Faculty

Kevin M. Chun, PhD, is professor of psychology and co-founding faculty member of USF’s Asian American Studies and Critical Diversity Studies programs. Professor Chun uses community-based research methods to study acculturation effects on Asian American immigrant health and psychosocial adjustment. His research program aims to improve acculturation theory and measures, and develop health interventions that reduce immigrant families’ acculturation stress. Prof. Chun was co-principal investigator...

Professor Myojung Chung teaches courses in Strategic Communication and is helping to develop the Health Communication concentration in the MAPC at USF. Prior to academia, she worked as a journalist and a strategic communication practitioner. In her research and teaching she focuses on how the emergence of new media influences social and psychological processing of messages. She is also interested in whether there are national or cultural variations in message processing. Prof. Chung also has...

Martin A. Claussen received his PhD from the University of Virginia. His areas of interest include Ancient and Medieval Europe.

Dr. Coffman is a restoration ecologist and Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco (USF) who has worked on wetland and riparian restoration projects throughout the U.S. and internationally for more than 28 years. Since 1991, she has conducted jurisdictional wetland delineations throughout California, the east coast, the southeast, Midwest, and Puerto Rico. In addition, she has applied ecological experience in vegetation and invasive plant species mapping, watershed assessment...

Kathleen Coll is a political anthropologist whose research and teaching focuses on immigration politics and policies, cultural citizenship, and grassroots community organizing in the U.S., with special emphasis on the Bay Area. Her book Remaking Citizenship: Latina Immigrants and New American Politics (Stanford University Press, 2010) is an ethnography of San Francisco immigrant women’s experiences and activism in the context of hostile national immigration, welfare, and labor policies. Her...

Stephanie Cooper, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of San Francisco. She has taught a variety of courses within the field and currently teaches Introduction to Kinesiology and Measurement and Statistics. Her research examines the acute effects of exercise on mental health. Specifically, she is interested in determining the optimal exercise dose and mode for eliciting the greatest improvements in anxiety, mood, and cognition. Her research findings...

Melissa S. Dale has served as Executive Director of the Center for Asia Pacific Studies since August 2012. Prior to joining the faculty and staff at USF, she served as Associate Director of International Relations at the University of California, Berkeley (Nov. 2011 – Aug. 2012) where she worked in the areas of international relations and development for the entire campus with a particular focus on prospect development and stewardship for leadership and major gifts from the Asia-Pacific region...

Maria Daltayanni's research interests include reputation and recommender systems in crowdsourcing environments with specialization in two-sided marketplaces (labor, advertising, games). Her patent pending work in developing predictive analytics infrastructure in advertising data warehouses brings together big data and statistical learning. Her recent research in learning unbiased employee rankings (WorkerRank) has been used in labor marketplaces to improve industrial hiring systems. She teaches...

Sergio De La Torre's project work has focused on issues regarding immigration, tourism, surveillance technologies, and transnational identities. These works have been exhibited in a variety of venues both national and international. He has received grants from the NEA, The Rockefeller Foundation, Creative Capital, the Potrero Nuevo Fund, and the Creative Work Fund, among others. De La Torre's latest project is MAQUILAPOLIS (City of Factories), an hour-long video documentary made in...

Dr. De Natale has expertise in nursing and community outreach with teaching in both Community and Mental Health.. For the past twenty-six years, she has been involved in the Bachelors, Masters, and DNP Programs (committee member of DNP projects). The overall theme of her work and personal mission revolves around support and care for individuals and/or family while building professional purpose, practice, and furthering community partnerships. Her presentations have covered topics such as...