2020 Creates Speakers
Payal Sharma, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of management in Lee Business School. Her research and teaching interests include power, leadership and stress in organizations. Through her work, she seeks to identify how, and where, people have agency and control in their professional lives, particularly when challenging situations arise. Her current projects examine (1) the career experiences of video models in the hip hop and rap music industry; and (2) how leaders experience and manage workplace trauma. She also conducts workshops and has appeared on national podcasts regarding topics of leadership development, gaining power in the workplace, and mind-body health.
Casey Barber is a doctoral student of epidemiology and biostatistics in the UNLV School of Public Health. Her research areas include respiratory infectious diseases and the health effects of housing. Recently, Casey has had the unique opportunity to put her public health knowledge into practice leading a team of UNLV students conducting COVID-19 contact tracing with the Southern Nevada Health District. Born and raised in Las Vegas, Barber earned her bachelor’s degree from UNLV as a student in the Honors College and later obtained her Master of Public Health degree in epidemiology from San Diego State University. She returned to UNLV to begin her doctoral work and bring her skills home to Nevada. When not studying or working, Casey enjoys playing basketball and spending time with friends and family in a socially distanced setting.
2019 Creates Speakers
Benjamin Morse is a visiting lecturer at UNLV’s Greenspun College of Urban Affairs in the Journalism & Media Studies program. He currently teaches classes in Public Relations and Podcasting, and has also led courses covering Social Media and Integrated Marketing. After graduating from Connecticut College in 2004 with an undergraduate degree in English, Morse moved to New York where he pursued a career in the comic book industry. He began working at Marvel Entertainment in 2007 and spent the next decade rising through the ranks from Assistant Editor of Marvel.com to Editorial Director of Digital Media. In addition to writing and editing content for digital use, Morse helped create and host This Week in Marvel, Marvel’s official podcast, and produced the stop motion animated series Marvel Super Heroes: What The—?! Moving to Las Vegas in 2018, Morse started his new career at UNLV where, in addition to teaching, he helped to found the Rebel Media Group, a professionally guided and student staffed digital media agency. He began attending the graduate program at Greenspun in the fall of 2018 and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in media studies. Morse lives with his wife, daughter, and puppy. In his free time, he still enjoys reading comics and writing or podcasting about them.
Maria Ramos Gonzalez is a Mechanical Engineering doctoral candidate at UNLV. Her goal of starting a smart prosthetics company has taken her through multidisciplinary research including legal studies, robotics, biomechanics, computer programming, bioengineering, and even aerodynamics. Her doctoral research consists of designing, manufacturing, and mechanically testing a custom-fitted knee implant made from an FDA approved biocompatible material (funded in part by the UNLV NSF I-Corps grant). Her undergraduate honors thesis led her to work in a prosthetics clinic where she interacted with patients and tested various prosthesis designs. In her spare time, she competes in hackathons and was the grand prize winner at the Consumer Electronics Showcase (CES) Smart Cities Hackathon in 2017 and Young Innovator Awardee at the BattleBorn Hackathon in 2018. As a first-generation immigrant and college student, she openly shares her academic and personal story to encourage others with similar backgrounds to pursue a STEM education.
David G. Schwartz, the Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs and an instructor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, studies gambling and casinos, video games, Las Vegas, tourism, and higher education. Schwartz has written several books, including Grandissimo: The First Emperor of Las Vegas, Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling, and Boardwalk Playground: The Making, Unmaking, & Remaking of Atlantic City. He has been extensively quoted in the media and featured in television programs. Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Schwartz earned his bachelor’s degree (a double major in anthropology and history) as well as his master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania before receiving his doctorate in US History from UCLA. His academic interest in gambling stems from his hands-on experience in the casino industry as a security officer, surveillance officer, and Mr. Peanut.
