Faculty & Staff

You can reach the English department offices by calling (818) 947-2343. Our front desk staff is in the office, Humanities 121, from Monday to Thursday and would be happy to help you. If you want to reach a particular instructor, here are some of our email addresses. You can also check LAVC’s general faculty phone and email directory here.

Full-Time Faculty

Batty, Holly **Department Chair
Phone: (818) 947-7260
Email: @email

I started my journey in higher education at LAVC, so Valley is my home away from home. I started working at the LAVC Writing Center in 2006 and never left! I also coordinate The Puente Program, a transfer support program for disproportionally impacted students.

I received my B.A. in English from UCLA in 2009 and my M.A. in English from CSUN in 2014. I have an interest in British Romanticism, Children's Lit, Science Fiction/Fantasy, and Animal Studies.

When it comes to writing, I believe that it's all about the process, not the product. Revision is where the magic happens!

Bland, Jay
Phone: (818) 947-2586
Email: @email

James Bland received his PhD in English and American Literature from Harvard University. His areas of concentration were Pre-Modern Literature, African American Literature, and Critical Theory. He has extensive experience teaching a diverse range of developmental, advanced, and honors composition, rhetoric, and literature classes at the community college and university levels. He's also interested in Comic Studies, Video Games as Literature, and Creative Writing. His creative work has been published in the Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Callaloo, and Agni among other journals and anthologies. He has also been awarded a Breadloaf Writer’s Fellowship and two MacDowell colony residencies.

Hunter, Patrick
Phone: (818) 947-2800
Email: @email

I lived my childhood, boyhood, and adolescence in the northeast side of the San Fernando Valley, close to the corner of Woodman and Devonshire. The liquor store, where I as a teen-ager used to place bottles of beer and wine on the shelves, still exists. After graduating from James Monroe High School, I volunteered to join the U.S. Navy, and, yes, I am a Viet Nam Era Veteran. After honorably discharged from active duty, I then was able to afford college, and I graduated with an A.A. from LAVC, and with a B.A. and M.A. as well as an ESL Certificate from CSUN. Today, I still live in the northeast part of the Valley, but in Panorama City. I have always felt most comfortable with working class areas and working class people.

Whenever those who adore upscale housing regions (which often strike me as quite anemic) ask me how I can reside in such a scrappy neighborhood, I usually inform them that I don’t actually live in the whole neighborhood: just in one house. In fact, I have lived in the same house and been married to the same woman for over thirty years.

My passions are reading classic literature and viewing classic motion pictures. I am a couch potato, but I consider myself as a couch potato with taste. Spending ones evenings reading and conversing with ones mate might seem quaint for serving as leisure activities, but, as I am a sexagenarian, I prefer twentieth-century habits over those like video-gaming, friending, and tweeting. My teaching philosophy is rather complex, but I ground it with this idea: the most important lesson anyone can learn is that he/she/they counts as a free and equal member of a free and equal society. Despite the evidence to the contrary, I really do believe that.

Alison T. Jeffries received her B.A. in English and Comparative Literary Studies from Occidental College, Los Angeles, with Departmental Honors, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa. She completed both her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Southern California. Dr. Jeffries is an expert in Early Modern English literature and culture and her literary interests include: classical poetry, genre studies, culture and classical transmission, political theory and philosophy, women writers, gender studies, and critical theory. She has presented her scholarship at numerous conferences.

Most notably, Dr. Jeffries has presented her work at the Shakespeare Association of America annual conferences and at the Henry E. Huntington Library Renaissance Literature Seminar Series. She has extensive experience teaching a diverse range of developmental, advanced, and honors composition, rhetoric, and literature classes at the community college and university levels. She is trained in the teaching of reading through the Reading Apprenticeship model and in the teaching of stretch-acceleration composition. Dr. Jeffries also implements mindfulness strategies and growth mindset techniques to help her students develop confidence as active learners and critical thinkers.

