Professor Profile: Dr. Lynn Lofthouse

By Kelly Morgan (Staff Writer)

When Dr. Lynn Lofthouse turned 31, she was newly divorced and had two children to raise.

“When I was younger, I didn’t really focus on what I wanted to be because my mother always said I’d be a housewife and just stay home and take care of children,” Lofthouse said. “My mother told me I was too dumb to go to college when I was in high school.”

She decided to go to college.

“I went to school with the idea of getting some classes to be able to get a job so I could support these children I had and myself,” she said.

It took her a while, but now Lofthouse teaches classes in the Communication Program at Wesley, and is particularly well-known for her Public Speaking classes.

Senior Domenic Citino says he benefited from taking two of Lofthouse’s classes, Public Speaking, and Non-Verbal Communication.

“Public speaking will help me if I ever have to get up in front of a crowd and deliver a speech, to connect with my audience and have good eye contact,” he said. “From Non-Verbal [Communications], I have the skills to read others, their body language and how they act.”

Lofthouse, 61, grew up in West Chester County, New York, and after high school worked several low-paying jobs, including one as a secretary and another as a clerk.

She got married when she was 21 and had two children.

After her divorce, she attended Mesa Community College in Arizona.

Lofthouse had moved to Arizona in 1978, when she was 30 years old, because her husband obtained a job as an aviation mechanic there.

“It wasn’t until I had gone through my Bachelor’s that I thought, Geez, it would be so great to be a professor and never have to leave college because I liked it so much,” she said. “Then when I got invited to the Master’s Program I thought, one more degree, and I can do this.”

She earned her Ph.D. in 1992 from Penn State in Speech Communication.

Lofthouse has been teaching at Wesley for 18 years. Her Public Speaking classes are notoriously tough.

“A lot of people see her as mean,” said Erica Queen, a Senior Media Arts Major. “But in reality, she’s really nice. The reason she comes across as strict is because she sees a lot of potential in students. I think her being strict is good because otherwise we wouldn’t improve as speakers.”

Lofthouse has a passion for helping students improve the way they present themselves.

“I feel like I’ve really given them something that isn’t just usable throughout class but usable throughout their lives,” she said. “I love doing that and giving them something that I feel they can take away and that can really help them in life.”

Despite her success at Wesley, her heart will always be in Phoenix.

“I intend to move back when I retire,” she said. “I love the lifestyle, how comfortable it was, the topography, the beautiful Southwest, the desert, and the sunsets. I liked that.”

After living there for fourteen years, she had no choice but to move back to the East Coast.

“I wanted a full-time job with benefits,” she said. “I hated to leave, but it’d be silly to stay and only become an adjunct at Arizona State.”

Now living in Felton, Del., she says she has more stability to raise her family of seven cats and focus on her passion, helping animals.

Lofthouse is a very active member on the board of Kent County’s SPCA.

“I think animals are the greatest creatures in the world because they just love you unconditionally,” she said.

An SPCA piggy bank in the form of a Dalmatian can be found on the second floor of the Parker Library in her small and dimly-lit office.

Lofthouse helps run the “Doggy Banks,” a place where people can donate money for abandoned and homeless dogs.

“The doggy banks are a great source to buy food and medical support,” Lofthouse said.

She is Chair of the SPCA’s “Feline Pavilion Project.”

“We’re trying to build a new building on the grounds of the SPCA that will give us more room so that we can keep more cats and a better community concept where they get out of cages and they can walk around,” she said. “And even have an outside area that is enclosed but would allow them to get out and do their thing. Cats like to be outside.”