Loyola Marymount University NEW FACULTY 2018-19 https://academics.lmu.edu/ofd/ Photo: LMU Campus New Faculty 2018-19: Biosketches To The Loyola Marymount Community: I am pleased to introduce our new faculty colleagues for 2018-2019. Our 28 new tenure-line faculty and 27 visiting and clinical faculty bring a breadth of expertise and life experience, further extending the intellectualism and creativity of our highly- esteemed and world-class faculty community. Reflecting back to your first year as faculty and staff members, you may recall the excitement of meeting new people, the thrill of navigating a new campus and culture, and the optimism for accomplishing the goals you set for yourselves. Our new colleagues will experience similar sentiments. Let’s embrace them by inviting them into our offices, welcoming their ideas, hearing their voices, and lending a helping hand. This way, we not only embolden our faculty, we enliven the LMU Community as we encourage learning, educate the whole person, and lead lives in the service of faith and the promotion of justice. I look forward to working with all of you. May your 2018-2019 year be filled with new friendships, fresh ideas, and exciting opportunities for growth and renewal. Sincerely, Thomas Poon, Ph.D. Executive Vice President and Provost Loyola Marymount University NEW FACULTY 2018-19 TAHEREH AGHDASIFAR ASHLEIGH CAMPI Visiting Assistant Professor Visiting Assistant Professor Women and Gender Studies Political Science Professor Aghdasifar received her B.A. Ashleigh M. Campi is a Visiting in Middle Eastern Studies and M.A. in Assistant Professor of Political Science Women's, Gender, and Sexuality at Loyola Marymount University, Studies from Georgia State University. where her research and teaching focus She earned her Ph.D. in Cultural on right and left social movements in Studies with a certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies the United States, gender, and authority. Her current book project from Emory University. Her research interests include queer of color theorizes American neoliberalism as a political project based in critique, everyday life, affect, and opacity. She is currently working on anti-democratic relations of rule, and offers an historical account of the a book manuscript entitled Queering the Quotidian: Everyday role of conservative media and movement organizations in forming Homosociality in Iranian Bra Shops, and conducting research for a these relations. She traces how these actors cultivate submission new project exploring how queer of color performances that refuse internally to conservative political culture, and how they advance rule audience legibility facilitate modes of relationality outside of identity politics. She is currently the director of the Society for Radical through policing externally—for instance, through extending crime Geography, Spatial Theory, and Everyday Life. control logics into schools. Her article, “The Unstable Alliance for School Choice: Social Movements and American Neoliberalism” recently appeared in Polity. GRAHAM BEATTIE Assistant Professor Economics LAUREN R. CASELLA Clinical Assistant Professor Educational Leadership Professor Graham Beattie earned a B.A. in Economics from McGill University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Professor Lauren Casella holds a B.A. Economics from the University of in Liberal Studies from LMU, an M.A. Toronto. He joins LMU from the in Leadership and Supervision from University of Pittsburgh, where he was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Loyola University Chicago, and an Department of Economics. His research spans the fields of Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and environmental economics, public economics, and applied Teacher Education in Multicultural Societies from the University of microeconomics. His ongoing work investigates the causes and Southern California. Dr. Casella served Catholic elementary schools consequences of media coverage and public opinion about within the Chicago Archdiocese for ten years as a teacher, environmental issues. He is also interested in applications of text-as- administrator, and principal. She also taught courses on curriculum data methodologies to a wide range of fields of economics. and instructional leadership at LMU and served as a consultant with the LMU Family of Schools, providing ongoing support of local Catholic schools focus on the integration of social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculums, and seeking to foster positive climate and STACEY CABAJ culture. Her teaching and research interests include leadership theory Assistant Professor and applications related to the Catholic school principalship, mission- driven leadership, teacher education, and innovative instructional Theatre Arts and Dance practices in support of exceptional Catholic education. Professor Stacey Cabaj is an award- winning actress, performance pedagogy specialist, and voice coach. She holds DAVID CLAWSON an M.F.A. in Theatre Pedagogy from Assistant Professor Virginia Commonwealth University Screenwriting and a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, as well as teaching certifications in the Meisner Approach to Professor David Clawson holds B.A.’s Acting, Vibrant Voice Technique®, and Vocal Yoga®. Before joining in English/Writing and Dramatic the faculty at LMU, she was an Assistant Professor at Louisiana State Theory from the University of Arizona University and headed the M.F.A. program in Performance Pedagogy and an M.F.A. in Screenwriting from at the University of Pittsburgh. Professor Cabaj balances her ongoing the University of Southern California. creative work as an actress and voice coach with her research on He also taught at USC for eight years before joining LMU full- emerging techniques in performance pedagogy. time. As a screenwriter, he has written for studios and independent production companies, in Hollywood and internationally. In 2017, his first novel, My Fairy Godmother Is A Drag Queen, was published by Sky Pony Press, and in 2018, he was named one of Variety’s 10 Top Teachers in Entertainment Education. Loyola Marymount University NEW FACULTY 2018-19 KRISTEN COVINO MAHSA EBRAHIM Assistant Professor Assistant Professor Biology Mechanical Engineering Professor Kristen Covino earned her Dr. Mahsa Ebrahim received her B.S. B.S. degree in Biology from Canisius and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering College in Buffalo, NY and her M.S. from K.N.Toosi University of in Biology/Zoology from the Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in University of Maine, Orono. Professor Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University. Dr. Ebrahim Covino received her Ph.D. from the University of Southern performs experimental, numerical research in Thermo-Fluid field and her work has centered on spray cooling, droplet impingement, multi- Mississippi where she investigated physiological breeding phase flows, interfacial flows and phase interactions. She has development in migrating songbirds. Her research encompasses many collaborated with the University of Leeds in developing lattice scales of inquiry, ranging from avian physiology to continental-scale Boltzmann model for small scale droplet impingement simulation. She migratory movements, and seeks to understand the movement biology has been able to develop analytical models as well as correlations for and whole life-cycle biology of migratory birds. Professor Covino’s droplet impingement based on her comprehensive experimental and pedagogical interests include integrating active and team-learning numerical data and physical comprehension. Her latest publication in activities into traditional lectures, incorporating science the Journal of Physics of Fluids was identified as a newsworthy article communication into her courses, and mentoring undergraduate for the journal highlights. researchers. Professor Covino teaches a summer Field Ornithology course at the Shoals Marine Laboratory (Cornell University) on Appledore Island, Maine, where she also co-manages the Appledore Island Bird Banding Station. She recently received the Early JONGYEON (JOY) EE Professional Award from the American Ornithological Society, for Assistant Professor which she serves as an Elective Member on their Early Professional Specialized Programs in Committee. Professor Covino’s research has been published in Urban Education numerous journals including Hormones and Behavior, General and Comparative Endocrinology, AUK: Ornithological Advances, and The Professor Jongyeon (Joy) Ee received Journal of Ornithology. her Ph.D. in Education from University of California, Los Angeles. She was a Postdoctoral Research VANESSA DIAZ Associate at the UCLA Civil Rights Project. She has authored several Assistant Professor research reports and book chapters on school segregation, racial inequality, and school discipline in K-12 schools. Her recent work also Chicano/a & Latino/a focuses on education for language-minority students and immigrant Studies students. She has published her work on dual immersion education and bilingualism in multiple research articles. She was awarded the Professor Vanessa Diaz received her Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Association for B.A. in Latin American Studies & Bilingual Education. She earned an M.A. degree in the Teaching of Political Science from New York English as a Second Language at the University of Illinois at Urbana- University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Champaign and received a B.A. in English from South Korea. Anthropology from the University of Michigan. In the past three years, she has