Cornell announces recent faculty promotions
Cornell College is honored to announce and celebrate the promotions of its faculty.
Huan Cai, Lewis Kanyiba, and Amy Gullen have received tenure starting this 2024–25 academic year.
“We are fortunate to have these distinguished faculty members as part of our Cornell community. Their deep commitment to our students—as advisors, mentors, and educators—reflects their dedication to excellence. As accomplished teachers and scholars, they continue to advance their fields through their work and research. Congratulations to all three on their well-deserved tenure appointments,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Ilene Crawford.
Receiving tenure means a committee of their peers and college leaders have thoroughly evaluated their teaching, research, and service to the college. It’s a significant milestone in an academic career and grants them a secure position to remain on the Hilltop for years to come.
Associate Professor of Finance Huan Cai
Cai specializes in finance, with a particular interest in behavioral economics and corporate finance. Her courses include Financial Accounting, Corporate Finance, Investments, Equity Valuation, and Investment Management Seminar. Her most recent studies examine earnings forecasts of financial analysts and provide evidence of cognitive biases such as confirmation bias and contrast effects. She enjoys combining experiential learning and project-based learning in her classroom to engage students and has been working on teaching research projects such as studies on “Self-Assessment of Academic Performance” in recent years. She has also developed two MOOC courses (Massive Open Online Courses) during the past few years while visiting China, with case studies based on her entrepreneurship experience as a co-founder of a start-up company, Yeejee.com, in the early years. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Utah. Cai was a professor at Cornell from 2013–2017 and returned in the fall of 2022.
Associate Professor of Kinesiology Lewis Kanyiba
Kanyiba teaches Elementary and Secondary Physical Education Methods, Health Education Methods, Adapted Physical Education Methods, Measurement and Evaluation in PE and Sports, Motor Learning and Development, Foundations of Kinesiology, and Individual/Family Life Education and Wellness. Kanyiba’s Pedagogical Movement Innovations Research Lab (PMIL) focuses on enhancing the quantity and quality of movement within the elementary curriculum (foundational movement skills & play activities), secondary curriculum (games, sports, dance, and individual performance activities), and out-of-classroom or community activities (unsupervised play, camps & after-school programs) through deliberate planning and instruction, assessment, and advocacy. Kanyiba is very active in the Cornell Summer Research Institute and helps the Cornell community with wellbeing through fitness classes at the SAW. He holds a Ph.D. in physical education–teaching and administration from Springfield College in Massachusetts. Kanyiba has been at Cornell since the fall of 2020.
Associate Professor and Consulting Librarian for Natural Sciences and Technology Amy Gullen
Gullen collaborates with the biology, chemistry, computer science, geology, kinesiology, math & statistics, and physics & engineering departments to provide instruction on library services and discipline-specific assignments, collection development, and other assistance to support their teaching, learning, and research needs. As part of the Academic Technology Studio, she also supports the integration of technology skills into the teaching and learning activities of the college. She enjoys working with courses across many disciplines and supporting students with their projects. Her professional interests include information literacy, community science, and integrating the digital liberal arts into the STEM disciplines. She received her MLIS from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
