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University Welcomes Nearly
100 New Faculty Members
Nearly 100 new faculty have joined the University this year at Storrs and the regional campuses.
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Fred Maryanski, interim provost, speaks with Paola Gambarota, assistant professor of modern and classical languages, during the orientation for new faculty in the Rome Ballroom August 26.
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"This is a group with very impressive credentials. I am delighted they chose us," said Fred Maryanski, interim provost, who together with other senior administrators and academics welcomed the new faculty during an orientation session on Aug. 26.
"The University has very lofty ambitions to continue to rise in stature," he added, "and I think we have recruited the right set of people to help us do so."
Maryanski said it is a great time join the University.
"No other public university has plans to add 150 new faculty beyond the current level, without growing the student body, as well as $2.3 billion from the state for infrastructure improvements. That positions us uniquely," he said.
Many of the new hires replace retirees who took early retirement two years ago; the schools and colleges received funding at the level of 70 percent on average, to replace those who retired as part of the early retirement program. Others have been appointed to replace regular turnover. Maryanski said that with the new hires, there is a net gain of 14 faculty compared with two years ago.
Some of this year's new hires were appointed as faculty-in-residence, in the third and final year of phasing in a program to boost the teaching faculty. These faculty members have temporary appointments for one to three years, and are assigned a heavier teaching load than tenure-track professors.
"We needed more teachers," said Maryanski, "and the administration felt it appropriate to have a small percentage of the faculty be full-time teachers."
Still, he said, the majority of new faculty are expected to be outstanding researchers and outstanding teachers. He said the University has put in place support structures to facilitate that.
Searches have already begun for next year. Although the University is still exploring ways to fund the proposal to hire 150 extra faculty over the next five years, the first 30 positions have already been identified through the schools and colleges, and searches are getting underway. The goal is for half of the 150 positions to be in the sciences.
This year's new hires at Storrs and the regional campuses are:
Julie Wargo Aikins, asst. prof., psychology; Ph.D., Penn State Univ.; specialty: clinical psychology, peer relationships among adolescents.
David Atkin, prof.-in-residence, communication sciences; Ph.D., Michigan State Univ.; specialty: mass media
Amanda Bailey, asst. prof.-in-residence, English; Ph.D., Univ. of Michigan; specialty: early modern literature
Jayantmi Bajan, instructor, marketing; MBA, Univ. of Bangalore; specialty: advertising and marketing
Courtney Bell, asst. prof., curriculum & instruction; Ph.D., Michigan State Univ.; specialty: educational policy
Stephen Binns, postdoctoral fellow, mathematics; Ph.D., Pennsylvania State Univ.; specialty: mathematical logic
Robert Bird, asst. prof., marketing; J.D., Boston Univ.; specialty: employment law
Thomas Blum, asst. prof., physics; Ph.D., Univ. of Arizona; specialty: high energy physics
Mary Burke, asst. prof., English; Ph.D., Queen's Univ. Belfast, N. Ireland; specialty: 20th-century Irish literature
Peter Burkhard, asst. prof., molecular & cell biology/materials science; Ph.D., Univ. of Basel, Switzerland; specialty: protein crystallography, nanotechnology
Lauren Burton, asst. prof., kinesiology; Ph.D., Univ. of Connecticut; specialty: sports medicine
Scott Cambell, asst. prof., English; Ph.D., Rutgers Univ.; specialty: reading and writing composition
Katharine Capshaw-Smith, asst. prof., English; Ph.D., Univ. of Connecticut; specialty: children's literature
Kevin Chamberlin, asst. clinical prof., pharmacy practice; Pharm.D., Univ. of Connecticut; specialty: geriatric pharmacy practice
Felix Coe, asst. prof., ecology & evolutionary biology; Ph.D., Tennessee Technological Univ.; specialty: botany, systematics and ethnobotany
Jose Cruz, asst. prof., operations & information management; Ph.D., Univ. of Massachusetts; specialty: management science
Robert Day, asst. prof., operations & information management; Ph.D., Univ. of Maryland; specialty: operations research/applied mathematics
Laura Donorfio, asst. prof., family studies; Ph.D., Univ. of Connecticut; specialty: family studies
John Dovidio, prof., psychology; Ph.D., Univ. of Delaware; specialty: social psychology, intergroup relations, intergroup conflict, aversive racism.
Anna Mae Duane, asst. prof., English, Torrington campus; Ph.D., Fordham Univ.; specialty: English
Jeffrey Dudas, asst. prof., political science; Ph.D., Univ. of Washington; specialty: public law
Inge-Marie Eigsti, asst. prof., psychology; Ph.D., Univ. of Rochester; specialty: clinical psychology, language acquisition and attentional functioning in children with autism.
