Amy Zhang, PhD
Associate Professor of Nursing
Dr. Zhang teaches a SAGES course on complementary and alternative therapies to undergraduate students. She has been a member of the National Institutes of Health grant review panels and a member of the university's faculty senate and its executive committee. Her research focuses on improving the quality of life of cancer survivors and their families. She has conducted NIH-funded studies to reduce urinary incontinence of African American men with prostate cancer and depression. She is a recipient of a 2017-18 Fulbright Scholar Research Grant where she will continue her research in China.
Assistant Director for Retention and Graduate Outreach, Office of Multicultural Affairs
Janée is a native of Akron, Ohio. She has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Miami University, and a Master of Education degree from Kent State University. She is now the Assistant Director for Retention and Graduate Outreach in the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Case Western Reserve University.
In her current role, Janée is responsible for community building in various ways. When it comes to graduate students, she is often creating programming – such as Mentoring Mixers – to get students engaged on campus and to help them to meet students, faculty, and staff they may not have otherwise encountered. Janée also takes on the retention and academic success of under-represented minority students. She works with the Emerging Scholars, Collegiate Connections, and POSSE programs in creating support systems for incoming undergraduate students to CWRU all the way through graduation.
In her free time, Janée is often listening to music, traveling somewhere new, or some combination of the two. She is committed to serving her community, so she is constantly finding new service projects to join and has specifically done work with the Tamir Rice Foundation.
William (Bud) Baeslack, III, PhD
Professor, Materials Science & Engineering
Provost and Executive Vice President, CWRU
Baeslack is internationally recognized for his research on the materials science and engineering aspects of joining advanced aerospace materials, including titanium, aluminum and nickel-base alloys, intermetallics and metal-matrix composites. He has received research funding from the Office of Naval Research, the Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, the Ohio Edison Program, national laboratories and industry.
Professor, Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine
Institute Administrator, Social Justice Institute
Lisa joined the team as Institute Administrator in October 2015. She received a Master's in Judaic Studies from Siegal College, served as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Comparative Religion department at Miami University of Ohio, and graduated with a dual degree in Theatre and Religious Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis.
Most recently, she was a Consultant and Employment Associate at Youth Opportunities Unlimited, a non-profit that supports pathways from poverty for Cleveland teens through employment and educational programs. Lisa is a Program Specialist at Camp Sunrise, the only camp in Ohio serving youth touched by HIV/AIDS, and has also volunteered with Refugee Response, Rainey Institute, Eye Care International, IPM, the Homeless Standdown and Limmud UK. She directs The Superhero Project, an initiative that uses creative thinking and the arts to bring joy to children who are facing serious illnesses.
Ms. Schlatzer has over 15 years of analytical chemistry experience in both clinical and research environments. At Magellan Laboratories and GlaxoSmithKline, Ms. Schlatzer developed and managed both small molecule (SRM, MRM analysis) and large molecule (protein/peptide analysis) biomarker discovery efforts in clinical studies. Prior to her position in the Center for Proteomics and Bioinformatics, Ms. Schlatzer was a Senior Research Scientist at GlaxoSmithKline for seven years conducting proteomic research in disease and biomarker discovery. In Ms. Schlatzer's current position, she has implemented a label free protein expression analysis platform for biomarker discovery in support of clinical proteomic studies. She provides project management and consulting services regarding experimental design for discovery and verification analysis as well as project plan development to research clinicians within the university and external collaborators.
David Van Leer
Mr. Van Leer is a volunteer and active mentor with the Provost Scholars Program. A native of Cleveland and an alumnus of Glenville High School, Mr. Van Leer has served in numerous administrative capacities in the East Cleveland School District, including as Assistant Vice Principal at Shaw High School. He first began serving with the Provost Scholars in the fall of 2017 by assisting the Program Director, Dr. Faye Gary, with managing the multi-faceted nature of the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon sessions, overseeing the homework completion of the Provost Scholars, and assisting the students in completing complicated assignments. Additionally, he provides unique support to the Parents College at Case and remains liable, dedicated and passionate in his commitment.
Assistant Professor, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences
Dr. Fletcher holds a PhD, from Loyola University Chicago, and a Master’s degree in Social Sciences Administration from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Her research focus has been on the influence of implicit attitude on decision-making within the child welfare system and the phenomena of disproportionality.
She has been a practicing social work professional for the past two decades with work experience in child welfare, foster care, psychotherapy, Indian Child Welfare, Court Appointed Special Advocates, and Veterans. Previously, an appointment as an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, and her current appointment as an assistant professor at The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University, have allowed Adrianne to utilize her teaching and advising skills, and also provide consultation/service to agencies regarding issues of cultural humility.
