Get to Know Your New Professors: Fall 2023
A former police officer, a practicing occupational therapist, and a writer who’s traveled the world are just a few of the new faculty joining Chatham University this semester. Before you see them walking along the hills of Shadyside, the hallways of Eastside, or the trails of Eden Hall, meet a few of them below to see what they’re teaching and what’s inspired them.
Joshua Mullenite, Ph.D
Assistant Professor and Program Director, Sustainability
Where are you from?
I am originally from Hollywood, Fla. I spent most of my life around the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area. I finished my Ph.D at Florida International University in 2018. Before coming to Chatham, I was an assistant professor at Wagner College in New York City.
How did you become interested in the field you teach?
Growing up in south Florida, environmental issues are omnipresent. I started doing research as an undergraduate on how people responded to flooding based on my own experiences, and I have continued along that track now, looking at how and why people engage in informal urban subsistence activities—gardening, fishing, and foraging as a necessary source of food rather than pure recreation.
What I’ve found in this research is that people living on the margins of society are often either politically or economically pushed into making choices where there is no good decision, only more or less bad ones. A lot of sustainability policy, which is what I teach most often, seems to ignore this fact in favor of simple or more convenient answers. I enjoy teaching students about the messiness of all of this, about the problems that emerge from sustainability’s history, and about how people are often capable of articulating not only their needs but also a vision of a sustainable and environmentally just world if we give them space and listen.
What are you most looking forward to about Chatham?
Getting to better know the students and seeing how they think about the world.
What do you enjoy doing around Pittsburgh?
I’m a big soccer fan (Brentford FC and Celtic FC) and have been really enjoying watching the Riverhounds.
What can students look forward to in your class?
I’m hopeful that they will enjoy engaging with ideas that they may not have been exposed to before.
David Blackmore
Associate Professor of English; Writing Coordinator
Where are you from?
I was born in Pittsburgh and spent my early childhood here before moving at age eight to the small town of Kane, Pa., three hours north on the edge of the Allegheny National Forest. However, I left Pennsylvania when I graduated from high school and have since lived in big cities like Boston, Cairo, Los Angeles, and Rio de Janeiro. In recent years, my home base has been Jersey City, N.J., just across the river from Manhattan. In Jersey City, I was a professor of English and Latin American studies at New Jersey City University, a federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institution.
How did you become interested in the field you teach?
I’ve loved reading since my mom started taking me to the main branch of the Carnegie Library in Oakland when I was very young. This love of reading led me to study and teach in literature, linguistics, and interdisciplinary fields like queer studies and Latin American studies. When I returned to Pittsburgh a year ago for visiting scholar appointments at Chatham and the University of Pittsburgh, I was inspired to finally finish my memoir about growing up in urban and rural western Pennsylvania, which has helped prepare me to work with MFA Creative Writing students at Chatham.
What are you most looking forward to about Chatham?
I connect to the Chatham mission on so many different levels. As a queer man, I value the university’s transition from a historic women’s college to a university that still centers women’s experience but works toward broad gender inclusivity. As the writer of an environmental memoir, I align myself with the university’s commitment to sustainability. I love the repurposed industrialist mansions of the Shadyside campus and the sustainable architecture and agriculture of Eden Hall. And I am especially excited about working with students and colleagues in the MFA Creative Writing program, with its emphasis on place-based and environmental writing.
What do you enjoy doing around Pittsburgh?
I’m really into Pittsburgh’s historic architecture and the green, hilly landscape that surrounds it. I explore these things every day in my home neighborhood of Highland Park during long walks with my rescue beagle, Patsy, and I get to know other city neighborhoods, like Lawrenceville and the North Side, on the weekends with my fashion designer husband, Mike. We love Pittsburgh’s legacy cultural institutions like the Carnegie museums in Oakland, the Andy Warhol Museum, and the Phipps Conservatory, where we had our classic Pittsburgh wedding this past June. I also take as much advantage as I can of Pittsburgh’s many lively local writing communities.
What can students look forward to in your class?
Active participation! I always want to hear what students have to say about the topics and texts we are exploring in my classes. I love helping students find their own voice (written, spoken, visual, etc.) or refine their voice if they already have a strong sense of who they are and what they are about. We’re going to talk a lot about place and environment, both places we have in common (Chatham, Pittsburgh) and all the different places that students are coming from.
Megan Barricklow, OTD, OTR/L
Academic Fieldwork Coordinator; Assistant Professor of Practice
Where are you from?
Pittsburgh is my hometown. I grew up just outside of the city, near the Murrysville area. I am a 2019 graduate of the Master of Occupational Therapy Program and a 2021 graduate of the Post-Professional Doctor of Occupational Therapy Program at Chatham University, so it is great to be back! Prior to this position, I was a practicing occupational therapist, most recently in the home health setting. I am still practicing as an OT in a virtual mobility clinic for seating and positioning. I really love having the opportunity to continue to practice while I teach!
How did you become interested in the field you teach?
