Our Faculty

You’ll go far with mentors like these by your side.

Converse faculty are the mentors you’ll call your own as a Converse University student. You won’t find access to these great minds anywhere else.

Our faculty are committed to providing transformative learning experiences for our students. They are also practicing professionals, international performers, and award-winning authors, artists, scholars and researchers. We have faculty lecturing on biomedical ethics in Iceland, bringing cutting-edge technology to opera, and landing half-million-dollar grants to improve research facilities right here on campus.

Converse faculty provide deep scholarship, transformative mentorship, experiential learning, and support for students – and each other.

Faculty Spotlights

Dr. Evan Thomas

“From day one to graduation, we get to see students’ authentic selves shine and their confidence come out.”

Dr. JJ Lies

“There’s something compelling about the culture of Converse.”

Professor Meg Hanna-Tominaga

“We craft the experiences each student has to help them pursue the exact career they’re interested in.”

Dr. Jessica Williams

“I wanted to be in a community where faculty and students talk to each other outside of the classroom.”

Faculty Impact

Converse faculty in the news

Call Me MiSTER® Cohort Has Leadership Retreat in Charlotte

Converse’s Call Me MiSTER® participants spent the weekend in Charlotte, NC, for a leadership retreat. The Call Me MiSTER® program is an award-winning teacher recruitment and retention program that has …

Professor Tekulve’s New Book Receives Great Press

Professor Susan Tekulve‘s new book, Bodies of LIght, was selected by the Community of Literary Magazines and Small Presses (CLMP) as one of their Women’s History Month Reading List selections in poetry. CLMP …

Faculty & Students Present at Nebraska Conference for Women in Math

Sloane Kinley ’26 (Nisbet Honors, CCW) and Tabitha Merrithew ’25 (Nisbet Honors, CCW) recently traveled with Dr. Amanda Mangum to the 27th annual Nebraska Conference for Undergraduate Women in Mathematics …

Dr. Joe P. Dunn Receives the Daniel Hollis Award

At the South Carolina History Conference, held March 1, 2025, at Francis Marion University, Joe Dunn was awarded the prestigious Daniel Hollis Prize (named for the preeminent scholar of South …

Dr. Walker Appointed to SC Humanities Board of Directors

Dr. Melissa Walker, George Dean Johnson, Jr. Professor of History Emerita, has been appointed to the board of directors for SC Humanities. Dr. Walker was the first faculty member at Converse …

Converse University Writing Center Recognized for Excellence

Written by Karen Rhodes The Center Acknowledgement and Recognition of Excellence Program (CARE) has honored Converse University’s Writing Center for its commitment to literacy, learning, and writing. This coveted certification …