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Meet Ivan Allen College's Newest Faculty Members 2022–2023

The Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts attracts some of the best minds in the social sciences and humanities, scholars and practitioners eager to advance Georgia Tech's mission of educating leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. Our newest faculty members are no exception. This year, we are proud to welcome six new tenured/tenure-track faculty members in a wide variety of fields, including modern languages, development economics, emotion recognition technologies, science fiction studies, and more. We also are thrilled to welcome 34 non-tenure-track faculty, including Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellows and new cadre members in our ROTC programs, 10 visiting faculty, and 12 research faculty.

Read on to learn more about the newest members of the Ivan Allen College faculty!

School of Economics

Erdal Asker

Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Economics

Erdal Asker received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Connecticut in August 2022 and an M.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado, Denver, in June 2017.

His research mainly lies in the area of applied microeconomics, with a primary focus on development economics and economics of education. His dissertation examines the causal relationship between human capital investment and non-labor market outcomes such as teenage fertility and marriage, civic participation, and risky sexual behaviors. More broadly, Asker aims to understand the consequences of public policies targeting lower-income and disadvantaged groups by using different micro-data sets and various causal identification strategies.

Carolyn "Cici" McNamara

Assistant Professor | School of Economics

Cici McNamara's research interests are in empirical industrial organization and health economics. In recent work, she has examined the response of hospitals to financial incentives, insurers to risk selection incentives, and physicians to the introduction of new technologies. She has also studied the effect of Medicaid coverage on healthcare utilization among adults leaving prison and those with substance use disorders. Her work has been published in journals including Health Economics and the Journal of the American Medical Association.

McNamara received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin—Madison in 2022.

Mayra Pineda-Torres

Assistant Professor | School of Economics

Mayra Pineda-Torres is an applied microeconomist with research interests in health, labor, gender, and development economics. She uses quasi-experimental methods to study topics related to the equality and welfare of teenagers and women. Her work explores the health and economic implications of historical and contemporary reproductive health care policies. She is studying the implications of legal access to abortion on intimate-partner violence and educational attainment and the effects of expanding educational opportunities on teenage fertility.

Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Pineda-Torres earned her Ph.D. in Economics at Texas A&M University and her B.A. in Economics from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).

Lenny Stendig

Visiting Lecturer | School of Economics

Lenny Stendig had two passions when he graduated with a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia in 1979: computers/technology and economics. He chose a career path in high-tech. It was interesting and involved travels around the world. However, after 40 years it was time to pursue the path-not-taken: economics.

Teaching economics has been his passion and he is finally in a position to pursue this calling. His career has spanned many facets of high-tech and teaching. He has previously taught courses at Georgia Tech, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Young Harris College, and Danville Community College.

School of History and Sociology

Christopher Vidmar

Visiting Assistant Professor | School of History and Sociology

Chris Vidmar is a gender and sexuality sociologist who focuses on masculinities. He is a mixed-methods researcher and ethnographer and holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Georgia State University. His previous research explores how masculinities influence the effectiveness of men's intervention programs, sex-negativity as a mechanism of gendered oppression, and masculinity in men with serious mental illness. He is a committed teacher and has published on the development of empathy through sociological study.

Helen Anne Curry

Professor and Melvin Kranzberg Professorship in the History of Technology | School of History and Sociology

Helen Anne Curry's current research centers on the histories of seeds, crop science, and industrial agriculture. She is the author of Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction (University of California Press, 2022) and Evolution Made to Order: Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth-Century America (University of Chicago Press, 2016). She leads the multi-researcher project "From Collection to Cultivation: Historical Perspectives on Crop Diversity and Food Security," which is funded by the Wellcome Trust and based in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge.

Not pictured:

  • Mustafa Shabazz, research associate II, School of History and Sociology

Sam Nunn School of International Affairs

Michèle Flournoy

Professor of the Practice | Sam Nunn School of International Affairs

Michèle Flournoy is co-founder and managing partner of WestExec Advisors. She also is a co-founder, former chief executive officer, and now Chair of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS).

From 2009–2012, Flournoy served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. She was the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense in the formulation of national security and defense policy, oversight of military plans and operations, and in National Security Council deliberations. She led the development of defense strategy and represented the Department in dozens of foreign engagements, in the media, and before Congress.

Prior to confirmation, Flournoy co-led President Obama’s transition team at the Defense Department.

She founded CNAS in January 2007. The bipartisan think tank is dedicated to developing strong, pragmatic, and principled national security policies. She served as CNAS’ president until 2009 and returned as CEO in 2014. In 2017, she co-founded WestExec Advisors, a strategic advisory firm.

