Carroll Professors Achieve Career Milestone

This past August, Carroll proudly recognized three faculty members who reached the distinguished rank of Full Professor. During the Collegewide meeting on August 28, each was honored with a College medal and certificate celebrating their professional excellence.

The occasion also featured their acceptance speeches below, reflecting their dedication, growth, and passion for teaching.

Jessi Hardesty, Professor of Arts & Humanities

I’m here to remind you that there are only 64 days until Halloween. I hope you have your costumes and your yard decorations prepared. You know that I do. For those of you who don’t work with me in some immediate capacity, I’ve been at Carroll for ten years now, which is quite surreal. I have five job titles here and I’m not accepting anymore, but most of them relate to the arts. So when you think of art, you think of me.

I chose to go the portfolio route for my promotion. That encompassed quite a lot of different contributions I’ve made to the campus in recent years. Some of the ones that I’m the most proud of include my collaborations with CCPS, with WBCE—which includes travel study—programming that touches on our AP art students who then come to Carroll, collaborative art shows and similar endeavors—that also touches on my Advisory Board memberships at both York College and CCBC, which I consider some of our sister schools—various assessment efforts (everyone’s favorite thing to include in a portfolio), and my course improvements to my Drawing 2 course and my Relief Printmaking course, which are both 200-level upper level courses for Visual Arts majors, but anybody can sign up for Printmaking, so I hope I see you in a Printmaking class.

I also had the pleasure of creating a brand new Art History class that is debuting in spring, Horror and the Macabre in the art historical context, which should surprise no one that that’s a class I developed. I hope some of you will take it. I also discussed some of my various professional endeavors outside of the classroom. I had two solo exhibitions at regional galleries. I also was a guest lecturer at Salem State University. (Yes, that Salem.) I attended and was showcased at a lot of different art fairs as well.

I think I will end my time on stage telling you a really special story about something that happened with a student this summer. A couple of years ago, I had a really talented student named Hannah. She was in my Drawing class as well as my Printmaking class and she really, really, really wanted to be a tattoo artist. So I said OK, for your final in Drawing 2, we’re going to develop a flash portfolio and you’re going to become an apprentice with this portfolio. I picked a piece from it and said to her, when you’ve had a couple of years of practice and are really good at it, I’m going to come and get this tattoo from you. Well, she graduated with a 4.0 and got the Curators Choice Award in 2023 and has been tattooing for two years now. This summer I went and got that tattoo by her. So now I have a permanent piece of Carroll art on me forever. Little relationships like that are why I do this, and why I am so happy to be here and so proud to be part of this community and receiving this honor.

Little relationships like that are why I do this, and why I am so happy to be here and so proud to be part of this community and receiving this honor.

Roxanna Harlow, Professor of Sociology

I am a sociologist. Sociologists study the effect of society on human behavior. I completed a research project titled “Knotty by Nature: The Effect of Problematic Student Behavior on Faculty Well-Being at Carroll Community College.” Although the focus of the research is on faculty, the results and recommendations have implications for all of us.

Most of the time our students are great. But over the past fifteen years, incivility and harassment by students in higher education have become pretty routine, along with increasing rates of student mental health crises.

Motivated by my own personal experiences—including one that left me feeling unsafe—as well as those of some of my colleagues, I surveyed 90 full- and part-time Carroll Community College faculty members and completed 22 in-depth interviews.

I found that almost all faculty respondents have experienced student behavior at some point in their career that left them feeling significantly uncomfortable or stressed. Over half of respondents have had such experiences at Carroll, with close to 40% reporting that it had a lingering effect on their well-being.

We currently have no clear process to support and protect faculty who are on the receiving end of experiences that include both intentional and unintentional harassment, online and face-to-face. In addition, faculty were concerned that these disruptions affect not only themselves, but the learning experiences of their students.

I offered a set of recommendations to protect and support faculty through often difficult circumstances. These new support systems can also be easily adapted for all employees who work with the public.

There are a lot of people to thank, but I only have time to mention Mel Hall, Susan Sies (Chair), Sharon Brunner (former Chair), and Sarah Star. I’d also like to thank Terry Crabbs who, during his evening shifts on the P-wing, would push me to go home and take care of myself.

Most of all, thank you to my dedicated, super hardworking colleagues who gave their valuable time and emotional energy to share their experiences while working tirelessly to support and educate students. It was a privilege to speak with you. You have worked late, come early, worked without pay, worked far beyond contract requirements, given first, second, third, and fourth chances that mean more work and less sleep for you. You often care about students more than you care about yourselves, and you carry the weight of their pain and struggle because someone has to. Thank you for being there to fill the breach.

Thank you to my dedicated, super hardworking colleagues… You carry the weight of [your students’] pain and struggle because someone has to.

Sarah Licharowicz, Professor of Physical Therapist Assistant

My promotion portfolio was inspired by last year’s essential question, “How do we build belonging?” and was guided by three central themes: collaboration, connection, and self-leadership. I’d like to share a few things that I’ve been working on over the past few years.

I’ve had the privilege of working with incredible people, many who are here in this theater. I collaborated with community partners and our Physical Therapist Assistant program alumnae to create hands-on laboratory experiences for students. I joined the Exercise Science program as an adjunct to create a bridge between Allied Health and Social Sciences. I worked with our marketing and virtual reality teams to bring healthcare learning to life and partnered with librarians to support student success. I also restructured PTA courses based on collective student feedback, an effort supported by administrators and Academic Council colleagues.

Connection has shaped my teaching and mentoring. I’ve invited students to reflect through self-leadership journal activities, offered open labs to increase student access to faculty and materials, and mentored PTA students and those who are the first in their families to attend college—just like me. These relationships have been some of the most meaningful parts of my work.

Through it all, self-leadership has guided my growth. I’ve leaned into reflection, feedback, and professional development, allowing for vulnerability and, let’s be honest, the occasional colorful expression—not just to improve my teaching, but to grow as a colleague and contributor.

This portfolio is not just a record of accomplishment; it’s a reflection of the people I’ve worked with, learned from, and grown alongside.

This portfolio is not just a record of accomplishment; it’s a reflection of the people I’ve worked with, learned from, and grown alongside