Search Committee

David T. Eddington
dte@uic.edu
Committee Chair
Dean and Professor
Biomedical Engineering
Graduate College

David T. Eddington received a BS degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a MS and PhD degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and did a postdoc at MIT. He joined UIC as an Assistant Professor in 2006 and where he has been ever since. He served as the Director of Graduate Studies for Biomedical Engineering for 10 years and has been involved in improving graduate education at UIC at many levels. He currently serves as the Dean of the Graduate College and Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Aixa Alfonso
aalfonso@uic.edu
Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Biological Sciences
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Dr. Aixa Alfonso, a native Puerto Rican, earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin Madison in 1986. In 1996, she joined the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). She, along with undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students have addressed questions on how synaptic vesicle proteins are targeted to the appropriate cellular compartment and how neurons acquire and maintain their terminal differentiation characteristics. Fundamental questions related to the function of the nervous system. Dr. Alfonso is the recipient of a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship and has been funded for her research by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). She served the scientific community in the capacity of Program Director in the Division of Integrated Organismal Systems in the Biology Directorate at NSF between 2007 and 2009 and as a Visiting Associate Dean of the Graduate College Diversity office for 2.5 years after returning to UIC.
Throughout her professional career, she has also been committed to access and the success of underrepresented students enrolled in STEM fields. In addition to 11 graduate students, she has directly mentored 70 undergraduate research projects. Among these students, 30% identify as Latine. Dr. Alfonso served as Project Director of L@s GANAS, a HSI-STEM program supported by the US Department of Education designed to promote Latin@ student success in their STEM careers from 2016-2023.
At UIC, she has been a voice for inclusion of Latine individuals at all levels of the institution. She has been an active member of the Chancellors Committee on the Status of Latinos since arriving at UIC and served for two years as the faculty co-Chair of CCSL. She was also a co-Chair of the Chancellor’s Task Force on Hispanic Serving Institution. Dr. Alfonso continues to advocate for equity in her position as a member of the Diversity Committee in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her commitment has been and will continue to be to advocate, push for, and find resources for our community, particularly our students.

Kathryn Burns-Howard
kbh@uic.edu
Assistant Dean of Student Services
Honors College

Kathryn Burns-Howard has been with the UIC Honors College for six years and is now Assistant Dean for Student Services. By training, Kathryn is a historian of the United States, having earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, M.A. & Ph.D. in history at Northwestern University, and a graduate certificate in academic advising from Kansas State University. Kathryn served as visiting assistant professor of history at Miami University of Ohio, and she has taught or advised at Northwestern, DePaul, University of Chicago, and UIC.

Joan Farre-Mensa
jfarre@uic.edu
Associate Professor and Interim Department Head
Finance
College of Business Administration

Joan Farre-Mensa is an Associate Professor, Bielinski Family Faculty Scholar, and Interim Head of the Department of Finance at the University of Illinois Chicago. His teaching and research focus on entrepreneurial and corporate finance, with a particular interest in how a firm’s listing status shapes its financing environment and influences both real and financial policies.
Joan’s research has been published in the Journal of Finance, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial Economics, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, and it has garnered over 4,200 citations according to Google Scholar. He received the Review of Financial Studies Referee of the Year Award in 2022 and currently serves as an Associate Editor at both the Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis and the Journal of Corporate Finance, and as a Co-Editor at the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy.
Before joining UIC in June 2019, Joan was an Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School for six years. He then worked as a Senior Economist at Cornerstone Research and spent the 2018–2019 academic year as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Northeastern University. He earned his PhD in Economics from New York University in 2011.

Beate Geissler
beate@uic.edu
Professor
Art
College of Architecture, Design, and the Arts

Beate Geissler is an artist and educator. In her work she is interested in exploring entanglements and interdependencies in the world and how human actions transform the planet and how those transformations alter our existence. Her work concentrates on inner alliances of knowledge and power, their deep links in western culture and the escalation in and transformation of human beings through technology. The themes of her work are drawn from our observations about climate change and its most significant contributor, the human being. Seeking indicators, embedded traces of human interaction, social habit, and shared emotional states is at the core of her work. This part of her research is as much informed by the discipline of cultural studies, with its emphasis on locality and specificity, as it is by her commitment to give expression to global issues of contemporary relevance, especially the socioeconomically effects of climate change and global trade. She is interested in the shapes of collectivity, and in the collective structures of individuality. She believes that Art transforms cognition into experience and practice into cognition, making invisible processes available to our perception. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in museums, galleries, and alternative spaces, including: the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago; the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; the Fotomuseum Antwerp; the NGBK (New Society for Visual Arts) in Berlin; the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts; the Fotomuseum Winterthur in Switzerland; the Museum Ludwig in Cologne; MAST Foundation in Bologna, Italy; and German Pavillion at the Photography Biennial Dubai, UAE, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin and Prada Foundation, Venice. She has been the recipient of a number of grants and awards, including: the Videonale Award from the Museum of Art, Bonn, Germany; the Herman-Claasen-Award (Cologne, Germany); production grants from the Graham Foundation, Chicago and a Humanities Without Walls Grant; she is an active participant of the project Mississippi. An Anthropocene River (https://anthropocene-curriculum.org) and was awarded a residency at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. She published four monographs: Return to Veste Rosenberg (2006), Personal Kill (2010), Volatile Smile (2013) and the bio-adapter (Oswald Wiener) / you won’t fool the children of the revolution (2019). She is a founding member of Deep Time Chicago an art/research/activism initiative formed in the wake of the Anthropocene Curriculum program at HKW in Berlin, Germany.

