UAlbany Introduces 60 New Faculty Members

UAlbany Provost Carol Kim stands at lecturn to introduce the University's new faculty
University at Albany Division of Academic Affairs hosted a New Faculty Welcome Reception & Pecha Kucha at the Performing Arts Center on October 27, 2025. (photo by Patrick Dodson)

By Amy Geduldig  

ALBANY, N.Y. (Oct. 29, 2025) — The University at Albany welcomed 60 new faculty this fall, many of whom participated in the University’s annual Pecha Kucha held on Oct. 27 at the Performing Arts Center. The one-minute, one-slide presentations allow these new professors to share their work with the campus community.  

“The depth and range of expertise of our new faculty underscores the University's commitment to excellence and collaboration,” said Carol Kim, UAlbany’s provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “UAlbany is at the forefront of addressing some of society’s most pressing challenges in areas such as artificial intelligence, public health, public policy and educational equity, while also advancing work in fields like game design and business innovation. Together, we are cultivating a culture that bridges disciplines, equipping students and future professionals to thrive and support a rapidly changing world.”  

The new faculty are joining 27 different departments across eight schools and colleges.  

Below is a list of UAlbany’s newest faculty members:  

College of Arts and Sciences  

Tenure Track Faculty

  • Chanhee Choi, Art and Art History — Choi is a South Korean-born artist and educator whose work spans experimental animation, XR, video games and bio-sensor-driven interactive installations, interweaving craft traditions with emerging technologies to explore feminist ritual, embodied memory and diasporic identity. Their work has been exhibited internationally and featured in WIRED, GeekWire, NPR and The Seattle Times.  
  • Jihun Han, Mathematics and Statistics — Formerly a postdoctoral researcher at Dartmouth College, Han’s research interests focus on scientific machine learning and scientific computing.  
  • Aya Osman, Biological Sciences — Osman completed her PhD in Neuropharmacology in 2018 at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom then moved to New York City on the Seaver Foundation fellowship for her postdoctoral training at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she was awarded the prestigious Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Award. Her independent research laboratory at UAlbany Biological Sciences Department focuses on regulation of the opioid system and gut-brain signaling in neuropsychiatric disorders including autism and addiction.  
  • Thomas Wilson, Music and Theatre — Wilson presented on the additive rhythmic developments in Classic NES Tetris at the North American Conference on Video Games. As a composer, Wilson enjoys collaborating with independent game developers, regional theater and local performers outside of the concert hall.  

Full-Time Lecturers

  • Susan Ericsson, Communication — Ericsson holds a PhD from Northwestern University, an MA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a BS from Cornell University and works in the area of communication and media. She has been a producer and director of documentaries at the Media Education Foundation and created such works as Tough Guise, Killing Us Softly 3, Behind the Screens and Constructing Public Opinion.  
  • Ashley Gimbal, Communication  
  • Xinyu Li, Geography, Planning and Sustainability  
  • Jennifer Vanderminden, Sociology

Visiting Assistant Professors

  • Evan Anderson, Music and Theatre — Anderson has over 15 years of experience as a lighting designer for theater and dance. His work has been seen across the United States, Europe and Asia and he has toured extensively, recently receiving a Connecticut Critics Circle Award for his lighting design of Jekyll and Hyde at Hartford Stage.  
  • Rebekah (Beck) Clark, Music and Theatre
  • Ricardo Estremera, Languages, Literatures & Cultures  
  • Victoria Gellatly, Biological Sciences
  • Hui Guo, Mathematics and Statistics
  • Lester Hadsell, Economics
  • Jill Konopka, Communication — Konopka has spent more than two decades working as an investigative reporter and television news anchor across the country and transitioned to public relations and public affairs in 2022. She is currently a senior counselor at Mower, a fully integrated marketing and communications firm. She joined UAlbany as a journalism adjunct in the Fall 2023 before being elevated to Visiting Assistant Professor in Fall 2025.  
  • Tianxia (Sherry) Liu, Geography, Planning and Sustainability  
  • Nadia Marin-Guadarrama, Africana, Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies
  • Michael Schantz, Music and Theatre — Schantz is an American stage and screen actor. He earned his MFA in Acting from NYU's Graduate Acting Program at Tisch School of the Arts and has worked at America's most distinguished theaters, on television and in film.  
  • Mikhail Skovoronskikh, East Asian Studies
  • William Travers, Languages, Literatures & Cultures  
  • Nathan Von Drasek, Psychology
  • Crista Leigh Wunsch, Communication  

