The 2024 CLAS Faculty Governance Elections are scheduled to run from 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, April 24, to midnight on Wednesday, May 1. Please contact Lisa Gray with any questions or problems concerning the faculty elections.
The CLAS Faculty Assembly meets monthly during the academic year to advise the Dean and Associate Deans and to deliberate and act on policy issues (see the College's Manual of Procedure, Article V). The Faculty Assembly includes both representatives elected by the CLAS Electoral Groups and members selected as representatives by their departments. View the current membership of the Faculty Assembly.
The Faculty Assembly has six member seats to fill this year. All six member seats will be elected from the faculty At Large. Faculty in each electoral group may vote only for candidates nominated from that electoral group, therefore you will only be able to see the candidates in your own group.
Natural and Mathematical Sciences (Electoral Group I) candidates (click on name to see statement)
Social Sciences (Electoral Group II) candidates (click on name to see statement)
Humanities (Electoral Group III) candidates (click on name to see statement)
Arts (Electoral Group IV) candidates (click on name to see statement)
NATURAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES (Electoral Group I) CANDIDATE STATEMENTS
Ines Zigrino Curto
Lecturer, Computer Science
PhD, University of Iowa
Joined UI Faculty in 2001
Dean Lowenberg created the Faculty Assembly, at the start of his tenure as dean, to somehow mimic a three-branch form of democratic government for CLAS. To make an analogy with Washington, FA is the House of Representatives, and EC is the Senate. On the other hand, the Dean’s Office is the executive branch, that is, The White House. The third branch of government (justice) resides in OIE. This structure, as we all know, prevents one branch of government from becoming too powerful and allows for a system of checks and balances.
A myriad of diverse collegiate matters reviewed in the corresponding faculty governance committee (EC, UEPCC, GEPC) were sent to FA for discussion and approval, and to a full faculty vote when necessary. Some examples include the addition of the Diversity and Inclusion and the Sustainability GE requirements; the creation of the Instructional Track Policy; the modification of the Language GE requirement; the Fixed-Term Faculty Policy; the Overload Compensation Policy; the Summer and Winter Salary Policy; MOPP changes; Collegiate self-study; certificate in Political Risk Analysis; certificate in Public Digital Arts; and a lot more.
I have witnessed the evolution of our Faculty Assembly for over 20 years, since it became an independent faculty governance body by the turn of the century. It has served as a forum for the full faculty to discuss and to vote over a wide range of collegiate matters and as a training ground for future faculty representatives and administrators.
I would be honored and delighted to serve as a member of our FA. As a first-generation college student, an immigrant, and a Hispanic woman in science, I can relate to the challenges of DEI. I share the goals to strengthen faculty governance through better communication channels, to continue with our collegiate tradition of excellence and to help improve the inclusion of the many voices and opinions across campus, from faculty of all tracks and graduate students.
Shawn Flanagan (She/Her)
Associate Professor of Instruction
Department of Health and Human Physiology
Joined UI faculty in 2005
I have been teaching with the Department of Health and Human Physiology (HHP) for the last 19 years, and as such have a deep passion for teaching as well as undergraduate educational policies and curriculum. As a member of HHP, I have experience collaborating with faculty within our Department, serving on several committees including working on our Strategic plan, the Scholarship committee, and revising our undergraduate curriculum. In order to gain additional expertise and experience from a more diverse group of faculty, I would like to expand my service to the College by serving on Faculty Assembly.
I am excited about the opportunity to serve as a representative to the Faculty Assembly and thus, I am asking for your support. If elected, I look forward to working with colleagues across the spectrum with the College, sharing experiences and expertise to address challenges within the University.
