Northwestern promotes faculty

Several Northwestern College faculty have been awarded tenure and promoted for the 2013–14 school year.

Derek Brower, Karissa Carlson, Luke Dahn, Elizabeth Heeg-Truesdell, Jonathon Sabo and Richard Sowienski were awarded tenure. Sabo was promoted to the rank of full professor, and Carlson, Dahn, Heeg-Truesdell, Sowienski, Laurie Daily, Piet Koene and Lila Sybesma were promoted to associate professor.

Brower joined the education faculty in 2006 after teaching secondary science for 12 years at schools in Iowa, Washington, Botswana, the Marshall Islands and Thailand. A Northwestern College graduate, he earned a Doctor of Education degree at Montana State University and a master’s degree in technology education from Western Washington University.

Carlson, a Northwestern College alumna, earned a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Iowa. She has taught chemistry at Northwestern since 2007. Her research on the kinetic mechanisms by which damaged DNA is replicated by specialized DNA polymerases has been published in Molecular and Cellular Biology and Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Dahn, who joined the music faculty in 2007, has written compositions heard throughout the United States and abroad. The 2011 recipient of Northwestern’s Teaching Excellence Award, Dahn earned a doctorate in music composition from the University of Iowa, a master’s degree at Western Michigan University and a bachelor’s degree at Houston Baptist University.

Heeg-Truesdell earned a doctorate in biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology from Northwestern University. She has published several articles in journals like Current Biology and  Developmental Biology. A Northwestern College graduate who joined the biology faculty in 2006, she received the Northwestern Teaching Excellence Award in 2010.

Sabo joined the theatre faculty in 2009 after teaching at Bethel College of Indiana, Nazareth College of New York, and Westmont College in California. He also serves as a lighting and staging consultant for churches. Sabo earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in scenic design at Wayne State University and a bachelor’s degree at Bethel College.

Sowienski served as managing editor for The Missouri Review before joining Northwestern’s English faculty in 2009. He fulfilled a variety of roles at the Meredith Corporation, including parenting and education editor of Better Homes and Gardens. He earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in nonfiction writing and a bachelor’s degree at the University of Iowa.

Daily has taught full time in the education department since 2005. Previously she directed a field-based special education teacher training program in New Hampshire and taught at Plymouth State University. She earned a Doctor of Education degree at Argosy University, a master’s degree from the University of North Carolina and a bachelor’s at the University of Maine at Farmington.

Koene is a professionally certified translator and interpreter. He earned a master’s degree in interpretation and translation at the Monterey Institute for International Studies and also holds a master’s degree from the University of Toronto and a bachelor’s degree from Calvin College. A member of Northwestern’s Spanish department since 2000, Koene was Iowa’s Professor of the Year in 2004.

Sybesma, a member of Northwestern’s education faculty since 2001, taught elementary education for 19 years. A former president of the Northwest Iowa Reading Council, she received a Doctor of Education degree from the University of South Dakota, a master’s degree from the University of Sioux Falls and a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern College.