Betts, Adam
Assistant Professor
(216) 987-5870
Department: Philosophy, Religious Studies, Humanities
Office Location: Westshore Campus, SLT 228B
Education: B.A., Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Saint Francis
Ph.D., Philosophy, Arizona State University
About: Adam Betts joined Tri-C in 2024 after completing his Ph.D. in philosophy at Arizona State University. His research interests include topics found at the intersection of epistemology and psychology. For instance, his doctoral dissertation investigated how cognitive biases affect our epistemic judgments of others during disagreements. He is also interested in other topics, such as the relationship between education and a well-functioning democracy, and how mental illness is conceptualized in terms of norms of rationality.
Betts has been teaching philosophy one way or another since 2013, first as a teaching assistant, then as an adjunct instructor beginning in 2018 at Arizona State and Maricopa Community Colleges. He has taught a wide variety of philosophy courses, from existentialism to philosophy of science, and he enjoys teaching all of the philosophy courses available at Tri-C.
Duvall, Terry
Assistant Professor
216-987-5168
Department: Communication Studies, Humanities, and Media and Journalism Studies
Office Location: Western Campus, WLA B144
Education: M.A., English Literature, University of Dayton
M.A., Communication, University of Dayton
B.S., Communication Studies, Ohio University
International Studies:
L’Institute de Touraine with a focus on French language — Tours, France
Al Akhawayn University, with a focus on postcolonial literature, rhetoric and Moroccan society in Ifrane — Morocco
About: Terry Duvall is an assistant professor of Communication Studies, teaching courses such as Interpersonal Communication, Public Speaking and Intercultural Communication, along with Film Appreciation and courses in the humanities. Duvall finds facilitating student learning in these courses rewarding. The common thread running through these courses is the examination and analysis of shared meaning in the context of the human experience — whether through verbal or nonverbal interaction, film or art. In addition to helping students better position themselves for the job market, Duvall believes they can apply what they learn in these courses to their personal lives.
Duvall also enjoys traveling, reading, going to the cinema, cycling, playing tennis and spending time with his son.
Gromek, Theresa
Assistant Professor
216-987-5930
Department: English, Humanities
Office Location: Westshore Campus, SLT 229A
Education: M.A., English Literature, John Carroll University
B.A., English and Communications, John Carroll University
About: Theresa Gromek grew up in a west-side suburb of Cleveland and migrated to the east side to attend John Carroll University. Graduating amidst a national recession, she decided to stick around for another degree, which led her to teaching. In addition to teaching at the Westshore Campus, she is heavily involved in the College's Common Reading program, Faculty Senate and the Mandel Scholars program.
Johnson, Brian
Associate Professor
216-987-2306
Department: Humanities
Office Location: Eastern Campus, ESS 1314
Education: B.A., California State University, Chico
M.A., California State University, Chico
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts
Laferty, Matt
Assistant Professor
216-987-5587
Department: English, Humanities
Office Location: Western Campus, WLA B218A
Education: M.A., Radford University
About: Matt Laferty teaches a broad range of composition, literature and humanities courses. He teaches often in the Mandel Scholars Academy. He has ongoing interests in art, travel, literature (both traditional and experimental) and in a broad spectrum of recorded popular music since the 1920s.
Lipinski, Bradley
Associate Professor
216-987-5668
Department: Philosophy, Humanities
Office Location: Westshore Campus, SLT 225C
Education: A.A., Lakeland Community College
B.A., Cleveland State University
M.A., Cleveland State University
J.D., Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
Miller, Justin
Assistant Professor
216-987-2359
Department: Philosophy, Humanities
Office Location: Eastern Campus, ESS 1119
Education: B.S., Portland State University
M.A., Cleveland State University
Phillips, Matthew
Assistant Professor
216-987-2492
Department: History, Humanities
Office Location: Metropolitan Campus
Education: B.A., Thiel College
M.A., Kent State University
Ph.D., Kent State University
Schlueter, Luke
Associate Professor
216-987-5501
Department: English, Humanities
Office Location: Western Campus, WLA B225
Education: Ph.D., English, Kent State University
M.A., English, University of Dallas
B.A., English, Franciscan University of Steubenville
About: Luke Schlueter is an associate professor of English, specializing in literature, creative and academic writing and the humanities. He is the coordinator of the Honors program at the Western Campus and is deeply involved with the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Humanities Center at Tri-C.
Schlueter earned his Ph.D. in 2000 after writing his dissertation on the ecological and domestic visions of two contemporary American poets, Gary Snyder and Wendell Berry. He continues to present on these poets and others and is a published poet himself. In his teaching and speaking engagements, Schlueter addresses the role of the humanities in human existence and the importance of reading, writing and civil discourse for engaging with the most challenging problems facing individuals and societies in today's world.
Stansberry, Patrick
Assistant Professor
216-987-4279
Department: English, Humanities
Office Location: Metropolitan Campus, MLA 223E
Education: M.A., English, Cleveland State University
B.A., English and Anthropology, Cleveland State University
About: In 1999, fresh out of grad school and searching for his second career, Pat Stansberry came to the Tri-C Metro Campus to talk about teaching a class. He was in the classroom a week later. He mostly teaches English courses, from college composition to technical writing to literature, and sometimes teaches humanities classes for the Mandel Scholars Academy.
Between working on comma splices and sentence fragments, Stansberry also does a little writing. His short plays have been performed at the Ingenuity Festival and the Eight-by-Eight Festival of Short Plays. His writing has appeared in Pivot Magazine, Whiskey Island Magazine, The Plain Dealer, Strange Horizons, Potomac and Daily Science Fiction.
Mostly, though, he teaches in an office 10 feet away from where he sat for that first interview.
Tobin, Kerry
Assistant Professor
216-987-5540
Department: Philosophy, Humanities
Office Location: Western Campus, WLA B109
Education: B.A., Adelphi University
M.A., Cleveland State University