Seven new scholars join Grove City College faculty

Grove City College welcomes seven new professors to the faculty ranks this fall. The new faculty will augment the College’s roster of Christian scholars in the departments of Biology, Business, Computer Science, Education, Mathematics and Modern Languages.

“We are extremely happy with these new faculty joining the College,” Peter Frank ’95, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs, said. “They each bring a unique set of skills and experiences that will enhance student learning across a variety of disciplines.”

The new faculty members are:

• David M. Butler, assistant professor of Management and Marketing. Butler began in January teaching supply chain, international business and management. He joined the College after a long career in supply chain management in the medical device, consumer products and automotive industries. Butler holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh.
• Melissa D. Carruth, assistant professor of Spanish. Carruth’s teaching emphasis is in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latina literatures and cultures, and she specializes in the analysis of first-person narratives. She is completing her Ph.D. in Hispanic studies from the University of Georgia. She earned her M.A. in Spanish literatures and linguistics at Baylor University and her B.A. in Spanish from Texas Tech University.
• Dr. Brian C. Dickinson, assistant professor of Computer Science. Dickinson specializes in artificial intelligence, machine learning and data mining applications in the social sciences. He completed his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Rochester. Dickinson earned a B.S. in computer science from Houghton College in 2015. As an undergraduate student, he researched spam filtering and community detection on Twitter.
• Dr. Remi Drai, associate professor of Mathematics. Drai has worked in research and development for academia and public and private sector industries in Europe and the U.S. His research interests involve the optimization of dynamical systems and have extended in the recent period to population dynamics, machine learning and data science. He holds a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and M.S. in pure mathematics from the University of Nice, France.
• Dr. Natalie Heisey, associate professor of Education. Heisey will teach literacy methods courses. Her area of expertise is literacy practices in the elementary classroom. Heisey earned a doctor of education in literacy from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from Gannon University and a B.A. in elementary and special education from Edinboro University. She previously taught at Geneva College.
• Dr. Ethan Smith ’03, associate professor of Mathematics. His specialization is in the application of analytic techniques to number theory. Smith earned Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in mathematical sciences at Clemson University and a B.S. from Grove City College, where he majored in Mathematics and Philosophy and minored in Religion. He taught previously at Michigan Technological University and Liberty University.
• Dr. Darren Wood, assistant professor of Biology. Wood will teach ecology, wildlife and conservation biology, as well as fisheries and aquatic biology. He will be developing courses in Geographical Information Science and other areas to provide students with a diversity of tools, techniques, and experiences. He completed his doctorate and master’s degree work at West Virginia University and earned a B.S. in fisheries biology from Mansfield University of Pa.

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