As the school year begins, Goshen College is welcoming a total of 41 new faculty and staff hires, spanning across numerous departments.

Several of the new additions are familiar faces — recent graduates of GC who have now taken professional positions at the college. These full-time workers include Eliza Alemán ’26, news and media manager; Shoaib Ansari ’25, AI systems analyst; Kate Bodiker ’26, director of athletic communications and game day operations; and Peri Mast-Hochstedler ’26, Harold & Wilma Good Library services assistant and circulation supervisor.

Describing her role, Alemán said, “I handle writing all of the press releases that go out onto the Goshen College website as well as through email communications.” 

Alemán also highlighted the difference between writing for college and writing professionally as the latter gives more time between first drafts and final copies.

She said that the number of people working on each project is also different. Specifically in her department, Alemán said, “It’s a small team of three, but I feel like we really work in tandem and all of our projects are very collaborative.” 

Ansari is the first to occupy his position. He said, “It’s a new role, so we’re still trying to figure out exactly where I fit in, where I can provide value.” He has been involved in IT and various AI-related projects previously, but he has only been full-time since the middle of August.

Bodiker’s role involves managing the athletics website and social media. She said that, thanks to games and other events, the job is not limited to the usual nine-to-five. 

 “For some people [it] would be a downside, but especially coming out of the very, very busy college lifestyle I was living, I think it’s been a good sort of transitioning point for me,” said Bodiker.

Mast-Hochstedler had worked in the library all four years of college before accepting their new position, of which they said, “I typically just tell people I’m the supervisor for the student workers at the library.”

Mast-Hochstedler’s other roles involve coordinating events such as pie day, and they recently created a display at the front of the library to commemorate Dolly Parton’s passing and the Imagination Library.

Ann Vendrely, vice president for academic affairs and academic dean, said that there are always new people at the start of each year. She also noted that there seem to be more visiting faculty that were brought on than in previous years.  

Vendrely said, “The search committees work really hard to make sure they’re finding the people that are the best fit, so we are excited about the folks that are joining us.” Describing part of the hiring process, she said, “They went through the full interview process and it’s pretty rigorous. We have them here for the whole day. We have them teach, meet some students, meet their colleagues, tour campus.”

Among the new faculty is Jason Kissel, the new executive director of Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center. He began work on Aug. 3. Describing his role, he said, “I provide overall leadership for the Merry Lea campus, which is very similar to previous jobs that I’ve had; managing land and managing people.”

Kissel went on to say that his goal was to incorporate Merry Lea more with the main GC campus and focus on the spiritual and physical renewal that nature provides. He said, “I would love to see every Goshen student come through here in one way or another.”

Joe Kreider ’17 joined the English department as visiting assistant professor of English. After graduating from GC, he spent three years in the mental health sector, before moving to France, England and finally returning to Goshen. He said, “It’s such a joy to be back.”

Kreider said, “I love being part of a lot of the interesting conversations that are going on now that were different from when I was here.” He is looking to form both a literary film club and a French club on campus. 

Levi Lamberjack joined GC as the new AV operations manager. He started at the position in the past two weeks. He spoke on his past experience as a student at Bethel doing very similar work to the people he now manages. 

Lamberjack said, “I can kind of put myself in their shoes and be like, ‘What would I have wanted to learn when I was a student doing this exact thing? What did I need to be told, or what did I need to be taught?’”