Specializations: Facilities

Benjamin Holmes

Augustana Concert Chorale director, keyboardist, Bell Choir director

• Email: benjaminholmes@augustana.edu

Ben Holmes is the director of the Augustana Concert Chorale.  On campus, he also serves as the director of the Ascension Ringers handbell choir and accompanist for Campus Ministries.  

Outside of Augustana, he serves as the director of choirs at Moline (Ill.) High School. As a performer, Holmes performs with the Augustana Choral Artists, and Quad City Music Guild.   

Holmes holds a bachelor's and a master's degree in music education from the University of Illinois. He has been an educator in the Quad Cities for more than 10 years. His choirs have been featured throughout Illinois, as well as the Illinois Music Educators Conference. Holmes is an active member of the Illinois Music Educators, American Choral Directors Association and the National Association of Music Education. 

Specializations: Campus Ministries

Bobbie Tidball

Assistant Director of Internships

• Phone: 309-794-8614
• Email: bobbietidball@augustana.edu
• Office: Olin 122

Bobbie Tidball works with students, faculty, staff, and employers to make sure Augustana students get quality experiential learning experiences. All students taking internships for academic credit (including zero-credit) meet with her to register their internships.

Tidball also will supervise  CORE internships and coordinate the Servant Leader Grant process. In conjunction with the assistant director of employer relations,  she works with employers to create internship programs and pass along those opportunities to the career coaches and faculty across campus.

Specializations: CORE

Specializations: Public Safety

Specializations: Public Safety

Specializations: Public Safety

Ann E. Perreau she/her

Professor and Co-Chair of Communication Sciences and Disorders

• Phone: 309-794-8935
• Email: annperreau@augustana.edu
• Office: Brodahl 201

• HEAR-T (Hearing + Tinnitus) Lab
• RELATED: Augustana’s Dr. Ann Perreau awarded NIH grant for hyperacusis study
• RELATED: AAC&U Academic Minute: Ann Perreau, Augustana College – Hyperacusis

For as long as I have known, I have been interested in learning new things and expanding my horizons through reading and education. Recently my father was reciting a story that when I was in the fifth grade, I gave myself homework to do, even though they did not assign it until 7th grade! I remember studying in the public library in junior high, seeking out ways to surround myself with books filled with oodles of knowledge and different perspectives than my own.

In my sophomore year of high school, the guidance counselor asked me what I wanted to do when I “grew up.” I remember thinking that most women in my family became elementary or secondary school teachers, so that would probably be what I would do. But, at that time, I was very interested in medicine, so I started college as pre-med major.

This lead me to discover communication sciences and disorders, an allied health field that blends several disciplines (e.g., psychology, linguistics, physics) into one and explores how we talk, learn language, and perceive sound around us. As I looked to the next step in my academic career, the best fit was found in studying hearing science and audiology.

I remember working with my first clients in the audiology clinic at the Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Center and, although nervous, I quickly found that my knowledge of hearing disorders and efforts to help them hear better were greatly valued. Learning new ways to improve our understanding of hearing loss and methods to treat it became my inspiration for future work.

After years as an audiologist, I found myself back where I started — teaching! To my amazement, my years of education in speech and hearing science have ultimately led me back to the path that I was destined to take. It is very exciting that I can blend a love of scholarship and talents as a teacher at an institution like Augustana.

Specializations: Hearing, Hyperacusis, Sound localization, Tinnitus

Wesley Brooks

Vice President and Dean of Student Life

• Phone: 309-794-7533
• Email: wesbrooks@augustana.edu
• Office: Bahls Campus Leadership Center 104

Wes Brooks on LinkedIn

Dr. Wesley Brooks joined Augustana College as the vice president and dean of student life in August 2018. In his role, Dr. Brooks oversees various areas, including athletics, Augustana Police/Public Safety, counseling services, and residential life. He is also a member of the college's Title IX team, committed to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for all students.

He previously served as vice president for student development and dean of students at Iowa Wesleyan University. Before that, Dr. Brooks was assistant vice president for student life and director of residential life at Wartburg College from 2009 to 2015. He also held positions at Grand View University, first as a student leadership coordinator and later as director of Residential Life.

Dr. Brooks has a strong passion for enhancing the student experience and is committed to building relationships with students, faculty and staff, while always assessing current programs and policies.

