Class of 2017-18

Dr. Ata Atadil, an Assistant Professor, received his Ph.D. in Hospitality Management from the University of South Carolina (USC). He is the 2015 recipient of the Outstanding Scientific Paper Reviewer in Information Technology Award by International CHRIE. Before joining UWF in 2016, Ata was an adjunct professor at USC. He conducts research on cognitive neuroscience, decision-making behavior of travelers, branding and information technology. In addition, Ata serves as a reviewer for several tourism and hospitality journals.

Ata earned his Master and B.A. degrees in Tourism and Hospitality Management in Turkey. He completed the junior year of his B.A. degree as an exchange student at the Linnaeus University in Kalmar, Sweden.

Dr. Daniel Drost is the Associate Chairperson in the Department of Exercise Science and Community Health. His Ed. D. is in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Health and Physical Education. Dr. Drost has taught at UWF since 2008 in various programs, including Fitness and Conditioning, Physical Education Teacher Education, the Physical Education and Human Performance master’s program, and the Health and Physical Education doctoral specialization. He currently teaches graduate research courses and undergraduate methods courses for teachers/trainers. Dr. Drost is the administrative fellow and QEP liaison within the College of Health while also serving as the President-elect for the Society of Health and Physical Educators. Research projects focus on teacher/trainer behaviors, specifically addressing the impact behaviors have on motivation and achievement.

Sara Z. Evans is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of West Florida. She received a B.A. in Sociology from Emory University and an M.A. in Sociology from Georgia Southern University. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology, with a concentration in Criminology, from the University of Georgia in 2011 and began her career at UWF shortly after. Her research interests include juvenile delinquency, the effect of parental socialization on behavior problems in children, and the effects of fear of crime in neighborhoods and public spaces. She is also interested in research and implementation of pedagogical techniques such as the use of high-impact practices to improve student outcomes. Sara is the mother of two boys, Harrison and Thomas, who keep her happy and busy when she’s not working.

Dr. Randy Johnson has been a registered nurse for over 30 years, and has held a variety of roles in nursing. His clinical focus is in pediatric and critical care nursing. Dr. Johnson became faculty full time in 1999, and has taught in a variety of courses, and has held leadership roles including director and assistant dean of nursing.

He joined UWF in 2015 as the Chair of the School of Nursing and is an Associate Professor. Dr. Johnson’s research focus is with the critically ill pediatric patient and hospital acquired infections.  He continues to teach courses in graduate and undergraduate nursing as well as pathophysiology, which he currently is a co-editor for Springer Publishing on a pathophysiology textbook intended for use in nurse practitioner, and physician assistant programs.

Sara Schoch, assistant professor, teaches Musical Theater. She is an award-winning actress who combines her 15 years of musical theater experience with her passion for teaching students the techniques of the profession.

In 2015, she was recognized by the city of Boston as a Certified Artist, a designation given to artists who have substantial talent and whose vast body of work contributes significantly to the arts in Boston and state as a whole. She is also a two-time winner, and four-time nominee, for the New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Musical, which she won in 2012 for her performance as Mother in “Ragtime” and in 2015 for her performance as Princess Puffer/Angela Presoak in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”.

Some of her students and mentees have appeared in the Broadway productions of “Aladdin,” “Finding Neverland,” “Les Miserables,” and the revival of “The Color Purple.”

Dr. Jamie Snyder is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. She received her PhD in criminology/criminal justice from the University of Cincinnati in 2011. She is currently working on research focusing on the victimization of college students, fear of crime, and the perceptions and outcomes of body-worn cameras by police officers. Jamie was awarded the Mary F. Rogers Women's Studies Award in 2016 and has been published in several journals including Criminal Justice & Behavior, the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, and Violence Against Women. She regularly teaches courses on research design, victimology, crime prevention, and criminological theory. In her spare time, Jamie enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter, traveling, and hiking.

Dr. Erin Woodruff Stone is an Assistant Professor of Latin American History and Director of the Early American Studies Master’s Program at the University of West Florida. Dr. Stone teaches courses that cover the scope of Latin American history from the Spanish conquest to the Cold War. She also maintains an active research agenda and spent the past summer conducting archival research across Spain for her manuscript entitled “Captives of Conquest: How Indigenous Slavery Shaped the Spanish Atlantic, 1490-1570.” Her research has also taken her to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Colombia, and the Canary Islands.

Dr. Stone holds a Bachelor of Spanish from the University of Miami, a Master in History from University of North Florida and a PhD in Latin American History from Vanderbilt University. When she is not teaching and researching Erin enjoys paddle boarding, surfing, spending time with her family, and watching college football.

Dr. Melanie A. Sutton is currently a tenured Professor of Informatics in the Department of Public Health. She teaches online courses in bioinformatics, data science, health information systems, public health informatics, and computer/GIS applications/data analysis in public health and healthcare. Her research interests and publications span these areas, as well as computer vision, robotics, digital mammography, and online instruction and assessment.

Dr. Erica Taylor started at UWF in 2014. She is an Instructor in the Biology Department and Director of the NSF S-STEM Scholars Program for the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engineering. She earned her Ph.D in Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a B.S. in Biology from Prairie View A&M University. Erica loves the atmosphere at UWF, working with students to realize and attain their dreams, and the collaborative interactions between faculty from all over campus. During her free time, she likes to attend sporting events, make new creations in the kitchen and finding new adventures.