About Me

I am the youngest of six, born in Warren Plains, North Carolina, a small, farming community in Warren County. Don't worry if you have no idea where either Warren Plains or Warren County is located; even natives of the state have a hard time locating my birth place. While I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Warren Plains, I am much more comfortable in larger cities. Perhaps this is why I have lived in a number of them.  I have also traveled to just about every state as well as England, France, Mexico, Bermuda, and Curacao. I earned my bachelor's degree from Campbell University, my master's degree from Duke University, and I have advanced course work at the University of Chicago and North Carolina State University.  I have had the honor and pleasure of working for some of the country's best educational institutions and have enjoyed a rich and varied career.

I have a number of "loves," but I could only include a couple in this photo, so I chose my top two: movies and my dissertation topic. I have been a fan of movies for as long as I can remember and my private collection is so large I am running out of space.  I was asked recently what my favorite movie was and because I have so many, I had to divide them into categories. So here goes: Lord of the Rings (the entire trilogy) takes the top spot in the fantasy category, Star Wars (all six movies) is tops in science fiction, Young Frankenstein for comedy, Schindler's List for drama, the BBC's version of Pride and Prejudice for romance, in the horror category there is a tie between the television mini series Salem's Lot (the first one, although the remake wasn't too shabby) and Alien, there is another tie in the action category between Gladiator and 300 and finally, in the animation category there is another tie between Shrek and Up (I really adore Pixar, but Dreamworks has done some great stuff as well.)

I became interested in multiple murder/murderers while teaching sociology at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina.  I started my research with perhaps the best known serial murderer, Jack the Ripper, reading every book I could get my hands on (some excellently researched and written such as the book I am holding by Philip Sugden, and others that don't stack up) and I have been hooked ever since.  I have expanded my research to include mass murder and spree murder as well as serial murder. I became the resident expert at Cape Fear and plan to one day write my dissertation on how the media portrays the victims of serial murderers by comparing two cases; Jack the Ripper and the Green River Killer.

Region and Responsibilities

As Associate Dean I am responsible for:

• Operations and the Admission Building
• Research and Assessment
• International Students
• The Far West and the Southwest

Links

www.wm.edu/admission/undergraduateadmission/internationalstudent
www.casebook.org