The inaugural class of PRODiG Fellows held the title through the 2020-22 academic years.
Celinet Duran received her PH.D. from the CUNY Graduate Center, her MS in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University, and a bachelor's degree in Justice Studies from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Her research interests include Criminological Theory and Ideological Violence. She has hosted anti-terrorism programs and will be teaching two courses at SUNY Oswego - CRJ 333 - Crime Theories and Victimization and CRJ 387 - Research Methods for Criminal Justice
Andrés García Molina was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. His background is in computer science, holding a BSc in Computer Science from Georgia Southern University and an MSc in E-business and network-centred computing from the joint European Union Erasmus Mundus program, for which he studied at the University of Reading (UK), The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), and Universidad Carlos III Madrid (Spain). His ongoing research is at the intersection between data science and the humanities and the social sciences, having recently obtained an MA in Latin American Studies (UC Berkeley) and a PhD in Ethnomusicology (Columbia University).
Selenid Gonzalez-Frey completed her doctorate CUNY Graduate Center in Educational Psychology: Learning, Development, and Instruction with a sub-specialization in Research on the Acquisition of Literacy with Dr. Linnea Ehri. Her dissertation was titled “Teaching Children to Decode Words: Connected Versus Segmented Phonation.” Her dissertation has been published in the Scientific Study of Reading Journal. She received her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Rochester as well as two Master’s degrees from Canisius College in Childhood Education and in Literacy. She taught Experimental Psychology CUNY Hunter College as well as Literacy Education courses at Teacher’s College, Columbia University and at CUNY Brooklyn College. She is an alumnus of the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program. Her research interest focuses on literacy instruction and assessment for early childhood and elementary aged students that is developmentally appropriate and supported in the science of reading.
Kathryn Grow Allen received her BA in International Relations and Anthropology from SUNY Geneseo and her MA and PhD in Anthropology from the University at Buffalo. As a Biological Anthropologist and Archaeologist, Dr. Allen specializes in human skeletal biology and the analysis of human remains from archaeological and forensic contexts. Her past research was primarily in Romania, Hungary, and Croatia, but she consults and works on many diverse projects in the US and overseas.
Valerie Guerrero Williamson has spent the last 15 years facilitating equity oriented organizational change in post-secondary institutions. Her academic credentials include a BA in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz; a Master of Education in Student Affairs and a certificate in social justice education from Iowa State University; and she is a doctoral candidate in the Educational Leadership and Policy department at the University of Utah, where she has earned a graduate certificate in gender studies. Broadly, Valerie’s research interrogates social systems and their impact upon the experiences of and outcomes for minoritized students, staff, and faculty in post-secondary institutions. In particular, Valerie’s research focuses upon higher education at the organizational level, including change models and their implementation, campus climates and cultures, developing critical praxis in staff and administrators, and faculty preparation and socialization. Currently, Valerie is completing her dissertation which uses critical organizational discourse analysis to investigate how institutional dynamics of power and resistance shape the work practices and processes of non-instructional academic staff at a research university.
Naiima Khahaifa is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Geography at the University at Buffalo, SUNY (UB). She earned an M.A. in International Trade from UB and an M.S. in Global Business with Marketing Concentration from Daemen College. She joins SUNY Empire State College as its first PRODiG Fellow in the School of Social and Behavioral Science. Her research examines dynamics of prison workforce integration and urban neighborhood change in Western New York.
Emmanuel Nsengiyumva came to Buffalo, New York in 2010 from a Congolese refugee camp in Rwanda. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the UB Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, having earned his BS in chemical engineering in 2016 and MS in 2018. Nsengiyumva is conducting research in the Laboratory for Interfaces and Self-Assembly, where his work focuses on the water-soluble polymers that are involved in the extraction of unconventional oil and gas. He is interested in developing polymers that can be utilized in the presence of high salinity water in order to reduce the use of fresh water. This research will prove beneficial to the environment and energy resources. Nsengiyumva is a member of several professional societies: American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Chemical Society, and the Water Environment Federation. In 2012, Nsengiyumva was awarded Phi Theta Kappa membership while a student at Erie Community College. Nsengiyumva was recognized as the 2014 Cargill Scholarship recipient for outstanding academic achievement and commitment to furthering education in Erie County. In 2016, he was recognized as a Senior Scholar by the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Nsengiyumva was awarded a National Institute Standard Technology travel grant (NIST) in 2018. He received the Excellence in Teaching Award for the Fall semester of 2018 given by the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of SUNY at Buffalo. In the academic years 2017-2020, Nsengiyumva was also awarded the prestigious WNY Prosperity Fellowship. With the support from the WNY Prosperity Fellowship, Nsengiyumva presented his research at the 92nd ACS Colloid & Surface Science Symposium.
When Nsengiyumva is off campus, he enjoys spending time with his wife, two children, and relatives. On top of that, he enjoys reading and running in this free time. Nsengiyumva has a great interest in bringing STEM to young students in the local community, particularly those who are underrepresented in STEM fields.
Bruno Renero-Hannan grew up bilingual and bicultural between Mexico City and Texas. He received his PhD and MA from the Joint Program in Anthropology and History at the University of Michigan, and a BA with honors in anthropology and philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin. His research and teaching focus on Latin American history and culture, social movements, political violence, and historical memory, including long-term advocacy with indigenous activists and political prisoners in Oaxaca, Mexico. Dr. Renero-Hannan is currently a PRODiG Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at SUNY Geneseo, where he teaches courses, such as Anthropology of Latin America and the Caribbean, Methods in Ethnographic Fieldwork, and Classics of Ethnography.
Jessica D. Smeeks, M.A., R.P.A. is working on her Ph.D. in Anthropology from SUNY Binghamton; her specialization is Andean Archaeology. She earned a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a M.A. in Maritime Studies and Nautical Archaeology from East Carolina University. Her primary research examines the interrelationship between warfare and sociopolitical organization in the Ayacucho Department of South-Central Peru during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000-1450). She considers how pre-Incan people practiced war and how these practices relate to their societal structure, including configurations of kinship, leadership, alliance, and enmity. Her secondary research interests include community archaeology, heritage and resource management, and museum studies. She is fully committed to a community-based archaeology, one that not only finds and protects archaeological resources but also cultivates an understanding and appreciation for archaeology within the community. As such, she has been regularly creating and teaching hands-on archaeology programs to students of all ages for over 10 years.
Samantha White received her PhD in Childhood Studies from Rutgers University-Camden, her MEd in Youth Development from University of Minnesota, and her B.A. in French from Clark Atlanta University. Trained as an interdisciplinary scholar of girlhood, her current project examines constructions and representations of health, hygiene, and the body for African-American girls in the early 20th century United States. Her other research interests include physical culture and sport, literary and visual culture, and environmental humanities.