MEDIA, Pa. — Penn State Brandywine has announced academic promotions for tenured, tenure-line and nontenure-line faculty, effective July 1, 2021.

Wiebke Strehl, director of academic affairs at Penn State Brandywine, said the promotions reflect the faculty members’ achievements in the areas of teaching and learning; research; and service to the campus, University, community and profession.

“On behalf of the entire Brandywine campus community, I congratulate our dedicated and accomplished faculty on their well-deserved promotions,” Strehl said. “They have carried out Penn State’s land-grant mission of teaching, research and service with excellence.”

Noting the promoted faculty represent the varied disciplines of business, communications, humanities and social sciences, she added that they each demonstrate a commitment to student success.

Tenured and tenure-line promotions

Kimberly Blockett was promoted to professor of English. Blockett teaches literary theory, African American literature, American studies and gender studies. Her research interests include Africana trans-Atlantic studies, 19th-century African American literary and religious studies; archival studies; American women’s literature; and cultural studies. She recently completed two books: "Race, Religion and Rebellion in the Nineteenth-Century Travels of Zilpha Elaw, Black Woman Evangelist," and a scholarly edition of "Memoirs of the Life, Religious Experience, Ministerial Travels and Labours of Mrs. Zilpha Elaw."

Julie Stanton was promoted to professor of business. In her teaching, Stanton seeks both to create capable business professionals as well as to foster their greater sensitivity to the global business environment and sustainability goals. Stanton’s expertise is in consumer interest in organic and other niche foods, and in food marketing channels between developing and developed country markets. Stanton has published in respected peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Macromarketing, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of Consumer Behaviour, and Supply Chain Management, and co-authored a book, "Role Play Simulations," with former Penn State Brandywine faculty member Alex Bolinger.

Jennifer Zosh was promoted to professor of human development and family studies. As the director of the Brandywine Child Development Lab, she studies how infants and young children learn about the world around them. Her areas of expertise and publication include playful learning, the impact of technology on children, working memory, mathematical cognition, and language acquisition. A major driving force in her career is dissemination and translation of scientific discoveries to the public via blogging, consulting, and media appearances. This translational work has appeared on The Conversation, PBS Parents, The Huffington Post, the Brookings Institution, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, NPR Radio Times, Fox29 news, and beyond. She loves sharing the science and wonder of child development in the classroom and has won the Distinguished Teacher Award twice at Brandywine and also the University-wide George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Angela Putman was promoted to associate professor of communication arts and sciences and granted tenure. Putman teaches public speaking, intercultural communication, interpersonal communication and gender communication. In her research, she uses a variety of qualitative methodologies to critically examine the intersections of multiple identity positions and their relationship with communication in and among intercultural relationships. Specifically, she is interested in whiteness as ideology, the pervasiveness of white privilege, institutional/systemic racism, and critical pedagogy.

Nontenure-line promotions

Christina Olear was promoted to assistant teaching professor of accounting. Olear teaches financial and managerial accounting, tax, and accounting information systems, in addition to her role as the Brandywine campus business division liaison. A licensed CPA, Olear has several years of public and private accounting experience. She presents at accounting conferences regularly and serves as an editorial board member for the PA CPA Journal.

Joshua D. Phillips was promoted to associate teaching professor of communication arts and sciences. Phillips’ academic focus is at the intersections of rhetoric and intercultural communication with particular interests in media, race, sports, poverty, and sexual violence. His book, "Homeless: Narratives from the Streets," derived from his dissertation research and was published in 2016.

With an enrollment of about 1,400 students, Penn State Brandywine offers 14 baccalaureate degrees and the first two years of more than 275 majors that can be completed at another Penn State campus, as well as on-campus housing, internships, undergraduate research opportunities, international study programs and varsity sports.