Taking leadership to a new level

Richard Amesbury

Director of the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies 

Professor of Religious Studies

Richard Amesbury is Director of the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies and Professor of Religious Studies. A philosopher and scholar of religion, he works in the fields of moral and political philosophy and philosophy of religion. Prior to joining ASU he held the chair in Theological Ethics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and chaired the Philosophy and Religion Department at Clemson University, where he was Professor of Philosophy and of Religious Studies.

Professor Amesbury’s current research examines the ensemble of dispositions, affects, and intuitions that comprise the secular – i.e., the epistemic regime within which religion emerges as an object of interest, anxiety, regulation, and academic study. More broadly, he is interested in methodology in the humanities and in the role our moral reactions play in providing access to an intelligible, objective world. 

He earned his BA from Harvard University, a Diploma in Theology from Oxford University, and his PhD from Claremont Graduate University.

J. Marty Anderies

Professor and Graduate Director

School of Human Evolution and Social Change and School of Sustainability

Dr. Anderies received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from The University of British Columbia in 1998.  He joined ASU in 2002 and is now a full professor jointly appointed in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change and School of Sustainability. His current research interests focus on robust management and robust institutional design for coupled social-ecological systems. He studies a range of archaeological, historical, and present-day examples of social-ecological systems using multiple methods including human subject experiments, qualitative case-study analysis, and formal mathematical modeling to analyze how ecological, behavioral, social, and institutional factors generate vulnerability and/or enhance resilience and robustness in social-ecological systems. Other areas of interest include economic growth, demographics, migration, environmental justice, and inequality.

Tamiko Azuma

Associate Professor of Speech and Hearing Science and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education

College of Health Solutions

Tamiko Azuma is an Associate Professor of Speech and Hearing Science and Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education in the College of Health Solutions. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Arizona State University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona’s National Center for Neurogenic Communication Disorders before starting her faculty position in the Speech and Hearing Science Program at ASU.  In 2018, she became the Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education in the College of Health Solutions.

Professor Azuma’s research has centered on how attention, executive function, memory, and language processing are affected by healthy aging, dementia, traumatic brain injury, and other neurological conditions. Her most recent studies focus on cognitive processing in individuals with acquired neurological disorders, specifically mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI).  Her research team is particularly interested in the assessment of military veterans and bilinguals because there is limited research on the longer-term consequences of mTBI in those populations. These research findings support evidence-based clinical practice, including the development of appropriate assessments and therapies for bilingual and veteran clients. She has authored and co-authored many peer-reviewed research articles in professional journals as well as numerous national and international conference presentations. She is currently an Editorial Board Member for the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.  Throughout her career at ASU, Professor Azuma has been dedicated to developing effective teaching and mentoring strategies for undergraduate and graduate students.  She was named a Zebulon Pearce Distinguished Teaching Award recipient and an ASU Provost Teaching Fellow (2015-2017). As CHS Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Education, she works closely with faculty and staff to promote learning innovations and enhanced academic experiences for students.

Melita Belgrave

Associate Professor of Music Therapy, School of Music, Dance and Theatre and Associate Dean for Culture and Access, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts

Melita Belgrave received her bachelor’s degree in music therapy from Michigan State University. She also earned her master’s in music therapy, a certification in aging studies, and a doctorate in music education with an emphasis in music therapy at Florida State University.  Belgrave has worked as a music therapist in special education, mental health, rehabilitation, hospice, geriatric, and intergenerational settings throughout Texas, Florida, Kansas, and Missouri. Her research interests are music therapy with older adults and intergenerational programming. She has presented at regional, national, and international conferences, and her research has been published in national and international journals including the Journal of Music Therapy, Music Therapy Perspectives, Frontiers Medicine, Journal of Music Teacher Education. She co-authored the text "Music Therapy and Geriatric Populations: A Handbook for Practicing Music Therapists." Her current service includes working as the chair of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee for the American Music Therapy Association. Additionally, Belgrave serves as a member of the editorial board for Music Therapy Perspectives and was the 2016-2018 chair of the International Seminar of the Commission on Special Music Education and Music Therapy. Prior to her appointment at Arizona State University, Belgrave taught in the music therapy program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City as an assistant and associate professor. While at ASU, Belgrave currently teaches undergraduate and graduate music therapy courses, serves as the advisor for the music therapy student organization, and has been appointed as the administrator of the Arizona State University Music Therapy Clinic. Belgrave has also been appointed as a research affiliate at The Mayo Clinic in Arizona and conducts creative aging music groups in the community. In 2018 Belgrave was recognized by the Black Music Therapy Network, Inc. with the annual service award in recognition for her exemplary commitment to advanced knowledge and practice in the field of music therapy. Additionally, Belgrave has authored a chapter in and co-edited the text for Music Therapy in a Multicultural Context: A Handbook for Music Therapy Students and Professionals.

