Part-Time Faculty
Department of Cultural and Social Studies Part-Time Faculty
Joseph Carnazzo, MA, MBA
Joseph Carnazzo is a nearly lifelong Omahan. He received a Bachelor’s and Master’s in History from Creighton and an MBA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Most of his career has been in healthcare administration, primarily in the fields of planning and marketing. Joseph Carnazzo has been involved in Creighton’s Healthcare Administration and Policy Program since its beginning and teaches HAP 200 Introduction to Healthcare Administration, HAP 411 Healthcare Planning and Marketing, as well as HAP 415 Healthcare Management.
Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
josephcarnazzo@creighton.edu
Tamara Dolphens, MPAS, PA-C
Tamara Dolphens graduated from the University of Nebraska Medical Center as a Physician Assistant and began her clinical career in Pediatric Cardiology at Children’s Hospital in Omaha. She has been involved with research and advocacy, holding leadership roles in the Society for PAs in Pediatrics and speaking at numerous local and national conferences. She currently serves the State of Nebraska DHHS Physician Assistant Licensing and Credentialing Committee as chair. She has a passion for education, spending nearly 4 years as a full-time Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska at which time she served as course coordinator of Medical Ethics. She teaches HAP 410 Healthcare Ethics.
Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
tamaradolphens@creighton.edu
Kristin Fitzgerald, PhD
Kristin Fitzgerald is a cultural anthropologist with a specialization on Native American Studies, who received her doctorate at the University of New Mexico, exploring ethnicity among urban Lakota Christians, looking at how their discourse and performance in congregational life and interpersonal interactions demonstrate their ethnic identity through specifically situated representations of difference rather than universalized or fixed categories of indigeneity. She teaches ANT 111 Introduction to Anthropology and SOC 101 Introduction to Sociology.
Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
KristinFitzgerald2@creighton.edu
Mariah Gesink, MPH
Mariah Gesink, MPH, earned her Master's of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology from the University of Nebraska Medical Center's (UNMC) College of Public Health. While at the UNMC, Mariah was awarded the opportunity to conduct HPV and cervical cancer research in Tanzania. For the past four years she has worked as a hospital epidemiologist with CHI Health. She has a passion for learning and teaching. She teaches HAP 355 Essentials of Epidemiology.
Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
mariah.gesink@alegent.org
Ellen Houston, MA
Ellen Houston is a full-time healthcare administrator for a specialty private practice group in Omaha. She received her BS in Computer Science from Western Oregon University and her MA in Management from Bellevue University (with distinction). She is a member of the Medical Group Management Association, the association’s Nebraska branch, and a certified member of the American College of Medical Practice Executives. She teaches HAP 310 Health Finance and Budgeting and HAP 412 Information Systems in Healthcare Management.
Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
ellenhouston@creighton.edu
Susie Mossman-Riva, PhD
Susie Mossman-Riva is an anthropologist living in Switzerland. She earned her PhD in the Social Sciences from the TAOS Institute of the University of Tilburg, The Netherlands. Her main body of work has been in intercultural mediation and qualitative healthcare needs assessments as well as in aging research with the Senior Living Lab. She teaches ANT 113 Introduction to Anthropology, ANT 308 An Anthropological and Transformational Approach to Alternative and Complementary Medicine, and ANT 383 Cultural Epidemiology.
Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
smo09955@creighton.edu
Emily Nguyen, MSW, MPA
Emily Nguyen has been at the Omaha Community Foundation since 2015 as the Director of Research and Strategy. In her role, she oversees evaluations and research within the foundation and leads the data collection and synthesis within The Landscape project. Prior to joining OCF, she conducted program evaluations with local nonprofit organizations through the University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO). Emily has taught graduate research courses at UNO and currently teaches as an adjunct at Creighton University. Emily earned her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from Creighton and her Master of Social Work and Master of Public Administration from UNO.
Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
emilynguyen@creighton.edu
Erin Render, MHA
Erin Render became interested in long-term care when she observed her grandfather navigate the healthcare system after suffering from a stroke. She pursued a master's degree in healthcare administration and is currently the owner of Legato Living Residential Memory Care, that provides care for individuals with advanced dementia in a residential home setting. She and her business partners are currently building Legato Living Franchise with the goal of assisting others to use their passion to help individuals in their own communities.
Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
erin@livinglegato.com
Cynthia Schmidt, PhD
Cynthia Schmidt is an ethnomusicologist, documentarian, and Africanist. She earned her PhD in from UCLA. Her work with the Gullah in Georgia, is recognized in the award-winning film, "The Language You Cry In". She has lived and taught in many places, including at the University of Sierra Leone. Originally from Iowa, she is now closer to home, living near Omaha. She teaches ANT 179 Encountering Africa: Experiencing Our Shared Humanity.
Contact:
CRHL 427A
402-280-2352 (office)
CynthiaSchmidt1@creighton.edu