RISE Committee

Christine Simonian (she/her) is the Associate Director of the CRLT Theatre Program. She earned her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Theatre and Drama from Northwestern University in 2016. She also holds an M.A. in Theatre Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara; a B.A. in Drama from the University of California, Irvine; and a certificate in Acting from the Stella Adler Conservatory, NYU. She has taught classes in acting, theatre history, and critical race and gender theory; and has worked as both a dramaturg and a performer. Previously, Christine was an Assistant Director for Faculty Programs and Services at Columbia University’s Center for Teaching and Learning and a Graduate Associate at Northwestern University’s Searle Center for Advancing Learning and Teaching. At CRLT, Christine provides strategic direction for the CRLT Theatre Program; integrates programming into college and campus initiatives; and designs, facilitates, and assesses sessions and curricula that promote a more equitable higher education community. She has published work in The Journal of Faculty Development, Theatre Journal, Theatre Survey, and Theatre Topics.

I investigate the basic cognitive processes that underly word recognition and sentence comprehension. My research interests include the psychology of language; sentence comprehension, word recognition & discourse processing. How is syntactic knowledge stored and accessed? What is the relationship between syntactic and semantic processing? How are linguistic ambiguities resolved? Under what circumstances is unambiguous linguistic input difficult to comprehend? I am also interested in how grammatical knowledge is represented for people who speak more than one language, or more than one dialogue of the same language.

Edwin Bergin is a Professor of Astronomy in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. He received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts in 1995 and held a position as astronomer/astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics from 1995-2003. In 2003 he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan. His scholarship focuses on the chemical composition associated with star and planet formation. He used both observations and theory to explore how chemical content changes as, e.g., planets are born. A central question of his work is how the Earth was formed with the materials needed for life (water, organics) present on its surface and whether these conditions are replicated in other planetary systems. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Henry Russel Award, the highest honor bestowed by the University of Michigan for junior faculty in recognition of an extraordinary record of accomplishment in scholarly research and conspicuous ability as a teacher. In 2019 he received the Dannie Heineman prize from the American Astronomical Society and the American Institute of Physics “for his pioneering work in astrochemistry and innovative contributions to our understanding of the physics and chemistry of star and planet formation, and for his tireless efforts to improve astronomy”.

Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes is Professor of American Culture, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is author of Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (University of Minnesota Press, 2009), Escenas transcaribeñas: ensayos sobre teatro, performance y cultura (Isla Negra Editores, 2018), and Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2021), and coeditor of Keywords for Latina/o Studies (New York University Press, 2017). His books of fiction include Uñas pintadas de azul/Blue Fingernails and Abolición del pato.

Mike Liemohn is a Professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering. He teaches SPACE 101, Introduction to Rocket Science and SPACE/CLIMATE 405-002, Data Analysis and Visualization for Geoscientists. His research focuses on plasma transport in the ionosphere and magnetosphere of the Earth and other solar system bodies. As of March 2019, Mike has authored or co-authored 204 peer-reviewed publications in print, press, or submitted. He currently serves as Chair for the NASA Heliophysics Advisory Committee, a member of the NASA Science Committee, and he is an Executive Committee Member for the AGU Space Physics and Aeronomy Section. He also currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief for JGR-Space Physics journal. His awards include the U-M College of Engineer Ted Kennedy Family Team Excellence Award, the 2018 U-M College of Engineering Monroe-Brown Foundation Education Excellence Award, and the 2002 U-M Outstanding Research Scientist Award.

Allen Liu a Professor in Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Biophysics. He received a B.Sc. degree in Biochemistry (Honors) from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, in 2001. He obtained his Ph.D. in Biophysics in 2007 from the University of California-Berkeley and received his post-doctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute-La Jolla. His current research interests lie in cellular mechanotransduction, and his lab uses tools from quantitative cell biology, synthetic biology, biophysics, and microfluidics. He has received the National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award, was named a Young Innovator by Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering (CMBE), a Rising Star from CMBE-Biomedical Engineering Society, and a Future of Biophysics Burroughs Wellcome Fund Symposium speaker. He is a recipient of the Endeavour Executive Fellowship (Australia) and the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for Experienced Researcher (Germany).

John Montgomery is the Margaret and Herman Sokol Professor of Synthetic Chemistry, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the Department of Chemistry, and a member of the Interdepartmental Program in Medicinal Chemistry and the Program in Chemical Biology. His research group in organic chemistry focuses on the discovery and development of new catalytic reactions that provide new strategic disconnections for synthetic chemistry. In addition to working with his terrific research group of students and postdoctorals, he also enjoys teaching and mentoring the diverse population of undergraduate students at Michigan. He has received a number of awards, including an American Chemical Society Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2001), a Rackham Distinguished Graduate Mentoring Award (2017), a Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award (2023), and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2011).

Denise began her role as Director of the U-M ADVANCE Program in Fall 2023, after having previously served on the STRIDE Committee and as the Associate Director for Research in ADVANCE. She is University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Psychology. Her research program in experimental social psychology focuses on intergroup stereotyping, implicit bias, and the experiences of women and underrepresented minorities in science and engineering. She received the Harold R. Johnson Diversity Service Award (2015), and the Sarah Goddard Power Award (2012) from the University of Michigan for her work on diversity-related issues.

Sophie serves as the director at the Prevention, Education, Assistance & Resources (PEAR) department within the Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX (ECRT) Office. Born and raised in France, she went to law school in Paris and obtained her Master’s degree in Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City. Previously, Sophie worked at the Crime Victims Assistance Unit (CVAU) at the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, and the Prevention, Outreach and Education Department (POE) at Michigan State University, where she gained her expertise in sexual and gender-based misconduct advocacy and prevention.

Chris Torres is an Associate Professor of Educational Policy and Leadership in the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education. He is a qualitative researcher interested in how leadership and policy can stabilize and strengthen school improvement efforts and teaching as a profession. Prior to joining the University of Michigan Chris was a professor of Educational Leadership at Michigan State University and Montclair State University, and he worked in New York City as a K-2 teacher, grade chair, teacher mentor, mentor teacher trainer, teacher educator, school board chair, and in the central office designing teacher hiring and leadership development systems.