Mercer News

Blalock Named to NCAA Women's Committee

Richard L. Cameron — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:37:24 GMT

Sybil Blalock, Mercer University’s senior associate athletics director for academic affairs and senior woman administrator, has been named to the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee as announced this afternoon. Blalock will serve a five-year term beginning in September.

Blalock will assist with the planning, selection and administration of the NCAA Division I women’s basketball championships. Her responsibilities will involve regular teleconferencing on prevalent issues as well as administrative duties on-site during the regional and Final Four competitions.

“For most of my life, I have been a basketball junky to say the least and my enthusiasm for the game has developed over the years as a player, coach and administrator,” said Blalock. “To now be named as a member of the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee is a true honor. I look forward to working with the committee as we strive to enhance the postseason experience for all of our women’s basketball student-athletes.”

Blalock has more than 25 years of experience in NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletics to her credit as both a coach and administrator. She recently completed a two-year term as the chair of the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s tennis committee and has served on numerous sport committees with the Atlantic Sun Conference. She has also served as the tournament director for both the tennis and volleyball championships for the A-Sun.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the NCAA Division I Tennis Committee for the past four years,” said Blalock. “It has been my good fortune to work with devoted committee members and experience excellent leadership provided by the NCAA staff. I know this endeavor will prove to be very valuable as I become a member of the Division I Women’s Basketball Committee next fall.”

Blalock currently is the tournament director for the A-Sun Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships which are being hosted by Mercer on March 3-6. The Bears are also the host site for the A-Sun Championships again in 2011.

“Sybil’s lifelong career in athletics bodes well for her as she assumes this role with the NCAA women’s basketball committee,” Athletic Director Bobby Pope said. “She is one of the most organized and professional individuals I’ve ever met, and I have no doubt she will do an outstanding job. This appointment is not only a great honor for her, but also for this institution as well.”

Blalock has not only served Mercer as a coach and administrator, directing the academic support services that have helped vault Mercer student-athletes among the A-Sun’s best, but was a pioneer of its women’s basketball program (playing for the Bears from1971-75). A WNIT All-American in 1975, Blalock’s name is still prominently etched in the MU record books. She ranks among the school’s career leaders in points scored with 1,856 (5th), a scoring average of 18.9 ppg (4th) and a shooting percentage of 53.4 percent (4th).

Blalock owns the eighth-best single-season scoring average ever accomplished by a Mercer player when she averaged 21.9 points per game in 1972-73. She also has two of the program’s top-10 season-best marks for field goal percentage, ranking No. 4 with her 61.8 percent in 1972-73 and No. 6 with a 57.3 percent clip in 1973-74.

With a composite record of 87-13 (an 87.0 winning percentage) during her career, Blalock-led MU teams had more success than any other over a four-year span in program history. The Bears were Southwest Athletic Conference, as well as SWAC tournament champions, her freshman season and AIAW regional champs during her sophomore campaign. Mercer repeated its AIAW regional title during her junior season and advanced to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (making it to the round of 16).

Blalock graduated from Mercer magna cum laude with her bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physical education, as well as a master’s degree in applied mathematics.

Before beginning her career as an athletics administrator, Blalock played professionally in both Europe and the United States. She was a member of the U.S. team that played in the World University Games and was also a part of the U.S. Olympic Development Team.

Harry Vaughn Smith Lectures

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:38:07 GMT

MACON — Dr. Kwok Pui Lan, a pioneer in Asian feminist theology and postcolonial theology, has been named Mercer University’s 2010 Harry Vaughan Smith Distinguished Visiting Professor of Christianity. Dr. Kwok will give three lectures in February as part of her appointment. Each lecture is free and open to the public.

The William F. Cole Professor of Christian Theology and Spirituality at the Episcopal Divinity School, Dr. Kwok is an internationally known theologian who has been a pioneer in developing postcolonial theology and a theological critique of empire. She is also a noted Asian Christian feminist theologian and has created a network of theologians from developing countries committed to developing new ways of reading scriptures and traditions in light of the demands of the 21st Century.

Dr. Kwok will speak in Newton Chapel on Mercer’s Macon campus. Each lecture will build upon the theme “Christianity in the 21st Century.” The times and subjects of each lecture are:

“Postcolonialism and World Christianity”
Tuesday, Feb. 23, at 10:50 a.m.

“The Bible and Sexuality: Does the Church Have Anything Good to Say about Sex?”
Tuesday, Feb. 23, at 7:30 p.m.

“Obama, American Empire, and Prophetic Christianity”
Wednesday, Feb. 24, at 10 a.m.

“Kwok Pui Lan sees the near horizon of Christian theology better than most,” said Dr. Richard F. Wilson, chair of Mercer’s Columbus Roberts Department of Christianity. “She understands the need for a global Christianity that is honest about past failures in spreading the Good News and hopeful about a Gospel that is transforming our world. In our pluralistic and multicultural world Dr. Kwok has a clear voice of faith and reason that advances Christian faith without diminishing either the content or the context of the Gospel.”

Dr. Kwok’s current research focuses on globalization and Christian theology and a long-term project, Signifying Jesus, in which she examines the relation between Christology, colonialism and the modern world. She has published extensively in feminist theology, biblical hermeneutics, and postcolonial criticism and is the author of three books: Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology, Discovering the Bible in the Non-Biblical World and Introducing Asian Feminist Theology. Dr. Kwok is also coeditor of two volumes: Off the Menu: Asian and Asian North American Women’s Religion and Theology and Empire and the Christian Tradition: New Readings of Classical Theologians.

Dr. Kwok received a B.A. from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Th.D. from Harvard University.

About the Harry Vaughan Smith Professorship
The Harry Vaughan Smith Distinguished Visiting Professor of Christianity was established at Mercer University in 1990 through a generous a gift from Dr. and Mrs. Harry Vaughan Smith. A 1924 graduate of Mercer, the late Harry Vaughan Smith served as pastor of several prominent churches in Georgia before becoming alumni secretary and assistant to the president at Mercer in 1946, a post he held until 1955. From 1955 to 1970, he served as the executive director of the Georgia Baptist Foundation. Smith is remembered for his faithful work on behalf of all Georgia Baptist causes and his support of Christian education.

Pulitzer Winner to Speak at Mercer

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:57:34 GMT

MACON — Douglas Blackmon, author of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning book Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, will give a lecture at Mercer University on March 1 at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the Science and Engineering Building. The lecture, titled “A Persistent Past: Reckoning with a Troubled Racial History in the Age of Obama,” is free and open to the public.

“Blackmon’s book focuses our attention on one of the greatest human rights abuses in U.S. history, the use of legalized slavery to build the cities and industries of the New South,” said Dr. David Davis, assistant professor of English, and the event organizer. “His book makes us wonder why the history of convict leasing is not taught alongside the history of slavery.”

Blackmon is the Atlanta bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal and earned the 2009 Pulitzer for general nonfiction for Slavery by Another Name, which brings to light one of the most shameful chapters in American history — when a cynical new form of slavery was resurrected from the ashes of the Civil War and re-imposed on hundreds of thousands of African Americans until the dawn of World War II. Based on Blackmon’s research into original documents and personal narratives, the book unearths the lost stories of slaves and their descendants who journeyed into freedom after emancipation and then back into involuntary servitude. It also tells stories of courage and redemption, and the men and women who fought against the re-emergence of human labor trafficking.

“Perhaps the most discomforting aspect of his book is the realization that major corporations, some of which are still in business, and public officials were involved in the buying and selling — and beating and killing — of helpless blacks, who were often arrested on flimsy charges and given unconscionable sentences,” Dr. Davis said. “Blackmon’s research includes evidence that Macon was a center of convict leasing between Reconstruction and World War II.”

Over the past 20 years, Blackmon has written extensively about the American quandary of race, exploring the integration of schools during his childhood in a Mississippi Delta farm town, lost episodes of the Civil Rights movement, and repeatedly, the dilemma of how a contemporary society should grapple with a troubled past. Many of his stories in The Wall Street Journal have explored the interplay of wealth, corporate conduct and racial segregation.

The event is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts, Mercer’s Southern Studies Program, Walter F. George School of Law, and the Tubman African American Museum.

Holocaust Survivor to Speak in Atlanta

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:52:11 GMT

ATLANTA — Holocaust survivor and author Fred Gross will speak at Mercer University’s Atlanta campus on Tuesday, March 2, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Swilley Library. Gross is the author of One Step Ahead of Hitler: a Jewish Child’s Journey Through France, a memoir from Mercer University Press that traces his rediscovery of the story of his family’s flight from the Nazis when he was a small boy. He will also be available to sign copies of the book. The event is free and open to the public.

The event is organized by the Atlanta Campus Quality Enhancement Plan Team as part of a campuswide effort to examine ethical issues. The chair of the QEP team, Dr. David P. Gushee, Distinguished Professor of Christian Ethics and author of Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust, invited Gross to speak and helped to organize the event. Dr. Gushee also helped to get Gross’s work published through Mercer University Press and wrote the forward to the book. Of the book, Dr. Gushee writes: “It is an important memoir. Some of the most shameful moments of German, French, Swiss — and human — history are recorded here, not for the first time, but in a deeply personal way by someone who experienced their effects as a small child.”

Gross knew much about the history of the Holocaust but knew very little of his or his family’s story. It was not until the late 1980s, when he began to ask questions, that his mother opened up about their flight from the German invasion of Belgium. Later, his two older brothers would add to their mother’s memories. Gross, a former reporter for a daily newspaper in New Haven, Conn., then did what he knew best: he started recording these stories.

Most of the Grosses’ flight takes place in France during its defeat and collaboration with the Nazis, when 75,000 Jews were rounded up for deportation to death camps. Gross and his family made it through these anguished years because of their fortitude and ingenuity along with the help of brave men and women of varied faiths, reverently referred to as The Righteous Among the Nations. One Step Ahead of Hitler is a story of survival told in words and in photographs of a journey beginning in Antwerp and ending with the Gross family’s freedom in America.

It is the story of a Jewish family on the run for five long years. From the day bombs fell on their Antwerp neighborhood in 1940 until the war ended with Nazi Germany’s defeat, the Gross family simply tried to stay “one step ahead of Hitler” in a journey that took them thousands of miles across France and beyond. Matching wits with a French regime thirsty for the blood of Jews, the Gross family suffered through physical and emotional distress. They were tormented by the difficult decisions they had to make, just to survive another day.

Gross was born in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1936. He is a graduate of New York University. Gross was a reporter for the Journal-Courier, a daily newspaper in New Haven, Conn., and has been a public relations specialist in education for nearly 30 years. For the past 17 years Gross has been active in the Jewish community in Louisville, Ky. He has taught a Holocaust curriculum to Sunday school students, and continues to share his story with middle and high school students and adult audiences.

Mercer Helps Haiti

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:53:36 GMT

Since the tragic earthquake struck Haiti, Mercer University students, faculty, staff and organizations have held a number of fund-raisers, both large and small.