Education
Degree: M.A.
Major: English
From: California State University, Northridge
Areas of interest: Literature and creative writing
Degree: B.A.
Major: English
From: University of California, Los Angeles
Area of interest: Literature, with emphasis creative writing
Degree: Post-graduate studies
Major: Film
From: University of California, Los Angeles
Areas of interest: Film producing and screenplay writing

Mintz, Jessica (*Campus Center 236)
Phone: (818) 947-2427
Email: mintzjl@chalakseir.com

Faculty Interests
American Literature (fiction, drama, poetry), World Literature (fiction, drama, poetry)
Contemporary Literature
Learning Skills and Teaching Methodologies
Learning Management Systems
Online Education

Personal Interests
Reading, yoga, art, fitness, conversation, concerts.

Courses Taught
English 21 – English Fundamentals
English 28 – Intermediate Reading & Composition
English 33 – Vocabulary Skills
English 67 - Writing Laboratory (Learning Center)
English 69 - Writing and Reading (Learning Center)
English 101 – College Reading and Composition
English 102 – College Reading and Composition II
English 208 – American Literature II

Duties
Professor of English
Director of Supplemental Instruction
Steering Committee for STARS
Learning Skills Specialist

Nikoghosyan, Verzhine
Email: @email

Verzhine Nikoghosyan is an Assistant Professor at LAVC, English Department. Having completed her graduate degree in English, she never stopped learning, and her curiosity towards different religions and cultures lead her to complete another graduate degree in Religious Studies where she researched the relationship between the diasporas in the U.S. and their strong connection to their religious beliefs as a way to recreate new identities in a host society.

Verzhine teaches her classes from motivational perspective incorporating the concept of Growth Mindset to help her students succeed and strive. She has obtained certificates from UCLA Extension in Teaching ESL and Minnesota State University, Graduate Certificate in Teaching Writing. She is also active at the LAVC Writing Center where she coordinates and conducts ESL tutoring, creates resources, and holds tutor trainings particularly addressing the ESL student needs at LAVC.

She strives to create an inquiry based classroom where students are able to raise questions, find answers, and think critically about current issues. Her teaching strategies involve a combination of recent composition methodologies, including Multimodal strategies where technology is an important factor, and the methods from the LACCD Teaching Innovations Academy. She incorporates all these current theories to foster a student-centered teaching style.

Robeson, Kimberly
Phone: (818) 947-2595
Email: @email

Kimberly K. Robeson is a Greek-American Assistant Professor at Los Angeles Valley College. She teaches World Literature, Creative Writing, Composition, and is the Co-Advisor for the college’s LGBTQ+ Club. She lived half her life overseas: in Venezuela, Borneo, Greece, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, and Peru (and has visited another 15+ countries). The other half of her life has been spent in the United States. She has a voracious appetite for travel, enjoys yoga and the gym, and loves to read (Jane Eyre and The Unbearable Lightness of Being are her favorite novels—ask her for a recommendation!).

Kimberly attended Miramar Community College and then received her Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master’s Degree in Comparative Literature from San Diego State University. She has taught English in Greece, Peru, and the United States for the past twenty-seven years. Kimberly’s other passion, apart from teaching, is writing. Her debut novel, The Greek Persuasion, will be released in April, 2019. Kimberly has always been a storyteller like her yiayia, and Greece is always in her heart. She is happy to have found “home” at LAVC and in Los Angeles with her husband, Hugo, and their three bulldogs: Achilles, Oia, and Opa.

Adjunct Faculty

Altman, Dylan
Email: @email

Dylan Altman is an alumnus of California State University, Northridge. He received for his Master of Arts in English(2014) and his double major in Honors Literature and Creative Writing in 2011. He teaches Business Writing, Creative Writing, Literature, Comic Studies, and Video Games as Literature at several colleges and community colleges in Southern California. In 2015, he formed a small Press called Select Start Press. Select Start Press is dedicated to writing and talking about video games in the same way people discuss literature. At his core, Dylan believes in the power of narrative to change the world one mind at a time.

