Dr. Olson serves as Interim Director of the Kegley Institute of Ethics. Previously, he served as KIE Associate Director from 2017 to 2023.

He is also the Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and Associate Professor of Philosophy. Dr. Olson teaches courses in both ethical theory and practical ethics, with a particular emphasis on ethical issues in professional life and the sciences. He believes ethics education works best when conversations cross disciplinary and community boundaries and enjoys fostering such conversations through his work with the KIE.

Much of Dr. Olson’s research has addressed issues in bioethics, including both research and clinical ethics. He serves on CSUB’s Institutional Review Board and is a member of the Dignity Health Memorial Hospital Ethics Committee.

Dr. Olson received his PhD in philosophy from Georgetown University, and prior to coming to CSUB, was a post-doctoral teaching fellow in the Thinking Matters program at Stanford University, where he also worked with the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. 

Contact: nolson@csub.edu

Dr. Kallee McCullough earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Criminal Justice and Criminology from Sam Houston State University, Texas. She enjoys teaching research methods, criminal law, and corrections. Dr. McCullough's primary research interests include procedural justice and legitimacy, criminal justice policy analysis, sentencing, and corrections. Her recent research examines the correlates of successful reentry among formerly imprisoned individuals, with emphasis on the perceived legitimacy of correctional authorities. Her work is published in peer-reviewed scholarly outlets, such as the Journal of Experimental Criminology, the Virginia Journal of Criminal Law, and the Journal of Criminal Justice. Dr. McCullough actively participates in local and CSUB organizations that focus on reducing the deleterious unintentional consequences of mass incarceration.

Contact: kmccullough1@csub.edu

Christopher Meyers, PhD, was a founding member of the Kegley Institute of Ethics and was its Executive Director for over 30 years. He is now Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Director Emeritus of the Kegley Institute of Ethics at CSU Bakersfield. The author of three books and over fifty academic articles, he is also an engaged public scholar who regularly writes editorial columns, gives community talks and provides consulting to a wide range of organizations, most notably in health care. In that latter role, he has been appointed adjunct ethics faculty at Kern Medical Center and hospital ethicist for Adventist Healthcare Bakersfield.

He received his BA in Philosophy from UC Santa Cruz and his MA and PhD in Philosophy from the University of Tennessee, where he also earned a Graduate Certificate in Bioethics. The father of three and grandfather of two, his hobbies include wandering the Eastern Sierra mountains, woodworking, and standing on the bank of a trout stream, frustratingly watching trout laugh at him as his fly drifts over their head.

Contact: cmeyers@csub.edu

Jacquelyn Kegley is CSU Outstanding Professor of Philosophy and Wang Family awardee for outstanding teaching, research, and service. She is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Helen Hawk Honors Program at California State University, Bakersfield.  She is author of Josiah Royce in Focus (Indiana University Press 2008) and Genuine Individuals and Genuine Communities: A Roycean Public Philosophy (Vanderbilt University Press 1997) and Josiah Royce in Focus (Indiana University Press, 2008). She is an author and editor of Genetic Knowledge, Human Values and Responsibility (Paragon 1999) and Persuasion and Compulsion in Democracy (2013) as well as of numerous articles on American philosophy, and genetic technology. She also contributed to the volume, Pragmatic Bioethics. She was President of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy from 2010-2012 and a recipient of the Herbert Schnieder Award for outstanding contributions to American Philosophy. She serves as President of the Josiah Royce Foundation and Chair of the Advisory Board for the Royce Critical Edition. Her recent publications include “Kant as Public Intellectual and Political Theorist,” to be published in Pragmatist Kant, Edited by C. Skowroński, Brill, 2018.; “Royce on Self and Relationships: Speaking to the Digital and Texting Self of Today,” to be published in a forthcoming issue of The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 2018; “A return to humility and common sense: Santayana’s message to our current age,” Limbo. Boletin sobre los estudios sobre Santayana, Spain, August 2017; “Are Acts of Institutions Really Fully Analyzable into Constituent Actions of Human Beings?” in John Lachs’s Practical Philosophy, ed. by C. Skowroński, Brill, 2017; “Santayana in Relation to Remembering and Forgetting History, in The Life of Reason in an Age of Terrorism, ed. by C. Padrón and C.;Skowroński published by Brill in January 2018.

Contact: jkegley@csub.edu

Rhonda E. Dugan is an Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB), where she has been a faculty member since 2005. Dr. Dugan graduated with a BA and MA in sociology from Illinois State University, and earned her PhD in sociology from the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her teaching and research interests focus on race, ethnicity, and gender, as well as black identity, culture, and popular culture. As a professor at CSUB, she has taught a number of undergraduate and graduate courses: Introduction to Sociology, Research Methods, Race & Ethnic Relations, Diversity & Research Ethics, Gender & Society, the African American Experience, Cultural Sociology, Popular Culture, Sociology of Film, Sociology of the Family, and Senior Seminar. She has scholarly publications in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Contemporary Sociology, and The Encyclopedia of Social Problems, and a book chapter (co-authored with R. Stephen Warner and Elise Martel) published in Sustaining Faith Traditions: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion among the Latino and Asian Second Generation. Dr. Dugan is currently working on a research project (with sociology colleague Dahna Rasmussen, MA) interviewing college students about their use/nonuse and interpretation of the N-Word in the post-Civil Rights era. In addition to teaching and research, Dr. Dugan serves on a number of campus committees and is the faculty advisor for three student clubs at CSUB: Sociology Club, Black Student Union, and Campus Gamers. In 2010 and 2014, Dugan was honored with the Cornerstone Award by the Black Student Union for her support of the “academic and social progress” of students. She has also participated in the CSU-wide Super Sunday African American Initiative for the last four years. In her spare time, Dr. Dugan likes to run, travel, and read.

