Two LU faculty members promoted
Two Lakeland University faculty members were recently approved for promotion by the LU Board of Trustees.
Jessica Kalmar was awarded tenure and promoted to associate professor of psychology. Cristi Chang was promoted to professor of mathematics.
Chang is Lakeland's senior mathematics faculty member, having joined the faculty in 2005. She has taught numerous courses in mathematics and computer science, she excels in the area of mathematical software and has authored or co-authored numerous Lakeland courses.
Chang is the primary organizer of the annual Devaney high school and middle school math meets, which bring hundreds of students to Lakeland each year. She also organizes Lakeland's Integration Bee and Lakeland's annual badminton tournament.
A member of numerous committees during her time at Lakeland, Chang is advisor to the Math Club and Global Student Association.
Chang has a Ph.D. in mathematics and a master's in computer sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan.
Kalmar, a Lakeland faculty member since 2013, has co-authored and presented several research projects with her students, and she's frequently been a featured speaker on campus and in the community discussing topics ranging from graduate school to Orthodox Jewish tradition.
At Lakeland, her research in the psychology laboratory has focused on stigmatizing attitudes towards individuals who suffer from mental illness. She has also co-chaired the annual Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium and served on numerous committees.
She came to Lakeland from the Yale University School of Medicine, where she served as an associate research scientist in the Mood Disorders Research Program, Psychiatry Department.
Kalmar is the recipient of numerous professional honors and several foundation grants, her research has been published in more than 30 professional journal articles and book chapters and she co-edited a book, "Information Processing Speed in Clinical Populations."
She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and political science from Yeshiva University's Stern College, New York, N.Y., a master's degree in psychology from Queens College, City University of New York and a Ph.D. in psychology with a neuropsychology specialization from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
