Archives: Meet Our USA Fulbrighters

Jyoti Bachani

Dr. Jyoti Bachani is a full professor of strategy and innovation at Saint Mary’s College of California. She is also the founder of the collective, Poetry of Diaspora in Silicon Valley, and co-founder of the India and U.S. chapters of the International Humanistic Management Association. Her research, published in several articles and books, professes that organizing and pedagogy can be humanized using the arts. She has also led several experiential workshops and Women’s Wisdom Circles. Other than her work being adjudged the best research based-article from the management consulting division of the Academy of Management (AOM), Dr. Bachani is the recipient of several awards: Outstanding Lasallian Educator; Greater Good Award; Fulbright Senior Research Scholar (2011–12); and Fulbright Specialist (2025–28).

Dr. Bachani has also served as the founding editor-in-chief of Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, the largest online collection of business cases. Further, she guest-edited the poetry special issue of the journal, Organizational Aesthetics. Besides, she has served on the boards of the Western Academy of Management and AOM’s management, spirituality and religion division. She is also is an associate editor with the Journal of Management Inquiry. She earned her PhD from London Business School, UK; her master’s in management science and engineering from Stanford University, U.S.; and her MBA and BS in physics from Delhi University, India.

Dibyendu Sarkar

Dibyendu Sarkar is a professor of environmental engineering and the founding director of Stevens Center for Sustainability at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. He is a broadly trained environmental geochemist with research interests in soil and water chemistry, environmental remediation, risk assessment, and green technology development. Dr. Sarkar graduated with a PhD in geochemistry from the University of Tennessee in 1997. He is also a professional geologist licensed in Texas. Thus far, he has advised over 35 PhD and MS/ME students, over 25 postdoctoral associates, and many visiting scholars. He has published over 200 journal articles, 20 book chapters, and over 300 technical abstracts and conference proceedings; he has also edited three books and authored one research monograph. So far, he has generated more than USD 18 million in grant funding as a principal investigator/ co-principal investigator to support the research activities of his group. Dr. Sarkar is a fellow of the Geological Society of America and a fellow of the Soil Science Society of America. He is also the founding principal of SIROM Scientific Solutions, LLC, an environmental R & D start-up incorporated in New Jersey. Besides, he is the editor-in-chief of Springer’s Current Pollution Reports and serves in the editorial board of several other journals.

Stephen Farnsworth

Dr. Stephen Farnsworth is professor of political science and international affairs and the director of the Center for Leadership and Media Studies at the University of Mary Washington. He is the author or co-author of nine books and dozens of research articles on the presidency, the mass media, public opinion, and journalism. His most recent books include: Late-Night in Washington: Political Humor and the American Presidency; Producing News in a Time of Disinformation: Information Evaluation Strategies for Journalists and News Consumers; Presidential Communication and Character: White House News Management from Clinton and Cable to Twitter and Trump; and The Global President: International Media and the U.S. Government.

Dr. Farnsworth, who holds a PhD in government from Georgetown University, has also served as a Poland–U.S. Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Warsaw, as a Canada–U.S. Fulbright Research Chair in Public Policy at McGill University in Montreal, and as a Malaysia–U.S. Fulbright Specialist at Methodist College in Kuala Lumpur. He has received several teaching awards, including the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

Krishna Reddy

Dr. Krishna Reddy is a university scholar, distinguished researcher, professor of civil and environmental engineering, and director of the Sustainable Engineering Research Laboratory and the Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). With over 30 years of research and professional experience, Dr. Reddy has made pioneering contributions to geoenvironmental engineering and sustainable and resilient engineering. His expertise spans environmental remediation, waste containment and landfill engineering, beneficial use of waste and recycled materials, integration of AI/ML/DL into geoenvironmental systems, and development of sustainability and resiliency assessment frameworks. A globally recognized scholar, Dr. Reddy has co-authored four influential books (including Geoenvironmental Engineering: Site Remediation, Waste Containment, and Emerging Waste Management Technologies and Sustainable Engineering: Drivers, Metrics, Tools, and Applications), written a number of book chapters and conference papers, and more than 340 journal papers, as well as contributed to numerous edited volumes. His outstanding contributions have been recognized through numerous prestigious honors, including the ASCE Wesley W. Horner Award and the ASTM Hogentogler Award. He is the Vice President of North America for the International Society of Environmental Geotechnology (ISEG).

