Faculty tenure recipients recognized
This year, six faculty were awarded tenure for their commitment to quality instruction at Seattle Central, granting them permanent teaching positions at the college. During the three-year tenure process, tenure candidates are observed and evaluated by a committee comprised of students, staff and fellow faculty members. Candidates must continually meet criteria determined by the committee and must be recommended by both the President and the Chancellor.
Last month, they were formally recognized for their achievements during a reception by the Board of Trustees, hosted at North Seattle College. The faculty who have received tenure this year are:
Katy Dichter, Instructional Resource Services
Katy earned her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University. She lived in the Bay Area before moving to Seattle to pursue a graduate degree in Library and Information Sciences at the Information School at the University of Washington. While in graduate school, she held intern positions at the Gates Foundation and at NPR in Washington, D.C. At Seattle Central, Katy works in the library, where she connects students with resources they need to succeed in the classroom. She also serves on the Curriculum Approval Committee to provide feedback and support of curriculum development.
Maryann Firpo, Mathematics
Maryann has been a part-time instructor at Seattle Central since 1991. She was a first adopter of the Productive Persistence method in supporting student success in learning. She has taken on leadership roles to support teaching and learning at the college. She currently serves as the Coordinator for the Mathematics Program, where she is supervising the revision of the pre-college mathematics course sequence which will provide more opportunities for student retention and completion. Maryann earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Washington (1989), and a Master of Science in Mathematics from Western Washington University (1991).
Bryan Rullan, Allied Health at the Seattle Vocational Institute
Bryan started at SVI as a part-time Medical Assisting instructor in 2010 and was hired as a full-time tenure track instructor in 2012. After immigrating to the United States from the Philippines in 1996, he served four years in the U.S. Army, where he took Medical Specialist courses and received Emergency Medical training at the Army’s Academy of Health Sciences at Fort Sam Houston in Texas. He completed the Social and Human Services Program at Seattle Central College in 2004. He currently works as a Medical Assistant at both the Pacific Medical Center and the Evergreen Hospital.
Doug Tompson, Adult Basic Education / English as a Second Language
Doug has been an instructor for more than fourteen years. He has a master’s degree in Education from Seattle University accompanied by a certification in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. He has experience both in instruction and student support services at a range of institutions, including: Seattle Goodwill, Seattle University, Cascadia Community College, Highline Community College and South Seattle College. Doug has also taught internationally in the Virgin Islands and Japan.
Joshua Whorley, Science and Mathematics
Joshua has been a part-time instructor at Seattle Central since 2007 before transitioning to full-time tenure-track faculty in 2012. He has taken on a leadership role in the District-wide STEM academy Ready, Set, Transfer! (RST), which has shown to improve completion and transfer rates dramatically. Other leadership roles that Josh has taken on include supporting grant-funded projects and new initiatives, such as S-STEM scholarships for students funded by the National Science Foundation that Josh organizes, coordinates and supports. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Integrative Biology from the University of California, Berkeley (1998), and a PhD in Zoology from the University of Washington (2006).
Jerry Wright, Science and Mathematics
Jerry has been a part-time instructor at Seattle Central since 2001 and a full-time tenure-track faculty member since fall 2012. He was one of the first instructors at Seattle Central to teach Statway, a curriculum focused on statistics, data analysis and quantitative reasoning, and played a crucial role as part of the implementation team. Jerry’s students have achieved extraordinary completion rates in the Statway sequences. Jerry earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Gonzaga University (1990), and a Master of Arts in Mathematics from the University of Washington (2001).