Graduate Faculty

Dr. Janice M. Barrett currently serves as professor and the graduate program chair for the communication program at Lasell University in Newton, MA. As the founding chair of the communication department, she developed the University's undergraduate and graduate degree programs in communication. In May 2018, she was the recipient of the Thomas E.J. de Witt Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership.

Professor Luis Lopez-Preciado is an Associate Professor of Communication at Lasell University. He holds a Ph.D., a master's and bachelor's degree in Communication as well as a certificate in Non-Profit Management. Lopez-Preciado has extensive experience in marketing and management as well as experience in the corporate world. He has numerous academic publications on Latinos in the United States and on the advertising discipline of account planning in Spanish speaking nations.

Professor Martin Walsh is certified as a Foreign Service Officer in Asian Languages and Area Studies. Areas of professional interest include managerial excellence in dynamic organizational environments; international business; international economic policy; and managerial entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship. He holds memberships in the Council on Foreign Relations and other policy and commerce based organizations.

Professor Linda Bucci's professional and scholarly interests are in the area of criminal law, with a specialization in the study of violence against women, children, and other disenfranchised groups. She has also developed expertise and interest specifically in the cultural aspects of this social issue having presented two papers internationally on the impact of Muslim migration on domestic violence policy in Europe. The title of her presentation was “A Case in Point: How a European Nation and its Immigrant Population May Differ in Viewing Issues of Criminal Law with Respect to Women.” She has also published and presented at national conferences on the topic of higher education pedagogy and multidisciplinary experiential learning.

Professor Paul DeBole has a B.A. in History from Suffolk University and a J.D. from the New England School of Law. Prior to teaching at Lasell University, he taught Political Science at Bentley University, Suffolk University, and Emerson College. In the past, he has worked for the City of Boston, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and as a campaign aide to Senators John McCain and Lamar Alexander. Currently, he is a consultant to several state and federal agencies.

Dr. Tessa LeRoux's main scholarly work is in the field of gender and family studies. She has published articles in the area of gender role socialization, teenage pregnancy and single parenthood, domestic work and migration, and caregivers and family ideology.

Dr. Kellie Wallace received her PhD in criminal justice and criminology from UMASS Lowell, where she specialized in the criminalization of mental illness and the intersection of the criminal justice and mental health systems.

Dr. Edward Weeks completed his Ph.D., M.A. and B.S. in Criminal Justice at the School of Criminology and Justice Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. While there, he taught multiple courses at the School of Criminology and Justice Studies including corrections, research methods, statistics, and understanding child maltreatment.

Elizabeth Hartmann is a Professor of Education at Lasell. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Universal Design for Learning (UDL) at Boston College, in collaboration with CAST. She is a graduate from the Joint Doctoral Program in Special Education from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. Professor Hartmann is a licensed special educator and has published, presented, and consulted nationally and internationally in her field. In her research, she examines how to support learners with multiple and complex special needs. She also studies the UDL framework and teacher education.

Amy Maynard is a Professor of Education with a special interest in the learning processes of literacy learners of all ages. Her dissertation combined her interests in literacy and pre-service teacher training by using photographs as a vehicle to develop and enhance pre-service teachers' reflective practice. Her interests include the use of trade books in elementary classrooms, providing opportunities for elementary students to develop a passion for reading through embedded curriculum and using reading strategies to support content learning for students in both upper elementary, middle, and high school.

Professor Claudia Rinaldi focuses her work and research on the implementation of comprehensive school reform efforts using evidenced-based models including Response to Intervention, Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports, and Multi-Tier System of Support. Her experience engages educators on how to improve systems and instructional practices for students with reading difficulties who may be at-risk for failure, or those who are English language learners and who may have mild and moderate disabilities.

Dr. Belmore serves as an associate professor of athletic training and the athletic training program director. He comes to Lasell University with more than 15 years of athletic training experience. During his career, Professor Belmore has worked with patients in a number of practice settings including collegiate athletics, professional sports, and secondary schools. Prior to joining Lasell, Professor Belmore was an associate teaching professor and clinical education coordinator at the University of Missouri.

Dr. Sarah Giasullo is an assistant professor of athletic training and coordinator of clinical education and internships for athletic training and exercise science. She completed her Ph.D. in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Springfield College. Prior to Lasell, Dr. Giasullo worked as a full-time assistant professor and program director in physical education at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, MA, and was contracted as the mental performance coach at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Giasullo has also worked as an adjunct professor at Springfield College, Plymouth State University, and the University of Hartford. Further, she has her own mental performance consulting practice and is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant, Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach, and Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certified.

