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Hicks Honors College
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Faculty and Staff

Honors Leadership

Man with short brown hair wearing a suit poses in front of green and yellow bamboo.

P. Scott Brown, Ph.D.

Hicks Honors College Interim Dean
psbrown@unf.edu

  • Yale University, Ph.D. in the History of Art, 2004; M.Phil., 2003; M.A., 2003
  • Bard College, B.A. in Art History, 1997

Scott Brown is Professor of Art History and Interim Dean of the Hicks Honors College at the University of North Florida, as well as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville.  His research and teaching address the history of medieval and early modern art, including problems in monumental art, liturgy, and religious ritual; symbolism and iconography; and the social economics of monumental art and cultural philanthropy in the Middle Ages and the modern era.  His recent publications explore legal and judicial significance in medieval art, including images of beards, baldness, and Apocalypse in the medieval Beatus manuscripts and monumental art. His recent courses explore a “hyperlocal” art history that reexamines the history of art from the 15th century to the present from a standpoint in North Florida. 

Dr. Leslie Kaplan

Leslie Kaplan, Ph.D.

Hicks Honors College Director
leslie.kaplan@unf.edu

  • University of Pennsylvania, Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife
  • Oxford University, M.Phil. in Middle English Literature
  • Tufts University, B.A. in English and Philosophy

Dr. Kaplan holds a full-time permanent position as a faculty administrator in the Hicks Honors College. There she has taught classes that focused on food and culture, cultural and national identity, modern Greek culture, folklore and literature, and an introduction to folklore. Her Ph.D. is in Folklore and Folklife, and her dissertation was on the interplay between Greek conceptions of their national identity and the influence of foreign travelers on that conception using as its subject travel accounts written by European visitors to the Corinthia in Greece in the period between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Dr. Kaplan utilizes approaches and methods drawn from the fields of anthropology, literature, and history. Her research interests are drawn from a range of different areas-- Greek national identity, pedagogy, food culture, and honors program community-building-- and the common thread among them all is an longstanding interest in community and identity. 

Dr. Tiffany Kershner

Tiffany Kershner, Ph.D.

Director of Fellowships Advising
Tiffany.kershner@unf.edu

  • Indiana University, Ph.D. in Linguistics of African Langauges; M.A. in Linguistics
  • SUNY-Albany, M.A. in Anthropology
  • University of Iowa, B.A. with Honors in Anthropology
Dr. Tiffany Kershner graduated from the University of Iowa's Honors Program with Distinction and Phi Beta Kappa. She then earned a two master's degrees before completing her doctorate at Indiana University. She served two years as an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Carleton College, followed by faculty positions at UNC-Greensboro and Kansas State University. In February of 2019, Dr. Kershner joined Hicks Honors College as their Associate Director of Fellowships and was promoted to Director of the Office of Fellowships in 2023. Dr. Kershner has an extensive background in linguistic and cultural anthropology, descriptive linguistics, and African languages. She has done intensive fieldwork amongst the Sukwa culture of Malawi, through which she received funding through a Fulbright Research Grant and a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant. She has also conducted fieldwork in Comoros and Appalachia. Some of her current research interests in language and culture include folk ethnobiological classification systems, African oral literature, language and gender, cultural semantics and pragmatics, and tense, aspect, and verb classification systems.
Will Pewitt portrait

Will Pewitt, MFA

Hicks Honors College Assistant Director
w.pewitt.138146@unf.edu

  • Trinity University, B.A in English & American Studies, 2007
  • University of Arizona, M.F.A in Fiction, 200
Professor Will Pewitt is a recent recipient of UNF's Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award, is a winner of the Innovative & Interdisciplinary Teaching Award, and has held a Faculty Fellowship with the Hicks Honors College since 2020. He graduated cum laude from Trinity University with degrees in both English and American Studies (while also double-minoring in History and Art History) before receiving his M.F.A. from the University of Arizona in Fiction. His publications span the fields of politics, philosophy, poetry, fiction, and translation with recent work appearing in The Oxford Anthology of Translation, North American Review, The American Journal of Poetry, The Literary Review, and Global Politics Magazine, among others. He has received grants for his work in Experiential Learning, High Impact Practices, Digital Humanities, Community Scholarship, as well as the Humanities & Arts for projects as varied as multilingual Shakespearean adaptations or researching transculturality within the Early Modern era. His similarly wide-ranging course offerings at UNF cover fields such as world literature, philosophy, mythology, theater, politics, and history. More detail can be found at https://willpewitt.domains.unf.edu/.

Faculty Fellows

Dr. Suzanne Ehrlich

Suzanne Ehrlich, Ph.D.

suzanne.ehrlich@unf.edu

  • University of Cincinnati, Ed.D., Curriculum and Instruction: Instructional Design and Technology, 2006; M.Ed., 2003
  • Cincinnati State Community College, A.A.S., Interpreting for the Deaf, 2000
  • Xavier University B.S., Psychology, 1998
Suzanne Ehrlich is an Associate Professor in the Educational Technology, Training and Development program at the University of North Florida and is a certified ASL/English interpreter. She completed her doctorate in instructional design and technology at the University of Cincinnati in 2006 and has presented nationally/internationally on the topics of implementing the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework for improved learner engagement, learning design, and leveraging technology for access. Her recent work focuses on the UDL mindset in post-secondary settings and the workplace. Her publications include her co-PI pilot study on Increasing Learner Engagement in Online Learning through the Use of Interactive Feedback, a co-authored article How a UDL Mindset Can Support Learning in the Workplace, and The Use of iPads to Bridge Education for Post-secondary Deaf Students. Her service focused on faculty enhancement, service as a UNF NEFSTEM fellow, statewide groups for workplace learning like the Association of Training and Development (ATD) of Northeast Florida, and invited board member for the Center for Independent Living of Northeast Florida.
Lt. General Richard Tryon

Lt. General Richard Tryon

r.tryon@unf.edu

  • United States Naval Academy, B.S. in Mechanical Engineering
  • Webster University, Master in Management
  • Johns Hopkins University’s, Master in International Public Policy

General Rick Tryon graduated from the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He also holds a Masters in Management from Webster University, and a Masters in International Public Policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. He served on active duty for 44 years. As a Marine Corps infantry officer, he commanded at every level in the Marine Corps. In addition, he served with the Special Operations Command and is a Joint Specialty Officer. Career highlights include his time as Deputy Executive Assistant to the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; command of a Marine Expeditionary Unit; command of the Marine Barracks in Washington DC during 9/11 with responsibilities for Camp David and the White House Communications Agency; Commanding General Marine Corps Recruiting Command; Executive Officer for the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe; Commander of the Multinational Force (West) in Al Anbar Province, Iraq; Deputy Commandant of the Marine Corps for Plans, Policies, and Operations; and Commander of U.S. Marine Forces Command, Commander of Marine Forces Europe, and Commanding General Fleet Marine Forces, Atlantic.

General Tryon retired to Jacksonville, Florida. He is the Senior Fellow for Leadership in the Honors College. He is also a senior consultant for The Roosevelt Group in Washington, D.C. He has been recognized as a Veteran of Influence by the Jacksonville Business Journal and is a 2019 graduate of the Leadership Jacksonville Program.

Honors Staff

Faculty/Staff Appointments