JMU HONORS PROGRAM251 Warren Service Drive
MSC 1501
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
Hillcrest House
540.568.6953
540.568.7728
540.568.8079 (fax)
E-mail: honors@jmu.edu
Office hours:
Mon.-Fri., 8:00am-5:00pm
Honors Program Staff
Dr. Barry Falk, Ph.D.
Director
(540) 568-5535
Hillcrest 203
The Director of the JMU Honors Program oversees daily operations and leads in program planning and development. He initiates additional programs where appropriate, coordinates existing honors programs and supervises the honors students' participation in these programs. He is responsible for recruiting, advising and counseling honors students and developing and evaluating the honors curriculum. The Director reports directly to the Dean of Undergraduate Studies.
Dr. Falk holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota and an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a professor of economics and taught at Iowa State University for twenty-five years before coming to James Madison University in July 2007. He worked with the Honors Program at Iowa State for the past fifteen years and was responsible for Iowa State's first undergraduate research symposium. Dr. Falk's areas of research and teaching are in macroeconomics, time series econometrics, and economic forecasting. He has supervised fifteen doctoral students, served on over fifty doctoral and masters committees, lectured regularly in hs field, and authored or co-authored twenty-two articles in peer-reviewed journals in the economics profession and numerous articles in other journals.
Dr. Melinda Adams, Ph.D.
Assistant Director and Prestigious Scholarships Coordinator
(540) 568-6526
Hillcrest 202
Dr. Adams is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and has worked as a freshman advisor and is also an advisor to students interested in studying in Africa, which is her area of research specialization. She also comes with experience as a grants reviewer for the Department of Education and as a recipient of numerous nationally prestigious scholarships including the Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS), a dissertation fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), a Global Studies Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation, as well as many other awards. She will help identify and mentor top students on our campus so that they will become successful applicants for nationally competitive awards such as the Fulbright, Rhodes, Goldwater, Marshall and Truman.
dienerjl@jmu.edu
Jared Diener
Honors Academic Advisor
(540) 568-6503
Hillcrest 205
Karen Allison
Executive Secretary
(540) 568-6953
Hillcrest 103
The Executive Secretary provides support for the Honors Program by disseminating program information, maintaining and updating student records, typing and editing office correspondence, documents, requisitions and associated financial management forms, scheduling appointments and programs, supervising student assistants, and various other duties.
Selena Cowger
Administrative Assistant
(540) 568-7728
Hillcrest 105
The Administrative Assistant provides support for the Honors Program by disseminating program information, maintaining and updating student records, typing and editing office correspondence, documents, scheduling appointments and programs, and various other duties.
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Dr. Joanne V. Gabbin, Ph.D.
Director Emeritus
(540) 568-6310
DDM 104
Dr. Gabbin received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and taught at Lincoln University before coming to James Madison University. She led the Honors Program from 1986 to 2005, during which time she significantly expanded the number of students in the program and established the Brown Bag lunch talks, the Honors Symposium, the Honors Opportunity Program, the Honors Learning Community, and many other programs. She created the Honors Program Advisory Board, which endowed a $50,000 fellowship established in its name. During this same period, Dr. Gabbin founded the Furious Flower Poetry Center , named in honor of the Pulitzer prize-winning poet, Gwendolyn Brooks. The Center has held two internationally renowned conferences in 1994 and in 2004. Dr. Gabbin has written and edited numerous books, articles, and films, including the award-winning Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black Aesthetic Tradition (University of Virginia, 1985), Furious Flower: African American Poetry from the Black Arts Movement to the Present (University of Virginia, 1999), and the children's book, I Bet She Called Me Sugar Plum (2004). Her most recent book is Shaping Memories: Reflections of African American Women Writers (2010). She has received numerous awards, most recently the Provost's Award for Excellence in 2004. As of May 2005, Dr. Gabbin became Executive Director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center. In recognition of her years of service, the Honors Program has initiated fundraising for the Joanne V. Gabbin Endowed Scholarship, which will be awarded to need-based students. To give to this fund, please contact the Honors Program Office at (540) 568-6953 or e-mail us at honors@jmu.edu.
