New Faculty Directory

Welcome new 2024 Faculty!

CARRIE BROWN
Associate Professor
School of Communication and Media

MICHELLE BURTON
Assistant Professor
Department of Art and Design

WHITNEY COVALLE
Assistant Professor
Cali School of Music

KEITH CUTLER
Assistant Teaching Professor
School of Communication and Media

ZACHARY DORSEY
Associate Professor
Department of Theatre and Dance

JESSICA JAHN
Assistant Professor
Department of Theatre and Dance

OSCAR PEREZ
Assistant Professor
Cali School of Music

JAIME STICKLE
Assistant Teaching Professor
School of Communication and Media

DONGDONG YAN
Assistant Professor
School of Communication and Media

ERIN WEINBERG
Assistant Teaching Professor
School of Communication and Media

JESSICA BIHUNIAK
Assistant Professor
Department of Nutrition and Food Studies

GRACE CLARK
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

JONG MIN LEE
Assistant Professor
Department of Nutrition and Food Studies

JONGHO MOON
Assistant Professor
Department of Kinesiology

REBECCA OFRANE
Assistant Professor
Department of Public Health

HARVEY PETERS
Associate Professor
Department of Counseling

WENDY CASTILLO
Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Foundations

PAVLO LUSHYN
Associate Teaching Professor
Department of Educational Foundations

SUMAN RATH
Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Leadership

ROXANNA AST
Assistant Professor
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy

PEVITR BANSAL
Assistant Professor
Department of Psychology

BENJAMIN DELLOIACONO
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Writing Studies

DANIEL DOUGLAS
Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology

HEATHER EDWARDS
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy

JOALY GARCIA
Lecturer
Department of Spanish and Latino Studies

YOSHIRA MACIAS MEJIA
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science and Law

SEAN McCARTHY
Professor
Department of Writing Studies and The College of Science and Mathematics

KARA MORILLO
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Writing Studies

MARTINA SANTIA
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science and Law and The School of Communication and Media

JENNIE SNOW
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Writing Studies

JACKIE VIMO
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science and Law

CHAO HUANG
Assistant Professor
School of Computing

ELIZA LESZCZYNSKI
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Mathematics

RAINA SAMUEL
Assistant Professor
School of Computing

MEGHANN SMITH
Assistant Professor
Department of Earth and Environmental Studies

YINGKAI XU
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

KARMEN YU
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Mathematics

MICHELLE BERLINER
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Accounting and Finance

PETER DeSARNO
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Accounting and Finance

DAVID EISENBERG
Assistant Professor
Department of Information Management and Business Analytics

ANGELA GROTTO
Associate Professor
Department of Management

FATIMA IRSHAIDAT
Assistant Professor
Department of Information Management and Business Analytics

YUANQING LI
Associate Professor
Department of Management

LLOYD MOLANER
Assistant Teaching Professor
Department of Management

No Fall 2024 Hires

JACOB BILEK
Reference and Instruction Librarian

MICHELLE ECHOLS
Cataloging Librarian

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.

MOUSUMI BOSE
Associate Professor
Nutrition and Food Studies Department
bosem@montclair.edu
973-655-3358
Office Location: University Hall 2154

MOUSUMI BOSE is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies.

MOUSUMI BOSE is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at Montclair State University. Her primary research interests are in understanding the needs of communities affected by rare diseases. This includes conducting dietary assessments, determining the impact of rare diseases on overall quality of life, addressing healthcare disparities within the rare disease community, and evaluating caregiver burden. Dr. Bose has received multiple grants supporting her research, which has been published in multiple peer-reviewed journals including Cells, Journal of Child Neurology, Genetics in Medicine, Molecular Genetics and Metabolism, and MGM Reports.

TARIKA DAFTARY-KAPUR
Professor
Justice Studies Department
daftarykaput@montclair.edu
Office Location: Dickson Hall

TARIKA DAFTARY-KAPUR is a Professor in the Department of Justice Studies. Professor Daftary-Kapur joined the Montclair State University faculty in 2018, prior to which she was a professor in the Criminal Justice Department at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She teaches a wide range of courses, including Introduction to Criminal Justice, Juvenile Justice, and Wrongful Convictions. Professor Daftary-Kapur is the recipient of a grant from the National Institute of Justice that has supported her research exploring the resentencing process of youth sentenced to lengthy sentences in multiple jurisdictions across the United States. She has numerous peer-reviewed publications including recent publications in the journals Law and Human Behavior, Psychology Public Policy and Law, and the Journal of Criminal Justice.

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.

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.

Victor Metallo
Associate Teaching Professor
Accounting and Finance Department
metallov@montclair.edu
Office Location: 363 School of Business

Professor Metallo has taught at Montclair State since 2013 and is the Course Coordinator for the law faculty in the School of Business. After his appellate court clerkship, Professor Metallo began his tenure as an adjunct, then as Assistant Professor, and currently is an Associate Teaching Professor. He teaches courses in Legal Foundations of Business; Sports Law; Law, Ethics and Public Policy; Products Liability; Legal, Ethical, and Global Environment of Business; Impact of Law on the Business Environment; Legal Issues in Forensic Accounting; Business Law I and II; Statistics; Principles of Management; and Real Estate Development: Legal and Regulatory Issues.

Professor Metallo’s research interests include, algorithmic entities; smart contracts and impact on regulation; cryptocurrency regulation and adoption into world markets; digital dollar and privacy; cybercrime and cybersecurity, machine learning: legal and ethical implications; AI and liability: policy considerations, sense making, knowledge creation, and decision making for corporations; digital fiat currency and its impact on the banking industry; securities fraud – counterfeit short selling, blockchain and digitization of global equities markets; FinTech regulation; Constitutional Law and Business; legal issues in forensic accounting; Property Law; and Tax Law.

Professor Metallo is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (L.L.M.), Seton Hall Law School (J.D.), St. John’s University (M.B.A.), Rutgers University (M.L.I.S.), and Seton Hall University (M.A.E., A.B.). He is an M.S. candidate at Georgia Tech and has attended Ave Maria Law School, University of Alabama School of Law, and the London School of Economics (summer abroad). He served as an Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University, Stillman School of Business, advisor for their Legal Studies in Business Minor, and was a member of the Academic Standards Committee. Professor Metallo was also an Adjunct Professor at Felician University.

MICHELLE ZHU
Professor
School of Computing
zhumi@montclair.edu
973-655-4289
Office Location: Center for Computing and Information Science 327B

MICHELLE ZHU is a Professor and associate director for faculty and academic affairs for School of Computing at Montclair State University. Her research areas focus on parallel and distributed computing and big data system. She has published about 150 peer-reviewed articles in various journals and conferences. She received a total of over two million research grants from various agencies such as NSF, DOE, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.