Jennifer L. Burnham

Professor of Geography, Edward Hamming Chair in Geography

• Phone: 309-794-7845
• Email: JenniferBurnham@augustana.edu
• Office: Swenson 201

Jennifer (Horwath) '97 Burnham began teaching at Augustana in 2006 after completing her M.S. at the University of Illinois and her Ph.D. at the University of Washington.

Her interests include soils, climate change, biogeography, physical geography and cartography. Her research in northwest Greenland focuses on soil organic carbon cycling and its affect on climate change, the effects of climate change on seabirds on remote Arctic islands, mercury contamination in arctic breeding birds, and geolocator technology to track bird migration.

My research

Specializations: Greenland, Climate change, Cartography, Soils, Arctic, Biogeography, Mercury pollution

Rebecca Arnold she/hers

Part-Time Assistant Professor of Public Health

• Email: rebeccaarnold@augustana.edu
• Office: Lindberg 217

Rebecca Arnold is a public health practitioner, primarily in a global context, with experience ranging from grassroots to national levels.

She works full time at the Martin Luther King Community Center in Rock Island. In addition to her role as Resource Development Manager, she is also one of the leads on a Collective Impact effort to improve economic opportunity, social equity and meaningful participation among citizens living in the West End of Rock Island.

Notable professional experience includes community health education as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar; senior program management with a multi-media entertainment-education initiative in Tanzania; and leading a USAID-funded capacity strengthening project with the government of Bangladesh while working for Johns Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs.

Rebecca serves on the Board of a nonprofit that feeds children in Bangladesh and the Philippines (thrive-global.org), and is a Rock Island Rotarian. She lives in Rock Island with her 20-year-old son.

Specializations: Global public health, Social and behavior change, Strategic communication, Participatory research methods, Capacity strengthening

Evan Juarez

International Admissions Counselor

• Phone: 309-732-6127
• Email: evanjuarez@augustana.edu
• Office: Seminary 109

Specializations: Admissions

Jacob Grothjan

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology

• Email: jacobgrothjan@augustana.edu

Dr. Jacob Grothjan’s academic interests are in the field of microbial ecology and based in the microscopic food-web community found within carnivorous pitcher plants. Specifically, he uses bioinformatics to help answer key questions about plant-bound organisms, including taxonomic identification, function and changes in microbial behavior over time.

When teaching, he emphasizes how interconnected different aspects of biology are, no doubt influenced by his research.

When he is not researching or teaching, you can usually find him online, but he also may be painting with acrylics, freshwater fishing or playing video games.

Katie Madel

Assistant Professor of Political Science

• Email: katiemadel@augustana.edu
• Office: Old Main 312

Katie Madel researches American politics and public policy in political science. From Southern Illinois originally, she received her B.A.s in English and Political Science from another small liberal arts school in Illinois. While her research interests dabble in areas such as gender, rhetoric, and education, her dissertation and passion project lies in studying the purpose of public policy. Outside of academia, Katie raises two dogs and three cats with her life partner, Vincent. In between devouring stories in any format (be it TV or books), she also fosters kittens through the local shelter and loves spending time outdoors.

Specializations: Public policy, Political communication

Matthew Kowalczyk

Part-Time Instructor of Music

• Email: matthewkowalczyk@augustana.edu

Matthew Kowalczyk is Second Bassoon, Orchestra Librarian, and a PLP Instructor of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed regularly with other ensembles throughout the Midwest, such as the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, among others.

In addition to performing, teaching lessons, and coaching sectionals with the QCSO youth orchestras and school music classrooms in the Quad Cities, Matthew also started the Summer Bassoon Reed Seminar, aimed at teaching area school-aged students the beginner processes of bassoon reedmaking, a critical part of the craft of bassoon playing often overlooked in young bassoonists' education. Matthew's bassoon studio of school-aged students have enjoyed successes beyond their school ensembles, with admission into Iowa All-State ensembles and Solo Festival showcase, ILMEA, QCSYE membership, SEIBA, and acceptance into collegiate bassoon studios.

During his studies on his master's degree in bassoon performance, Matthew held the bassoon fellowship of the Fred Fox Graduate Wind Quintet at the University of Arizona, which included performing and competing throughout the country as a representative of UA, as well as a three-week international tour throughout 12 cities in China. Building upon his bachelor's degree with certification in music education from Illinois State University, Matthew additionally worked as the Graduate Coordinator of the UA Outreach Honor Band, a weekend wind ensemble for students in grades 5 through 9.

Matthew's bassoon teachers have included Michael Dicker, Dr. William Dietz, Diane Ryan, and Benjamin Coelho.

Katherine E. Brown

Assistant Professor of Sociology

• Phone: 309-794-7345
• Email: kbrown@augustana.edu

Dr. Katherine E. Brown is a sociologist and feminist criminologist who specializes in women’s victimization and trauma informed care. Her publications, up to this point, have appeared in Teaching Sociology and The Journal of Criminal Justice Education (forthcoming) and focuses on the scholarship of teaching and learning using high impact learning practices. Drawing from her applied work with domestic violence safe housing, Dr. Brown uses similar principles to center each student’s personhood and foster autonomy within the classroom setting.

Brown’s research interests range all the way from state/state-corporate crime and state sanctioned victimization to intimate partner violence and criminal justice programming/policy evaluation. Her work is informed by expanded definitions of criminality that examine how those in power often commit the most socially injurious acts and is often conducted with a victim-centric lens.

Specializations: Criminology, Intimate partner violence

Maria Hannah

Assistant Professor of Communication Studies

• Email: mariahannah@augustana.edu
• Office: Old Main 210

My mission as an educator is to build healthy classroom communities through meaningful connection and content. As such, I value opportunities to develop positive working relationships with students in order to co-create knowledge in the human communication classroom. At Augustana I teach courses related to communication and social relationships (COMM-220) and communication and culture (COMM-260). The notion that communication is a skill to be intentionally developed toward more satisfying, diverse, social relationships is the essence of my teaching. I look forward to partnering with students in an effort to better understand and optimize interactions across a variety of contexts.

My primary area of research is instructional communication, which is the study of the teaching-learning process as a communication process. I am specifically interested in teacher goals, behavior, and influence messages, student communication about mental health, and student behavior including student-to-student communication about learning experiences. I am published in Communication Education, Atlantic Journal of Communication, Southern Communication Journal, Ohio Communication Journal, and Texas Speech Communication Journal. I have also contributed to book chapters related to students’ cognitive learning, conflict in the classroom, compassionate pedagogy, and strategies for communicating about mental health concerns. 

Before joining Augustana I was an instructor of record at Ohio University (Athens, OH) where I earned Outstanding Researcher in the School of Communication Studies, facilitated workshops about communicating motivation and learning needs in teaching-learning contexts (with an emphasis on doctoral advisor-advisee contexts), and presented at the university-wide Spotlight on Learning conference. 

Specializations: Instructional communication, Interpersonal communication

Taddy R. Kalas

Professor of French

• Phone: 309-794-7366
• Email: TaddyKalas@augustana.edu
• Office: Denkmann 125

Specializations: French