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 in Interdisciplinary from Memorial University, Canada
- Master of Science in Maritime Economics from Erasmus University, Netherlands
- Capt. Ashok Pandey is a former shipmaster with a sea-career spanning more than two decades most of which was spent on ice. An avid researcher, his current areas of research interest include shipping route modelling in the Arctic using GIS and the e-navigation platform. He has spent the last ten years in academia and has lectured on various subjects including International Maritime Business, Supply Chain Management and Ship Chartering and Port Economics. He has commanded Cape size bulk carriers (ice-class) for almost a decade and specializes in high latitude navigation.
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.
Christian Petterson brings nearly two decades of maritime, commercial, financial, and operational leadership experience to Massachusetts Maritime Academy. A graduate of the Academy’s Marine Transportation program, he also holds a B.A. in History from the University of Rhode Island and an MBA with a concentration in Finance from Trinity College Dublin.
His maritime operating experience includes ship handling, stability, dock / undock, dynamic positioning, regulatory compliance, and offshore wind construction. He has served as Chief Officer and Senior Dynamic Positioning Operator aboard Dynamic Positioning construction vessels supporting the Vineyard Wind and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind projects. He holds a USCG Master, 1600 GT, Oceans, Master of Towing, Oceans, Dynamic Positioning Operator, Unlimited (Nautical Institute) and a Second Mate Unlimited license.
Christian previously held several positions of increasing responsibility with ExxonMobil across marine chartering, supply, refining, and LNG and lubricants. His work took him throughout the United States, Asia, and the Middle East, where he led global and regional commercial, operational, planning, and organizational development teams and initiatives built around maximizing value capture and customer experience and minimizing total delivered cost.
He and his wife, Tracy are also co-founders of Woodle & Company, an adaptive apparel business created to help children like their son, who wear ankle foot orthotic braces. Over the last eight years, the company has improved accessible and affordable sock options for tens of thousands of children and families in North America and Europe.
Christian’s teaching philosophy is grounded in high standards, clear communication, curiosity, and the belief that people learn in different ways. He strives to help students understand both the “what” and the “why,” connect classroom learning with real world practice, and develop safe, competent mariners and thoughtful, capable leaders serving the maritime industry, the Commonwealth and the world for decades ahead.
Education: BSEE (1990) MSEE (2000) Northeastern University
Background: Electric Power System T&D Operations and Planning Registered Professional Engineer (MA)
Education: M.A.,New York University; Ed.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst
Background:
Courses taught:
- Spanish I
- Spanish II
- Western Civilization (Social Science Department)