New Faculty Directory

Welcome new 2025 Faculty!

LEAH GAINES
Assistant Professor
Humanities Program Area

JEANNIE HEADLEY
Assistant Teaching Professor
Humanities Program Area

JOSHINA JOHNSON
Assistant Teaching Professor
Nursing Program Area

FIGEN SUCHANEK
Assistant Teaching Professor
Computational, Natural, and Applied Sciences Program Area

JACQUELINE TIERNEY
Assistant Teaching Professor
Nursing Program Area

DOV ZAZKIS
Assistant Teaching Professor
Computational, Natural, and Applied Sciences Program Area

LEAH BATSTONE
Assistant Professor
Cali School of Music

DEREK CRESCENTI
Assistant Professor
Department of Theatre and Dance

SETH HOWARD
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Art and Design

BENTON GREENE
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Theatre and Dance

MICAH KILLION
Assistant Teaching Professor
Cali School of Music

KAITLIN SANTORO
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Art and Design

CAROLINE WOOLARD
Assistant Professor
Department of Art and Design

MITRA BRITTON
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

FAN-YIN CHENG
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

JOHN HARRICHAND
Associate Professor
Department of Counseling

JULIUS TORRES KELLINGHUSEN
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Public Health

THERESA BROWN
Professor
Department of Educational Foundations

CHELSEA GRANT
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Teaching and Learning

SUSANNE HARNETT
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Educational Foundations

JINXIA HE
Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Leadership

PRIYA VOLETI
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Teaching and Learning

ELI BOSNICK
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Animation, Film and Television

BRYAN DeNOVELLIS
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Journalism and Sports Media

JULIA KOTS
Assistant Professor
Department of Animation, Film and Television

KEVIN LERNER
Professor
Department of Journalism and Sports Media

JASON MANDEL
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Strategic Communication

VICTOR MORALES
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Animation, Film and Television

JASON ABBOTT
Professor
Department of Political Science and Law

GISELLE BALFOUR
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy

MELODY BENEDICT
Assistant Professor
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy

ELIZABETH CHAN
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology

STEPHANIE DIEHL
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Writing Studies

ANA DiGIOVANNI
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology

JENNIFER FLEEGER
Professor
Department of English

TAMARA JEAN-JACQUES
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Psychology

DENISE MARQUES
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Psychology

MARK ROSE
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Psychology

ADAM NATOLI
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology

LAUREN SCHAIBLE
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Psychology

STEPHEN TILLOTSON
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Justice Studies

IOANNIS AGADAKOS
Assistant Professor
School of Computing

MABEL AKINYEMI
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Biology

AISHWARYA SANTOSH DESHPANDE
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology

DEBAPRIYA HAZRA
Assistant Professor
School of Computing

PRINCE WAQAS KHAN
Assistant Teaching Professor
School of Computing

JENNIFER WOODRING
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

JUNYI YE
Assistant Professor
School of Computing

HONGBO ZHOU
Assistant Teaching Professor
School of Computing

YANHUI ZHU
Assistant Professor
School of Computing

ELIZABETH BENFANTI
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Information Management and Business Analytics

GLENN HERDLING
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Information Management and Business Analytics

KYUNGMYUNG JANG
Assistant Professor
Department of Information Management and Business Analytics

CHENG LU
Assistant Professor
Department of Accounting and Finance

BRUCE MADIARAGA
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Economics

MARYAM NEZHADIAN
Assistant Professor
Department of Marketing

SHASHI SHEKHAR RAPAKA
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Marketing

CORY SIMPKINS
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Economics

LAUREN SULLIVAN
Assistant Professor

BRIDGET JIVANELLI
Head for Collections Strategies

Resource Faculty from each College or School are assigned to the New Faculty and provide informal guidance and support. The Resource Faculty also help facilitate the weekly orientation sessions.

LAURA LAKUSTA
Co-Director, New Faculty Program
Professor
Psychology Department
lakustal@montclair.edu
973-655-7951
Office Location: Dickson Hall 247

LAURA LAKUSTA is a Professor in the Department of Psychology. After completing an NIH funded postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, Professor Lakusta joined the Montclair State University faculty in 2008. She teaches a wide range of courses, including Developmental Psychology both at the undergraduate and graduate level, Child Psychology, and Introduction to Statistical Methods in Psychology. Professor Lakusta is the recipient of a grant from the National Science Foundation that has supported her research exploring how infants conceptualize events and how such preverbal representations may support early language acquisition. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications including recent publications in the journals Infancy, Language Learning and Development and Cognitive Science.

