USC Academic Senate Executive Board Elections 2026

TJ McCarthy
Sol Price School of Public Policy
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
I’m honored to be nominated for this position, and am ready to step into this leadership role after serving in Academic Senate committees every year since 2014 and co-chairing the Committee on Compensation and Benefits and the RTPC Faculty Affairs Committee for a total of five years. I have seen how the work of the Academic Senate can contribute to the university’s mission, culture, and faculty environment, and I see an opportunity to be useful and believe that I’m equipped to do so. My professional expertise as a labor economist should be valuable given the challenges facing universities in general and USC specifically, and I have experience with all levels of university governance that leaves me well positioned to step into this role and be effective. Despite some past failures of USC leadership to live up to our principles of meaningful faculty involvement in governance, I remain confident that collaborative governance is the best means of getting USC back onto a strong trajectory for the future and rebuilding a better professional environment for our faculty.

Clifford Neuman
Viterbi School of Engineering
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
I believe faculty should play a central role in shaping the direction and policies of the university, in line with our individual aspirations for its future. There are many issues that deserve our attention, including academics, research, academic freedom, DEI, social issues, compensation, benefits, job security, working conditions, institutional reputation, fairness in university processes, and more. We best advocate for our positions when we strive for consensus grounded in facts and informed by respectful debate. It is essential that we listen to all perspectives and encourage those with differing views to speak openly. While our diversity of viewpoints means we may not reach consensus on every issue, we must ensure that differing perspectives—and the reasoning behind them—are clearly communicated to the administration. 

At the same time, we must seek to understand the administration’s perspective and view them as partners—and, when appropriate, as instruments—in advancing our vision for the university, rather than the reverse. This effort must be accompanied by a commitment to transparency by the administration regarding how and why decisions are made. Through my past role as Secretary General and through service on committees, I have seen cases where this process worked, and also instances where it has not. In all cases I have regularly emphasized to the administration the importance of clearly explaining and justifying decisions to the faculty.

Through this mechanism we continue to refine and improve the processes, practices, and policies we support. I believe that serving as Academic Vice President, and subsequently as President of the Senate, would provide a meaningful opportunity to advance these goals.

Clifford Neuman is the Director of USC’s Center for Computer Systems Security and a faculty member in Computer Science at the Viterbi School of Engineering. His research focuses on distributed computer systems, computer security, critical infrastructure protection, electronic commerce, privacy, and the societal impact of computing and security technologies. He is also the principal designer of the Kerberos network authentication system, which has been widely used for more than 40 years.

Robert Filback
Rossier School of Education
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
As a faculty member with an extensive record of service on school and university committees, I am running for Secretary General of the Academic Senate because of my commitment to strengthening shared governance and faculty voice at USC. A consistent theme across my service at USC has been finding ways to help bolster the standing and influence of faculty around areas that are important to us. At the school level, as a strategic plan co-chair, I helped ensure wide input from faculty, staff, and students through a focus group initiative that attracted over 150 participants. As chair of Faculty Council, I worked with our Part-Time Faculty committee to develop and ratify bylaws to guide their work; and added an executive committee to our council, of vice-chair, chair, and past chair, to increase institutional memory and improve carryover of key initiatives. I also initiated the process that led to our council’s adopting focus areas aligned to AAUP’s identified areas of joint responsibility: hiring (in addition to salary, promotion, and tenure), curriculum, admissions and degrees, research, and budgeting. More recently on the faculty handbook committee and senate rules committee, I contributed to clarifying and disambiguating language and processes around core policies and guidelines. These efforts underscore my belief in the power of collaborative faculty leadership and in the need for faculty to play a central role in shaping the direction of our schools and university. Through a collegial and inclusive approach, I intend to continue championing effective faculty governance across USC if elected.

