Dr. Karen D. Rowland, assistant professor of counseling and human sciences, and Dee Ann Fleming, school counselor for Mount Zion Elementary School, led a conference session on Asperger’s Syndrome at the Georgia School Counselors Association Annual Conference in Augusta Nov. 19-21. The presentation, titled “The School Counselor’s Role: Working Effectively with Students Diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome,” was attended by more than 66 professional school counselors from across Georgia. Dr. Rowland will conduct a full workshop on the same topic at next year’s conference.

College of Liberal Arts

Dr. David A. Davis, assistant professor of English, presented a paper, titled “The Problem of Southern Modernism,” at the Modernist Studies Association conference in Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 13-16.

Dr. Gregory Domin, associate professor of political science, gave two presentations, titled “Bushed: Assessing Eight Years of Triumph, Failure, Division, and Where We Go from Here” and “Experiences from South Carolina: Using Experiential Learning to Teach the Road to the White House,” at the Georgia Political Science Association’s annual meeting, Nov. 13-15, in Savannah.  Domin also conducted a presentation, titled “Obama’s First 100 Days,” at the Greater Atlantic Electrical League in Smyrna, Nov. 11.

Dr. Achim Kopp, associate professor of Latin and German and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, has published a book, titled Francis Lieber’s Brief and Practical German Grammar, with Peter-Lang-Verlag of Frankfurt, Germany. The volume includes an annotated edition of Francis Lieber’s 1835 German Grammar, the manuscript of which Kopp researched at the Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif. The introduction explores the reasons why Lieber’s grammar was originally shunned by publishers, based on Lieber’s correspondence with friends and publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. It also compares Lieber’s work with other German grammars on the American and European markets in the 19th Century.

Dr. Paul Lewis, associate professor of Christianity, presented a critique of Philip Rolnick’s recently published book, Person, Grace, and God, at the annual meeting of the Polanyi Society in Chicago, Oct. 31-Nov. 1.

Dr. Jennifer Look, assistant professor of chemistry, has published a paper, titled “Autoxidation of Platinum(IV) Hydrocarbyl Hydride Complexes to Form Platinum(IV) Hydrocarbyl Hydroperoxide Complexes,” in Inorganic Chemistry. This work is a significant piece of the puzzle concerning how to develop environmentally friendly and energy efficient industrial chemical processes.

Dr. Tanya Sharon, associate professor of psychology and director of the Scientific Inquiry Program, and Dr. Linda Hensel, associate professor of biology, attended the Association of American Colleges and Universities conference on “Advancing Learning, Engaging Science,” Nov. 6-8, in Providence, R.I. The purpose of the conference was on identifying and sharing techniques for effective general science education. Hensel and Sharon presented a poster, titled “Designing Science for All: An Interdisciplinary Model of General Science Education,” which provided a brief history and description of Mercer’s Scientific Inquiry program along with more than three years of assessment data demonstrating the program’s effectiveness.

Dr. Charlotte Thomas, chair of philosophy, gave a lecture at the Montesquieu Center for Political Founding at Roosevelt University in Chicago on Nov. 4, titled “Making it Home: Vigilant Memory and the Founding of Ithaca in the Odyssey of Homer.” The presentation, along with one other lecture, will be published next year as a monograph. Dr. Thomas also directed “Liberty and the Limits of Constructivist Rationality” for the Liberty Fund, Nov. 13-16, in Atlanta.

Dr. Bridget Trogden, professor of chemistry, had a manuscript accepted for publication in Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters. The paper is titled “Tethered Indoles as Functionalizable Ligands for the Estrogen Receptor.” Co-authors are Shuyi Lee, Sung Hoon Kim and John A. Katzenellenbogen of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Dr. Trogden and undergraduate research student Erin Sosebee, CLA ’08, have also recently returned from the Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Nov. 12-15, in Nashville.  Sosebee presented a poster on her research, titled “Producing the Protein Responsible for Pregnancy-Associated Malaria.” Co-authors were Mercer undergraduate researchers Corinne Gilmer and Laura Jane Bower.

Dr. Ajay K. Banga, professor, received a grant in the amount of $100,000 from Transport Pharmaceuticals for "Transdermal drug delivery by a combination of microneedles and iontophoresis.” The grant will help him investigate a novel approach for delivery of biopharmaceuticals across skin.  The technology involves combining low level electric current (iontophoresis) with a microneedle patch.

The emphasis of the grant from Transport Pharmaceuticals is for drugs targeted to the skin for topical or dermatological indications. Dr. Banga also has an active grant from Pfizer to explore these approaches for delivery of drugs into the bloodstream and to understand the advantages and limitations of the various technologies currently being utilized to come up with third generation skin patches.

