Faculty Leaders

Stephen Cushman is the Robert C. Taylor Professor of English at U.Va., where he has taught since 1982. With a B.A. from Cornell and a Ph.D. from Yale, he has brought to the English Department and the American Studies Major his commitment to American literature, modern Literature, poetry, literature and the environment, and the American Civil War. His teaching has been honored with an All-University Teaching Award and the first Mayo Distinguished Teaching Professorship. A poet as well as a scholar, he has published six books, most recently Bloody Promenade: Reflections on a Civil War Battle (Virginia, 1999) and Cussing Lesson, a volume of poems (LSU, 2002). His next book of poems, Heart Island, will by published by David Robert in fall 2006. Steve has lead Cavalier Travels trips to Ireland in 2006 and East Africa in 2007, a journey that he helped create entitled "Hemingway's Africa: Sights and Safaris".

Ernest H. Ern is a University of Virginia Senior Vice President and Professor of Environmental Sciences Emeritus. Ernie and his wife, Petie, came to Charlottesville in 1962 and Ernie taught in the Department of Geology, later the Department of Environmental Sciences, for 39 years. Concurrently, he held administrative positions as Dean of Admissions, Vice President for Student Affairs and, from 1993 to 2001, as Senior Vice President of the University. From 1989 to 2001 the Erns' lived on the Lawn in Pavilion X. Since retiring, Ernie has hosted annual alumni trips to Italy in 2006 and Greece in 2007.

Fred A. Diehl (Costa Rica ’07) is an Emeritus faculty member in the Department of Biology at the University of Virginia and has over 30 years of teaching biology at all levels. His research and teaching interests are mainly in the areas of zoology, developmental biology, ecology and marine sciences, with a specialization in Invertebrate Biology. Whenever possible, field experiences and laboratories have been an important component of his courses and he is a firm believer in learning from direct observation and first-hand exposure to nature. Professor Diehl has a long history of working with the Advanced Placement Biology program and in-service teacher preparation in addition to his dedication to undergraduate and graduate education. His proudest accomplishment as a faculty member at the University of Virginia is having successfully taught a variety of courses to a total of over 25,000 undergraduate students, 700 of whom were enrolled in his renowned course in Marine Biology/ Coral Reef Ecology in the Bahamas, which has been offered for over 25 years and is still going strong.

 Cindy Fredrick (Peru ’07) is the director of Cavaliers Care and the senior director of external partnership in the U.Va. Office of Constituent Engagement. Cindy has been an active volunteer since she was nine and a professional volunteer manager since 1984. She served as the Executive Director of Madison House, the student volunteer center at the University of Virginia, for 14 years where she coordinated the annual efforts of 3,300 student volunteers working in over 70 community agencies. Cindy became the senior director of external partnerships at the University of Virginia in July 2006 and provides overall leadership and direction to the UVaClubs program and regional engagement efforts. She holds a BSW from Luther College and a M.Ed. from California State University-Sacramento.

 Lawrence Goedde (Danube River Cruise ’07, Holland & Belgium ’06) has taught art history in the McIntire Department of Art since 1981 and has served the department as Chair since 1996. He received his B.A. in the history of art from Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, and went on to earn his M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from Columbia University. A scholar of Baroque art in Europe, Professor Goedde’s areas of specialization include Northern Baroque art—especially 17th century Dutch painting; early Netherlandish painting; and Old Master prints. He has lectured and written extensively on the topics of seascape, landscape and still life, with publications including his book Tempest and Shipwreck in Dutch and Flemish Art: Rhetoric Convention and Interpretation (Penn State Press, 1989), and various exhibition catalogues and essays.

 Luther Y. Gore is Professor Emeritus of Humanities from the University of Virginia. He taught there from 1958 to 1993 in the Division of Humanities of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. He chaired the Division from 1970-1974. Professor Gore developed a course in the history of flight with Professor George Matthews of the Aerospace Engineering Department and taught the course from 1978 until he retired in 1993. He has published articles on aviation and military history and was instrumental in the founding of the American Society of Aviation Artists (ASAA). He served as the Executive Secretary of ASAA for 15 years. He is Co-Founder of the Charlottesville Aviation Luncheon Club, which for the last twelve years has provided luncheon speakers on aerospace/aviation topics for an enthusiastic audience of pilots, aircraft owners, historians, and other interested parties in Central Virginia.

Donald Loach (Italian Lakes ’07, Mozart’s 250th ‘06) is an Emeritus Associate Professor of the University of Virginia Department of Music. He came to the University in 1964. The Introduction to Musical Literature course that “Coach Loach" (as he was called by his students) taught was one of the most popular courses at U.Va. Coach Loach was also Music Director for the University Singers and for the Oratorio Society of Charlottesville. With the University Singers, he established the Renaissance Madrigal Dinner Concerts each December in Newcomb Hall, and students and townsfolk filled Cabell Hall for three performances each year of the Annual Glee Club Christmas Concert, made especially popular for the audience's riotous singing of The Twelve Days of Christmas.

 Peter S. Onuf (Mediterranean ’06) is Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the Corcoran Department of History, University of Virginia. An extremely popular professor and faculty director of the U.Va. Jefferson Symposium, Peter is author of Jefferson’s Empire: The Language of American Nationhood (University Press of Virginia, 2001) and is co-editor of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture (University Press of Virginia, 1999)and The Revolution of 1800: Democracy, Race, and the New Republic (University of Virginia Press, 2002) and editor of Jeffersonian Legacies. With his brother Nicholas G. Onuf, he has just published Nations, Markets, and War: Modern History and the American Civil War (University of Virginia Press, 2006).

John Portmann is an Assistant Professor in the University of Virginia Department of Religious Studies. He received his Masters in Philosophy from Cambridge University and Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Virginia. He teaches a number of courses including a popular undergraduate seminar entitled "Cultural Catholicism." He has written four books and is currently working on a fifth entitled Sin: Vast Past, Vaster Future, which will be published in the summer of 2007. John is passionate about Italian culture, having traveled to Italy over 25 times.

Jenny Strauss Clay (Mediterranean ’06) is a Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia, is the author of several books on Early Greek poetry. She has traveled extensively in Greece, Sicily, and Italy, and was Whitehead Professor at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and a Resident Scholar at the American Academy in Rome. She has done extended traipsing throughout the Mediterranean landscape. Jenny is the author of many works including: Hesiod’s Cosmos (Cambridge University Press, 2003); The Wrath of Athena: Gods and Men in the Odyssey (Princeton University Press, 1983; Reprint, Rowman and Littlefield, 1996); The Politics of Olympus: Form and Meaning in the Major Homeric Hymns (Princeton University Press, 1989; Reprint, Duckworth, 2006); and Locke’s Questions Concerning the Law of Nature, with Robert Horwitz and Diskin Clay (Cornell University Press, 1990).

Peter Yu (China ’07) has been working with the University since 1996 and directed several University study abroad programs, including the Darden School's Global Business Experience-China program since 2004. He is also the Assistance Dean of African-American Affairs. Mr. Yu received his college education in China and went on to earn his M.A. from University of Exeter, England, and Ph.D. from University of Virginia with a focus on international education. A scholar of Chinese culture and Chinese education, he teaches courses on Chinese language and culture and Chinese calligraphy at the University. He is currently writing a book on Chinese calligraphy for American learners.