All faculty (full-time, adjunct, part-time, and retired) will receive an individualized email link to the electronic ballot on April 29 and have until 5:00 pm PDT on May 5 3to cast their ballot electronically. On the ballot and below, you will find links to candidate information, including each candidate’s short bio, brief self-presentation video, and an information sheet with more detail on the candidate’s background, roles, service, and goals.
The current members of the Executive Board returning next year are:
- President: Rima Jubran (Keck School of Medicine)
- Administrative Vice President: Christine El-Haddad (Marshall School of Business)
- Past President: Margo Apostolos (Kaufman School of Dance)
The candidates standing for election are listed below, alphabetically.
Academic Vice-President (goes on to serve as President and then Past President; choose one)
Eva Kanso is a Professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southern California, where she holds the “Z.A. Kaprielian Fellow in Engineering” chair. Between 2021 and 2023, Kanso served as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation. In her research, Kanso studies the biophysics of cellular and animal behavior, both at the individual and collective levels. A central theme in her work is the role of the mechanical environment, specifically the fluid medium and fluid-structure interactions, in shaping and driving biological functions.
Lorraine Turcotte is a Professor in Biological Sciences in Dornsife College. She is also Chair of Human and Evolutionary Biology (HEB) and Director of the Metabolic Regulation Lab. After eearning her PhD from UC Berkeley, she completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Copenhagen and at the Diabetes Research Center in Montreal. Dr. Turcotte coordinates the research efforts of her lab which include determining the mechanisms by which inflammation and stress regulate muscle health and performance. Work from her lab has been published in over 75 articles and book chapters. As Chair of HEB, she oversees the administration and
research and academic missions of the section as well as coordinates the appointment and promotion of faculty of all ranks. She has received several awards for mentoring faculty and students at all levels of professional development (Hanna Reisler Mentorship Award, Inaugural WiSE Architect of Enduring Change Award, Mellon Mentoring Award for mentoring graduate and undergraduate students) and has received the Dornsife Raubenheimer Award in recognition of outstanding teaching, scholarship and service to the university. Dr. Turcotte has also served in faculty governance via her participation in the development of several white papers for the
Academic Senate and the Dornsife Faculty Council. She currently serves as a Member-at-Large
on the Executive Board of the Academic Senate.
Secretary General (Choose One) Serves a two-year term
John R. Blosnich, PhD, MPH joined USC in 2020 and is an Associate Professor and Director of the Center for LGBTQ+ Health Equity in the Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at USC. He earned his MPH and PhD in Public Health Sciences from West Virginia University and completed a T32 postdoctoral research training program in suicide prevention at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He has worked for over ten years with the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), first with the Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention and then with the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion. His research focuses on health equity for LGBT individuals, with specific emphasis on social determinants of health and suicide risk. Dr. Blosnich has earned several research awards from both the VA and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Most recently, Dr. Blosnich was a 2021 recipient of an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award to support his research into upstream suicide prevention. Within the School of Social Work, he has taught in the Master of Social Work, PhD, and Doctoral of Social Work programs. Within his School, he has served on several committees, including Faculty Council, PhD Curriculum, and Admissions, and at the University level, he has served for three years on the Academic Senate’s University Research Committee.
Andy Campbell is an art and design historian working at the juncture of queer archival practices and community-based histories. He is the author of Bound Together: Leather, Sex, Archives, and Contemporary Art and Queer X Design: 50 Years of Signs, Symbols, Banners, Logos, and Graphic Art of LGBTQ, as well as the co-edited catalogs Queer Communion: Ron Athey and Jennifer West: Media Archaeology. He is an Associate Professor and Chair of Critical Studies at USC’s Roski School of Art and Design.
Clifford Neuman is Director of the USC Center for Computer Systems Security and faculty in Computer Science at the Viterbi School of Engineering. Dr. Neuman research is focused on Distributed Computer Systems, Computer Security, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Electronic Commerce, and the societal impact of computing. Dr. Neuman is the principal designer of the Kerberos network authentication system, which has been widely used for more than 35 years.
At-Large Members (one-year term;choose up to four)
Douglas Becker a 2002 University of Connecticut Ph.D, I have been on the faculty for 20 years. I was originally in the School of International Relations and now in Political Science and International Relations with a courtesy appointment in Environmental Studies. I’ve served on the Senate for 4 years as a representative from the Dornsife Faculty Council. I research historical memory as elements of identity and foreign policy, with an emphasis on how memory fuels conflict.
Jennifer Dinalo is the Health Sciences Research and Data Librarian at Norris Medical Library at USC. In this role, she focuses on developing services and programming for the research community related to data science and scholarly impact. She has been at the Norris Medical Library since 2015. Before becoming a librarian, Jennifer earned her PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Molecular Microbiology and was a postdoc at Stanford University studying the effects of antibiotics on the normal human microbiome using biochemical and bioinformatics approaches. In her spare time, Jennifer enjoys hiking with her dog, reading, movies, and karaoke.