Kyle Bowen

Executive Director of Learning Experience

University Technology Office

Kyle Bowen is the executive director of Learning Experience at Arizona State University where he leads university efforts to enable innovative uses of technology that transforms education across disciplines and modalities. He oversees a portfolio of functions including learning experience design, collaborative platforms, and learning spaces. Kyle was previously the director of innovation for teaching and learning with technology at Penn State University. He collaborated across the institution to advance university efforts in learning research, space design, learner creativity, and data science. Kyle also formerly served as the director of learning informatics at Purdue University, a role that shaped the university’s strategy to improve student attainment through emerging technologies. An experienced entrepreneur, Kyle served as the co-founder and chief technology officer of Skyepack, an award-winning learning technology startup that supports learner access and affordability. He is also a teacher, regular speaker on innovation in higher education and has co-authored and edited more than 20 books in the areas of design, development, and usability. Past work has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Lois Brown

Director, Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, and Foundation Professor, English, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Lois Brown is ASU Foundation Professor of English and director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Arizona State University. She is a public historian and a scholar of African American literature and culture whose groundbreaking research reshapes our understanding of race, class, gender, faith, and place in America. 

As director of the ASU Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, Brown oversees the only entity at ASU and in the state of Arizona that positions race and democracy in direct relation with each other. As of January 1, 2021, the Center will be based in the Office of the University Provost. Brown’s priorities for the Center include the creation of initiatives that intensify the intellectual, pedagogical and programmatic efforts of the Center. She is committed to programming, partnerships and outreach that enable the center to focus on race and democracy in the context of education, social justice, public history, poverty and economic opportunity, the arts, law, government, the sciences and the environment.

Brown earned her A.B. degree in English from Duke and her Ph.D. in English from Boston College. Her first academic love is 17th century British poetry and this continues to inform her work on early American writing, landscape, and narratives about loss, redemption, and triumph. Her books include "Black Daughter of the Revolution: A Literary Biography of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins," "Memoir of James Jackson, The Attentive and Obedient Scholar" and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Literary Renaissance.  Professor Brown’s current projects include biographies of James Mars and of the enterprising traveler Nancy Prince, a study of Liberator editor William Lloyd Garrison, and a book on African Americans in 18th and 19th century Concord, Massachusetts. 

Brown was featured on the acclaimed PBS documentary The Abolitionists and has curated and collaborated on exhibitions for the Museum of African American History in Boston and the Boston Public Library.  She is an award-winning teacher whose courses include Race, Place and Power in African American Women's Writing, Writing on the Land of Freedom: The Pastoral in African American Literature, Slavery and the Literary Imagination, and Reel Black: African American Life in Film. 

Christine Buzinde

Associate Professor and School Director

School of Community Resources and Development

Prior to joining Arizona State University, Christine Buzinde was an assistant professor at Penn State University from July 2007 to July 2012. She joined the School of Community Resources and Development in August of 2012. Her research focuses on two areas: community development through tourism and the politics of tourism representations. Dr. Buzinde’s work on development adopts a grassroots approach and it aims to understand the relationship between community well-being and tourism development within marginalized communities. Dr. Buzinde’s work on the politics of tourism representations principally views tourism texts as cultural repositories through which issues of inclusion/exclusion, North/South and core/periphery can be understood. Scholarly explorations on tourism representations are central to our understanding of ways in which tourism is entangled with issues of power, oppression, agency and resistance. Dr. Buzinde has conducted research in the United States, Tanzania, Ecuador, Mexico, India and Nepal. Her work has been featured in top tier academic journals within tourism studies and outside the field as well as at national and international conferences. She serves on the editorial board of Annals of Tourism Research. 

Adam Chodorow

Co-Interim Dean

Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law

Adam Chodorow is the Co-Interim Dean and Jack E. Brown Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.  Professor Chodorow received his B.A. from Yale (cum laude), an M.A. in History and J.D. (Order of the Coif) from the University of Virginia, and an LL.M. in Tax from New York University, where he received both the David H. Moses Memorial Prize for having the highest cumulative academic average and the Harry J. Rudick Memorial Award for distinction in the LL.M. Tax Program. He has visited at the University of San Diego and at the Southwest University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, China, as a Fulbright Scholar.

