University of Oklahoma Faculty and Staff
Anthony Natale (2009-2010)
Dr. Anthony P. Natale is an Assistant Professor and Graduate Coordinator for the Anne and Henry Zarrow School of Social Work at the University of Oklahoma. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from Washington State University (1997), a Master of Social Work degree from Portland State University (1999) and is a graduate of the PhD program at the University of Denver, Graduate School of Social Work (2005). Dr. Natale is a former AmeriCorps member involved in community organizing among youth. In addition, he holds direct clinical practice with children, adults and families experiencing mental health crises, as well as occupational social work. He teaches courses in human services administration and social welfare policy, and holds academic interests in social welfare policy, public health, and HIV/AIDS.
Doug Gaffin (2009-2010)
Doug is a professor in the Department of Zoology and Dean of University College at the University of Oklahoma. He holds a B.S. degree from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. from Oregon State University. He teaches Introductory Zoology to about 1500 undergraduates a year. His research focuses on understanding the special sensory abilities of scorpions. In his spare time, he enjoys volleyball, biking, hiking, scaring the cats with his banjo playing, and chasing scorpions on moonless nights. He met his wife, Mariëlle, in graduate school at Oregon State and they were married on the OU campus in 1997; soon after their honeymoon they moved into the dorms as Faculty-in-Residence. She is also a biologist and they both feel lucky to teach and play together at the same university.
Martha Skeeters (2009-2010)
Martha Skeeters is an associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and adjunct associate professor of History at the University of Oklahoma. Born in East Texas, she has taught at virtually every level of education and earned her doctorate in history from The University of Texas at Austin. Her awareness of the need for social justice comes from childhood observations of racial segregation, experiences of gender discrimination, and writing her master’s thesis on Martin Luther’s view of women. She has testified before government entities on gender in textbooks and poor women’s reproductive rights and published a book on the English clergy during the Reformation. Currently she is writing a book about the intersections of gender, religion and economics in witchcraft accusations in early modern England and directing a video-oral history project focusing on Oklahoma’s activists for the Equal Rights Amendment. Her other interests include gardening, singing, traveling, reading fiction, and spending time with family and friends.
Mónica Alzate (2009-2010)
A native from Colombia, South America, Mónica has been in Norman, OK since 2002 and is currently Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Oklahoma. In addition to living and working in Colombia, she has lived in several states of the United States either pursuing a degree and/or working. Throughout her career in the academia and in non-academic settings, she has focused her work, research and activism on women and gender issues and is particularly interested in women’s reproductive health and rights. She strongly believes they are at the core of human rights. Her article entitled Sexual and Reproductive Rights of Internally Displaced Women in Colombia was highlighted last year by Reuters AlertNet, a humanitarian website run by Reuters’ non-profit foundation. Mónica and her family love the outdoors, hiking, traveling, and the OK sunsets.
Zev Trachtenberg (2009-2010)
Zev Trachtenberg is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oklahoma. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1988. He specializes in political philosophy; his research focuses on the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and in environmental political theory. He has written on Rousseau’s theory of the role of culture in political life, and on stakeholder involvement in environmental policy-making, specifically in watershed management. His current projects include work on the role of judgment in environmental citizenship, and on Rousseau’s understanding of the human relationship with the natural world. He has been involved in civic affairs in Norman through service on the Greenbelt Taskforce, the Greenbelt Commission, and since 2007, on the Planning Commission.
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Alice Kloker (2008-2009)
Alice Kloker works as a study abroad advisor at the University of Oklahoma. She is a recent transplant to Norman by way of Minneapolis where she was born and raised. Alice grew up in the United Church of Christ and today considers herself to be an interfaith seeker of sustainable nonviolent social change. During her student years, Alice was actively involved in a number of human rights and social justice campaigns, movements and organizations. She was a board member of the Minnesota Fellowship of Reconciliation from 2004 to 2006, and is a trained “Creating a Culture of Peace” facilitator. Alice is honored to have been asked to participate in the Xenia Institute as a Fellow, and looks forward to building relationships in dialogue with others in Oklahoma.
