UMSL’s newest faculty members spent last Tuesday in a daylong orientation at the Millennium Student Center. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)
The University of Missouri–St. Louis is opening the 2024-25 academic year with 21 new faculty members. For several of them, their new teaching roles are bringing them back to their alma mater.
Keeta Holmes, the assistant vice provost for academic innovation and director of UMSL’s Center for Teaching and Learning, and Alice Hall, the associate provost for faculty affairs, led the group through a daylong orientation last Tuesday in Century Room C of the Millennium Student Center.
“I am excited to welcome these new faculty to our UMSL community as we work to transform the lives of our students,” said Steven J. Berberich, UMSL’s vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost. “We are committed to supporting them in their teaching and scholarship and creative works as they expand the minds of UMSL students and pursue new discoveries that add to our base of knowledge.”
Find out more about each new faculty member below.
College of Arts and Sciences
Jalaene LaMontagne, E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor in Botanical Studies
LaMontagne is a population ecologist and quantitative biologist who comes to UMSL after spending the past 13 years as a faculty member at DePaul University. She has also worked as an adjunct scientist at the Lincoln Park Zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute and as a research affiliate at The Morton Arboretum, and last year, she was a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Calgary and earned her PhD at the University of Alberta. Her research interests span a wide range of organisms, and she explores topics such as patterns and drivers of spatial synchrony, climate change, and urban ecology. She is also serving as a research associate with the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Science & Conservation Division.
Blaine Marchant, assistant professor
Marchant holds a PhD in botany from the University of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Walbot Lab at Stanford University. He uses single-cell RNA-sequencing , comparative genetics and genomics, and digitized herbarium specimens to investigate questions in plant reproductive biology, development, ecology, and evolution using both model and nonmodel plant systems.
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Megan Burroughs, assistant teaching professor
Burroughs earned her BS in Chemical Engineering at University of California, Davis and PhD in Chemistry at University of Nevada, Reno. Her research primarily focuses on the isolation and characterization of ecologically relevant, and novel natural products (Piper family). She is very passionate about teaching and mentoring undergraduate students.
Upendra Sharma, assistant professor
Sharma earned both his master’s degree and PhD from Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar, India. He served as a lecturer at the National Institute of Technology in Jalandhar, India, and has had postdoctoral fellowships at KU Leuven, the University of Cambridge, the University of Eindhoven and the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry. He joined KU Leuven as a research expert, beginning his independent research career in 2020. He has also worked as a visiting research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ian Varga, assistant teaching professor
Varga earned his PhD from Florida State University and went on to teach at Wofford College. His research specializes on the history of American space science, including the history of extraterrestrial life studies. He studies the intersection of science, government and politics and how they influence each other.
Bethany Worrell, assistant professor
Worrell holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in voice performance from the University of Michigan and has experience from a 10-year freelance career as a classical soprano, spending time in Boston, New York and Dallas. Her research is currently focused on the compositional legacy of Rosario Scalero and to performing and creating critical editions of his unpublished vocal works. This year, she went on a three-city tour of Texas with the Orpheus Chamber Singers and has also performed the Poulenc “Gloria” with the UMSL Symphony Orchestra and University Singers and the Brahms “Requiem” with the Bach Society of Saint Louis.
Department of Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy and Statistics
Surya Thapa Magar, assistant teaching professor
Annie Corbitt, assistant teaching professor
Corbitt completed her PhD at Northwestern University, where she wrote her dissertation “Poetry as Eros in Plato’s Dialogues” under the direction of Richard Kraut. Her work argues that while Plato is famously a critic of poetry, he also recognizes an important role for poetry because, as she argues, Plato sees poetry as an expression of eros, which also drives our search for truth and goodness. Corbitt teaches courses in ancient philosophy, ethics, bioethics, business ethics and philosophy of religion.
Brian Adler, assistant teaching professor
Adler is returning to UMSL after completing his MPPA in 2022. He also holds a bachelor’s degreee from Washington University and is completing his dissertation for his doctorate in public and social policy at Saint Louis University. His research focuses on housing and local governance, particularly within the Saint Louis area.
College of Business Administration
Paul Ordyna, assistant professor
Ordyna earned his PhD from Purdue University and holds a JD and master’s degree from the University of Mississippi as well as a bachelor’s degree from BYU. He has spent the past nine years teaching accounting and taxation at the University of South Dakota, Utah Valley University and the University of Cincinnati. His research interests include financial accounting, taxation, capital markets, corporate disclosure and bankruptcy. He is a CPA and an inactive member of the Utah State Bar and has worked for industry leaders such as PricewaterhouseCoopers and Comcast.
