Get a sneak peek at the faculty members who will be collaborating with you on the Provost Academy projects. Visit 2025 Project Descriptions to learn more about each course.
Jeff Aziz
Jeff Aziz is a faculty member in Pitt’s Department of English and is an affiliated faculty member of the Jewish Studies, Medieval & Renaissance Studies, and Medical Humanities programs, as well as the Vibrant Media Lab. This is to say, he likes a lot of things. He is interested in the history of printing and media and heads the English department’s early modern printing initiative (he and his students set metal type and print with ink, and teach others to do this). Jeff is a passionate believer in communication between disciplines, especially between the humanities and the sciences. He is a Faculty Fellow of the University Honors College and has just been recognized with the 2020 Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Most importantly, as someone who was not always a successful student himself, Jeff wants to welcome and encourage students of all backgrounds and levels of development.
Project: Fight Bravely – Stage Combat for Everyone (with Tonya Lynn)
Eladio Bobadilla
Professor Bobadilla is a historian of social movements in the United States. He is especially interested in ordinary, working-class people who have worked to resist their conditions and their oppressors: by moving across borders, by building supportive (and often radical) communities, by imagining and articulating more humane futures, and occasionally, by more forceful and revolutionary means. More generally, he is interested in how ordinary people have created and lived out radical identities and ideologies spanning the political spectrum and in how both liberatory and reactionary politics have surfaced, reinforced, and recreated one another in U.S. history. He relies on both archival and oral history sources to tell stories and explain the past. He is also interested in questions about historical pedagogy and in publicly engaged scholarship, and he writes regularly for public audiences. Professor Bobadilla was a first-generation college student who, after serving in the U.S. Navy, earned his BA at Weber State University and his PhD at Duke University.
Project: Sports and Political Culture
Jonathan Burgess
Jonathan Burgess is the Director of the University of Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory. Prior to joining Pitt, he was the Programs and Policy Director for the Allegheny County Conservation District, overseeing watershed, stormwater, urban soil, farmland preservation, and other programs. A former Peace Corps volunteers with a background in geology and environmental policy, Jonathan believes strongly in meaningful engagement with the communities and stakeholders impacted by our most pressing environmental challenges, as well as the need to apply a rigorous and nuanced methodology in efforts to research solutions.
Project: Water Quality in Pittsburgh (with Megan Lange)
Gianni Downs
Gianni Downs (Scenic Designer) is the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Head of Design/Tech, and Lecturer of Scenic Design and Scenic Art in the Theatre Arts Department at the University of Pittsburgh. His work has been nationally recognized with a Kevin Kline Award and two nominations for productions at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, as well as an Irene Ryan nomination for designs at Stoneham Theatre. He is the recipient of the 2017 Tina and David Bellet Teaching Excellence Award and with his colleague Annmarie Duggan: the 2019 Provost’s Personalized Education Grant, as well as both the 2018 and 2015 Innovation in Education Awards. He has had the pleasure of working regionally at St. Michael’s Playhouse, Theatre Squared, The City Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, PICT Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Stoneham Theatre, Pittsburgh Playhouse, as well as many others. Gianni received his MFA from Brandeis University and has been on the faculty of Westminster College, Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama, the University of Pittsburgh, and Point Park University.
Project: Big Brushstrokes: A Collaborative Mural Project
Rosta Farzan
Rosta Farzan is the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and a Professor at the School of Computing and Information. Dr. Farzan teaches a graduate course on Social Computing, where students explore the intersection of computational technologies and social interactions, as well as the broader societal impact of these technologies. Her research focuses on community-engaged scholarship, partnering with marginalized communities to design, implement, and deploy inclusive technologies. Dr. Farzan was honored with the 2022 Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Service Award.
Project: 3sixty Program: A Unique Opportunity for Incoming First-year Students
Corey Flynn
Corey Flynn is the Program Manager for the Office of Sustainability in the Health Sciences. Before joining Pitt’s Sustainability team, she coordinated research in the University’s School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences (SHRS). In 2019, she earned a Pitt Sustainability Award and in 2021 and 2022 the MCSI John C. Mascaro Faculty Lectureship for a course she developed and continues to teach, Sustainable Food Systems. Corey has an AS in nutrition and dietetics, AA and BA in journalism and photography, and a master’s in public policy and management (MPPM) from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public and International Affairs (GSPIA). She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Education (EdD) in Health and Physical Activity. Her research focus is nutrition and food insecurity among college students and how it impacts their mental and physical health and academic success.
Project: Urban Ecology and Sustainable Food Systems
Beth Hoffman
Dr. Hoffman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health Sciences at Pitt Public Health. After starting down the medical school path, she switched over to public health and completed both her MPH and PhD at Pitt Public Health. Her research primarily focuses on the portrayal of health topics on popular television programs and the influence of medical TV programs on viewers’ perceptions of health and healthcare. She also researches the spread of health information and misinformation on social media, which has been featured by multiple major news outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, and a February 2020 documentary on Hulu.
