New Faculty Members Join William Woods University

8/18/2011 Mary Ann Beahon
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (573) 592-1127

 

Four new faculty members have joined William Woods University this semester. They are Caroline Boyer Ferhat, assistant professor of psychology; Robin Hirsch-Jacobson, assistant professor of biology; and Becky Davis and Shauna Rae Ward, both instructors of American Sign Language interpreting.

Ferhat has taught psychology at George Mason University, in Fairfax, Va., since 2007. She is a member of several psychological associations, including American Psychological Association, Eastern Psychological Association and Association for Psychological Science.
 
She earned a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in psychology at Ursinus College in 2007 and a Ph.D. in applied developmental psychology with an emphasis in cognitive and early childhood development from George Mason University in May 2011. In 2010, she was the recipient of the Elyse B. and Donald R. Lehman Graduate Student Research award.
 
Hirsch-Jacobson has been a teaching assistant in general ecology, introduction to biology and ornithology at the University of Missouri since 2005. He also served as a graduate student mentor in the University of Missouri Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, assisting students in designing, writing and implementing proposals and preparing posters based on research results.
 
He earned a Bachelor of Arts in environmental studies with honors and a Bachelor of Science in marine biology from the University of California in Santa Cruz, Calif., in 2001. He received his Ph.D. in biological sciences at the University of Missouri-Columbia this year.
                                                          
Davis has been teaching at the State of Indiana Deaf School in Indianapolis, Ind., for the past eight years. She has also been a certified mentor at the Center of ASL/English Bilingual Education Research (CAEBER) in Washington, D.C., since 2008.
 
Between 1993 and 2003 she served as an interpreter in various businesses around mid-Missouri, including Access Interpreter Referral Services in Fulton, Advent Interpreter Referral Service in Columbia and State of Missouri Department of Mental Health in Jefferson City.
 
Davis earned her Bachelor of Science degree in secondary education-English from the University of Missouri in 1999 and her Master of Science in Deaf education from McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., in 2003.
 
Ward has been teaching interpreting since 1991 in numerous schools in Washington and Canada. This past year she served as an American Sign Language instructor at Portland Community College and Portland State University in Portland, Ore.
 
Before that, Ward spent eight years at Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, Wash., as an ASL instructor. She also has taught ASL in several locations in Canada—in Calgary, Alberta; Sudbury, Ontario; and Edmonton, Alberta.
 
She is a member of the American Sign Language Teacher Association (ASLTA) and has served as secretary of the Washington American Sign Language Teacher Association; Alberta Deaf Sports Association; Albert Association of the Deaf; Alberta Cultural Society of the Deaf; and Calgary Association of the Deaf.
 
Ward earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in sign communication from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., in 1992 and her Master in Education degree in adult education from the University of Phoenix in 2007.