Anastassia Tzoytzoyrakos
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
I seek to serve as Secretary-General of the Academic Senate. Over the past four years, I have served in the Academic Senate and on the Executive Board of the Dornsife Faculty Council, as Secretary and for two years as President. In these roles, I strengthened collaboration among faculty, deans, the Senate, and central administration, and helped lead initiatives that increased transparency in departmental policies. Structured collaboration led to the successful implementation of a more equitable merit review process for RTPC faculty and the launch of a by-laws initiative to ensure departments maintain transparency and accountability.

As Secretary General, I will continue to work on stronger, more consistent collaboration between the Academic Senate and Faculty Councils, and advocate for structured engagement with the Offices of the Provost and the President. I am committed to supporting Faculty Council leaders, strengthening shared governance practices, and doing the work needed to bring a stronger sense of community among faculty. I welcome the opportunity to continue this work in service towards a more connected university community.

David Brady
Sol Price School of Public Policy
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
While USC is certainly already a terrific university, my view is that it could become much more competitive in terms of facilitating faculty research. The most important way it could do so is to provide an environment that was more supportive in: (a) protecting faculty time, (b) balancing our commitment to excellent teaching with reasonable and realistic ceilings on expectations for faculty; (c) redirecting greater financial resources to research and scholarship; (d) rewarding faculty accomplishments more consistently; and (e) cultivating a robust and rich intellectual culture on campus. The university has gone through substantial changes in recent years, and the faculty senate should be a strong and clear voice for faculty governance as we emerge from what is hopefully the only budget crisis for many years. Our administration will be more successful in helping USC thrive if there is advocacy by the faculty for scholarship and research in addition to our existing commitment to teaching and students.

Yingying Fan
Marshall School of Business
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
Faculty are at the center of USC’s academic mission. I believe that academic excellence and shared governance are two fundamentally important commitments of a great university. The Academic Senate plays an essential role in ensuring that faculty perspectives inform important decisions on teaching, research, and the university’s future. Such well informed decisions are essential for achieving academic excellence. Shared governance is most effective when it is transparent, inclusive, and grounded in mutual respect. Faculty should have meaningful opportunities to contribute to important decisions that shape our institution.

Through my service at Marshall and USC, I have also come to realize that many faculty do not fully understand how our institutions function, including the role of the Faculty Council at the school level and the Academic Senate at the university level. Without that understanding, it is difficult for shared governance to work as intended. One of my goals is to help improve faculty awareness and engagement in governance processes, so that participation is informed and impactful.

As Associate Dean of the PhD Program and as Chair and member of the Marshall Promotion and Tenure Committee, I have seen firsthand how academic excellence depends on clear standards and consistent expectations. In promotion and tenure, I have worked closely with faculty dossiers and evaluations. I have seen both the importance of rigor and real-world impact in research, as well as the challenges that arise when standards are not well understood or not consistently upheld. Excellence requires not only strong criteria but also a shared commitment to maintaining them. 

I have also seen how important rigor is in teaching and student mentoring. At Marshall, teaching excellence is a central priority. In my own teaching and mentoring experience across undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs, I have come to believe that teaching and mentoring excellence means setting high expectations and taking students’ intellectual development seriously. In the AI era, this is even more important. The goal is not only in the final product, but in the process: learning to think carefully, struggle with hard problems, and develop intellectual independence. Teaching and mentoring excellence means setting high expectations and not lowering standards. I support efforts that reinforce rigor in teaching and mentoring, recognize and reward meaningful teaching and mentoring excellence, and provide faculty with the support needed to uphold high standards in teaching and student mentoring.

My experiences in faculty governance have also underscored the importance of transparency and process. At the school level, I have seen situations where decisions were developed without sufficient faculty input, with committees brought in only after key directions had already been set. During my time on the Faculty Council, I witnessed how a lack of transparency can lead to confusion, distrust, and unnecessary conflict. These experiences reinforced my belief that shared governance requires more than formal structures; it also requires genuine engagement, clear communication, and respect for faculty input.

If elected, I will work to strengthen shared governance across USC by promoting transparency, improving faculty understanding of governance, and ensuring that faculty perspectives are included early and meaningfully in decision-making. I will also support policies and practices that uphold high standards in research, teaching, and mentorship to foster an environment where academic excellence is clearly defined, consistently maintained, and broadly shared across our community.

Lorraine Kelley-Quon
Keck School of Medicine/Children’s Hospital LA
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
Since joining the faculty in 2017, USC has given me the space, resources, and mentorship to grow as both a surgeon and a scientist. I feel a deep sense of responsibility to give back to this community that has so meaningfully shaped my career. My current service on the USC Academic Senate has given me a platform to engage with institutional decisions and to advocate for issues that affect faculty in tangible ways. Through this experience, I have developed a strong appreciation for the value of shared governance and its potential to foster meaningful dialogue and collective progress. I am excited to expand my role by serving on the Executive Board.

An academic career can sometimes feel isolating, particularly in this modern era marked by increasing complexity and uncertainty. My involvement in the Senate has reinforced that we are all part of a vibrant intellectual community composed of colleagues who are deeply committed to advancing their fields and supporting one another. I am especially interested in exploring new ways to strengthen this sense of community, including fostering cross-disciplinary and cross-school collaboration. Much of my own success has been driven by partnerships with colleagues outside my primary area of expertise, and I am eager to create more opportunities for faculty and trainees across USC to benefit from similar collaborations. Finally, as a pediatric surgeon, I have the privilege of caring for the children and families of our great city. This perspective grounds my commitment to ensuring that the work of the Senate remains aligned not only with the needs of our faculty, but also with USC’s broader mission to serve our community.

Tony Levi
Viterbi School of Engineering
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
In the 33 years I have been at USC, it seems that the bureaucratic burden has increased, and the influence of faculty in charting a path forward has decreased. Consultation and consensus building between the faculty and the administration now appear to be minimal at best. The response to various scandals and crises seems to have accelerated a trend of non-engagement. Meanwhile, external factors, including the lingering effect of COVID on student preparedness, the impact of geopolitics on foreign student admissions, and the uncertainty about how to adjust to an era of AI, challenge the University’s core educational mission both academically and financially. The Senate is the natural place to change this trajectory, engage meaningfully with the administration, and give the faculty a voice in the critical decisions that must be made if USC is to thrive. 

Having a relatively long tenure at USC as an educator, researcher, and former department chair gives me a comprehensive perspective on the full range of USC faculty responsibilities, which, in many ways, have become more difficult in recent years. Teaching is rapidly evolving partly due to shifts in the student population (including the decline in international students) and the growing impact of AI. Administrative roles – especially department chairs – are becoming strained by centralization, reduced control over resources, and a growing disconnect from non academic administrators who often lack a clear understanding of faculty needs. This leaves faculty leaders caught in the middle, without the authority or resources required to meet expectations. Research, meanwhile, is under significant pressure from federal policies, placing an increasingly unsustainable burden on faculty to secure funding and maintain their research groups – an especially serious concern for junior faculty. Opportunities to build on the University’s strengths in medicine, liberal arts, science, and engineering are being lost because precious resources are being diverted to non-academic uses for which the faculty have not been consulted. It is clear that reforms are needed, and that meaningful faculty involvement in future decision-making is an essential element of a robust academic institution. One place to start is the  Academic Senate.

Romain Ranciere
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
I have now accumulated enough experience as Chair of the Economics Department, one of the largest at USC, to contribute meaningfully to the design and implementation of the Senate agenda.

I am running for the Senate Executive Board first to strengthen the faculty’s shared governance of the University. The issues USC has faced over the last ten years highlight the severe limitations of its top-down governance structure, as well as the lack of faculty voice at the Board of Trustees. Every strategic decision affecting USC’s academic mission directly or indirectly should be discussed in detail by the Senate. Having served as a faculty representative to the Board of Trustees at Paris School of Economics, I have seen the benefits of such representation, and I would like to help implement it at USC. 

I support generous undergraduate financial aid and greater access to USC for less advantaged students, but on the condition that (i) overall financial aid is set at a fiscally responsible level and (ii) financial aid is funded either through philanthropy or through a tax on USC’s overall revenues, rather than just through a transfer of undergraduate tuitions.

I would also like USC to increase its strategic funding for highly exploratory pilot research projects for which federal funding may not yet be available. Finally, I am an uncompromising supporter of academic freedom, and I support the unionization of RTPC faculty.

Darren Rudell
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
Please see video for details, but I am interested in serving on the Academic Senate Executive Board to help move the university forward. Some of my areas of interest include: 

• The future and stability of higher education;
• USC budget challenges and a sustainable path forward; 
• The role of AI and technology in higher education; and
• The current Union effort and pending vote.

Artineh Samkian
Rossier School of Education
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
As a current Member at Large on Executive Board, previous co-chair of a Senate committee and recent Chair of Rossier’s Faculty Council, I am interested in re-election because I want to continue making progress towards shared governance and improved relationships between faculty and administration at USC. In conversations with my faculty colleagues across the university, I have learned that there are big differences in the ways different schools operate. On numerous occasions, I, as a faculty representative for Rossier, have been asked to share what Rossier does (e.g., transparency around faculty salary data, establishment of Continuing Appointment for RTPC faculty), so that other schools can follow suit. It has made me realize that we can better support our colleagues if we take a wider stance and collaborate across schools and units. And while it sometimes feels like the recommendations of the Senate don’t amount to much change, through my experience on Executive Board, I have seen how our faculty colleagues have worked tirelessly and effectively to bring about change for faculty. 

Additionally, while the needs and goals of administration and faculty might seem divergent at times, we have to work together to ensure as many of our needs are met as possible. The Academic Senate is in a privileged position to work alongside administration to represent faculty interests and concerns, and I would like to continue to be a part of that effort. I have appreciated observing and learning from my colleagues who have recently served on EB, advocating for faculty rights and pushing for faculty oversight on matters that affect us. My goal this year is to both continue this work and to work with administration to do a better job of communicating to the faculty body what changes they have made as a result of the Senate’s advocacy. This transparency can help bridge the gap between faculty and administration.

Margaret Trost
Keck School of Medicine/Children’s Hospital LA
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
As a faculty member with a high clinical load working at a USC-affiliated satellite site, I recognize that the connection to the university can feel remote at times. I want to strengthen my own involvement with USC and provide a conduit to bring forward questions from other clinical faculty while simultaneously bringing important information about opportunities offered by USC back home to CHLA. The university has been a great source of faculty development programing and teaching opportunities for me that I feel some clinical faculty don’t take enough advantage of. Many faculty may not realize how decisions made by USC affect their careers or know ways to advocate for change. Thus far, my time as a voting member of the Academic Senate has been incredibly eye-opening, interesting, and rewarding. I want to become a Member at Large of the Executive Board of the Academic Senate to deepen the relationship I have begun to build and to continue to advocate for my colleagues and other faculty.

Miki Turner
Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism
Click here to View: Video | Info Sheet
—
I’m going to keep it simple as I’ve voiced my goals in the video. My primary goal is to get us to a point where we work together with heightened fluidity. By that I mean we can no longer afford to spend countless hours, weeks and months discussing a handful of issues. By doing that nothing ever gets done. We need to determine our priorities, tackle one issue at a time and fast track the solution. That said, we need to be more proactive when it comes to dealing with the inevitable challenges we will continue to face in higher ed. The hints are all there—decreased enrollment, budget restraints and the whims of the current administration in the nation’s capital.

It doesn’t take a psychic to predict the future. 

Forewarned is forearmed.

Additionally, I would like to see more faculty involvement with senior administrators and the Board of Trustees. You cannot effectively run a university without shared governance. The absence of faculty perspectives in these arenas is akin to the blind leading the blind. You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with this. Embrace intellectual diversity. That will give us all 20/20 vision.