department chair
- mfa, creative writing, bowling green state university
june sylvester saraceno is author of the novel, feral, north carolina, 1965, as well as the full-length poetry collections the girl from yesterday (cherry grove collections 2020), altars of ordinary light (plain view press, 2007), and of dirt and tar ((cherry grove collections, 2014). her chapbook mean girl trips was published in fall 2006 by pudding house press.
her work has appeared in various journals including american journal of nursing, california quarterly, the pedestal, silk road, smartish pace, southwestern american literature, tar river poetry, the rumpus, and others; and several anthologies including a bird as black as the sun: california poets on crows and ravens; intimate kisses: the poetry of sexual pleasure; passionate hearts: the poetry of sexual love, and tahoe blues.
june is originally from elizabeth city, north carolina. she is the founding editor of the sierra nevada review literary magazine, and the founder, director, and fairy godmother of the writers in the woods literary speaker series.
- ba, english, dartmouth college
- MA, English education & Curriculum Development, Stanford University
- clad, credential in english, mills college.
katie teaches english composition: writing and the environment and educational issues, communications, principles of interdisciplinary studies, service learning , senior portfolio and a variety of other courses in the humanities department. she also teaches mountaineering and telemark skiing at the college.
under the auspices of university of california, berkeley, she designed and founded a literacy and leadership program, adventure, risk and challenge (arc) for high school youth. in 2011, she received the ll bean outdoor hero award for her innovation with this program. a former outward bound instructor, she has taught mountaineering, rock climbing, backpacking, expeditionary canoeing and backcountry snowboarding courses across the united states for over a decade. she has worked with teachers, families, adults, youth in a range of 1 week to semester long expeditionary courses. she also taught english at berkeley high school and english language development (eld) at sierra mountain middle school in truckee.
at sierra nevada college, she is currently the chair of the interdisciplinary studies program and the advisor of the first generation club. katie combines her academic focus in communication, writing and integrative learning with her passion for outdoor adventure education with her commitment to social justice and providing access to educational opportunities for all students. through collaboration with faculty across departments, katie has helped to build snc’s interdisciplinary studies program. she hopes to bring active learning, service learning, communication skills, and integrative thinking to the college community and to inspire students to get out into the community to make a difference.
faculty
- ba, san diego state university;
- ma, san francisco state university
- ma in counseling psychology, pacifica graduate institute
- bs, allegheny college
donna axton is a licensed marriage and family therapist. she had her own private practice for several years, and held internships at tahoe safe alliance, truckee group, individual and family therapy services, glenshire elementary school in truckee, and st. nicholas community services in tahoe city during her training. at sierra nevada college she teaches the counseling related psychology courses: counseling and clinical psychology, art and music therapy, clinical methodologies, health psychology, abnormal psychology, and human development.
axton spent 14 years touring the world as a pianist in hoyt axton’s band. she played country western, boogie woogie, gospel, and rock and roll on 21 albums, co-produced two, and appeared on dozens of television shows, including the tonight show. she has many writing, arranging and directing credits to her name and has directed, conducted and/or played for scores of local musical productions at all levels from community to professional. she is also known as a chamber music and solo pianist.
- ba, anthropology and geology, bowdoin college
- ma, multicultural adventure education, national university
rosie hackett teaches classes in interdisciplinary studies, outdoor leadership, wilderness ethics, service learning and senior portfolio. rosie won snc’s distinguished teaching award in 2011 and the distinguished advising award in 2015. her mission is to empower her students to become “growth” junkies, passionate leaders, competent outdoor professionals, and lifelong environmental stewards.
rosie has dedicated the past 20 years to field instruction, curriculum design, environmental stewardship, and leadership development, and is a fervent believer in the power of outdoor adventure education to change and enrich lives. her extensive and varied field experience includes instructing/guiding sailing, sea kayaking, whitewater rafting/kayaking, rock climbing, mountaineering, backcountry skiing, and outdoor leadership for schools and organizations all over the world.
prior to establishing snc’s outdoor adventure leadership program, rosie developed and directed the successful wilderness education program at lake tahoe community college. while growing ltcc’s wilderness program, she was also an assistant professor at prescott college and a lead facilitator in organizational leadership for adventure associates.
on her days off, rosie can usually be found skiing, surfing, climbing or biking with her husband, bret, her two children, ruby and van, and her dog, osa, near her home in south lake tahoe or in a far away place.
