Greenville College Welcomes New Faculty
Published: April 13, 2021
Greenville College welcomes new full-time faculty.
Vickie Cook, Ph.D.
Dean of the School of Education/Director of Online Learning
Dr. Cook joins the School of Educationas the dean of the School of Education and director of Online Learning. Cook received her associate degree from Kaskaskia College in 1980 and bachelor's degree in 1996 from Western Illinois State University with an emphasis in Liberal Studies. She was employed at Kaskaskia College for fifteen years in a variety of functions including teaching English as a second language, adult literacy, and computer applications. She also served as dean of Continuing Education and University Alliance. Cook completed her M.S. in Education at Capella University in Minneapolis, MN in 1999. In 2004, Cook completed her Ph.D. in Higher Educational Administration also from Capella University.Her dissertation was entitled, Exploration of Leadership Competencies Needed by Future Illinois Community College Presidents: A Delphi Study. She was an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership Program at the University of Illinois Springfield until joining Greenville College in the summer of 2009. Cook has published and presented material on the pedagogy of teaching online, adult learning theory, and adult and family literacy issues.Most recently she co-authored an article in the Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology and co-authored a book chapter entitled, Learning Management Systems Technologies and Software Solutions for Online Teaching: Tools and Applications, which will be released later this year.
Kathie Filby
Instructor of Spanish
Filby joins the Language, Literature and Culture Department full-time as a Spanish instructor after working at GC as an adjunct professor of Spanish for more than three years. During those years Filby co-led a student missions trip to Guatemala and taught an interterm class on the Life and Works of Federico Garcia Lorca. She has had impressive language and culture experience beginning with her completion of a double major in Spanish and Russian as well as studying seven years of French and five years of Latin. Filby received both her undergraduate degrees and her master's of Literature at Trinity College, University of Dublin. She lived most of her life in Dublin, but moved to the U.S. in January 2005. Filby has a diploma in teaching English as a second language and has taught in this capacity in both Spanish and Mexican schools. She spent a life changing year as a missionary in Buenos Aires, Argentina that later inspired her master's thesis, The Search for Identity in the Argentina of Ernesto Sbato, a prolific Argentinean novelist.
Richard Lombardini, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physics
Dr. Richard Lombardini joins Greenville College as the new assistant professor of Physics. Dr. Lombardini received bachelor's degrees at Texas Tech University in Chemistry and Mathematics in 1999. He received his Ph.D. also at Texas Tech University in physics in 2006. For three years prior to coming to GC, Dr. Lombardini did computational physics research at Rice University as a postdoctoral fellow. His specific interests involve theoretical and computational chemical physics and nanophotonics. Lombardini enjoys running and has completed over 20 marathons.
Israel Valenzuela
Instructional Designer
Valenzuela joins the Greenville College staff as Instructional Designer for the online learning initiative. He is one of GC's own, graduating in 2002 with a BS in Contemporary Christian Music. Prior to his time spent in Greenville, Valenzuela earned a degree in Civil Engineering at California State Polytechnic University in 1998 and later earned a master's in Learning Technologies from Pepperdine University in 2008. Valenzuela comes with past experience in this field, including time spent as e-Learning Technologist and Consultant for Kaiser Permanent inPasadena, California.
For more information contact Greenville College Assistant Director of Public Relations Annie Zeller.