Dr. Banga and his collaborators and graduate students presented nine papers at the recently concluded annual meeting of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists in Atlanta.  Of these, six papers dealt with delivery of drug molecules across micro-channels created in the skin using drug molecules with a wide range of molecular weights and a model drug similar in dimensions to monoclonal antibodies.  One paper also looked at the kinetics of closure of these micro-channels in the skin.

Dr. Banga was appointed to the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Drug Delivery Science & Technology. 

Mary Beerman, instructor and alumni board member, served as the program planning committee chair for the Annual Alumni Day at Georgia Baptist College of Nursing on Oct. 17.  The program was titled “Navigating Ethical and Legal Issues in a Changing Health Care Environment.”  Dr. Tanya Sudia-Robinson, professor, served as one of the featured speakers, presenting on “Exploring Ethical Dimensions of Nursing in the Current Morass of Health Care.”

Lana Chase, assistant professor, and Ann Keeley, assistant professor, gave a presentation, titled “Experiential Family Assessment Strategies: Impact of Mental Illness on the Family- Partnering with NAMI GA Families,” at the 22^nd Annual American Psychiatric Nurses Association Conference in Minneapolis, Minn., Oct. 16-18.

Dr. Dare Domico, professor, presented a paper, titled “Research Designs in Infusion Therapy,” at the National Academy of Infusion Therapy in St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 15.  The three-day meeting, offered by the Infusion Nurses Society, provided dissemination of information reflecting the nine core content areas of infusion therapy to enrich the nurse’s contributions to quality health care.

Dr. David G. Garber Jr., assistant professor of Old Testament and Hebrew, recently co-authored an article with Daniel Stallings, 2008 McAfee graduate, titled “Awakening Desire Before its Season: Reading Biblical Texts in Response to the Sexual Exploitation of Children” in the Song of Songs issue of Review and Expositor.  In addition, Dr. Garber presented a paper, titled “Service Learning and Hebrew Bible Interpretation,” at the Service Learning and Biblical Studies Workshop at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Boston.  Both the article and presentation grew out of Dr. Garber’s class on social justice in the Old Testament.

Dr. Thomas B. Slater, professor of New Testament language and literature, is a co-translator of the Common English Bible, to be published by Abingdon Press. He will work with translating the Revelation to John.  Slater has published a book and 10 articles on Revelation and has published seven articles specifically on how to best translate select passages of Scripture.

MERC

Brian Harper, senior mechanical engineer, presented a paper, titled “USAF Helicopter Loads/Environment Spectra Survey,” at the 2008 Aircraft Structural Integrity Program Conference, Dec. 4.

Mary Schleider, director of engineering, is published in an upcoming book, “Corrosion Control in the Aerospace Industry”. Schleider’s submission is featured in part 3 of the book: Corrosion Protection and Prevention. Her document is titled “Business Strategies for Corrosion Control in Fleet Maintenance.” The book is to be released January 2009.

School of Engineering

Dr. Susan Codone, associate professor in the Department of Technical Communication, is currently working with the faculty of Mercer’s Medical School on several projects, and she has begun a joint research project on effective physician-patient communication. Analyzing videos of interactions between medical students and “standardized patients” (actors who portray patients, presenting with various symptoms), Dr. Codone and her colleagues in the Medical School are attempting to determine whether the medical students encourage communication by the patients and provide adequate opportunity for them to speak and ask questions.

Dr. Helen Grady, associate professor and chair of the Department of Technical Communication program, and Dr. George Hayhoe, professor and director of the Master of Science in Technical Communication, co-authored an anthology, titled “Connecting People with Technology: Issues in Professional Communication,” which was published in early November. The book consists of 22 of the best papers from the 2005 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference held in Limerick, Ireland, revised and introduced by an essay from the editors explaining the significance of the collection’s five topic areas: usability, globalization, health and safety, biotechnology and corporate communication. Dr. Grady served as the program chair for the conference; Dr. Hayhoe was the proceedings chair.

Dr. Grady also met with faculty at two German universities during fall break in a preliminary investigation of potential faculty and student exchange programs. She spent two days at Hochschule Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, where she met with their technical communication faculty and gave a lecture to the Master of Science students. She also met with Ph.D. students in the Munich School of Management at Ludwig-Maximilians University.

