Candidate Slate and Bios for Faculty Elections 22-23

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Please see the finalized slate of candidates for the 22-23 faculty elections.  We will be using an electronic ballot system again this year.  Please watch your college email on 2/14 for your ballots and be sure to vote by 5:00 p.m. on 2/18.    In the meantime, you can start mulling over the candidates who have put themselves forward to be included on the ballot.   If you do not receive a ballot on the 14th after 7:00 am, first check you junk/clutter, then please email us at bcahe@bache.org  so that we can get you a ballot.

2022-23 Faculty Elections Slate: w/ brief descriptions, candidates, and eligible voter groups for each race

All elections are for a one year term unless specified otherwise.   Voting eligibility for each race is dependent on group membership.   Groups: Full-Time Member (FTM), Adjunct Member (AM), Full-Time Non-Member (FTNM), and Adjunct Non-Member (ANM)

BCAHE President

  • Sue Nightingale: Much like teaching, I have found the job of BCAHE President challenging in the remote modality. The past two years have been quite challenging and I hope that I have served you as well as I could have. However, I found myself in need of bit of a break in order to be effective a rest was needed. So I am on sabbatical Winter and Spring 2022. I continue to be willing to serve the faculty at BC in the capacity of Union President for the academic year 22-23 however, and I look forward to the prospect of returning to the position rested, and energized to begin the work of adapting to a (hopefully) post-pandemic campus, the search for BC’s next President and whatever else is on the horizon.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, AM)

BCAHE Vice President

  • Lindsay Haney: I would hesitate to say that I am getting the hang of the VP role, but I am not waking up in a panic about things as often as I was a few months ago. I would be honored to continue in this position for another year. I get particularly exercised about faculty safety, DEI, and protections and progress for contingent faculty, and I’m sure these are all areas where we’ll continue to have challenges and opportunities. Thank you for your vote.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, AM)

BCAHE Secretary/Treasurer

  • Chace Stiehl: I’ve been serving as Secretary/Treasurer for the past few years and modernized our budget around our values.  I will continue to push for budget allocations to fund our BIPOC advancement grants and Peer Assistance Program, as well as ensure fiscal stability, liquidity, and responsibility in our finances.  This academic year our long time office manager has retired, so this next year is going to be a critical time of structural change for the union. I’d like to steer us through this time of transition and ensure that we are solid ground going forward.   I’d also like to keep working on our website.  It still has room to grow and improve.    As for my broader credentials, I am a Full Professor in Economics, past BCAHE President, past BCAHE Vice President, and played a critical role in bargaining into existence the funding/commitment for our current promotional structures for both adjunct and tenure-track faculty.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, AM)

BCAHE Executive Council — Adjunct Members  (Vote for three; all members vote for both Adjunct and FT members, three in each race)

  • Kathy Hunt: I have been an adjunct instructor in the Anthropology Department for many years and I would value the opportunity to work on adjunct issues with BCAHE. Committed to enhancing the adjunct experience at BC, I am an active member of the Positive Policies for Adjuncts Committee, and served as Chair for two years.   I also represent adjunct concerns as a current member of the ATD Faculty Professional Development workgroup, the Social Sciences, Public Service, and Community Engagement Exploratory Pathway Committee, and the Guided Pathways Structured Exploratory Experience (SEE) Social Science Team.
  • Carol Whitaker Leffall is a Senior Adjunct Professor in the Institute for Business and Information Technology division where she has been since 2010. She maintains a passion for teaching and greatly values the opportunity of learning from her students and advocating their success. Carol has served on several committees across the BC campus, facilitated workshops, and is a former Executive Council Member of Bellevue College Association of Higher Education (BCAHE). Carol is devoted to contributing to the work of creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus. She will serve an instrumental role in furthering this work as a member of BCAHE as well as other efforts and representing faculty.
  • Tobi Rosenberg: I have been an active member of the BCAHE Executive Council since 2013, as a council member, as Secretary-Treasurer, and, as Vice President for 4 years. I have represented both full-time and adjunct faculty on the Contract Bargaining and Labor/Management teams since 2014. As the Washington Educational Association’s (WEA) Adjunct Representative to the Legislative Committee, I help to advocate for community and technical college faculty and students in Olympia. I continue to believe that union work is about bringing our faculty voices together to build and maintain a campus community that we can be proud of. Thank you for your support, Tobi Rosenberg.
  • Ian Walker: I have been an adjunct in Geography at BC since 2014. I have spent the last year serving on the Executive Council and would appreciate the opportunity to continue my work in the union to represent and advocate for all faculty, but especially for adjuncts at our college. I have recently begun serving on the Labor/Management committee and would very much like to continue this important work for the next academic year.
  • Tim Wellman: I have been teaching ESL in Basic and Transitional Studies since 2019. Currently, I am co-chair of the Positive Policies for Adjuncts committee and have served on this committee for about one year. I have wanted to get more involved with the union and am particularly interested in serving on the BCAHE Executive Council in order to work in support of the union to continue improving working conditions for faculty, especially adjunct faculty.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, AM)

