2018 Morning Panelists
Presenter Bios – Morning Sessions
Exploring Your Institutional Fit Panel
Christine Atkins, Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, Corning Community College
Christine E. Atkins is a Professor of English at Corning Community College (SUNY) where she serves as Coordinator of the College’s Center for Diversity and Inclusion and the One Book, One College Program. Her recent publications and conference papers include “Educating Hulga: Assault and Redemption in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Good Country People’,” and “‘She’s Not Racist, She’s Just Old’: Racism and Identity in the Literature Classroom.” She has worked with community college students in both urban (Queensborough Community College) and rural (Corning CC) settings, and is eager to share her experience at the Future Professors Institute.
Cynthia Henderson, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, Ithaca College
Cynthia Henderson is an associate professor in Ithaca College’s Department of Theatre Arts. A professional actor since 1985 in the U.S., Europe and Africa Cynthia has performed on stage as well as in film and television. She is the founder of Performing Arts for Social Change. Her work in the area of social justice has earned her the CSPA of New York State’s award for “Outstanding Contribution to Social Justice.” She was also cited at the 2008 NYS Women’s Expo as one the “20 Outstanding Women You Should Know” in Central NY. Her directing credits for Ithaca College include: Plumfield Iraq, The Exonerated, Burn This, The Colored Museum, Triad by EJ Gold, and other explorations. She has also directed for the professional arm of the Roy Park School of Communications, Park Productions. Cynthia is a proud member of Actors’ Equity and a Fulbright Scholar.
Daniel Romero, Assistant Professor of Information, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Complex Systems, University of Michigan
Daniel M. Romero is an Assistant Professor of Information, Complex Systems, and Computer Science at the University of Michigan. He received his Ph.D at Cornell University Center for Applied Mathematics (CAM), where he was advised by Jon Kleinberg. Before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan, he was a postdoc at Northwestern University Institute on Complex Systems (NICO) working with Brian Uzzi. His main research interest is the empirical and theoretical analysis of Social and Information Networks. He is particularly interested in understanding the mechanisms involved in network evolution, information diffusion, and interactions among people on the Web and in complex organizations.
Justin Rose, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Hobart & William Smith Colleges
Justin Rose is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Africana Studies Program at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. His current book project, The Drum Major Instinct: Martin Luther King, Jr’s Theory of Political Service (under contract with the University of Georgia Press), explores how King transformed the Christian notion of service into a politically salient concept. More generally, his work exams the intersection between race and urban politics. Dr. Rose received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, his M.A. from Baylor University and his B.A. from Rutgers University.
Chelsea Specht, Professor, School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Biology Section, Cornell University
Chelsea Specht’s lab focuses on studies in plant form and function. The group uses traditional morphological and developmental techniques combined with molecular genetics, comparative genomics and evolutionary biology to study the natural diversity of plants and to help better understand the forces creating and sustaining this diversity. Their research incorporates elements of systematics, developmental genetics and molecular evolution to study the patterns and processes associated with plant speciation and diversification. They take advantage of living and preserved collections to advance their research in plant systematics, biogeography, and developmental evolution.
Understanding What the Search Committee is Looking For – Humanities and Social Sciences Concurrent Session
Belisa González, Associate Professor and Director, Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity, Ithaca College
Belisa González is an associate professor of Sociology and the Director of the Center for the Study of Culture Race and Ethnicity at Ithaca College. Her early work explored the inter and intra group dynamics between communities of color in Georgia. Specifically, she investigated the strategies of coalition building among African American and Latinas living and organizing in Atlanta. More recently she is interested in how middle-class Mexican and Dominican immigrants understand their experiences with discrimination in Atlanta and how those understandings are situated with the literature on Latinx and discrimination in the U.S. In addition to her research and teaching, she also co-created and conducts a series of workshops on inequality in higher education: inclusiveness and excellence in the hiring process, microaggressions in the classroom and how to have difficult dialogues in the workplace.
Poppy L. McLeod, Professor and Chair, Communications, Cornell University
Professor McLeod is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University. She earned her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Social Psychology from Harvard University, and her B.S. in Psychology from Syracuse University. Prior to joining the Communication faculty at Cornell, Professor McLeod taught in the Business Schools of Case Western Reserve University, University of Iowa and University of Michigan.
Understanding What the Search Committee is Looking For – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Concurrent Session
Christopher Alabi, Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Cornell University
Christopher Alabi began his research career as an undergraduate student under the direction of Professor David Schuster at New York University. Upon receiving his B.S. in Chemistry from New York University and B.E. in Chemical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, he went on to pursue a graduate degree in Chemistry at California Institute of Technology with Professor Mark Davis. There, he carried out a two-part dissertation on proton conductive membranes and targeted nanoparticle delivery. He then moved to MIT in 2009 and served as NIH Postdoctoral Fellow with Professor Langer and Anderson. Chris joined the Cornell faculty in the summer of 2013 as an Assistant Professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His research focuses on surface characterization of drug loaded nanoparticles and enhancing intracellular RNA transport and delivery.
Mariana Wolfner, Professor, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University
Mariana Federica Wolfner is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, and a Stephen H. Weiss fellow. Her research focuses on understanding, at the molecular/gene level, the important reproductive processes that occur around the time when a sperm fertilizes an egg. Using the Drosophila model, the Wolfner laboratory studies the molecular signals that “activate” an oocyte to begin embryo development and also studies how seminal proteins modulate the reproductive physiology and behavior of female insects. Mariana’s primary teaching areas are in Development & Evolution, and in Advanced Genetics. Mariana has a B.A. in Biology and Chemistry from Cornell, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford, and did postdoctoral work at UC San Diego. She is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has received awards and recognition for her research, teaching, and advising. She serves on several Editorial and Biology-organizations’ Boards, and on various grants panels.
Alan Zehnder, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University
Alan Taylor Zehnder received his doctorate in mechanical engineering with a minor in materials science from the California Institute of Technology. He stayed on as a postdoctoral research fellow for one year, and joined the Cornell faculty in 1988. In 1993 he was the faculty member in residence in Hamburg, Germany, for the Cornell Engineering Abroad program. He was a visiting Professor at Caltech in the 1996-97 academic year. In summer of 1998 he served as a Senior Faculty Fellow at the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Carderock, Maryland. In 2004 he was a Guest Professor at the Vienna University of Technology. He also served as Associate Dean for Diversity and Faculty Development in the College of Engineering. Zehnder is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Society for Experiment Mechanics.