A native of Memphis, TN, Dr. Matthews engaged in interdisciplinary learning at Western Kentucky University focusing on education pedagogy. She then completed her Master’s Degree in the Art of Teaching – Elementary Education at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. She later continued her higher education in Reading and Literacy at Austin Peay State University. She has completed her Doctoral Degree at/from Murray State University in English Pedagogy with a concentration in Literacy. 

While completing her Master’s and Ed.S, she began her teaching career in the public school system while holding a multitude of leadership positions. At the completion of her doctoral degree program, she became an Assistant Professor at Cumberland University. Research Interests include mentoring novice teachers, non-profits focused on improving the mental health of student and novice teachers, as well as literacy and reading learning through all ages. 

In her free time, Ms. Matthews enjoys spending time with her wonderful husband, son, and three miniature dachshunds.

Dr. McDaniel is a historian who specializes in Russia and the Soviet Union with particular emphasis on Central Asia. His research, in large part, focuses on migration and the environment in the region of the Kazakh Steppe. Dr. McDaniel’s first major project – now manuscript in progress – is an analysis of the centrality of horses to the convergence of Russian and Soviet state power with both Slavic settler and indigenous Kazakh societies in the Kazakh Steppe. His research was funded primarily by the US Department of State’s Fulbright-Hays Program, allowing him to conduct archival fieldwork in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and St. Petersburg, Russia over the course of the 2017 calendar year.

Dr. McDaniel’s current project, still in its infancy, is an exploration of the Virgin Lands Campaign – Nikita Khrushchev’s ambitious plan to boost agricultural production in the Soviet Union by opening vast tracts of untilled land in the Kazakh Steppe and bordering regions. While the program initiated far-reaching environmental and societal change in Kazakhstan and beyond, relatively few works exist on the period. With the support of CU’s W.P. Bone Research Grant, he conducted preliminary field research in Kazakhstan for the project in the summer of 2023.

Amongst his other hobbies, Dr. McDaniel has a passion for foreign languages and travel. He has lived and traveled in Russia, Central Asia, and beyond and always loves to share his experiences with those wanting to hear more.

In January 2023, Dr. McDaniel was fortunate enough to travel to Riga, Latvia with students from across the country participating in the US Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth. At CU, he has helped initiate a travel abroad group which has two separate trips to Europe planned for the 2023-24 scholastic year.

Dr. McDaniel regularly teaches lower-division survey courses on Western Civilization (1715-Present) and World Civilization (1500-Present), and upper division courses on the Soviet Union, Central Asian History, and Comparative Empire, a course most recently focused on contextualizing Russian and the US expansion.

His research publications include: “Our Greatest Riches’: Horses at the Intersection of Settler and Kazakh Society in the Late Imperial Period.” Journal of Migration History 3 (2017): 210-228.

Manuscript: “Equine Empire: Horses and Power on the Kazakh Steppe, 1880s- 1920s.” (In Progress).

Dr. McDaniel’s awards include: Cumberland University- W.P. Bone Research Grant. 2023, Dissertation Completion Fellowship – Michigan State University – Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2019, Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Grant (for fieldwork in Russia and Kazakhstan. 2017), and University of Illinois – Summer Research Lab Fisher Research Fellowship, 2015.

Dr. Jenny Mason is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Cumberland University’s Dean of the Millard and J.J. Oakley School of Humanities, Education and the Arts. Dr. Mason began at Cumberland in the fall of 2014 where her teaching responsibilities have included undergraduate courses in developmental psychology, abnormal psychology, statistics for the behavioral sciences, and research methods in psychology, as well as graduate statistics courses in other programs at the university. She served as Assistant Dean for one semester and then Interim Dean for one year before being selected to her current position. Prior to arriving at Cumberland, she taught as an Adjunct Professor at Lipscomb and Belmont Universities, was a Research and Corporate Consultant across the state, and a Clinical Therapist working in both individual and group settings with a concentration on aggression and sexual violence.

A Nashville native, Dr. Mason graduated from St. Cecilia Academy and went on to attend college at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. In search for more research opportunities, she transferred to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville her junior year, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Psychology. Following graduation from Auburn University with her Master’s degree in Community/Agency Psychology, Dr. Mason worked for two years as a Child Therapist before returning to school to obtain her doctoral degree in Experimental Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi, taking nearly the full course load required for doctoral degrees in both Counseling Psychology and Experimental Psychology.

Research experiences for Dr. Mason included assisting parents of diabetic children to better understand medication and nutrition regimes in managing Type I Diabetes, developmental-based parenting training for parents of children ages 2 to 6, determining levels of change agency and diversity valuing in college students, and assessing the characteristics of those who most effectively challenge workplace bullying in order to provide useful training opportunities for new hires in a business or academic setting.

Wyatt Keener began teaching at Cumberland University as an adjunct instructor in 2018 before being appointed to a full-time position in 2019. He has previously taught at the University of Tennessee, Pellissippi State Community College, and Volunteer State Community College. Mr. Keener holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Tennessee. He specializes in Old English Literature and First-Year Composition.

Mr. Keener has taught in the Honors Program since 2022. His teaching responsibilities also include Composition and a range of literature courses, including Shakespeare and British Literature. In addition to his work at Cumberland, Mr. Keener volunteers as a mentor with tnAchieves. His favorite aspect of teaching is helping students navigate the transition to post-secondary education. He resides in Wilson County with his wife and their dog.

Suzann Lafferty is an Assistant Professor and Program Director of Criminal Justice at Cumberland University. Prior to coming to Cumberland, Ms. Lafferty served as a Special Agent Forensic Scientist with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) for seventeen years. During this time, she was a member of the Violent Crime Response Team and processed complex crime scenes throughout the state of Tennessee, specializing in microanalysis and latent prints. As a forensic scientist in TBI’s Nashville crime laboratory, she was assigned to the latent print unit where she processed evidence for the presence of latent prints and compared submitted and developed latent prints to known impressions. Ms. Lafferty has been accepted in the state of Tennessee as an expert witness. 

During her last six years at TBI, Ms. Lafferty was assigned to the Training Division. In this capacity, she instructed in the TBI State Academy, TBI Special Agent Academy, and at the Tennessee Law Enforcement Training Academy. She additionally instructed courses for the TN Department of Children Services, TN Department of Human Services, Comptroller’s Office, and the Office of the Inspector General. She also led a multi-agency team to develop the curriculum for Just and Fair Policing, which was a mandatory four-hour course for law enforcement in Tennessee. Ms. Lafferty was also instrumental in implementing and developing TBI LEARN (Law Enforcement Access Right Now), an online platform that delivers training courses to law enforcement and other state agencies. 

During her time at TBI, she attended numerous training courses and conferences. Ms. Lafferty is a life-time member of the Tennessee Division of the International Association for Identification (TN IAI). She also previously served as president, vice-president, conference chair, and treasurer for the TN IAI. 

Prior to joining as full-time faculty, Ms. Lafferty also served as an adjunct instructor in Criminal Justice at Cumberland University for four years.