Professor Cristina Haverty presently serves as Associate Vice President of Workforce Development and Global Engagementat Lasell University. Her tenure at Lasell began in 2000, during the initial accreditation phase of the Athletic Training Program. Over the past decade, Professor Haverty has been instrumental in leading the department through several re-accreditation processes to a successful position amongst athletic training programs in the region.

Dr. Neil Hatem's scholarly interests center on mathematics. On his sabbatical in 2018, he volunteered at Lowell, Revere, and Waltham High Schools to improve students' SAT/ACT scores. He noticed that many of the students did not have their own calculators, and raised over $6,000 to provide them with one. His efforts were featured in the Boston Globe, Newton Tab, and on WCVB Channel 5 News. 

Professor Laham joins the faculty as Assistant Professor following one year as Visiting Assistant Professor and eight years as lecturer, teaching in the Athletic Training and Exercise Science programs. Ron is a licensed Athletic Trainer, a certified Personal Trainer, and a certified Strength and Conditioning coach. He has worked at various colleges as an Athletic Trainer and Instructor, including serving as Head Athletic Trainer for Emmanuel College for several years. Ron earned his M.Ed. at the University of Virginia, and he received his B.S. from Northeastern University.

Professor Sarikas has published articles on the development of the mammalian lung and cellular function in the mammalian urinary bladder. He has also written articles on HIV/AIDS awareness and Connected Learning in the classroom. His book Laboratory Investigations in Anatomy & Physiology is being used at colleges and universities across the country. Prior to his position at Lasell University, Stephen Sarikas was a Research Associate at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Assistant Professor of Biology at Boston University, and Research Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Medicine. He has served on grant review panels for the National Science Foundation's Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement Program and has reviewed several textbooks in anatomy and physiology and environmental science. He currently serves as the Chairperson of the Conservation Commission for the city of Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Janet Huetteman is a management consultant focused on helping clients establish, revitalize and position their company and associated teams to drive competitive growth. Janet utilizes proprietary tools, methods and models to identify opportunities for growth and performance issues to build an organizational roadmap for change.

Professor Bruce McKinnon’s professional background has been as a visible GM/COO/CEO in several start-ups, re-starts, turnarounds and family owned companies. His “sweet spot” is to commercialize, scale and make profitable the dreams and ideas of entrepreneurs.

Professor Siddharth Mobar has an MBA from Johnson & Wales University, he also attained his advance management & hospitality education from the School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY & Les Roches, Hotel Management School in Switzerland. He also holds a certificate in the field of Globalization from the University of Oxford, UK and a certificate in Entrepreneurship from Harvard Business School, Boston, MA.

Professor Reilly has taught in both the graduate and undergraduate programs at Lasell University since 2011. He has taught a wide variety of marketing, business, and leadership courses at several colleges in the Boston area, while also working with students outside the classroom in an advisory capacity, as he supervises and mentors graduate-level capstone projects at Lasell.

Prior to her position at Lasell University, Dr. Nancy Waldron held a variety of positions within the small business sector. Her business experience ranges from banking to publishing to manufacturing. She entered the field of Academia as an Assistant Professor at Lesley University and prior to that as an adjunct with the University System of New Hampshire. She currently serves as a reviewer for the Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching developed by the California State University Center for Distributed Learning (CSU-CDL) and the Journal of Online Business. She is also a Visiting Professor at the Fondazione Campus, Lucca, Italy.

Dr. Dan Sargeant brings many years of teaching experience to Lasell in the field of Sport Management, most recently as the Program Chair and Professor at Daniel Webster College in Nashua. In addition to teaching, Dr. Sargeant also designed and constructed new classes and was the internship advisor for both undergraduate and graduate students.

Young-Tae Kim is an Associate Professor of Sport Management. Young has published articles in the area of sport sponsorship, focusing principally on how consumers understand and evaluate sponsorship and sponsors. He has over 13 years of industry experience in the sport field, including five years as director of sport marketing in Hyundai's in-house marketing communication agency, where he oversaw Hyundai Motor Company's international sport marketing programs such as the FIFA World Cup and European football championships. Young has also held senior manager positions in sponsorship sales and media distribution with such global sport agencies as International Management Group and Octagon.