FMU welcomes new faculty for 2022-23 academic year

Francis Marion University is welcoming 17 new full-time faculty members to campus ahead of the 2022-23 academic year. While several of the new faculty are new to FMU, some are current employees who will assume full-time roles when classes begin next week.

The new faculty members are: Dr. Jody Lipford, Assistant Professor of Economics; Dr. Smriti Bhargava, Assistant Professor of Economics; Dr. Brian Jones, Assistant Professor of Music Industry; Dr. Anna Chinnes, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology; Dr. Janay Vacharasin, Assistant Professor of Biology; Mr. Min-Seok Choi, Assistant Professor of Education; Mr. Wonjae Lee, Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering; Mr. Siddharth Baswani, Assistant Management Information Systems; Ms. Anna Freeman, Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Supervisor; Ms. Meagan Bennett, Instructor of Nursing; Ms. Brittany Gilbert, Assistant Professor of Fine Art; Dr. Steve Rubin, Assistant Professor of Computer Science; Ms. Jenifer Butler, Instructor of English One Year Non-Tenure Track; Chace Covington, Instructor of Mathematics; Matthew Hagler, Assistant Professor of Psychology; Rachelle Lydell, Director of Occupational Therapy; and Layire Diop, Assistant Professor of Mass Communication.

Onboarding of new faculty occurred Friday, August 19, which happened to coincide with move-in of new freshmen. The return of students and faculty includes a full slate of events on campus starting this weekend and heading into the first week of classes. The festivities are capped off by the annual First Friday festival on August 26.