Seventeen Faculty Members Earn Tenure, Promotions

Advancements reflect dedication, ingenuity and excellence

Seventeen Sacred Heart University faculty members recently earned tenure or promotions.

Tenure

Sajal Bhatia of Unionville, associate professor of computer science & engineering—Bhatia’s primary research revolves around network security; in particular, areas such as denial-of-service attacks, synthetic traffic generation, critical infrastructure security and intrusion detection. Recently, he has been exploring industrial control system security, cyber-physical system security and cybersecurity education. Bhatia’s teaching interests include network security, intrusion detection, capstone and senior projects, network penetration testing and computer networks. Prior to joining SHU in 2017, Bhatia worked at Fordham University in the Bronx, NY, and Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN.

Michael Frechette of Trumbull, associate professor of marketing—In his academic research, Frechette focuses on the mode of social and economic exchange called collaborative consumption. His research explores the similarities and differences in consumer behaviors within technology-mediated, peer-to-peer exchanges. Before earning a doctorate in international business and marketing, Frechette lived and worked abroad for more than 10 years, primarily in China, where he was employed in education and management training. Prior to living overseas, Frechette worked for several years in corporate recruiting.

Jason Grimes of Trumbull, associate professor of physical therapy— Grimes has been with SHU since 2008. His teaching responsibilities focus on musculoskeletal examination and intervention. He also serves as a mentor, faculty member and director in the orthopaedic physical therapy residency program at SHU. Grimes has published several peer-reviewed publications and has taught at local, regional and national professional conferences and courses on the topics of orthopedics, shoulder examination and treatment, manual therapy, persistent pain and residency education. He remains active in clinical practice, focusing on orthopedic pathology with a particular interest in the shoulder and upper extremity.

Millie Hepburn of West Redding, associate professor of undergraduate nursing—Hepburn has 38 years clinical expertise in the care of persons who are critically ill and specializes in the neurosciences. Her clinical trial, Music After Stroke to Enhance Rehabilitation (Master), explores the relationship between music and brain neuroplasticity after a stroke. In related research and publications, she explores the obstacles to health promotion among urban Black women. She supports a diverse nursing student body to promote both patient safety and trust in the health care system and mentors diverse nurses for positions of leadership. She considers effective communication to be vital in professional nursing and fosters an inclusive classroom environment and has received multiple national awards for mentoring and clinical excellence. She is fellow of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Diversity Leadership Institute and serves in multiple national leadership roles in nursing and neuroscience.

David Luesink of New Haven, associate professor of history—Luesink is a historian of modern China with particular interests in the history of medicine and science. He earned his doctorate from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and taught in Vancouver, Indianapolis, IN, and Pittsburgh, PA, before joining the SHU faculty in 2017. He teaches classes on modern and late imperial China, East Asian history, the history of medicine in China, the history of science and world history. He is working on a book about the history of anatomy in China that explores how new knowledge of the human body affected the country’s politics and has a second project on plague research in China.

Victoria Osborne-Leute of Stamford, associate professor of social work—Osborne-Leute is currently assistant professor in the School of Social Work.  She has had faculty appointments at Saint Louis University School of Medicine in Family and Community Medicine as assistant research professor and as assistant professor in social work and public health at the University of Missouri. Her research agenda is based in substance abuse awareness and educational programs for providers and patients. Specifically, her focus is screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment for substance use disorder, as well as screening and assessment of behavioral health conditions. She is particularly interested in training health professionals and students in screening clients for behavioral health concerns. Her research agenda also focuses on developing experiential training, including virtual reality and online techniques for students to practice skills in this area. She is currently serving as project director/principal investigator on a Health Resources and Services Administration behavioral workforce development grant.

Timothy Reilly of Bridgeport, associate professor of marketing—Reilly analyzes marketing, primarily in the areas of consumer behavior, consumer psychology, sustainability, environmental marketing and ethics. His dissertation focused on investigating how consumers respond to negative news about a company and the ways they go about assigning fault for unfavorable events. Reilly has published in the Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of Advertising Research and the Journal of Macromarketing. Prior to earning his doctorate at the University of Nebraska, Reilly worked as a television news and sports producer. He is undertaking several projects in the area of sustainability, consumer decision-making, mixed-methods research and consumer information processing. He has presented his work at various national and international conferences.

Maureen Ruby of Stratford, associate professor and Isabelle Farrington endowed chair of social, emotional and academic leadership in the department of educational & literacy leadership—Ruby is a dentist-turned-educator who has been a classroom teacher and literacy coach at the elementary, middle and secondary levels and was a district administrator for over a decade. She holds Connecticut certifications in elementary education, special education, remedial reading, literacy consultancy and leadership. Upon earning her doctorate from the University of Connecticut in special education with a focus on literacy, she served as graduate reading program coordinator at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Anna Vaughn of Stratford, associate professor of philosophy—Vaughn joined the SHU faculty in 2017. She is primarily a historian of early modern philosophy and has an interest in the philosophy of perception. Her current research investigates the nature of sense perception, particularly the tension between passively received sensations and active cognitive processes. Vaughn believes philosophy is a conversation and that the trends seen in contemporary philosophy arise within a historical context, often informed by scientific discovery. She emphasizes the historical and thematic connections between philosophical ideas in her research and teaching.

Samah Senbel of Valhalla, NY, associate professor of computer science & engineering—Senbel joined the SHU faculty in 2017. She teaches programming, data structures, distributed systems, web programming and operating systems. Her research focuses on data analytics, distributed systems and cloud computing.

Tenure and Promotion to Professor

René Roselle of Middletown, professor of teacher education—Roselle’s research and scholarship focus on teacher education, clinical preparation and school-university partnerships. Roselle co-designed the Bridgeport Teacher Residency program with Bridgeport Public Schools.  She has served in many roles in national organizations such as the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education’s Commission for Clinical Practice. Before joining the faculty at Sacred Heart University, Roselle won a University Teaching Scholar award and also won two partnership awards with Hartford Public Schools. Roselle began her career as a high school special education teacher. 

Promotion to Professor

June-Ann Greeley of Guilford, languages & literature and Catholic studies

Dawn Melzer of Trumbull, psychology

William (Bill) Yousman of Bloomfield, communication, media & the arts

Promotion to Clinical Professor

Robin Hands of Springfield, MA, teacher education

Promotion to Clinical Associate Professor

Jamie Marotto of Norwalk, communication disorders

Promotion to Advanced Lecturer

Abby Bender of Mamaroneck, NY, languages & literature