Project Team

Part of the InTeGrate Mercer University Implementation Program

Colleen P. Stapleton (Mercer University)

Colleen Stapleton is a geologist who applies geochemical and petrographical analyses to archaeological and art historical objects in order to interpret ancient technology and manufacturing techniques. Before joining Mercer University in 2003, she worked at the Scientific Research Department at the Corning Museum of Glass, NY contributing to the three volume series on ancient glasses and other materials. She is co-author with Dr. Robert H. Brill on the third volume Chemical Analyses of Early Glasses: Reports and Essays (2011, Corning Museum of Glass). Prior to this, Dr. Stapleton spent 6 years working as a scientific officer in the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum, London, where she authored and co-authored papers on the technology of archaeological and art historical glass, ceramics, and metal, including Medieval British enamel, 13th c. Islamic glass lamps, and glazes from the Warring States period of China. Her dissertation work was on the geochemical analysis of glass objects excavated from the site of Hasanlu in northwestern Iran.

Sabrina L. Walthall (Mercer University)

Dr. Sabrina Walthall received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Emory University and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She completed her postdoctoral training with UAB Community for Outreach Development (CORD) where she worked closely on rebuilding science education at the K12 level in the state of Alabama. She has been awarded both an NIH and NSF fellowship, a NIH Training grant, several travel awards, and was nominated for the K. Patricia Cross Leadership Award. Her research on Drosophila melanogaster and the hedgehog signaling pathway has led to several publications and platform presentations. As a graduate student Dr. Walthall was a peer mentor for the Ronald McNair Scholars Program and currently works closely with the TRIO programs at Mercer University. Her areas of interest include science education, teacher professional development, and science outreach.

Jeffrey Hall (Mercer University)

Dr. Jeffrey Hall is an associate professor for the Tift College of Education and has been a faculty member since 2010. He currently teaches graduate courses in mathematics content, middle grades/secondary mathematics pedagogy, research methods and assessment. Prior to joining the Mercer family, he served as a high school mathematics teacher for five years and as a U.S. Air Force officer for five years.

Timothy Craker (Mercer University)

Tim Craker is an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Philosophy. Before coming to Mercer, he attended an NEH Institute on Ethics and Aesthetics, and more than twenty years later he is still asking what is at stake in acts of reading and interpretation. Though he has published a few essays on Wittgenstein in relation to the Continental philosophical tradition, his questions about why time spent reading and interpreting is worthwhile have been addressed primarily in course development and General Education program development, from the Academic Writing Seminars to the General Education Capstone. It is possible that this focus on the classroom infrastructure and experience had something to do with his reception of an award for teaching.