August 22, 2025
Washington and Lee Welcomes New Tenure Stream Faculty
W&L Welcomes New Fixed Term Faculty, Fellows and Assistant Coaches Twenty-seven new faculty and staff members are joining the university this year.
Washington and Lee University has welcomed 27 new fixed term faculty members, fellows and coaches across The College, The Williams School and The Law School this fall.
These new additions are:
Ayumi Arima, Visiting Instructor of Japanese
Arima joins W&L from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she taught Japanese as a graduate assistant. She also previously served as a teaching assistant in Japanese at Wesleyan University and as a Japanese teacher at Universidad Espíritu Santo (Ecuador). Arima earned a Bachelor of Arts in English, ESL and Japanese pedagogy from Kansai Gaidai University (Japan) and a Master of Arts in Japanese language and literature from University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her teaching and research interests include assistive educational technologies, Japanese pedagogy and reducing student foreign language anxiety.
Joey Barretta, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics
Barretta comes to W&L from the University of Texas at Austin, where he has served as a lecturer and postdoctoral fellow for the past two years. He’s also served as an online learning instructional fellow with Hillsdale College and as an adjunct professor at Ashland University. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in history and political science from Ashland, as well as a Master of Arts in political theory and American politics and a Ph.D. in politics from Hillsdale. His teaching and research interest includes the political thought of Frederick Douglass with a particular focus on Douglass’ efforts to promote racial equality in America after the demise of the institution of slavery.
Tara Cooper ’19, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
Cooper returns to her alma mater after several years as a graduate research and teaching assistant while earning her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Florida. She also earned bachelor’s degrees in neuroscience and East Asian languages and literature with a concentration in Japanese studies from W&L in 2019. Her research and teaching interests are aging, learning and memory and nutrition.
Suzanne Delle, Visiting Assistant Professor of Theater
Delle arrives at W&L after serving as an assistant and associate professor at York College of Pennsylvania since 2015. During this time, she has also been an adjunct professor with Stevenson University and Southern New Hampshire University and was a lab artist fellow with St. Anselm College. Delle holds a Bachelor of Arts in theater from Connecticut College, Master of Arts degrees in arts administration and digital communication and media/multimedia from Goucher College and an MFA in directing from the Catholic University of America. Her teaching and research interests include devised and verbatim theater, intimacy, mental health and consent in theater classroom, using theater pedagogy in the humanities and using theater skills in game design.
Sana Habib, Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Habib comes to W&L from Arizona State University, where she recently earned a Ph.D. in computer science. She also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from National University of Science and Technology (Pakistan). Her teaching and research interests include network and systems security, cloud infrastructure and mobile app privacy and foundational and advanced computer science.
Nick Kazandjian, Assistant Football Coach
Kazandjian arrives in Lexington from the University of Rhode Island, where he served as assistant tight ends coach and video coordinator. He has also coached at Princeton University, the University of Mount Union and Kenyon College. Kazandjian holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration in sport and recreation management from Nova Southeastern University.
Jacob Kraus, Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology
Kraus joins the W&L faculty after serving as a visiting assistant professor of biology at Bates College. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in biology from Reed College and a Ph.D. in integrative biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research and teaching interests include animal responses to seasonal changes in climate and resource availability, biostatistics, behavioral and wildlife ecology and primatology.
Daniel Kwiatkowski, Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics
Kwiatkowski recently completed his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia, where he also obtained a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in economics. His teaching and research interests include behavioral economics, using theory and lab experiments to explore information transmission topics such as price-quality inference.
Christy Lin, Visiting Instructor of Chinese
Lin arrives at W&L after serving as an adjunct instructor of Chinese at Vassar College. She holds a Master of Arts from Peking University (China) and a Master of Education in languages and literacies education from the University of Toronto. Her teaching and research interests are second language acquisition, Chinese pedagogy and Chinese literature.
