Richard Watts is a senior lecturer in the University of Vermont's Department of Geography as well as the founder of the Center for Community News. Watts is also the director of the Center for Research on Vermont and co-director of the Reporting & Documentary Storytelling program and coordinator of the Community News Service. He previously earned a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Planning from the University of Vermont, an M.A. in Newspaper Journalism from Syracuse University, and a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Cortland. Richard has worked as a journalist, as an organizer, as a policy analyst in the state governments of New York and Vermont and as a academic researcher. The Center for Community News documents news/academic partnerships at institutions of higher education and produces reports and templates for faculty starting or growing these. The Center builds on the success of UVM's Community News Service that provides student reported stories to community papers in Vermont.
Senior Lecturer in Biology, Newcastle University My research interests are broad and cover the basic physiological processes of an animal up to those occurring at the animal-environment interaction. Underpinning my work is the use of remote monitoring technology such as heart rate monitoring, electronic data archival devices and satellite telemetry. Specific areas of study include: the physiology, ecology and behaviour of aquatic animals; energy expenditure of free-ranging animals; foraging behaviour of seabirds; use of stable isotopes to study animal ecology; spatial movements of animals; animal conservation.
Associate Professor of Anatomy, Howard University Rui Diogo is Associate Professor at Howard University and Resource Faculty at the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology of GWU. He won several prestigious awards and is renown worldwide due to his multidisciplinary approach to address broader questions and societal issues using state-of-the-art empirical data, what some nowadays call "experimental philosophy" or "scientific philosophy". He is the author of more than 100 papers in top journals and about 20 books, including one adopted at medical schools worldwide, "Learning and understanding human anatomy and pathology", and one often listed among the ten best evolutionary books in 2017, "Evolution driven by organismal behavior".
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Robert Nyenhuis is an associate professor in the Political Science department at California State University, Pomona. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Irvine. His research focuses on populism, voting behavior, and public opinion in the developing world. He has published in the Journal of Modern African Studies, African Studies Review, and Commonwealth and Comparative Politics. Robert currently serves as an Associate Editor at the African Studies Review.
Professor of Law, University of California, Davis Raquel E. Aldana joined UC Davis in 2017 to serve as the inaugural Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Diversity with a law faculty appointment. She returned to full time law teaching in 2020. Aldana is a graduate of Arizona State University (earning a bachelor’s degree in English and another in Spanish) and Harvard Law School. She was a professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, before joining the McGeorge School of Law faculty in 2009. From 2006 to 2007, Aldana was a Fulbright Scholar in Guatemala. Aldana has led multiple research projects and programs around gender violence, transitional justice, criminal justice, sustainable development, immigrant justice, and immigrant trauma. She has authored or edited five books and published over thirty law review articles or book chapters on transitional justice, criminal justice, sustainable development, inter-cultural legal sensibility, and immigration. She is the recipient of several research grants, including serving as Principal Investigator of Building Bridges: Narrowing the Legal-Scientific Divide in Immigration Forensic Assessments, UC Davis Academic Senate Interdisciplinary Grants 2019-2020. For more information about this collaboration, please visit the website, Compassion in Immigration. Aldana’s research has focused on transitional justice, criminal justice reforms and sustainable development in Latin America, as well as immigrant rights.
Associate Professor of Black Religions and American Religious Diversity, San Diego State University Dr. Roy Whitaker is an Associate Professor of Black Religions and American Religious Diversity in the Department for the Study of Religion at San Diego State University. After completing a Master of Divinity at Princeton Theological Seminary and Master of Theology at Harvard Divinity School, Dr. Whitaker obtained a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Religion and Theology at Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Whitaker's research and teaching interests include African American religious studies, world religions, comparative religions, contemporary philosophy of religion, new religious movements, Afrofuturism, religious pluralism, hip hop, Martin Luther King, Jr., and continental and humanist philosophy. In addition to publishing in peer-reviewed journals such as the "Journal of Contemporary Religion," "Journal of Ecumenical Studies," and "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought" and interviews appearing in "The San Diego Union-Tribune," Dr. Whitaker serves as a Diversity Liaison for the College of Arts and Letters, Director of the Metropolitan Area Pluralism Study, and Professor of Equity in Education for Student Affairs and Campus Diversity at SDSU. Dr. Whitaker consults and advises on various topics including race relations, curriculum development, ethics, interfaith dialogue, meaning of life, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. He can be contacted at dwhitaker@sdsu.edu.
