Dr. Rita Shah (she/her/hers), Associate Professor of Criminology and Fulbright Scholar, is a cultural criminologist with an interest in questioning how we think about and frame corrections and correctional systems. She received her BA in communications, legal institutions, economics and government (CLEG) from American University and her MA in social ecology and Ph.D. in criminology, law and society from the University of California, Irvine. 

Ann Blakeslee, PhD, is Professor of English and Director of the Office of Campus & Community Writing, which houses Writing Across the Curriculum and the University Writing Center. She is also Associate Publisher for Books for The WAC Clearinghouse and co-founder of the community writing resource, YpsiWrites. 

Sadaf R. Ali is a former television and radio news reporter and has worked for mainstream and ethnic media in Ohio and Michigan. Sadaf earned her MA in Broadcast Journalism from Columbia College-Chicago in 2002, examining capital punishment and the ensuing moratorium in Illinois. She has a Ph.D. (2014) in Communication from the Department of Communication at Wayne State University focusing on risk/crisis information, securitization, race and audience attitudes towards messages originating from traditional and social media sources. Sadaf is a quantitative researcher, who favors content analysis and experimental design as her methodologies of choice.

Dr. Logwood is a poet, writer, and activist. Before becoming a professor, she was the first African-American administrative director of the Women’s Resource Center at Eastern Michigan University. Her current academic endeavors include providing undergraduate students with the opportunity to mentor youth at a local middle school through her Mentoring Youth in Urban Spaces (WGST 230L2/WGST 500) course and writing on Black feminist mentorship, belonging, and critical classroom practices. She is also the co-coordinator of the Annual Women of Color Feminisms and Leadership Symposium.

Dr. Sonia Chawla is the Assistant Vice President for Academic Research and Regulatory Compliance.  She is currently working on a NSF-funded project to study the long-term effects of an undergraduate course in scientific ethics. Dr. Chawla has previously taught courses in research methods, experimental design and statistics, and developmental psychology and continues to provide education in research integrity, research security, and export controls and embargoes.

Dr. Iman Grewal is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education at Eastern Michigan University where she teaches undergraduate, graduate, and PhD courses in human development, human well-being, qualitative research, and children and families in poverty. In 2015 she completed the AS-L Faculty Fellowship and has since then taught her undergraduate courses as AS-L courses. In 2022 she completed the Advanced AS-L Fellowship. Dr. Grewal is an experienced community-engaged educator and scholar having designed and led several projects with local organizations such as Neutral Zone, 826michigan, SEMIS, and United Way of Washtenaw.

Hannah (she/her/hers) - a Queer, first-gen, Appalachian academic -  is a doctoral student and fellow of Educational Studies here at EMU. Her research interests include intersectional mentorship and queer experiences in informal educational spaces. Hannah currently works with the afterschool mentoring program Project BIG serving middle school youth, the Next Scholars program serving pre-service  teachers, and The Workshop for Community + Collaboration serving the broader Ypsilanti community.