Full-Time Faculty
Dawn Bowen
Stephen Hanna
Caitlin Finlayson
Marco Millones Mayer
Jackie Gallagher
Melina Patterson
Farhang Rouhani
Ping Yin
Adjunct Faculty
Steven Schaffer
Carlos Disla
Michael Stapor
Retired Faculty
Joseph W. Nicholas
Associate Professor Emeritus
- Ph.D., University of Georgia
- M.S., University of North Dakota
- B.A., Bemidji State University
Dr. Joe Nicholas started teaching at Mary Washington College in 1991, after completing his doctoral degree; he retired in May 2026. For years, Joe was the only physical geographer in the faculty. His teaching and research interests included alpine periglacial geomorphology, Quaternary environments, climatology, and biogeography. His principal research area was the La Sal Mountains of southeastern Utah, where he studied rock glaciers and other talus landforms for clues to Holocene climate change.
Beloved, Dr. Nicholas’s retirement was celebrated at a “Joe-themed” Spring Awards Banquet, with a record number of attendees, including many of his former students. Joe has started a new career as a fruit farmer on Pine Island, Florida, growing lychees, dragon fruit and mangoes. He still owns the big white house on Sunken Road!
Brian R. Rizzo
Associate Professor Emeritus
- B.A., M.A. University of Western Ontario
- Ph.D. University of Virginia
Dr. Rizzo retired at the end of the spring 2023 semester. While an undergraduate geography major – decades ago, Brian became involved with a new area of geography that would evolve into Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In the 20+ years since, he was involved in developing GIS data structures and applications to address a wide range of issues. Brian’s research focuses were on global climate change as it related to the biogeographic distribution of vegetation, and infrastructure management within the GIS framework.
Donald N. Rallis
- Professor Emeritus
- B.A., B.Sc (Hons) University of the Witwatersrand;
- M.A., University of Miami;
- Ph.D., Penn State University
Donald Rallis recently retired from the American University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia, having retired from Mary Washington in 2013. He blogs on and edits the You Tube channel Journeys, People, Places where he maintains a photograph collection, and posts videos and short classes. Email Dr. Rallis here.