Sheri Atwater, Ph.D., Co-Chair
Specialized Programs in Professional Psychology, School of Education
Sheri teaches courses in applied developmental psychology (lifespan), individual and group counseling, counseling theories and techniques, and psychological assessment and consultation in both the Counseling and School Psychology programs at LMU. Sheri received her B.A. from Stanford University and her M.A., P.P.S. Credential, and Ph.D. (School Psychology) from the University of California at Berkeley.
Previously, Sheri has been a professor of counseling in CSULA's Charter College of Education (2003-14) and served as co-Principal Investigator for the Los Angeles County Office of Education's Student Mental Health Initiative, a grant that provided training in suicide prevention and postvention to pre-service teachers, counselors, and administrators. Sheri has served as past President of the School Psychology Educators of California (SPEC); member of the Advisory Board for the Center for Multicultural Education (CSULA); and Editorial Review Board Member for Scientific Journals International.
Since 2001, Sheri has worked in Oakland, Alameda, Pasadena, Los Angeles and Berkeley Unified School Districts conducting and supervising psychological assessments and individual and group counseling sessions; worked on research and program evaluations with Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International (Washington DC), the Bay Area Consortium for Urban Education (Berkeley, CA), and the Corporation for Research in Educational Networking (Washington, D.C.); and served as supervisor to clinical fieldwork candidates and psychology interns in Los Angeles area schools.
Sheri is also the creator and Project Director of the SUCCESS Coaching program, a multi-year collaboration (2010-2015) with the Los Angeles Unified School District, where she supervised graduate students as they provided individual clinical services to elementary school students. Her most recent national workshop presentations focus on how educators can foster effective culturally-relevant dialogue in classrooms and schools and avoid the "trap" of color-blind racial ideology.
Kyle Studebaker, Co-Chair
Director of Administration and Budget, Facilities Management
Kerstin Fisk, Ph.D.
Political Science and International Relations, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts
Kerstin is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, where she teaches courses in Comparative Politics and International Relations. Kerstin’s research broadly focuses on issues related to conflict and security, with emphases on forced migration, armed conflict dynamics, violence against civilians, and intercommunal conflict.
Her current projects investigate how group-level traits affect rebels’ propensity to target areas where refugees reside and the conditions under which refugee presence shapes the security perceptions of host populations. From 2020-2023, she was an external associate at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
Yasaman Ghasemi, Ph.D.
Information Systems and Business, College of Business Administration
Yasaman joined LMU’s Department of Information Systems and Business Analytics (ISBA) in fall 2021. Her research focuses on systems engineering and management with a particular interest in healthcare operations, public health, complex adaptive system modeling simulation and optimization, and supply chain. Yasaman has worked with healthcare, law enforcement agencies and industry to help identify operational bottlenecks, improve processes efficiency, and optimize resource allocations. One of her recent projects involved developing an agent-based simulation model to investigate the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases to help public health decision-makers quickly respond to the epidemic/pandemic.
Yasaman completed her Ph.D. in industrial engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and also holds an M.S. in industrial engineering and management from Linköping University and her B.S. in computer engineering from Azad University.
Amanda Herring, Ph.D.
Art and Art History, College of Communication and Fine Arts
Amanda received her B.A. in Art History & Classical Archaeology from Dartmouth College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Art History from UCLA. At LMU, she teaches courses on the art and architecture of the ancient world.
With a specialization in Hellenistic Greece, her research explores how architecture and sculpture were used as expression of cultural and ideological identities in a period of rapid social and political change. In particular, she has examined the Temple of Hekate at Lagina, the Temple of Artemis at Magnesia on the Meander, and the statue, the Barberini Faun. Her research also examines the reception of the classical past in the modern world, and recent publications have focused on the history of archaeology in nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire. Her current research project examines the superhero Wonder Woman and the manner in which her comics reinterpret and depict Greek myths, particularly their transformation of amazons from antagonists to heroes.
Amanda’s work has been published by the Journal of the History of Sexuality, History of Photography, and Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. She has presented her work at various venues including the annual conferences of the Archaeological Institute of America and the College Art Association.
Emily Hawkins, Ph.D.
Physics, Seaver College of Science and Engineering
Emily received her B.A. in physics from Occidental College in 2014. During her undergraduate studies, she conducted experimental research on cryovolcanic icy slurries at the nearby NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) with the Applied Low Temperature Physics Group. From her time at JPL, she gained a love for planetary physics and went on to earn her M.S. and Ph.D. in Geophysics and Space Physics at the University of California Los Angeles.
Emily’s research interests involve the experimental study of various geophysical and astrophysical fluid phenomena. Her ongoing work aims to constrain the fluid dynamics inside planets that generate and sustain global-scale magnetic fields. This work has important implications for the detection of life in our solar system and beyond, as a planet’s magnetic field protects it from lethal radiation emitted by the Sun or its host star. She is also interested in furthering our understanding of the potential habitability of icy moons by examining the unexplored connection between the fluid physics of global subsurface oceans and geologic surface observations.
In her spare time, Emily enjoys dancing, running, biking, and spending time outdoors with friends and family.
Leena Pendharkar, M.F.A.
Production Film and Television, School of Film and Television
Leena is an Emmy nominated, award-winning, director in film and television. Her work as a writer/director in independent film has been called, "heartfelt," "ground breaking," and "brave." She is passionate about telling cinematic stories that explore the human experience through compelling characters, and loves working collaboratively actors and other creatives.
She has directed the television movie, A Date with Deception for Lifetime, and episodes of the kids’ show, Hello Jack!, for Apple TV+ for which she is nominated for a Children's and Family Emmy award. Leena premiered her sophomore feature film, 20 Weeks, at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Based, in part, on her own story, it is about a couple that must make some tough decisions after their baby is diagnosed with a serious health condition at 20 weeks in utero.
20 Weeks played in festivals all over the country, won the Best Feature Film Award at the Maryland Film Festival, the Best Editing Award at the Tallgrass Film Festival, was selected as one of the best independent films of 2017 by Film Threat, and was described as an “intimate, compassionate take on abortion” by the Los Angeles Times. It was distributed in theaters and on Hulu, and is now available on a number of platforms.
Leena teaches film production in LMU’s top ranked School of Film and Television. Leena is also an alum of the Warner Brothers, CBS, and Sony Diverse Directors programs. She holds an MFA in Screenwriting from UC-Riverside’s Low Residency MFA program and is a DGA member who is part of the Women’s Steering Committee.
Becca Okida
Associate Director, Office of Student Conduct and Community Responsibility
Becca (she/her) has worked in Student Affairs at LMU since fall 2017. She has held positions in Residence Life, Student Psychological Services and currently the Office of Student Conduct and Community Responsibility overseeing procedures and compliance for processes such as Sexual and Interpersonal Misconduct, Title IX, and severe sanctioning. She has served on the CSW since 2019, on Staff Senate, is a Restorative Justice Facilitator, and is a member of the LMU Children's Center Advisory Board. She is an instructor in the Ignatian Leadership Institute and currently teaches EDLA 489. Prior to joining LMU she worked in various institutions in Residence Life and Housing Operations. She holds a master's degree in theology and ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. She is a proud parent to three young kids, and eagerly seeks to enhance processes and benefits to all caregivers on campus.