Kalamazoo College will welcome two new tenure-track faculty members this fall, expanding opportunities for students to study neuroscience, molecular biology and contemporary interdisciplinary art practices.
Quinlan Doctrove will join the College as an assistant professor of biology, while Nayda Collazo-Llorens will become an assistant professor of art and art history. Doctrove studies the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying neurological disease. Collazo-Llorens is an artist whose work explores mapping, memory, place, movement and dislocation through printmaking, drawing, painting, digital media, video, and installation works.
At the University of Michigan, Doctrove conducted doctoral research in neuroscience in the laboratory of Miriam Meisler in the Department of Human Genetics. His research included investigating genetic mutations associated with neurodegenerative disease and developing potential therapeutic approaches for FIG4 deficiency, a genetic disorder that affects lysosomal function.
Doctrove earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry with a minor in psychology from the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 2019. As an undergraduate, he conducted research on riboflavin-binding proteins and contributed to the development of a riboflavin deficiency assay.
He also has experience teaching and mentoring students. At Michigan, Doctrove served as a teaching assistant for undergraduate molecular and cellular biology laboratory courses and a graduate-level human anatomy laboratory course. He also mentored undergraduate researchers and participated in programs that introduced high school and middle school students to genetics, neuroscience and hands-on scientific investigation.
Collazo-Llorens has taught at K for more than a decade through a series of part-time and full-time appointments. Most recently, she served as a full-time visiting assistant professor during the 2025–26 academic year.
Collazo-Llorens earned an M.F.A. in studio art from New York University in 2002 and a B.F.A. with distinction in printmaking and graphic design from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 1990. Her recent individual exhibitions include “expand blur collapse”at El Schomburg Espacio de Arte Interdisciplinario in Chicago and “Topografía extendida” at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico in San Juan. Her work also has been exhibited at the University of Michigan’s Stamps Gallery, the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and venues in New York, Miami and other national and international venues. Her work is featured in the book Vaiven: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora (University of Minnesota Press) and Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago, (Duke University Press).
Together, Doctrove and Collazo-Llorens will give K students opportunities to learn from faculty members actively engaged in their fields, from research into the molecular mechanisms of neurological disease to artistic investigations of place, memory and community.
“Quinlan Doctrove and Nayda Collazo-Llorens bring valuable expertise, creativity and a strong commitment to student learning to K,” Provost Danette Ifert Johnson said. “Their work reflects the breadth of inquiry that defines a liberal arts education. We are delighted to have them.”
Ava King ’28 (second from left) was one of three students in Andrew Jensen’s air-quality lab who presented their research during an undergraduate conference at the University of Michigan.
When Ava King ’28 encounters a setback, she doesn’t panic.
As a member of Kalamazoo College’s cross country and track and field teams, she’s accustomed to difficult workouts, races that don’t go as planned, and the persistence required to keep improving. This summer, those same qualities have become just as valuable inside Assistant Professor of Chemistry Andrew Jensen’s research lab.
“There are a bunch of little things that can crop up that you don’t expect,” King said. “I think my experience athletically helps me find more humor in those situations as opposed to getting beat down. I still get frustrated, but being able to process those emotions differently has helped a lot.”
King is a biology major with aspirations for graduate school and a career in marine science. This summer, she is helping Jensen’s lab develop and test low-cost air-quality sensors that measure pollutants such as ozone and particulate matter, along with temperature and humidity. The long-term goal is to support community-based environmental research.
For King, the opportunity has expanded her understanding of how chemistry can intersect with environmental justice while introducing her to new technical skills.
“I’m lucky to be in this lab,” she said. “I feel like the opportunity came up at a good point in my academic career. It was a good way for me to begin to understand what environmental justice means, especially in a chemistry realm. I’m having a lot of fun learning a lot of coding, too, which is new for me.”
Her days vary depending on the stage of the project. Some are spent building and troubleshooting sensor systems. Others focus on determining whether the instruments are collecting reliable data. The team’s current system monitors ozone, particulate matter, temperature and humidity as researchers work toward deploying the equipment outdoors.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Andrew Jensen (second from right) stands with his summer lab students including Ava King ’28 (bottom) with an air-quality monitor they developed.
King measures success less by flawless experiments than by how effectively the team responds when challenges arise.
“I think day-to-day success is whether we can come back from little problems that crop up or things that were confusing,” she said. “Being able to come out the other side and understand it, that’s what it means to be successful.”
That mindset reflects lessons she’s learned as a student-athlete, where progress often comes through perseverance rather than perfection.
The opportunity to explore beyond a single field was part of what King sought at K. Although biology remains her primary academic focus, working in an atmospheric chemistry lab has helped her see connections across scientific disciplines.
“I feel like it fills in a lot of gaps,” she said. “I would like to go to grad school, preferably in some sort of marine science. We’re doing atmospheric chemistry, and the atmosphere and the oceans go hand in hand.”
Although she originally hoped to attend a West Coast university with a marine science program, King said K ultimately proved to be the right fit. She credits the College’s collaborative chemistry department for opening the door to research opportunities early in her undergraduate career.
Balancing research with summer training for cross country and track has been manageable thanks to the flexibility of both pursuits. After spending the day in the lab, she heads out to complete the mileage assigned by her coaches while staying connected with teammates through summer running challenges.
King hopes to continue contributing to the air-quality project throughout her time at K, eventually sharing findings with the community while helping advance the research toward new applications.
Jensen said King’s experience illustrates why student-athletes often thrive in research settings.
