Faculty and Staff
Visit our department pages below for listings and profile information on CAHSS faculty and staff.
CAHSS Faculty & Staff News
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CAHSS faculty and staff highlights submitted for 2024/25 include:
- Yong Lao, Professor, Social Sciences & Global Studies, was recently featured in a CSUMB article on Researchers Exploring Different Perspectives on Climate Change.
- Chris Carpenter, Cinematic Arts & Technology Media Production Specialist and lecturer, together with co-directors Robert Machoian and Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck (also former CART lecturer), and Otter alumni Ana Sanchez, Saul Cardenas, LiliArlen Gomez, Christian Vega Bianca Mechelin, announced their short documentary, "The Long Valley," will be screening at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The short is focused on the Salinas Valley and will be available online for the public during the festival January 30-February 2, 2025.
- Yong Lao, Professor, Social Sciences & Global Studies, recently received a $25,000 research grant from the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State. The project, titled "GIS Mapping and Analysis of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) in California," will develop a comprehensive GIS database that includes annual VMT, per capita VMT, and key socioeconomic factors from 2017 to 2022. It will enable the assessment and visualization of VMT trends and their relationships with social, economic, and environmental factors at various geographical scales. In addition, a multivariate cluster analysis will be conducted to understand how travel behavior connects with social and economic factors across different regions in California. The grant is in collaboration with Dr. Bo Yang from UC Santa Cruz.
- Visual Design students working with Cinematic Arts & Technology Professor Enid Ryce interpreting data from the NASA Juno Mission have the top three featured submissions on the NASA Juno Cam site. This marks the third year on this project.
- Yoshiko Saito-Abbott, Professor, World Languages & Cultures, was recently awarded the Wilga Rivers Award for Leadership in World Language Education (Postsecondary) by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the Language Connects Foundation (LCF). The award will be presented in Philadelphia, PA, in November as part of the ACTFL 2024 Annual Convention & World Languages Expo.
- Enid Ryce, Professor, Cinematic Arts & Technology, has grant on Environmental Science Through Art (ESTA) featured on KCBXFM Public Radio was named Best College Professor in the Monterey County Weekly's 2023 "Best Of" edition.
- Jill Yamashita, Professor, Psychology, received a letter of appreciation for her nearly 14 years of service as Psi Chi Chapter Advisor.
Honoring Staff & Faculty Years of Service-2025
Congratulations to CAHSS staff and faculty celebrating service awards in 2025:
- 25 Years
- Chris Carpenter, Cinematic Arts & Technology
- Hedy Wainscoat, Psychology
- 20 Years
- Jennifer Dyer-Seymour, Psychology
- Sunita Lanka, Humanities & Communication
- Lee Ritscher, Humanities & Communication
- 15 Years
- Luis Camara, Cinematic Arts & Technology
- Tomoko Ogaki, World Languages & Cultures
- Jill Yamashita, Psychology
- 10 Years
- David Bennett, World Languages and Cultures
- Darby Brown, World Languages and Cultures
- Danielle Burchett, Psychology
- John Cusick, Social Sciences & Global Studies
- Gabrielle Galanter, Cinematic Arts & Technology
- Katie Grobman, Psychology
- Matthew Mathias, Humanities & Communication
- Justin Matthews, Psychology
- Michele Santamaria, World Languages & Cultures
- Sriya Shrestha, Humanities & Communication
- Stephanie Spoto, Humanities & Communication
- Lisa Szechter, Psychology
- Silvia Turchin, Cinematic Arts & Technology
- 5 Years
- David Deupree, Psychology
- Carolyn Gonzalez, World Languages & Cultures
- Sara Salazar Hughes, Social Sciences & Global Studies
- Jeffrey Jones, Performing & Visual Arts
- David Kellogg, Humanities and Communication
- Zurine De Miguel, Psychology
- Megan Olivas, Cinematic Arts & Technology
- Tim Orme, Cinematic Arts & Technology
- Douglas Ovens, Performing & Visual Arts
- Betty Tapia, Social Sciences & Global Studies
- Tolga Tezcan, Social Sciences & Global Studies
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Ryan White, Cinematic Arts & Technology
- Barbara Zanger Zuniga, Humanities & Communication
Employees received their pins and recognition at the annual Staff and Faculty Appreciation Breakfast held at the University Center January 15, 2025.
Congratulations to President's Award Nominees
Congratulations to Katie Grobman, Justin Matthews, and Renee Penalver, who were among the faculty nominees for the 2024/25 President's Award.
CAHSS Faculty and Staff 2023/2024 News
Looking for information from 2023/24? Please click here to visit the archive page.
CAHSS Faculty and Staff 2022/2023 News
Looking for information from 2022/23? Please click here to visit the archive page.
CAHSS Faculty and Staff 2021/2022 News
Looking for information from 2021/22? Please click here to visit the archive page.