Jessica McCort, Ph.D., is an associate professor of composition and rhetoric in the Literature, Culture, and Society Department at Point Park University, as well as the Director of the Honors Program. She earned her Ph.D. in English and American literature from Washington University in St. Louis, specializing in American literature and women’s writing. McCort's scholarship focuses largely on the appropriation of children’s literature, particularly Grimm’s and Andersen’s fairy tales and Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, by American women writers. She was also the editor of a compilation of essays concerning the intersection of the horror genre and children’s and young adult literature and culture, titled Reading in the Dark: Horror in Children’s Literature and Culture. Her favorite courses to teach are Honors College Composition, Haunted America, and Feminist Fairy Tales. 

From her first trip to the NRHC Conference in Philadelphia, Dr. McCort recognized what an important formative experience participating in NRHC events is for both faculty and students. Since that time, she has become increasingly involved in the NRHC, and she is very excited to work with the other officers in NRHC leadership this year as the organization's President-Elect.

Dr. McCort can be reached at jmccort@pointpark.edu.

Hillary Sackett-Taylor, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Economics and Director of the Commonwealth Honors Program at Westfield State University, a small public comprehensive in Western Massachusetts. She holds a BA in Mathematics and Statistics from Smith College, MS and Ph.D. in Agriculture, Food, and Resource Economics from Michigan State University. Her academic expertise is in the field of environmental sustainability, with a focus on the management of ecology, food, and farming systems. 

Dr. Sackett-Taylor is a student-centered educator and passionate advocate for Honors education. She approaches her work through an anti-racist and anti-colonial lens, centering diverse lived experiences and ways of knowing. She believes in promoting the values of intellectual curiosity, community-engaged leadership, and social justice in her classroom and beyond.

Hillary lives in Northampton, MA with her husband, Andrew, and 1 year-old child, Lenox. She loves practicing the eight limbs of yoga, reading historical fiction, and attending the Fresh Grass musical festival at Mass MOCA every year. 

Dr. Sackett-Taylor can be reached at hsacketttaylor@westfield.ma.edu

Zachary Aidala, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Psychology of Bloomfield College at Montclair State University, and has served as Honors Program Coordinator since 2018. He earned a B.S. in Psychobiology from Binghamton University (SUNY), an M.A. in Psychology from Hunter College (CUNY), and a Ph.D. in Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience from The Graduate Center (CUNY). He is starting his second three-year presidential cycle as incoming NRHC Vice President, having just ended his NRHC Presidency in 2025. Trained as a neuroscientist and behavioral ecologist, his research focuses on the sensory ecology of avian brood parasites and their hosts, with a specific interest in the functional role of color vision. At Bloomfield College, he regularly teaches Statistics, Research Methods, and courses centered around the biology of behavior such as Biopsychology, Sensation and Perception, and Animal Behavior. The NRHC has served as a formative and invaluable resource for both Dr. Aidala and his students. Many changes to the Bloomfield College Honors Program have been initiated by conversations with NRHC colleagues.

Dr. Aidala can be reached at aidalaz@montclair.edu.

Kat MacDonald is the Coordinator of the Honors Program and a faculty member in the English Department at Monroe College. She holds a Master’s degree in Mass Media and Communication from Fordham University and bachelor’s degrees in English, Communication Arts, and Women’s Studies from the College of New Rochelle. Before coming to Monroe College as a full-time faculty member (she was an adjunct first) in 2010, she served on the editorial team of Reader’s Digest. Kat just completed a four-year stint on the Executive Board of NRHC (she rotated through Vice President, President-Elect, President, and Immediate Past President). Kat is also a member of the NCHC Publication Board.

Serving the students in her college’s Honors Program has been most rewarding. She believes NRHC gives students the opportunity to present their research, collaborate with their peers, and become exposed to new ideas and places. She has had the pleasure of mentoring the Student Reps since 2013, when her first student served in Niagara Falls. Subsequently, two students from her institution served at Cambridge in 2015. Her students also served as Student Representative in Pittsburgh in 2017 and Baltimore in 2019. Watching the students grow and learn is extremely satisfying.

As Secretary, Kat hopes to streamline communications and create a lasting archive/repository of all NRHC documents. Kat hopes to continue to strengthen the NRHC Journal, Illuminate. Kat believes that honors is all about the students, and NRHC is here to help make that experience unforgettable. Kat can be reached at kmacdonald@monroecollege.edu. However, all NRHC-related business should be sent to northeastregionalhonorscouncil@gmail.com.

Dr. Michael Tasto is a Professor of Economics and Chair of the Department of Finance and Economics at Southern New Hampshire University. His primary research fields of interest is urban and regional economics and has been an Excellence in Teaching Nominee at SNHU in 2009 and 2010.

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He received his B.S. in Economics from St. John’s University in 2001, his M.A in Economics in 2006 and his Ph.D. in Economics in 2007 from Georgia State University. He has given numerous presentations at academic conferences, published peer-reviewed journal articles, and co-edited 2 books on entrepreneurship.

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He currently serves as Treasurer for the SNHU Professional Employees Association and was one of the lead negotiators for the Association’s 5-year faculty and staff contract (representing over 1,600 employees).

Dr. Tasto can be reached at M.Tasto@snhu.edu.

Tanya Radford, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English and Co-Director of the honors program at Dominican University New York (DUNY). As Web Coordinator, Dr. Radford strives to maintain and improve the website as an entry point for information and contact with the NRHC. To that end, she welcomes suggestions from visitors to the site.

