College at 60 Faculty

John Bach, M.A., University College, Ireland
Bach grew up in Albany, New York, and arrived at Fordham as an undergraduate, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree with a double major in theatre and English literature. After earning his undergraduate degree and working in New York for years, he traveled to Ireland, where he earned a Master of Arts degree in Anglo-Irish literature from University College Dublin. In 1998, he returned to Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus to become an assistant dean in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies. Along with that full-time job, he is also an adjunct instructor at the Lincoln Center and Rose Hill campuses, where he teaches courses in theatre, literature, and film.

June Ballinger
June Ballinger is an actor of American and British heritage. For 22 years June was Producing Artistic Director and re-founder of The Passage Theatre Company, dedicated to developing socially relevant new plays for Trenton, NJ’s culturally diverse community. She occasionally continues to produce in addition to her career as an actor. As an actor in NYC and regionally, she has performed in many new works at theatres nationwide such as New York’s Ensemble Studio Theatre, New World Symphony New Work Program in collaboration with The Playwright's Realm, New Harmony Theatre, The Actors Theatre of Louisville, Primary Stages, The Chelsea Theatre Center, The Kennedy Center, numerous regionals, and was also in the original Broadway cast of "Pack of Lies" starring Rosemary Harris. She frequently performs her one-woman show, "Remembrance Day," about a female code breaker at Bletchley Park during WWII (inspired by her mother's life). Her Television work includes guest spots on NBC The Blacklist; Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building, Law&Order SVU, Amazon Prime Hunters; NBC Law&Order, Saturday Night Live, and various daytime soaps. She plays Mrs. Henry in the 2021 Netflix-released film Monster. She is a company member of the Actors Center in NYC and The Ensemble Studio Theatre. She teaches acting at The Bucks County Playhouse to students 16-60 and privately. June serves on the board of Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre and Fay Simpson’s Impact Theatre/Lucid Body House in NYC.

Nicholas Birns, Ph.D., New York University
Birns is a scholar of literature, including fantasy and Australian literature. As a Tolkien scholar, he has written on various topics, including "The Scouring of the Shire" and Tolkien's biblical sources. Scholars have admired his analysis of the writings of Anthony Powell and Roberto Bolaño. Nicholas Birns completed his BA at Columbia University in 1988. He earned his MA at New York University in 1990 and completed his PhD in 1992, also at New York University. Much of Birns' work has been met with great acclaim. The scholar of English literature Christine Berberich, reviewing Birns' Understanding Anthony Powell for Modernism/modernity, described it as "a labor of love" and "a laudable task" undertaken with a "thorough knowledge of the subject matter." The scholar of Spanish and Latin American literature, Eduardo Gonzalez, wrote that Roberto Bolaño as World Literature was "the best Bolaño critical ensemble since Bolaño Salvaje (2006)" and had an "exemplary introduction." The author and scholar of Australian literature, Jean-Francois Vernay, wrote of Birns's Contemporary Australian Literature: A World Not Yet Dead that it discussed the writings of Australian authors "within the wider international context, and in terms of the history of ideas." In his view, Birns "manages to think outside the box by applying tenets of neoliberalism to Australian literary studies, and one learns much from this book, not least from its valuable discussions of the American reception of Australian fiction."

Kathleen Collins
Kathleen Collins is a professor and librarian at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (CUNY). She has master's degrees in counseling psychology (Lesley University in Cambridge, MA), journalism (NYU), and library science (Long Island University). Before becoming an academic librarian, she worked as an editorial researcher at a variety of publications based in New York City. Her scholarly research has been in the area of television history, and she is the author of the books Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows; Dr. Joyce Brothers: The Founding Mother of TV Psychology; and From Rabbit Ears to the Rabbit Hole: A Life with Television. She produces a podcast, Indoor Voices, highlighting the creative and scholarly work of members of the CUNY community. A native of Rochester, NY, she has lived in New York City since 1995. She currently lives in Inwood, a five minute walk from the oldest forest in the city, where she makes sure to commune with nature every day.

Juliana Gilheany, Ph.D., New York University
Gilheany has been with College at 60 for more than 15 years. Her areas of specialization in American studies include foreign relations, Supreme Court cases, women’s history, and the Civil War. She has taught at other Fordham colleges, Manhattan College and New York University.

Nina Goss, Ph.D., University of Washington
In addition to more than 20 years of teaching courses in writing and literature, Goss is the editor of Montague Street, a print journal, and co-editor of and contributor to a book of essays, Dylan at Play (Cambridge Scholars Press). Her most recent publication is a volume of essays she contributed to and co-edited, Tearing the World Apart: Bob Dylan and the Twenty-First Century.

Richard Hresko, M.S., New York University; M.A., Fordham University
Currently an adjunct lecturer at both Fordham University and City University of New York, Hresko has been teaching university courses since 1980, including classes in economics, statistics, general and organic chemistry, and history from antiquity through the 20th century. His academic interests throughout his career have ranged from computer modeling of proteins in aqueous solutions to why medieval England imported iron, and he is currently working on the technology and economics of medieval arms and armor.