Contact: rdugan2@csub.edu

Dr. Senem Saner is a member of the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department. She grew up in Istanbul, Turkey and graduated from Boğaziçi University with a B.S. in Physics. She received her M.A. in Philosophy from Purdue University and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Stony Brook University, with her dissertation “The Dialectic of Indifference and the Process of Self-determination in Hegel’s Logic and the Philosophy of Right.” For her dissertation research, she attended Wuppertal University, Germany, as a fellow of the Collegium Philosophiae Transatlanticum program. She has published essays on postcolonial theory, Frankfurt School, Hegel’s theory of education and second nature [Bildung] as well as on the value and impact of public philosophy and philosophy for children (P4C). Dr. Saner has developed the P4C program at CSUB, which offers an undergraduate course sequence for university students and organizes P4C conversations with children at public libraries and elementary schools.

Contact: ssaner@csub.edu

Steve Campagna-Pinto, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at California State University, Bakersfield. Prof. Campagna-Pinto teaches courses such as The Holocaust and its Implications, The American Dream, and Religion and Human Rights. Prof. Campagna-Pinto’s research interests focus upon American religious thought; the role of religion in American public life and politics; religion and human rights; and the Holocaust and genocide. He is the author of The Workshop of Being, a study of religion and American pragmatism. Prof. Campagna-Pinto’s current research focus is the ethics of memory in relation to the study and teaching of the Holocaust. Dr. Campagna-Pinto recently received a grant from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to participate in the  2018 Curt C. and Else Silberman Faculty Seminar "Racial Practice: Theory, Policy, and Execution in Nazi Germany and the Jim Crow South." The seminar will support Dr. Campagna-Pinto's teaching on the Holocaust, genocide, and human rights and his research on the ethics of memory.

Contact: scampagna_pinto@csub.edu

Dr. Brittney Beck is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at California State University, Bakersfield. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, a Master’s Degree in Science Education, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum, Teaching, and Teacher Education from the University of Florida. Currently, she teaches social studies, literacy, and socio-cultural foundations of education courses for the multi-subject elementary credential program and science methods courses for the Kern Urban Teacher Residency. Her research interests reside at the intersections of teacher education, democratic education, and the development of K-12 educators and students as public intellectuals. In keeping with these interests, Dr. Beck also serves as a Faculty Fellow with the Kegley Institute of Ethics. In this role, she is the co-founder and co-director of the Social-Emotional, Ethical, and Democratic Education (SEEDE) Institute, which is designed to build the capacity of Kindergarten through Fourth-grade teachers to educate the whole child and engage their students as civic agents in the community. More information about the SEEDE Institute can be found here: https://www.cs.csubak.edu/~kie/seede/. Most recently, TeachingWorks has selected Dr. Brittney Beck to serve as one of the TeachingWorks Fellows for the 2018-2019 academic year. Together with the S.D. Betchtel Jr. Foundation and the California State University system, the fellowship comes with a $10,500 stipend to support the redevelopment of courses in teacher education through the integration of high leverage teaching practices known to foster academic achievement and ensure equity.

Dr. Brittney Beck can be reached at bbeck4@csub.edu.

Ivy A.M. Cargile is an Associate Professor of Political Science at California State University, Bakersfield. Broadly, her research interests focus on political behavior in the U.S. context. She is particularly interested in how the intersections of gender, race, and ethnicity effect the electoral behavior of both political elites, and the electorate at large. Specifically, she is interested in how diverse political participants perceive a Latina candidate who represents the intersection of gender, and ethnicity. Likewise, she explores how both Latina political actors, and other female politicians of color influence policy outcomes, and represent their constituents. She also focuses some of her research on the public opinion of Latina/o/x voters as a way to develop a better understanding about how policy issues such as immigration, and women’s rights effect the participation of this community. Her work has appeared in Political Research Quarterly, as well as in multiple books on the topics of Latina politicians, Latina/o/x voters, and immigration policy.

As a result of her research interests some of the courses she teaches are Latina/o/x and Black Politics in the U.S., Immigration Politics, Women in Politics, Research Methods, Elections and Political Parties, and Public Opinion.

Contact: icargile@csub.edu

Dr. Kyle J. Susa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Bakersfield. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Master of Arts and Doctoral degrees (Ph.D.) in Experimental Psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso. Prior to coming to CSUB Dr. Susa held academic and federal government positions conducting research for the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service. At CSUB Dr. Susa’s research connects psychology with legal practices with a primary focus on the social and cognitive influences of eyewitness memory error. Dr. Susa’s research in Legal Psychology has been featured in the Washington Post, and Politico. He is also published in several top-tier academic journals of Psychology such as, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Visual Cognition, Social Cognition, and Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

Contact: ksusa@csub.edu

Dr. Alice Hays is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at California State University, Bakersfield. She taught secondary English for 19 years prior to pursuing her PhD in English education at Arizona State University. She currently teaches Methods and Strategies of Teaching and Literacy Across the Content Areas for the single subject credential program. Additionally, she is a member of the design team for the newly implemented Kern High Teacher Residency program. Her research interests are focused on the use of young adult literature and its power to inspire both empathy and agency through an intentionally developed curriculum that focuses on pro-social behavior. Dr. Hays was selected as a 2019-2020 Faculty Fellow with the Kegley Institute of Ethics to work closely with educators in order to develop curriculum that honors student voice, results in a community-based action plan, and also meets required state standards in the secondary classroom. This curriculum will incorporate young adult literature as a jumping off point to support students as they consider innovative approaches to solving community issues. Dr. Hays is also working with the CSUB Quality of Life Center Literacy Council to develop a focal point for improving literacy across Kern County in concert with various community organizations. Dr. Alice Hays was also selected to serve as a TeachingWorks Fellow for the 2019-2020 academic year, a program that integrates high leverage teaching practices that encourage social justice into teacher preparation programs.

