Nicole Killian, Associate Professor, Department of Graphic Design
Professor Killian has significantly influenced contemporary design discourse through international exhibitions, lectures, and publications during 2024–2025. Killian exhibited at Printed Matter’s LA Art Book Fair and SPRINT Milano in Italy, and spoke at Cooper Union’s Typographics in New York City. Killian served as a mentor at NEW INC., a lecturer at Yale School of Art, as well as the Politecnico di Milano in Italy, and as a critic at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Killian’s writing, exhibitions, and editorial work continue to shape the evolving landscape of contemporary design scholarship

Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Assistant Professor, Department of Sculpture and Extended Media
Professor Toussaint-Baptiste has received national recognition, earning two prestigious awards. Toussaint-Baptiste's recent shows span major venues such as MoMA PS1, Berlin Atonal, and The Studio Museum in Harlem, affirming his global influence and impact. As both artist and composer, Toussaint-Baptiste maintains a collaborative practice and has been featured in leading international publications such as Frieze and ArtReview. As a colleague, educator, and practitioner, Toussaint-Baptiste demonstrates an extraordinary combination of intellectual rigor, creative vision, and empathetic leadership that profoundly enriches both academic and artistic communities.

Mayoor (Max) Mohan, Professor, Department of Marketing / Dean’s Office
Dr. Mohan is a leading scholar in B2B marketing and branding. His recent work in Journal of Service Research and Journal of Business Research reflect  his expertise and breadth of knowledge. In recognition of exemplary scholarly work, Mohan was elected VP for Engagement of the Academy of Marketing Science and co-chaired its 2024 Annual Conference. Mohan guest edited for Industrial Marketing Management and was VCU’s first Marketing Science Institute Grant recipient.  His scholarly achievements regularly attract major media attention.

César Zamudio, Associate Professor, Department of Marketing
Dr. Zamudio published five peer-reviewed articles in top journals last year. Zamudio’s AI advertising research received national media coverage and awards. He was named a VCU School of Business Distinguished Teacher, joined the VCU Brandcenter's Creative Brand Management teaching group, and co-led a free Marketing textbook initiative. As Chair of the Ph.D. committee, Zamudio helped lead an audit of the school’s doctoral programs and has been key in shaping VCU’s analytics and AI strategy. He was also appointed to the Advisory Board of the Institute for Contemporary Arts.

Andrene Castro, Associate Professor, Department of Educational Leadership
Dr. Castro made significant contributions to building her national profile and scholarly trajectory in 2024. Castro published 5 peer-reviewed journal articles, and 2 additional publications. She submitted a proposal for external funding and finalized two research grants.  Castro assumed the role of program coordinator for Educational Leadership, Policy and Justice and made progress towards increasing enrollment. Castro’s service contributions demonstrate high-impact service initiatives that showcase excellence in her academic discipline and VCU.

Daniel Gutierrez, Professor, Department of Counseling and Special Education
Dr. Gutierrez achieved national/international recognition in 2024 through an exceptional scholarly record, including 12 publications addressing spiritual competence, contemplative practice, and culturally responsive counseling. Gutierrez served as Principal Investigator on major grants and has presented at high-profile conferences. As co-director of the International Association for the Advancement of Counseling Theory and associate editor for multiple journals, Dr. Gutierrez’s leadership and impact continue to shape mental health scholarship.

Jennifer LoCasale-Crouch, Associate Professor, Foundations of Education
Dr. LoCasale-Crouch's applied research on the supports and systems that influence children's early home, community and school experiences elevates VCU's profile status. In the past year she led multi-disciplinary and multi-university collaborations, directly leading to 12 publications in 2024 and new external funding. LoCasale-Crouch’s work engages and trains the next generation of researchers and educators, and demonstrates a commitment to institutional and broader scientific advancement, contributing to VCU's standing in the academic community.

Kamden Strunk, Professor, Foundations of Education
Dr. Strunk is a leader in advancing innovative and advanced quantitative methodologies in education research. In 2024, he produced 13 publications, and secured seven funded grants. He is Editor-in-Chief of a peer-reviewed journal, sits on five editorial boards, serves as Editor for a scholarly book series, and chairs a national research organization. His work is internationally recognized for its innovation, rigor, and impact, placing him among the most accomplished education researchers in the country.

