Assistant Professor
Cell and Molecular Biology

Ph.D. Microbiology, Cornell University
B.S. Mathematics, University of Maryland
B.S. Microbiology, University of Maryland

Sam Barnett is a microbiologist and bioinformatician interested in understanding how human impacts on the environment influence microbial community composition, assembly, and function in diverse habitats. His research focuses on applying multi-omics methods to examine microbial communities in disturbed environments and how these communities change in their composition and function during disturbance and recovery. Sam earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University where his work focused on community assembly and life history strategies of microbes in soil across different land-use regimes. His postdoctoral work was primarily at Michigan State University where he studied microbial communities recovering from the coal mine fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania and at the Kellogg Biological Station where he examined microbial communities across restored prairies in agricultural regions. Sam is excited to bring this experience to both his research and teaching at Grand Valley State University.

Assistant Professor
Mathematics/Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Elementary Teaching (PCKET)

Ph.D. Mathematics Education, Texas State University
M.Ed. Mathematics Teaching Theory and Methods, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education
B.S. Mathematics Teacher Education, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education

Guided by the belief that “Education is the most powerful weapon that we can use to change the world,” Mai is passionate about collaborating with preservice and in-service teachers to better understand and strengthen their instructional practices. Her scholarly interests focus on students’ mathematical thinking and how research-based knowledge can inform teacher noticing and foster high-quality classroom discourse. Bringing more than 10 years of experience working with preservice and in-service teachers, as well as K–12 educators across diverse cultural contexts, Mai is excited to join Grand Valley State University and contribute to a community committed to supporting teachers and improving mathematics education. Outside of academia, she enjoys cooking Vietnamese food and baking banana brownies for game nights with family and friends.

Assistant Professor
Music, Theatre, and Dance

D.M.A. Trombone Performance, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.M. Jazz Studies: Composition, DePaul University
B.M. Trombone Performance, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Ryan Christianson is a multifaceted performer and educator whose career has spanned numerous styles and settings. As the trombonist of the internationally-touring Dallas Brass, Ryan has presented masterclasses and performances around the country including at such venues and institutions as the Colburn School, the New World School of the Arts, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, and at numerous other universities and conferences across the US. In addition to his work as a classical trombonist, Ryan maintains a prominent career as a freelance commercial and jazz performer. Notable appearances as a commercial musician include at the North Coast Music Festival with EDM artist Diplo, on ABC’s Shark Tank with the McNasty Brass Band, and opening for Bruno Mars at the 2023 Illinois Gubernatorial Inauguration. As a jazz artist, Ryan has appeared with groups at the Chicago Jazz Festival, the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, the Winnipeg Jazz Festival, and in numerous residencies at clubs and venues across the Chicagoland area. Additionally, Ryan was a finalist in the International Trombone Association’s Carl Fontana Competition in 2014. A dedicated educator, Ryan has previously held positions at Millikin University and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Prior to college teaching, he maintained a studio of middle and high school students through which students were regularly placed in the top honor bands, orchestras, and jazz bands in Illinois.

Assistant Professor
Chemistry

Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Toronto
B.Sc. Chemistry, University of Guelph

Dr. Hems' research explores environmental chemical reactions to expand our understanding of how air pollution forms, transforms, and impacts climate. Her research has focused on pollutants in wildfire smoke, emissions from cooking indoors, and the role of clouds in chemically transforming atmospheric pollutants. This work applies advanced chemical measurements to study chemical reactions in the laboratory and is informed by green chemistry and sustainability principles. Her work has been published in ACS Earth and Space Chemistry, Environmental Science & Technology, Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts, among others. Rachel grew up and completed her education in Ontario, Canada before moving to the US to begin her teaching career. She is passionate about teaching chemistry at all levels, empowering students through a growth mindset, and encouraging curiosity and problem solving. Rachel enjoys traveling, hiking, and spending time with her two cats, Splash and Dash. 