Contact: ahays2@csub.edu

Dr. Sumita Sarma is an Associate Professor of Management at California State University, Bakersfield. She received her PhD in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of Missouri Kansas City, where she simultaneously completed a two-year Certificate Program in College and University-level teaching. Dr. Sarma completed her Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications in India, where she was a University topper and a gold medalist. She completed her Master’s in Project and Program Management and Business Development from France. She has lived and worked in three countries – USA, France, and India, and has rich industrial work experience in multi-functional roles. Her main teaching and research interests include entrepreneurship and innovation, and strategic management. In addition, she is engaged in research on social entrepreneurship and women entrepreneurship. Dr. Sarma has published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Business Horizons, Entrepreneurship Research Journal, and Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics on areas of firm-level strategies, entrepreneurial ecosystems, and entrepreneurship. She has presented several of her research papers at international-level conferences such as the Academy of Management, Babson Conference, Sustainability Ethics and Entrepreneurship (SEE), and USASBE. Dr. Sarma is a member of the Academy of Management and has served as ad-hoc reviewer for multiple journals such as Research Policy, Journal of Small Business Management, Asian Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications, and for conferences such as Academy of Management, SEE and USASBE. She has recent publications in the Journal of International Consumer Marketing and in the Sustainability Ethics and Entrepreneurship Handbook.

Contact: ssarma@csub.edu

Dr. Kallee McCullough earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Criminal Justice and Criminology from Sam Houston State University, Texas. She enjoys teaching research methods, criminal law, and corrections. Dr. McCullough's primary research interests include procedural justice and legitimacy, criminal justice policy analysis, sentencing, and corrections. Her recent research examines the correlates of successful reentry among formerly imprisoned individuals, with emphasis on the perceived legitimacy of correctional authorities. Her work is published in peer-reviewed scholarly outlets, such as the Journal of Experimental Criminology, the Virginia Journal of Criminal Law, and the Journal of Criminal Justice. Dr. McCullough actively participates in local and CSUB organizations that focus on reducing the deleterious unintentional consequences of mass incarceration.

Contact: kmccullough1@csub.edu

Dr. Zenko earned his PhD in Kinesiology from Iowa State University before completing postdoctoral training at Duke University and joining the CSUB faculty in 2018. He is interested
in promoting physical activity and exercise behavior, and reducing sedentary behavior. Dr. Zenko adopts a dual-process theoretical framework in which physical activity, exercise, and
sedentary behavior are influenced jointly by both rational, deliberate and nonrational, automatic processes. Dr. Zenko's work has focused on (a) making the experience of physical activity and exercise more pleasant and enjoyable, (b) understanding decision-making processes that influence physical activity and exercise behavior, and (c) understanding automatic associations with exercise (sometimes called "implicit associations" or "implicit attitudes"). Dr. Zenko is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine, North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity, and the Society for Transparency, Openness, and Replication in Kinesiology. He enjoys working with students and members of the community and teaching. He teaches several courses at CSUB, including the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity and Behavioral Aspects of Physical Activity and Exercise.

Contact: zzenko@csub.edu

Christopher Livingston heads the Historical Research Center in the Walter Stiern Library at CSUB.. He holds a Master of Arts Degree in History from California State University, Bakersfield and a Masters in Library and Information Science from San José State University. He serves as the library liaison for the departments of anthropology, history, philosophy, political Science, and religious studies. He also serves as a board member for the Institute of Religion, Education, and Public Policy, the Public History Institute, and the Institutional Review Board. His research interests include student engagement, community archiving, information architecture, and public history. He teaches courses in Archives and Special Collections and Oral history where his students learn how diversity and power shape the historical record. He is a native of Kern County and was raised in Arvin.

Contact: clivingston@csub.edu

Dr. Ji Li earned her PhD in Accounting from Arizona State University before joining The Department of Accounting and Finance at CSUB in 2014. She was selected as a 2020-2021 Faculty Fellow with the Kegley Institute of Ethics. Dr. Li’s research interests focus on executive compensation, dual-class firms’ performance, corporate social responsibility, and accounting ethics. Her research has been published in journals such as Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting, Review of Accounting and Finance, International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, and Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance. Dr. Li received the 2019 Literati Award for the Outstanding Paper in recognition of her scholarship in the area of accounting from the Emerald Publishing Group. During her service as the President of the CSUB chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma International Business Honor Society during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years, the CSUB chapter was awarded the High Honors Recognition and Highest Honors Recognition, respectively, first ever in the CSUB history. Dr. Li was advisor to the CSUB student team which attended the 2019 Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) National Student Case Completion and was recognized as one of four National Finalists, making CSUB the first school named a finalist from the West Coast. Dr. Li has also overseen many students’ research projects. Her students have won the 1st place award in the2017 Student Research and Creative Activity Poster Competition and the 1st place award in 2019 CSUB Student Research Completion.

Contact: jli7@csub.edu

Mandy Rees is a Professor of Theatre in the Music & Theatre Department at California State University, Bakersfield where she teaches acting, voice, movement, directing and improvisation. She received her MFA in Acting from the University of California, Davis and her BA in Theatre from Pomona College. Her book, Between Director and Actor: Strategies for Effective Performance, was co-authored with John Staniunas and published by Heinemann. She served as Editor-in-Chief for two issues of the serial monograph Voice and Speech Review (Shakespeare Around the Globe and Voice and Gender), and served as an Associate Editor for three additional issues. She has worked with Cornerstone Theater Company, Madison Repertory Theatre, CSU Summer Arts, and the Los Angeles Actors Theatre, and is a past president of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association. She was selected as a 2020-2021 Faculty Fellow with the Kegley Institute of Ethics.

