Women's Studies Program Faculty

Full-Time Faculty: Comella | Helmbold | Revilla | Roth-Johnson

Part-Time Faculty: Bowles | Duncan |  Hall-Patton | Hernquist | Hughes | Jackson | Juneau |  Sanford | Wax | Zisch

Lynn Comella, PhD, Assistant Professor, Undergraduate Advisor 702-895-5451 lynn.comella@unlv CBC B412

Dr. Lynn Comella earned her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, her M.A. in Gender Studies and Feminist Theory from the New School for Social Research, and her B.A. (Highest Distinction) in Psychology, with minors in Anthropology and Women's Studies, from Penn State University. Her research and teaching interests include media and popular culture, gender and consumer culture, sexuality studies, and ethnographic research.

Anita Tijerina Revilla, PhD Associate Professor, Director 895-1525 anita.revilla@unlv CBC B411

Danielle Roth-Johnson, PhD Visiting Assistant Professor 895-1024 Danielle.Roth-Johnson@unlv CBC B419

A Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Women's Studies, Danielle Roth-Johnson received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and has taught at Penn State and the University of Texas-Arlington. Her early research centered on sociolinguistic analyses of the French language, with a particular focus on the works of Maryse Conde, Violette Leduc and Alexandra David-Neel. At present, her research and teaching interests are primarily centered upon analyses of the impact of public and environmental policies on women's health, the written narratives of girls and women with disabilities, and the activism of women in environmental justice movements around the world. Her most recent publications include "Environments and Mothering" in The Encyclopedia of Motherhood (Andrea O'Reilly and Geoffrey J. Golson, Eds.; Sage Publications; forthcoming Spring, 2010); "The Administrative Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Nevada School Districts, 1996-2004," (Journal of Nevada Public Health Association, 2008); "Autism and Special Education in Mexico" (Global Health Governance, 2, no. 1 (2008): http://www.ghgj.org/Volume II Issue 1.htm); and "The Effects of Education on Fertility in Colombia and Peru," (Global Health Governance 1, no. 2 (2007): http://www.ghgj.org/Volume I, Issue 2.htm). Recently accepted conference papers include "Mercury Moms, Autism Spectrum Disorders and Environmental Activism: A Discoursal Analysis of the Media Coverage" (for the 2009 conference "Mothering and the Environment: The Natural, The Social, and The Built," The Association for Research Mothering, York University, Toronto, Fall, 2009) and "Abortion Attitudes and Public Opinion in Mexico." (at the annual conference of the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies, Los Angeles, Fall 2009). An aspiring novelist and writer, she is currently working on her second novel, a work that focuses on the intersection of gender and environmental justice issues in Nevada. Visit her website at http://faculty.unlv.edu/droth-johnson/.

Lois Rita Helmbold, PhD, department chair 2002-2011, retired June 30, 2011. e-mail for UNLV people: lois.helmbold@unlv; e-mail for the rest of the world: helmbold@unlv.nevada Thanks!

Dr. Helmbold (Ph.D. American History, Stanford University, 1982) is a Fulbright Senior Lecturer at Ege Universitesi in Izmir, Turkey, in the Department of American Culture and Literature for the 2011 - 2012 academic year. As a member of the founding generation of women's studies, she invented the first women's studies course at San Jose State University in 1970, where she worked with students and faculty to establish a women's studies program. Her primary research interests include the simultaneity of gender, race, and class in women's lives; women's work; working class women; and the Great Depression. Making Choices, Making Do: Survival Strategies of Black and White Working Class Women during the Great Depression is forthcoming. She has published widely in historical and women's studies interdisciplinary journals, including Labor History, Feminist Studies, Frontiers, Reviews in American History, Women's Review of Books, and in the award-winning Black Women in America: a Historical Encyclopedia. Among her honors are Phi Beta Kappa, Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Woodrow Wilson Teaching Intern, Rockefeller Humanist in Residence, and Fulbright Senior Lecturer in Japan. In her spare time she is an activist, a martial artist, and a quilter.

Erika Bowles, MA, Discussion Leader erika.bowles@unlv

Erika Bowles is a part time instructor in the Women's Studies Program at UNLV. She earned her B.A. in Sociology from Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. Erika received her Masters Degree in Counselor Education, Student Personnel in Higher Education from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Erika works as a Residential Life Coordinator in Campus Housing at UNLV and works with the Diversity Living Learning Community which partners with the Women's Studies Program and the Student Diversity Programs and Services.

Janis Duncan, LCSW Part-Time Instructor duncanj4@unlv.nevada CBC B409

Janis Duncan was honored in 2007 with the "Outstanding Teaching by Part-Time Faculty" award. She holds a masters degree, MSW in Social Work with a Clinical/Psychiatric concentration, from Tulane University and has done postgraduate course work at Harvard University. She is a professional Psychotherapist with 35 years of experience and maintains a private practice. Prior to moving to Las Vegas, she taught at Rutgers University, Stockton College in New Jersey, and was an Internship Supervisor for the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Social Work. One of Janis's specialty areas is adoption reform. She has been an active keynote speaker, consultant and seminar facilitator for professional adoption organizations/conferences across the U.S. She is currently working on a book and documentary film titled "Hiding Places," which researches historical to current perspectives whereby women have been forced into concealment. Her professional paper titled "The Secrecy of American Unwed Mothers and Maternity Homes" was presented in Belgium in 1995 at the Tri-Country (Belgium, Germany, and The Netherlands) annual Adoption Conference. Janis currently teaches WMST 113 classes and has served as a faculty advisor for the former all-women's dormitory floor known as W.I.L.L. "Women Involved in Leadership and Learning" at UNLV. Having a passion for acting, Janis was the Campaign Organizer, Director/Producer/Actor for the UNLV 2008 student production of "The Vagina Monologues" and has performed in the Play since 2004. She represented UNLV WMST when attending the 2008 V-Day Tenth Anniversary in New Orleans as a Katrina Warrior.

