WAUKESHA – Three faculty members, and three instructional and one administrative staff member at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha were promoted June 8. Faculty promotions were approved by the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. Staff promotions were recommended by the campus and accepted by UW Colleges/UW Extension Chancellor David Wilson.

Craig Hurst, Waukesha, was promoted to full professor, and Jeff Noska and Barbara Reinhart, Dousman, advanced to the rank of associate professor and gained tenure. Richard Northouse, Mequon; Seth Rankin, West Bend; and Nancy Van Brunt, Pewaukee, all moved up to senior lecturers. Susan Adams, Waukesha, now the student services coordinator, previously had been an associate of that rank.

Both an accomplished trumpet player and a music teacher, Craig Hurst came to Waukesha in 1993 as he was finishing his Ph.D. in music education at the University of North Texas, Denton.  In addition to teaching, he leads the instrumental music program as director of bands at UW-Waukesha.  Hurst was awarded Kaplan Fellowships in 1998 and 2005 for his contributions to innovative instruction. Harboring a special interest in jazz and rock and roll, he developed popular courses on the History of Rock and Roll and Jazz in Literature, the latter with associate dean and associate professor of English Phil Zweifel. As an outgrowth of that, each spring they conduct a Jazz & Poetry Jam.  With theater director and associate professor of Communications & Theatre Arts Mark Lococo, he developed another in Jazz in Film. He also has been active locally and internationally in trumpet performance, having appeared as solo trumpet with the Waukesha Area Symphonic Band, the Waukesha Park and Rec Band, the Concord Chamber Orchestra, the Milwaukee Stadtpfeifer, The Jazz Express Big Band, the Wisconsin Wind Orchestra and the Milwaukee Police Band. He has held leadership positions on the boards of the Waukesha Area Symphonic Band and Waukesha Arts Alliance. Hurst graduated from Boise State University, Idaho, and earned a master’s in music education from North Texas State University, Denton.

A nationally-recognized, award-winning ceramicist, Jeff Noska made his first mark on UW-Waukesha by directing the construction of a huge, Anagama-type kiln, which was built by an art class at the UW-Waukesha Field Station in the summer of 1996.  He began teaching at the campus in 1998, joined the faculty in 2001, and now heads the ceramics and sculpture programs. He continues to do ceramics work at his Composite Clay Studio in Dousman as well. In 2002 he oversaw the building of a smaller wood-fired kiln, also located at the Field Station, and in 2003 received a Kaplan Fellowship in recognition of his contributions. Noska graduated from UW-Superior,where he studied ceramics and woodworking, and earned an MFA in sculpture and ceramics from the University of Notre Dame.

An artist who draws, paints, and works with clay, Barbara Reinhart first started teaching at UW-Waukesha in 1996 and became a member of the faculty in 2001. As an undergraduate, she studied art and French at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, IA, did graduate study in painting and drawing at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, and completed an MFA at UW-Milwaukee. Her recent work includes ceramics created collaboratively with colleague and husband Noska. She is curator for the Fine Arts Center Gallery on campus and has mentored many students. She developed a course in Drawing and Writing Poetry in Response to Nature with Margaret Rozga, an English professor, as well as another interdisciplinary course in Women in Art. An effective, innovative, and dedicated teacher, she was awarded a Kaplan Fellowship in 2006.

Richard Northouse began teaching math at UW-Waukesha in 2005. A photographer out of high school, he was encouraged by a prize-winning scientist to get on the other side of the lens. He began his studies at Milwaukee Area Technical College, completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree at UW-Madison, and obtained another master’s and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science at Purdue University, IN. After a stint with NASA as a graduate student visiting scientist, he joined the engineering faculty of UW-Milwaukee. He started a computer business and parlayed that into several others – from agricultural software to security systems – then retired to building a house. The lure of teaching brought him back to the classroom. Last semester he organized a panel of professionals to speak to students about the value of math in their various careers.

While he’s only been at UW-Waukesha steadily since 2002, Seth Rankin has taught in the UW Colleges (Washington County, Fox Valley, Rock County, Baraboo, and Waukesha in 1995) since 1990 and before that at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, and at UW-Milwaukee as a graduate student. He also has done research, some at educational institutions and some for corporations, largely performing population studies. He’s published a number of reports on his findings. He holds a BA and an MA in geography from UW-Milwaukee and did four years of study at the University of Saskatchewan.

Nancy Van Brunt began her teaching career with the UW Colleges in 1980 at UW-Fond du Lac, also teaching at UW-Fox Valley and UW-Washington County before settling in at UW-Waukesha in 1999. She has brought the hand bells out of retirement and led a hand bell choir each semester since 2003. In addition, she has been active in her community, having served as choir director and director of music ministries for churches in Waupun and Beaver Dam, respectively, and as director and conductor of the Beaver Dam Oratorio Society, a community chorus of 40 voices. She taught voice lessons at Ripon College as well as piano and voice for all ages out of her private studio. A long-time member and soloist with the Green Lake Festival Choir, she also performs with the Master Singers of Milwaukee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music theory, a master’s in choral conducting, and a doctorate in music theory with a minor in voice performance, all from UW-Madison.

Susan Adams has been working in student services for the past 15 years, the first 9 of those at UW-Washington County and the last six at UW-Waukesha. She is in charge of recruiting students, both high school and non-traditional aged, and advising those in the UW-Madison Connections program. She had been a non-traditional student herself when she enrolled at UW-Washington County and began working there in 1992. After earning her Associate of Arts & Science degree at that campus, she completed a BA in behavioral science and law at UW-Madison and, in 2007, a master’s in management at the University of Phoenix.

UW-Waukesha has the largest enrollment among the 13 freshman-sophomore University of Wisconsin Colleges campuses. For information about programs, admission, or financial aid, contact the Student Services office at 888-2UW-WAUK (888-289-9285) or visit the Web at www.waukesha.uwc.edu.

###