FACULTY & STAFF

Joseph Atkins, PhD

Joseph Atkins, PhD: is currently serving as the Assistant Dean of Students and a Faculty Fellow in the departments of Psychology and Education. Dr. Atkins is also the Coordinator of Support Services at Colby College, where he has worked since 2002. After working nearly 10 years for IBM, Joe decided to go back to school.

He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Vassar College, where he held a dual major in Computer Science and Cognitive Science. He then went on to get his PhD in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester. His areas of expertise are: visual learning, perceptual learning, cognitive science, sensory integration, and visual deficits due to brain damage. Artificial intelligence is also one of his areas of interest.

William M. Heinz, MD

William M. Heinz, M.D. is a medical orthopedist, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of sports related concussions and musculoskeletal injuries. He received his undergraduate degree from Purdue University and then his M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine, and a fellowship in Primary Care Sports Medicine, where he sub-specialized in shoulder injuries. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and holds a Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine. He is an adjuvant professor at the University of New England in the Dept. of Physical Therapy, and is a co-founder of the MCMI. Dr. Heiz is the current Chair of the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee for the National Federation of State High School Associations, and serves on the Maine Principals’ Association Sports Medicine Committee. He also works as the physician for the Portland Sea Dogs and Portland Ballet, and the sports medicine consultant for Gould Academy.

Jan Salis, PT, ATC

Jan Salis, PT, ATC, is currently the Chair of MCMI’s Membership and Education Committees. Her passion for proper concussion management from her work in the clinical setting brought her to MCMI. Coming from the Midwest, Jan has a BS in Education from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a MS in physical education/athletic training from Indiana State University. After graduate school, she worked for a year at the US Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, then came to Maine as the Assistant Athletic Trainer at Bates College. After 4 years at Bates, Jan returned to school and received a BS in Physical Therapy from the University of New England. Since, Jan has worked in private practice and then as the Director of Physical Rehabilitation at Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway, Maine. During this time, Jan continued with clinical practice in physical therapy and athletic training outreach to local high schools.

Paul Berkner, DO, FAAP

Paul Berkner, DO, FAAP: Dr. Paul Berkner is the Medical Director of Student Health Services at University of New England in Biddeford, ME. Formerly, he practiced with Colby College and Middlebury Pediatric Medicine. He received his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) from the University of New England: College of Osteopathic Medicine and completed his residency at Morristown Memorial Hospital. Dr. Berkner specializes in pediatrics and is the Direction of MCMI.

Jennifer Coane, PhD

Jennifer Coane, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, Colby College received her B.A. (2001) and M.S. (2004) degrees in psychology from Illinois State University, and her PhD in Cognitive Psychology at Washington University in Saint Louis in 2008. At Colby I teach Introduction to Psychology, the course on Cognitive Psychology, a Cognitive Aging seminar, and a Seminar and Collaborative Research in Memory. My research examines how long-term knowledge is acquired, organized, and retrieved using a variety of behavioral techniques. I am also interested in how principles identified in basic research in memory can be applied in the classroom to improve performance in academic settings.

Melissa J. Glenn, Phd

Melissa J. Glenn, PhD received her B.Sc. in Psychology from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1994, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Concordia University in 1997 and 2003, respectively. Her graduate theses focused on the functional neuroanatomy of memory systems. From 2003 until 2007, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Duke University and while there was funded by the National Institute on Aging to study the neural and behavioral mechanisms mediating a lifelong enhancement in cognition with prenatal choline supplementation. She joined the Psychology Department at Colby College in August 2007 where she continuing to ask questions about the behavioral, neural, and physiological effects of choline supplemenation or deficiency at different stages of life.

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