Jim Bywater
Jim Bywater is an assistant professor of Learning Design and Technology in the College of Education as well as Associate Director of Technology for the JMU Center for Advancement Research in Education. He received a bachelor’s and master’s degree in physics from the University of Oxford, a master’s degree in adult education from Canterbury Christ Church University, and a Ph.D. in instructional technology from the University of Virginia.
Dr. Bywater’s scholarship is focused on understanding how technologies can support teaching that promotes inclusive, student-centered learning. He draws upon his experience as a high school mathematics teacher to design opportunities for pre-service to practice teacher talk and conducts mixed-methods research about how AI-based simulations can be provide high-quality feedback to pre-service teachers.
His work has been published in leading journals such as Computers and Education and the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, presented at conferences such as the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education and the American Educational Research Association, and supported by the National Science Foundation, 4-VA and private foundations. His work also won the international 2023 Learning Tools Competition.
Lindsay Caesar
Lindsay Caesar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Her research focuses on natural products chemistry, utilizing interdisciplinary methods to identify bioactive molecules from Nature. Her research group currently includes eight undergraduate students who are working on projects investigating subterranean microbes as unexplored sources of new molecules. She is particularly interested in understanding the ecological roles of natural product molecules to gain insight into their biological activities with the goal of discovering new molecules to combat diseases in both humans and wildlife.
Prior to her appointment at JMU, Caesar received her B.S. in Biology from Furman University (2012), an M.S. in Horticulture from Clemson University (2015), and a Ph.D. in Medicinal Biochemistry from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2019), after which she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University (2019-2022).
Since she joined the JMU community, Caesar has mentored 10 undergraduate research students majoring in Chemistry, Health Sciences, Biotechnology and Mathematics. She has co-authored 23 papers for academic journals including Nature Chemical Biology, PNAS, Metabolomics and Natural Product Reports, four of which were published since her appointment at JMU. She has secured over $500,000 in external awards, including the Audrey Bingel Fellowship for Female Scientists through the American Society of Pharmacognosy and an NSF BRC-BIO award dedicated to building her natural products research program at JMU. Thus far, funds from these grants have been used to pay students to participate in research, attend conferences, build a culture collection of extremophilic microbes in collaboration with Grand Caverns in Grottoes, VA, and engage over 50 students in research-based activities in laboratory courses offered through chemistry and biology curricula.
Rachel Grimsby
Dr. Rachel Grimsby joined James Madison in 2023 as an assistant professor of music education in the School of Music. She has over fifteen years of experience teaching elementary general and choral music as well as early childhood music. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate music education courses, she partners with, assisted by undergraduate volunteers, the Young Children’s Program at JMU to provide music classes to those enrolled. Currently, she mentors students engaged in a service-learning project providing music classes to students at the Minnick School of Harrisonburg.
Her research interests center on teaching music to students with disabilities, preparing preservice music educators to teach music to students with disabilities, ethics of research with children and adolescents with disabilities, and the connection between language acquisition and music. Rachel is a frequent presenter at state, national and international conferences. Most recently she presented two papers at the International Society for Music Education research conference in Helsinki and a co-authored paper with three undergraduate music education students at the National Association for Music Education research conference in Atlanta, GA.
While at JMU, Rachel has published with Music Educators Journal and the International Journal of Music Education. Currently she has three articles in press with the International Journal of Music in Early Childhood, International Journal of Education and the Arts, and International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education and two book chapters in press with two forthcoming Oxford handbooks.
Rachel serves on the editorial board of the Journal of General Music Education and is the chair of the Accessible Music Education SRIG for the National Association for Music Education. She also serves on the advisory committee of JMU CARES and is a member of the CVPA Integrative Arts Cohort.
Muhammad Ittefaq
Muhammad Ittefaq is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication Studies at James Madison University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 2022 (M.S., Ilmenau University of Technology, Germany, 2018; MSc., University of the Punjab, Pakistan, 2015).
Dr. Ittefaq’s research examines into the ways in which people consume and interact with information through mainstream and social media, including how they interpret scientific messages, make decisions related to health and climate, and support policies related to science. In addition, he explores the role of news media in bridging the gap between various stakeholders in public policy, including journalists, scientists, the public, civil society and medical professionals. He seeks to provide theoretical and translational insights that can help inform effective communication strategies for promoting public understanding of science and supporting evidence-based decision-making.
