Dean’s Office

Jennifer Prough, ’91 Ph.D., Professor of Humanities and East Asian Studies, is pleased to serve as Dean of Christ College. As a Christ College and Valparaiso alumna, Jennifer is deeply devoted to the transformative experience that a cohort-based, interdisciplinary honors education, delivered by a dedicated faculty, can provide. She served as Interim Dean of Christ College in 2017-2018. In 2021, Jennifer stepped back into the role of Interim Dean with a commitment to facilitating holistic educational experiences of the highest caliber to a more diverse community of honors students.

Prough earned a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from Duke University in 2006. She joined the Valpo faculty in 2005. Her teaching and research interests include the anthropology of media, anthropology of tourism, Japanese studies, gender studies, and globalization. At the heart of Prough’s research and teaching interests are issues of representation and the ways that cultural meanings are produced and managed, experienced, and interpreted through mass culture. Her first book, Straight from the Heart: Gender, Intimacy, and the Cultural Production of Shōjo Manga (University of Hawai’i Press, 2011), examines the production of girls’ comics in Japan through ethnographic analysis. Her most recent book, Kyoto Revisited: Heritage Tourism in Contemporary Kyoto (University of Hawai’i Press, 2022), analyzes the ways that tradition, history, and culture are produced, packaged, promoted, and consumed in the Kyoto tourist industry.

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Zachary King joined Christ College in 2023 after seven years with the University’s advancement office, where he worked to engage and solicit alumni and other supporters. Zachary earned his B.A. in English, History, and Humanities from Valpo in 2010 (with honors from a certain third-oldest honors college). After Valpo, he earned a master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, with a dissertation on superhero comics and 21st-century American literature. He serves as the CC academic advisor, helping Valpo people pursue the good life while finding their way into a world that needs them, and he is blessed and grateful to be part of this community.

Stephanie Sepiol Milne joined Christ College in 2023 after six years in the advancement office as an alumni engagement and communications specialist. Stephanie earned bachelor of arts degrees in digital media and creative writing from Valparaiso University in 2013 — though she spent most of her time in the VUCA with Chorale, Sigma Alpha Iota, and the theatre department  She earned a master of nonprofit administration from North Park University in 2016. Stephanie serves as assistant to the dean of Christ College, assisting Dean Prough with recruitment efforts and other CC matters. She is a member of the University’s Bach Choir.

Sharon Dybel provides valuable administrative support to both the CC Dean’s staff and the CC faculty. She implements and monitors programs, procedures and policies that enhance the workflow of the College. Sharon additionally assists with the CC First-Year Program.