Congratulations to all of our faculty who have been promoted effective June 2024. Your dedication to our mission to transform the future in service to our students and in advancing critical research is deeply appreciated. Thank you for all you do!
Jacques Alexis | Teaching Professor
Jacques Alexis being promoted to Teaching Professor. A scholar practitioner, Alexis brings a unique combination of expertise in business economics, general management, portfolio, project, and operations management. With a strong and successful track record in portfolio, program, and project management, he has worked on projects and programs that have delivered organizational performance improvement, waste and cost reduction, and business transformation. Alexis received his bachelor’s degree from Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) and completed a master’s degree in management from the University of Wisconsin, with a concentration in project management. He received his doctorate degree in management, with a focus on business strategy and the environment, sustainable project, and portfolio management from the University of Maryland. His interests in research focus mainly on entrepreneurship and innovation-based economic development, sustainable project and portfolio management.
Shannon Alpert | Associate Teaching Professor
Shannon Alpert is being promoted to Associate Teaching Professor. She spent the first 15 years of her career leading projects and teams responsible for creating learning solutions in the telecommunications and financial services industries. She also consulted with K-8 and higher education organizations on project and portfolio management while also teaching online graduate courses at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She earned her undergraduate (English/secondary education) and master’s (instructional technology) degrees from Georgia State University in Atlanta. She earned her doctoral degree in educational leadership from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She also holds certifications as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and Six Sigma Green Belt.
Alpert’s research interests include action research related to faculty technology adoption and faculty use of learning management systems, as well as exploration of project management practices in academic settings.
Earlene Avalón | Teaching Professor
Earlene Avalón is being promoted to teaching professor. She grew up in Boston and attended the Boston Public Schools. She received her Bachelor’s of Science degree from Suffolk University in chemistry and secondary education and her Master’s degree in Public Health from Tufts University School of Medicine. While working in public health, Avalón realized the correlation between post-secondary education, workforce diversity and health disparities and has since dedicated much of her career to the development of workforce diversity initiatives. Prior to completing her PhD in Health Professions Education at Simmons College, Avalón held positions at the Latin American Health Institute, Bunker Hill Community College and the Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers. She was also the Chair of the Parent Advisory Group for Massachusetts General Hospital for Children’s Connect 4 Health/PCORI Project. With a PhD from Simmons College, she is the Lead Faculty member of the Health Management and Health Sciences Programs.
Michael Dean | Associate Teaching Professor
Michael J. Dean is being promoted to Associate Teaching Professor and serves as the concentration lead for the Learning Analytics program within the Master of Education program, both designing and delivering the curriculum. His research interests are quantitative methods in education in general, and more specifically in cognitive diagnostic assessment models and the measurement of nontraditional academic outcomes in education. Previously, Dean served as a technical research advisor at the International Rescue Committee, a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development nongovernmental organization, and as the head of research at the International Baccalaureate, a nonprofit educational foundation offering international education programs to more than one million students worldwide. He holds a PhD from Teachers College at Columbia University and has 20 plus years of experience as a teacher at the middle school, high school, and graduate levels in the U.S. and Cameroon.
Alex Fronduto | Associate Teaching Professor
Alex Fronduto is being promoted to Associate Teaching Professor within the Graduate School of Education. His educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Premedical and Health Studies (Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences), a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration (Northeastern University), and a Doctorate in Health Sciences (Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences). His previous research has ranged from the lab-based sciences (Kaposi’s Sarcoma-associated Herpes Virus [KSHV] and Yeast-Two Hybrid System) to education (Team-based learning in health professions education and its impact on student achievement). Currently his teaching includes courses such as Foundations of Higher Education, The New Supervisor, Challenges in Supervision, Connecting Theory and Practice, and more. In addition to teaching, he chairs and second reads for Doctor of Education students working on their dissertations. Dr. Fronduto is a member of and has presented at conferences for NEACAC (New England Association for College Admission Counselors) and NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling).