Assistant Professor
Visual and Media Arts

M.F.A. Painting, Kendall College of Art & Design
B.F.A. Studio Art, Truman State University
International Study, Marchutz School of Art 

Megan Klco Kellner is a painter and writer whose work explores themes of gender, motherhood, and attention. Megan came to Grand Valley as a Visiting Professor in Visual Media Arts and also has a background in museum education, where she applied visual thinking practices to design cross-discipline K-12 programs around works of contemporary art. She holds an M.F.A. in Painting from Kendall College of Art & Design and a B.F.A. from Truman State University. 

Assistant Professor
Movement Science

Ph.D. Exercise Physiology
M.S. Exercise Physiology
B.A. Kinesiology and Exercise Science, Hope College

Dr. Mitch Nienhuis earned his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Miami, specializing in biomechanics and applied physiology. His teaching and research focus on exercise testing and prescription, strength and conditioning, sport science, and the use of emerging technologies to assess human movement and athletic performance. Before joining the faculty at GVSU, Mitch gained extensive experience in collegiate athletics, fitness leadership, and applied performance. He currently serves as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Grand Rapids Rise professional women’s volleyball team, where he integrates performance testing, athlete monitoring, and data analytics into the team’s training program. He is passionate about creating hands-on learning and research opportunities that connect students with athletes and community partners. Mitch is excited to continue building relationships across GVSU and contributing to the university community.

Assistant Professor
Sociology

Ph.D. Sociology, Purdue University
M.A. Sociology, Ball State University
B.S. Sociology, Truman State University;

Zak Palmer is a gender scholar with interests in masculinities and transgender studies. His most recent work is on transgender lives and resistance in Texas, where he worked for the last six years. He has also studied everything from men who are fans of My Little Pony to men's rights activists in India. In his spare time, he likes to be in nature and to spend time with his two kids. 

Assistant Professor
Music, Theatre, and Dance

M.M. Horn Performance, Indiana University
B.S. Electrical Engineering, Purdue University

Rebecca Salo is the horn professor at Grand Valley State University, and she is an active performer and teacher. Currently, she is also the Principal Horn of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, and she regularly performs with a variety of chamber ensembles. During the summers, she teaches on faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Previously, Rebecca has held the positions of Principal Horn in the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, Second Horn in the Paducah Symphony Orchestra, Principal Horn in the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Consortium Instructor of Horn at the University of Evansville, and Founder and Artistic Director of the Evansville Homeschool Band; and she has performed with other orchestras including the Lexington Philharmonic and the Orchestra Kentucky Bowling Green. Additionally, Rebecca has appeared as a soloist with the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, Purdue Wind Ensemble, and Kokomo Park Band.

Assistant Professor
Biology/Environmental Science

Ph.D. Biology, Kent State University
B.S. Biology, Cleveland State University

Jordyn’s interest in aquatic ecology began during her undergraduate studies at Cleveland State University, where she conducted paleolimnological research examining environmental change through lake sediment records. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Biology from Kent State University, where her research focused on understanding how algal communities in lakes and streams respond to macro- and micronutrient availability. Her doctoral research also took her to Lake Victoria in Kenya, where she studied harmful algal blooms and their similarities to those occurring in the Laurentian Great Lakes. In addition to her research, Jordyn has extensive experience in aquatic conservation and watershed management. She has served for eight years on the Cuyahoga River Area of Concern Advisory Committee, including as Chair of the Strategic Implementation and Planning Committee, and has worked with nonprofit organizations to protect and restore coldwater stream ecosystems. These experiences allow her to connect ecological research with the real-world challenges of managing and conserving freshwater resources. At the heart of Jordyn’s work is a passion for teaching and mentoring the next generation of environmental scientists. She particularly enjoys creating hands-on learning opportunities that get students into the field and help them connect scientific concepts with environmental challenges in their own communities. Outside of work, Jordyn enjoys hiking and camping with her partner and dogs, playing disc golf and volleyball, and spending as much time outdoors as possible. On quieter days, she enjoys reading, experimenting with new recipes, and a competitive board game.

