Palmer College of Professional Studies

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BA, Mary Baldwin College; MBA, West Virginia Graduate College

Catherine Ferris McPherson is an associate professor of business administration and marketing communication for Mary Baldwin University, where she teaches and advises students in MBU Online at the Richmond Regional Center. She teaches courses in marketing principles and strategy, advertising, integrated marketing communication, business strategy, and the senior thesis. She joined the faculty in 1993.

McPherson has 25 years experience in all aspects of marketing and is a professionally trained focus group moderator, specializing in the areas of retail and service marketing. As a business consultant, she has worked closely with companies such as Luck Stone, Dupont Fibers Federal Credit Union, World Access, and Goodwill Industries of Central Virginia in the area of brand strategy and development, as well as provided customer service and marketing training for individual retailers and shopping center developers, including Forest City Enterprises and Donohoe O’Brien. She conducts workshops and speaks frequently on the topic of building brands from within the organization, and branding as a business philosophy.

McPherson is a co-founder of Dress for Success Richmond, a non-profit organization that helps low-income women successfully prepare to enter the job market through self-esteem enhancement and professional skill development.

She holds a MBA from Marshall University (formerly WV Graduate College) and a BA in business/economics from Mary Baldwin University, and has the Certified Marketing Director designation through the International Council of Shopping Centers. McPherson is active in the Richmond chapter of the American Marketing Association, and is a past president of the organization.

BA, University of Montana; MSW, University of Vermont

Mary Clay Thomas is the social work program director and an associate professor of social work at Mary Baldwin. She relocated to Staunton, Va in 2008 after spending twelve years studying, practicing and teaching social work in Burlington, Vermont. A graduate of Saint Timothy’s School, an all female high school in Stevenson, Maryland, she went on to earn her BA from the University of Montana in English and Psychology and an MSW from the University of Vermont where she was a recipient of the Vermont Title-IVE Child Welfare Scholarship.

Before coming to Mary Baldwin, Mary Clay taught social work courses, supervised field work, and advised the social work club at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont. She practiced as a child protection social worker, school social worker, and worked with community programs supporting the independence of elders while in Vermont.

At Mary Baldwin, Mary Clay serves as the faculty adviser to the Social Work Club and oversees the international social work field placement in Honduras. She is an active community member, recently serving as Board Chair, at the United Way of Greater Augusta. She is the mother of two girls and is an avid runner, hiker, gardener and loves traveling to new places.

BA, Mary Baldwin University; MA, PhD, James Madison University

Dr. Donovan D. Branche earned a BA in Healthcare Administration from Mary Baldwin University, and an MPA with a concentration in Healthcare Administration and Ph.D. in Strategic Leadership Studies from James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.   She has worked for many years with healthcare facilities, local government and nonprofit organizations.  Dr. Branche teaches a variety of courses including Introduction to Healthcare Administration, Healthcare policy, politics and law, Healthcare Research Methods and Healthcare Ethics.

She has spoken at several conferences including the Lemon Symposium at the College of William and Mary and The Western Social Science Association in Albuquerque, NM.

Dr. Branche has a variety of academic interests including healthcare disparities and implications of the Affordable Care Act on healthcare disparities, leadership diversity and leader emergence, feminist studies and black feminist standpoint theory. Dr. Branche is committed to molding future women leaders and having been an MBU Online student is committed to being involved with adult learners.

After graduating from the University of Virginia with a degree in Psychology, she began her professional career as a foster care social worker for the city of Charlottesville. She then moved to the Harrisonburg community, where for over ten years, she provided community based mental health services, such as intensive in-home and outpatient therapy, with a focus on children and adolescents. During this time she received a Masters in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University and gained her clinical licensure in the state of Virginia (LCSW). In 2019, she graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Doctorate in Clinical Social Work Practice and Leadership. In 2017, she transitioned to Harrisonburg City Public Schools where she served as a mental health counselor at Harrisonburg High School for five years. During this time, she developed a passion for the concept of taking mental health services to the place where children spend the majority of their time: school. Lora is proud to be part of the cutting edge movement to integrate mental health into schools and is thrilled to see the benefits this service offers students and families. For several years she served as an adjunct professor for both JMU and MBU teaching classes in both Psychology and Social Work. She transitioned to MBU full time in the fall of 2022 to serve as professor and Field Director for the Social Work Department. She is thrilled to be part of creating a new generation of mental health professionals who are well trained and prepared for the realities of the profession. Outside of work, she has three sons and one daughter who keep she and her  husband very busy! They love spending time outdoors together and finding new adventures in the beautiful Valley. 