CHRISTINE GIANCATARINO
Co-Director, New Faculty Program
Associate Teaching Professor
Department of Writing Studies
giancatarinc@montclair.edu
Office Location: Schmitt Hall, 205Q

CHRISTINE GIANCATARINO is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Writing Studies where she has taught composition courses in the First Year Writing Program since 2012. Her pedagogical interests explore the way embodied inquiry and somatic awareness serve as a platform for writing and meaning-making. She is a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner (a form of somatic education), and has presented somatic workshops at the LMDA “Crossing Borders” conference and the KCACTF Festival, and presented as a panelist on writing pedagogy at the CCCC North, New Jersey Writing Alliance, and NJCEA regional conferences. In addition to her work as a theater practitioner, she taught English in southern Japan with the JET Program, and has worked at non-profits in NYC, including the Institute of International Education (IIE). She has an MFA in Theater (Dramaturgy) from Columbia University.

RESOURCE FACULTY

LIVIA ALEXANDER
Associate Professor
Art and Design Department
alexanderli@montclair.edu
973-655-4167
Office Location: Life Hall 0434

LIVIA ALEXANDER is a curator, writer, and Associate Professor of Global Visual Cultures at Montclair State University. Her work focuses on global perspectives on modern and contemporary visual art; cinema, expanded media, and aesthetics; creative placemaking and cultural economy; and modern and contemporary art, cinema and expanded media of South West Asia and North Africa. She has curated and directed numerous art and film programs, exhibitions and events at renown venues world-wide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London, the Brooklyn Museum, and many more. Most recently, Alexander served as Chief Curator of the Film Criticism Forum, an international platform set up by the Saudi Film Commission for an expended experience of film and a forum for critical exchange in the region and beyond.

Her award-winning scholarly writing has appeared in the Journal of Visual Anthropology, Framework, MERIP, and as book chapters and catalog essays. She has contributed to Hyeprallergic, Harpers Bazaar Art Arabia, ArtsEverywhere, and Art Africa. Alexander is co-producer of the research-based interactive documentary, “Jerusalem, We Are Here” (Canada/Palestine/Israel, 2016), directed by Dorit Naaman. Her work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Doris Duke Foundation, American Association of University Women, among others.

Alexander served as an advisor to a variety of art organizations and galleries, including Future City, Tirana Open, Residency Unlimited, Sapar Contemporary, Al Riwaq Art Space, New Rochelle BID, Asian Contemporary Art Week, and the Art & Patronage Summit. She is the co-founder of ArteEast, a non-profit organization established in 2003 to support and promote artists from the Middle East, North Africa and its diasporas, which she directed until 2013. Dr. Alexander holds a Ph.D. from New York University in Cinema and Middle East Studies.

RAM DUBEY
Associate Professor
Economics Department
dubeyr@montclair.edu
973-655-2126
Office Location: The Feliciano School of Business 538

RAM SEWAK DUBEY is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics. He received his PhD degree in economics from Cornell University and has been a faculty member at MSU since Fall, 2012. His teaching interests include undergraduate core and elective economics courses as well as core courses in the MBA program. He is an active researcher in the field of social choice and welfare with broad interest in the theoretical and empirical analysis of inequality in society. He has published in several esteemed research journals in economics. He has been a part of the New Faculty Program as a mentor for several years and is eagerly looking forward to meeting the new faculty members in the Fall semester.

TAMMY CASTRO
Professor
Computational, Natural, and Applied Sciences (CNAS)
castrot@montclair.edu
973-655-2917
Office Location: College Hall 111 – Bloomfield Campus

TAMMY CASTRO is a Professor of Biology at Bloomfield College of Montclair State University, where she has taught undergraduate biology courses to majors and non-majors since 2004. She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Pathology and Immunology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, with research expertise in cancer metastasis. She has successfully mentored over 30 undergraduate students in independent research projects spanning genomics, synthetic biology, and cancer biology, with her mentees advancing to graduate programs and securing positions at leading research organizations. As Principal Investigator on an NSF grant, Dr. Castro leads innovative interventions to improve academic performance of freshman biology majors through evidence-based support programs. Her teaching portfolio encompasses genetics, molecular and cellular biology, immunology, and microbiology, with particular focus on making complex biological concepts accessible to diverse audiences. As a McNair Scholar Faculty Liaison and former Interim Dean, she champions educational equity for underrepresented students. Dr. Castro is fluent in both English and Spanish.

HENK ESHUIS
Associate Professor
Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
eshuish@montclair.edu
973-655-7099
Office Location: Richardson Hall 225J

HENK ESHUIS is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He received his PhD degree in chemistry from Bristol University, UK. After a postdoctoral position at the University of California, Irvine, he joined the faculty at MSU in the Fall of 2012. His regular teaching ranges from General Chemistry at the freshman level to Physical Chemistry at the junior level. At the graduate level, he teaches a course in Computational Chemistry. He is deeply involved in curriculum development within the department. His research is the development of quantum chemical methods and their application to relevant chemical problems, such as the elucidation of the reaction mechanism of transition metal-catalyzed reactions and asphaltene aggregation. He works with undergraduate students in his research group and values his role as a research mentor. His work is published in peer-reviewed journals.

