Toba Ajibero
English Instructor
Department: English
E-mail: toba.ajibero@inverhills.edu
Education Credentials:
Master of Arts (MA) -
University of Ibadan
Master of Arts (MA) -
Hamline University
Bachelor of Science (BSC) -
Kogi State University
Hella Cohen
English Instructor
Department: English
Office: LA-130
Phone: 651-450-3665
E-mail: hella.cohen@inverhills.edu
Education Credentials:
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) -
University of North Texas
Master of Arts (MA) -
New York University
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
Lebanon Valley College
Anthony Collins
English Instructor
Department: English
Office: LA-120
Phone: 651-450-3396
E-mail: acollins@inverhills.edu
Education Credentials:
Master of Arts (MA) -
Marquette University
Emily Creelman
Instructor
Department: English
E-mail: emily.creelman@inverhills.edu
Education Credentials:
Master of Arts (M.A.) -
Hamline University
Bachelor Degree (BD) -
Gustavus Adolphus College
Brian Dorr
English Instructor
Department: English
Phone: 651-450-3982
E-mail: bdorr@inverhills.edu
Education Credentials:
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) -
Metropolitan State University
Master of Arts (MA) -
College of Saint Scholastica
Master of Science (MS) -
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Master of Business Administration (MBA) -
College of Saint Scholastica
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Lisa DuRose
English Instructor
Department: English
Office: L-225
Phone: 651-450-3341
E-mail: ldurose@inverhills.edu
Bio
Lisa DuRose is a first-generation college graduate who earned her B.A. in English at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Lisa went on to earn her M.A. and Ph.D. in English at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Her teaching specialties include 20th century American literature and composition.
Lisa is the co-editor of Michigan Salvage: The Fiction of Bonnie Jo Campbell and has published essays in:
- The Journal of College and Character
- The Wallace Stevens Journal
- Prospects: An Annual of American Cultural Studies
- American Notes and Queries
- Rain Taxi
- Midwestern Miscellany
- Literary Landscapes
She has been teaching at Inver Hills since 2001 and is always energized by the students who inhabit her classroom and enrich her teaching with their diverse perspectives and experiences.
Outside the classroom, Lisa enjoys time with her wife and can often be found gardening, writing, and attending to the whims of her cats.
Education Credentials:
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) -
Western Michigan University
Master of Arts (MA) -
Western Michigan University
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
Minors: Engl Tech/Busn Writing -
University Of Wisconsin-River Falls
Laura Johnson
Departments: Communication, English
E-mail: laura.johnson@inverhills.edu
Education Credentials:
Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) -
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Master's of Arts in Teaching (MAT) -
Minnesota State University-Mankato
Bachelor of Science (BS) -
Minors: PSYCHOLOGY -
Minnesota State University, Mankato
Bachelor of Science (B.S.) -
Minnesota State University-Mankato
Elizabeth Kellett
English Instructor
Department: English
Office: LA-130
Phone: 651-450-3651
E-mail: elizabeth.kellett@inverhills.edu
Education Credentials:
Master of Arts (MA) -
St. Cloud State University
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
Minors: Psychology -
Saint Cloud State University
Margaret LaFleur
English Instructor
Department: English
Phone: 651-450-3307
E-mail: margaret.lafleur@inverhills.edu
Education Credentials:
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) -
University Of San Francisco
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
University Of Minnesota-Morris
Ellen Lansky
English Instructor
Department: English
Office: LA-124
Phone: 651-450-3660
E-mail: elansky@inverhills.edu
Bio
Ellen Lansky was born in Minneapolis and grew up in Overland Park, Kansas. She went to college at the College of St. Catherine in St Paul, MN (BA in English) and graduate school at SUNY-Binghamton (MA in English/Creative Writing) and the University of Minnesota (PhD in English). Ellen Lansky’s work on literature and addiction has appeared in Dionysos, Literature and Medicine, and several anthologies, including Southern Comforts: Drinking & the U.S. South (2020). Her essay “All Aboard: Reading, Writing, and Drinking with Ernest Hemingway appeared in a special edition of English Language Notes (April, 2022), and her essay “’Power Tool Mishaps: Women and Alcohol in ‘Playhouse’” appeared in Michigan Salvage, an anthology of critical writing on Bonnie Jo Campbell’s work—edited by English department member Lisa DuRose. Lansky is also a fiction writer, and her stories have appeared in many local and national publications. Her most recent novel, Suburban Heathens, was published in 2018 by Brighthorse Books.
Education Credentials:
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) -
University Of Minnesota Twin Cities
Master of Arts (MA) -
Suny At Binghamton
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
College of St Catherine
Nate Maertens
English Instructor
Departments: English, Study Skills Instruction
Office: B-126
Phone: 651-450-3792
E-mail: NMaertens@inverhills.edu
Education Credentials:
Master of Arts (MA) -
San Francisco State University
Mary Petrie
English and Gender and Women's Studies Instructor
Departments: English, Gender And Women's Studies
Office: B-132
Phone: 651-450-3550
E-mail: MPetrie@inverhills.edu
Bio
Mary Petrie earned a BA in East Asian Studies with a minor in Chinese at Hamline University; she earned both an MA and PhD in English with minors in Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota, where she also held a number of positions as an Administrative Fellow, including with the University of Minnesota's Commission on Women.
In addition to serving as a full-time faculty member in the English Department, Mary founded and teaches in the Gender and Women's Studies Department which offers an accelerated online Emphasis in Gender and Women's Studies. Mary is a certified peer reviewer for Quality Matters (QM), a nonprofit setting standards in online education; many of Mary's own courses are offered online and have earned certification as courses which meet QM standards.
