Wendy White | De Anza College

Brief Bio for Dr. Wendy R. White: Who is African American and originally from Los Angeles, California and considers herself a radical-Buddhist-gadfly.  Spent twenty years in the broadcasting and entertainment arena.  Received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and English Literature from California State University of Dominguez Hills and graduated Cum Laude and received a Doctorate Degree in History of Consciousness from the University of California at Santa Cruz.  Teaching is her passion.  She has taught Humanities, History, Philosophy, History of Consciousness and Women’s Studies at SF State University, UC Santa Cruz, Cal State Eastbay, and has been teaching at De Anza College for 17 years.   

Mona Rawal | Foothill College

Dr Mona Rawal has a PhD in the area of Philosophy of mind and consciousness and she aims to achieve some grounds in the gamut of Humanizing technology through the exploration of Humanities. Doctor Rawal serves as an instructor in the Humanities department and her core interest lies in sensitizing the academic population to the mysteries in the world of human expressions through art, culture and much more.

Natalie E. Latteri | Foothill College

Natalie E. Latteri earned her PhD in History from the University of New Mexico (2017). She teaches a variety of courses in Foothill Community College's Humanities Department as well as Jewish-Christian Relations at USF in the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice. Latteri's research interests, presentations, and publications center on interfaith (Jewish-Christian) relations, messianism and apocalypticism, apocrypha, polemic, haunting and possession, and sexuality and gender in religious writings and art.

Tony Kashani | Foothill College

Tony Kashani, Ph.D. is an American author, educator, philosopher of technology, and a cultural critic. Kashani is a subject matter expert and faculty, for several universities in the United States, focusing his interdisciplinary scholarship and pedagogy on humanities in the digital age and social justice.  He was born in Tehran to Azerbaijani parents, an ethnic minority in Iran. Presently, Dr. Kashani is completing his latest book (Deus Ex Machina) manuscript on the paradox of being human in the digital age. On a personal side, he is a practicing Black Belt in Karate and as a student of Zen philosophy believes in balancing his life with mindfulness to result in a harmonious mind/body/spirit existence. Dr. Kashani’s personal website is www.tonykashani.com.

David Hoekenga | Foothill College

David Hoekenga is a College Instructor, a counselor, and a creative writer.  He has taught Philosophy, English, and Humanities courses for Foothill and DeAnza College since 2002, and has also taught at Yavapai College and Mission College.  He has an M.A. in Humanities from the University of Chicago, where he wrote his best work on John Milton's Paradise Lost, still a work of enduring fascination.  For his Philosophy courses, he teaches his own material, focusing on existentialism, Judeo-Christian and Buddhist theology, and a particular emphasis on distinct types of atheism and skepticism.  As an undergrad, he double-majored English and Philosophy, and double-minored in Music and Theatre. 

Mark Gonnerman | Foothill College

Mark Gonnerman was educated at the St. Olaf Paracollege (BA); Christ’s College, Cambridge; Harvard Divinity School (MDiv); and Stanford University (MA, PhD in Religious Studies), where he was a Lieberman Fellow and denizen for more than two decades. His studies in Asian humanities and in modern and contemporary religious art and thought have taken him into the streets and libraries of cultural centers throughout the world, most recently as a visiting professor at Hunan University in Changsha, China. After more than four decades of socially engaged humanistic inquiry, he thinks the humanities are their own good; that they live largely outside the realm of market values; and that they remain a very present help in times of trouble. His publications include A Sense of the Whole: Reading Gary Snyder's Mountains and Rivers Without End (2015). Visit futureprimitives.info.

Javier Wong Galindo | De Anza College

Javy enjoys meditating by flowing water, joyfully struggling through forested trail runs, and making romantic music at twilight. This Sunnyvale native is a faculty member of both the Humanities and Philosophy departments at De Anza College. His diverse background includes graduate degrees in Electrical Engineering (M.Eng. from UC San Diego) and Consciousness and Transformative Studies specializing in east/west philosophy and religion (M.A. from John F. Kennedy University). After brief stints as a high school music instructor (seven years) and electrical engineer (seven years), Javy has spent the last 10+ years as a college instructor dedicated to sharing his appreciation for the flow of life, spreading the joy of wisdom, and sharing creative spirits with community college students.

Aida Dargahi | Foothill College

Aida Dargahi is a college professor, filmmaker, and photographer. She has a Master’s degree in Humanities from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film from University of Tehran. Aida is especially versed and experienced in teaching Humanities courses, given the field’s wide scope and its interdisciplinary nature. Aida believes that a real college education can only be well rounded if it is grounded in Humanities and the Arts. Her website is: www.aidadargahi.com

Lori Clinchard | De Anza College

Lori Clinchard has been teaching Humanities at De Anza since 2005, after four years teaching at the University of New Mexico in Taos. She is a fourth generation Bay Area native, who attended SJSU, UC Davis, and CIIS. She aims for continual learning and growth, through teaching, working with De Anza students, taking art classes, reading and staying open to life lessons. She has a special interest in ideas at the margins of what we know - in the fields of creativity, consciousness, science, and spirituality. (PhD - Humanities; MA - Cultural Anthropology; BA - Political Science/French)

Falk Cammin | Foothill College

Dr. Cammin received her Ph.D. in German Studies from Stanford University. She also holds a Masters degree in German from San Francisco State University, where she graduated cum laude, and a Masters degree in TESOL from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vt. Her research interests are focused on interdisciplinary and comparative aspects of post Word War II German culture and contemporary German literature and film. Dr. Cammin has taught in a variety of settings, including both the Humanities and German Studies Departments at Stanford University. Her enthusiasm for teaching might be matched by her passion for art, history and the study of how humans make sense of the world, but you may not want to take a bet on that.

Salamander Breiter | De Anza College

Salamander Breiter is a Humanities Teacher at De Anza College.  He teaches creativity and social change, art and social movements, and media and image literacy.  His background is in applied anthropology, with a focus on sustainable architecture.  He is passionate about the mission and purpose of community colleges and their role in empowering students to be informed participants for change.