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Raritan Valley Community College is welcoming new faculty members to the RVCC community. Unless noted otherwise, the following faculty members began teaching fulltime at the College this fall:

Robert Cacciatore, Criminal Justice

Robert received a BS from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and an MS from Hunter College. He joins RVCC after spending 16 years as a tenured faculty member at Orange County Community College in New York. A former Police Captain, he was a Resource and Policy Analyst for the New York City Police Commissioner.  Robert also served as the Commanding Officer of the Manhattan Gang Investigations Division and the Executive Officer of the City-Wide Hate Crimes Unit.  After leaving the NYPD, he led regional physical security operations at Bloomberg LP.

Kelsey Carter, English    

Michaela Granger, History

Michaela received a BS in History from Corban University and an MA in History from The Catholic University of America, where she is completing a PhD (ABD) in History. She received the Excellence in Teaching Award from The Catholic University of America History Department for 2017-2018. Michaela’s current research focuses on history of the Late Antique, Medieval, and Early Modern Mediterranean, with a concentration on women, gender, the family, religion, and society.

Timothy Ignaffo, Philosophy

Timothy received a BA from the University of Scranton; an MA from Teachers College, Columbia University; and an MPhil and PhD, both from Columbia University. He has taught in the Department of Philosophy at John Jay College and Baruch College, both of the City University of New York (CUNY). Timothy’s interests include ethics, technology, philosophy of education, and philosophy of comedy.

Aleksandr Krolik, Mathematics

Brian Levitt, Automotive Technology (began in January 2024)

Jeffrey McConnell, Visual Arts – Image and Print Technology

Jeffrey received a BS from the University of Tennessee and an MFA in Photography from the Tyler School of Art. He is teaching Photography and Printmaking classes at RVCC.

Drew O'Neill, Mathematics

Drew received a BA from Rutgers University and an MS from Montclair State University. At RVCC, he is teaching classes in Number Systems, Precalculus, Calculus, Statistics, and Differential Equations.

Lisa Smith, Nursing Demo Skills Lab

Lisa received an AAS in Nursing from Raritan Valley Community College; a BSN in Nursing from Kean University; and an MSN in Nursing Education from Ramapo College of New Jersey. She is a Certified Medical-Surgical Registered Nurse (CMSRN). Lisa is the Skills Demo Lab Instructor for first-year Nursing students.

Sharon Smith, Chemistry

Sharon received a BA in Biochemistry from Susquehanna University and an MEd in Chemistry Education from DeSales University. She was named Voorhees High School’s Teacher of the Year in 2015. Sharon is teaching Chemistry I and Chemistry II classes at RVCC.

Gregory Stock, Statistics

Gregory received a BS in Physics, an MS in Stochastic Systems Analysis and Optimization, and a PhD in Pure and Applied Mathematics, all from from Stevens Institute of Technology. He also received an MS in Statistics from Rutgers University. He is the recipient of the Robert Crooks Stanley Fellowship. At RVCC, he is focusing on Data Science Curriculum Development.

Dawn Sweet, Communication Studies

Dawn received an AA from Raritan Valley Community College, a BA from Kean College (now Kean University); an MA from The College of New Jersey; and a  PhD from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Her expertise is in nonverbal communication and behavior in the contexts of weapon concealment, deception detection, use of force, and bias and decision-making in officer-citizen interactions. She recently was awarded a grant from the Federal Bureau of Investigation/High Value Detainee Interrogation Group to investigate gesture production and deception.

Kaitlin Tonti, English    

Kaitlin received an AA from Brookdale Community College; a BA from Seton Hall University; an MA from Seton Hall University; and a PhD from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Fix-It-Fics: Challenging the Status Quo through Fan Fiction (Vernon Press, 2024) and articles such as: “Milcah Martha Moore and the Editorial Function” (Women's Studies, 2021) and “Reading Between the Silences in the Correspondence of Esther Edward Burr and Sarah Prince” (Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture, 2023). Kaitlin also received the Omohundro Institute Mount Vernon Digital Collections Fellowship in 2018.

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November 7, 2024