In fall 2025, we welcomed a number of outstanding faculty scholars to the Bronco community.
College of Arts and Sciences
Bonnie Cherry
Assistant Professor - Political Science
Bonnie Cherry is a new assistant professor of Political Science at Santa Clara University. Having earned her Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy at Berkeley Law this year, her research explores the development of the U.S. administrative state and the expansion of executive power through the management of American Indian affairs. More specifically, she investigates how Native nations engage with U.S. federal security regimes and participate in interagency governance on Native land in moments of so-called “security crisis”. Bonnie is an AAUW Dissertation Fellow, and her work has been funded by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, the Center for the Study of Law and Society, and the Center for Interdisciplinary Critical Inquiry.
Her expertise in immigration law, constitutional law, and American Indian law (both as bodies of doctrine and as systems of practice) equips her to guide students in critically analyzing how law operates “on the books” as well as on the ground.
Chris Ciccarino
Assistant Professor - Physics and Engineering Physics
Chris Ciccarino earned his B.S. in physics and chemistry from Seton Hall University in 2017 and his Ph.D. in chemical physics from Harvard University in 2022. His graduate research utilized first-principles methods to investigate the electronic and optical properties of point defects in solids, as well as key interactions in materials such as electron-phonon, spin-orbit and phonon-photon coupling. From 2022 to 2025, Chris was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, where he developed tools to model exciton-photon interactions from first principles and studied how materials respond to noisy periodic driving fields. At Santa Clara, Chris is interested in developing further our understanding of complicated quantum-mechanical interactions in materials. He is passionate about developing new theoretical frameworks, building physical intuition, and creating efficient computational tools to explore these phenomena.
Andrew Evans
Assistant Professor - Neuroscience
Dr. Andrew Evans received his B.A. from Bowdoin College, his Ph.D. from the University of Bristol, UK and did his post-doctoral work at Stanford University. At Stanford, he co-founded the Stanford Program for Integrated Neuroscience Technologies (SPRINT), an NIH-funded program aimed at disseminating innovative technologies. He also contributed to the founding of Curasen Therapeutics, a company dedicated to developing treatments for neurodegenerative disease. His research aims to understand how lifestyle risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease (e.g. stress, diet, and inflammation) impact neurobiology. His lab examines neuroinflammation and neuronal vulnerability within brain circuits regulating arousal, attention, learning and memory and emotional behavior. Understanding mechanisms of neuronal vulnerability can advance therapeutic strategies to prevent neurodegenerative disease. His research employs a range of techniques providing students with opportunities to gain experience with diverse behavioral models and molecular, cellular and systems neuroscience tools. Dr. Evans will be teaching a new course on the Neuroscience of Healthy Aging this fall at SCU.
Paul Gilbert
Associate Professor - Public Health
Dr. Gilbert studies patterns of hazardous drinking, risk of alcohol use disorders, and the multiple pathways to recovery from an alcohol problem. Much of his scholarship has focused on disparities by gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Among previous work, he was principal investigator of a study to test a theoretically derived model of disparities in use of specialty treatment, mutual-help groups (such as Alcoholics Anonymous), and other lay sources of help. He also served as a co-Investigator on a study to identify Latino-specific barriers to substance use treatment. Dr. Gilbert recently completed a national study of adults who resolved an alcohol use disorder with or without treatment or mutual-help groups. That study’s goals were to understand how people define recovery when they don’t seek treatment, identify the behavior change strategies leading to resolution of a drinking problem without treatment, and assess how untreated recovery may vary by gender and race/ethnicity.
Dr. Gilbert earned a ScM in health and social behavior from the Harvard School of Public Health and a Ph.D. in health behavior from the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Benjamin Gillespie
Assistant Professor - Theatre and Dance
Benjamin Gillespie (he/him) is Assistant Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies at Santa Clara University. He holds a Ph.D. in theatre and performance from The Graduate Center, City University of New York. He also holds M.A. and B.A. degrees in theatre and English from York University in Toronto, Canada. In 2022, he received the Monette-Horwitz Prize for his dissertation documenting the legacy of the renowned New York-based theatre company Split Britches. Prior to his role at SCU, Benjamin was Doctoral Lecturer in Communication, Gender Studies, and Theatre at Baruch College, CUNY from 2022-2025.