BCAHE Executive Council — Full-Time Members  (Vote for three; all members vote for both Adjunct and FT members, three in each race)

  • Ethan Anderson:In 2021 I served as chair of Bellevue College Faculty Council and in 2021-22 I was elected to the Executive Council, a position I am running for again in 2022-23. I previously was a BCAHE liaison for my department, English Language Institute, during our transition into parity with other departments in 2018. I have also served as a delegate for Washington Educational Association’s (WEA) representative assembly and am a member of Communities for Our Colleges, where I help to advocate for community and technical college faculty and students in Olympia. Our faculty union is important to me–it helps to improve conditions for faculty and keeps our community strong. Thank you for your consideration, Ethan Anderson.
  • Eva Norling: was an adjunct in the World Languages Program for 11 years before hired full-time in 2007. She has been an active member in the BC-AHE union ever since, first as a member of the EC and later as a treasurer. She has served on the Contract Bargaining and Labor Management teams for several years. She believes in labor representation as one of the most important ways to improve well-being in our workplace as well as stability in quality education at our institution. We are stronger when we listen and represent the many voices on campus with the help of our strong and dedicated union leadership. Your support is appreciated.
  • Engel Szwaja-Franken: I have been at BC as a full-time Spanish instructor since 2014. Before then, I taught Spanish and English composition as an adjunct at other institutions, and I sometimes teach English composition here too. I have served on the Executive Council for the past three years. As part of that work, I have worked on the bargaining team, labor management, and bylaws revision process for our union, the latter of which resulted in additional adjunct representation. If elected, I would be happy to continue to work on such initiatives.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, AM)

BCAHE Political Action Committee  (Vote for three, 2 year term)

  • Tim Wellman: I have been teaching ESL in Basic and Transitional Studies since 2019. Currently, I am co-chair of the Positive Policies for Adjuncts committee and have served on this committee for about one year. I have wanted to get more involved with the union and am particularly interested in serving on the BCAHE Political Action Committee in order to work in support of the union’s efforts to improve working conditions for faculty at Bellevue College by lobbying the Washington State legislature to adequately fund higher education.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, AM)

WEA-Representative Assembly Delegate (Vote for five)

  • Ethan Anderson: In 2021 I served as chair of Bellevue College Faculty Council and in 2021-22 I was elected to the Executive Council, a position I am running for again in 2022-23. I previously was a BCAHE liaison for my department, English Language Institute, during our transition into parity with other departments in 2018. I have also served as a delegate for Washington Educational Association’s (WEA) representative assembly and am a member of Communities for Our Colleges, where I help to advocate for community and technical college faculty and students in Olympia. Our faculty union is important to me–it helps to improve conditions for faculty and keeps our community strong. Thank you for your consideration, Ethan Anderson.
  • Lindsay Haney started as an adjunct in the English department in 2014 received tenure last year. He has been a BCAHE representative to the Rainier Uniserv Council for several years, and he enjoys collaborating with our co-unionists in K-12. He (virtually) attended WEA-RA for the first time last year and would be delighted to attend again.
  • Engel Szwaja-Franken: As a current executive council member, I would like to represent us at this event and work on building coalitions with other groups around the state.
  • Sue Nightingale: [see above, BCAHE President]
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, AM)

Sabbatical Leave Committee (Vote for two, 2 year term)

  • Stephanie Hurst is a tenured Full Professor in the Communication Studies program at Bellevue College where she has instructed since 2003. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes the application of scholarly theory in an effort to improve students’ lives.  In her service to both the college and students, Stephanie is passionate about cultivating equity and compassion.  Alongside her colleagues on the Tenure Review Committee, she helped advance equity in the tenure process by creating the TRC Repository.  Stephanie also serves as an Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Advocate and enjoys sharing her expertise in intercultural communication, conflict management, and mindful communication with her colleagues and students.  Stephanie holds a M.A. and B.A. in Speech Communication from California State University Long Beach.
  • Deepti Karkhanis is a Sr. Associate Professor and Department Chair of Psychology program at Bellevue College, WA. She received her Doctoral degree in Applied Developmental Psychology from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Her teaching interests include Lifespan psychology (PSYC& 200), General psychology (PSYC& 100), Cross-cultural psychology (PSYC 250), Positive psychology (PSYC 109) and Psychosocial Issues in Healthcare (PSYC 260). Deepti explores a variety of pedagogical topics such as collaborative testing, student-teacher rapport, positive psychology in classroom curriculum, and teacher training on social justice and educational equity. She regularly facilitates workshops in the Faculty Commons, and has served as DEI advocate on screening committees.
  • Winnie Li  is a senior associate professor in Data Management & Analysis and Computer Science. She has been a fulltime faculty at Bellevue College since 2007, teaching in the Computer Science Transfer and Business Administration Programs. She has a MS in Statistics from California State University East Bay and a BS in Computer Science and Engineering from University of California Davis. Before joining BC, she worked in multiple roles in Clearwire and Microsoft. She has served in the Sabbatical Leave Committee before and took a year sabbatical leave in 2019 to recharge in the industry.
  • Engel Szwaja-Franken: I have been a full-time Spanish instructor at BC since 2014, and recently started serving as World Languages Chair. I received a two quarter sabbatical in 2021 and then was on the bargaining team which negotiated the changes to the process starting this year, so I am familiar with how the process has worked as well as recent changes.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, FTNM)

