This fall, Birmingham-Southern welcomes 10 new faculty members to campus. The new professors and instructors were announced at the virtual Opening of School Assembly for faculty and staff, held on Aug. 19.

Our new faculty will bring their expertise to departments and programs across campus. Welcome to the Hilltop!

Dr. Sarah Beno
Assistant Professor of Biology

Beno earned bachelor’s degrees in biology and chemistry from Meredith College and her Ph.D. from Cornell University in food science and technology. While at Cornell, she worked primarily with the dairy foods industry to ensure processing environments were free from foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes. More recently, Beno worked as an IRACDA-MERIT postdoctoral fellow and participated in research on the pathogenesis of Streptococcus pneumoniae in the Department of Microbiology and on the impact of feedback in STEM education at UAB.

Dr. Priscila Calatayud-Fernández
Assistant Professor of Spanish

Calatayud-Fernández received her bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and her bachelor’s degree in literary theory and master’s degree in Spanish education from the University of Salamanca. She has worked as a reporter and instructor in both Spain and the United States before defending her dissertation, “Explotación laboral y resistencia en España: Figuras inoperantes del trabajo (1930-2014),” at the University of Michigan in 2019. Her research interests are broad, touching on the relation between culture, politics, and the production of labor subjectivity during the late 19th through the 21st centuries.

Dr. Zhengyang (Robin) Chen
Visiting Assistant Professor of Economics

Chen completed his dual Master of Science degrees in finance and real estate at Johns Hopkins University and earned his Ph.D. in economics at University of Texas at Dallas in 2020. His research investigates how monetary policy propagates to the real economy when the federal funds rate is essentially lowered to zero. Prior to his academic career, Chen was a financial analyst in charge of investment analysis and valuations for a real estate finance firm.

Dr. Ann Dominick
Visiting Assistant Professor of Education

Dominick completed her bachelor’s degree at Auburn University, graduate studies at UAB and the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and Doctor of Education in curriculum and instruction at Vanderbilt University. With 30 years of education experience in Alabama, she taught third and fourth grade students in Homewood and Hoover City school districts, served as a consultant for Marilyn Burns Education Associates, and later worked as a mathematics coach for Hoover City Schools. Since 2004, Dominick has worked as project co-director, mathematics coach, and course instructor for the Greater Birmingham Mathematics Partnership, a project to help teachers, administrators, and parents improve mathematics education in their communities. She has also served as a faculty member at UAB.

M.K. Foster ’11
Assistant Lecturer of English and Writing Center Co-Director

Foster is a Renaissance literature scholar and poet from Birmingham. She received her bachelor’s degree from BSC and her MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland, and she is currently finishing her Ph.D. in the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies at the University of Alabama. Grounded in early modern ecocriticism, her research focuses on spectacular monstrosity and horror in the natural world. Recent projects include her dissertation on figurations of the Flood in 17th-century Europe and her chapter on apex predators in the forthcoming Amsterdam University Press critical volume “New Studies on Print Episteme in the Early Modern World,” which she is also co-editing.

Lacy Kamber
Visiting Assistant Lecturer of Urban Environmental Studies

Kamber received her bachelor’s degree in human sciences and MS in natural resource management from Auburn University. She began her international focus with an English teaching position in Shanghai, China, followed by two semesters abroad as a graduate student in both Costa Rica and The Republic of Panama. Upon return, she investigated the human dimensions of natural resources by focusing on the economic impacts of endangered species. Kamber worked as a contracted assistant for local nonprofit organizations the Freshwater Land Trust and the Southern Environmental Center (housed on BSC’s campus), building capacity in managing conservation properties, environmental education programs, and fundraising events.

Dr. Tiffany Norris
Director of the Library and Associate Professor

Norris received a bachelor’s degree in journalism and Master of Library and Information Studies from the University of Alabama and a Ph.D. in information science from the University of North Texas. She spent eight years serving in a variety of roles at a theological library in Fort Worth and the last four years as Associate Director of Research Services at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. Tricia Phillips
Assistant Professor of Mathematics

Phillips completed her undergraduate degree in mathematics at Hartwick College, where she was inspired to become a mathematics professor at a similar liberal arts institution that values excellence in teaching and community. She attended graduate school at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and developed a research focus on mathematical biology and using math to explore questions in human health. Phillips completed her Ph.D. in May 2020.

Laura Tolbert
Assistant Lecturer of English and Writing Center Co-Director

Tolbert graduated from the University of Alabama with her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature, specializing in the Victorian Era. She joined BSC as an adjunct in 2018 and began working as a writing center coordinator in 2019.

Dr. Walter Turner, Assistant Lecturer of Chemistry

Turner received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Samford University and a Ph.D. in computational quantum chemistry from the University of Georgia. He most recently taught chemistry and the accompanying labs at Georgia Southern University.