Faculty and Staff Notables

Dr. Diane Clark, assistant professor of counseling and coordinator the counseling graduate programs in the Department of Counseling and Human Sciences, presented an educational session at the nationwide LiveText Conference on July 20 in Chicago, Ill. The title of the presentation was “Quantifying the Qualitative Assessment Process in Counselor Education,” and was aimed at underscoring the importance of assessment and data-driven decision making processes in the field of counselor education. The conference was attended by post-secondary educators from various disciplines employed at colleges and universities throughout the nation.

James (Jay) E. Black, assistant professor, will have his article, title d “Amoozin but Confoozin’: Comic Strips as a Voice of Dissent in the 1950s.” published in ETC: A Review of General Semantics  66.4 (October 2010): 460-77. This article is also slated to appear in the 2009 Semiotics Annual: Specialization, Semoiosis, Semiotics, edited by John Deely and Leonard G. Sbrocchi. The original paper was presented last year at the Semiotic Society of America, Cincinnati, Ohio. Another paper he presented, “In Defense of Vespertilio-homo: Finding the Truth in the 1835 Moon Hoax,” has been accepted as chapter a book on 19th Century tabloid journalism, due in 2011.

Dr. Jonathan C. Glance, professor of English, represented Georgia at the National Conference of Bar Examiners in Austin, Texas, on April 15–17. He has been reappointed to a second five-year term of service on the Supreme Court of Georgia’s Board to Determine Fitness of Bar Applicants, and participated in the conference as a member of that fitness board.

Dr. Curtis Herink, professor of mathematics, and Dr. Hope McIlwain, associate professor of mathematics, participated in a workshop, titled “Improving College Mathematics Teaching Through Faculty Development,” June 13-18 at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

Dr. Eric Klingelhofer, professor of history, attended the Society for Post-Medieval Archaeology conference at Memorial University, Newfoundland, celebrating the 400th anniversary of settlement in that province. On June 18 he presented a paper entitled “Archaeological Evidence of Elizabethan Activities at Roanoke,” reporting on his recent excavations on Roanoke Island, N.C., the site of Sir Walter Raleigh’s “Lost Colony.”

Dr. Achim Kopp, professor of Latin and German and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, presented a paper, titled “Abraham Reeser Horne’s Pennsylvania German Manual,” at the 34th Annual Symposium of the Society for German-American Studies in New Harmony, Ind., on April 23. He also served as moderator of a session on “Linguistic Communities.”

Dr. Paul Lewis, associate professor of Christianity, wrote a chapter, titled “Teaching to Form Character:  a Polanyian Analysis of Practical Reasoning,” in the book Knowing and Being:  Perspectives on the Philosophy of Michael Polanyi, edited by Tihamer Margitay (Newcastle Upon Tyne:  Cambridge Scholars Publishing). He also published a review article, titled “Do We Need to Go Through Trinity to Relate Person, Grace and God?” and a review of Michael Gazzanga’s The Ethical Brain: The Science of Our Moral Dilemmas, in Tradition and Discovery, XXXVI(3).

Dr. John C. Wright, professor of psychology, presented a paper, titled “The Development of Behavior Problems in Puppies (Canis lupus familiaris) and Kittens (Felis catus),”  at the Animal Behavior Society annual meeting, July 2010, Williamsburg, Va.

Marian Zielinski, professor of communication studies and theatre, had an art work,

“Riches of Age,” featured in the book 1000 Artisan Textiles, edited by Sandra Salamony and Gina M. Brown. Zielinski also had an artwork featured on the cover of the book

Communicology: The New Science of Embodied Discourse, edited by Deborah Eicher-Catt and Isaac E. Catt (New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson Press, 2010).

Fran Kamp, professor, and John Summerville, professor, gave a poster presentation, titled “Using a Progressive Method of Getting Students to Meet Program Outcomes,” at the  9th Annual International Nursing Simulation/Learning Resource Centers Conference, June 16-19 in Las Vegas, Nev. They also gave two podium presentations at the conference, “SIMULATION IS NOT JUST HIGH-TECH ALONE!,” and “Creating a Win-Win Situation: Teaching BSN and MSN Students Together in Simulations.”

Dr. Loyd Allen, professor of church history and spiritual formation, delivered the keynote address, titled “Being Born Again - And Again, and Again:  Conversion, Revivalism, and Baptist Spirituality,” to the Baptist History and Heritage Society Annual Meeting at Georgetown, Ky., on June 4.

Billy Osborne, senior division manager of information systems, was presented with a U.S. Employer Patriot Award on June 29 on behalf of himself and MERC. The award is presented by the Georgia Field Office of Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve, and recognizes employers, supervisors, managers and other personnel who support the employee and their military service. Employers qualify when personnel policies are in place that support employee participation in the Guard and Reserve. Osborne was nominated by Lucas DeStevens, a junior software engineer, who just returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with the 48^th Brigade of the Georgia National Guard, and wished to express his thanks for MERC and Osborne’s support during his tour.