Assistant Professor
Psychology

Ph.D. Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong & University of Michigan

Dr. Ying Wang joins the Department of Psychology as a tenure-track Assistant Professor after previously serving as an Affiliate Professor at GVSU. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from The Chinese University of Hong Kong and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan. Her research examines how language and cultural experiences shape children’s cognitive development across diverse educational contexts, with particular interests in bilingualism and language immersion, literacy development, language–music interactions, and neurodiversity. Through community-engaged partnerships with local schools, her work aims to translate developmental science into evidence-based educational practices that support diverse learners. Dr. Wang teaches Research Methods, Data Applications, and related psychology courses and is committed to engaging undergraduate students in meaningful, hands-on research experiences.

Assistant Professor
Philosophy

Doctorate in Philosophy, Boston College

Nicholas Westberg is a scholar of Early Modern Philosophy. In 2024, he received his doctorate in Philosophy from Boston College under the supervision of Professor Jean-Luc Solère. Most recently he served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. His research and teaching focus on metaphysics and natural philosophy in the late scholastic and early modern periods, with a particular emphasis on theories of causation and material constitution. He has previously published on Rene Descartes, John Duns Scotus, and Francisco Suarez and is currently developing a project on the philosophy of the seventeenth century Englishwoman, Margaret Cavendish.

Assistant Professor
Physics

Dual Ph.D. in Physics and Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, Michigan State University. 
B.S. in Physics, Grand Valley State University

Tyler Wheeler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at Grand Valley State University. His research focuses on experimental nuclear astrophysics, detector development, and the application of machine learning and computational methods to nuclear physics experiments. He earned his B.S. in Physics from GVSU, where he investigated molecular networks and metal-organic frameworks using positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy. He later earned a dual Ph.D. in Physics and Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering from Michigan State University, where he conducted research at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). At FRIB, Tyler led an experiment investigating the thermonuclear rate of the 15O(α,γ)19Ne reaction, a key breakout reaction in Type I X-ray burst nucleosynthesis, through measurements of β-delayed charged-particle emission from 20Mg. He also contributed to the design, construction, and commissioning of the GADGET II time projection chamber (TPC), which was used to perform these measurements. His current research includes the analysis of β-delayed proton and exotic β-delayed proton-alpha emission from 21Mg, as well as the development of cross-detector representation learning and foundation models for TPC data.

Assistant Professor
History

Ph.D. Carnegie Mellon University
M.A. University of Maine

Michael White is a new Assistant Professor of African American History and teaches courses on African American History, United States History, and the Civil Rights Movement. During the 2025-2026 academic year, Michael served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of African American History at Western Carolina University, where he taught undergraduate history courses on African American History, the Atlantic World, and U.S. History since 1865. Michael also taught a graduate course on comparative slavery in the United States, indigenous America, Canada, the Caribbean, and Brazil. Michael earned his Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon University where he researched the twentieth-century Black healthcare experience in Pittsburgh. Michael's master’s thesis at the University of Maine examined the Black Loyalists of the American Revolution and their time in Nova Scotia after the war. He completed his undergraduate studies at Point Park University. Outside of the classroom, Michael enjoys running, barbecuing, watching Formula 1, and cheering on the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Affiliate Professor
Biology

Ph.D., Agricultural Sciences, Southern Illinois University Carbondale
M.S. Wildlife Ecology, Iowa State University
B.S. Natural Resources Management and Mathematics, Grand Valley State University

Ellen Audia is a wildlife and spatial ecologist who primarily studies how wildlife and ecosystems respond to environmental change. More specifically, Ellen's research focuses on how disturbance and landscape change affect animal movement, habitat selection, distributions, and overall ecosystem function. She is particularly interested in anthropogenic land use change and its impact on wide-ranging species that are navigating mosaics of native and altered habitats. By leveraging fundamental ecological concepts to answer applied questions, Ellen seeks to develop insights that inform conservation planning and promote human-wildlife coexistence. As an alum of GVSU, Ellen is excited to return to her alma mater to teach and inspire the next generation of ecologists and natural resource managers!