Young Kim
ymrkim@uic.edu
Associate Professor and Head
Classics and Mediterranean Studies
School of Literatures, Cultural Studies and Linguistics
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Young Kim is Associate Professor and Head of Classics and Mediterranean Studies, with an additional appointment in History. He is a historian of the ancient Mediterranean world, with specific teaching and research interests in Late Antiquity, late ancient Christianity, and Byzantine Studies.

Anna Kozlowska-Barrios
akozlows@uic.edu
Associate Professor
Reference and Liaison Librarian
University Library

Anna Kozlowska-Barrios, PhD, MLIS, is an Associate Professor, Reference & Liaison Librarian, Honors College Instructor and Fellow at the University of Illinois Chicago. She has published and presented on media and information literacy (MIL) and actively contributes to numerous national and international committees. She earned her doctorate in Education Policy, Organization & Leadership with a concentration in Global Studies in Education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on how MIL curricula can foster participatory politics and informed civic engagement among college students from immigrant backgrounds. She is the recipient of multiple UIC teaching awards, including Honoring Our Professors Excellence (2023), Enchanting Educator (2024), Honors College Instructor of the Year (2024), and the Teaching Recognition Program Award (2025).

Tereza Progri
tprog2@uic.edu
Student
President, Honors College Advisory Board (HCAB)
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Tereza Progri is an undergraduate student in the Honors College at the University of Illinois Chicago, pursuing dual degrees in Finance and Psychology. She currently serves as Vice Chairwoman of the Business Student Advisory Board (BSAB) and as a Senior Peer Mentor within Campus Housing’s Academic Team. Tereza is also President of the Honors College Advisory Board and is actively involved in multiple academic and professional organizations across campus.
Her leadership focuses on strengthening student advocacy, improving institutional processes, and fostering inclusive, high-impact engagement within UIC’s diverse community. She has extensive experience collaborating with university partners, coordinating strategic initiatives, and supporting both student and administrative stakeholders.
Beyond her leadership roles, Tereza brings experience from her finance internships and her work at a personal injury law firm, where she supported case preparation and trial organization. She is deeply committed to public service, mentorship, and building student-centered environments that promote belonging, wellbeing, and academic success.

Eric Swirsky
eswir@uic.edu
Clinical Associate Professor
Director of Graduate Studies
Biomedical and Health Information Sciences
College of Applied Health Sciences

Eric Swirsky is a clinical associate professor and director of graduate studies in the Department of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences, associate director of the GPPA Medicine BA/MD program, and tri-campus lead for the M1/M2 Ethics Curriculum in the College of Medicine. His teaching focuses on bioethics, professionalism, and the integration of humanities in healthcare education, and his research explores moral distress and well-being among health professions students. Eric has earned a BA in religious studies, an MA in South Asian studies, a juris doctorate, and recently completed a master’s in health professions education.

Josephine Volpe
jvolpe@uic.edu
Interim Executive Associate Vice Provost for Advising Development and Student Systems
Office of the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Programs, Student Success, and Effectiveness

Josephine Volpe is currently Interim Executive Associate Vice Provost for Advising Development and Student Systems and has been acquainted to UIC since 1994 in various capacities, first as an undergraduate Honors College student and then as an advisor and now as an administrator and strategic leader. Josephine has served UIC and its students as a staff member since 2001, starting in the Honors College, and then 2006 in the Office of Special Scholarship Programs, which is now the Office of External Fellowships. Josephine specialized in working with the Guaranteed Professional Program Admissions and developed in-depth expertise in pre-health advising, policy development, scholarship administration, and administration.
Josephine began officially working in student success initiatives in 2011, and in her current position leads the strategic direction and campus-level administration of advising, campus-level advisor professional development, advising and student systems, oversees specialized advising such as external fellowships, and a wide range of student success projects. She has served on the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) Professional Development Committee, was awarded one of 2019’s Outstanding Advising Administrator Awards by NACADA, and is a UIC alumna with a B.A. in Art History focusing on Pre-Columbian Mexico and a M.Ed. in Educational Studies focusing on advising as curriculum and poverty’s effects on education, particularly higher education.

Quentin L. Williams, Jr.
qwilli1@uic.edu
Clinical Associate Professor
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
College of Engineering

Dr. Quintin L. Williams Jr. is a Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. He is an Honors College Faculty Fellow and former member of the Honors College Council. He has served as a consultant to the Minnesota Department of Health’s Injury and Violence Prevention Unit, as well as, a consultant to the Occupational Training and Education Consortium at Rutgers University. To date, he has completed fellowships with the U.S. EPA, NIOSH, CDC, and for the ASPH journal Public Health Reports. Dr. Williams’ research interests encompass the areas of: injury prevention and control; usability measurement, testing and evaluation methodologies, occupational safety and health, safety engineering, human factors/ergonomics, and human information processing and performance. Dr. Williams has published several peer-reviewed articles in the realm of occupational safety and injury prevention.