Faculty and Staff
Malcolm Cash received the B.A from Oberlin College, and the Master of Fine Arts in English from the University of Pittsburgh.
Cash is presently a professor of English at Lorain County Community College. His teaching and research interest center on African American Studies (focus: Civil Rights Movement), Creative Nonfiction, Global Literature (focus: African), Education for Social Change, and Student Leadership & Multiculturalism. Cash's teaching also comprises educational consulting, public speaking, academic/leadership workshops, conducting literary/historic tours, mentoring future educators, and developing Leadership Projects.
Cash is executive director of the emerging Katrina Leadership Project (http://www.klpdc2008.com/). The KLP is currently being organized as an educational initiative to systemically address the national leadership gap which clearly manifested during the tragic Hurricane Katrina maelstrom.
Malcolm Cash is the proud father of Ayanna Cash-Clements
Marci Bounds Littlefield earned a PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, Masters of Public Affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson Graduate School of Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College. Ms. Littlefield is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology, and Research Fellow for the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University Purdue University in Indianapolis. She is published in areas which include Black women, the media, and the Black church and has been funded to research faith based organizations in Indianapolis and Chicago.. Dr. Littlefield’s current book project investigates marriage in the African American Community.
Raquel M. Ortiz Rodríguez is presently a PhD candidate in the University of Salamanca in Social Antropology. She holds a D.E.A. in Social Anthropology from the University of Salamanca (Spain), a M.A in Puerto Rican Studies from El Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe (San Juan, Puerto Rico), and a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from the Ohio State University.
Raquel has worked as an Assistant Registrar at the Allen Memorial Art Museum (Oberlin College), and in the Education Departments of El Museo del Barrio (New York City) and The Brooklyn Museum. She has taught art, Puerto Rican literature, and Spanish at the Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High Schol (Chicago), and has worked as an editor and writer for textbooks for Puerto Rican elementary students for Grupo Santillana (San Juan, Puerto Rico).
Raquel has published articles about art and identity in CENTRO Journal (New York), Revisto del Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña (San Juan) and the Editorial de la Fundación Joaquim Nabuco de Recife (Brazil). She has recently edited three books in collaboration with her husband, Wilkins Román Samot that deal with law and human rights. She continues to publish as a free-lance writer and as a columnist for El Latino Expreso.
Currently, Raquel is a Spanish Instructor at LCCC.
Ron Taplin is a faculty counselor at Bellevue Community College (BCC) in Bellevue , Washington (outside of Seattle ) where he also served for ten years as the Associate Dean for Student Development Services. In this capacity he developed and taught courses on Leadership and chaired the Advisory Committee for the Student Leadership Institute of BCC. He spent fourteen years at the University of the Virgin Islands ( St. Thomas ) as the Director of Student Life where he established the UVI Leadership Institute. While there, he also obtained the M.B.A. degree. He is a native of Seattle . He holds a B.A. degree in Sociology from Washington State University and a M.Ed. from Idaho State University where he studied Student Personnel Services for Higher Education. He was selected to, "Outstanding Young Men of America " in 1984 and the "Marquis Who's Who in the South and Southwest" for 1991/92. He has travelled extensively throughout the United States and the Caribbean . He has also visited Europe and South America and on two occasions visited the continent of Africa (The Sudan in 1984; Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana in 1990). He is married and the father of a 15 year old daughter, Ahmen Rahn Taplin, a high school sophomore.
Daniel G. Ortiz holds his B.A. from Oberlin College where he majored in Religion and Latin American Studies. While at Oberlin College he received a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship and has done focused and specific research on the topic of Liberation Theology. Ortiz has worked as a teacher at Fairhome Academy (Lorain City Schools) and has volunteered in community organizing efforts with Reclaim Lorain (Lorain, OH). Daniel has a deep passion for working in multiple forms of media and has completed three documentary films, as well as a curriculum for a film project to engage youth on issues of community and identity.
Daniel will be working as Media and Public Relations Coordinator for the KLP and is currently an employee of Early College High School at Lorain County Community College and a freelance editor and writer.
Tatiana Webster graduated from Euclid High School in 2000. She enlisted in the United States Army Reserve as a Combat Medic, then in 2002, she started her educational career at Ursuline College. In 2006, she completed her Bachelors in Art and continued on to Cleveland State University. In December of 2008, she will receive her Masters in Adult Learning and Development.
Mike Zellers is an Assistant Professor in the Business Division of Lorain County Community College and teaches courses in Computer Information Systems, specializing in Web and Software Development. Mike has been a full time faculty member at LCCC since 2002. Mike also brings 20+ years experience in IT and software development in serving KLP's technical needs.
Katrina Leadership Project professional staff and college staff are volunteers.