Dominican Welcomes New Full Time Faculty Members

Dominican University of California welcomes more than a dozen full-time faculty members in the Barowsky School of Business (BSB), the School of Health and Natural Sciences (HNS), and the School of Liberal Arts and Education (LAE). The new faculty members represent a wide range of academic disciplines and areas of inquiry. They also represent the University’s long-term commitment to social justice and its focus on building a diverse, equitable and inclusive community that is welcoming and supportive of all.

The following members have joined the Dominican University of California faculty: 

Dr. Fatima Ascano-Martin MS ‘07, who received her master’s degree in nursing from Dominican, joins the nursing program as an assistant professor. Previously, Dr. Ascano-Martin worked on the adjunct clinical faculty for 10 years. She earned her doctorate in nursing from the University of San Francisco in 2011. Her research interests include optimizing student clinical experiences in gerontological nursing; using technology to enhance staff adherence to reposition high-risk patients to prevent pressure ulcers; and identifying challenging behaviors of chronically ill residents in long-term care using CNS consultation.

Dr. Victoria M. Baptiste, a licensed psychologist and founder of the Mosaic Psychotherapy Center in San Anselmo, joins the Counseling Psychology department. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in clinical psychology from the University of Vermont and then began working at Vermont as a senior graduate teaching assistant in abnormal psychology. Dr. Baptiste double majored in English and psychology at Middlebury College. Dr. Baptiste has guest lectured at Dominican on several occasions. One lecture was titled “Anti-Racism in the Therapy Room: Justice-Oriented Strategies for Serving Black Americans.”

Dr. Zoee Bartholomew joins LAE as assistant professor of special education after two years as visiting faculty at Dominican. She received her doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Phoenix. Dr. Bartholomew’s dissertation was titled “Barriers in Meeting the Needs of Special Education Students: A Qualitative Case Study.” She has been a guest lecturer at the Stanford University STEP program. Dr. Bartholomew earned her bachelor’s degree in human development from Howard University. 

Dr. Rosalie Chen joins LAE as an assistant professor of psychology after being a visiting assistant professor at Colgate University. She earned a PhD in social psychology from National Taiwan University in 2018 and provided policy research, analysis, and advice to the Ministry of Science and Technology concerning grant-making and talent retention. Dr. Chen graduated with an MA in International Affairs-Asian Studies from George Washington University. In 2021, she received the Teacher Scholar Travel Award from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

Dr. Wayne de Fremery is the professor of information science and entrepreneurship and the director of the Francoise O. Lepage Center of Global Innovation. Dr. de Fremery, who has been living in Korea the past 20 years, earned his PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. He received a BA in economics at Whitman College then a MA in Korean Studies/Korean Literature from Seoul National University.  Dr. de Fremery is currently working on a project with scholars from UC Berkeley's School of Information and the Korea Text Initiative at the Cambridge Institute for the Study of Korea examining the development of artificial intelligence technologies that can aid bibliographical investigation in the humanities.

Dr. Vivian Delchamps joins LAE as an assistant professor of English. She earned her PhD in English from UCLA where she also received writing pedagogy and gender studies concentration certificates. She majored in English with minors in French and dance at Scripps College. Dr. Delchamps' research interests include 19th century American literature and culture; composition and rhetoric; critical disability studies; and African American, Native American, and Indigenous studies.

Dr. Shiva Fatemi MS ’17 After graduating from Dominican’s Counseling Psychology program, she returns to campus on the full-time faculty in the Master of Science in Physician Assistant Studies (MSPAS) program where she has been an assistant professor in MSPAS and an adjunct professor of psychopharmacology. Dr. Fatemi earned her Medical Doctorate at Azad Medical University of Tehran, in 2009. Her peer-reviewed research articles have included “Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes in HELLP Syndrome, Partial HELLP Syndrome and Severe Pre-Eclampsia in Eleven Years,” and “Prevalence of Thyroid Dysfunction and Relevant Risk Factors Among Thalassemia Patients” Her most recent peer reviewed online publication was “Psycheducational Manual for Families of People with Schizophrenia.”

Dr. Liza Hinz is associate professor and director of Art Therapy. Dr. Hinz joined Dominican after teaching graduate art therapy classes at both Notre Dame de Namur University and Lewis and Clark University. Dr. Hinz earned her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Louisiana State University and then completed post graduate coursework in Art Therapy from the University of Louisville. Prior to that, she completed a predoctoral psychology internship at Duke University Counseling and Psychological Service before receiving a BS in psychology at the College of William & Mary and a MS in Experimental Psychology from Wake Forest University. A member of the editorial board for Art Therapy: Journal of The American Art Therapy Association, Dr. Hinz’s works have appeared in numerous publications, and she has presented numerous times nationally and internationally. She has a private practice in St. Helena.

Dr. Christine Koh returns to Dominican as a full-time assistant professor in the Department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics from Sonoma State University, where she was a visiting professor in the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. Prior to that she was an adjunct professor at Dominican since 2016. Dr. Koh earned her PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley after graduating from the MS Division of Nanoscience at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea. Her most recent research experience features investigating aerosol dynamics using home-built Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and Wideband integrated biosensor. She is currently involved in research concerning wildfire smoke aerosols and bioaerosols.

Dr. Lucia Leon is professor of Latino Studies and Social Justice. Last spring, she taught a course in “Intersectional (In)equalities: Latina/o(x) Families” at Stanford University and, this summer, received her doctorate in Chicana/o and Central American Studies from UCLA. With a MA in Sociology from Cal State Sacramento, Dr. Leon’s teaching and research interests are led by Latinx and immigrant families, U.S. immigration law, and U.S. Latinx identity, race, and migration. In 2021, she received the Charles and Sue Young Fellowship at UCLA, the highest honor given by college deans for exemplary academic achievement, research, and service.

Dr. Claudia Morales is an Afro-Indigenous and award-winning novelist who will be assistant professor of English. She comes to Dominican following her PhD studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in Cultural Anthropology. Her research interests range from narrative medicine through creative writing to disability, migration, and testimonial. Dr. Morales contributed to a collective feminist book Mexicanas: Trece Narrativas Contemporaneas that won Mexico’s 2021 Book of the Year Award and she has had short stories translated and published in the United States, most recently by Rio Grande Review in the spring 2022 edition at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Dr. Angela Todd MS ’08 returns to her alma mater full-time as an assistant professor and director of curriculum and assessment in the MSPAS program. After graduating from Dominican’s nursing program and working as a RN in Intensive Care, she received her MS in Nursing from Sonoma State University’s Nurse Practitioner program. She obtained board certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 2012 and spent the next decade in clinical practice specializing in sexual and reproductive health. Dr. Todd then earned a PhD in Nursing and Healthcare Leadership at the University of California, Davis in 2021. She worked briefly as an adjunct in the nursing department in 2010 before returning to Dominican in 2018 as an adjunct faculty member in the MSPAS program. In addition, Dr. Todd was a guest lecturer in Dominican’s nursing and public health programs. Her published works and research include "Exploring the Influence of Christianity and the Role of Feminism in Mother-Daughter Conversations about Sex and Sexuality", and “Mobile Phone Apps for Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Prevention and Response: Systematic Search on App Stores.”