Among the great tragedies of this devastating event is the loss of limbs, as doctors have performed thousands of amputations to save the lives of victims. One of Mercer’s most widely known initiatives may offer those with leg amputations hope for a brighter future and help them to return to their lives as they rebuild their county. Because the cost of prosthetics is so high, many in developing nations must go without them. However, Mercer faculty and students have pioneered technology that provides low-cost leg prosthetics to amputees in developing nations and it will now bring the program to Haiti.

The prosthetic program launched in 2009 with a Mercer On Mission trip to Vietnam, and now will be expanded to Haiti this summer, said Dr. Craig McMahan, university minister and dean of the chapel. Dr. McMahan, who coordinates the Mercer On Mission program, will travel to Haiti on March 17 with a delegation from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and American Baptist Churches USA to assess clinic sites for a Mercer-led trip in April to fit 20 prosthetics.

Dr. McMahan said that the initial phase of the project will occur in April, when a group of students and faculty travel to a clinic site and complete the small pilot project. Once that effort is completed, Dr. McMahan said that the next phase will begin after the already-planned Mercer On Mission trip to Vietnam, where another group will fit 100 prosthetics. Following that trip, Dr. McMahan said that the group of Mercer engineers who build the prosthetics will return to Macon to fabricate prosthetics for a return trip to Haiti in the summer. Dr. McMahan is working with a number of groups to secure funding to build a large number of prosthetics to fit as many amputees as possible, he said.

“This is the first venture of what I hope will be many ventures to Haiti as we work to meet this pressing need,” Dr. McMahan said.

Ongoing:

University Collecting Donations for the Red Cross

The University is gathering donations for the American Red Cross’s efforts to help Haiti through the Office of the University Minister. Mercerians are encouraged to bring contributions to Kim Adams in the Religious Life Center. Those writing checks should make them out to the American Red Cross and write “Haiti Relief” on the memo line. The effort has so far gathered more than $5,700.

Past events:

Tau Beta Pi Sponsors Valentine Fundraiser for Haiti

The Mercer chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, held a Valentine-themed fundraiser for Haiti, Feb. 3-9. The proceeds from the Valentines Candy Grams and Ribbons project went to aid World Vision’s food distribution effort in Haiti. World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization working to tackle the causes of poverty and injustice worldwide.

Macon Group Holds Swipe for Life Benefit

The Help Haiti Heal Committee on the Macon campus held a unique fundraiser designed to give the Mercer students and faculty the opportunity to donate meals from their meal plans to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Mercer’s food service provider, ARAMARK pledged to give $5 for every donated meal in efforts to raise money, within eight hours of the allotted 48-hour period, the donations had reached the cap of $5,000. The money will be given to the American Red Cross for its work in Haiti.

McAfee School of Theology Worship Service Focuses on Haitian Relief Effort

On Feb. 2, the James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology dedicated its first worship service of the spring semester to the tragic events in Haiti. Dr. David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, spoke on Christian responses to human crises, and Frank Broome, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia, spoke about his group’s relief work there.

A special offering was taken to support the relief work in Haiti by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia.

Mercer Nursing Students Coordinate Georgia-Based Haitian Relief Effort

Students from the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing in Atlanta coordinated an effort to collect supplies from nursing schools across the state to help the millions affected by the Haitian earthquake. The students from Mercer’s chapter of the Georgia Association of Nursing Students began their efforts the day after the quake, calling for donations from other GANS members, as well as leading a drive on Mercer’s Atlanta Campus. Associations from as far away as Brunswick responded to the call with donations of medical supplies, clothing, hygiene products and other basic necessities.

Caribbean Sound Concert Helps Haiti Relief Efforts

The Jan. 26 concert by The Grand Opera House benefited American Red Cross to aid in Haiti Relief. Five dollars of every ticket purchased Jan. 20 – Jan. 26 was donated to the relief effort.

University Worship Centers on Help for Haiti

The Jan. 20 University Worship service on the Macon Campus was be devoted entirely to the crisis in Haiti. The service’s offering went to Haitian relief and was presented to the Red Cross. Tracy Willis-Kight, executive director of the Central Georgia Chapter of the American Red Cross, gave an update on the relief effort in Haiti and to suggested ways to help in the future.

2010 Law Day

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:26:10 GMT

MACON — Valerie Caproni, general counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at Mercer Law School’s 2010 Law Day luncheon on March 12.

A summa cum laude graduate of University of Georgia Law School, Caproni was named FBI general counsel August 2003 by then FBI Director Robert Mueller. Among her responsibilities is helping agents understand the legal parameters within which they can track down, investigate and detain suspected terrorists. She also helps expedite requests for subpoenas for national security wiretaps, responds to litigation challenging the FBI’s powers under the Patriot Act and ensures no laws are broken when intelligence gatherers share information with criminal investigators, both within and outside the agency.

The 2010 Law Day Luncheon starts at 12:30 p.m. and will be held in the University Center on Mercer University’s main campus. During the event, Mercer Law School will recognize three people for their outstanding contributions to the legal profession: Judge Hugh Lawson (Meritorious Service Award), Judge Tommy Day Wilcox ’73 (Alumni Meritorious Service Award), and Judge Yvette Miller ’80 (Distinguished Alumna Award).

“We are extremely fortunate to have someone of Valerie Caproni’s stature and legal acumen speak at our annual Law Day luncheon this year,” Mercer Law Dean Daisy Hurst Floyd said.
“It’s not a stretch to suggest that her responsibilities impact all of our lives. In that regard, she helps us better understand the enormous influence lawyers have in society and, with that, the enormous skill and humility that must accompany that influence. For that reason, she is a perfect keynote speaker for the students, faculty, alumni and friends of Mercer Law School.”

Caproni graduated magna cum laude from Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. During law school, she served on the Georgia Law Review and was inducted into Order of the Coif. After graduation, Caproni clerked for the Honorable Phyllis Kravitch, U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit. Since 1980, she has been an associate in the litigation department of Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York City; an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U. S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York; general counsel of the New York State Urban Development Corporation; chief of special prosecution and chief of organized crime and racketeering section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office; chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office; and regional director of the Pacific Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, where she oversaw the enforcement and regulatory programs of the SEC in the nine far western states, managing a staff of approximately 250 lawyers, accountants and examiners located in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Calif.

Established in 1958 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Law Day is designed to strengthen the public’s understanding of the American justice system. Though the national observance of Law Day is generally May 1, many law schools, including Mercer Law School, publicly recognize it earlier in the spring semester due to the heavy academic demands in May. The Law Day theme this year is “Law in the 21st Century: Enduring Traditions, Emerging Challenges.”

About Mercer Law School
Founded in 1873, the Mercer University Walter F. George School of Law is one of the oldest law schools in the United States and the first one in the state of Georgia accredited by the American Bar Association. Mercer Law School’s educational philosophy is based on a broadly shared commitment to prepare students for the high-quality, general practice of law in a day-to-day learning environment that is both strongly supportive and consistently professional. Its innovative Woodruff Curriculum – which focuses on ethics and practical skills amid small class sizes – earned the Gambrell Professionalism Award from the ABA for its “depth of excellence.” With an enrollment of about 430 students, Mercer Law School is nationally recognized for its exceptional programs in legal writing, moot court, public service, and ethics and professionalism. For more information about Mercer Law School, visit www.law.mercer.edu or call 478.301.5000.

Macon Cycling Classic

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:20:04 GMT

MACON – Tattnall Square Park will play host to two premiere events of athletic competition on Saturday, May 1 2010.

The 1st Annual Macon Cycling Classic will take place from 9 a.m. to approximately 7:30 p.m. with criterium races in 10 different categories. The course will be a 0.7 mile (1.1k) rectangular loop around Tattnall Square Park. A criterium is a fast-paced race, typically around a few city blocks closed to vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Criterium racing is broken into various categories based on skill/ability, gender, and age, from first-time beginners through seasoned professionals. Criteriums are the most popular form of bicycle racing in the U.S. and have become enduring events in many cities including the “Athens Twilight Criterium” held annually in Athens, Ga. The race is being promoted and sponsored by Macon's Walthall Oil Cycling team and the collegiate Mercer Cycling team.

As the last criterium comes to a close, Bragg Jam’s Moonlight Miles 5K Fun Run will be gearing up with its course designed to start and finish around Tattnall Square Park. This is the third year for the nighttime running competition, which serves as a fundraiser for the Bragg Jam Festival and usually takes place in July. Organizers made the decision to move the race to May 1 when the opportunity became available to partner with the organizers of the Macon Cycling Classic and create a full day of activities in Tattnall Square Park, located in the heart of the College Hill Corridor. Registration and check-in for the Moonlight Miles begins at 7 p.m., with runners taking their mark at 8 p.m.

Organizers for both events are planning to feature live music, food and beverage vendors and family-friendly activities throughout the day in the park. The College Hill Alliance will host a free movie screening following the announcement of the Moonlight Miles winners.

For more information on both events, as well as links to register, visit www.maconcyclingclassic.com and www.braggjam.org.

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Palliative Care Project

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:24:49 GMT

ATLANTA — Mercer University’s Georgia Baptist College of Nursing has launched an initiative to educate members of Atlanta-area churches to help others as they face death. The project offers free support from Mercer faculty volunteers with the College of Nursing, as well as School of Medicine and College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, who provide training for church lay health advisers, or Mercer Care Partners, in palliative care.

Mercer Care Partners are trained laypersons who help members of their congregations in need of palliative care, which is the practice of preventing and relieving suffering while ensuring the best quality of life possible for individuals with advanced chronic and life-threatening conditions.

The response in the first weeks of the program has been overwhelming, said Dr. Janet Timms, professor of nursing and one of the organizers of the program.

“We did outreach to a small number of churches, but we’ve been hearing back from other congregations who have heard about the program and want to participate,” Dr. Timms said. “We’re thrilled with the response. It’s been a delightful surprise.”

Most congregations are significantly affected by illness, care-giving, end-of-life needs and grief, Dr. Timms said, and congregations are looking for ways to help members with the winter in the “seasons of life,” which can often extend for months or years. It is important for communities of faith to help members prepare for them and deal with those difficult times, she said.

As part of the program, church members who agree to participate and become Mercer Care Partners in their congregations will receive training in the following topics:
introduction to palliative care; ethical issues at the end of life; cultural considerations and spiritual care; communicating with patients and families about end-of-life care; loss, grief and bereavement; and care during the final hours of life.

Churches that have been part of the pilot project have expressed a high level of interest, pastors working with the groups report. One such church is First Baptist Church of Tucker, which has had tremendous success with its first few classes, said the Rev. Randy Shepley, the church’s pastor and a class attendee. He was hoping for a dozen congregants to come to the class, but each session has had more than 30. The interest among his congregation is high, but it is a complex undertaking to help others face death, loss and grief, Shepley said.

