Irene Haskins earned her B.S. as well as her M.A. in Mathematics from Eastern New Mexico University. She also earned an M.S. degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Colorado. Irene has taught math in a number of different venues, tutoring, teaching as a graduate student, and volunteering in Adult Education Programs. She also worked in the private sector for Qwest Communications where she was lead analyst, preparing various system requirements to meet internal business unit needs. Her move to Husson has helped Irene meet her objective of sharing her love and knowledge of mathematics on the collegiate level. In her spare time, Irene likes to swim and quilt and also volunteers as part of a certified therapy dog team at local hospitals and nursing homes.
Haus, David, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, History, School of Science and Humanities
David Haus earned his B.A. in American Studies from Penn State University, and he is a graduate of the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State. He earned his M.A. in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University, focusing on Early American History and Culture. He earned his Ph.D. in History at Bowling Green State University, focusing on 20th Century U.S. Policy History. He has minor fields in Latin American History and the History of Modern Japan.
Before coming to Husson David served as an Instructor of History and Distance Learning at Bowling Green State University and Assistant Professor of History at Bluefield State College. He has held several administrative posts during his career including Faculty Senate Chair, Associate Dean of Assessment and Distance Learning, and Dean of Arts and Sciences. He serves as a Social Studies education program Curriculum Reviewer for the West Virginia Department of Education and a certified Quality Matters reviewer. He is the co-founder and former editor of H-Policy. David designed and continues to offer his Social Studies Content Licensure preparation seminars to teacher education students at several institutions in the United States. The program is designed to help students prepare for exams such as the Praxis II: Social Studies Content Exam offered by ETS.
David is currently working on his scholarly monograph "Radio Is an Extension of the Home: Protecting Private Space from Public Vulgarity, 1929-1935". It re-examines the public debate between commercial interests and educational reformers over the organization and control of radio in the early 1930s. Other scholars have explored this moment in American history, arguing that the National Committee on Education by Radio stood little chance for success because of its own ineptitude before a powerful commercial radio industry. My work attempts to make sense of the NCER’s choices and motivations in the struggle for educational radio while examining the broader implications of the NCER’s arguments on our understanding of New Deal politics, associationalism, gender, and consumerism. I conclude that the NCER was a progressive group that watched the very progressive machinery its members once supported quash its campaign for radio reform and alter its conception of democracy, as federal regulators devalued its expertise and sacrificed educational radio at the altar of the New Deal. However, I contend that the NCER posed a greater threat to the commercial industry than other scholars have found, and it could have succeeded under different circumstances. The NCER fought against the conflation of consumerism and democracy while fighting to stave off what it saw as cultural domination by the East coast, and it compels us to rethink the nature and periodization of progressivism and the centrality of radio in the context of urban-rural conflict of the 1920s and 1930s.
Holleb, Lauren, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychology, School of Science and Humanities
Lauren J. Holleb, Ph.D. graduated with honors from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Marketing. While an undergraduate, Lauren completed an independent research project and authored a senior honor’s thesis that examined the contributions of personality factors and interracial experience variables on intergroup anxiety and motivation to control prejudice. She was fortunate to study at the Miami University John E. Dolibois European Center (MUDEC) in Differdange, Luxembourg which allowed her to study international business, reside with a host family, and fostered a passion for travel.
Following graduation, she worked at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center as a Clinical Research Coordinator and Program Manager. During this time, Lauren managed an in-home depression treatment program housed within a home visitation program for at-risk mothers and their infants/young children (i.e., Every Child Succeeds). Every Child Succeeds is designed to provide an optimal environment for learning and emotional growth and maintains a comprehensive systematic data collection in child development, child health, and maternal self-sufficiency. During her initial tenure at CCHMC, Lauren had the opportunity to collaborate on a treatment manual for In-Home Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (IH-CBT) and several publications and presentations. Lauren was fortunate to obtain both clinical and research experience at CCHMC which solidified her desire to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology.
Lauren then moved to Maine to pursue her doctoral studies at the University of Maine, in the combined Developmental-Clinical track of the Clinical Psychology doctoral program. This unique program enabled Lauren to pursue her combined interests in “normative” and “abnormal” child development, meeting the formal degree requirements for specialization in both Developmental and Clinical psychology. Lauren received both her Master of Arts in Psychology and her Ph.D. in Developmental-Clinical Psychology from the University of Maine.