Department of Global Leadership and Management
Alice Lee-Yoon, assistant professor
Lee-Yoon completed her PhD in business administration from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management earlier this year with a speciality in organizational behavior. Her dissertation explored how time-based rewards can improve psychological wellbeing by fostering a sense of humanization among employees, whereas monetary rewards may inadvertently reduce wellbeing by driving employees to prioritize work-related relationships over personal ones in pursuit of financial goals. Her research has been published in such journals as Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes and Current Opinion in Psychology.
Department of Information Systems and Technology
Necdet Gurkan, assistant professor
Necdet Gurkan received his PhD from the School of Business at Stevens Institute of Technology. He also holds a master’s degree in management information systems from Le Moyne College and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Saint Leo University. His research interest lies in human-machine cognition, collective intelligence and the transformative power of information technologies. He uses techniques such as probabilistic modeling, Bayesian non-parametric modeling, deep neural network data fusion, cognitive-driven response processes and advanced psychometric modeling.
Department of Supply Chain and Analytics
Siqiang Guo, assistant professor
Guo completed his PhD in operations research and industrial engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. Before pursuing his doctorate, he worked as a solutions design manager at DHL Supply Chain. Guo earned his bachelor’s degree in logistics engineering from Tongji University in China and a master’s degree in business logistics engineering from the Ohio State University. His current research is mainly in logistics and renewable energy, and he’s interested in application-oriented research using analytics and optimization.
College of Nursing
Sarah Burnett, assistant teaching professor
Burnett earned her DNP from Creighton University in 2019 in the pediatric acute and primary care nurse practitioner track. She practiced as a pediatric nurse practitioner pediatric nephrology before relocating to St Louis this summer. She has held multiple teaching positions in undergraduate and graduate nursing programs over the past five years and recently joined the hospitalist team at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Elizabeth Gavin, assistant teaching professor
Gavin holds an MSN in nursing education and has a broad background in pediatrics, primarily in pediatric oncology and stem cell transplant. She is joining the College of Nursing as the simulation coordinator and brings experience in nursing simulation education, along with certification in healthcare simulation education.
Paula Linden, assistant teaching professor
Linden has years of experience working as a nurse in emergency medicine, surgery and leadership. She has spent the past eight years working in nursing education and teaching. She values teaching and interacting with students and considers it a privilege to share her experience while working to develop the next generation of nursing professionals.
Jinnie Tkach, assistant teaching professor
Tkach received her DNP from UMSL in 2022 after completing her doctoral project titled “Eye Care Protocol in Critically Ill Pediatric Patients on Neuromuscular Blockage.” She spent nine years as a nurse working in pediatric critical care medicine. Since earning DNP, she has been working as an acute care pediatric nurse practitioner at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in pediatric general medicine and, more recently, pediatric anesthesia.
College of Optometry
Dr. Jessica Broodryk, assistant clinical professor
Broodryk is an UMSL alum who further honed her expertise through the prestigious Ian L. Bailey Low Vision and Ocular Disease Residency at UC Berkeley School of Optometry. She also had a fellowship with the American Academy of Optometry and was the recipient of the William Feinbloom Low Vision Award. She specializes in managing acute and chronic ocular diseases and provides comprehensive low vision rehabilitation for patients of all ages. Her clinical interests include low vision rehabilitation, ocular disease, dry eye management and contact lenses.
Dr. John Szewczyk, assistant clinical professor
Szewczyk earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Boston College and went on to complete his Doctor of Optometry from the New England College of Optometry in Boston. After graduation, he completed a primary care/ocular disease residency at the West Roxbury Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Szewczyk is involved in multiple didactic courses, as well as working in the primary care and ocular disease clinics with third- and fourth-year optometry students.
School of Social Work
Renata Sledge, assistant professor
Sledge earned her PhD in medical family therapy from Saint Louis University’s School of Medicine. She most recently chaired the Department of Social Work at Fontbonne University. Her research and social work practice have been focused on partnering with people and families impacted by chronic illness to improve quality of life, promote positive family adjustment and encourage self-management of chronic illness. She has published and presented in a variety of areas, including medical decision-making, ethics and the role of relationships in well-being.
UMSL Libraries
Alicia Leathers, Librarian II
Leathers is serving as rare book and special collections cataloger in the St. Louis Mercantile Library. She holds a master’s degree in library and information science from Syracuse University and spent the past three years as a library assistant at the American Philatelic Research Library in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.