“I think Ava hit the nail on the head in terms of research taking a lot of resiliency and perseverance,” Jensen said. “I’d add that it takes a lot of teamwork with the ability to listen to feedback from others, whether that’s a professor, advisor or coach, and then modify what you’re doing to become better. In this lab, we’re working together toward one common goal.”
Those qualities make student-athletes valuable contributors in the laboratory, where breakthroughs rarely happen without persistence, collaboration and a willingness to learn from every challenge. For King, the same determination that carries her through miles on the course is helping move scientific discovery forward one experiment at a time.
On most fall mornings, Mallory Gentry ’28 and Simran Magnan ’29 can be found at swim practice or lifting weights. This summer, however, they’re in a chemistry lab at Kalamazoo College, working alongside Daniela Arias-Rotondo, the Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Endowed Chair in Natural Science, on research into manganese-based coordination complexes that could one day help improve solar energy technology.
Gentry, a swimmer from Pendleton, Indiana, and Magnan, a soccer player from Northville, Michigan, are both members of Arias-Rotondo’s lab, where they’re working to synthesize new compounds that absorb visible light.
According to Arias-Rotondo, the goal is to make new manganese compounds that might prove useful for capturing sunlight—compounds no one has made before.
Magnan, who was on crutches recovering from surgery, started her summer away from the lab bench, instead digging through research articles to help chart the lab’s next steps.
“I’m more so on the computer looking at research articles, trying to figure out next steps and what different types of ligands that we could use for these new molecules,” she said.
Both students say the extended, uninterrupted stretch of summer research, compared with the single weekly session they typically manage during the school year, has let them dig deeper into their projects.
“It gives me the time to actually do more things and be able to look into it,” Gentry said.
For Magnan, the structure of summer research keeps her connected to chemistry through the offseason. “It keeps me engaged and focused to slide right back into chemistry in the fall,” she said.
Both students found their way to Arias-Rotondo’s lab well before this summer. She was the first chemistry instructor at K for both, and both say their working relationship grew out of office hours conversations that started as early as freshman year.
“I really enjoy working with Dr. DAR,” Gentry said, referring to how students affectionately address Arias-Rotondo. “She’s very good at explaining things and open to questions. She’s very easy to talk to.”
Magnan agreed.
“The way that she teaches really works well for me,” Magnan said. “She gives us a couple first steps and then has us try it on our own. Later, we’ll come back to her and ask questions because she’s always available for questions, without giving away how to do something.”
For Arias-Rotondo, having student-athletes in her lab isn’t a scheduling accommodation, it’s an asset.
“Having student-athletes in the lab is awesome because they know how to fail and recover from failure, which is so important in research,” she said.
With a research success rate she estimates at around 20 percent, resilience matters, Arias-Rotondo said.
“They already have that resilience, that willingness to just pick yourself back up and try something again,” she said, adding that athletes also tend to bring strong time-management skills to the lab. “They already have some incredible qualities that they’ve learned through sports that can translate.”
Both students see the connection clearly in their own experience. Magnan described a similar overlap between soccer and chemistry.
“Coming at it from a soccer angle versus coming at it from a chemistry angle just provides more opportunities and strategies for me to approach problems,” she said. “That skill building is probably what I’m going to remember more than the chemistry or the soccer combined.”
Arias-Rotondo said she thinks carefully about lab chemistry of a different kind: how her students work together.
“I think the lab is more like the swim team, where in most cases they have their own events, but they are still rooting for each other,” she said. “A win for one of them is a win for all of us.”
She praised both students’ work ethic and problem-solving under pressure, noting that when experiments don’t go as planned, they think about their next step and how something can work the next time.
Both students say K’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and its emphasis on undergraduate research, played a role in their decision to enroll at K. Their advice to fellow students weighing whether to pursue summer research: do it.
“It gives you time to fully focus on what you’re doing and learn, and also gives you a community in the science,” Gentry said.
Magnan echoed the sentiment: “You get to go so much more in depth and get much more individualized learning. There’s just so much growth possible.”
For Magnan, the summer has also offered an unexpected benefit beyond the science.
“Being here has been so much better mentally for me than being at home, just on the couch,” she said of recovering from her surgery in the lab rather than away from campus. “It really gives my brain something else to focus on.”
Sara Cate Finks ’27 is one of three student-athletes performing summer research alongside Dwight Williams, the Kurt D. Kaufman Associate Professor of Chemistry.
At 10 p.m., when many college students have called it a day, Sara Cate Finks ’27 is still waiting on worms.
The rising Kalamazoo College senior and distance swimmer isn’t pulling a late night because of an upcoming exam. The microscopic C. elegans she studies operate on their own biological clock, meaning experiments happen when they’re ready, not when it’s convenient.
It’s the kind of schedule that might overwhelm some students. But for Finks, and a growing number of student-athletes at K spending their summers in chemistry labs, it’s simply another example of the discipline, adaptability and persistence they’ve already learned through athletics.
Finks works in the research group of Dwight Williams, the Kurt D. Kaufman Associate Professor of Chemistry, known affectionately to his students as Dr. D. Her project uses microscopic worms to study neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. By tracking how the worms respond to their environment, she can measure changes in memory and determine whether experimental drugs might reverse the effects of disease-related genetic mutations.
Her path to the project began with a simple question from Williams after she completed his organic chemistry course.
“How do you feel about worms?” He asked.
“Worms are fine,” Finks replied.
That answer launched a research experience that now shapes her summers, informs her academic future and serves as the foundation for her Senior Integrated Project.