Affiliate Professor
Mathematics

M.A. Mathematics Education, Western Michigan University
B.A. Mathematics and Latin Secondary Education, Western Michigan University

Dyami is a former high school math teacher who now teaches the foundational mathematics courses at GVSU. Since earning his master's degree in mathematics education, he has taught courses at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and Western Michigan University with a focus on working with the most at risk students. Dyami's classroom focuses on building relationships and helping students find success in mathematics.

Affiliate Professor
Writing

Ph.D. English, Indiana University Bloomington
M.A. English, McGill University
B.A. English, Mount Allison University

Milo Murphy Hicks is a first-year writing teacher with a multidisciplinary background in literature, media studies, cognitive science, and philosophy. Pedagogically, Milo values the slow, collaborative work of inquiry in the classroom. He strives to create learning communities where students can learn to take intellectual risks, metacognitively reflect on their own process, and recognize writing as a recursive process of discovery. Before coming to GVSU, Milo designed and taught courses in writing, literature, and general education for 7 years at Indiana University Bloomington. Some of these courses include “Bad Heroes,” which examines flawed models of heroism and their cultural value, and “Disaster Stories,” which traces narratives of catastrophe from the Book of Genesis to contemporary disaster movies. As a literary scholar, Milo researches 20th and 21st century literature, the short story genre, literary minimalism, and experimental writing. As a member of the Experimental Humanities Lab, he has conducted collaborative research on narrative thinking, aesthetic and moral judgment, and affect sharing, which has been published in the Review of Philosophy and Psychology and Behavioral and Brain Sciences. In his spare time, he loves learning new things, watching horror movies, and running D&D games. 

Affiliate Professor
Classics

Ph.D. Comparative Literature, Louisiana State University
M.A. Comparative Literature, Purdue University
M.A. Classics, Indiana University
B.A. Classics & History, Purdue University

Benjamin Howland began as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics in 2021 at GVSU, and will begin this year in a new role as an Affiliate Professor of Classics. His specialty within Classics focusses primarily on Classical Reception. His research interests include the life and reception of Spartacus in ancient and modern literature (dissertation topic, LSU 2020), Classical Reception in America, Race & Racism, exemplary history, and the late Roman Republic. He has an upcoming book chapter (co-author Sean Tandy, University of Delaware) “Ku-Klux Klassix: White Supremacy and the Classical Tradition During Reconstruction” in Abusing Antiquity? Classics and the Contemporary Far Right (ed. Helen Roche & Denise McCoskey, 2026) focusing on the how the original Ku-Klux Klan exploited the Classical tradition as part of their ideology and identity during the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877), arguing that the Ku-Klux’s use of Latin quotes and classical exempla was a calculated part of the group’s ‘brand’ and was integrated into its language of racial discourse and violence.

Affiliate Professor
Writing

M.F.A. Creative Writing, University of North Carolina Greensboro
B.A. English, Hope College

Glenn Lester [he/him] earned an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of North Carolina Greensboro and a B.A. in English from Hope College. Before coming to GVSU in 2024, Glenn taught students about writing for over 15 years at a wide variety of institutions in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, and North Carolina. Glenn is happy to be back in his home state of Michigan, working with awesome GVSU students in WRT 120 & WRT 130. Glenn has published fiction in The Masters Review, Barrelhouse, Revolver Reader, and elsewhere; an essay on writerly identity that he co-authored with former students recently appeared in Writing Spaces. Glenn's professional and research interests include first year writing and creative writing pedagogies, response to student writers, ungrading, writerly identity, literature as a tool for personal development, and contemporary American fiction. Glenn also enjoys running, cooking, and playing music. He lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with his wife and son.

