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November 2007 GW Attracts Top New Faculty Members
By Jamie L. Freedman GW welcomed 59 new full-time faculty members to campus this fall, enhancing the depth and breadth of the University’s academic community. “The caliber of people we’re bringing in is really spectacular, which says a great deal about GW’s stature,” says Donald R. Lehman, executive vice president for academic affairs and the George Gamow Professor of Theoretical Physics. “We’re obviously competing with the very best universities in attracting these fine individuals.” The newcomers range from freshly minted assistant professors to senior faculty members, including Vanessa Northington Gamble, GW’s new University Professor of Medical Humanities. A physician and noted scholar, Gamble is the first woman to hold the prestigious faculty position. “We only have nine University professors, which is the highest professorial rank at GW, and Vanessa Gamble was the unanimous choice of the search committee in a very competitive national search,” says Lehman. “We are delighted to have her on board.” Eleven of this year’s new faculty members are foreign language instructors funded through the Board of Trustees special endowment payout, specializing in Arabic, Chinese, French, Hebrew, Japanese, Spanish, and American Sign Language. The group joins GW’s most prominent new faculty member—President Steven Knapp—who Lehman jokingly refers to as the English Department’s and University’s “top new professor.” “I think people recognize that GW is a university on the move to the upper ranks of the top institutions,” says Lehman. “We have a very strong faculty, and are attracting top professors who feel that it’s a privilege to join it. I strongly believe that with the president’s emphasis on research, scholarship across the disciplines, and moving GW into the top tier of research universities, all will have a major role to play as their careers unfold here at GW.” One new hire is Sarah Shomstein, assistant professor of psychology, who focuses her research on the neural mechanisms of attentional selection—the cognitive mechanism that allows effective processing of relevant information and the inhibition of extraneous information. “I combine behavioral and neuroimaging techniques to study normal as well as brain damaged populations,” she explains. Topping her research agenda at GW is the evaluation of deficits in attentional selection that occur after stroke (following damage to the parietal lobe) using various neuroimaging techniques. “In terms of teaching, I’m striving to pique my students’ interest in human brain functioning through critical thinking and evaluation of new research findings,” says Shomstein, who earned a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. “Taking part in the investigative process of figuring out how the brain works has been both a challenge and a highlight of my career, and I love to transmit that excitement to my students.” Another trailblazing new faculty member is Patricia Kelly, assistant professor of anthropology. A cultural anthropologist, she works primarily in Mexico and Central America on issues related to neoliberalism, gender and sexuality, and migration. “I spent one year doing ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico in a brothel called the Zona Galactica, where I worked closely with sex workers, their clients, and political officials,” says Kelly. The results of the work will be published this spring in Lydia’s Open Door: Inside Mexico’s Most Modern Brothel, in which Kelly critically analyzes legal state-regulated prostitution. Kelly’s current research focuses on Central American migrants at the Mexico-Guatemala border. New faculty member Travis S. Wright, assistant professor of educational research, explores risk and resilience in the lives of women and young children living in poverty. “My journey to GW has been blessed with lots of twists and turns,” says Wright, who received his doctorate in 2006 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and thinks of himself as an “activist/academic.” He has worked as manager of youth and education outreach at the Points of Light Foundation, as a D.C. public school teacher, as a trauma therapist at a low-income child development center in Boston, and in a group home for gay, lesbian, and bisexual teens in state custody. “Witnessing the power of individuals to overcome adversity has proven the most treasured highlight of my career to date,” he says. At GW, Wright just launched his research lab, the Project on Early Childhood, Community, and Social Change. “Our mission is to expand my work on behalf of women and young children living in poverty, developing innovative approaches to curriculum, parent involvement/support, and community development,” he says. “We are currently working on an intervention targeting the most vulnerable children and families in the district, training and supporting retirees as home visitors. This will also provide an opportunity to explore the way vulnerable families develop over time, helping us to gain a better perspective on which types of supports make the most difference to them.” “I knew when I left Washington for graduate school that I wanted to come back someday—there is so much need, challenge, and promise here,” says Wright, who was recently appointed by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty to serve on the Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Early Childhood Development. “I think GW is well positioned to make a huge impact in the life of this city. GW is a great place to be!”
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