Tenure Review Committee  (Vote for two, 3 year term) Continuing members are from A&H, HSEWI, iBIT, and Social Science. By contract, no more than two members from the same division can sit on the committee at the same time.

  • Danielle Jacobson (Science): This is my 7th year at Bellevue College and I am a Senior Associate Professor in the mathematics department. I have been chairing the Academic Grievance Committee for the past two years, I currently chair the Math Lab, and I have successfully taken on several department and college wide leadership roles. I have chaired and served on six TES in the past 3.5 years (since I have been tenured and able). This is work that I have enjoyed and respect. I feel passionately about the growth and progress of our tenure candidates. This will be my first time on the TRC if elected and I am sure it will come with growth/learning, but I feel that my experience on multiple TES and in leadership roles at the college will give me the ability be an effective contributor. I would love the opportunity to learn and to serve the candidates, TES, and college in this role. I appreciate your consideration.
  • Dan Mitchell (Science): My name is Dan Mitchell and I’m a Full Professor in the Chemistry department of the Science Division. I hope to continue to represent the science division and lab sciences on the TRC next year.I’ve lived most of my life here in the Puget Sound area, earning my doctorate in Biochemistry at the University of Washington.  My area of study was structure based drug design of infectious diseases.  I served on the board of admissions at the UW school of medicine and briefly taught some of the courses there as well.  After graduation I taught at Edmonds Community College, Bellevue College, and Seattle Central Community College for a little over a year before becoming hired full time at BC.  I’ve served on countless planning committees, PD committee, hiring committees as a DEI advocate, task forces and such during my time here at BC.  But my favorite committee by far has been the TRC.  I’ve been on the TRC for 9 years now.  I’ve chaired the TRC 4 times. The TRC is an enormous responsibility and I am always honored when I’m elected to serve.  These so-called million dollar tenure decisions affect the livelihoods of our candidates, the students that they may be teaching, the work environment of the departments and divisions that are gaining a new member, and the balance of work across the wider college. The documents the TRC receives represent a tremendous amount of work from the respective TES groups.  These TES groups deserve and should expect that the TRC is responding to their work with a commensurate level of detail, respect, and professionalism.  With my experience on the TRC I feel that I’m able to provide sound advice to incoming TES candidates, TES groups, and TRC members and chairs about the most common issues that seem to come up throughout the years.  The last time I served as a chair on the TRC for the 2018 to 2019 academic year, I setup a voluntary equity, racism, and diversity training for the TRC.  This was only the second time we had run such a training in my 9 years of serving on the committee.  We have since made the change that such training will be yearly and mandatory for the committee. Chairing the TRC has been the highlight of my BC governance contribution by far.  I’ve definitely made a few mistakes while chairing, but I certainly have learned from them (and at least the last time I chaired I don’t recall any complaints about the ordeal, but now I jinxed my current run).  I remember Jill Wakefield told me about leadership, “You often get beat up for the things you weren’t expecting, and then no one seems to notice the things you were afraid of getting into trouble for.” I would be honored to continue to serve on the TRC next year.  I’d like to continue to provide some familiarity amongst a committee that frequently has half of its members change each year.  Thank you for your consideration.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, FTNM)

Dismissal Review Committee (Vote for one, 3 year term)

  • Minnat Hamada
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, FTNM)

Tenured Faculty Promotion Review Committee (Vote for two, 3 year term).  Continuing members are from Science, Science, Social Science, and iBIT.  By contract, preference will be given to divisional representation first, then rank when determining winners.

