Dr. Ben Sadd is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences, after joining in 2013. He received his MSc from the University of Sheffield, U.K., in 2004 and his Ph.D. in 2008 from the ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Subsequently, he was a post-doctoral researcher at the ETH, a Junior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, Berlin, Germany, and, returning to the ETH, a senior researcher. Sadd is an evolutionary ecologist with a particular fascination with host-microbe interactions, immunity, and reproduction. He focuses on insects as model systems, studying bumble bee immunity, health, and disease, and decorated cricket immunity and reproductive investment. He has published 70 peer-reviewed papers, receiving over 5,000 citations. Sadd has received funding from the US Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In addition, Ben is a strong EDI advocate, and he coordinates the annual Charles Morris STEM Social and has recently been part of two Howard Hughes Medical Institute awards to increase inclusivity in our STEM programs. Sadd and his group also believe that broad communication of science is critical, and regularly take part in outreach events, including with local schools and conservation organizations.

Dr. Eric Wesselmann is a professor in the Department of Psychology. He has published research on social inclusion and exclusion, sexual harassment, social stigma, and the psychology of religion and spirituality. He has published in various psychology and interdisciplinary journals, including Aggressive Behavior, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Psychological Science. Wesselmann has co-edited special issues in the Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, and Self & Identity.

Wesselmann’s research has been recognized both nationally and internationally by academics, practitioners, and popular press. The Association for Psychological Science recognized him with a Rising Star designation in 2015. He has served as a grant reviewer for the U.S. National Science Foundation, as well as for funding organizations in Canada, England, Germany, and Poland. His research has been cited in public policy documents both in the U.S. and across the globe, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Turkey, and the United Nations. He has been interviewed by media outlets in the U.S. as well as Canada, England, and France.

He also has research interests in the interface of psychology, fandom, and popular culture, having published related work in the journals Teaching of Psychology and Journal of Fandom Studies. He has contributed chapters to 10 volumes of the Popular Culture Psychology series (e.g., Spider-Man Psychology, Stranger Things Psychology, Wonder Woman Psychology). Wesselmann regularly discusses the overlap between psychology and popular culture topics at conventions locally and nationally. He has contributed to several podcasts for WGLT Psych Geeks, co-curates an ongoing film series for The Normal Theater called FilmCULTure, and has a YouTube channel (Digital Golgotha Productions) where he hosts discussions on the dynamics of popular culture and psychology with scholars, creators, and actors.

Dr. Martin Engelke was raised in Tuebingen, Germany, and discovered his passion for molecular biology in high school. He studied biochemistry at the University of Glasgow, UK (B.S.) and the University of Leipzig, Germany (diploma; M.S. equivalent). During his Ph.D. work at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, he studied how human adenovirus high jack a molecular transport system to establish infection in the human host cell. Fascinated by so-called motor proteins, tiny molecular machines that mediate transport along the cytoskeleton, he moved to the University of Michigan for his postdoctoral work to investigate the native function of these motors. He joined Illinois State University as an assistant professor in cell physiology in 2012. His lab studies how cellular mechanisms regulate the activity of motor proteins and how misregulation of the motors can contribute to human disease. He has received internal and federal grants totaling over $2 million to support his research program. He currently supervises two postdocs, four Ph.D. students, one M.S. student, and several undergraduate students, and enjoys teaching cell biology and genetics.

Dr. Rosangela Follmann is an assistant professor in the School of Information Technology. She received her Ph.D. in applied computing from the National Institute for Space Research, Brazil. Before joining the School of IT, she did two years of postdoctoral research in the Department of Physics at Northwestern University, and two more years as a post-doc at the School of Biological Sciences at Illinois State University. Much of her work has been on developing methods and algorithms for data analysis, information processing, pattern recognition, and prediction of behaviors in the fields of neuroscience and nonlinear dynamics.  

Dr. Melissa Heil is an urban geographer whose research focuses on barriers to water access in American cities. Her research examines three interrelated aspects of household water insecurity: its structural policy causes, government, and non-profit sector responses to address household water insecurity, and emergent geographies of household water insecurity. Her research on household water insecurity began with studies of Flint and Detroit, Michigan, examining the ways that racial inequality in systems of public accounting and debt management contributed to creating water safety and affordability barriers in these cities. Her current research focuses on identifying emerging geographies of household water insecurity in U.S. cities, particularly communities that are at high risk for water service disconnection due to a combination of strict billing practices and unaffordable water rates. Heil joined the Illinois State University faculty as an assistant professor in 2020. She teaches courses in human geography, urban geography, urban planning, and social and cultural geography. Heil holds a Bachelor of Arts in organizational studies from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in geography from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Michael Hendricks

Dr. Michael Hendricks is an assistant professor in the Department of Politics and Government. He holds a Ph.D. (May 2019) and an M.A. (May 2016) in political science from the University of Missouri and a B.A. (May 2011) in international relations from the University of Delaware. He joined Illinois State University in August 2019. His primary research revolves around peacekeeping effectiveness and natural resource extraction, both with a regional focus in the regions of Latin America and Africa. He also has SOTL research exploring how to increase student success and retention through inclusion, diversity, equity, and access initiatives. His research is motivated by his interest in understanding and helping populations facing unfair conditions. His goal is to contribute to promoting equitable and inclusive practices in these spheres, fostering a more just and sustainable society. He utilizes several methods to assist in answering his research questions, ranging from case studies buttressed by extensive fieldwork (e.g., participant observation, interviews, and focus groups) to statistical techniques analyzing various data sources. Hendricks has published books with Oxford University Press and Universidad del Pacifico Press. He also has published in prestigious journals such as International Studies Quarterly, Research and Politics, and Latin American Perspectives, among others.

