faculty stories south campus

Faculty Stories

Ryan LaPensee

Entrepreneur and Macomb Instructor Ryan LaPensee leads AI Workshop

Faculty Stories

Along with working as an adjunct instructor for Macomb, LaPensee is a passionate entrepreneur and investor in multiple businesses. And when he’s not at work, he and his wife are busy with their four children. How does he do it?

James Carlson

Professor James Carlson is delighted when his students’ eyes light up

Faculty Stories

When former Macomb student James Carlson accepted a co-op (work-based learning) assignment in Dearborn, he had no idea how to get there. A college staffer grabbed a map and highlighted the best route to take to what would become a career-making opportunity for Carlson, now a professor in the college’s Product Development program.

Richard Zahodnic

Professor receives “ultimate compliment” from former respiratory therapy students

Faculty Stories

Former respiratory therapy students of Professor Richard Zahodnic have his personal cell phone number and are not shy about contacting him after they graduate. Not only is he happy to hear from them, but it is also a high point of his day.

Michelle Spencer

Michelle Spencer, Dental Hygiene

Faculty Stories

Michelle Spencer didn’t enjoy going to the dentist when she was growing up. But she has turned her “dental anxiety” into a positive, showing empathy to those she has cared for as a dental hygienist and teaching her students ways to calm their patients as well.

Margaret Anderson

Margaret Anderson, Economics

Faculty Stories

When Margaret Anderson attended Macomb in the 1990s, she was a young mother of two facing a likely divorce and in need of a career to support her family. Since then, she has been dedicated to educating women in personal finance so they can confidently pay bills, manage a household budget and save for the future.

Brian Newman

Brian Newman, Accounting

Faculty Stories

As a teenager, Brian Newman balked at learning French, the language his mother grew up speaking in Quebec. After two study abroad trips to France, however, he was finally capable of speaking French to his grandmother when he visited her in Canada.

Tina Allor

Tina Allor, Wellness, Health and Exercise Science

Faculty Stories

Since working in her early 20s as a fitness trainer at a Bally’s resort in Houston, Tina Allor has been blazing a trail in physical education, including the development of Macomb’s Health and Wellness Promotion program in 2019.

Robert James

Robert James, Business

Faculty Stories

Robert James knows entrepreneurship as well as he does hockey; scoring goals in both arenas and loading up on experiences that he shares with students in the classes he teaches at Macomb.

Janice Fox

Janice Fox, Speech

Faculty Stories

Speech. It’s an acquired skill, and one that takes time, effort and a little guidance and support. Thankfully, Macomb faculty member Janice Fox is more than up to the task.

Tom Savage

Tom Savage, Media and Communication Arts

Faculty Stories

Tom Savage, both a Macomb alum and instructor, began drawing up plans for a career in art and design in the fifth grade. He envisioned cartoon characters, a comic strip and book illustrations. It ended up being all that and more.

Kurtis LaHaie

Kurtis LaHaie, Automotive Technology

Faculty Stories

To relieve stress, Kurtis LaHaie likes to jump on one of his vintage tractors and tool around the 10 acres of land where he and wife Angela raised children Darby and Devon, and two Labrador retrievers now roam.

Tanya Balcom

Tanya Balcom, Business Management

Faculty Stories

When Tanya Balcom began teaching business management courses at Macomb in 2003, she had as much difficulty curbing her enthusiasm as a kid in a candy store or, more aptly, an ice cream shop.

Jennifer Manatine

Jennifer Manatine, Paralegal Program

Faculty Stories

Jennifer Manatine knew from an early age that she wanted to go into law, and she mapped out a strategy with the same careful research and attention to detail as an attorney preparing a legal brief.

Andrea Knesek

Andrea Knesek, Nursing

Faculty Stories

Andrea (Ande) Knesek is a world traveler. She’s been throughout Europe, as well as China and Portugal. But it was a 2017 trip to Guatemala that was the most “eye opening.”