General Education Committee People
Dr. Steve Hodson joined the Westmont faculty in 1996 as an associate professor of music. Dr. Hodson, a native of Portland, Oregon, holds a bachelor's degree in music education from Lewis and Clark College, a master's degree in music education from the University of Oregon, and a doctor of musical arts degree in the literature and performance of choral music from the University of Colorado, Boulder. He serves as Professor of Music at Westmont College, where his duties have included teaching piano, music survey, conducting, and church music, and directing the College Choir, the Chamber Singers, and New Sounds. Presently, Hodson leads the piano studies area at Westmont. Dr. Hodson is elected to a term ending in Spring 2023.
Dr. Nazarenko joined Westmont College as Dean of Curriculum and Educational Effectiveness in 2010. She chairs the PRC and works with all academic and co-curriculum departments on issues pertaining to curriculum development, outcome-based learning, student-centered teaching, and assessment. She also serves on the Academic Senate, AS Review Committee, and the College's Strategic Planning Committee. She completed her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Culture at the University of Alberta, and her master's in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Washington. Her current research interests include assessing and promoting student success in various educational contexts.
Dr. Theresa Covich coordinates library instruction in academic classes and is responsible for the library's tutoring program to support some identified GE and STEM classes. She earned her PhD in English at UC Santa Barbara and joined Westmont as an adjunct instructor in the English department in 2014, teaching GE literature and composition courses. She began full-tome work in the Voskuyl library in 2018, providing research guidance, collection development for several academic departments, and academic support. She has served on the ILO assessment task forces for written communication and information literacy. She is particularly interested in collaborating with faculty to help students use sources effectively in their writing.
Dr. Felicia Song is a sociologist who studies the social and cultural effects of digital technologies on community and identity in contemporary life. Trained in history, communication studies, and sociology from Yale, Northwestern and University of Virginia, she is professor of sociology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA.
She is author of a new book, "Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age" (Intervarsity Press Academic). This book explores how our contemporary digital habits fundamentally form us in ways that shape loves and imaginations of what it means to be human. This book binds sociology and theology together, arguing that both are needed for understanding how to live wisely in a digitally saturated society. Her prior research includes her first book, "Virtual Communities: Bowling Alone, Online Together" (2009) which explored the democratic efficacy of online communities, and other studies on expectant women's online information-seeking habits and the evolution of "mommy bloggers." When she is not working, she enjoys tending the garden, learning to bake bread, and daydreaming about becoming proficient with the bass guitar. Dr. Song is elected to a term ending in Spring 2025.
Dr. Saad is elected to a term ending in Spring 2025.
Tara Sturges joined Westmont as the Assistant Registrar in June 2020. She is a first-generation graduate from Liberty University with her B.S. degree in Psychology-Human Services. Tara worked for eight years at Simpson University in northern California, and five of those years were spent in the Student Records Office. She is currently working on an M.S. in Leadership in Higher Education at Pepperdine University and will graduate in spring 2024. At Westmont, Tara manages articulation agreements with numerous community colleges, oversees the evaluation of transfer work for Westmont applicants, works with faculty in advising rising seniors in their finalizing of Application for Degree details, tracks the progress of seniors to verify they are on track for completing their degrees on time, and assists with the data side of commencement.