Michael Caves

Judge Michael Caves has been serving on the Superior Court of California since January 2023. Before entering the judiciary, he had spent more than 15 years as a trial attorney and criminal prosecutor. J. Caves has authored nine books, including Everyday Dispute Resolution, the second edition of which was released in 2026. He is also a contributing author for the University of California’s Continuing Education of the Bar and has reviewed or edited numerous academic and professional publications. His core research is focused on judicial ethics and conflict resolution. He has also taught and designed graduate courses in law, ethics, and conflict resolution for over 17 years.

He has a PhD in rhetoric and communication, a JD (Doctor of Jurisprudence), an LLM, an MPA, an MA in negotiation, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding, and a BA in communication. J. Caves is a member of a number of academic honor groups, including the Golden Key International Honour Society, Pi Gamma Mu, Phi Theta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Phi Delta Phi, and Omicron Delta Kappa. He is also a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Gabriel Gomez

Dr. Gabriel Gomez earned his PhD in radio, television, and film from Northwestern University, Illinois, in 1996. From 1998, he has been a faculty member at Chicago State University, an institution committed to social justice, where he is currently a full professor in the Department of Computing, Information and Mathematical Sciences, and Technology. His numerous publications and presentations reflect research interests that span library science, technology in education, community service, and big data. He has received numerous awards and grants, including two previous Fulbright scholarships for India, which bracket more than a decade of interaction in that country through teaching, publishing, and numerous conferences. Throughout this time, he has also remained politically active with a number of groups dedicated to activism and nonviolence. He is a representative for Local 4100 of the University Professionals of Illinois (UPI), a union of the American Federation of Teachers. Other community efforts involve service as co-executive director of the Legacy Project Education Initiative and as a board member of its parent organization, the Legacy Project. In 2020, he was part of two Faculty Resource Network Scholar-in-Residence programs at New York University. He is scheduled to retire in August 2026 as a professor emeritus.

Punya Mishra

Dr. Punya Mishra is a professor at the Mary Lou Fulton College of Teaching and Learning Innovation (MLFC) at Arizona State University (ASU), with an affiliate appointment in its Design School. He is a senior fellow at the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution and a fellow at the Learning Engineering Institute (LEI) at ASU. Earlier, he had served as the director of Innovative Learning Futures at LEI and as the associate dean of scholarship and innovation at MLFC, where he led multiple initiatives in developing a future-forward, equity-driven, collaborative approach to educational research. He is internationally recognized for his work in educational technology; the role of creativity and aesthetics in learning; and the application of design to educational innovation. He has received over USD 11 million in grants, and has published over 200 articles and edited five books. A recipient of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology’s David H. Jonassen Excellence in Research Award, and with over 81,000 citations of his research, he is ranked among the top 2 percent of scientists worldwide (ranked number 91 in social science) and number 44 (number 4 in psychology) amongst scholars with the biggest influence on educational practice and policy. An AERA fellow and TED-Ed educator, he cohosts the award-winning Silver Lining for Learning and the Learning Futures podcasts. He is an award-winning instructor, and has taught courses at all levels in educational technology, educational psychology, design, and creativity. He is also an engaging public speaker and an accomplished visual artist.

Dr. Mishra’s Fulbright-Nehru project is examining how educators and learners across India’s diverse educational landscape is making sense of generative AI. Combining engaged educational journalism with scholarly rigor, the project is partnering with Azim Premji University and other institutions to document real-time negotiations between AI’s promise and local realities through podcasting, blogging, teaching, and presenting. Dr. Mishra’s research is also tracing contextual innovations that emerge when advanced AI tools meet India’s varied conditions of language, connectivity, and social practice. The project will yield academic articles, practitioner briefs, and a book capturing this unrepeatable moment when communities are actively determining what AI becomes in education.

Rajkumar Sevak

Dr. Rajkumar Sevak is an accomplished academic and clinical researcher with expertise in psychiatric pharmacotherapy and pharmacy education. He is currently serving as an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the University of the Pacific’s Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy. Dr. Sevak has built a career integrating rigorous research with hands-on clinical and teaching practice. His educational background includes a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, followed by PGY1 residency from Auburn University, and postdoctoral fellowship training from East Tennessee State University. He is a licensed pharmacist in four U.S. states and holds specialized certifications in psychiatric pharmacy, informatics, and biostatistics.

Dr. Sevak’s research portfolio reflects a sustained focus on neuropsychiatric therapeutics and students’ mental health. He has served as principal or coinvestigator on several funded grants, including projects supported by the National Institutes of Health, examining pharmacotherapies for substance-use disorders and intervening to improve mental health outcomes. His scholarly output shows over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and 70 national conference presentations. He is also an active peer reviewer for leading journals and grant agencies, and has received multiple awards, including the CPNP Foundation Strategic Goals Award and the Sudhir Gupta Young Scientist Award.