Affiliate Professor
Visual and Media Arts

M.F.A. 3D Design, Cranbrook Academy of Art
B.F.A. Sculpture, Grand Valley State University

Drew teaches Introduction to Art for the Visual and Media Arts Department. He is also a GVSU alumnus and was selected for the Nedra J. Smith Otis Scholarship. He received his Masters of Fine Art from Cranbrook Academy of Art where he was the Don C. Albinson Scholar, and has taught studio art and foundations as an adjunct and visiting professor over the last 10 years. 

Affiliate Professor
Biology/Geography and Sustainable Planning

M.S. Biology, Grand Valley State University 
B.A. Forestry, Michigan State University
B.A. Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University

James Tisdale is an Affiliate Professor at Grand Valley State University. He holds a B.S. in Forestry and Fisheries & Wildlife from Michigan State University and an M.S. in Biology from Grand Valley State University. His research interests include wildlife habitat selection, forest ecology, remote sensing, and GIS applications in natural resource management. His work integrates LiDAR, GPS telemetry, and spatial analysis to better understand wildlife–habitat relationships. At GVSU, he teaches courses in natural resource management, forest ecosystem management, and related areas.

Affiliate Professor
History

Ph.D. History, University of Notre Dame
M.A. History, Ohio University
B.A. History, Gannon University

Ian Van Dyke is a historian of religion and politics in the twentieth century. His research focuses on evangelical Christian missionaries working in the Global South whose radical critiques of capitalism, militarism, and Cold War imperialism ran counter to the politics of the American religious right. His co-edited volume, The Routledge History of Evangelical Christianity in America, was published in 2026. Since joining the GVSU History Department as a visiting faculty member in 2022, Van Dyke has taught courses on U.S. and global history, the history of religion, and the history of U.S. foreign affairs. He also advises the Grand Valley Journal of History.

Visiting Professor
Music, Theatre, and Dance - Theatre

M.F.A. Theatre, Florida State University
B.A. Theatre and Psychology, Saint Mary's College

Sarah Aker is returning to Grand Valley as a visiting professor after having adjunct taught the Lighting Design course in Fall 2025, as well as designed lighting for the Theatre productions of FIVE MILE LAKE and WRENS. Most recently Sarah has taught at Grand Rapids Community College; prior to that she taught at Ferris State University and Stephens College. She is also a professional lighting designer working locally, primarily with Actors' Theatre Grand Rapids. She holds an M.F.A. in Lighting Design and a B.A. in Theatre and Psychology from Saint Mary's College.

Visual and Media Arts - Photography
Visiting Professor

M.F.A. Interdisciplinary Media Arts Practices, University of Colorado Boulder
B.A. Art & Technology, Global Health Studies, Allegheny College

Cali M. Banks is an interdisciplinary artist from Syracuse, NY. Banks' work explores personal and collective histories, relational intimacies, and the expansion of narrow, flattened definitions of indigenous art. She is interested in the idea of image-making as a time or record-keeper, and being able to manipulate that to recreate memories, history, and methods of healing. Cali has served on the faculty at Syracuse University, Pratt Institute's Munson Campus, Indiana University, and the University of Colorado Boulder. She currently teaches workshops through Penumbra Foundation and Santa Fe Workshops. Cali was a 2024 En Foco Photography Fellow, a 2024 Penumbra Foundation Workspace Resident, and a 2025 Aurora PhotoCenter Workspace Resident. In recent times, Banks has exhibited work during Art Basel Miami and Every Woman Biennial London, and other notable venues such as Smack Mellon, Tiger Strikes Asteroid Philadelphia, Atlanta Film Festival, The Film-Makers' Cooperative, Millenium Film Workshop, and Anthology Film Archives, including a solo exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art and Syracuse University. Her work has also been published on Der Greif, Lomography, Lenscratch, and Rolling Stone France.

