Faculty Fellows

Cooke-Cottone is a Professor in the Department of Counseling, School of Educational Psychology (CSEP), where she teaches courses on mindful therapy, yoga for health and healing, self-care and service, eating disorder prevention and treatment, and counseling with children and adolescents. Presenting nationally and internationally, she uses her model of embodied self-regulation to structure discussions on empirical work and practical applications. Similarly, Cooke-Cottone's research focuses on embodied self-regulation (i.e., yoga, mindfulness, and self-care) and psychosocial disorders (e.g., eating disorders, trauma). Her research has been funded by lululemon, athletica, the National Science Foundation, and UNICEF.

Samuel Crickenberger is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences. 

Laura Lewis’ work has focused on expanding international opportunities for students and creating virtual classroom collaborations around global issues. She has facilitated academic partnerships with colleagues in Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, India and Mexico, and recently helped to launch the new First Year Global Experience in Costa Rica. Lewis was the recipient of a Fulbright award for International Educators in 2018.  She teaches courses in the School of Social Work’s MSW Program and in the School’s undergraduate minor in Community Organizing. Before joining the School of Social Work, Lewis practiced social work in both clinic and school settings. Her work included advocacy for increased access to mental health services, and on reducing stigma.

Dr. Lopez is a Western New York native and a Canisius College alumnus. He received a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Rochester in 2010. Dr. Lopez has been teaching locally ever since, and has also been affiliated with actuarial services at BlueCross BlueShield of WNY since 2007, consulting on a variety of special projects.

Dr. Lopez enjoys teaching a wide range of statistics courses, especially those that involve statistical methodology used in the actuarial profession. His teaching methods are aimed at helping students develop an appreciation for the usefulness and elegance of statistics. A special emphasis is placed on getting students to see "the big picture".

Steven Miller is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and the Executive Director of the Center for Psychoanalysis and Culture. His academic interests encompass psychoanalytic theory, continental philosophy, and 19th- and 20th-century European literatures, along with translation studies. He is the author of War After Death: On Violence and Its Limits (Fordham University Press, 2014), which explores the intricate relationships between violence, law, and desire.

In addition to his book, Miller's work includes "Lacan at the Limits of Legal Theory: Law, Desire, and Sovereign Violence," featured in Penumbra: Counter-Histories of the Present (2013), and the theoretical introduction, "Literature and the Right to Marriage," for a special issue of Diacritics (2005). His essay "Open Letter to the Enemy: Jean Genet's Holy War," also published in Diacritics (2004), showcases his deep engagement with literary and philosophical discourses.

Dominic Sellitto is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Management, Management Science and Systems. 

Joel Black has a PhD in American legal history. His teaching and research focus on law, inequality, and city life. He has taught in law and honors programs at the University of Oregon and the University of Florida, where he also led their nationally ranked Mock Trial team. Black has published six peer-reviewed articles and one book, Structuring Poverty in the Windy City. His forthcoming law review article examines laws governing speech in the era of Vaudeville.

As a faculty member in the University at Buffalo’s Law BA Program, Black welcomes students with questions related to the Law BA Program, legal history, and law in general.

Sama Waham is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Study and an internationally recognized director, producer, and cinematographer. Her films have screened at prestigious festivals, including Hot Docs and the European Independent Film Festival, earning over 21 awards and nominations. She holds an MFA in Film Production from York University in Toronto.

Her latest film, *Sing for Me*, is a poetic documentary exploring belonging, heritage, and the complexities of diasporic identities. It reflects on Mandaeanism, an ancient practice rooted in Babylonian history, and follows a personal journey through loss and memory, using archival footage to recreate a city that no longer exists. Premiering at the Dubai International Film Festival in 2015, it won the Best Long Documentary Award at the Alexandria Mediterranean Countries Film Festival and has received six additional international accolades. Professor Waham is an Associate Member of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers and was nominated for the Robert Brooks Award for Best Documentary Cinematography in 2014. With extensive experience in narrative and experimental filmmaking, she teaches various filmmaking courses and focuses her research on the evolving forms and boundaries of cinematic storytelling.

Ashlee N. Ford Versypt is a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. She teaches the introductory course for chemical engineering majors and research methods for undergraduate students. She leads the Systems Biomedicine and Pharmaceutics Laboratory, a research team focused on using mathematical and computational models to enhance understanding of the mechanisms governing tissue remodeling and damage as a result of diseases and infections and to simulate the treatment of those conditions to improve human health. She is also an avid tabletop gamer and is passionate about building community through gaming. Her lab social events often involve playing games from her large personal collection. She has facilitated countless gaming events for student organizations, friends and family, and community groups.

• A family sociologist whose research examines the individual, interpersonal and contextual factors that affect romantic and family relationships, and the role that these relationships play in health and well-being across the life course
• An associate dean whose research is funded by the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation, and includes finding innovative ways of integrating analytical processes into design processes in order to better see the “unseeables” of energy, carbon, comfort, climate, and air movement.
  
• A specialist in ethnographic data collection teaching Latinx Studies since 1981, who explores the identity formation and experiences of immigrants and refugees to the United States.
  
• A board-certified cardiology pharmacist who practices in the cardiac intensive care unit at Buffalo General Medical Center, where she teaches pharmacy students and residents through experiential education.
• A specialist in the literature and culture of modern Catalonia, Spain, whose areas of academic interest include twentieth and twenty-first-century fiction, narrative theory, landscape studies, theories of globalization, and ecocriticism. 
• A professor who teaches an advertising class, drawing on her experience in advertising, market research, product development/management and brand management. 
• An assistant professor who teaches courses on South Asian literature and culture, translation studies, and linguistic approaches to literature in conjunction with the Asian Studies Program at UB.
• An associate professor whose research is centered in the sociology of work, while also extending into the fields of social inequality, cultural sociology, labor, law, and social policy. 
• An assistant professor of theatre whose research sits at the juncture of theatre, media and performance studies.
• A researcher focused on ethics, economics and politics as three ways of assigning value in a liberal society, looking specifically at the creation of academic disciplines as vehicles for these values. 
• A feminist critical, interdisciplinary, qualitative educational policy researcher whose body of work focuses on the politics of education and how public education addresses societal violence, displacement, and centers the wellbeing of historically underserved students.
• A cultural historian of Britain, Ireland, and the British Empire with a particular interest in the history of everyday life, including gender, sport, fashion, religion and popular culture.
• A cognitive neuroscientist with interests in brain plasticity as it relates to learning, memory, and perception.
• An assistant professor who teaches courses that bring modern French literature into discussion with other art forms, such as film, music, painting, and installation art. 
• A genetic epidemiologist who researches the role of genetics in complex diseases/traits, including cancer health disparities in breast and ovarian cancer.
• An associate professor whose research lies at the intersection of psychology, endocrinology and neuroscience with a focus on the role of hormones in social behavior and sex differences during adolescence. 
• An associate professor who does research in and teaches algorithms that allow for processing large amounts of data efficiently as well as help recover original information from corrupted data. 
• An associate professor who teaches courses in 3D printing, emphasizing hands-on experience and providing an open classroom where students can learn by doing.