Kathryn John, M.A., New York University
A recipient of Fordham’s prestigious Bene Merenti medal, John teaches music history at Fordham University and maintains a private practice of music instruction. She has been with College at 60 since 1984. She specializes in the works of Ludwig von Beethoven, and she has taught numerous classical music courses on opera, symphony, concerto, and great composers.

Donn Mitchell, M.A., The General Theological Seminary
Donn Mitchell began his career as a newspaper reporter, specializing in environmental affairs, eventually becoming a public interest activist on behalf of clean water, gay rights, and workers’ rights.  He also worked to promote these concerns within the Episcopal Church, later undertaking historical studies at the Episcopal Seminary in New York.  Since that time, he has administered a program to develop theological education faculty and has taught at Manhattan College, Berkeley College, the General Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of Tread the City’s Streets Again: Frances Perkins Shares Her Theology.

Ali Noori
Ali Noori is a historian of premodern Islam. His research focuses on intellectual, social, and material histories through Arabic, Persian, and Turkish sources, and has taught courses at the University of Pennsylvania and CUNY Brooklyn College.

Barbara Parker, Ph.D., New York University
Parker is a professor emerita of English Renaissance Literature at William Paterson University and has taught literature courses in New York University’s School of Professional Studies. Her publications include Plato’s Republic and Shakespeare’s Rome: A Political Study of the Roman Works and articles in Shakespeare Quarterly, Marlowe Studies, and other leading journals, and she has presented papers at academic conferences throughout the United States. Her scholarship has been variously acclaimed: her article, “Plato’s Republic and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar,” was reprinted in Shakespearean Criticism: Yearbook 1993 (the Yearbook reprints 40 of what it deems the most outstanding essays published on Shakespeare during the preceding year). The article was additionally excerpted and reprinted in the Everyman Library edition of Julius Caesar (1993), one of only 17 articles selected to illustrate “Perspectives on Julius Caesar” since 1747 and the sole article chosen to represent the criticism of the 1990s. Her article on William Dean Howells’s Shadow of a Dream was reprinted in On Howells (1993), part of the Duke University Press series, The Best from American Literature, which reprints what it deems the best articles ever published in American Literature. In 2007, she was recognized by William Paterson University for outstanding scholarship and teaching. Her most recent article is on “Twelfth Night: Malvolio and the Tudor Heresy Trials.” 

Robert J. Parmach, Ph.D., Fordham University
Dr. Parmach serves as the inaugural director of Ignatian mission in the office of the vice president for mission integration and ministry at Fordham University, where he also teaches philosophy and theology.

A native of New York, Rob graduated from Xavier High School, earned the BA in philosophy with classics distinction from Fairfield University where he ran cross-country and track and his MA and PhD from Fordham University. He started his career in student affairs as a counselor and peer educator before becoming academic dean of first-year students at Fordham College at Rose Hill where he served as faculty director of its Manresa Scholars integrated learning community for first year students and coordinator of the sophomore West Wing Ignatian leadership program. Professor Parmach’s teaching and scholarship highlight practical applications of philosophy, theology and Jesuit education. He served on the student life committee of Xavier High School and advisory board of Contemplative Leaders in Action of the USA East Province of the Society of Jesus. For twenty-five years now, during the first week in June, Rob along with Fordham students and young alumni have served at Camp Friendship, an apostolate for foster children in rural Mississippi, putting theory into action. 

Marybeth Richroath, J.D., St. John's University School of Law
A retired judge with over 20 years of service on the New York state bench in Queens Family Court, Richroath also spent many years as a prosecutor for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in their trial division and juvenile crime/family court. In addition, she was the administrator for the first New York City Trade Waste Commission, which was created to combat organized crime in the city’s private carting industry. As an adjunct at Fordham University for the last several years, she has taught courses in her areas of specialty—family law, youth and the law, organized crime, and human trafficking.

Byron Shafer, Ph.D., Harvard University
An emeritus associate professor of theology and religious studies at Fordham and the pastor emeritus of Rutgers Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, Shafer also served for many years as the Protestant host of Religion on the Line, an interfaith call-in radio program on WABC. In retirement, he has been a visiting professor of Old and New Testaments at United Theological College in Bangalore, India, and an adjunct professor at Fordham.

George Shea, M.A., Ph.D., Columbia University
A professor emeritus of classical languages at Fordham, Shea taught courses in Latin language and literature as well as classics in translation. He has published three books on Latin poetry in addition to articles and reviews in both classics and other areas of general scholarly interest, and he has a special interest in international education, having taught and lectured in Japan, Australia, and Italy, where he directed Fordham’s summer study program. During his 15-year tenure as the dean of Fordham’s College at Lincoln Center, he was instrumental in developing the groundbreaking College at 60 program for senior adults and the innovative Excel program for mature learners returning to college.

Jess Velona, J.D., Columbia Law School, M.A., New York University
A former law clerk to then-judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Velona has practiced law for 30 years, most recently with the Securities and Exchange Commission. His current teaching includes a litigation course at Columbia Law School, an undergraduate course on African American history at the College of Staten Island, and courses in European and American history at Fordham, New York University’s School of Professional Studies, and other adult education programs. Velona has published on the intersection of law and politics, both in legal journals and in a contribution to a recent historical volume, Law and Revolution in Seventeenth-Century Ireland.