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Subject Matter Experts Directory

Fresno State employees are available to talk with members of the media on a variety of topics. Below are just some of our experts searchable by name, title, department or area of expertise. For further assistance, please contact Public Information Officer Lisa Bell at lbell@csufresno.edu.

Search by typing Name, Title, Department or Area of Expertise:

Experts Directory
Expert

Barlow Der Mugrdechian

Faculty | Armenian Studies

Area of Expertise
  • Armenian language
  • Armenian history
  • Armenian literature
  • Armenian culture
  • Armenian art
  • Armenian church

Boutsaba Janetvilay

Catalog/Metadata Librarian | Metadata and Resource Description

Area of Expertise
  • Lao/Laotian
  • Cataloging
  • Metadata description

Candace Egan

Faculty | Media, Communications and Journalism

Area of Expertise
  • Screenwriting
  • Film and television production
  • Career Technology Education (CTE)

Chris Fiorentino

Director | Director of the Richter Center

Area of Expertise
  • Community service
  • Service-learning efforts
  • Partnerships with nonprofit organizations
  • Benefits of community service

Diniz (Dennis) Borges

Faculty, director of the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute | Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures

Area of Expertise
  • Portuguese language and culture
  • Portuguese-American literature
  • Azorean literature
  • Portuguese media in the United States
  • Portuguese-American identity
  • Portuguese-Americans in public service in California
  • Cultural awareness, identity, and cultural traditions in the Portuguese-American community

Dr. Ahran Koo

Faculty | Curriculum and Instruction

Area of Expertise
Art and visual culture education
  • Artificial intelligence in art education
  • Identity and visual culture
  • Community-based art
  • Contemporary art and art education
  • Mental health and wellbeing in art education
  • Art and technologies in education
Research and practical framework
  • Visual storying and arts-based research
  • Minority experiences and stories (Asian immigrant and Asian American studies)
  • Belonging pedagogy
  • Critical multiculturalism
  • Culturally responsive/sustaining pedagogy
  • Critical theory (Asian Crit)
  • Female/mother scholarship in higher education
  • Participatory action research
  • Service-learning
  • Digital narratives and narrative inquiry
  • Collaborative autoethnography
  • Community outreach and engagement
  • Diversity, social justice, and equity
  • Globalization and educational leadership

Dr. Alexandria (Ali) Hansen

Faculty | Biology

Area of Expertise
  • STEM education
  • Teacher education
  • K-12 learning/teaching

Dr. Alyssa Wilson

Faculty | Psychology

Area of Expertise
  • Behavioral/process addictions including problem gambling and video gaming
  • Neurodevelopmental differences

Dr. Amber Crowell

Faculty | Sociology

Area of Expertise
  • Residential segregation
  • Social inequality
  • Housing justice
  • Evictions
  • Rent exploitation
  • Co-director of the Center for Community Voices

Dr. Amila Becirbegovic

Faculty | Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures

Area of Expertise
  • Genocide studies
  • Human rights
  • Representations of war
  • Memory and trauma studies
  • German-Balkan history
  • Bosnian genocide
  • Holocaust representations
  • German comics, film and literature

Dr. Andrea Polegato

Faculty | Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures

Area of Expertise
  • Niccolò Machiavelli’s political language
  • Renaissance Florence
  • Art of war and strategic leadership
  • Representations of power in literature, philosophy, and media
  • Comparative studies
  • Italy-East Asia cross-cultural analysis
  • Italian studies
  • Study abroad programs and international education

Dr. Andrew Fiala

Faculty, director | Philosophy

Area of Expertise
  • Founding director of Ethics Center
  • Morality, ethics, existentialism, social and political theory

Dr. Antonio Avalos

Faculty, chair | Economics

Area of Expertise
  • Economic development
  • Political economy of Latin America
  • Forensic economics

Dr. Aris Athanasios Panagopoulos

Faculty | Computer Science

Area of Expertise
  • Artificial intelligence
  • AI for social good
  • Machine learning
  • Deep learning

Dr. Benjamin Boone

Faculty | Music

Area of Expertise
  • Award-winning saxophonist/composer; jazz recording artist.
  • US Fulbright Scholar to Ireland (2022-23), Ghana (2017-18), Moldova (2005)

Dr. Brian Agbayani

Faculty | Linguistics

Area of Expertise
  • Linguistics
  • Language structure
  • Linguistic diversity and change
  • Language preservation
  • Endangered languages