Colleen Hall-Patton, PhD, Part-Time Instructor hallpatt@unlv.nevada CBC B409

Colleen Hall-Patton teaches WMST 113 for Women's Studies and several classes in Sociology for UNLV and the University of Phoenix. Her B.A. and M.A. are in Anthropology from UCLA and her PhD is in Sociology from UNLV (2004). Her area of study is using quilting to understand the changes in women's lives after World War II. Her most recent publication is about Jean Ray Laury, an influential designer and quilter active since the early 1960s (Uncoverings 2005, Journal of the American Quilt Study Group). She is a member of Celebrity City Chorus, which just placed 8th at Sweet Adeline's International competition.

Angela Hernquist, PhD, Part-Time Instructor angela.hernquist@unlv CBC B410

Dr. Angela Hernquist teaches Gender, Race, and Class for the Women's Studies Program at UNLV and graduate courses in Leadership Development, Strategic Decision Making, and Organizational Leadership of Multicultural Change for the Higher Ed Leadership Department. She has previously taught undergraduate courses in Business and Management. Hernquist researches and publishes on various topics with an emphasis on leadership, and most notably, women in leadership. She is a Certified Practitioner for the Connective Leadership Institute and provides consulting services and training on diversity and dynamic leadership for the 21st century. Hernquist received a B.S. in Business with an emphasis in Organization Design and Development from the University of Colorado Boulder and an M.B.A. from the University of Denver, Daniels School of Business prior to completing a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She has also attended the University of Bordeaux, France and the London School of Economics.

Sharon Hughes, MBA, Part-Time Instructor sharon.hughes@unlv CBC B410

Sharon Hughes has degrees in Behavioral Science and Business Administration (MBA) from California State University, Dominguez Hills and is completing her doctorate in Educational Administration (ABD) at Pepperdine University. She has more than 25 years of educational administrative and senior level nonprofit management experience and has spent the majority of her life working with marginalized populations. She has certificates in Community College instruction and Adult Learning. She has numerous commendations for her community work from City, State and National organizations. She is President of Access One Grant Writing, a grant writing and research organization (www.accessonegrants.biz). She is also a Federal Grant Reviewer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and has been an adjunct professor for the University of Phoenix for 14 years.

Crystal Jackson, PhD Candidate, Discussion Leader and Research Assistant cajackso@unlv.nevada CBC B421

Crystal Jackson earned her M.A. in Sociology (2007) and Women's Studies Graduate Certificate (2009) from UNLV. She is currently working on a Ph.D. in sociology, specializing in how inequalities around gender and sexuality are both reproduced and challenged within law, politics, and economy. She does so by studying sexual commerce across a variety of legal and illegal industries, including an annual professional conference for pornographers, strip club laws, and rural legal brothels in Nevada. Jackson's academic life and activist life are closely linked, and she advocates for sex workers' rights, LGBTQI rights, im/migrant rights, and women's rights. She believes scholarship is a path toward social change.

Gayle Juneau, PhD, Part-Time Instructor gayle.juneau@unlv FDH 733

Gayle Juneau is the executive director of academic advising at UNLV. She grew up in Louisiana and lived in Florida for 10 years prior to moving to Las Vegas in fall 2006. Her doctoral degree is in the diversity studies and her interests in this realm include authoring social responsibility, desegregation of public schools in the state of Florida, and writing anti-hegemonic standpoints. Gayle is involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada, St. Jude's Ranch for Children, and is a diversity educator for the environmental education certification program sponsored by the Public Lands Institute.

Kimberly Sanford, Discussion Leader sanfor25@unlv.nevada CBC B421

Kimberly Sanford is a part-time instructor in the Women's Studies Program and is currently working on her Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies. She earned her B.A. in History from Grand Valley State University in Michigan.

Dustin Wax, PhD Candidate, Part-Time Instructor dustin.wax@unlv CBC B409

Dustin M. Wax is a PhD candidate in Cultural Anthropology at the New School for Social Research in New York City, where he is completing a dissertation on action anthropology and the development of an engaged anthropological practice. He currently teaches anthropology at the Community College of Southern Nevada and Women's Studies at UNLV. His research interests include the history of anthropology, Cold War history, Native American cultures, gender roles and sexual identity, and the representation of culture and identity in scientific literature, museums, and the mass media. He has also been active in attempts to use the Internet to improve and broaden research, education, and academics' involvement with their society, and is a founding contributor to the anthropology site Savage Minds (www.savageminds.org).

Rebecca Zisch, MA, Part-Time Instructor rebecca.zisch@unlv CBC B409

Rebecca Zisch is a part-time faculty member in the Women's Studies Program of UNLV and a freelance writer. She is best known in the Las Vegas community as the regular popular culture commentator for Nevada Public Radio and as the author of the "Cheap Eats" column in City Life magazine. She holds a bachelors degree with honors from Willamette University and a masters degree in Popular Culture from Bowling Green State University. Her academic work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the Journal of Popular Film and Television. She also regularly presents original research at national conferences on such topics as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and Mr. Rogers. Prior to her current professional incarnation, Ms. Zisch was a curator for a variety of museums, including the American Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland and the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas. Rebecca is also known as a jazz singer and stage performer.