WAUKESHA – At its June 6 meeting, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents accepted recommendations from their respective academic departments and Chancellor David Wilson to promote three University of Wisconsin-Waukesha faculty members.

            Kathleen Bubinas, Kenosha; Dean Kowalski, Waukesha; and Kevin Lee, Madison, all were promoted to associate professor with tenure.

            In addition, Jeffrey Thorson, an associate lecture in computer science, was promoted to full lecturer and Nancy Van Brunt, a senior lecturer in music, to the tenure-track faculty position of assistant professor. Both live in Pewaukee.

            Bubinas started teaching at UW-Waukesha in 2002, the year after she completed her PhD in anthropology at UW-Milwaukee. She earned a BA in anthropology from the University of Illinois-Chicago and MA in archaeology from Southern Illinois University. Her interests lie in urban ethnic communities and labor markets, Asian American studies, women in the workplace, migration, transnationalism, and globalization. During summer 2008 she is leading a group of student researchers and two other faculty in a project, “Feeding the Downtown: A Study of the Economic Effects of Farmers’ Markets on Local Economies in Wisconsin.” She also has been a mentor to past students, stimulating them academically through the campus faculty/student research program.

            Kowalski has made popular culture a vehicle for teaching philosophy. He came to UW-Waukesha in 2003 and had his book, Classic Questions and Contemporary Film: An Introduction to Philosophy, published in 2004. He edited another, The Philosophy of the X-Files, published by the University Press of Kentucky in 2007, which prompted the campus to choose him for a Kaplan Fellowship specifically for using popular culture to stimulate philosophical thought. The award honors faculty for their innovative service to students. Kowalski graduated cum laude from Ripon College and earned both his MA and PhD from UW-Madison. He has a particular interest in metaphysics and the philosophy of religion.

            Lee has been teaching in the biological sciences department at UW-Waukesha since 2001. He previously taught at UW-Whitewater and conducted research at the UW-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, studying hormonal influences on the formation of breast cancer. He also has taught human physiology at Albany Medical College, NY, the institution from which he earned his Ph.D. He did post-doctoral research in the molecular cardiology laboratory at the University of California-San Diego. Lee received a Kaplan fellowship in 2005 for his work with the biology lab renovation project planning and for his part in developing an interdisciplinary course on physiology and exercise.

            Thorson joined UW-Waukesha in 1999, having previously taught at Waukesha County Technical College. Earlier he had worked locally as an analyst with Software Architects and Compuware and been an owner of Symmetrix Software. He also served as a product development manager at McHugh, Freeman and senior systems engineer with Kearney and Trecker. He graduated from UW-Milwaukee in computer science with a minor in history and earned an MS there, concentrating on artificial intelligence.

            Van Brunt began her teaching career with the UW Colleges in 1980 at UW-Fond du Lac, also teaching at UW-Fox Valley and UW-Washington County before settling in at UW-Waukesha in 1999. She has brought the hand bells out of retirement and led a hand bell choir each semester since 2003. In addition, she has been active in her community, having served as choir director and director of music ministries for churches in Waupun and Beaver Dam, respectively, and as director and conductor of the Beaver Dam Oratorio Society, a community chorus of 40 voices. She taught voice lessons at Ripon College as well as piano and voice for all ages out of her private studio. A long-time member and soloist with the Green Lake Festival Choir, she also performs with the Master Singers of Milwaukee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music theory, a master’s in choral conducting, and a doctorate in music theory with a minor in voice performance, all from UW-Madison.

           UW-Waukesha has the largest enrollment among the 13 freshman-sophomore University of Wisconsin Colleges campuses. For information about programs, admission, or financial aid, contact the Student Services office at (888) 2UW-WAUK (888 289-9285) or visit the Web at  waukesha.uwc.edu.

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