×ÔοÊÓƵ

Senior Lecturer, Medicine, Health, and Society

Dr. Jaime Bruce received her Master of Arts in Child Life from Mills College in Oakland, CA and her Doctor of Public Health from Boston University in Boston, MA. She practiced clinically as a certified child life specialist prior to transitioning to the academic setting. When she is not in the classroom, she continues to serve patients at ×ÔοÊÓƵ University Medical Center. Although this role allows her the opportunity to engage families in all areas of the hospital, Dr. Bruce has developed a particular expertise related to the intensive care experience, children of adult patients, end-of-life care, and sibling engagement.

Dr. Bruce is an active member of the Association of Child Life Professionals, National Council on Family Relations, American Public Health Association, and Southeastern Association of Child Life Professionals. She serves on the Review Boards for both the Journal of Supportive Care in Cancer and The Journal of Child Life: Psychosocial Theory and Practice.

Away from work Dr. Bruce enjoys spending time with her children, traveling and seeking adventure in everyday life.

Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology
Director of ×ÔοÊÓƵ Center for Addiction Research
Associate Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics

Dr. Calipari received her PhD in Neuroscience in 2013 in the laboratory of Dr. Sara Jones at Wake Forest University School of Medicine where she studied how self-administered drugs altered dopaminergic function to drive addictive behaviors. She then went on to complete her postdoctoral training with Dr. Eric Nestler at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she used circuit probing techniques to understand the temporally specific neural signals that underlie motivation and reward learning. She is currently the Director of the and an Associate Professor at ×ÔοÊÓƵ University in the Department of Pharmacology. Her work seeks to characterize and modulate the precise circuits in the brain that underlie both adaptive and maladaptive processes in reward, motivation, and associative learning.

Associate Professor, Political Science
Associate Director of Public Policy Studies

Katherine Blue Carroll came to ×ÔοÊÓƵ University in 2001 as the Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Science. Since 2006 she has been a full-time non-tenure track assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, where she directs the undergraduate program in public policy studies and teaches courses on Terrorism, Political Islam, Middle East Politics, and The War in Iraq. From January 2008 through April 2009, she worked as a social scientist on a Human Terrain Team in Baghdad, Iraq. Human Terrain Teams were developed to provide expert social and political advice to brigade commanders and soldiers on the ground in war zones. Since returning from Iraq, she has worked on various aspects Iraqi culture and politics, as well as on the interaction of the American military with Iraqi society. She also works as a consultant for Decisive Analytics Corporation, a defense contractor, and has given several invited talks on her experience in Iraq and on Arab culture and politics to military audiences.

Associate Professor of the Practice of Literacy Education, Department of Teaching and Learning
Program Director, Elementary Education

Senior Lecturer, Economics

Dr. Kent Dolezal is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at ×ÔοÊÓƵ University, where he teaches intermediate microeconomics, intermediate macroeconomics, strategic analysis, and sports economics. His classes emphasize applying economic ideas to real-world issues in sports, public policy, and organizational strategy.

Since joining ×ÔοÊÓƵ in 2016, Dolezal has been an active mentor and adviser, working closely with students on Immersion ×ÔοÊÓƵ projects, honors projects, and independent studies. He is an Immersion Faculty Fellow, contributes to the College of Arts & Science Core curriculum, and takes an active interest in the first-year experience, serving as a Faculty VUceptor to help new students build community and find their footing at ×ÔοÊÓƵ.

Before coming to ×ÔοÊÓƵ, he taught at Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville and Lindenwood University after an earlier career as a high-school math and theater teacher. Dolezal holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Southern Illinois University–Carbondale, where his research examined the role of mentoring in undergraduate success, and an M.P.A. from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

A ×ÔοÊÓƵ football season-ticket holder since 2023, Dolezal enjoys attending a wide range of Commodore events—including other athletic competitions, student theater productions, and performances at the Blair School of Music. He values the opportunity to support students both in the classroom and across their broader campus lives.