Finks’ willingness to adapt to unpredictable schedules is one reason Williams believes student-athletes often thrive in research environments.
“It’s beneficial because it just gives us another perspective on the student experience and how students are actually making the most out of the K-Plan as a whole,” Williams said. Their presence in the lab, he added, also helps other students see what’s possible when they pursue multiple passions at K.
Just a few feet away from Finks, two fellow student-athletes also are hard at work in the Williams lab.
Julia Kozal ’27, a member of the women’s lacrosse team, is synthesizing an asymmetric maleimide derivative, a natural-product compound connected to antimicrobial resistance. Her goal is to create four versions of the molecule and test how small structural changes influence its ability to combat bacteria.
Landrie Fridsma ’27, a softball player, is spending her second summer in Williams’ lab synthesizing chromone compounds that may help protect neurons from damage associated with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The compounds are designed to interact with receptors in the brain that help prevent harmful calcium buildup linked to neurodegeneration.
Although their projects differ, all three students share something beyond chemistry: experience balancing demanding commitments.
Ask Williams what sets student-athletes apart in the lab, and time management comes immediately to mind. In a research environment where experiments, reactions and data collection often unfold simultaneously, Williams said athletes arrive with an understanding of how to organize their schedules and remain productive amid competing priorities.
Landrie Fridsma ’27
Julia Kozal ’27
Sara Cate Finks ’27
The students see the connection, too. Fridsma, who regularly spends full days in the lab during the summer, credits softball with teaching her persistence as much as planning. She also values the collaborative atmosphere among her fellow researchers.
With several student-athletes working in the lab, questions often get answered through conversations with peers before anyone seeks out Williams. Kozal traces her own approach to research directly to lessons learned on the lacrosse field.
“I am a very goal-oriented person, so having that and having determination, and not really wanting to quit ever is helpful,” she said.
Long days in the lab don’t feel unusual, she added. The same mindset that gets her through early morning practices helps her push through difficult experiments.
Finks sees a similar connection between swimming and science. Having competed for 18 years, she says athletics taught her to finish what she starts.
“Once I start a project, I need to get to the end of it,” she said. “It’s the same thing with swimming. Once I start a race, I have to finish that race. There’s no stopping halfway through.”
For Williams, their experiences illustrate the opportunities K students have to pursue multiple interests without having to choose between them—including demanding research and college athletics.
“Our students get a chance to do both,” Williams said.
Beyond the science itself, all three students describe the lab as a community built on mentorship, trust and encouragement.
Kozal returned to Williams’ lab for a second summer because she wanted to continue a project she had already begun. She credits him with helping students become more independent and confident researchers. Fridsma agrees.
“He definitely pulls the best out of each and every one of us, and he takes the time to learn all of us and how we perform best,” she said.
Williams sees those relationships as one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
“I think they add an aspect of diversity to my lab in particular,” he said of his student-athletes. “It’s a lot of fun.”
For Finks, Kozal and Fridsma, the summer has reinforced a lesson they first learned through athletics: meaningful progress rarely happens all at once. Sometimes it’s measured in a faster race. Sometimes it’s measured in a successful experiment. And sometimes it’s measured at 10 p.m., waiting for a tray of microscopic worms to be ready.
For generations of Kalamazoo College students, Professor Emeritus Ahmed Hussen was more than a teacher of economics. His titles and honors tell part of the story: longtime chair of the department, founder of the College’s environmental studies concentration, inaugural Edward and Virginia Van Dalson Endowed Professor of Economics, and recipient of the Florence J. Lucasse Lectureship for Excellence in Teaching, K’s highest teaching honor. But what students remember is what the titles alone can’t capture: a professor who challenged them intellectually while earning their admiration through his generosity, mentorship, and genuine interest in their success.
Now, in The Dessie Kid, Hussen traces his path from his childhood in Dessie, Ethiopia, through an academic career that spanned continents, including a year as a visiting scholar at Waseda University in Japan, two semesters at Africa University in Zimbabwe, and a Fulbright year at the University of Botswana. The memoir offers a deeply personal reflection on resilience, gratitude, family, and the people who shaped his life. We spoke with Hussen about what inspired him to write the book, what it was like to revisit decades of memories, and what he hopes readers, especially those in the K community, will take away from his story.
What inspired you to write this memoir at this point in your life?
I felt compelled to write this memoir to understand how a boy from an unlikely corner of Ethiopia—the first in his family to attend public school, at a time when secular education was still in its infancy, and raised by uneducated parents—found his way to a life in academia in the United States. Coming from a Muslim household, I faced even greater odds; public schools were often viewed with suspicion, perceived as not entirely secular and influenced by Christian teaching. Reaching this stage of life made reflection feel not only natural but necessary—a chance to look back with honesty and gratitude.
Although my story echoes familiar immigrant narratives, I did not write it to celebrate personal achievement. If anything, I wanted to challenge the idea of the “self-made” life. My journey has been shaped by luck, serendipity, and the generosity of people—and institutions—who appeared at exactly the right moments. Writing this book allowed me to honor them and acknowledge that I did not walk this path alone.
I wrote it for my family, who deserve to know the forces that shaped our story, and for the many individuals and institutions—teachers, mentors, schools, colleagues, friends, students—whose kindness and support changed the course of my life. In telling it, I hoped to understand not only what happened but also what sustained me: resilience, discipline, and the quiet mystery of how opportunity and human generosity can change a life.
Looking back across your life, were there themes or surprises you didn’t fully recognize until you began writing?