“When someone dies, we want to help, but sometimes we don’t know the right thing to say, sometimes we don’t know what to do, and this class has been an opportunity to learn those things and it has been tremendous,” said Shepley, a 1993 Mercer graduate and a Doctor of Ministry candidate at Mercer’s McAfee School of Theology.

The church members who are studying in the class are learning something that will enhance their relationships with others in the congregation and with God, Shepley said, as they help others transition from this world to the next. Being with someone in that time is a sacred experience, though difficult, he said. The training helps congregants to help the dying and their families in a more Christ-like and compassionate way.

“To sit with someone as they transition is a priceless, holy moment. It is not an easy moment, but is priceless,” Shepley said. “It is something that is important to witness, because God is there when that happens and God is in charge of that process.”

Shepley has experienced it as a pastor on many occasions, and was taught many of the concepts of end-of-life care in his master’s training at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. However, Shepley said, taking the latest concepts of a new field – palliative care – and applying them in a multidisciplinary way that involves church laypersons is a new concept.

“This is a cutting edge congregational learning opportunity, and this is a new direction in involving the whole congregation and we’re very glad to be a part of it,” Shepley said.

So far, a number of churches have expressed interest and several have begun courses, Dr. Timms said. Through an initial university-funded grant, faculty facilitators are holding classes at four churches, and hope to have 85 Mercer Care Partners trained by this summer. The response has led the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing to apply for further funding within Mercer’s AIM Grant Program, as well as outside funding to expand the program.

“There is just such a need for this, and we’re hoping to find ways to expand it,” Dr. Timms said.

About the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing
Founded in 1902 as a school of nursing, the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing is the oldest nursing program in Georgia. Over its 108-year history, the College has graduated more than 6,600 nurses. Since its founding, the College has been dedicated to educating the person, fostering the passion and shaping the future of nursing. The College merged with Mercer University in 2001 and offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master of Science in Nursing, a Ph.D. in Nursing and, beginning in Fall 2010, a Doctor of Nursing Practice.

Malone Named 'King of Torts'

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:27:32 GMT

MACON – Mercer University Trustee Thomas Malone, a 1966 graduate of Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law, is featured on the cover of the 2010 Georgia Super Lawyers magazine under the heading, “The New King of Torts.” He was joined on the elite list by fellow Mercer trustees and law graduates Dwight J. Davis and Richard A. “Doc” Schneider, both senior partners with Atlanta’s King & Spalding law firm, and M. Diane Owens, partner with Atlanta’s Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers. Current Mercer trustee and former board chair David E. Hudson, who earned his undergraduate degree from Mercer and his law degree from Harvard, also was included in the 2010 edition of the publication. He is a partner with the Augusta law firm of Hull Barrett, PC.

An understudy of the late and legendary personal injury lawyer Melvin Belli, dubbed “The King of Torts” by LIFE magazine in a 1954 profile, Malone first worked with Belli decades ago on a medical malpractice case, which they won. Eventually, Belli began referring to Malone as “The Prince of Torts.” Today, more than a decade after the 1996 death of his mentor, Malone is now regarded as one of the nation’s leading trial lawyers, winning more than 90 percent of his cases and earning the proverbial passing of the baton as “the new king of torts” by Georgia Super Lawyers magazine.

During that first case, “Mel Belli told me that I was the best lawyer he’d ever been in the courtroom with, on either side,” Malone said in the Super Lawyers cover story. “Of course, I realize today that he probably said that to everybody. But I believed it and it gave me the confidence to take on case after case.”

Malone, an Albany native and founder of Malone Law Office in Atlanta, recently won the largest verdict in his 43-year career on behalf of a client in California. The multimillion-dollar verdict was also one of the largest in the history of Santa Clara County, according to the Super Lawyers cover story. It adds to a long list of extraordinary victories on behalf of clients with unimaginable medical hardships.

The son of a state court judge, Malone joined the Mercer Board of Trustees in 2006. In 2007, Malone made a $1 million gift to Mercer Law School to establish a distinguished chair and to help support Mercer’s mock trial advocacy program. The following year, Mercer Law School, with the support of Malone’s gift, captured first place in the American Bar Association’s National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition, defeating Harvard and the University of Houston law schools in the semifinals and finals respectively.

Joining Malone, Davis, Owens and Schneider in the 2010 edition of Georgia Super Lawyers are 135 fellow Mercer Law School alumni, including 47 “Rising Stars.” They practice law all over the state: Atlanta, Augusta, Brunswick, Columbus, Cumming, Dalton, Decatur, Griffin, Hinesville, Lawrenceville, Macon, Marietta, Milledgeville, Perry, Savannah, Statesboro, Thomasville, Valdosta, Vidalia, and Woodstock.

A full list of the Mercer Law School graduates who made the Georgia Super Lawyers is available for download at http://www.law.mercer.edu/news/GASL10MercerAlumni.pdf. The Mercer “Rising Stars” list is available at http://www.law.mercer.edu/news/GARS10MercerAlumni.pdf.

“The University is proud to see more than 100 of its Georgia alumni recognized for their professional achievements in the field of law,” said Mercer President William D. Underwood. “It is also gratifying to have five members of the University’s governing board attracting this kind of acclaim. They bring honor to their alma mater and to themselves for their professional and personal accomplishments.”

The criteria for being listed among the Super Lawyers includes an evaluation of 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement, including verdicts, settlements, transactions, representative clients, experience, honors and awards, special licenses and certifications, position within law firm, bar and/or other professional activity, pro bono and community service, scholarly lectures and writings, education and employment background, and other outstanding achievements.

“We are always proud when our alumni are recognized by their peers for outstanding contributions to the profession,” said Mercer Law School Dean Daisy Hurst Floyd. “It confirms again the value of what we do at Mercer Law School in uniquely preparing graduates for the meaningful practice of law.”

Mercer Earns 'A' Transportation Grade

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:52:17 GMT

MACON — Mercer University earned an “A” grade for its efforts on transportation in the 2010 Sustainability Report Card, earning placement in the Transportation Leaders category. The University was also one of just 12 schools featured in the Transportation Leaders section of the Green Report Card’s Web site. The list of Transportation Leaders is composed of 105 schools that earned “A” grades in this category.

Mercer earned the grade for its trolley services between campus and downtown and its partnerships to revitalize the areas around the university to make them more attractive to faculty and staff – giving them the freedom to walk or bike to work. Additionally, the University’s Bear Bikes program, a bike sharing program for students, faculty and staff on the Macon campus, recently received a $40,000 grant to expand its program, with an emphasis on biking in the College Hill Corridor and downtown Macon.

The grade was an affirmation for Dr. John Hintermaier, an assistant professor of history and the chair of Mercer’s sustainability committee.

“This really shows one of Mercer’s distinctives – that we are willing to partner with community groups and local government to work on projects that benefit a lot of people, not just ourselves,” Dr. Hintermaier said. “By creating a walkable, bikeable community where people want to live, you’re creating a healthier environment, for yourself and the planet, right at the beginning. It also undercuts the myth that environmental things have to be luxury items, because your actual investment is small relative to the benefits we accrue from them.”

The University improved its overall grade to a C from a D+ on last year’s report card, and Dr. Hintermaier believes the University will further improve that score, next year and into the future. Mercer will soon begin construction on its first LEED-certified building on the Macon Campus – a renovation and expansion of an existing home that will serve as the University’s new Admissions and Welcome Center. Other initiatives that should positively impact the university’s score are the relocation of The Bike Store into Mercer Village and construction of The Lofts At Mercer Village, which will provide more opportunities for upperclassmen and graduate students to live on campus. In addition, the College Hill Corridor project will continue to enhance the quality of life in the areas surrounding Mercer.

New Consolidation Poll

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:13:52 GMT

A recent telephone poll of 300 likely general election voters in Bibb County commissioned by Mercer University and NewTown Macon shows broad support for consolidating the Macon and Bibb County governments.

Conducted Feb. 16-17 by Wilson Research Strategies, the poll revealed that nearly two in three (65 percent) Bibb County voters say they support consolidation, while fewer than one in five (19 percent) say they strongly oppose it. Eighty percent of voters in the City of Macon support consolidation and more than half – 51 percent – of voters in unincorporated Bibb County are in favor of the measure. Only one in three – or 36 percent voters -- in unincorporated Bibb County oppose consolidation.

The study’s margin of error is equal to +/- 5.66 percent in 95 out of 100 cases.

“I appreciate Mercer's and NewTown's commitment to finding out the pulse of our community regarding the consolidation issue,” said State Rep. Allen Peake of Macon. “Clearly, this poll shows that now is the time to give our citizens an opportunity to vote on whether to consolidate Macon and Bibb County.”

Other insights revealed by the poll show that in a new consolidated government, voters overwhelmingly support having an elected sheriff responsible for law enforcement in Bibb County. Seven in 10 – 70 percent – favor an elected sheriff, while fewer than one in seven – 15 percent – prefer an appointed police chief.

Voters also expressed a preference for holding nonpartisan elections for city/county officials in a new consolidated government, with 56 percent of those polled saying they would prefer to vote on candidates without party labels for Bibb County offices, including the mayor, commissioners, coroner, tax commissioner and sheriff.
A bill (H.B. 1161) sponsored by Rep. Peake is currently making its way through the Georgia Legislature that will clear the way for a fall countywide referendum on the issue.

About NewTown Macon
NewTown Macon is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to growing jobs, increasing residents, and creating a sense of place in downtown Macon. For more information visit www.newtownmacon.com.

About Wilson Research Strategies
Since 1998, Wilson Research Strategies has been a leading provider of political polling for campaigns from mayor and city council to governor and U.S. Senate in 47 states and several foreign countries. WRS’s corporate research arm has provided market research to more than 100 of the Fortune 500 companies and to hundreds of small and medium businesses nationwide.
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Van Greene Lecture

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:06:33 GMT

ATLANTA – Dr. H. Robert Superko will deliver the 2010 G. Van Greene Distinguished Lecture of Mercer University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at 11 a.m. on Thursday in Day Hall on the University’s Atlanta campus. He is vice president and chief of medical affairs for Celera Corp., a biotech company focused on genetically tailored treatments, as well as an adjunct clinical professor at the College of Pharmacy. Dr. Superko will speak on “Clinical Utility of Cardiovascular Genetic Tests Today: How They Will Change the Practice of Medicine.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

In addition to his work with Celera and Mercer, Dr. Superko serves a chairman of the cardiovascular prevention committee of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta. He joined Celera in 2009 as vice president and chief of medical affairs. Dr. Superko is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. He has held various research and clinical positions at several institutions across the country since completing his medical fellowship at the University of California at Davis in 1980. He was also a founder of Berkeley HeartLab in 1996.