GAI GRANNON
Associate Teaching Professor
School of Communication and Media
grannong@montclair.edu
973-655-3687
Office Location: School of Communication and Media

GAI GRANNON is an Associate Teaching Professor in the School of Communication and Media.
She teaches in the Fundamentals of Speech program, instructing several sections of
Fundamentals of Speech each semester. She is also one of the Consultants for the Montclair
State Public Speaking Resource Center. She started at MSU as an Adjunct Professor, teaching both regular length and accelerated versions of the Fundamentals of Speech course. She was promoted to full time in 2015, where her teaching and mentoring roles were expanded. She has also taught a public speaking course at Ramapo College, and several acting courses at the University of Michigan.

In April 2024, Professor Grannon was the speech coach for the MSU public relations team that competed in the Bateman Case Study competition. They achieved 2nd place nationally. She has privately coached several corporate executive clients, one the keynote speaker at a national strategic summit for the Direct Marketing Association. Most recently she worked with a partner at Price Waterhouse Cooper. Prior to coming to MSU, Professor Grannon directed many high school musicals, working with students solo and in groups on many aspects of delivery and performance. She currently also works as a voice over artist, and is well versed in utilizing a variety of vocal and physical delivery techniques, and teaching them to those she coaches.

PRIYA LALVANI
Professor
Teaching and Learning Department
lalvanip@montclair.edu
973-655-5372
Office Location: University Hall 3163

PRIYA LALVANI is a Full Professor in the department of Teaching and Learning. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from The Graduate Center, CUNY and has been at MSU since Fall, 2010. She teaches courses in Disability Studies and is the coordinator for the graduate program in Inclusive Education. Her research is focused on examining disability as a sociopolitical construct. Through it, she seeks to disrupt ableism in society and to problematize the segregation of many students with disabilities in schools. She is the co-author of the book: Undoing Ableism: Teaching About Disability in K-12 Classrooms and the editor of: Constructing the (M)other: Narratives of Disability, Motherhood, and the Politics of Normal. She is excited to be a part of the New Faculty Program.

ALFREDO TORO CARNEVALI
Associate Teaching Professor
Political Science and Law Department
torocarnevaa@montclair.edu
Office Location: Dickson Hall 207

ALFREDO TORO CARNEVALI is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Political Science and Law. He teaches a wide range of courses, including International Security and Diplomacy, International Relations, American Foreign Policy, Government and Politics of Latin America, and Politics of Terrorism, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels. In addition, he coordinates the Graduate Program in Law and Governance, the Minor in Global Security and Diplomacy, and the Model United Nations Pre-College Summer program. Prior to academia, he worked for many years as a diplomat at the United Nations, where he negotiated key treaties like the Arms Trade Treaty (2014) and the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty (2017). He was elected vice-president of the General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security. Toro Carnevali holds a B.A. in Government from Georgetown University and a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Administration from the London School of Economics.

GAIL YOSH
Associate Teaching Professor
Information Management and Business Analytics Department
yoshg@montclair.edu
Office Location: Feliciano School of Business 461

GAIL YOSH is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Information Management and Business Analytics at Montclair State University, where she teaches business communications, serves as course coordinator for the undergraduate business communications course, and advises the Feliciano Women in Business student organization. Through her consulting company, Quanta Communications, Gail helps small businesses articulate and communicate their purpose through effective internal and external communications and supports individuals in elevating their professional presence through enhanced interpersonal communication techniques.

Gail brings more than 25 years of experience in marketing and corporate communications, having worked with FORTUNE 500 companies, including Cendant Corporation and Express Scripts (formerly Medco). Her research examines psychological ownership theory in consumer behavior and the impact of generative AI on business communications pedagogy. She holds a B.S. in Marketing and an MBA in International Business from Montclair State University, as well as a Doctor of Professional Studies in Marketing from Pace University. Outside of her academic and consulting work, Gail applies the discipline and focus she has cultivated as a third-degree black belt in Taekwondo, which she has studied for over twenty years.

TINA ZOTTOLI
Associate Professor
Psychology Department
zottolit@montcair.edu
Office Location: Dickson Hall

TINA ZOTTOLI is a NYS licensed clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Montclair State University. Dr. Zottoli join the faculty at Montclair State University in 2015. Prior to joining MSU, she was an assistant professor at St. Joseph’s University, NY. Dr. Zottoli teaches a range of courses, including Criminal Forensic Assessment, Psychological Science and the Law, Research Methods and Psychometrics at the graduate level and taught Forensic Psychology in the undergraduate for several semesters. Her scholarship centers on decision making in legal contexts, with particular emphasis on the legal capacities of adolescent defendants and the dynamics of guilty plea decision making in both youth and adults. Dr. Zottoli maintains a small clinical practice in New York, providing consultation, forensic evaluation, and expert testimony across a range of criminal and civil contexts, and co-chairs the academic working group at the Plea Bargaining Institute.