Monday
Kent Kauffman – Purdue University Fort Wayne
The Legal Standard that Safeguards Faculty When Students Sue Because of a Bad Grade
Kent Kauffman is associate professor of Business Law and Ethics, and is the MBA Programs Faculty Liaison in the Doermer School of Business at Purdue University Fort Wayne, where he teaches in the undergraduate and MBA Programs. He is the author of four books, including the recently released Navigating Choppy Waters: Key Legal Issues Faculty Need to Know, published by Rowman & Littlefield.
Tuesday
Timothy Williamson – Loyola Marymount University
Replacing Stigma with Compassion
Timothy J. Williamson is an assistant professor of psychological science and director of the Psychosocial Risk & Resilience in Stress & Medicine (PRRISM) Research Laboratory in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). He is a clinical health psychologist with specialized training in public health and psycho-oncology. Dr. Williamson’s program of research is centered on understanding, reducing, and preventing stigma within cancer care, and his work in this area has spanned the cancer care continuum, including screening, referrals to tobacco cessation, active treatment, and longer-term survivorship. Dr. Williamson is a member of the American Cancer Society’s National Lung Cancer Roundtable Stigma & Nihilism Task Force and the Cancer Equity and Diversity Committee for Cancer Support Community Los Angeles.
Wednesday
Francisco Ferretti – Virginia Tech
Taking the Pulse of Global Shark Populations
Dr. Francesco Ferretti is a quantitative computational ecologist specialized in research synthesis. He combines ecology, statistical modeling, and data science to approach questions on animal abundance, species interactions, structure, and functioning of large marine ecosystems. Dr. Ferretti has been working on the ecology and conservation of sharks for two decades. Dr. Ferretti’s studies have proven relevant for the public and policy.
Thursday
Venu Govindaraju – University at Buffalo
Training AI to Spot Dyslexia
Venu Govindaraju is vice president for research and economic development at the University at Buffalo, as well as a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the university’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering. A pioneer in artificial intelligence and machine learning, Govindaraju leveraged these technologies for handwriting recognition, transforming the United States Postal Service and the postal industry globally.
Friday
Jenna Grace Sciuto – Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Intersecting Colonial Worlds: Iceland and the US South
Jenna Grace Sciuto is a professor of English at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. She received her BA from Brown University, MA from Boston University, and PhD from Northeastern University. Her two books—Intersecting Worlds: Colonial Liminality in US Southern and Icelandic Literatures (UP of Mississippi or UPM, 2025) and Policing Intimacy: Law, Sexuality, and the Color Line in Twentieth-Century Hemispheric American Literature (UPM, 2021)—focus on colonialism’s lingering impacts on identity, intimacy, and family dynamics across Icelandic, US Southern, and Caribbean literatures, respectively.
