Category: Faculty & Staff

Endowed Chairs Reflect K’s Continued Teaching Excellence

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Kalamazoo College recently appointed five faculty members as endowed chairs, recognizing their achievements as professors. Endowed chairs are positions funded through the annual earnings from an endowed gift or gifts to the College, and reflect:

  • the value donors attribute to the excellent teaching and mentorship that occurs at K; and
  • how much donors want to see that excellence continue.

The honorees are:

  • Christina Carroll, the Marlene Crandell Francis Assistant Professor of History;
  • Santiago Salinas, the Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Assistant Professor of Biology;
  • Dwight Williams, the Roger F. And Harriet G. Varney Assistant Professor of Chemistry;
  • Siu-Lan Tan, the James A. B. Stone College Professor; and
  • Laura Lowe Furge, the Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry.

“Being given a named endowed chair is an honor for both assistant and full professors,” said Furge, K’s interim provost. “In the former case (Carroll, Salinas and Williams), it signals promise and affirmation of their early contributions to teaching, scholarship and service that will be the foundation for carrying the mission of K well in to the 21st century. In the latter case (Tan and Furge), it provides recognition for a lengthy record of outstanding contributions to scholarship, teaching and service that bring national attention to our programs and institutional outcomes. All faculty at the College bring strengths to their respective programs. It is one of the joys of joint endeavor to celebrate achievements by giving a faculty member an endowed chair.”

Christina Carroll

Christina Carroll, one of five endowed chairs, sits in her office
Christina Carroll is among five Kalamazoo College faculty members recently named endowed chairs.

Carroll, an assistant professor of history, focuses her work on modern Europe and more specifically on the history of modern French colonialism. She’s interested in observing how the memory of the Napoleonic empire affected popular and political ideas regarding colonial empires in the second half of the 19th century. She teaches a variety of classes on modern Europe and its empires along with a class on the modern Middle East.

The 2018-19 academic year is Carroll’s third at K. Before arriving, she had a one-year visiting position at Colgate. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, and a master’s degree and Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She will hold the title of the Marlene Crandell Francis Assistant Professor of History, which recognizes an entry-level scholar with demonstrated achievement and exceptional promise, for three years.

“It was a great honor to be named the Marlene Crandell Francis Chair,” Carroll said. “The research funds associated with the position will enable me to return to France and continue to pursue my research. I can then, in turn, bring that research into the classroom by incorporating new primary sources that I have found or new insights from scholars that I have met while abroad. The chair thus will help me continue to develop as both a scholar and as an educator.”

Santiago Salinas

Santiago Salinas, one of five endowed chairs, kneels in a river
Santiago Salinas is among five Kalamazoo College faculty members recently named endowed chairs.

Salinas, an assistant professor of biology, teaches classes such as vertebrate biology and human physiology. His research interests include his work in the K Fish Lab, where he and his student collaborators study the ways fish populations cope with changes in the environment.

Salinas was born in Argentina and attended the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific. He earned his bachelor’s degree from College of the Atlantic and a Ph.D. from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. Salinas then was a post-doc at the University of California-Santa Cruz and the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. He was a visiting assistant professor at the University of the Pacific.

“I’m thrilled to receive this honor,” Salinas said. “It will undoubtedly help me engage more young biologists in research and continue to try to innovate in the classroom.”

The Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Assistant Professor of Biology title is awarded on a rotating basis to faculty in the natural sciences to recognize teaching, scholarship and service. Salinas will hold the title for three years.

Dwight Williams

Dwight Williams, one of five endowed chairs, holds a molecule model in his office
Dwight Williams is among five Kalamazoo College faculty members recently named endowed chairs.

Williams, an assistant professor of chemistry, teaches classes such as organic chemistry at K. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Coastal Carolina University in 2001 and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2007 while researching immunosensor design.

He spent a year as a lecturer at Longwood University before becoming an assistant professor at Lynchburg College, finding a passion for the synthesis and structural characterization of natural products as potential neuroprotectants. He extended his knowledge in those subjects after accepting a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral research fellowship at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical College of Virginia Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. During that fellowship, he worked in medicinal chemistry and pharmacology, where his work was published in six peer-reviewed journals.

“Receiving this honor has provided me with the motivation to continue to explore and implement innovative ways to connect with our students both inside and outside the classroom to build lifelong relationships that last beyond their four years.”

The Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Assistant Professor of Chemistry title is awarded on a rotating basis to faculty in the natural sciences to recognize teaching, scholarship and service. Williams will hold the title for three years.

