Please call (785) 532-6085 to connect with any of our faculty and staff.
Alphabetical Listing for Current Faculty and Staff
Alphabetical Listing for Retired Faculty and Staff
| Lynda Bachelor | Project Coordinator, HandsOn Kansas State | bachelor@k-state.edu |
Lynda Bachelor directs HandsOn Kansas State, a student-led volunteer action center that promotes civic learning and leadership through service and service-learning activities. Read More Lynda promotes leadership through community involvement. Her non-profit and for-profit experience brings a practitioner’s view to the Staley School’s classes and programs. Involving students and community members in meaningful service through coursework, trainings, group activities and volunteer opportunities benefits the community and helps students develop the civic leadership skills they need to become community leaders. Top 5 Strengths: Ideation; Adaptability; Woo; Communication; Positivity. Favorite Quote: “When I give, I give myself.” —Walt Whitman EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Tamara Bauer | Instructor | tamara@k-state.edu |
Read More Top 5 Strengths: Learner; Achiever; Includer; Strategic; Woo. Favorite Quote: “If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished? ” —Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Nidhi Bhandari | Instructor | nidhim@k-state.edu |
As an instructor Nidhi Bhandari teaches leadership studies classes, serves on committees, works with LEAD 212 Class Leaders, and advises students. Read More In her past four years at the Staley School, Nidhi has taught LEAD 212: Introduction to Leadership Concepts, LEAD 350: Culture and Context in Leadership, LEAD 450: Senior Seminar in Leadership Studies, and LEAD 499: Internship Seminar. She has also served as an advisor to the Nonprofit Leadership Student Association. Top 5 Strengths: Empathy; Developer; Relator; Harmony; Connectedness. Favorite Quote: “Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance. ” —J. Donald Walter EducationM.B.A. Kansas State University | ||
| Gov. John Carlin | Visiting Professor, Executive-in-Residence | jwcarlin@k-state.edu |
Read More John enjoys working with students and helping prepare them to be the change agents that the world needs. “I'm thrilled to be a part of this program, particularly at a time with so much need for leadership and opportunities to succeed.” Top 5 Strengths: Learner; Achiever; Arranger; Responsibility; Connectedness. Favorite Quote: “Citizens must understand the possibilities and limitations of leadership. We must know how we can strengthen and support good leaders; and we must be able to see through the leaders who are exploiting us, playing on our hatred and prejudice, or taking us down dangerous paths.” —John W. Gardner EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Lori LaVezzi | Administrative Officer | lori29@k-state.edu |
Read More Lori recently retired from the Air Force after 25 years and is thrilled to be back at Kansas State and part of the Staley School team. She hopes that sharing her leadership experiences will help students develop into caring, passionate leaders. Her favorite color is purple, and she loves college football. Go 'Cats! Top 5 Strengths: Relator; Individualization; Responsibility; Learner; Positivity. Favorite Quote: The day the soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership." —Colin Powell EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Ana Luiza de Campos Paula | Graduate Research Assistant | alpaula@k-state.edu |
Read More Top 5 Strengths: Activator; Arranger; Empathy; Input; Learner. Favorite Quote: "Let us more and more insist on raising funds of love, of kindness, of understanding, of peace." —Mother Teresa EducationB.S. University of Sao Paulo | ||
| Leigh E. Fine | Assistant Professor | fine@k-state.edu |
Read More Leigh completed his doctorate in sociology at Ohio State University. He enjoys engaging with students through teaching. Leigh's scholarship focuses primarily on he effects gender and sexuality have on educational outcomes; other research interests include social construction, queer leadership, and social movements and change. Leigh is excited to contribute toward the mission of the Staley School through work with students and collaboration with colleagues. Top 5 Strengths: Input; WOO; Achiever; Communication; Strategic. Favorite Quote: “You can’t hate someone whose story you know.” –Anonymous EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Mike Finnegan | Assistant Professor, Academic Advisor | mikefinn@k-state.edu |
Read More Mike is extremely dedicated to teaching leadership concepts that students can learn in the classroom and apply to their personal-development, student organizations, and living groups. “We teach a value based curriculum and students enjoy learning about themselves and learning from the life experiences of their classmates. We are just as much in the business of relationship building as we are leadership.” Top 5 Strengths: Woo; Communication; Maximizer; Adaptability; Positivity. Favorite Quote: “When you come to the end of your rope tie a knot and hang on.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Trisha Gott | Assistant Director, Instructor | tcgott@k-state.edu |
