Retiring faculty reflect on their time at Ithaca College
Bob Sullivan, professor in the Department of Literatures in English at Ithaca College, believes that young people are much smarter and more engaged than common stereotypes suggest they are. In his 30 years of teaching at IC, Sullivan said he has emphasized building relationships with students and supporting and challenging them as they develop their thinking and views of the world.
Raised in a big Irish Catholic family of “fanatical readers,” but with few financial resources, Sullivan attended college later in life. After growing fascinated with the study of rhetoric — a classical art of effective discussion and persuasion — Sullivan pursued a Ph.D. at the University of Maryland and taught at institutions like Emerson College and Boston University.
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After attending an R1 research institution where his classes had a minimum of 70 students, Hormoz Movassaghi, professor and chair of the Department of Finance and International Business at Ithaca College, wanted to teach at a college that allowed faculty to connect with their students. Drawn to IC’s emphasis on both teaching and research, Movassaghi started at the college in 1988.
Movassaghi said he completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics before realizing that he wanted to focus on a discipline centered more in real-world application than theory. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for a master’s degree in health services administration, a master’s in international business and a Ph.D. in international business.
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Zenon Wasyliw, professor in the Department of History at Ithaca College, ends every class session by leading students in a cheer of “Budmo!”, a Ukrainian toast. The routine shows both his heritage and his commitment to engaging students in class. Since he started teaching at IC in 1989, Wasyliw has built connections with hundreds of students — many of whom still talk with him or follow his Instagram account.
Wasyliw said he has spent his career researching Ukraine and Russia, a focus inspired by his parents’ emigration from Ukraine after World War II. He traveled to Ukraine and the Soviet Union in the 1980s to gather archival material for his doctoral research, sending his photocopies and microfilms to the American Embassy to get them out of the Soviet Union. Wasyliw’s research on Ukraine and the Soviet Union also helped bring him to IC.
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Diane Gayeski ’74, professor in the Department of Strategic Communication at Ithaca College, has worked with clients like General Electric, Sony and Fiat through her consulting firm, Gayeski Analytics. Even as her firm grew, Gayeski chose to continue teaching at IC — and later, serve as the Dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications.
Though Gayeski will continue her research during a sabbatical in the 2026-27 academic year, she will retire from teaching at the end of Spring 2026, after 46 years of working at IC.
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Arhlene Flowers, professor in the Department of Strategic Communication, traveled to more than 40 countries and almost 30 states while working in marketing and public relations. After two decades of working for global agencies and corporations, Flowers felt something was missing — and made the transition from conference rooms to Ithaca College classrooms in 2006.
Flowers has taught courses like PR lab and writing for PR for the Advertising, Public Relations, and Marketing Communications program. Flowers said she drew on her professional experience to create the global, intercultural and multicultural PR course.
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Lynne Hewitt returned to her undergraduate college town in January 2020 to become professor and chair of the Department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology at Ithaca College. Since graduating from Cornell University, Hewitt has completed graduate degrees and taught in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Zealand, before returning to Ithaca to close out her career.
Hewitt will retire as a full-time professor at the end of Spring 2026, after 32 years of teaching, researching and serving in administrative roles in higher education.
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Patrice Pastore, professor in the Department of Music Performance, believes she had an unconventional path to teaching voice at Ithaca College, but she is grateful that IC has become her home over the last 43 years.
Pastore will retire from full-time teaching at the end of Spring 2026, but plans to continue teaching private lessons in future semesters.
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Shannon Scott, associate professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at Ithaca College, said she loves learning so much that she would pursue a career as a full-time student if she could get paid for it. Scott’s love of learning and exploring new challenges took her from her hometown near Vancouver, Canada to clinical positions and presentations across the United States, before she started teaching at Ithaca College in 2017.
Scott said it took her a little while to find the occupational therapy career path. After getting waitlisted for art school, Scott decided to study marine biology at the University of British Columbia. She later changed to a biochemistry major, before learning about occupational therapy from a girl in her dorm.
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Pablo Cohen, professor in the Ithaca College Department of Music Performance, has performed across the globe at iconic venues like Carnegie Hall, earned permanent residency in the United States based on extraordinary talent and recorded multiple compositions and solo albums. However, Cohen said he is most proud of his job at IC.
Since he started teaching at IC in 1996, Cohen has worked to share music from Latin America and help students learn the art of playing guitar.
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Rebecca Lesses, associate professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Ithaca College, loves learning from other generations. From talking with students about slang, music and culture to learning about historical customs and beliefs in her research about early Jewish mysticism and magic, Lesses has spent much of her 25 years at IC thinking about personal experience and human connection.
Lesses earned a bachelor’s degree in religion and a Ph.D. in religion with a concentration in Judaism from Harvard University. Lesses completed fellowships at Columbia University and Hebrew University, and taught at Cornell University, Vassar College and Bucknell University before coming to IC in 2001.
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