Faculty Experts

Suffolk University faculty and administrators have agreed to make themselves available for interviews, comments, on-air discussions, and opinion/editorial views. The following list of faculty includes areas of expertise in general categories.

Specific topics may be found through a browser page search.

For additional information, please contact the Office of Public Affairs at 617-573-8447.

Arts, Culture & Society

Amy Agigian, Sociology

• Health
• Gender
• Women's issues
• Human rights
• Reproductive rights
• Gun issues
• Violence
• Political issues from the perspectives of gender, health, human rights

Elif Armbruster, English

• American Literature pre-1920: American Realism (1870-1920)
• Authors Edith Wharton, Henry James, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Dean Howells, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Willa Cather
• Higher education
• Women and Gender Studies and Social Media: #metoo movement, "Nasty Women," #pinkpussyhat, LGBTQ issues, sexual harassment and assault, female empowerment, feminism
• Women, and Self-Image: addiction, anxiety, depression, opioids
• American West: Pioneering, ecology, environmental studies, frontier mentality, pioneer girls, Native Americans,
• Black Lives Matter, minorities, immigration
• US culture
• American Studies broadly
• Boston art and architecture: houses, museums, summer colonies, summer houses, winter houses.

Linda Leslie Brown, Art & Design

• STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics)
• Art and Design

Gary Fireman, Psychology (Professor & Associate Provost)

• Sleep quality, dreams, and nightmares
• Bullying

Rev. Amy Fisher, Religious Studies/Philosophy, University Chaplain

• World Religions: Politics, role of women, interfaith dialogue

Erika Gebo, Sociology

• Juvenile justice
• Criminal justice
• Youth gangs
• Crime prevention
• Justice in communities, youth justice
• Violence in communities

Amy Marks, Psychology

• At-risk youth
• Culture and immigration
• Identity
• Developmental psychology (social & emotional)

Thomas McGrath, World Languages & Cultural Studies

• History of art, particularly the art of Renaissance and Baroque Italy
• Specialization in drawings

D. Quentin Miller, English

• American literature
• Contemporary literature
• African American literature
• Fiction
• Law and literature.
• The authors James Baldwin, John Updike, John Edgar Wideman, Toni Morrison, T.C. Boyle, Joanna Scott, Don Delillo, Jack Kerouac

Steve Novick, Art & Design

• Visual arts and related issues

James Ptacek, Sociology

• Violence against women
  • Sexual abuse
  • Sexual harassment
  • Abusive men
• Gender inequality
• Masculinity

Monika Raesch, Communication & Journalism

• Film studies
• Film adaptation
• Film industry
• World cinema (different film industries, film history)
• German reunification

Bob Rosenthal, Advertising, Public Relations, & Social Media

• Politics, political communication
• Public affairs

Susan Sered, Sociology

• Women and crime
• Drugs and society
• Illness and healing
• Religion and society
• Women's health
• Health care policy

Rebecca Stone, Sociology

• Substance use during pregnancy
  • Opioid epidemic
  • Maternal drug use and fetal drug exposure
• Women and crime
  • Women as victim-offenders
  • Women and substance use
  • Women's experiences on probation/parole/reentry/recidivism
• Public health and criminal justice
  • Health of criminal justice populations
  • Unmet health needs in prisons and jails
  • Barriers to health care for justice-involved people
  • Poor health’s impact on reentry after incarceration

David Yamada, Law

• Workplace bullying, mobbing, and abuse
  • Sexual harassment and the Me Too campaign
• Unpaid internships
• Therapeutic jurisprudence

Business

James Angelini, Accounting

• Taxation and tax policy - federal and state
• New or proposed tax laws.

