McDaniel College Announces New Full-Time Professors

McDaniel College announces three new full-time faculty members have recently joined the college. Allison Kerwin and Mehrshad Mehboudi join McDaniel as assistant professors while Amy Ramnarine has been promoted to her position.

Allison Kerwin of Westminster, Md., joins McDaniel College as assistant professor of biology. Her research interests include host-microbe and microbe-microbe interactions in marine symbioses, environmental microbiology and ecology, environmental interactions and impacts on microbial communities, and microbial physiology. Kerwin’s microbiome research investigating symbiotic microbes that drive biological processes is the next frontier of microbiology. Her students will gain a broad training in current biological research and publish their results, while also acquiring a variety of transferable skills for many different biological and bioinformatic systems.

Kerwin earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Smith College and a master’s degree in biology from Northeastern University’s Three Seas Professional Master’s Program. She also received her Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from the University of Connecticut in August 2017. Her field of study was microbiology, and she entitled her dissertation “Stability, development, and function of a symbiotic bacterial community associated with the reproductive system of the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes.”

Mehrshad Mehboudi of Westminster, Md., joins McDaniel as assistant professor of engineering. He brings five years of experience as a visiting instructor and teacher assistant as well as five years of industry work in industrial boiler and furnace manufacturing companies. His major achievement involved predicting structural phase transition in monochalcogenides monolayers and their properties.

Mehboudi earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Tehran and Iran University of Science and Technology. His engineering background extends with more than five years of firsthand work experience in mechanical engineering. He completed his master’s degree in micro-electronics photonics from the University of Arkansas. In 2019, Mehboudi completed his Ph.D. in micro-electronics photonics from the Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering, University of Arkansas, where he did his dissertation on theoretical and numerical modeling of two-dimensional materials. Two-dimensional materials are a class of material with a thickness of one to a few atoms.

Amy Ramnarine of Owings Mills, Md., has been promoted from visiting assistant professor to assistant professor of economics. Her primary research interests include economic development and applied macroeconomics. Ramnarine’s past personal experiences as an undergraduate mathematics tutor, and graduate teaching assistant have contributed greatly to her desire and passion for teaching. Ramnarine’s approach to teaching is to observe and reflect on her students and adapt her teaching style to their needs. She has taught development economics, intermediate microeconomics, principle of economics, introduction to statistics and economic issues and policy.

Prior to joining McDaniel, she served as an assistant professor and staff advisor at Occidental College in Los Angeles, Calif. Ramnarine earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and a master’s degree in economics from Florida International University. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Florida International University, where she did a dissertation entitled “Essays in Women’s Issues and Economic Development.” Her doctoral dissertation is a series of essays, exploring the relationship between child marriage (marriage before the age of 18) and the health outcomes of children produced from those unions. With her research, her goal is to contribute effective analyses that will help in the formulation of policy geared at enhancing the lives of women and the next generation.

McDaniel College, founded in 1867 and nationally recognized as one of 40 “Colleges That Change Lives,” is a four-year, independent college of the liberal arts and sciences offering more than 70 undergraduate programs of study, including dual and student-designed majors, plus more than 20 highly regarded graduate programs. Its personalized, interdisciplinary, global curriculum and student-faculty collaboration develop the unique potential in every student. A diverse, student-centered community of 1,600 undergraduates and 1,400 graduate students, McDaniel offers access to the resources of Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and is the only American college with a European campus in Budapest, Hungary. www.mcdaniel.edu