microbiology from Penn State University in 1977.
She continued her education at Penn State, earning a master?s degree in veterinary science in 1989 and a doctorate in veterinary science in 1990.

At Penn State she served as the program coordinator for The Center for Locomotion Studies (CELOS) from 1995 to 1998. Other previous professional experiences include working as compliance coordinator for research at The Graduate School at Penn State, a quality control/research and development coordinator for Vespa Laboratories Inc. in Spring Mills, Pa., a research aide for Penn State?s Department of Biochemistry, and an instructor for Penn State?s Department of Microbiology.

Belle Tuten came to Juniata in 1997 from Emory University, where she completed her doctoral degree in history in 1997. She also earned a master?s degree in history from Emory in 1994 and earned a bachelor?s degree in history from the College of Charleston (S.C.) in 1991.

Her research interests center on medieval history, particularly in the history of women and family.

She received the 2001 Beachley Award for Distinguished Academic Service for faculty with less than six years of service. She also was named an Outstanding Student in History at the College of Charleston, and was the 1999 Juniata May Day Faculty Woman of the Year.

Paula Wagoner came to Juniata in 1997 after earning a master?s degree and doctorate in anthropology from Indiana University in Bloomington. She earned a bachelor?s degree in anthropology from Smith College and earned an associate?s degree from Sheridan College in Sheridan, Wyoming. She was a lecturer at Oglala Lakota College in Martin, S.D. before coming to Juniata.

She is a member of the American Anthropological Association, Society for Cultural Anthropology, Law & Society Association, the American Society for Ethnohistory, Central States Anthropological Association, the Society for the Anthropology of North America, and the Association for Political and Legal Anthropology.

Wagoner is the author of ?They Treated Us Just Like Indians: The Worlds of Bennett County, South Dakota,? published in 2002. This year, Wagoner was named 2003 Distinguished Alumna by Sheridan College and delivered the college?s commencement address in May. In 1993, she received a Lieber Associate Instructor Award for Outstanding Teaching at Indiana University. Her research interests include American Indian ethnohistory, colonial processes, anthropology of law, 19th and 20th century Great Plains ethnohistory.

Wiinamaki joined the faculty of Juniata College in 1997. She earned a doctorate in social work from the University of Tennessee in 1997. She also earned a bachelor?s degree in early childhood education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout at Menomonie in 1976, and earned a master?s degree in social work from the University of Oklahoma in 1994.

Before switching careers into higher education, Wiinakmaki worked with juveniles and young children for 10 years, and as an Oklahoma state social worker for 10 years. She has worked as a counselor at a private residential treatment center for juveniles and at a private non-profit home for children of female addicts in treatment. At the Oklahoma Department of Human Services she was a social worker in Aid to Families with Dependent Children, emergency services, and child welfare intake and treatment.

Professor Wiinamaki?s graduate research was in child welfare issues and recidivism in Victim-Offender Reconciliation Programs (victim-offender mediation) for juvenile offenders in three Tennessee counties. She is on the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Association of Criminal Justice Educators (PACJE). She also developed Juniata?s criminal justice program.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.