Lucia Alcala, Ph.D.

Psychology
Bio: Lucia Alcala, Ph.d. conducts empirical research guided by sociocultural theory, exploring the interaction between cultural practices and children’s development. Currently she has projects investigating cross-cultural aspects of children’s executive function skills funded by a collaborative grant from NSF and a small research grant from the Spencer Foundation. Her line of research also explores the development of children’s prosocial behavior in diverse families (U.S. and Mexico), and the impact of service-learning experiences in college students’ civic engagement and academic development. She earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz. She was a visiting professor at the Universidad Maya de Quintana Roo before coming to California State University, Fullerton.

Dustin Barr, DMA

Music
Bio: Dustin Barr is Director of Wind Studies and Associate Professor of Music at California State University, Fullerton where he actively manages all aspects of the university's comprehensive band program, conducts the Wind Symphony and University Band, oversees the graduate wind conducting program, and teaches courses in conducting and music education. Prior experiences include appointments as Assistant Director of Bands at Michigan State University, Director of Bands at Mt. San Antonio College, and Assistant Director of Bands at Esperanza High School in Anaheim, California.
Barr’s research includes working extensively with theatre director Jerald Schwiebert on melding performance theory with various movement theories and disciplines to establish innovative pedagogical approaches to teaching conducting. Their co-authored text, Expressive Conducting: Movement and Performance Theory for Conductors, was published by Routledge in 2018. This work has made Barr a highly regarded pedagogue in the field of conducting. He has given numerous masterclasses throughout the USA and in Spain. Furthermore, his research on Scandinavian music for chamber wind ensembles has produced published performance editions of Asger Lund Christiansen's Octet, op. 43 and Svend Schultz's Divertimento for Wind Octet.

NATALIE GRAHAM, PH.D.

African American Studies

Bio: Natalie J. Graham, a native of Gainesville, Florida, earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Florida and Ph.D. in American Studies at Michigan State University as a University Distinguished Fellow. A widely-published scholar of African American Studies, with research interests in race, identity performance, and music, she became a faculty member in the Department of African American Studies at California State University, Fullerton in 2013. She has served as chair of the African American Studies department, co-founded the Institute of Black Intellectual Innovation, and coordinated art-centered community events, workshops, and readings for hundreds of participants. She is an award-winning author and performer who has toured nationally with her collection of poems, Begin with a Failed Body. In August 2021, Natalie was appointed Poet Laureate of Orange County. 

LUPITA ESPINOZA, PH.D.

Child and Adolescent Studies

Bio: Guadalupe Espinoza is an associate professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Studies. She earned her PhD in developmental psychology at UCLA (with minors in Culture, Ethnicity and Education, and Quantitative Methods). Dr. Espinoza is interested in how adolescents’ school context perceptions (e.g., school climate, safety) and peer relationships (e.g., bullying) shape their psychosocial and school adjustment. Much of her research focuses specifically on the experiences of adolescents from Latin American backgrounds. She is currently funded by the Society for Research on Adolescence to better understand Latinx adolescent experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Archana McEligot, PH.D.

Public Health

Bio: Archana J. McEligot, PhD, is professor of Public Health at California State University, Fullerton.   Dr. McEligot received her PhD in Public Health (Epidemiology) from the joint doctoral program between the University of California, San Diego and San Diego State University. She is currently the program director of a multi-year NIH funded training program in neurocognitive aging and analytics, and is also the director of the Center for Cancer Prevention, Health Disparities Research and Training. Dr. McEligot’s primary research interests include investigating modifiable risk factors, including dietary intakes, circulating dietary biomarkers, as well as epigenetic factors in relation to disease outcomes and health disparities/equity. Dr. McEligot also has a strong commitment to training underrepresented/disadvantaged students in emerging areas, such as neurocognitive aging, data science and research methodologies related to population health and disease outcomes, which may subsequently fill the equity gap, as well as inform and/or promote health equity. 

SAM BEHSETA, PH.D.

Mathematics

Bio: Dr. Sam Behseta is a statistician with research interests in Bayesian statistics, statistics in neuroscience, modeling education data, foundations and history of statistics, statistics education, probabilistic watermarking, and biostatistics.