BM and BA, Handong Global University; MBA, Korea University/University of Florida; PhD, James Madison University

Sungil “Calvin” Chung is an assistant professor of business at Mary Baldwin University. He was born and raised in South Korea until his family moved to the Philippines when he was a middle school student. Since then, he was able to explore different cultures from various countries and visit more than 38 countries and 100 cities all around the world.

He has completed his doctoral program at James Madison University (JMU) from the School of Strategic Leadership Studies. The title of Calvin’s dissertation is “Cultural Influences on Nonprofit Servant Leadership”. He also holds an MBA from Korea University and a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School prior to his Ph.D program. He further holds a bachelor’s degree in both Business Management and English from Handong Global University.

For his career, Calvin had various sectoral experiences (military, government and nonprofit). His research interest includes leadership theories and values, nonprofit leadership/management, cross-cultural leadership/management, management/international management and social entrepreneurship. He has presented papers at several conferences in various topics. He is a member of International Leadership Association and Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action. He had a career in the Korean government agency involved in a national project called Free Economic Zone. As a project manager, he has induced foreign direct investors for the projects. He also served in the military for two and half years as a medic in the U.S. military hospital based in the Korean peninsula. Influenced by the nonprofit organization his family founded in the Philippines, Calvin was involved in many nonprofit works in the Philippines, Korea and the United States.

BA, Baylor University; MA, Corpus Christi State University; PhD, University of Missouri-Columbia

Associate Professor of Marketing Communication Bruce Dorries teaches Public Speaking, Mass Communication, Media Writing, Principles of Advertising, and Senior Seminar in Marketing Communication. Additionally, he teaches Civic Leadership and  Social Entrepreneurism. His column and photos appear weekly in the Staunton News Leader. Additionally, Dorries connects MBU students with partners for learning in Haiti through study abroad.

Dr. Dorries earned his BA in Journalism and History at Baylor University, his MA from The University of Corpus Christi State University (now Texas A&M at Corpus Christi), and his Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Missouri. For six years he worked as a writer and photo journalist in the public relations and newspaper industries.Previously, he taught at the University of Missouri, Colorado State, Winona State and Radford.

His interests include: working with local environmental groups and managing a wildlife preserve/family farm in Augusta County.

BS, Virginia Commonwealth University; MBA, Emory University

Whether you’re analyzing complicated data from scientific observations, trying to figure out what social media campaign is most effective in selling your product, or just trying to calculate your next race pace or monthly budget, numbers are part of everyday life. As director of the Q Center, Janet Ewing has a goal to make every member of the MBU community comfortable thinking with numbers.

Dr. Paluszak spent 20 years of her teaching career in PK-12 education, mentoring new teachers, and supporting students with disabilities of all ages. She has led IEP teams as well as participated in these meetings as a parent and as an advocate.
She is a mom to three children, one doodle, and a cat and loves to spend time outdoors, especially in the Fall and Winter months.
Her undergraduate degree is in English, with graduate work concentrating on Special Education and Educational Leadership. Her doctoral work focused on increasing inclusive access for secondary students with low incidence disabilities in a public high school.
Dr. Paluszak is beginning her third year at Mary Baldwin University. Her first two years were spent as the Field Placement Coordinator, working with practicum students and Student Teachers and as an adjunct faculty member. She is now supporting students and colleagues as the Program Director of the Teacher Education Program and continues to work with students in special education and leadership coursework.

While pursuing secondary education (social studies) as an undergraduate at the College of William & Mary, Dr. Potter was fortunate enough to student teach in a school that placed high value on collaboration and inclusive practices. She was drawn to continue her education at William & Mary through a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction (special education). She completed the program and accepted a position as a special education teacher in the Shenandoah Valley. During that time, Dr. Potter found herself called to explore coursework in leadership and supervision, moving into administrative and supervisory roles at both the central office and school level. Upon completion of her doctorate from the University of Virginia, she accepted a position as a principal of a juvenile detention facility in central Virginia. She began to teach part-time for Mary Baldwin University as well, moving into a full-time administrative role in 2011. In 2013, Dr. Potter became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and is licensed by the Virginia Board of Medicine to practice in that field.

