Alumni Scholars Inspired by Curiosity

Professor of Physics
Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

I’m a physics professor at Towson University in Maryland, where I’ve been for 16 years. This is an American comprehensive four-year college, which means I spend about a third of my time on research and the other two-thirds on teaching. I feel fortunate to have ended up in a job that is exactly right for me.

I am mostly a theorist, which means I am cheap! I don’t have a laboratory or do experiments. My study focuses on the areas of gravitation, cosmology and astrophysics. I try to find ways to combine disparate branches of physics into a single, more unified theory, and to test attempts by others to do the same thing. I am especially interested in unified theories involving more than three dimensions of space plus one of time. 

I am working on a book called Dust and the Dark Night Sky that explores an old question in cosmology: why exactly is the sky dark at night? If you look at the latest images from the James Webb Space Telescope, they show mostly empty space between the galaxies. How can that be, if the universe is filled with galaxies all the way out to infinity? Shouldn’t the most powerful telescopes reveal a solid wall of galactic light, the same way you see a solid wall of tree trunks if you are in the middle of a large forest? The answer is intriguing: it turns out that the amount of empty space between the galaxies tells us how young the universe is.

There is a straight line from what I do now and what I studied as an undergraduate at Waterloo. In fact, the line goes back to Rockway High School. I had read a book back then called Flatland and became intrigued by extra dimensions.

University College Lecturer of Foreign Language Didactics
University College of Teacher Education Styria, Graz, Austria

As a faculty member at the University College of Teacher Education Styria in Graz, Austria, I train pre- and in-service teachers in teaching English as a foreign language at the primary level. I also conduct and collaborate on research projects related to foreign language teaching education.

I study how teaching subjects like music in a foreign language can help students learn both the subject and the language more deeply. Right now, I’m exploring how CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) teachers balance language and content. Understanding this can help improve teaching practices and student outcomes in multilingual classrooms.
My research builds on my UWaterloo background in English literature and music, as well as my Austrian teaching degree in English as a foreign language and music education, combining all fields to investigate language learning through music education.

Grebel’s community-minded environment nurtured my curiosity about education and inclusive learning, which continues to shape both my research and my teaching philosophy. It is also where I met my Austrian husband in Leonard Enns’ Chapel Choir!

Staff Machine Learning Engineer
Meta, San Fransisco, California, USA

I work as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Meta on AI Safety for Youth. I research and build AI systems that help protect people online and improve global participation in technology governance.

A core question guiding my work is: how can AI serve users’ diverse values, needs, and expectations? This means designing technology that benefits people across cultures and contexts, rather than just a narrow group. It also requires grappling with real-world tensions, like the different needs of parents and teenagers in online spaces. By grounding AI development in human needs, and navigating the conflicts between them, we can create systems that are more trustworthy. With the rapid global adoption of AI, this moment is critical for charting the right directions for long-term safety.

At Waterloo, I studied Computer Science, which gave me a strong grounding in algorithms, machine learning, and data-driven problem solving. Studying business alongside computer science helped me see how economic, social, and institutional factors shape the direction of technology. Together, those perspectives taught me that advancing AI responsibly isn’t just a technical challenge but it’s also about understanding the broader systems into which these technologies are introduced.

Grebel emphasized community, ethics, and peacebuilding in a way that reshaped how I think about technology. Courses like PACS 315: Engineering and Peace, and my time with the Centre for Peace Advancement and the PeaceTech Living-Learning program, pushed me to co-create with communities and centre care, equity, and accountability in AI research.

Assistant Provost for International Initiatives; Interim Dean of the Graduate School; John H. Phipps Professor of Communication
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, USA

I’ve served as Assistant Provost for International Initiatives at Florida State University since 2018, as the John H. Phipps Professor of Communication since 2006, and joined FSU in 1996.

My academic teaching and research focus on international communication, media in South Asia, and issues and challenges in governing communication on the internet. Administratively, I advance international engagements, such as student international experiences, travel safety, international graduate students, and international research collaborations. The context for international connections and cooperation has changed significantly. Exploring the best ways to prepare our students to be responsible leaders in the world in which they will live in and work is a central goal of my work.

