Dr. William Tune joined Cumberland University in the Fall of 2017 and teaches courses in the Mathematics program.  Prior to this, he taught mathematics courses at Motlow State Community College and Indiana University, where he received the Rothrock Teaching Award in 2013.  His research interests are in the field of Mathematical Logic, especially as it applies to natural language, the λ-calculus, and coalgebras.  He received the Robert K. Meyer Graduate Fellowship twice for his research into creating a calculus for representing monotonic patterns in natural language. Dr. Tune also has a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Tennessee, where he was a member of the Chancellor’s Honor program and the Mathematics Honors program.  He participated in two summer undergraduate research experiences, and was selected by the Mathematics Department faculty as the 2010 Outstanding Graduate. In addition, he has co-authored two papers: Eigenvalues and Transduction of Morphic Sequences (2014) and A Monotonicity Calculus and Its Completeness (2017).

Ms. Karah Sprouse began at Cumberland University in fall of 2014 as an adjunct instructor and joined the full-time faculty in spring of 2018. She teaches various business classes in the undergraduate business program and serves as program director for the AAB program.  Prior to arriving at Cumberland, Ms. Sprouse was a PMP certified project manager in the software industry managing large-scale implementations. Ms. Sprouse holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and an MBA from the University of Mississippi. She is currently completing her Doctorate of Business degree with plans to graduate in the summer of 2020. She also maintains her Project Management Professional certification.

Stephen P. Shao, Jr. is a college professor/administrator, researcher and technical consultant.   He joined Cumberland University as a full time faculty member in 2017 after serving as an adjunct instructor for several years.  Dr. Shao holds a Ph.D. degree in Management Science from the University of Maryland, an M.B.A. in Business Administration from Old Dominion University, and a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Virginia.  He has received additional training from courses, institutes and industry workshops at the University of Minnesota, AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Northern Research. Dr. Shao has served as a faculty member and taught graduate and undergraduate courses in mathematics, computer information systems, marketing, project management, operations management and economics at universities in Maryland, Tennessee, and Virginia.  Dr. Shao is a founding director of two university research centers and currently serves as founding editor of the CU Labry School’s business publication Wilson County Trends. Before his current academic activities, Dr. Shao was employed in the telecommunications industry as a member of technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, NJ and later as Senior Manager of Strategic Network Planning for the Canadian telecom manufacturer NorTel Networks’ U.S. operations headquartered in Nashville, TN.     Dr. Shao’s research efforts have been supported by a variety of sources, including grants received from the National Institutes of Health, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Tennessee Valley Authority, IBM Corporation, Dell Foundation, BellSouth Foundation, AOL Foundation, AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, Baltimore Regional Planning Council, and others.   In addition to serving on numerous national, state and local advisory boards, Dr. Shao has authored over 150 published articles and conference presentations. Past awards and professional memberships include a AT&T Special Telecollaboration Award, Tennessee Governor’s Certificate of Appreciation, IEEE Society; National Engineering Consortium; Institute of Management Science; International Teleconferencing Association; Who’s Who in Technology Today; International Who’s Who; Tennessee Association of Independent Colleges and Schools and Omega Rho Honorary Society.    

Milton Sager earned a Bachelor of Science from SUNY Fredonia College (2010) with a major in mathematics. He earned a Master of Arts from MTSU (2013) in applied mathematics. His thesis was the research and development of a Switched Reluctance In-Wheel Hub Motor which was the first interdepartmental thesis between the Math and Engineering departments at MTSU. The concept was to put an electric motor inside the rear wheel of a motorcycle eliminating the gasoline engine. He began teaching at Cumberland University in August 2015. Prior to this he had taught at MTSU, NSCC, and Belmont University.  Other than teaching math, his hobbies include backpacking, collecting vintage Star Wars memorabilia, and woodworking. He has consulted several small businesses such as B&B Metal Works, Paul’s Rocket Stoves, and a few cottage backpacking gear start ups on the math and engineering aspects of some of their projects. He runs a men's small group through his Church. He and his wife have two children and live in Murfreesboro.  