Dr. George Hayhoe, professor and director of the MSTCO program, attended the interim meeting of the ISO working group that is developing international standards for software user documentation in Nanning, China, in early November. At the meeting, experts from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and the People’s Republic of China discussed drafts of three standards (for managers, for acquirers and suppliers and for testers and assessors of software user documentation). The group also began planning for a technical report on documentation in agile environments. In addition, Dr. Hayhoe wrote an article on the new ISO standard for designers and developers of software user documentation that appeared as the cover story in STC’s Intercom magazine in November.

School of Medicine

Dr. Lee Bowen, director of counseling services - Savannah campus; Dr. Steve Livingston, director of Master of Family Therapy programs - Macon and Atlanta campuses and, Dr. Melton Strozier, chair of the department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, had their proposal, “Integration Through Collaboration: The Successful Integration of an MFT Academic Program and Clinical Practice into a Psychiatry and Behavioral Science Department in a Medical School,” accepted for presentation at the World Family Therapy Congress in Portoro, Slovenia, March 4-7, 2009.

Jane Bridges, clinical campus librarian, presented a paper, titled “Moving into the Future: Blending a Hospital Library into an Academic,” at the annual meeting of the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association, Oct. 27-30, in Birmingham, Ala.

Dr. Susan D. Cline, assistant professor of biochemistry, presented a research poster, titled “Arrest of Mitochondrial RNA Polymerase by the Malondialdehyde Adduct, M1dG,” at the Environmental Mutagen Society 39^th Annual Meeting held Oct. 18-22 in Puerto Rico.  The abstract for the work, authored with collaborators from Pennsylvania State University and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, was published in the August edition of Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis.

Carolyn Klatt, reference and electronic services librarian, presented a paper titled “The Right Tool for the Job: Providing a Toolbar for Instant Access to Library Resources from Any Site on the Web,” at the annual meeting of the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association, Oct. 27-30, in Birmingham, Ala.

Anna Krampl, reference librarian, and Kim Meeks, systems and electronic resources librarian, presented a poster, titled “It’s Not Magic: Assembling a Dual-Campus Online Book Collection,” at the annual meeting of the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association, Oct. 27-30, in Birmingham, Ala.

Dr. Steve E. Livingston, assistant professor, and Dr. G. Bowden Templeton, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, conducted a presentation, titled “Dealing with emotional reactivity in patients and families,” at the Orthopedic Association Annual Conference, Piedmont Hospital, Atlanta.

Kim Meeks, systems and electronic resources librarian, presented a paper, titled “Information Rx: Is the Program Being Promoted and Utilized by Georgia Librarians and Georgia American College of Physicians Members?,” at the annual meeting of the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association Oct. 27-30 in Birmingham, Ala.

Rita Smith, outreach and education librarian; Jan LaBeause, director of the Medical School Library; and Susan Smith, reference librarian, Georgia State University, presented a paper, titled “So You Think You Can Go Local? Lessons Learned from Georgia Health – Go Local,” at the annual meeting of the Southern Chapter of the Medical Library Association, Oct. 27-30, in Birmingham, Ala.

Dr. G. Bowden Templeton, assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, presented three research posters at the recent annual meeting of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy in Memphis Tenn. The posters were titled, “Sexual function among younger women with breast cancer;” “Perceived partner support among young women with breast cancer,” and “Initiation: Young women with breast cancer and their partners,” along with several co-presenters. Dr. Templeton was also an invited speaker at the Orthopedic Association Annual Conference at Piedmont Hospital, Atlanta.

Shelia Tripp, patient coordinator with Mercer Medicine, was awarded the Pre-Hospital Save Award for clinical excellence resulting in the saving of a human life.  Tripp works as an EMT-intermediate with Mid-Georgia Ambulance. The award was presented during a luncheon on Nov. 11.

Tonya Williams, psychometrist at Mercer Medicine, and Renee Sullivan, psychology intern in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, are completing a large grant-funded research project related to EEG characteristics among children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. This study, sponsored by the Lexicor Corp., has involved hundreds of youth around the country at more than 10 project sites.  The data may help to elucidate a biologic index for this often-diagnosed, clinically complex disorder.

Staff and Administration

Ken Boyer, interim director of Auxiliary Services, presented a program for National Association of College Auxiliary Services Officers, Nov. 2, in Chicago, titled “Maximizing Customer Satisfaction with the Click of a Mouse.” The program highlighted Mercer’s Bear Card Program and its new online food ordering system available at Mercer Food Services Side Bar Cafe and Grille Works locations.

Dr. Peter Brown, see Walter F. George School of Law.
 