Bari L. Bendell, Management & Entrepreneurship

• Sustainability
• Natural environment
• Climate change from a business perspective
• Entrepreneurship
• Dry cleaning industry
• Women on boards of directors
• Corporate social responsibility

Pelin Bicen, Marketing

• Innovation management
• Marketing strategy
• High-tech marketing
• Startups and new ventures
• Disruptive technologies (robotics, machine learning/AI/deep learning, internet of things)
• Public policy debate around disruptive technologies

Nancy Chun Feng, Accounting

• Nonprofit accounting and auditing
• Nonprofit governance
• Nonprofit accountability
• Nonprofit accreditation
• Nonprofit financial disclosure
• Nonprofit financial reporting
• Governmental accounting and auditing
• Governmental financial reporting
• Accounting research
• Accounting regulations
• Public charities
• Internal control
• Single audits
• Corporate social responsibility

Katrina Graham, Management & Entrepreneurship

• Workplace
• Organizations
• Ethics
• Leadership
• Power

Jonathan Haughton, Economics

• Economics generally
• City, state economic issues
  • Taxation
  • Budgeting
  • Economic development
• U.S. economy
  • Tax reform
  • Public policy related to the economy
  • Growth, employment, and inflation
  • Energy issues
• International (Has visited 60+ countries. Recent focus on Ireland, Thailand, Vietnam, Rwanda)
  • Poverty and inequality
  • Sustainable development goals
  • Micro-credit
  • Entrepreneurship

Kuo-Ting (Ken) Hung, Information Systems and Operations Management

• Global supply chain
• Supply chain strategy
• Supply chain disruption
• Supply chain relationship management
• Business analytics
• Behavioral operations management
• Decision-making process

Nesij Huvaj, Management and Entrepreneurship

• Entrepreneurial finance
• Angel investing
• Venture capital
• Business planning
• Funding pitches
• Technology entrepreneurship
• EdTech
• FinTech
• Entrepreneurial ecosystems
• Startups
• Incubators
• Accelerators
• Coaching/mentoring (for students, entrepreneurs, and executives)
• Strategic management (particularly in entrepreneurial contexts)

Ariel Markelevich, Accounting

• Financial accounting
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Audit quality
• Accounting reporting quality
• Corporate reporting
• Standardized data
• Data analytics

Peter Martelli, Healthcare Administration

• High reliability organizations (HRO) across sectors, especially in health care
• Avoiding organizational errors and promoting quality/safety
• Intersection of theory and practice
• Organizational evidence and the application of knowledge in sociotechnical systems
  • Knowledge and evidence
  • Translation of research into practice and policy
  • Organizational barriers/facilitators to evidence-based management
  • Implementation science, knowledge translation, and applied epistemology
  • Role of expertise, professionalism, and social networks
• Behavioral approaches to managing risk
• High reliability organizing, resilience engineering, and other systems risk models
  • Learning, safety culture, and relational coordination
  • Systems theory, complexity and cybernetics
  • Simulation training and research
  • Reconciling theory and practice implications across models

Michaele Morrow, Accounting

• Corporate and individual tax policy
• Behavior of multinational corporations that stash earnings offshore
• Effects of lowering the corporate tax rate vs expanding the domestic manufacturing deduction
• Effects of tax credits, e.g., on purchasing energy-efficient products and health insurance
• Tax code impacts: marriage, death, etc.
• National tax instructor for PwC and for KPMG--topics: individual, corporate, partnership, international, and state and local tax.
• Tax prep center
• Foreign student/international tax returns

Suzyn Ornstein, Management & Entrepreneurship

• Sustainability
• Climate change

Peter Rivard, Healthcare Administration

• Healthcare management
  • Patient safety
  • Leadership
  • Primary care

Carlos Rufin, Strategy & International Business

• Climate change
• Energy
• Sustainability
• Latin America
• Brazil
• Spain
• Catalonia
• International development
• Urbanization
• Public-private partnerships

Russell Seidle, Strategy and International Business

• Innovation
• Entrepreneurship
• Corporate strategy
• Pharmaceutical industry
• Biotechnology industry

Andrew Smith, Marketing

• Marketing
• Consumer behavior
• Branding
• Augmented reality
• Social media marketing

Richard Torrisi, Finance and International Business

• U.S. economic policy
• International trade and investment
• Global economy
• US dollar and global financial markets
• Inflation and unemployment trends

Dmitry Zinoviev, Math & Computer Science

• Computing
• Data science

Economic Issues

Brenda J. Bond, Institute for Public Service

• Public administration and reform
• Public sector performance measurement and management
• Public organizational change
• Policing
• Police reform
• Accountability in public sector
• Public safety
• Criminal justice reform
• Community-police relationships
• Public policy implementation
• Community engagement

