Meet Emerson’s Newest Faculty Members

This fall, Emerson welcomed five new faculty members across three schools. They include a speech-language pathologist specializing in voice disorders; a prize-winning poet/essayist; a screenwriter/director who centers unrepresented voices in cinema; an artist/scholar focused on youth agency through storytelling and theatre; and an award-winning actress with dozens of theatre, film, television, and voice over credits to her name.

Emerson Today invited them to answer a few questions about themselves and their fields.

Kimberly Dahl
Assistant Professor, Communication Sciences & Disorders
Fall 2025 Classes: Anatomy and Physiology for Speech, Hearing, and Swallowing; and Voice Disorders

Kimberly Dahl is a speech-language pathologist who researches speech motor control, especially in interactive contexts, and voice perception. Her clinical specialties are voice disorders, motor speech disorders, and head and neck cancer. Before completing her doctoral degree, she practiced clinically at Oregon Health and Science University’s Northwest Clinic for Voice and Swallowing, and Mass General’s Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Rehabilitation.

Her work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and Council of American Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is an alum of Boston University, the University of Rhode Island, and the University of Texas at Austin.

What’s the most exciting development/trend happening in your field/medium right now?

I’m fascinated by advances in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that could restore speech to those with severe paralysis or advanced progressive disorders like ALS. Its widespread use and accessibility seem a long way off, but it’s a potentially life-changing technology. 
 
What’s the last thing you learned?

How to juggle! I won’t be joining the circus any time soon, and I barely accomplished enough to even call it a party trick. But it was a fun little hobby to take on with a friend.

What’s your favorite work of fiction (any medium) and most interesting work of nonfiction (again, any medium).

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is an all-time favorite novel of mine, and a more recent one is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. I’m often drawn to nonfiction books on death and dying. Some that I have enjoyed are Stiff by Mary Roach, Working Stiff by Judy Melinek, and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty. The thanatology episode of the Ologies podcast is also excellent.

What do you love to do when you’re not working? 

I start every day with the crossword puzzle and a handful of other puzzles and games. I also love walking with my dog Cal, reading, visiting coffee shops and cocktail bars, and traveling (all around the world, but especially to see my family in Austin).

Jenny Molberg
Editor-in-Chief, Ploughshares; and Professor, Writing, Literature and Publishing

Jenny Molberg is the author of three poetry collections: Marvels of the Invisible (Tupelo Press, 2017), winner of the Berkshire Prize; Refusal (LSU Press, 2020); and The Court of No Record (LSU Press, 2023), a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She edited the Unsung Masters volume, Adelaide Crapsey: On the Life and Work of an American Master, and her poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The American Poetry Review, AGNI, The Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, Oprah Quarterly, and elsewhere.

Molberg has received fellowships and residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Hambidge Center, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Longleaf Writers Conference.

Ekwa Msangi
Assistant Professor, School of Film, Television and Media Arts
Fall 2025 Classes: Writing the Short Subject; and Writing the Feature Film

Ekwa Msangi is an award-winning screenwriter, director, and educator, best known for her critically acclaimed feature film, Farewell Amor, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is distributed by IFC Films, MUBI, and The Criterion Collection. Her work has received numerous accolades, and continues to champion underrepresented voices in cinema.

Msangi has taught screenwriting at several prestigious institutions, including Mira Nair’s Maisha Film Lab, The New School, Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, and Vermont College of Fine Arts. At Emerson, she combines her passion for mentorship with her dedication to empowering the next generation of screenwriters to tell stories that matter.

Born in California and raised between Kenya and New York City, Msangi earned a BFA in Film and Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and holds an MA from the Gallatin School of Individualized Study, with a focus on the intersection of storytelling and diasporic identity.

What’s the most exciting development/trend happening in your field/medium right now?

Definitely trying to navigate the use (and misuse) of AI is a big thing in the field right now!  

What’s the last thing you learned? 

I’m new to Boston and learned that one has to pay taxes on vehicles here! Who knew! 