Previously, she was senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies for several years and, prior to that, a distinguished research professor at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.

In the mid-1990s, Flournoy served as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and threat reduction and deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy.

Flournoy is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the NDIA Eisenhower Award, the American Red Cross Exceptional Service Award, the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Joint Distinguished Civilian Service Award, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, and CARE’s Global Peace, Development and Security Award.

She has edited several books and authored dozens of reports and articles on a broad range of defense and national security issues, and appears frequently in national and international media and is frequently quoted in top-tier newspapers.

Flournoy serves on the boards of CNAS, Booz Allen Hamilton, Astra, Amida Technology Solutions, America’s Frontier Fund, The Gates Global Policy Center, The Mission Continues, The War Horse, and CARE. She serves on the advisory boards of The Leadership Council for Women in National Security, Special Competitive Studies Project, Sesame Workshop, Intel, RAND Corporation, and PIMCO. She is a senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Aspen Strategy Group, and the Defense Policy Board. She previously served on the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board the CIA Director’s External Advisory Board.

Flournoy earned a bachelor’s degree in social studies from Harvard University and a master’s degree in international relations from Balliol College, Oxford University, where she was a Newton-Tatum scholar.

Will Roper

Professor of the Practice | Sam Nunn School of International Affairs

Will Roper previously served as Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Air Force, leading over $60 billion of annual technology development and operations for the Air Force and U.S. Space Force. He was a recognized change agent for disruptive innovation, including the U.S. military's first uses of agile software development, digital engineering, venture investments, electric aircraft, artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons, and swarming systems. Prior to that role, he founded the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office, growing this once-classified innovation office to $1.6 billion annual budget.

He began his career at MIT Lincoln Laboratory as the Missile Defense Agency's chief futurist.

During his 15 years of national security service, Roper has received the Pentagon’s and Air Force's highest awards for public service. His numerous publications in Wired, Popular Mechanics, CBS's 60 Minutes, and the USAF/USSF's There is No Spoon continue to drive thinking on technology and national security. Roper holds a bachelor’s and master’s in physics from Georgia Tech and doctorate in mathematics from Oxford University, where he studied string theory as a Rhodes Scholar.

In his role as a Distinguished Professor of the Practice in the Nunn School, Roper focuses on technology impacting national security.

He also is a board member and advisor of numerous startups and investment firms, a senior advisor at McKinsey, and Honorary Group Captain in the U.K. Royal Air Force.

School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Aditya Anupam

Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Aditya Anupam works on games, ethics, and education as part of the Design and Social Justice Studio led by Nassim Parvin. He received his Ph.D. in Digital Media from Georgia Tech in December 2021. His research is situated at the confluence of science, media, and learning. Anchored in feminist, science, and technology studies (STS) and pragmatist scholarship, he explores digital media —particularly games, simulations, and interactive visualizations — as environments to foster the learning of science and engineering as a situated and ethical practice. He has published and given talks in multiple ACM, IEEE, and 4S venues on education, digital media, and STS.

Namrata Dey Roy

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Namrata Dey Roy earned her doctoral degree from Georgia State University. Her research interest includes postcolonial literature and theories. She was a lecturer in India and worked as a teaching assistant and writing studio consultant at Georgia State University. She completed her bachelor’s degree with English Honors from Presidency College, master's from Calcutta University in India, and M.Phil from Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta. She received the Provost Dissertation Fellowship for her doctoral research. She has presented papers at several national and international conferences such as MLA, SAMLA, ALA and has publications in Safundi, The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, The Criterion, and other journals.

Sean Dolan

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Sean Dolan comes to Georgia Tech from Emory University’s Writing Program where he taught first-year composition courses about qualitative research writing, narrative forms of argument, identity, and ritual. At Georgia Tech, he will continue to develop his teaching around these themes as well as develop a research program investigating the role of ethnography and narrative-based research in the domain of digital scholarship and pedagogy. Dolan's doctoral research focused on how the growing dominance of global markets’ influences the processes of commercialization and bureaucratization of Islam in Southeast Asia. He completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology at Emory in 2019.

Jill Fennell

Visiting Assistant Professor | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Jill Fennell is a visiting assistant professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in 2019. Her interests include affect theory and care ethics. Fennell has published in the Eudora Welty Review, the Journal of Appalachian Studies, and The Routledge Companion to Literature of the U.S. South. She has written an essay about teaching with affect theory in the undergraduate classroom in The Affects of Pedagogy in Literary Studies (forthcoming). Her recent work uses affect theory and care ethics to innovate pedagogical practices in technical communication and the production of media in the U.S. South.

