Centre College announces January tenure and promotions
Thomas Allen
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Thomas Allen joined the Centre College faculty in 2016 as assistant professor of computer science.
His research interests include computational preferences, assistive technologies and smart environments, ethics in artificial intelligence, machine learning, decision support systems, social networks and constraint satisfaction programs. Dr. Allen took the lead in developing and launching the Data Science major, so he now teaches in both programs.
Dr. Allen received a B.S. in information and computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Kentucky.
Amanda Falk
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Amanda Falk joined Centre College in 2015 as visiting assistant professor of biology tenure-track appointment as assistant professor in 2017. She was named a Centre Scholar in 2021.
Her expertise includes paleobiology, evolutionary biology, functional morphology, as well as the anatomy and behavior of modern birds. Her current research interests are studies of fossil avian anatomy, avian ichnology (the study of trace fossils—footprints, burrows, etc.), comparative studies of modern avian anatomy, studies of modern avian footprint production and trace-making behavior, laser-stimulated fluorescence of fossils, paleobiodiversity, and mass extinction.
Dr. Falk graduated with a B. S. (Honors) in Biology from Lake Superior State University and received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Kansas.
Satty Flaherty-Echeverria
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Satty Flaherty-Echeverria joined the faculty of Centre College in 2016 as assistant professor of Spanish.
Her research and teaching interests include Afro-descendants’ literature and cultural production in the Caribbean and Latin America, African literatures written in Spanish and Portuguese, Colonial/Postcolonial literatures and Race and Black intellectualism in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking worlds. She co-directed the 2018 Centre Term in Brazil and directed the Merida program in fall 2018.
Dr. Flaherty-Echeverria earned a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese studies from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Amy Frederick
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Amy Frederick joined Centre’s faculty in 2014 as a visiting Instructor and moved to a tenure-track appointment as assistant professor of art history in 2017.
Her major area of expertise is seventeenth-century Dutch art, although her expertise extends to monuments and social justice movements. A leader among the faculty, she is an elected member of the Faculty Steering Committee and she is co-chair of the General Education Committee, helping to lead the implementation of the new Gen Ed program. She was named a Stodghill Research Professor for fall 2021.
Dr. Frederick received a B.A. in English and art history from Duke University, an M.A. in art history and museum studies and a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University.
Megs Gendreau
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Megs Gendreau joined the Centre College faculty in 2018 as assistant professor of philosophy and environmental studies.
Gendreau has broad interests in political and social philosophy, agency theory, philosophy of sport, environmental and climate justice and climate ethics. Her early research focused on environmental justice and political agency in fence-line communities in Southern California, and since moving to Kentucky she has begun a longer-term project focused on Just Transition in Appalachia and beyond. She was elected Treasurer of the International Society for Environmental Ethics in 2019 and will continue in this role until 2023.
Dr. Gendreau earned a B.A. in humanities and social sciences from Hampshire College, an M.A. in philosophy from the University of California, Santa Cruz and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California, Riverside.
Karin Gill
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Karin Gill joined Centre’s faculty in 2015 as visiting assistant professor of behavioral neuroscience, becoming assistant professor in 2016.
Her research interests include the investigation of sex hormones and their role in drug abuse and dependence, particularly how sex hormones affect brain mechanisms when exposed to psychostimulants, using Japanese quail as the animal model in this research. Dr. Gill has been co-chair of the Undergraduate Research committee for several years, including planning the annual RICE symposium.
Dr. Gill received a B.S. in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in experimental psychology with specializations in behavioral neuroscience and psychopharmacology from the University of Kentucky.
Chantell Limerick
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Chantell Limerick joined the Centre College faculty in 2016 and is assistant professor of Spanish.
Her research interests include Contemporary Latin American Narrative, Afro-Hispanic Studies and African Diaspora Studies. She has helped lead the establishment of the Underrepresented Faculty Council and the Centre Black Caucus. Dr. Limerick was recently awarded a place in the competitive Fulbright-Hays Seminars Abroad Program, attending a seminar Exploring African Heritage in Mexico, organized by the Mexico-United States Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (COMEXUS).
Dr. Limerick earned a B.S. in secondary education language arts and secondary education Spanish at The University of Alabama, an M.A. in Hispanic studies at Auburn University, and a Ph.D. in romance languages at the University of Georgia.
Daniel Scott
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Daniel Scott joined the Centre College faculty as assistant professor of chemistry in 2017.
He was awarded a $50,000 grant from the National Science Foundation in 2019 to support the development of new anti-cancer drugs as well as improved nanoparticle delivery systems capable of simultaneously delivering the drugs and diagnosing and monitoring responses to the therapy. Dr. Scott was awarded a $40,000 NIH grant in 2020 to fund research students and purchase equipment for his lab in Olin Hall. He has several undergraduate research assistants every year and he has been awarded a Stodghill Research professorship for spring 2022.
He earned a B.S. in chemistry from Georgetown College and a Ph.D. in bioanalytical chemistry from the University of Kentucky.
Robert Seebacher
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Robert Seebacher joined the Centre College faculty in 2017 as assistant professor of music and director of instrumental programs.
In addition to his role as Centre’s orchestra conductor, he is the music director and conductor of the Johnson City Symphony in Tennessee and assistant conductor of the National Chorale in New York City. He has appeared with the Lexington Philharmonic, Youngstown Symphony, Warren Philharmonic and Mobile Symphony orchestras and led all-state and honors orchestras in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Alabama. His guest-artist collaborations include Chee-Yun, Béla Fleck, Mark O’Connor, Midori, the Canadian Brass, Bella Hristova, Pablo Sainz Villegas, The Harlem Quartet, Arlo Guthrie and Lynn Harrell.
Dr. Seebacher earned a bachelor’s degree in music education from Youngstown State University, an M.M. in orchestral conducting from Bowling Green State University and a D.M.A. in orchestral conducting from the University of Kentucky.
Shana Sippy
Awarded Tenure and Promotion to Associate Professor
Shana Sippy is an assistant professor of religion at Centre College, where she has taught since 2017. She is the co-director of ReligionsMN.org,exploring religions in Minnesota, and a Research Associate in the Department of Religion at Carleton College.
Her book, Diasporic Desires: Making Hindus and the Cultivation of Longing, will be published by New York University Press in 2022. Her first book, Educating Ourselves: The College Women’s Handbook (Workman Press, 1995) reflects her commitment to public scholarship. In collaboration with Twin Cities Public Television and the Minnesota Humanities Center she helped create Sacred Minnesota, a series of four documentary shorts. She is the co-chair of the North American Hinduism Unit of the American Academy of Religion and a founding member of the Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective. She is also a founding co-chair of the Centre College Underrepresented Faculty Council. She secured and directed two grants from the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence to support projects at Centre College, including the current exhibition Beyond Borders: The Art of Siona Benjamin at the Norton Center. In 2021 she was awarded the C. Eric Mount, Jr. Student Appreciation Award.
She received her A.B. in History and Religion at Barnard College, her M.T.S. at Harvard Divinity School and her Ph.D. at Columbia University.
