Meet Your Professors
At Adelphi University’s Pre-College Program, you’ll work closely with our professors and instructors, and meet with experts in the field.
Art Foundations: Drawing and 2D Design
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Robyn Cooper received her MFA from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 2012. Robyn has more than ten years of teaching experience and has taught across Long Island at Long Island University (C.W. Post,) SUNY Suffolk Community College, and the Nassau County Museum of Art. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at Adelphi University, sits on the Education Committee at the Heckscher Museum of Art, and has recently opened Protégé Art Studio, where she teaches online art classes and workshops. Robyn has also worked in college admissions doing portfolio reviews for several years. She has experience working in acrylic, oil and gouache paint, in addition to drawing, college, and digital media. Her work has been exhibited throughout the country in shows at Kehler Liddell Gallery CT, Gross McCleaf Gallery PA, R. Dixon Gallery NY, and uBe Art in Berkley, CA. Her work is in several private collections including a private collection at The Hershey Trust in Hershey, PA. Robyn currently lives and works in Long Island, NY.
Business and Society
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Before joining Adelphi University’s faculty in 2002, Professor Colacicco was a C-suite level executive and entrepreneur for major corporations and start-up companies for more than 30 years holding positions as Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Executive Officer. He consistently illustrated the leadership abilities required to successfully implement the interrelationships of all operating functions including Marketing, Operations, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Finance, and Administration.
Professor Colacicco received a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing with a minor in Economics and an MBA in Management from St. John’s University. He is on the Board of several organizations and, for the past two years, was a member of the Executive Committee of Adelphi’s Chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
Joe has taught courses in Entrepreneurship, Business and Society, Organizational Behavior, Leadership and Innovation in Complex Systems, Strategic Management, Procurement and Global Sourcing, and International Marketing.
Computer Science and Coding
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Liam Owens has been teaching at Adelphi in different capacities for the past seven years. He is also a proud Alumni of Adelphi; Go Panthers! Liam has taught courses such as, but not limited to, Discrete Structures, Intro to Video Game Programming, Intro to Computer Programming, and others. He also teaches similar topics to middle/high school students for Adelphi’s College Science Advancement Program (CSTEP) and Liberty Partnerships Program (LPP). Additionally, Liam formerly worked with a wide range of neurodiverse learners at the Student Access Office as an Assistive Technology/508 Compliance Specialist. Regarding teaching, he likes to create a teaching environment that guides and prepares students on a path of self-advocacy and independence and have course material connect to real-world expectations to transition their newly learned skills into their future careers.
Digital Media Production: Filmmaking and TV
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Professor Cory Poccia is an esteemed figure in the realms of entertainment and entrepreneurship. Serving as the Founder and CEO of Mainstream Entertainment Group Inc., Professor Poccia has established a forward-thinking enterprise that provides comprehensive entertainment services nationwide. His leadership and proficiency in communications and marketing have been acknowledged with numerous accolades, such as the Communicator Awards and the Intercontinental Championship Award from World Wrestling Entertainment for exemplary post-production endeavors.
Commencing his illustrious career alongside Academy Award® recipient Scott Rudin, Professor Poccia further honed his expertise during his tenure with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). There, he was pivotal in orchestrating the “Road to Wrestlemania” series. In 2008, his journey led him to Cision, a premier PR firm located in New York City. While there, he spearheaded the production of remarkable television content, collaborating with influential figures like Oprah Winfrey, Clive Davis, and major establishments like Viacom.
Driven by his visionary mindset, Professor Poccia initiated Mainstream Entertainment Group Inc., translating his aspirations into a tangible enterprise. Under his guidance, Mainstream has evolved as a dominant force in the entertainment sector, encompassing endeavors such as feature film production, television advertising, and conceptual innovation. Mainstream boasts collaborations with eminent brands and organizations like UFC, Goya Foods, LEGO, Porsche, Sony Pictures, and the Ronald McDonald House.
Introduction to Nursing as a Career and Profession
Catherine Bell, DNP, RN, has been a full-time professor with CNPH at Adelphi University since 2022. Catherine served in various roles with NYU Langone Hospital, Long Island Campus —as a nurse manager (2018–2021), assistant nurse manager (2016–2018) and staff nurse (1987–2016). Since 1987, she also has been a board-certified childbirth educator, board certified breastfeeding counselor and board certified in external fetal monitoring. Dr. Bell holds a DNP (2020) from Chamberlain University, Downers Grove, Illinois; an MSN (2017) from Southern New Hampshire University; as well as a bachelor’s degree (2014) from Farmingdale State College and an Associate in Nursing degree from Nassau Community College. Catherine remains a current member of Sigma Theta Tau International, Chi Gamma Chapter and is the current vice president on the Alpha Omega Chapter. Her research interests include prevention of hyperbilirubinemia in full-term, breast-fed newborns.
