º£½ÇÉçÇø

Samuel Mathies, M.A.| Associate Instructor School of Communication 

Sam Mathies began his study of communication as an undergraduate student on the speech and debate team. He qualified for national competitions and received many awards. He continued his education and has taught in the communication field and coached speech and debate for over 30 years.  He focuses on applying theories of human communication to a variety of relational contexts. He teaches courses in Public Speaking, Group and Team Effectiveness, Communication Theory, and Intercultural Communication. His primary areas of service on campus include serving as the track coordinator for the Communication Studies major, being an active member of the Student Conduct Board, and providing academic advising to new students during summer orientation. Outside of UNF, Sam enjoys running, gardening, and raising chickens.

Hanadi Hamadi, Ph.D.| Professor of Health Administration

Hanadi Hamadi is one of the senior faculty joining º£½ÇÉçÇøin 2014. She has begun to demonstrate her achievement in scholarship by co-authoring one refereed article and is in the process of authoring or co-authoring multiple refereed articles. She also presented at several national conferences over the past several years. Dr. Hamadi has collaborated and continues to collaborate in the research area of value-based-purchasing and quality of hospital care with several faculty members from the MHA program. Currently, Dr. Hamadi is active locally serving on committees representing the program in her role as an assistant professor. She also serves as a peer-reviewer for many top journals.

Cristy Cummings, Ph.D.| Associate Professor, MSW Program Director, Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work 

Dr. Cummings earned a PhD in social work from Michigan State University, with a dissertation on help-seeking behavior of male victims of sexual assault. Her MSW degree with a concentration in Mental Health and Addictions and her Bachelor of Arts degree in women’s studies were received from Indiana University South Bend. 

Her teaching interests include research, practice, theory, gender and sexuality, the human-animal bond, and field education. Dr. Cummings’ primary area of research focuses on victims' interface with health, criminal justice, and social service organizations, and help-seeking behaviors, especially of victims of sexual violence. Gender, especially in relation to masculinity as a barrier to seeking services, plays a prominent role in her current work. Her research aims to understand and reduce disparities and to work towards communities in which victimization is neither gendered or blamed on the victim. She is interested in participatory action research and community engaged methods.

Martin Luytjes, Ph.D.| Associate Director Blackstone LaunchPad, Assistant Director of Innovation Crowley Center 

Professional experience includes ten years of Corporate Banking, the last five with SunTrust. Following that, he worked on entrepreneurial ventures as well as teaching at the collegiate level at Florida International University (FIU), where he was also a founding faculty member of the Pino Center for Global Entrepreneurship.

Luytjes then took a leave to open two Chicken Kitchen franchises in Miami, building them and selling them after six years, returning to FIU and then completing his Doctoral work.

Moving to Ponte Vedra Beach in 2012, he rebuilt the entrepreneurship program at Jacksonville University for three years, including the inception of the JU Dolphin Pitch Contest and the rekindling of the Davis Entrepreneurship Organization.

Luytjes has been teaching at º£½ÇÉçÇøfor four years, focusing in Entrepreneurship curriculum. He  later co-authored a grant to start the º£½ÇÉçÇøBlackstone Launchpad (BLP) in August 2023 and now runs the BLP while continuing to teach. Other entrepreneurial programs at º£½ÇÉçÇøhe participated in include the Florida Veterans Entrepreneurship Program (FVEP) and the Swisher Growth Cohort for Underrepresented Entrepreneurs.