(Posted May 9, 2005)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Four members of the Juniata College faculty received promotions in the 2004-2005 academic year recently at the Juniata College Board of Trustees spring meeting.

Sarah DeHaas, associate professor of education, was promoted to full professor; Gerald Kruse, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science, was promoted to associate professor; Dominick Peruso, assistant professor of accounting, business and economics, was promoted to associate professor; and William Thomas, assistant professor of information technology, was promoted to associate professor.

Sarah DeHaas, a native of Altoona, Pa. and an Altoona resident, joined the Juniata faculty as an associate professor in 1997, after working as an associate professor of special education at the University of Northern Colorado. She established Juniata's unique unified special education/general education major that incorporates required special education courses and practicum experiences before any education major can graduate.

She earned a bachelor's degree in special education/elementary education in 1980 from Slippery Rock State College. She went on to earn a master's degree in special education from Providence College in Providence, R.I. in 1988 and earned a doctorate in special education and early childhood special education in 1991 from Penn State University.

DeHaas started her education career as a special education teacher for Pennsylvania Intermediate Unit 8 in Hollidaysburg from 1981 to 1982. She then worked for the Educational Technology Center in Pawtucket, R.I. as a teacher and became inclusion project coordinator for Rhode Island's New Shoreham School and the Narragansett School Department from 1983 to 1988.

She came to Penn State in 1989 to earn a doctoral degree and worked as a graduate assistant throughout her studies. At Juniata, she teaches courses about adaptations for students with exceptionalities, assessment and instruction and issues in early intervention. She has published her professional research in such journals as Youth Care Forum, Young Children and Teacher Education and Special Education. She has served on several review teams for the Pennsylvania Department of education and helped write the state agency's special education teacher guidelines.

She is member of the board of directors for the Pennsylvania Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators and is a member of the Council for Exceptional Children and Association of Teacher Educators.

Gerald Kruse, a resident of Huntingdon, Pa., joined the Juniata faculty in 1999 as an assistant professor. Previously he worked in the corporate world as a software engineer at Compaq Computer Corp from 1997 to 1999. He also worked in a variety of positions, including database administrator, information center analyst and datacenter supervisor, for the DuPont Company from 1985 to 1991.

He started his career at DuPont, after earning a bachelor's degree in computer science at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana in 1985. He returned to graduate school in 1993, earning a master's degree in mathematics in 1993 and a doctorate in applied mathematics in 1997, both from Brown University in Providence, R.I.

He teaches a variety of math courses, including Linear Algebra, Discrete Computational Structures. Numerical Analysis and Computer Graphics. He received a NASA Space Grant Fellowship at Brown University in 1997 and participated the Argonne National Laboratory Summer Faculty Program in 2000. His research centers on scientific computing, linear algebra and computational fluid dynamics (computer simulations of fluid flow).

He is a member of the Mathematical Association of America, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, the Association for Computing Machinery and the Sigma Xi Research Society.

Dominick Peruso Jr., a resident of Huntingdon, Pa., came to Juniata's faculty as an instructor in accounting in 1999. He was promoted to assistant professor in 2000. Prior to that he was a member of Juniata's professional staff as assistant director of campus activities from 1996 to 1999, as well as career programming coordinator and residence hall director.

He earned a bachelor's degree in accounting and management from St. Francis University in 1995 and went on to earn a master's degree in higher education from Penn State University in 1999. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Management Accountant

He worked as a staff accountant for Price Waterhouse in Pittsburgh, Pa. from 1995 to 1996, and worked as general manager of KFSC AM radio station in Loretto, Pa. from 1993 to 1995. He teaches such courses as Financial Accounting, Federal Tax and Advanced Accounting.

He is a member of the American Accounting Association, the Institute of Management Accountants and has held several offices in Tau Pi Phi, the national honor society for accounting, business and economics. Peruso also is a musician and composer, playing drums in several area groups. He has released a DVD and three CDs of his music.

William Thomas, a resident of Coalport, Pa. joined the Juniata faculty in 2001 as assistant professor of information technology. He earned a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1983 from Lock Haven University, and went on to earn a master's degree in computer science from Shippensburg University in 1990.

Before starting his Juniata career, Thomas worked as an assistant professor of computer science at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, Pa. from 1996 to 2001. He was promoted to associate professor at Mount Aloysius in 1999. He also taught as an adjunct faculty member at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa.

Prior to starting his academic career, he worked as senior analyst for Hoffman Mills in Shippensburg from 1986 to 1996. He started his business career as a programmer for AMP Inc. in Harrisburg, Pa. He holds certifications in Novell CNE, Novell IntraNetware and Novell 5.1.

He teaches Principals of Information Technology, Software Engineering, Web Design and IT Systems. He also helps team-teach a criminal justice course using the software package Analyst's Notebook.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.