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Council of Affiliated Faculty

The Grimm Family Center has a Council of Affiliated Faculty from various disciplines. These faculty have engaged in research under the auspices of GFCAB, specifically in supervising student research. They represent each of the four schools at CSUB.

Dr. Gitika Commuri, Political Science

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Gitika Commuri has a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Southern California and has been teaching at CSUB since 2006. Her research interests are varied and span political identity and its impact on foreign policy, soft power in international politics and more recently American child labor policy in agriculture. She has published articles and a book exploring how political identity discourses impact India's foreign policy in Kashmir, on India-Pakistan-China relations, as well as on the ambiguity of soft power as a concept. She is currently working on projects related to theorizing the significance of historically traumatic events as soft power with a focus on Holocaust, exploring India-Afghanistan relations with the resurgence of Taliban, and the prevalence of child labor in American agriculture. She teaches courses in Food Policy and Politics, Senior Seminar on The Human/Machine Worlds, International Relations Theory and Theories of Power.  Mentored Isabel Flores Hernandez.

Dr. John Deal, Economics

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John Deal received a B.S. degree in Political Science from UNC-Charlotte in 1979 and a Ph.D. in Economics from North Carolina State University in 2004. His primary fields of study were agricultural economics and international trade. Dr. Deal spent ten years at Manchester University, a liberal arts school in Indiana, where he was the Howard S. and Myra Brembeck Associate Professor of Economics and the chair of the Economics Department. Dr. Deal is currently a full-time lecturer in the Department of Economics, the Director of the Agricultural Business program at CSUB, and an affiliated faculty with the Grimm Family Center for Agricultural Business (GFCAB). His research has focused on crop insurance and risk management, agricultural production and the environment, and teaching pedagogy and student learning. He has published in a variety of peer-reviewed journals, including American Journal of Agricultural Economics, the Annals of Regional Science, and the International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.

Dr. Isolde Francis, Biology

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Isolde Francis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at California State University Bakersfield (CSUB). She received her education in Belgium where she obtained a B.Sc. in Biology, a M.Sc. in Biochemistry, and a Ph.D. in Biotechnology. During her time as a graduate student Dr. Francis discovered her passion for plant pathology by studying the plant pathogenic bacterium Rhodococcus fascians. Prior to her appointment at CSUB, Dr. Francis was a postdoctoral scholar in the lab of Prof. Rosemary Loria at Cornell University and later at the University of Florida where she worked on Streptomyces scabies. Although both pathogenic bacteria, R. fascians and S. scabies, are still an important part of her current research, since moving to Bakersfield, the focus of her research has shifted from fundamental to more applied research by connecting with the local agricultural industry. She introduced students at CSUB to plant pathology by creating a specific course and engaging them in biotechnological and applied research projects with the goal of furthering our knowledge on agriculturally important plant diseases and developing practical applications that can be used in the field. Mentored Fiya Grace Manoj and TJ Moreno.

Dr. Najmeh Kamyabi, Economics

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Najmeh Kamyabi earned her Ph.D. in economics from Texas Tech University in 2017 with specializations in urban and regional economics, energy economics, and industrial organization, with research interests in spatial econometrics. She joined CSUB as Assistant Professor of Economics in Fall 2018. Dr. Kamyabi has presented her research at regional, national, and international conferences. She has published peer-reviewed articles investigating how consumers respond to nonlinear and dynamic pricing, as well as firm pricing strategies. Dr. Kamyabi has additional publications in the areas of energy transition, agriculture, and poverty. She recently earned tenure and promotion to the rank of Associate Professor. Mentored Mathilda Nordhaus.

Dr. Kate Mulry, History

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Dr. Kate Luce Mulry is an associate professor of history and is the author of An Empire Transformed: Remolding Bodies and Landscapes in the Restoration Atlantic (New York University Press, 2021). Her work examines the histories of food, medicine, and the environment in the early modern Atlantic world.

Bianca Moreno, Communications

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Bianca Moreno is a full-time Lecturer in the Department of Communications. She plays an instrumental role in fostering a sense of belonging and personhood within the campus community through her service as a mentor in the ‘Runner Scholars Mentor Program, a Basic Needs Ambassador, a Safe Zone Ally, and an UndocuAlly, supporting and embracing students from diverse backgrounds and identities. Her work extends beyond the university classroom, having taught Communication courses in four California prisons as part of The Rising Scholars Program, and in five high schools in Bakersfield and surrounding rural communities through Dual Enrollment. She also serves on scholarship review boards, assists with grant funding, and facilitates collaborative projects across various fields. Outside of academia, Moreno consults business leaders, nonprofits, political candidates, and student outreach programs to enhance public speaking and communication skills.

Abran “Abe” Padilla, Entrepreneur, Consultant, Educator

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Abe has almost three decades of almond and pistachio industry experience, serving in various senior, executive, and entrepreneurial roles throughout his professional tenure.  In 2015, Abe left the Wonderful Company and partnered with a long-time industry friend to start his own nut processing and export ventures.  Aside from the nut businesses, he is also the owner and founder of Spectrum Data Analytics, LLC—with clients in both the public and private sectors (supporting clients in industries such as public transit, banking, agricultural processing, sales, and logistics).  Finally, he is also a professor of Agribusiness and Data Analytics at CSU Bakersfield, as well as a former lecturer of Business Analytics at Loyola Marymount University.  During his academic teaching tenure, Abe has placed over 180 former students in management and analytics positions with clients while also helping over two-dozen former students gain admission to top MBA and graduate Business Analytics programs (such as MIT, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Tech, USC, Loyola Marymount, and Pepperdine…to name a few).

Academically, Abe received a double bachelor's in Political Science and Economics from California State University, Bakersfield.  He then received a double MBA in Finance and Computer Information Systems from Loyola Marymount University.  After his MBA, Abe received a Master of Science in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern University.  Finally, he is currently pursuing his doctorate in business at Pepperdine University where he is working on his dissertation which centers on applied analytics in California-based agricultural products.

Dr. Roy LaFever, Chemistry & Biochemistry

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Roy LaFever is a Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry and has been teaching and carrying out research at CSUB since 1996. Most of his research has centered around the production of plant natural products, particularly a class of substances known as terpenoids. Recently he has begun to employ a technique known as Super-Critical Fluid extraction for the isolation and purification of a particular compound, Marrubiin. This substance has shown promise as a miticide and is being used to treat honeybee hives challenged by the Varroa descructor (Varroa mite/bee mite), a pest implicated in Colony collapse disorder. For this study, large quantities of Marrubiin will be produced and compounded into glycerol strips for hive treatment. Hives will be tested for mite load pre and post treatment to quantify miticide activity. Future efforts will involve networking with Kern County Beekeepers to further test Marrubiin in active colony miticide assays.

Dr. Creed Tumlinson

Dr. Creed Tumlinson
Creed Tumlison is an Assistant Professor in the Public Policy and Administration Department at CSUB. He earned his PhD at the University of Arkansas before coming to Bakersfield in 2023. Dr. Tumlison’s research primarily focuses on decision-making within public policy and administration, broadly. Specifically, he examines how policy-relevant knowledge, trust, and risk perceptions influence the policy process, particularly in the context of environmental and energy-related policy issues. Dr. Tumlison has published multiple peer-reviewed articles across a variety of journals including Energy Policy and Risk Analysis, as well as presented his research at national and international conferences. Dr. Tumlison also serves as Managing Editor for the Policy Studies Journal.
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California State University, Bakersfield
9001 Stockdale Highway
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