Eight Lee faculty selected to receive tenure
Pictured here (from top left to bottom right) are Richard Albright, Matthew Fisher, Andrew Harnsberger, Mary Mathias-Dickerson, Brian Peterson, Randy Sheeks, Arlie Tagayuna and John Wykoff.
Graphic by Kimberly Sebring, photos courtesy of the Lee University Public Relations Office
Tenure has been awarded to eight faculty members following a Lee University Board of Director’s meeting in January 2017.
Richard Albright, Matthew Fisher, Andrew Harnsberger, Mary Mathias-Dickerson, Brian Peterson, Randy Sheeks, Arlie Tagayuna and John Wykoff will officially receive tenure in August 2017, according to a press release.
Fisher, an assistant professor of communication, has an extensive resume in the field of cinema and joined Lee’s Communication Arts department in 2011.
Several of the short films on which he has served as writer and director have won many awards and have been shown at various festivals around the world.
“It’s an honor to be affirmed in this way. The Lee family is all about excellence for the cause of Jesus, and I’m proud to be a part of it,” Fisher said.
Sheeks, an assistant professor of music, came to Lee’s School of Music in 2010 and has served 23 years in church music ministry. He received the Distinguished Musicianship Award from the Church of God in 2004 following sixteen years of service to the Metropolitan Church of God in Birmingham.
“I love teaching at Lee and the opportunity it provides me to interact with students,” Sheeks said. “The atmosphere at Lee is a great environment to teach about music and worship and I hope to teach here for a long time.”
Also among the recipients is Richard Albright, an assistant professor of psychology and director of the school counseling program. Albright is a certified bullying prevention specialist and a nationally-certified counselor through the American School Counselor Association.
Harnsberger serves as an assistant professor of percussion and joined Lee’s School of Music in 2012. He is in demand as a recitalist and clinician across the country and internationally, presenting clinics and masterclasses at as many as 40 universities per year.
Harnsberger has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Mathias-Dickerson, an assistant professor of art, relocated from Arizona to Lee University in 2011 to help launch the new art major.
Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums at local, national, and international levels, and she has conducted workshops and demonstrations around the world.
As a believer in cross-cultural experiences, Mathias-Dickerson created and coordinates the Atelier Neo Medici Semester Abroad program for Lee University art students interested in traditional drawing and painting techniques to study abroad with a master painter while working on their degrees.
Since joining Lee’s School of Religion in 2011, Peterson, an assistant professor of Old Testament, has taught many undergrad and master’s level courses in Hebrew and Old Testament.
Peterson also spends a portion of his summers involved with archaeology in Israel, where Lee students often join him for several weeks.
Tagayuna has worked as an assistant professor of sociology in Lee’s Department of Behavorial and Social Sciences since 2011. His research and teaching stands at the intersection of inequalities, crime, delinquency and punishment, race and ethnic relations, culture, disability, social stratification and community development.
Prior to Lee, Tagayuna started and coordinated the criminal justice program at New Mexico Highlands University. He also taught at University of Wisconsin-Madison, California State University–Monterey Bay and the University of Hawai‘i-Manoa.
Wykoff is an assistant professor of music theory and composition and joined Lee’s Department of Musicianship Studies in 2011. He has composed works for the Presidential Inauguration, solo piano, small ensemble, voice, choir, orchestra, and more.
Wykoff’s chamber music has been performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble, Cygnus, Second Instrumental Unit and the MIVOS Quartet. His sacred music, including choral works and congregational songs, is sung in churches across the U.S. and in Canada, according to the release.
News Editor Kimberly Sebring contributed to this story.