When I began writing this book, my intention was modest: to reflect on a few major turning points in my life. Halfway through, I realized I was writing an autobiography—a chronological account of my life’s journey. The book became both a narrative of events and a reflection on the lessons each stage offered. The anecdotes that appear throughout were not planned; they emerged naturally as I wrote, revealing a voice I had not fully recognized as my own.
Another surprise was that the chapters about my 34 years at Kalamazoo College became an informal history of the institution from 1985 to 2019. While I verified many of the factual details, I am aware that others may remember events differently.
What I did not anticipate was that writing would reveal deeper patterns—how often adversity redirected my path, how profoundly my life was shaped by the communities I belonged to, and how intertwined my personal and professional identities have always been.
Your years at K were a significant part of your professional life. How did your experiences shape the person reflected in this memoir?
My experience at Kalamazoo College shaped me in more ways than I can capture in a single answer. A few examples illustrate this:
Hussen in his office in 1999.
Book Cover for “The Dessie Kid.”
Ahmed Hussen with his grandchildren.
K was the first institution where I felt fully accepted, supported, and appreciated for who I was and for what I contributed. The collegial environment sustained me from my first year through the day I retired, giving me a sense of belonging that shaped my confidence as a teacher and scholar.
The students at K—curious, well-prepared and generous with their feedback—kept my passion for teaching alive. Their seriousness about learning pushed me to grow, and their kindness often lifted me more than they realized.
K offered me opportunities to develop as a leader, to engage in transformative international teaching and scholarship, and to participate in interdisciplinary work that ultimately led to my environmental economics textbook. These experiences broadened my intellectual horizons and helped shape the educator I became.
Looking back, I realize that K did more than shape my career; it deepened my commitment to students and gave me a professional home where my values and work could fully align.
As you reflect on your years at K, were there particular students, colleagues, or moments that stayed with you?
It is difficult for me to single out individuals, but certain students and moments have stayed with me. I was especially moved by students who arrived unsure of themselves and gradually discovered their abilities. Watching them grow in confidence and competence over their four years at K was one of the most rewarding aspects of my career. Their progress reminded me why teaching mattered so deeply to me.
I was also fortunate to work in a collegial culture that, in many ways, defined the institution’s character. Many colleagues played important roles in my development as a teacher and scholar, and I express my gratitude to them in the book. Of course, there were moments when I encountered attitudes that did not align with my values, but even those experiences taught me about leadership, humility, and the kind of colleague I aspired to be.
One of the most significant and impactful transformations I witnessed was K’s evolution from a predominantly white, Eurocentric institution to a more diverse and inclusive community. To live through that change—and to contribute to it in my own way—remains one of the defining experiences of my time at the college.
These students, colleagues, and moments taught me patience, resilience, and the profound privilege of being part of a community that was continually learning to become better.
How did your relationships with students influence your thinking—not only as a professor but as a person?
Throughout my teaching career, I was fortunate to build relationships with students grounded in trust, respect, and genuine care. Over time, I came to understand that these relationships shaped not only my approach to teaching but also my understanding of myself. They taught me that character—the quiet consistency of how one shows up—is the foundation of any meaningful teacher-student bond.
I was never known as an easy grader, yet students accepted my high expectations because they trusted my intentions. They believed I wanted them to grow, not merely to perform. Through them, I learned that challenge, when offered with clarity and goodwill, is not a burden but a gift. Their willingness to meet that challenge reshaped my thinking and affirmed that rigor and compassion are not opposites but partners.
As a person, I found these relationships humbling. They reminded me that influence is earned, not assumed; that young people respond not to authority but to authenticity; and that learning is most powerful when shared. Nothing has been more rewarding than hearing from former students who later recognized the value of being pushed, supported, and believed in. Their reflections taught me that the impact of teaching often reveals itself long after the classroom lights are off.
In this way, my students shaped my thinking as deeply as I shaped theirs. They made me a more patient teacher, a more attentive listener, and, I hope, a better human being.
Did writing about your own experience change the way you think about your career or the impact you have had?
Writing about my experience did not fundamentally change how I think about my career, but it sharpened and clarified what I had long sensed. My entry into teaching was never planned. I became a teacher almost by accident, despite having been trained exclusively as a researcher with strong empirical skills and no formal preparation for the classroom. Yet within two years of teaching at Allegheny College, where I taught before coming to K, I realized that what had begun as a career experiment had revealed my true calling. Nothing since has made me imagine a life outside teaching.
Revisiting these early years helped me see more clearly how I learned to reconcile two commitments I once feared were incompatible: the demands of full-time teaching at a small liberal arts college and the scholarly work that fed my intellectual curiosity. I had assumed one would inevitably crowd out the other. Instead, I discovered that teaching and research could inform and strengthen each other, though doing so required imagination and a willingness to shape my scholarly agenda around the rhythms of the classroom.
What the memoir distilled for me was the coherence of that journey. One of the accomplishments I value most is finding a way to build a career in which my teaching and scholarly lives were not competing forces but mutually sustaining. Writing the memoir helped me see that this alignment was not accidental at all, but a steady and shaping force throughout my professional life.
After spending so much time looking back, what lessons or perspectives feel most important to share with the next generation of students and faculty?
Looking back, the lesson I most want to share with students is simple: never underestimate the power of a liberal arts education. It prepares you not only for a career but also for a lifetime of learning, adaptation, and curiosity. I have found nothing more reliable for navigating an uncertain future. This does not diminish the value of vocational preparation; during my 17 years as department chair, I worked to integrate business courses into a liberal arts framework. It is challenging but deeply worthwhile.