Dr. Superko sits on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals, including the Journal of Cardiovascular Risk and Preventative Cardiology. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in the area of lipid metabolism, exercise physiology and cardiac rehabilitation, and he has written a number of books including Before the Heart Attacks, published in 2003. Dr. Superko currently sits on committees at the American Heart Association, the Trans Catheter Therapeutics Scientific Advisory Committee, American Heart Association Atherosclerotic Peripheral Vascular Disease Committee and the Atlanta American Heart Association Board.

Dr. Superko holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, San Diego, and a Doctor of Medicine from State University of New York, Stony Brook.

About the G. Van Greene Distinguished Lectureship
Named in honor of Dr. G. Van Greene, one of the College of Pharmacy and Health Science’s most loyal and staunch supporters, the G. Van Greene Distinguished Lectureship program is designed to bring world-renowned health care professionals to campus to discuss contemporary topics in pharmacy and the health sciences.

About the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Mercer University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has a century-long tradition of excellence and a national reputation for producing outstanding leaders in the profession of pharmacy. Founded in 1903, the independent pharmacy school merged with Mercer University in 1959. The College offers the Doctor of Pharmacy degree, a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences degree and Doctor of Pharmacy/Doctor of Philosophy joint degrees, as well as the Master of Medical Science degree in its new Physician Assistant program. U.S. News & World Report ranks the College of Pharmacy among the top 30 in the nation and places it No. 2 among private pharmacy programs in the country.

Medical Match Day Thursday

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:38:18 GMT

WHO: Sixty senior medical students at Mercer University School of Medicine

WHAT: Fourth-year medical students will take part in the annual Match Day rite of passage — a nationwide event that serves to tell senior medical students what residency programs they will enter following graduation.

WHEN: Thursday, March 18, 2010, at noon. The theme this year is Match Madness.

WHERE: Mercer University School of Medicine Auditorium, 1550 College St., Macon.

WHY: Until Match Day, senior medical students are unsure of where they will spend the next few years as residents. At noon on March 18, medical students across the country will begin opening envelopes that contain their residency matches. Several Medical School students will be available for the media to interview. Media interested in covering the event can contact Richard L. Cameron at (478) 301-5500 or cameron_rl@mercer.edu.

About Mercer University School of Medicine
Mercer University’s School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. The School only accepts Georgia residents into its medical degree program. Students entering Mercer University School of Medicine will be graduated from a school that utilizes a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. In the fall of 2008, the University expanded its two-year clinical program at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah into a second full, four-year doctor of medicine program. The School also offers master’s degrees in public health, family therapy, family services and nurse anesthesia.

‘Defending The Caveman’ Comes to Macon to Tickle Funny Bones

Billie Rampley — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:34:32 GMT

MACON – “Defending the Caveman,” the longest running solo play in Broadway history, is set to perform at The Grand Opera House on March 25-26 at 7:30 p.m. and on March 27 at 3p.m. Tickets are $39.50 and can be purchased through Mercer Ticket Sales at (478) 301-5470 or online at www.TheGrandMacon.com.

With hilarious insight on contemporary feminism, masculine sensitivity and the erogenous zones, “Defending the Caveman,” mines the common themes in relationships that go straight through the funny bone and into the heart. “Defending the Caveman” makes us laugh at ourselves, about all the ways that men and woman fight, laugh and love.

Written by comedian Rob Becker over a three-year period that included an informal study of psychology, sociology and prehistory, “Defending the Caveman” is full of wonderful scenarios that celebrate the differences between men and women, making it the perfect entertainment option for couples or for a girls’ night out.

Ben Tedder, native of North Carolina, will be performing the caveman. After spending some time behind a microphone as a radio DJ in high school, he began acting while attending North Carolina State University in Raleigh, appearing in several University Theatre productions. After college, he worked with several theatre companies in the Raleigh and Chapel Hill area.

The Grand Opera House
A performing arts center of Mercer University, The Grand Opera House is a historic 1,000-seat theatre located at 651 Mulberry St. in downtown Macon, Ga. The Grand brings the very best in live, professional performing arts and entertainment to Central Georgia. In addition to its popular Broadway Series of nationally-touring productions and its GrandKids Arts Education Series for elementary, middle and high school students, The Grand hosts a variety of special events throughout the year. It is also home to the Macon Symphony Orchestra, the Central Georgia Opera Guild and The Nutcracker of Middle Georgia. For a complete schedule of upcoming performances, contact Mercer Ticket Sales at (478) 301-5470 or visit www.TheGrandMacon.com.
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Nursing Conference

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:12:24 GMT

ATLANTA – Mercer University’s Georgia Baptist College of Nursing will host a research conference on end-of-life care Friday, March 26, in the Trustees Dining Room on the University’s Atlanta campus. The conference, titled “Perspectives and Reflections from the Gloaming of Life: Palliative Care and End-of-Life Challenges,” is open to all members of the nursing, theology, pharmacy and medical professions. In addition, nurses who attend may receive 4.5 contact hours on palliative care from the Georgia Nurses Association.

“As more of our health care is provided outside of hospitals, the care of patients with life-limiting illness is increasingly provided in the community by families and informal caregivers,” said Dr. Janet Timms, professor of nursing and one of the conference’s organizers. “There is no right way to live or die as a result of these life-limiting diseases. Each disease presents its own set of challenges for patients and for their caregivers. The conference will provide updated knowledge about palliative care for health professionals, caregivers and individuals facing life-limiting illnesses and equip health professionals and informal caregivers to provide high-quality, compassionate end-of-life care.”

The Rev. Dr. Julie Pennington-Russell, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Decatur and a Mercer Trustee, will be speak at the opening session. Dr. Pennington-Russell’s presentation is titled “Spiritual Dimensions/Care of Those in the Final Stages of Life.”

The conference is scheduled to run from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., and consists of five sessions in addition to Pennington-Russell’s opening presentation. The morning sessions include: Dr. Robyn Mowery, assistant professor of family therapy in Mercer’s School of Medicine, presenting “Grieving with Hope: Anticipatory Loss through Bereavement” and Dr. Susan S. Gunby, professor of nursing, presenting ‘“Being There’ and ‘Being Here’ During the Phases of Suffering.”

The three afternoon sessions include: Dawn Keller, staff nurse in a cardiovascular intensive care unit for Wellstar Health Systems, presenting “It's a Roller-Coaster Ride: The Lived Experience of Critical Care Nurses Caring for Patients during the Dying Process;” Dr. Denise Massey, associate professor in the James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology, presenting “How Pastoral Care Giver can Contribute to Palliative Care;” and Elaine Harris, associate professor of nursing, and Ann Keeley, associate professor of nursing, co-presenting ‘“Can You Help Me Find My Bus Ticket?’ Understanding the Communications of Those Who Are Dying.”

Haiti Benefit Concert

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 20:12:47 GMT

MACON – “Music for Haiti,” a benefit concert for Haiti relief, will take place Sunday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Newton Chapel on Mercer University's Macon campus. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $5 with a student ID. Tickets can be purchased and additional donations can be made at the door. Proceeds from the concert will go to the organization Haitian Hope to rebuild the St. Marc's Church School in Trouin, Haiti, which collapsed in the recent earthquake. The event will include performances by Robert McDuffie, distinguished university professor and international violinist; David Halen, concertmaster, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Elizabeth Pridgen, G. Leslie Fabian Chair of Music at Mercer; Monty Cole, associate professor of music, and the Mercer Jazz ensemble. In addition to the music, there will be spoken word poetry.

As the horrors of the tragedy which struck Haiti gradually fade from the media and from the minds of citizens around the world, the need for aid of Haiti's people has hardly diminished. This concert benefits Haitian Hope, an organization which was a presence in Trouin, Haiti, for years before the quake and is now working to rebuild not only homes but also St. Marc's Church School there. St. Marc’s was in many ways the heart of the community, being a place for anyone to come to worship or to ask for material help and providing many of its children not only education but also their only substantial meal of the day. Rebuilding St. Marc’s is a crucial to helping the people who are left in Trouin rebuild their lives. As Marcia Aldridge from Haitian Hope noted, “the task of starting life over is daunting for any of us who lose everything, but in America we have an infrastructure and a government back-up system. In Haiti, there is no infrastructure; and there is no government assistance. Haitians are looking to us for help. How can we refuse?”

To hear performances by such talented and accomplished artists and at the same time contribute to the renewal of Haiti’s devastated community is a rare opportunity for caring citizens of Middle Georgia.

About Townsend School of Music
Mercer is an accredited member of the National Association of Schools of Music. Mercer’s Townsend School of Music and the Townsend-McAfee Institute Graduate Studies in Church Music offer undergraduate and graduate professional music studies in a comprehensive university environment. The School is nationally recognized for its outstanding faculty, award-winning students, performance ensembles and state-of-the-art facilities and is home to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings.

Insana to Speak at Executive Forum

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:48:29 GMT

CNBC senior analyst and financial industry expert Ron Insana will address Mercer University’s Executive Forum on March 23. Insana will give a lunch presentation at the Capital City Club, 7 Harris St., Atlanta, at noon and a dinner presentation at 6:30 p.m. in Macon at the University Center. Insana’s presentation is titled “Now What? Managing Money through the Economic Storm.”

Insana offers clear insights on the economy based on his experiences working for and running his own hedge fund and as a financial journalist for more than two decades. Currently senior analyst for CNBC, Insana has access to all of the top financial players in Washington and on Wall Street and translates the market signals and political maneuvers into information everyone understands. Previously, Insana was a managing director at SAC Capital Advisers, an $11 billion hedge fund, run by Steven A. Cohen. Prior to joining SAC, Insana was the president and CEO of Insana Capital Partners, where he managed the $120 million Insana Capital Partners Legends Fund.

Insana joined CNBC in 1991 as a regular contributor to various television and radio programs produced by CNBC and its affiliates and left CNBC in 2008. Before moving to CNBC, Insana worked as managing editor and senior anchor for the Financial News Network, where he began his career in 1984 as a production assistant.

Insana was named one of the top 100 business journalists of the 20th Century by the TJFR Group and has written for USA Today and Money magazine. Insana is the author of Traders’ Tales, The Message of the Markets, Trend Watching and How to Make a Fortune from the Biggest Bailout in U.S. History: A Guide to the 7 Greatest Bargains from Main Street to Wall Street. He is also host of the radio show, Market Score Board Report.

About the Executive Forum Presented by BB&T
The Executive Forum presented by BB&T is a business outreach program of Mercer University’s Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics, and the Office of University Advancement. The Executive Forum provides business professionals with an opportunity to hear nationally noted speakers while networking with other business leaders. For more information, call Mercer’s Office of University Advancement at (800) 837-2911 or (478) 301-2724 or visit www.mercer.edu/execforum.

Mercer to Host Relay For Life

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:55:13 GMT

MACON – For the first time Mercer University will host an American Cancer Society Relay for Life event. The event, MACRelay, is organized for teams from the area’s colleges and will be held April 9-10 at Porter Patch on Mercer’s Macon campus. Opening ceremonies begin at 7 p.m., April 9, and the survivor reception and survivor/caregiver celebration lap will begin at 7:30 p.m. The event concludes at 7 a.m. on April 10.