Sarah Fredericks

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Sarah Fredericks is a 19th-century Americanist with specializations in rhetoric, multimodality, and writing center studies. She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona and M.A. and B.A. from Auburn University at Montgomery. She edited Critical Insights: Lord of the Flies (2017), and her recent publications address Mark Twain’s western insults, teeth in Poe’s short fiction, and travesties of Romeo and Juliet in American newspapers. She has also published on the works of various authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Edith Wharton, Jane Austen, Maya Angelou, and Michael Cunningham, and she has contributed to volumes on feminism, LGBTQ literature, and the American novel. She is currently writing a book on Mark Twain’s anger and rhetoric.

Misty Fuller

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Misty Fuller is a Marion L. Brittain Fellow. She obtained her Ph.D. in English with a minor in communication studies from Louisiana State in August 2022. She primarily studies composition and rhetoric. Her areas of interest include literacies, educational and institutional rhetorics, and writing program and center administration. She is particularly interested in students’ first-year experiences and first-year writing courses.

Lelia Gholami

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Leila Gholami holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from the Department of English at Arizona State University.

Courtney Hoffman

Academic Professional | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Courtney A. Hoffman (she/her) is a new academic professional for undergraduate research writing in LMC and Georgia Tech's Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program. Her research, administration, and teaching focus on multimodal composition, technical and science communication, and 18th-century British literature. She has published essays on adaptions of 18th-century culture and data visualization in 18th-century novels. Her current projects explore a range of her transdisciplinary interests, including the rhetoric of poster design and presentations, assessment of science writing course structures, and genre and form in 18th-century midwifery manuals.

Courtney most recently completed her term as a Marion L. Brittain Fellow and served as an assistant director of Georgia Tech’s Writing and Communication Program.

Zita Hüsing

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Zita Hüsing received her Ph.D. in English Language and Literature at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La., in 2022. She received her M.A. in English Literatures and Cultures and her M.A. in North American Studies from the University of Bonn in Germany in 2018. Her primary area of research is 20th- and 21st-century American literature with a focus on science fiction and critical interests in the posthuman, critical race theory, disability studies, and women and gender studies. She has published widely on topics such as materiality in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, transhuman bodies, (dis)ability and de/colonialization in Nisi Shawl’s Everfair, the posthuman in HBO’s Westworld, dystopian technology in Netflix’s Black Mirror, and the biopolitical control of (post)human bodies in Minster Faust’s War and Mir in journals such as Fantastika Journal, Femspec, Messengers from the Stars: On Science Fiction and Fantasy, and the SFRA Review.

Dipanjan Maitra

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Dipanjan Maitra (he/him/his) completed his Ph.D. in English at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 2022. He was formerly an Advanced Ph.D. Fellow at Humanities Institute at UB. His dissertation entitled “Built With Glue and Clippings: Modernist Collaboration and the Press-Cutting Bureau” explores the connection between press-cutting agencies and literary modernism. He has presented on modernism, genetic criticism, and psychoanalysis in India, the U.S., and Europe and his academic articles have appeared in Modernism/modernity Print Plus, James Joyce Quarterly, Genetic Joyce Studies, Joyce Studies in Italy, and other peer-reviewed journals.

David Measel

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

David Measel hails from Little Rock, Arkansas. He has taught English, rhetoric and composition, and professional and technical writing during his appointments at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Clemson University, and Appalachian State University. Measel's research and teaching interests are in technical writing, multimodal rhetorics, Kenneth Burke studies, and sonic rhetorics with a focus on the rhetoric of music.

Paige Miller

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Miller earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Miami in 2022. Her research and teaching interests include literary multilingualism, global modernisms, and the intersection of memory and writing studies. She recently co-edited a special issue of Textual Practice commemorating the centenary of James Joyce’s Ulysses, and she also served as managing editor of the James Joyce Literary Supplement. Miller started her teaching career as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Madrid, Spain.

Courtney Mullis

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Courtney Mullis earned a Ph.D. in English Literature from Duquesne University in 2022. Her recent scholarship explores cultural trauma in contemporary American novels. She teaches courses in first-year composition and serves as a Professional Consultant in the Naugle Communication Center.

Katherine Musick

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Katherine Musick received her Ph.D. in English specializing in rhetoric and composition from Middle Tennessee State University in August 2022. Her research interests include the history of rhetoric, feminist rhetorics, feminist historiography, archival research, digital rhetoric, and the rhetoric and practices of technical communication. She is particularly interested in the rhetorical practices of historical women who disguised themselves or dressed as men in order to take part in military combat. When she is not in the classroom, she enjoys walking her dog, Piper, getting out of Atlanta to go horseback riding or hiking, spending time with her family, and being a huge football fan for her alma mater, the University of Alabama.

