EBERLY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Dean and Leadership Team
- Director of International Relations
- Director of International Relations and Strategic Planning for Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Amy S. Thompson is the Director of International Relations and Strategic Planning for the Eberly College of Arts & Sciences, Chair of the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics, Co-Director of the English Language Learning Institute, and a Woodburn Professor of Applied Linguistics. She previously served as the Associate Chair of the department of World Languages at the University of South Florida from 2014 to 2018. At the University of South Florida, she also served in other administrative capacities, including as chair of the University Graduate Council, which is responsible for advising the Provost and the Dean of the Graduate School of curriculum, principles, policies, and procedures affecting graduate education. Thompson received her Ph.D. in Second Language Studies from Michigan State University.
Her teaching experience includes a range of theoretical and methodological courses in Applied Linguistics. Regarding research, her primary research foci involve Individual Differences in Second Language Acquisition and the interaction of these IDs and multilingualism, as well as inquiries into linguistic racism and gender in higher education. Thompson has authored a book about context and motivation (Multilingual Matters, 2021) and has co-authored a book about language learning in Anglophone settings (Palgrave, 2021). Other examples of her research can be found in journals such as the Modern Language Journal, TESOL Quarterly, Foreign Language Annals, and the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, among others.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Student Services and Programs
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Financial Planning and Management
Job Titles:
- Special Events Coordinator Senior
Job Titles:
- Lab Instrumentation Specialist Senior
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing and Communications
Job Titles:
- Interim Chief Business Planning Officer
Job Titles:
- Professional Technologist II
Job Titles:
- Senior Instrument Specialist, Machine and Welding Shop
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dean and Leadership Team
- Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies
- Interim Director
Jessica Deshler grew up in New Mexico and had some amazing opportunities in middle and high school to pursue creative mathematics. She went on to earn degrees in mathematics, first studying applied mathematics and later combining her passions for mathematics and teaching to study undergraduate mathematics education. Her work has been supported by grants from the Mathematical Association of America, the National Science Foundation and the West Virginia Department of Education. She was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Budapest, Hungary in 2016. At WVU, she has been a faculty associate for the Center for Women's & Gender Studies and the Teaching & Learning Commons, a Provost's Fellow in the Office of Graduate Education in 2016-2017, and served 3 years on the Council for Women's Concerns. Nationally, she is an active member of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), serving 6 years on their Committee on Professional Development, is currently an Associate Editor for MAA Focus newsmagazine, and was a contributing author for the MAA Instructional Practices guide. She is also a proud member of SACNAS ( https://www.sacnas.org/) and graduate of their Linton-Poodry SACNAS Leadership Institute. Her commitment to the state is seen in her work with in-service elementary and secondary teachers through funded projects and in her leadership as the Dean of Students for the West Virginia Governor's STEM Institute, a summer residential program for rising 8th graders from all parts of the state (2018-present). She is currently Professor of Mathematics, and Interim Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dean and Leadership Team
- Associate Dean for Faculty for the Eberly College
- Master of Legal Studies, Master of Public Administration, Graduate Certificate in Community Development Policy and Practice
Lupe Davidson is Associate Dean for Faculty for the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and a Woodburn Professor of Women's and Gender Studies. Lupe received her Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Duquesne University. Previously she has been the L.J. Semrod Presidential Professor of Arts and Sciences, Associate Professor and Director of Women's and Gender Studies, Co-Director of the Women's and Gender Studies Center for Social Justice, Assistant Professor and Interim Director of Business Communication and Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma.
In 2017, she was the recipient of the Black Girls Rock-Maria del Guadalupe Davidson Rock Star Award, named in her honor, and the Women's and Gender Studies Jill Irvine Leadership Award. She has led a study abroad course in Uganda on ‘Women Creating Social Change," related to her interdisciplinary, collaborative research in the region. Her co-edited book Our Black Sons Matter: Mothers Talk about Fears, Sorrows and Hopes (with George Yancey and Susan Hadley) was named one of the American Library Association's "Top 10 Diverse Nonfiction Books of 2016".
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Duquesne University
Job Titles:
- Associate and Interim Chair
- Associate Dean for Research ( on Sabbatical Fall 2023 )
- Dean and Leadership
Duncan Lorimer obtained a Ph.D. in 1994 for his contributions to pulsar astronomy from the University of Manchester in the U.K. under the supervision of Professors Andrew Lyne, Dick Manchester and Matthew Bailes. Since then he has held positions at the University of Manchester (Lecturer,1994-1995); the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy (Postdoctoral Fellow, 1995-1998); Cornell University (Postdoctoral Fellow, 1998-2001); University of Manchester (Royal Society Research Fellow, 2001-2006) and West Virginia University (Faculty, 2006-present).