His research focuses on LGBTQ+ performance, experimental theatre, and the intersections of gender, sexuality, and aging on stage. He is editor of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre (JADT) and has published widely in scholarly anthologies and journals. His forthcoming books include: Late Stage: Theatrical Perspectives on Age and Aging (University of Michigan Press, 2026); Split Britches: Fifty Years On (University of Michigan Press, 2027); and the Routledge Companion to LGBTQ+ Theatre and Performance in North America (Routledge, 2027).
Natasha Glendening
Assistant Professor - Public Health
Caleb González
Assistant Teaching Professor - English
Dr. González is a 2022 national recipient of the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award in Higher Education from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). As a Chicano and a dedicated first-generation teacher and scholar, he is deeply committed to facilitating spaces where, as bell hooks describes, we can mutually learn by hearing one another’s voices and recognizing one another’s presence.
His scholarship is located in culturally sustaining writing pedagogies, creative writing studies, two-year college writing studies, and writing across the curriculum. His research centers how writing courses and programs at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) and Emerging HSIs make meaning of their designations through transformative and liberatory practices.
He currently serves on the Editorial Board and Publications Review Board of the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Clearinghouse. He is also a board member of the First-Year Composition Archive (FYCA) and an elected Co-Chair of the Creative Writing Standing Group of the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). He most recently served as a Director of the 2025 International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference (IWAC) in Fort Collins, Colorado and he is currently co-editing the upcoming collection related to the IWAC conference. His research is forthcoming in various edited collections and peer-reviewed journals such as College English, Teaching English in the Two-Year College, and the WAC Journal.
Olivia González
Assistant Professor - Communication
Olivia González is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication. Her research examines the politics of race, class, and gender within contemporary structures of media production and media education. Olivia’s current work explores screenwriters’ labor organizing, the entertainment industry’s role in the climate crisis, and abolitionist storytelling within and beyond Hollywood. Her work has been published in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Television and New Media, Lateral, and the International Journal of Communication.
Javier González Anaya
Assistant Professor - Mathematics and Computer Science
Born and raised in Mexico City, he completed his undergraduate studies in physics and a master's degree in mathematics at UNAM. He completed his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia in 2020. Before joining Santa Clara University as an assistant professor, he served as a visiting assistant professor at Harvey Mudd College and the University of California at Riverside, where he received UCR's Outstanding VAP Award for Excellence in Teaching for both the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 academic years. Javier is passionate about mentoring undergraduate research, ranging from REUs and theses to independent reading courses.
Tanya Gupta
Assistant Professor - Psychology
Nicolas Hernandez
Assistant Professor - Environmental Studies and Sciences
Ruby Mendoza
Assistant Professor - English
Dr. Ruby Mendoza (she/her) is an award-winning scholar whose research centers around LGBTQ+ studies, rhetorical studies, and critical race theory. She joined Santa Clara University in 2025 as an Assistant Professor of English with a specialization in LGBTQ+ studies.
Her writing has appeared in several notable journals, including Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, Technical Communication and Social Justice, IEEE Pro Communication Society, The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, College English and several edited book collections. Currently, she is working on a full-length monograph for the University of Pittsburgh Press that focuses on the survival and resistance practices that LGBTQ+ faculty of color navigate in the political right-wing climate. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her cat Rocky and listening to all things related to Mariah Carey. Mendoza earned a Ph.D. in rhetoric and writing with a specialization in user experience, medical humanities, and social justice from Michigan State University.
Mitchell Ost
Assistant Professor - Theatre and Dance
Mitchell Ost is a lighting, projection, and scenic designer. His work ranges from storefront theaters to grand opera houses, retail stores, houses of worship, concerts, corporate events, and everything in between. Before entering academia, he worked around the globe as a freelance designer based out of New York City. He is the resident designer of the Layon Gray American Theater Company where he designed the long-running off-Broadway show Black Angels Over Tuskegee. He serves as the resident scenic, lighting, and projection designer for the M Ensemble Company in Miami, Florida's longest running black theater.
He is a proud member of United Scenic Artists Local 829 and USITT. In 2019 he received the USITT Travel Grant, given to one person per year, to develop his multi-media adaptation of Edwin Abbott's novella Flatland. Ost earned an MFA in design pedagogy from Indiana University and a B.S. in theater design and production with an emphasis in design and directing.