Chinaza Okoli

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Chinaza Amaeze Okoli recently completed his Ph.D. in English at the University of Mississippi. His research considers the intersections of performance cultures and black writing since the 18th century.

Chrisopher Peace

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Christopher Peace is a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow teaching business communication in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. His research interests are Hoodoo, African-American spirituality, African Diaspora religions, spiritual rhetoric, womanism, digital humanities, rhizome theory, and ecologies of place and space. He is working on articles that include information about Zora Neale Hurston and about spiritual rhetoric and the body. He also volunteers on the academics committee for the ZORA! Festival of the Arts and Humanities, located in Eatonville, Florida.

Lainie Pomerleau

Marion L. Brittain Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Lainie Pomerleau completed her M.A. at the University of Tennessee and her Ph.D. at the University of Georgia where she taught writing and literature courses and worked as a science communications coordinator. Pomerleau's research interests include medieval and Shakespearean literature, popular science writing, and multimodal communication studies.

Jacob Richter

Visiting Assistant Professor | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Jacob D. Richter (he/him) teaches first-year composition, technical communication, business communication, and other upper-division writing and communication courses. His research has appeared in College Composition and Communication, Computers & Composition, Convergence, Prompt, and Xchanges. Richter's research examines composition pedagogy, writing in digitally networked environments, rhetorical theory, and social media’s utility for learning and education.

Richter is the assistant communications editor for Xchanges and has served as Clemson University’s assistant director of First Year Composition. He is a graduate of the Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design Ph.D. program at Clemson University, where he defended his dissertation “Inventing Network Composition: Mobilizing Rhetorical Invention and Social Media for Digital Pedagogy.”

Kelly Ritter

School Chair & Professor | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Kelly Ritter’s scholarship focuses on archival histories of U.S. writing programs and pedagogies and cultural-historical conceptions of social class and literacy education. Her books are Before Shaughnessy: Basic Writing at Yale and Harvard, 1920–1960, Who Owns School? Authority, Students, and Online Discourse, To Know Her Own History: Writing at the Woman's College, 1943–1963, and Reframing the Subject: Postwar Instructional Film and Class-Conscious Literacies. She is also the author of numerous articles and chapters and editor or co-editor of four collections, including the forthcoming Beyond Fitting In: Rethinking First-Generation Writing and Literacy Education. She is past editor (2012–2017) of College English, a flagship journal of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Ritter previously was an LAS Alumni Distinguished Professorial Scholar, professor of English and writing studies, and interim head of the Department of Philosophy at the University of Illinois Urbana — Champaign. While at the University of Illinois Urbana — Champaign, she also served as associate dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences (2017–2021), Provost Fellow for Undergraduate Education (2016–2017), interim director of the Center for Writing Studies (2014–2015), and director of the Undergraduate Rhetoric Program (2013-2017). She was also a 2018–2019 Faculty Fellow in the Big Ten Academic Alliance Leadership Program. Before joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty in 2013, she served as faculty director of the first-year writing programs at the University of North Carolina Greensboro and Southern Connecticut State University.

Ritter received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois — Chicago, her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and her B.A. in English and Communication Studies from the University of Iowa.

Micheal Rumore

Marion L. Brittain Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Micheal A. Rumore received his Ph.D. in English from the Graduate Center at City University of New York (CUNY) in 2021. He has taught writing and literature courses at multiple CUNY campuses, including Baruch College, Lehman College, Queens College, and LaGuardia Community College. His research explores the intersections of Indian Ocean studies and African diaspora studies. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in History of the Present; Social Text Online; Studies in the Fantastic; and the edited collection Oil Fictions: World Literature and Our Contemporary Petrosphere.

Andrew Salyer

Visiting Lecturer | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Andrew Salyer is an artist, writer, educator, and curator. This fall, he will be a Visiting Lecturer in the Writing and Communication Program, where he will teach courses focusing on late modern and contemporary art. He previously was a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, teaching courses on photography, museums, and critical seeing, thinking, and making. He was honored to receive two CIOS awards for Student Recognition of Excellence in Teaching and several Thank-a-Teacher Awards.

As a visiting lecturer, he looks forward to developing additional opportunities for students to engage critically and creatively with the course material through place-based learning, hands-on approaches, and community partnerships.

