Cornell College is honored to announce and celebrate the tenure and rank promotions of our faculty for the 2025–26 academic year.
Chavan, Goldberg, Goodenberger, and Sagal have achieved tenure, joining Meyer, who received tenure in 2018 and was promoted to full professor this year. Receiving tenure means a committee of their peers and college leaders has thoroughly evaluated their teaching, research, and service to the college. It’s a significant milestone in an academic career.
“We are thrilled to celebrate these distinguished faculty members,” said Kate Kauper, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs. “Their unwavering dedication to our students—as educators, mentors, and advisors—exemplifies their commitment to academic excellence. Through their teaching and research, they continue to shape and advance their disciplines.”
Teaches a range of courses in kinesiology, including Anatomy and Physiology I and II, Human Biomechanics, Exercise Physiology, Nutrition, Intro to Kinesiology, Exercise Testing and Prescription, as well as Cornell’s First Year Seminar. She is an APTA-certified specialist in sports physical therapy and a certified athletic trainer. She received a D.P.T. from the University of Minnesota in physical therapy and a B.A. in education and fitness from Cornell College. Kristi has clinical and research interests in core strength and the female athlete, the prevention and treatment of ACL injuries, and the rehabilitation of pediatric athletes. Her recent student-faculty collaborative research projects have focused on biomechanical analyses utilizing Cornell’s Movement Analysis Lab.
Teaches introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses, including Data Structures and Algorithms, Computer Organization, and Operating Systems. His main research interest is parallel and distributed systems. He is also interested in developing big data applications, designing infrastructure to store and process large datasets, machine learning, and data science. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Auburn University in Alabama.
Teaches introductory and advanced American politics courses, as well as courses in research methods and data analysis. She studies the dynamics of state and local politics in an increasingly nationalized political environment, including partisan conflict between state and local governments. She also frequently contributes as a political analyst on Iowa Public Radio and KCRG-TV9, in addition to other outlets around the state. Goldberg holds a Ph.D. in political science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Teaches a range of microeconomics and applied microeconomics courses, including Principles of Microeconomics, Intermediate Microeconomics, Environmental Economics, Labor Economics, and seminar courses focused on microeconomic topics. He also contributes to Cornell’s Ingenuity Foundations curriculum by teaching the First-Year Seminar. Goodenberger’s research centers on environmental and natural resource economics. His published work includes studies on the economics of invasive species and of air pollution. He is also interested in research about economics pedagogy, particularly designing classroom activities that help students grasp challenging concepts. He has presented his research at numerous conferences and workshops nationwide. He holds a Ph.D. in agricultural, environmental, and development economics from The Ohio State University, specializing in environmental and natural resource economics.
Teaches first-year writing, Social Media and Social Justice, Introduction to Multimedia Writing, Video Games as Literature, Fandom and Fan Fiction, Gothic Monsters, Queering the Restoration, and 18th and 19th-Century British Literature. Sagal’s research interests include eighteenth-century women’s writing, the history of science and scientific literature, and women’s botanical artwork. She published her first book, “Botanical Entanglements: Women, Plants, Literature, and Artwork in the Eighteenth Century,” in 2022. Sagal holds a Ph.D. in English from Tufts University in Massachusetts.