Administration 
Department Leadership Chair
Chair
I am delighted to be chairing the department of English, Philosophy, and Education at Del Mar College -- a department that offers a rich mosaic of shared knowledge in teaching, learning, literature, writing, aesthetics, and cultural diversity from which our students can learn.
Whether studying composition, developmental writing, literature, philosophy, or education, our faculty are dedicated to helping our students, each one of them, whether sitting in our class, on the other side of our computer screen, or visiting us for advising, to seek their full potential.
In our disciplines, we deal a lot with words -- potent and powerful -- and each individual word, like each individual person, carries meaning and value and worth. To illustrate, consider this story, adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley:
A writer, walking along the beach, saw the figure of a man stretching to the sand and then, as if holding a javelin, throwing an object from the shore back into the sea. She asked the man what he was doing. "Saving the starfish," he explained. "They'll die if they're left up here on the beach."
The writer looked incredulous. "There are hundreds of starfish. You're wasting your time. You can't possibly save them all. So, why do what you do? What difference will it make?"
The man paused, then picked up another, his arm a graceful arc as he spun the starfish back into the sea. "It made a difference to that one," he said.
Whether you are here as a student, faculty, or a visitor, you are an individual with a priceless perspective on life and living; you can make a difference. We invite you to visit us soon in our department and see how we strive to do the same.