CLS New Faculty

2025 - 2026 College of Letters & Science new faculty members

2025 - 2026 New Faculty

The College of Letters and Science is pleased to welcome our 2025 - 2026 cohort of new faculty members. The following list of individuals joined our team as tenure-track faculty:

• Sarah Bassing, Department of Ecology
  • Sarah Bassing is an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology. She is a quantitative ecologist who uses statistical methods to understand animal behavior and population dynamics. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in wildlife biology from the University of Montana and her Ph.D. in Environmental and Forest Sciences from the University of Washington. Her research interests stem from a background in carnivore ecology and wildlife management, and she strives to co-produce conservation-oriented research with diverse research partners.
• Travis Belote, Department of Ecology
  • Travis Belote is an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology. He is a landscape ecologist interested in applied and theoretical research. Dr. Belote’s work has covered questions related to how invasive plants respond to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, the effects of wildfires on old-growth forests, and mapping connectivity and biodiversity priorities for national conservation plans. For over 15 years, he has served as an ecologist, director of research, and finally deputy vice president of The Wilderness Society.
• Marianne Cowherd, Department of Earth Sciences
  • Marianne Cowherd is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences with a focus on snow hydrology and measurements. Her research addresses where and why snow measurements are affected by disturbance and shifting snow distributions. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was a Department of Energy Computational Sciences Graduate Fellow and research affiliate at the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory.
• Julie Gameon, Department of Psychology
  • Julie Gameon is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. She received her Ph.D. from MSU in 2021 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. Her research emphasizes community-based participatory approaches in the development of culturally adapted interventions with a focus on grief, suicide, trauma, and substance use. She is developing a culturally informed program to support American Indian and Alaska Native people struggling with grief.
• Kelli Gill, Department of English

  • Kelli R. Gill is an assistant professor of rhetoric and writing studies and the director of the writing program. Her work explores the intersection of food, culture, power, and technologies. She currently serves as the Digital Media and Outreach director for the Coalition of Feminist Scholars in the History of Rhetoric and Composition. She joined MSU after completing a postdoctoral research fellowship at The Georgia Institute of Technology.

• Li He, Department of Physics (Starting Spring 2026)

  • Li He will join the Department of Physics as an assistant professor from the University of Pennsylvania in January 2026. Dr. He studies nanophotonics and low-dimensional quantum materials, exploring how light and matter interact at the nanoscale and their applications in classical and quantum computing. His work has been published in leading journals including Nature Nanotechnology, Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, and Physical Review Letters.

• Meredith Hecker, Department of Native American Studies
  • Meredith K. Hecker has been appointed department head and associate professor of Native American Studies. She is a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation and comes from Browning. Her research interests reside in the area of Native American success in mathematics. Dr. Hecker was previously co-director of the Montana Space Grant Consortium at MSU.
• Jess Kunke, Department of Mathematical Sciences
  • Jess Kunke is an assistant professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Originally from the Chicago area, she completed her Ph.D. in statistics at the University of Washington. Her research uses network information, such as social networks or river networks, to improve population size estimation in social and ecological contexts. She also provides data science workshops and consulting to tribal environmental professionals working for the Hoh, Tulalip, and Jamestown S'Klallam tribes, among others.
• Meghann Lucy, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
  • Meghann Lucy is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Her research lies at the intersections of deviance and social control, sociology of health and illness, and consumption. She has investigated the meanings of overaccumulation depicted on television, how stigma associated with drug addiction has changed over the course of the opioid crisis; and the medicalization and criminalization of overaccumulation (hoarding disorder). Dr. Lucy received her Ph.D. in sociology from Boston University.
• Nicholas Soderstrom, Department of Psychology
  • Nick Soderstrom is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. He is a cognitive psychologist and learning scientist. His research focuses on identifying and exploring strategies that promote long-lasting learning, and he is deeply committed to applying the science of learning to enhance educational practices. A Bozeman native, Dr. Soderstrom enjoys a wide array of outdoor activities offered in the Gallatin Valley.
• Madison Stevens, Department of Earth Sciences
  • Madison “Maddi” Stevens is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences specializing in human-environment geography. Her research explores the relationships between people, place, and wildlife. She has published on topics ranging from Indigenous-led buffalo restoration in Montana to forest governance in the Indian Himalayas, applying social science methods to advance environmental stewardship in practice. Dr. Stevens received her doctorate from The University of British Columbia and conducted postdoctoral research at Boise State University and MSU.
• William G. Thomas III, Department of History and Philosophy and Dean of the College of Letters and Science
  • William G. Thomas III is the dean of the College of Letters and Science. Prior to joining Montana State University in 2025, he was the associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where from 2005 to 2025 he held the Angle Chair in the Humanities and was a professor of history and a fellow of the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities. Dean Thomas specializes in U.S. history and, among other honors, has been named a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow and a Lincoln Prize Finalist. He is a graduate of Trinity College (Connecticut) and currently serves on the Trinity College Board of Trustees. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Virginia.

Fall 2025 New Faculty and Staff Reception