The relay is open to teams from Mercer University, Wesleyan College and Macon State College. Following the survivor celebration lap, the American Cancer Society will hold a tribute lap to Dr. Horace W. Fleming Jr., longtime Mercer University administrator. Fleming, who died last April after a battle with cancer, is a former Mercer provost and Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership. He was also a previous president of the Bibb County board of directors for the American Cancer Society and imagined the relay during his term. Unfortunately, he was too sick to participate in last year’s inaugural MACRelay event at Wesleyan College.

The University is also sponsoring a team, Team Fleming, in honor of Dr. Fleming.

“It is so fitting that the American Cancer Society has set aside time to recognize Horace Fleming’s dedication to the fight against cancer - especially during Mercer’s inaugural Relay for Life,” said Dr. Douglas Pearson, vice president and dean of students. “Horace was just a tremendous individual and a leader in this academic community, and I am sure he would be pleased that he is being remembered for his contributions to this organization during an event on our campus.”

Relay for Life, the signature activity of the American Cancer Society, is held on 470 college campuses in the nation. The overnight team event is a unique, fun way to raise money for the American Cancer Society while celebrating cancer survivors, and increasing cancer awareness on college campuses.

Teams are formed through student organizations, Greek organizations, faculty and alumni groups. Team members take turns walking the track throughout the night and into the morning. Any survivor who would like to join the survivor lap can come to the event and register or can pre-register at www.relayforlife.org/macrelay.

“Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event, because cancer never sleeps and for one night, neither will we,” said Glenda Davis, senior community manager for Bibb County board of directors for the American Cancer Society.

In addition, each team member pays a registration fee of $10 and agrees to raise a minimum of $100 to fund the American Cancer Society’s programs of research, early detection and prevention, and patient services and programs.

The teams are assigned a campsite and the members participate in a variety of activities while waiting their turn to walk the track. These activities include: two live bands that will play until midnight, scavenger hunts, tug of war, a newspaper evening gown beauty pageant, and Red Bull and root beer pong contests. Awards are given for the best decorated campsite and the most spirited team.

Mercer MBA Program Ranked with Harvard, Yale

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:59:30 GMT

MACON/ATLANTA — Reviews by Master of Business Administration students at Mercer University’s Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics place the program among the top 15 in the nation in two categories of The Princeton Review’s “Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools.” The MBA students cited Mercer’s preparation as superior in the categories of marketing and accounting, putting the University in the same company as Duke, Harvard, Indiana, Michigan and Northwestern. The list appears in the April 2010 issue of Entrepreneur magazine.

“The Stetson School of Business and Economics is honored to be recognized as one of the top 15 MBA programs in the nation in two of the six areas surveyed,” said Dr. David Shields, dean of the business school. “We believe that we provide our students with outstanding academic preparation for professional careers, and are pleased that the Princeton Review has recognized this. This recognition is a tribute to our faculty and also to our students who demand relevant and rigorous academic preparation in the important areas of accounting and marketing.

“This recognition places the Mercer MBA programs squarely within the ranks of the top MBA programs in the nation,” he said. “Our MBA programs continue to provide the highest quality academic preparation for our students at a reasonable tuition level.”

Created and compiled by The Princeton Review, the “Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools” lists are reported in six categories: accounting, finance, general management, global management, marketing and operations. Each list names the 15 graduate schools of business that were most highly rated by their students evaluating their MBA program’s preparation in specific categories. The business schools appear in alphabetical order on the lists and are not ranked one to 15. In addition to appearing in the magazine, the lists are also posted at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges and www.PrincetonReview.com/studentopinionhonors.aspx.

Mercer was the only Georgia-based MBA program to be placed on two lists, and among other Georgia schools, only Georgia Tech’s MBA program was recognized in the operations category.

The Princeton Review compiled the lists using data from its national survey of 19,000 MBA students attending 301 business schools profiled in its book, Best 301 Business Schools: 2010 Edition published in October 2009. In that edition, the Stetson School of Business and Economics’ MBA program also was ranked No. 3 in the nation in the category of “Greatest Opportunity for Women,” an honor that the book bestowed upon the MBA program in the 2008 edition as well.

Using its 80-question survey, the Princeton Review asked students to report on classroom and campus experiences at their schools and rate their MBA programs in several areas. It tallied the “Student Opinion Honors” lists based on students’ assessments of how well (on a five-point scale) they felt their business school courses had prepared them to succeed in each of the six areas.

Since 2006, Entrepreneur and The Princeton Review have also partnered in reporting annual ranking lists of the “Top Entrepreneurial Colleges and Business Schools” that identify 25 undergraduate and 25 graduate schools for their outstanding entrepreneurship programs. The current lists, reported in Entrepreneur’s October 2009 issue, are at www.entrepreneur.com/topcolleges.

The Princeton Review also annually reports school rankings in its Best 301 Business Schools and Best 172 Law Schools books, each of which include 11 ranking lists of the top 10 schools in the books in various categories based on institutional data and student surveys.

About the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics at Mercer
Established in 1984, the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics offers bachelor’s, MBA, Professional MBA, Executive MBA and Master of Accountancy programs. The School holds accreditation from the prestigious AACSB International — The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, considered the hallmark of excellence among the nation’s top business schools and placing it among the top 25 percent of all business schools in the world. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu/business.

Pharmacy Students Win Internships

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:38:32 GMT

ATLANTA — Melissa Denno and Destin Sampson, both third-year Doctor of Pharmacy students in Mercer University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, have been selected for prestigious summer internships sponsored by the Foundation for Managed Care Pharmacy (FMCP) in collaboration with the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP). Denno and Sampson were among 12 students interviewed from a national applicant pool for the highly competitive internships and ended up taking both slots — the first time the internships have gone to students from the same institution.

The goal of the AMCP/FMCP/Allergan Inc. Specialized Summer Internship Program is to enhance a student pharmacist’s knowledge of managed care pharmacy practice principles and health outcomes research by direct hands-on involvement at managed health care system and health outcomes research experiential sites. The programs also expose them to career options in health plans, pharmacy benefit management companies, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the pharmaceutical industry.

The selection process is highly competitive. To be eligible for the AMCP/FMCP Summer Internship Programs, a student must be enrolled full-time in their second or third professional year at an ACPE-accredited school or college of pharmacy during the 2009-2010 academic year, with anticipated graduation in 2011 or 2012 with a Pharm.D. degree.

About the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Founded in 1903, the independent Southern School of Pharmacy merged with Mercer University in 1959. It became the first school in the Southeast to offer the Doctor of Pharmacy degree as its sole professional degree in 1981. In addition to the Doctor of Pharmacy, the college has one of the largest concentrations of Ph.D. students in pharmaceutics among colleges of pharmacy in the United States. In 2008, the college introduced a Physician Assistant program and will offer a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in the fall 2010.

Emerson Player of the Year in State

Richard L. Cameron — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:22:29 GMT

MACON – Mercer University senior forward Daniel Emerson has been named the Georgia college men’s basketball “Player of the Year” for the 2009-10 season by the Atlanta Tipoff Club, it has been announced.

Emerson, along with other ATC award winners, will be honored on Tuesday, March 23, at the Naismith Awards Banquet at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center in Atlanta.

Earning an award like this might have been the furthest thing from Emerson’s mind after transferring to Mercer. Despite having two older siblings enjoy successful careers for the Bears, the youngest Emerson endured two years that were largely mediocre at Western Kentucky University before having Georgia – and Mercer – on his mind. Being in the Bears’ colors, ultimately, opened the door for Emerson’s best college basketball years.

“I was shocked when coach first told me about the award,” said Emerson. “This is especially meaningful when you think of the great players in the state this year like (Trey) Thompkins from Georgia, Georgia Tech’s (Derrick) Favors and (Gani) Lawal, as well as Flo (Mercer teammate James Florence).

“The award means a lot because I came a long way to even get back to Georgia to finish my career. It puts a cap on what I was able to accomplish the last two years (at Mercer).

“But more importantly, it shows what we were able to do as a team. The fact that we had a solid enough season to make voters even notice our team and pay attention to one of our players says something. I felt like we sort of put Mercer back on the map.”

While other players may have posted better numbers in one category or another, few can claim the efficiency of Emerson’s game. His percentages in all areas of shooting – field goals, three-point attempts and free throws – were all at high levels. At the same time, his rebounding numbers were unquestioned.

“I am so very happy and pleased that Danny has received this award,” said MU head coach Bob Hoffman. “I believe that this is truly a testament to his day-in and day-out, blue collar work ethic. Danny is not a ‘flashy’ player, but he is about as consistent as you can get.

“If you think about what it takes to end the season averaging a double-double, especially when he frequently has to go up against taller players, it speaks volumes about how hard he works and how much he puts into his game.

“Furthermore, as good of a player as Danny is on the basketball court, he is an even better example as a young man. I am as proud of him for how he carries the Mercer banner and represents our program away from the game as I am with how he plays basketball. He’s a good student, a good citizen and a pretty darn good basketball player, too.

“This award, I believe, is a tribute to all of those aspects!”

Emerson averaged a stellar 15.4 points and 12.0 rebounds per game, leading the Bears to the championship game of the Atlantic Sun Conference tournament. Even after suffering a serious eye injury in the second-to-last regular season game, Emerson game back strong in the A-Sun championships to earn all-tournament accolades by averaging 16.7 points and 12.3 rebounds for Mercer’s three contests.

Currently, his rebounds average ranks third in the nation. Likewise, his 21 double-doubles is the third-highest total in the country. Emerson tops the A-Sun Conference in both of those categories and is also among the league leaders for scoring (seventh), field goal percentage (fifth/54.4%), and free throw percentage (eighth/73.8%). On the season, Emerson rolled up double figures in scoring in 28 of 32 games and in 25 of 32 games in rebounding.

The 6-8 Emerson’s 385 rebounds this year set a Mercer University single-season record. Additionally, that total was an A-Sun Conference record, as well, erasing one of the oldest standards in the books (359, set by Centenary’s George Lett in 1978-79, the very first year of the A-Sun as a league).

Emerson’s selection as an A-Sun All-Conference first team member for 2009-10 was also a bit historic. By being named first team – he was previously a second team pick in 2008-09 – Emerson joined older brothers Scott and Will as being recognized as first team All-A-Sun honorees for Mercer’s men’s basketball program.

Emerson was a graduate of Norcross High School (he also attended Camden County H.S. in Kingsland, Ga., before moving to Norcross). Emerson has already earned his bachelor’s degree in business and is currently working on his master’s in business at Mercer.

Ticket information for the ATC’s Naismith Awards Banquet is available by calling (404) 586-8510 or on the web at: www.naismithawards.com

Master of Arts in Christian Ministry

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:47:42 GMT

ATLANTA - Beginning this summer, Mercer University’s James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology will offer a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry. The degree is designed for mid-career professionals seeking to deepen their ministry without pursuing a full-time Master of Divinity.

