Our Faculty

For more than 15 years, in addition to her daytime role as a school psychologist, Kathleen Marjinsky has shared her knowledge with students of psychology at Le Moyne College. As a professor and colleague, Kathleen embodies the Ignatian-Jesuit characteristic of cura personalis.

She consistently demonstrates a sense of responsibility for others that shows up in and out of the classroom. Students seek her out for letters of recommendation for graduate programs, for advice on jobs, and to talk about their lives. She is always willing to go above and beyond to help a student in need.

Kathleen is willing to assist the department, too, by unhesitatingly agreeing to teach classes that the department needs – even if she has not previously taught the course. Her classes are consistently well-planned, highly informative, and filled to capacity. Kathleen attends faculty meetings and actively participates in the department’s student learning assessment process. She is strongly aware of issues of social justice, and is a formidable advocate for vulnerable people and populations both on campus and in the community. She encourages students to consider these issues as well, and challenges them to look beyond the classroom through engagement with the community so that their future actions can make the world a better place.

Kathleen truly carries out Le Moyne College’s mission of educating the whole person, and we are fortunate to have her in the psychology department.

Service is not a distinct category for Diane Zigo, but rather, an enduring disposition that guides her commitments and accomplishments in teaching, scholarship and living within academic, religious and civic community spheres.

The titles of Diane’s prodigious scholarly accomplishments resonate with the enduring themes of her service-orientated core: “community-based,” “collaboration,” “partnerships,” “community engagement,” “locally and globally expanding circles,” “field-based,” and “university and school clinical partnerships.”

Diane continually integrates service-learning and community engagement into nearly every education course she teaches. Former students acclaim the shaping impact of these experiences as they grow to embrace her belief that everyone can learn, and deserves to do so.

Diane promotes a culture of service in the department and for the College. Beyond the usual committee services, She has been a driving faculty force on the service learning advisory board, an invaluable member of the Carnegie Classification Committee and, most recently, faculty liaison for service-learning.

A trustee at the College of St. Rose, Diane chairs the Pathways to Success Retention Scholarship Committee. She was also deeply involved in fund and awareness raising efforts on the board of directors of Hope for Ariang, a nonprofit organization that provides educational opportunities for children in South Sudan.

Diane’s service is rooted in her deep faith and tenets of her vocation. As a Sister of St. Joseph, she gladly assumes many responsibilities in her community, living her passion for social justice and care for others.

Through his more than half-century of connections to Le Moyne, John Langdon has made an extraordinary impact as a teacher, colleague, mentor and scholar.

Of course, as John would be the first to acknowledge, he has been but half of that indefatigable Abbot and Costello team of the academic world: Judge and Langdon. Ed Judge and John Langdon have collaborated on numerous scholarly projects and have published four major works of global historical significance in the last several years alone. Of particular import, here at Le Moyne and elsewhere, has been Connections: A World History, which has served numerous college students and professors for the past decade, and which is currently in preparation for a fourth edition.

John, along with Ed, has also been an active scholar and teacher of the Cold War, resulting in A Hard and Bitter Peace: A Global History of the Cold War. One reviewer wrote that this “should be the essential text for any undergraduate course” on this topic. The companion volume is titled The Cold War through Documents: A Global History. The success of these texts is evident from the fact that they were both published in a third edition in 2018.

Not to be outdone, this dynamic duo recently released its latest tome, The Struggle against Imperialism: Anticolonialism and the Cold War, which has also received accolades from academic reviewers. It should be added that John is currently working on a new edition of his history of Le Moyne, Against the Sky, a heartfelt tribute to his beloved alma mater.

It was an amazing piece of luck for Le Moyne to discover Jim Snyder when it did. Political science was a two-person department at the time and in need of a solid pre-law advisor and teacher. Jim was unfazed by the famed Intro to Legal Studies syllabus – one that ominously started with Kafka’s Trial, and then gently veered into issues like the gender theory of reproductive freedom, poverty, disempowerment and the law through an exploration of the book titled Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption. Once faced with that, surely, no pre-law technocrat would lightly take on the challenge of social justice teaching, with all its diverse, provocative heft. However, Jim took one look at it and said, “Yeah, I’ll teach that book and a couple of others.”

It was clear that Jim’s work, as well as his legal outlook, strongly aligned with Le Moyne’s social justice values. He has confirmed this relentlessly ever since, both in terms of advising students about their path to law school and helping them with personal challenges. Jim is the person who talks immigration with international students, buys winter coats for the freezing freshmen who can’t afford them, and does not hesitate to give students a frank account of the particular challenges they will face in law school. Jim explores with students the kind of legal career that needs to serve the purpose of social justice.

