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From academics to real-world impact, explore stories from our community that highlight the people and experiences making ��«Ӱҵ a place of opportunity, discovery, and success.

Summer Sloane-Britt

Faculty Art & Art History

Summer Sloane-Britt researches the global history of photography, particularly the intersection of photography and liberation movements.

Alyssa Rodriguez

Faculty Biology

Alyssa Rodriguez examines the molecular mechanisms underlying human disease including chemotherapy resistance. She studies proteins involved with DNA repair and genome stability.

Dustin Madison

Dustin “Dusty” Madison

Faculty Physics

Dustin “Dusty” Madison is an astrophysicist working on new and creative ways to study the gravitational Universe. He studies gravitational waves—tiny ripples in the fabric of space that can teach people about some of the most extreme systems in the universe, like black holes orbiting each other.

Faculty Critical Theory & Social Justice

Carla Macal studies the intersections between state violence and intergenerational healing.

Frank Macabenta

Frank Macabenta

Faculty Biology

Frank Macabenta focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying collective cell behavior leading up to organogenesis.

Alberto Lopez Martin

Alberto López Martín

Faculty Spanish & French Studies

Alberto López Martín specializes in 20th- and 21st-century Spanish cultural production, with a focus on contemporary poetry, comic, and graphic novels.

Faculty History

Margaret Gaida studies cross-cultural knowledge transmission in the medieval Mediterranean, with a particular focus on astronomy, astrology, optics, and magic.

Kai Yui Samuel Chan

Faculty Politics

Kai Yui Samuel Chan teaches classes on political theory, democratic theory, and transnational politics. His research concerns individuals and communities traversing state borders.

Manuela Borzone

Manuela Borzone

Faculty Spanish & French Studies

Manuela Borzone is a literary scholar whose work focuses on the representation of the Argentine gaucho in literature, illustration, and film.

Faculty Sociology

Eric Bjorklund specializes in health, inequality, and political sociology. His research examines how the distribution of power within society shapes material conditions and formal political processes in ways that generate and reinforce health disparities.

Alaa Abdelfattah

Faculty Economics

Alaa Abdelfattah studies the distributional effects of public policy and national economic shocks on local labor markets. She is particularly interested in spatial inequality and the factors that contribute to wage and firm dispersion across space and over time.

Student Biochemistry

In just two years, Kenna Mueller ’27 helped lead the Occidental Dance Team from a spirit squad to a nationally competing, student-run program grounded in passion and community.