Cal State LA honors outstanding faculty at University Convocation 2024

Six Cal State LA faculty members were recognized for excellence in teaching and outstanding achievements during University Convocation 2024.

Four Outstanding Professor Award recipients and an Outstanding Lecturer Award recipient were honored for significant achievements in scholarly inquiry or creativity, as well as professional activities and community service.

A President's Distinguished Professor Award was presented to a previous Outstanding Professor Award recipient. This award recognizes the faculty member's superlative teaching, exceptional commitment to students, and professional accomplishments and services.

During University Convocation, President Berenecea Johnson Eanes celebrated the start of the new academic year while Professor Andre Avramchuk, chair of the Academic Senate, welcomed new faculty members.

The six award recipients were introduced by Professor Somak Banerjee, chair of the Outstanding Professor Awards Selection Committee.

PRESIDENT'S DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR

Nanda Ganesan is a professor of information systems in the College of Business and Economics. He has served as chair of the Department of Information Systems thrice over the last four decades.

Ganesan has conducted research, given lectures, and worked in the industry in different countries, including Sri Lanka, Iran, England, Singapore, Japan, and Australia. His current research interests include designing and implementing E-learning systems to enhance student learning experiences.

In addition to publishing 21 articles in refereed journals and 33 articles in conference proceedings, he has given 66 professional presentations and obtained 22 funded grants. Ganesan has also designed and built computer labs in various countries.

During his tenure as the department chair, he co-founded the M.S. in Information Systems Program, one of the earliest graduate programs in information systems in California, and he introduced major curriculum revisions to the undergraduate program.

Ganesan has chaired several committees relating to accreditation, assessment, faculty evaluation, and recruitment and continues to serve as the graduate program advisor.

He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Fulbright Award from the U.S. Department of State, the Innovation in Technology Award from the Cal State Student Association, the Assigned Time for Exceptional Service to Students Award, and the Outstanding Professor Award from Cal State LA. He also received the Outstanding Teaching Award, Outstanding Service Award, and Outstanding Instructional Innovation Award from the College of Business and Economics.

As part of his social service, he has visited refugee camps in India, giving presentations on computing to children in the camps and conducting lectures in institutions in the war-torn areas of Sri Lanka. He also started a Tamil language school in Pasadena for elementary and middle school children.

Ganesan, who resides in Pasadena, received his Ph.D. in engineering production from the University of Birmingham, England.

OUTSTANDING PROFESSORS

Cheryl Kamei-Hannan is a professor in the Division of Special Education and Counseling, which is part of the College of Education. For the past 18 years, she has coordinated the Education Specialist Credential Program and the Master of Arts in Special Education Program with an emphasis in visual impairments and blindness.

Kamei-Hannan has advised candidates throughout Southern California, including 128 undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral candidates who have received full-tuition fellowships through external grant funding. She has been a principal or co-investigator on six U.S. Department of Education grants, totaling over $9 million.

Kamei-Hannan founded the Expanded Core Education Learning (ExCEL) Academy in 2016, and the Virtual ExCEL Academy was launched on March 23, 2020, in collaboration with the American Printing House for the Blind, the Perkins School for the Blind, and the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. She was recognized with the Presidential Recognition of Extraordinary Achievement by the Council on Exceptional Children and the Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Kamei-Hannan coauthored Reading Connections: Strategies for Teaching Students with Visual Impairments, and is co-editor of the two-volume Foundations of Education textbook series, published through the American Printing House for the Blind. She is also a contributing author of the Assessment of Braille Literacy Skills, published by the Region 4 Education Service Center.

Kamei-Hannan serves as a research development faculty liaison to the university's Office of Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities. She has served on numerous committees, including the Institutional Review Board and the College of Education Retention, Tenure, and Promotion Committee.

A Long Beach resident, she received her Ph.D. in special education from the University of Arizona.

Alejandra Marchevsky is a Latina scholar-activist and professor of women's, gender, and sexuality studies in the College of Arts and Letters. She is the inaugural chair of the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, which was created in 2022.

Marchevsky's research centers on gendered racism and state violence as they structure the life experiences of migrant women from Latin America. She has also written on the topics of political solidarity between Chicana and African American mother-activists, anti-Muslim racism and policing, and neoliberalism in higher education.

Marchevsky's coauthored book, Not Working: Latina Immigrants, Low-Wage Jobs and the Failure of Welfare Reform, was the first to study the experiences of Mexican immigrant families in the U.S. welfare system and draw connections between anti-immigrant politics and anti-Blackness in the dismantling of public assistance programs.

Her curriculum invites students to collaborate on research justice projects that serve the needs of marginalized communities. Her classes have partnered with labor unions and social justice organizations. Most recently, she and her students partnered with faculty and students at Brooklyn College of CUNY to produce autoethnographic analyses of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City and Los Angeles. This project culminated in a published book titled Until We're Seen: Public College Students Expose the Hidden Inequalities of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

With a demonstrated commitment to institution building and community service, Marchevsky was co-principal investigator of a Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Residency Program grant. She helped to create the American Communities Program and Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality. She had served on the Board of Directors for Californians for Justice and the Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights.