Youngbok Ryu | Associate Teaching Professor
Dr. Ryu is being promoted to Associate Teaching Professor having joined the College of Professional Studies in 2020. Before coming to Boston, he was faculty member at the Department of Business and Technology Management, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. He also worked with RAND Corporation as an assistant policy researcher and with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Policy Fellow. After serving as a military officer in the Corps of Engineering, he also worked as a patent data analyst and consultant for five years in South Korea. He holds a PhD from Pardee RAND Graduate School.
Balazs Szelenyi | Teaching Professor
Balazs Szelenyi is being promoted to teaching professor and teaches classes on Philosophy, Globalization, Sociology and History. His first major area of research was on urban history and urban development. Based on that research he published his first book called The Failure of the Central European Bourgeoisie (2006), and an article on the dynamics of urban development in the early modern period in the American Historical Review. His second area of research was on the origins and causes of genocide, for which he received fellowships from the National Endowment of Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Fulbright Commission, and the German Marshal Fund. In 2003 he was named a Fulbright New Century Scholar for his research on genocide and the Holocaust. He has published articles in the academic journals Past and Present, Theory and Society, Social History, and the Austrian History Yearbook. Balazs has also co-edited a book called Cores, Peripheries and Globalization (2011). Currently Balazs is finishing his book on the Holocaust called From Minority to Übermensch, as well as developing a new interest on the impact of technology on society and the moral dilemmas involved in the evolution of transhumanism.
Adel Zadel | Teaching Professor
Adel A. Zadeh is being promoted to teaching professor in the Project Management program. A civil engineering and project management educator and consultant with more than 10 years of experience, Zadeh has managed complex public/private construction projects including planning, estimating, engineering, procurement and construction. He is a certified Project Management Professional, and accredited LEED BD+C (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – Building Design and Construction). Zadeh’s research and teaching focus on organizational transformation, construction management, sustainability initiatives in green building construction, and how sustainability trends impact the building and construction industry. He previously served as program director and lecturer at a number of colleges in Ontario, teaching and supervising students in advanced project management and strategic leadership, construction management and engineering, and applied research. He is the director of the Toronto chapter of the Project Management Institute. Zadeh lives in the greater Toronto area and teaches in Toronto and online.
Lin Zhou, PhD Lin Zhou | Associate Teaching Professor
Lin Zhou is being promoted to Associate Teaching Professor within the Northeastern University Global Program, excels in blending technology with pedagogy. Specializing in computer-assisted learning, mobile device-assisted instruction, and the exciting realm of AI-assisted learning, Zhou is also a pioneer in merging augmented reality with game design for educational purposes. Her innovation in this space came to light during her PhD studies at the University of Hawai’i, where she developed a game-supported critical writing course. This course, uniquely integrating game design and augmented reality, provided second-language learners an immersive experience to explore socio-political themes.
With a wealth of experience collaborating with international students, Zhou has tailored her methods to effectively address the needs of diverse student backgrounds. Her drive to innovate led her to establish a language center during her PhD years, showcasing her entrepreneurial spirit.
Xiaomu Zhou | Teaching Professor
Xiaomu Zhou is being promoted to teaching professor and serves as the lead faculty member in the Master of Professional Studies in the Informatics program. She received her Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Technology in Shandong University, China; a Master degree in Computer Science and Engineering in Beijing Institute of Technology, China; and a Ph.D in Information Science in University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). Prior to joining Northeastern University, Zhou was an assistant professor at the Rutgers University School of Communication and Information. Zhou serves on Information Technology Policy Committee in Northeastern University, and Faculty Development and Support Committee at CPS. Previously, she served on the Professional Standards Committee of the Faculty Academic Council at CPS.
Zhou has been an active member of her research community. She has served numerous times as a member of the program committee of the Association for Computing Machinery International Conferences on HCI and CSCW. She also publishes and presents extensively in her field and is a frequent reviewer for several academic journals.