“The reason I love this place is that it feels like we never settle. We’re always trying to be better today and tomorrow than we were yesterday. That's what's exciting about coming to work every day … it’s an awesome place, but never satisfied.” — Dr. Wesley Brooks

Recent initiatives:

• Chair of the Emergency Planning Task Force as well as the Student Policy Committee
• Serves as director of Orientation and chair of Orientation and Advising Working Group
• Serves as advisor to Student Government Association
• Serves in the President’s Cabinet, committees for Faculty Athletics, Institutional Assessment and Financial Aids Appeals, as well as on the teams that lead Coordinated Community Response, Behavioral Intervention, Title IX, and Biased Education and Support
• Has facilitated training on CliftonStrengths as a certified coach, on the emergency response tabletop drills and workshops on co-curricular assessment.
• Is an active member of the National Association of Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, as well as the Association for Student Conduct Administration 
• Augustana welcomes Dr. Wesley Brooks as vice president and dean of student life

More than a leader

Dr. Wesley Brooks, his wife Kelly and their two boys, Wade and Webber, are a busy family. They enjoy traveling to warmer climates, conquering escape rooms, catching major league baseball games across the United States, and going to theater productions. Dr. Brooks spends the vast majority of his time away from the college coaching youth sports for various community organizations. When he is away from campus and isn’t coaching, he likes to golf and catch the occasional water slide.   

Specializations: Dean of Students Office

Amanda Tumbarello she/her

Associate Director of Residential Life

• Phone: 309-794-2686
• Email: amandatumbarello@augustana.edu
• Office: Residential Life, Andreen Hall

Specializations: Residential Life

M. Wolff they/them

Associate Professor of Religion

• Phone: 309-794-7633
• Email: mwolff@augustana.edu
• Office: Old Main 003

Dr. Wolff teaches "Race, Ethnicity, & Religion," "Sexual Ethics," "Religion & Film," "Senior Capstone," "Christian Theology," and "Christian Ethics." South African-born, and U.S.-raised, Dr. Wolff was a first-generation college student.

Wolff was a 2016-2017 American Association of University Women dissertation fellow and completed a Ph.D. in Christian theology and ethics, certificate in College Teaching, and certificate in Feminist Studies at Duke University in 2017.

They were selected for the Wabash Center's 2021-22 Teaching and Learning Workshop for Early Career Religion Faculty Teaching Undergraduates.

Duke University Press published Body Problems: What Intersex Priest Sally Gross Teaches Us About Embodiment, Justice, and Belonging.

Scholarly publications

Guest editor with David Rubin and Amanda Swarr of "The Intersex Issue," special issue for Transgender Studies Quarterly.

Round table response to Joan Scott’s On the Judgment of History. Political Theology 23, No. 5, 498-505. DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2022.2083835

"Companion Sex Robots: Racialized Household Economics" Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 2021, Vol. 37, No. 2, 43-64 DOI:10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.04.

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza New Scholars Award *

“A Diptych Reading of Christ’s Transfiguration: Trans and Intersex Aesthetics Reveal Baptismal Identity,” Theology & Sexuality, 2019, Vol. 25, No. 1-2, pp. 1-12 DOI: 10.1080/13558358.2019.1636173.

“Karl Barth’s Christology and Jan Christian Smuts’ Human Rights Rhetoric,” Stellenbosch Theological Journal, December Vol. 5, No. 1.

“Madonna and Child of Soweto: Black Life Beyond Apartheid and Democracy,” Political Theology, 2018, Vol 19, Issue 7, pp. 572-592 DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2018.1450468.

One of six articles over the past two decades on race and political theology selected to be made free and open access 2020

Teaching and mentoring

Students Cece Vu and Thao Chu turned their class project into a book that has been published "Womanist Dictionary: Womanism as a Second Language" (Excellence in Liberal Arts Award, presented at National Women's Studies Association annual conference 2021).

Dr. Wolff co-authored an article with undergraduate Aviana Zahara on the ethics of gender selection.

"Moonlight" (Mary Wollstonecraft first place)

Sports (Mary Wollstonecraft honorable mention short analytical essay award)

Environmentalism (Mary Wollstonecraft second place short analytical essay award)

Assault (Audre Lorde Writing Prize)

Public scholarship

“Trans Embodiment Beyond Entrapment, or, an Invitation to Cultivate Compassionate Curiosity,” Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, invited contributor to series on “Embodied Teaching”

Co-authored with Stacy Williams, “Trauma Informed Pedagogy Begins with Educators,” Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, invited contributor to series on “Embodied Teaching”

Editor for Linn Tonstad’s Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics, Syndicate symposium

Editor for Sara Ahmed’s Living a Feminist Life, Syndicate symposium

“Ain’t She A Woman? Laverne, Caitlyn, & Christian Theology,” Cosmologics, Science, Religion, and Culture program at Harvard Divinity School, Vol. 2, No. 4, Winter

Service

Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies working board member

Center for the Study of Judaism and Jewish Culture co-director

The Project of the Quad Cities, member of the board of directors

American Academy of Religion, Religion and Disability Studies Unit, steering committee member

American Academy of Religion, Queer and Trans Studies in Religion Unit , steering committee member

Former American Academy of Religion, Lesbian-Feminisms and Religion Group, co-chair

Works in progress

"Cruising Decolonial Utopias: AI Benefits and Threats, Real versus Imagined,” article contribution to Yale Divinity School conference special issue, Modern Theology

Queer Communities in the Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities, co-authored with geographer Christopher Strunk