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Katt Rosario-Gonzalez received her PhD in 2020 from SUNY Binghamton University, Decker School of Nursing. She received her AAS in Nursing from St. Joseph’s College of Nursing, Syracuse NY, BS in Nursing from Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY, and MS in Nursing Education from Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY. She is a Caritas Coach and uses Waston’s Unitary Caring Science to guide her research which focuses on caring and trust in nursing students in relation to study abroad. Throughout her nursing career, she has worked in the acute care setting as well as served as a Clinical Coordinator and Instructor. She assisted in part of the research and had a role on the Strategic Advisory Committee for the Academic Progression in Nursing (APIN) Grant sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation since 2012. She also organized four short-term study abroad trips for nursing students and has led two of the trips. Destinations included Belize City, Belize; Azua, Dominican Republic; and Ghana, Africa. She is part of the Health and Safety Team for Honor Flight Syracuse, which honors veterans by flying them to Washington DC to visit their memorials. She has contributed to texts on education (Nurse as Educator 6th and 7th edition and Essentials of Patient Education 2nd edition), and has published five articles in varying nursing journals.
Pre-Law: Understanding the Bill of Rights
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Gary Greaves is an Adjunct Instructor within the Political Science Department here at Adelphi University.
Professor Greaves holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology with a minor in History, and a Master of Arts Degree in Political Science covering American Politics and Political Theory. Professor Greaves is also a former competitive debater and public speaker in high school and undergrad.
He has worked as a Social Studies teacher at Nazareth Regional High School (his alma mater), a Senior Audit Analyst at the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget, a Project Coordinator at the Rockaway Development and Revitalization Corporation (overseeing an economic development and anti-crime program in collaboration with the 101st NYPD precinct, the Queens County District District Attorney Office and the U.S Attorney Office, and a Project Manager at New York City’s Department of Small Business Services, focusing on economic development, business improvement districts, and workforce development.
Some of the institutions where Professor Greaves has taught include Medgar Evers College, CUNY; Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus; Guttman Community College, CUNY, and here at Adelphi. His focus is on civil rights and civil liberties, the United States Constitution, and communications.
Pre-Med: Microbiology, Nutrition, and Human Disease
Dr. Jonna Coombs is a Microbial Ecologist, which is a fancy way of saying that she studies microscopic organisms and their relationship with the world around them.
This includes the interaction of microbes with other organisms like human beings. Her research focus is bioremediation, which is the use of living organisms to “clean up” pollutants in the environment. Specifically, she looks at heavy metals such as zinc, cadmium and lead. Because heavy metals are elements on the periodic table, they cannot be broken down, but instead can be changed into less-toxic forms or locked into molecules that are not soluble in water. This can help to decontaminate polluted environments. Dr. Coombs had a B.S. in Biology from the University of Maine, and a Ph.D. from Penn State University. She joined the faculty at Adelphi University in 2005.
Psychology and Pop Culture
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Dr. Christina Marini joined the Adelphi faculty in 2019 as an Assistant Professor of Psychology and is also an Adelphi Alumnae. She teaches courses in lifespan development, as well as statistics and research methods. She enjoys challenging students to become critical consumers of the data and research that they are confronted with in their everyday lives. When not in the classroom, Dr. Marini conducts research on how our social relationships influence our ability to cope with stress that we experience in adulthood. She has extensive experience and expertise studying the military and veteran population as they cope with stress associated with wartime service. Dr. Marini is also the faculty advisor for Adelphi’s chapter of the International Honor Society in Psychology (Psi Chi) and, in this role, enjoys working with students to host fun and informative psychology-themed events each semester.
Quantum Engineering
Sean Bentley completed his BS (’95) and MS (’97) in electrical engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T), and his PhD (’04) in optics at the University of Rochester. He joined Adelphi’s Department of Physics in 2003, being promoted to Associate Professor in 2009. He was awarded the 2013 Adelphi University Tenured Teaching Excellence Award, and the 2022 David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching from the American Association of Physics Teachers, the top national prize for undergraduate physics teaching. He has served on the governing bodies of both the physics honor society (Sigma Pi Sigma, including serving as Director from 2014-15) and the electrical engineering honor society (IEEE-HKN), as well as serving on the Editorial Board of IEEE-HKN The Bridge. His research is in the areas of quantum entanglement and nonlinear optics.