Dr. Yoon’s primary research areas include board governance, collaborative governance, and volunteerism. Her research draws on organizational theory and behavior to examine intra- and inter-organizational relationships in addressing managerial leadership issues in public, nonprofit, and for-profit sectors. Yoon’s work has been published in leading journals including Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, American Review of Public Administration, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, and Public Performance & Management Review. Her research has garnered awards from Academy of Management, Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, and American Society for Public Administration.

Dr. Shrestha joined the Computer Science department (College of Integrated Science and Engineering) at JMU in Fall 2022. She completed her Ph.D. in Computer Science and Applications from Virginia Tech where she also received the Kirk and Noel Schulz Transformative Graduate Education Fellowship, 2021-2022. She completed her Bachelor's in Computer Science from Benedict College, South Carolina. She is currently (Fall 23) a Faculty Fellow with the Madison Center for Civic Engagement. Dr. Shrestha is dedicated to learning and integrating research-based, up-to-date pedagogy to establish an inclusive and collaborative classroom learning environment for students, having completed multiple workshops at JMU, including AAAD Critical Perspectives and Pedagogies Institute in Fall 22 and CFI Inclusive Teaching Institute in Spring 23. Her research falls under the purview of Human-Computer Interaction bridging disciplines to address societal issues via technology. Her current work includes ThoughtSwap, a technological system that supplements classroom pedagogy by changing the infrastructure for discourse in classrooms. Dr. Shrestha is further interested in exploring technological interventions to empower people by changing power dynamics. Beyond academia, Dr. Shrestha finds joy in reading, insightful conversations, traveling, meditation, and enjoying good food.

Peter Eubanks has been at JMU since 2011 and is a Professor of French in the Department of World Languages and Cultures, and a Faculty Associate in the Center for Faculty Innovation.  Prior to coming to JMU, he held positions as a Visiting Assistant Professor of French at Colgate University and the University of Iowa.  He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia (Medieval Studies/French) and M.A. and Ph.D. from Princeton University (French).  His research interests center around French Renaissance literature (particularly poetry), cross-cultural encounters, and Franco-American cultural relations.  His teaches courses on French business, culture, and literature and advises students in the First-Year Advisor program.  He especially enjoys teaching his General Education course, HUM 200: Cultural Misunderstandings (France & USA).  As a Faculty Fellow in Collaborative Dialogue, he is particularly interested in fostering meaningful conversations and civil discourse in the classroom, especially when opinions diverge and discussion topics may prove difficult.

Chris is an assistant professor in the department of Early, Elementary, and Reading Education at JMU. His teaching and scholarship focus on social justice education and civic engagement. His first book, Social Justice Talk: Strategies for Teaching Students Critical Awareness, demonstrates the key role classroom dialogue plays in helping students learn to take action on their convictions. In addition to his university duties, Chris is also the editor for the Civic Literacy column in Language Arts and serves on the board of the Early Childhood Education Assembly. Prior to moving to higher education, he spent twenty years teaching students in grades 2-5 to use careful observations, inquiry, and critical thinking as a catalyst for change.

Rhoades has worked as an applied theatre and drama in education practitioner, teacher, and researcher with young people from Grade 1 to the graduate level for 15 years. Currently, she is the Theatre Education Coordinator and Theatre Recruitment Coordinator with the School of Theatre and Dance. Her research focus is on working with local refugees, asylum-seekers and other newcomers in partnership with 5 community organizations. Rhoades served for two years as Assistant Professor of Applied Theatre at Brock University in Ontario where she taught undergraduates training to be drama educators in schools and theatre artist-educator-advocates in community settings. Rhoades engaged in multiple collaborative projects with the Niagara Folks Arts Multicultural Centre, including a partnership with Niagara PRIDE utilizing Forum Theatre in the Centre’s LGBTQ Inclusion Campaign with Social Issues Theatre for Community Engagement students. Rhoades has also led professional development trainings on anti-racist and cross-cultural drama pedagogy for a variety of education audiences, including the Dramatic Arts Department at Brock University, the Niagara Catholic District School Board, and community children’s theatre company, Carousel Players. Rhoades trained teacher candidates in the Masters of Teaching program at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education on integrating drama education techniques in cross-curriculum praxis to prepare candidates for working in Toronto K-12 schools that hold a degree of inclusive excellence. Rhoades directed and facilitated devising projects in public schools, youth-serving community organizations, and through her own doctoral research with marginalized youth. Rhoades served as Education Programs Manager for The Boch Center (previously named Citi Performing Arts Center/The Wang Center) and as an AmeriCorps Teaching Fellow with Citizen Schools, both in Boston.

