Miami University

Dr. Nancy Hoffmann, Institute Director, began her career as an educator teaching primary and intermediate level students in the Forest Hills School district in Cincinnati, OH. She completed her Masters degree in the Curriculum and Teacher Leadership program at Miami University and once again returned to public schools as a teacher and consultant. After 15 years serving as a public school teacher, Nancy returned to Miami and completed the doctoral program in Educational Leadership with a concentration in curriculum. From 2001-2004, Dr. Hoffmann served as Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and as Visiting Assistant Professor at Miami University during the 2004-2005 academic year. She returned to public schools and accepted a position as the gifted online pre-algebra instructor, coordinator, and consultant for the Horry Co. Schools in Myrtle Beach, SC in 2006. Dr. Nancy Hoffmann is currently serving dual roles at Miami University: 1.) Program Manager for the Lifelong Learning office and 2.) Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University.

As Program Manager, she has experience designing and overseeing the curricular, financial, and managerial aspects of new programs and presently manages three (3) distinct non-credit programs including the Institute for Learning in Retirement, Kids in College, and Community Classes. Her primary focus as Program Manager is the development of innovative programmatic opportunities for area youth who are under-represented and come from disadvantaged backgrounds. During her tenure as Program Manager for the Lifelong Learning office, collaborative partnerships with service-oriented groups such as Ambassadors for Children and the Oxford Choice Food Pantry have been developed and sustained. In addition, Dr. Hoffmann is working with local businesses in Oxford to create scholarships for the Kids in College program in the effort to create better access to knowledge for underprivileged youth. As Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Dr. Hoffmann teaches the culminating research coursework for the Curriculum and Teacher Leadership Masters program which focuses on critical action research. Her professional research interests draw upon her background in curriculum design and include developing curriculum for community partnerships, service learning, and collaborative action research. She is a contributing author in Learning to teach: Collaboration, reflection, and inquiry in the student teaching experience (Senge, et. al, Doubleday, 2001) and has presented at numerous local, state, and international conferences.

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Ms. Elizabeth Jean Pauna currently serves as the Coordinator for Gifted Services for Talawanda Schools in Oxford, Ohio. She holds a B.F.A. in art education from the University of Minnesota, coursework completed for a Masters of Science in art education from the University of Wisconsin, and a gifted licensure and Masters degree in Teacher Leadership from Miami University. She has 16 years of teaching experience, and has been coordinating gifted services for six years. In addition to her teaching experience, she has directed several children’s plays and has also worked professionally in summer theatre, serving as a props master.

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Mr. Thomas A. Dutton is an architect and professor of architecture and interior design at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He received his Bachelor of Architecture in 1975 from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California, and his Master of Architecture and Urban Design degree from Washington University in 1977.

Mr. Dutton is also founder and director of Miami University’s Center for Community Engagement in Over-the-Rhine (2002), which offers opportunities for faculty, student, and community learning in that inner-city, Cincinnati neighborhood (www.fna.muohio.edu/cce). He has been active in the Over-the-Rhine People’s Movement for twenty-six years. Since 1996, he and his students, through the Over-the-Rhine Design/Build Studio, have designed and rehabilitated housing for low and moderate income people (www.fna.muohio.edu/otr). Fall 2006 was the inaugural semester for the Over-the-Rhine Residency Program, where twelve students from a wide variety of majors lived and worked in the community with institutions that serve the under-served.

His research focuses on the connections between critical pedagogy, architectural education, and urban theory and social practice. He is co-editor (with Lian Hurst Mann) of Reconstructing Architecture: Critical Discourses and Social Practices (University of Minnesota Press, 1996) and editor of Voices in Architectural Education: Cultural Politics and Pedagogy (Bergin and Garvey, 1991). He has published in such journals as the Journal of Architectural Education (JAE), Designer/Builder, Shelterforce, Rethinking Marxism, The Nation, and Z Magazine.

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Ms. Sarah Woiteshek. Upon completing her undergraduate work at Longwood University (Farmville, VA), Sarah came to Miami University to enroll in the College Student Personnel Master’s program. During her graduate course work, she developed academic interests in the connection between leadership development and community (service) work. For the last two years, she has worked full time for the Harry T. Wilks Leadership Institute at Miami, an office committed to developing global citizens through community-based learning initiatives. Specifically, Sarah oversees development and facilitation of the Wilks High School Engagement Program, the Scholar Leader Living Learning Community, an International Service-Learning experience in the Dominican Republic, and supervises a student-led course, EDL 177: Community Engagement in Southwest Ohio through an American Studies thematic sequence. For more information on these engaged community leadership programs, please see www.muohio.edu/wilks

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