John Manak
Professor of Biology and Pediatrics
PhD, Columbia University
Joined UI faculty in 2008
I have been nominated to serve as a representative to the CLAS Faculty Assembly electoral voting group beginning fall 2024 and I am writing to ask for your support. I’ve appreciated being an active part of this Assembly as a unit representative for Biology and I’m looking forward to serving in a more substantial role to which I will bring my considerable energy and enthusiasm. I’m a professor in Biology with a secondary appointment in Pediatrics, my laboratory studies human genetic disorders, and I have a long track record of publishing our work in top-tier journals. I also serve on the advisory board of the American Porphyria Foundation as their disease genetics expert (including the porphyrias), and I recently presented a webinar on their behalf that was broadcast live around the world. In addition to my professional career, I have a deep passion for teaching, having developed a course named “Good Genes Gone Bad” which aims to teach general education students with limited or no biology training about human genetic disorders. Given the advances in genetics and medicine, and the prevalence of genetic disorders in society, I felt obligated to disseminate and demystify this information to as wide an audience as possible.
I am deeply committed to the academic mission of this College and University and look forward to working with the diverse array of colleagues that make up this faculty group. In addition to serving on the CLAS Faculty Assembly, I currently serve as Faculty Representative for the Federal Demonstration Partnership on behalf of the University of Iowa (this is a large cooperative initiative tasked to reduce the administrative and faculty burdens associated with research grants and contracts), the Evaluation and Tracking committee for the Neuroscience program, the Faculty Advisory Committee for the Division of Sponsored Programs, the Admissions Committee for the Bioinformatics Program, and I’m chair of the Faculty Membership Committee for the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics. In my department, I’ve served on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee since its inception in 2020, I serve on the Graduate Recruiting and Admissions Committee, and I recently served on the Departmental Executive Committee for two consecutive terms (elected position). For the College, in addition to Faculty Assembly, I’ve served on the Internal Review Committee to evaluate the Psychology and Brain Sciences department. Hopefully, these appointments attest to my commitment to service for CLAS and beyond! Finally, outside of academia I have a passion for volunteer work at a local farm sanctuary. I’d be honored to serve all of you, and I thank you for your consideration.
J. Garrett Morris
Assistant Professor and Emeritus Faculty Scholar
Department of Computer Science
PhD, Computer Science, Portland State University
Joined UI faculty in 2020
I am writing to ask for your support of my candidacy for the CLAS Faculty Assembly. Since joining the University of Iowa in Fall 2020, I have maintained a publication record in the most respected venues in my area, obtained external funding including the NSF CAREER award, and served on my department's undergraduate curriculum committee, as chair of the department honors program, and organizer of the department colloquium.
I am a strong believer in the enduring value of the liberal arts, and believe that computer science (as a discipline) is best considered as one of the liberal arts and sciences. My own undergraduate education was at a SLAC. The broad preparation this afforded me has been indispensable in my academic career, not only in preparing me to write effectively, but also to draw on a broader background for my own research (which draws on ideas from computer science, the foundations of mathematics, and logic). We will best prepare our students if we can afford them the same opportunities: on the one hand, technology is increasingly necessary across disciplines; on the other, the technologists of the future must be better prepared to recognize and respond to the ethical, social, and environmental consequences of their work.
If elected to faculty assembly, I would work to promote a constructive role for the faculty in the College's decision making. I would also work for fair and equitable evaluation of candidates (across track) for tenure and promotion. Existing mechanisms for evaluating teaching have been shown to have in-built biases, on gender, racial, and disciplinary lines. CLAS must follow the lead of other public institutions in developing more equitable means of evaluation, particularly for contingent faculty positions.
Elizabeth Walker
Associate Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders
PhD, Speech and Hearing Science, University of Iowa
Joined UI faculty in 2015
I have been a department representative for Faculty Assembly since 2021 and I have served on the CLAS DEI committee and my department’s DEI committee since 2022. As a dually certified speech-language pathologist and audiologist, my research and teaching are at the intersection of multiple different professions. As a result, I have a strong commitment to promoting interdisciplinary relationships and education at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels. If elected to the Faculty Assembly, my primary goal would be to represent the voices of tenure-track faculty, instructional track faculty, and faculty from traditionally underrepresented groups. I would also seek to promote community, transparency and collaboration across our college, in order to facilitate our college’s mission of advancing scholarly and creative endeavors.