Dr. Brian J Griffith

Faculty | History

Area of Expertise
  • Authoritarianism
  • Europe
  • Fascism
  • Italy
  • Nationalism
  • Nazism
  • Neo-fascism
  • Neo-Nazism
  • Political violence
  • Southern Europe

Dr. Brittany A. Clason

Faculty | Kinesiology

Area of Expertise
  • Athletic training and rehabilitation sciences
  • Immediate and emergency care of injuries
  • Heat illness and acclimatization
  • Psychology of injury
  • Education, pedagogy, and student success
  • Motivation and motivational theories
  • Integrated sport injury model
  • Social cognitive theory (including self-efficacy)
  • Self-determiniation theory
  • Social identity theory
  • Psychosocial and emotional responses to injury

Dr. Bryan Tune

Faculty | Nursing

Area of Expertise
  • Anesthesia
  • Street medicine
  • Border health
  • Migrant health
  • Health care in the Central Valley

Dr. Carlos D. Martinez

Faculty | Information Systems and Decision Sciences

Area of Expertise
  • Smartphone technology
  • Smartphone technology use among undocumented immigrants
  • Smartphone technology use among Spanish speaking Hispanics in the U.S.
  • Smartphone technology use among farmworkers and blue collar workers
  • Smartphone cybersecurity issues
  • Use of YouTube technology for employment among Hispanic Immigrants in the U.S. for skill acquisition
  • BYOK (Bring Your Own Knowledge) through self-taught technology like YouTube
  • Higher education issues related to the Hispanic Community in the U.S.
  • I speak Spanish and am available for Spanish-speaking media or events

Dr. Chelsey Juarez

Faculty | Anthropology

Area of Expertise
  • Forensic anthropology
  • Forensic science
  • Isotope analysis
  • Bone chemistry
  • Provenance analysis
  • Dietary analysis
  • Clandestine recovery
  • Osteology
  • Trauma analysis
  • Thermal damage in human remains

Dr. Chris Miller

Faculty | Psychology

Area of Expertise
  • Brain imaging (e.g., fMRI);
  • Meta-analysis & machine learning algorithms;
  • Psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder);
  • Pharmacological treatments (e.g., antidepressants, ketamine/psychedelics)
  • Brain stimulation treatments (e.g., TMS, ECT)
  • Invisible disabilities, lived experiences, disclosure, and destigmatization
  • Culturally informed and inclusive teaching and mentoring practices

Dr. Christopher Ludwig

Faculty | Kinesiology

Area of Expertise
  • Athletic training
  • Sports medicine
  • Neuroscience and pain
  • Primary care
  • Point of care ultrasound - musculoskeletal and eFAST exam
  • Therapeutic interventions - modalities and pharmacology
  • Manual therapy
  • Patient reporter outcome measures
  • Research literacy in healthcare

Dr. Cierra Raine Sorin

Faculty | Sociology

Area of Expertise
  • Sex- and gender-based violence
  • University Title IX implementation and challenges
  • Sexual consent
  • Minority sexual communities
  • LGBTQ+ issues and gender inequality related to these issues

Dr. Cliff (Runze) Yu

Faculty | Viticulture and Enology

Area of Expertise
  • Berry/wine flavonoid composition as affected by abiotic stress
  • Vineyard cultural practices
  • Vineyard mechanization
  • Precision viticulture

Dr. Dermot Donnelly-Hermosillo

Faculty | Chemistry and Biochemistry

Area of Expertise
  • Science education
  • Chemistry education
  • Teacher science education
  • Science educational technologies
  • Science educational research

Dr. Diane Blair

Faculty | Communication

Area of Expertise
  • Rhetorical criticism and theory
  • Social movement rhetoric
  • Feminist theory and practice.
  • She has published several articles and book chapters on women and politics, including the rhetorical performances of U.S. first ladies.

Dr. Ellen Woo

Faculty | Psychology

Area of Expertise
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Dementia
  • Neurodegenerative disease
  • Neuropsychology, aging and memory, brain health

Dr. Ethan Kytle

Faculty | History

Area of Expertise
  • Nineteenth-century America
  • Intellectual and cultural history
  • Civil War and Reconstruction
  • Slavery and abolition
  • U.S. South
  • Historical memory
  • Civil Rights Movement

Dr. Everett A. Vieira III

Faculty | Political Science

Area of Expertise
  • Comparative politics
  • International relations
  • Terrorism
  • Political violence
  • Civil war
  • Latin America
  • Human rights
  • Democratization
  • Qualitative methods
  • Politics of memory

