Dr. Richard M. Cangro

         Assistant Professor of Music Education

         Richard M. Cangro, Ph. D., is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Western Illinois University. A former band and orchestra director from Connecticut, Dr. Cangro is active as a presenter, guest conductor, adjudicator, and guest teacher for developing musicianship. He has presented sessions for several school districts and at numerous local, state, and national music educator conferences. With his dissertation focusing on applying cooperative learning strategies to instrumental music learning, Dr. Cangro continues to investigate the nature and effects of student interaction at all levels of music learning. At WIU, Dr. Cangro teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in music education as well as directs the Community Music School, coordinates the graduate program in music education, supervises student teachers, and advises the CMENC and ASTA student chapters. Musically, Dr. Cangro performs on trumpet with the Knox-Galesburg Symphony Orchestra and conducts the WIU youth string orchestra.

Dr. Kimberly D. Dodson

         Associate Professor of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration.

Dr. Kimberly D. Dodson received her Ph.D. in Criminology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is an assistant professor in the School of Law Enforcement and Justice Administration. She has coauthored three books: two examining criminological theory and one on police practices. She has published several journal articles and book chapters on criminological theory, minority issues, correctional counseling and rehabilitation, constitutional rights of prisoners, and special populations in prisons. She also serves as a manuscript reviewer for several journals and publishers including Victims and Offenders, The Prison Journal, Criminal Justice Policy Review, Peter Lang Publishing, and Elsevier/Anderson Publishing. Dr. Dodson has also presented at numerous national and regional conferences including the American Society of Criminology, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and the Midwestern Criminal Justice Association. She currently serves as the Secretary of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Minorities and Womens Section.  She mentors graduate student research by being actively involved in the College of Education and Human Services Annual Graduate Research Symposium and has served as the chair of several graduate theses. In addition, she currently serves as the Chair of the LEJA Curriculum Committee, the Chair of the Quad Cities Research and Scholarship Symposium, and as a member of WIUs Institutional Review Board. In 2010, she was the first recipient of the Quad Cities Professional Development Networks Excellence in College Teaching Certificate. 

Dr. Jennifer McNabb

         Associate Professor of History

Dr. Jennifer McNabb is an Associate Professor at Western Illinois University, specializing in early modern European history and the history of England. She joined the Department of History at WIU in 2005, following the completion of her doctoral program at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. McNabb was awarded a University HOPE Award for Teaching, the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty Award in Teaching in spring 2009, and the Provosts Award of Excellence in Teaching in fall 2009. She has supervised eighteen successful graduate and undergraduate grant applications, three Honors theses, and one M.A. thesis. She has served the University community a member of the Honors Council, the University Research Council, the Faculty Senate, and the Graduate Council. She acts as faculty advisor for the Associated Students of History, which won the CAS Outstanding Student Organization Award in 2009, and for Alpha Sigma Tau sorority, and she won the Greek Advisor of the Year award in spring 2010. Her scholarship focuses on the social impact of the Reformation in Tudor and Stuart England and studies the consequences of religious and political change on such institutions as marriage, family, and community. She regularly presents her research at regional, national, and international conferences, including the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference and the North American Conference on British Studies. Her research has been published in The Sixteenth Century Journal and Quidditas, and her most recent paper won the Delno C. West Award for the most distinguished paper by a senior scholar at a joint meeting of regional organizations dedicated to medieval and Renaissance history and literature. She is a member of the executive board of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association and serves as associate editor of its journal.

