Riverside welcomed 31 new permanent faculty members from a variety of disciplines for the 2026-27 academic year.
The new faculty members include a New York Times bestselling novelist and an artist whose work was displayed at the Whitney Museum. They offer expertise on a wide range of subjects from how artificial intelligence is changing the way people work to political engagement among migrants.
Their research interests include crop productivity, the use of digital spaces for Palestinian poetry, and urban aquatic ecosystems.
Learn more about the new faculty members below:
College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Kiera Coulter, an assistant professor of psychology, received her doctorate in public health from the University of Arizona. Her interdisciplinary research bridges developmental and public health science to study adolescent development among diverse youth populations. She is director of the Youth Futures Lab, which examines how ecological factors shape youth well-being, identifies assets that contribute to thriving, and designs and tests novel health interventions.
Weirong Guo, an assistant professor of teaching in sociology, received her doctorate in sociology from Emory University. Before joining UCR, she held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania. As a cultural and political sociologist of migration, she studies transnational political engagement among migrants from authoritarian countries. She’s working on a book examining how transnational Chinese youth negotiate their racial, national, and global identities amid the rise of anti-Asian racism and China-U.S. geopolitics.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez, a professor of creative writing, received her doctorate in English at George Washington University. She is an essayist and author of four New York Times bestselling novels. Her work has been recognized for awards including the 2026 Southern Book Prize, the 2023 NAACP Image Award, the Silver Gavel Award from the American Bar Association, and the Fiction Award from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. Her novels resurrect forgotten stories in the archives of African American history. She is a former UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA and served as an associate professor at American University.
Gonzalo Reyes Rodriguez, an assistant professor of art, received his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. An artist working in photography, film, and video, he examines the temporal ambiguity of how images are experienced. His work has been featured in Aperture, Artforum, C Magazine, the New York Times, Terremoto MX and in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. He has held academic appointments at Emily Carr University of Art + Design in Vancouver, British Columbia, Parsons School of Design in New York City and the University of Illinois, Chicago.
Rana Sharif, an assistant professor of media and cultural studies, received her doctorate in comparative literature at UCR. Her research intersects between humanities and emerging technologies. Her current book project explores use of digital spaces for Palestinian poetry. Her research and teaching interests include contemporary Arabic literature, postcolonial theory, indigenous and settler-colonial studies, critical theory, gender studies, and SWANA and Palestine studies. She hosts and produces shows as part of the SWANA Region Radio Collective on Pacifica Radio, KPFK.
College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences
Anand Bhattacharya, a professor of physics and astronomy, received his doctorate at the University of Minnesota. He spent nearly two decades as a physicist/materials scientist at Argonne National Laboratory. He is interested in novel superconducting, magnetic and topological states that emerge at surfaces and interfaces between different materials. His research group at UCR will synthesize these materials in atomic layer-by-layer manner, explore their properties, and develop fundamental insights and possible applications in quantum science and engineering.
Elizabeth Brauer, an assistant professor in fungal biology, received her doctorate from Cornell University. Her research focuses on plant-microbe interactions and plant innate immunity. She examines the attack strategies of agriculturally relevant pathogens and uncovers the plant defense responses that provide resistance against attack. Her work reveals genetic targets for improving cereal disease resistance and novel approaches for disease control. Prior to joining UCR, she was a research scientist at Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada.
Thomas Bury, an assistant professor of mathematics, received his doctorate in applied mathematics from the University of Waterloo and completed postdoctoral research at McGill University. His research combines mathematical modeling and machine learning to understand and anticipate critical transitions in complex systems. His current work focuses on cardiac arrhythmias, in collaboration with physicians and experimental physiologists.
Ben Donovan, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy, completed his doctorate in biophysics at The Ohio State University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute. His research group probes the temporal regulation of RNA processing using single-molecule approaches.
Tibo Duran, an assistant professor of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, earned his doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Connecticut. His lab develops AI/ML-driven computational frameworks that integrate data-driven models with physics-based simulations to understand molecular mechanisms, predict crop disease risks, and design innovative solutions for sustainable agriculture and human health. His experience includes academic and industry research, including early drug discovery.