Contact: mrees@csub.edu

Dr. Olson is serving as Interim Director of the Kegley Institute of Ethics during the 2023-24 academic year. Prior to that, he served as KIE Associate Director from 2017 to 2023.

He is also the Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies and Associate Professor of Philosophy. Dr. Olson teaches courses in both ethical theory and practical ethics, with a particular emphasis on ethical issues in professional life and the sciences. He believes ethics education works best when conversations cross disciplinary and community boundaries and enjoys fostering such conversations through his work with the KIE.

Much of Dr. Olson’s research has addressed issues in bioethics, including both research and clinical ethics. He serves on CSUB’s Institutional Review Board and is a member of the Dignity Health Memorial Hospital Ethics Committee.

Dr. Olson received his PhD in philosophy from Georgetown University, and prior to coming to CSUB, was a post-doctoral teaching fellow in the Thinking Matters program at Stanford University, where he also worked with the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. 

Contact: nolson@csub.edu

Dr. Adriana Cervantes-González is a full-time Lecturer with the Department of Teacher Education in the School of Social Sciences and Education, where she serves as the lead Faculty for the Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) Project.  

She comes to our campus with 21 years as an educator serving faculty, students, families, and communities in both K-12 and higher education settings. Dr. Cervantes-González is a proud first-generation graduate of the CSU earning her Master’s Degree in Education with an emphasis in Counseling and Student Services, with distinction - and her Doctorate of Education in the area of Educational Leadership at Fresno State. Dr. Cervantes-González’s primary research interests include the praxisof culturally responsive teaching pedagogies and culturally relevant practices as she supports teacher candidates and teacher leaders in embracing their full social identities in their teaching. She maintains an intentional focus on serving Latina/o/x aspirational educators and in advocating for an assets-based approach to education that affirms the diverse demographic groups represented in schools. Dr. Cervantes-González also works with graduate students who are working towards their Master’s Degree in Education with an Emphasis in Curriculum & Instruction.

Contact: acgonzalez@csub.edu

Professor Amin Malek graduated in 2002 in Computer and Electronic Engineering. He obtained his Master’s in Electronics Engineering in 2006 and his Ph.D. in 2009 specializing in Computer Systems Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and University Putra Malaysia (UPM), respectively.

Following his Ph.D. in 2009 he worked in the industry for one year as a senior optical engineer at Significant Technologies. In Jan 2010 he moved to the University of Nottingham as an Assistant Professor. In 2012 he was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 2017 to Professor of Optical Communication Systems. In 2020 he moved to the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the California State University, Bakersfield, California, USA.

Dr. Malek is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of Engineering Council (CEng), IET and Optical Society of America (OSA), and has published over 100 scientific research papers, a postgraduate textbook, as well as delivering keynote speeches at different international scientific conferences around the Globe. Up to now, he is the holder of 4 patents on Optical Fiber Communication Systems. 

Contact: amalekm@csub.edu

Andres C. Sanchez is a lecturer of Sociology at California State University, Bakersfield in the Antelope Valley (CSUB-AV). He has been a full-time faculty member since 2015 and currently teaches a number of courses including Technology and Society, Latino Experience in the U.S., Gender and Society, Classical Sociological Theory, Contemporary Sociological Theory, Qualitative Research Methods, and Senior Seminar. Professor Andres Sanchez has also presented at the Western Psychological Association (WPA) in company with Dr. Rhonda Dugan for the Heroic Imagination Project (HIP) in 2019, where he continues to serve as an Ambassador. He is working on a podcast for his department titled “Sociology Talk.” The podcast sheds light on a variety of sociological topics including alumni careers and interviews with scholars such as Dr. Michael Schwalbe, the author of Rigging the Game: How Inequality is Reproduced in Everyday Life. In his spare time, Professor Andres Sanchez likes to snowboard, skateboard, travel, watch anime, and read.

Contact: asanchez49@csub.edu

Alicia E. Rodriquez is Professor of History at California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB), where she has taught since 1998. A Bakersfield native, she earned a BA in history from CSUB, and earned both an MA and a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Among the courses she teaches are Civil War and Reconstruction, the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era, the American South, and Mexican-American history. Dr. Rodriquez has broadened and deepened her teaching and research by participating in summer institutes and seminars sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in summer constitutional history seminars cosponsored by the Institute for Constitutional History and Stanford University’s Constitutional Law Center. Her research focuses on the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in which she explores political and social movements, urban history and politics, labor and third-party movements, race and ethnic relations, and voter disfranchisement. Dr. Rodriquez has published on voter disfranchisement and on the 1890s Populist Party in Dallas, Texas. She most recently published a peer-reviewed article on the 1920s Ku Klux Klan in Kern County, California, which she is expanding into a book-length study.

Contact: arodriguez@csub.edu

Dr. Joseph Florez is a member of the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department. He graduated from Harvard College with a B.A. in History. He received his M.T.S. from Harvard Divinity School and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on the intersection of religious experience and everyday life among Latinx and Latin American evangelicals. He is interested in the manifold ways religious thought and practice are inflected by issues of violence, oppression, and marginalization. Dr. Florez recently published the book Pentecostalism, Lived Religion, and Social Activism in Authoritarian Chile: Giving Life to the Faith (Brill, 2021). He has also published articles on memory studies and Pentecostal worldviews as well as evangelical social thought. He is currently working on a study of the impact of imposed measurements of identity on the religious practices of indigenous groups in Southern California.

