New Faculty Bios
Dr. Cora Caton
College: Liberal Arts & Sciences
Department: Political Science
Title: Assistant Professor of Political Science & International Affairs
Cora Caton is a political scientist specializing in political economy, conflict, and political methodology. Her current work centers on economic firmcraft, a term she coined to describe the emerging practice of multinational corporations publicly responding to international political events. More broadly, Dr. Caton’s studies economic sanctions, corporate accountability, and the public legitimacy of private power. Her other research investigates political violence and terrorism, with publications in Political Behavior and Studies in Conflict & Terrorism on public reactions to counterterrorism, gendered patterns of militancy, and state repression.
She has taught widely in international relations, comparative politics, and research methods at the University of Kansas, Rockhurst University, and Drury University. Dr. Caton also brings extensive experience in applied research, having conducted fieldwork in Turkey and worked with organizations such as START, Vot-ER, and the University of Kansas Medical Center on projects involving survey design, experimental methods, and data analysis.
Dr. Dawn Emerson
College: Education & Human Development
Programs: Exercise Science & Athletic Training
Title: Assistant Professor of Kinesiology & Physical Education
Dr. Emerson is an Assistant Professor for the exercise science and athletic training programs in the College of Education and Human Development. Her teaching interests are in exercise physiology, human performance, therapeutic interventions, primary care and pharmacology. Dr. Emerson’s research focus is exertional heat illnesses and exploring risk factors, particularly medications and pre-existing medical conditions, in the pathophysiology of exertional heat stroke. She is also focused on raising awareness of heat and other health related concerns among marching band artists. Dr. Emerson has served as a medical volunteer with the Boston Marathon for over 15 years. She is actively involved with the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Research and Education Foundation (NATA Foundation), having served on the Board of Directors as an at-large member (2018-2024) and recently as the Vice President for Education and Professional Development Programs (2024-2028). In 2023 she received the NATA Foundation’s Impact Service Award.
Dr. Annette LaRocco
College: College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
Department: Political Science & School of Policy and International Affairs
Title: Dan ’63 and Betty Churchill Associate Professor in Climate Policy & International Affairs
Annette A. LaRocco is the Dan ’63 and Betty Churchill Associate Professor in Climate Policy and International Affairs in the Department of Political Science and School of Policy and International Affairs at the University of Maine. Her research interests are in postcolonial state-building, gender and environment, the geopolitics of biodiversity conservation, climate, and land-use, and environmental governance processes in the Global South. Currently, she is working on her second book project interrogating gender-prioritized environmental policy interventions in southern Africa.
Professor LaRocco has published her work in academic journals such as Politics and Gender, Journal of Southern African Studies, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, and others, including in several specialist edited volumes. Her first book, The Nature of Politics: State Building and the Conservation Estate in Postcolonial Botswana was published in Ohio University Press’s Research in International Studies, Africa Series in 2024. The Nature of Politics explores the far-reaching political and social impacts of environmental policymaking in contemporary Botswana.
Before coming to Maine, she was an Associate Professor of Political Science at Florida Atlantic University. She is the recipient of a 2022-2023 Africa Regional Research Program Fulbright grant. While a U.S. Fulbright Scholar, LaRocco was a visiting researcher at the Okavango Research Institute in Maun, Botswana and at the Gender Institute at Midlands State University in Gweru, Zimbabwe.
Dr. Zihan Wu
College: Maine College of Engineering and Computing
School: Computing and Information Science
Title: Assistant Professor, Human Centered Technology Design, Spatial & Information Science
Dr. Zihan Wu is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing and Information Science at the University of Maine. Her research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computing Education Research (CER), where she designs and evaluates interactive, engaging, and AI-supported tools to help novices learn programming and technology more effectively. She enjoys creating tools that guide and welcome learners through their learning process. Her work has been published in venues such as CHI, AIED, and ICER, and she enjoys mentoring students through both research and teaching.
Zihan earned her Ph.D. in Information from the University of Michigan and her B.Eng. in Computer Science and Technology from Tsinghua University. At UMaine, she is teaching Introduction to Human-Centered Design and User Experience Design. In her free time, she enjoys camping, cuddling with her cat, and appreciating glass art.
Dr. Daehyun Kim
College: Maine Business School
Teaching Area: Managerial Accounting
Title: Assistant Professor of Accounting
Dr. Daehyun Kim is an Assistant Professor of Accounting at the Maine Business School. His research focuses on corporate governance, with particular emphasis on board dynamics and shareholder control mechanisms. His work has been published in leading academic journals, including The American Economic Review, and has received broad recognition from both the scholarly community and prominent international media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, PBS, Bloomberg, and Forbes.
Prior to entering academia, Dr. Kim gained substantial professional experience in managerial accounting and finance. He served as a Financial Analyst at American Airlines and held positions as a Debt Capital Markets Analyst at Barclays Capital and a Credit Risk Management Research Analyst at Lehman Brothers.
Dr. Kim earned his Ph.D. in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin and his B.S. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before joining the Maine Business School, he was a faculty member at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, where he taught for nine years.
Dr. Kathryn Anderson
College: University of Maine at Machias
Division: Integrative and Marine Sciences
Title: Assistant Professor of Marine Biology
Dr. Anderson’s research focuses on the ecology of seaweeds and marine invertebrates on rocky shores. Her work uses a mix of field and lab techniques to understand how the distribution, abundance, performance, and interactions of marine species respond to
human driven changes in the environment like increased carbon-dioxide and temperature variability. Dr. Anderson teaches courses on Marine Botany, Marine Ecology, Field Methods, Biostatistics, and Experimental Design. Dr. Anderson is particularly passionate about teaching the prevalence of non-heteronormativity in nature
and encouraging students to practice non-traditional methods of scientific communication.
Dr. Anderson received her bachelor’s degree from Bowdoin College and her doctorate from the University of British Columbia. She has completed postdoctoral research at Washington State University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Before joining the faculty at UMM, Dr. Anderson taught at both Bard and Bates College. Outside of
science and teaching, Dr. Anderson loves reading fiction, swimming, being in nature, board games, and knitting.
Dr. Evan Miller
College: Liberal Arts and Sciences
Department: Mathematics and Statistics
Title: Assistant Professor
I joined the department of mathematics and statistics at the University of Maine as a tenure track assistant professor in Fall 2025. I received my PhD from the University of Toronto in 2019, and prior to coming to UMaine, I was a postdoc at McMaster University and the University of British Columbia, and a tenure-track assistant professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. My research focuses on nonlinear partial differential equations, mostly related to problems in fluid mechanics. I have been fortunate to teach courses closely related to my research in my first two semesters at UMaine, covering partial differential equations, ordinary differential equations, and linear algebra.
Outside of work, I am an avid runner, and I love to hike and ski. It has been a pleasure to get to explore all the beautiful areas around Bangor, from Acadia to Katahdin and many places in between.