Preparing Future Faculty – Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Program

Loren Bauerband

Health Sciences

PFFFD 2017-2019

Ph.D., University of Rhode Island

Assistant Professor, Health Sciences, University of Missouri

Loren’s research investigates healthcare disparities among LGBT individuals as well as the impact of minority stress on health behaviors and lifestyle patterns of transgender and sexual minorities.

Ruchi Bhattacharya

Natural Resources

PFFFD 2017-2019

Ph.D., University of Arkansas

Postdoctoral Fellow, Legacies of Agricultural Pollutants, University of Waterloo

Ruchi’s research is developing an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to understand aquatic biochemical processes relevant for water quality and quantity issues influenced by anthropogenic modifications and climate causes.

Fiorella Carlos Chavez

Human Development & Family Science

PFFFD 2018-2021

Ph.D., Florida State University

Fiorella’s research examines the health impact of stressors among Latinx individuals and families as well as the acculturative stress on Latinx college students’ psychosocial outcomes. Her dissertation work studied Latinx migrant farmworkers and contributes to understanding of how family decisions and relationships help Latinx youth manage life challenges.

Merve Fezjula

History

PFFFD 2019-2021

Ph.D., Cambridge University

Merve’s research is situated at the crossroads of scholarship on African intellectual history, black Atlantic studies, and black internationalism, and adopts an interdisciplinary methodology drawn from anthropology, politics, and literary studies. Merve examines the unknown intellectual history of the Anglophone dissemination of negritude, the movement for race consciousness long associated with the Francophone world. Merve studies the way in which racial belonging was given meaning among African and diasporic subjects during the height of decolonization and desegregation.

Rasha Gargees

Computer Science

PFFFD 2020-2022

Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia

Rasha’s research interests include leveraging cloud computing and high-performance parallel distributed systems for multi-stage big data analytics utilizing intelligent agents and deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN). To this end, she has developed a scalable, dynamic, and secure framework, which can be employed in smart cities. Rasha’s research explores data from various heterogeneous independent sources, accommodating both stream data and batch workloads, such as the Internet of Things (IoT) sensor data and Big Geospatial data.

Johana Goyes Vallejos

Biological Sciences

PFFFD 2019-2022

Ph.D., University of Connecticut

Johana’s research interests include sexual selection and mating systems, with a particular interest in species that exhibit parental care behavior. In her research, Johana has used frogs as her study system. For her dissertation work, she focused on elucidating the parental care behavior of the smooth guardian frog of Borneo (Limnonectes palavanensis), an unusual species about which very little was known when she began her work. She is interested in understanding this species’ mating system and what behavioral and ecological factors shaped its evolution.

Les Gray

Theatre

PFFFD 2020-2022

Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park

Les Gray’s research focuses on Black cultural production and its relationship to trauma and terror with examples ranging from blues dancing to police brutality videos. They are interested in performances of spectacular Black pain as well as the potential for joy, healing, and solidarity.

Rachael Hernandez

Communication and Public Health

PFFFD 2019-2021

Ph.D., Indiana University Purdue University – Indianapolis

Rachael’s research explores communication about sensitive health-related topics. Currently, her research focuses primarily on 1) interpersonal communication surrounding sexual health, and 2) how implicit biases against social groups (e.g. along the lines of race, gender, and age) have the potential to shape physician-patient communication.

Sarah Jacquet

Geological Sciences

PFFFD 2017-2019

PhD., Macquarie University

Assistant Professor, Geological Sciences, University of Missouri

Sarah’s research interests reside in palaeobiology, systematics, and sedimentology. She uses high-powered imaging, field, petrographic, and geochemical techniques to examine the emergence and diversification of complex animal body plan through the Palaeozoic.

Gaurav Kandlikar

Biological Science

PFFFD 2020-2022

Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

Gaurav uses mathematical modeling, field studies, and greenhouse experiments to study the processes that influence species diversity and dynamics in plant communities. In his dissertation, Gaurav studied how species diversity in southern California grasslands is influenced by the abiotic environment and by soil microorganisms. His research will continue to build towards a more mechanistic and general understanding of how plant-microbe interactions scale up and interact with other processes to influence plant communities.

Hector Lamadrid

Geological Sciences

PFFFD 2018-2020

Ph.D., Virginia Tech

Hector’s research examines fluid-rock interactions in natural systems. He has made methodological advancements in fluid inclusion analysis techniques, specifically in relation to Roman spectroscopy as a way to determine fluid inclusion in minderals. Hector’s research advances understanding of the roles of fluids in chemical reactions in Earth’s deep interior.

Kaleea Lewis

Public Health; Women’s & Gender Studies

PFFFD 2018-2020

Ph.D., University of South Carolina

Kaleea’s research intersects with public health, sociology, and psychology. She examines racism within the institution of higher education, specifically the challenges faced by Black students and faculty as well as the psychosocial well-being of minority students. Her research takes an intersectional approach to studying experiences and perceptions of practices within higher education.

Yang Li

Nursing

PFFFD 2018-2020

Ph.D., University of Michigan

Yang researches the impact of maternal childhood maltreatment and trauma-related psychopathology on perinatal outcomes. Specifically, her work has examined the concept of Allostatic Load as a physiologic manifestation of multiple systems among the mothers and how they relate to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and childbearing outcomes.

Terrell Morton

Learning, Teaching, & Curriculum

PFFFD 2017-2019

Ph.D., UNC Chapel-Hill

Assistant Professor, Learning, Teaching, & Curriculum, University of Missouri

Terrell’s research focuses on student retention and matriculation in postsecondary education. He examines STEM retention for Black females in undergraduate research experiences and the influence of identity development and expression on student engagement.

Martha (Sofia) Ortega Obando

Animal Sciences

PFFFD 2017-2019

Ph.D., University of Florida

Assistant Professor, Animal Sciences, University of Missouri

Sofia researches bovine reproductive physiology. She is particularly interested in the underlying genomics of fertility regulation, which are players driving maternal-embryo interactions, and how to regulate them to improve reproductive performance in mammals.