Yaoying Xu, Professor, Department of Counseling and Special Education
Dr. Xu exemplifies national/international recognition through her research, scholarship productivity, innovative teaching and mentoring, and services within VCU and in the profession. In 2024, Xu published seven refereed journal articles and two book chapters, conducted eight presentations at prestigious conferences, and delivered an international keynote. In addition, Xu received multiple new grants and served in significant editorial and grant review roles at the national/international level.

Kostadin Damevski, Professor, Department of Computer Science 
Dr. Damevski secured five new research grants totaling over $3 million dollars from NSF, DHS and DOE and published four peer reviewed manuscripts. Newly promoted to the rank of Professor with tenure in the Computer Science department in Spring of 2025, Damevski also serves as the Graduate Program Director in Computer Science. 

Lukasz Kurgan, Professor, Department of Computer Science
Dr. Kurgan is an extremely productive and recognized researcher and was ranked by Elsevier among the top 0.5% of scientists in the field of bioinformatics.  Kurgan serves as a PI on two grants totaling over $1 million dollars and is a recently elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology.  In addition, Kurgan serves as editor or associate editor on multiple journals.

John Speich, Professor, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Dr. Speich is a highly productive faculty member; during this performance period, Speich published 11 articles, served as PI on four grants, mentored multiple students and served on five editorial boards. In addition, during the performance period, Speich served as the Interim Chair of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering.

Adam Ewing, Associate Professor, Department of African American Studies
Dr. Ewing was awarded a National Humanities Center Fellowship and published The Essential Writings of Robert A. Hill. Ewing’s forthcoming monograph, Blacklands: The Global Fight for African Freedom, is under contract. He also contributed major chapters to Justice for Marcus Garvey and The Essential Writings of Robert A. Hill. Additionally, Ewing received a VCU Seed Award to conduct archival research, further advancing his scholarship on global Black freedom movements and historical memory.

Nicholas Frankel, Professor, Department of English
Dr. Frankel received the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship for 2024-25 to support the research and writing for his forthcoming book. He is a renowned scholar of the life and works of the Irish author and playwright, Oscar Wilde. During the performance period, Frankel completed three book chapters, a solicited article, and a book manuscript.

Brian Fuglestad, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry
Dr. Fuglestad had an excellent record of achievement in 2024-25. He received the 2024 Eli Lilly Young Investigator Award. He is also the recipient of an NIH grant as PI for $1.9 million for 5 years. Fuglestad had five publications in 2024, and two additional publications so far in 2025. Two of these were published in JACS Au, which has an impressive 5-year impact factor of 9.2.

Mar Gongora Davis, Professor, School of World Studies 
Dr. Davis had an outstanding year in 2024-25 with the publication of her new book, “Cervantes y las joyas.” In addition to this major accomplishment, Davis published an article in Hispanic Review and conducted two conference presentations. She also played a major role as a merger manager in the transition of the foreign language program from the School of World Studies to the Department of English within the College of Humanities and Sciences.

Christopher Gough, Professor, School of Life Sciences and Sustainability
Dr. Gough’s contributions are exemplary for the School of Sustainability and Life Sciences.  During the evaluation period, Gough’s environmental research was funded by the National Science Foundation Ecosystems Studies Program and the Department of Energy. He also received funding for an additional 4 research projects. Gough published seven peer-reviewed articles, submitted nine research proposals, worked on four thesis committees and four dissertation committees, conducted 11 research presentations, and gave invited talks. 

Ann Haynos, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr. Haynos was PI for two NIH grants during 2024-25. She published 10 papers in peer-reviewed outlets in 2024- 2025, and one additional chapter in 2024. In 2024, Haynos earned the Outstanding Scholarship Award from the Psychology Department. The Society for Research in Psychopathology selected her presentation as one of the top early career presentations submitted. Haynos is on the editorial boards of International Journal of Eating Disorders and Eating Behaviors.

Catherine Hulshof De Le Peña, Associate Professor, School of Life Sciences and Sustainability
Dr. Hulshof de la Pena received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. In addition, her scientific expertise in examining the impact of climate change on the structure and function of mountain ecosystems, she has had an international impact through her Fulbright Scholar Award. Hulshof de la Pena has published 5 peer-reviewed articles and enhanced the recognition and reputation of VCU both nationally and internationally while providing students with a world-class learning experience.

Ka Un Lao, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry
Dr. Lao received the VCU Outstanding Early Career Award for 2025, the CHS Excellence in Scholarship award in 2025, and the NSF CAREER award in 2024. He is a Co-PI on several other NSF grant awards. Lao was the recipient of the 2024 ACS Division of Computers in Chemistry OpenEye Cadence Molecular Sciences Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry. 