Elyssa Faison (2008-2009)
Elyssa Faison received a B.A. in History and East Asian Studies from Oberlin College in 1988. After working as a Teaching Assistant at UCLA for courses in Chinese history, Japanese history, World history and Women’s Studies, Faison began a one-year position as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Minnesota teaching Japanese history at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She joined the faculty of the University of Oklahoma as an Assistant Professor in 2000. She was awarded a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Yale Council on East Asian Studies for 2003-2004, during which time she taught an undergraduate seminar called “Remembering Wartime in Japan.” Faison’s first book, Managing Women: Disciplining Labor in Modern Japan, was published in late 2007. She is currently co-editing with Dr. Ruth Barraclough (Australian National University) a volume titled Sexing Class: Gender and Labor in Korea and Japan.
Jack Hobson (2008-2009)
A native of Oklahoma, Jack Hobson received his BA in 2000 in French language and literature from the University of Oklahoma while serving as Special Assistant to President David L. Boren. After his graduation, Hobson worked in Washington DC for the Public Forum Institute, a non-partisan think tank that creates town hall forums for members of Congress. He returned to OU in 2002 to work in the Office of Education Abroad and currently serves as the Assistant Director for Program Development. Hobson facilitates the exchange of students, faculty and research between OU’s partner institutions in key areas of the world. Hobson additionally hold a Masters in International and Areas Studies from OU and is currently conducting his PhD work in Political Science. Hobson’s research interests are focused on human migration and security in the developing world.
Lynne Levy (2008-2009)
Lynne is a medievalist working on The Variorum Chaucer, a research project at OU, publishing editions of the works of the 14th century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. She teaches an Adult Sunday School class at First Christian Church, Norman; the class, called the Seekers’ Class, is presently studying different denominations and religions and trying to increase its religious literacy. Lynne has many interests, among them: gardening, singing, hand work of all sorts, birdwatching, travelling, playing the recorder, reading Latin and Greek. She is married to David Levy, emeritus professor of American History at OU; they have two adult children, also professors. David and Lynne have lived in Norman for more than 30 years and have been active in the civic life of the community as well as in campus life.
Stefan Ice (2008-2009)
Stefan Ice is Instructor of Percussion and Assistant to the Director of the School of Music at the University of Oklahoma School of Music. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Performance from Texas A&M University-Commerce, Masters of Music from the University of Oklahoma, and is currently a Doctoral of Musical Art candidate at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to his positions at OU, Mr. Ice taught at Oklahoma Baptist University, Lone Star and Pioneer Drum & Bugle Corps, Lakeview Centennial and Commerce High Schools. Mr. Ice may also be found performing a variety of musical styles at venues ranging from latin jazz clubs to concert halls. His research has taken him to Havana, Cuba to study with master percussionist and teacher José Eladio Amat. Mr. Ice is also a founding member of the OU percussion quartet, which has performed at the National Percussion Pedagogy Convention in Greenville, North Carolina.
Susan Sharp (2008-2009)
Susan F. Sharp is a Professor of Sociology & Women’s Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Her interests focus on the effects of penal policies on the families of offenders, and she advocates for changes in those policies that will reduce the long-term harms. She is the editor of The Incarcerated Woman: Rehabilitative Programming in Women’s Prisons and as well as Hidden Victims: The Effects of the Death Penalty on Families of the Accused. Prior to completion of her doctorate from UT-Austin in 1996, Susan worked as a drug counselor for several years.
Tom Burns (2008-2009)
Thomas Burns is Professor of Sociology and a faculty member in Religious Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He studies and writes on social institutions from a comparative and historical perspective. His work examines how cultural and organizational systems, such as religion, education and politics develop in relation to one another in light of their comparative and historical contexts, and how those systems have social outcomes in terms of human well being and long-term sustainability.
Vicki Schaeffer (2008-2009)
Vicki J. Schaeffer is Director of Recruitment for the McClendon Honors College and an adjunct Assistant Professor for the College of Liberal Studies at the University of Oklahoma. She received a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University-Bloomington, with a double major in organ performance and church music. An educator most of her career, her research into the Shaker communal society has piqued her interest in human rights, specifically those involving the equality of women.