Read More Top 5 Strengths: Connectedness; Strategic; Ideation; Empathy; Intellection. Favorite Quote: “The daughters of lions are lions, too." —Swahili Proverb EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Jackie Harmon | Administrative Support Specialist | jharmon@k-state.edu |
Read More Jackie believes a better world begins by developing the relationships with the people around us. We must be open to new ideas, embrace change, and respect our differences. Top 5 Strengths: Relator; Empathy; Consistency; Responsibility; Adaptability. Favorite Quote: "To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child a garden patch or redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." —Ralph Waldo Emerson | ||
| Eric Hartman | Assistant Professor | ehartman@k-state.edu |
 Eric Hartman, Ph.D., researches the development of intercultural understanding and global citizenship, with particular attention to opportunities for community-driven development and the expansion of rights. Read More In 2013, Eric received the Early Career Research Award from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement. He has also been recognized for the applied impact of his engaged work, with the 4 Under 40 Impact Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. More recently, he has been central to developing an approach to community-university partnership called Fair Trade Learning. Eric serves on the Board of Directors for Amizade Global Service-Learning, where he was Executive Director from 2007 – 2010. At the Staley School, Eric works with global engagement programming, including International Service Teams and the partnership with Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. Top 5 Strengths: Strategic; Achiever; Futuristic; Self-Assurance; Arranger. Favorite Quote: "Happy the youth who believes that his duty is to remake the world and bring it more in accord with virtue and justice, more in accord with his own heart. Woe to whoever commences his life without lunacy." —Nikos Kazantzakis EducationB.A. Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania | ||
| Marcia Hornung | Coordinator of Partnerships, Instructor | hornung@k-state.edu |
Marcia Hornung coordinates partnership-development initiatives for the Staley School, both across campus and in the community. She also teaches courses and advises students in the nonprofit focus. Read More Top 5 Strengths: Learner; Adaptability; Ideation; Input; Deliberative. Favorite quote: "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these." —George Washington Carver EducationB.A. Kansas State University | ||
| Brandon W. Kliewer | Assistant Professor of Civic Leadership | bkliewer@k-state.edu |
Brandon Kliewer, Ph.D., is interested in the intersection of civic leadership and community-engaged scholarship. His goal is to create scholarly experiences for students and community partners that breathe life into the purposes and processes of democracy and focus on addressing community-identified issues. Read More Brandon's research and teaching interests align with the normative foundations of community-engaged leadership, community-engaged scholarship, deliberative civic engagement, and democratic theory. He is currently working on a series of articles related to community-engaged scholarship extending from online learning platforms, biopower, and civic leadership. In addition to this work, Brandon is preparing a book length project related to community-engaged leadership, deliberative civic engagement, community organizing, and social change movements. Top 5 Strengths: Strategic; Achiever; Learner; Input; Individualization. Favorite Quote: "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." —Franklin D. Roosevelt EducationB.A. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | ||
| Lori Kniffin | Advisor of Academic Programs | lkniffin@k-state.edu |
Read More Top 5 Strengths: Learner; Discipline; Achiever; Focus; Consistency. Favorite Quote: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” —Dan Hayes EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Chance Lee | Instructor | chance@k-state.edu |
Read More Top 5 Strengths: Individualization; Developer; Harmony; Arranger; Adaptability. Favorite Quote: “Perceptions are portraits, not photographs, and their form reveals the artist’s hand every bit as much as it reflects the things portrayed.” —Daniel Gilbert EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Irma O'Dell | Associate Professor | irmao@k-state.edu |
Read More Irma eagerly embraces the opportunities she encounters in her charges of teaching, program assessment, and scholarship. She is pleased to collaborate with colleagues in their endeavor to develop a portfolio system for the students enrolled in the minor. "Program assessment is what faculty members can do in order to demonstrate to ourselves that we actually do what we say we do and satisfy the demand for accountability. Program assessment is an undertaking that involves all faculty members and I am pleased to facilitate this process." Top 5 Strengths: Learner; Harmony; Deliberative; Analytical; Individualization. Favorite Quote: “We must always attempt to lift as we climb." —Angela Davis EducationB.S. George Williams College | ||
| Kerry Priest | Assistant Professor | kerryp@k-state.edu |