Antler, Abram
Email: @email

I received my undergraduate degree from Albright College in Philosophy and English (dual concentration) in May of 1997. I received my master’s degree from California State University, Long Beach in Linguistics, Teaching English as a Second Language, in December of 2003. I received my doctorate of philosophy degree from National Taiwan University in Foreign Languages and Literature in July of 2016. In addition to having taught in four universities in Taiwan from 2011 to 2013, I got started in my college teaching career in January of 2005 at Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California and began teaching English composition and English advanced composition; I continued to teach there until 2010. My teaching at Los Angeles Valley College began in 2013 and I have been teaching English 21, English 28, English 101, and English 103.

Baldiwala, Fatema
Email: @email

Nearly a decade of highly diversified English teaching experience at the community college level. Highly experienced in teaching composition, reading, critical thinking, and debate. Specialized in teaching writing. An emphasis on writing for different genres, with a focus on research. A structuralist when it comes to organizing content in writing. An expert in creating contextualized classes that meet the needs of a diverse population while adhering to Student Learning Outcomes. Ability to conduct both face to face classes as well as online classes.

Berliner, Jonathan
Email: @email

Jonathan Berliner received his PhD in English Language and Literature from the University of Chicago. He enjoys working with students at Valley College as they develop skills of argumentation and analysis, particularly as they become empowered by finding their own voices through writing. Professor Berliner has published essays in major scholarly journals and given presentations at colleges and universities around the world, including Oxford, Dartmouth, and Shevhenko University in Kiev. He lives in Sherman Oaks.

Brown, Beth
Email: @email

Beth Martin Brown is an adjunct professor in the Los Angeles Community College District and has taught English and further writing courses at Los Angeles Valley College and other community colleges for the last twenty years. Some of her classes include short story writing, mythology, history of theatre, and playwriting. She enjoys helping students overcome their fear of writing and explore their abilities through writing.

She is a graduate of the USC Master of Professional Writing Program. Her first college experience was when she attended Gainesville Junior College, Gainesville, Georgia while a junior high school student.

As a playwright, she is the librettist for the children’s musical, The Little Witch of Wichita (www.stageworthy.com). This play won the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Award and has had numerous productions around the country and world. Productions include sold out performances at the renowned Geffen Theatre in Westwood, CA.

Her love of writing plays originated when her one-act play, The Lonely Bull, won the USC Sixth Annual One-Act Play Festival and went on to gain honorable mention in several other play festivals. She studied with Jerome Lawrence (Inherit the Wind) while at USC. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild and Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP)

Carroll, Nancy
Email: @email

Nancy Carroll received her both BA and MA in English/Creative Writing from California State University, Northridge. A Valley College Alumni, she returns as a published poet, (Night Walks, Yak Press) and is a member of The Southland Poets & Writers, a local writers' consortium that hosts open-mic readings & writing workshops. Also a photographer (mocro art, portraiture and nature), her art informs and energizes her writing. She has won awards for both her poetry and photography, but finds teaching at Valley and working with Valley students equally rewarding.

My central work throughout my MA career was focused on how students deal with the concept of identity in the composition classroom. Although my degree is in Rhetoric and Composition, I’ve always been a big fan of Shakespeare, specifically his tragedies such as Othello.I believe that the classroom works best when it is an open place where students can feel comfortable to speak/participate, engage and discuss the material presented to them. Pedagogically speaking Jonathan Alexander, author of Literacy, Sexuality and Pedagogy, was pivotal in my graduate career in guiding me, through his textbooks that I was assigned, in how I wanted to be as a teacher. He focuses on the concept of identity and how students write about themselves and issues that are important to themselves and their futures. I think that what happens inside the classroom has the potential to enlighten how students view their work in the classroom, but also how they engage with the world around them. I try to pick essay topics and assignments that are relevant to today’s day and age. I strive to create an environment where every student feels welcomed and is encouraged to participate.