Contact: jflorez1@csub.edu

Dr. Tiffany Tsantsoulas is a member of the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department where she teaches courses focused on social philosophy, the philosophy of race, and feminist philosophy. She received her Ph.D. in Philosophy with a graduate minor in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from the Pennsylvania State University, an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Ottawa, and a B.Hum. in Philosophy and Humanities from Carleton University.

Dr. Tsantsoulas specializes in value theory esp. feminist and decolonial philosophies, phenomenology (critical, French), and critical philosophy of race. Her work is concerned with how structural oppressions and privileges are reinforced and challenged within everyday experience. She has published peer-reviewed articles in the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Symposium, and the Public Philosophy Journal, and her current research project develops an account of "dynamic disorientation" to describe the lived body as a site of resistance to the structural oppressions of colonial racism. She also serves on the Public Philosophy Network’s Governing Board.

Contact: ttsantsoulas@csub.edu

Lindsay Nelson-Burkert is a full-time lecturer at California State University of Bakersfield in the Criminal Justice Department. She is an Idaho native and moved to California in 2006. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree at CSUB in Criminal Justice, and then went on to earn her Master of Science from the University of Cincinnati’s School of Criminal Justice, with a double concentration in analysis of criminal behavior and corrections and offender rehabilitation. She is an alumna of the Alpha Phi Sigma National Criminal Justice Honors Society, and the current chapter advisor for CSUB’s Zeta Iota chapter. Lindsay is currently teaching research methods, criminological theories, and introductory criminal justice courses with other teaching interests being correctional treatments and rehabilitation. Her most recent research includes identifying concerns Latina college graduates have when pursuing careers in policing and how growth mindset training can offer a solution.

Contact: lnelson11@csub.edu

Dr. Di Wu is associate professor of accounting and was interim chair of the accounting and finance department. Dr. Wu’s teaching interests include managerial accounting, financial accounting, and data analytics; his research interests include accounting ethics, executive compensation, applications of big data and data analytics, and cost accounting issues.

Dr. Wu also serves as a board director of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA); past president, president, vice president, treasurer of the IMA Wild West Council; and treasurer and financial literacy chair of California Society of CPAs (CalCPAs) Bakersfield Chapter.

His passions include not only engaging students in learning, but also supporting student success outside of classroom. In 2019, Dr. Wu advised an accounting student on the accounting ethics study, titled "Arthur Anderson: The Rise and Fall of the Accounting Industry's Gold Standard" that later won the first prize award in the CSUB research day and that competed at the state level. Dr. Wu also advised a team of four CSUB accounting students in the 2019 IMA National Student Case Competition, who won the finalist award and became the first team from the West Coast making into the final round. In 2021, Dr. Wu was a faculty co-organizer of the 2021 CSUB Digital Marketing and Business Analytics Hackathon, which attracted many student participants and made CSUB the first university in the central valley promoting digital marking and business analytics through the student case competition.

Dr. Wu is also a recipient of several prestigious awards, including CSUB 2020-2021 Promising New Faculty Award, the 2019 IMA R. Lee Brummet Distinguished Award for Educators, and the 2019 PBD Yvonne Captain Faculty Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education.

Contact: dwu2@csub.edu

Dr. Gitika Commuri has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Southern California and has been teaching at CSUB since 2006. Her research interests are varied and span political identity and its impact on foreign policy, soft power in international politics and more recently American child labor policy. She has published articles and a book exploring how political identity discourses impact India's foreign policy in Kashmir, on India-Pakistan-China relations, as well as on the ambiguity of soft power as a concept. She is currently working on projects related to theorizing the significance of historically traumatic events as soft power with a focus on Holocaust, exploring India-Afghanistan relations with the resurgence of Taliban, and the prevalence of child labor in American agriculture. She teaches courses in Food Policy and Politics, Senior Seminar on The Human/Machine Worlds, International Relations Theory and Theories of Power.

Contact: gcommuri@csub.edu

Phil Chang received his MFA from The California Institute of the Arts and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. Solo exhibitions include The Fulcrum (2023), M+B (2022, 2017, and 2014), The Suburban (2019), Praz-Delavallade (2015), The California Museum of Photography (2015), and LAXART (2012). Chang’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Eastman Museum, and Transformer Station. His work has been written about in Artforum, The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, Artforum.com, nonsite.org and has appeared in Aperture, Blind Spot, Photography Is Magic, and The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Chang’s publications include Four Over One, an artist’s book published by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in association with Jonathan Maghen. Chang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at CSU Bakersfield.

Contact: pchang10@csub.edu

Dr. Jeremiah Cho Sataraka is a full-time lecturer in the Ethnic Studies Department at CSUB. He teaches Pacific Studies, Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies courses and is the co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Pride Faculty & Staff Affinity group. Dr. Sataraka’s primary research interests include conceptualizing an emergent Ocean Critical Race Theory and increasing the visibility of QTPI (Queer and/or Transgender Pacific Islander) activists and communities like U.T.O.P.I.A. (United Territories of Pacific Islander Alliance).

Dr. Sataraka received his Ph.D. in Cultural Studies & Social Thought in Education from Washington State University (Pullman, WA). Prior to coming to CSUB, he worked with a non-profit organization in Fresno serving primarily Southeast Asian communities to increase COVID-19 education and vaccination rates, and the Central Valley Pacific Islander Alliance (CVPIA).