As an artist, he works in various media including photography, text, performance, drawing, audio, video, sculpture, and installation. He has performed and exhibited his work nationally and internationally at venues including the New York Photo Festival, Chazen Museum of Art, Darling Foundry, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, University of Tennessee Downtown Gallery, and the New Media Caucus’ traveling video exhibition. He has curated exhibitions for the Gelsy Verna Project Space, Madison Jewish Artists’ Lab, and Big Car.

Salyer received an M.F.A. in Art and a Ph.D. in Art Theory and Practice from the University of Wisconsin — Madison. He is currently working on a book of scores for museums, a conceptual landscape photography series, and a museum tour app.

Milka Trajkova

Research Scientist II | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Milka Trajkova is a research scientist working in the Expressive Machinery Lab with Associate Professor Brian Magerko. Trajkova recently completed her Ph.D. in Informatics at Indiana University with a specialization in Human-Computer Interaction and a minor in Learning Science. Being a professional ballet dancer with the Macedonian Opera and Ballet and a human-centered AI researcher opened the window into a unique perspective on the intersection of movement and computing.

Trajkova’s research explores the way we can design non-invasive AI-based tools to optimize human movement performance towards the democratization of knowledge and learning.

Franziska Tsufim

Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Franziska Tsufim completed her master's degree at the University of Haifa in Israel and her Ph.D. at the University of California, Irvine. Her research and teaching interests include gender and sexuality studies, economics and literature, and life-writing studies. She teaches multimodal writing courses on topics as wide-ranging as medicine and healthcare, education, race and social justice, and autoethnographic writing. A passionate advocate for academic care workers, she has recently published in "Carework and Writing during COVID,” a special edition of The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics. She is co-authoring a piece on community parenting in academia.

Kevin Winstead

Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Kevin Winstead joins the School of Literature, Media, and Communication as a postdoctoral research fellow for the PREACH Lab of the DISCO Network.

Winstead earned his Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Maryland. He was part of the founding staff of the Center for Black Digital Research at Penn State University. His work focuses on social movement activists' networks and online space. His scholarship includes published articles on new media pedagogy, social movements, and religion.

Cameron Winter

Marion L. Brittain Teaching Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Cameron Lee Winter (he/him) received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia in 2022, studying the trope of ruins in the postbellum literature of the U.S. South. His award-winning work has appeared (or will appear) in The Faulkner Journal, the Mississippi Quarterly, and the South Atlantic Review and covers the works of Flannery O'Connor, George Washington Cable, and William Faulkner. His current projects include extending his dissertation into a monograph for immediate publication, while also pursuing a comparative analysis of William Faulkner's and LeAnne Howe's works.

Richmond Wong

Assistant Professor | School of Literature, Media, and Communication

Richmond Wong's research focuses on understanding the social values, ethical issues, and work involved in technology & media production and use. Specifically, he studies how technology professionals attend to and address ethical issues in their work. He also develops design-centered approaches to engage groups that create or are impacted by digital technology, to proactively discuss and consider ethical issues related to technology such as privacy or fairness. Richmond's work utilizes qualitative and design-based methods, drawing from science and technology studies, speculative and critical design, and human-computer interaction. He completed his Ph.D. at the UC Berkeley School of Information.

Not pictured:

  • Brianna Anderson, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
  • Matthew Breece, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
  • Spencer Chalifour, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
  • Randall Harrell, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
  • Jessica Rose, Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Literature, Media, and Communication
  • John Taylor, visiting lecturer, School of Literature, Media, and Communication

School of Modern Languages

Valeriya Chekalina

Lecturer | School of Modern Languages

Valeriya Chekalina received her Ph.D. in Philology at the Moscow State University in 2003, where she conducted research in the field of functional grammar under Maya Vsevolodova (1928–2020).

She then worked as a lecturer and senior lecturer of Russian as a Foreign Language at Moscow State University, teaching a range of courses in Russian to undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate foreign students, as well as delivering lectures to Russian students on the functional approach to grammar.

Her research interests lie in functional theories of grammar and methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language. She is an author and a co-author of more than 40 works, including a number of specialized textbooks, such as Russian for Lawyers, a blended course for heritage speakers at Bohum University in Germany, and a book on Ukrainian prepositions.

Chekalina is a certified Test of Russian as a Foreign Language (TORFL) examiner. She was author of tests and Deputy Director of the TORFL Testing Centre of the Faculty of Philology at Moscow State University.

