College of Continuing and Professional Studies
Dr. Hani Khoury, associate professor of mathematics and chair of the Department of Mathematics, Science and Information Systems, presented “Climates in the Mathematics Classroom” at an international conference, titled “Using Mathematics Education in Schools to Give Peace a Voice.” The conference was held at St. George’s House, Windsor Castle, England, and focused on encouraging classroom cultures and climates that promote democratic behaviors as a means to fostering inter-cultural and inter-faith understanding and tolerance. The conference was attended by educators from France, Germany, Hungary, Jordan, United Kingdom, United States and Qatar.
College of Liberal Arts
Dr. Greg Domin, associate professor of political science, led a group of 11 students to the inauguration of President Barack Obama and participated in a 10-day seminar by the Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. In addition to their studies, students performed service, took tours of various Washington landmarks and heard from presidential historians, political scientists, Washington insiders and journalists about the latest topics that lead up the inauguration on Jan. 20. The students who traveled to Washington, D.C, were: Julia Chenault, Jennifer Cooper, Charles Crain, Abigail Foy, Bryant Harden, Jessica Johnson, Tory Johnson, Erin Patterson, Autumn Turner, Samantha Vogel, and Aaron McKinney.
Dr. Paul Lewis, associate professor of Christianity, attended the annual meeting of the society of Christian Ethics in Chicago, Jan. 8-11. While there, he presented the paper, “Undergraduate Character Development and Michael Polanyi: a Work in Progress,” to the Moral Psyschology Interest Group and chaired a discussion of Timothy Sedwick’s book, Preaching What We Practice for the Church and Academy Interest Group.
Dr. Edward Weintraut, professor of German and associate dean, began serving his two-year term as president of the Georgia Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG-Ga.) in September 2008. He also contributed a presentation, titled “Das Wiki und die Wende: Using a Wiki to Teach Contemporary German Culture,” at the annual AATG-Ga. Sprachbad Workshop on Tybee Island, Jan. 16-18.
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Dr. Ashish A. Advani, clinical assistant professor, was awarded a $21,000 grant from Alaven Pharmaceuticals LLC for the Drug Information Center.
Dr. Ajay K. Banga, professor, was awarded a grant in the amount of $100,000 from Transport Pharmaceuticals for “Transdermal Drug Delivery by a Combination of Microneedles and iontophoresis.” Dr. Banga and collaborators, S. Lanke, C. Kolli, J. Strom, Y. Yu, S. Late, V. Vemulapalli and F. Friden, published three research papers: one in the Journal Drug Delivery, titled “Iontophoretic delivery of methotrexate,” and two in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics, titled “Transdermal delivery of low molecular weight heparin” and “Optimizing fast disintegrating tablets.” Dr. Banga was also appointed to the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Drug Delivery Science & Technology.
Dr. Martin J. D’Souza, professor, received multiple grants totaling $42,095 from the Dialysis Clinic Inc. for “Effect of microencapsulated catalase and superoxide dismutase microspheres on oxidative stress;” “Combination of gentamicin and NF-kB microspheres,” “Determination of the toxicity of the microspheres of the anti-sense oligonucleotides to NF-kB,” “Effect of microencapsulated anti-sense oligomers to NF-kB on cytokine production” and “Combination of gentamicin and NF-kB microspheres.” Also, Dr. D’Souza, S.G. Gayakwad, N. K. Bejugam, and N. Akhavein, et. al., published “Formulation and in vitro characterization of spray-dried antisense oligonucleotide to NF-kappaB encapsulated albumin microspheres” in the Journal Microencapsulation, Jan15:1-9 2009. Dr. D’Souza also co-authored “Evaluation of albumin microspheres as oral delivery system for Mycobacterium tuberculosis vaccines” in the Journal Microencapsulation. 26(2):166-79. 2009.
Dr. Leisa L. Marshall, clinical associate professor, and Dr. Diane Nykamp, professor, co-authored “Perceived Stress and Quality of Life Among Doctor of Pharmacy Students” in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education; 2009; 72 (6).
Dr. Nicole L. Mezger, clinical assistant professor, published “A Comparative Review of Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agents” in the Journal of Pharmacy Practice; 2008; 21; 424.
Dr. Kathryn M. Momary, clinical assistant professor, and S. B. King published “Clopidogrel: Time for personalized therapy?” in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology Intervention 2008; 1(6):718-719.
McAfee School of Theology
Dr. Loyd Allen, professor of church history and spiritual formation, taught a seminar on Baptist Heritage for the Asian Baptist Graduate Theological School in Baguio, Philippines, in January.