I became interested in occupational therapy when I was still in high school. I always wanted a career in the medical field, but I also wanted to maximize my ability to be creative. I worked as a dining service aid in a dementia care unit at a continuing care home throughout high school, and I loved it! I once developed picture menus of the dinner entrees for our residents, who were no longer able to communicate in the “typical” manner. I received great feedback from my coworkers, friends, and family for this project, and they encouraged me to look into the OT field. That’s where it all began!
What are you most looking forward to about Chatham?
I am most looking forward to spreading my knowledge of entry-level OT practice to all of our ELOTD cohorts. I worked as an OT throughout the pandemic, and I learned more than I ever expected! I want to be able to pass that on to the next generation of OTs.
What do you enjoy doing around Pittsburgh?
My favorite thing to do in Pittsburgh is eat! I am always down for a food tour. There are so many diverse and delicious restaurants right in our backyard—we are very lucky!
What can students look forward to in your class?
In my classes, students can look forward to learning & applying the OT Models of Practice and preparing for fieldwork. I strive to keep the “fun” in FUNctional, so I hope that my classes will be fun and engaging. I am truly learning from the best as I begin my journey as an OT faculty member at Chatham!
Joshua T. Ellsworth, Ph.D.
Visiting Assistant Professor in Criminology
Where are you from?
I am originally from New England. After graduating from college in the late 1990s, I was a police officer in Springfield, Massachusetts. Early on, I relocated to Baltimore, Md., where I continued my policing career. I was a detective investigating violent crime in Baltimore; I worked in robbery and non-fatal shooting units before moving to homicide, where I spent the majority of my investigative career.
How did you become interested in the field you teach?
After transitioning from law enforcement to academia, I chose to focus my research on crime-related behavior and victimization. My scholarly interests are heavily influenced by my investigative past, except that now, instead of solving crime, my goal is to better understand violent interpersonal processes. I am particularly interested in continuing to study the relationship between physical vulnerabilities and victimization and how coercive crime and violence affects members of vulnerable populations—for example, people experiencing unsheltered homelessness.
What are you most looking forward to about Chatham?
I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to teach at Chatham over the past three semesters. In that time, I have truly enjoyed interacting with students and spending time on Chatham’s campus—it is a remarkable learning environment, and I am looking forward to continuing to be a part of Chatham’s community.
What do you enjoy doing around Pittsburgh?
Pittsburgh is an excellent city for cultural and outdoor activities; I particularly enjoy exploring the parks and woodlands in and around the city. My family and I also spend a lot of time in area museums and Phipps Conservatory.
What can students look forward to in your class?
In-depth conversations about how people interact with one another in social settings, especially (although not exclusively) regarding violence and victimization. In my classes, we also often discuss society’s response to crime. A common theme among my courses is taking complex theoretical concepts and applying them to real world scenarios.
Robert Sroufe
Falk Chair of Socially Responsible Business, Professor of Sustainability
Where are you from?
I grew up in southern Michigan exploring lakes, rivers, and farms. I spent some time during my undergraduate days in Sault Ste Marie, Mich., in the Upper Peninsula, where we averaged over 211 inches of snow a year. I went to Michigan State University for graduate degrees and have been at universities with top-ranked NCAA Division I hockey teams. Before coming here, I helped design and deliver one of the top-ranked MBA Sustainability programs in the U.S.
How did you become interested in the field you teach?
My father was a high school teacher covering classes on Earth science and life science. Woods and a lake were in my backyard, so I was always out exploring both of these environments and in his classroom going over his books. I wrote my first environmental research grant as a junior in high school looking at the impacts of acid rain on glacially formed v.s. man-made lakes. I have always been interested in the intersection of the environment and how humans design systems, interact with those systems, and measure environmental, social, and governance performance. I'm typically interested in the integration of sustainability into high-performance buildings, supply chains, and an enterprise. I'm fortunate to have been able to do this kind of work with scholars around the world and conduct research on these topics in dozens of countries.
What are you most looking forward to about Chatham?
To work with new colleagues and students across programs. I get energized when working with others to figure out issues involving integrated management, business management, and sustainability. I have admired Chatham's ability to develop a school of sustainability ahead of almost all other universities in the States, and I look forward to contributing to multidisciplinary programs.
What do you enjoy doing around Pittsburgh?
The Cultural District downtown and sports venues are a staple. Yet, we are not far from many other options. A couple of hours north, and you can be on the shores of the great lakes, be in the middle of bird migrations, steelhead runs, and greater amounts of snow during the winter, if you want that. An hour south, and the Laurel Highlands provide lots of activities, trails, and streams. Basically, anything that gets me outdoors, i.e., hiking, fishing, skiing, and training working dogs. I work primarily with black labs and hope to bring my dog to campus from time to time.
What can students look forward to in your class?
Someone who is probably too excited to develop experiential learning projects and talk about the opportunities that sustainability provides any enterprise. I want to share the best practices of top corporations, see how corporate social responsibility and sustainability are already part of every business, and work with students to realize new value propositions beyond only looking myopically at profits.