The degree can be completed in two years and is ideal for bi-vocational and part-time ministers, ministers with undergraduate ministerial education, lay leaders and professionals from other disciplines seeking to broaden their competencies.

“The Master of Arts in Christian Ministry was designed for lay ministers, mid-career and part-time students,” said Dr. R. Alan Culpepper, dean of McAfee. “It offers the core of the Master of Divinity program, without the requirements in Greek and Hebrew. We think it’s going to be an attractive degree for students seeking a theology education who cannot devote full-time to an academic program.”

The degree will help students develop the general theological understanding required as a basis for local church ministries while nurturing the practical abilities and skills needed in that setting. It consists of 56 credit hours in such courses as New and Old Testament, church history, ethics, leadership, evangelism and mission, and spiritual formation.

In addition, the degree allows for the transfer of up to 14 master’s-level hours from another accredited seminary. For more information, contact the McAfee admissions office at theoadmiss@mercer.edu or (678) 547-6474.

About the James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology
The McAfee School of Theology was established in 1996. Located in Atlanta on Mercer’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus, the School of Theology offers programs leading to the degrees Master of Arts in Christian Ministry, Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry. The School of Theology also offers several joint programs: an M.Div.-Master of Business Administration, an M.Div.-Master of Science in Counseling and an M.Div.-Master of Arts in Church Music through the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Church Music Studies, a collaborative program between the School of Theology and the Townsend School of Music in Macon. For more information, visit theology.mercer.edu.

New Grants Fund Prosthetics Work

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:26:57 GMT

MACON – A Mercer On Mission project that provides low-cost prosthetics to amputees in developing countries has received two substantial grants this spring to help with those efforts. The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance awarded Dr. Ha Van Vo, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, with a Sustainable Vision Grant of $37,275 to help him perfect his design and set up a prosthetic lab and clinic in Vietnam. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship awarded the University a $50,000 grant to replicate the Vietnam program in Haiti, where the 2010 earthquake left thousands of Haitians without limbs.

Dr. Vo invented a low-cost prosthetic that can be fitted without full customization, which makes it an affordable alternative to those in developing nations who must often go without. Last summer, Dr. Vo and Dr. Ramachandran Radharamanan, a professor in the School of Engineering, led a Mercer On Mission team to work with Vietnamese amputees living in and around Ho Chi Minh City. In all, the team fitted 35 prosthetics and cast 27 people for later fittings. Dr. Vo and Dr. Radharamanan will return to Vietnam to complete the lab and to lead a team of students to fit the 27 people already slated for prosthetics, as well as 63 more amputees.

In March, University Minister and Dean of the Chapel Craig McMahan, who coordinates the Mercer On Mission program, traveled to Haiti with CBF officials to lay the groundwork for an exploratory trip in mid-May and a follow-up trip this summer. During the exploratory trip Dr. Vo hopes to deliver as many as 20 prosthetics and, upon returning from Vietnam, he will travel back to Haiti with a Mercer delegation to Haiti to fit another 30 amputees. In addition to fitting the amputees, Dr. Vo hopes to work with local officials to explore ways to produce the prosthetics in that country.

Dr. Vo recently expanded his operation into a lab space in the new Science and Engineering Building, where he will be able to manufacture larger numbers of the prosthetics while training Mercer students and the lab technicians who are charged with building labs in developing nations. He and his students will build prosthetics between trips to Haiti and Vietnam to meet the needs of as many amputees as possible, he said.

“We want to do whatever we can to help them,” Dr. Vo said.

The Vietnam program is slated for three years, and Dr. Vo hopes to expand the program to India and Thailand in later years. The Alliance grant will help those efforts and will be used for working on the design of other parts of the prostheses, including the knee, pylon, ankle and foot.

Because the project is addressing a worldwide problem, it has garnered national and international attention, including praise from the Clinton Global Initiative. The problem of amputees who must go without prosthetics is particularly acute in Vietnam. More than 2,000 Vietnamese are injured each year by land mines and unexploded bombs left during the Vietnam War. An estimated 100,000 amputees live in Vietnam today, and there are more than 18 million amputees around the world, with more than 80 percent of those living in developing countries.

The situation in Haiti is similarly dire. The Jan. 12 earthquake that pulverized buildings throughout Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, also injured thousands of people, and many have undergone amputations. According to recent reports, conservative estimates by aid groups suggest that at least 75 people per day face amputations because of the quake. The desperate poverty of the country means that few, if any Haitians, will be able to afford conventional prosthetics.

Now in its fourth year, Mercer On Mission is a unique blend of study abroad and service-learning that provides life-changing experiences for students through academic instruction, cultural immersion, meaningful service, and spiritual reflection. This year, more than 100 students will travel to countries across three continents to serve others.

Lambert Appointed CLA Dean

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:51:59 GMT

MACON — Mercer University President William D. Underwood today announced the appointment of Lake Lambert, Ph.D., currently professor and administrator at Wartburg College in Iowa, as dean of Mercer’s College of Liberal Arts, effective July 1. Dr. Lambert will succeed Dr. Richard Fallis, who announced that he will retire as dean this summer following nearly 10 years at the helm of Mercer’s oldest academic unit.

“Dr. Lambert is a person whose skills and experiences match those of highly effective academic leaders,” said Mercer Provost Wallace L. Daniel. “He is a person of vision with a strong commitment to the liberal arts and sciences and a collaborative leader who will also be an innovative dean. His experience in strategic planning will benefit the College, both in building on its distinctive heritage and in developing a culture of discovery.

“I want to express gratitude to the faculty search committee, ably chaired by Dr. Dale Moore, for its superb work on behalf of the College of Liberal Arts and the University. Members of the faculty committee did an extremely conscientious and skillful job in bringing well-qualified candidates for this important position. I would also like to express heartfelt appreciation to Dean Fallis, for his years of service and leadership of the College of Liberal Arts,” Dr. Daniel said.

Dr. Lambert serves as professor of religion and Board of Regents Chair in Ethics at Wartburg College, where he has been on the faculty since 1996. He also serves as executive director of the college’s Commission on Mission, an initiative to engage faculty, staff, students, alumni and trustees in strategic planning while maintaining its distinctive mission. He also serves as assistant dean for academic planning, working to foster collaboration among faculty leaders and administrators for effective program assessment and budgeting in coordination with the college’s long-range plan and fundraising priorities.

“I am honored to be the new Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and look forward to working with an outstanding faculty and staff who share my passion for liberal learning,” Dr. Lambert said. “Even during my short time on campus, I saw how a Mercer education is distinctive. The faculty’s personal relationships with students, student engagement in local and global communities, and the university’s focus on leadership and ethics offer students something unique in higher education.”

In addition to his teaching and administrative duties, Dr. Lambert has also maintained an active role in the scholarship of his field, religion and ethics. He published a book in 2009, Spirituality Inc.: Religion in the American Workplace, and has published articles and book reviews in scholarly journals, religious publications and the popular press, including USA Today.

From 2003 to 2008, Dr. Lambert served as director of the Center for Community Engagement and The Callings Initiative at Wartburg, a program funded by a $2 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc., which helped the college to further professional development and programs for student vocational discovery, as well as support and expand experiential learning and external partnerships. The efforts helped to further Wartburg’s reputation as a leader in experiential learning, including national recognitions from the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll and the Carnegie Foundation.

Dr. Lambert earned his Doctor of Philosophy in social ethics from Princeton Theological Seminary and his Master of Theological Studies from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. He also completed his undergraduate studies at Emory, earning his Bachelor of Arts, majoring in economics and history.

Dr. Lambert is married to Kelly Duddles-Lambert, an accountant, and they have two children, a daughter, Bailey, 13, and a son, Zack, 9.

Mercer-Mount De Sales Dual Enrollment Program

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 19:03:17 GMT

MACON — Mercer University and Mount de Sales Academy, an independent Catholic, coeducational, college preparatory school located in the College Hill Corridor, have announced a dual-enrollment program that will allow academy seniors to take college courses for credit at the University beginning next fall.

The program, which initially will be available to seven Mount de Sales students, is designed to provide an early college experience for talented and motivated high school students. They will take classes alongside current Mercer students and upon successful completion will be able to apply their credits toward degree completion at Mercer or another university.

“I am very pleased that we have been able to develop this dual enrollment program with Mount de Sales,” said President William D. Underwood. “The proximity of the academy to our campus, the rigor of its academic program, and the history of cooperation between the two institutions make this a logical partnership. We believe students from Mount de Sales and Mercer will benefit.”

All seven Mount de Sales students, who were selected based on grade point average, SAT scores and letters of recommendations from parents and Mount de Sales administrators and counselors, will jointly enroll in a Principles of Human Geography course for the fall semester and will be able to take a second course in Introductory Sociology, Gendered Lives, Beginning Latin or Introduction to Communication.

“Mount de Sales is excited for our students to have the opportunity to participate in the dual enrollment program with Mercer,” said Kathleen R. Prebble, president of Mount de Sales. “This new program will enhance the strong connection that currently exists between our schools.”

About Mercer University
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,000 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.

About Mount de Sales Academy
Mount de Sales Academy is a Catholic, independent, college preparatory school sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy. Dedicated to the spiritual and intellectual growth of each student, the Academy is committed to educating young men and women of all cultural, economic, and religious backgrounds. Mount de Sales provides an environment devoted to academic excellence, service to the community, global awareness, and life-long learning to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. For more information, visit www.mountdesales.net.
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Georgia Cancer Coalition Grant

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:08:48 GMT

MACON — The Georgia Cancer Coalition has awarded one of its six research grants for 2010 to a member of the Mercer University School of Medicine faculty. The organization will provide $50,000 to Dr. Robert J. McKallip, an assistant professor of immunology in the Division of Basic Medical Sciences at the School of Medicine in Macon, to study therapies for treating malignant melanoma.

“Mercer scientists are once again being recognized for their numerous contributions to a variety of important health issues,” said Dr. D. Scott Davis, senior vice provost for research and dean of graduate studies. “This generous funding for Dr. McKallip’s research by the Georgia Cancer Coalition will allow his group to further advance the discovery of new therapies for malignant melanoma, a particularly aggressive type of cancer. Dr. McKallip is one of our many outstanding young faculty who have been hired in recent years and I congratulate his early success for external funding in a highly competitive environment.”

Dr. McKallip will use the funding to do his initial investigation into a new method of treating malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer that can spread throughout the body and has a poor prognosis for recovery. He will research the use of the body’s own immune cells to attack the tumors, which because they disperse throughout the body are often impossible to target with other therapies.