Dr. Natalie L. Shaheen is a leading expert in K-12 technology accessibility and accessible STEM learning. Shaheen’s work aims to disrupt systemic ableism and reimagine technology-mediated education so that disabled youth have equitable access to learning. Shaheen’s research currently comprises four interrelated lines of inquiry: (1) understanding technology accessibility policy enactment in K-12, (2) developing youth technology accessibility guidelines, (3) transforming teacher professionalism, and (4) developing nonvisually accessible tools and pedagogical approaches for STEM education. Her previous research examined how K-12 school districts ensured equitable access to technology-mediated learning and analyzed the extent to which state-level policies addressed technology accessibility in K-12.

Before entering academia, Shaheen was a teacher of blind and disabled youth in public K-12 schools and informal education. As a practitioner, Shaheen facilitated accessible STEM classes for over 900 blind youth in a range of disciplines including chemistry, computer science, and engineering.

Dr. Andrew Ventimiglia is an assistant professor of mass media with a specialization in media law and ethics in the School of Communication at Illinois State University. His research focuses on the history and cultural effects of intellectual property law. His first book, Copyrighting God: Ownership of the Sacred in American Religion, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. Before coming to ISU, Ventimiglia was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Law at the University of Queensland. He was awarded his Ph.D. in cultural studies from the University of California–Davis in 2015, during which he conducted research into the intersection of religion and intellectual property law in the American spiritual marketplace. Ventimiglia additionally holds a Master of Arts in cinema studies and a certificate from the Culture and Media program at New York University. He has published articles on a variety of topics related to the use of copyright and trademark law in religious practice in journals including the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Religion and American Culture, Information & Culture, Cultural Critique, and Enterprise & Society. He is also the director of the Foxtail Film Festival held annually at the Normal Theater. 

Jason Reblando is an assistant professor of photography at the Wonsook Kim School of Art at Illinois State University. He holds an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago and a B.A. in sociology from Boston College. He is the recipient of a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship to the Philippines, two Artist Fellowship Awards from the Illinois Arts Council, and a Community Arts Assistance Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Society for Photographic Education. His work has been published in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times, Politico, Camera Austria, Slate, Bloomberg Businessweek, Marketplace, MAS Context, Real Simple, Places Journal, and Chicago Magazine. His photographs are collected in the Library of Congress, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His monograph New Deal Utopias was published by Kehrer Verlag in 2017. His project This Is Captured Paper, a series of collages sourced from American colonial photography in the Philippines, will be published by For The Birds Trapped In Airports in 2025. www.jasonreblando.com

Dr. David Kopsell, professor of horticulture, Department of Agriculture, holds a B.S. from Illinois State University and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in horticulture from the University of Georgia. His other professional positions include extension vegetable specialist with the University of New Hampshire, private crop consultation in the global sweet onion industry, and assistant professor of horticulture at UW-Platteville. Kopsell has taught 17 different courses and has received over 20 teaching awards including the 2019 NARRU Distinguished Educator and the 2015 American Society for Horticultural Science’s Outstanding Undergraduate Educator Awards. He has served as the ASHS Education Division vice president on its executive board, on numerous society committees, and was elected Fellow of the Society in 2022. He has received $2.4 million in career funding, published 45 research articles, 5 book chapters, and 1 provisional patent, and given over 150 presentations. According to Google Scholar, his h-index is 25, his i10-index is 35, and he has over 2,200 career citations. He sits on the editorial boards of the three journals in his discipline of plant nutrition and specialty crops. He is the co-author of the first and second editions of the electronic textbook titled Horticulture: Principles, Practices, and Career Opportunities.

Dr. Liangcheng Yang is an associate professor of environmental health and sustainability in the Department of Health Sciences. He received his Master’s degree from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2009 and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013. After graduation, he worked as a postdoc researcher at Ohio State University for about 10 months and then joined Illinois State University as an assistant professor in August 2014. Yang’s primary research focus is air quality and anaerobic digestion, where he specializes in livestock ammonia emission control using biofiltration methods, community air quality research in environmental justice areas, and anaerobic digestion waste management technology that converts organic waste into bioenergy. As of December 2023, he has secured approximately $2 million of research funding from multiple funding agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He has published 44 peer-reviewed journal articles. According to Google Scholar, his work has been cited over 3,100 times.