Siu-Lan Tan

Siu-Lan Tan, one of five endowed chairs, stands under the Quad archway
Siu-Lan Tan is among five Kalamazoo College faculty members recently named endowed chairs.

Tan earned undergraduate degrees in music and piano pedagogy at Pacific Union College before completing a Ph.D. in psychology at Georgetown University. She has taught psychology courses at K since 1998, receiving a Michigan Campus Compact award for civic engagement pedagogy in 2007 and the Lucasse Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2012.

Tan has published more than 25 journal articles and chapters, and two books titled “Psychology of Music: From Sound to Significance” (from Routledge) and “The Psychology of Music in Multimedia” (from Oxford University Press). She is currently working on “The Oxford Handbook of Music and Advertising.”

At K, she has served as a chair for the College’s 2013 reaccreditation, chair of the faculty development committee, and social science representative on the faculty executive committee. In her field, Tan serves on the board of directors of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, and she is active in bringing music psychology across disciplines and to the public through activities such as her role in “Score: A Film Music Documentary” and its related podcast.

The James A. B. Stone College Professor title recognizes a senior faculty member for excellence in teaching, scholarship and service to the institution. Tan will hold the title for seven years.

“I was surprised and speechless when I was given the good news about this endowed chair,” Tan said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time, as my work focuses on the role of music in film, and I’ve become increasingly aware of the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to research in this area. The James A. B. Stone endowment will provide the resources needed to collaborate with a great team of colleagues from several disciplines to pursue this exciting work on a more comprehensive scale, and I am very grateful for this gift.”

Laura Lowe Furge

Laura Lowe Furge, one of five endowed chairs, stands outside Stetson Chapel
Laura Lowe Furge is among five Kalamazoo College faculty members recently named endowed chairs.

As the interim provost in the 2018-19 academic year, Furge is the College’s chief academic officer. She oversees all educational affairs and activities including academic personnel and programs. She also oversees academic support and co-curricular areas such as Athletics, the Center for Career and Professional Development, Information Services, Institutional Assessment and Faculty Grants, the Center for International Programs, the Mary Jane Stryker Center for Civic Engagement and the Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.

Furge joined Kalamazoo College in September 1999 and has taught courses in biochemistry, advanced biochemistry, organic chemistry, general chemistry, toxicology and carcinogenesis, and a first-year seminar regarding cancer origins, stories and legacies. Furge’s research centers on the enzyme catalysts known as cytochrome P450 enzymes that catalyze drug metabolism reactions. Her research seeks to understand variations in the activity of cytochrome P450 that can lead to unfavorable drug-induced events.

Furge earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1998, and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship with Nobel Laureate Stanley Cohen. She also earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry with a minor in history from Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1993.

The Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry title recognizes Furge’s teaching, scholarship and service record. She will hold the title through the duration of her career at K.

Professor Earns Lucasse Fellowship Honors

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Lucasse Fellowship Winner Peter Erdi
Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship winner Peter Erdi

Kalamazoo College announced Monday that Peter Erdi, the Luce Professor of Complex Systems Studies at K, will receive the 2018 Florence J. Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship. It is the highest award bestowed by the Kalamazoo College faculty, and it honors the recipient’s contributions in creative work, research and publication.

Erdi has been a prolific researcher with more than 40 publications and two books published since joining Kalamazoo College. In that time, he has given more than 60 invited lectures across the world. He is also serving as the editor-in-chief of Cognitive Systems Research and as a vice president of the International Neural Network Society.

Support for his research program has come from varied sources such as collaborative National Science Foundation awards, NASA, the Hungarian National Research Council, Pharmacia, Pfizer and the European Integrated Project grant program. He has also helped to establish a popular study abroad program in his native homeland of Budapest, Hungary, where he holds a research professor position at the Wigner Research Centre for Physics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

K Professor Nominated for Cundill History Prize

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Kalamazoo College History Professor James Lewis has been named one of 12 nominees for the Cundill History Prize for his 2017 book, “The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis.” The award, worth $75,000 to the winner, recognizes historical scholarship, originality, quality and broad appeal.

Cundill History Prize nominated book
“The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis,” written by K History Professor James Lewis, has been nominated for the Cundill History Prize.
Cundill History Prize nominee James Lewis
Kalamazoo College History Professor James Lewis is the author of “The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering the Story of an Early American Crisis,” which is a finalist for the Cundill History Prize.

