Contact Us

Megan Stewart (she/her/hers) grew up in the Mid-Hudson Valley, outside of Poughkeepsie, New York. She completed both her graduate and undergraduate work at UB. She has previously worked in the UB Career Design Center (formerly Career Services) and the Honors College as an advisor.

Stewart has two sons and loves spending time with her family. She enjoys reading, traveling, running and cheering on the Buffalo Bills. Stewart is also a volunteer with Just Buffalo Literary Center. 

Lisa Gagnon (she/her/hers) is a Buffalo native and began her journey at UB with a B.A. in English and Linguistics. After graduation, she spent a year in Riga, Latvia on a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA). Other awards Lisa has received include: the Western New York Prosperity Fellowship, the Arthur A. Schomburg Fellowship, and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Olga Lindberg Scholarship. Inspired by her experience abroad, Lisa decided to pursue an EdM and certification in English for Speakers of Other Languages at UB and spent three years teaching at the high school level. Deeply dedicated to the Buffalo community, Lisa has volunteered and worked for several local nonprofits, including Buffalo String Works, Jericho Road Community Health Center, and the Just Buffalo Literary Center. In her free time, you can find Lisa hiking one of WNY’s beautiful trails, reading a book on her porch, or playing cello (or any instrument within reach).

Lea Kyle (she/her/hers) is a master's student pursuing a Masters of Public Health with a concentration in biostatistics at the University at Buffalo. She graduated from the University of Buffalo with a B.S. in Biochemistry along with Physics and Public Health minors. During her undergraduate career, she was awarded the Goldwater Scholarship in her Junior year and was awarded the Chancellor’s Award in her senior year. She also was a nominee for both the Fullbright and Mitchell scholarships.

Patrick F. McDevitt (he/him/his) is the academic director of the University Honors College and a faculty member in the Department of History. He  is a historian of Ireland, Great Britain and the British Empire, with research interests in the areas of gender and sexuality, imperialism and colonialism, sports, fashion, and food and famine. McDevitt earned a BA from NYU, where he graduated magna cum laude with Honors in History. He won a Fulbright to New Zealand and earned a First Class Honours degree from the University of Canterbury. He then completed his MA and PhD in modern European history at Rutgers University. McDevitt is currently writing a book entitled “The Great Irish Famine: A Global History,” to be published in 2022, and published his first book, “May the Best Man Win: Sport, Masculinity and Nationalism in Great Britain and the Empire, 1880-1935,” in 2004.

McDevitt is the UB Fulbright program advisor and works with students applying for the Fulbright grants to research, study or teach English around the world.  

Ashlee N. Ford Versypt, PhD (she/her/hers), leads the Systems Biomedicine and Pharmaceutics Laboratory. The long-term goal for her research program is to develop multi-scale mathematical and computational models to enhance understanding of the mechanisms governing tissue remodeling and damage as a result of diseases and infections and to simulate the treatment of those conditions to improve human health. The Systems Biomedicine and Pharmaceutics Laboratory specializes in modeling kinetics and transport processes involved in biological and chemical interactions related to both physiological microenvironments and engineered biomedical and pharmaceutical systems, particularly those involved in tissue damage and treatment. Her research program is funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Additionally, Ford Versypt also disseminates educational scholarship through publications, presentations, and software related to chemical engineering instruction, computational activities, student development, and outreach.

While earning her PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Ford Versypt was awarded the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP). 

Ford Versypt is the UB NSF GRFP faculty fellow and will provide feedback on the research proposal for students applying for the NSF GRFP. 

Jake's research interests include nationalism and national identities in twentieth-century British and Irish fiction, literature and social sciences, transnational literature relating to migration, and film studies. He enjoys photography, visiting museums, biking, and cooking.

BreAnna's research interests include African American literature, Black feminist thought, and contemplative pedagogy. She enjoys pilates, yoga, singing, reading, and biking in her free time. She co-hosts a writing group for graduate students of color every Sunday from 1pm-4pm. BreAnna’s consulting style uses contemplative pedagogy which involves teaching mindfulness, reflection, creativity, and compassion when writing.     

Ciara is a PhD student in UB's English department. Her interests vary from "pop" Shakespeare adaptations and appropriations to comic books, graphic novels, and cultural studies. In her free time, Ciara enjoys running, fangirling over any and all Marvel and DC content, and taking care of her three cats, Tasha, Bruce, and Peaches (pictured).