My various hobbies include comics, handcrafts, 3D printing, and vegan baking, although my real passion has always been communicating with and learning from other people. Since an increasing amount of our communication now takes place online, I hope to use my knowledge of rhetoric and composition to help others make themselves heard. As a first generation college graduate and community college alum, I place a great deal of importance on mentorship, so please come to me with any questions!

Hall, Debi
Email: @email

Debi Hall has been a Professor at LAVC since 2010. As a graduate of Oklahoma University, Debi began her early teaching career as Program Coordinator for Theater Arts in Oklahoma City. As a College/University Professor, Debi has taught all levels of English at LAVC and other college districts. Debi was the recipient of the Turnitin Global Innovation in 2016.

Debi has received multiple honors and awards throughout her career and is thrilled to call LAVC home. Debi believes in her students and participates in campus programs. Her philosophy is:

When individuals collaborate with an educator to construct a solid foundation for learning, their capacity for success beyond basic skills is limitless. They see the possibilities of infinity.

Meade, Colette
Email: @email

Colette Meade graduated from California State University Northridge with a master’s degree in English Rhetoric and Composition. She picked this major because it focuses on teaching and education as well as writing.

She is also a freelance music journalist who interviews musicians and writes reviews of concerts and music releases for several publications including Consequence of Sound online magazine.

She also works at the LAVC Writing Center, which is a part of the Academic Resource Center (ARC). The ARC provides tutoring in many different subjects free to students (even online). She has worked there since 2012 and it has been a rich and rewarding experience.

As a professor, she says that her philosophy “is firmly rooted in the belief that student of every ethnicity, socio-economic status, age, identity, gender, ability and background can discover and develop their unique talents and capabilities and derive marketable skills from their investment in education. As a professor, it is my goal to help guide students on this journey. I enjoy working at Los Angeles Valley College because I believe that the affordable, inclusive, and accessible qualities of the community college make it a unique and extremely important environment for underserved populations.”

Ever since then, she has served in teaching, consulting, and administrative positions in elementary education and has fulfilled adjunct positions at Los Angeles Mission College and Los Angeles Valley College in Developmental Communications and Education.

Jennifer believes that educators guide students in pursuing the education they desire. She offers a course of study that students embrace in varying degrees and at their chosen depth. Students charter their own paths toward intellectual development, career readiness, and self-actualization. Outside of living the dream of educating students, Jennifer loves to dance, hike, bike, practice yoga, and spend time with her three children, friends, and extended family.

Oberman, Tracey
Email: @email

Tracey Oberman was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley. She finished high school at William Howard Taft and then continued on to Pierce Community College, CSUN for her BA in fine art, National University for a CLAD Single Subject Teaching Credential and an MA in English, and The University Of Wisconsin for a graduate certificate in Instructional Design. She is passionate about learning and has been in education since she begun college.

She has been teaching for LAVC for ten years now! She has always loved explaining things - she even used to set up her dolls as if they were in a classroom, so she could pretend to be a teacher, when she was only seven years old. Besides teaching, she loves to draw, read, go hiking, and at times enjoy a glass of wine and an evening with friends.

Tracey’s teaching philosophy is that all students are individual and everyone learns in their own unique way, and she sets up her curriculum to support that idea. She used multiple teaching methods to make sure that all of her students learn the content. She used visuals, videos, podcasts, articles… anything it takes to help get the message across. She believes that the ARCS adult learning theory is best used with college students because she can make the information relevant and even humorous at times, provides positive feedback, and she likes to give assignments that include group work and also she allows her students to understand that they will use the information learned in everyday situations throughout the rest of their lives.

Pincolini, Rebecca
Email: pincolr@chalakseir.com

While still in grad school, I began working within Valley's very own Writing Center. My experience being a writing tutor is one that I cherish so much because I acquired a multitude of skills that have proven to be positive influences in my life in many ways. After I graduated, I was fortunate enough to become a part of the English Department, where I've been lucky enough to teach and continue to learn all aspects of reading and writing alongside students.