Fosca Maddaloni-Yu, University Museums Curatorial Fellow
Maddaloni-Yu comes to W&L from Brown University, where she served as a visiting assistant professor while earning a Ph.D. in the history of art and architecture. She has also been a lecturer at Boston University and an adjunct instructor at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in East Asian studies from Università degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza (Italy) and a Master of Arts from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.
Sarah Margalus, Visiting Assistant Professor of Education Studies
Margalus joins the W&L faculty in conjunction with serving as a STEAM and makerspace consultant with Margalus LLC, where she designs and develops innovative courses in collaboration with libraries and children’s museums. She’s also been an instructional coach with Mokena School District (Illinois) and was a teacher leader, reading specialist and math interventionist and fifth-grade teacher with Frankfort School District (Illinois). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education from North Central College, a Master of Arts in education with a specialization in reading from Governors State University and a Ph.D. in education administration from DePaul University. Her teaching and research interests are STEAM and makerspace education, self-regulated learning behaviors and literacy.
Dorian McIntush, Open Scholarship, Data Resident Librarian and Assistant Professor
McIntush joined W&L last fall as information desk and classroom technology analyst and now holds the title of open scholarship, data resident librarian and assistant professor. He was a librarian for the DC Public Library in Washington, D.C., and was a library assistant at the Texas State Law Library. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English with a minor in computer science from Texas A&M University and a Master of Science in information studies with an emphasis in public libraries from the University of Texas at Austin. His research and teaching interests include data storytelling, open scholarship and digital archiving.
JuLee Messerich ’91, Williams School Entrepreneurship Fellow
Messerich comes to W&L from the technology industry where she most recently worked as programs director client engagement at Rimini Street. Her career has included roles in executive engagement, customer advocacy, event management and marketing at companies such as Oracle, Siebel Systems and educational startup School Loop. She earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration from W&L. Her entrepreneurial interests have included hydroponic agriculture and the intersection of artisanal works and community-based retail. Her current venture provides cooking and other essentials for global travelers.
Chris Mitchell, Head Equestrian Coach
Mitchell arrives at W&L from Albion College, where he served as hunt seat coach for the equestrian program. He previously served as the head coach of the equestrian programs at Randolph College and Cornell University. He coached one national champion at Randolph and led Cornell to four Ivy League titles. Mitchell earned a Bachelor of Arts in marketing from Longwood University.
Simmi Mookerjee, Visiting Assistant Professor of Accounting
Mookerjee joins the W&L faculty from the University of Virginia, having served as an assistant professor of business administration there since 2023. She was also a lecturer at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business, where she earned a Ph.D. in accounting. Mookerjee also holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a Master of Accounting degree from the University of Kansas. Her teaching and research interests include financial accounting and data analytics, diversity signaling in corporate communications, goodwill impairment processes and litigation risk.
Terlynn Olds, Associate Director of Athletics for Facilities and Operations
Olds comes to W&L from LaGrange College, where she served as vice president for athletics and recreation. Her career experiences also include serving in athletics administrative roles at Chatham University, Chicago State University, Grambling State University and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in sports management and a Master of Science in criminal justice from Saint Leo University and a Master of Sport Science in coaching from the United States Sports University. She is also currently pursuing a Ph.D. in education with a focus in sport leadership from Concordia University Chicago.
Karsten Olson, Visiting Assistant Professor of German
Olson joins the W&L faculty from the University of North Carolina Asheville, where he was a lecturer in German. He also previously taught at Auburn University, the European University Viadrina (Germany) and the University of Minnesota. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in German from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in German studies from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. His research and teaching interests include crime, legality and the nature of rights, the intersection of gender and economics and critical theory and conceptual history.
Daniel Ranweiler, Mudd Center Postdoctoral Fellow
Ranweiler comes to W&L from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he served as an instructor of philosophy and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Cornell University. His teaching and research interests include moral, legal and political philosophy, Kant’s practical philosophy and the nature of redemption.
