This was the second time that Reed, director of alumni engagement and community connections at EMU, has hosted the event. Named among the and a member of the , she conceived the idea last year to celebrate March as Women’s History Month and highlight the trailblazing women leaders guiding the campus forward.

This year’s event celebrated Women’s History Month and explored the “queer-affirming, gender-expansive world of nature around us,” Reed said. It featured a conversation and Q&A with Pınar AteƟ Sinopoulos-Lloyd, a visionary artist, wildlife tracker, and Indigenous eco-philosopher whose work “lives at the intersection of sustainability, science, and deep connections to the natural world.”

Sinopoulos-Lloyd (they/them) shared their personal journey, moving from Turkey to the Bay Area of California at age eight. As a neurodivergent child, they spent a year of near silence carefully observing squirrels, pigeons, and other urban wildlife, noticing how these animals adapted to a city not designed for them. “That began and initiated my journey in wildlife observation, wildlife tracking, and pattern recognition as a tracker,” Sinopoulos-Lloyd said.

“I noticed they didn’t speak much and were highly observant,” they said. “I could relate to them and feel unmasked with them so easily.”

The wildlife tracker also spoke about community care. While trailing deer in the Scablands of eastern Washington about three years ago, Sinopoulos-Lloyd came across the leg bone of a beaver at the site of an ancient lake. On closer inspection, they saw that the bone had been broken but had healed. “That meant this being had survived,” they said.

“The reason I was so amazed was that this was a major fracture,” Sinopoulos-Lloyd said. “I don’t know how it happened, but it’s a sign of care. They must have been cared for and fed to recover and heal. As someone who’s disabled and chronically ill, seeing that sign of community care in the natural world touched me in such a profound way.”

Pınar AteƟ Sinopoulos-Lloyd (left) shares their experiences with Mayor Deanna Reed. Mukarabe (right), a conflict transformation student at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, performs djembe to close out Friday’s show.

Mornings with the Mayor also included a viewing of the trailer for Bloom, a documentary by filmmaker and Visual and Communication Arts professor Elizabeth Miller-Derstine. The follows four birth workers making reproductive care safer and more accessible in their community. A screening of the film will be held at 8 p.m. on Monday, April 13, in Suter Science Center 106.

The event concluded with a djembe musical performance by Mukarabe, a conflict transformation student at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. She shared her life story, from escaping the genocide in Burundi and coming to the United States to enrolling at EMU. “Now I’m here for my third master’s degree,” she told the crowd. “Not just for the paper. I’m studying conflict transformation because where I come from, it is needed.”

Those attending Mornings with the Mayor were treated to a complimentary drink, the Sunrise Refresher (a dragonfruit, mango, and raspberry lemonade), crafted by the talented baristas at Common Grounds Coffeehouse.

Sinopoulos-Lloyd, one of the seven professionals featured on the Inclusivity in Science Mural inside Suter Science Center, spent the full day on campus. They joined students, faculty, and staff for a lunchtime discussion, then gave a talk and signed their portrait during the mural’s dedication ceremony later that afternoon.

That’s when the former Durham, North Carolina, resident stumbled onto the annual Beaver Queen Pageant, “a wildly campy, dam-important celebration of queer joy, eco-love, and over-the-top critter cosplay” held in the city for the past two decades. The raucous, homegrown drag competition, with its blend of high drama and low stakes, proved to be the perfect subject for the filmmaker, who joined EMU’s Visual and Communication Arts (VACA) Department this year as assistant professor of digital media.

Her latest film, the heartwarming and quirky Once Upon a Wetland (2025), won “Best Documentary Short” at BEYOND: The Cary Film Festival (North Carolina) in mid-September, where it competed against short films from around the world. The 15-minute documentary follows first-time contestants Madam Bitey White, a charismatic performer and trivia host, and 16-year-old Ginger Bite-Dis, the youngest competitor, as they prepare for and compete in the 2023 Beaver Queen Pageant. The film offers a playful and poignant look at how local traditions provide space for defiance, connection, and collective care during a time of looming anti-LGBTQ legislation and tightening drag restrictions.

“This is a film that highlights joy,” said Miller-Derstine. “It’s about the hope we find when we gather together.”

The pageant’s castorine contestants take on beaver personalities, introduce themselves in their handcrafted “wetlands-ready wear,” showcase unique talents, and participate in interviews in their finest evening wear. The website notes that Beav Aldrin, the 2015 Queen, performed an aerial routine on silks, while the 2012 Queen, Furrah Gnawsett-Major, played the Star Wars theme on clarinet while hula-hooping.

The documentary was shown during a weeklong theatrical run at New York City’s Firehouse Cinema in May as part of DCTV’s “Road to the Oscars” Academy-qualifying initiative, which makes it eligible for consideration and potential nomination in the Academy Awards’ “Best Documentary Short Film” category.

It will be screened at the in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the weekend of Nov. 7, and the in Wilmington, North Carolina, the weekend of Nov. 21. Although the film isn’t currently available to watch outside of film festivals, Miller-Derstine said she’s seeking an online distributor to stream the film.