College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity  

Tenure Track Faculty

  • Nour Alhussien, Cybersecurity — Alhussein has a PhD in computer and cyber sciences from Augusta University. Alhussein’s research focuses on adversarial machine learning, network intrusion detection systems and secure AI and addresses critical challenges such as defending against adversarial attacks and mitigating social media misinformation through AI-driven methods.  
  • Nour Hossain, Information Science — Hossain joins CEHC as an assistant professor of AI and Gaming and leads the Kernel of Nexus AI-Driven Innovation Center, focused on the intersections of technology, gaming, education and health science. Previously an assistant professor at Indiana University Kokomo, he advanced research in VR, AI/ML, game design and software engineering, secured competitive grants and mentored a diverse range of students.  
  • Sheikh Rabiul Islam, Cybersecurity — Islam joins UAlbany from Rutgers University-Camden, where his research focused on fair and explainable artificial intelligence, with applications in cybersecurity, health informatics and social good. Prior to that, he was an assistant professor at the University of Hartford, where he received the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Junior Faculty Award for his excellence in research, teaching and service.  
  • Dakota Murray, Information Science — Prior to joining UAlbany, Murray was a research assistant professor at the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University studying the network structure of scientific controversies. Murray obtained a doctorate from Indiana University Bloomington and has worked as a professional scientometric data scientist.  

Visiting Assistant Professors

  • Edward Danso Ansong, Cybersecurity — Ansong is a cybersecurity expert with 17 years of experience teaching, skilled in the design of Secured Data Centers, Network Security, Application Security and other security Infrastructure. Ansong worked as consultant for the World Bank as an Application Specialist on their GDAP Project, served as an IT Innovation Specialist for a USAID Funded ResilientAfrica Network.  
  • Tim Fake, Cybersecurity  
  • Sarah Lauser, Information Science and Technology — Lauser's interdisciplinary background spans physics, information science and data analytics, with a focus on games as tools for civic engagement and social change.  Her current research explores government communication and civil service, serious games, inclusive design and the use of gamification to promote public participation  
  • Frank Peris, Information Science and Technology  

College of Integrated Health Sciences  

Tenure Track Faculty

  • Ohbet Cheon, Health Policy, Management and Behavior — Before joining UAlbany, Cheon served as an assistant professor in the School of Business at Clarkson University. With a strong background in public policy and healthcare management, her work focuses on how healthcare organizations adopt innovations in response to policy changes and performance feedback.  
  • August Klein, Health Policy, Management and Behavior — Klein was previously a research associate professor at Hunter College, where he directed the Transgender Research Initiatives at the Hunter Alliance for Research and Translation and served as director of community engagement for the Einstein, Rockefeller, CUNY Center for AIDS Research, leading nationally funded implementation science studies to advance health equity for LGBTQ+ communities through trauma-informed care and gender-affirming healthcare research.  
  • Caroline Sharkey, Social Work  

Full-Time Lecturers

  • Kevin Pommenville, Nursing  

Visiting Assistant Professors

  • Rosemary Patterson, Social Work  

College of Nanotechnology, Science, and Engineering  

Tenure Track Faculty

  • Arun Chandrasekaran, Nanoscale Science and Engineering — Chandrasekaran received his PhD from New York University, working with Nadrian Seeman for his doctoral thesis before heading to UAlbany as a postdoctoral associate with Ken Halvorsen. His research focusses on biomolecular nanotechnology, with an emphasis on the design and functionalization of DNA nanostructures for drug delivery, data storage and biomolecular analysis. Chandrasekaran also serves as the Assistant Director of the NIH T32 RNA Training Program at UAlbany and is an editorial board member of the journal iScience at Cell Press.  
  • Lu Li, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering — Li earned a PhD in civil and environmental engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and completed postdoctoral training in mechanical engineering at Syracuse University. Li's multidisciplinary research focuses on smart cities, digital twins, air quality and human health exposure, and was recognized with the Rising Stars Women in Engineering Workshop Award by the Asian Deans' Forum.  

Visiting Assistant Professors

  • Anuradha Mandal, Computer Science  

Massry School of Business  

Tenure Track Faculty

  • Yansi Keim, Information Security and Digital Forensics — Keim researches gamification and workforce development and teaches cyber defense, incident response and penetration testing. Previously Keim led the Vulnerability Management Program at Allison Transmission as a cyber defense analyst and developed a gamified Capture the Flag competition while earning a PhD at Purdue University.  
  • Vinicius (Vinny) Lima, Information Security and Digital Forensics — Lima has nearly 10 years of experience in law enforcement in Brazil. Lima received a PhD in computer and information technology at Purdue University, specializing in the use of AI for policing and digital forensic investigations.  
  • Sarah Vizer, Accounting and Law — Vizer, now an assistant professor, previously served as a visiting assistant professor. She earned a PhD in accounting from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and previously worked as an audit manager with a Big 4 public accounting firm.  

Full-Time Lecturers

  • Nimrod Dvir, Information Systems and Business Analytics  

Visiting Assistant Professors

  • Zhaoque (Chosen) Zhou, Finance  

Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy  

Tenure Track Faculty

  • Katherine Rader, Political Science — Rader was an assistant professor in political science at Christopher Newport University and completed a PhD in political science at the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. Rader worked for Sen.r Ron Wyden and the Senate Finance Committee as part of the APSA Congressional Fellowship Program. Prior to starting her doctoral program at Penn, she worked in health policy and nonprofit governance in Washington, D.C. for five years. Rader earned a B.A. in politics & government from the University of Puget Sound.  