Dr. Fariborz Tehrani

Faculty | Civil and Geomatics Engineering

Area of Expertise
  • Structural engineering, mechanics, and materials
  • Infrastructure sustainability and resilience
  • Earthquake resistant design and engineering
  • Buildings, roads, and bridges design and management
  • Construction materials and methods
  • Engineering education and leadership

Dr. Gurreet Brar

Faculty | Agricultural Sciences and Technology

Area of Expertise
  • Horticulture/tree physiology and orchard systems in pistachio and other tree fruit and nut crops
  • Particularly interested in working on plant responses to environmental stress and climate change; chill accumulation, fruit/nut growth and development 

Dr. Helen Miltiades

Faculty, director | Gerontology program

Area of Expertise
  • Best practices for providers in the aging industry, older adults and their families

Dr. Hyunjin Shim

Faculty | Biology

Area of Expertise
  • Next-generation antibiotics
  • Antimicrobial resistance
  • Phagenome
  • Phage therapy

Dr. Jamie Levitt

Faculty | Food Science and Nutrition

Area of Expertise
  • Consumer behavior
  • Food tourism
  • Restaurant authenticity
  • Sustainability

Dr. Janine Nkosi

Faculty | Sociology

Area of Expertise
  • Housing inequities (evictions, habitability, slumlording)
  • Housing justice (tenants rights and protections, decommodified housing, etc.)
  • Green social housing, (community land trusts, public housing, cohousing)
  • Community based participatory research
  • Co-founder Radical Possibilities CoLab (https://radicalpossibilities.com)
  • Community organizing

Dr. Jennifer Randles

Faculty, interim associate dean | Sociology

Area of Expertise
  • Sociology of family,
  • Marriage/gender/social inequality/poverty
  • Childhood
  • Qualitative methodologies
  • Diaper affordability

Dr. Jenny Banh

Faculty | Anthropology

Area of Expertise
  • Hong Kong
  • SE Asian American college student Education Barriers and Bridges
  • East Asian Popular Culture
  • Asian Disneylands
  • Foodways (Chinese restaurants)
  • Anthropology of Asia/Asian America Pedagogy

Dr. Jill Fields

Faculty, founding coordinator of the Jewish Studies Program | History

Area of Expertise
  • U.S. women's history
  • American and American Jewish popular culture
  • Fashion studies
  • U.S. politics

Dr. Joel Slade

Faculty | Biology

Area of Expertise
  • Avian biology (birds)
  • Zoonotic diseases
  • Urban ecology
  • Immunology
  • Animal conservation

Dr. John Green

Faculty | Civil and Geomatics Engineering

Area of Expertise
  • High-speed passenger rail systems
  • Railroad freight transportation
  • Railroading education

Dr. John Williams

Faculty | Plant Science

Area of Expertise
  • Mechanized agriculture
  • Equipment safety
  • Machinery management
  • Welding
  • Fabrication
  • Small gas engines
  • Diesel engines
  • Hydraulics
  • Power-transmission
  • Agriculture mechanics
  • Shop safety
  • Agriculture education
  • Emerging technologies in ag machinery
  • DC electrical systems

Dr. Joseph Ross

Faculty | Biology

Area of Expertise
  • Genetics
  • Evolution
  • Ancestry testing
  • Genetic testing
  • Inheritance of genetic disorders
  • Genetically modified organisms
  • Responsible and ethical conduct of research
  • Educational technology
  • Use of mobile devices in classrooms
  • Creation and use of instructional videos

Dr. Juliet Wahleithner

Faculty | Literacy, Early, Bilingual and Special Education

Area of Expertise
  • Teacher preparation (pre-service and in-service)
  • Performance assessment
  • Accreditation
  • Education evaluation
  • Writing instruction
  • Literacy instruction

Dr. Justin Shaffer

Faculty | Biology

Area of Expertise
  • Mycology
  • Plant pathology
  • Microbiology
  • Microbiome science

Dr. Katherine Waselkov

Faculty | Biology

Area of Expertise
  • Botany/plant science
  • Plant identification
  • Evolutionary biology

Dr. Kelly D. Carrasco

Faculty | Psychology

Area of Expertise
  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), particularly in assessment and support for children and adolescents in home and educational settings.
  • Assessment of neurodevelopmental disorders
  • Use of advanced technologies as diagnostic tools
  • School psychology practice nationally and internationally

Dr. Kenneth Hansen

Faculty | Political Science

Area of Expertise
  • Public administration
  • Public policy
  • International relations
  • Defense / security policy
  • American indian law and tribal self-governance

