First-Year Seminar Faculty
Joe Chapa
Theatre Arts
Joe Chapa is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts where he teaches stage combat, acting, and children's theatre. He is the past recipient of the Getrude Golladay Memorial Teaching Award and a nominee for the Chancellor's Excellence in Teaching Award. While at UT Arlington, he has served as Fight Director for many regional theatre productions and is also the co-founder of the Texas Theatrical Combat Academy.
Larry Chonko
Department of Marketing
Larry Chonko is The Thomas McMahon Professor in Business Ethics in the College of Business Administration. Professor Chonko has won numerous awards throughout his career including the Southwestern Business Dean's Association Innovative Achievement Award and teaching excellence awards from multiple universities. He is also the recipient of the American Marketing Association Sales Interest Group's Lifetime Achievement Award, the Direct Selling Education Foundation's Circle of Honor Award and the Baylor Bear Foundation's "Moon" Mullins Award for service to the athletic program. Professor Chonko's research interests include business ethics, professional selling and sales management, change management, and leadership. He has published nearly 100 journal articles and is the author or co-author of 15 books.
Christopher Conway
Department of Modern Languages
Christopher Conway is an Associate Professor of Modern Languages (Spanish) whose research and teaching centers on modern Latin American Literature and culture. He is the Recipient of the Alicia Wilkerson Smotherman Teaching Award from the College of Liberal Arts and an inductee into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas at Arlington. Professor Conway is currently the Faculty Fellow for University College.
John Garrigus
Department of History
John Garrigus is an Associate Professor of history whose research focuses on Caribbean history, specifically on the Haitian Revolution of 1791. World history is his other favorite subject to teach and he especially enjoys using new technologies like Google Earth to explore this subject with students. in 2007 he won an Alicia Smotherman Award from the College of Liberal Arts for innovation in his world history classes.
Mary Jo Lyons
Libraries, Information Literacy
Mary Jo Lyons leads the Library’s department responsible for developing first-year students’ information seeking and evaluation skills. She also oversees the Library’s Geographic Information Systems program, K-12 outreach, and other recruitment initiatives. Mary Jo serves on several state and national committees dedicated to increasing student’s information fluency. Her research interests include assessment of learning and the library’s role in first-year students’ success.
Laura Mydlarz
Department of Biology
Laura D. Mydlarz is an assistant professor in the department of Biology. Her lab studies coral reef ecosystems and how coral physiology and immunity are affected by climate change. Dr. Mydlarz is involved in several educational and outreach programs that target educating undergraduates, the general public and K-12 students about marine ecosystems. Her research and educational activities are funded by the National Science Foundation.
James Campbell Quick
Goolsby Leadership Academy and Department of Management
James Campbell Quick is John and Judy Goolsby Distinguished Professor and the co-creator with his physician brother of Preventive Stress ManagementTM. He has been honored with numerous teaching, research, and service awards at UT Arlington, Colgate University, the United States Air Force, and the American Psychological Association. Jim is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers on campus and received a 2009 Award for Distinguished Record of Research for his career long contributions in the areas of stress, health, and leadership.
Barbara Shipman
Department of Mathematics
Barbara Shipman’s enthusiasm for the beauty and rigor of mathematics is apparent in every course she teaches, as reflected in her numerous teaching awards, most recently the 2010 Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. Dr. Shipman prompts students to think about mathematics and its applications in creative ways, forging multi-faceted pathways of understanding through the intricate networks of patterns and form. Her research runs across several fields of mathematics, using geometric, algebraic, and analytic methods to study problems of motion, shape, and structure.
Alicia Soueid
Department of Modern Languages
Alicia Soueid is the Undergraduate Advisor and a French Lecturer for the Department of Modern Languages. As faculty advisor for La Société Francophone on campus as well as for the local chapter of Pi Delta Phi, the National French Honor Society, she is a proponent of multiculturalism and bilingualism and is an advocate for students. A francophile, she has traveled in various regions of France and counts Provence, Languedoc, Normandy, Alsace, and the Loire Valley among her favorites. She was selected as the recipient for the Lecturer of the Year award by her department in 2007 and as French Lecturer of the Year again the following year.
Amy Tigner
Department of English
Dr. Amy Tigner received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and is currently an Assistant Professor in the English Department, where she teaches courses on Shakespeare, English Renaissance Literature, Early Environmental Studies and Food Studies. She has published articles in Modern Drama, English Literary Renaissance, Drama Criticism, Milton Quarterly, and Global Traffic: Discourses and Practices of Trade in English Literature and Culture from 1550 to 1700. Forthcoming Dr. Tigner’s book, England's Paradise, from Ashgate. She is currently working on two book projects: From the Garden to the Kitchen: Early Modern Horticultural and Culinary Practices, and Alimentos: Food Routes through Literature and Culture, 1492-Present, co-authored with Allison Carruth.