As an educator, Dr. Sevak coordinates and teaches core courses in neuropsychiatric therapeutics, biostatistics, and research design at the University of the Pacific. He guides pharmacy students, residents, and fellows in research projects, presentations, and professional development. Outside of academics, he has provided clinical services in outpatient and inpatient psychiatric pharmacy, ambulatory care, and community pharmacy settings. His professional service also extends to committee roles within his institution and professional organizations such as the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence. Through his interdisciplinary work in research, teaching, and practice, Dr. Sevak continues to contribute significantly to the fields of psychiatric pharmacy and pharmacotherapy education.

Dr. Sevak’s Fulbright-Nehru project is working on establishing a Indo-US collaborative system to enhance neuropsychiatric pharmacy education. Toward this, he is delivering a core therapeutics course and codeveloping culturally relevant patient cases with Indian faculty colleagues for a case-based course. The project is also fostering cross-cultural pedagogical exchange and improving mental healthcare by training pharmacy students to provide evidence-based care. Expected outcomes include a sustainable case library, strengthened institutional ties, and a model for global pharmacy education.

Nageswari Shanmugalingam

Prof. Nageswari Shanmugalingam is a distinguished research professor (STEMM) in mathematical sciences at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. She obtained her PhD in mathematics in 1999 from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her research forms part of the foundation of the emergent field of analysis in metric measure spaces, and her current research interests include nonlinear potential theory, Dirichlet and Neumann boundary value problems in non-smooth setting, and non-local energies, with applications in geometry and quasi-symmetric mappings in non-smooth spaces, including fractals. She has more than 100 research publications in highly ranked mathematical research journals, and has coauthored a book (Cambridge University Press, 2015) on Newton-Sobolev mappings between metric spaces. She also has an extensive mathematical research network both in the U.S. and abroad. Her current research interests include the exploration of how Gromov hyperbolic geometry impacts the behavior of harmonic functions and how the dissipation of heat behaves.

In addition to conducting research in mathematics, Prof. Shanmugalingam is an educator, teaching courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Cincinnati. She has also supervised the PhD research of six students and is currently supervising the dissertation research of three other students. She has also been a mentor to postdoctoral scholars.

The development of analysis in non-smooth spaces was motivated by the need to understand how quasi-symmetric classes of regular metric measure spaces share analytic behaviors. This development highlighted the crucial role played by geometric objects called “uniform domains”. On the other hand, recent developments in geometric group theory and fractal analysis indicate a need for discrete analogs of uniform domains. Prof. Shanmugalingam’s Fulbright-Nehru project is developing such analogs in collaboration with Prof. S. Ponnusamy at IIT Madras. The project is also introducing the field of non-smooth analysis to students by conducting a course on analysis in metric spaces.

Surabhi Sahay

Dr. Surabhi Sahay is a scholar of organizational and health communication whose work centers on participatory processes during periods of change and crisis. Her research explores how individuals and institutions navigate uncertainty; it pays particular attention to the intersections of communication, organization, and healthcare. She has published widely in leading journals such as Management Communication Quarterly, Health Communication, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, and Communication and Democracy.

Dr. Sahay is the author of an upcoming book with Johns Hopkins University Press that examines the transformation of nurses’ work roles and professional identities from the pre- through the post-COVID-19 era. She is also a special issues associate editor for Management Communication Quarterly, contributing to ongoing scholarly conversations about adaptation and recovery in complex systems. An engaged and dedicated educator, Dr. Sahay teaches courses on organizational communication, crisis and change, and research methodologies. She is deeply committed to experiential learning and has led student groups to Japan and Iceland, thereby broadening their global perspectives. In addition to research and teaching, she has held various leadership roles within her university and professional community. Outside of her academic work, Dr. Sahay enjoys traveling with her husband and their two daughters, embracing opportunities for exploration and connection around the world.

For her Fulbright-Nehru project, Dr. Sahay is examining how cesarean section decisions are made in rural, small-town, and semi-urban India, focusing on women, families, and healthcare providers. Using qualitative interviews, it is exploring how communication, trust, cultural norms, and socioeconomic factors shape maternal agency and informed consent. The study is also attempting to highlight both the overuse of cesareans without medical need and the lack of access when they are necessary, thus putting the spotlight on inequalities in maternal healthcare. Drawing on sensemaking, sensegiving, sensebreaking, resilience, and social support theories, it is analyzing decision-making dynamics and power relations. The findings will inform community-based interventions and communication toolkits to promote equitable, patient-centered childbirth practices, and improve maternal health outcomes.