Read More Kerry strives to be a teacher-leader and a leader-scholar through engaged and integrative approaches to teaching, scholarship, and service. She is passionate about exercising leadership for and with her students, community partners, and professional colleagues to advance the field of leadership education. Her scholarship explores the intersections of leadership and learning, including leadership identity development, leadership pedagogy, and high impact practices for leadership education (learning communities, service-learning, community-engagement, and peer leadership). Kerry has experience working in both for-profit and non-profit organizations, specifically in the areas of leadership training for youth and adults, curriculum design and development, and program/project management. Before returning to K-State, Kerry served as the Interim Director for the Residential Leadership Community at Virginia Tech. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Leadership Educators and is a member of the International Leadership Association. Top 5 Strengths: Individualization; Connectedness; Input; Learner; Intellection. Favorite Quote: “There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it cares about." —Margaret Wheatly EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Mary Kay Siefers | Senior Associate Director, Assistant Professor | marykay@k-state.edu |
Read More One of Mary Kay's goals as a professor is to create a learning community that values each member’s experiences and life stories so that students can discuss pertinent leadership issues and learn from one another. In addition to her teaching duties, Mary Kay coordinates the curriculum for the academic minor, such as scope and sequence, course scheduling, and teaching assignments. Top 5 Strengths: Empathy; Adaptability; Positivity; Woo; Includer. Favorite Quote: “It is not our differences that divide us; it’s our judgments about each other that do.” —Margaret Wheatley EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Theo Stavropoulos | Communications Coordinator/Special Projects | Theo.stav@gmail.com |
Read More Top 5 Strengths: Strategic; Ideation; Context; Restorative; Idividualization. Favorite Quote: "Change is inevitable; progress is not." —Max McKeown EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Monica Strathman | Business Manager | monicap@k-state.edu |
Read More Monica is passionate about serving students and providing them quality opportunities to serve in the community. She also plays a key role in keeping the Staley School of Leadership Studies in line, on track, and moving forward – having developed relationships across campus over her 23 years at K-State, Monica keeps the Staley School connected. Top 5 Strengths: Woo; Empathy; Communication; Positivity; Activator. Favorite Quote: “And when we think we lead, we are most led." —Lord Byron EducationB.S. Kansas State University | ||
| Mary Hale Tolar | Director, Associate Professor | mtolar@k-state.edu |
Read More Mary has taught multiple leadership studies courses. She directs the Coffman Leadership Institute and partners with K-State’s Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy and Center for Engagement & Community Development. Mary is a Rhodes Scholar, Truman Scholar, founding member of the National Association of Fellowships Advisors, and co-author/editor of The Lucky Few and the Worthy Many: Scholarships and the World’s Future Leaders (2004). Research interests focus on the art and practice of civic leadership development, women's pathways to public service leadership, and undergraduate leadership development through applied learning. Mary considers developing students as scholars and citizens the civic purpose of higher education and essential to a vital democracy and a healthy society. “The major challenges we face today are not simple matters of resources. They are not technical problems, but rather challenges that require new ways of thinking, marshalling resources in new ways to adapt to changing circumstances—challenges that call each of us to exercise leadership." Top 5 Strengths: Ideation; Strategic; Input; Context; Learner. Favorite Quote: “A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.” —Henrik Ibsen EducationB.A. Kansas State University | ||
| Kyle Van Ittersum | Graduate Research Assistant | kwvan@k-state.edu |
Read More Top 5 Strengths: Harmony; Consistency; Learner; Intellection; Input. Favorite Quote: “And when we think we lead, we are most led." —Lord Byron EducationB.A. Truman State University | ||
| Andy Wefald | Assistant Professor, Academic Advisor | wefald@k-state.edu |
Read More Andy’s research focuses on the fields of leadership, organizational behavior, and positive psychology. Specifically, he researches engagement in the work place, job attitudes, leadership, personality, and discrimination in hiring decisions. Top 5 Strengths: Deliberative; Input; Context; Learner; Discipline. Favorite Quote: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” —John Quincy Adams EducationB.A. Iowa State University | ||
| Steve Williams | Custodial Specialist | |
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Tamara Bauer teaches LEAD 212: Introduction to Leadership Concepts and LEAD 405: Leadership in Practice.