Professor Chodorow’s research focuses on a wide array of tax issues, including religious taxation, the taxation of virtual income, and the propriety of the parsonage exemption.  Professor Chodorow is a past Chair of the Teaching Tax Committee of the ABA’s Tax Section and the AALS's Section on Jewish Law.  He is  a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Tannenwald Writing Competition.  He previously served as  Faculty Editor of Jurimetrics: The Journal of Law, Science, and Technology, published by the College together with the ABA’s Section of Science & Technology Law. Professor Chodorow has served in a number of roles at the university, including on the faculty senate and as chair of the university’s promotion and tenure committee.

Before joining the Sandra Day O’Connor faculty in 2004, Professor Chodorow clerked for Judge Joseph H. Gale of the U.S. Tax Court. Before that, he worked for 12 years as an attorney in San Francisco, first at Shartsis, Friese & Ginsburg, where he practiced commercial litigation, and then at Pacific Gas & Electric Company, where he focused on energy-related litigation and regulatory matters.

Adriana Kuiper

Assistant Vice President and Chief of Staff

Knowledge Enterprise

Adriana Kuiper is Assistant Vice President and Chief-of-Staff for the Executive Vice President of Knowledge Enterprise. In this role, she oversees many operational facets of Knowledge Enterprise, including: strategic marketing and communications, which is responsible for branding and promotion of ASU’s research enterprises and activities; human resources, which oversees HR activities for KE’s 1700 employees; analytics, which develops reports and assessments on ASU’s research enterprise; and the project management office, which executes projects varying from the enterprise research administration system to ISO 9000 certification.

Kuiper manages high-profile, complex projects on the behalf of the EVP. She is also deeply involved in the creation and execution of KE strategy with the goal of $815M in annual research expenditures, expansion of strategic partnerships, entrepreneurship activities, economic development, and international research.

Kuiper holds a bachelor of science in biology and Master’s degree in business administration from ASU. She is an accredited Project Management Professional (PMP). She has served as president of ASU’s Project Management Network and has served on the board since its inception. She is currently a board member on the Future Talent Council advisory board, has served as president of ASU’s Project Management Network and has served on the board since its inception. She is also an active member of PMI, NACUBO and NCURA.

Punya Mishra

Associate Dean, Scholarship and Innovation and Professor

Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College

Dr. Punya Mishra is Associate Dean of Scholarship & Innovation and Professor in the Division of Educational Leadership & Innovation in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University.  He also has an affiliate appointment in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. Prior to ASU, Dr. Mishra was at Michigan State University where he directed the award-winning Master of Arts in Educational Technology program. In 2016 he received the William J. Beal Outstanding Faculty Award for his comprehensive and sustained record of scholarly excellence in research and creative activities, instruction and outreach. He has served on the Executive Council of the Society for Information Technology in Teacher Education and chaired theInnovation & Technology Committee of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE). 

He was a member of the School Board for the Okemos Public School District. He is internationally recognized for his work in technology integration in teaching; the role of creativity and aesthetics in learning; and the application of design-based approaches to educational innovation. His research in technology integration has been described as “the most significant advancement in the area of technology integration in the past 25 years” and was named as one of the ten most influential people in educational technology by the editors of Technology and Learning journal. He has received over $7 million in grants; published over 100 articles and edited 3 books.

Dr. Mishra is an award-winning teacher who has taught courses at undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels in the areas of educational technology, educational psychology, design, and creativity. He is an engaging public speaker, as well as an accomplished visual artist and poet. You can learn more about him at http://punyamishra.com/

Safali Patel

Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff

Educational Outreach and Student Services

Safali Patel is Associate Vice President and Chief of Staff to the Senior Vice President for Educational Outreach and Student Services (EOSS). In this role, she works closely with the EOSS senior leadership team to ensure the advancement of strategic objectives and priorities. Additionally, she oversees the onboarding of new ASU students and their families, works with international students and serves as the Deputy Title IX Coordinator for students. Safali began her tenure at ASU in 1994 serving in various roles in Student Services and Undergraduate Admissions. She also played a key role in launching a unique certificate program in the W. P. Carey School of Business in partnership with the Ford Motor Company. Safali holds a B.A. from the University of California at Irvine and Masters of Higher Education from Arizona State University.

Suzanne Rinker

Vice President of Unit Development

ASU Foundation for A New American University 

Suzanne Rinker, M.Ed. joined the ASU Foundation in September 2016 and serves as vice president of unit development. In her role, Suzanne provides oversight and counsel to all unit based fundraising teams, including academic colleges, schools, and institutes. She also works closely with university leadership to identify and strategically address fundraising needs and opportunities, and leads fundraising priorities.

