The following are among the new faculty members on the Hilltop and Medical cam-puses. Others will be introduced periodically in this space.
Andrew Rehfeld, Ph.D., joins the Department of Political Science in Arts & Sciences as assistant professor. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1989 from the University of Rochester, a master's degree in 1994 from the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago and a doctorate in 2000 from the University of Chicago. Rehfeld's research interests include modern political thought, democratic theory, American political development, and public policy. He has a joint appointment in social thought & analysis.
Jaime Garcia-Heras, M.D., Ph.D., joins the School of Medicine as assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Medical Genetics of the Department of Pediatrics. His research interests include gene mapping, clinical cytogenetics and DNA testing. After earning medical and doctoral degrees from LaPlata University School of Medicine in Argentina, Garcia-Heras pursued advanced training in molecular genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and in clinical cytogenetics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. He comes to St. Louis from the Texas Department of Health in Denton, where he was director of cytogenetics and DNA diagnosis.
Ronald Pitner, Ph.D., joins the George Warren Brown School of Social Work as assistant professor. He earned master's degrees in social work from the University of Michigan and in psychology from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. He earned a doctorate in psychology and social work from the University of Michigan in 2001. Before coming to Washington University, Pitner was a research assistant at the University of Michigan's Social Work Research Development Center on Poverty, Risk and Mental Health. His research interests are broadly defined in terms of social cognition, stereotyping, prejudice and children's perceptions of violence, race and ethnicity, and cultural diversity. He is particularly interested in using social psychological and developmental theories to examine and understand social issues such as violence, oppression and poverty.
John J. Hetts, Ph.D.,
joins the Department of Psychology in Arts & Sciences as assistant professor.
He earned a bachel-or's degree from Stanford University, graduating with
distinction and honors in 1992, and a master's degree in 1994 and doctorate
in 1999 from the University of California, Los Angeles, in social psychology.
His research interests are broadly concerned with social cogni-tion and
political psychology. Some of his current research explores the causes and
consequences of self-esteem, predict-ors of individual attitudes towards
social policies, the use of personal theories of intelligence to justify
group status, and how arousal influences attitudes about performance.