Kathleen C. Engel, Law

• Financial services
• Financial regulation
• Consumer protection
• Discrimination in housing, employment, credit, etc.
• Torts
• Personal injury
• Employment law

Jonathan Haughton, Economics

• Economics generally
• City, state economic issues 
  • Taxation
  • Budgeting
  • Economic development
• U.S. economy 
  • Tax reform
  • Public policy related to the economy
  • Growth, employment, and inflation
  • Energy issues
• International 
  • Poverty and inequality
  • Sustainable development goals
  • Micro-credit
  • Entrepreneurship

(Has visited 60+ countries. Recent work has been related to Ireland, Thailand, Vietnam and Rwanda)

John Infranca, Law

• Land use law, planning, and zoning
• Housing law and policy - affordable housing, gentrification, market urbanism
• Urban law and policy
• Local government law
• The sharing economy - Airbnb, Uber, Lyft
• Religion and law - First Amendment free exercise and establishment clause

Shahruz Mohtadi, Economics

• International trade policy
• Federal Reserve monetary policy
• Exchange rate

Environment & Nature

Scott Lussier, Center for Urban Ecology and Sustainability

• Digital mapping
• Geospatial analysis
• Drones
• GIS
• Cartography and environmental science

Lauren Nolfo-Clements, Biology

• Ecology
• Wildlife
• Wildlife Conflict
• Environment
• Dogs
• Rats
• Rodents
• Habitat
• Evolution

Suzyn Ornstein, Management & Entrepreneurship

• Sustainability
• Climate change

Carlos Rufin, Strategy & International Business

• Climate change
• Energy
• Sustainability
• Latin America
• Brazil
• Spain
• Catalonia
• International development
• Urbanization
• Public-private partnerships

Government & Politics

Brenda J. Bond, Institute for Public Service

• Policing
• Police reform
• Accountability in public sector
• Public sector performance measurement and management
• Public safety
• Criminal justice reform
• Community-police relationships
• Public administration and reform
• Public policy implementation
• Public organizational change
• Community engagement

Rachael V. Cobb, Government

• Voting rights
• Election administration
• Congress
• U.S. politics generally
• Presidency
• Massachusetts politics

Ken Cosgrove, Government

• Congress
• Republicans; Republican brand
• Political marketing
• Political branding
• Lobbying
• Campaigns
• Sports and politics
• Culture and politics
• NFL kneeling protests
• Olympics
• Trump
• Midterms
• Wave elections
• Canada, Canadian politics
• Congressional oversight and investigations

Roberto Dominguez, Government

• International security
• European politics
• Latin American politics
• International relations
• International human rights

Christina Kulich-Vamvakas, Government

• American politics
• Women and politics
• European politics
• Democracy
• Social movements

Weiqi Zhang, Government

• North Korea
• China

Health & Science

Melanie Berkmen, Chemistry & Biochemistry

• Biochemistry
• Microbiology

Gary Fireman, Psychology (Professor & Associate Provost)

• Sleep quality, dreams and nightmares
• Bullying in school and college age population

Matthew Jerram, Psychology

• Mental Health
• Mental health policy
• Neuroscience and behavior
• Psychiatric and neurological disorders
• Psychotherapy
• Psychological interventions
• Psychological research
• Statistics and statistical interpretation

Scott Lussier, Center for Urban Ecology and Sustainability

• Digital mapping
• Geospatial analysis
• Drones
• GIS
• Cartography and environmental science

Jessica Mak, Biology (Radiation Science Program)

• Radiation therapy cancer treatment
• Cancer
• Radiation therapy student training

Peter Martelli, Healthcare Administration

• High reliability organizations (HRO) across sectors, especially in health care
• Avoiding organizational errors and promoting quality/safety
• Intersection of theory and practice
• Organizational evidence and the application of knowledge in sociotechnical systems
  • Knowledge and evidence:
  • Translation of research into practice and policy
  • Organizational barriers/facilitators to evidence-based management
  • Implementation science, knowledge translation, and applied epistemology
  • Role of expertise, professionalism, and social networks
• Behavioral approaches to managing risk
• High reliability organizing, resilience engineering, and other systems risk models
  • Learning, safety culture and relational coordination
  • Systems theory, complexity and cybernetics
  • Simulation training and research
  • Reconciling theory and practice implications across models

