Provost Office Staff
Nii Kpakpo Abrahams serves as the the inaugural Director of the First Year Experience, where he sits between academic affairs, student affairs, and enrollment management to ensure all areas are working cohesively to create intentional systems that cultivate belonging and connectedness for all first-year students on campus. He is extremely passionate about helping college students discover, develop, and deploy their gifts and passions.
Prior to his work at Butler, Nii was the Director of Orientation and First Year Experience at Anderson University (IN) and has held other roles in higher education including Asst. Director of Admissions at Anderson, and COM adjunct faculty at Ivy Tech, SNHU, and Missouri State University. In addition to his work in higher education, he has experience as a Communication and Content Strategist for a national non-profit, a Digital Marketing Manager for an east coast branding agency, and currently serves as a volunteer staff pastor at a local church. He holds both his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Communication from Missouri State. His thesis work centered on organizational assimilation on a city-wide scale and how municipalities can aid in creating the best environments for young professionals to live and thrive. In his downtime, you can find him spending time with his wife and daughter, playing Monopoly Deal, and searching for the best donut shops in Indianapolis.
Carol manages platforms associated with student success management, faculty activity reporting, student course surveys, and more.
- EAB Navigate
- Class Climate
- Interfolio Faculty Activity Reporting
- Modern Campus Curriculog
Education:
- Bachelor of Music Education, University of Louisville
- Master of Public Affairs, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Outside Butler:
- Singer; Teaching Artist; Arts Curriculum Writer; Non-Profit Consultant (Marketing, Program Development/Assessment, Systems Design, etc.)
Academic/Professional/Personal Focus
Areas of Expertise
Broadly: Health communication, public relations and advertising, strategic communication for nonprofit organizations. Specifically: Media coverage (mass and social media) of health risks and health crises, including international (comparative communication studies in Japan and Hungary). Public health campaigns and effectiveness. Food safety regulation and environmental safety regulation (media coverage).
Contributions: (published works or studies, conference presentations)
Published articles on mass communication and health communication in national and international academic journals including Health Communication, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, International Communication Gazette, plus in book chapters in medical serials; presented over 35 peer-reviewed research papers at regional, national, and international academic conferences.
Butler Assignment (classes or work duties)
Have taught a variety of courses in public relations and advertising, including a service-learning public communication campaigns course and a public health campaigns honors course.
Personal Hobbies
Running, traveling, reading, writing.
Education/Experience
Education/Degrees
B.S. Journalism (Advertising), University of Kansas; M.S. Communication (Mass Communication), Purdue University; Ph.D. Communication (Health Communication/Mass Communication), Purdue University.
Association Memberships (professional/educational)
National Communication Association (and several affiliations and divisions), Public Relations Society of America
Professional Experience
Corporate and nonprofit public relations and advertising
Education
-BS honors in Biological Sciences-University of Zimbabwe
-MS in Biology-Indiana University of Pennsylvania
-PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology-University of Oklahoma Health Science Center
-Postdoc -University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Courses
– Principles of Drug Action 1, 2 & 3
-Precision Medicine Elective
Research interests
Biomarker discovery, pharmacogenomics, cancer biology, precision/personalized medicine, molecular signaling, mechanisms of drug action, RNA biology (alternative mRNA processing) , next-generation sequencing (Illumina RNA Seq. and PACBIO Iso. Seq.).
Select Service and Awards
-National Institutes of Health (NIH) Molecular Oncology Study Section standing member/reviewer 2021-2027
-2020 New Investigator Award American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
-2017-2018 Butler University Outstanding Professor of the Year
Publications
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=masamha+cp
Invited/Selected Talks at National Conferences
* Presenter
1. Title:The role of alternative polyadenylation in cancer. C. Patience Masamha*. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) post-transcriptional control of gene expression: Mechanisms of RNA decay conference. Scottsdale, Arizona. June, 2018.
2. Title:Multiple mechanisms driving alternative polyadenylation of cyclin D1 (CCND1) pre-mRNA processing. C. P. Masamha* and E.J. Wagner. RNA recognition and regulation symposium. Experimental Biology/ American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting. San Diego, California. April 2018.
3. Title: Evading miRNA regulation through alternative polyadenylation in glioblastoma. Chioniso Patience Masamha*, Zheng Xia, Jingxuan Yang, Todd Albrecht, Scott Collum, Min Li, Wei Li, Ann-Bin Shyu and Eric J.Wagner. Symposia on Cancer Research 2014. Illuminating Genomic Dark Matter “ncRNA in Disease and Cancer”, MD Anderson Cancer Center. Houston, Texas. October 2014.
