Residency Faculty
Elaine Handley is a co-coordinator of the Adirondack Environmental Studies Residency and a mentor at the Saratoga location. Her field is American literature and writing, and she is an award winning poet whose work is informed by the natural world. She is currently completing an historical novel, Deep River, which is about the Underground Railroad. Elaine teaches a range of literature and writing courses including War Stories: Reading and Writing about the Impact of War, The Art of Memoir, The Research Paper and Introduction to Peace.
Nikki Shrimpton joined Empire State College in 1998 as a faculty member in science, math and technology at our Syracuse location. After spending ten years as a faculty member she has since held a series of administrative roles at the college, including Associate Dean and then Dean of the Central New York Center. In 2015 she was appointed Dean of the School for Undergraduate Studies, based in Saratoga Springs, New York. Since 2018 she has held her current position as Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs in the Office of Academic Administration. As Interim Vice Provost for Academic Affairs she has oversight of the undergraduate programs in the college, as well as professional development around teaching and mentoring and academic oversight of residency offerings across the college.
Shrimpton has also been active in service activities outside the college, spending six years as board member/vice president for the Baltimore Woods Center for Nature Education (2009-2014), and chairing the board of the SUNY North Country Consortium for the past four years.
Dr. Shrimpton was awarded a BS in Forestry from North Carolina State University and a PhD in Forest Management from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Prior to joining the college she was Principal Coordinator for the Edinburgh Center for Tropical Forests. She continues to teach in her field, mentors Empire State College students, and pursues her academic and personal interests in environmental science, citizen science, and sustainability
Kevin Woo is a co-coordinator of the Adirondack Environmental Studies Residency and a mentor at the Manhattan location. He has a Ph.D. in Animal Behavior from Macquarie University, M.Sc. in Ecology and Biodiversity from Victoria University of Wellington, and a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Psychology/Biology from Southampton College of Long Island University. Woo's teaching and research interests overlap in the areas of animal behavior, ecology and conservation. Moreover, he has been fortuitous to investigate questions in animal communication, sexual selection and learning in a number of model species, such as lizards, fish, cuttlefish, insects, canids, birds and marine mammals. Throughout the year, he works with captive populations of dingos and helmeted guinea fowl, and in the winter, he is out along the New York City foreshores to observe seals in an urbanized environment. Through the day, he dreams to be out surfing; however, he also has a low threshold for cold water.
Terry Boddie is a part-time mentor in the Humanities and Arts division. He received his B.F.A from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and an M.F.A. from Hunter College. He teaches a range of studies on the history and practice of photography at the Metropolitan location and collegewide. His specific areas of academic interests are documentary photography, the intersection of photography, history, memory and diaspora. His own work as a photographer and multi-disciplinary artist explores the historical and contemporary aspects of memory, migration and globalization. The images often blur the distinctions between photography, drawing and painting.
Albert Castelo is a mentor in the area of Cultural Studies at the Metropolitan New York location. He has a B.A. in Philosophy and special honors curriculum from Hunter College, and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His academic interests cross disciplines, and he currently teaches courses in philosophy, literature, music and baseball.
Peggy Lynn is a part-time mentor at the college's Auburn location. She has been a professional folksinger/songwriter for 25 years. Peggy has a B.S. from SUNY Empire State College in women’s studies and an M.A. in history from SUNY Oswego. She offers studies in U.S. and Women’s History, Music across Cultures, Women in the Workplace and Feminist Theory. Peggy lived in the Adirondacks for 15 years and was dubbed “the voice of the mountains” by poet Maurice Kenny. She is especially enthusiastic about teaching Adirondack Oral Tradition and Adirondack History because she believes that exploring the traditions and history of the mountains gives us a deep sense of this unique wilderness. Peggy enjoys being "over the Blue Line," is an avid hiker and paddler and has a high threshold for cold water.
Drew Monthie has been gardening, growing plants and studying plants for over three decades. He is a graduate of SUNY Cobleskill with an A.A.S. in Plant Science/Horticulture and a graduate of SUNY Empire State College with a B.S. in Ecology/Environmental Education and a M.A. in Ethnobotany. He operates a consulting business in Queensbury, N.Y. specializing in native plant design and education and is also an adjunct professor for Empire State College.
Anamaria Ross
Duncan RyanMann earned a B.A. degree in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania with concentrations in industrial organization, public finance, and health economics. He has taught on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University and Williams College. Dr. RyanMann has also analyzed and managed health programs for the Washington State government. Dr. RyanMann has consulted with the World Bank and the Washington State government on economic and policy issues in health care and with the U.S. Department of Education on the higher education market. He has consulted with the New York State Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform on applications of cost benefit analysis. Dr. RyanMann has a number of professional publications, including articles in The American Economic Review, The Rand Journal of Economics, The Journal of Higher Education, and The International Journal of Industrial Organization. His research interests are in the area of applied economics including health care economics and policy and environmental economics and policy. Dr. RyanMann's teaching interests include health care economics and policy, environmental and ecological economics and policy, as well as core courses in microeconomics.
Alan Stankiewicz has a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute and an M.A. from Central Connecticut State University. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He currently owns a small textile design company and is a part-time mentor with SUNY Empire State College in Syracuse. His current visual work in photography bridges the environment with geography, specifically the Adirondacks, Maine and East Africa.