Christopher Elphick, asst. prof., ecology & evolutionary biology; Ph.D., Univ. of Nevada, Reno; specialty: interim Connecticut State Ornithologist, population and behavioral ecology
Anne Farrell, asst. prof., family studies; Ph.D., Hofstra Univ.; specialty: clinical & school psychology
Yunsi Fei, asst. prof., electrical & computer engineering; Ph.D., Princeton Univ.; specialty: computer engineering
Mary Fischer, asst. prof., sociology; Ph.D., Univ. of Pennsylvania; specialty: stratification, residential segregation, transition to adulthood, race/ethnicity, social networks
Joy Fritschle-Mason, asst. prof.-in-residence, geography; A.B.D., Univ. of Wisconsin; specialty: biogeography
Paola Gambarota, asst. prof., modern & classical languages; Ph.D., Yale Univ.; specialty: European pre-war avant garde, theories of language and nation in the Italian 18th century
Linda Garro, prof., anthropology; Ph.D., anthropology, Univ. of California, Irvine; Ph.D., psychology, Duke Univ.; specialty: medical and psychological anthropology, cultural perceptions of disease
Dmitry Glotov, postdoctoral fellow, mathematics; Ph.D., Purdue Univ.; specialty: mathematics
Eric Haas, asst. prof., educational policy; Ph.D., Arizona State Univ.; specialty: education law and media studies
Robert Hannafin, assoc. prof., educational psychology; Ph.D., Arizona State Univ.; specialty: learning & instructional technology
Scott Harding, asst. prof., social work; Ph.D., Univ. of Washington; specialty: community organization
Douglas Hartmann, assoc. prof., curriculum & instruction; Ph.D., Univ. of Illinois; specialty: literacy learning
Shareen Hertel, asst. prof., political science; Ph.D., Columbia Univ.; specialty: human rights
Charles Hiser, prof., aerospace studies; M.S., Air University at Maxwell Air Force Base; specialty: strategic studies
Philip Hritcko, asst. clinical prof., pharmacy practice; Pharm.D., Albany College of Pharmacy of Union Univ.; specialty: ambulatory care, experiential education
Bryan Huey, asst. prof., metallurgy & materials engineering; Ph.D., Univ. of Pennsylvania; specialty: scanning probe microscopy, nanoscience, electronic materials, texture and ceramics
Barbara Jacobs, assoc. prof., nursing; Ph.D., Univ. of Connecticut; specialty: clinical ethics
Anthony Joseph, prof., occupational health & safety; Ph.D., Univ. of West Indies; specialty: safety & environmental
Ralph Kaufmann, asst. prof., mathematics; Ph.D., Univ. of Bonn, Germany; specialty: topology/algebraic geometry
Jeong-Ho Kim, asst. prof., civil & environmental engineering; Ph.D., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; specialty: structural engineering
John Knopf, asst. prof., finance; Ph.D., New York Univ.; specialty: corporate finance
Alexander Kovner, assoc. prof., physics; Ph.D., Tel Aviv Univ.; specialty: theoretical particle physics
Charles Lansing, asst. prof., history; Ph.D., Yale Univ.; specialty: German history
Joan Letendre, asst. prof., social work; Ph.D., Jane Addams College of Social Work; specialty: group work
Kathryn Libal, asst. prof.-in-residence, women's studies and anthropology; Ph.D., Univ. of Washington; specialty: philosophy
Carolyn Lin, prof., communications science; Ph.D., Michigan State Univ.; specialty: new communication technology
Catherine Little, asst. prof., educational psychology; Ph.D., College of William & Mary; specialty: curriculum effectiveness & professional development
Louis Lombardi, instructor-in-residence, mathematics; MS, Tufts Univ.; specialty: actuarial science
Michael Lynch, assoc. prof., philosophy; Ph.D., Syracuse Univ.; specialty: metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind
James Magnuson, asst. prof., psychology; Ph.D., Univ. of Rochester; specialty: experimental psychology, psycholinguistics, speech recognition.
D. Betsy McCoach, asst. prof., educational psychology; Ph.D., Univ. of Connecticut; specialty: school psychology, educational psychology
Teresa McDowell, prof., family studies; Ed.D., Northern Illinois Univ.; specialty: marriage and family therapy
Stephanie Milan, asst. prof., psychology; Ph.D., Vanderbilt Univ.; specialty: clinical psychology, reproductive health and mental health among adolescents.