Maria Florencia (Flor) Ercoli, an assistant professor of botany and plant sciences, received her doctorate in Biological Sciences from the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina. She completed her postdoctoral training at UC Davis as a Pew Latin American Fellow. Her research explores how root development and root-derived chemistry shape soil microbial communities to improve crop productivity, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and advance sustainable agriculture. She is also an investigator at the Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley.
Uriel De Jesus Garza Rubalcava, an assistant professor of environmental chemistry, received his doctorate in chemical engineering from Texas Tech University. His research focuses on the reactive transport of legacy and emerging contaminants in subsurface environments using both experimental and numerical modeling approaches. Before joining UCR, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship and became an assistant professor of research at Brown University.
Yan Hong, an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular, Cell and Systems Biology, earned her doctorate in Neuroscience from Emory University and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Pennsylvania. The Hong Lab studies how disease-associated genetic variants alter neural development and function in neuropsychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders using human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived 2D neuronal and glial models and 3D brain organoids.
Piatã Marques, an assistant professor in the Department of Evolution Ecology & Organismal Biology, received his doctorate from the University of Victoria in Canada. His research focuses on understanding the interactions between ecology, evolution, and people in urban aquatic ecosystems to advance ecological theory while also generating practical knowledge that empowers communities and informs decision-making. Prior to joining UCR, Marques was a research fellow at the University of Toronto Scarborough and an assistant professor at SUNY Buffalo.
Sara Ohadi, an assistant cooperative extension weed management specialist, received her doctorate from the University of Melbourne. She leads UCR’s Integrated Weed Science Lab. Her research and extension program focuses on precision weed management, weed ecology and biology, population genetics, and integrated approaches to managing weeds in California agronomic cropping systems. Before joining UCR, she worked for Bayer CropScience.
Maggie Sogin, an assistant professor of ecological metabolomics, received her doctorate in zoology from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. Prior to joining UCR, she was an assistant professor at UC Merced. Her research is centered in studying host-microbe interactions in marine plants and animals.
Carol Tardivo, an assistant professor of horticulture in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, received her doctorate in horticultural sciences from the University of Florida. At UCR, her research will develop strategies to help the California citrus industry and specialty crop systems adapt to biotic and abiotic stresses. Her previous research focused on managing citrus greening (HLB), from protective covers and testing of novel rootstocks to trunk-injected therapies.
Ting Zhao, an assistant professor of molecular, cell and systems biology, received his doctorate from Emory University where his research focused on the cellular mechanisms underlying Huntington’s disease. He later conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Pennsylvania, studying epigenetic and epitranscriptomic mechanisms in brain development. His research examines how RNA modifications regulate DNA repair in brain cells, with the goal of better understanding the molecular processes that maintain brain health and contribute to neurological disease.
School of Business
Rohit Aggarwal, a professor of information systems, received his doctorate in Information Systems from the University of Connecticut. Aggarwal's research explores how artificial intelligence is changing the way people learn, work, and make decisions—from AI's role in hiring and venture capital investing to its impact on skill development in the workplace. He has published in top academic journals, advises organizations on responsible AI use, and frequently speaks at national conferences and universities on AI's growing influence on business and education. He was previously at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business.
School of Education
Jeimee Estrada-Miller, an assistant professor of education, earned her doctorate in public policy and management from the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy. She previously served as a postdoctoral fellow at the USC Rossier School of Education. Her research focuses on K–12 education policy and governance, as well as policy formulation and implementation. She studies school systems as governmental and bureaucratic units, drawing on perspectives from public policy, political science, and education. Her work examines both state- and district-level policymaking and the interactions between them.
Jessica Mao, an assistant professor of education, received her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests include middle mathematics intervention and teacher training and development in mathematics. A former special education teacher Mao advances her work through research on math interventions.
