New Faculty, 2007

Hussein Abaza is an assistant professor in the Construction Management department. He has a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning from the College of Architecture at Virginia Polytechnic. He has more than 18 years of experience, with major areas of interest in environmental control, moisture transfer, AutoCAD and building systems. He formerly taught at East Carolina University.

Robert Baffour is an associate professor in the CET department. He has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Georgia Tech, and has previously taught at Clark Atlanta and Bradley University (Peoria, IL). He has taught in a broad range of areas including surveying, GIS, and transportation engineering. His main research is in the areas of GIS, GPS and remote sensing.

Richard Becherer is an associate professor in Architecture. He has an M.A. from Cornell University, and has previously taught at Iowa State University, the American University of Beirut, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Virginia. His primary areas of interest are urbanism and urban design, and he brings a wide range of international professional contacts.

Kami Carey is an assistant professor of speech in the Department of English, Technical Communication and Media Arts. She recently completed the Ph.D. at Howard University, where her research area was intercultural communication.

Paula Checchi is an assistant professor of Biology. She recently completed her Ph.D. at Emory University, where her research area was in Cloning and Characterization of global chromatin remodeling mechanisms in embryonic germ cells.

Kenton Fleming is an assistant professor in the MET department. He has a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Mississippi State University, and has been an instructor at SPSU since 2005. His main research interests are developing curriculum pertaining to CAD/CAM.

Marianne Holdzkom is an Assistant Professor of History in the Social and International Studies Department. She comes to us full-time after several years of dividing her time between SPSU and Kennesaw State. She holds a Ph.D. in History from The Ohio State University and a Masters in History from Ball State University.

Erharn Ilksoy is a temporary assistant professor in the MET department. He has an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Georgia Tech, and an MS in Engineering (Thermal/Fluid Sciences) from Mississippi State. He has many years of industrial experience, and formerly has taught at Georgia Perimeter College and Gwinett Technical College.

Sung-He (Sonny) Kim is an Assistant Professor in the CET Department. He has a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University. He has worked as a pavement engineer focusing on airfield pavements, and is also a specialist in geotechnical engineering.

Joyce McGriff is joining the Business Administration Department as an Assistant Professor. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati and an M.B.A. from Atlanta (now Clark Atlanta) University. She has more than 20 years of diverse academic teaching, marketing management and consulting experience, and has most recently taught at North Carolina Central University and Clark Atlanta University.

Matthew McCool is an assistant professor in the Department of English, Technical Communication and Media Arts. His Ph.D. is in Rhetoric and Professional Communication from New Mexico State University, where he specialized in professional and technical writing and intercultural online writing.

Pavan Meadati is an assistant professor in the Construction Management Department. He recently completed his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. His research interests are in the area of building information modeling. He also has several years of experience as a research scientist and project engineer.

Greg Quinet is an assistant professor in the Business Administration Department. He is an alumnus of SPSU, with an M.S. in Management. He has fifteen years of background as a senior executive in various public, domestic and international companies.

Kisa Ranasinghe is an assistant professor of Physics. Her Ph.D. is from the Department of Physics/Materials Research Center of the University of Missouri, Rolla, where she conducted research on differential thermal analysis of glasses. She has taught at Northern Kentucky University, in part using the studio physics format.

Jeffrey L. Ray is the Dean of Engineering Technology and Management. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and was a tenured full professor, ME Department Chair and Director of the School of Engineering at Grand Valley State University (Grand Rapids, MI).  He has written and supervised a broad range of externally funded projects and research grants, published in such areas as industry partnering, effective student advising, and engineering education. 

Han Reichgelt is the Dean of Computing and Software Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh (U.K.).  He was a tenured full professor, department chair of information technology, and Associate Dean of the College of Information Technology at Georgia Southern University.  From also served as professor and department chair of Computer Science at the University of the West Indies (Jamaica.  He has published in such areas as expert systems, teaching project management, assessment for computing programs, and online education. 

Senay Solak is an assistant professor in the IET Department. He recently completed his Ph.D. at Georgia Tech, specializing in manufacturing and logistics. His research is in the area of aviation efficiency and security. He has been a temporary instructor at SPSU since 2004.

Manole Voroneanu is an assistant professor of Architecture. He earned his professional master of architecture at Miami University (Ohio) and his Professional Diploma of Architecture at the Technical University of Iasi (Romania). His professional interests are in the areas that link architecture and urban design, especially transient urban spaces.

Melissa Weaver is a lecturer in the Department of English, Technical Communication and Media Arts, where she will teach speech. Her master of science in communication is from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where her thesis topic was social support, beliefs about substance abuse, and religiosity.

Wei Zhou is an assistant professor of chemistry. She earned her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Texas Tech University. Her research is in electrochemical studies of carbon monoxide oxidation on platinum fuel cell catalysts. She formerly taught at Paine College (Augusta, GA), where she developed curriculum in the area of environmental health science.