August 29, 2023
The College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences is excited to welcome new faculty and staff for the upcoming year. Coming from a variety of backgrounds, each will have perspectives and strengths to contribute to their teams.
See the list below to learn more about each individual joining BYU.
NEW CFS FACULTY
Becky Schulthies, Associate Professor – Anthropology Department
Ph.D., University of Arizona
Becky is a linguistic and cultural anthropologist specializing in North Africa and the Middle East, with a research focus on the productive nexus of Moroccan communicative ideologies, state/transnational Arab identity projects, media practices, and plant-human relationality. She was most recently an associate professor at Rutgers University.
Grayson Morgan, Assistant Professor – Geography Department
Ph.D., University of South Carolina
Grayson is a researcher in the area of physical geography related to GIS, remote sensing, and GIS science in general. His research has been centered on the use of budding geospatial technologies for monitoring and mapping coastal wetland vegetation health and urban heat/tree canopy mapping.
Tyson Reeder, Assistant Professor – History Department
Ph.D., University of California-Davis
Tyson’s research focuses on public history and American transnational and international history, with his most recent project examining the symbiosis between foreign intervention and political partisanship from the end of the Revolutionary War through the War of 1812. He was most recently an assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia, where he also served as assistant editor on the Papers of James Madison.
Joseph Stuart, Assistant Professor – History Department
Ph.D., University of Utah
Joseph is a scholar of African American history, particularly on the relationship between race, masculinity, and the state in twentieth-century Black freedom movements. His scholarship and pedagogy are built around establishing similarities, differences, and contingencies that reveal how oppressed individuals, families, and communities have fought for liberation.
Rebecca Dudley, Assistant Professor – Political Science Department
Ph.D., Duke University
Rebecca’s research focuses on conflict resolution and foreign policy, emphasizing the role that third parties play in the dynamics of conflict and conflict management.
Doug Atkinson, Assistant Professor – Political Science Department
Ph.D., University of Georgia
Doug’s research and teaching lie within the areas of security studies and mixed methods, exploring questions regarding interstate conflict and war using an interdisciplinary approach of history, political science, and statistics.
Adriane Cavallini, Associate Clinical Professor – Psychology Department
Ph.D., Brigham Young University
Adriane is active in eating disorder treatment and research, focusing on recovery patterns and protective factors, and she plans to build a strong eating disorder focus as part of BYU’s clinical psychology training program. She was previously an assistant clinical professor at what was then the BYU Counseling and Career Center, now Counseling and Psychological Services, and spent the last several years as a lecturer and psychotherapist at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany.
Trace Stay, Assistant Professor – Psychology Department
Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine
Trace's research focuses on recording and manipulating neural activity in vestibulo-ocular sensorimotor pathways, using animal models to establish general principles of neural adaptation that correlate with behavioral learning and forgetting.
Daye Son, Assistant Professor – School of Family Life
Ph.D., Arizona State University
Daye is a developmental scholar who investigates parent-child dynamics across adolescence and young adulthood. She specifically considers bi-directionality in parent-adolescent relationships, and central to her research is examining adolescents’ sharing of information with their parents, also known as adolescent information management.
Jeff Jackson, Associate Professor – School of Family Life
Ph.D., Brigham Young University
Jeff’s research focuses on clinical intervention effectiveness research (brief strategic therapy, couple therapy, eating disorders, anxiety disorders) and protective and risk factors of couple relationship quality and stability. He joins us most recently from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he was an associate professor in their Marriage and Family Doctoral Program.
Ruth Aguirre, Assistant Teaching Professor & Field Director – School of Social Work
MSW, Brigham Young University
Ruth is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with over a dozen years of experience with clinical practice as a therapist. She has spent the last few years as field liaison in the BYU School of Social Work.
NEW VISITING FACULTY
Anthony Yim, Visiting Assistant Professor – Economics Department
Ph.D., Purdue University
Anthony specializes in applied microeconomics. His recent projects include analyzing the effect of early morning classes on academic trajectories for university students, the effect of college course shutouts for college students, the effect of teacher’s gender on education outcomes, and the impact of kindness on labor market outcomes.
Sean Driscoll, Visiting Assistant Professor– Political Science Department
Ph.D., Boston College
Sean teaches political philosophy and environmental ethics, and he researches ancient Greek philosophy.
Ricardo Vernet, Visiting Assistant Professor – Political Science Department
Ph.D., University of Calgary
Ricardo is a specialist of comparative politics and international relations. He focuses on social movements, democracy, and authoritarianism in Latin America. His current project explores the divergence in the outcomes of transitions following the overthrow of dictatorships in Haiti and Nicaragua in the 1980s.
Daniel Southwick, Visiting Assistant Professor – Psychology Department
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Daniel’s primary stream of research studies factors that improve individual and organizational performance. He is also interested in lay theories of success/talent and how real-world data supports or disconfirms those theories.
Juan Valladares, Visiting Assistant Professor – Psychology Department
Ph.D., Lehigh University
Juan focuses on two overarching research topics: assessing intergroup relations (e.g. interracial and mixed-gender) by exploring how meta-perceptual concerns influence affective and behavioral responses, as well as how these processes unfold in VR. Second, examining the nature of sociocultural interracial contact, wherein interracial partners engage with, learn about, or share aspects related to marginalized groups’ social and cultural backgrounds while amidst interracial contact.
Rachel McGovern, Visiting Assistant Professor – School of Family Life
Ph.D., University of Utah
Rachel is a specialist in the area of parks, recreation, and tourism, with a scholarly interest in the association between early play and leisure experiences in family contexts and the optimal development of young children.
NEW STAFF & ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
Olga McCallson, Alumni & Internship Coordinator – Economics Department
Amy Richins, Department Manager – Geography Department
Alex Allred, Academic Support Coordinator – History Department
Tiffany Ivins, Internship Coordinator – History Department
Marianne Jenson, Sewing Lab Manager – School of Family Life
Ky Cox, Academic & Professional Development Manager – Liberal Arts Advisement & Careers
Celeste Albright, Office Specialist – Museum of Peoples & Cultures
Stephanie Ollerton, Video Manager – Computing Services
Tom Pittman, Computer Resources Manager – Computing Services
Lee Ferrin, Staff Specialist – Deans Office
Jennifer Fletcher, Communications Supervisor – Deans Office
Amy Foote, Assistant Controller – Deans Office
In addition to the new faculty and staff, several visiting faculty members are continuing their time with the college and others have new responsibilities:
CONTINUING VISITING FACULTY
April Reber – Anthropology
Jordan Haug – Anthropology
David Simpson – Geography
Laura Redford – History
Travis Blackwelder – Psychology
Lisa Leake – Sociology
Mindy Brown – School of Family Life
PERSONNEL CHANGES
Jon Cook – Academic & Professional Development Manager, Liberal Arts Advisement & Careers
Kathleen Reyes – Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Program Manager
Paul Stavast – Associate Teaching Professor, Anthropology
Scott Ure – Associate Teaching Professor, Anthropology