Melinda Roth, Associate Visiting Professor of Law
Roth joins the W&L faculty from George Washington University Law School, where she was a visiting associate professor. Before entering academia, Roth worked for more than 20 years at World Bank, focusing on private and financial sector development and risk management. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Public Policy in business and government from Harvard Kennedy School and a J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center. Her research and teaching interests include the areas of business associations and corporate finance.
Cosim Sayid, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Justice and Society
Sayid arrives in Lexington from Princeton University, where he served as a lecturer in philosophy from 2019-2024. He has also been a visiting fellow at the Rutgers Institute for Law and Philosophy and was previously a lawyer with a private practice in New York. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from the City University of New York, and his teaching and research interests include tort law, evidence, contracts, jurisprudence and the philosophy of language.
Brittany Stawovy, Assistant Women’s Basketball Coach
Stawovy comes to Lexington from Kenyon College, where she was an assistant women’s basketball coach for the past two seasons. She also served as a graduate assistant coach at Seton Hill University and has experience as a middle school AAU coach. Stawovy holds bachelor’s degrees in secondary education and English literature from West Virginia Wesleyan College. While there, she was a two-year captain for the women’s basketball team. She also earned a M.Ed. from Seton Hill.
Christian Struck, Visiting Assistant Professor of German
Struck joins the W&L faculty after serving as a visiting assistant professor of German studies at Grinnell College. He’s also been a postdoctoral fellow, teaching fellow, instructor and tutor at Harvard University, where he earned a Ph.D. in Germanic languages and literatures and critical media practice. Struck also holds a Bachelor of Arts in law, philosophy and literature from the University of Bonn (Germany) and a Master of Arts in philosophy and German literature from Freie Universität Berlin. His teaching and research interests include materiality, mediality and performativity of text and other media, posthumanism, eco-criticism, visual studies, migration, urbanism, new materialism, process ontology and phenomenology.
Caitlyn Thompkins ’25, DeLaney Center Postbaccalaureate Fellow
Thompkins will serve as the DeLaney Center postbaccalaureate fellow after graduating from W&L in May with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology with minors in mass communication and Africana studies. As an undergraduate student, Thompkins served as a digital content intern with the DeLaney Center and was a social media and marketing associate with the Class of 1994 Office of Inclusion and Engagement.
Meaghan Walsh, University Museums Curatorial Fellow
Walsh comes to W&L from the University of Virginia (UVA), where she was a postdoctoral fellow for the Engagements Program. Prior to that, she was a lecturer in the Fine Arts Department at Hampden-Sydney College and a predoctoral fellow in modern and contemporary art history with The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. Walsh holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in art history and English from UVA, a Master of Arts in art history from the University of Kansas and a Ph.D. in art history from UVA.
Wenqi Yang, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Yang arrives at W&L after spending the last year as a visiting assistant professor within the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Wake Forest University. She was a Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Grinnell College, where she was also a lecturer in the Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies Department. Additionally, Yang was an instructor and teaching assistant at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she earned a Master of Arts and Ph.D. in East Asian studies. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Tsinghua University (China). Her teaching and research interests include evident and hidden forms of gender-based violence, police responses to non-criminal domestic violence in mainland China and the evolution of feminist reflexivity.
Kursat Yilmaz, Visiting Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Yilmaz joins the W&L faculty after earning a Ph.D. in mathematics in May from the University of Toledo. He has served as a teaching assistant at Toledo since 2019. He’s also been a teaching assistant at the Middle East Technical University (Turkey), where he earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in mathematics. Yilmaz’s teaching and research interests include dynamical systems and symplectic geometry, Hamiltonian mechanics on curved spaces, spherical restricted three-body problems and inclusive and student-centered teaching.
Leah Youngquist, Visiting Assistant Professor of Geology
Youngquist comes to W&L from Bucknell University, where she was a visiting assistant professor of geology and environmental geoscience for the last year. She holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Oregon, a Master of Science from Yale University and a Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University, all in geoscience. Youngquist’s research and teaching interests focus on how rock deformation at small scales impact large-scale processes such as mountain building, landscape evolution and the seismic cycle.
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