Dr. Cynthia K. Piletic

 Associate Professor of Kinesiology

         Dr. Cynthia K. Piletic is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology with an earned Ph.D. from Texas Womans University in the area of Adapted Physical Education.  Her BS in Psychology with a minor in Special Education and MS in Physical Education with an emphasis in Adapted Physical Education are from Western Illinois University.  Teaching appointments include: University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Ball State University, and previously Western Illinois University.  She has authored articles for national publications including: the ICHPER-SD Journal of Research, the Journal of Physical Education and Dance, the National Strength and Conditioning Journal, the Athletic Therapy Today Journal, and the American Journal of Health and Fitness.  She has published at the state level as well and co-authored position statements for the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.  She has been an active presenter at the international level including the International Federation for Adapted Physical Activity.  Her presentations at national conferences include the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Conference, the North American Federation of Adapted Physical Activity Conference, the National Physical Education Teacher Educators Conference and the National Conference on Physical Activity for the Exceptional Individual. Her grant awards total $124,000 for various research projects with major funding from UIC/RERC Rectec (Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Recreational Technologies and Exercise Physiology Benefiting Individuals with Disabilities) and the Illinois Department of Public Health.  Her professional service includes the Executive Board for the National Consortium for Physical Education and Recreation for Individuals with Disabilities. as Member at Large, Secretary and Vice President, Critical Issues Committee within Adapted Physical Activity Council nationally, and recently elected to serve as President for the Illinois Coalition for Adapted Physical Educators.

 Professor Candace Winters-March

   Professor of Dance

         Candace Winters-March earned an M.F.A. in Dance from Arizona State University, and a B.A. in Dance from San Diego State University.  Professor Winters-March has been teaching at Western Illinois University since 1987.  She is administrator for the dance minor program and advisor/co-artistic director for University Dance Theatre.   Prior to WIU, she was a company member of Desert Dance Theatre, of Phoenix, Arizona, and danced with the a. ludwig dance collective, also of Arizona.  Professor Winters-March was founder and artistic director of Two Rivers Dance Theatre, a contemporary dance company that toured west central Illinois.  She has collaborated on numerous projects with faculty colleagues from the School of Music and choreographed over 60 works on dancers at WIU, Lincoln College, Oakland University, Knox College, San Marcos State University, Quincy Dance Theatre, Core Project of Chicago.  She also taught and performed in the Netherlands.  Her work has been selected to be performed at the American College Dance Festival Associations (ACDFA) National Gala, held bi-annually at Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and The World Dance Alliance of the Americas (WDAA) festival performances.  Professor Winters-March is currently serving a third term on the board of directors for the Central Region of the ACDFA.

ADMINISTRATIVE INITIATES
2011

         Dr. Aimee Shouse

         Chair and Professor, Department of Womens Studies

         Dr. Aimee Shouse has been at Western Illinois University since 1993.  She received her doctorate in political science from Vanderbilt University, where her dissertation considered the effect of interest group conflict on the ambiguity or specificity of congressional legislation, specifically considering legislative cases regarding the national forests and telecommunications policy.  Dr. Shouse was a faculty member in the WIU Department of Political Science between 1993 and 2008.  Her research and teaching interests continued in the areas of legislative and interest group politics, but her focus shifted from environmental and forestry organizations toward trade and professional associations for female dominated occupations.  She has presented several papers on the political activity of lay midwives at the state level and the political activity of sex segregated occupations at the national level.  In 2003, she edited a volume entitled Presidents from Nixon through Carter - 1968-1981: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents, and in 2009, she published Government Structure and Abortion Politics: How Federalism and Separation of Powers Shapes the Conflict, a chapter in Interdisciplinary Views on Abortion: Essays from Philosophical, Sociological, Anthropological, Political, Health, and Other Perspectives.  Her other publications fall largely in the area of civic education at the university level and the assessment of student learning in general education.  In the fall of 2008, she became the interim chair of the WIU Department of Womens Studies, becoming the permanent chair in the Spring of 2009.  Dr. Shouse has been actively engaged in university service at Western, including a term on the Faculty Senate and chairing the General Education Review Committee between 2006 and 2007.  She served on the Steering Committee for the most recent self-study for accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission, co-authoring the chapter on Criterion 4.  In 2007, her service was recognized with the award for outstanding service by the College of Arts and Sciences.