Two faculty members and two vice presidents are joining the Bluffton University community this academic year along with several new staff members and graduate assistant coaches in athletics.

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New assistant professors for 2012-13 are Dr. Martina Cucchiara, in history, and Milagros Quiles, in Spanish. Meanwhile, Dr. Julie DeGraw, vice president for student life and dean of students, and Ron Headings, vice president for enrollment management and marketing, have come to campus as new members of President James Harder’s Cabinet.

Dr. Martina Cucchiara

Cucchiara earned her Ph.D. in history from the University of Notre Dame in 2011. Her dissertation topic was the Poor School Sisters of Notre Dame in Hitler’s Germany. She also holds a master’s degree from Notre Dame and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The fellowships, grants and awards she received while at Notre Dame included two fellowships from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

Milagros Quiles

After receiving her bachelor of arts degree from the State University of New York at Albany in 1987, Quiles moved on to the University of Cincinnati, where she earned a master’s degree in 1990 and taught at various times through 1996. She has also taught younger students in Cincinnati, as director of the Children’s World of Language from 1997-2000 and at Summit Country Day School (1994-98) and McNicholas High School (2000-08).

Dr. Julie DeGraw
DeGraw comes to Bluffton from the College of Lake County (Ill.), a community college north of Chicago where she was dean of counseling, advising and transfer. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in higher education, both from the University of Michigan. Her doctoral program included a concentration in academic affairs and student development. She also earned a master’s degree in counseling from Michigan State University. Her bachelor’s degree is in English and secondary education from Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Mich.

Ron Headings

Headings is a past manager of global e-commerce research for Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, where he had worked since 1984. A 1982 graduate of Bethel College (Kan.) in mathematics and business, he earned a master of business administration degree in marketing from Indiana University in 1984. He was a Mennonite Education Agency board member from 2007-11 and chaired the board of Ten Thousand Villages of Cincinnati from 2005-11.

The appointments of DeGraw and Headings were part of a President’s Cabinet restructuring that separated vice presidential responsibilities of enrollment management and student life into two roles, while adding dean of students responsibilities to the student life position. Dr. Eric Fulcomer was vice president over both areas from 2005 until leaving the university this summer.

New staff members include:

• Jennifer Little, coordinator of Bluffton’s new dietetics internship program. Little, a registered and licensed dietitian, holds a bachelor’s degree in home economics/dietetics from Berea (Ky.) College and has worked in clinical and community nutrition, most recently as a clinical dietitian at Bluffton’s Mennonite Memorial Home for nearly nine years. She is currently in Ohio State University’s Master of Public Health Program for Experienced Professionals.

• Andy Chaffee and Hanna Mattingly, both admissions counselors, as well as Bluffton graduates. Chaffee, a 2012 alumnus, has a recruiting area of nearly 30 Ohio counties and 17 states, while Mattingly, who graduated in 2011, is working with all prospective Mennonite students and with students from several other states.

• Richard Ciccone, an assistant football coach. He is coaching Bluffton special teams and wide receivers after stints at Kenyon and Marietta colleges and two Ohio high schools. Ciccone earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Mount Union College, where he was a member of NCAA Division III national championship football teams in 2001 and 2002. He also holds a master’s degree in education from Marietta.

Graduate-assistant appointees in athletics are:

• In softball, Tiffany Buckmaster, a four-year softball letter winner at Bluffton. She graduated in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and recreation.

• In football, Jonathan Cooley, a four-year letterman at John Carroll University, where he graduated in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He was an assistant coach last year at Millikin University in Decatur, Ill.

• In cross country and track and field, Bryson Hartzler, a 2011 graduate of Pennsylvania State University-University Park with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology/fitness studies. He was a national qualifier in the high jump while at Penn State-Behrend.

• In athletic training, Tiffani Sawmiller, who earned a master’s degree in the field from the University of Findlay last May. Her bachelor’s degree in biology is from Saint Joseph’s College.

• In baseball, Zack Vesco, a four-year letterman at The College of Wooster, where he was a member of the Division III national runners-up—as well as the all-national tournament team—in 2009. He graduated from Wooster last May with a bachelor’s degree in communication studies.

• In football, Jon Wheat, a four-year letter winner at Hanover College and an assistant coach there the last two seasons. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Hanover in 2009.

Also new to campus is Stephanie Baugh, a Bowling Green State University graduate student who will serve as Hirschy Hall director during a two-year internship toward her master’s degree in college student personnel.