I studied Economics and Political Science as an undergraduate, with an interest in international studies. These areas connect very well with my goals and responsibilities now. 

At Grebel, I took courses on the Arab-Israeli conflict with Frank Epp and Peace and Conflict Studies with Conrad Brunk. These introduced me to international issues and challenges, and the need for thoughtful investigation and effective communication. I followed up with graduate studies in international studies after completing my degree at Waterloo. I also sang in Chamber Choir with Wilbur Maust while at Grebel and have enjoyed singing in choirs ever since.

Associate Professor; Director of Advanced Degree Studies
St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, Ontario

I am Associate Professor at St Michael’s College, University of Toronto, where I teach New Testament studies and early Christianity, and also serve as Director of Advanced Degree Studies.  My scholarly interest is primarily in the experience (in distinction to the beliefs) of the earliest Christ adherents—how things like ritual, emotion, and religious experience were attractive and helpful to them. 

I’m currently working on two projects: a book about the significance of emotion in Christian origins and an examination of what material remains, like art and archaeology, can tell us about the imperial context of early Christianity and how they resisted and sometimes cooperated with those patterns of power. 

As a student, it was extraordinarily helpful to me to be able to take humanities courses from across the departments of the University of Waterloo (psychology, sociology, philosophy, and religious studies). My research now is strongly interdisciplinary, drawing significantly on the social sciences and cognitive science. My undergrad studies laid the groundwork for that integration of disciplines.

While studying across the university, it was helpful to have Grebel as a home base where I could process ideas that were new and (helpfully) unsettling of my existing ways of thinking. I remember with gratitude the intellectual generosity of Rod Sawatsky, the passion and innovation of Conrad Brunk, and the gentle patience of John Miller in receiving my persistent questions! 

Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature
University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow, German Mining Museum, Bochum, Germany (2025-2027)

I am Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at the University of South Carolina, and Humboldt Foundation Research Fellow at the German Mining Museum in Bochum, Germany. As part of my scholarship, I read books, watch movies, look at art, and read memos, letters, and documents in archives to explore how writers portray people of different religions. I complement this with conversations with people in those groups to better understand how they understand themselves. One of those groups I study is Low German-speaking Mennonites in Latin America. 

Right now I am looking at Catholicism in mining communities—especially local devotion to particular saints or apparitions of Mary. I want to know how mining communities practiced their religion, and how governments, museums, and cultural agencies like UNESCO later use religion as a key part of their interpretation of the past. This matters because it helps us understand the realities and consequences of mining—and perhaps could help us as a society make sure that we are not covering up environmental disasters with positive, hopeful, or religious rhetoric. 

Professor and Associate Vice President—Academic Operations
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario

My “regular” position is Professor in Systems Design Engineering, but I currently serve as Associate Vice President—Academic Operations. I work in the Provost’s Office, overseeing planning and budgeting for the university, along with a variety of other academic-support tasks (including acting as liaison to the Affiliated Colleges, including Grebel).

My position is largely a support role for every faculty and administrative unit on campus. This includes coordinating multi-year planning to sustain the overall ecosystem that allows scholarship to thrive. 
Although my current role is meant to be 100% administration, I still have a large number of graduate students, so I am still quite active in mentoring research. My focus is on hierarchical methods and statistical image processing—methods to address challenges in medical imaging, remote sensing, industrial inspection, and video analysis.

I studied Electrical Engineering at Waterloo and really enjoyed data analytic courses like Signals & Systems and Control Theory, which are still related to the research I do now. My administrative position needs me to work with and relate to nearly every corner of the university, so my passion for interdisciplinarity almost certainly helps there.

Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty; Professor of Economics
Bates College, Maine, USA

I’m the Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty and Professor of Economics at Bates College. In my role, I support faculty in pursuing their research across the liberal arts, through mentoring programs, access to research funds and opportunities, campus infrastructure and student research opportunities. Faculty bring their research into the classroom and use classroom experiences to inform and enhance their scholarship. 