Dr. Wallace L. Daniel, provost, delivered the annual Cornelia Marshall Smith lecture at Baylor University. The topic of his address was “The University as a Learning Community.” Dr. Daniel also presented an invited paper at the III All-Russian Sociological Congress, hosted by the Russian Academy of Sciences, in Moscow, Russia.  The topic of his paper was “The Contribution of Orthodox Church Parishes to the Development of Civil Society in Russia.”

Tony Kemp, associate director of Academic and Advising Services, presented a paper for students and faculty/staff advisors of Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society at their Oct. 31-Nov. 2 annual conference in Anaheim, Calif. The session allowed participants from across the United States to reflect on issues related to the effectiveness of their campus chapters.

Stetson School of Business and Economics

Dr. Angela Dills, assistant professor of economics, published a paper with Rey Hernandez, titled “Course Scheduling and Academic Performance,” in the December 2008 edition of the Economics of Education Review. She also presented a paper titled “What Do Economists Know About Crime?,” at the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association Meetings in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November.

Dr. Nancy Jay, associate professor, had two co-authored papers presented at the Southern Finance Association meeting in November, titled “Operating Performance Surrounding Seasoned Equity Offerings” and “Real World Projects for Finance Courses.”

Tift College of Education

Dr. Anthony J. Harris, professor of education in the Department of Educational Leadership, co-authored an article, titled “Bullying: An adult perspective from educators who work predominately with African American students,” published in the Journal of Knowledge and Best Practices in Juvenile Justice and Psychology, 2008, Vo.2, No.1, with co-authors Dr. Rebecca Robles-Pina, Sam Houston State University, and Rachel Porias, Prairie View A&M University. In addition, Dr. Harris and his co-presenter, Dr. John Slate, had a proposal, titled “Hispanic Faculty Members at Texas Universities: A Look at the Last Five Years,” accepted for the 2009 Annual Conference of the American Education Research Association.

Dr. Kevin Jenkins, assistant professor of education leadership, presented a paper, titled “The Effects of Recent Supreme Court Decisions on Public School Personnel Law,” at the Education Law Association annual conference, Nov. 21-23.

Dr. Dana H. Lilly, professor of early childhood education, made a presentation, titled “Enhancing Home-School Communication and Collaboration with Web-based Technology,” at the National Association for the Education of Young Children 2008 Annual Conference in Dallas, Texas, on Nov. 7.

Dr. Peter Ross, assistant professor, recently completed a research study on ADHD in children, investigating several variables: 1) sub-components of metacognition; 2) temporal differences between distracting stimuli and returning to task; 3) true versus perceived learning disabilities – likely underachievement in this population of children based on other variables rather than the typical etiology presented in learning disabled children. Ross was also promoted from the executive editorial board to associate editor of the Journal of Higher Education and Self-Learning in October.

Townsend School of Music

Dr. John Dickson, dean, served as guest clinician for the Florida conference of the American Choral Directors Association, Nov. 6-7. Additionally, Dr. Dickson was the guest conductor for the Texas State Region VIII choral festival, Nov. 14-15.

Dr. Douglas Hill, professor of music and director of undergraduate studies and instrumental ensembles, presented band clinics at three Augusta-area high schools on Nov. 18 — Evans High School, Lakeside High School and Burke County High School in Waynesboro.

On Dec. 5, Dr. Hill and Townsend School of Music faculty members Adrian Gnam, distinguished artist in residence, and Dr. Marcus Reddick, assistant professor of music, performed in the chamber orchestra for the First United Methodist-Milledgeville’s performance of Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” conducted by Dr. Martin Vasquez.

Dr. Hill will perform in the Colony IV Brass in Macon on Dec. 13 for the First Baptist Church of Christ performance of Lessons and Carols. Dr. Stanley Roberts, will be the conductor.

Dec. 14-17, Dr. Hill and Townsend faculty, Dr. Monty Cole, Dr. Marcus Reddick and Adrian Gnam will accompany 14 instrumental students on a recruitment tour of seven North Florida high schools, featuring concerts by the Faculty Brass Quartet, Double Reed Quartet, Saxophone Quartet, Jazz Combo and percussion soloist, Dr. Reddick. Among the schools included in the tour are the Douglas Anderson School for the Arts in Jacksonville, as well as high schools in Fort Walton Beach and Panama City.

Robert Parris, Charles B. Thompson Professor of Organ and university organist, played recitals during September at Davidson College Presbyterian Church on the campus of Davidson College and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A UNC graduate, Parris played at the Chapel of the Cross on the edge of the UNC campus in memory of his undergraduate organ teacher, the late Rudolph Kremer. The program, co-sponsored by the Durham, N.C., chapter of the American Guild of Organists, included Kremer’s 1968 Sonata for Organ.

