2024 Women's History Month Faculty Spotlight
Shannon L. Harris
Associate Professor, Supply Chain Management and Analytics, School of Business
Dr. Harris earned a Ph.D. in Business Analytics and Operations from the University of Pittsburgh in 2016. Her research interests include mathematical and empirical modeling focusing on healthcare applications. She analyzes the attendance behavior of patients to outpatient clinics, and how that behavior affects scheduling practices. She also has projects researching racial bias in scheduling. Dr. Harris teaches business analytics in the School of Business. She has worked as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting and as a cost analyst at Technomics, Inc. She currently serves as the INFORMS Minority Issues Forum President, and is an active member of the Ph.D. Project. More about Dr. Harris >>
Tawnya Pettiford-Wates
Professor, Theater, School of the Arts
Tawnya Pettiford-Wates, Ph.D. is a Professor of Graduate Pedagogy in Acting and Directing. The focus of her work is Theatre for Social Justice and Applied Theatre Practice. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Conciliation Project, a social justice theatre company whose mission is "To promote through active and challenging dramatic work open and honest dialogue about race, racism and systems of oppression in America, in order to heal its damaging legacy." In an effort to de-center Eurocentric models of actor training, Dr. T created a new methodology, Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum (RPD) that focuses holistically on the artist mind, body and spirit. The pedagogy works to facilitate the discovery of the authentic voice and the artist as a creator rather than an imitator. It is featured in the premiere text "Black Acting methods; critical approaches", Routledge Press 2016. She has taught in Ghana, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. She continues to work professionally as an actor, director, writer.
Andra Șerban
Associate Professor, Management and Entrepreneurship, School of Business
Dr. Șerban's primary research interest is leadership in organizations, specifically areas such as leadership emergence, leader-member exchange, transformational leadership, and collectivistic leadership. She is also interested in team performance, creativity and innovation, and business ethics. In the latter field, she recently started projects focused on the glass ceiling effect. Her work has been published in The Leadership Quarterly, Organizational Research Methods, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Business and Psychology. Currently, she serves on the editorial board of The Leadership Quarterly. At VCU Business,she teaches an undergraduate level leadership course and a doctoral level organizational behavior seminar. More about Dr. Șerban >>
Andrene J. Castro
Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership, School of Education
Andrene J. Castro is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and faculty scholar at the Institute for Inclusion, Inquiry, and Innovation at Virginia Commonwealth University. She earned her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in Educational Policy and Planning with a concentration in race and gender policy and is a former teacher, school district leader, and policy fellow at the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Castro's research broadly explores the cultural politics of race in education policy, focusing on two areas of inquiry: 1) the intersection of policies and leadership practices impacting teacher recruitment and retention with a focus on teachers of color; and 2) school reform policies impacting neighborhood-communities. More about Dr. Castro >>
Faika Zanjani
Associate Dean of Research and Professor, Gerontology, College of Health Professions
Dr. Faika Zanjani joined VCU's Center of Inclusion, Inquiry, and Innovation (iCubed): Health Wellness and Lifespan Core, seven years ago, while also leading the iCubed Commonwealth Scholars Program, mentoring students in health disparity research. Now a Professor in the Gerontology Department and Associate Dean at the College of Health Professions, a Gerontological Society of America fellow, and also the Director for the Virginia Center on Aging Alzheimer's & Related Diseases Research Award Fund. Dr. Zanjani’s research spans gerontology, emphasizing brain and mental health, lifestyle behavior change, and community interventions. Outside academia, she prioritizes raising her two middle-school children, fostering their exploration of the world. More about Dr. Zanjani >>
Jessica Trisko Darden
Associate Professor, Political Science, College of Humanities and Sciences
Dr. Trisko Darden studies women’s roles as violent political actors. Starting from a firm belief in women’s agency during armed conflict, she asks how women contribute to violence perpetrated by non-state actors, such as militias and terrorist groups, as well as violence by national militaries. Her ranges from the Second World War to the ongoing war in Ukraine. At VCU, she teaches Women in Global Politics and directs the (In)Security Lab. She served as a gender expert for the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism and is the author of Women as War Criminals (Stanford UP) and Insurgent Women (Georgetown UP). More about (In)Security Lab >>
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Maria E. Teves
Assistant Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, School of Medicine
Research conducted in Dr. Teves' laboratory delves into the intricate mechanisms governing critical processes in embryonic development, fertility, and signaling pathways associated with aging and fibrosis. Her work brings together the reproductive science and medicine communities across the institution through collaborative research, funding, and teaching efforts. Within her laboratory, students actively participate in an inclusive and diverse environment, engaging in hands-on research and learning about responsible conduct of research and scientific debates. Dr. Teves' research empowers students to publish their findings in peer-reviewed journals, pursue fellowships, and facilitates networking opportunities with scientists from national and international institutions. More about Dr. Teves >>
Jane Chung
Associate Professor, Family and Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing
Dr. Chung’s research centers on implementing smart and connected health technology for real-time monitoring, risk detection, and interventions to support independent living in community-dwelling older adults. Her research also focuses on reducing digital health inequity in socially vulnerable populations. She has current NIH funding, including R01 and R21. She has been selected as a fellow of the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship for Nurse Leaders and Innovators. She is committed to nurturing the next generation of nurse scientists and leaders. Additionally, she serves on editorial boards of four journals, national professional committees, NIH study sections, and University and School committees. More about Dr. Chung >>
Dina T. Garcia
Assistant Professor, Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Population Health
Dina T. García, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.Ed. is an assistant professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the VCU School of Population Health. Her research program examines the social and structural drivers of oral health inequities with the goal of developing community grounded interventions targeted at different causal pathways. Her emerging scholarship of teaching and learning examines how health sciences students are trained in health equity and racial justice. Dra. García serves as the faculty advisor for the VCU student chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), is an appointed member of the Committee on Diversity and Inclusion for the American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research, and serves as a deputy editor for the international Teaching and Learning in Medicine journal.
M. Alex Wagaman
Associate Professor, School of Social Work
Dr. Wagaman's research focuses on participatory research and service approaches that promote engagement and resilience among youth and young adults who belong to populations that face marginalization and discrimination, including LGBTQ+ youth and youth experiencing homelessness. She is co-founder of Advocates for Richmond Youth, a participatory action research team that has worked over the last decade to develop knowledge to inform policies, practices and programs that are intended to move us toward ending youth homelessness. Currently, she works with a team delivering and evaluating a shared housing program model for LGBTQ+ youth, pregnant/parenting youth, and those at the intersection. Dr. Wagaman teaches and mentors at the undergraduate, masters and PhD levels, with an emphasis in her teaching on macro level social work. More about Dr. Wagaman >>
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Bettina Peacemaker
Head of Academic Outreach and Associate Professor, VCU Libraries
Bettina Peacemaker manages research services to upper level undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty for Monroe Park programs. She is also responsible for outreach to the Graduate School, ensuring that graduate students have the library support they need for research and learning success. Her scholarship explores the full range of the library liaison experience with a focus on management and organizational structures, public relations, creative and innovative outreach, scholarly communications, and services assessment. She is currently the managing editor of Virginia Libraries and has been an active member of the Special Libraries Association and Association of College and Research Libraries (ALA). More about Bettina Peacemaker >>
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