My research focused on public economics—how economic institutions and incentives impact allocations and outcomes. I have explored this across contexts ranging from legal institutions to unemployment insurance, tax evasion, and charitable giving. I continue to be deeply interested in how institutional structures impact communities. This feels tightly tied to my current work trying to develop systems and cultures that help faculty pursue meaningful work both in and beyond the classroom. 

I was lucky to receive amazing mentorship as an undergraduate student at Waterloo. That experience impacted the entire course of my career and also my firm belief in the lasting impact of good mentorship and support. Grebel was a formative time for me. It is where I began to find my voice and to develop confidence in myself. It introduced me to the transformative power of living and learning in community. I can trace a straight line from that experience to my decision to work in fully residential small liberal arts colleges. I hope to play a small part in helping others share in these experiences.
 

Professor; UHM Director of Pacific Initiatives; Founding PACMED Director
University of Hawai‘i at Mãnoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

I am a full professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM), serving as the Director of Pacific Initiatives and the Founding Director of PACMED. PACMED is a Pacific-focused, culturally responsive graduate degree program with cohorts across the Hawaiian Islands and several Pacific nations including American Samoa, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and Palau. 

My student-centered work supports agents of change in co-creating place-based, culturally sustaining curriculum that uplifts the voices, identities, and knowledge systems of Pacific Islander communities as they integrate STEM academic content to solve real-world problems.

In my work, I look at how I can facilitate access to high-quality undergraduate/graduate university degree programs to earnest candidates in remote regions of the world. It is a social justice and equity mission to close the digital divide in respectful, reciprocal, and responsible ways. 

Peace and justice courses I took at Grebel laid the foundation for pioneering restorative discipline and justice in my roles as principal and professor. I use relational Mennonite mediation skills in my international work daily and the music that I studied continues to keep me calm and at peace. 

Assistant Professor of Business; Director of the MBA Program
Redekop School of Business, Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Associate Fellow, Kirby Laing Centre for Public Theology, University of Cambridge

My work generally falls in two categories: 1) teaching students to manage resources within organizations; and 2) researching the relationship between theology and economics.

My current work looks into the biblical understanding of wealth—in particular, the ownership of productive wealth and non-productive wealth. Biblically, these are treated differently, as they have different benefits and dangers to one’s spiritual life and faith. This research can also be used to better design policy in general society, as it helps to safeguard society from the same issues.

I did a BA Honours Economics degree at Waterloo, so my work today is directly related to my studies. While figuring things out, I also considered a Religious Studies degree, so I took a fair number of courses in that area as well—many were Grebel courses. Grebel influenced my career too, since it was at Grebel that I first took a serious look at my faith and was introduced to theology. I am now bringing together both economics and faith in my work.
 

Associate Professor; Department Head in Curriculum Studies, College of Education
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK

As Associate Professor in Education, I’m interested in disrupting systems that marginalize groups, building more inclusive classrooms and research spaces. My research follows two paths grounded in decolonization and social justice. One works with teachers to expand literature choices beyond the Euro-centric canon, including diverse global voices. This ensures that the voices of students in Canada’s increasingly diverse classrooms are represented and heard. Exposure to these stories helps students understand the systemic racism and unconscious bias that privilege the status quo and laid the foundations of our colonial history.

My second path explores reciprocity in research with Indigenous communities. Research has historically been extractive, taking knowledge from communities without permission and not using the knowledge gained to help the communities. My recent research in Guatemala attempted to shape research questions alongside community members. Through this work, I learned how deeply embedded Western research paradigms are. The challenges of meeting the expectations of western academia and of Indigenous community are complex. We have a tangled web of data to unravel and weave into something that serves both communities.

Associate Professor of Feminist Theology and Gender Studies
University of Oslo, Norway

I am Associate Professor of Feminist Theology and Gender Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway. My work combines the study of theology, history, and gender studies to understand how gender roles have been understood in Christianity over time, with a special focus on tracing the roots of anti-feminism in 20th-century Evangelicalism.  

In my research, I look at why egalitarian and feminist voices struggle to gain traction. Recent studies have shown an up-tick in male participation in church communities, but this tends to be accompanied by rather regressive ideas about gender. Nearly 40% of young American Christian men said that they supported the repeal of women’s right to vote. How can those of us who see the gospel as liberating work to undermine these trends?