Blanca Rincón, an associate professor of STEM education and equity in the higher education administration and policy program, received her doctorate in education policy studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research explores three interrelated lines of inquiry: the origins, sustainability, and impact of STEM enrichment programs; the institutional environments that shape college student experiences and outcomes; and the culturally derived assets that students of color mobilize to navigate in STEM.
Darion Wallace, an assistant professor of education, received his doctorate in education from Stanford University. Darion’s research draws upon Black studies, sociology, and history to interrogate the ways K-12 American schools cohere logics of (anti)blackness and structure the life and educational outcomes of Black students. He is interested in 19th century black educational histories in California and how Black radical and intellectual traditions continue to serve a liberatory function in Black education.
School of Medicine
Jovani Catalan, an assistant professor of teaching in biomedical sciences, received her doctorate in immunology from UC Irvine. Her work centers on immunology and mucosal immunity, with an emphasis on cytokine biology and the role it plays in inflammatory and infectious diseases. She was previously a visiting professor and assistant professor at New Mexico State University.
Rosanna Jhawar, an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology, received her Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery from Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh, India. She has served as a volunteer clinical instructor with the School of Medicine since 2018, as well as course director for case-based learning and doctoring and is associate dean of clinical skills, education, and innovation. Her work focuses on clinical skills education, curriculum development, assessment, and student mentorship.
Keyonna King, an associate professor in the Department of Social Medicine, Population, and Public Health, received her doctor of public health degree from Loma Linda School of Public Health. Her work employs community-based participatory research with a focus on reducing or eliminating health inequities in minority communities. A second area of her research is diversifying the healthcare workforce. She was previously a senior research associate at the Clinical Translational Science Institute at UCLA.
James Lee, an associate clinical professor of medicine, received his medical degree from St. Louis University School of Medicine. A board-certified cardiologist who sees patients at UCR Health, he completed his residency in internal medicine and cardiology training at UC Irvine, followed by a cardiology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School and an interventional cardiology fellowship at the UC San Francisco.
Natalie Rivera, an assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology, received her medical degree at St. George’s University School of Medicine. She completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Maimonides Medical Center and a fellowship in minimally invasive gynecological surgery at the UCR School of Medicine. A native of Long Beach, she is the first physician in her family. Her undergraduate degree in women’s gender and sexuality studies has deeply shaped her approach to medicine as a clinical practice and form of advocacy.
Rakesh Singh, an associate professor of teaching in biomedical sciences, received his doctorate in in pharmacology from the University of Kansas. Singh specializes in medical education and translational research. His expertise includes curriculum development, integrated teaching methods, and fostering clinical reasoning, and his research focuses on neuroinflammation, psychopharmacology, GLP-1 agonists, and gut-brain axis signaling, with an emphasis on human subject studies to enhance student engagement.
Claradina Soto, an associate professor of social medicine, population, and public health, received her doctorate in health behavior research from the USC Keck School of Medicine, then completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at USC. Her work focuses on health equity, in particular the health disparities experienced by American Indian and Alaska Native communities. She was an associate professor of population and public health sciences at USC and directed the USC Initiative for California American Indian Health Research and Evaluation.
Viona Zhang, an associate clinical professor of medicine, received her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and completed her residency in internal medicine at the Ohio State University Medical Center. Her clinical interests include preventative care and common internal medicine conditions including hypertension, diabetes, respiratory infections, gastrointestinal conditions, and other acute and chronic illnesses. She is a board-certified internal medicine physician who sees patients with UCR Health and has taught medical students and residents.
The following joined as unsalaried clinical faculty members:
Paul Albini, assistant clinical professor of surgery
Carlos Buitrago, assistant clinical professor of medicine
Janet Charoensook, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry
Aya Eguchi, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry
Benjamin Farber, assistant clinical professor of surgery
Ron Goubert, assistant clinical professor of family medicine
Frederick Jones-Rosa, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry
Uoo Kim, associate clinical professor of surgery
Aaron Lee, assistant clinical professor of surgery
Sarah Lee, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry
Melissa Pereau, associate clinical professor of psychiatry
