GROVE CITY, Pa. – Grove City College welcomes six new faculty members to the ranks this fall.

Dr. Gina (Miller ’94) Blackburn, assistant professor of education, has taught in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Texas and Tennessee. English and speech/debate were her primary teaching subjects for grades 9-12. Blackburn earned her master’s degree in education in 1998 from Butler University and her Ph.D. from Indiana University with majors in curriculum studies and educational leadership.

Throughout graduate school, Blackburn’s main research interests were multicultural education and service learning. Her dissertation title was “Service Learning’s Impact upon Multicultural Values in Elite High School Girls.” She began teaching at Grove City last semester.

Dr. Craig Columbus is executive director of the entrepreneurship program and chair of the Department of Entrepreneurship (see related release).

Dr. Lijuan Meng, assistant professor of modern languages, is a native from the People’s Republic of China. She received her bachelor of arts degree in English from Harbin Railway Engineering Institute in Harbin, and spent her first years teaching English in a high school affiliated with Ministry of Railway and Engineering.

Meng came to the United States to pursue her graduate education. After one year of studying at Great Lakes Christian College, she enrolled Calvin Theological Seminary and finished her theological training with a master of arts degree in Christian education. She earned her Ph.D. in intercultural studies from Reformed Theological Seminary in 2005, where she served as a teaching/research assistant.

Meng spent her last three years teaching at Providence Christian College, a newly-established Reformed liberal arts college in Ontario, Calif., where she taught eight different subjects, including East Asian history and politics and Chinese language.

Jonathan Miller, assistant professor of physical education, attended California Baptist University in Riverside, graduating with a bachelor of science degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in exercise science. During that time, he was a four-year starting goalkeeper on the men’s water polo team.

During the past year, Miller continued his education at California Baptist, completing his master of science degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in sport management. He served as a general operations intern with USA Water Polo, and was an assistant resident director for California Baptist’s Residence Life Department.

Miller started his coaching career with Lancers Age Group Water Polo in 2004. He coached teams in the Junior Olympics. He continued with the club until joining California Baptist’s men’s and women’s water polo programs as an assistant coach.

Kathy Rhoades, assistant professor of music and fine arts, moved to full time professor after working part time for the last seven years as the College’s ceramics instructor.

Rhoades completed her bachelor of fine arts degree with honors from Clarion University, concentrating in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional studies. She continued her education at the University of New Mexico-Albuquerque, earning a master of fine arts degree in three-dimensional studies with a concentration in ceramics.

She is a member of the National Council for the Education of Ceramic Artists and in 2008 was invited to participate in exhibiting during the group’s conference in Pittsburgh. She spent six years working with special needs children, using skills learned through her art education.

Dr. Shuhui Su, associate professor of modern languages, was born and raised in China, where she started her undergraduate study in English and received her master of arts in English language and literature in Fujian Teachers University. She came to the United States as a visiting scholar to conduct research on Chinese-English contrastive studies in language and culture at the University of California at Los Angeles, the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She pursued doctoral study in Chinese language in the Department of Literatures and Languages, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and earned her Ph.D. degree in 2009.

Before coming to the States, she taught English and Chinese-English translation to English majors in China. In the States, while engaging in her research and doctoral studies, she started her Chinese language teaching at UCLA and later at the University of Hawaii. From 2005 to 2009, she was an assistant professor of Chinese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif.