The campus community welcomes 39 new faculty members to the University this semester.

These faculty members include: Melinda Andrews, Thomas Beasley, Kelly Bickel, Claire Campbell, Lisa Caravan, Chun-Miin (Jimmy) Chen, Gregory Clarke, Lara Dick, Brandon Downing, James Dunlap, Rebecca Fagan, Andrew Fornadel, Regina Gazes, Alexis Henshaw, Agnes Jasinska, Joseph Johnson, Amal Kabalan, Paul Kennedy, Raghav Khanna, Michael Krout, Ryan Malone, Vanessa Massaro, Mark Meyer, Michael Meyer, Hilda Mokh, Suranjana Nabar-Bhaduri, Mitchell Parks, Evan Peck, Ashrafur Rahman, Anneliese Renck, Rachel Samet, Rhonda Sharpe, Jennifer Silva, Hiram Smith, Cara Takakjian, Xi Tian, Neil Visalvanich, Xuewu (Wesley) Wang, and Minhaz Zibran.

Pierre Joanis, the associate vice president for Human Resources and chief Human Resources officer, said that factors considered when hiring new faculty include, but are not limited to: “direct experience, experience to the position requirements, support of the University’s diversity and inclusion initiatives, and student centeredness.”

Joanis also said that other factors include “responses to interview questions, results from references or letters of recommendation, and results of background screens.”

“The University has an environment that encourages students to solve important, current world problems through science,” said Kabalan, a new assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

“Bucknell is a place where I am encouraged to continue doing teaching and research, the things I am passionate about, together with friendly and open-minded colleagues,” said Chen, a new assistant professor in the School of Management.

Chen was drawn to the University because of the “opportunity of guiding enthusiastic Bucknellians,” as well as the “generous resources and intangible support for scholarly activities.” Chen also said that the “energetic and inspiring minds” of the students have motivated him to “be a better educator.”