Gabriela León-Pérez, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
Dr. León-Pérez secured funding from the Jeffress Trust Awards Program in Research Advancing Health Equity for a community-academic partnership to understand and address mental health inequities among Richmond’s Latino youth. She also received a grant from the VCU Breakthroughs Fund for a project examining the successful socioeconomic integration of immigrants in the U.S. In addition, she published three peer-reviewed journal articles and co-authored a forthcoming textbook, and collaborated on three continuing grants.

Oswaldo Moreno, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr. Moreno was PI for a grant from the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation and served as co-investigator on an NIH R03. Moreno published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles and 1 book chapter in 2024-25. He gave 13 presentations at conferences, one earning Best Scholarly Paper Award. Moreno also joined the Board of Directors for the Council of Clinical Health Psychology Training Programs (CCHPTP) and became President-Elect of the National Latinx Psychological Association.

Brooke Newman, Associate Professor, Department of History
Dr. Newman’s work has culminated in the forthcoming publication of The Crown’s Silence: The Hidden History of the British Monarchy and Slavery in the Americas. This work uncovers support of the slave trade by the British Monarch, its impact on setting the stage for other colonial powers’ enslaving, and intergenerational legacies of prejudice, inequality, and health disparities. Newman’s ground-breaking research has the potential to transform our understanding of the slave trade’s impact on the world.

Jason Reed, Professor, Department of Physics
Dr. Reed has an exceptional record of securing extramural funding ($11.6M prior to 2024, $7.98M in CY 2024, and an additional $2.1M NIH grant secured in June 2025). In addition, Reed was issued a patent, published two papers and three conference papers/abstracts and tech notes during the evaluation period. 

Baobao Song, Associate Professor, Richard T. Robertson School of Communication
Dr. Song had 12 journal publications in top journals this year. Her primary research areas include corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications, social issue advocacy communications, and corporate crisis communications. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Relations Research, the flagship journal in her field, and has served as the public relations sequence coordinator in the Robertson School for the past two years.

Ihsan Topaloglu, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics
Dr. Topaloglu is the 2024 recipient of a prestigious Humboldt Research Fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, as well as PI on a NSF research grant award “Nonlocal Variational Problems from Physical and Biological Models”. He also has an existing Simons Foundation grant. 

Brian Verrelli, Professor, School of Life Sciences and Sustainability
Dr. Verrelli has published seven research papers in peer-reviewed journals, with an eighth in press, since the beginning of 2024. Three of the papers appeared in prestigious Nature journals (Nature Climate Change, Nature Ecology & Evolution, and Nature Cities). Two of these publications were chosen by the journals for their cover articles and many have received national press. Verrelli was interviewed by the New York Times for a story published June 12, 2025.

Chelsea Williams, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
Dr. Williams had 23 peer reviewed publications since 2024, with 22 additional under review. She is managing three ongoing grants and submitted four new grant proposals. She has also been a lead or contributor to 44 conference/symposium presentations since the start of 2024. She serves as a consulting editor for Journal of Research on Adolescence and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Latinx Psychology and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology.

Lana Sargent, Associate Professor, Department of Adult Health & Nursing Systems / Office of Practice and Community Engagement
Dr. Sargent was inducted as a Distinguished Fellow in the National Academies of Practice – a significant honor for nurse clinicians. Sargent maintained or secured new external funding for seven research projects (as PI, MPI, or Co-I) with funding from NIH, HRSA, CMS, and the CDC. This includes funding for the VCU School of Nursing Mobile Health and Wellness Program (MHWP) – a nurse-led, interprofessional mobile clinical serving nine communities across Virginia to improve access to health care and coordination of Services. In addition, Sargent published nine peer reviewed journal articles and one book chapter, and served as Chair of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Commission.

Yana Cen, Associate Professor, Department of Medicinal Chemistry
Dr. Cen holds multiple externally funded awards from NIH and NSF, including the prestigious NSF CAREER award. Her lab has pioneered the development of chemical probes for the functional annotation and pharmacological modulation of protein lysine deacylases, the sirtuins, providing critical insights into how sirtuins sense cellular metabolites and DNA damage to regulate energy homeostasis and genome stability. Cen serves on grant review panels for major federal agencies, including the NIH and NSF, and on editorial boards for several journals, including Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry. During 2024-25, Cen received the School of Pharmacy’s Excellence in Research Award and her graduate students earned multiple awards from the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, the School of Pharmacy, and the Virginia Academy of Science.