Jim is now a professor of practice in political science; he is the College-wide pre-law mentor, and he also coordinates the 3+3 Law School programs for five Le Moyne majors. For at least two years, 100 percent of the students who worked with him on law school applications have been admitted and currently attend law school. That is no mean feat, and it takes a combination of qualities to lead students down such a successful path. Jim manages to approach both the personal profile of a student’s life and the student’s academic inclinations in a way that guides them to have confidence in their choice and to a craft a strong application. He creates a strong rapport with students, which allows him to have an open and honest discussion about both academic and life choices. Students like him, respect him, and follow his advice.

Among her many roles at Le Moyne College, Bea Robinson was an advocate for students and faculty, devoted to her many biology advisees. Bea, as a former colleague and mentor, would be delighted by today’s affirmation of Dr. Theresa Beaty’s excellent advising and her role in students’ success.

Theresa is described by those who work with her as “the brightest unique snowflake among the flurry of faculty advisors.” Her peers observe that her dedication to students far exceeds any expectation, and is unusually effective. Theresa’s advising is the result of her approach: She empowers students to be their own advocates. She is present to her advisees, and accepts their goals as valid. A former advisee said, “She provided an outlet of neutral support and didn’t guide me where she thought I should go, but encouraged me to find my own way.” In this atmosphere of trust, Theresa engages her advisees in honest and forthright conversations. A perceptive listener, she is able to illuminate a source of academic difficulty and help students find their passion. She emphasizes the distinction between intellectual success and academic achievement; any hard-earned grade can be rewarding.

Theresa has formed lasting connections with her advisees in biochemistry, chemistry, biology and physics, and most recently, first-year undeclared science students. Informally, she engages hundreds of individuals from across the College providing advice, along with permissions, as Core director. Like her predecessor, Bea, Theresa is an advocate for students, her decisions guided by what is in the best interest of all students. In the words of a former advisee: “She cares for the whole student, and every student.”

To faculty, staff and administrators, she is an ‘advisor’s advisor,’ helping them navigate the Core and sharing her advising skills with the entire College. Theresa is an extraordinary asset to all students and to Le Moyne College. Her guidance of students toward academic, intellectual and personal development is exceptional and highly deserving of this recognition.

In the fall of 2012, three students from ENG 300 Major Authors (section 05) began holding clandestine meetings on campus. It was a secret society; minutes were not taken, and no records survive of time or place or number of meetings. Legend has it, however, that they gathered in Reilly Hall 322, the office of Dr. Julie Olin-Ammentorp, to continue the conversations begun in their Willa Cather class, and take things to a deeper level. They called themselves the “Secret Cather Club,” and if you’ve never heard of it, neither had I until a few weeks ago.

It turns out that for more than 30 years, Julie has been working quietly, diligently, and right under our very noses to instigate and foster this kind of intense passion for learning among students in the Core, in interdisciplinary honors, and in English electives. She accomplishes this by challenging them to engage with difficult texts and complex issues, reminding them that, in Cather’s words, “success is less interesting than struggle,” but also that “there is great pleasure in the effort;” by stimulating them with her own knowledge and passion for the material; and by engaging their senses with visual art and travel in the wider world. As students respond to Julie’s intelligent, enthusiastic and kind guidance, they find themselves drawn into shared experiences that feel as intimate as a club, but which are, in the best and most lasting sense of the word, an education.

Ginnie Cronin is the founding director of the nurse practitioner program and has worked passionately to build a successful program. She begins mentoring from the moment students enroll and continues a relationship with most long after graduation.

Ginnie communicates openly, honestly and nonjudgmentally with students and creates a safe learning environment. She uses a “praise and polish” approach and focuses on what they are doing well and identifies what needs improvement. She encourages students not to focus on grades, but rather on the quality of learning and the acquisition of skills to be excellent health care providers.

When Ginnie started the nurse practitioner program, she also instituted a formal graduate student orientation. This has helped students establish a Le Moyne identity, which in turn, creates a sense of connection and loyalty to the College. The positive learning experience that graduate nursing students have at Le Moyne has proven to be a powerful recruitment technique because they encourage prospective students to come here as well.

This year she led a group of graduate students on a health mission trip to the African nation of Ghana. Under her direction, they immersed themselves in the culture as they provided health care to those living in rural areas of Ghana.

With over 20 years of experience as a nurse practitioner, students trust Ginnie for advice about clinical experiences, job opportunities, negotiation techniques and even personal matters. Students not only receive sage advice from Ginnie, but they are also treated to her wit and great sense of humor. She has a gift for putting students at ease and bringing out their best. She is beloved by her students and many strive to emulate her.