Faculty

Director and Senior Lecturer, Writing and Reasoning

Stephanie Amsel has been teaching at SMU since 2009, and she enjoys teaching and working with the students and mentors in the program because there is always something new to learn. Before moving to Dallas, she taught in public and private schools in New York, Italy, and Texas. She received her MA and PhD from the University of Texas at San Antonio and specializes in Italian and English medieval literature. Stephanie is the Chaucer bibliographer for the New Chaucer Society. 

Lecturer, Writing and Reasoning

Susan Ayotte Norman has been teaching first-year writing at SMU since 2015, in the Hilltop program in since 2016. She has a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Dallas where her primary areas of focus were Narrative Theory and American Literature. In addition to teaching, Susan is a fiction and essay writer. She loves to read and write speculative fiction. She also loves teaching in the Hilltop Scholars Program because Hilltop students have the best discussions.

Senior Lecture, University Foundations

Brian Fennig came to Southern Methodist University in the spring of 2001. As a senior lecturer, he currently teaches in the Hilltop Scholars program. He earned his Bachelor of Kinesiology and Health Science in 1989 and his Master of Education in 1990 from Stephen F. Austin State University. He finished his second Master's Degree in Liberal Arts at Southern Methodist University in 1997. With emphasis in myth, pop music, and modern music technology, he completed his Ph.D. in Humanities at the University of Texas at Dallas in December of 2013.

Lecturer, Writer and Reasoning

BW Hamilton has a special affinity for first-year students at SMU, probably because she vividly remembers what it felt like to be one. She graduated with a BA in English from SMU (2007), and during her tenure as a Mustang, she won the Margaret Terry Crooks Award and the Lon Tinkle Scholarship while studying under the mentorship of remarkable scholars she now humbly calls colleagues, mentors, and friends. She has been twice nominated for the HOPE Teaching Award (2020, 2023), and because those nominations are submitted by students, they are her most cherished professional achievements to date.

The next step in her educational career was an MTS from Harvard Divinity School (2009), where she developed dueling obsessions with American Pragmatism and Transcendentalism. In the ensuing decade, she worked as a reporter for The Dallas Morning News and was granted a Barbara Jordan Media Awardfor Outstanding Presentation of Individuals with Disabilities from the Office of the Texas Governor (2018). A year later, she was invited back to her first intellectual home, SMU, to teach first-year writing and critical reasoning.

Currently, she dedicates every free moment toward an in-progress PhD in Rhetoric and Composition at Texas Woman’s University, where her scholarship focuses on Rural and Working Class Rhetorics, American Transcendentalism, and Composition Pedagogy.

Lecturer, University Foundations

Dr. Haemin Kim-Breunig earned her doctorate in child development and early education from Texas Woman’s University, a master’s degree in educational psychology from the University of North Texas, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology with a minor in education from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to joining SMU, Dr. Kim-Breunig had worked at Dallas College and Texas Woman’s University as adjunct faculty, teaching various courses including General Psychology, Lifespan Growth & Human Development, Infant & Toddler Development, Family, School, & Community, and Care & Education. Dr. Kim-Breunig is committed and passionate about education. As such, she was recognized as an outstanding faculty at Texas Woman’s University in 2021.
Dr. Kim-Breunig is an advocate for racial-ethnic and cultural diversity, as her research interests include Asian-white biracial individuals’ racial identity development and attitudes toward Asian-white interracial relationships.

Dr. Kim-Breunig was born in South Korea and moved to Texas with her family in 2003. She enjoys reading, watching films, hiking, and traveling with her spouse.

Leadership Coach for Lead@SMU

Albert Mitugo loves to see the transformational power of Experiential Education work on students’ leadership growth. He runs the Outdoor Adventure Program at SMU and is involved with the Hilltop Scholars as a Leadership Coach for Lead@SMU.

Director, Hilltop Scholars Program
Senior Lecturer, Writing and Reasoning

Marta Krogh has taught in the Writing and Reasoning department since 2007, and she hopes that students will leave her class being more confident writers and critical thinkers. Serving in several Administrative roles, Marta acted as the Director of the New Century Scholars Program from 2010-2014.  Currently she is the Director of the Hilltop Scholars Program, a first-year honors program for students interested in leadership and community service. Marta teaches writing courses for Hilltop Scholars, and she loves working with the HSP students as they are some of the most engaged students at SMU. She has a PhD in English, with a focus on American Literature.

Senior Lecturer, Writing and Reasoning

At SMU, Pauline Newton has served on SMUReads, the President's Commission for the Needs of People with Disabilities, and the President's Commission on the Status of Women.  Her secret loves are the Hilltop Scholars program and informal meetings with students. They have lunch and talk about their lives and dreams— and the meaning of happiness. In her free time, she works with a local non-profit, The Dallas Hearing Foundation, to get hearing aids and cochlear implants and related services to individuals in need of those services. She does crazy runs with her friends, including Obstacle Warrior and Viking Runs. She also loves traveling with her twins and husband to Mexico City and other places around the country and world. 

Curriculum Coordinator, Hilltop Scholars Program
Lecturer, University Foundations

Kristen has been teaching at SMU since 2001, and a part of the SMU community since transferring here as an undergraduate in 1992. She has taught first year writing courses, acted as founding director of the Hilltop Scholars Program, and assisted with the World of Shakespeare course. She is dedicated to helping students write better and more confidently, and has worked in the Writing Center at the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center since 2007. Her dissertation examines the use of ink as a tool of humoral balance and imbalance in the English sonnet tradition and in the dramas of the English Renaissance. She has presented papers on aspects of this topic at meetings of the Shakespeare Association of America and the South Central MLA. She also enjoys writing short fiction, and has been recognized by the Dallas Museum of Art’s Arts and Letters Live for one of her short stories, “The Implosion.”

Lecturer, Writing and Reasoning

Kristen has been teaching at SMU since 2001, and a part of the SMU community since transferring here as an undergraduate in 1992. She has taught first year writing courses, acted as founding director of the Hilltop Scholars Program, and assisted with the World of Shakespeare course. She is dedicated to helping students write better and more confidently, and has worked in the Writing Center at the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center since 2007. Her dissertation examines the use of ink as a tool of humoral balance and imbalance in the English sonnet tradition and in the dramas of the English Renaissance. She has presented papers on aspects of this topic at meetings of the Shakespeare Association of America and the South Central MLA. She also enjoys writing short fiction, and has been recognized by the Dallas Museum of Art’s Arts and Letters Live for one of her short stories, “The Implosion.”