Contact: jsataraka@csub.edu

Katy Hanson received her M.A. in Religious Studies with minors in women’s studies and popular culture studies at California State University, Long Beach and is a proud CSUB alumna. Professor Hanson teaches gender and sexuality courses in both the Philosophy & Religious Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies departments. Her areas of specialization include gender and sexuality within religious institutions, sexual ethics, and women’s spirituality movements. She has also organized the Sexual Ethics Education Fair, which aims to engage students in peer education about their physical and emotional sexual health.  

She is also an avid hummingbird watcher, gardener, and stargazer.  

Contact: khanson4@csub.edu 

Dr. Stewart holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from The University of Texas at Austin and an MSSW in Social Work from The University of Tennessee. She joined the CSUB faculty in Fall 2020 as a professor in the Department of Social Work. Dr. Stewart teaches courses on social work practice, theory, research, and field practicum. Her research interests include bystander intervention, empathy, moral courage, bullying among undergraduate students, and child welfare. She recently presented at the American Psychological Association’s annual conference on demographic factors that predict the likelihood of being bullied. Dr Stewart’s current research explores the connections between empathy, moral courage, and bystander intervention.   

Contact: dstewart15@csub.edu

Dr. Maryann Parada is an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at California State University Bakersfield, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Spanish language and linguistics. She received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Parada’s research interests are in the areas of bilingualism, language/dialect contact, and heritage language acquisition and development. Using multiple approaches, she also studies naming practices and name-based experiences in the Latin American diaspora, including how Hispanic names are portrayed in news and other mainstream U.S. media. Other interests are translation/interpreting and language policy, specifically around language access in public services and dual language education. She has published in a number of interdisciplinary journals such as Heritage Language Journal; Journal of Language, Identity and Education; Journal of Intercultural Communication Research; and Names: A Journal of Onomastics. Dr. Parada has been consulted for pieces on names-related topics in the New York Times, Gothamist, and Parents Latina Magazine, among others.

Contact: mparada1@csub.edu

Joshua Gordon is a full-time Lecturer with the Department of Kinesiology in the School of Social Sciences and Education, where he serves as the Kinesiology Athletics Faculty Advisor. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology from California State University, Fullerton and his Master of Science degree in Health & Human Movement from Utah State University. Prior to coming to CSUB, Joshua worked as an Assistant Track and Field Coach, and an Adjunct Instructor.

Courage, Creativity and Compassion are the guideposts for Dr. Ressler’s work as a specialist in drama for learning. She joined the theatre faculty at CSU Bakersfield in 2018 after 25 years in professional and educational theatre. She guides students to grow in improvisational mindset, developing flexibility, awareness, empathy and listening skills, while using drama methods to achieve their teaching objectives. She directs CSU Bakersfield’s annual theatre production for young audiences, which tours to schools throughout the Bakersfield area.    

Dr. Ressler hones her creativity skills by working with youth each summer in a major world-building immersive drama camp, where she portrays the role of Professor Bumblebone, headmistress of the Frogwarts School of Wizardry. The camp program is in its 21st year.  
 

Dr. Brittney Beck is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at California State University, Bakersfield. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, a Master’s Degree in Science Education, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum, Teaching, and Teacher Education from the University of Florida. Currently, she teaches social studies, literacy, and socio-cultural foundations of education courses for the multi-subject elementary credential program and science methods courses for the Kern Urban Teacher Residency. Her research interests reside at the intersections of teacher education, democratic education, and the development of K-12 educators and students as public intellectuals. In keeping with these interests, Dr. Beck also serves as a Faculty Fellow with the Kegley Institute of Ethics. In this role, she is the co-founder and co-director of the Social-Emotional, Ethical, and Democratic Education (SEEDE) Institute, which is designed to build the capacity of Kindergarten through Fourth-grade teachers to educate the whole child and engage their students as civic agents in the community. More information about the SEEDE Institute can be found here: https://www.cs.csubak.edu/~kie/seede/. Most recently, TeachingWorks has selected Dr. Brittney Beck to serve as one of the TeachingWorks Fellows for the 2018-2019 academic year. Together with the S.D. Betchtel Jr. Foundation and the California State University system, the fellowship comes with a $10,500 stipend to support the redevelopment of courses in teacher education through the integration of high leverage teaching practices known to foster academic achievement and ensure equity.

Dr. Brittney Beck can be reached at bbeck4@csub.edu.

Dr. Kyle J. Susa is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Bakersfield. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his Master of Arts and Doctoral degrees (Ph.D.) in Experimental Psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso. Prior to coming to CSUB Dr. Susa held academic and federal government positions conducting research for the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Secret Service. At CSUB Dr. Susa’s research connects psychology with legal practices with a primary focus on the social and cognitive influences of eyewitness memory error. Dr. Susa’s research in Legal Psychology has been featured in the Washington Post, and Politico. He is also published in several top-tier academic journals of Psychology such as, Perspectives on Psychological Science, Visual Cognition, Social Cognition, and Psychonomic Bulletin and Review.

Contact: ksusa@csub.edu

Dr. Alice Hays is an Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at California State University, Bakersfield. She taught secondary English for 19 years prior to pursuing her PhD in English education at Arizona State University. She currently teaches Methods and Strategies of Teaching and Literacy Across the Content Areas for the single subject credential program. Additionally, she is a member of the design team for the newly implemented Kern High Teacher Residency program. Her research interests are focused on the use of young adult literature and its power to inspire both empathy and agency through an intentionally developed curriculum that focuses on pro-social behavior. Dr. Hays was selected as a 2019-2020 Faculty Fellow with the Kegley Institute of Ethics to work closely with educators in order to develop curriculum that honors student voice, results in a community-based action plan, and also meets required state standards in the secondary classroom. This curriculum will incorporate young adult literature as a jumping off point to support students as they consider innovative approaches to solving community issues. Dr. Hays is also working with the CSUB Quality of Life Center Literacy Council to develop a focal point for improving literacy across Kern County in concert with various community organizations. Dr. Alice Hays was also selected to serve as a TeachingWorks Fellow for the 2019-2020 academic year, a program that integrates high leverage teaching practices that encourage social justice into teacher preparation programs.

