New Faculty 2020
College of Business
Department of Accounting and Finance
Elizabeth Kohl
Assistant Professor
An assistant professor in the Accounting and Finance department, Elizabeth Kohl engages in empirical, economics-based research emphasizing sustainable reporting, voluntary disclosure, labor, sport, and auditing. Dr. Kohl is excited to join the University of Montana family and to bring both her professional and academic experiences to the classroom.
Steven Mitsuda
Assistant Professor
Steven Mitsuda is joining us from Stanford University, where he just finished his Ph.D. in Accounting. He has a BS degree in Accounting and a MAcc from Brigham Young University. His research interests include financial reporting quality, earnings management, management incentives and compensation, and audit quality. Steven is excited to work with the wonderful faculty and students at the UM College of Business.
College of Health
Department of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Katie Hoffman Holick
Lecturer
Katie Holick is a native Montanan who proudly graduated from the University of Montana with a BA in Psychology, a BS in Microbiology, and a PhD in Neuroscience. Since her time at UM, Katie has held positions as a tenure-track faculty member at the University of Great Falls, a Postdoc with the United States Army Institute of Chemical Defense, and most recently enjoyed a position as a Professor of Practice at Lehigh University. As an instructor Katie strives to create an inclusive and active learning environment for all of her students and is thrilled to be back at UM.
School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science
Bryan Loyd
Assistant Professor
Brian Loyd, PT, DPT, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science and the director of the Community-based Activity, Mobility, and Participation (CAMP) lab. Brian teaches neuroscience, vestibular rehabilitation, and aging across the lifespan. His research is focused in the area of improving community function for older adults and individuals with vestibular impairment.
School of Social Work
Sarah Reese
Assistant Professor
Sarah Reese is an incoming assistant professor in the School of Social Work. Broadly, her research and teaching focus on community-based social work interventions to promote child and family well-being, with a specific focus on behavioral interventions for perinatal substance use disorder.
College of Humanities and Sciences
Division of Biological Sciences
Beverly Piggott
Assistant Professor
Beverly Piggott originally hails from Wisconsin, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry/Molecular Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She then went on to complete her PhD at the University of Michigan studying neural circuits and behavior with Dr. Shawn Xu. Beverly recently finished her postdoc at the University of California in San Francisco with Dr. Yuh Nung Jan, where she examined the role of ion channels in neural development and brain tumors and is very excited to continue this research as an Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, at the University of Montana.
Department of Communication Studies
Heather Voorhees
Assistant Professor
Heather Voorhees, Ph.D. (University of Nebraska-Lincoln), assistant professor in the Communication Studies department, studied print journalism as an undergraduate, then worked for 7 years as writer and editor for local newspapers and magazines. She earned her master's degree in Strategic Journalism from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and has 8+ years of experience in the field of corporate communications. Her research interests include interpersonal health communication, chronic illness identity, social support and illness disclosure.
Department of English
Boris Fishman
Assistant Professor
Boris Fishman is the author of the novels A Replacement Life (which won the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and the American Library Association's Sophie Brody Medal) and Don't Let My Baby Do Rodeo, both New York Times Notable Books of the Year, and Savage Feast, a family memoir told through recipes, all from HarperCollins. His journalism has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Saveur, Vogue, Travel + Leisure, and many other publications. Previously, he taught creative writing at Princeton University. He lives in Missoula, Montana, where he teaches in the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Montana.
Department of History, Department of World Languages and Cultures
Scott Arcenas
Assistant Professor
Scott Lawin Arcenas is an ancient historian who specializes in Greek political and economic history c. 600-300 BCE. His current research examines the nature, frequency, and intensity of political violence in the roughly 1,100 city-states inhabited by the ancient Greeks. At the University of Montana, he teaches courses on Greek and Roman history, classical languages and literature, and the history of the premodern Mediterranean. Before arriving at UM, he taught at George Mason University and Dartmouth College.
Department of Sociology
Mark Heirigs
Assistant Professor
Mark Heirigs is an Assistant Professor in the Department is Sociology. He received his PhD in sociology from Iowa State University. His research interests include psychopathy, homicide, and suicide.
James Tuttle
Assistant Professor
Dr. James Tuttle is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Montana, beginning his appointment in the Fall of 2020. Prior to this appointment, Dr. Tuttle worked as an Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Saint Francis (Indiana) from the Fall of 2018 to the Spring of 2020. In 2018, Dr. Tuttle was awarded a Ph.D. in Sociology (with a concentration in Crime, Deviance, and Social Control) from North Carolina State University. Dr. Tuttle’s previous research concentrates on theoretical and empirical issues involving cross-national variation in homicide rates. His current research builds upon these areas of inquiry, examining the correlates of homicide trends, government use of coercive social control, and the impact of economic deprivation on aggregate crime rates.
Phyllis J. Washington College of Education
Department of Teaching and Learning
Stephanie Reid
Assistant Professor
Stephanie Reid is an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Montana. Prior to pursuing her doctorate degree in Learning, Literacies, and Technologies at Arizona State University, Stephanie taught middle-schoolers Language Arts and Reading for 15 years in both England and the United States. Her research and scholarship focuses on literacy pedagogy in elementary and middle school classroom contexts.
W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation
Department of Wildlife Biology
Erim Gómez
Lecturer
Erim Gómez will be teaching Wildlife Biology here at UM. He earned his Masters from Washington State University and will be defending his Ph.D. this fall. Gomez uses social media for environmental education efforts and he has been active in diversity efforts on campus having been asked to serve as an advisor of UM LatinX Student Union.
Department of Society and Conservation
Will Rice
Assistant Professor
Will Rice is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Society and Conservation and Parks, Tourism, and Recreation Management Program at the University of Montana. His research focuses broadly on the provisioning of recreational ecosystem services in parks and protected areas. More specifically, he is interested in the personal and social outcomes demanded by wildland recreationists and developing tools to help measure and manage visitor demand for natural amenities.
Alexander Blewett III School of Law
Kekek Stark
Assistant Professor
Kekek is a Turtle Mountain Ojibwe and member of the Bizhiw (Lynx) Clan. He is a former president of the Minnesota American Indian Bar Association. He is a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow and alum of Hamline University School of Law. Kekek served as the Attorney General for the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians. Prior to assuming his role with the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe, Kekek served as an Attorney / Policy Analyst for the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission. Kekek has served as board member of the Waadookodaading Ojibwe Language Institute, the Bad River Head Start Policy Council, the Anoka-Hennepin Indian Education Committee, and Nawayee Center School.
Department of Public Administration and Policy
Anna-Margaret Goldman
Lecturer
Anna-Margaret Goldman is a Professor of Practice at the University of Montana in the Department of Public Administration and Policy. She has her PhD in Higher Education Administration from the University of Alabama. Her work is focused on increasing college access, mentoring, and K-12 and university partnerships.