Victor Quiroz
Assistant Professor - Modern Languages and Literatures
Victor Quiroz holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic languages and literatures (UC Berkeley). He explores decolonial interactions between Indigenous knowledges—particularly of Andean origin—and modern aesthetic, literary, and critical discourses from the Global North. His book, El tinkuy postcolonial (2011), examines the relationship between Quechuan cognitive categories and the fictionalization of the Peruvian Internal Armed Conflict (1980-2000). His scholarship has been published in peer-reviewed journals and in collective volumes in Chile, England, Germany, Mexico, Peru, and the United States. Before joining Santa Clara University as Assistant Professor, he was Visiting Assistant Professor at Kenyon College, Adjunct Lecturer at SCU, and Adjunct Professor in the Master’s Program in Gender Studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. His teaching emphasizes the value of Indigenous epistemologies in enriching global languages and cultures. In 2023, he founded the Indigenous Latin America Study Group at SCU. He has volunteered with the Chicana Latina Foundation since 2018.
Vaishavi Sharma
Assistant Teaching Professor - Mathematics and Computer Science
Vaishavi’s expertise lies in number theory, experimental mathematics, combinatorics, and special functions.
Ever the problem-solver, Vaishavi enjoys tackling crossword and Sudoku puzzles and, occasionally, jigsaw puzzles. Dr. Sharma holds a Bachelor's in Science (Hons) degree in mathematics from Delhi University and a Ph.D. in mathematics from Tulane University.
Melissa Broome Ursin
Assistant Teaching Professor - Graduate Program in Pastoral Ministries
Dr. Ursin holds a doctorate in Catholic educational leadership from the University of San Francisco, where her dissertation focused on the formation of the Sisters of the Presentation for their ministry as Catholic educators. She holds a masters in theological studies from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelors in theological studies and music from Loyola Marymount University.
Dr. Ursin is the Executive Director of the Graduate Program in Pastoral Ministries (GPPM) in the College of Arts and Sciences. Before joining SCU, Dr. Ursin served as vice principal for mission and Catholic identity at San Jose-based Presentation High School. Before her role at Presentation, she was director of worship at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in the Diocese of San Jose, where she also taught at the Institute for Leadership in Ministry.
Michelle Velasquez-Potts
Assistant Professor - Gender and Sexuality Studies
Dr. Michelle Velasquez-Potts is an Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Santa Clara University. Her research areas include feminist and queer theory, science and technology studies, carceral studies, and disability studies. Michelle has also taught courses exploring LGBTQ issues, visual culture, protest and activism, and Latinx studies. Outside of academia, Michelle has collaborated on resources about carceral abolition. Disability justice and abolitionist praxis guide her work inside and outside the classroom.
Michelle received a Ph.D. in the Rhetoric Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and previously taught at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas at Austin. She was also awarded the University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the ACLS Fellowship.
Yaamini R. Venkataraman
Assistant Professor - Biology
Dr. Venkataraman (Ph.D, aquatic and fishery sciences, University of Washington) is excited to be joining the Biology department at SCU! With climate change rapidly impacting ecosystems, mechanisms of resilience that operate on faster timescales are necessary for species survival. She investigates one mechanism, phenotypic plasticity, by integrating physiological and molecular techniques. At SCU, she will continue researching how stress experienced by adult oysters impacts their offspring, and the underpinnings of thermal tolerance in the highly invasive European green crab. Apart from research. Dr. Venkataraman is one of founding members of Resources for Inclusive Evolution Education (RIE2), a collective that provides educational tools to improve student understanding of evolutionary concepts while engaging with the exclusionary underpinnings of the field. Dr. Venkataraman is looking forward to involving students in hands-on marine biology research, from animal husbandry to the lab bench, the computer, and beyond!
Jesuit School of Theology
Rafael Luciani
Professor, Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University
Luciani’s academic trajectory reflects a lifelong commitment to theological excellence and ecclesial renewal. After studying in Latin America, he earned his Licentiate and Doctorate in Theology from the Jesuit`s Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and pursued postdoctoral research at the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg in Germany. In recognition of his scholarly contributions, he was awarded the Doctor Honoris Causa in Theology by the Aquinas Institute of Theology, a leading Dominican theological institution in the United States.
Alberto Solano Zatarain
Assistant Professor, Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University
Alberto Solano Zatarain joins us from the University of Oxford, bringing a significant background of scholarship in New Testament studies and early Christian exegesis, alongside extensive experience in pastoral ministry. His commitment to both rigorous theological inquiry and service aligns closely with JST-SCU's mission. His recent research explores how the Sinai narrative is used in the Epistle to the Hebrews, investigating how early Christian writers interpreted the story of the giving of the law to shape their community’s identity under a new covenant and high priest. He is also engaged in exploring the extent to which early Christian communities distinguished themselves from their Jewish counterparts, and when a definitive parting of ways occurred. His research aims to contribute to ongoing scholarly efforts to better understand the diverse cultic developments that emerged within the first two centuries CE and how these shaped both Christian and Jewish identities.
