Faculty Marshal History

Prior to 1978, there was no Faculty Marshal at the College of Charleston. It is unclear what prompted the decision to establish the position, but in the 1978 Commencement program, a Faculty Marshal was listed among the processional for the first time. Though no name was published, institutional memory confirms that Harry Freeman, the beloved Professor of Biology and Chair of the Biology department, was the first Faculty Marshal at the College of Charleston. Professor Freeman served as Faculty Marshal for over a decade, until Professor William (Bill) Lindstrom assumed the role in 1990. Dr. Lindstrom had been a faculty member in the Department of Physics before serving as the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, and then as Director of Enrollment Management. 

In 2002, after Dr. Lindstrom had served for 12 years as Faculty Marshal, the role passed to Professor Lynn Cherry, who joined the College in 1991, and at present continues as an active faculty member in the Department of Communication, of which she is a founding member. Like her predecessors, Dr. Cherry served a 10-year term from 2002-2011, and a 3-year term from 2013-2016, with Dr. Alison Smith of the Department of French, Francophone & Italian Studies, stepping in during the 2012-2013 academic year.

In 2016 Professor Devon Hanahan, faculty member of the Department of Hispanic Studies, succeeded Dr. Cherry, and served through the 2023 Spring commencement ceremonies.  Professor Hanahan is responsible for creating the Cistern Closet, which provides free, gently used commencement attire for students.

Beginning in spring 2023, a new tradition was established that names the annual recipient of the William V. Moore Teacher-Scholar Award to the position of Faculty Marshal.  Dr. Morgan Hughey, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance, was the 2023 Teacher-Scholar Awardee and thereby succeeded Professor Hanahan as the current Faculty Marshal.

Faculty Marshal

Morgan Hughey

Assistant Professor, Health and Human Performance

Morgan Hughey, a Furman University graduate, holds Master's and Doctorate degrees from the University of South Carolina's Arnold School of Public Health. Since August 2017, she has taught in the College of Charleston's Department of Health and Human Performance, serving as a faculty fellow with the Riley Center for Livable Communities and the Honors College. Morgan's research focuses on the impact of built environment features, such as parks and walkability, on physical activity promotion and equity. Through partnerships with community organizations and local governments, she works to improve active living spaces, involving students in the research process. Currently, Morgan is leading a national research project on equitable park access and serves on various advisory committees. She received prestigious faculty awards in 2021 and 2023. In her free time, Morgan enjoys outdoor activities and traveling with family, friends, and her dog, Griffin. Morgan won the 2021 Excellence in Collegiate Education and Leadership (ExCEL) Outstanding Faculty Award for the Honors College and the William V. Moore Distinguished Teacher-Scholar Award for the College of Charleston in Spring 2023.

School of the Arts

Amanda Castellone

Instructor of Music

Amanda Castellone, a native of Charleston, holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in voice performance from Arizona State University. An active performer of opera, recital and oratorio, she has appeared on many Charleston stages, including the Gaillard Auditorium with the Charleston Symphony, the North Charleston Performing Arts Center with the North Charleston Pops Orchestra and the Rose Maree Myers Theater with the Charleston Concert Band. She is a featured artist with Charleston Opera Theater. Castellone holds a Master of Music from The Boston Conservatory and Bachelor of Arts degrees in music and biology from Wake Forest University. She is an instructor of music of the College of Charleston and is assistant director of opera. At the College of Charleston, along with teaching voice, Castellone carries a heavy administrative load and is the head of student registration in the department, curator of department social media and manager of the department website. She spends her free time with her dogs and horses.

School of Business

Carrie Messal

Chair of the Department of Management and Marketing and Associate Dean of the School of Business

Carrie A. Blair (Messal) is a professor of management at the College of Charleston, where she regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in leadership, management and organizational behavior. She currently serves as associate dean of the School of Business and previously served as chair of the Management and Marketing Department. She is the founder of an undergraduate leader development program, the Schottland Scholars Program and her expertise in leader development is frequently used to design leader development opportunities on campus and in the community. Her work has been published in journals including the Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Human Performance, Leadership and Organizational Development Journal, Management Teaching Review and Human Resource Development Quarterly. She is actively involved in the Management and Organizational Behavior Teaching Society (MOBTS). She was the 2018 recipient of the Howard R. Rudd, Jr. Distinguished Faculty Award for Service Leadership and the 2015 recipient of the School of Business Teaching Award.