To my faculty colleagues, I offer a reminder shaped by both history and experience. K has always been a resilient institution. Over its long history, it has weathered repeated cycles of financial strain—patterns driven by forces larger than the college itself. I witnessed this over my 34 years at K, and I write about it in my book. Through every downturn, the college has held fast to its core mission: a high‑quality liberal arts education.
We are again in a difficult moment, one shared by many small liberal arts colleges, especially as the very idea of liberal arts education faces public skepticism. Yet I have no doubt that K will endure this period as it has others and will ultimately emerge stronger. My advice to faculty and staff is steady and sincere: do not lose hope in K.
At the same time, looking ahead requires honesty about challenges that are not simply financial. My experience taught me that a collegial environment is vulnerable to slippage, and it’s something I hope the community will continue to guard against. Collegiality is not a luxury; it is the quiet foundation that allows a liberal arts institution to thrive.
I am also mindful of a deeper, more existential challenge: the rapid introduction of AI into learning and teaching. When the internet became widespread at the dawn of the 21st century, I worried about what it meant for a teacher who preferred chalk and blackboard. But the scale of today’s transformation is different. AI has the potential to fundamentally alter how knowledge is acquired and transmitted—an unknown, unfamiliar, and largely untested field. It is not a threat in the budgetary sense, but in the intellectual and pedagogical sense. My hope is that K will approach this moment with both caution and imagination, preserving the human core of education even as new tools reshape its landscape.
What has your latest chapter of life looked like since retiring?
Since retiring, my life has taken on a different but deeply meaningful direction—caring for my grandchildren, continuing my lifelong learning, and traveling when time allows, accompanied by my lifelong partner. I also devote a good deal of time to caring for my aging body through regular physical exercise, which has become an essential part of my daily routine.
How long did this project take, and where can readers find a copy of The Dessie Kid?
It was a long journey. Although the project spanned nearly six years, most of the writing happened over the past two. The book was never intended for commercial purposes. That is why I chose to self-publish through Palmetto Publishing, which allowed me to retain full copyright ownership while producing a professionally edited, high-quality book, and to manage distribution myself. These decisions were not cheaper or easier—quite the opposite. However, they gave me complete control over the process, from content to final production.
I believe the result is a substantive, thoughtfully crafted book, produced with care and intention. For those who wish to read it, the book can be ordered directly from the website created exclusively for its distribution: dessiekid.com.
For my colleagues and former students, if a signed copy would add a personal touch to your reading, I would be glad to provide one. You may contact me at ahmed@dessiekid.com. Lux Esto!
Kalamazoo College has awarded tenure and promotion to Daniela Arias-Rotondo and Manfa Sanogo, recognizing years of their excellence in teaching, scholarly achievements and service to the institution while affirming their long-term roles as leaders in the College community.
Daniela Arias-Rotondo
Arias-Rotondo, the Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Endowed Chair in Natural Science, teaches courses including Introductory Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, and Molecular Structure and Reactivity at K.
Her research focuses on molecules that convert light energy into electricity with broad implications for renewable energy. In 2024, Arias-Rotondo received an American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund grant for her lab’s exploration of photoredox catalysis, a project which explored new uses for petroleum byproducts through these reactions. Her collaboration with Maxwell Rhames ’25 on alternative metals for more affordable solar panels earned an honorable mention in the 2024 Division of Inorganic Chemistry Award for Undergraduate Research, which recognizes research that students and faculty perform in tandem.
This academic year, working under Arias-Rotondo’s guidance, Will Tocco ’26 was one of just six undergraduates nationwide selected from more than 1,400 nominees to present at the ACS Presidential Symposium in Atlanta.
Tocco and Rhames are two of 36 students who have worked in Arias-Rotondo’s lab in her years at K. Tocco and Rhames both were also among the students who benefited from a $250,000 grant she received in 2023 from the National Science Foundation’s Early-Career Academic Pathways in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences (LEAPS-MPS) program, which has provided funding for about eight to 10 student researchers per term.
Arias-Rotondo was recognized by the College in 2025 with the First-Year Advocate Award. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University.
Daniela Arias-Rotondo
Manfa Sanogo
Sanogo joined K as an assistant professor in 2020, bringing experience as a teaching assistant, lecturer and research fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Sorbonne Universités and École Normale Supérieure in Paris, and Florida State University.
Sanogo has recently taught courses at K such as Beginning French, Intermediate French, French Conversation and Composition, Indian Ocean Literature and Culture, and Afro-Perspectives. He earned a Chateaubriand Fellowship from the French Embassy in the U.S. in 2018 for a project highlighting how Madagascar’s Indigenous literature has shaped innovation in French-language literature while aiming to foster greater scholarly interest in the Indian Ocean as an important literary center. In 2022, he completed a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship at University College of Dublin.
He has also been among the conveners of Africa Month events at the College over the last two years. The series brings world-renowned scholars, artists, filmmakers and performers from four continents to Kalamazoo for lectures, art exhibits, community conversations, meals and joyful music.
Sanogo holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University.
Archivist Lisa Murphy ’98 reviews some of the materials she gave students for Novels and Podcasts, a class that incorporated the Charles Dickens classic “Bleak House.”
Blindfolded professors dumped in a cornfield. A campus scandal that landed in The New York Times. And a 19th-century Charles Dickens novel with more in common with true crime podcasts than most people would guess. Welcome to Novels and Podcasts, a distinctive new English course at Kalamazoo College.
