Washington and Lee Welcomes New Tenure Stream Faculty Thirteen new members are joining the university this year.
Washington and Lee University has welcomed 13 new tenure stream faculty members who will instruct classes in the College, the Williams School and the Law School this fall.
The new additions are:
Benedikt Alberternst, Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Alberternst comes to W&L from Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) where he earned a Ph.D. in business administration with an emphasis in marketing in 2024. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration and economics from Paderborn University (Germany), where he also earned a Master of Science in business administration. Alberternst also served as a visiting scholar at the Schulich School of Business at York University (Canada) in 2022. His research and teaching interests explore the intersection of marketing, consumption and society, centering on customer experience, relationship marketing and cultural strategy.
Zefeng Bai, Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Bai joins the W&L faculty from the University of Tampa, where he was an assistant professor of business analytics since 2023. He’s also been a visiting assistant professor at Babson College and an adjunct lecturer at Bentley University. He holds a Bachelor of Science in business (finance) from Iowa State University, a Master of Science in management (finance) from New Jersey Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in business (analytics) from Bentley. His research and teaching interests include business analytics, statistics and data-driven decision-making centering on casual inference and data analytics, particularly digital asset adoption and long-term asset management.
Jean-Luc Bouchard, Assistant Professor of Creative Writing
Bouchard arrives at W&L from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where he served as lecturer in the English Department for the last two years. He has also previously been a staff writer for BuzzFeed and The Onion, and a social media editor for Business Insider. Bouchard holds a Bachelor of Arts in English with minors in Asian studies and music from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in creative writing (fiction) from UNC Greensboro. His research and teaching interests include creative writing in nonfiction and fiction, humor and satire, literature of work and comics, and comics, manga and animation.
Calvin Bryan, Assistant Professor of Economics
Bryan comes to W&L from Colorado State University, where he was a postdoctoral researcher last spring after earning a Ph.D. in natural resource economics in December 2024. He also has experience as a recreation technician with the U.S. Forest Service and as a sixth-grade math teacher with the Teach for America program. Bryan holds a Bachelor of Science in bioenvironmental science from Texas A&M University, a Master of Arts in economics from San Diego State University and a Ph.D. in natural resource economics from Colorado State. His research and teaching are focused on sustainable natural resource management and behavioral responses to climate change.
Hung Chu ’19, Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Chu joins the W&L faculty from Texas A&M University, where he served as a visiting assistant professor of mathematics since 2023. A 2019 W&L graduate, Chu earned bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and economics, before obtaining a Master of Science and Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research and teaching interests include approximation theory, number theory and sequences, as well as financial/actuarial mathematics and analysis.
Eric Deggans, Knight Professor of Journalism and Media Ethics
Deggans arrives at W&L from National Public Radio, where he was a television critic, media analyst and guest host. He’s been on staff at a variety of newspapers, including the Tampa Bay Times, Asbury Park Press and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and has been a frequent adjunct professor and guest lecturer at several colleges and universities, including Duke University and Indiana University Bloomington. Deggans earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and journalism from Indiana University Bloomington. His research and teaching are focused on journalism ethics, race and media, news writing, podcasting, media technology and reporting and interview techniques.
Sofia Elverdin, Assistant Professor of Politics
Elverdin joins the W&L faculty after earning a Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 2025. She also holds a Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy in political science from Yale and a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in political science from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina). Her teaching and research focus on applied statistics, comparative politics and social movements and gender in politics in Latin America.
Lauren Hughes, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic
Hughes comes to W&L from Georgetown University, where she was a clinical teaching fellow at the Center for Applied Legal Studies. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in political science and government from DePaul University, LL.M. degrees from Duke University (international and comparative law) and Georgetown (advocacy) and a J.D. from Duke. Her teaching and research interests include immigration law, asylum and refugee law and international human rights law.
Jaime Roots, Assistant Professor of German
Roots was promoted to assistant professor of German after serving as a visiting assistant professor of German at W&L since 2019. Prior to coming to Lexington, she was a lecturer in German at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Roots holds a Bachelor of Arts in English literature and German from the University of Idaho, as well as a Master of Arts and Ph.D. from the University of California, Irvine. Her teaching and research interests include German literature and literary history, fandom studies and folklore, digital storytelling and digital humanities.
Soo Yon Ryu, Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Ryu joins the W&L faculty after completing a Ph.D. in marketing (consumer behavior) from the University of Florida. She has founded two startup businesses in South Korea and interned as a researcher at LG Electronics. Ryu earned bachelor’s degrees in business administration and culture and design management from Yonsei University (South Korea) and a Master of Arts in art management (business track) from Seoul National University. Her teaching and research interests explore the intersection of aesthetics, experiential consumption and ethical decision-making.
Ivan Shmatko, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Shmatko comes to W&L from the University of Alberta (Canada), where he served as a graduate assistant while earning a Ph.D. in sociology. He previously served as a mentor at the Invisible University for Ukraine. His research and teaching interests are the sociology of law, military ethnography and the ethnography of post-socialism.
Dennis C. Sweet IV, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Civil Rights and Racial Justice Clinic
Sweet comes to W&L after serving as an attorney with Sweet & Associates and professor at Tougaloo College for more than a decade. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Tougaloo College, a J.D. from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and an LL.M. in litigation and dispute resolution from the George Washington University Law School.
Carrie Stanton, Assistant Professor of Law
Stanton earned a promotion to assistant professor of law after serving as a visiting assistant professor for the last two years. Before coming to W&L, she was a partner with the Williams Mullen Law Firm and was an adjunct professor at the University of Virginia School of Law. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in politics from the University of Virginia and holds a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. Stanton is a business law scholar who teaches and writes in the areas of contracts, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance.