Solano Zatarain joins the JST-SCU community after five years in the UK, where he currently serves as Assistant Tutor of New Testament at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford. He holds an MPhil and is currently a DPhil Candidate in Theology from Oxford. He also holds a M.Div. and Th.M.
Leavey School of Business
Wentong Chen
Assistant Professor - Economics
Wentong Chen joins the Leavey School of Business in Fall 2025 as an Assistant Professor of Economics. Her research lies at the intersection of international finance, macroeconomics, and banking, with a particular focus on the pass-through of monetary and foreign exchange shocks and policies across markets. She studies how price and quantity dynamics interact and generate feedback effects, aiming to formally model the frictions and spillovers between markets in environments characterized by various forms of incompleteness and imperfections.
Wentong received her Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University. She also holds an M.A. in economics from New York University, an M.P.A. in international finance policy from Columbia University, and a B.A. in international politics and journalism from Renmin University of China.
Satoshi Fukuda
Assistant Professor - Economics
Satoshi Fukuda joined the Leavey School of Business in the Fall of 2025 as an Assistant Professor of Economics. He received his Ph.D in economics from the University of California at Berkeley, and received a B.A. and M.A. in policy studies from Chuo University (Tokyo, Japan).
Professor Fukuda specializes in microeconomics, economic theory, game theory, organizational economics, information economics, and financial economics. His articles have appeared in leading academic journals in microeconomics and economic theory, such as American Economic Journal: Microeconomics and Journal of Economic Theory. He is an associate editor of the International Journal of Economic Theory.
Professor Fukuda came to Santa Clara from Bocconi University (Milan, Italy), where he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Decision Sciences.
Colin Koutney
Assistant Professor - Accounting
Colin Koutney is an Assistant Professor of Accounting in the Leavey School of Business at Santa Clara University. He joined the accounting faculty in the Fall 2025 and previously taught at George Mason University in Virginia. He earned his Ph.D. in accounting at The University of Texas at Austin. His professional experience includes volunteering with VITA and working at Deloitte Tax LLP.
Colin’s research primarily focuses on corporate and individual taxation. He also studies financial accounting topics such as non-GAAP disclosures and interim reporting. His research has been published in the Review of Accounting Studies.
Outside of academia, Colin enjoys hiking and listening to audiobooks, particularly those about his favorite U.S. presidents.
Yifei Mao
Assistant Professor - Finance
Yifei Mao joined the Finance Department at the Leavey School of Business in Fall 2025 as an Assistant Professor. Her research expertise lies in empirical corporate finance, with a focus on venture capital, entrepreneurship, innovation, and commercial real estate. Her work has been published in leading journals, including the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, among others. She has presented her research at top academic conferences such as NBER, WFA, and AFA.
Before joining Santa Clara University, Dr. Mao was an Assistant Professor of Finance at Cornell University, where she taught Introduction to Finance and Corporate Finance. She was a recipient of the Cornell Nolan School Ted Teng ’79 Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award.
Dr. Mao earned her B.A. in economics from Tsinghua University, M.A. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and Ph.D. in finance from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Bloomington.
Alexander Zentefis
Assistant Professor - Finance
Alexander Zentefis is an Assistant Professor at the Leavey School of Business. He is also a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Zentefis earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in finance from Washington University in St. Louis and a Ph.D. in finance from the University of Chicago.
Zentefis studies the structure of institutions, ranging from organizations to markets. His research on organizations includes articles on corporate culture, gerrymandering, and the theory of the firm. His work on markets includes articles on bank competition, inequality in bank access, regulation of oligopolies, linguistic patterns in bargaining, and capital market liquidity.
Zentefis’ research has been featured in national news outlets, including MarketWatch and Forbes.
School of Education and Counseling Psychology
Christine Quince
Assistant Professor - Education
Christine Quince, Ph.D. is a proud Detroiter, researcher, teacher educator, and incoming Assistant Professor in the School of Education and Counseling Psychology. Dr. Quince is joining the teacher education faculty, where she’ll focus on helping preservice teachers understand and implement a culturally relevant pedagogy by building their knowledge of critical theories and guiding them to apply these concepts in practice. In her research, Dr. Quince examines the pedagogical decisions teachers make and how their decisions incorporate Black students, their home culture, and community knowledge. Dr. Quince’s research is aimed towards helping educators critique their practice, shift towards an asset-orientation of Black students, and improve the academic success of Black students. She received a B.A. in elementary education, a M.A.in educational studies in teaching and learning, and a Ph.D. in teaching and teacher education from the University of Michigan.