Contact: ahays2@csub.edu

Dr. Ji Li earned her PhD in Accounting from Arizona State University before joining The Department of Accounting and Finance at CSUB in 2014.  She was selected as a 2020-2021 Faculty Fellow with the Kegley Institute of Ethics. Dr. Li’s research interests focus on executive compensation, dual-class firms’ performance, corporate social responsibility, and accounting ethics. Her research has been published in journals such as Advances in Quantitative Analysis of Finance and Accounting, Review of Accounting and Finance, International Journal of Accounting and Information Management, and Journal of Corporate Accounting and Finance. Dr. Li received the 2019 Literati Award for the Outstanding Paper in recognition of her scholarship in the area of accounting from the Emerald Publishing Group. During her service as the President of the CSUB chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma International Business Honor Society during the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years, the CSUB chapter was awarded the High Honors Recognition and Highest Honors Recognition, respectively, first ever in the CSUB history. Dr. Li was advisor to the CSUB student team which attended the 2019 Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) National Student Case Completion and was recognized as one of four National Finalists, making CSUB the first school named a finalist from the West Coast. Dr. Li has also overseen many students’ research projects.  Her students have won the 1st place award in the2017 Student Research and Creative Activity Poster Competition and the 1st place award in 2019 CSUB Student Research Completion.

Contact: jli7@csub.edu

Mandy Rees is a Professor of Theatre in the Music & Theatre Department at California State University, Bakersfield where she teaches acting, voice, movement, directing and improvisation. She received her MFA in Acting from the University of California, Davis and her BA in Theatre from Pomona College. Her book, Between Director and Actor: Strategies for Effective Performance, was co-authored with John Staniunas and published by Heinemann. She served as Editor-in-Chief for two issues of the serial monograph Voice and Speech Review (Shakespeare Around the Globe and Voice and Gender), and served as an Associate Editor for three additional issues. She has worked with Cornerstone Theater Company, Madison Repertory Theatre, CSU Summer Arts, and the Los Angeles Actors Theatre, and is a past president of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association. She was selected as a 2020-2021 Faculty Fellow with the Kegley Institute of Ethics.

Contact: mrees@csub.edu

Dr. Sumita Sarma is an Assistant Professor of Management at California State University, Bakersfield. She received her PhD in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from the University of Missouri Kansas City, where she simultaneously completed a two-year Certificate Program in College and University-level teaching. Dr. Sarma completed her Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications in India, where she was a University topper and a gold medalist. She completed her Master’s in Project and Program Management and Business Development from France. She has lived and worked in three countries – USA, France, and India, and has rich industrial work experience in multi-functional roles. Her main teaching and research interests include entrepreneurship and innovation, and strategic management. In addition, she is engaged in research on social entrepreneurship and women entrepreneurship. Dr. Sarma has published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Business Horizons, Entrepreneurship Research Journal, and Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics on areas of firm-level strategies, entrepreneurial ecosystems, and entrepreneurship. She has presented several of her research papers at international-level conferences such as the Academy of Management, Babson Conference, Sustainability Ethics and Entrepreneurship (SEE), and USASBE. Dr. Sarma is a member of the Academy of Management and has served as ad-hoc reviewer for multiple journals such as Research Policy, Journal of Small Business Management, Asian Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Asian Journal of Management Science and Applications, and for conferences such as Academy of Management, SEE and USASBE. She has recent publications in the Journal of International Consumer Marketing and in the Sustainability Ethics and Entrepreneurship Handbook.

Contact: ssarma@csub.edu

Dr. Adriana Cervantes-González is a full-time Lecturer with the Department of Teacher Education in the School of Social Sciences and Education, where she serves as the lead Faculty for the Teacher Residency for Rural Education (TRRE) Project.  

She comes to our campus with 21 years as an educator serving faculty, students, families, and communities in both K-12 and higher education settings. Dr. Cervantes-González is a proud first-generation graduate of the CSU earning her Master’s Degree in Education with an emphasis in Counseling and Student Services, with distinction - and her Doctorate of Education in the area of Educational Leadership at Fresno State. Dr. Cervantes-González’s primary research interests include the praxisof culturally responsive teaching pedagogies and culturally relevant practices as she supports teacher candidates and teacher leaders in embracing their full social identities in their teaching. She maintains an intentional focus on serving Latina/o/x aspirational educators and in advocating for an assets-based approach to education that affirms the diverse demographic groups represented in schools. Dr. Cervantes-González also works with graduate students who are working towards their Master’s Degree in Education with an Emphasis in Curriculum & Instruction.

Contact: acgonzalez@csub.edu

Professor Amin Malek graduated in 2002 in Computer and Electronic Engineering. He obtained his Master’s in Electronics Engineering in 2006 and his Ph.D. in 2009 specializing in Computer Systems Engineering from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and University Putra Malaysia (UPM), respectively.

Following his Ph.D. in 2009 he worked in the industry for one year as a senior optical engineer at Significant Technologies. In Jan 2010 he moved to the University of Nottingham as an Assistant Professor. In 2012 he was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 2017 to Professor of Optical Communication Systems. In 2020 he moved to the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the California State University, Bakersfield, California, USA.