  • Jen Anderson (A&H): : Thank you for considering me for a position on the Tenured Faculty Promotion Review Committee. For those of you I have yet to meet, my name is Jen Anderson and I am a Sr. Associate Professor of Communication Studies. I started teaching at BC as an adjunct in 2007 and received tenure in 2015. In addition to my role in the classroom, I also served as the Faculty Development Lead in the Faculty Commons for the past three years, developing and facilitating professional development opportunities for my colleagues. One of my favorite things about teaching and serving in the Faculty Commons is the relationships I build with colleagues across campus and the opportunity to mentor and learn from them. Serving on the Tenured Faculty Promotion Review Committee would afford me another opportunity to serve the college and mentor faculty going through the promotion process. Thanks again for your consideration.
  • Nicole Longpre (Library): I’m Nicole Longpre, a tenured librarian running to serve on the Tenured Faculty Promotion Review committee. I have been at BC many years, and in that time, I have held several roles, from reference coordinator to program chair to systems librarian. My work now, as the systems librarian, requires that I keep the library catalog and databases up and running. In my time at Bellevue, I have served on and chaired the Tenure Review Committee and continue to serve on several TES committees. I enjoy working with faculty as they navigate the tenure process, and feel that my experience with tenure candidates would translate well to the Tenured Faculty Promotion Review committee. I enjoy learning about BC and how different programs work to support our students, and I feel that I would continue to gain this type of knowledge if given the opportunity to serve on the Promotion Review committee. Thank you.
  • David Lopez-Kopp (A&H) I am excited for the opportunity to serve on the Tenured Faculty Promotion Review Committee. Over the years (going on 12!), I have served on a variety of BCAHE governance committees including the All College Council, Executive Council, Dismissal Review, and Sabbatical Leave. I recently rotated off the Sabbatical Leave Committee where I served for 4 years and as committee chair for 2 years. In terms of supporting faculty throughout the hiring and tenure process, I have served on selection advisory committees in Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences, and on a handful of Tenure Subcommittees (TES) both in an out of the English Department. I look forward to continuing to support faculty during their post-tenure and promotion as potentially a new member of the Tenured Faculty Promotion Review Committee.
  • Sheila Lozan (Social Science): I am a Senior Associate Professor at the College and current chair of the Business Transfer Program. Previously I served as the chair of the Faculty Professional Development Committee.  I also participated with Business Exploratory Pathways.  I am interested in the Tenured Faculty Promotion Review Committee because I want to be part of a process that advocates and supports faculty.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM, FTNM)

Chair – Student Academic Grievance Committee (Vote for one)

  • Danielle Jacobson: This is my 7th year at Bellevue College and I am a Senior Associate Professor in the mathematics department. I have been chairing the Academic Grievance Committee for the past two years, I currently chair the Math Lab, and I have successfully taken on several department and college wide leadership roles. This particular role takes a great deal of promptness, organization, concise communication, and an ability to look at situations objectively. These are some of my strengths and I have sincerely enjoyed the position over the last two years. I hope to continue providing support in this position.
  • Li Liu: is a full-time tenured faculty member from Communication Studies department. She is also BC’s WCCCSA Study Abroad Coordinator. She is interested in knowing more about student-centered curriculum design and ways to support student success.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM,FTNM,AM,ANM)

Program Review Committee – Seat 3 (Vote for one, 3 year term) By agreement this seat will be exclusively filled by a faculty member from A&H, Library, or Counseling)

  • Laura Nudelman (A&H) is a Full Professor in Communication Studies. Some of Laura’s most recent involvement on campus has been: Program Review Committee (PRC) 2019-2022, Bellevue College Chaverim Jewish Affinity Group Co-Leader 2017-2022, Full-Time Promotion Review Committee, Chair (2014-2021), As a former Chair of Communication Studies and Theatre Arts departments, Laura was asked to serve on the Program Review Revision Team (2019) where she and other members created a more streamlined approach to the 5-year program review process.  Laura would like to continue her work on the PRC to provide continuity in its efforts to make the program review process less onerous and more meaningful than the previous format.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM,FTNM,AM,ANM)

Program Review Committee – Seat 1 (Replacement position, vote for one, 2 year term) By agreement this seat will be exclusively filled by a faculty member from Science or Social Science.

  • Deepti Karkhanis (Social Science) is a Sr. Associate Professor and Department Chair of Psychology program at Bellevue College, WA. She received her Doctoral degree in Applied Developmental Psychology from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Her teaching interests include Lifespan psychology (PSYC& 200), General psychology (PSYC& 100), Cross-cultural psychology (PSYC 250), Positive psychology (PSYC 109) and Psychosocial Issues in Healthcare (PSYC 260). Deepti explores a variety of pedagogical topics such as collaborative testing, student-teacher rapport, positive psychology in classroom curriculum, and teacher training on social justice and educational equity. She regularly facilitates workshops in the Faculty Commons, and has served as DEI advocate on screening committees.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM,FTNM,AM,ANM)

 

FACTC Representative (Vote for one)

  • Elizabeth Harazim has taught English at BC for eleven years. She is currently an MSW student at University of Washington, where she is specializing in disability studies and clinical social work.
    • Eligible Voters (FTM,FTNM,AM,ANM)

Continuing Ed-AACC (Vote for two)

    • Eligible Voters (FTM,FTNM,AM,ANM)