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Cornell University

Office of the Assemblies

Spring 2021 Faculty Senator-At-Large Candidate Profiles

Senator-At-Large 

  • 3 non-tenured seats; 3 year term

Non-Tenured seats

Carrie Adler, Assistant Professor, Molecular Medicine (College of Veterinary Medicine)

Biography: Carolyn (Carrie) Adler is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the College of Veterinary Medicine. Carrie attended college at Wesleyan University, and then the University of California, San Francisco for her PhD, including a short stint at Rockefeller University. For postdoctoral training, she moved to the University of Utah and the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. She established her lab at Cornell in 2015 to study the biology of planarian flatworms, which are invertebrates capable of regenerating entire bodies from tiny fragments. Carrie’s lab investigates the genetic and cellular mechanisms that drive regeneration. She teaches in the preclinical veterinary curriculum and is a member of 4 graduate fields. She also spends two weeks every summer teaching at the Marine Biological Laboratory. Carrie also serves as co-chair of the Veterinary College’s Wellbeing Committee.   Candidate Statement: As Senator-at-Large, I will advocate for a diverse and inclusive faculty across the university, to ensure broad representation, recruitment, and retention. COVID has presented many challenges to the faculty both in terms of teaching logistics, grant writing, and home life. As an early career faculty member with a child in middle school, I am in a strong position to provide information and input on the behalf of my peers.    Websites of interest: https://adlerlab.vet.cornell.edu/  

Ashleigh Newman, Assistant Clinical Professor, Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences (College of Veterinary Medicine)

Biography: My name is Dr. Ashleigh Newman, and I am an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine. I am a veterinary clinical pathologist in the Clinical Pathology Lab Section within the Animal Health Diagnostic Center. As a clinical pathologist, my diagnostic service work involves microscopically examining peripheral blood smears, urine sediments, and cytology smears from fine needle aspirates taken of masses, internal organs, body cavity effusions, and bone marrow.   I graduated with a BS with Distinction in Research in Animal Science from Cornell University. As an undergraduate at Cornell, I was a four-year swimmer on the Varsity Women’s Swimming and Diving Team and served as co-captain in my senior year. I received my VMD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, after which I completed a 13-month small animal private practice rotating internship, worked for a year in small animal general practice and emergency medicine, and returned to Cornell for a three-year Clinical Pathology Residency. I became a Diplomat of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists in 2015 and have stayed on as faculty since. I love teaching, because it gives me the opportunity to interact with students, share my enthusiasm for clinical pathology, and inspire the next generation of veterinarians to find their niche in this profession. I am the course leader for the core Clinical Pathology course for the 2nd year students and serve on the curriculum design groups for two other foundation courses. Outside of Cornell, I serve on the American Society for Veterinary Clinical Pathology’s Education Committee, of which I am the former chair. I also lecture on clinical pathology topics to practicing veterinarians at local and national continuing education conferences.    On a personal note, my husband Wes Newman ’09 is a member of the Cornell Athletics Hall of Fame and is The Philip H. Bartels '71 Head Coach of Men's Swimming. We live in Dryden with our two daughters, Alice (4) and Quinn (21 months), and dog Millie.    Candidate Statement: It feels somewhat surreal to be nominated for a Faculty Senate At-Large seat. I can still remember my days as an undergraduate student at Cornell – the excitement of moving into Court Hall as a freshman (the dorm was only a year old), walking down Tower Road after swim practice at Teagle Hall to class in Morrison Hall (my hair freezing on occasion), stopping for ice cream at the Dairy Bar (before the beautiful renovation of Stocking Hall), barn chores in the teaching barn… so many fond memories. I consider it an honor to now be a faculty member at this great institution. I have enjoyed interacting and working with faculty and administrators across the College of Veterinary Medicine and now look forward to the opportunity to meet faculty from across the University and hear the issues that affect us. I am interested in an At-Large seat to learn the governance process of the Cornell Faculty Senate as preparation for the potential of serving as a senator for my department in the future. Thank you for considering me for this position.  

Jeffrey Palmer, Assistant Professor, Performing and Media Arts (College of Arts and Sciences); Assistant Professor, American Indian and Indigenous Studies Program (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences)

Biography: Jeffrey Palmer, a member of the Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, is an award-winning filmmaker and media artist. He describes his work as a multimedia exploration of Indigenous people's lives in twenty-first century America. He recently completed his first feature film, "N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear", examining the life and mind of the first and only Native American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for literature. The film premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and aired nationally on the PBS series, American Masters. In 2020, the film was nominated for an Emmy in support of American Masters' 33rd season, for Outstanding Documentary or Non-Fiction Series. The film also won the 2019 Ted Turner Award for the film that most encourages environmental stewardship. Of Palmer's numerous short films, "Isabelle's Garden", was a winner of the Bill and Melinda Gates Short Film Challenge at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. His films screened at venues such as Hot Docs, The Seattle International Film Festival, The Berlinale European Market, and many others around the world. He received numerous awards, grants, and recognition from the Sundance Institute, ITVS, Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and the Firelight Media Documentary Lab. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America, the Television Academy, and is an Assistant Professor of Performing and Media Arts at Cornell University. In 2020, Palmer co-founded the Dark Laboratory at Cornell University. The lab centers embodied modes of multimedia storytelling surrounding the entangled histories of Black and Indigenous peoples.   Candidate Statement: I am interested in the inner workings of the University and further want to understand how legislation is discussed and voted upon. How does the Senate create change?    Websites of interest: https://vimeopro.com/user2833074/jeffreypalmer