Marchevsky has lived in Northeast Los Angeles since 1996. She received her Ph.D. in American culture from the University of Michigan.

Gustavo Menezes is a professor of civil engineering in the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST). He also serves as chair of the Department of Civil Engineering.

Menezes' technical research has focused on subsurface water quality and availability. He is interested in investigating the physicochemical processes related to water infiltration through the vadose zone using lab experiments and computer models. More specifically, his research uses the steady-state centrifugation method to simulate and investigate flow conditions in unsaturated soils.

Over the years, he has developed a passion for engineering education research and for creating an educational model that meets the demands of Cal State LA students while leveraging their assets. Most recently, Menezes has worked with a group of faculty members on a National Science Foundation-funded integrated curriculum for sophomores, a service-learning summer bridge program for rising sophomores, and the First Year Experience @ ECST, which focuses on supporting students throughout their first year at the college.

Currently, he leads a team of faculty working on the NSF-funded Eco-STEM project that focuses on "Transforming STEM Education using an Asset-Based Ecosystem Model." The overarching goal of the project is to create a supportive and culturally responsive learning and working environments for all members of the ECST community that utilizes their assets to enhance motivation, excellence, and success, thus making teaching and learning a rewarding and fulfilling experience.

Since 2009, Menezes has taught courses in environmental engineering and water resources at Cal State LA. He has published his research in prestigious peer-reviewed journals and presented at numerous state, national, and international conferences.

Born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Menezes received his Ph.D. in infrastructures and environmental systems from the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He resides in the city of Monrovia.

Gabriela Simon-Cereijido is a professor of communication disorders in the Rongxiang Xu College of Health and Human Services.

Simon-Cereijido's research focuses on the development of dual language learners with and without language disorders, developing bilingual assessments, and culturally and linguistically responsive interventions. She also investigates the linguistic skills and experiences of bilingual adults, aiming to enhance the education and preparation of future diverse speech-language pathologists.

Her work includes over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, contributing to the understanding of Spanish-English language development and disorders. Her publications also address human rights, emphasizing the importance of multilingualism and the right to communicate in more than one language.

Simon-Cereijido has been a principal investigator and co-investigator on research grants, focusing on the development of criterion-referenced measures for bilingual children with language impairment. Her research project aimed at identifying bilingual children at risk for language impairment has been supported by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation.

Simon-Cereijido instructs both undergraduate and graduate courses, promoting an inclusive and bilingual focus within the graduate program. She actively mentors students, guides numerous theses, and serves on doctoral committees.

She is a frequent presenter at national and international conferences, with over 100 presentations to her credit. Her contributions have been recognized with awards, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from Teachers College, Columbia University; the Leadership Award from the California Speech Language Hearing Association; and the Honor of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association.

Simon-Cereijido, who resides in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles, serves as a founding member of the Spanish-speaking Association for the Study of Developmental Language Disorders. She received her Ph.D. in language and communicative disorders from San Diego State/University of California, San Diego.

OUTSTANDING LECTURER

Sharri Kornblum is an instructor of mathematics in the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST).

She served as a principal designer of the Summer Transition to ECST Program (STEP) for all incoming first-year students who are majoring in engineering, computer science, and engineering technology. As the director of supplemental instruction, Kornblum has designed academic workshops in engineering, math, chemistry, and physics.

Kornblum's research focuses on the self-efficacy of minority students in mathematics and sciences. She has conducted research and delivered presentations on "How to Implement Cooperative Learning in the Community College to Improve Mathematics and Science Grades."

Kornblum is a committed educator who dedicates endless hours mentoring students in order for them to excel academically and professionally. Her students continue to succeed because of her commitment and enthusiasm with mathematics. She is also a faculty sponsor for the Cal State LA chapter of the National Society for Black Engineers, for which she received an Academic Supporter of the Year award.

Prior to Cal State LA, she taught a wide variety of mathematics courses at several educational institutions, including Belmont High School, Pierce Community College, East Los Angeles Community College, California State University at Northridge, and California Lutheran University.

A resident of Woodland Hills, Kornblum earned a Ph.D. in mathematics education from the University of Southern California, master's degree in mathematics from Cal State LA, and bachelor's degree in mathematics from UCLA.

# # #

California State University, Los Angeles is the premier comprehensive public university in the heart of Los Angeles. Cal State LA is ranked number one in the United States for the upward mobility of its students. Cal State LA is dedicated to engagement, service, and the public good, offering nationally recognized programs in science, the arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education, and the humanities. Founded in 1947, the University serves more than 26,000 students and has more than 250,000 distinguished alumni.