Lewis’s book explores former Vice President Aaron Burr’s travels through the Trans-Appalachian West in 1805 and 1806, gathering support for a mysterious enterprise, leading to his arrest and trial on treason charges in 1807. Rumors at the time stated Burr had enticed some people with plans to liberate Spanish Mexico, others with promises of land in the Louisiana Purchase, and others with talk of building a new empire beyond the Appalachian Mountains.

The book, available through many bookstores and online sites, also examines the political and cultural forces that shaped how Americans made sense of Burr’s intentions and movements, and the crisis after his arrest including concerns about the nation’s fragile union and uncertain republic.

Lewis has taught courses in U.S. history, Native American history, American environmental history, Revolutionary America, the American frontier and Western history, the history of U.S. foreign relations, post-World War II America, American political culture, the trial in American history and a senior seminar in history at K. He is a professional member of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.

Lewis’s other books include:

  • “The Louisiana Purchase: Jefferson’s Noble Bargain?” (2003);
  • “John Quincy Adams: Policymaker for the Union” (2001); and
  • “The American Union and the Problem of Neighborhood: The United States and the Collapse of the Spanish Empire, 1783-1829” (1998).

Run by McGill University in Montreal, the international Cundill History Prize is awarded by a jury of world-leading historians. The 12 nominees will be pared down to a short list of eight authors by Sept. 25. The three finalists will be announced Oct. 31 at Massey College in Toronto. The winner will be announced Nov. 15 at the Cundill History Prize Gala at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Shared Grant to Proactively Prevent Sexual Violence

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Kalamazoo College is receiving nearly $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Justice through a shared grant to proactively prevent domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking on campus.

K is the only Michigan institution and one of just a few small private schools among 60 colleges and universities nationwide to receive part of the $18 million being distributed. K’s portion, totaling $298,698, will:

  • create a Campus Coordinated Community Response Team;
  • expand training for campus safety officers and Title IX investigators;
  • expand victim services;
  • hire a full-time project coordinator who will focus on culturally relevant prevention efforts;
  • further enhance the College’s focus on student safety; and
  • support a K partnership with the Kalamazoo YWCA and the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety. The partnership will bring a victim advocate to campus for 20 hours a week and formalize response to incidents that involve students in the city.

“This grant is very competitive, so we’re excited to have this additional funding and support,” said Ellen Lassiter Collier, K’s Title IX coordinator and director of gender equity. She added documented endorsements of existing efforts from students, faculty and staff likely were determining factors for the Department of Justice in securing the shared grant.

“This kind of grant traditionally goes to public schools,” Lassiter Collier said. “That speaks to the work the College is already doing and the support we receive from across campus.”

K’s existing efforts include programs such as Green Dot, which offers bystander training that statistically reduces the likelihood of dating and domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault. Green Dot at K is funded through the State of Michigan Campus Sexual Assault Grant Program, which gave the College about $18,600 in 2016 and $41,800 in 2017.

The Department of Justice grant, though, will enhance such efforts and others, including the creation of targeted online training programs for students, to ensure the programs and training materials are culturally competent considering K’s diversity, and relevant to its student experiences such as study abroad.

With study abroad, for example, “We want students to know that the College is still a source of support and potential investigation should something happen abroad,” Lassiter Collier said.

For more information on the grant from the Department of Justice, visit its website.

Career Exploration Takes K Students to Windy City

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11 K to the Windy City participants at the el train
A K to the Windy City trip drew rave reviews from students who got to participate in panels, site visits, tours and conversations with alumni offering insight into their working environments and careers. Photo credit: Madi Triplett ’19

Five Kalamazoo College juniors and eight sophomores are back from Chicago after a three-day trip to learn firsthand from alumni about their careers. Known as K to the Windy City, the exploratory career trek, or K-Trek, focused on careers in law, sustainability and nonprofit administration.

Coordinated by the Center for Career and Professional Development (CCPD), K-Treks are multi-day immersive discussions with leaders in various industries. They’re also just one example of the experiential education opportunities available within the K-Plan, Kalamazoo College’s distinctive approach to the liberal arts and sciences.

Other K-Treks, inspired by tech entrepreneur and alumnus Brad O’Neill ’93, visit cities such as San Francisco, where the focus is on entrepreneurship; and New York City, where students explore finance- and business-related careers.

Through K-Treks, students “are able to network and obtain an inside perspective about industries,” said Keri L. Bol, who works in operations support with CCPD. “It also gives students the ability to travel outside of Kalamazoo to explore different cities and see how professionals may function in that city. Our hope is that they come back from a K-Trek with a better understanding of their field of interest and how to embark on their intended career path after they graduate.”