Dr. Malek is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA), a Senior Member of IEEE, a member of Engineering Council (CEng), IET and Optical Society of America (OSA), and has published over 100 scientific research papers, a postgraduate textbook, as well as delivering keynote speeches at different international scientific conferences around the Globe. Up to now, he is the holder of 4 patents on Optical Fiber Communication Systems. 

Contact: amalekm@csub.edu

Lindsay Nelson-Burkert is a full-time lecturer at California State University of Bakersfield in the Criminal Justice Department. She is an Idaho native and moved to California in 2006. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree at CSUB in Criminal Justice, and then went on to earn her Master of Science from the University of Cincinnati’s School of Criminal Justice, with a double concentration in analysis of criminal behavior and corrections and offender rehabilitation. She is an alumna of the Alpha Phi Sigma National Criminal Justice Honors Society, and the current chapter advisor for CSUB’s Zeta Iota chapter. Lindsay is currently teaching research methods, criminological theories, and introductory criminal justice courses with other teaching interests being correctional treatments and rehabilitation. Her most recent research includes identifying concerns Latina college graduates have when pursuing careers in policing and how growth mindset training can offer a solution.

Contact: lnelson11@csub.edu

Dr. Di Wu is associate professor of accounting and was interim chair of the accounting and finance department. Dr. Wu’s teaching interests include managerial accounting, financial accounting, and data analytics; his research interests include accounting ethics, executive compensation, applications of big data and data analytics, and cost accounting issues.

Dr. Wu also serves as a board director of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA); past president, president, vice president, treasurer of the IMA Wild West Council; and treasurer and financial literacy chair of California Society of CPAs (CalCPAs) Bakersfield Chapter.

His passions include not only engaging students in learning, but also supporting student success outside of classroom. In 2019, Dr. Wu advised an accounting student on the accounting ethics study, titled "Arthur Anderson: The Rise and Fall of the Accounting Industry's Gold Standard" that later won the first prize award in the CSUB research day and that competed at the state level. Dr. Wu also advised a team of four CSUB accounting students in the 2019 IMA National Student Case Competition, who won the finalist award and became the first team from the West Coast making into the final round. In 2021, Dr. Wu was a faculty co-organizer of the 2021 CSUB Digital Marketing and Business Analytics Hackathon, which attracted many student participants and made CSUB the first university in the central valley promoting digital marking and business analytics through the student case competition.

Dr. Wu is also a recipient of several prestigious awards, including CSUB 2020-2021 Promising New Faculty Award, the 2019 IMA R. Lee Brummet Distinguished Award for Educators, and the 2019 PBD Yvonne Captain Faculty Award for Outstanding Contributions to International Education.

Contact: dwu2@csub.edu

Dr. Gitika Commuri has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Southern California and has been teaching at CSUB since 2006. Her research interests are varied and span political identity and its impact on foreign policy, soft power in international politics and more recently American child labor policy. She has published articles and a book exploring how political identity discourses impact India's foreign policy in Kashmir, on India-Pakistan-China relations, as well as on the ambiguity of soft power as a concept. She is currently working on projects related to theorizing the significance of historically traumatic events as soft power with a focus on Holocaust, exploring India-Afghanistan relations with the resurgence of Taliban, and the prevalence of child labor in American agriculture. She teaches courses in Food Policy and Politics, Senior Seminar on The Human/Machine Worlds, International Relations Theory and Theories of Power.

Contact: gcommuri@csub.edu

Phil Chang received his MFA from The California Institute of the Arts and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. Solo exhibitions include The Fulcrum (2023), M+B (2022, 2017, and 2014), The Suburban (2019), Praz-Delavallade (2015), The California Museum of Photography (2015), and LAXART (2012). Chang’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Eastman Museum, and Transformer Station. His work has been written about in Artforum, The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times, Artforum.com, nonsite.org and has appeared in Aperture, Blind Spot, Photography Is Magic, and The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Chang’s publications include Four Over One, an artist’s book published by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in association with Jonathan Maghen. Chang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art & Art History at CSU Bakersfield.

Contact: pchang10@csub.edu

Dr. Jeremiah Cho Sataraka is a full-time lecturer in the Ethnic Studies Department at CSUB. He teaches Pacific Studies, Asian American Studies and Ethnic Studies courses and is the co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Pride Faculty & Staff Affinity group. Dr. Sataraka’s primary research interests include conceptualizing an emergent Ocean Critical Race Theory and increasing the visibility of QTPI (Queer and/or Transgender Pacific Islander) activists and communities like U.T.O.P.I.A. (United Territories of Pacific Islander Alliance).

Dr. Sataraka received his Ph.D. in Cultural Studies & Social Thought in Education from Washington State University (Pullman, WA). Prior to coming to CSUB, he worked with a non-profit organization in Fresno serving primarily Southeast Asian communities to increase COVID-19 education and vaccination rates, and the Central Valley Pacific Islander Alliance (CVPIA).

Contact: jsataraka@csub.edu

Dr. Maryann Parada is an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at California State University Bakersfield, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Spanish language and linguistics. She received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Parada’s research interests are in the areas of bilingualism, language/dialect contact, and heritage language acquisition and development. Using multiple approaches, she also studies naming practices and name-based experiences in the Latin American diaspora, including how Hispanic names are portrayed in news and other mainstream U.S. media. Other interests are translation/interpreting and language policy, specifically around language access in public services and dual language education. She has published in a number of interdisciplinary journals such as Heritage Language Journal; Journal of Language, Identity and Education; Journal of Intercultural Communication Research; and Names: A Journal of Onomastics. Dr. Parada has been consulted for pieces on names-related topics in the New York Times, Gothamist, and Parents Latina Magazine, among others.

Contact: mparada1@csub.edu