Cultural and Social Studies Faculty & Staff

Joseph Carnazzo, MA, MBA

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Joseph Carnazzo is a nearly lifelong Omahan.  He received a Bachelor’s and Master’s in History from Creighton and an MBA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Most of his career has been in healthcare administration, primarily in the fields of planning and marketing. Joseph Carnazzo has been involved in Creighton’s Healthcare Administration and Policy Program since its beginning and teaches HAP 200 Introduction to Healthcare Administration, HAP 411 Healthcare Planning and Marketing, as well as HAP 415 Healthcare Management.

Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
josephcarnazzo@creighton.edu

Tamara Dolphens, MPAS, PA-C

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Tamara Dolphens graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical Center as a Physician Assistant and began her clinical career in Pediatric Cardiology at Children’s Hospital in Omaha. She has been involved with research and advocacy, holding leadership roles in the Society for PAs in Pediatrics and speaking at numerous local and national conferences. She currently serves the State of Nebraska DHHS Physician Assistant Licensing and Credentialing Committee as chair. She has a passion for education, spending nearly 4 years as a full-time Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska at which time she served as course coordinator of Medical Ethics. She teaches HAP 410 Healthcare Ethics.

Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
tamaradolphens@creighton.edu

Kristin Fitzgerald, PhD

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Kristin Fitzgerald is a cultural anthropologist with a specialization on Native American Studies, who received her doctorate at the University of New Mexico, exploring ethnicity among urban Lakota Christians, looking at how their discourse and performance in congregational life and interpersonal interactions demonstrate their ethnic identity through specifically situated representations of difference rather than universalized or fixed categories of indigeneity. She teaches ANT 111 Introduction to Anthropology and SOC 101 Introduction to Sociology.

Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
KristinFitzgerald2@creighton.edu

Mariah Gesink, MPH

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Mariah Gesink, MPH, earned her Master's of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center's (UNMC) College of Public Health. While at the UNMC, Mariah was awarded the opportunity to conduct HPV and cervical cancer research in Tanzania. For the past four years she has worked as a hospital epidemiologist with CHI Health. She has a passion for learning and teaching. She teaches HAP 355 Essentials of Epidemiology.

Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
mariah.gesink@alegent.org

Ellen Houston, MA

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Ellen Houston is a full-time healthcare administrator for a specialty private practice group in Omaha. She received her BS in Computer Science from Western Oregon University and her MA in Management from Bellevue University (with distinction). She is a member of the Medical Group Management Association, the association’s Nebraska branch, and a certified member of the American College of Medical Practice Executives. She teaches HAP 310 Health Finance and Budgeting and HAP 412 Information Systems in Healthcare Management.

Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
ellenhouston@creighton.edu

Susie Mossman-Riva, PhD

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Susie Mossman-Riva is an anthropologist living in Switzerland. She earned her PhD in the Social Sciences from the TAOS Institute of the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands. Her main body of work has been in intercultural mediation and qualitative healthcare needs assessments as well as in aging research with the Senior Living Lab. She teaches ANT 113 Introduction to Anthropology, ANT 308 An Anthropological and Transformational Approach to Alternative and Complementary Medicine, and ANT 383 Cultural Epidemiology.

Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
smo09955@creighton.edu

Emily Nguyen, MSW, MPA

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Emily Nguyen has been at the Omaha Community Foundation since 2015 as the Director of Research and Strategy. In her role, she oversees evaluations and research within the foundation and leads the data collection and synthesis within The Landscape project. Prior to joining OCF, she conducted program evaluations with local nonprofit organizations through the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO). Emily has taught graduate research courses at UNO and currently teaches as an adjunct at Creighton University. Emily earned her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Creighton and her Master of Social Work and Master of Public Administration from UNO.

Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
emilynguyen@creighton.edu

Erin Render, MHA

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Erin Render became interested in long-term care when she observed her grandfather navigate the healthcare system after suffering from a stroke. She pursued a master's degree in healthcare administration and is currently the owner of Legato Living Residential Memory Care, that provides care for individuals with advanced dementia in a residential home setting. She and her business partners are currently building Legato Living Franchise with the goal of assisting others to use their passion to help individuals in their own communities.

Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
erin@livinglegato.com

Cynthia Schmidt, PhD

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Cynthia Schmidt is an ethnomusicologist, documentarian, and Africanist. She earned her PhD in from UCLA. Her work with the Gullah in Georgia, is recognized in the award-winning film, "The Language You Cry In". She has lived and taught in many places, including at the University of Sierra Leone. Originally from Iowa, she is now closer to home, living near Omaha. She teaches ANT 179 Encountering Africa: Experiencing Our Shared Humanity.

Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
CynthiaSchmidt1@creighton.edu

• Jack Angus, PhD, Associate Professor Emeritus, Sociology
• Roger Bergman, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Justice and Peace Studies (Bergman Resume)
• Raymond A. Bucko, SJ, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Cultural Anthropology
• Jerry Clark, PhD, Associate Professor Emeritus, Cultural Anthropology
• Barbara Dilly, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Cultural Anthropology, Sustainability, Food Studies

  Charles Harper 1940-2023

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Dr. Charles Harper taught sociology at Creighton from 1968 to 2012, first part-time during his doctoral studies and later as full-time faculty. He retired having been at Creighton for exactly 40 years. His teaching and scholarship covered a wide range of topics, from sociopsychological development of children, marginal religious movements, to secularization. He was also known for providing his students with opportunities to engage in scholarship, having published with many of them over the years.  However, he is most remembered for his work on ecology and sustainability, which he started long before it became a hot topic. His Environment and Society: Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues has inspired scores of students to pursue academic and professional careers related to ecology, sustainability, and related issues. These themes were not just his academic focus but also shaped his personal life – promoting use of cloth bags for groceries, buying used clothing and furniture when possible, and of course, faithfully riding his bike to campus, rain or shine (even after an accident left his knee permanently damaged). He is fondly remembered as a faculty who expected students to stretch to their full potential and encouraged them to “walk the walk” of a Jesuit education. 

Charles Harper, PhD, Sociology

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James T. Ault, III 1940-2017

Professor Ault spent 45 years at Creighton University working in both Information Technology and the Department of Cultural and Social Studies. Mr. Ault held his students to high standards, and his first impression could be intimidating. But Mr. Ault was really like the bears he loved so much, a little grizzly on the outside but a total softie inside. Mr. Ault loved his students and welcomed them into his office for hours of conversation, always with words of encouragement.

Some of his students remember their time with Mr. Ault:

"During the school year, I would go into Mr. Ault's office to talk about school and life. We would talk for hours, and at times I would show up late for class but Mr. Ault would email my teacher corroberating my story. When others needed to stop the conversations so they wouldn't be late to the classes they taught, it was Mr. Ault that would end our conversations always saying "Go do something productive now". Which I would most likely respond with "Oh no, my class started 5 minutes ago." I could talk to Mr. Ault for hours about anything and everything, but he had a time restriction on how long we talked."

"Who would have thought that an old white man and a young liberal hipster would have become such great friends? Students in your class would confusingly ask me about why I loved you so much. I would tell them that they just needed to get to know you during office hours. When there was a tornado warning, you went to the third floor and told me that it was time to shut down STATA and actually take cover. You graded my Capstone presentation, and genuinely listened – just like you listened when I cried to you about my assault. Throughout graduation and award ceremonies, you accompanied my family, smiling like a proud pseudo-grandparent. You took care of me."