I earned both a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing from California State University, Long Beach, and my interests include fiction writing, fashion, yoga, art, film, animal welfare, and vegan cooking and baking.

Requa, Virginia
Email: @email

Virginia Lee Requa has taught at Los Angeles Valley College for almost twenty years. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degrees in English and Political Science from California State University, Northridge. She went on to attain her Master of Arts Degree in English from CSUN where she also earned an Adult Education Credential. With her MA in English, she attained an Emergency Teaching Permit through Los Angeles United School District.

With her Emergency Teaching Permit, she went on to teach English, English as a Second Language and Social Studies at Sun Valley Middle School. After teaching Middle School for three years, she taught part time at several Community colleges including: Los Angeles Valley College, Mission College and College of the Canyons (COC). In addition, she taught a variety of courses at ITT Technical Institute. While an adjunct instructor at LAVC and COC, she also substitute taught at middle schools, high schools and elementary schools throughout the Los Angeles, Castaic and Saugus school districts. Her students ranged in age from five years old to eighteen. At the same time, she also tutored English privately, and professionally for all grade and age levels. During this time, she also enjoyed teaching English as a Second Language at community adult schools. She has taught students in their twenties to seniors. Thus, Virginia Lee Requa has enjoyed teaching at a wide variety of schools, subjects, students. She excels at teaching, tutoring, and substituting English and other subjects within her area of expertise at a wide variety of educational institutions.

Many years ago in her teaching career Ms. Requa decided to formulate her teaching philosophy. Just as colleges have a Mission Statements, so too she believed she needed to include one her syllabus and daily practice in the classroom. She adheres to the following principles: Mutual Respect, Open Communication and Active Participation constitute the basis of her teaching. She has completed fourteen marathons and is training for her fifteenth. She loves reading, writing, bicycling and listening to all types of music.

Sahgal, Padma
Email: @email

I have been teaching for almost thirty-five years and I enjoy it. My forte is teaching English: mainly reading and composition. I retired from the LAUSD, after teaching there for two decades. I have been with LACCD and with LA Valley College in particular, since 2005.
I have also taught at Santa Monica College.
I have a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Bombay and a Masters in Education from the Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, where I studied creative writing.
My passion is reading and writing stories and interacting with students. I have been working on a novel which I hope to get published soon. I am a fellow of the UCLA Writing Project, since 1988.

Salter, Lily
Email: @email

I completed my BA in Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (1994). My graduate work (MA in Creative Writing) was completed at Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA (2000). I am a freelance writer/editor, and have produced feature stories for national magazines, developed scripted material for radio and television, and published a memoir, Death-defying Nina.

I came to LAVC in 2015 after ten years at Cal State Long Beach, where I had the pleasure of being the Writing Specialist and Program Faculty for federally-funded programs devoted to the academic needs of low-income, first-generation college students: Student Support Services Program, Upward Bound, and The McNair Scholars Program. Prior to my tenure at CSULB, I was an Adult Basic Education instructor for an innovative parolee educational program sponsored by the California Department of Corrections. As an educator, my goal is to inspire students to become life-long learners and embrace their educational journey.

Smith, Jennifer
Email: @email

Jennifer Smith has taught English here at LAVC for over eight years. She got her BA in English from Concordia University in Portland (2003), her MA in English from Chapman University in Orange (2006), and just finished her Ed.D in Education from UCLA. Her goals are to become an agent for change in the California Community College system and to lead educators to new paths of communication with students, while still teaching full time at the Community College level. She loves reading and writing, cooking, and going on impulse vacations.

