McDaniel College announces new faculty and promotions

Rosalyn A. Davis has joined the faculty as assistant professor and clinical education faculty coordinator of the college’s developing Speech-Language Pathology program. 

In this role, Davis will work with inaugural program director D’Jaris Coles-White to help implement the program, which is expected to launch in spring 2027, pending approval by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).

Davis most recently taught in the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders at Eastern Michigan University and at Western Kentucky University. She also served as a senior speech-language pathologist and clinical placement coordinator at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

She earned a Ph.D. in Translational Health Science from George Washington University, where she served as a doctoral researcher. She holds master's degrees in Education Administration from Governors State University and in Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, along with a bachelor’s degree in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology from Andrews University.

Davis has contributed to peer-reviewed publications and presented at professional conferences and training sessions. She is the past president of the Michigan Speech-Language-Hearing Association, president-elect of the Council of State Association Presidents, and is a member of the Joint Committee on State-National Association Relationships for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Rockville, Maryland.

Rachel Guilfoyle is an associate professor and academic fieldwork coordinator for the college’s developing Occupational Therapy program, which is expected to begin in May 2026. The college is actively pursuing accreditation through the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE). 

An experienced occupational therapist, Guilfoyle brings nearly two decades of clinical experience at the University of Maryland Rehabilitation and Orthopedic Institute, complemented by a broad background across diverse practice settings including home health, outpatient care, and skilled nursing, where she specializes in neurological rehabilitation, low vision, and adult physical disabilities. She previously taught as a clinical assistant professor at Towson University. 

Her research focuses on stroke, traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, and other chronic, neurodegenerative diseases, and she has presented at national and international conferences. She has also earned multiple awards and certifications and is currently on the board of the Maryland Occupational Therapy Association.

Guilfoyle earned a Doctor in Occupational Therapy from Towson University and a master’s degree in Occupational Therapy from Elizabethtown College. She also holds a master’s certificate in Low Vision from the University of Alabama.

Christopher C. Palmore joins McDaniel as an assistant professor of Sociology.

Palmore taught criminology as an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at California State University East Bay, where he was a co-founder and governing board member for the Center for Disability Justice Research: Health, Equity, Education, and Creativity (CDJR). Previously, he was both an assistant professor and visiting instructor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. 

His research interests include victimization, social perceptions of crime, situational factors of crime, social psychology, and criminological theory. A member of the American Society of Criminology, Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and American Sociological Association, he has had articles published in scholarly journals and has presented at conferences throughout the United States.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from California State University, Long Beach, and completed his master’s and Ph.D. in Criminology at Pennsylvania State University, where his research focused on the social context of crime, including situational aspects, such as alcohol use and opportunity for crime, and individual personality characteristics (for example, self-control). 

Dina Rady has been promoted to professor of Economics in the college’s Economics and Business Administration department.

Rady, who was previously a visiting professor at McDaniel, has taught at other colleges in Maryland and the D.C. area, including the University of Maryland, American University, George Washington University, George Mason University, Montgomery College, and the College of Southern Maryland.

At McDaniel, Rady teaches courses on public economics, economic development, investments, and introductory courses on statistics and economics. Her work has also been published in various professional journals, and she has presented at both national and international conferences. 

She earned a master’s degree in Economic Development from American University and holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, as well as a master’s and Ph.D. in Economics from Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt.  

Timothy Swartz has joined the college as assistant professor of Environmental Studies.

An ecologist whose expertise is in community, restoration, landscape, and urban ecology, along with biodiversity conservation and restoration, Swartz is particularly interested in understanding how ecosystems and the biodiversity they support respond to human activity. 

Swartz, who previously taught as an assistant professor at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, is teaching courses on Urban Ecology, Restoration Ecology, Conservation Biology, and Environmental Problem Solving, as well as conducting field experiments with students at McDaniel. 

Currently an editorial board member for “Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems,” an international journal dedicated to the multidisciplinary science of conservation in all aquatic ecosystems, Swartz has had articles included in research publications and has presented at annual meetings for the Ecological Society of America, International Association for Landscape Ecology, and Society of Wetland Scientists, among others.

A graduate of Messiah University with a bachelor’s degree in Biology, Swartz earned a master’s degree in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and conducted research in the Ecology and Conservation Biology Lab. Swartz completed a Ph.D. in Biology from Temple University while working in the Integrative Ecology Lab.

Maureen Williams, who started at McDaniel as a lecturer in the Biology department in 2021, has been promoted to assistant professor of Medical Microbiology.

Williams is a zoologist whose research specialty is parasite communities. Her specific focus is on tropical diseases and parasite communities in fish and reefs. She also teaches courses on Ecology, Molecular Ecology, and Biostatistics.

She has collaborated on articles for peer-reviewed publications, scientific reports, and books, and has presented nationally and internationally, including for the American Society of Parasitologists, Ecological Society of America, and British Society for Parasitology.

As an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, she had the opportunity to study abroad at Trinity College in Dublin, where she was introduced to the Zoology department. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Biological Science from Notre Dame, she went on to earn a master’s degree in Environmental Science from University College in Dublin and Ph.D. in Zoology from Trinity.