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Electoral Group II) CANDIDATE STATEMENTS
Ethan Kutlu
Assistant Professor
Department of Linguistics
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
PhD, University of Florida
Joined the UI Faculty in 2023
I am an Assistant Professor jointly appointed in the Departments of Linguistics and Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Iowa. It is with great enthusiasm that I present my candidacy for a seat on the University's Faculty Assembly. Through my interdisciplinary academic appointments and affiliations and a firm commitment to advancing research and education, I aim to contribute meaningfully to the governance and future direction of our college.
Since joining the University of Iowa in 2021, initially as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow and later as a faculty member, I have dedicated myself to a rigorous academic and research agenda that bridges linguistics and cognitive sciences. This unique vantage point equips me to bring a broad, interdisciplinary perspective to the Faculty Assembly.
As an early career scientist, I have a strong track record of publications in high-impact peer-reviewed journals. I have also secured funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health to support my research. A big part of my current research is on the science of science and exploring knowledge gaps and inequalities in psychological sciences.
As an educator, I have consistently prioritized student engagement and learning. I have received multiple teaching awards, and I recently received a nomination for the annual Student Supervisor of the Year Award at the University of Iowa, which underscores my dedication to mentoring and supporting the next generation of scholars. I have also served on multiple committees to enhance the experiences of minoritized scholars in academia.
If elected to the Faculty Assembly, my priorities will include increasing our colleges’ collaborative nature, providing resources for junior faculty to increase retention, and continuing my work on inclusivity.
Sara Mitchell
Professor and Collegiate Fellow
Department of Political Science
College of Law (courtesy appointment)
PhD, Michigan State University (Spartans Will!)
Joined the UI Faculty in 2004
I’m not sure who nominated me for this position, but if elected to Faculty Assembly, I can use my newfound powers to figure this out! I previously served on the Faculty Assembly from 2004-2007 and was on a subcommittee for revitalizing the body within CLAS, experience that may be relevant considering recent votes. I also served as an elected member of the CLAS Executive Committee from 2018-2021, on the CLAS Promotion and Tenure Committee from 2012-2015, and as DEO of Political Science from 2013-2016. In addition to studying conflict between and within countries, I have published several studies on the status of women in academia, including on topics such as the gender gaps in pay, citations, promotions, and publications. With my colleague Kelly Kadera, we co-hosted more than a dozen workshops for mentoring women in international relations at Iowa, and we recently applied for a grant to extend funding for the program. As a first-generation student who grew up on a farm in Iowa, I will bring a distinctive perspective to this esteemed body. Thanks for your consideration.
Yolanda Spears
Clinical Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Critical Cultural Competence Certificate Program
School of Social Work
MSW, Social Work, University of Iowa
Joined UI faculty in 2017
I humbly ask for your support of my candidacy for Faculty Assembly. I am a faculty member of the School of Social Work with hands on experience of working with individuals with diverse perspectives. My experiences working at the University of Iowa and previous work at Iowa City Community School District has prepared me to represent our academic community. I pride myself on creating relationships with the university community to ensure voices are represented, interdisciplinary collaboration, transparency and creating sustainable goals that empowers faculty to thrive in their teaching research and service endeavors. I look forward to being a part of a dynamic group of people who will help shape our collective journey forward during the challenging times of higher education while creating a vibrant University of Iowa community.
Thank you for considering my candidacy.
HUMANITIES (Electoral Group III) CANDIDATE STATEMENTS
Robert R. “Bob” Cargill (link: https://bam.sites.uiowa.edu/people/robert-r-cargill)
Roger A. Hornsby Associate Professor in the Classics
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Classics
Editor, Bible & Archaeology
PhD, UCLA, Near Eastern Languages & Cultures, 2008
Joined the UI faculty in 2011
The CLAS Faculty Assembly is a diverse congress of faculty representing their constituent departments and the college at large. As such, a robust variety of opinions should be encouraged to address matters that arise concerning enrollments, curricula, governance, fiscal and budgetary issues, and strategic planning for the future. Faculty Assembly should not be a place where anyone’s ideas are stifled, nor should it serve as a vehicle where only the loudest voices and premeditated ideas are rammed through as representative of the entire faculty. Instead, FA should be a place where representatives from each department feel welcome to share their ideas, concerns, hopes, fears, and plans with other faculty and administrative representatives without fear of being retaliated against or stifled. I believe we must act together as a faculty strategically with the administration in order to weather the present (and coming) fiscal storm and achieve our collective goals.