Former Governor John Carlin teaches a master's-level leadership seminar course and an undergraduate course in practical politics. Both courses focus on the practical, rather than theoretical, aspects of leadership.
Lori LaVezzi serves as the administrative officer for the Staley School of Leadership Studies. She provides administrative support for the director, faculty, and students, while also acting as personnel specialist for the department.
Ana Luiza de Campos Paula joined the Staley School of Leadership Studies as a graduate research assistant specializing in qualitative methodology. She is also a Ph.D. candidate of sociology focusing her research on land tenure and race issues.
A graduate of the leadership studies minor at Kansas State, Leigh Fine, Ph.D., is now a faculty member with the Staley School of Leadership Studies. He teaches LEAD 212: Introduction to Leadership Concepts and LEAD 350: Culture and Context in Leadership.
Mike Finnegan, Ph.D., is primarily responsible for teaching LEAD 405: Leadership in Practice. He also directs the 
Trisha Gott supports the Alternative Breaks and International Service Teams programs. She teaches select courses in the leadership minor, supports service-learning initiatives, and serves as the assistant director for the Staley School.
Jakie Harmon is part of the administrative support staff. She provides continuity in the day-to-day operations of the Staley School's main office.
Lori Kniffin works to serve students by supporting the recruitment, retention, and alumni efforts at leadership studies. She also greatly enjoys advising the Staley School Ambassadors, and teaching the third core course in the minor, LEAD 405: Leadership in Practice.
Chance Lee serves as an instructor for LEAD 350: Culture and Context in Leadership and LEAD 420: Theories of Nonprofit Leadership. 
Irma O'Dell, Ph.D., teaches the capstone course, LEAD 450: Senior Seminar in Leadership Studies. She also engages in scholarship in the areas of leadership theory and development.
Kerry Priest, Ph.D., teaches LEAD 212: Introduction to Leadership Concepts and LEAD 405: Leadership in Practice. She also coaches Lead 212 Class Leaders as part of the Peer Leader Practicum.
Mary Kay Siefers, Ph.D., teaches LEAD 350: Culture and Context of Leadership and LEAD 450: Senior Seminar in Leadership Studies. During her tenure with the Staley School, she has taught all of the core courses as well as an elective course, Women and Leadership. 
Monica Strathman provides fiscal management for the Staley School of Leadership Studies.
As Director of the Staley School of Leadership Studies, Mary Hale Tolar, Ed.D., works with faculty and staff to provide learning experiences aligned with the mission of “developing knowledgeable, ethical, caring, inclusive leaders for a diverse and changing world.”
Kyle Van Ittersum is a graduate research assistant at the Staley School of Leadership Studies.
Andy Wefald, Ph.D., teaches the capstone course, LEAD 450: Senior Seminar in Leadership Studies, LEAD 502: Theories of Leadership, and various other courses.
Custodial Specialist