While at the University of Maine, Lauren developed a systematic line of research on the friendship experiences, social information processing (SIP), and psychological adjustment (e.g., anxiety and depressive symptoms) of socially withdrawn/anxious children. This balanced nicely with her clinical interests in working with youth who have been diagnosed or are at-risk of developing internalizing difficulties (e.g., anxiety, depression). Lauren has had breadth in her clinical endeavors, providing evidence-based intervention, assessment, and consultation services to youth and their families in a number of settings (i.e., children’s specialty hospitals, a pediatric center, school systems, primary care, outpatient clinics, community mental health, juvenile detention, in-home, and at a federal job training facility).
Once she was a doctoral candidate, Lauren sought out the opportunity to teach at the undergraduate level. She independently taught eight undergraduate courses while at the University of Maine. Lauren also served as a member of the state of Maine Child Death and Serious Injury Review Panel and served the profession as the Associate Editor of an American Psychological Association (APA) Division newsletter.
Lauren was the recipient of the Presidential Graduate Teaching Award, was named Outstanding Graduate Student in the Department of Psychology/Nominated for Outstanding Graduate Student in the College of Arts and Science, and received faculty letters of commendation for excellence in research, teaching, clinical work, and service while at the University of Maine. Lauren has received grant funding for her research from the Maine Academic Prominence Initiative.
Lauren completed her pre-doctoral internship in child psychology at the Texas Child Study Center (A collaboration between Dell Children’s Medical Center and University of Texas at Austin Department of Educational Psychology). Most recently, Lauren completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in child clinical psychology and developmental disabilities at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). She received specialized training in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), an empirically-supported treatment for young children (2-7 years) diagnosed with emotional and behavioral disorders. Clinically, Lauren also completed comprehensive assessments of children with developmental disabilities and complex medical comorbidities, and conducted group-based anxiety and social skills interventions. She provided umbrella clinical supervision to graduate and undergraduate students. Lauren participated in research endeavors focused on the peer relationship experiences of adolescents diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorders and obesity, and assisted with research studies of congenital hearing loss and congenital hydrocephalus.
Lauren joined the full-time Psychology faculty at Husson University in 2013. She enjoys teaching courses in developmental and clinical psychology. She looks forward to collaborating with students and colleagues, advising and mentoring students, and becoming part of the Husson University community. Presently, Lauren also serves as a mental health consultant for a federal job training center.
She resides in Bangor with her husband, a native Mainer and their cat (…he’s not a native Mainer). In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, cooking, listening to music, hiking, and playing tennis.
Howard, Christopher, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, School of Science and Humanities
Christopher Howard received his Bachelor's of Science in Psychology from Georgia Southwestern State University (2004), a Master's of Science in Experimental Psychology degree from Augusta State University (2007), and his PhD in Experimental Psychology from Auburn University (2010).
The focus of his current research centers on examining ways to translate principles and research findings from experimental psychology to applied educational settings. Currently, he is conducting research on the testing effect - a cognitive phenomenon that occurs when long-term retention of information is enhanced by initial testing relative to equivalent periods of study. This line of research has received growing attention in cognitive psychology within the last decade. The benefit of his area of research is three-fold: (a) it provides research-based findings that can serve to enhance the effectiveness of educational training in teaching; (b) it expands current knowledge of psychological phenomenon by examining their nature under varied educational conditions and with differing degrees of experimental control; and (c) the findings could have practical implications for improving instructors' assessment techniques and thereby facilitate student learning.
Christopher's research on the testing effect compliments his other research in the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). In the last several years, he has conducted or assisted with research on diverse topics including enthusiasm, academic dishonesty, ethical perceptions of professorial behavior, classroom-based accommodations for ADHD students, assessment practices in introductory psychology, teacher performance evaluation, and the qualities and characteristics of master teachers.
I believe that my teaching reflects a dynamic process that meets the demands of my students as well as the demands of changes within psychology itself. My passion for psychology and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) has led me to develop new and interesting ways to approach the subject matter. My teaching philosophy is based on three core ideas: (a) to motivate students to think critically and analytically about psychology within the classroom, (b) to apply the methods of psychological and scientific inquiry in order to maximize students' educational experience, and (c) to instill in students an appreciation for psychological and scientific knowledge that can be applied beyond the walls of traditional academic settings.