In addition to incoming first-year and transfer students, the University of Redlands is welcoming new faculty members to campus for the 2018-19 academic year. Specializing in a range of subjects from accounting and astronomy to sociology and sustainable business, these professors—three tenure-track appointments and 13 visiting professors—will enrich students’ academic experiences.
“I’d like to offer a warm welcome to all our new faculty members,” said Provost Kathy Ogren. “We look forward to their contributions to our student-centered academic community.”
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Valerie Rountree joins the College of Arts and Sciences as a professor of environmental studies. Originally from Portland, Oregon, she studied biology and chemistry at the University of Puget Sound and natural resources and the environment at the University of Arizona.
After several years as an outdoor science educator and wildlife researcher, she became increasingly interested in how her work would be used to inform policy and decisions. "I am now most interested in how policy and decision makers use scientific data to make better decisions and how scientists can produce research that is more useful and usable for decision-making."
Rountree will be teaching Introduction to Environmental Studies, as well as Energy and the Environment. After spending a few years working from home, she says, “I’m most excited for the opportunity to be a part of an academic community again.”
Visiting professors in the College include Francesca Block (creative writing), Bridgette Callahan (writing), Clarissa Castaneda (English), Brian Dick (sociology and anthropology), Andres Luz (music), Bill Maury-Holmes (religious studies), Charles Mensah (sustainable business), Thomas Olsen (physics and astronomy), Sadie Red Wing (design), and Shellie Zias Roe (environmental studies).
SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Riaz Tejani joins the School of Business as a professor of business ethics. Originally from Long Beach, California, Tejani built a foundation in ethics and law at the University of California, San Diego. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in anthropology at Princeton University and a law degree at the University of Southern California.
With research interests in legal aid business ethics, corporate social responsibility, and access to justice, Tejani is looking forward to exploring ethical leadership and culture, as well as morality, law, and social differences with his students.
Tejani will begin his seventh year teaching business ethics courses to both undergraduate and graduate students. “Students are different everywhere you go,” he says. “University of Redlands students seem to be diverse and curious in many ways that I find energizing.”
New visiting faculty members in the School of Business include Opeyemi Aboagye and Carl Kinnoin.
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Kimiya Sohrab Maghzi joins the School of Education as a professor in the department of teaching and learning. Originally from La Cañada, California, Maghzi has an academic background in history, women’s studies, special education, and dis/ability studies, which she developed at University of California, Irvine, Loyola Marymount University, California State University, Fullerton, and Chapman University.
Maghzi first became interested in inclusion and dis/ability studies while teaching students with dis/abilities in the Saddleback Unified School District. “I began to ask why my students weren’t included with their typical peers—they sat at a different lunch table and were often excluded during recess,” she says. “I wondered why we create classrooms that don’t reflect the reality of living in a society where all people, including those with disabilities, live alongside one another.”
Entering her 12th year as an educator, Maghzi will be teaching Inclusion, Dis/ability and Classroom Community; Diagnostic Reading Intervention; and Foundations of Literacy. “I’m looking forward to encouraging students to think critically and form a new understanding of dis/ability, which is different from the dominant culture,” she says. “I want them question ideologies around normalcy in education and begin to create change for the future.”
A visiting faculty member in the School of Education is Margo Drallos.
Learn more about U of R’s programs of study.
