Lakeland College

Lakeland College Japan Faculty

The faculty of Lakeland College Japan are committed to providing intellectual, moral, and professional leadership for their students. They draw upon a wide diversity of experience of living and learning in Japan and around the world. With the College's small class sizes, faculty are amply accessible to students.

Luis Poza
Academic Coordinator, Assistant Professor of General Studies & Computer Science

Mr. Poza has worked at Lakeland College Japan Campus as an administrator and a professor since 1998. He teaches Introduction to Computers, Writing Workshop, Reading Workshop, and Expository Writing. He maintains numerous websites for the benefit of the LCJ community, as well as for the general public.

Mr. Poza has traveled extensively in Japan over the past twenty-five years, and has long held a strong personal interest in Japanese language and culture. He joined the Lakeland faculty after more than a decade of work and study in Japan.

Dr. Alan Brender
Director of External Affairs

Dr. Brender started as an educator in the Peace Corps in Kenya and has also taught in US, Malaysia and Swaziland. Over the years, Dr Brender has followed a dual-carreer as an academic and a journalist. He holds a doctorate from Temple University in Applied Linguists and a Master's degree from Columbia University Teachers College. He has served as the Japan correspondent for The Chronicle of Higher Education and has written for such diverse publications as Chemical Marketing Reporter, Starlog and Floor Covering Weekly. Dr. Brender founded the Writing Center at Temple University Japan and headed its writing department for 15 years before joining Lakeland College.

Dr. Armand Hornia
Assistant Professor of Science & Math

Dr. Hornia completed his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at the City University of New York Hunter College. He first came to Japan in 2001 and worked predominantly in teaching and later was involved in scientific research. He gained valuable experience teaching students at pharmaceutical companies around Japan. He dealt with small classes and taught a variety of intensive courses in subjects of interest to the pharmaceutical industry. At LCJ, he applies both his teaching and extensive research experience to teach students Mathematics and Biology.

Charles Laurier
Librarian

Mr. Laurier studied History and International Studies at the University of Washington. He spent nine years as a librarian at Roosevelt University in Chicago before coming to Osaka in 1999, where he taught English for five years. Dramatic changes in the world of information offer a constant challenge to librarians. Mr. Laurier contends, "The Internet revolution has increased the information power of our library in a way that would have been unimaginable even ten years ago. But the problems of effectively and efficiently accessing that information are also more complex than ever before."

Ruth Lionberger
Assistant Professor of General Studies

Ms. Lionberger earned her M.A. in Literature at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. While at UNL, she encountered students from Senshu University, which sparked her interest in traveling to Japan. In 1994, she came to Japan for the first time. Since then, she has built a career centered on international relations and communications. Ms. Lionberger has voluntarily served as an international ambassador for the city of Matsudo and has received two separate awards from the Chiisana Shinsetsu Undo (Small Kindness Movement) in recognition of her acts of good will.

Dr. Ned Loader
Assistant Professor of Humanities

Dr. Loader has a combined Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, Social History, and Media & Communication Theory. He enjoys seeing students make the connections between historical events, art and culture. Before joining LCJ, he taught at the University of Tsukuba as Foreign Professor of English and Cultural Studies for more than seven years. Besides teaching at LCJ and Tsukuba, Dr. Loader has been on the full-time faculty of Waseda University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and has taught at other universities in the U.S. as well.

Barbara Turoff
Assistant Professor of History

From New York City, Ms. Turoff majored in Literature and History at Rutgers University. She has held teaching positions in high schools, community colleges, and universities in the United States, Spain, and Japan. Ms. Turoff's special field is the history of American women, and she has a strong interest in Holocaust studies. Ms. Turoff primarily teaches History and the Humanities. An advocate of active learning, Ms. Turoff encourages dialogue in the classroom and requires extensive research so that students can explore their own interests in depth.

Tracey Woodson
Assistant Professor of General Studies & Anthropology

Ms. Woodson teaches social science, critical thinking, and writing courses at LCJ. Her classes are focused on issues related to identity and social justice. She studied Anthropology and Political Science with an emphasis on Latin American political culture at the University of Texas at Austin. Before moving to Japan, she was a lecturer at the Universidad de Las Americas (UDLA) and at the Instituto Tecnol—gico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITSM) in Mexico City, both U.S.-accredited universities.