Incoming/Outgoing Chairs
As we bid our outgoing College of Sciences’ Chairs ‘adieu!’, we welcome in their successors as appointed by Dean Michael Johnson.
Anthropology Chair
Dr. Arlen Chase, Outgoing Department Chair of Anthropology
Dr. Chase, former Anthropology Chair, has been promoted to Associate Dean of the College of Sciences where he will take on duties focused in the Undergraduate support area as well as being the college point person for faculty qualifications review and the regional campus liaison.
His research interests focus on archaeological method and theory in the Maya area with particular emphasis on contextual, settlement, and ceramic analysis and secondary interests on urbanism, ethnicity, and epigraphic interpretation.
Dr. Tosha Dupras, Incoming Department Chair of Anthropology
Dr. Dupras is a biological anthropologist with research areas including human osteology and skeletal analysis, stable isotope and dietary analysis, juvenile growth and development, paleopathology, bioarchaeology, and forensic archaeology. Field research has included sites in Egypt, Sudan, Lithuania, and the island of Flores in Indonesia. She received her Ph.D. from McMaster University in 1999. She is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and has served as assistant chair for the past six years.
Sociology Chair
Dr. Jana Jasinski, Outgoing Department Chair of Sociology
Dr. Jasinski, former Sociology Chair, has been promoted to Associate Dean of the College of Graduate Studies where she will focus on financial support. Working with various faculty committees to award fellowships to graduate students and with programs to allocate tuition waivers are a few of her new responsibilities. Dr. Jasinski will be responsible for working with different departments and units on campus to develop new graduate programs and to participate in the process of program reviews that take place for every academic program every seven years. She also intends to develop a graduate fellows community.
Dr. Elizabeth Mustaine, Incoming Department Chair of Sociology
Dr. Mustaine is a criminologist studying victimization, sexual offenders and registries, domestic violence, and extensions and applications of Routine Activities Theory. She has served as associate editor for Justice Quarterly and has held positions in the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the American Society of Criminology, and the Southern Criminal Justice Association. She received the 2011 Educator of the Year Award from the Southern Criminal Justice Association. Service to the department includes five years directing the undergraduate programs. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from The Ohio State University. She is a Professor of Sociology.
Biology Chair
Dr. Laurence Von Kalm, Outgoing Department Chair of Biology
Dr. Laurence Von Kalm, former Interim Biology Chair, will return to being a faculty member and focus on research with his laboratory.
Dr Von Kalm’s laboratory pursues three main areas of interest. First, they study epithelial morphogenesis in Drosophila imaginal discs. … A second project focuses on the biology of polyamine transport in Drosophila epithelia. … A third project, conducted in collaboration with the Jenkins laboratory in the Department of Biology, investigates a possible role for Wolbachia in the reproductive life cycle of Daphnia.
Dr. Graham Worthy, Incoming Department Chair of Biology
Dr. Worthy came to UCF in 2001 as Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor of Biology and Hubbs-SeaWorld Professor of Marine Mammalogy. His research seeks to help understand marine ecosystem function, and ultimately ocean health, by studying the interrelationships between species and how species respond to environmental perturbations. He received degrees in Zoology and Environmental Physiology from the University of Guelph, and before coming to UCF was professor and department head in the Department of Marine Biology at Texas A&M University.