T. Michael Anderson
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
T. Michael Anderson received his B.S. in Zoology from Oregon State University and his Ph.D. in Biology from Syracuse University. He served as a Post-doctoral Research Associate at Syracuse University and the National Wetland Research Center in Lafayette, Louisiana before becoming a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands. His research has focused on the ecology of African savannas and the effects of ungulate herbivores on grassland plant communities, primarily in the Serengeti ecosystem of East Africa. He has been the recipient of a Barry Goldwater scholarship and has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the British Ecological Society, and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research.
Emily A. Austin
Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
Emily Austin received her B.A. in Philosophy and History from Hendrix College and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis. Her areas of specialization are ancient philosophy and moral psychology, and her dissertation was entitled Fear and Death in Plato. She has instructed courses at both Washington University in St. Louis and Webster University.
Florin Beschea-Fache
Visiting Instructor in French
Department of Romance Languages
Florin Beschea-Fache received his M.S. in Education from the University of Southern Indiana and a M.A. in French Literature from Indiana University, where he also is currently completing his Ph.D. He has extensive experience teaching French at all levels. He is fluent in several languages including Romanian, French, and English. He has participated in leadership activities, including the Modern Language Association, and has received a number of honors.
Kossivi (Jean-Paul) Bessou
Assistant Librarian
Z. Smith Reynolds Library
Kossivi Bessou received his B.S. in Telecommunications, Multimedia and Applied Computing from California State University Monterey Bay and his Master’s in Library and Information Science degree with a specialization in Web Design and Technology at San Jose State University. He has worked as an Information Technology Assistant at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Library at San Jose State University and as a Systems Support Technician at the Naval Post-graduate School in Monterey, California.
Lisa M. Blee
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Lisa Blee received her B.A. in history from Lewis and Clark College and her Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation was entitled Framing Chief Leschi: Narratives and the Politics of Historical Justice in the South Puget Sound, and many of her publications have focused on Native American history. She has taught at both Seattle University and the University of Minnesota.
Catherine Borck
Visiting Lecturer
Department of Political Science
Catherine Borck received her B.A. from Oglethorpe University (Summa cum laude), and her M.A. from the University of Notre Dame where she also is completing her Ph.D. Her dissertation is titled “Becoming Friends in Speech and Deed: Socratic Friendship in the Platonic Dialogues.” She has served on a number of conference panels and has research experience.
Thomas G. Canace
Assistant Professor of Accounting
Schools of Business
Thomas G. Canace received his B.S. in Accounting from St. Joseph’s University (Summa Cum Laude), his M.B.A.(Finance) from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and his Ph.D. in Business Administration (Accounting and Finance) from the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business. His dissertation is titled The Value of Innovation: Evidence from the Asset Decapitalization-Redeployment Cycle. Thomas has taught at St. Joseph’s University, the University of South Carolina, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He previously worked as an auditor at Coopers & Lybrand, and held financial leadership positions at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Lucent Technologies, Inc., and its divestiture company, Agere Systems, Inc. In 2007, he was named a AAA/Deloitte/J. Michael Cook Doctoral Fellow. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Arran Caza
Assistant Professor
Schools of Business
Arran Caza received his B.S.Sc. in Economics and Political Science from the Université d’Ottawa, his M.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan, and his dual Ph.D. in Management & Organization and Psychology from the University of Michigan. Prior to coming to Wake Forest, Arran spent two years as an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where he chaired the university-wide Leadership Studies Initiative on behalf of the Illinois Leadership Center. He has taught organizational behavior, change management, negotiations and research methods. Before his academic studies, Arran worked in the management consulting, health promotion, and law enforcement industries. At home, Arran’s time is spent with his wife, two sons, pet dog, and the search for his next sport.
Sherri Lawson Clark
Teacher-Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow
American Ethnic Studies Program/Women’s and Gender Studies Program
Sherri Clark received her B.S. with Honors from Pennsylvania State University, her M.A. in applied anthropology from American University, and her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from American University. Her dissertation is titled, “Policies, Perceptions, and Place: An Ethnography of the Complexities of Implementing a Federal Housing Program.” Sherri has extensive research experience in ethnographic study and grant writing, and her publications include “Where the Poor Live: How Federal Housing Policy Shapes Residential Communities” (2002), “Separate and Unequal: Housing Policy in Action on the Periphery of Our Nation’s Capital” (2006), and policy reports. Additionally she has presented her work at several conferences and speaking engagements.
Jeremy Cooper
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
Jeremy Cooper earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis. He also holds a B.S. in chemistry from Calvin College and a B.C.S. in science from Redeemer University College. After completing his Ph.D., Jeremy was a post-doctoral fellow at Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis, IN and worked as a medicinal chemist for six years at Transtech Pharma. He has published or co-published more than ten articles in peer reviewed journals and has two US patent applications under review.