Dr. Behnam Kamali, professor of electrical and computer engineering, published and presented an article, titled “An overview of VHF Civil Aviation Radio Network and the Resolution of Spectrum Depletion Problem,” at  2010 IEEE/ NASA Integrated Communications Navigation and Surveillance Conference in Herndon, Va., May 2010.

Dr. Doris Greenberg, associate clinical professor of pediatrics in Savannah, has spoken and taught at a number of national meetings. She taught a pediatric board review course on the topics of child development, behavioral disorders of childhood and adolescence, child abuse and neglect and a family practice board review course on the topics of autism, ADHD and oppositional defiant disorders at the at Osler Institute May 16 in Tampa, Fla. On May 23, she gave a lecture, titled “Tourette Syndrome, 2010 to the Hackensack, N.J., annual medical conference for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, in Hilton Head, S.C. She gave one course, two lectures and three workshops in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the American Academy of Pediatrics PREP, June 14-17, in Anaheim, Calif. On June 26,  she taught a course in child development, behavioral disorders of childhood and adolescence, child abuse and neglect as part of a Pediatric Board Review Course at Osler Institute Napierville, Ill. She served as the conference speaker at a conference on “Incorporating Behavioral Healthcare into Primary Practice of Pediatrics,” at the Morehouse School of Medicine, Aug. 14 in Atlanta.

Anna Krampl, reference librarian, and Kim Meeks, systems and electronic resources librarian, published an article, titled “McGraw Hill’s AccessMedicine,” in the April 2010 issue of Journal of Electronic Resources in Medical Libraries.

Dr. Edward C. Lauterbach, professor emeritus of psychiatry and neurology, Julia B. Harris, and Dr. William F. Bina III, dean, recently published “Mood and neurobehavioral correlates of cerebellar lesions” in the journal Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology 2010;23(2):63-73. 

Shirley A. Powell, technical director of the Histology Curricular Support Laboratory, attended the Tennessee Society for Histotechnology 2010 Symposium in Chattanooga, Tenn., in June. At the symposium she presented a workshop, titled “Get it all on the Slide – Macro Sections of Paraffin and Resin Embedded Specimens.” The workshop enabled the participants to set up a macro laboratory at their own place of employment. Powell has presented this workshop as well as other workshops at several regional and national meetings for histotechnologists.

Dr. Wei-Hsiung Yang, assistant professor of physiology, wrote an article, titled “Synergistic Activation of the Mc2r Promoter by FOXL2 and NR5A1,” that has been accepted for publication in Biology of Reproduction. Dr. Yan also presented a poster, titled “SUMOylation of FOXL2 Increases Synergistic Activation of the Mc2r Promoter by FOXL2 and NR5A1/SF1,” at the Endocrine Society’s 92th Annual Meeting, San Diego, Calif., June 19-22. Additionally, Dr. Yan co-chaired a session with Dr. Richard Santen, University of Virginia, titled “TRANSLATIONAL – Versatility of ‘Nuclear’ Receptor Actions in and out of the Nucleus: From Cancer to Metabolism,” at the meeting.

Jody Blanke, professor of computer information systems and law, was featured in an interview in the Inspiring Teachers Series on the Crazy Classroom: Unlocking your “Rubber Room” Blog at http://yourrubberroom.blogspot.com/2010/07/jody-blanke-professor-of-computer.html

Dr. Etienne Musonera, assistant professor of marketing, has had several recent publications. She co-authored “FDI Fitness in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of Eastern Africa Community,” which will be published in the Journal of International Business Research and Practice, Volume 4, 2010 and co-wrote a case study, titled “Banana Wine by COPROVIA,” to be published by GLOBALENS (www.globalens.com), a division of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan. Dr. Musonera also co-authored “Investigating the Level of ‘Opportunity-to-See’: A Case of Advertisements on the Roadside Light Emitting Diode Video Screens,” a paper presented at the 12th International Conference on African Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development at the University of Dar Es Salaam Business School, Tanzania. She also co-authored a paper, titled “The Impact of Foreign Direct Investment of Financial Performance Results of Canadian Companies 1999-2005,” that was presented at the 44th Annual Conference of the Canadian Economic Association, Quebec City, Canada. Additionally, Dr. Musonera, taught Marketing in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 women Entrepreneurship Program in Rwanda in association with the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan. The 10,000 Women is an investment by Goldman Sachs to provide 10,000 underserved women around the world with a business and management education.

Dr. Penelope Prime, professor of economics and director of the China Research Center, was a co-organizer of the Annual Conference of the Consortium for West China Development Studies, in Chengdu, China, July 5-6. The China Research Center was a co-sponsor of the event, where Dr. Prime also co-authored and presented a paper with Li Qi, titled “Financing of Chinese Manufacturing Firms: Implications for Understanding Financial Development in West China.” She also presented a series of lectures on China at the John Paul II Catholic University, Lublin, Poland in May.