Sofia Gruskin directs the USC Institute on Inequalities in Global Health (IIGH), and is a current member of the USC Academic Senate Executive Board. She is a Distinguished Professor of Population and Public Health Sciences and Law, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Chief of the Disease Prevention, Policy and Global Health Division at the Keck School of Medicine; Professor of Law and Preventive Medicine at the Gould School of Law.
Dr. Julianna Kirschner teaches a broad range of course subjects, including team communication, sports communication, and strategic communication. Her research is focused on improving communication in digital contexts. Dr. Kirschner’s PhD award-winning dissertation critically assessed social media posts that contributed to trending topics on Twitter.
Dr. Kirschner is an associate editor for Visual Communication Quarterly. She has also served on many USC Academic Senate committees, most recently as co-chair of the Senate Faculty Affairs Committee.
Dr. Kung graduated from The Johns Hopkins University in 1989 and The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1993. She completed her pediatric and pediatric cardiology training at UCSF from 1993-1999. She was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston from 1999-2003 and joined the faculty at USC/Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in 2003. She has been Fellowship Program Director since 2014 and on the Promotions Committee since 2019. She has also taken a lead in the CHLA junior faculty mentoring program.
Professor Matsusaka is the Charles F. Sexton Chair in American Enterprise, and Professor of Finance and Business Economics in the Marshall School of Business, Gould School of Law, and Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California.
John Matsusaka is an economist who studies democracy and corporate governance, and publishes in economics, finance, law, and political science. His most recent book is Let the People Rule: How Direct Democracy Can Meet the Challenge of Populism (2020). Professor Matsusaka is also executive director of USC’s Initiative & Referendum Institute. In his 30+ years at USC, Professor Matsusaka has served as interim vice provost for faculty affairs, vice dean for faculty and academic affairs in the Marshall School, and was elected twice to the executive board of the academic senate.
Dr. Melissa L. Miller is an Associate University Librarian with continuing appointment serving in her primary leadership role as the Head of the Hoose Library of Philosophy at the University of Southern California (USC). She is also a Humanities Librarian specializing in Philosophy, Religion, Classics, Anthropology, and Linguistics as well as an Associate Professor serving in the Marshall School of Business, Master of Management in Library and Information Science (MMLIS) program since 2019. She earned her EdD, MMLIS, and BA from USC.
Her research is interdisciplinary and intersects through the fields of Heritage Conservation and the Digital Humanities, with a focus in medieval manuscripts and rare books. She is an advocate for DEIA+AR practices, and the advancement of knowledge, skills, access, and diversity of cultural heritage material. Dr. Miller has published and presented numerous articles and book chapters both nationally and internationally and in 2021 she published her first monograph, “Mind, Motivation, and Meaningful Learning: Strategies for Teaching Adult Learners” which focuses on learning and teaching in an online environment.
Prior to retirement, I specialized in engineering for transportation and other infrastructure systems. My primary research focus was spatial economic impact analysis. All public sector decisions are political outcomes immune to analysis, so I stopped analyzing them. My current focus is the role of merit, due process, equal opportunity, free speech, academic freedom, and viewpoint diversity in U.S. universities. I write for the unrefereed literature.
Leonardo Morsut PhD, was born and raised in Padova, a University town in the north-east of Italy. Always driven to become a scientist, in his mid-twentys he found himself playing volleyball for the Italian national team. He quit volleyball to earn his PhD from Padova University, moved to the US for a postdoctoral training at UCSF. Its success there brought him to USC as an assistant professor at the Department of Stem cell and regenerative medicine in 2017. Here, he won awards and grant funding from NSF, NIH, Chang-Zuckerberg Foundation among others, and developed his leadership skills with training in professional and executive coaching. Lives in Pasadena with his wife and their 2 children.
Morgan Polikoff is a professor of K-12 policy at USC Rossier and the faculty co-director of the USC EdPolicy Hub. He studies instructional policy, and he also directs state- and nationally-representative surveys about the impact of COVID and Americans’ views about education policy issues. In 14 years at USC, he has given extensive service to Rossier and the university, for instance chairing the Rossier faculty council and co-chairing a Senate task force on faculty councils. He has won the USC Mentoring Award and awards from the American Educational Research Association for early career research and outstanding public communication.
Howard A. Rodman is professor and former chair of screenwriting at the School of Cinematic Arts; past of AAUP/USC; past president of the Writers Guild of America West; current VP of the Motion Picture Academy.
His films include SAVAGE GRACE, with Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne; AUGUST, starring Josh Hartnett and David Bowie; and JOE GOULD’S SECRET.
He is the author of the novel THE GREAT EASTERN published by Melville House Books/Penguin Random House.
Miki Turner, winner of the 2023 USC Black Alumni Assoc. Faculty and Staff award, and the 2022 National Association of Black Journalists Educator of the Year, is currently a Professor of Professional Practice at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. An award-winning photojournalist, Turner spent more than 30 years working in the media industry specializing in print, television, radio and web production. She is the author of two books—the best-selling journey to the woman i’ve come to love and tomorrow, and a 2015 prize winner in photography at Firenze Biennale in Florence, Italy.