Chekalina’s work experience also included teaching of Russian as a foreign language to employees of the embassies of foreign states in Russia and to the European Union mission in Moscow. After relocating with her family to Riga, Latvia, she worked as an instructor of Russian at a number of study centers, as the director of Russian language department of the Baltic Center for Educational and Academic Development, and as a teacher of Russian language and literature at Exupery International School, where she worked on developing and delivering a Russian language curriculum for K-12 learners in accordance with the International Baccalaureate guidelines.

In addition to Russian and English, Chekalina speaks fluent Latvian and delivered a presentation on comparison of the expression of spatial cognition in Russian and Latvian for the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages conference in 2020. She has been an invited speaker at international conferences in Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Belarus, China, including the X and XI International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature Congresses and the I, II, III, IV Congresses of Russian Language Researchers.

In her free time, Chekalina enjoys gardening and owns a vast collection of roses.

Caroline Machado

Visiting Lecturer | School of Modern Languages

Caroline Machado graduated from Georgia State University with a master's degrees in Applied Linguistics and Spanish. She has taught English as a second language for many years. At the college level, she developed Portuguese courses at Georgia State and Georgia Tech. Machado teaches Spanish at Georgia Tech. She is originally from Brazil but considers Atlanta her home.

Marina Yancey

Visiting Lecturer | School of Modern Languages

Marina Yancey began teaching Russian to American University students as a Fulbright language assistant in 2013. She worked at Brandeis University where she provided an authentic Russian cultural experience to her students by hosting various cultural events on campus. Her experience as a Fulbright scholar has laid a strong foundation for successful communication with a diverse population of cultural ambassadors from all over the world.

After completing her Fulbright scholarship, she returned to her alma mater in Tyumen, Russia, to continue her doctoral studies in linguistics, with a focus on English and Russian comparative literature. Marina earned a Ph.D. in Linguistics in 2017 from Tyumen State University. Her doctoral dissertation is focused on fictional essays of the 20th century written by K.G. Paustovskij and J.B. Priestley — some of the most prominent representatives of this literary genre. Furthermore, it delves into the world of emotions and how they are expressed through numerous stylistic devices.

Having completed her studies, Yancey accepted a two-year appointment in the Russian department at Wellesley College where she taught introductory and intermediate Russian. She was also involved in several creative projects including shooting a movie and organizing a Russian talent show. Her training in methodology of teaching foreign languages and cultures has contributed enormously in the ability to create a truly language-culture immersion environment for every student.

Yancey was offered a faculty position at Brandeis University where she continued to teach elementary and intermediate Russian courses in 2018 and 2019. Additionally, in August 2019 she became a faculty member of the Department of Eastern, Slavic, and German Studies at Boston College. She has also been an active participant of the annual New England Russian Pedagogy Roundtable and the ACTFL OPI workshop at Harvard University. For the last two years Yancey has been invited to serve as a committee member at the New England Olympiada of Spoken Russian where students present their monologues and recite poetry.

Yancey is excited to be part of the Georgia Tech community and help her students accomplish ambitious academic goals, pursue study abroad opportunities, and apply for prestigious fellowships, such as the Fulbright and Critical Language Scholarships.

Outside of work Marina enjoys spending time in nature with her husband and 2-year old son.

Not pictured:

  • Ren Tan, visiting assistant professor, School of Modern Languages

School of Public Policy

Sherri Conklin

Postdoctoral Fellow | School of Public Policy

Sherri Lynn Conklin is a second-year postdoctoral fellow conducting teaching and research in ethics and technology with the School of Public Policy. In addition to her current project, titled "A Set Theoretic Account of Second Order Moral Properties: A Study in Algorithmic Ethics", she is also an industry practitioner and the co-founder of a small tech startup called Avi.AI. As the co-director of the Demographics in Philosophy Project, she is currently working on two manuscripts using machine learning approaches to understanding and intervening in issues associated with the marginalization of individuals from historically underrepresented groups in philosophy.

Karim Farhat

Research Scientist II | School of Public Policy

Karim Farhat is a tech policy analyst with over seven years of experience designing research and delivering policy solutions in cybersecurity, the industrial internet of things, internet identifiers, and information operations. His thesis studied which of two policy problems, U.S.-China rivalry or IT/OT convergence, better explain degrees of coherence and integration in the U.S. cybersecurity regime.

Before joining the Internet Governance Project in the School of Public Policy as assistant director, Farhat worked as a consultant for The Cohen Group, a Washington, D.C.-based advisory firm led by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen.

Karim is based in Rockville, Maryland, and in his free time, enjoys playing his guitars.