Dr. Kimberly Coy

Faculty | Literacy, Early, Bilingual and Special Education

Area of Expertise
  • Inclusive education, specifically using the lens of Universal Design for Learning in digital environments

Dr. Larry King

Faculty | Management

Area of Expertise
  • Employee engagement
  • Quiet quitting
  • General HR management expertise

Dr. Lisa Bryant

Faculty, department chair | Political Science

Area of Expertise
  • American politics and government
  • Election sciences/election administration
  • Voting behavior
  • Political behavior
  • Public opinion/polls
  • Campaigns and elections
  • Gender and politics
  • Race/ethnicity and politics
  • Public policy
  • Political methods (surveys, experiments, polling)

Dr. Lori Clune

Faculty | History

Area of Expertise
  • Modern United States
  • Cold War
  • Diplomatic history
  • Espionage
  • Games/video games

Dr. Luis Fernando Macias

Faculty | Chicano and Latin American Studies

Area of Expertise
  • Immigrant education
  • Social justice education
  • Critical multiculturalism
  • Latina/o/x studies
  • Race and ethnicity
  • Undocumented studies
  • Immigration studies

Dr. Lynn Jakobs

Faculty, director | Nursing

Area of Expertise
  • Mobile Health Unit director
  • Nurse practitioner
  • Rural health care
  • Faculty teaching models for nurse practitioners
  • Pathological underpinnings of disease states
  • Access to rural medical care

Dr. Michael Botwin

Faculty | Psychology

Area of Expertise
  • Evolutionary psychology
  • Personality psychology
  • Personality traits / structure
  • Human mate preferences
  • Romantic relationships
  • Human intersexual flirtation
  • Romantic infatuation
  • Mating intelligence

Dr. Monique Bell

Faculty | Marketing and Logistics, interim chair

Area of Expertise
  • Branding and marketing communications
  • Multicultural marketing
  • Wine and food marketing
  • Underrepresented consumers and entrepreneurs
  • Culture (language, values, identity)
  • Barriers Black wine entrepreneurs face
  • Need for more funding to promote more inclusivity in the wine industry
  • Social sustainability

Dr. Naomi Bick

Faculty | Political Science

Area of Expertise
  • Public policy
  • Environmental policy
  • Urban politics
  • American politics and government
  • Political institutions
  • Women and politics
  • Federalism, local government; municipal policy; climate change policy; local and regional sustainability planning

Dr. Shahab Tayeb

Faculty | Electrical and Computer Engineering

Area of Expertise
  • Network security and privacy (internet of things)
  • Security via complex network analysis (big data analytics)
  • Embedded systems (cyber-physical systems), communications (wireless sensor networks, network protocols)
  • Cybersecurity education and workforce development

Dr. Srinivasa Konduru

Faculty | Agricultural Business

Area of Expertise
  • Agribusiness management

Dr. Steve Chung

Faculty | Mathematics

Area of Expertise
  • Data science
  • Statistics
  • Predictive modeling
  • Data analysis

Dr. Steven Waite

Faculty | Kinesiology

Area of Expertise
  • Motivational influences on exercise relating to lifestyle, competition, mood, stress, and sleep patterns
  • Functional movement pattern assessment and application to sport and training
  • Aerobic performance and training methods for endurance athletes
  • Heat stress adaptations for endurance athletes

Dr. Stuart McFeeters

Faculty | Geography and City and Regional Planning

Area of Expertise
  • Remote sensing (published first author)
  • Climate change (equivalent MS in earth and atmospheric sciences)
  • Physical geography (weather, climate, weather hazards, general hydrologic resources, landform development)
  • Geographic information systems (certified GIS Professional - GISP)

Dr. Sue Basile

Faculty | Kinesiology

Area of Expertise
  • Sports biomechanics
  • Youth biomechanics
  • Youth sports performance
  • Overuse injuries

Dr. Susan Schlievert

Faculty | Curriculum and Instruction

Area of Expertise
  • Teacher education
  • Arts integration
  • Statewide Academic Senate
  • Teaching/best practices
  • Global educational systems
  • School/classroom environments
  • School evaluation and leadership
  • Informal mentoring

Dr. Tania Pacheco-Werner

Director | Central Valley Health Policy Institute

Area of Expertise
  • Social determinants of health
  • Maternal-child health
  • Community engagement for policy efforts
  • Co-creator of the COVID-19 Equity Project in Fresno County

Dr. Tanisha Garcia

Faculty | Public Health

Area of Expertise
  • Public health
  • Healthcare initiatives to address health policy and inequities in healthcare
  • Organizational change
  • Leadership

Dr. Thomas Holyoke

Faculty | Political Science

Area of Expertise
  • American politics and government
  • Interest groups and lobbying
  • Congress
  • Western water policy and politics

Dr. Ulrike Muller

Faculty | Biology

Area of Expertise
  • Scientific publishing
  • Science communication
  • Equity and inclusion in academia
  • Research on how organisms move (how fish swim, birds fly, etc.)

