Dr. George Walker began at Cumberland University in the Fall of 2003. Prior to his arrival at the university, he was an elementary/middle school principal in the Jackson County School System. Dr. Walker gained experience in the area of education by serving many years as a physical education teacher at the elementary, middle, and high school levels, as well as coaching football at the middle and high school levels. Along with his administration and teaching at K-12 level, he has taught at both Tennessee Technological University and Middle Tennessee State University.

Dr. Walker holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts degrees in the areas of Health and Physical Education from Tennessee Technological University. He also earned at Tennessee Technological University a Specialist in Education degree in the area of Educational Leadership. He holds a Doctor of Arts degree in Physical Education from Middle Tennessee State University.

He has received educational honors from the Tennessee State Department of Education, Tennessee Academy for School Leaders as well as the educational peer mentoring program from the Tennessee Army National Guard Special Award (Bee Like Me Program).

Along with his duties at Cumberland University, Dr. Walker serves as the Director of Tennessee Special Olympics for Area 27, Wilson County. His area of research interests deal with:

·         physical education

·         adaptive physical education & physical activity

·         healthy play

·         the impact of physical fitness on academic performance

As an educator, Summer Vertrees has taught students ranging from 7th grade summer school and high school dual enrollment to seniors at four year universities, as well as online college enrollees. One of her areas of passion is in the realm of Visual Rhetoric, and she created a class with this focus specifically for CU, which has quickly turned into a curriculum favorite. Beyond Visual Rhetoric, she has instructed courses like Advanced Composition, Shakespeare, Utopian and Dystopian Literature, Mental Health in Literature, American Literature, and more.

As a writer, Vertrees has published pieces in local magazines and newspapers, as well as in the Novus Literary Journal. Her work has been read on NPR, and she has also supported excellent student writers to help them get their work published, highlighting the exceptional content they have created while in her classroom. As a faculty member, she is proud to have started taking groups of students to travel abroad, which has now expanded into the Phoenix Flyers, a social group which focuses on all things travel. Now co-leading with a colleague, she has helped Cumberland students see the world, most recently returning from Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, with more trips on the horizon.

Personally, Vertrees enjoys spending time with her husband and three children. Most any activity that involves being outdoors makes her happy, and so does coffee.

Prior to becoming a higher education faculty member, Dr. Sandy Smith taught twenty years in the P-12 setting.  She served as an elementary, special education, gifted and adult education teacher. Her areas of interest include special education, diversity, assessment, and literacy.  She has co-authored a number of college-level texts including The Student Teaching and Field Experience Handbook (7th edition), Teaching Reading in the Today’s Middle Schools (1st edition), Teaching Through Stories, Yours, Mine and Theirs (1st edition), and Teaching Reading in Today’s Elementary Schools (9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th editions). 

Dr. Smith is actively involved in a variety of professional organizations, including the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), The Tennessee Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (TACTE), the Association for Supervision and Curriculum (ASCD), the International Literacy Association (ILA), and the Literacy Association of Tennessee (LAT).  Currently in LAT, Dr. Smith is a member of the Board of Directors holds the state leadership position of Treasurer.    

At Cumberland University, Dr. Smith teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses for candidates seeking teacher licensure.  She teaches courses related to collaboration, special education, English as a Second Language (ESL), and literacy and provides support for candidates in numerous field and clinical experiences.  She advises licensure candidates seeking endorsements in special education, elementary education, and ESL.

Dr. Smith serves as the program director for the Master of Arts in Teaching program. She participates in a number of campus-wide committees, including the CU Colloquium Planning Committee.  Dr. Smith often presents professional development programs for area school systems and serves on a number of state-level committees organized by the Tennessee State Department of Education.  

Dr. Smith lives in Overton County with her husband of 47 years, David.  They have two sons, Dustin and Tyler, a daughter-in-law, Mandy, a grandson, Marek, one Siberian Husky dog and four cats.  

Rory Sellgren earned a B.A. in English and Theology from Alvernia College in 2005. He then finished two M.A. degrees in New Testament studies from the Claremont School of Theology (in Claremont, CA) and Medieval Studies from the University of Leeds (in Yorkshire, UK) between 2009 and 2010.

Sellgren began teaching as an adjunct professor at Alvernia University (nee College) in 2011. He split his teaching load between Foundations of Theology and English Composition and Research. His passion for medieval literature, especially Dante’s Commedia, brought him back to the University of Leeds in 2013 to begin his doctoral studies.

Sellgren’s Ph.D. research took an interdisciplinary approach to consider the influence of St. Augustine of Hippo’s Biblical hermeneutics on Dante’s Commedia. (Fancy words for answering the question: “Where is Jesus Christ in the Divine Comedy, and what’s he doing?”). While he did not acquire a Yorkshire accent during his time in The North, he developed his passions for football, proper full English breakfasts, assorted brews, rainy and gray days, and choir singing.

Upon the completion of his studies, Sellgren returned to the United States and resumed teaching theology and English composition courses at Alvernia University and, later, at Albright College (both located in Reading, PA). He moved to Middle Tennessee and joined the Cumberland University faculty as an adjunct professor in 2019, teaching English Composition I & II. He became a full-time faculty member in 2022. Sellgren welcomes any and all opportunities to teach Dante, be it in a special topic course or World Literature course.

Outside of the classroom, Sellgren is devoted to spending time with his partner, family, and his pet cats (he’s a proud “cat-dad”). He is also an avid LEGO collector and fan. He looks forward to the day he can rejoin a church choir and finally finish the multiple Dante research projects he has stashed on his computer… As well as finding spare time to build his hobbies.

Dr. Rex’s areas of interest fall mainly in British and World Literature particularly 16th, 17th, & 18th-century British Literature and Culture. In addition to British Literature courses and First Year Composition, he teaches courses in Creative Writing, Women’s Literature, Queer Theory, Classical and Early Modern World Literature, Linguistics, Native American Literature, Science Fiction, Fantasy, as well as Harry Potter, and Superheroes in Literature and Film. Lots of Reading – Exercise for the Brain, but Massive Fun!

Dr. Rex holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and History from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX, with a Master of Arts in English with concentrations in 17th century British Literature, Rhetoric & Composition, and ELL from Texas A&M University. His PhD, concentrations in 17th & 18th century British and Medieval and Arthurian Literature, comes from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.

As a playwright, Michael Rex has had several plays locally produced. Letters to God was part of Out Front on Main’s Anti-Gay Bullying Campaign Bully This! In April 2013, Nice Girls Don’t played to sold out houses for three weeks at Lakewood Theatre and again at Encore Theatre in the Spring of 2015. My Mama Says, a play about 11 African American women in the Civil Rights Era was produced at Encore Theatre Company in May 2014. A Merry Little Christmas was produced at Out Front on Main in Dec 2015. His adaptations of Shakespeare – The 12th of Whatever, Something’s Up, Maybe?, The Merry Wives of Nashville, and, We’re Even Now – are all well received. Somebody’s Baby – a play about five African American women dealing with losing family members to police violence won the Best Original Play in Middle TN 2017. Current projects include A Newer Way to Pay Old Debts and The Red Queen’s Dilemma.