Photo of the Maryville College new faculty members for the 2023-24 academic year
The Maryville College new faculty members for 2023-24 include Dr. Julie Konkel, Christian Ishak, Dr. Angela Sebby, Shiyuan Xu, and Dr. Chathuri Perera.

MC welcomes five new full-time faculty members for 2023-24 academic year

Aug. 22, 2023

Five new full-time faculty members will join the ranks of Maryville College educators for the 2023-24 academic year, bringing the total number of full-time faculty members to 72.

Three visiting lecturers, an assistant professor and an associate professor are among the new cohort, who step into their respective classrooms when the new academic year kicks off at MC on Aug. 23, the first day of classes.

“Teaching well is at the heart of what we do here. To be effective at Maryville College, faculty not only need to know their disciplines really well, they also need to care a lot about teaching and to be good at it,” said Dr. Dan Klingensmith, vice president and dean of the College. “I’m confident these new faculty will serve our students well, and I’m delighted at the strengths they bring to our curriculum.”

The new faculty members include:

Dr. Julie Konkel

A visiting lecturer in environmental science, Konkel’s area of expertise about East Tennessee watersheds will be a boon for the Division of Natural Sciences. She received both her bachelor’s (in philosophy) and master’s (in geology) degrees from the University of South Florida in Tampa and completed her Ph.D. in geography at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. A number of graduate teaching and research assistant roles, as well as her work as program director and project lead at the Great Basin Institute in Nevada, led to her current role as watershed scientist and coordinator for the Blount County Soil and Water Conservation District. From 2015 to 2018, she also served as a post-doctoral research scientist in Thule, Greenland as part of a collaboration by the University of Tennessee, the University of Alaska, the National Science Foundation and  the Arctic Observatory Network.

Christian Ishak

As the newest full-time member of the Division of Behavioral Sciences, Ishak will serve as a visiting lecturer in psychology. Ishak received two degrees from the University of Florida, a bachelor’s in psychology and another in business administration-management. In addition, he earned a master’s in psychological science from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga last May, where he served in a number of roles, including as a digital marketing strategist for the College of Engineering and Computer Science and as a graduate research assistant for Dr. Ralph W. Hood, a professor of psychology and the UTC Leroy A. Martin Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies. Ishak also spent three years in Gangwan-do, South Korea, from 2018 to 2021 as an ESL teacher.

Dr. Angela Sebby

As associate professor and coordinator of the College’s new Hospitality and Regional Identity program of study, Sebby received her bachelor’s degree in service management and hospitality/tourism from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville in 2011, an MBA in marketing from Lincoln Memorial University in 2012 and a Ph.D. in retail, hospitality and tourism management from UTK in 2016. In addition to management, fundraising and event planning roles at a number of area businesses and organizations, Sebby served as the general manager for the Sevierville Wingate Inn, as assistant manager of Visitor Services for the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation, and as an associate professor in the College of Business at Western Carolina University, where she taught a variety of hospitality-related courses. In addition, she has earned Certified Hospitality Educator credentials from the American Hotel and Lodging Education Institute (AHLEI), from which she’s also obtained certification in Hotel Industry Analytics, Contemporary Club Management and Managing Bar Operations.

Dr. Shiyuan Xu

Xu, a visiting lecturer in physics, earned a bachelor’s degree in applied physics from Changchun Normal University in China, a master’s degree in physics from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, and a Ph.D. in physics from Oklahoma State University. At OSU, he served as a teaching assistant for five years while focusing on research in the area of theoretical particle physics. From using applied mathematics to discover the mass matrices of quarks and leptons to developing a new catalyst for diamond synthesis that involves replacing nickel with zinc in order to save synthesizing costs and reduce pollution, he’s as at home in the laboratory as he is in front of the classroom. Xu’s appointment complements the MC Division of Natural Sciences.

Dr. Chathuri Perera

Having recently completed her Ph.D. in mathematics with a concentration in statistics, Perera joins the Division of Mathematics and Computer Science at Maryville College as an assistant professor of mathematics. She graduated with first-class honors from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in Nugegoda, Sri Lanka, and earned a master’s in statistics from Texas Tech University in Lubbock, where she also completed her Ph.D. Her dissertation, “nonparametric methods for multivariate statistical process control using sequential normal scores,” is an outgrowth of her areas of research interest, which include statistical process controlling, high dimensional data analysis, functional data analysis and more.

Promotions and Title Changes

Maryville College is a nationally-ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges. For more than 200 years we’ve educated students to be giving citizens and gifted leaders, to study everything, so that they are prepared for anything — to address any problem, engage with any audience and launch successful careers right away. Located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville, Maryville College offers nearly 1,200  students from around the world both the beauty of a rural setting and the advantages of an urban center, as well as more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last. Today, our 10,000 alumni are living life strong of mind and brave of heart and are prepared, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”