The winter course, led by Professor of English Ryan Fong, drew students from across disciplines into a conversation about how serial storytelling works and why it still resonates today. At the center of the syllabus sat Dickens’ Bleak House, an 1852–53 masterwork about an inheritance lawsuit, tangled secrets and systemic injustices in Victorian England. Students compared it with groundbreaking true-crime podcasts such as Serial, which has captivated millions with its own drip-feed of suspense, scandal and revelation.
The parallels, it turns out, were hard to ignore.
“Most of Dickens’ novels were written in serialized installments over many months,” Fong said. “In this class, I wanted to explore the continuities between that form of storytelling—when it became popular in the 19th century—and how it shows up today in podcasting, where stories unfold incrementally over time.”
For their final project, students in the course didn’t write papers—they made podcasts. Working in groups, they designed five-episode series using materials from the College Archives before recording episodes in the library’s audio lab. Students used documents, old editions of the Index student newspaper, historical faculty meeting minutes and photographs curated by College Archivist Lisa Murphy ’98 to inform their storytelling. Reference Librarian Kelly Frost also helped students deepen their research through specialized library guides, and Elena Pulliam in the Rare Book Room showed students two serialized versions of works by Dickens: Bleak House and Little Dorrit.
Those archival discoveries became the backbone of their storytelling. The students’ explorations ranged widely across K’s history, but a couple of groups zeroed in on a notorious 1890 campus kidnapping prank so outrageous that it landed in national headlines. Students transformed the episode into serialized audio narratives, echoing the same suspense techniques they studied in Dickens and modern podcasts.
Murphy holds the portrait of William Des Autels.
“The story was that two professors stopped by Upper Hall, which was the men’s dorm,” Murphy said. “They had been invited to the birthday party of student William Des Autels, and when the two professors showed up, a bunch of students burst in, loosely bound their hands, blindfolded them and marched them up past Monroe Street to a cornfield.”
Students at the time testified to trustees that the young professors, who were close to the students’ ages, knew it was a prank and that the situation got blown out of proportion.
“The controversy became more about the punishment, the reaction and the bad publicity for the College,” Murphy said. “William Des Autels, who later became a Baptist minister, was expelled and there were several suspensions.”
Several years later, the College and its faculty board awarded a degree to Des Autels because he had been so close to graduating at the point of his expulsion. But today’s students were attracted to the unusual circumstances.
“It’s fun telling the college’s stories, because a lot of students don’t know about the archives or about the College’s history,” Murphy said. “Watching them have fun and seeing their disbelief, especially at this kidnapping story, was exciting.”
Other students explored different historical narratives. Sarah Guerrero Gorostieta ’28 produced a podcast examining former College President James Stone and his wife, Lucinda Hinsdale Stone, an early feminist advocate for coeducation. In the 1860s, both faced backlash from conservative Baptist leaders and students resistant to progressive ideas, ultimately leading to their departure from the College.
The research inspired Guerrero and helped her feel a deeper connection to Lucinda, the College and K’s history.
“That was only possible because of the deep archival research we had to do,” she said. “This class was extremely valuable to my journalism aspirations because we were given the tools to create a passion project that bridged relevant local history to contemporary questions and conversations.”
She added that the course changed her perspective on literature, making it one of her favorite classes at K so far.
“I never thought I would become as enthralled with Dickens’ work the way I did, but Bleak House, and the themes we explored through the book, helped me understand why pre-20th century literature is worth studying,” she said.
Behind the scenes, teaching assistant James Hauke ’26 kept podcasting operations running. Hauke guided students through the recording process, from the first-time in the studio to final edits, and came away impressed with the course and the students.
“I appreciate that every Dr. Fong class is a conversation, where there are no lectures and 20 people or so are talking to each other,” Hauke said. “Everyone speaks. There’s never one person who’s raising their hand and taking all the questions. Everyone is a part of it, and I think that’s why he loves podcasts so much. They’re just conversations. I’d say the conversations are why Dr. Fong is a great professor.”
From Dickens’ serialized mysteries to student-produced podcasts, the course showed that great storytelling, whether in print or audio, still unfolds one episode at a time. Fong said he will offer the class again, in part because it also showcased campus resources that students might have repeatedly overlooked. Now, they have used those resources to investigate the history of student life and culture, conduct independent research, and evaluate the information they found.
“It was exciting to see students go into the archives and realize the richness of materials there,” he said. “It was equally exciting to see them use the audio lab and develop skills that are going to be increasingly important in the future. Watching students connect literature, history, research and creativity in this way was incredible, especially as they collaborated and engaged with contemporary and historical issues.”
Professor of English Babli Sinha has received a fellowship administrative position sponsored by the Great Lakes Colleges Association as Kalamazoo College’s director of AI and education.
In this role, she will develop guidelines and policies for AI use in conjunction with K’s Gen AI Coordinating team and its Teaching and Learning Committee. Her responsibilities will include developing faculty resources to foster critical thinking about AI and pedagogy; creating opportunities for dialogue about AI technologies among faculty, staff and students; and gathering information about the promises and limitations of AI in various disciplines, divisions and departments.
The GLCA cohort of fellows including Sinha will meet regularly to foster their professional and leadership development while grounded in self-reflection and strategic self-awareness. Together, they will share their learning, successes and challenges on their project and administrative responsibilities with each other.
Sinha will serve through the 2026–27 and 2027–28 academic years.
Professor of English Babli Sinha has received a fellowship administrative position sponsored by the Great Lakes Colleges Association.