Dr. Julie Baker Phillips is an assistant professor of biology at Cumberland University. She joined the faculty in fall of 2017. Prior to coming to Cumberland, she completed her undergraduate degree in mathematics at Middle Tennessee State University. After completing her baccalaureate, she stayed at MTSU to complete her masters degree in biology, studying reproductive and stress physiology of the eastern fence lizard under the supervision of Matthew Klukowski. She then moved to California to complete her doctorate in Quantitative and Systems Biology at the University of California, Merced, under the supervision of David Ardell. Her dissertation, entitled "Evolution of Eukaryotic Transfer Ribonucleic Acid|" searched for footprints of functional constraints highlighting patterns of evolutionary change in transfer RNA (tRNA) in Drosophila. Upon returning to Tennessee, she started as a postdoc in the Rokas lab at Vanderbilt University, where she focused on uncovering genes associated with variation in birth timing as well as molecular evolution of gene families associated with negative pregnancy outcomes under a grant from the March of Dimes. Dr. Phillips is currently conducting research evolution of reproductive life history traits as well as continuing to investigate the evolutionary history of interesting gene families. She is always seeking motivated students to mentor in research. In addition to teaching and research, Dr. Phillips enjoys providing theatrical science demos free of charge to elementary schools. Students interested in participating in the Phoenix Science Theater should contact her to join the program. Professional and organizational affiliations include Sigma Xi, the Society for Evolutionary Medicine and Public Health, and the Tennessee Academy of Sciences.  

Dr. Sarah Pierce is the program director of the Biochemistry program.  She received her Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University.  Her postdoctoral work focused on breast cancer research with the Biomedical Engineering Department at Vanderbilt University. She began at Cumberland University in the Fall of 2008.  She teaches the Fundamentals of Chemistry, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Chemistry Senior Seminar. Dr. Pierce is passionate about chemistry in art and includes many art based laboratory experiments in her classes.  Dr. Pierce serves on the General Education Core Committee, the Assessment Committee, and is the chair of the Colloquium Committee. She is also the advisor for the Pre-professional Society. Dr. Pierce focuses her research interests on analytical chemistry and chemical education.  Specifically, she is interested in the analysis of mixtures using visible spectroscopy.  Dr. Pierce has had several publications in various scientific journals and has made presentations at many chemistry conferences to discuss her education research. Recently, her research titled “Supplemental Learning in the Laboratory:  An Innovative Approach for Evaluating Knowledge and Method Transfer” was published in the Journal of Chemical Education.

Paul Matthew Percy, Ph.D. joined Cumberland University as Professor of Business in the Labry School of Science, Technology, and Business in Fall 2019 where he serves as director of the MBA program and teaches leadership, management, and strategy courses. Dr. Percy holds a Bachelor's in Communication and Business Administration from Houghton College, an MBA from the University at Buffalo, and a PhDin Business from the University of Kentucky. He has over 30 years of professional, teaching, entrepreneurial, and administrative experience. Dr. Percy has taught leadership and management, business ethics, organizational behavior and development, HR, entrepreneurship, finance, research methods, marketing, and strategic management at several colleges and universities including the University of Kentucky, Liberty University, Transylvania University, Central Virginia Community College, King University, and Carson-Newman University. Dr. Percy served as Interim President and Executive Vice President, Provost, and Ted Russell Distinguished Professor of Management at Carson-Newman University; leading the school in new program development and record enrollments. Prior to joining Carson-Newman, he was the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Professor of Management at King University, where he served for a total of 19 years in various roles and responsibilities. During his tenure with King, Dr. Percy developed new academic programs and strategic partnerships that helped the university grew by over 400 percent. Prior to his career in education Percy worked for M&T Bank in Retail Product Management  and Mortgage Banking. Dr. Percy is a retired officer (Major) of the Tennessee Air National Guard, graduate of Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, and led the Military Equal Opportunity office. He has been married for over 40 years to Janet and they have three children, Paul (Jennifer), Rachel (Chase), and Sarah (Tommy), and four beautiful grandchildren. And a Chocolate Lab named Murphy. Paul Matthew Percy is a team builder and leader who empowers and develops people to their fullest potential. A strategic thinker, problem solver, relationship builder, financial manager and transparent leader who has God given abilities to effectively steward intellectual, human, financial, and spiritual resources.