AUM Faculty & Staff
Directory
Megan LeBlanc
NAGPRA Coordinator | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Megan LeBlanc is the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) Coordinator at Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM). She majored in Anthropology and Geology at Texas Christian University and then earned her master’s and PhD in Anthropology from the University of Florida. Her job is to identify NAGPRA eligible collections in the AUM Archaeology Lab and consult with federally recognized Tribal Nations on the repatriation of Native American Ancestors and cultural items. Dr. LeBlanc’s research interests include archaeological landscapes and climate change in the Andes, as well as repatriation, building relationships between Tribal Nations, and incorporating traditional indigenous knowledge into collections management practices.
Yolanda Machado-Escudero
BSW Program Director, Assistant Professor of Social Work
Yolanda Machado-Escudero
BSW Program Director, Assistant Professor of Social Work | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Yolanda Machado is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Social Work. She is a newcomer to AUM, Montgomery, and Alabama. Her classroom pedagogy, research scholarship, and service are informed by the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, ability, and class among Latinx and other transnational migrant communities of color in the U.S. and abroad. Her research interests include historic trauma, resilience and resistance in oppressed groups, systemic inequality and other barriers to access health care, self-sufficiency and inclusion of people with disabilities in social settings, social work education in Latin America, and environmental injustice and climate grief in vulnerable contexts. She has worked in direct practice, management positions, and as a social work instructor in rural and urban settings in Puerto Rico, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida. Dr. Machado has a teenage son living with autism. Their pastimes include walking in nature, reading, gardening, and cooking Puerto Rican tasty meals.
LisaMarie Malischke
Assistant Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. LisaMarie Malischke is an Anthropologist specializing in archaeology, with a background in hard science and medicine. Traditionally, my research focuses on post-contact 18th-century French and Indigenous interactions at forts and villages. I am trained in conflict and battlefield archaeology and, in partnership with Auburn University and Dr. Meghan Buchanan, we research and instruct field school students at the Civil War Conscription Camp #1, Camp Watts, in Notasulga, Alabama. At AUM, I also teach Cultural Anthropology, Introductory Archaeology, Public Archaeology, and Collections and Museum Curation Management for the Museums Studies Certificate. I am a board-member with the Alabama Archaeological Society and I enjoy mentoring students, instructing them in the field and in the lab, and taking them to conferences and on field trips.
Lee McMichael
Interim BSW Program Director/Clinical Assistant Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Lee McMichael (MSW, LCSW-S) serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Work at Auburn University at Montgomery, where she teaches across the BSW curriculum, mentors students, and contributes to program development and service activities. A summa cum laude graduate from Western Kentucky University’s MSW program, she brings nearly two decades of clinical and teaching experience to the classroom at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
McMichael is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and approved clinical supervisor in Alabama, with extensive experience providing therapy across the lifespan in areas such as trauma, depression, anxiety, CPTSD, elder care, and family systems. She has worked in a variety of settings, including private practice, community-based programs, community policy board director, psychiatric in-patient, and Hospice.
In addition to her clinical and academic roles, McMichael has served as a trainer on topics such as self-care, ethics, and DSM diagnosis, and she has been an active leader and volunteer in professional and community organizations, including NASW, CSWE, Save Our Kids Coalition, and Main Street Wetumpka. Her teaching interests include clinical and generalist practice skills, mental health, gerontology, and professional development of social workers.
Kimberly Pyszka
Department Chair; Associate Professor of Anthropology | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Kimberly Pyszka is a historical archaeologist that specializes in studies of landscapes and architecture of the US Southeast. She has conducted archaeological research throughout the Southeast, including South Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alabama, including on the AUM campus. Dr. Pyszka has published several peer-reviewed journal articles and in 2023 published, The Archaeology of Protestant Landscapes: Revealing the Formation of Community Identity in the US South. Some of her favorite classes to teach include Death and Dying, Themes in Food, Culture, and History, and Historical Archaeology. Dr. Pyszka also serves on the Alabama National Register of Historic Places Review Board.
Kashera Guy Robinson
Assistant Clinical Professor/Social Work Field Director
Kashera Guy Robinson
Assistant Clinical Professor/Social Work Field Director | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Kashera Guy Robinson, DSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Work educator with more than 25 years of experience in the areas of juvenile justice, child welfare, mental health, and school social work.
Dr. Guy Robinson is an expert on the topic of urban school social work and has written a number of articles on this specialized area of practice. She has collaborated on a number of webinars and at professional conferences on school social work topics. Dr. Guy Robinson is actively involved in several professional social work organizations and has served in a number of leadership roles in these organizations including District President, District Vice President, District Parliamentarian, Chairperson of Membership, and Specialty Practice Section Committee Member.
Dr. Guy Robinson’s research interests include exploring the issue of chronic absenteeism among minority school-aged youth residing in urban communities, examining how the historical traumas of transgenerational poverty and racism continue to impact this demographic, and exploring ways that trauma-informed interventions can help these youth. Her teaching interests include introductory social work courses and school social work-related topics.
Lacey Sloan
Professor | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Lacey Sloan is a wanderer who received her BSW from the University of Mississippi and her MSSW and Ph.D. in social work from The University of Texas at Austin. Her three intertwining areas of scholarship are sexual rights and gender-based violence; social work education and practice in Islamic contexts; and, environmental justice. Her early practice and scholarship focused on sexual rights, with a specific focus on sexual violence, sex work and sex workers, violence against LGBT people, sexual violence and oppression against people with disabilities, and sexual violence and oppression against other marginalized populations. Her decades working in the anti-sexual violence movement at the local, state and national level included work in rape crisis centers, serving on the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault and National Coalition Against Sexual Assault boards of directors, and serving as the scientific lead for the Department of Justice funded Violence Against Women Act Measuring Effectiveness Initiative. Since 2001, she facilitated the development and/or initial accreditation of three MSW programs (University of Southern Maine, College of Staten Island, Zayed University [United Arab Emirates]), three BSW programs (College of Staten Island; five universities Somalia; Qatar University), and, two diploma and certificate programs in social work (six universities in Somalia; Juba University in South Sudan).
Angie Smith
Assistant Professor of Social Work | College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Angie Smith is a first-generation college graduate whose academic path reflects her dedication to social work and education. She earned an Associate degree in Pre-Social Work, a BSW from the University of Montevallo, and both an MSW and Ph.D. from The University of Alabama. Her doctoral dissertation explored the lived experiences of Black college students following encounters with police violence.
Dr. Smith’s current research focuses on social work education, particularly the importance of evidence-based practice in research for undergraduate students. Her broader interests include vulnerable populations, public and mental health, advocacy, policy, and the impact of police violence.
A passionate educator and mentor, Dr. Smith is committed to helping students reach their goals. She embraces the proverb, “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime,” and believes mentorship is essential to student success.
Outside of academia, she enjoys science fiction and fantasy films such as Star Wars, Harry Potter, and The Lord of the Rings. She also loves to travel and is known for her dry sense of humor.
