Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education


Showing 1-10 of 37 Results

  • David Armenta

    David Armenta

    COLLEGE Lecturer

    BioDavid Armenta is a lecturer for the Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) program. He earned his bachelor's degree in molecular and cellular biology from Harvard University. Working as an undergraduate intern in the lab of Andrew Murray, he studied mechanisms underlying evolution and adaptation in budding yeast. Next, he earned his PhD in biology (cells, molecules, and organisms track) from Stanford University, working with Scott Dixon to study how amino acid metabolism regulates sensitivity of cancer cells to the nonapoptotic cell death mechanism of ferroptosis.

  • Ruth Averbach

    Ruth Averbach

    COLLEGE Lecturer

    BioRuth Averbach is a Teaching Fellow in the Program for Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE). She holds a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literatures from Stanford University. Her dissertation, "Writing Women: Gender, Representation, and Alterity in Russian Realism," examines why male authors passionately took up the cause of women's rights in mid-19th century Russia. Ruth is currently writing a book on author and memoirist Alexander Alexandrov, commonly misnamed as Nadezhda Durova, which examines the author's transmasculine identity and his social reception among his contemporaries. The first chapter, "The (Un)Making of a Man," is available in article form in the Fall 2022 issue of Slavic Review.

  • Kim Beil

    Kim Beil

    ITALIC Associate Director

    BioKim Beil is an art historian who specializes in the history of photography. Her book, Good Pictures: A History of Popular Photography, looks at 50 stylistic trends in the medium since the 19th century. Recently she’s written for the New York Times about tracking down an Ansel Adams photograph in the High Sierra with a team of astronomers. She’s also written about photography and climate change for The Atlantic, a survey of street views for Cabinet, and a history of screenshots for the Believer. She also writes frequently about modern and contemporary art for Artforum, Art in America, BOMB, Photograph, and Sculpture magazines.

  • Tony Boutelle

    Tony Boutelle

    COLLEGE Lecturer

    BioTony Boutelle teaches in the Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) program. He earned a B.S. in Biology with a second major in Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. During his time at Chapel Hill, he conducted undergraduate research in the Alisa Wolberg Lab, studying the biochemistry of blood clotting and completing an honors thesis entitled "Investigating the binding interaction between human factor XIII and fibrinogen". Motivated to continue conducting research to understand biological processes that impact human health, he went on to complete a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology at the Stanford School of Medicine, studying cancer genetics and cell biology in the Laura Attardi Lab. His dissertation, entitled "Understanding tumor suppression through the p53 target gene network", focused on illuminating the downstream effectors of the potent tumor suppressor, p53, and the molecular and cellular mechanisms important for tumor suppression.

    Tony discovered his love for teaching as a supplemental instructor for "Principles of Biology" during his Junior and Senior years at UNC. At Stanford he served as a graduate teaching assistant for "Molecular and Genetic Basis of Cancer" and "Cancer Biology" and took on mentoring and outreach roles with various programs including REACH, GRIPS, PIPS, the Ashanti Project, EXPLORE, SIMR, Hermanxs in STEM, and Stanford SPLASH. Tony enjoys exploring the intersection of the "hard" sciences with other disciplines such as religion, philosophy, literature, etc. Through teaching, Tony hopes to create spaces that encourage students and instructors alike to gain the skills and confidence to create a meaningful life for themselves and to shape communities that promote human flourishing.

    In his free time, find Tony bird watching, baking, playing a board game, or trying a new food.

  • Esiteli Hafoka

    Esiteli Hafoka

    COLLEGE Lecturer

    Bio'Esiteli Hafoka received her PhD and MA in Religious Studies from Stanford University, and her BA in Religious Studies and Ancient History from UC Riverside. Her research introduces a novel theoretical approach, Angafakafonua as Tongan epistemology, to understand Tongan collective identity in America. Her dissertation identifies religious threads connecting 19th c. Methodist Christianity, Mormonism, Tongan Crip Gang members in Utah, and sacred education spaces to reveal the ways Tongans navigate their racial identity in America through a religious epistemology. She has co-authored a chapter with Finau Sina Tovo titled, "Mana as Sacred Space: A Talanoa of Tongan American College Students in a Pacific Studies Learning Community Classroom" in Disciplinary Futures: Sociology in Conversation with American, Ethnic, and Indigenous Studies, NYU Press 2023.

    'Esiteli is the proud daughter of Taniela and Latufuipeka (Hala'ufia) Hafoka, wife of Va'inga Uhamaka, and mother of Sinakilea and Latufuipeka.

  • Katelyn Hansen-McKown

    Katelyn Hansen-McKown

    COLLEGE Lecturer

    BioKatelyn is a Lecturer in the Civic, Liberal, and Global Education (COLLEGE) program. She earned a B.S. in Biology at Stanford and completed an honors thesis on her research in the Fire Lab using the nematode C. elegans to examine metal toxicity in the presence of the chelator, glyphosate. She went on to earn a Ph.D. in Genetics from the Stanford School of Medicine, studying stomatal development in the temperate grass model and smaller relative to wheat, Brachypodium distachyon, in the Bergmann Lab. Stomata are pores on the surfaces of leaves that regulate gas and water exchange. They are essential in managing the plant’s nutrient circulation, temperature, and water use efficiency, and therefore have important implications for drought tolerance. Katelyn’s research focused on characterizing members of a well-conserved transcription factor family involved in stomatal differentiation using genetic approaches to understand how grasses’ unique stomata are formed, including the creation of cross-species rescues to test for functional conservation across monocots and dicots.

    Katelyn is also passionate about science communication and teaching, and has organized science outreach events through outlets such as Stanford’s Splash, Taste of Science, and Nightlife at the Cal Academy; tutored at the Hume Writing Center and for the Biology honors thesis writing class; and served as an Indigenous research mentor for first year Native students in Frosh Fellows. When she’s not in the lab or classroom, Katelyn can be found gardening, fishing, playing board games, or exploring the great outdoors.

  • Randall Holmes

    Randall Holmes

    COLLEGE Lecturer

    BioAfter completing service in the U.S. Army, Randall transferred into Stanford University where he completed a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering, Atmosphere and Energy track, as well as a master’s degree in Earth System Science. Randall is currently working toward his PhD in Stanford’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER). Randall is considering research on the implementation of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, with specific interests in geochemical processes that afffect groundwater quality, water policy, and adaptive management with Prof. Scott Fendorf and Prof. Leon Szeptycki.

  • Melissa A. Hosek

    Melissa A. Hosek

    COLLEGE Lecturer

    BioMelissa A. Hosek earned her Ph.D. in Chinese from the department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Stanford University. She specializes in modern Chinese literature with interests in environmental humanities, STS (science, technology, and society), and the digital humanities. Her dissertation, "The Ecological Imagination: Nature, Technology, and Criticism in Chinese Science Fiction: 1976-Today," examines how modern Chinese eco-perspectives are informed by and condition ideas about science and technology. She analyzes a wide range of notable science fiction films, novels, and short stories to argue that ideas about ecology are deeply entangled with ideas about scientific progress, but can also serve as a vehicle for critiquing scientific development.

    Melissa is also interested in higher education pedagogy and Chinese language teaching and learning. She earned certificates in Language Program Management and ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interviewing from Stanford's Language Center. She has taught classes in Mandarin Chinese, film studies, Chinese literature, and East Asian Studies. In the field of digital humanities, she has developed several projects and received the Graduate Certificate in Digital Humanities from Stanford's Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis. Her other research interests include materialism, science fiction studies, critical theory, and nationalism.