Her teaching interests are in women writers, feminist theory, creative writing, and contemporary fiction. She is the recipient of a number of writing awards, including a Loft McKnight Creative Nonfiction Award, Minnesota State Arts Board Grant, and Creative Nonfiction Mentor Series; her writing has most recently appeared in the Rake Magazine, The Women's Colony (now defunct online magazine), and the New York Times, and her first play will be staged for Youth Performance Company's 2013-14 season. Prior to joining the IHCC faculty, Mary was the Executive Director of Farm in the City (an arts and environmental nonprofit) and she continues to dabble in a myriad of volunteer and community-service endeavors, largely related to environmental issues.
Education Credentials:
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) -
University OF Minnesota
Master of Arts (MA) -
University Of Minnesota Twin Cities
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
Hamline University
William Reichard
English Instructor
Department: English
Office: B-125
Phone: 651-450-3845
E-mail: WReichard@inverhills.edu
Bio
William is an educator, author, and editor. He holds a Ph.D. in Twentieth Century American Literature, an M.A. in creative writing (poetry), and a B.A. in Film Studies, all from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.
He has taught both undergraduate and graduate level courses at the U of M (literary studies and creative writing), and undergraduate courses at the University of St. Thomas, St. Catherine University, and the College of St. Scholastica.
William has published seven collections of poetry, most recently Our Delicate Barricades Downed (2021) and The Night Horse: New and Selected Poems (2018). He is the editor of American Tensions: Literature of Identity and the Search for Social Justice, an anthology of contemporary fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, and he revised and edited The Evening Crowd at Kirmser’s: A Gay Life in the 1940’s. He lives in Saint Paul.
Read about William Reichard Exhibiting Work at Friedli Gallery and Studio on Inver Hills News.
Education Credentials:
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) -
University Of Minnesota Twin Cities
Master of Arts (MA) -
University Of Minnesota Twin Cities
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
University Of Minnesota Twin Cities
Keith Richter
English Instructor
Department: English
Office: L-223
Phone: 651-450-3541
E-mail: KRichter@inverhills.edu
Bio
Even before Keith received his B.A. in anthropology in 1992 from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he had already made up his mind to abandon archaeology and instead pursue a career teaching English. During his undergraduate years, he had become more interested in excavating texts and analyzing the cultures within those texts than digging square holes in the unforgiving earth and scrubbing rusty nails.
Keith received his M.A. in English from Kansas State University in Manhattan in December 1996, and nine months later, IHCC hired him as a writing tutor and a part time English instructor. While at IHCC, Keith has created a training course for tutors of English Language Learners, co-presented a session called “Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay” at the Minnesota Association for Developmental Education Conference in 2009, attended the National Summer Institute on Learning Communities at The Evergreen State College in 2011, and presented a session called “Integrating College Readiness in LCOMs” at IHCC's Learning Community Institute in 2012.
Keith has taught full time since 2007, teaching mostly developmental and college-level composition, but his other teaching interests include American Indian fiction and gothic literature.
Education Credentials:
Master of Arts (MA) -
Kansas State University
Wanda Synstelien
English Instructor
Department: English
Office: B217
Phone: 651-450-3261
E-mail: wsynstelien@inverhills.edu
Bio
Wanda Synstelien is an English Professor in the Department of English at Inver Hills Community College where she has been a faculty member since 2011. Previously, Wanda had been teaching since 2000 at Southwest Minnesota State University. Wanda will complete her Ph.D. in May 2013 at Iowa State University in addition to having already completed a Master's of Science in Education, a Masters of English, and an undergraduate degree in English with a teaching certificate.
Her research interests lie in the area of developing English curriculum and teaching strategies with a focus on online tools, resources and real world applications. Throughout her career, she has also focused on concurrent enrollment partnerships in order to better align educational systems. Wanda has worked on several university and college committees in addition to sitting on NACEP's research committee and serving as the co-chair for the IHCC CEP advisory board.
Education Credentials:
Certificate (CERT) -
Minneapolis Community and Technical College
Certificate (CERT) -
Saint Paul College
Doctor of Philosophy (PHD) -
Iowa State University
Master of Arts (MA) -
University Of Dallas
Master of Business Administration (MBA) -
St. Cloud State University
Master of Science (MS) -
Southwest Minnesota State University
Master of Science in Education (MSED) -
Southwest Minnesota State University
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
University Of Dallas
Kristin Thoennes
English Instructor
Department: English
Office: B-133
Phone: 651-450-3494
E-mail: KThoennes@inverhills.edu
Bio
Kristin has a Masters degree in English (with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition) from St. Cloud State University. She taught at St. Cloud State University, the Minnesota School of Business, Anoka-Ramsey Community College, the University of Minnesota, and North Hennepin Community College before joining the English department at Inver Hills.
Kristin has been a trainer and consultant in business and industry, creating industry-specific curriculum and then teaching employees to improve their written communication skills. Kristin also has been a writer and editor for various publishing companies in Minneapolis and New York City. In those roles, she wrote over 40 children's nonfiction books; supplemental teachers' materials, feature pieces, and indexes for high school textbooks; and authors'/writers' guidelines for various publishing houses. She also is a successful grant writer and has taught community education classes in writing. She has been an online tutor trainer for a national company as well.
Kristin enjoys creative writing and has had a short story published in The Wisconsin Review. At Inver Hills, she teaches composition and professional writing courses, and she is a member of the Developmental Composition Committee and the Concurrent Enrollment Committee. Kristin lives in Minneapolis with her family and takes advantage of the many cultural opportunities the city offers.
Education Credentials:
Master of Arts (MA) -
Saint Cloud State University
Bachelor of Arts (BA) -
Saint Cloud State University