Four alumni with a scenic view of downtown Chicago during K to the Windy City
Avery Allman ’16, Will Sheehan ’17, Nora Stagner ’17 and Anja Xheka ’17 were among the alumni who welcomed Kalamazoo College students to Chicago through an alumni networking reception for K to the Windy City. Photo credit: Madi Triplett ’19

K to the Windy City participants researched in advance the alumni they would meet and the organizations they worked for and prepared a list of questions for the interaction.

CCPD staff used student cover letters and résumés to customize the students’ individual itineraries, providing the most educational impact. More than 30 alumni served on panels or met with students to share advice. Nearly 30 other alumni from other industries attended a networking reception to provide further advice.

The trip drew rave reviews from students who got to participate in panels, site visits, tours and conversations with alumni offering insight into their working environments and careers. It also helped students—who represented 13 majors such as anthropology/sociology, psychology, biology and chemistry—develop skills in self-presentation and business etiquette, and cultivate professional relationships in Chicago.

“My experience on the trek was one that will stick with me for the rest of my life because of how informative and useful it was to the shaping of my post-grad career,” said Emma Eisenbeis ’19, a German and political science double major, after participating in the law track. “I cannot stress enough how helpful it is to speak with people in your desired career before making any large, life-changing decisions.”

Amelia Davis ’20, a biology and chemistry major participating in the sustainability track, offered a similar review.

“It was fascinating to hear about the different paths that alumni took to get to where they are and it is inspiring to think about the opportunities available to me after I graduate from K,” Davis said.

Other participants included Isabella Haney ’19, Neelam Lal ’20, Rosella LoChirco ’20, Sarah Gerendasy ’20 and Erin Smith ’19 in the law track; Mara Hazen ’19, Sage Benner ’20 and Yansong Pan ’20 in the nonprofit administration track; and Maya Gurfinkel ’20, Rose Maylen ’19 and Yasamin Shaker ’20 in the sustainability track.

Learn more at our website about how offerings such as K-Treks through the CCPD can benefit students’ employment outcomes.

Grant to Foster Inclusive Science, Math Programs

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Kalamazoo College has been awarded a $1 million, five-year grant to participate in a nationwide quest to find ways to better serve students from demographic groups that are underrepresented in science and mathematics. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced that K will be one of 33 colleges chosen for the Inclusive Excellence initiative. Efforts under the initiative will focus on closing what biology professor Jim Langeland ’86, who will lead the program, calls the “persistence gap.”

Two Students in Science lab for Inclusive Science and Math story
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has announced that Kalamazoo College will be one of 33 colleges chosen for the Inclusive Excellence initiative.

K is attracting talented students from a variety of backgrounds who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education, including students of color, first-generation college students and students from low-income families. Those students enroll in roughly proportionate numbers in introductory science and math courses. In the long run, however, they are more likely than students from more privileged circumstances not to continue in those fields, said Langeland,  Upjohn Professor of Life Sciences.

“We would like our senior major classes in the science field to look like our incoming classes in terms of demographics,” he said.

Associate Provost Laura Lowe Furge, Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Professor of Chemistry, said K will use the HHMI grant to take a three-fold approach:

  • Developing culturally competent faculty and staff who are better able to connect with the varied backgrounds and value systems of students.
  • Revising introductory science and math curriculum to integrate career guidance, emphasize shared concepts among disciplines and enhance academic support centers.
  • Revising hiring, tenure and promotion policies to reward cultural competency and inclusive practices.

Langeland said the first approach of the initiative will be addressed by expanding the College’s existing training in recognizing systemic and often unconscious racism and bias.

“We’ve been diversifying our student body and the idea is that there are institutional barriers to access and we’re trying to eliminate those,” he said.

The second part of the initiative will seek to provide students taking entry-level science and math courses with clearer entry points to those disciplines and guidance to potential careers, he said.

“One of the things we have identified is that we think there are a lot of aspects of our curriculum that are hidden—things that we assume students know and can navigate without being explicit about them,” he said.

Some students come to K steeped in that knowledge, gained from family members or teachers at high-achieving schools, Langeland said; others need a “roadmap” to follow because the route is unfamiliar.

Bringing accomplished alumni into classrooms is another way to help students understand the possibilities for careers in science and math, he said.

In the third approach, the Kalamazoo College Provost’s Office will work with faculty on ways to reward professors for developing skills that help ensure diversity and student success, Langeland said.

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez said the HHMI grant recognizes K’s existing commitment to inclusiveness and will build momentum for efforts to achieve that goal.

