Over the last 10 years, Santa Clara University has ascended the ranks of the top colleges in the nation. Since joining the U.S. News and World Report national category in 2020, Santa Clara has consistently been a top 60 school in the “Best Colleges” rankings, appearing at No. 55 in 2026.
This momentum is in no small part due to the Santa Clara faculty. Informed by the Jesuit approach to education, professors at Santa Clara not only lead industry-defining research through immersion in Silicon Valley but also offer a transformative educational experience in the classroom, consistently ranked top 20 in the nation in undergraduate teaching.
This fall, Santa Clara University welcomes 68 new faculty to its community of teacher-scholars, including four tenured professors, a senior fellow in law, 42 assistant teaching professors and lecturers, and 20 tenure-track faculty, many coming from PhD programs at leading public and private universities.
These new hires represent an influx of additional thought leaders in the Bay Area and new learning opportunities for Santa Clara students. Among the new appointments is Fred de Sam Lazaro, the journalist in residence in the College of Arts and Sciences, who brings his award-winning series “Under-Told Stories” to campus and gives students the opportunity to learn alongside a professional whose work is making an impact in communities around the world.
This group also brings a range of distinctive expertise to Santa Clara, from assistant music professor Kaley Eaton, who creates music inspired by Baroque opera and the American West, to assistant professor of English Kaybee Brookins, whose research explores art as activism, queer and trans issues, masculinity, and the Black church.
“Our newest faculty members reflect the breadth of expertise and perspectives that shape our University. They are leaders in their disciplines and exceptional educators who bring their knowledge and passion to life in the classroom and the field,” says Jim Glaser, executive vice president and provost of Santa Clara University. “We’re thrilled to welcome them to the Bronco community. Their teaching, scholarship, and mentorship will prepare our students to think critically and thoughtfully engage with the world around them.”
Meet four of the newest faculty members and learn more about the work that they will pursue at Santa Clara.
Uncovering the mysteries of the universe with AI
Photo by Miguel Ozuna
Xiaosheng Huang’s love of physics started in middle school when he stumbled across Albert Einstein’s book “Relativity: The Special and the General Theory.” Today, Huang is helping reshape the field, using artificial intelligence to investigate some of the universe’s biggest mysteries: dark matter, dark energy, and the expansion of the universe.
“The fact that I can be more than just an admirer of Einstein’s theory, but actually work with data to test and understand the theory further, is just a dream come true,” says Huang, who joins Santa Clara as a new professor in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics this fall.
Huang currently leads the multi-institutional DESI Strong Lens Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he and a team of researchers model strong gravitational lenses to study how gravity bends light across the universe. They’ve observed more than 47 million galaxies and quasars, some as far as 11 billion light-years away, to help measure the universe’s expansion rate. He has also worked with students on research involving the Hubbell Space Telescope.
Before joining Santa Clara, Huang was a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of San Francisco and, prior to that, a lecturer in the physics department at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his PhD.
“To me, the study of the universe is where the spiritual, the intellectual, and the emotional all come together in a very powerful way,” says Huang. “Santa Clara is a place where I find my colleagues and students excited to embrace AI in their classes and research.”
Storytelling that makes a difference
Award-winning veteran journalist Fred de Sam Lazaro, best known for his work as a special correspondent for PBS New Hour, joined the Santa Clara University community this fall as its inaugural journalist in residence.
During his three-year appointment, de Sam Lazaro will guest lecture in journalism classes and bring his long-running “Under-Told Stories” Project to campus. For nearly two decades, the project has highlighted stories often overlooked by mainstream media, telling solutions-oriented narratives to help reduce poverty in communities around the world.
De Sam Lazaro will work with Santa Clara faculty to integrate the “Under-Told Stories” Project’s online archive of more than 300 documentary-style stories and educational materials into the undergraduate curriculum.
“It’s a very handy tool to use storytelling and video to enhance curriculum and understanding. That’s a primary reason why we’ve married a fundamentally journalistic project to an academic institution,” says de Sam Lazaro, who will also mentor student interns through the storytelling process, from ideation and field reporting to production and publication during his time at Santa Clara.
He is beginning his residency in South Africa, where he is developing stories on global health and immigration in the region. This commitment to shedding light on marginalized communities has defined de Sam Lazaro’s career and earned him recognition including a Peabody Award, three honorary doctorates, multiple CINE Golden Eagle Awards, and several Emmy nominations.
He sees that same commitment at Santa Clara, where the Jesuit tradition of serving others extends beyond the University’s mission and is reflected in opportunities for students to put those values in action in the real world.
“It takes commitment from the top, and we have that at Santa Clara University,” de Sam Lazaro says.
Rethinking how we learn together
Photo by Miguel Ozuna
For Riley Caldwell-O’Keefe, meaningful learning starts with creating the conditions necessary for students to take intellectual risks that help them learn and grow. As Santa Clara University’s inaugural director for the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning, an on-campus hub where faculty can connect and find resources to support their teaching, Caldwell-O’Keefe looks forward to helping cultivate a community that prioritizes reciprocity, mutual responsibility, and respect inside the classroom.
“I work with colleagues to better understand what will maximize joy in the classroom—joy for faculty teaching, joy for students learning—and being able to be in that together,” says Caldwell-O’Keefe. “Relationships are really at the center of the learning process, and I’m happy to be supporting that at Santa Clara.”
Caldwell-O’Keefe joins the Santa Clara community after more than 20 years working in higher education. They earned their doctorate at University of California, Santa Barbara in theatre studies with a feminist studies emphasis, and have taught in college classrooms, worked as a theater scholar and practitioner, and served in the United States Air Force and Air National Guard.
This fall, Caldwell-O’Keefe will lead the Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning in rolling out pilot programming focused on accessibility and neurodiversity, graduate teaching, collaborative teaching, and teaching in the age of AI. The center will also provide digital resources so Santa Clara faculty can easily access support when they are away from campus.
At the center of all these offerings is a commitment to helping students learn and thrive.
“Ultimately, I want students to experience a classroom that meets them where they’re at and helps them meet their goals for their education,” Caldwell-O’Keefe says. “It is absolutely critical to have students in the conversation helping us shape our curriculum not just as end users, but as students who are experiencing their learning.”
The Center for Engaged Teaching and Learning will open on Oct. 7 with a celebration in Adobe Lodge at 4:30 p.m.
Making an impact through law and advocacy
For more than 10 years, Tania Valdez has been fighting for stronger protections for noncitizens and people with disabilities. A lawyer and scholar specializing in immigration law, Valdez brings her research and advocacy to her new role as the Alberto J. Ruffo Professor of Law at Santa Clara University.
Before coming to Santa Clara, Valdez was an associate professor of law at George Washington University and a visiting assistant professor and director of the Immigration Law and Policy Clinic at the University of Denver Strum College of Law. She earned her juris doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law and began her career there, teaching and supervising law students in a clinical program primarily serving immigrants living with HIV/AIDs.
At Santa Clara, Valdez’s teaching will give students a unique perspective on the legal and systemic challenges many of her clients encounter and the opportunity to connect legal theory to practice, preparing them to address real-world problems and advocate for those in need.