- ba, english literature, university of florida
- ma, literature, theory, and cultural studies, purdue university
- phd, philosophy, purdue university
robert drury king is an associate professor in the department of humanities at sierra nevada college. he is also a research fellow with the centre leo apostel at the free university of brussels. he has been a visiting fellow at duke university’s center for the history of political economy and at the saxo institute at the university of copenhagen, humanities division. as a graduate of the philosophy and literature program at purdue university, his doctoral dissertation, “system individuation in differential and dialectical ontology: deleuze, hegel, and systematic thought,” received the 2011 college of liberal arts distinguished dissertation award.
robert publishes in the fields of systems theory, philosophy, and political economy. he has studied at the school of criticism and theory at cornell university; the collegium phaenomenologicum in citta di castello, italy; and within the unseld lecture series at the university of tübingen. he has been a visiting fellow of the world congress summer school in glasgow, scotland with the association for social economics; in the national endowment for the humanities’ 2012 summer institute in experimental philosophy at the university of arizona; and a fellow at the national humanities center’s summer institutes in literary studies, in robert pippin’s j.m. coetzee seminar.
robert has received a grant from the john f. kennedy school for north american studies, and a franklin research grant from the american philosophical society which he used to study the norbert wiener papers at massachusetts institute of technology. he is an inaugural member of the london graduate school’s summer academy in critical humanities and he was a text seminar leader on hegel’s logic under angelica nuzzo at the collegium phaenomenologicum in the summer of 2014. his work has been the subject of a guy l. leonard memorial lecture at the university of nevada, reno and an illuminations lecture at purdue university. he is also the book review editor for constructivist foundations.
- ba in environmental science, prescott college
- med in advanced teaching and leadership, sierra nevada college
daryl teittinen is a passionate outdoor adventurer in all seasons. he believes that challenging ourselves to complete big adventures in good style leads to a great life and constant learning.
daryl has been adventuring and working in the outdoors for nearly 20 years as an educator, rock climbing and skiing guide, wilderness rafting guide, avalanche forecaster, and emt. his travels have taken him to the edge of the arctic ocean, through the sea of cortez in baja california mexico, and all over the beloved sierra nevada. in particular, daryl is a rock climber with a love of the walls of yosemite national park, where he has completed over 20 big wall ascents.
in addition to working with snu, daryl is a professional observer for the sierra avalanche center, backcountry skiing and climbing guide at tahoe mountain school, and member of the river field studies network. he is an american institute for avalanche research and education (aiare) certified course leader, professional member of the american avalanche association, american mountain guides association (amga) apprentice rock guide, certified swiftwater rescue tech, and an emt-b.
when not working, you can find daryl enjoys sharing the mountains, rock cliffs and rivers with his friends and family as much as with his students. his young daughter eliza already loves climbing and rafting!
- mfa, university of oregon
brian turner is the author of two collections of poetry: here, bullet (alice james books, 2005; bloodaxe books, 2007) and phantom noise (alice james books, 2010; bloodaxe books in october of 2010). both collections were published in swedish by oppenheim forlag and his poetry has been translated into several languages. his poetry and essays have been published in the new york times, national geographic, poetry daily, the georgia review, virginia quarterly review and other journals. turner earned an mfa from the university of oregon before serving for seven years in the us army. he was an infantry team leader for a year in iraq with the 3rd stryker brigade combat team, 2nd infantry division. prior to that, he deployed to bosnia-herzegovina with the 10th mountain division (1999-2000). turner was featured in the documentary film operation homecoming: writing the wartime experience, which was nominated for an academy award.
he received a usa hillcrest fellowship in literature, an nea literature fellowship in poetry, the amy lowell traveling fellowship, the poets’ prize, and a fellowship from the lannan foundation. his most recent book, phantom noise, was short-listed for the t.s. eliot prize in england, and he was awarded a fellowship in the nea/japan-us friendship commission creative artist program for 2012. his work has appeared on national public radio, the bbc, newshour with jim lehrer, here and now, and on weekend america, among others. he is the director of the new low residency mfa program at sierra nevada college.