Dr. John E. Simons, associate professor of choral and sacred music, director of the Townsend-McAfee Institute and director of graduate studies, conducted the All-State Elementary School Honor Choirs, Nov. 7-8, at the Henry County Public School Performing Arts Center.  The event involved more than 500 children selected from elementary schools throughout Georgia. They rehearsed for two days and gave a performance to a packed house on Nov. 8. Dr. Simons also continues his work as coordinating editor of Mercer’s hymnal project, Celebrating Grace Hymnal. The editorial team, including Tom McAfee, Stanley Roberts, Milburn Price, David Music, Mark Edwards and Simons, held a three-day conference Nov. 13-15 on Seabrook Island, S.C.  The editorial team will be on Mercer’s Macon campus in December. The hymnal materials will be given to the project’s copyright manager and engraver in January. The hymnal will be published in March 2010.

University Libraries

Elizabeth D. Hammond, dean, served on an off-site review committee for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, Nov. 4-5, in Atlanta.  Her committee reviewed four institutions, including three institutions going for dual accreditation by SACS and the Association of Theological Schools.

Richard Marcum, media center supervisor at the Tarver Library, received a partial songwriting credit for the song "The Flood" on the forthcoming album "The Great Revival," by rap-metal pioneers Stuck Mojo. In addition, Marcum is credited with backing vocals on a cover of John Denver's "Country Road" featured on the same album, released by Napalm Records in November in Europe and will be released Jan. 13, 2009, in the United States.

Andrew Shuping, interlibrary loan/circulation services librarian at Jack Tarver Library, conducted a presentation, titled “Free! Alternatives to expensive technology,” at the Georgia Council of Media Organizations on Oct. 16.

Walter F. George School of Law

Linda L. Berger, professor of law, and Jack Lee Sammons, Griffin B. Bell Professor of Law, developed a new electronic journal, The Law & Rhetoric Abstracts e-Journal, which features selected abstracts of scholarly works probing the threads that connect law and rhetoric. Berger and Sammons continue as editors.

The e-journal, released online Dec. 2 by Social Science Research Network to thousands of subscribers, represents a return to the law’s origins in rhetoric in a time in which the law is threatened by contemporary politics and other disciplines such as economics.   

In its first issue, the e-journal includes abstracts on topics such as “Establishing Relations Between Law and Other Forms of Thought and Language,” “The Irrelevance of Contemporary Academic Philosophy for Law,” and “The Pragmatics of Legal Language.” Distributing abstracts in the e-journal allows subscribed readers to first read brief summaries of the papers to determine whether to download the full text, thereby speeding up a sometimes arduous research process. To help guide future development of the e-journal, Sammons and Berger compiled a 13-member advisory board consisting of experts in law and rhetoric.

The Law & Rhetoric Abstracts e-Journal, published twice a week, will be available to some half-a-million SSRN subscribers, and immediately available to more than 8,000 law professors and other academics who have directly subscribed to the Legal Scholarship Network.

Mark L. Jones, professor of law, and Dr. Peter Brown, senior vice provost, organized Mercer’s Professionalism and Vocation Across the Professions Symposium, titled “Practical Wisdom: The Character of the Professions” on Oct. 30-31 on the Macon campus. The Symposium was the third in a series exploring the civic dimensions of the professions and the values that underlie professional practice. Teams of professionals from across the University’s colleges, schools and libraries came together to explore the nature of practical wisdom – or good judgment – and ways to cultivate the capacity for practical wisdom in our students preparing for the professions.

On Oct. 30, Dr. Barry Schwartz and Dr. Kenneth Sharpe of Swarthmore College delivered the Symposium keynote address, titled “The War on Wisdom and How to Fight It,” in Newton Chapel.  Dr. Schwartz, the author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, and Dr. Sharpe, the author of Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial, co-teach a pioneering course on practical wisdom at Swarthmore and are also collaborating on a book on that subject. The lecture was followed by a day-long workshop at the Walter F. George School of Law on Oct. 31. 

The Symposium was co-sponsored by the Mercer Commons, Mercer’s Quality Enhancement Plan, and the Program in Leadership and Community Service, together with the Walter F. George School of Law and the Tift College of Education. The planning committee for the event was comprised of Dr. Tom Glennon, College of Liberal Arts; Dr. Anne Hathaway and Dr. Stephen Wills, Tift College of Education; and Jack Sammons and Sabrina Byrne of the School of Law.