Senior Lecturer of Culture, Advocacy, and Leadership

Alexander Jacobs is a historian of American thought and culture, primarily focusing on the Cold War era. His research and teaching examine the intersections of political culture, religion, and social criticism. Additionally, he investigates the nature of historical inquiry and the intellectual history of violence.

Currently, Jacobs is revising his book titled The American Counter-Enlightenment: Social Critics and the Uses of Conservatism, which explores the application of romantic and counter-revolutionary ideas in contrarian social thought. His future projects include a study on the problem of evil in twentieth-century American culture, a history of moral arguments regarding the bombing of civilians during wartime, and a synthetic analysis of the connections between conspiracy culture, metaphysical religions, and social thought.

His approach to American Studies integrates his training as a historian of culture with methodologies and ideas from philosophy, sociology, and cultural studies.

Senior Lecturer of Russian

Principal Senior Lecturer
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Asian Studies

Dr. Li holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics and specializes in linguistics and language acquisition. His expertise includes technology-enhanced language teaching, curriculum design, and instructional material development. Before joining ×ÔοÊÓƵ, he taught Chinese language courses at all levels at Boston University and Wake Forest University.

Dr. Li's teaching is goal-oriented and grounded in the communicative approach, emphasizing the principle of "learning to use." He is committed to creating engaging, student-centered learning experiences that integrate innovative teaching methods and meaningful tasks. In recognition of his teaching excellence, he was named a Dean's Distinguished Teaching Fellow in ×ÔοÊÓƵ's College of Arts and Science and received a national award for innovative teaching from the Chinese Language Teachers Association. His research interests include Chinese linguistics, second language acquisition, and technology-enhanced and task-based language teaching.

Beyond the classroom, Dr. Li is deeply committed to student engagement and success. He has designed and led Immersion ×ÔοÊÓƵ projects on Chinese American identity, which connect language learning with cultural exploration and community engagement, and on Chinese calligraphy, through which students create their own calligraphy pieces while exploring the artistic, cultural, and meditative traditions of this ancient art form. He has served for several years as a ×ÔοÊÓƵ Visions faculty advisor, mentoring first-year students as they transition to university life, and is also a ×ÔοÊÓƵ CARES Fellow, supporting student well-being. As a Faculty Senator, he serves on the Student Life Committee, advocating for student perspectives and helping bring student concerns to university leadership.

Ìý

Associate Professor, Department of Medicine/Div of Cardiovascular Medicine
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

Dr. Major recieved her B.S. in Biology from Wheeling Jesuit University, Wheeling, WV. She conducted her graduate work in the laboratory of Dr. Christopher Cuff in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV. There she studied the mucosal immune response of the small intestine against enteric viruses. After earning her Ph.D. in 1998, Dr. Major came to ×ÔοÊÓƵ as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratories of Drs. MacRae Linton and Sergio Fazio where she studied immune-mediated mechanisms of atherosclerosis. Dr. Major has been a faculty member in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine since 2004. She has a secondary appointment in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology.

Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering

Dr. Moore earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Florida, where his research focused on biomaterials and tissue engineering. He currently serves as a Professor of the Practice in ×ÔοÊÓƵ’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, where he leads the senior biomedical engineering design sequence and teaches courses in cell and tissue engineering and physiological transport phenomena. He is passionate about teaching and mentoring engineering students through hands-on, project-based learning. His teaching approach emphasizes real-world clinical problems, teamwork, prototyping, entrepreneurship, and helping students transform ideas into practical biomedical solutions.