Website: calimariebanks.com

Visiting Professor
Philosophy

Ph.D. Philosophy, University of Oregon
M.A. Philosophy, University of Oregon
B.A. Women and Gender Studies, Simmons University
B.A. Philosophy, Simmons University  

Audrey Brown is a visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and works in the fields of North American Indigenous Philosophy and American Philosophy (including pragmatism, American feminism, philosophy of race, and early Puritan thought). Her work largely focuses on the intersection of the two fields and the history of settler colonialism in the United States. She works to continue to expand the cannon of American philosophy to include Indigenous philosophers and has published on Laura Cornelius Kellogg, John Ross, Zitkala-Ša, William Apess and others. Additionally, Audrey has also published on classical American philosophers like Jonathan Edwards, Josiah Royce, and John Dewey. She currently has two manuscripts in process. The first, titled New World Metaphysics, looks at a history of political and philosophical ideas that shaped U.S. Settler Colonialism. The second, titled Introduction to North American Indigenous Philosophy (coauthored with Scott L. Pratt and Jonathan Van Belle), is an intro textbook to the field of Indigenous philosophy in North America. 

Visiting Professor
Biology

Ph.D. Genetics, University of Cambridge
B.Sc. Biology, University of Bath, United Kingdom

Candice is a visiting professor who loves sharing her passion for biology with students, aiming to make genetics accessible to everyone. Originally from the United Kingdom, she studied imprinted gene regulation, earning a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, before moving to the United States to conduct research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Candice has worked as an adjunct professor at Grand Valley since Winter 2025. When she is not sharing her excitement for teaching and learning with her students, she enjoys being outdoors, experimenting with photography, and spending time with her family.

Visiting Professor
Biology

M.S. Biology, Grand Valley State University
B.S. Wildlife Biology, Grand Valley State University

Brody Glei is a recent graduate from Grand Valley State University in the Biology department. His master’s work focused on deer-human conflict in Kent County and Brody's research focus is based around geospatial technologies and wildlife conservation. 

Visiting Professor
School of Communications

M.A. Communication, Central Michigan University
B.S. Advertising, Central Michigan University

Marni Lorenz began teaching in higher education in fall 2020 and has since taught communication courses in public speaking, business and workplace communications, and rhetorical studies at Central Michigan University, the University of Detroit Mercy, and Wayne State University. At Wayne State, Lorenz is a fifth-year Ph.D. candidate in Communication, completing a historical rhetorical dissertation examining how U.S. presidents rhetorically navigated the tension between American democratic ideals and racial inequality within a Cold War geopolitical landscape. While her scholarship centers on presidential rhetorical studies, her research spans a wide range of communication subfields, qualitative methodologies, and interdisciplinary collaborations. She has coauthored articles in Death Studies and Media International Australia and is a contributor to the forthcoming edited collection Working (and Listening) Together: Collaborative Research into Linguistic Awareness and Attitudes at an Urban Research University.

Visiting Professor
Classics

Ph.D. Classics, University of Cincinnati
M.A. Classics, University of Cincinnati
B.A. Classics, Grand Valley State University

Andrew Lund is a philologist who specializes in the study of Greek and Latin literature - especially Roman drama. His primary research interests are centered around the intersecting themes of (A) the reception of drama and performance culture, and (B) the constructions of status, gender, and identity in literature and culture. His book project, “The Enslaved Muse: Senecan Tragedy and the Reception of the Comic Trickster,” is the first monograph-length study on the reception of Roman comedy in Senecan tragedy, and he is also at work on smaller projects looking at the reception of the comic playwright Terence (active 166-160 BCE) in the first and fifteenth centuries CE. He has held academic appointments at Colorado College, the Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome (“the Centro”), and Tulane University, and he is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (FAAR ’23).

Visiting Professor
Philosophy

Ph.D. Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park
M.A. Philosophy, Northern Illinois University
B.A. English, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
B.A. Philosophy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Michael McCourt joined GVSU in Fall 2026 as a visiting faculty member in Philosophy. He previously spent two years as visiting faculty in the Honors Program at the George Washington University. He has taught courses on the history of philosophy, theory of knowledge, philosophy of language, philosophy of law, logic, and cognitive science. His research focuses on questions about word meaning.  He also writes about ancient Greek philosophy, especially Plato. Outside of the classroom, Mike enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, watching baseball, and hiking.