While at WVU, Lorimer has served as associate and interim chair in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Along with his wife and fellow astrophysicist Maura McLaughlin, Lorimer has helped establish the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology. Lorimer's scholarly achievements have been recognized on several occasions: a Cottrell Scholar Award (2008) from the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement and both the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and WVU's recognition for excellence in teaching (2009, 2010) as well as the Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award in the Physical Sciences (2019).
Among his notable research achievements are his many contributions to our understanding of the population of pulsars and the discovery of Fast Radio Bursts. Since 1994, Lorimer has been a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and in 2018 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
In January 2019, Lorimer was named associate dean for research in WVU's Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. In this role, he works with faculty, staff and students on a variety of partnerships that aim to keep the Eberly College at the cutting edge as well as expand in new areas of research and scholarship.
Job Titles:
- Director of Pre - Award Grant Services
Job Titles:
- Dean and Leadership
- Dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Gregory Dunaway, Ph.D.
Dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
304-293-4611
gregory.dunaway@mail.wvu.edu
201 Woodburn Hall
Gregory Dunaway was appointed as Dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences in 2016. As Dean, Dunaway leads West Virginia University's largest and most diverse academic college. The Eberly College enrolls nearly 6,000 students annually across more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
Prior to his arrival at WVU, Dunaway served as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Mississippi State University. He also served as the associate dean for academic and student affairs and was the Thomas Bailey Professor of Sociology and former department head of sociology. He is also a Research Fellow at the Social Science Research Center at MSU.
Dunaway is also a sociologist and criminologist. His research interests include examining social factors associated with crime and delinquency; trends, inequality and crime and justice; and criminal justice policy. He has conducted research on a number of justice programs in Mississippi, including performing an evaluation of Mississippi's Drug Court Program, a survey of Mississippi's Juvenile Detention Facilities and a study on disproportionate minority contact within the Mississippi juvenile justice system. Dunaway has won both teaching and administrative service awards. He is the former president of the Southern Criminal Justice Association. He earned his B.A. from Loyola University Maryland (1982) and his M.S. and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Cincinnati (1988, 1991).
Job Titles:
- Member of the Dean and Leadership Team
- Assistant Dean for Curriculum and Assessment
- Associate Professor and Associate Chair
John Navaratnam is a teaching associate professor and associate chair for undergraduate advising, recruitment, and retention in the Department of Biology. He earned his BSc degree in Microbiology at University of Alberta, his MS in Ecosystem Ecology at Villanova University and his PhD in Biology at West Virginia University. Since 2013, Navaratnam has developed and taught courses which serve students in majors across the university. He has advised undergraduate students in Biology and Biochemistry and was awarded the Nicholas Evans Award for Excellence in Advising from the university.
Navaratnam has worked with the Eberly College Office of Academic Affairs in creating and implementing academic policies, developing curriculum, student recruitment and retention, new student orientation, and establishing best practices in academic advising within the Biology major, some of which have been implemented across the College and University. In recent months, with the University's response to the pandemic, he has served on committees that have worked to develop strategies to tackle new teaching modalities and course scheduling demands. In his role as Eberly College Leadership Fellow, he looks forward to working with the leadership of the Deans Office in the areas of academic programs and curriculum development and assessment and to further meet the challenges of our current academic landscape.
Job Titles:
- Professional Technologist II
Job Titles:
- Coordinator of Facilities
Job Titles:
- Professional Technologist II - Web Design and Development
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Physics and Astronomy
Job Titles:
- Manager of Business Operations ( Payroll and Budget )
Job Titles:
- Professional Technologist III - Lead, Servers and Security
Job Titles:
- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of DEVELOPMENT, EBERLY COLLEGE of ARTS and SCIENCES
Job Titles:
- Professional Technologist
Job Titles:
- Director of Undergraduate Advising
Job Titles:
- Interim Chair
- Public Administration
Job Titles:
- ACCOUNTANT SR. - POST AWARD GRANT MANAGEMENT
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to the Dean
Job Titles:
- PROFESSIONAL TECHNOLOGIST II
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Professor of French
- Dean and Leadership
Lastinger was a professor of French at WVU for more than 25 years and served as an advisor in the world language department before moving to the Office of the Dean in 2012. As a faculty member, her researched focused on women's literature, especially children literature, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For more than 15 years, she also directed a study abroad in France with WVU students, WVU-Vendée. Her area of responsibilities as Associate Dean includes certification of students for graduation, managing the Undergraduate Catalog, hearing undergraduate students' appeals, recruitment, and New Student Orientation. In this role, she interacts with faculty, department chairs and other administrators at the University.
Job Titles:
- Accountant Sr., ( Post Award Grant Management )