Karlyn Crowley will be the 19th president of Kalamazoo College.
Kalamazoo College has named Karlyn Crowley, provost at Ohio Wesleyan University, as its 19th president following a national search. Crowley was appointed by unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees and will succeed President Jorge G. Gonzalez, who will retire on June 30, 2026. She will begin her role as president on July 1, 2026.
“Dr. Crowley is a strategic, innovative, and deeply collaborative leader who brings both intellectual rigor and a bias for action,” said Jody Clark ’80, president of the Board of Trustees and chair of the search committee. “She understands the moment facing liberal arts colleges and has demonstrated the ability to translate bold ideas into meaningful outcomes for students. Just as importantly, she brings an authentic energy and belief in this work that is both compelling and contagious. We are confident she is the right leader to build on Kalamazoo College’s strengths and lead us forward.”
“Kalamazoo College represents what the liberal arts must be right now—rigorous, globally engaged, and deeply connected to the lives students want to lead,” said Crowley. “I am drawn to the K-Plan as a powerful foundation, and I look forward to working with the campus community to build on its strengths in ways that deepen student opportunity, strengthen outcomes, and position K as a national leader in liberal arts education. This is a college with both a remarkable legacy and extraordinary potential.”
As provost of OWU, Crowley has guided a series of transformative academic initiatives, including the university’s first comprehensive general education revision in 50 years, the establishment of a university-wide faculty development center, and the launch of new programs in public health, entrepreneurship, and a nursing pathway. Most recently, she oversaw the introduction of mechanical engineering through OWU’s new Conrades School of Engineering and helped bring comprehensive civil discourse training to campus through a partnership with the Constructive Dialogue Institute.
A champion of student success, she co-led the “Move the Needle” retention initiative, which achieved the largest first-to-second-year retention increase in OWU’s history.
Her work in strategic partnerships and philanthropy reflects a similar focus on access and opportunity. She co-led a transfer agreement with Columbus State Community College that resulted in a 250% increase in transfer enrollment, and helped establish pathways to advanced degrees through articulation agreements with institutions including Case Western Reserve University and Miami of Ohio. She also played a key role in cultivating and securing gifts for OWU’s Smith Center for Faculty Excellence, the Westwood Real Estate and Community Development Program, and the Conrades School of Engineering. Previously, she collaborated with corporations such as Humana, Schneider, and the Green Bay Packers on educational initiatives.
Throughout her career, Crowley has focused on aligning the enduring strengths of the liberal arts—critical thinking, communication, and ethical reasoning—with emerging student needs and evolving career pathways. This approach has been shaped by her experience as both a student and leader within “Colleges That Change Lives” institutions, including Earlham College, Ohio Wesleyan University, and now Kalamazoo College.
Before joining Ohio Wesleyan in 2020, Crowley spent 18 years at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, where she served as the interim assistant vice president for academic affairs, founding director of the Cassandra Voss Center, and professor of English and women’s and gender studies. A frequent speaker and published voice on the value of liberal arts education, she is widely recognized as a thought leader in higher education.
“Dr. Crowley is a fierce and enthusiastic proponent of the liberal arts, with a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing colleges like K today,” said Beau Bothwell, associate professor of music and member of the search committee. “In a large pool of highly accomplished candidates, she distinguished herself with a record of turning vision into positive action. She brings a deep respect for faculty voices and collective governance, and we are excited to work with her as we collectively help the K-Plan evolve for the future.”
Crowley holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in English and women’s studies from Earlham College. Crowley and her family—spouse John Pennington and their daughter, Ada—look forward to joining the Kalamazoo community.
The College’s presidential search process included a series of listening sessions for campus and community members, as well as a comprehensive survey to collect feedback and input. The Presidential Search Committee was composed of alumni trustees, faculty, staff, and students. The committee was assisted by DSG Storbeck, a leading academic executive search firm, and chaired by Clark.
The College will hold an event introducing Crowley to the K community on May 18 at 11 a.m. in Stetson Chapel. The event will be in-person for faculty, staff, and students and livestreamed. A link to the livestream will be available at the presidential search website.
About Kalamazoo College
Founded in 1833, Kalamazoo College is a nationally recognized liberal arts and sciences college located in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Through the K-Plan, its signature approach to education, students design a personalized path that combines rigorous academics with study abroad, undergraduate research, career and civic engagement, and a Senior Integrated Project. Known for its global, experiential approach to learning, Kalamazoo College is a member of Colleges That Change Lives and is included on The Princeton Review “Best Colleges” and “Best Value Colleges” lists. Learn more at kzoo.edu.
Kalamazoo College students, faculty and alumni attend the American Chemical Society (ACS) Conference. Pictured (from left) are Caden Frost ’26, Will Tocco ’26, Baylor Baldwin ’26, Ellen Robertson ’08, Ava Schwachter ’27, ACS president-elect Christina Bodurow ’79, Associate Professor of Chemistry Blakely Tresca, Bea Putman ’26, Devi DeYoung ’26 and Christopher Aldred ’26.
Will Tocco ’26 joined an elite group this spring as one of just six undergraduates nationwide selected from more than 1,400 nominees to present at the American Chemical Society’s Presidential Symposium in Atlanta.
Tocco’s selection came through two pathways. He had already been approved to present at a specialized inorganic chemistry symposium at the ACS National Meeting, one of the field’s premier annual gatherings. Separately, because Kalamazoo College offers an ACS-certified degree, the chemistry department was invited to nominate a student for the Presidential Symposium and put Tocco’s name forward.
