Dr. Melissa Newman joined the Communication Studies Department in 2015. She has served as a communication professor for the past 14 years at schools in Texas, Nebraska, and California. Newman is personally committed to the mission of PLNU as one who shapes, instructs, and mentors students in a “learning community where grace is foundational, truth is pursued and holiness is a way of life.” She loves teaching, advising students, and mentoring them as they pursue their vocational calling. Most recently, Dr. Newman was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award at PLNU (2021).

Jeff Birdsell is an organizational communication scholar whose work explores the relationships between how we "do" work and how we communicate about work. His recent work in this area has examined the way undergraduate students understand their university life through metaphors, how graduate students navigate identity challenges when they do paid work in non-academic environments, and his own development of routines and identity while performing as a minor league baseball mascot.

Dr. Dale Shellhamer taught at Pasadena PLNU for 40 years. Teaching assignments were primarily general, organic, and advanced organic chemistry. As professor emeritus, he continues his involvement in undergraduate research. He has more than 60 peer-reviewed research papers published with students as co-authors. Shellhamer has also written two book chapters and was a co-author on a U.S. patent.

Dr. Matthieu Rouffet is a medicinal chemist who was born and raised in France. After completing his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of Reims, he moved to San Diego to start a postdoctoral fellowship position at UCSD under the supervision of Professor Seth. M. Cohen. During that time, he worked on the development of inhibitors of biologically relevant targets.

Dr. Marc Perry knew since 5th grade that he wanted to be a scientist, and discovered in high school that his favorite science was chemistry. He earned his B.S. and Ph.D. in chemistry from New Mexico State University. He went on to a postdoctoral position at Texas A&M University and taught at the university level for one year at Texas A&M and seven at the University of Alaska Anchorage before coming to PLNU in 2010. Perry's research interests lie in the broad area of methodology development in the field of organometallic chemistry.

Dr. Kenneth Martin began his academic career at Pasadena College as a first-generation college student. He graduated with a B.A. in chemistry and mathematics. Inspired by his professors and academic experiences, he went on to earn an M.S. from UC Davis and a doctorate from the University of Kansas, both in physical chemistry. “I was captivated by the life-changing potential of a Christian liberal arts education,” Martin said.

Dr. Katherine Maloney is an organic chemist who brings her expertise in natural products isolation and structure elucidation to the Chemistry Department. She first fell in love with organic chemistry as an undergraduate at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. She went on to get her Ph.D. in 2006 with Jon Clardy at Cornell University, and came back to the west coast for a post-doc with Bill Fenical at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Maloney began her independent career at Harvey Mudd College in 2009 before moving back to San Diego to join the PLNU faculty in 2012.

Dr. Sara Choung's interest in chemistry was sparked in high school and she went on to study chemical engineering at MIT and UC Berkeley. She discovered her love of teaching and mentoring undergraduate students during graduate school. After doing research at Argonne National Laboratories, she started her teaching career at PLNU in 2004. Choung also enjoys her role as the pre-health advisor, working with students who plan to attend various health professions schools. She grew up in Illinois and misses the Chicago pizza, but not the weather.