Cyr M'lan, asst. prof., statistics; Ph.D., McGill University; specialty: biological statistics
Yasamin Mostofi, asst. prof., computer sciences & engineering; Ph.D., Stanford Univ.; specialty: wireless data networks, optimization and control of decentralized networks, mobile communications
Michael Mulcahy, asst. prof., sociology; Ph.D., Univ. of Arizona; specialty: political sociology, organizations, and globalization
Kimiko Nakanishi, asst. prof., linguistics; Ph.D., Univ. of Pennsylvania; specialty: linguistics
Antonia Nelson, asst. prof., nursing; Ph.D., Univ. of Connecticut; specialty: maternal/child nursing
Edward Neth, asst. prof., chemistry; Ph.D., Univ. of Connecticut; specialty: inorganic chemistry
Mark Olson, asst. prof., curriculum & instruction; Ph.D., Michigan State Univ.; specialty: science education
Mark Overmyer-Velazquez, asst. prof., history; Ph.D., Yale Univ.; specialty: modern Mexico; transnational migration & U.S. Latino(a) history
Melina Pappademos, asst. prof., history; A.B.D., New York Univ.; specialty: African Diaspora history
Rachelle Perusse, assoc. prof., educational psychology; Ph.D., Virginia Tech; specialty: school counselor education, school counseling
Kim Price, asst. prof., sociology; Ph.D., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst; specialty: qualitative research methods, gender, family, and sexuality
Jesse Ratzkin, postdoctoral fellow, Mathematics; Ph.D., Univ. of Washington; specialty: geometric analysis
Victoria Robinson, asst. prof., molecular & cell biology; Ph.D., Univ. of Iowa, biochemistry; specialty: macromolecular crystallography
Helen Rogers, assoc. prof., educational psychology; Ph.D., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst; specialty: psychology
Barry Rosenberg, visiting asst. prof., art & art history; M.A., Univ. of New Mexico; specialty: painting
Dan Ryder, asst. prof., philosophy; Ph.D., Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; specialty: philosophy of mind and cognitive science
Ramesh Sankaranarayanan, asst. prof., operations & information management, Ph.D., New York Univ.; specialty: information systems
Lauren Schlesselman, asst. clinical prof., pharmacy practice; Pharm.D., Univ. of Georgia; specialty: adult internal medicine
Henry Schwoeble, asst. prof., aerospace studies; B.S., Indiana University; specialty: medical anthropology, psychological anthropology
John Settlage, assoc. prof., curriculum & instruction; Ph.D., Univ. of Missouri; specialty: science teacher education
Christine Shank, visiting asst. prof., art & art history; MFA, Texas Woman's Univ.; specialty: photography and installation art
Deborah Shelton, assoc. prof., nursing; Ph.D., Univ. of Virginia; specialty: child & adolescent psychosocial nursing
Zhijie Shi, asst. prof., computer science & engineering; Ph.D., Princeton Univ.; specialty: computer architecture & cryptography
Doreen Simons-Marquis, instructor-in-residence, linguistics; MA, New York Univ.; specialty: American Sign Language
Leonid Slavin, postdoctoral fellow, mathematics; Ph.D., Michigan State Univ.; specialty: harmonic analysis
Robin Spath, adjunct prof., social work; Ph.D., Brandeis University; specialty: administration
Suzette Spencer, asst. prof., English; Ph.D., Univ. of California, Berkeley; specialty: African-American literature
Mytheli Sreenivas, asst. prof., history; Ph.D., Univ. of Pennsylvania; specialty: women's history
Jason Stephens, asst. prof.-in-residence, educational psychology; Ph.D., Stanford Univ.; specialty: educational psychology
Hariharan Swaminathan, prof., educational psychology; Ph.D., Univ. of Toronto; specialty: statistics
Rebecca Thomas, asst. prof., social work; Ph.D., Temple Univ.; specialty: program evaluation, program planning
Jeffrey Townsend, asst. prof., molecular & cell biology; Ph.D., Harvard Univ.; specialty: genetics and genomics
Jennifer Tufts, asst. prof., communications sciences; Ph.D., Pennsylvania State Univ.; specialty: audiology
Eduardo Urios-Aparisi, asst. prof., modern & classical languages; Ph.D., Univ. of Illinois, Chicago; specialty: Spanish linguistics (pragmatics)
Olga Vinogradova, asst. prof., pharmaceutical sciences; Ph.D., Case Western Reserve Univ.; specialty: biophysics & bioengineering
Jeff Volek, asst. prof., kinesiology; Ph.D., Pennsylvania State Univ.; specialty: exercise physiology & nutrition
Manuela Wagner, asst. prof., modern & classical languages; A.B.D., Univ. of Graz, Austria; specialty: first and second language acquisition, pragmatic development
Lei Wang, asst. prof., electrical & computer engineering; Ph.D., Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; specialty: computer engineering
Lisa Werkmeister Rozas, asst. prof., social work; Ph.D., Smith College, School for Social Work; specialty: Latino(a) studies
Glen Wilson, asst. prof., educational leadership; Ph.D., Arizona State Univ.; specialty: education finance, tuition tax credits, school choice
Walter Woodward, asst. prof., history; Ph.D., Univ. of Connecticut; specialty: early American/Connecticut state history
Philip (Yu) Xu, assoc. prof., nursing; Ph.D., SUNY-Buffalo; specialty: community/public health nursing
Xudong Yao, asst. prof., chemistry; Ph.D., Univ. of Maryland; specialty: mass spectrometry, proteomics, bioanalytical chemistry
Xudong Yao, postdoctoral fellow, mathematics; A.B.D., Texas A&M Univ.; specialty: applied mathematics
Alex Yen, asst. prof., accounting; Ph.D, Univ. of Texas, Austin; specialty: financial accounting and auditing
This list was supplied to the Advance by the Department of Human Resources.