“I felt very honored,” Tocco said. “It was a great experience to network, meet people and learn how professionals found their way, because I’m still figuring out what I want my career to look like.”
Roger F. and Harriet G. Varney Assistant Professor of Chemistry Daniela Arias-Rotondo and Dorothy H. Heyl Professor of Chemistry Regina Stevens-Truss nominated Tocco. For Arias-Rotondo, sending students to conferences is central to her lab’s mission.
“Every opportunity for students to share their work and practice presenting is valuable,” she said. “Conferences give them the chance to get feedback from experts in the field and expose them to perspectives they may not encounter on campus.”
One highlight of the experience was a private reception hosted by the ACS president the evening before the symposium, where Tocco mingled with leading scientists and industry professionals. He met a senior scientist from Pfizer, the president of the Goldwater Foundation and the president of the ACS. He also connected with ACS president-elect Christina Bodurow ’79, a K alumna and member of the College’s Board of Trustees.
Absorbing Light, Moving Electrons
The opportunity stemmed from research Tocco has been developing in Arias-Rotondo’s lab at the intersection of chemistry and renewable energy. Building on work started by Maxwell Rhames ’25, he has helped develop single-molecule dyes capable of absorbing light and converting it to electricity, an approach with potential applications in next-generation solar panels and hydrogen fuel production.
“They can be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then you can burn that hydrogen as a fuel source,” Tocco said.
Tocco synthesized one such complex and demonstrated that it can move electrons through nearly every step of the energy-transfer process.
“It can absorb the light and do everything up until the handoff, but it doesn’t want to release the electron,” he said. “A solar panel needs to absorb light and give off electrons.”
Unlocking that final step by enabling the compound to release its electron and complete the cycle will be the focus of future work in the lab after Tocco graduates. His contributions have already refined procedures for synthesizing key molecules, giving future students a strong foundation to build on.
“Will is a strong synthetic chemist, and his work is opening the door for new students to join this project and make contributions,” Arias-Rotondo said. “It is impossible to overstate his contributions to our research group, both scientifically and personally. He is always willing to support and encourage others.”
Tocco’s presentation was well received, particularly at the inorganic symposium as more of the audience was familiar with the topic. Ahead of the conference, he contacted faculty at the University of Notre Dame, where he will begin his doctoral studies this fall, and one professor made a point to attend.
“He had his own presentation, but he took the time to come see mine,” Tocco said. “That was really inspiring.”
Tocco also earned an honorable mention for the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), a highly competitive award that provides three years of funding for graduate study. Although the honorable mention does not include funding, it is a significant distinction.
“As an undergrad, getting that honorable mention is big because I’m a year behind most others applying,” he said. He plans to apply again next year as a first-year doctoral student.
From Math Major to Chemist
Tocco presents his research at the ACS Conference.
DeYoung presenting at the ACS Conference.
K representatives attend the ACS Conference in Atlanta.
Arias-Rotondo, Bodurow, Frost, Tocco and ACS President Rigoberto Hernandez at the ACS Conference in Atlanta.
Tocco did not arrive at K intending to pursue chemistry. He planned to major in mathematics, entering with dual enrollment calculus credits, before taking General Chemistry I with Arias-Rotondo.
“I just had so much more fun than I did in any other class,” he said. “Even what some might consider boring felt kind of cool.”
On the first day of class, Arias-Rotondo—known to her students as Dr. DAR—mentioned her research and invited interested students to speak with her. By the next term, Tocco had joined her lab, where he has worked since.
“When I first started chemistry, I thought I’d get my bachelor’s degree and find a job,” he said. “But I kept going to conferences, kept learning and realized I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. A lot of that was Dr. DAR’s influence.”
Tocco also credits Associate Professor of Chemistry Blakely Tresca, who organized a group of graduate student mentors to help K students navigate the demanding GRFP application process.
“I wouldn’t have started it without his help,” Tocco said.
The process also strengthened his Senior Integrated Project, as feedback on his grant proposal turned into improvements.
Tocco’s undergraduate experience also has included a Research Experience for Undergraduates fellowship at Duquesne University and a study abroad term in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He will graduate this spring with a major in chemistry and a minor in mathematics.
A Lab Community in Atlanta
Tocco was not the only K student to attend the conference. He was joined by fellow chemistry and biochemistry students Caden Frost ’26, Ava Schwachter ’27, Bea Putman ’26, CJ Aldred ’26, Jack Bungart ’26, Max Plesscher ’26, Baylor Baldwin ’26 and Devi DeYoung ’26, along with Arias-Rotondo and Tresca. The students shared an Airbnb, and the trip became as much a bonding experience as a professional one.
“We went to the Georgia Aquarium, went to dinner, hung out and watched movies,” Tocco said. “It was a great experience to be professionals and also just spend time together.”
That blend of close community and high-level research is what Tocco sees as distinctive about K.
“Kalamazoo College punches above its weight class,” he said. “Our professors are well connected, so if we don’t have an instrument, we know someone who does. I’ve built relationships with all of the chemistry faculty, and that wouldn’t always happen at a larger institution.”
Arias-Rotondo has seen the impact firsthand. After returning from Atlanta, she led students through a debrief, reflecting on what they learned.
“Every time we take students to conferences, colleagues from other schools tell me how well our students present,” she said. “We could see the growth that happened in just a few days.”
Looking ahead, Tocco imagines returning one day to a lab that has continued to evolve.
“It’ll be exciting to see what others build,” he said. “That’s what makes it special.”