Ilya Gokhman

LEAD Academic Professional | School of Public Policy

Ilya Gokhman is the faculty lead of Grand Challenges. His appointment is split between Georgia Tech’s Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) office and the School of Public Policy. His primary areas of research and teaching focus on collaboration (leading, teaming, and organizing), innovation and decision making, and the use of technology in collaborative processes. His current research projects include efforts to improve the collaboration of teams working in high pressure environments, including astronaut and medical teams.

Gokhman’s work has been featured in variety of outlets, including the Encyclopedia of Theory in Psychology, Acta Astronautica, Academy of Management, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, International Leadership Association, Association of Leadership Educators, NASA’s Investigators Workshop, and International Astronautical Congress.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Gokhman aspires to bridge the science and practice of collaboration by engaging in applied opportunities to enhance the development of individuals and organizations. Gokhman has led or consulted on various private sector, NPO/NGO, and educational initiatives throughout Africa, Europe, and the U.S. He also holds a certificate in leadership coaching from the Neuroleadership Institute (formerly Results Coaching Solutions) in London, UK, and has worked with over 50 clients in this capacity.

Gokhman holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Media, Technology, & Society, an M.S. from Georgia Tech in Organizational Psychology, an MBA from a joint program between University of Iowa and CIMBA in Italy, a master's in accountancy from University of Georgia, and bachelor's degrees in economics and accounting from University of Georgia.

Adina Martinez

Research Associate II | Center for Advanced Communications Policy, School of Public Policy

Adina Martinez is a social scientist with an extensive background in project management and human factors research. She spent ten years at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) as a project leader across a wide range of projects and sponsors. She has worked with small and large teams at the local, state, and federal level, as well as with industry through various awards and partnerships, including the National Institutes of Health, the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, the Georgia Department of Agriculture, the Georgia Emergency Management Agency. From software implementation to usability research to emergency preparedness training, Adina leverages her passion for people and effective communication to ensure customer success.

Since joining Center for Advanced Communications Policy last year, she is part of the RADx-Tech effort’s human factors and usability group within ACME POCT’s RADx Technology Validation Core (RADx TVC). This group provides human factors evaluations and design recommendations to funded RADx-Tech projects. Martinez is also focused on accessibility research and evaluations of technologies, including accessibility evaluations of point-of-care technologies, online resources, and in-person devices or machines. She is passionate about people and working on interdisciplinary teams to execute projects and programs of varying direction, size, and scope.

Martinez earned her B.S. in International Affairs from Georgia Tech and her M.A. in Public Administration from Georgia State. She is fluent in Spanish and recently spent two years living in Tokyo, Japan.

Leigh May

Professor of the Practice | School of Public Policy

Judge Leigh Martin May joins the School of Public Policy as a Distinguished Professor of the Practice. She will be teaching Constitutional Law in the Fall of 2022. May currently serves as a U.S. District Court judge in the Northern District of Georgia. She is a 1993 graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology with a B.S. in Business Management. She graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1998. She has served as a district judge since 2014. Prior to that, she was a lawyer in private practice in Atlanta.

You Na Lee

Lecturer | School of Public Policy

You-Na Lee studies the organization of science and innovation, and science, technology, and innovation policy. She received her Ph.D. from the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy.

Amanda Peagler

Research Scientist II | Center for Advanced Communications Policy, School of Public Policy

Amanda Peagler has assisted and led a variety of research programs related to healthcare and accessibility. She has been a significant contributor to Georgia Tech’s HomeLab program since 2013. She has contributed to in-home studies tasked to evaluate if technologies contribute to successful aging. The reputation of HomeLab has provided her the opportunity to deliver usability reports to industry sponsors such as Fiskars, Cox Communications, Ricoh, and Smartmatic.

In addition to the private sector, she has performed usability and accessibility evaluations through route of public health partners including Emory University, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Marcom Autism Center, National Institute of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control, impacting the Atlanta area and beyond. She has also contributed to a wide variety of journal articles, conference proceedings, and technical reports.

Currently, as part of the RADx-Tech effort, she is a task lead for the human factors and usability group within ACME POCT’s RADx Technology Validation Core (RADx TVC). This group provides human factors evaluations and design recommendations to funded RADx-Tech projects.

Brenna Phelps

Research Scientist I | Center for Advanced Communications Policy, School of Public Policy

Brenna Phelps is a Research Scientist I at the Center for Advanced Communications Policy (CACP). After starting out as a student employee in 2020, Brenna transitioned to her current position following the completion of her B.S. in Psychology at Kennesaw State University in 2021. Throughout her time at Georgia Tech, she has worked closely on a joint venture with Emory University’s Cognitive Empowerment Program (CEP). As part of the Georgia Tech Home Technology team, Brenna has provided key support in furthering the CEP’s goal of empowering older adults who have been diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) through the exploration and implementation of home sensing technologies to drive interventions that assist individuals in achieving everyday tasks at home while reducing burden on their care partners.