Principal Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Psychology and Human Development

Leigh Scheer, PhDÌýIs a Principal Senior Lecturer in the department of Psychology and Human Development at ×ÔοÊÓƵ University’s Peabody College where she has taught for more than twenty years both undergraduate and graduate level courses in both Developmental and Educational Psychology.ÌýÌýEarning her B.S. In Business and Psychology from Elon University, Dr. Scheer then continued her studies earning her Master’s in Educational Psychology from The University of Alabaman and her Ph.D. .in Educational Psychology from Arizona State University.ÌýÌýSpanning her twenty plus years at ×ÔοÊÓƵ University, she has held positions beyond the classroom as a faculty mentor, as Director of Undergraduate Studies, student organization advisor, and sitting on various committees across the university.ÌýÌýAs most of her work has been student-facing, she has working tirelessly with students from various fields of student to better understand the psychology of teaching/leadership and how that translates to learning.ÌýÌýOutside of the classroom, she has used her expertise to help develop and implement a mindfulness/social and emotional learning program in public schools that is not only founded in research but developmentally appropriate for young learners to recognize and regulate emotions and behavior.ÌýÌýAt ×ÔοÊÓƵ,ÌýÌýDr. Scheer has been awarded multiple teaching awards at the department, college and university level nominated by both her peers and students.

Senior Lecturer of Songwriting

Deanna Walker has been a Blair faculty member since 1998. An accomplished composer, pianist, songwriter, and producer, Walker studied composition with Morris Cotel and Jean Eichelberger-Ivey at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and piano with Thomas Uchtmann at Eastern New Mexico University.

Walker has co-written songs that have been streamed over 50 million times on Spotify alone. She brings in major hit songwriters for her very popular Blair Hit Songwriter Series, and some students of the series have gone on to become country songwriting legends, including Jon Nite and Jesse Rice. Several of her ×ÔοÊÓƵ students have gone on to be massive pop hit songwriters, including Michael Pollack and Malibu Babie (Lo Miller).

Walker had had multiple publishing deals in her carrer and works extensively with European artists and producers. Her songs have been recorded by a wide range of artists, from Kenny Rogers to Goldfish. Her music has been featured on American Idol, along with major network television shows and commercials.

Her commissioned work,ÌýFamily Plot in Four Scenes, for soprano and piano, was chosen for performance at the CMS International Conference in Costa Rica in June 2003. She co-authored the Composition Books, Levels 1-3, for Alfred’s Basic Piano Library, and has given piano clinics and songwriting workshops around the country, in the U.K., and Canada.

Walker has been the national chair of the Music Teachers National Association Composer Commissioning Program, 2003-2005. She has also been a speaker at the national, division, state, and local conventions of MTNA. As a composition teacher, she’s had national, division, state, and local winners of the MTNA Composition Contest.

Senior Lecturer, Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience
Senior Lecturer, Psychology
Director of Undergraduate Studies in Neuroscience

Dr. Wegener completed her PhD in Neuroscience in 2017 in the laboratory of Dr. Bita Moghaddam at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research examined the activity of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra pars compacta of adult and adolescent rats during different learning paradigms. Since then, she has followed her passion for teaching neuroscience to undergraduate students at University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and now ×ÔοÊÓƵ University. She joined Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience in 2019 and currently teaches advanced cellular/molecular neuroscience electives and the introductory course for the Neuroscience major. Her teaching approach focuses on classroom engagement, case-based learning, neuroscience primary literature, and community-building.

Assistant Dean for Design
Associate Professor of the Practice of Mechanical Engineering

Professor Tom Withrow has dedicated more than 20 years to ×ÔοÊÓƵ University, where he empowers students to transform ideas into reality through hands-on design and innovation. He currently serves as Associate Dean for Experiential Learning in the School of Engineering, overseeing initiatives that connect classroom learning with real-world application. In this role, he leads the Senior Design program and organizes the School of Engineering’s end-of-term exposition, Design Day, which showcases student projects to the broader community.

As a Professor of the Practice of Mechanical Engineering and the School of Engineering Immersion Director, Withrow is deeply committed to mentoring students as they navigate immersive, project-based experiences. He is also an Immersion ×ÔοÊÓƵ Faculty Fellow, a role that allows him to collaborate closely with students as they pursue impactful Immersion projects that bridge disciplines and create meaningful contributions beyond the university.