Lauren Nolfo-Clements, Biology

• Ecology
• Wildlife
• Wildlife Conflict
• Environment
• Dogs
• Rats
• Rodents
• Habitat
• Evolution

Susan Orsillo, Psychology

• The nature and function of worry/fear/and anxiety.
• Differences between worry and problem solving - how to identify & respond
• Strategies for coping with anxiety and related emotions
• Mindfulness (and common misconceptions about mindfulness)
• Identifying and articulating personal values that can be helpful with anxiety and related problems
• Differences between values and goals
• Career paths in psychology

Peter Rivard, Healthcare Administration

• Healthcare management
  • Patient safety
  • Leadership
  • Primary care

  Rebecca Stone, Sociology

  • Substance use during pregnancy
    • Opioid epidemic
    • Maternal drug use and fetal drug exposure
  • Women and crime
    • Women as victim-offenders
    • Women and substance use
    • Women's experiences on probation/parole/reentry/recidivism
  • Public health and criminal justice
    • Health of criminal justice populations
    • Unmet health needs in prisons and jails
    • Barriers to health care for justice-involved people
    • Poor health’s impact on reentry after incarceration

    International Issues

    Roberto Dominguez, Government

    • International security
    • European politics
    • Latin American politics
    • International relations
    • International human rights

    Shahruz Mohtadi, Economics

    • International trade policy
    • Federal Reserve monetary policy
    • Exchange rate

    Ragini Shah, Law

    • Immigration
      • Ineffectiveness of border security
      • Constitutional analysis (travel ban, DACA litigation)
      • Criteria for admission (i.e., no such thing as chain migration)
      • Intersection of immigration and crime
    • Citizenship, qualification as refugee/asylee
    • Mexican immigration to the U.S.
    • Latin American immigrant communities generally

    Weiqi Zhang, Government

    • North Korea
    • China

    Law & Courts

    Rosanna Cavallaro, Law

    • Criminal Law
    • Evidence
    • Professional responsibility
    • Law and literature

    Kathleen C. Engel, Law

    • Financial services
    • Financial regulation
    • Consumer protection
    • Discrimination in housing, employment, credit, etc.
    • Torts
    • Personal injury
    • Employment law

    John Infranca, Law

    • Land use law, planning, and zoning
    • Housing law and policy - affordable housing, gentrification, market urbanism
    • Urban law and policy
    • Local government law
    • The sharing economy - Airbnb, Uber, Lyft
    • Religion and law - First Amendment

    Renée M. Landers, Law, Director of the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration

    • Affordable Care Act
    • Affirmative action
    • Roe v. Wade
    • Marriage rights
    • Regulatory agencies
    • Voting rights

    Kim McLaurin, Law – Clinical Programs

    • Criminal law
    • Criminal and juvenile court systems
    • Juvenile justice and juveniles generally
    • Constitutional law

    Marc Perlin, Law

    • Massachusetts law and procedure
    • Family law

    Rene Reyes, Law

    • U.S. constitutional law
    • Comparative constitutional law (with special attention to US/UK comparisons and to Brexit issues)
    • Law and religion

    Elbert L. Robertson, Law

    • Civil rights
    • Administrative law
    • Antitrust
    • Business associations
    • Corporations
    • Criminal law
    • Evidence
    • Jurisprudence
    • Law and economics
    • Legal method
    • Torts

    Ragini Shah, Law

    • Immigration
      • Ineffectiveness of border security
      • Constitutional analysis (travel ban, DACA litigation)
      • Criteria for admission (i.e., no such thing as chain migration)
      • Intersection of immigration and crime.
    • Citizenship, qualification as refugee/asylee
    • Mexican immigration to the U.S.
    • Latin American immigrant communities generally

    David Yamada, Law

    • Workplace bullying, mobbing, and abuse
      • Sexual harassment and the Me Too campaign
    • Unpaid internships
    • Therapeutic jurisprudence

    Sports

    Ken Cosgrove, Government

    • Sports and politics
    • NFL kneeling protests
    • Olympics
    • Culture and politics
    • Congressional oversight and investigations

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