Suzanne previously served as the senior director of development for the W.P. Carey School of Business. With over 16 years of experience in public higher education, she has spent the majority of her career in the development sector. Prior to ASU, Suzanne was the senior director of development for the College of Arts and Sciences at Ohio State University, the director of development for the Texas Tech University School of Law, and a development professional with the Edward E. Whitacre College of Engineering at Texas Tech University. Prior to fundraising, she worked in academic and career services.

Suzanne earned her bachelor’s of business administration degree and master’s of education with an emphasis in higher education administration from Texas Tech University. She is committed to community involvement and serves on the boards of the Kyrene Schools Community Foundation and Ahwatukee Foothills National Charity League.

Vanessa Ruiz

Director for Diversity Initiatives and Community Engagement

Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication

As Director for Diversity Initiatives and Community Engagement, Vanessa Ruiz leads Cronkite’s strategy and tactical planning for recruiting and retaining diverse students, faculty and staff, as well as first-generation college students. She also serves as the lead instructor for the school’s ethics and diversity courses, works with student clubs and organizations to ensure they are diverse and inclusive and designs ongoing professional development and leadership pathways for faculty and faculty associates in diversity, equity and inclusion. 

As an Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist, Vanessa also teaches on-air skills to Cronkite News students, preparing them for professional success while leading the charge on changing industry standards relevant to what journalists should look and sound like on air. Ruiz also serves as news anchor and host for Arizona PBS and PBS NewsHour West. Before coming to Cronkite, Ruiz was the main evening news anchor for KPNX, the NBC affiliate station in Phoenix. Her bilingual career began with Telemundo Network’s national newscast, before transitioning into the English-speaking market at WSVN-FOX Miami. Ruiz has also worked at the NBC station in Los Angeles and the U.S. Agency for Global Media.

In addition to winning another Emmy in 2020, Ruiz was among the Phoenix Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” selected class, highlighting the top business and civic leaders in the Phoenix area for their career success, community involvement, leadership ability and influence. She’s also been recognized by The Academy of Television of Arts and Science for special coverage of Sept. 11, has received the David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award for exceptional integrity, bravery and originality in reporting and is an active member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

While she studied part of her elementary and high-school education in Spain, Ruiz was born in Miami, Florida and is of proud Colombian descent.

Raghu T. Santanam

McCord Endowed Chair of Business, Department Chair and Professor, Department of Information Systems, W. P. Carey School of Business

Prof. Santanam’s current research focuses on Analytics, information assurance, and mobile platforms. Prof. Santanam has helped a number of organizations on data intensive decision-making contexts. He has authored several researched case studies on technology enabled business transformations. Professor Santanam has been an active researcher in the Health Information Technology area for a number of years. He has published a number of scholarly articles on Electronic Medical Records (EMR) impacts on hospitals, Personal Health Records (PHR) adoption by consumers and technology based decision support for public health. In addition to overseeing an Academic Department of nearly 50 faculty/Staff members and over a dozen different academic programs, he is currently leading a Dept. of Labor workforce development grant program to train the next generation of IT/Cybersecurity professionals.

Prof. Santanam is a senior editor in several journals including Information Systems Research, Decision Support Systems, Journal of the Association for Information Systems and Information Systems Frontier. He was the Program Co-Chair of the 28th Workshop on Information Technology and Systems (conference theme – AI and Human-Computer Symbiosis) held in Seoul, Korea in December 2017. He was also the co-chair of the INFORMS Data Science Conference in Phoenix, 2018 and the program co-chair of INFORMS Conference on Information Systems and Technology (CIST) held in Seattle, 2019. He guest edited a special section of the Journal of Association for Information Systems (JAIS) in 2020 titled -  “Addressing Societal Challenges through Analytics.” He is currently guest editing a special issue of the journal Information Systems Research titled  – “Humans, Algorithms, and Augmented Intelligence: The Future of Work, Organizations and Society.”

Prof. Santanam received his B.S. in Electronics and Communications Engineering from the University of Mysore, M.S. in Industrial Management from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, M.S. in Computer Science and a Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from SUNY Buffalo. Prior to joining ASU, he was a Henry Woodburn fellow at SUNY Buffalo. He has been recognized for teaching excellence in both undergraduate and graduate programs with awards from the Decision and Information Systems Club and the W. P. Carey School of Business.