Tara Parsons is an Associate Professor in the Department of Justice Studies at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. She is the coordinator of the Humanitarian Affairs minor and director of The Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs. She teaches courses in the Global Justice concentration. She also teaches the general education course Justice and American Society where she strives to help students gain confidence in talking, and disagreeing, with one another.

Dr. Amina Saidou has been an assistant professor of French and Francophone Studies at James Madison University in Virginia since August 2022. She studied and worked in Niger until 2009, when she was awarded a Fulbright grant to further her studies in the USA from 2009 to 2018. In September 2018, she moved to Canada where she spent 4 years before heading back to the USA as an assistant professor at JMU. She holds a master’s and a Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, United States. She received a B.A. in TESOL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) from Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and a BA and MA in Anglophone Literature from Abdou Moumouni University, Niger. Dr. Saidou came to James Madison University in the Department of World Languages and Cultures with 28 years of teaching experience. She currently teaches a variety of courses ranging from French language to French and Francophone literature, cinema, and cultures. She is passionate about various teaching strategies and engaging her students in learning through collaborative discussions.

She is the author of some articles and a book, Allégorie initiatique et stratégies de résistance féminines. Her book raises three fundamental questions: How is violence reproduced among and against women? How do African women overcome everyday oppressive violence? What is the journey like for those who undertake an emancipatory journey despite all? Through the lenses of Africanity, Nego-feminism, and postcolonial theories, the book examines the dynamics of oppression against women, their self-awareness, and their resistance against normalized social hegemonies in ten literary and cinematographic works. It proposes to rethink the gender tensions and representations in the works of West and North African writers and filmmakers. The book contributes specifically to the discourses of Africanness and Blackness, immigration, and transnational feminism in a globalizing world. Overall, my research agenda explores the 20th and 21st centuries of Francophone literature and cinema from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Maghreb; feminist studies; postcolonial studies; theories of transgression and marginality; and Caribbean studies. It also looks at such subjects as cultures, identity, hybridity, creolization, and languages. Amina is also interested in decoloniality in African and Afro-Diasporic literature.

Outside of academia, Amina is a citizen of the world, a passionate mother of three, and a great friend to many. She moved to Harrisonburg in July 2022 from Canada.

Dr. Raihan khan is an Assistant professor at the Department of Health Sciences, JMU. With over 12 years of US and global experience (South Asia, Oceania) in clinical and public health, Dr. Khan is dedicated to improving civic engagement between academia and the community. Starting his career as a medical doctor in Bangladesh, Dr. Khan later concentrated on community-based public health research. His research interests include community-based participatory research in chronic and infectious diseases, environmental health, global health and maternal and child health. In the US, he worked with the rural Appalachian population on diabetes and hypertension management, the immigrant refugee population of the Fargo-Moorhead area in the Midwest and Shenandoah Valley on tobacco product usage, Native American Nursing Students of the Midwest, as well as on road dust issues in the Midwest and Appalachia including Shenandoah Valley. He received several grants at JMU on collaborative projects (Road dust study, Hookah usage among young students). He worked with Dr. Catherine Zeman (AUH, HS) to establish the Environmental Health Science Laboratory at JMU and is the coordinator of the laboratory activities.

Raihan received his Ph.D. from the School of Public Health, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, and his MPH from the Department of Public Health, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND. He is also one of the Certified Public Health (CPH) professionals recognized by the National Board of Public Health Examiners (NBPHE). He is also a licensed medical doctor in Bangladesh.