Thank you to our 2022 – 2023 Odyssey instructors for their time, talent and contributions to the Odyssey program. We invite course proposals from Johns Hopkins alumni, faculty, staff, and community partners on a rolling basis. For more information or to submit a course proposal, visit our Instructors page.

Phyllis Berger

Phyllis Berger BFA MFA, Maryland Institute College of Art is a faculty member emeritus at the Center for Visual Arts at Johns Hopkins University where she started the Photography Program 26 years ago. She has taught interdisciplinary courses at JHU including Writing Seminars, History of Science, Political Science and Museum Studies. Berger brings her love of photography into the classroom and has inspired hundreds of students throughout the years. She received an excellence in teaching award from The Maryland Institute College of Art. Berger led the summer study abroad program in Photography at the Burren College of Art in County Clare, Ireland and The Photography Studies College in Melbourne, Australia. She is a recipient of two artist residencies in Rochefort en Terre, Brittany, France and has been awarded numerous teaching grants through JHU (Arthur Vining Davis, Arts Innovation). Her work has been exhibited in three solo shows at the Evergreen Museum and Library, the Museum of Rochefort en Terre, in Britanny France, the MICA Biennale, The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Banneker Douglas Museum, The Gormley Gallery, College of Notre Dame and resides in many private collections. Berger has lectured on Photography in Ecuador, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, The Galapagos Islands and Croatia.

Daniel Charlton, A&S ’20

Daniel C. Charlton is currently an Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Montana State University Billings. He is an alumnus of the Johns Hopkins University where he received his Master’s of Liberal Arts in 2020. Charlton currently researches the intersections of labor and the noble proletariat depictions as they are conceptualized in American literature, particularly the naturalism movement with particular attention to Frank Norris and Upton Sinclair. Prior to his move to the university-level, Charlton taught English at the high school level for eight years with experience teaching ESL in Central Asia. His teaching duties now include Educational Psychology and assisting pre-service English teachers with pedagogy and conducive methodological practices. Currently, Charlton is working on the completion of his Ph.D. in American Studies, making historical and literary interventions in the Naturalist literary period in American literature.

Toni Wells, Bus ’20

Toni Wells is a marketing and business development professional with 18 years of experience working in the legal services industry. Wells coaches high-performing lawyers on business development, marketing, and personal branding matters. Much of her work is at the intersection of business development and diversity, where she partners with clients to design diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies that help facilitate the expansion of client relationships and business opportunities. Prior to launching her consulting practice, Wells held business development leadership roles at several prominent international AmLaw 100 law firms, including serving as the U.S. Business Development Director at Dentons; Associate Business Development Director at McKenna Long; and Client Relations Manager at Baker Botts. Wells earned a master’s degree in Marketing from Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in English from the University of Maryland at College Park. She is an ACC accredited coach through the International Coaching Federation and a Certified Everything DiSC® trainer.

Tracy Gold

Tracy Gold is a freelance editor and teacher. She taught writing for many years at the University of Baltimore. While working for literary agent Carrie Pestritto, Gold read thousands of queries and dozens of prospective client manuscripts. She also worked with Pestritto’s clients on manuscripts and marketing plans. Gold is the author of two picture books, Everyone’s Sleepy but the Baby from Familius, and Trick or Treat, Bugs to Eat from Sourcebooks eXplore.

José López-González, A&S ’92

José López-González, holds a BA in Economics from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon, Monterrey Mexico; MA in Economics from William College, Massachusetts; and MA and PhD in Philosophy from Johns Hopkins University. He is an economist, philosopher, and lecturer. He has worked as an Economist at the Investment Bank Financiera Aceptaciones and at the Mexican Federal Reserve Bank, both in Mexico City, Mexico. Dr. López-González taught philosophy in the Department of Philosophy at Loyola University for seven years and has been faculty in the Departments of Philosophy and Political Science at Towson University since 1996, teaching courses in Philosophy, politics, economics, and Latin America. Since 2010, he has been teaching interdisciplinary courses in philosophy, politics and economics as a lecturer at the Odyssey Program at Johns Hopkins University, and since 2014 at several campuses of the Baltimore County Community College. He has published articles in philosophy and economics and took courses in Micro and Macroeconomics at Harvard University.