Directory

Education: MA in Literature, UMASS Boston, BA in English, Creative Writing, UMASS Boston 

Education:

Ph.D., University of Florida
M.A., Clark University
B.A., Assumption College

Courses Taught:

Composition
Writing About Literature
Poetry
Short Stories
Sensation Fiction
Literature of the Supernatural
Science and Literature
Monsters in Literature
Romantic Literature
Victorian Literature
World Literature
Fiction by Women Writers
Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies
Gender, Race, and Sexuality in the Global Nineteenth Century

Biography:

Dr. Sarah Lennox is an Assistant Professor of Humanities at Massachusetts Maritime Academy where she teaches courses in nineteenth-century British literature, global Anglophone literature, and first-year composition. Her research focuses on representations of the human body in nineteenth-century science, pseudoscience, and literature. You can find her publications in Victorian Review, The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Literature Compass, and The Wilkie Collins Journal.

Christopher Maggio is an Assistant Professor of Humanities at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. He teaches technical writing, business communication, first-year writing, and writing about literature. He is currently the Writing Proficiency Exam coordinator. His research interests include community writing and creative writing. He recently co-authored an article in the collection 'WPA Advocacy in a Pandemic.'  When not teaching or writing, he enjoys exploring New England with his family.

Julie McMichen graduated from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Engineering and a U.S.C.G. 3rd Assistant Engineer’s License.

Upon graduation, Ms. McMichen had a brief shipping career with Marine Transport Lines. Julie was hired by Electric Boat in 1988 as the first female engineer in the department of Nuclear Procurement Quality Control. During this time, she worked on several main and auxiliary components in the engine room for the Seawolf Class. In October of 1993, Julie returned to MMA as an employee and worked onboard the T/S Patriot State as a permanent crew member in the capacity of Purser/Supplier Officer for 7 years. From 2000-2004, Julie worked in Student Services as 5th Company Officer. Julie returned to Electric Boat and has been working in Supplier Quality as an Engineering Specialist in areas of propulsion, engine room components and missile systems in new construction for the Virginia and Columbia Class submarines for the past 16 years. Thirteen of the 16 years was as the EB resident engineer at Northrop Grumman in Sunnyvale, CA which is 10 miles from her birthplace. Things do come full circle!

Ms. McMichen was on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy Alumni Association from 2002-2020 and has served as a Board member, Secretary, Vice President and first female President. Julie is an active parishioner of St. Bonaventure in Manomet, member of the American Society of Quality and also the Society of Women Engineers.

Julie lives in Sagamore Beach, MA, near many family members including her parents and brother, Richard. Her brother, T. Blane is a 1983 graduate of the Academy and lives in Zionsville, IN. Julie enjoys skiing, hiking, knitting, traveling and spending time with family and friends.

Ms. McMichen dedicates this appointment to the memory of our shipmate and friend, Prendi.

Education: Ph.D., Yale University -- Social Ethics

Melissa Karam Panchley graduated from BMC Durfee High School in 1991 and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and Human Development from Boston College in 1995. 

After graduating from college, Melissa went to work at the Fall River Housing Authority for six years where she was a Youth Outreach Worker, and then the Elderly Services Coordinator.   When she decided to start a family, she went to work for the family business at Karam Financial Group, where she could do bookkeeping work from home while she raised her children. 

In 2009, Melissa received a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

In 2011, Melissa transitioned into the role of Senior Property Manager for the adult communities managed by Karam Financial Group. In this role she is responsible for overseeing the management and physical plant of 304 apartment units on the Southcoast and Cape Cod, as well as 44 condominium units. 

Melissa served on the Fall River School Committee from 2014-2017.  During that time, she chaired the Finance Sub-Committee, as well as the Instructional Sub-Committee.  She also served on the Superintendent search committee in 2016.  After serving on the Fall River School Committee, she was the Treasurer for the New Durfee Ballot Action Committee, a ballot question committee in support of funding for a new Durfee High School.

Melissa has been involved in numerous organizations as a volunteer, such as the President of the Board of the Ninth Street Day Nursery and Vice President and Treasurer for the Friends of Saint Anne’s Hospital.  She currently serves on the Fall River Area Chamber of Commerce’s Sub-Committee on Education, the Board of the Greater Fall River United Way, and Treasurer of the Durfee Hilltopper Athletic Foundation. 

Melissa was born and raised in Fall River and currently resides in the city with her husband, Josh and two sons, Thomas and Christopher. 

Ph.D. Miami University, Rhetoric and Composition, 2019 M.A. Miami University, Rhetoric and Composition, 2015 Certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Miami University, 2015 Dual B.A. Northern Kentucky University, English Literature; Philosophy, 2012 Perpetually curious of language, the material world, queerness, and place, Dr. Caleb Pendygraft is a Kentucky Appalachian who received his PhD in Rhetoric and Composition from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  His book, Reading, Writing, and Queer Survival: Affects, Matterings, and Literacies Across Appalachia (UPKY, 2025), has been praised as a “trailblazing book” that “will undoubtedly have a lasting influence in how we think about literacy, queerness, and Appalachia,” and as an “unequivocally a groundbreaking and necessary book for our time.” His other work has appeared in Appalachian Journal, The Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetoric, Bodies of Knowledge: Embodied Rhetorics in Theory and Practice, Journal of Appalachian Studies, and Storytelling in Queer Appalachia: Imagining and Writing the Unspeakable Other. Currently he is nearing the close of his memoir, titled Callin' Down the Spirit (forthcoming 2026), while starting another adventure co-editing a queer eco-spiritual collection of Appalachian voices. When he isn't teaching or writing, you can usually find him either barefooted, digging through his brambled garden, tending to the PendyCats, or visiting Atlantic sands thinking about the hills.

Education: M.A.,New York University; Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst

Background:

Courses taught:

• Spanish I
• Spanish II
• Western Civilization (Social Science Department)