Using the grant funding, Dr. McKallip will investigate whether he can identify specific isoforms of the CD44 protein expressed on activated immune cells, which help the cells to track down and kill tumors. Once those specific isoforms are identified, he will enrich the immune cells that express those isoforms and return them to the patient, where they can attack the tumors more effectively. The grant will help Dr. McKallip to do the initial research and collect the data on his new therapy while laying the groundwork for future grant proposals for more exhaustive studies and the development of potential therapies.

“This grant will give me the funding to perform the critical experiments necessary to further my research and will provide the data I need for competitive proposals to the National Institutes for Health and other national grants,” Dr. McKallip said. “This is a great grant to have because it offers important support for my research and I’m grateful that the Georgia Cancer Coalition has agreed to help me further my investigation.”

The 2010 Cancer Research Awards are each one-year, $50,000 grants and mark the first time that the awards were made available to study all types of cancer. Legislation passed in 2009 removed prior restrictions to research in the areas of breast, prostate, or ovarian cancer. Reviewers included nationally-recognized scientists and clinicians from across the country. The awards are funded through a state income-tax check-off program, allowing Georgians to elect to donate $1 of their state income tax bill to fund cancer research.

“These research awards are important to our state’s scientists,” said Bill Todd, president and chief executive officer of the Georgia Cancer Coalition. “It is a testament to the growing focus on cancer research among Georgia’s clinical and research investigators. We owe the program’s success to our citizens who support the drive to eradicate cancer.”

Dr. McKallip came to Mercer in 2009, after two years in the private sector, and prior to that was an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina. He also completed two post-doctoral appointments with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the Medical College of Virginia. He earned his Ph.D. in molecular and cellular oncology from The Georgia Washington University and his master’s and bachelor’s from Virginia Tech.

About the Mercer University School of Medicine (Macon and Savannah)
Mercer University’s School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. The School only accepts Georgia residents into its medical degree program. Students entering Mercer University School of Medicine will be graduated from a school that utilizes a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. In August 2008, the inaugural class of 30 students began study at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah at Mercer’s second full, four-year doctor of medicine program. The School also offers master’s degrees in public health, family therapy, family services and nurse anesthesia.

Self Preaching Lectures

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:15:52 GMT

ATLANTA — Noted author and professor The Rev. Dr. Robert Smith Jr. will deliver the 2010 William L. Self Preaching Lectures, April 5-6, for Mercer University’s James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta. Dr. Smith will speak on the theme “Doctrine that Dances.” All events will be held in the Atlanta Administration and Conference Center on Mercer’s Atlanta Campus, 2930 Flowers Road.

Dr. Smith is associate professor of divinity and Christian preaching at Beeson Divinity School and will deliver three lectures built around his theme. In addition, the event will also include a preaching workshop by Dr. Brett Younger, associate professor of preaching at McAfee.

The conference schedule is as follows:

April 5:

2 p.m., lecture, titled “The Preacher as an Exegetical Escort,” by Dr. Smith
5:30 p.m., dinner
7 p.m., lecture, titled “The Preacher as a Doxological Dancer,” by Dr. Smith

April 6:

9 a.m., preaching workshop, titled “Why Baptist Preachers Can’t Dance,” by Dr. Younger
10:45 a.m., lecture, titled “What God Has Joined Together: the Holy Spirit and Preaching,” by Dr. Smith

For registration and program information, contact Diane Frazier at frazier_d@mercer.edu or (678) 547-6470. Registration for the event is $65 per person and $25 for spouses and students. The registration deadline is March 31.

Prior to his appointment at Beeson, Dr. Smith served as the Carl E. Bates Associate Professor of Christian Preaching at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

A popular teacher and preacher, Smith received the 1996 Findley B. Edge Award for Teaching Excellence at Southern Seminary. An ordained Baptist minister, he served as pastor of the New Mission Missionary Baptist Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, for 20 years before returning to Southern to complete his Ph.D. Dr. Smith is also co-editor of A Mighty Long Journey. He wrote Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life, which was selected as the 2008 Preaching Book of the Year by Preaching Magazine. He has spoken at more than 45 universities, colleges and seminaries in the United States, Great Britain and the Caribbean.

Dr. Smith’s research interests include the place of passion in preaching, the literary history of African-American preaching, Christological preaching, and theologies of preaching. At Beeson, he teaches Christian preaching and other electives in homiletics. Dr. Smith received Beeson Divinity School’s “Teacher of the Year Award” in 2005.

About the William L. Self Lectures
The William L. Self Lectureship at Mercer University's McAfee School of Theology was established to promote the practice of faithful and effective preaching of the gospel. The series is named in honor of Dr. William L. Self, who has a national reputation as a gifted preacher, pastor, author, lecturer, motivational speaker and innovator in church growth. Dr. Self achieved considerable acclaim by leading Atlanta’s Wieuca Road Baptist Church to a place of prominence in Georgia and the nation. As pastor of Johns Creek Baptist Church in Alpharetta, his leadership and substantial influence have brought this church to the vanguard of fast-growing churches.

About the James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology
The McAfee School of Theology was established in 1996. Located in Atlanta on Mercer’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus, the School of Theology offers programs leading to the degrees Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry. The School of Theology also offers several joint programs: an M.Div.-Master of Business Administration, an M.Div.-Master of Science in Counseling and an M.Div.-Master of Arts in Church Music through the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Church Music Studies, a collaborative program between the School of Theology and the Townsend School of Music in Macon. For more information, visit theology.mercer.edu.

Phronesis Conference on Character

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 18:16:18 GMT

MACON — Mercer University’s Phronesis Project will host a conference, titled “Character Across the Disciplines,” April 9-10. The conference commences Friday, April 9, with a panel discussion, titled “Character in Disciplinary Perspective,” by three of the nation’s leading experts on character development. The panel begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Medical School Auditorium and is free and open to the public.

In addition to the discussion, each panelist will give a brief presentation. The presentations include: “The Untold War” by Dr. Nancy Sherman, professor of philosophy at Georgetown University; “The Psychology of Moral Formation” by Dr. Darcia Narvaez, associate professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame; and “Smart and Good Schools: A Paradigm Shift for Character Education” by Dr. Thomas Lickona, professor of education at State University of New York, Cortland.

The Phronesis Project was formed through a grant from Mercer’s Academic Initiatives Monetary Fund out of both a national need and previous local initiatives to explore character, practical wisdom and professional formation. The project expands on a four-year exploration within the University of vocation and professionalism across the professions, which was sponsored by the University’s Quality Enhancement Plan and the University Commons. The project seeks to deepen and highlight Mercer’s distinctive focus on developing the whole individual through transformative education and the cultivation of practical wisdom in the professions.

“People who study human moral development often focus only on what their specific area of that development might be, without looking at moral development across the lifespan,” said Dr. Paul Lewis, associate professor of Christianity and co-director of the Phronesis Project. “This conference is intended to foster cross-disciplinary conversation about character and its development that can contribute to practices that promote character development and stimulate further research and conversation.”

Dr. Sherman’s most recent book, The Untold War: Inside the Hearts, Minds, and Souls of Our Soldiers, explores the moral weight that soldiers carry on their shoulders. Since 1995, she has consulted for the U.S. Armed Forces on issues of ethics, resilience, and posttraumatic stress. She has also served on the board of directors for the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs.

Dr. Narvaez’ research explores questions of moral cognition, moral development and moral character education. She most recently co-edited and contributed to Personality, Identity, and Character: Explorations in Moral Psychology. Her “Triune Ethical Theory” integrates moral psychology with work in the neurosciences.

Dr. Lickona is a frequent consultant to schools on character education and a frequent speaker at conferences for teachers, parents, religious educators, and other groups concerned about the moral development of young people. His publications include a book describing his 12-point character education program, Educating for Character: How Our Schools Can Teach Respect and Responsibility; and a popular book for parents, Raising Good Children. He currently directs the Center for the Fourth and Fifth R’s (Respect and Responsibility) and is co-director of the Smart and Good Schools Initiative.

The conference will also include workshops on Saturday at the Walter F. George School of Law targeted for Mercer students, faculty, and administrators. The workshops, which will begin at 8:30 a.m., are: “The Guilt They Carry” by Dr. Sherman; “An Integrative Approach to Educating Virtue” by Dr. Narvaez; and “Creating Smart and Good Schools: Best Practices for Developing Performance Character and Moral Character within an Ethical Learning Community” presented by Dr. Lickona.

About the Phronesis Project
The Project is co-directed by Dr. Paul Lewis, associate professor of Christianity; Mark Jones, professor of law; and Dr. Kelly Reffitt, assistant professor of education, and engages in a comprehensive investigation into the nature and stage-appropriate development of good character and practical wisdom. It is comprehensive in its focus on life’s various contexts and stages. The project seeks to draw upon and integrate a range of theories of moral development, pedagogical practices and insights from the neurosciences, and its interdisciplinary reach across all relevant disciplines and professional fields with their corresponding departments, colleges and schools at Mercer. For more information, visit http://www2.mercer.edu/phronesis/.

Trustees Approve Budget

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:24:22 GMT

ATLANTA — Mercer University’s Board of Trustees today approved a $185.4 million operating budget for next year, a $4 million, or 2.3 percent, increase over the current budget. Tuition for Mercer’s undergraduate programs will increase by 3.48 percent. Last year’s increase for Macon undergraduate programs was 2.9 percent, compared with increases of 6.5 percent in 2008, 6.8 percent in 2007 and 7 percent in 2006. Tuition increases for graduate and professional programs range from 1 percent to 4.4 percent.

“We continue to hold our tuition increases to a level far below the historical trends for colleges and universities over the last decade,” said Mercer President William D. Underwood. “The economic environment, while improving, still poses challenges for our students and their families. The University must remain sensitive to those challenges while finding innovative ways to continue delivering the high-quality programs and services that our students deserve and expect.”

Meeting for the first time on Mercer’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus in Atlanta, the board also approved a new undergraduate global health studies concentration in the College of Liberal Arts.

The program will address the health of global populations and communities through instruction, service and community-based research. It will provide graduates with the skills to analyze factors underlying domestic and international health challenges and to combine research and service experience with the ability to make difficult social choices, to devise solutions to individual and population-wide health problems, and to implement disease-prevention strategies.

“The Global Health Program should be extremely attractive to undergraduate students, and it speaks to some of the most important problems in our world,” said Mercer Provost Wallace L. Daniel. “Interdisciplinary in its focus and appeal, the program ultimately will draw on faculty expertise in our schools of medicine and business, as well as the College of Liberal Arts.”

Mercer Returns to National Conference

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:53:00 GMT

MACON – A delegation of Mercer students and faculty has been invited to this year’s national conference sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative University – a program of the William J. Clinton Foundation – to highlight the University’s efforts to help amputees in Vietnam and to announce new commitments to service. Four professors and six students have been selected to attend the conference, which will take place April 16-18 at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla.