Carole S. Burrowbridge, director of disability services, presented a literature review, titled  “ADHD Coaching Research: What do we know?” at the Association on Higher Education and Disability Annual Conference in Denver, Colo. She also chair of the Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorder Special Interest Group, and moderated the presentation, “Executive Functioning Impairments in High IQ Postsecondary Students with ADHD/LD,” by Dr. Thomas E. Brown of the Yale University School of Medicine.

Betsy Johnson, director of career services, Atlanta, attended the National Career Development Association’s annual conference in San Francisco in July. 

Aaron Probst, director of Mercer’s food services in Macon for Aramark, was recently recognized as the winner of the Innovation Award for this region of the Aramark Campus Dining Division.

Dr. Heather I. Ricks Scott, Douglas Regional Academic Center coordinator and College for Kids/Mercer Youth University coordinator, successfully defended her dissertation, titled “Ascension Patterns and Experiences of Past and Present Female Trustee Chairpersons at Independent Colleges and Universities in a Southern State,” on June 10 and was awarded the Doctor of Philosophy degree in educational Leadership on Aug. 14 at the Tift College of Education’s commencement ceremony.

Dr. Eric Spears, director of international education and assistant professor of geography, traveled to South Korea in June through the Fulbright International Educators Seminar program. He focused on understanding the Korean relationships among higher education policy, national economic planning, regional politics and demographic change, including negative population growth. The Fulbright experience will allow Dr. Spears to apply what he learned to Mercer’s long standing exchange relationship with Yonsei University in Seoul and further integrate Asian modules in his coursework. Dr. Spears participated in the seminar program along with seven other American colleagues, including representatives from Princeton University, George Mason University, University of Minnesota, North Carolina State University and San Francisco State University.   

Alexander Devereux, administrative assistant to Dr. Penny L. Elkins and the educational leadership program, wrote a book, titled Gar Fish & Long Gravy: Memoirs of Southern Sensibility, which was published recently by Outskirts Press.

Dr. Elaine M. Artman, associate professor of education leadership, recently sat on two panels at the American Education Research Association conference, she was a discussant, for a paper session in the Special Interest Group on Democratic Citizenship in Education on April 30 and chaired a paper session, on with the same group for a May 2 session.

Dr. John Dickson, dean, served as guest conductor for the American Baptist Music Conference at Greenlake, Wis., in July. He also was guest clinician for the Georgia American Choral Directors Association summer conference at Spivey Hall. Dr. Dickson’s professional chamber choir, Coro Vocati, performed for the state choral directors.

Dr. Robert Parris, professor, completed his “Sonata II for Organ” in June.  The 14-minute work will have its first performances in September. In July, he played Leo Sowerby’s monumental “Symphony in G” along with works of Dupré and Bach on the Fisk organ Op. 124 (2006) at Christ Episcopal Church, Roanoke, Va., the concluding event in the church’s annual summer concert series. 

Roy Cummings, library assistant III at Swilley Library, was selected as one of 20 REACH21 Institute Scholarship recipients. As a recipient, he received support, including travel, lodging and meals, to attend the 2010 Spectrum Leadership Institute June 23-25, in Washington, D.C. The Institute brought together Library and Information Science students and graduates from across the country to network, learn models of cross-cultural leadership, reaffirm professional values grounded in service to diverse communities, develop career skills and connect with a wide-range of leaders and potential mentors. The REACH 21: Preparing the Next Generation of Librarians for Leadership project is funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Cummings was also invited to join Beta Phi Mu, the International Library and Information Studies Honor Society. Cummings is graduate student in library science at the University of North Texas’s Emory Cohort.

David Hricik, professor, recently had a book he co-authored receive glowing reviews. The book, Drafting Patents for Litigation and Licensing, has been adopted by Marquette University School of Law as the required textbook for a patent law course. Another book review of one of Hricik’s books with Oxford University Press, Patent Ethics: Prosecution, co-authored with Mercedes Meyers, was reviewed in the IP Law Book Review by Christopher Holman. In August, Hricik gave a presentation, titled “An Ethical Lawyer Meets the Internet” at the University of Rhode Island. He gave the same talk the following day at Roger Williams University School of Law.

Michael Sabbath, professor and Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute/Walter Homer Drake, Jr. Endowed Chair in Bankruptcy Law, was a speaker at a bankruptcy skills training program held in Atlanta in August. The program, titled “Nuts & Bolts: Bankruptcy Fundamentals for New and Young Practitioners,” was sponsored by the American Bankruptcy Institute, the Bankruptcy Section of the Atlanta Bar Association, and the Metro-Atlanta Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys Group.  Sabbath spoke on a panel with several bankruptcy court judges, James E. Massey and James D. Walker Jr.