Dr. Potter is a passionate advocate for public education, and enjoys examining how our College of Education effectively shapes the next generation of inquiry-minded practitioners. She has a particular interest in preparing students to work with diverse populations of varying experiences, abilities, and interests. Her research and professional development activities center mostly around topics related to Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis.

Dr. Stephanie Sebolt is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Mary Baldwin University. She holds a BA from Mary Washington College with certification to teach NK-4. She received her MA and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Curriculum and Instruction with certification to teach French K-12 and English as a Second Language K-12.

Dr. Sebolt began her teaching career as an English as a Second Language teacher in Roanoke County in 1993. She was named Roanoke County Teacher of the Year for 2014-15. In addition, she has done adjunct teaching for the University of Mary Washington, Roanoke College, and Virginia Tech in their education programs.

Dr. Sebolt is actively involved in TESOL and VATESOL, professional organizations for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. She enjoys traveling, reading, hiking, wildlife rescue, and spending time with her family. She lives in Salem, VA with her husband, three sons, a dog, and two cats. Research interests include second language acquisition, teaching diverse students, and promising practices in teacher education.

BA, Eastern Michigan University; MBA, Spring Arbor University; PhD, Lawrence Technological University. View video interview

Joe Sprangel is the founding dean of the College of Business & Professional Studies beginning in July of 2016 at Mary Baldwin University (MBU). He leads the undergraduate departments of business, criminal justice, healthcare administration and social work. Joe is also the architect of the Master of Business Administration degree that is part of the Susan Nolan Palmer Graduate Programs.

Previous to this position as dean he was an associate professor of business administration and department co-chair at MBU. His teaching focus was on sustainable development or “triple bottom line” business management with course offerings of Business Senior Seminar, Management Principles, Perspectives in Sustainability, Project Management, and Strategy & Sustainability in Business Decisions. His research areas of interest are business adoption and entrepreneurial startups focused on sustainable development practices. He placed additional emphasis on B Corps and benefit corporations that are part of the emerging for-benefit or fourth sector.

Before joining the Mary Baldwin faculty in 2010, Sprangel taught at Ithaca College for three years, where his classes included Operations Management in the undergraduate program and Decision Support Analysis and Sustainable Practices in Operations & Technology in the MBA program. His classroom experience also included adjunct work at Spring Arbor University and Lawrence Technological University teaching Change Management, Operations Management, Organizational Behavior, and Strategy courses in the undergraduate and graduate programs.

He brings 28 years of industry experience to the position. This included work in machine build and repair, machine design, manufacturing engineering, and plant and engineering management. This led to his interest in developing courses and programs with emphasis on learning while doing with assignments and projects that replicate the work done in industry.

Sprangel earned a Doctorate of Business Administration degree from Lawrence Technological University. His dissertation research was “A Study of the Direct and Mediational Effects of the SOAR™ Framework, Trust, and Environmental Management Systems on Chemical Management Services Supplier Performance at Haas TCM Group”. He also holds degrees of Master of Business Administration from Spring Arbor University, Bachelor of Business Administration from Eastern Michigan University, and an Associate Degree in Mechanical Engineering Technology.

Carla Van Devander holds a bachelors degree in history from George Mason University and received her teaching endorsement from Mary Baldwin University.  She also has an MEd in Curriculum and Instruction and Instructional Strategist with a focus on “at-risk” populations from Eastern Mennonite University.  After spending several months teaching English to Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Czech students in Hastings, England, she spent eight years teaching social studies, reading, and writing in Augusta County.  From there, she became a Differentiation Specialist for Staunton City Schools, working at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.  She has been a teaching partner for a graduate level differentiation course for Mary Baldwin for several years.  She recently began teaching undergraduate courses on exceptionalities and assessment, advising students seeking a secondary endorsement, supervising student teachers, and serving as the coordinator for the Education Leaders Living Learning Community.  She is a passionate supporter of public education and enjoys collaborating with other educators to ensure all students grow and experience success.  She believes in “giving back” and is actively involved in a number of civic groups that are working to improve the local community. She enjoys reading, traveling, motorcycle riding, and spending time with friends and family.