Christopher J. Wagner
Associate Professor - Education
Dr. Christopher J. Wagner studies literacy, identities, and multilingual learners. In his work he takes up the stance that working across boundaries, both theoretical and those in the world, can inform and extend understandings of children's reading, writing, and learning. He aims to disrupt narrow conceptions of how children engage in and make sense of language and literacy in favor of more holistic and child-centered approaches to learning. In his research he has often developed collaborative partnerships with multilingual communities and families, including as co-teachers and co-researchers.
He has published in a range of academic and practitioner publications, and has a recently released book titled Identity-Based Literacy Instruction for Early Childhood and Elementary Classrooms. Christopher previously was on the faculty of the City University of New York. He received a B.A from the University of Virginia, an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in language, literacy, and culture from Boston College. Christopher is joining the Department of Education and will be teaching courses on elementary reading and literacy.
School of Engineering
Yingqing Qiu
Assistant Professor - Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering
Yingqing Qiu joined the School of Engineering in the Fall of 2025 as an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering. She received her Ph.D. in geotechnical earthquake engineering from Oregon State University, her M.S. in geotechnical engineering from Northwestern University, and her B.S. in civil engineering with a minor in finance from China Agricultural University.
Qiu specializes in geotechnical earthquake engineering, soil-structure interaction, coastal resilience, and multi-hazard modeling involving earthquake and tsunami events. Her research integrates advanced numerical simulations, uncertainty quantification, and sediment transport analysis to improve infrastructure performance and safety in hazard-prone regions.
Qiu came to Santa Clara from AECOM, where she served as a staff geotechnical engineer, leading seismic performance evaluations for dams and conducting site response analyses for critical infrastructure projects. She also held prior engineering roles at AGS, Inc., where she contributed to liquefaction analysis, ground improvement design, and shoreline restoration efforts across the Bay Area.
School of Law
Adam Abelkop
Associate Clinical Professor of Law
Adam Abelkop joined Santa Clara Law from University of San Francisco School of Law, where he was an associate professor of legal writing and director of the Legal Research, Writing & Analysis Program. Prior to USF, Abelkop was a teaching fellow and lecturer in law at Stanford Law School where he supervised the Environmental Law & Policy LL.M. Program. Abelkop’s research falls at the intersection of public health and environmental law. He is the lead editor of an encyclopedic volume entitled "Chemical Risk Governance" (2023), and he is currently working on articles on the role of tort law in chemical safety governance and on evaluating the federal Toxic Substance Control Act, which governs chemical safety in industrial processes and in consumer products. Abelkop earned his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law and a Ph.D. from Indiana University.
Emily Burns
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law
Emily Burns was most recently senior trademark counsel for Google LLC, where she handled all things trademark for YouTube. Burns has over 20 years of experience in all areas of trademark practice, including clearance and prosecution of trademarks domestically and internationally, offensive and defensive trademark disputes in a wide array of tribunals, instituting anti-counterfeit protections with customs authorities worldwide, and overseeing numerous high-profile global rebranding projects. Burns is an expert in intermediary liability, with a specific focus on content moderation and clearance issues, applying concepts such as parody, commentary and criticism, and First Amendment protection of artistic works. With a passion for helping students become excellent practitioners, Burns has taught intellectual property and trademark courses at Santa Clara University School of Law and at the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco for over 15 years. Prior to joining Google in 2010, Burns was a member of the Litigation and Trademark practice groups at Cooley LLP. Beyond the classroom, Burns has served in multiple mentorship roles, with a specific emphasis on working with groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the tech and legal communities including through Google’s OC LEAD and Legal Summer Institute programs, and Santa Clara Law’s Tech Edge JD program. Burns earned a J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law.
Theodore Ko
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law
Theodore Ko was most recently a content attorney at Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), where he developed legal guides and research materials to help attorneys in their practices. In addition, for the past four years, he has taught part-time at Santa Clara Law’s part-time Flex J.D. program. Prior to CEB, Ko worked at the Yolo County District Attorney's Office as a deputy district attorney, and at Asian Law Alliance in San Jose as an immigration attorney. At CEB, Ko collaborated with practicing attorneys and judges to draft practice guides, sample pleadings, and legal articles across multiple practice areas including civil procedure, trusts and estates, and a range of other practice areas. Ko earned a J.D. from the University of California, Davis School of Law.