“Talent comes in many forms, and our mission is to recognize and nurture it in the most effective ways,” he said. “We are proud to have the most diverse student body ever at Kalamazoo College, and we firmly believe that with the help of our dedicated faculty and staff, we can ensure that our liberal arts curriculum and our historic strength in sciences and mathematics will provide access to those professions for all students.”

Alumni Honor Retiring Professor with Research Fellowship

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Though Kalamazoo College chemistry professor Tom Smith has had 40 years to devise just the right formula for ensuring the success of his students, they’ll tell you that he had it from the very start. Alumni — led by two who were part of the first class Smith taught in the 1978-79 school year, Chris Bodurow and Bob Weinstein, both ’79 — are in the midst of a fundraising effort that has endowed the Thomas J. Smith Student Research Fellowship in Chemistry. The fund honors the retiring Smith, the Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry, by supporting an initiative he chose, and which is close to his heart: independent summer research.

Research Fellowship
As Tom Smith, the Kalamazoo College Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry, retires after 40 years as a student favorite, some of his former students are honoring him by endowing an independent summer student research fellowship in his name.

With Min Soo Kim ’19 designated as the first recipient, the endowment drive is entering its second phase. Bodurow is personally pledging a match of up to $20,000 in contributions with the goal of expanding the number of students who receive the fellowship each summer, a priority for the College as its new strategic plan re-emphasizes the K-Plan tenets of experiential education and independent scholarship.

Testifying to the devotion Smith inspires: He has been designated an Alpha Lambda Delta National Honorary Society Favorite Teacher by first-year students 13 times since 2003. In addition, he has directed the Senior Individualized Projects of 70 students, was named a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Scholar and was awarded the Florence J. Lucasse Fellowship for Excellence in Scholarship or Creative Work and the Dr. Winthrop S. and Lois A. Hudson Award for Outstanding Contributions in Research at Kalamazoo College.

It doesn’t take a list of awards, however, to understand the influence Smith has had on students, and the profound sense of appreciation it has engendered in the more than a dozen alumni who have contributed some $130,000 for the endowment.

Bodurow and Weinstein were seniors when Smith arrived at the College, fresh from post-doctoral work at Caltech. They said Smith immediately took on a role that went far beyond just teaching chemistry.

“He really had a very strong propensity to encourage us in our studies and in our post-Kalamazoo College strategies in our lives. He quickly identified students he thought ought to pursue graduate degrees and encouraged us,” said Bodurow, who went on to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University and has had a distinguished career in drug research. Now retired from Eli Lilly and Company, where she was senior research director, external sourcing, for the Medicines Development Unit, she is a member of the board of the American Chemical Society and is president of PharmaDOQS, a consultancy.

“Tom was very deliberate about understanding our strengths and passions and directing us,” said Bodurow. “It was all because of his strong commitment to launching us, and he made sure we had a strong post-Kalamazoo plan. It was quite extraordinary. If you talk to anyone who has had Tom as a professor, they will tell you a similar story.”

Weinstein does.

“He helped us understand what it meant to go to grad school and how to get to grad school. He was telling us what it was like and challenging us with projects,” said Weinstein, who earned his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is president and CEO of Robertet USA, an arm of the French-owned maker of flavors, fragrances and natural raw materials. “It didn’t take Tom Smith very long to say, ‘This is what the College is about: I will prepare these students for graduate school or medical school and really dedicate myself to helping them.’ ”

Smith, he said, “was the engine behind me. To be able to contribute to his legacy at K is a privilege that I am proud to be able to do. I honestly believe that nothing I have accomplished would have been possible without Tom Smith and K.”

Kalamazoo College President Jorge G. Gonzalez said few things are more meaningful to professors than to have former students credit them for their successes. To have them go a step further and fund an endowment in their name, he said, “is both an honor and an affirmation that you have achieved the goal motivating every educator, and that is to make a real difference in your students’ lives.”

Smith called it “humbling.”

“You think you’re getting your job done and then you discover decades later that the impact has lasted,” said Smith, an aficionado of hiking and movies, who described the honor as a fitting capstone for his career.

“So often when I say goodbye to students, I tell them, ‘Go out and make the world a better place,’ ” he said. “It becomes a lifelong interaction. That’s why we do this.”

To contribute to the Thomas J. Smith Student Research Fellowship in Chemistry, or to discuss creating an endowment in the name of another favorite faculty or staff member, contact Kalamazoo College Vice President for Advancement Al J. DeSimone at 269.337.7292 or Al.DeSimone@kzoo.edu.