Further, she enjoys making herself available to facilitate discussions regarding the intractable thicket of race and culture for agencies and organizations who are aware that they are unaware. It is Adrianne’s desire to continue her research, which seeks remedies for the malady of negative implicit attitude among service professionals who work with individuals who are often marginalized, poor, physically exhausted and emotionally challenged.
Sofia Conic, MD
Dr. Conic was born in Belgrade, Serbia and moved to the United States when she was nine years old. After graduating from Cleveland Heights High School, Dr. Conic returned to her home in Serbia to continue her academic studies.
She graduated from the University of Belgrade University of Medicine where she received her MD degree and then returned to the United States to continue her medical education. She is currently engaged in research at University Hospitals, Cleveland, and she serves as a tutor in addition to being a Mentor in the Provost Scholars Program. Dr. Conic is also an avid reader of history books. She bikes around Cleveland with family and friends.
Livia Timpanaro-Perrotta
Ms. Timpanaro-Perrotta is a recent graduate of CWRU with a Master's in Medical Physiology with honors in Clinical Neuroscience. As a component of her studies, she worked at University Hospitals of Cleveland in the General Neurology, Neuromuscular, and Stroke departments. She conducted research to determine patient outcomes after health-related interventions, and is currently co-instructing a Clinical Reasoning course series at CWRU School of Medicine.
Ms. Timpanaro-Perrotta grew up in California, but her family is originally from Rome, Italy. She enjoys working with and empowering youth to pursue excellence in their academics, which led to her mentoring and working with the Provost Scholars Program.
Gary Edmunds, BS
Mr. Edmunds is a research assistant at the Department of Bioethics at CWRU's School of Medicine and an Affiliated Staff Member of the Office of Faculty Development and Diversity. For several years, he has been a mentor in the Provost Scholars Program. Edmunds is a very reliable mentor, seldom misses a mentoring session, and is committed to assisting youths with improving their academic performance. He is an expert dancer and he has taught dance to couples. Edmunds has worked at CWRU since 2002.
James Eller, EdD
Eller is the Associate Director for Academic Resources in the Educational Services for Students (ESS) Office at CWRU. His role as the Associate Director is to provide leadership and guidance to students who facilitate the Supplemental Instruction (SI) program that offers students enrolled in SI supported courses the opportunity to collaboratively engage with course material. Additionally, he meets with students to help them develop strategies and techniques for improving time-management, note-taking, exam preparation and other essential skills. Originally from Northeast Ohio, James claims the Tidewater region of Virginia as his second home. He is officially in his third career after previously serving as an Education and Career Counselor in the U.S. Navy and as a middle and high school social studies teacher.
Dr. Kluth is a writer, saxophonist, and improviser whose research focuses on American musical experimentalisms (avant-garde/experimentalism, jazz studies, critical improvisation studies), music of the African Diaspora, continental aesthetics, and contemporary theories of interpretation (philosophical hermeneutics). His publications appear in the Journal of Jazz Studies (forthcoming), The International Journal of New Media, Technology, and the Arts, DownBeat Magazine, and Ethnomusicology Review’s “Sounding Board,” in addition to a book comprising a collection of transcribed solos by saxophonist Chris Potter.
Outside of his academic work, Kluth is an accomplished saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. He has released two albums with OA2 Records and worked across musical genres in the Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles markets and has contributed to jazz education as a teaching artist for the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz’s “Jazz in the Classroom” outreach program
Gilbert Doho, PhD
Dr. Doho is Associate Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, as well as the Academic Representative in French. He obtained his Ph.D. (1992) from the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III. His areas of specialization are Twentieth Century French Drama, Francophone Studies, African Performing Arts, and Cinema. He has contributed in writing chapters in The World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre Volume 3: Africa (Routledge, 1997), and Le Dictionnaire des ouvres litéraires d'Afrique francophone (Bethesda, ISP, 1996). He is currently working on the censured version of his Au-dela du lac de nénuphars (Beyond the Lily Lake) and on urban theater as a powerful tool of minority empowerment in the U.S.
Jonathan Gordon, JD, BA
Mr. Gordon teaches legal writing and professional responsibility to international law students in the school’s LLM program. Gordon has taught various other JD courses over the years, including conflicts resolution, the lawyering process, pretrial practice and professional responsibility. Gordon was one of the founding members of the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Summer Legal Academy for local high school students. Gordon has also served as the faculty liaison for various externships with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and several state Attorney General offices in Ohio and elsewhere. A graduate of Columbia University School of Law, Gordon began his legal career in private practice, focusing on civil rights and employment issues. Prior to joining the law school, he spent several years as a trial attorney for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where he was involved in cases involving race, gender, religion, national origin, age discrimination, sexual harassment, retaliation and various class action matters.
