College of the Pacific
Meet the Deans
Dr. Thomas W. Krise
Dean, College of the Pacific,
Professor of English
WPC 110, 209.946.2023, 
Email
Dean Krise earned a B.S. in history from the U.S. Air Force Academy, an M.S.A. in management from Central Michigan University, an M.A. in English from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Chicago.
Prior to his appointment at Pacific, he was Chair of the Department of English at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. Before moving to UCF, he served 22 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He served on the faculty of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, as a Senior Military Fellow of the Institute for National Strategic Studies in Washington, D.C., and as Vice Director of the National Defense University Press.
His academic interests focus on early Caribbean, early American, and 17th- and 18th-century British literature. He has served as General Editor of the McNair Papers monograph series and Managing Editor of War, Literature, and the Arts: An International Journal of the Humanities. He has published numerous articles and other works, including Caribbeana: An Anthology of English Literature of the West Indies, 1657-1777 (University of Chicago Press).
Biography:
Recent Speeches:
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Dr. Edith Sparks
Senior Associate Dean, College of the Pacific,
Associate Professor of History
WPC 111 (Academic Affairs Office), 209.946.2141, Email
Dean Sparks holds a B.A. in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley and completed an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from UCLA. She is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Before her appointment as the Senior Associate Dean in 2006, she taught in the History Department at Pacific for seven years and was the inaugural recipient of the Stephen E. Corson Award for the Distinguished Teaching of Freshmen in 2005. In her classes in Women's, California, Immigration and recent U. S. History she emphasized undergraduate research and mentored eight student research projects presented at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research.
She has presented her own research on women business owners at regional, national and international conferences. Her book, Capital Intentions: Female Proprietors in San Francisco, 1850-1920 was published by the University of North Carolina Press in fall 2006.
Dr. Lou Matz
Associate Dean and Director of General Education, College of the Pacific,
Associate Professor of Philosophy
WPC 110, 209.946.2673, Email
Dean Matz majored in philosophy and psychology at the University of Redlands. He was the scholar-athlete of the year (basketball) and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He completed his M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of California, San Diego.
Before his appointment in 2004 as Associate Dean and Director of Pacific's general education program, he taught for five years in Pacific's Philosophy Department and served as its chair. He has held teaching positions at Xavier University (Ohio), University of California, San Diego, and the University of Redlands.
His teaching and research interests focus on J.S. Mill, the philosophy of religion, and ethics. His annotated edition of J.S. Mill's Three Essays on Religion was published in 2009 by Broadview Press.
Dr. Cynthia Dobbs
Assistant Dean, College of the Pacific,
Associate Professor of English
WPC 117, 209.946.2142, Email
Dean Dobbs earned a B.A. in English from Pomona College, where she was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley. After receiving her B.A. degree she served for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana, working in a secondary school and on a regional infant immunization project.
She began working as Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs in July 2007. Before this appointment, she was an Assistant and then Associate Professor of English at Pacific for nine years, where she taught courses in American literature and writing, including "Faulkner/Morrison," "Black Women Writers," "Creative Nonfiction Writing," and "Blues, Jazz, and Literature." Her articles and book reviews have appeared in such journals as American Literature, African American Review, and The Faulkner Journal.