Jessica Dandona
Visiting Instructor
Department of Art
Jessica Dandona received her B.A. with Honors in Art History and French Studies from Brown University, Magna cum laude, and is currently pursuring a Ph.D. in History of Art at the University of California at Berkeley. Jessica has vast teaching and research experience, and received a number of awards and fellowships. Her most recent conference presentation was entitled “Emile Galle’s Le Rhin: The Franco-Prussian War and French Theories of Nationhood,” at the Annual Meeting of the Nineteenth-Century Studies Association in Miami.
Richard DePolt
Visiting Lecturer
Department of Economics
Richard DePolt received his B.A. with distinction in Economics from the University of Connecticut, and a M.A. from University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he also is currently completing his Ph.D. He has various teaching and research experience and his primary fields of study include economics of education, labor economics, and public economics.
Neil DeVotta
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Neil DeVotta earned his B.A. and M.A. from Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He received the 2000-01 University of Texas Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award in social science, education, and business. His areas of research interest include comparative politics, international relations, and American political processes and institutions. Neil has published several works on the study of Asia, including Blowback: Linguistic Nationalism, Institutional Decay, and Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka, “Sinhalese Buddhist Nationalist Ideology: Implications for Politics and Conflict Resolution in Sri Lanka” (2007), and co-edited Understanding Contemporary India with Sumit Ganguly (2003). He is fluent in Sinhala and has working knowledge in Tamil. His teaching interests include ethnicity and nationalism, government and politics in South Asia, and comparative foreign policy.
Sandra Dickson
Professor
Department of Communication
Sandra Dickson received her B.S. Ed. From Mississippi College, M.A. from The University of West Florida, and her Ph.D from Florida State University. Her teaching expertise is in documentary film and media ethics. During her recent tenure at The University of Florida, Dickson co-designed and developed the curriculum for the graduate program in Documentary Production, which Independent magazine named of one the “top ten academic documentary programs” in the country. She has served as writer, producer or co-producer and co-director for eight television documentaries—five aired nationally on PBS, two regionally on PBS stations, and one is currently being screened in the United States and Europe.
Julia Faisst
Visiting Assistant Professor
Department of English
Julia Faisst received her B.A. (equiv.) from Free University in Berlin, Germany, and her A.M. and Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. Her dissertation was entitled “A Capturing Character: Photography at the Origins of Literary Modernism in the United States.” Her teaching and research fields include nineteenth and twentieth century American literature and culture, African American, ethnic, and interracial literature and literature and the visual arts. Julia has received a number of fellowships and awards and her most recent publication, “Degrees of Exposure: Fredrick Douglass, Daguerreotypes, and Representations of Freedom” is forthcoming.
Claudia Francom
Visiting Instructor
Department of Romance Languages
Claudia Francom received her B.A. in Linguistics from Universidad de Sonora, and her M.A. in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Arizona, where she is also pursuing a Ph.D. in Spanish. Her areas of teaching interests include language socialization, discourse analysis, and Latino immigration in the United States and she has taught several courses at the University of Arizona. Her most recent publication, “La imagen de la frontera en la epoca de la Revolucion Mexicana: el caso de ambos Nogales” is forthcoming.
Jerid Francom
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Department of Romance Languages
Jerid Francom received his B.A. in Latin American History, M.A. in Hispanic Linguistics, and Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Arizona. He also received a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) from Cambridge University. His research interests include syntax, psycholinguistics, language variation and change, corpus linguistics and the development of linguistic tools and resources. His dissertation is entitled “Experimental Syntax: exploring the effect of repeated exposure to anomalous syntactic structure — evidence from rating and reading tasks.”
Amanda Griffith
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
Amanda Griffith graduated magna cum laude from Colgate University and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University. Her graduate studies at Cornell University were funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Her dissertation is titled “Essays in Higher Education Economics.” Her primary teaching and research fields are economics of education, labor economics, and public economics. Other areas of interest include applied econometrics, natural resource and environmental economics. In 2007, Griffith co-wrote “The influence of the US News and World Report rankings on the matriculation decision of high-ability students: 1995-2004” with Kevin N. Rask, Economics of Education Review 26(2). She also has another publication, “Can’t Get There From Here: The Decision to Apply to a Selective Institution” with Donna S. Rothstein, of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Rajsekhar Guddneppanavar
Teacher-Scholar Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Chemistry
Rajsekhar Guddneppanavar earned his Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from I.I.T.-Bombay, India. He has five years of postdoctoral research experience in the field of cancer research, first at Wake Forest University where he worked with Dr. Ulrich Bierbach, and then at Baylor University, where he worked with Dr. Kevin Pinney. Rajsekhar’s scholarship focuses on medicinal chemistry, specifically in the area of anti-cancer research. He also has an ongoing project that investigates the synthesis of novel drugs toward the treatment of schizophrenia and has published or co-published nine articles in peer-reviewed journals.