Ms. Newton is the Executive Aide to the Vice President in the Office for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity and is the Manager for Development Operations at CWRU. Prior to her appointment, she was an Executive Aide at Case School of Engineering, and was the Direct Mail Coordinator for the Office of Annual Giving. She also served as Secretary IV at the CASE School of Law. She has a professional working proficiency in both French and Latin, and limited working proficiency in both Arabic and German. In 2011, she was the recipient of the Fuller Prize in Beginning Greek Translation at CWRU. On campus, she served as a Senator for the Graduate Student Senate, and as a Staff Advisory Council Representative for four years. Newton received her bachelor's degree in Mass Media Communications from Cleveland State University.
Lee Thompson, PhD
Dr. Thompson is the Chair of the Psychological Sciences department and a Professor at Case Western Reserve University. Her research has explored the development of cognitive skills, temperament, and language from infancy through childhood using siblings, twins, and genetic techniques. She is particularly interested in how the genetic code is translated into complex behavior at the level of brain function. Dr. Thompson has also been the recipient of the McGraw-Hill Excellence in Teaching First-Year Seminars Award and a co-creator of the Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship (SAGES) program at Case. Dr. Thompson received her bachelor’s degree from Case Western Reserve University and her master’s and doctorate degrees from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Marguerite (Peg) DiMarco, PhD, RN, CPNP
Dr. DiMarco is an Associate Professor in the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, where she received her PhD. She has been a pediatric nurse for 40 years, taught nursing for 35 years and practices as a pediatric nurse practitioner for the last 19 years. Her research interests involve health/dental care for poor children. She has international and national presentations, publications, and funded research projects in this area. She had NIH funding for her dissertation "Access/Utilization of Dental Care for Homeless Children." Her latest interdisciplinary project received a $1+ million grant from Kellogg to provide oral healthcare and education to WIC mothers and children. Further, DiMarco became interested in the health of homeless children since she started her faculty practice at ACCESS in 1997. Lastly, she is an active member of the National Association for Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, where she also served on the board and as its oral health expert.
Professor, Geochemistry & Mineral Physics
Dr. Van Orman's group studies planetary interiors (including our own) using a combination of experiments and modeling, constrained by observations. Recent and current research topics include the role of volatiles in the formation and evolution of the Moon; the chemical evolution of planetary cores; isotope fractionation in magmatic processes; diffusion in mantle, core and crustal minerals; chemical processes in Earth’s core-mantle boundary region; and the sequence and timing of events leading up to the planet-building stage in the early solar system.
Patricia McDonald, PhD, RN
Dr. McDonald is an associate professor in the Francis Payne Bolton School of Nursing. Her primary research interests include the prevention and treatment of diabetes, particularly for African-Americans, chronic illness and health promotion for caregivers. She was also the principal investigator for the “Teaching Acceptance to Chronically Ill Older Adults,” “The Beauty for Ashes” projects, and co-investigator for the Parent Grant program with Dr. Jaclene Zauzniewski. Dr. McDonald earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Nursing and Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, respectively, from The Ohio State University, and her doctorate in Nursing from Case Western Reserve University. While studying nursing, Dr. McDonald's educational interests were advanced practical nursing and mental health nursing. She has also been a visiting professor at the Department of Nursing, University of Zimbabwe. Finally, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit, Michigan.
Mary Louise Tatum, RN-BC, MSN, MPH
Teaching Assistant, Nursing
Mary Louise received her BSN from Cleveland State University and her Masters in Public Health from Kent State University. She is expected to receive her Masters of Science in Nursing: Family Systems Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing from Case Western Reserve December 2019. Mary Louise is a teacher assistant for CWRU and works for the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Administration Center. She has taught nursing at the University of Unza in Lusaka, Zambia and was also a part of several research projects and volunteering, involving Type 2 Diabetes, sexual practices among college graduates, teaching safe practice to children who were homeless. She has a passion for working in the community and is a part of several organizations providing service at the local level.
George Blake, PhD
Postdoctoral Scholar in the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities at CWRU
Dr. Blake holds a PhD and a Master's Degree from the Department of Music at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on the hidden musical histories of Black Cleveland, while examining how performers throughout the region negotiate the racialized borders of urban space.
His teaching in urban ethnomusicology challenges students to use digital humanities tools (such as ArcGIS) to engage alternative musical archives and imagine place in new ways. An award-winning teacher, Dr. Blake has taught university courses on improvisation, Black film, jazz, music of the African diaspora, gender and sexuality, hip hop, world music, and popular music. His work includes research on blackface minstrelsy and his ongoing research on Robert Lockwood Jr. is supported by a grant from the UCSB Center for Black Studies Research.