Visiting Professor
Visual and Media Arts

Current Ph.D. Candidate, Georgia State University
M.A. Cinema Studies, New York University
B.A. History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Christopher Minz earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in History with a minor in Cinema Studies before contuining his education and earning a Master of Arts in Cinema Studies at New York University. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. from Georgia State University this fall. His general interests focus on formal aesthetics as they manifest a cinematic sense of subjecthood. His published work has focused on Westerns and American Subjective identity, primarily using Marxist ideological critique and psychoanalytic theory as the tool through which to explore these themes. Beyond these areas of interest, Christopher has a deep fascination with exploitation and "low" genre/paracinema, and a general interest in the cinema of Latin America particularly Colombia, Chile, and Mexico.  He has taught courses on Latin American Cinema, Eastern European/soviet bloc cinema, Westerns, Psychoanalysis, Queer Cinema, Counter Culture Cinema, and more.

Visiting Professor
Music, Theatre, and Dance - Collaborative Piano

Doctor of Musical Arts, University of Michigan

Dr. Amanda Raymond, originally from Maine, is a collaborative pianist and educator who joins Grand Valley State University as Visiting Faculty in Collaborative Piano. Her diverse performing career encompasses solo recitals, concerto engagements, orchestral performances, collaborative recitals, and teaching. She has won more than a dozen piano competitions and has received numerous music scholarships and awards. As a collaborative artist, Amanda has performed with singers from leading institutions and opera programs, including the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program, Juilliard, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Minnesota Opera, Merola Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Music Academy of the West. During her time in Maine, she collaborated with organizations including the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Opera Maine, Choral Art Society, Oratorio Chorale, and the University of Southern Maine. Amanda has previously held faculty positions at Radford University, Virginia Tech, Ferrum College, and the Portland Conservatory of Music. She recently earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Collaborative Piano from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Martin Katz and Ana María Otamendi. She also holds performance degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of Southern Maine.

Visiting Professor
Sociology

Ph.D. Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
M.A. Education, University of Washington

Ian Anthony is a proud teacher-scholar who earned a master's degree in education from the University of Washington (2018), and a master's degree (2022) and Ph.D. (2026) in sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research examines how perceptions of uncertainty shape social life, focusing on how people respond to being seen as racially ambiguous, spiritually irrational, or socially unsettled, and what those responses reveal about the structures that produce them. His teaching seeks to make sociology come alive for students at whatever life stage they are in and whatever trajectory they are seeking. He does this by actively engaging students in fun and games and, in the spirit of bell hooks, also works to humanize the teacher-student relationship, while remaining attentive to the power structures that undergird institutions like higher education.

Visiting Professor
Modern Languages and Literatures - Spanish

Current Ph.D. Candidate, Romance Languages, University of Georgia 
M.A. Spanish Linguistics, Michigan State University
B.A. Spanish, Grand Valley State University 

Eliot Westdorp is a language educator and researcher specializing in Spanish and Hispanic linguistics. His teaching emphasizes communicative, student-centered approaches to language learning, with particular interests in helping students develop meaningful connections between language, culture, and the communities in which they are spoken. His research focuses on language variation and sociolinguistics in Galicia, Spain, with particular attention to Galician and Spanish and the relationship between linguistic variation, identity, and language contact. His broader academic interests include Hispanic linguistics, language variation and change, bilingualism, and minority and regional languages. Eliot brings international experience to his teaching and research and has spent significant time living and conducting research in Spain and he enjoys bringing his experiences with multilingual communities into the classroom. As a new faculty member at Grand Valley State University, he looks forward to helping students develop both linguistic proficiency and a deeper understanding of the diverse cultures and communities of the Spanish-speaking world.