My undergraduate degree from Laurier was in History and Religion & Culture, and I often chose gendered topics in my research projects, so in many ways I am on the same track that I have been in since I was 18 (although I didn’t think that would lead to living in Norway!). 

My time in the Master of Theological Studies program at Grebel was important to my career direction. The supportive professors encouraged me to consider a PhD, and I could see how theological understanding was going to be crucial to unpacking my subject matter. I took classes on women in Christian history that introduced me to the sub-discipline of gender history. These courses provided important tools and frameworks that I carried into my doctoral work and my ongoing research. 
 

Associate Professor; Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Community-Driven Knowledge Mobilization and Pathways to Wellness
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario

I am Associate Professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Wilfrid Laurier University where I hold a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Community-Driven Knowledge Mobilization and Pathways to Wellness. I work in close partnership with communities to co-lead applied research that directly supports health equity, rights, and policy change. This includes work in areas such as pregnancy and alcohol, FASD, mental wellness, data sovereignty, and child welfare.

Alongside this work, I conduct metaresearch to examine how the research ecosystem (e.g., universities, funders) can better support equity- and rights-based approaches. While much research is done on or with communities, less attention is given to the dominant knowledge and institutional systems that shape research itself. 

Motivated by exemplary models, my metaresearch work is focused on shifting the research ecosystem away from framing marginalized people as problems to be fixed, and toward identifying structural barriers and opportunities for transformative change.
 

Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management
York University, Toronto, Ontario
Editor-in-Chief, Canadian Journal of Emergency Management

I hold several roles in emergency management and disaster research. Wildfires are becoming more frequent for many reasons, like climate change, changes in where and how we live, how we’ve suppressed past fires, and how we approach firefighting. My work supports both fire response agencies and communities in making more evidence-informed decisions about how to get ready for and respond to wildfire.

The question at the centre of my research is “How might people, communities, and agencies live in better relationship with wildland fire?” We do this by integrating evidence and values—wildfire isn’t just a technical or scientific problem, but a social, human, and value-based problem too.

My undergraduate degree in Knowledge Integration prepared me well for working in very interdisciplinary spaces like wildfire. It was through those studies that I got hooked on the social dimensions of science and chose to do my PhD in the field of science and technology studies. But, it was probably my time volunteering with the Campus Response Team that really unlocked my passion for working on emergencies.

There were some very direct connections between my time at Grebel and my becoming a disaster and emergency management researcher, like leading Mennonite Disaster Service trips to New Orleans to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, and serving as a don (lots of mini crises can crop up there!). But, I think Grebel was about creating communities of care, of trust, and of strong relationships between diverse folks—and that, more than anything, is at the root of how I study wildfire.

Director of Doran Planetarium
Full Professor, Northern Ontario School of Medicine University and Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON

I am Full Professor of English Literature in the School of Liberal Arts at Laurentian University, while I also work as Director of the Doran Planetarium within the School of Natural Sciences. My main research projects focus on how to make medical and health education and research more socially accountable. By “social accountability,” we mean the achievement of more community-engaged and equitable care. The question that preoccupies my mind all the time is: “How do we communicate science properly in a time of misinformation?”

My undergraduate degree may seem irrelevant to what I do now—I was an English major with a music minor, and I went all the way to obtaining a PhD in English Literature. Nevertheless, this academic background is highly relevant. My interest has always been in the effective communication of difficult ideas through the art of storytelling. This is vitally important in science and health knowledge communications. It was not until I joined various interdisciplinary health and science research teams that I discovered the relevance.

At Grebel, I switched from being a science nerd to becoming a bookworm. After all, it was only my second year after moving from Hong Kong to Canada. Grebel’s professors and classmates—especially Miriam Maust (spouse of Dr. William Maust, Chair of the Music Department at the time) and Shelbey Krahn (a classmate from Grebel who later became my wife)—spent extra time helping me improve my language and writing skills. Most important yet abstract, however, was the ethos of a compassionate community that cared about social justice and peace, which was vital for shaping my humanity.