Four new faces bring new energy and a diverse range of interests to the Pomona faculty.

The four new faculty members who joined the College this fall on continuing contracts differ widely in their individual talents and interests, but they share exceptional credentials and an interest in teaching undergraduates. Following are brief introductions.

Marcelle D. Christian
Assistant Professor of Psychology and Black Studies

Among the questions that fascinate Marcelle Christian are: What motivates people, what makes them act, and what is the relationship between therapists and patients that helps people get better and change their lives?

Her research has focused on minority mental health issues including coping with sickle cell disease and the impact of rape on women of color. Her current work explores how African American women form sexual identities and how this translates to mental and sexual health practices. "Historically," she explains, "black women's bodies have been used, sold and exploited, which is not necessarily the case for other groups of women. The legacy of slavery is still visible in media's representations of black women's bodies. My argument is that the self-image is shaped by these historical legacies."

Christian completed her M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, earning the department's thesis support grant and two Rackman Travel Grants to present papers at professional conferences. She received her B.A. in psychology and French from Vassar College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Eli Koenn-Bollinger
Instructor in Physical Education and Women's Soccer and Softball Coach

Sports have always been a part of Eli Koenn-Bollinger's life. She started playing soccer at seven and softball at age nine, and hasn't left either sport. As a member the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps softball team, she won First-Team All SCIAC three years and was named Team Rookie of the Year, Team MVP, and twice Team Golden Glove. As part of the CMS women's soccer team, she was also named First-Team All SCIAC and Third-Team All Region. She served as team captain in soccer for one of those years and in softball for two.

Koenn-Bollinger earned her B.A. in economics with a minor in Spanish from Scripps College. After working as an advocacy coordinator at the Women's Sports Foundation, Koenn-Bollinger became head coach of women's soccer and softball at Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois. In both 1999 and 2001 she was named the conference's Softball Coach of the Year. In 2001, her team's record was 25-18, the most wins the program had ever had in a season.

Michael O'Malley
Assistant Professor of Art and Art History

Michael O'Malley took his first ceramics class as an English major at Notre Dame. As he worked the clay, he realized "there was a whole different method of thinking that occurs when you're using your hands to create. On the basic level, you're involved in making meaning in the space between your hands and your mind."

After he finished his B.A. in English he headed to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota to teach English and some ceramics. "I was living on the Plains, and the spatial phenomenological quality of that environment couldn't be captured in words. I realized that I needed to move into materials, so I went back to college and started over," earning a B.F. A., magna cum laude, in sculpture from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University and an M.F.A. in sculpture from Stanford University.

O'Malley's work has been shown in galleries in California and Washington, as well as Maine, Ohio and Texas. He has taught at the University of Washington and Stanford. As an art professor, he says, "you use everything you know to cull through and clarify students' intentions, and you never know what's going to happen."

Peter G. Thielke
Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Peter Thielke always enjoyed teaching but his research focus was determined by a humanities course requirement and the resulting encounter with a "crazy professor." You can still hear the awe in his voice as he describes how wrapped up the professor was in Plato and something written 2,500 years ago. "It was so interesting," he says, "how something so old was so relevant to today's issues. It was studied as important to today, not as some dusty volume."

After taking a few more philosophy courses, Thielke had not only found a major; he was hooked by German Idealism and "the way it tries to explain the human experience and tradition." His area of specialization is Kant and the history of modern philosophy (17th-19th century).

As a teacher, Thielke hopes to excite his students about these deep questions, "not just the question of the nature of the object but also trying to explain what it is to be a conscious human being. And," he adds, "the discussions are always fun because the stuff you discuss in class is the same stuff that you discuss late at night in the dorms."

Thielke has served as a lecturer at Yale University and University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He earned his Ph.D. from UCSD, his M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and his A.B., with distinction and honors, from Stanford University.

--Cynthia Peters