Written by Lorin Brice Hall
There are a number of faculty members who began their journey at Roanoke College with the Class of 2020 in the fall of 2016- Professor Steve Baker and Dr. Ivy Kutlu in Business Administration and Economics and Dr. Teresa Hancock-Parmer in Modern Languages. Additionally, there are several faculty members who are “graduating’ with the Class of 2020. Dr.Katherine Hoffman, Dr.Virginia Stewart, Professor Jan Minton, and Dr.Mary Camac have dedicated years of service to RC and the RC community.
Dr.Hoffman joined the Roanoke community in 1989. She received her B.A. from Carleton College and then went on to receive her M.A. and Ph.D. from the prestigious Northwestern University. Dr. Hoffman fell so in love with ‘Noke, that she decided to spend the rest of her career here. Dr.Hoffman has been an indispensable member of the English Department and since being here she has served on countless faculty committees and groups as Chair of the English Department and Faculty Moderator. She started the Learning Community on Teaching, which eventually led to the first Center for Learning and Teaching, and she was also selected for a Fulbright Award which allowed her to spend a year studying in Sri Lanka.
Dr.Virginia Stewart has been a stalwart pillar of the Roanoke community since her arrival in 1990. She received her B.A. from Davidson College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Dr.Stewart has devoted her career at Roanoke College, first and foremost, to being a professor, bringing her unsurpassed skills to the countless classrooms she has entered for 30 years. Her passion for teaching is exemplified by her receiving the Faculty Exemplary Teaching Award in 2013.
Roanoke gained another star professor in 1995 when Jan Minton joined the faculty. Professor Minton earned a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and a Master’s degree of Science in Mathematical Sciences from Clemson University. Professor Minton’s excellence as an educator is seen in the innovations she brought to ‘Noke. She was a co-creator of the innovative MATH 115 course for biology majors, created an honors course, The Art of Mathematics, and was a co-winner of the college’s Innovation Award for her work in calculus reform. Additionally, she launched and co-organized the Roanoke Valley Reef, a community art project that incorporated elements of mathematics and biology and was voted second-best Art Exhibit in the Roanoke Valley in 2012.
Dr.Mary Camac joined Roanoke College’s Psychology Department in 1991 and she has helped lead the department to greatness. Dr.Camac studied at Princeton where she received her M.A. and Ph.D. upon receiving her B.A. from the University of Delaware. Dr. Camac and her husband, Dr. Curt Camac’s, hard work led to Roanoke’s Psychology Department being listed under the Princeton Review’s top 100 schools for Psychology, and she also worked to help establish a Phi Beta Kappa chapter here at ‘Noke.