4. Title: CFlm25 links global change in APA to cell growth control and glioblastoma survival. Masamha C.P*., Xia Z., Albrecht T.R., Li W., Shyu A-B., and Wagner, E.J. RNA 18th Annual Conference. Davos, Switzerland. June 2013.
Masamha Lab Website
Director of Academic Affairs for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Faculty Director of Butler in Asia Program, Center for Global Education
Su-Mei Ooi joined the Department of Political Science and Peace & Conflict Studies program in 2010, shortly before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto with a joint specialty in international relations and comparative politics.
Prior to settling down in Indianapolis, Ooi studied and worked in many different parts of Asia, Europe, and North America. Her lived experiences have shaped Ooi into a dedicated educator who believes strongly in the importance of critical global citizenship education in the United States. At Butler, she teaches courses in international relations and Asian politics with the express purpose of helping students to understand that there are many different ways of being in this world. She particularly encourages students to seek better solutions to global problems by re-imagining new possibilities for a better world. Ooi grew up in Singapore and Malaysia. Since 2017, Ooi has also led students to Malaysia and Singapore on the Butler in Asia program, which offers students the unique opportunity to live and work in Asia for 7 weeks in the summer.
As an affiliate faculty of the Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, Ooi also believes in a diverse, inclusive, and equitable learning and working environment for all. At Butler, she works closely with senior administration in her role as the Director of Academic Affairs for DEI. In terms of curricular affairs, she is also responsible for Asian and Pacific American representation in the Core Curriculum, as she led a team of excellent colleagues in the development of GHS 212: Asian Americas. She works closely with students as well and is the faculty advisor of the student group Asian and Pacific Islander Alliance (APIA).
Although Ooi’s research expertise is in democratic development and human rights in East Asia, she has expanded the scope of her research in response to issues and problems beyond her core interest. More recently, her scholarship addresses peace on the Korean Peninsula, US-China relations, global education, and the well-being of faculty in teaching-focused institutions. She also believes in integrating teaching and scholarship and has mentored students in the research and publication process at Butler.
In her personal time, Ooi enjoys the company of her husband, daughter and a pet hamster named Mochi (aka Momo). She is also an active member of the Asian and Pacific American community in Indianapolis. She is on the Board of the Indianapolis Chinese Community Center, inc and is a member of the Indiana Association of Chinese Americans and the National Asian and Pacific American Women’s Forum.
Teaching Expertise:
International Relations, US-China Relations, East and Southeast Asian Politics, Chinese Politics, Human Rights and Humanitarianism, International Political Economy
Research Specialization:
Comparative Democratization, Transnational Activism, Human Rights, East Asian Politics and International Relations, Global Citizenship Education
Education:
PhD Political Science
University of Toronto (Canada)
MA (Southeast Asian Studies)
National University of Singapore (Singapore)
LLB (Bachelor of Laws, with Honors)
University College London (United Kingdom)
Publications:
http://works.bepress.com/sumei_ooi/
Awards/Fellowships
Korea Foundation Fellowship
Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Fellowship
Taiwan Foundation for Democracy Fellowship
Dr. David Chu Scholarship
Political Science Award, University of Toronto
Volkswagen Foundation Fellowship
Travis Ryan is a Professor of Biological Sciences with expertise in urban ecology and conservation biology, and he is one of the founding faculty of the Center for Urban Ecology at Butler University. He teaches an introductory course in the biology major curriculum (BI 230 Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – Fundamentals), organizes the sophomore seminar (BI 299 – Biology Seminar), and teaches upper level electives in Advanced Ecology (BI 418) and Conservation Biology (BI 419). Dr. Ryan also collaborates with Dr. Phil Villani to offer Tropical Terrestrial Biology (BI 417), an intensive field course taught over the course of two weeks in Panama, every other summer. Dr. Ryan’s past research focused on the conservation of amphibians and reptiles, evolutionary ecology of amphibians and the evolution of life histories, and the ecology of turtle assemblages and the spatial ecology of turtles within urban aquatic habitats. Working with colleagues Drs. Carmen Salsbury and Julia Angstmann, he helps run Indy Wildlife Watch (Instagram: @indywildwatch), which documents the density, diversity, and distribution of of wildlife throughout the greater Indianapolis region. This is part of a nationwide research project, the Urban Wildlife Information Network. He is the author of more than 40 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, is a former Associate Editor of the Journal of Herpetology, and is a member of the Board of Editors for Urban Naturalist. Dr. Ryan served as chair of the Department of Biological Sciences (2013-2019), was twice elected vice chair of Faculty Senate (2016-2020), and was the faculty director of the Core Curriculum (2020-2021). He was appointed Associate Provost beginning July 2021.