Michael Polak

Professor of the Practice | School of Public Policy

Mike Polak was elected to five terms to the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia State Senate. His political career began in the House of Representatives in 1993 for DeKalb County. In 1998, he was elected to the Senate. He is currently the founder and President of Inovar Health. Polak has also been a lecturer at the Georgia Tech School of Public Policy since 2013.

As a Senator, Polak chaired the Science and Technology Committee and the Appropriations Committee for Science and Technology. His most notable legislative achievement was authoring and passing Georgia’s Hope Scholarship. Polak was the recipient of nineteen Legislator awards and has a bridge named in his honor in Atlanta by the State of Georgia. At Tech, he served on the advisory boards for GTRI, the College of Engineering, the Economic Development Institute and as Vice Chairman for Georgia Tech Savannah.

He has a bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and a master’s degree from Georgia State. He is the recipient of the Georgia Tech Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the School of Engineering.

Rebecca Sheiner

Research Scientist I | School of Public Policy

Rebecca Sheiner is a research scientist at the Center for Advanced Communications Policy. With a background in industrial design, her research centers on human factors and design impacting an accessible user experience. She earned her B.S in Industrial Design from Georgia Tech in 2021. Currently, she works as part of the RADx effort to evaluate the usability of at-home Covid-19 tests for all users, including people with disabilities, older adults, children, and the general population. Rebecca also contributes to several in-home studies of older adults with mild cognitive impairment, seeking to understand medication adherence, healthy sleep habits and safety at home.

Travis Whetsell

Assistant Professor | School of Public Policy

Travis Whetsell earned his Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management from the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University. Whetsell’s research interests include social networks in the public sector, science and technology policy, and philosophy of science.

Not pictured:

  • Andrew Buskell, visiting assistant professor, School of Public Policy
  • Sana Malik, research scientist I, Center for Advanced Communications Policy, School of Public Policy

Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC)

Capt. Jesus Rodriguez, USN

Commanding Officer and ROTC Professor of the Practice | Navy ROTC

Capt. Rodriguez, a native of El Paso, Texas, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1995 with a B.S. in Computer Science. He earned his aviator wings in 1997 and completed fleet replacement training at Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Three in San Diego before being assigned to Helicopter Combat Support Squadron Five in Yigo, Guam.

His first sea tour flying the CH-46 included deployments on the USNS Niagara Falls as Division Officer and USNS Flint where he served as detachment Assistant Officer-in-Charge.

In 2001, he reported as Flag Aide to Commander U.S. Naval Forces Marianas/U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) Regional Coordinator and PACOM representative for Guam, Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau.

After completing MH-60S Knighthawk training in 2004, Rodriguez reported to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 28 and helped transition the squadron from CH-46 Flight Operations to MH-60S Flight Operations.

In 2006, Rodriguez reported to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 22 and deployed aboard USS Kearsarge as Officer-in-Charge of the squadron's first detachment. He continued to serve as Operations and Maintenance Officer before transferring to the United States Naval War College in 2009. In 2013, he took command of Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26 and in 2014 he reported to thje Fifth Fleet as the Expeditionary Helo Boss. From 2014 to 2016, he served as Directorate Coordinator for Combined Joint Operations from the Sea, a NATO Center of Excellence. In June 2016, he served as the executive officer for Pre-Commissioning Unit Portland and took command of the USS Portland in September 2018. In December of 2019, he was the Chief Of Staff for Expeditionary Strike Group Three before taking command of Amphibious Squadron Five in June 2020.

Rodriguez received a Master’s Degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College. His awards include the Legion of Merit Medal, the Navy Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, and the Navy Achievement Medal.

Capt. John Wallner

Associate Professor of the Practice, Air Force ROTC

Capt. John Wallner leads and directs future Air and Space Force officer cadets in the areas of Aerospace Studies, Leadership Laboratory, Physical Training, and Field Training. Additionally, he instructs fundamentals of effective leadership and application prior to cadets earning a commission.

Wallner was born in Marietta, Georgia. In August 2011, Wallner graduated from Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. He attended Officer Training School in May 2013. Upon completion, he entered the munitions and missile maintenance career field. He has been stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana; Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana; and Ramstein Air Base, Germany. Prior to his current assignment, Wallner was Director of Operations, 86th Munitions Squadron, Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

Not pictured:

  • Kaitlin Morgan, assistant professor of the practice, Air Force ROTC

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