SCS Leadership
Rhonda Coffelt is a full time Instructor of Chemistry and Natural Sciences Department Chair for Calhoun Community College on the Huntsville Campus. After serving in the U.S. Army as a musician (oboe, flute, sax and vocals), she earned her B. S. in Chemistry from Austin Peay State University, and an M.S. in Chemistry from Tennessee State University. She spent over 20 years in the Chemical and Environmental industries, serving as a Chemist, Trainer, Laboratory Director, Operations Manager, Facility Manager, and Director of Treatment and Transportation for several environmental consulting, transportation and hazardous waste treatment companies. She performed compliance training for over 10 of those years on Red Cross, OSHA, EPA, DOT and ISO14001 regulations. She was a Certified Hazardous Materials Manager and a Grade III wastewater treatment plant operator in Tennessee. She served in the Tennessee Army National Guard as a Petroleum Lab Specialist (NCOIC of a Mobile Fuel Testing Laboratory) during this time.
After numerous Environmental company buyouts, she used her year’s severance, adjunct teaching, and an NSF grant to earn a PhD in Biological Sciences (Biochemical/Molecular Research) from Tennessee State University. Rhonda’s research interests included: biological treatment of solvent contaminated wastewater, Astrobiology, and environmental toxicology. She has been teaching Chemistry on and off since 1988 and full time since 2005. She taught full time for Nashville State Community College from 2005 - 2016 and joined Calhoun Community College full time in fall of 2016.
Rhonda became a licensed practical nurse (LPN) in 2014, inspiring her daughter, Baylee to become a BSN, who practices nursing in Tennessee. She and Baylee hope to use their nursing skills on mission trips. She has two beloved cocker spaniels: Chloe and Sophia. She is a retired certified PADI Scuba Diving Instructor and a (former) ballroom dance champion. When not at Calhoun, Rhonda plays golf and Trivia in addition to singing and playing the flute, but not all at the same time! She is a Science fiction and forensic science fanatic and loves all things zombies.
Rhonda’s passion is teaching and loves nothing more than helping students understand how they learn and appreciate subjects (like Chemistry) that they thought they hated because they once had a bad teacher.
Dr. Rhonda Coffelt
Chair
Dr. Tom Woolley retired as Senior Associate Provost of Samford University in 2019 and was awarded Professor Emeritus of Quantitative Analysis and Biostatistics by Samford University in 2020. He received his Ph. D. (1981) in Statistics and Research Design, M.S. from the Florida State University. Prior to his time at Samford University he held the positions of Associate Professor of Biometry and Medical Computing at the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University (1981 – 1988) and Vice Chair of the Department of Biostatistics and Biomathematics and Head of Public Health Biostatistics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Medical Center (1988 – 1993).
In 1992, Dr. Woolley received the UAB President’s Excellence in Teaching Award and in 2001 he received Samford University’s Buchanan Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching. In 2000, he was named the Carnegie Foundation/CASE Alabama Professor of the Year. In January of 2003 Dr. Woolley was named a Templeton Scholar and was one of 30 international scholars who participated in the Templeton Oxford Seminars in Science and Christianity at the University of Oxford (2003 - 2005). He is also co-founder and Senior Fellow in the Samford University Center for Science and Religion. Having published or presented before scientific conferences over 300 works, his research interests include the theology of chance, applied Bayesian analysis, outlier methodology, and contingency in the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas. Dr. Woolley is married to Mary Lyn; they converted to Catholicism in 2007. Together they have two grown children, Drew and McKenzie.
Dr. Tom Woolley
Vice-Chair
Shannon M. Bailey is a Professor in the Department of Pathology of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research focuses on the role mitochondrial dysfunction in the development of liver diseases. Prof. Bailey also investigates the importance of circadian rhythms in regulating metabolism and liver and cardiovascular health.
More information at: http://scholars.uab.edu/display/sbailey and https://sites.uab.edu/bailey-lab/
Dr. Shannon Bailey
Secretary
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