With a publication record of more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, commentary articles and book chapters, his work spans a diverse range of topics at the intersection of news media, science communication, health communication, emerging technologies and environmental communication. His publications have appeared in prestigious academic journals, including International Journal of Communication, Journal of Science Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, Environmental Communication, Journalism Studies, Vaccine, Digital Health, and Telematics and Informatics, among others.
Sara Krivacek
Dr. Sara Krivacek is an Assistant Professor of Management in the College of Business. Her research interests span two main areas. First, she is interested in understanding workplace relationships and the factors that contribute to an employee’s overall well-being. Second, her research examines not only how existing employees can thrive inside the workplace, but also the factors that predict success when entering the workforce. Recent projects include (1) how pregnant employees can successfully navigate the transition to motherhood in the workplace, and (2) the predictive validity of academic performance on job performance outcomes.
Her research has been published in leading academic journals, including Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics and Group & Organization Management. She also serves on the Editorial Board for Group & Organization Management.
Dr. Krivacek integrates her research into the classroom in various ways, such as creating case studies with managers and hosting guest speakers. Previously, she developed a case study based on a private equity company’s struggle with returning to office. Past guest speakers have included the CFO of global nonprofit health enterprise (on how to build your leadership toolkit), a franchise owner/operator of Chick-Fil-A (on selection, performance appraisal and decision-making) and managers from financial corporations (on interviewing and downsizing in Corporate America).
She joined JMU in 2024 after completing her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior at Clemson University.
Xiaojing Tang
Dr. Tang is an Assistant Professor of Geography in the School of Integrated Sciences at James Madison University. He received his B.E. in Geographic Information System (GIS) from Tongji University in Shanghai, China. He received his M.A. in Environmental Remote Sensing and GIS and his Ph.D. in Geography from Boston University. Prior to joining JMU, he worked at Boston University as a research scientist.
Dr. Tang’s research primarily focuses on the use of Earth observations to monitor environmental changes and their implications. He developed algorithms for monitoring tropical deforestation in near real-time, combining data from three satellites. He has published articles in high-impact journals, including Nature Communication and Remote Sensing of Environment. He has been an invited speaker at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) annual meeting. He also contributed a chapter to an open-access book providing free resources for learning how to use cloud-based technology in geospatial analysis, which already had more than 1.5M access since being published in 2024. Since joining JMU in 2022, he has mentored and supported more than 10 students on research grants, which has resulted in one paper and three presentations at AGU with JMU students as co-authors and co-presenters.
Dr. Tang has received funding of approximately $1.5M from federal agencies to support his research. He received funding from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to develop algorithms for detecting heavy construction activities using remote sensing imagery. His work supporting the use of Earth observations in land management in West Africa received funding from the NASA SERVIR program. His upcoming project to improve urban climate simulation using remote-sensing-based albedo data has been selected to receive funding from the NASA LCLUC program in the next three years. He is currently a member of the NASA SERVIR Applied Science Team and the NASA LCLUC Science Team and has served on review panels for NASA programs.
Sojib Zaman
Dr. Sojib Zaman is an Assistant Professor of Health Sciences and a public health expert. He teaches undergraduate courses on Chronic Diseases, Infectious Diseases, Statistical Methods and Research Methods. His mentorship allows students to undertake research projects and present their findings at academic conferences. He is an active member of the American Public Health Association and the Association of College and University Educators.
He is affiliated with the Research and Public Health Department of IIHHS, where he leads the National Coverdell Stroke Program evaluation in partnership with the Virginia Department of Health. His research focuses on leveraging mobile health technologies to empower community health workers in preventing chronic diseases. His international collaborations span five public health projects in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Tanzania and Saudi Arabia, including a clinical trial in India.
He has been ranked among the esteemed Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% Scientists for the third consecutive year. He has over 125 peer-reviewed publications and 74,000 citations. He is an Associate Editor for five distinguished public health and medical journals. He co-authored the interactive eBook Environmental Health: A Systems Approach to Environment, Equity, and Health with his JMU colleagues, Dr. Zeman and Dr. Khan, for undergraduate students.
Dr. Zaman joined JMU in 2023 after earning his PhD in Epidemiology and Prevention from Monash University, Australia. He holds an MSc in International Health from Charité University Medicine Berlin, Germany, and a Bachelor of Medicine from Dhaka University, Bangladesh. His accolades include awards and fellowships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Australian Government Research Training Program and the Monash Postgraduate Publication Award (2023). He previously worked as an Assistant Scientist at icddr,b, a UN consultant and an instructor at Monash University.