Visiting Assistant Professors

  • Stephen Hogan, Criminal Justice  

School of Education  

Tenure Track Faculty

  • Diane Codding, Educational Theory and Practice — Codding is a critical qualitative researcher with expertise in culturally responsive computer science education, inclusive STEM teaching, critical teacher professional development and white antiracist affinity groups. Prior to joining the University, Codding spent four years as a high school English teacher, earning a PhD from the University of Delaware with a specialization sociocultural and community-based approaches in education, and was a postdoctoral scholar at Northwestern University.  
  • Lindsay Griendling, Educational and Counseling Psychology — Griendling is an assistant professor jointly appointed to the Divisions of Special Education and Educational Psychology & Methodology. Prior to joining UAlbany's faculty, Griendling was an assistant professor in the Department of Child Development, Literacy, & Special Education at Appalachian State University.  
  • Hannah Kistler, Education Policy and Leadership — Kistler most recently served as a postdoctoral research associate at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, where she collaborated with the Rhode Island Department of Education and several school districts on research to inform education policy and practice. She uses rigorous quantitative methods to study how education policies affect teacher supply and student outcomes, drawing on her prior experiences as a middle school math teacher and as a research analyst at SRI Education.  
  • Benjamin Lowell, Educational Theory and Practice — A former high school science teacher, Lowell received a PhD in curriculum and instruction from Boston College in 2022. Prior to joining UAlbany, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Boston College and a clinical assistant professor of science education at New York University.  
  • Sarah Luria, Educational and Counseling Psychology — After serving as a teacher of human rights and mathematics in North Carolina's public schools, Luria completed graduate programs at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a PhD at the University of Connecticut. Their research explores the relationships between classroom creativity and equitable thinking, considering the ways that the politics of respectability influence school disciplinary practices and the consequences for students' future participation in democratic activities.  
  • Tal Waltzer, Educational and Counseling Psychology — Waltzer received a PhD in developmental psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2022 and worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the psychology department at the University of California, San Diego until 2025. Waltzer's research focuses on everyday moral decision-making and how it develops in youth.  

Visiting Assistant Professors

  • Hsin-Hua (Cathy) Lee, Educational and Counseling Psychology  

Writing and Critical Inquiry  

Full-Time Lecturers

  • Isabelle Cavazos, Writing and Critical Inquiry — Originally from Central Florida, Cavazos has taught ESL, academic writing and first-year experience courses across the country with a background in learning center administration. Most recently, she served as a Learning and Development Facilitator at the University of South Florida, where she earned the UDecide Instructor of the Year Award. She holds a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  
  • Riya Chakraborty, Writing and Critical Inquiry — Chakraborty is a social science researcher and educator with a PhD in curriculum and instruction with a concentration in language and literacies in education and a minor in research, evaluation and methodology from the University of Florida. An experienced teacher educator with international teaching experiences in India, United States and Colombia, she will work with first-year students in writing and critical inquiry.  

EOP Full-Time Lecturer

  • Emily Forcier, Full time lecturer

University Libraries

Tenure Track Faculty

  • Seti Keshmiripour, Associate Librarian, Director of Academic Success

The University also hired several leadership positions this year, who also received faculty appointments this fall.  

Paquita Davis-Friday joined the University this February as dean of the Massry School of Business. A faculty member at Baruch College’s Zicklin School of Business since 2006, her academic leadership experience includes serving as senior associate dean and as the executive director of graduate programs. She also served as interim dean of the Zicklin School of Business. Prior to that, Davis-Friday was on the faculty of the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame.  

Balakrishnan “Prabha” Prabhakaran joined UAlbany as the first permanent director of the AI Plus Institute. An expert in human computer interaction, Prabhakaran previously spent 25 years on the computer science faculty at The University of Texas at Dallas, where he also served as associate vice president for research centers and institutes and director of the Multimedia Systems Laboratory.  

Jason Corace, an award-winning game designer and educator, has joined the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity serving as the first director of UAlbany’s Game Center. Corace will oversee a new undergraduate major in Game Design and Development and a graduate program in Strategic Game Design and Applied Development. The new programs, launched this semester, build on CEHC’s existing game design and development minor and undergraduate concentration.  

John McCluskey is the Senior Executive Director of the School of Criminal Justice. His research is centered on two broad areas. The first involves body-worn cameras (BWCs) and their influence on policing and the criminal legal system. The second is a long-standing collaboration with Byongook Moon that examines teacher maltreatment and victimization. Supported by the National Institute of Justice for nearly a decade, this work has used longitudinal survey data to explore the correlates and consequences of teacher victimization.