Two years later she received her Bachelor’s degree and applied to graduate schools. After a semester at Columbia University in New York, where she took classes in Greek Literature and Old English, she enrolled in the University of Philadelphia. The graduate work was in American and English Literature as well as Literary Criticism. Having received a Master’s Degree in Literature, she returned to the West Coast and began teaching at The Bishop’s School, an Episcopal girl’s school in La Jolla, California. During the same time, she attended San Diego State for education courses and was awarded a Community College Teaching Credential. A new community college had just been completed, San Diego Mesa College, and she joined the new faculty to begin instruction in her first college courses. During the five years teaching at Mesa College, she published a Freshman Composition text titled The Search for Self. She started teaching at Los Angeles Valley College in 1969 and soon after published a second text titled The Involved Generation. At Valley, she has taught all of the developmental writing classes as well as Freshman Composition, Introduction to Literature and Critical Thinking. Additionally, she has taught most of the upper division Literature courses as well as English as a Second Language courses. She encourages a learner centered classroom with alternating lectures, student group workshops, applications, discussions, and field trips. Her emphasis for a composition course is the shaping of intellectual strategies to provide the students with a methodology to comprehend, evaluate and communicate about their academic and life experiences. She has been Vice Chair of the English department and assisted a large group of adjunct faculty. In addition to grants for projects such as “Comparative Cultural Literary Images”, and “Freshman Composition for Japanese Learners” and others, she received a Fulbright grant to exchange teach for a year in Norway. Her personal interests focus mostly on reading and listening to music, literature and art lectures on Audible. Also, she enjoys cooking, gardening, and applying her architect husband’s design principles to decorate her home and vacations when possible with her son and his wife.

Wallis, William
Email: @email

Bill Wallis was born in the American South and educated at Hendrix College, Southern Illinois University, the University of Nebraska (Ph.D.in Literary Criticism and Creative Writing, 1972), and the Hanover Conservatory (Opera Performance). In 1973, while a member of the faculty in Lincoln, he performed a supporting role in Napoleon, a grand opera that he co-authored. His opera The Vision, based on Lakota myth, story, and song, was set to music and performed as part of the American Bi-Centennial Celebration in the Great Plains.

Between 1978 and 1985, he worked as a stage director, then as a tenor singing operetta and opera in the European theater. After returning to the United States permanently in 1983, he began teaching and writing in Lincoln, Nebraska; and then Santa Barbara, California. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he is Professor and Vice-Chair of the Department of English at Los Angeles Valley College.

In 1992, he performed the World Premier of Robert Chauls’s Song Cycle “Songs of Great Men and Death” at the founding convention of the Emily Dickinson International Society in Washington, D.C. He is a contributing editor for Shofar Magazine at Purdue University Press.
He has published twenty volumes of poetry and prose. His volumes Joshua (1994), Twins (1996), and Selected Poems 1969-99 (2000) were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Poetry Division. In 2006, his novel Hawk won the Benjamin Franklin Award in Popular Fiction of the Independent Publishers of America. His latest publication is a biography, Prairie Symphony, the Story of Charles Leonard Thiessen, which appeared in 2010. (His works are available on Amazon.com.)

He lives with his wife Leslie and their four children just off the Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, where he is a cycling enthusiast.

Yablon, Brian
Email: @email

I have been very blessed to have had the privilege of working at LA Valley College for twenty years. During that time, I have taught a wide variety of courses in basic skills, writing, critical thinking, and literature – but how did I get so lucky to be here in the first place? Well, a LONG time ago, I started off at UCSD studying theater and dance. That led to gaining a big ego at the time, so I auditioned and transferred to UCLA to get a toehold in the world of performing arts. Alas, I was fickle, changed my mind, and then went on to earn a B.A. in English. I have never looked back.

Afterward, I graduated and began working in various writing endeavors: advertising, public relations, magazine editing, and corporate writing. While in the corporate world, I taught a business writing class, and the teaching bug grabbed me. I then enrolled in graduate school and stayed there for a long, long time, earning three teaching credentials and two M.A.’s, all while working as a teacher in public schools. Right before my second daughter was born, I was able to secure a spot at LAVC. That was in 1998. I am thrilled to be here and look forward to many more fun and productive years at “my second home.”