Dr. Radford holds a BA and MA in English from the University of Utah and a PhD in English from the City University of New York - Graduate Center. At Dominican,she teaches children’s and young adult literature, Enlightenment literature, and early American literature. Her current research focuses on representations of readers and the act of reading in children’s literature and popular culture.

When she’s not reading about reading, she enjoys hammock naps (or hammock reading followed by napping), mushroom hunting, and gardening. Dr. Radford can be reached at Tanya.Radford@duny.edu.

Dr. Diana H. Polley currently serves as Director of the Martinson Honors Program and Associate Professor of English at the United States Air Force Academy. In her role as Director, she is charged with overseeing curricular and experiential learning opportunities for USAFA’s 350 honors cadets, or “Scholars”—those cadets who are not only top academic achievers but are also intellectually curious, lifelong learners, and interested in applying their intellect to engage with and elevate those around them. In addition to her administrative work, she has intellectual interests of her own, particularly regarding the shifting paradoxes of America, then and now. Her research has focused on American literature and culture of the long 19th century, the American West, the digital humanities, and honors. Her book, Echoes of Emerson, won the 2018 Robert Penn Warren—Cleanth Brooks Award for Outstanding Literary Criticism. She is currently in the process of working on a digital critical edition of J. Hector St John de Crèvecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer (1782). In addition, she is performing preliminary research for a monograph, “Cowboys and Capitalists,” which traces shifts in masculinity—as portrayed in American literature and culture—from the inception of the “new” American West in the early 19th century, through its industrial development in the 19th century by robber barons, and its “closure” in the early 20th century.She spent the majority of her academic career (and life) in the northeast and is looking forward to reengaging with and serving the northeast honors community in her role.

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Dr. Polley can be reached at illuminatenrhc@gmail.com.

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Chris Brittain is the Academic Administrator of the Early College Department at Ocean County College. He graduated from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania in 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Communication Media and in 2012 with a Master’s degree in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Higher Education Administration. He has been working with Honors Programs in the Northeast Region for fifteen years, and served as the NRHC Web Coordinator from 2016-2019 and NRHC President and Conference Chair in 2021.  In addition to his involvement with the Northeast Regional Honors Council, he spends much of his time pursuing interests in photography and event-planning.

Chris’s email address is cbrittainnrhc@gmail.com.

AnnMarie DelliPizzi received a BS degree in Biology from Manhattan College and an MS and PhD in Pharmacology from New York Medical College. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the role of constrictor eicosanoids in models of angiotensin II-dependent hypertension.  Since 2004, she has taught at Dominican University New York (DUNY) where she currently holds the rank of Professor of Biology. In addition to teaching, Dr. DelliPizzi serves as the Coordinator of the Health Sciences Program and the Director of the Honors Program.   Outside of DUNY, she teaches both graduate and undergraduate pharmacology in the Nursing Department at CUNY Lehman College and holds an adjunct appointment in the Department of Pharmacology at New York Medical College. Dr. DelliPizzi has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the American Journal of Physiology, Hypertension, and the British Journal of Pharmacology and co-authored Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology Lab I and Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology Lab II.  She has been on the editorial board of Illuminate since 2018 and served as the NRHC Faculty Rep from 2019-2021.

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Dr. DelliPizzi currently resides in Rockland County, NY, with her husband, Matt, and is the mother of two adult children. Outside of the classroom and lab, she loves to dance, travel, bake and just spend time with her family.

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Dr. DelliPizzi can be reached at annmarie.dellipizzi@duny.edu.

Sarah Roe, Ph.D., is a professor of history and philosophy at Southern Connecticut State University, as well as the Director of the Honors College. She earned her Ph.D. in Philosophy at University of California, Davis, specializing in philosophy of science and ethics.

Dr. Roe’s scholarship and teaching interests focus on the intersection of science and values, including the history of science, underrepresented minority groups and science, and biomedical ethics. Dr. Roe is also the Director of the Research Center on Values in Emerging Science and Technology.

Dr. Roe can be reached at roes1@southernct.edu

Fatimat Abdallah Banda is a sophomore honors student at Stevenson University, pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Biology on the pre-med track. She is a chemistry tutor through the university’s academic support programs. As a first-generation international student from Ghana, she is passionate about student access, equity and success in higher education. Fatimat is excited to bring her perspective to the NRHC Executive Board and help shape a meaningful 2026 conference.

Fatimat can be reached  at fabdallahbanda@stevenson.edu 

Rhheaa Mehta is entering her fourth year at the University of Pittsburgh, pursuing a B.S. in neuroscience, a minor in chemistry, and certificates in ASL, and global health. She is currently at work on a thesis, under the direction of Dr. Udai Pandey, working with fly models in neurodegenerative muscular diseases. Rhheaa is also an undergraduate fellow with the Humanities Center at the University of Pittsburgh, working on a project investigating the role of lived experience in self diagnosis in neurodivergence. She was Student Representative for the 2025 NRHC Conference and is delighted to be participating again in making a stellar 2026 conference.

Rhheaa can be reached at RPM81@pitt.edu.

Rory Stansfield is a junior at William Paterson University of New Jersey where she is a member of the Honors College. Rory is a speech-language pathology major with a minor in psychology and is also a member of the Cognitive Science Honors Track. On campus, Rory serves as an Honors Peer Leader and Office Intern, acting as a resource and mentor for her fellow honors students. She also serves in leadership roles as the president of William Paterson’s NSSLHA chapter and secretary of William Paterson’s Psi Chi chapter.

Rory can be reached at stansfieldr@student.wpunj.edu.