The College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (CHESS) Welcomes Four New Faculty Members

Roosevelt's College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (CHESS) is pleased to welcome four new faculty members to the school for the fall 2026 semester.

Sharvin Maisuria will be the new Paralegal Studies program director, taking the place of Carrie Lausen. Before joining Roosevelt, Maisuria was the dean of academic affairs at Generations College (formerly MacCormac College) and taught in their paralegal studies program, where she developed multiple courses herself and served on the Paralegal Studies Advisory Board. She earned her BS in Business Administration from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2005 and her JD from the Florida Coastal School of Law in 2013.

Dr. Samantha Plotner will be joining CHESS as an assistant teaching professor, overseeing classes focused on political advocacy for nonprofits. Plotner previously worked as a graduate research and teaching assistant at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she designed and taught course on nonprofit fundraising and helped facilitate field experiments studying nonpartisan voter mobilization. She has also been published extensively, with articles focused on nonprofit management, burnout and Millennial employee retention. Plotner earned her BA in Political Science & Human Rights Studies from Barnard College in 2013, her master's in Nonprofit Management from DePaul University in 2019 and a PhD in Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois Chicago in 2026.

Dr. Rachel Smith will be new program director for MA programs in Clinical Psychology, Counseling Practice and General Psychology, taking the place of Kim Langrehr. Smith is a licensed clinical psychologist who is the owner and founder of her own practice, called Hearthstone Psychology. She also has extensive educational experience, previously working as an adjunct professor at Richmont Graduate University in Tennessee, the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and the Trinity Christian College Graduate School of Counseling Psychology. In addition to teaching, she has published academic articles focused on the relationship between trauma and mental health. Smith earned her BS in Human Ecology from the University of Tennessee in 2005, an MA in Mental Health Counseling from Richmont Graduate University in 2012 and a PsyD in Clinical Psychology from Wheaton College in 2016.

Dr. Ariel Sylvester will join the Early Childhood Education department this fall. Sylvester previously co-led the Early Childhood Education department at DePaul University, where she designed the curriculum and conducted extensive research focused on Black homeschooling and student-parent needs. Prior to DePaul, she taught pre-K through third grade in the Chicago Public school system, and she has authored 12 books distributed through her self-owned Pretty Nerd Publishing. Sylvester earned her BA in Early Childhood Education at North Park University, her MA in Early Childhood Education from National Louis University and her doctorate in Early Childhood Education from DePaul University.

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