Dr. Richard O. Mines Jr., professor, director of Master of Science in Engineering and associate director of Master of Science programs, wrote “Bench-Scale Ozonation Study of Waste Activated Sludge,” which was published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A (2009) 44, 38-47. Dr. Laura W. Lackey co-authored the paper.
Dr. Laura W. Lackey, associate professor and chair of environmental engineering, was the primary author of a research paper, titled “Comparing Two Empirical Models used to Predict Process Parameter Dynamics during Ozonation of Synthetic Dye Wastewater,” published in the Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A (2009) 44, 192-197. Dr. Richard Mines was the co-author.
Dr. Edwin W. Grimsley, professor of medicine, recently was an invited speaker at the Southern Medical Association annual meeting in Nashville, Tenn. Dr. Grimsley spoke on “Preoperative Medical Evaluation.”
Dr. Mellonie S. Hayes, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy, has been appointed to the board of directors for the Georgia Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (GAMFT). She was appointed as chairperson for the Multicultural Issues Committee beginning in January. The GAMFT is a division of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and exists to promote the profession of Marriage and Family Therapy.
Dr. Harold Katner, chief of infectious diseases and professor of internal medicine, presented a talk on AIDS to the students and faculty at Georgia Perimeter College in Atlanta on Dec. 1, 2008.
Michael Junod, director of the University Center, has been selected for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army Reserve. Lt. Col. Junod currently serves as a small group leader for the 108th Regiment, 11th Battalion, located in Concord, N.C. He instructs in the Officer Education System, teaching the art, science and history of warfare. During his 21-year Army Reserve career, Lt. Col. Junod has held various company, battalion and division leadership and staff assignments including deployments in support of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom I and Operation Iraqi Freedom II. Lt. Col. Junod has managed the University Center since the facility opened in 2004 and has been an adjunct instructor for the Stetson School of Business and Economics for Mercer University.
Melinda D. Robinson, academic specialist for Student Support Services and first-year Ph.D. candidate in Education Leadership in the Tift College of Education, was selected as a member of the 2009 class of Leadership Macon, a program of the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Linda Brennan, professor of management, wrote “Reaching Beyond the Classroom to Virtual Mentors,” published in Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal 2(2), 2008.
Dr. Terry Grant, professor of accounting, made a presentation about executive compensation trends and associated corporate governance regulations to a joint meeting of the Atlanta Chapters of the Institute of Management Accountants and the American Society of Women Accountants on Jan. 20. The presentation was based on his recently published research paper, “Can Regulations Curb Excessive Executive Pay?” co-authored with Gerry H. Grant, and published in Strategic Finance, September 2008, pp. 31-39.
Dr. William Lacefield, associate professor of mathematics, attended the winter meeting of the British Society for the History of Mathematics held in December at the University of Greenwich in London, England.
Martha Malone, professor of music and chair of vocal studies, performed as the guest soloist with the Macon Symphony Orchestra at its annual Pops concert at the Macon City Auditorium on Jan. 24.
Amy Schwartz Moretti, associate professor and director of the McDuffie Center for Strings, was guest artist at the Winter Festival of the Seattle Chamber Music Society at Benaroya Hall, Seattle, Wash., Jan. 22-23 and 25. She performed works by Beethoven and Mendelssohn for piano trio, string quintet, and strings and winds septet. She served as guest concertmaster of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with Donald Runnicles, principal guest conductor, in works by Webern, Mozart and Strauss in Atlanta at Symphony Hall, Woodruff Arts Center, Jan. 29-30 and Feb. 1.
Geoffrey P. Timms, electronic resources/reference librarian at Jack Tarver Library, delivered a presentation, titled, “Resolving e-Resource Access Problems: Critical Information for Timely Turnaround,” to the Electronic Resources Interest Group of the Association for Library Collections and Technical Services at the American Library Association Mid-winter conference in Denver, Colo.
Stan Trembach, instruction coordinator and reference librarian at Jack Tarver Library, attended the “Library Instruction 2.0: Brainstorming, Planning, Teaching, Assessing” conference Nov. 17-18, 2008, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Walter F. George School of Law
Sarah Gerwig-Moore, assistant professor, was named vice chair of the Macon-Bibb County Planning and Zoning Commission in January. She has been a commissioner since November 2007.
Dave Oedel, professor, offered a personal remembrance of Griffin Bell in the National Law Journal on Jan. 12. Oedel commented on Judge Bell’s arch independence under a courtly Southern demeanor and how Bell’s principles offered practical lessons for attorneys general and law students alike. The article can be found at http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202427278516
David Ritchie, associate professor, has been appointed the chair of the Law and Humanities Section of the Association of American Law Schools for 2009.