Honors Seminar Faculty
fall 2009
Michael Patrick MacDonaldHonors Writer in Residence
Michael Patrick MacDonald is the author of national bestseller "All Souls: A Family Story From Southie" (Ballantine, October 2000). He is the recipient of the American Book Award, New England Literary Lights Award (2000), and The Myers Outstanding Book Award administered by the Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights in North America. He is currently writing the screenplay of All Souls for director Ron Shelton. MacDonald was also awarded an Anne Cox Chambers Fellowship at The MacDowell Colony, a Bellagio Center Fellowship through the Rockefeller Foundation, residencies at Blue Mountain Center and Djerassi Artist Residency Program. Currently he lives in Brooklyn. This fall, Michael Patrick MacDonald will teach the seminar HONR 3304, Social Justice: The Role of Reading, Writing and Understanding Non-Fiction
Jennifer Cole
PH.D., Syracuse University
Jennifer Cole is an Assistant Academic Specialist and the Director of the Environmental Studies Program in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. She teaches a wide variety of introductory and advanced courses including Natural Disasters and Catastrophes, Environmental Science, Environmental Geology, Hydrogeology, Groundwater Modeling, and Groundwater Geochemistry. Her research interests include wetland systems, groundwater contamination, and nutrient cycling, and she has published several papers detailing the chemistry, biology, geology, and hydrology of the Glacial Lake Agassiz Peatland Complex in northern Minnesota. This fall, Prof. Rivers will be teaching the Honors seminar HONR 3342 - The Edible Environment.
Waleed Meleis
Ph.D., University of Michigan
Prof. Waleed Meleis received the BSE degree in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 1990, and the MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1992 and 1996. In 1996 he joined the Computer Engineering Group of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University.
Prof. Meleis’ research is on developing and evaluating algorithms and bounds for combinatorially difficult optimization problems. He has made contributions to the following areas: Optimal scheduling and register allocation, with spill code, for multiple-issue processors; Microprocessor-aware scheduling algorithms for modern compilers; Algorithms for weighted-completion time scheduling; Design and analysis of tight lower bounds on schedule length; Backtracking acyclic schedulers; Parallel and scalable processing systems and programming toolsets.
He also supervises graduate students working on topics related to machine learning and combinatorial optimization. The goal is to develop algorithms that adaptively solve problems with either multiple agents working cooperatively, or in the presence of adversarial agents working competitively. Application areas include ad-hoc networks, scheduling of parallel computers, and clustering. This fall Prof. Meleis will teach the Honors Seminar HONR 3302 - Computational Complexity.
Dennis Shaughnessy
J.D., University of Maryland
Dennis Shaughnessy is an Executive Professor of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Group. His teaching interests include business planning, small business management, innovation and entrepreneurship, intellectual property, law and ethics, and social enterprise. He also teaches executive education in enterprise growth and acquisitions, and management of life sciences/biotechnology enterprises.
Professor Shaughnessy was a senior executive for many years in a local life sciences technology company, where he was a principal in numerous acquisitions, financings and other strategic transactions, including a leveraged buy-out and initial public offering. He also has extensive experience in strategic planning, international business development, corporate governance, technology licensing, and management of technology-driven operations. Professor Shaughnessy was chief legal officer of a New York Stock Exchange company, responsible for global legal affairs. He was also in private legal practice representing venture capitalists and technology entrepreneurs, and prior to that, in public service. This fall, Prof. Shaughnessy will teach the Honors seminar HONR 3342 – Law, Ethics and the New Wall Street.
Bert Spector
Ph.D., University of Missouri
Bert Spector is an Associate Professor of International Business and Strategy. He is the author of the forthcoming book Managing Change: Theory and Implementation of Organizational Change and Taking Charge and Letting Go: A Breakthrough Strategy for Creating and Managing the Horizontal Company. He co-authored The Critical Path to Corporate Renewal; Human Resource Management: A General Manager's Perspective; and, Managing Human Assets. His articles have appeared in publications including the European Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review and Success. This fall Prof. Spector will be teaching the Honors seminar HONR 3341 Leadership and Rebellion.
David A. Rochefort
Ph.D., Brown University
David A. Rochefort is an Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Political Science. A recipient of the university's Excellence in Teaching Award, he teaches courses on health and welfare policy and has published several books in this area, including From Poorhouses to Homelessness: Policy Analysis and Mental Health Care (1997). Each year Professor Rochefort offers a course on leadership for members of the Northeastern University Student Government and other campus leaders. He also conducts a community research seminar in which he collaborates with his students on applied research projects focusing on local social issues and problems. This fall, Prof. Rochefort will be teaching the Honors seminar HONR3342 - Social Fact from Fiction.
Spring 2010
Jeffrey Burds, Department of History
Ph.D., Yale University
Jeffrey Burds is an Associate Professor in the Department of History, and a member of the core faculty in International Affairs. Prof. Burds completed his Ph.D. in 1990 in Russian and Soviet history. He taught at the University of Rochester for five years, and joined the NU faculty in 1998. The recipient of numerous grants and awards--and a finalist for the Excellence in Teaching Award in both 2004 and 2007--Professor Burds has published widely on the history of the Soviet secret police and Soviet espionage during the early Cold War. In 2007, he published a study tracking Soviet infiltration of foreign espionage networks in the 1930s. Currently, he is finishing a book manuscript on espionage and nationalism in Soviet Ukraine, 1944-1950. This spring Prof. Burds will teach the Honors seminar HONR 3302 - A History of Espionage.
Lorna Hayward
Ed.D., Boston University
Lorna Hayward is an Associate Professor of Physical Therapy at the Bouve College of Health Sciences. Prof. Hayward has been a faculty member in the Department of Physical Therapy since 1996. Prof. Hayward is primarily responsible for teaching the following courses: Research Methods, Administration and Health Policy, Professional Seminar, and PT Project I. The courses Prof. Hayward teaches reflect her professional interests in curriculum design, technology, health promotion, and research. Prof. Hayward conducts research in the areas in which she teaches to remain current in the topic area and infuse class material with personal experience. Her most recent publication is in the Journal of Physical Therapy Education, 'Standardized Patients and Communities of Practice: A Realistic Strategy for Integrating the Core Values in a Physical Therapist Education Program'. This spring Prof. Hayward will teach the Honors seminar HONR 3341 - Contemporary Issues in Health Care.
Maureen Kelleher, Honors Program Director, Department of Sociology
Ph.D., University of Missouri at Columbia
Maureen Kelleher is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Honors Program. Her teaching areas include social deviance, drugs, social policy and child welfare. She has worked closely with the American Sociological Association on a number of teaching related projects including ones on juvenile delinquency and graduate education. Publications include Drugs and Society: A Critical Perspective and articles on child welfare. Her current research interest focuses on risk-taking among older adolescents and young adults. She became Director of the Honors Program in 2004. During the past few years she has worked closely with students on a variety of new honors initiatives including the First Year Reading Project, Welcome Week and the Networking Event in addition to starting the award-winning honors newsletter, the Honors Perspective. This spring Professor Kelleher will teach the Honors seminar HONR 3340 - Being 'Crazy' in America: History, Policy and Popular Culture.