Project: From TV to TikTok: Using Media to Promote Health
Ron Idoko
As Associate Director, Ron leads the Center on Race and Social Problems’ day-to-day operations and strategic and programmatic initiatives with a focus on research, education, and praxis to advance positive social change. Ron founded and directs the Racial Equity Consciousness Institute, an expansive engagement platform that guides learners and teachers through the critical systems thinking racial equity consciousness framework. Prior to joining the School of Social Work, Ron worked in the University’s Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (OEDI), where he exercised strategic and programmatic leadership to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion as institutional components of social and academic engagement at the University. Ron is an instructor in the Public Service program at Pitt, facilitating courses that address challenges and opportunities for social equity advancement in the public sector. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and is currently an EdD candidate in the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education.
Project: Your Voice Is Your Power (with Kristin Kanthak)
Kristin Kanthak
Kristin Kanthak’s research focuses on the effects on political representation of exogenous constraints such as political institutions. She teaches the following courses at Pitt: American Political Process, Capstone Seminar in American Politics, Legislative Process and American Government and Politics. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa.
Project: Your Voice Is Your Power (with Ron Idoko)
Megan Lange
Megan Lange is the outreach coordinator for the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory. In this role, she engages, listens, and builds relationships with Upper Ohio River water organizations to identify and coordinate water research projects between community organizations and academic experts. She is a passionate community builder who aspires to create cohesive teams and meaningful collaborations to empower environmental conservation. Megan received her BS in Geology from University of Dayton and is currently pursuing her Master's in Public Policy and Management.
Project: Water Quality in Pittsburgh (with Jonathan Burgess)
Andrew Lotz
Andrew Lotz, PhD, currently serves as an Assistant Dean in Arts and Sciences, as well as a Teaching Professor and Advisor in the Department of Political Science. His work and teaching have focused on the intersection of pop culture and politics, doing instruction on politics in manga comics, in Game of Thrones, and a forthcoming course on Hamilton the Musical. His current interest focuses on propaganda and myth and their role in regime support, and in particular the ways that regimes use narratives to shape, remove, and control voice. He also has an interest in space policy--particularly states’ (in)ability to communicate about space policy effectively. When not flipping through a Judge Dredd comic book or stacks of propaganda, Andrew enjoys hobby painting and exploring Pittsburgh.
Project: Make an Impact: D.I.Y. "Outsider" Publishing
Tonya Lynn
Tonya Lynn a fight and intimacy director, actor, and Teaching Artist-in-Residence in Performance at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a recognized Fight Director and Certified Teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors, and served as teaching faculty at the National Stage Combat Workshop and the inaugural Fight Director Certification workshop. Tonya teaches across the country at regional stage combat workshops, and serves as the workshop coordinator for The Allegheny Alley Fight Stage Combat Workshop and the Fight Choreographers’ Track of the New York Summer Sling Stage Combat Workshop. Tonya holds over 150 theatrical fight directing credits, including work for companies such as Pittsburgh Opera, West Virginia Public Theater, the Hallam Players of Colonial Williamsburg, and numerous Pittsburgh-area theatres and universities. In addition to her work at the University of Pittsburgh, Tonya serves as adjunct faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, Point Park University, and the Community College of Allegheny County.
Project: Fight Bravely – Stage Combat for Everyone
John Stoner
John Stoner is a faculty member in the History Department where he teaches U.S. foreign relations, the history of the 1960s, the Cold War, and modern South Africa (he is also co-director of the Pitt in South Africa Study Abroad program which he hopes will restart in 2024). His research focuses on the projection of American power into the world, particularly on the continent of Africa. He is currently completing a monograph on American labor’s foreign policy in Cold War Africa and researching another on American propaganda in Cold War Africa.
Project: Unwrapping Pittsburgh—Mapping Class, Race, and History
Jessie VanSwearingen
Dr. Jessie VanSwearingen has a BS in Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, a MS from The Ohio State University, and a PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. Jessie’s research interests include neural and walking efficiency, and assessment and intervention to restore motor skill of walking in older adults. A professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, Dr. VanSwearingen teaches graduate courses in neuroscience, neuromotor control applied in clinical decision-making, and community instructor training for motor skill of walking group exercise. Jessie serves on the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board for human subject research and is active in professional societies, including service as Research Committee chair, Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy. A ‘Therapet Team’ for Animal Friends, Jessie and her therapy dog, Notti, visit healthcare facilities and community events, and provide humane education to enhance companion animal care.
Project: Neuroscience of Human Movement—Do We Sense to Move, Move to Sense, or Just Act?