Grad Faculty Profiles

Hannah Aird

Earth and Environmental Sciences
Assistant Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Mineral deposits 
• Igneous processes
• Geoscience education

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Aligning Multiple Choice Assessment with Active Instruction
• Formation of Copper Ore Deposits in Northern California

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course sharing/collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives 

Zahrasasdat Alavi

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Assistant Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Image Processing
• Machine Learning
• Control System

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives (e.g. Research Competition

Sarah Brown Blake

School of Nursing
Assistant Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Health Equity
• Anti-racist pedagogy

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Climate justice in nursing education, DEI in nursing practice

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course sharing/collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students

Kevin Buffardi

Computer Science
Associate Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Software Engineering
• Educational Research

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Grant, NSF Broadening Participation in Computing: Embedding Representation, Relevance, and Equity in a Personalized System of Instruction
• “Cognitive Reflection in Software Verification and Testing” https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE-SEET58685.2023.00006e

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course sharing/collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives

Keiko Goto

Department of Nutrition and Food Science
Professor and Graduate Coordinator

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Food and culture
• International nutrition
• Mindful eating
• Food behaviors

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Mindful eating among American and Italian students
• Factors associated with perceived and actual health/nutrition among women in Fiji

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course sharing/collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students

Garrett Liles

College of Agriculture
Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems 
Professor and Graduate Coordinator

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Soil - Carbon - management - science communications Soil Health - Carbon Cycle - Forestry - Sustainability - Education

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course sharing/collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives (e.g. Research Competition)

Matthew Looper

Art and Art History Department
Professor and Graduate Coordinator

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Mesoamerican art history

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Maya Hieroglyphic Database Project (www.mayadatabase.org)

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students

Amy Magnus

Political Science and Criminal Justice Department
Assistant Professor

Civic Engagement
Faculty Fellow and Rural Partnerships Liaison

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Rural justice
• Social inequality
• Access to justice
• Scholar activism

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Rural vulnerability, inequality, social services, and activism
• Chico State students' experiences with the criminal justice system and its impact on their education at Chico State

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course Sharing/Collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives (e.g. Research Competition)

Jennifer Malkowski

Communications Arts and Sciences Department
Associate Professor | Graduate Studies Faculty Fellow | Faculty, University Honors Program

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Public health
• Medical professionalism
• Risk communication
• Pharmaceutical advertisements

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Edited book collection focused on Covid and Social Justice
• Ongoing health communication collaboration with Enloe Medical Center

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course sharing/collaborations

Shane Mayor

Earth and Environmental Sciences Department
Assistant Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Atmospheric Science
• Micrometeorology
• Turbulence
• Lidar

Recent Publications/Projects:

• The Role of Ambient Turbulence in Canopy Waves Generation by Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course Sharing/Collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives (e.g. Research Competition)

Kathleen Meehan

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Nanoparticle synthesis
• Optoelectronic device design
• Optical characterization
• Engineering pedagogy

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Agrivoltaics
• Metal oxide nanoparticle synthesis and characterization
• Hands-on engineering pedagogy

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course Sharing/Collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives (e.g. Research Competition)

Asa Simon Mittman

Art and Art History Department
Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Medieval Art History
• Maps
• Monsters

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Monstrosity, Disability, and Posthumanism
• Medieval Antisemitic Mapping
• The History of Racism

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course Sharing/Collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives (e.g. Research Competition)

Susan Roll

Office of Graduate Studies
Graduate Studies Associate Dean and Graduate Coordinator for IDST

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Housing/homelessness
• Poverty
• Community-based Participatory Research

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Housing Research Group
• Interdisciplinary teaching
• Rapid-ReHousing Statewide Evaluation

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course Sharing/Collaborations

Sam Siewert

Computer Science
Associate Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Sensor Fusion
• Physics Informed AI
• High-Performance Computing

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Sensor Networks and Information Fusion: Siewert, Sam B., et al.
• "Acoustic, Seismic, and Visual Camera Sensor Fusion Experiments for Large Animal Detection and Tracking with Scalability." AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum. 2023. Siewert, Sam, et al.
• "Comparison of Common Instrument Stack Architectures for Small UAS and CubeSats." 2021 IEEE Aerospace Conference (50100). IEEE, 2021. Physics-Informed AI: Alshehri, Feras, and Sam B. Siewert.
• "Improving State Observation and Model Prediction by Comparing Sensor Fusion with Machine Learning for Mission Critical Systems." AIAA SCITECH 2024 Forum. 2024. High-Performance Computing: Siewert, Sam B.
• "Improving Student Outcomes with Final Parallel Program Mastery Approach for Numerical Methods." 2021 ASEE Pacific Southwest Conference-" Pushing Past Pandemic Pedagogy: Learning from Disruption". 2021.

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course sharing/collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives

Matt Thomas

Political Science and Criminal Justice Department
Faculty

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Urban Politics
• Criminal Justice Policy

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Efficacy of Home Visits in Community Supervision
• Book on the Reconstruction of New Orleans
• Outcomes of Peer Mentoring for Undergraduates

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course Sharing/Collaborations
• Mentoring/Consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives (e.g. Research Competition)

Kun Tian

Computer Science
Associate Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Peer review
• Token Economy
• Computer Science
• Teaching Effectiveness
• Modeling and Assessment

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Ying He, Kun Tian, Mingxia Qin, Xiaoling Liu, Hao Wang, Yukun Wu, An Empirical Study on Roles and Their Information Correlations for Interdisciplinary Peer Reviewer, Journal of Scholarly Publishing, (Open Access @ https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/jsp-2023-0011), July 3, 2023.

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course sharing/collaborations
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives

Richard Tillquist

Computer Science
Assistant Professor

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Machine learning
• Graphy theory
• Data Science

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Metric dimension and its applications
• Source identification and network spread

Interested In:

• Course sharing/collaborations
• Mentoring/consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives

Jessica Toombs

College of Agriculture
Faculty

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Teacher Self-Efficacy
• Teacher Development
• Mentoring
• Product Labeling
• Organizational Behavior
• Leadership
• Behavioral Finance

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Teacher Work-Life Balance, Agricultural Education Teacher Certification Pathway
• Authentic Leadership and Malevolent Creativity

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course Sharing/Collaborations
• Mentoring/Consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives (e.g. Research Competition)

Charley Turner

Political Science and Criminal Justice Department
MPA Graduate Coordinator

Specific Areas of Interest:

• American Political Institutions
• Teaching and Learning

Recent Publications/Projects:

• American Government textbook
• Research methods survey
• Affordable textbook analysis

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course Sharing/Collaborations
• Mentoring/Consulting with Grad Students

Jennifer Wilking

Political Science and Criminal Justice Department
Chair

Specific Areas of Interest:

• Housing
• Homelessness
• Comparative Politics

Recent Publications/Projects:

• Community-based Participatory research
• Political Behavior
• Survey research

Interested In:

• Serving on Grad Student Committees
• Course Sharing/Collaborations
• Mentoring/Consulting with Grad Students
• Working with the Office of Grad Studies on programs and initiatives (e.g. Research Competition)