What’s your favorite work of fiction (any medium) and most interesting work of nonfiction (again, any medium).

I don’t usually choose favorites, but I’ll go with what I’m watching/listening to right now, which is Nana Mensah’s debut film Queen of Glory, an excellent comedy that I adore; and Reed Brody’s book To Catch a Dictator, which is a salve in these turbulent times. 

What do you love to do when you’re not working? 

Dancing with my 1-year-old daughter! 

Lily Odekirk
Artist-in-Residence, Performing Arts
Fall 2025 Classes: Stages of Drama; Theatre for Young Audiences; and Drama as Education I

Lily Odekirk is an artist and scholar whose teaching focuses on drama-based and critical pedagogies. Her research and artistic practices engage with autoethnography, Youth Participatory Action Research, digital storytelling, and archive. Across all of her work, Odekirk believes that youth voice and agency are critical.

Recent projects include: a two-year Performing Justice Project residency with Travis County Juvenile Justice (Austin, Texas); co-producing Notch Theatre’s Wild Home (Washington, Pennsylvania, and D.C.); and facilitating Drama for Schools/The Applied Drama Institute (Austin, Texas and Warsaw, Poland). She was the 2025 Artistic Producer of the Cohen New Works Festival, and the 2024 recipient of the Don and Elizabeth Doyle Fellowship.

She holds an MFA in Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities from the University of Texas at Austin, a BA in English and Theatre from Wellesley College, and a Master’s Certificate in Documentary Film from The Salt Institute, Maine College of Art and Design.

What’s the most exciting development/trend happening in your field/medium right now?

As a proponent of youth justice (I think every space is improved by the wisdom, experiences, and active involvement of young people), I’m inspired by Theatre for the Very Young and youth participatory action research. I want to continue troubling and thinking about how we, as a field of theatre education and applied theatre, recognize and navigate power as we consider co-creating work that honors youth agency.  

What’s the last thing you learned?

I am (slowly) learning Farsi.

What’s your favorite work of fiction (any medium) and most interesting work of nonfiction (again, any medium).

I know I’m breaking the rules of this question, BUT – my favorite reads from 2024 and 2025 are: The Emperor of Gladness (Ocean Vuong), Perfect Victims (Mohammed El-Kurd), There’s Always This Year (Hanif Abdurraqib), Martyr! (Kaveh Akbar), Scripting Detention (Nandita Dinesh), Freshwater (Akwaeke Emezi), Shapeshifters: Black Girls and the Choreography of Citizenship (Aimee Meredith Cox), and Chain-Gang All-Stars (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah). 

What do you love to do when you’re not working?

Reading on my couch; hosting dinner parties; dancing Argentine tango; meeting friends at galleries and film festivals; watching reality TV; playing backgammon with my partner; solving crosswords over Zoom with my family; spending time in mountains. 

Amy Lynn Stewart
Artist-in-Residence, Performing Arts
Fall 2025 Classes: Scene Study I; Auditioning and Professional Preparation; and Voice Over Acting

Amy Lynn Stewart is an award-winning SAG/AFTRA and Equity actor, with theatrical productions including the world premieres of Appropriate, by Brandon Jacobs Jenkins; Beauty, by Tina Landa; Ragged Claws, by Lina Patel; and Viral, by Mac Rogers, for which she received Best Actress awards from Theatre World, ITBA, and Talkin’ Broadway.

TV appearances include The Good Fight, Monsterland, FBI: Most Wanted, House of Cards, Shades of Blue, I Know This Much Is True, and Madame Secretary. Stewart was awarded Best Actress at the International Action Film Festival and the Palm Award for Best Actress at the Mexico International Film Festival for her work in the film Mama. She has fronted numerous voice-over campaigns, and her narration of The Mockingbird Next Door by Marja Mills received an Audiofile Earphones Award.

She is the co-founder of Acting (Actually), a service to educate, coach, and mentor actors to build a sustainable career and rewarding life in the entertainment industry. She holds a BA in Dramatic Art from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an MFA in Acting from the University of California, San Diego.