School of Education

Kelley Mayer White

Program Director, Early Childhood Education

Kelley Mayer White is professor of early childhood development in the Department of Teacher Education. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in early childhood and elementary literacies, social and emotional development and creating effective learning environments. Her teaching is centered on fostering student autonomy, belonging and competence. Dr. White researches the impact of teacher-child relationship quality and classroom climate on children’s learning and development. She also serves as director for early childhood undergraduate and graduate programs. In her free time, Kelley enjoys reading, running and spending time at the beach with her husband and two young daughters.

School of Health Sciences

Kate Pfile

Chair of Health & Human Performance

Kate Pfile graduated from the College of Charleston in 2004 with a double major in athletic training and physical education with a concentration in exercise science. She continued her education at the University of Virginia earning a Master’s degree in athletic training and her Doctorate in sports medicine. After a brief stint working at the University of Toledo, she returned to the College in 2012 and has been teaching in the Department of Health and Human Performance (HEHP), now serving as department chair. She enjoys mentoring students on research projects centered on injury prevention, core muscle function and lower extremity functional movement patterns in addition to working alongside her colleagues to expand program offerings within the new School of Health Sciences. In her free time, Pfile likes to spend time relaxing with her husband, JD and two dogs, Nina Sausage Biscuit and Donaldog, connecting with family and close friends over food and working in her yard.

School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Mark Long

Professor of Political Science

Trained in Ireland, Spain and the U.S., political geographer Mark Long is professor of political science and curator at large and academic liaison at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. He also directs the College’s Geography program and makes getting students out into the world a priority through study abroad programs all across Europe, most recently to study Brexit on the ground in the UK. His research is concerned with intersections between visual culture and place, and he has written about street art, editorial cartoons and landscape photography. In his work as a curator, Long has curated exhibitions of fine art photography from Antarctica to Afghanistan to the American West, by award-winning American and international artists. The catalog for his co-curated exhibition Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South won the Alice Award in 2019. Free time is given over to music, cycling, soccer, hiking and reading, ideally with his wife, Olga and teenage daughter, Nela.

School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs

Margaret Keneman

Assistant Professor of French

Margaret Keneman is an assistant professor of French and Francophone Studies, affiliate faculty in Linguistic Studies and coordinator for the Beginning and Intermediate French Program. She conducts research in the field of applied linguistics and teaches all levels of French including the required writing course for newly declared majors and minors as well as advanced courses designed in partnership with the Center for Applied Linguistics in Besançon, France. She has also co-designed a First Year Experience learning community that offers experiential learning opportunities with the Huguenot Society of South Carolina, the South Carolina Historical Society, the Addlestone Library Archives and Special Collections, and the Alliance Française of Charleston. She completed her Bachelor’s in English and French at Clemson University and earned her doctorate in French and educational studies from Emory University.

School of Sciences and Mathematics

Gorka Sancho

Professor of Biology

Gorka Sancho obtained his bachelor’s degree in general biology from the Autonoma University of Madrid in Spain in 1991, followed by a Ph.D. in biological oceanography at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology / Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program in 1998. After working in Cape Cod, Jamaica and Spain, Sancho came to the College of Charleston in 2002, where he has been teaching in the Department of Biology and doing research in the Grice Marine Laboratory. His mantra is “study nature, not books,” and he tries to provide science students with hands on experience in the field and the laboratory, both in Charleston and abroad. His research interests roam from fish behavior and ecology, oceanography, fisheries conservation and marine protected areas to microplastic contamination and plant ecology. He is the undergraduate marine biology advisor, but likes to help students in all science fields pursue their professional dreams. In his free time he likes to go fishing, backpacking with his wife, birdwatching, paddle boarding, surfing, gardening, good friends, watch movies and soccer and, if there is any time left, go fishing again.

Honors College

Brooke Permenter

Honors Faculty Fellow & Director of Student Engagement

Brooke Permenter is a 2006 graduate of the College of Charleston’s Department of Art and Architectural History, and she is also an alumna of the Honors College. After completing her undergraduate degree she attended Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, to earn her Ph.D. in art history with a focus on the high and late Middles Ages. Permenter returned to the College of Charleston to begin teaching in Honors in 2011. She is currently an Honors faculty fellow and director of student engagement, a role in which she welcomes each new Honors cohort to campus through the FYE program, teaches a wide range of interdisciplinary courses, and advises and mentors students across their four years at the College. In her free time, Permenter enjoys traveling and cooking with her husband, Chris ’05; cheering for her sons, Tyson and Max, who are avid runners; snuggling with her beagle, Darwin, and mini Bernedoodle, Duke; and relaxing with friends and family.

Graduate School