Dr. Maria Zafonte is the chair of the English Department in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She teaches mainly first-year general education composition courses as well as literature classes in the BA in English for Secondary Education program. Dr. Zafonte earned her PhD in General Psychology with an emphasis in Cognition and Instruction from GCU. She also holds an M.A. in English, an M.S. in School Counseling and a B.A. in the Humanities. In addition to her own scholarly work on composition pedagogy across learning modalities, APA Style, and Young Adult literature; Dr. Zafonte is passionate about supporting faculty researchers across the university and advances scholarship at the institutional level with her work on the Rank and Term Tenure Committee and Institutional Review Board.