Those who have met me know that I am a tireless advocate for those I represent, willing to stand up to and/or engage in discussion with anyone, from staff, to faculty, to administrators, to state legislators. I am practical and utilitarian, always looking for manageable, data-driven solutions to problems while maintaining our core values. I use my role as a public scholar to champion the University of Iowa at every opportunity.
I have served as the DGS in the Department of Classics, and presently serve as its DUS. I am deeply committed to public scholarship, publishing a number of public articles, a trade book, appearing regularly on television programs. Three years ago, I founded a public news and information site, Bible & Archaeology, funded by the Office of Innovation, which also teaches graduate and undergraduate students to write and present to the public. I have built and teach a number of popular GE courses in addition to having offered an overload language course for each of the past ten years. I am an advocate for public humanities education, and have made several presentations on behalf of the university to state lawmakers and donors seeking to promote the humanities and boost our funding.
As a faculty, we must work together as a team to leverage our various strengths, while proceeding strategically, patiently, and tactfully in order to accomplish our desired, long-term objectives. Retreating to any ideological extreme will prove fruitless. This is the philosophy I have developed through my time as a college athlete, director of client services in the private sector, instructional technology coordinator at my former employer, archaeologist, and faculty member here. We must work together, with each other and those who fund us, in order to succeed.
Rebecca Clark
Associate Professor of Instruction, American Sign Language Program
MA, Deaf Studies, Gallaudet University
Joined UI faculty in 2011
After I completed my Master's in Deaf Studies from Gallaudet University, the only bilingual, bimodal (American Sign Language and English) University in the world, I joined the American Sign Language (ASL) program in 2011 as a Visiting Assistant Professor, in 2013 as a Lecturer, and in 2023 as an Associate Professor of Instruction. I have served as the Program Director since 2020. As an instructional track faculty (ITF) member, I have designed, developed, and taught a wide range of courses from a First-Year Seminar to introductory language courses to advanced Deaf Studies courses taken by individuals minoring in ASL. These courses, as with most of the programs in the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (DWLLC), enroll students in pursuit of degrees from across our University’s colleges and departments. This classroom diversity has afforded me greater insight into students’ experiences, skills, and expectations. I believe some of the topics discussed in Faculty Assembly would benefit from this perspective.
Additionally, I can advocate the viewpoint of ITF at the University by serving on behalf of a program that is comprised solely of lecturers and representing the DWLLC in which there are many ITF. The ASL Program here at Iowa is one of the largest in the Big 10, but quite small compared to other units on campus—consisting of only five lecturers and zero tenure track faculty. As a member of the Faculty Assembly, I would help bring attention to the smaller units on campus and serve to represent the experience of ITF from my division and across the University.
I have been an active member of Faculty Assembly since 2020 (first as an elected member and then as an appointed representative for the DWLLC). I would appreciate the opportunity to continue to serve, learn more from faculty across CLAS, and to further contribute a unique perspective to the discussions on current University matters.
Roxanna Curto
Associate Professor of French and Spanish
DEO of the Department of French and Italian
Joined UI faculty in 2011
I am honored to be nominated for an at-large representative position in Faculty Assembly, a long-standing pillar of shared governance in CLAS. Since its establishment as a stand-in for meetings of the full faculty in the College, FA has served as an essential forum for open discussion and debate. As stated in the CLAS MOPP, the purpose of FA is to “serve as the representative body of the faculty of the College, to speak for the faculty on matters of importance to the College, and to consider and act, or recommend action, as appropriate, on all matters affecting the academic and professional concerns of the faculty”; it “provides a means of participation by the faculty in the CLAS decision‐making process.” FA is unique in that it offers a structure of interaction that serves as an alternative to the administrative one, and allows for the creation of channels of communication between units, as well as between FA representatives and their constituents. No other shared governance body in the College contains a combination of faculty from such a wide variety of departments, programs, and fields of study; and representation from all ranks and tracks.
