Meet the Executive Team & Staff
For general inquiries, contact support@swpaca.org.
Tamy Burnett, PhD (she/her)
Executive Director
Affiliation: University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Research interests: TV studies, Gender and Sexuality, Disability studies
Current pop culture passion: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (always and forever); Sitcoms; Quilts/Quilting
First year at SWPACA: 2007
Kathleen Lacey, PhD (she/her)
Director of Operations
Affiliation: Academic Advisor & Lecturer, Department of English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Research interests: African American women’s literature, girlhood studies, fiction writing
Current pop culture passion: The Last Kingdom (I just bought, on purpose, a funko pop of Uhtred)
First year at SWPACA: 2012
Stephanie Lim, PhD (she/they)
Director of Communication & Finance
Affiliation: Lecturer in English, Theatre, Queer Studies, and Academic First-Year Experiences, California State University, Northridge
Research interests: Uses of American Sign Language in music on stage and screen; Deaf/disability studies; American musical theatre, representations of minoritized identities on stage
Current pop culture passion: True crime documentaries and reality TV; theme parks; Nintendo games
First year at SWPACA: 2019
Lynnea Chapman King, PhD (she/her)
Director of External Relations
Affiliation: Adams State University
Research interests: Film adaptation
Current pop culture passion: Bridgerton, generational studies
First year at SWPACA: 1994
David Powers Corwin, PhD (they/them)
Professional Development Coordinator
Affiliation: Associate Professor of Social Justice and Human Rights, George Mason University
Research interests: LGBTQ+ studies, friendship studies, TV studies, Appalachian studies
Current pop culture passion: classic television, Cheers, and the Mary Tyler Moore World
First year at SWPACA: 2015
Ken Dvorak, PhD (he/him)
Development Coordinator
2024-2026 Cohort
Elizabeth Gonzalez (she/her)
Assistant Area Chair, Visual Arts | Dialogue Musings Editor
Affiliation: Adjunct, Texas Southmost College; PhD student, Our Lady of the Lake University
Research interests: Arts, specifically the ways Latinos express culture, past memories, and narratives through artistic creations, and the impact this has in classroom settings; how higher education takes on leadership roles to support minority groups in the arts in response to cultural artwork
Current pop culture passion: The Walking Dead, Selena, Breaking Bad; how historical techniques and techniques from pop art, along with the use of lines, colors, textures, and various media, are used to represent life and culture in the art of minority groups
First year at SWPACA: 2024
Keaton Gregg (HE/HIM)
Assistant Area Chair, Literature | Student Engagement
Affiliation: Master’s student, Cleveland State University
Research interests: queer semiotics, postmodernism, and scopofascination
Current pop culture passion: trashy romance novels and cinema
First year at SWPACA: 2022
Liz Thomae (she/her)
Assistant Area Chair, Eco-Criticism and the Environment | Assistant Event & Exhibit Coordinator
Affiliation: PhD student in Rhetoric, Indiana University
Research interests: Religious rhetoric and identity construction
Current pop culture passion: Taylor Swift, especially fandom research
First year at SWPACA: 2023
2025-2027 Cohort
Dawn Armfield (she/her), PhD
Assistant Area Chair, Science, Technology, and Culture / Science Fiction and Fantasy
Affiliation: Associate Professor of Professional Writing in the Department of Humanities and Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Arizona Campus
Research interests: Emerging and Immersive technologies, especially in regards to accessibility, ethics, and equity, UX, & visual rhetorics
Current pop culture passion: emerging and immersive technologies dealing with accessibility, ethics, and equity; alt-rock live music; casual gaming
First year at SWPACA: 2015
Christopher Smith (he/him), PhD
Assistant Area Chair, Grateful Dead
Affiliation: Director of STEM and Humanities, Luna Community College
Research interests: Theater studies, technology and music, education in rural communities
Current pop culture passion: Synthesizers, circuit bent instruments, folk music
First year at SWPACA: 2017
Don’t ask; we just like alpacas–and it rhymes with SWPACA!