2018 Creates Speakers
Celine Ayala, M.A. is a first-generation college student who recently received her Master’s degree in Sociology at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Her master’s work was an ethnography that focused on the ways in which communal relations were formed in Las Vegas through participation in social scenes. Celine spent a little over a year and a half with the Las Vegas Street Car Scene attending car meets, car shows, and street racing events. Her work concludes that the Las Vegas Street Car Scene allows individuals to have a sense of accomplished affiliation that serves as a proxy for communal relations in Las Vegas. She will be pursuing her PhD in Sociology at UNLV where she expects to graduate in the spring of 2022.
Brett Caroline Levner, MFA, is an associate professor of film in the College of Fine Arts. She graduated with honors from New York University and got her start at MTV where she worked her way up from intern to producer on shows like True Life, Diary, Made and My Super Sweet Sixteen. She attended Columbia University’s graduate film program where she became the first woman to win the Coca Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Award. She directed the music video for O.A.R.’s hit song Lay Down, which took home the MTVu Woodie Award for Most Streamed Video and has produced and camera operated on several hit shows including The First 48, Bridezillas, The Shift, Flip This House and Sister Wives. She most recently directed, The Track, a feature film about underage sex trafficking in Las Vegas starring Sam Trammell (True Blood). The film was awarded “Best Local Feature” and “Best First-Time Feature Film Director” at the Las Vegas Film Festival. It is currently available on Amazon Prime. She is the faculty advisor for Cinefemmes, a student organization that supports women in film, and is on the board of the Nevada Women’s Film Festival.
Mark Padoongpatt, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Asian and Asian American Studies and of Interdisciplinary Studies in the College of Liberal Arts. He is also the director of the Asian and Asian American Studies program. His research and teaching interests include Asian American and Pacific Islanders history, race, immigration, food history, and metropolitan history. His book, Flavors of Empire: Food and the Making of Thai America (University of California Press, 2017), traces the rise of Thai food in Los Angeles and how it became central to Thai American identity and community. He is currently working on two research projects: one on the history of health inspections of Asian restaurants in the United States; another on post-World War II Asian American suburban culture. He is also launching a podcast series that will highlight the lives and histories of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Las Vegas.
2017 Speakers
Finley Cotrone, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in Residence in the Harrah College of Hotel Administration. She is also the faculty advisor for the UNLV chapter of The National Society of Minorities in Hospitality. Prior to joining UNLV, Finley built a career in the hospitality industry. Her areas of expertise are in leadership and management development, service culture development, the emotion sciences as they relate to service, and diversity. Joining the academic community was a natural step and has combined her passions for service, education, and the application of exciting research.
Samuel Song, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of School Psychology in the College of Education. His research focuses on strategies that promote healthy school cultures and climates for all children including the "ecological minority." Current projects focus on preventing school bullying and reducing racial/ethnic discipline disparities through the implementation of restorative justice practices, and he seeks to advance social justice in school psychology and psychology broadly. He enjoys talking to students who may be interested in pursuing careers in psychology, education, and school psychology.
Anita Tijerina Revilla, Ph.D. is an activist scholar, artist, and associate professor and director of Gender and Sexuality Studies and Interdisciplinary Degree Program. Her research focuses on student movements and social justice education, specifically in the areas of Chicana/Latina, immigrant, feminist and queer rights activism. Her expertise is in the areas of Jotería Studies, Chicana/o Education, Chicana and Women of Color Feminism, and Critical Race/Ethnic Studies. In her personal and professional life, she is an activist of social justice.
Michael Green, Ph.D. is an associate professor of history at UNLV and teaches classes for both the history department and the Honors College. His courses range throughout U.S. history, but his teaching and research particularly focus on Las Vegas and Nevada history, the Civil War era and Abraham Lincoln, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He has authored books and articles about Nevada and Las Vegas, as well as three books on the Civil War era. He is a columnist for Nevada’s Washington Watch and Vegas Seven, and writes “Nevada Yesterdays”, for KNPR and Nevada Humanities, and is a board member for The Mob Museum.