Once Upon a Wetland was directed by Miller-Derstine, produced by her and Ian Robertson Kibbe, and edited by Ace McColl.

About the professor

Miller-Derstine grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and moved to Lancaster at age nine. She graduated from Goshen College in 2016 with a BA in communication (film concentration) and English writing, and earned an MFA in documentary film from Wake Forest University in 2023.

She served as multimedia producer for Mennonite Central Committee from 2016 to 2021, and spent the past year as an adjunct professor in filmmaking at Davidson College. The Mennonite-raised filmmaker said she had “heard through the grapevine” that longtime VACA Professor Jerry Holsopple would retire at the end of the 2024-25 academic year and jumped at the opportunity when the job opened. Now in her second month on EMU’s faculty, she said she’s found a welcoming community to call home. 

“I love EMU,” she said. “I fully appreciate that we have a Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and that the university’s priorities are rooted in values of community, peace, and the greater social good.”

Miller-Derstine approaches all her work with a deep commitment to ethical storytelling and an awareness of the extractive history of the documentary field. She has won multiple awards for her films, including Best Director for her documentary short Welcome to the Dollhouse (2020) at both the Atlanta DocuFest and Hoosier Films Festival, and Best Documentary at the LongLeaf Film Festival for her feature documentary Bloom (2024).

Anushika Athauda, assistant professor of engineering
Athauda is excited to bring over eight years of dynamic undergraduate teaching experience in physics and engineering to EMU. Before joining EMU, she served on the faculty at Virginia Military Institute, Washington and Lee University, University of Rochester, and James Madison University. Athauda is passionate about student-centered learning and brings a strong background in curriculum development, hands-on instruction, and undergraduate mentorship. Her research interests lie in exploring the structure-property relationships of materials. She holds a BS in engineering physics from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a PhD in physics from University of Virginia.

Cherelle Johnson, instructor of business and leadership
Johnson joins the faculty with over a decade of experience in leadership development, organizational strategy, and higher education instruction. An adjunct instructor in EMU’s Business and Leadership program since 2019, she is currently pursuing a PhD in organizational leadership at Regent University, building on her MS in education and BBA in marketing from James Madison University. Johnson is also a certified HR professional (SHRM-CP), executive coach, and founder of Dream City LLC and IronDresses Inc., where she has trained leaders across the U.S. and internationally. Her teaching and research focus on leadership development, group behavior, and women’s empowerment, particularly in ecclesial and organizational contexts.

Yeimarie Lopez, assistant professor of social work
Lopez received a bachelor of social work from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), a master of social work from the University of Michigan, and a doctorate in education from VCU. For the majority of her social work career, she worked alongside immigrant and refugee families throughout Virginia. Her interest in social justice, higher education, and quality assurance also led her to work in accreditation, policy, and compliance. As a first-generation college graduate, Lopez is an advocate of accessible and equitable education as a way to create a more just society.

Elizabeth Miller-Derstine, assistant professor of visual and communication arts
Miller-Derstine (director/producer) is an award-winning documentary filmmaker drawn to stories centering joy as resilience. She holds an MFA in documentary film from Wake Forest University. She approaches all her work with a deep commitment to ethical storytelling and an awareness of the extractive history of the documentary field. Her most recent short documentary Once Upon the Wetland (2025) has received Oscar qualification in the Short Documentary category. Her other notable work includes Bloom (2024), which has been acquired for educational distribution by Good Docs, and won Best Documentary at the Longleaf Film Festival, and Welcome to the Dollhouse (2020), which won Best Director at both the Atlanta DocuFest and Hoosier Films Festival.

Ann Schaeffer, associate professor of nursing
Following undergraduate and graduate degrees in psychology, Schaeffer was a second-degree BSN student at UVA, and then became a certified nurse-midwife in 2000 via Frontier Nursing University (FNU), to which she returned for her doctorate (DNP) in 2017. Schaeffer is a certified nurse-educator and recently added certification as a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner through Radford University (2025). Schaeffer has practiced nursing in Virginia for 27 years, has attended over 1,000 births, and has provided health care in a wide variety of practice settings. She previously taught nursing at EMU for eight years, and then from 2020-2025 worked remotely as faculty in FNU’s DNP program, where she taught and mentored doctoral students in health care quality improvement. Prevention of burnout and attrition from health care professions is one of her priorities as an educator and mentor, which she believes begins upstream in the undergraduate classroom.

Bryce Van Vleet, assistant professor of psychology
Van Vleet earned a PhD from North Dakota State University in developmental science in 2025. He is a member of the Gerontological Society of America and specializes in adult development, rurality, and qualitative methodology. Prior to his doctoral work, Van Vleet earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Seattle Pacific University, a faith-based liberal arts university, and a master of science from North Dakota State. A recent convert to Anabaptism, Van Vleet looks for ways to incorporate faith into his scholarship and teaching. He encourages scholars from all walks of faith to bring their full selves into their work. His current research projects investigate queer well-being in rural America, advocate for empathy toward vaccine hesitancy in adulthood, and model how rural parents impart coping skills to their children.

EMU will mark the beginning of the academic year at Opening Convocation, held at 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 25, in Lehman Auditorium.