Although I am not currently a member of FA, only an alternate, I have regularly attended meetings in the past year, and never failed to be thoroughly impressed with the high level of discussion and intellectual debate surrounding issues in the College. As a result, I am inspired to run for election to this body, so that I can more fully participate in the dialogue. In particular, I would like to see FA become the basis for a data-driven approach to shared governance, in which votes on issues and line items of larger documents are regularly taken as a way to gauge the support of the overall faculty for measures or changes. This could be impactful because FA, due to its size and scope, lends itself better to polling than the other elected committees in CLAS. Finally, as a long-time member of Faculty Senate, I believe that FS sets a high standard for shared governance in the university, and that many of its best practices could be adopted in FA.
Steve Duck
Daniel and Amy Starch Distinguished Research Chair
Professor, Department of Rhetoric
PhD, University of Sheffield, UK
Joined UI faculty in 1986
For 30 years under 7 different Deans, I have seen FA take many forms. Until recently it has evolved as an increasingly thoughtful, independent, yet constructively cooperative, arm of governance, working with a succession of respectful CLAS administrations. It was Dean Maxson who created the independence of FA from CLAS administration by setting up elections for a self-governing body in which she had no role. Other CLAS Deans have followed that model since 1999. Recently, it has been alarming to see a regression to earlier days of uncertainty about our independence, with consequent regression of our role in governance. Simultaneously, respect, input and voice in shared governance have been curtailed or overlooked. We can be a trivial rubber stamp -- with delegates feeling uncommitted to the Assembly and ceding choice over our business -- or we can retain and fulfil our duties not only to advise, but also to propose, and to consent (parts we are too inclined to forget). To extend an innovation that I introduced as Chair of FA (i.e., Business from the Floor), I will advocate for the adoption of a “Consent Agenda” used by the BoR to adopt routine reports without taking up business time, unless they are called onto the agenda during a meeting. This will free us from lengthy reports for ”rubber stamping” and will allow us more time for discussion of issues that are important or controversial. It will also free the Deans and others from turning up as guests merely to deliver a summary report that is, in any case, not likely to be contested. We can use this preserved time to enact a dutiful and consequential role in Shared Governance about policy. We must take the responsibility that the MOP and the principles of shared governance both give us as a clear role. We should “use it or lose it”.
Megan Knight
Professor of Instruction, Rhetoric Department
MFA, Nonfiction Writing Program, University of Iowa
Joined UI faculty in 1998
I previously had the privilege of serving as a Faculty Assembly representative from 2019-2022, where I saw firsthand how essential this body is to shared governance and effective communication within CLAS and across our wider campus. I am deeply committed to ensuring that the voices of all faculty, regardless of rank or career stage, are heard in Faculty Assembly. As a non-tenure track member of the Rhetoric Department faculty since 1998, I have had opportunities in my classrooms, my service, and my scholarship to work with constituencies across CLAS and beyond, and I would bring valuable perspective and experience to the ongoing conversation. I found my first experience of serving on Faculty Assembly energizing and enlightening, and I am honored to be considered for another term.
ARTS (Electoral Group IV) CANDIDATE STATEMENTS
Jonathan Allen
Assistant Professor of Instruction in Trombone, School of Music
DMA in Trombone Performance and Pedagogy, University of Iowa
Joined UI faculty in 2011
Since joining the faculty at Iowa in 2011 I have done “a little bit of everything.” I teach one-on-one in the school of music, I have advised undergraduate through doctoral students, coach and conduct ensembles, develop and taught GE courses both in person and through Distance and Online Education. I have served as an area head for eight years and served on technology, faculty, and curriculum committees. I have been an advocate for change and modernization of our curriculum and policies, many of which have been implemented in the School of Music.
In 2018 I hosted the International Trombone Festival, which brought over one thousand trombonists to our campus, the largest ever such event up to that point. As host and immediate past-host (2019 at Ball State University), I implemented the first ever panels on diversity and gender at an ITF and hosted the most diverse group of performers for such and event in our instruments history.
If chosen to serve on the Faculty Assembly I will do so with honor as I continue to advocate for students, faculty and staff.