News
Wilder School Celebrates Fresh Faces, Promotions
By Tiffany Murray-Robertson
Four fresh faces have joined the Wilder School for the 2017-18 academic year and a few others were recently promoted. Together, they will strengthen the school’s commitment to providing high-quality public affairs education and analysis in a number of important areas, including criminal justice, community engagement, homeland security and student support services.
New faces
Ashlee Barnes, Ph.D., joins the criminal justice program as an assistant professor. Her research examines the impact of psychological and ecological factors on juvenile delinquency and aims to identify strategies and policies that mitigate racial and ethnic disparities within the juvenile justice system. Specifically, Barnes uses risk assessment as a tool to evaluate juvenile court policies, practices and judicial programming. Her most recent scholarship developed a measure comprised exclusively of protective factors and is based on a strengths-based approach to assessing youth offenders’ risk of recidivism. Barnes earned her doctorate and master’s degrees in ecological-community psychology from Michigan State University.
Denia Lee-Hing, Ed.D,is the new director of the Office of Graduate Studies. She brings nearly a decade of progressive experience in advising graduate and professional school students to the Wilder School, having served as a senior academic advisor and student success coach at Nova Southeastern University for the past eight years. Prior to joining academia, Lee-Hing was a development advisor for the United States Peace Corps in Burkina Faso. She holds a doctorate in education from Nova Southeastern University and a master’s degree in public administration from Rutgers University-Camden.
Sarah Raskin, Ph.D., is a medical anthropologist who joins the Wilder School as an assistant professor through an innovative cross-disciplinary initiative to advance oral health equity in Virginia. In addition to conducting research, her responsibilities will include recruiting and mentoring students from underrepresented groups and teaching core methods and health policy courses. Raskin, who earned a doctorate in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Arizona and a master’s degree in public health from Emory University, has an extensive background in public health and dental social sciences. Her research focuses on the social, contextual and structural determinants of health care access among historically marginalized populations.
Christopher Whyte, Ph.D., joins the homeland security and emergency preparedness program as an assistant professor. Whyte specializes in security studies. His research explores the use of different information technologies by non-state and government actors and aims to inform efforts to construct resilient cybersecurity systems. Previously, he was a non-resident WSD-Handa Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Most recently, he was an adjunct professor at American University. Whyte earned a doctorate of philosophy in political science and a master’s degree in international relations from George Mason University.
Promotions and appointments
In addition to the Wilder School’s newest crop of hires, several promotions were awarded in late spring.
“As the Wilder School continues to grow and thrive, these personnel changes represent our continued commitment to ensuring that we have the best and brightest team developing our students,” said Jill Gordon, Ph.D., associate dean for faculty and academic affairs.
“We accomplish this, in part, by recognizing the talent and achievements of our world-class faculty and our commitment to robust academic advising and support services,” Gordon said.
Recent promotions and appointments include:
Damian Pitt, Ph.D, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Myung Hun Jin, Ph.D., has been promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Maureen Moslow-Benway has been promoted to assistant professor.
Nicholas Garcia (MPA, ’13) has been named the director of undergraduate advising following a national search.
Sarah ‘Brianne’ Morrison has been promoted to senior academic advisor.