Professor, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Our laboratory focuses on the development and evaluation of cognitive behavioral treatments for anxiety and mood disorders. Much of our work is focused in the area of PTSD specifically. We have ongoing research evaluating treatments for PTSD, understanding what predicts who will benefits from such treatments, which treatments people prefer, and finding ways to recognize pediatric posttraumatic stress disorder. We also have conducted treatment trials in the area of depression and bipolar disorder in youth. Our research has involved us in varied clinical settings: sexual assault programs, substance abuse programs, and outpatient treatment programs for anxiety and depression.
Please visit us at our lab webpage to learn more about our current team and projects: PTSD Research and Treatment Program
Michelle Cseh, MEd
Assistant Director of Academic Resources, Student Success Initiative
Michelle Cseh works in Student Advancement in Academic Resources and as a Navigator. She meets with international students to work on English as a second language skills, such as speaking and grammar. She also meets with students for time management, study strategies, and other academic skills. As a navigator, she meets with students to guide them throughout their years at CWRU.
Cseh attended The Ohio State University and earned a BA in psychology and Spanish. After studying abroad in Spain and a year of working in customer service, she returned to OSU to earn her Master's degree in foreign and second language education and her teaching certification. Later, her TESOL endorsement was completed while teaching. She began working at CWRU in 2017 after 20 years of teaching English as a second language and Spanish at the K-12 and college levels. Cseh is a native of the Cleveland area where she has lived and worked most of her life.
Director, School of Law
Associate Professor of Law, School of Law
Joe Custer is Director of the law school's Judge Ben C. Green Law Library, and he teaches Advanced Legal Research and Electronic Discovery. His scholarship has primarily been in the areas of legal research, administration and issues pertaining to historical social justice.
Custer joined Case Western Reserve in 2015 after serving five years as Director of the Vince C. Immel Law Library and as a faculty member at the University of Saint Louis School of Law. He began his career in higher education as a tenured member of the faculty at the University of Kansas School of Law, where he worked for 15 years.
Before academia, Custer was The Director of Information Services/Attorney at Gage & Tucker in Kansas City, Missouri. He is a member of the Supreme Court of the United States and state of Missouri bars. In addition to his JD, Custer holds a Master’s in Library and Informational Science and a Master’s in Business Administration.
Jim Sheeler, BA, MA
is the Shirley Wormser Professor of Journalism and Media Writing at Case Western Reserve University. He is the author of a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper feature on the war in Iraq that led to a book, Final Salute, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award in nonfiction. As a young newspaper reporter, he specialized in narrative obituaries of people whose names had never before appeared in the newspaper, but whose stories were often more fascinating than any celebrity or politician. Those lives and the lessons they taught (which were also collected in his first book Obit), largely guided his coverage of the war in Iraq that began in 2003. He followed the first casualty from Colorado and continued by recording the story of a U.S. Marine Casualty Assistance Calls Officer and the families he touched while saddled with one of the most difficult duties in the military.
Faye Gary, EdD, RN, FAAN, is the Medical Mutual of Ohio Kent W. Clapp Chair and Professor of Nursing at the Bolton School of Nursing at CWRU. She holds a secondary appointment with the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine, is an Emerita Distinguished Professor at the University of Florida, Gainesville, and she consults with local and global community leaders across six continents. Her relentless pursuit for helping to create the next generation of diverse scholars, researchers, and leaders inspired her to build and expand the Provost Scholars Program. The work with Provost Baeslack and Dr. Myrna Corley has resulted in a novel program designed to provide phenomenal opportunities for youth.
Julian Rogers
Executive Director, Local Government and Community Relations
Julian Rogers serves as the Executive Director of Local and Government and Community Relations for Case Western Reserve University where he is responsible for leading and implementing the university's priorities with a special focus on local government officials and community leader and stakeholders. Before joining CWRU, he was the director of Community Partnerships with Cleveland State University where he managed the Office of Civic Engagement. There he provided support to faculty and students that allowed them to develop mutually beneficial relationships with the community. These relationships contributed to student learning and academic scholarship while adding to the social and economic well-being of Cleveland, its neighborhoods and the Northeast Ohio region.
Prior to joining Cleveland State, Rogers was a member of the inaugural Cuyahoga County Council representing a diverse district of about 120,000 constituents on the east side of Cuyahoga County. Before being elected to County Council, Julian served as the Executive Director of Education Voters of Ohio, an advocacy organization dedicated to improving public education in Ohio. He also served for seven years as Senior Assistant to the CEO and Liaison to the Office of the Mayor for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District.
Rogers is a resident of Cleveland Heights and is active in the community. He has a degree in Political Science from Ohio University and a Master's in Nonprofit Management from Case Western Reserve University.
