AUM Faculty & Staff
Directory
Nick Schofield
Client Service Provider
Mekoi Scott
ESL Instructor
Mabs Seay
Career Advisor
As a Career Services and Higher Education Professional with over 8 years of experience, I have had the opportunity to work with a wide range of students and families. My experience both as a professor and an academic and career advisor has helped to solidify my knowledge base and awareness of how important early guidance can be in a person’s life. I am very passionate about encouraging students to be advocates for their own education. I want to arm students with the knowledge and skill set to thrive in their vocational journey. My goal is to guide students to think outside of their degree box, helping them to utilize all of their talents and skills. Having early assessment and mentorship is something I feel extremely passionate about. Current students and Alumni of AUM are welcome to visit my office for major and career exploration, career planning, resume reviews, and more! Faculty, Staff, and Clubs and Organizations are also invited to request career workshops or presentations when interested.
Neil Seibel
Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Neil David Seibel (he/him) is a multifaceted artist with a career spanning acting, directing, playwriting and education. His directorial work has been showcased at venues such as the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Mill Mountain Theatre, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Teatro Prometeo in Miami and MiniTeatern in Stockholm, Sweden. A proud member of Actors Equity, he has appeared Off Broadway in New York City and nationwide on such stages as the Denver Center Theatre Company, the Alley Theatre in Houston, Actors Theatre of Louisville and six seasons in the Rocky Mountains as a company member of Theatre Aspen. Onscreen credits include the role of Lewis in the TV musical Passages: Lewis & Clark, the award-winning indie film Unspoken, and the dance-theatre film Clown at War. Seibel is a playwright whose works, including The Normal Giant, Paternity Leave and The Daughters of Abraham, have been staged across the country and abroad. His solo show, My Appalachia, was recorded at the LA Improv and featured on PBS. A Kentucky native who now resides in Alabama, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Northern Kentucky University and an MFA from the University of California, Irvine. He currently serves as a Distinguished Teaching Professor at Auburn University at Montgomery.
Ben Severance
Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
A former lieutenant in the US Army, Ben Severance is a Professor of History at Auburn University Montgomery, a position he has held since joining the faculty there in 2005. He received his Ph.D. in 2002 from the University of Tennessee (Knoxville). His principal areas of research and teaching include the American Civil War, Nineteenth Century America, and U.S. Military History. Among his publications are three books: Tennessee’s Radical Army: The State Guard and Its Role in Reconstruction, 1867-1869 (University of Tennessee Press, 2005), Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Alabama during the Civil War (University of Arkansas Press, 2012), and A War State All Over: Alabama Politics and the Confederate Cause (University of Alabama Press, 2020). Severance is also an avid reader of baseball history.
Jatin Sharma
Research Analyst
Jason Shifferd
Senior Lecturer | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Jason Shifferd is a senior lecturer of English who teaches composition and literature. He also tutors writing at the Learning Center. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in English in 2009 and his Master of Liberal Arts in 2014, both from AUM. His thesis, available online and at the AUM library, is entitled The Case for Humor in the Classroom: An Annotated Bibliography, which served as the basis for his 2025 HHMI seminar “Crayons in College? Using Play to Reinforce Learning Goals.” He has published literary essays for Critical Insights, including “Humor in the Autobiographical Writings of Maya Angelou: Maya Meets Mr. Julian” (2016) and “Maxine Peake’s Female Hamlet: A Survey of Responses” (2019). As a graduate research assistant in 2013, he contributed to the article “Who Lives Where: A Comprehensive Population Taxonomy of Cities, Suburbs, Exurbs, and Rural Areas in the United States” (2016) for The Geographical Bulletin. In 2019, he co-led a presentation at CCCC in Pittsburgh entitled “Performing TfT at the Composition Program Level,” and in 2023, he did a live reading of his creative writing at ACETA in Clanton. He writes fantasy and science fiction and intends to publish within the next few years.
Emma Si
Lecturer | College of Sciences
Ph.D. (2011) Analytical/Environmental Chemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
M.S. (2003) Chemistry, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
B.A. (2001) Chemistry, Shandong Normal University, China
Dr. Emma Si is an Assistant Professor in the AUM Department of Chemistry. Her research interests include (i) understanding the photochemistry of inorganic mercury with selected organic molecules; (ii) developing analytical methods for chemical speciation of toxic metals in aquatic environment; and (iii) developing novel remediation techniques for air and water pollution. She is actively involved in mentoring undergraduate research students at AUM and their results have been presented at various international and national conferences.