Dr. Wade Gilbert

Faculty | Kinesiology

Area of Expertise
  • Sport psychology
  • Coaching, youth sport
  • Athlete development
  • Leadership

Dr. William Force

Faculty | Sociology

Area of Expertise
  • Popular culture (film, music, TV)
  • Subculture (punk, metal, tattoos, outlaw country)
  • LGBTQ/queer culture
  • Deviance
  • Masculinity and masculinities
  • Anarchism
  • Prison abolitionism

Dr. Yang Sao Xiong

Faculty | Anthropology

Area of Expertise
  • International migration
  • Race and ethnicity
  • Political sociology
  • Asian American studies
  • Importance of cultivating a racially and ethnically diverse campus in order to create a safe space for students

Faith Sidlow

Faculty | Media, Communications and Journalism

Area of Expertise
  • Media
  • Media literacy
  • Media bias, journalism
  • Broadcast journalism
  • Online journalism

Hanayo Oya

Faculty | Media, Communications and Journalism

Area of Expertise
  • Multi-award-winning journalist, documentary filmmaker and producer
  • Co-Producer, Netflix documentary series Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War (2024)
  • International journalism and reporting
  • International education
  • Intercultural and international communication
  • International affairs
  • Asian Pacific region
  • Okinawa
  • Japan

Jacob Hurst

Faculty | Plant Science

Area of Expertise
  • Crop nutrition
  • Plant propagation
  • Soils

Jim Boren

Faculty, executive director of the Institute for Media and Public Trust | Media, Communications and Journalism

Area of Expertise
  • Evolving trends in the national news industry
  • Newsroom leadership and management
  • Training programs for journalists of color 
  • Journalism ethics and identifying misinformation/disinformation

Jon F. Morse, Sr.

Faculty | Criminology

Area of Expertise
  • Leadership development
  • Rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals

Kathy Luo

Faculty | Theatre and Dance

Area of Expertise
  • Modern and contemporary dance
  • Dance choreography
  • Yoga and pilates
  • Dance pedagogy
  • Asian diaspora dance studies

Mai Der Vang

Faculty | English

Area of Expertise
  • Award-winning poet
  • Pulitzer Prize finalist
  • Creative writing
  • Refugee poetics

Michelle Bellaver

Faculty | Theatre and Dance

Area of Expertise
  • Theater performance
  • Film acting
  • Film directing
  • Theater directing
  • Feminist theatre
  • Performance art
  • Experimental film
  • New play development
  • Somatic performance
  • Polyvagal theory
  • Performance training
  • Neurodiversity in performance
  • Neurodivergent performers
  • The female gaze
  • Shakespeare
  • Directing
  • Theater theory
  • Theater performance history
  • Film performance history

Monica Rivera

Faculty | Physical Therapy

Area of Expertise
  • Parkinson's Disease: Exercise and Functional Activity
  • Fresno State Research on posture, fall prevention, and gait improvement
  • Turning strategies in Parkinson's disease
  • Sensory changes in Parkinson's disease
  • Spina Bifida and early mobility in infancy 
  • Mobility and spatial cognitive development in infant disability
  • Chronic pain and neuroscience

Neil Tung

Faculty | Agriculture Business

Area of Expertise
  • Supply chain
  • Commodity buyers flour and palm oil
  • Flour prices in the United States
  • How much yield per acre
  • How the war in Russia impacted prices
  • How the weather impacted farmers planting winter wheat crops
  • The rise in cost of transportation, especially diesel prices and regulations
  • California carb rule - new regulations will impact how we get our product to bakery and donuts shop

Sean Fulop

Faculty | Linguistics

Area of Expertise
  • Phonetics
  • Language and speech
  • Speech processing and analysis
  • Forensic speech analysis

Shuyi Liu

Librarian | Research Services

Area of Expertise
  • Consumer health information
  • Interactive media in health
  • Health literacy
  • Digital storytelling

Yiliang Cheng

Faculty | Viticulture and Enology

Area of Expertise
  • Tannin management
  • Wine chemistry
  • Sensory Evaluation