The fall semester at Allegheny College is full of momentum between the rollout of two new initiatives making private college education more affordable and accessible, and the announcement of a 20% enrollment increase for the class of 2030.
At the heart of this excitement are the staff and faculty who make up the Allegheny community, and at the top of this academic year, we’re excited to welcome three new faculty members to the Gator family.
David Evenski, Visiting Assistant Professor of Industrial Design
For David Evanski, moving to Meadville was more a homecoming than a fresh start. The Rochester, New York, native received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York, and master’s in industrial and product design at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).
After learning — and teaching — at RIT for a number of years, Evenski took a post at the University of Utah. But Salt Lake City was no replacement for the northeastern U.S., he says.
“I missed the region,” Evenski said. “When I saw the opening for an Industrial Design professor, it seemed a great opportunity both professionally and personally.”
Although Evenski is the newest member of the art department, he initially began his career as an engineer designing satellites in the aerospace industry. When he began his master’s program, though, Evenski was required to more purposefully draw on art and humanities skills.
“Industrial design’s purpose is to create design solutions to help our community, environment, and industry,” Evenski said. “This field inspires me because I can use my technical background to create things for the better good of society.”
When he’s not assisting Art, Science, and Innovation students, you might catch Evenski practicing bass guitar, exploring local trails, or cheering on the Buffalo Bills.
Brett Mullins, Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science
Brett Mullins is not an Allegheny College graduate, even though you might assume so based on his academic history.
As an undergraduate student at Georgia State University, Mullins studied economics and philosophy. He then studied in mathematics and worked as a data scientist building predictive models before pursuing a Ph.D. in computer science from University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“My core research area is trustworthy computing which explores interesting questions about everyday technologies we rely on,” Mullins said. “How can we learn from people’s data without leaking anyone’s sensitive information? How do we accurately represent and effectively communicate uncertainty? Moreover, how do we efficiently compute these things so that they’re usable in practice?”
Allegheny’s multi-disciplinary educational approach was a key draw for Mullins; it mirrors his own winding path through academia. Another alluring feature was the College’s longstanding commitment to faculty-student research mentorship.
“I enjoy the degree of student interaction and close mentorship that a liberal arts college affords,” he added.
The Atlanta native currently roots for the Red Sox and previously was both a cross country runner and barista.
Veronica Kraft, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Allegheny has a new polyglot on campus, but they don’t hold office in Ruter Hall with the World Languages Department. Veronica Kraft speaks four languages aside from English. Two of them were learned exclusively to support her psychology research.
A health psychologist and stress researcher, Kraft studies how experiences in daily life influence health and well-being.
“Much of my current work explores how environmental factors, such as access to green space, may help reduce the negative effects of stress on health and support healthier lives,” she said. “Whether it’s the places where we live, the people we interact with, or the stressors we encounter in daily life, our environments have a profound influence on our experiences and the choices we make.”
After earning her bachelor’s in psychology from Keystone College, Kraft pursued graduate studies in Cognition and Neural Systems — with emphases in health psychology and statistics — at the University of Arizona, receiving both a master’s degree and Ph.D.
Kraft — herself a first generation college student — is most looking forward to casual conversations with students about research, careers, and graduate school that develop into tangible opportunities.
“Looking back, many of the experiences that shaped my career started with someone simply opening a door and encouraging me to walk through it,” Kraft said. “One of the things I value most about teaching is the opportunity to get to know students as individuals and to see the direct impact that education can have on shaping the next generation.”