The CGI U program partners with universities and students who make specific “commitments” to engaging the world and taking on global challenges. At last year’s conference, President Clinton highlighted the Mercer project at the event’s opening session and presented University Minister and Dean of the Chapel Dr. Craig McMahan with a certificate acknowledging the University’s commitment to provide low-cost prosthetics in Vietnam. This year, Dr. McMahan will return to update the conference on the University’s commitment, including an expansion of the effort to develop a lab in Vietnam to manufacture prosthetics, as well as delivering 100 new prosthetics during a Mercer On Mission trip there this summer.

“We were honored to have our commitment recognized last year by President Clinton and we’re very glad that they have once again identified our project to be singled out as one of the follow-up commitments that has demonstrated a significant expansion of our original commitment,” Dr. McMahan said. “It was a great honor to be recognized at last year’s event, and it is quite noteworthy to have our re-commitment highlighted in such a substantial way.”

Dr. McMahan has been asked to present a progress report for the University’s commitment on Saturday for President Clinton and a group of NGO and university presidents. Dr. McMahan will be the first one to present at the presidents’ meeting, he said.

In addition to Dr. McMahan’s presentation, three Mercer professors will attend the event to facilitate discussions among attendees: Randall Harshbarger, associate professor of interdisciplinary studies; Dr. Christopher Grant, associate professor of political science; and Dr. Mary Alice Morgan, senior vice provost for service learning and chair of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department. In addition, four Mercer Service Scholars have spearheaded a new Mercer commitment – 10,000 hours of community service by Mercer students on the Macon campus during the 2010-2011 school year. The students are sophomores Chelsea Flieger, JaQuaye Okai, Andrew Hyatt and Phillip York. Two other students, A.C. Davis – who is a part of the Vietnam commitment – and Beth Hyde, have also been selected to attend the conference.

Dr. Grant and the Mercer Service Scholars will also represent the University during the concluding CGI U service project on Sunday.

Mercer’s commitment to help developing countries is based on a low-cost prosthetic design by Dr. Ha Van Vo, assistant professor of biomedical engineering. Because amputees in developing countries cannot afford expensive customized prosthetics, they often must go without them. Last summer, a Mercer On Mission group led by Dr. Vo and fellow engineering professor Dr. Ramachandran Radharamanan distributed a number of the prosthetics in Dr. Vo’s native Vietnam. Dr. Vo and Dr. Radharamanan will return again this year to deliver 100 prosthetics and to set up a lab, which will be run by Vietnamese technicians trained at Mercer through a grant by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance.

During his presentation, Dr. McMahan will also highlight a new service project, funded by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, to deliver prosthetics to Haiti. The pilot project will help amputees in Haiti, where thousands have suffered amputations as a result of the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince. Dr. Vo will also travel twice to Haiti through a grant by the CBF, where he and five students will fit a number of prosthetics and work to set up a prosthetics facility there. The trip will lay the groundwork for what should be a long term project, Dr. McMahan said.

Bearstock at Mercer Saturday

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:53:18 GMT

MACON — QuadWorks, the campus activities board of Mercer University, will host its third annual Bearstock Music and Arts Festival on Saturday. The concert is free, open to the public, and will feature 17 bands on two stages. The music begins at noon on Porter Patch at Mercer’s historic Macon campus and will feature headliners Jeremih, Cartel, The Maine and We the Kings, along with 13 local bands. Jeremih is scheduled to perform at 7:05 p.m. and Cartel will take the stage at 8:05 p.m.

Bearstock is sure to be an even bigger success than last year, organizers say.

“We were lucky enough to have We the Kings add us as a stop on their spring tour/ They are bringing The Maine and Cartel with them,” said Brittany McGarity, Mercer Live co-chair for Quadworks, the University’s student activities board. “Since those bands are all from the same genre, we wanted to mix it up with Jeremih, who is starting to become very popular and will bring a lot of energy to the stage.”

Rapper Jeremih’s self-titled debut album, Jeremih, debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, selling 59,000 copies in its first week.

Cartel is a five-member alternative rock band from Conyers. The band is best known for its single, “Honestly,” that is featured on its 2005 debut album, Chroma, and has had more than 36 million MySpace plays. The band also has its own MTV mini-series chronicling the recording of the band’s second album and has attracted coverage in Rolling Stone, Alternative Press, USA Today and The New York Times.

The Maine, a rock band from Phoenix, Ariz., was formed in 2007 while most of the band members were still in high school. The Maine turned its ‘90s radio rock band influences into a generic, but still infectious, pop-punk sound, signed to Fearless Records and released a five-song concept EP, The Way We Talk, in 2007. After performing on the 2008 Vans Warped Tour, the band released its debut album, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop.

We the Kings is a rock band from Bradenton, Fla. It released a self-titled, full-length album in 2007, which peaked at No. 151 on the Billboard 200. The band’s second full-length album, Smile Kid, was released in December 2009. We the Kings also has its own mini-series of webisodes, called “The King’s Carriage,” detailing life on the group’s tour bus.

The local bands and artists scheduled to perform include:
• A Love Not Lost, 12:30 p.m., Stage B
• All Get Out, 1:05 p.m., Stage A
• Alec Stanley, 1:40 p.m., Stage B
• City Council, 2:15 p.m., Stage A
• AL K!NG, 2:50 p.m., Stage B
• Ocean Is Theory, 3:25 p.m., Stage A
• Copacetic, 4 p.m., Stage B
• We the Living, 4:35 p.m., Stage A
• Doctor Squid, 5:10 p.m., Stage B
• The Key, which includes several Mercer students, 5:45 p.m., Stage A
• Floco Torres, 6:20 p.m., Stage B

In addition to these local favorites, Mercer Dance Revolution will also perform at 6:55 p.m. before the headliners come on Stage A at 7:05 p.m.

“Bearstock is more than just the headliners. It’s an all-day event that allows people to hear a lot of really great acts. The variety of bands represents a number of different genres. For music lovers, this is the ultimate experience for finding new, awesome bands to listen to,” McGarity said. “My advice: get there early and bring some sunscreen!”

For more information, follow on Twitter @bearstock2010 or call (478) 301-2685.
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Celebrations of Learning

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:56:07 GMT

MACON — Undergraduates at Mercer University’s Macon campus will showcase what they’ve learned this year at a series of events over the coming week. Engineering students will present their projects and compete in colorful vehicle competitions at the Third Annual Engineering Expo at the University Center Arena on April 16. Meanwhile, students will also talk about their research projects at the Fourth Annual Mercer Undergraduate Research Symposium in Heritage Hall in the UC. Then, on Monday, the University will hold the inaugural Mercer Undergraduate Research Conference, featuring presentations from across the academic disciplines.

The Engineering Expo, an expansion of the annual School of Engineering Introduction to Engineering Design Competition, will be held in the University Center Arena. The event opens at 2:30 p.m. in the upper arena with showcases of engineering student organizations, senior design projects, honors projects, student-faculty research and other class projects. At 3 p.m., the attention will turn to the arena floor for the design competition, featuring teams of first-year students matching robotic vehicles in a variety of exciting and colorful competitions.

Also in the University Center, the Undergraduate Research Symposium begins at 2 p.m. in Heritage Hall, with 49 posters presented by 93 students from 12 departments across the University. The event concludes at 4 p.m. in the Presidents Dining Room with an awards ceremony and keynote address by Dr. Scott Huettel, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience and co-director of the Center for Neuroeconomic Studies at Duke University.

On Monday, the first-ever Mercer Undergraduate Research Conference takes place with students from across undergraduate disciplines presenting their research over 20 sessions. There will be 20 sessions at various locations across campus from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Each session will consist of three topical, rather than disciplinary, presentations of approximately 15 minutes each. The presentations are arranged under such themes as: Overcoming Inequality and Violence, Understanding Patterns in Society and Economics and Society in the Modern World.

The conference concludes with a plenary session at 7 p.m. in the Presidents Dining Room of the University Center. Dr. Andrew Silver, Hunter Associate Professor of English, will deliver the keynote address and Mercer Provost Dr. Wallace Daniel will hand out awards to the top presenters.
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Student to Present Research in Washington

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:56:32 GMT

MACON — Corinne Gilmer, a biochemistry and molecular biology major at Mercer University, will present her research on Capitol Hill as part of a national event showcasing undergraduate research. Gilmer, a junior, will attend the Council for Undergraduate Research’s Posters on the Hill in Washington, D.C., April 13. Gilmer is one of only two students from Georgia, and one of only 85 in the nation, selected to attend the event.

Gilmer will present her research on placental malaria at the event. Her research explores the chemical interaction that allows infected red blood cells to adhere to placental tissues. Gilmer and Dr. Bridget Trogden, assistant professor of chemistry, have been working to isolate this protein in the lab in order to design drugs against it.

Malaria is currently the leading cause of death and disease in many underdeveloped countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Women who are pregnant with their first or second child are particularly susceptible to malaria even though they have often acquired immunity over years of living in areas where the disease is prevalent. The outcomes of placental malaria include anemia, low birth weight and the death of both mother and child.

“From having worked on health-related projects involving drug-resistant bacteria and placental malaria, I have learned how disease affects human lives, but I have also learned that new scientific discoveries allow us to fight back,” Gilmer said. “I look forward to the opportunity to discuss my science with the government’s leaders in the Posters on the Hill forum.”

In addition to her presentation, Gilmer and the other participants will take field trips, receive advocacy training, visit Congressional members’ offices and display their posters during a reception for congressional members and officials from a number of funding organizations.

“I’m very proud that Corrine was selected for this honor,” Dr. Trogden said. “She has been a great help to me in my research to better understand a terrible disease. I am excited that Corinne has been selected for this honor both to discuss her research and to be an advocate for student research to congressional members. The chance to conduct undergraduate research greatly enhances a student’s educational experience and legislative support is necessary to ensure its continuity.”

The Council on Undergraduate Research, founded in 1978, is a national organization of individual and institutional members representing more than 900 colleges and universities. The council’s leadership works with agencies and foundations to enhance research opportunities for faculty and students.

Lofts at Mercer Village Announces Retailers

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:11:05 GMT

MACON – Sierra Development announced today the retailers that will occupy the first floor of the Lofts at Mercer Village during a groundbreaking ceremony for the multi-million dollar mixed-use development on Montpelier Avenue in the College Hill Corridor. Joining the Barnes & Noble at Mercer University are three local businesses that have leased the remaining retail space. They are Fountain of Juice, Margarita’s Mexican Grill and Designer Tan.

To watch video of the groundbreaking, go>.

All three businesses are opening additional locations and are owned and operated by local proprietors Natasha and Carl Phillips of Fountain of Juice; Rafael Rodriguez of Margarita’s Mexican Grill; and Nicole Ramsbottom, of Designer Tan. The new locations will create approximately 36 new jobs in the area.

Sierra Development President Jim Daws said he received immediate interest in the retail space when the development was announced late last year. “We were actually able to choose the retailers who would create the best mix for the vision of a vibrant place to live and hang out,” he said. “The retailers, including those already established in Mercer Village, will be able to feed off each other’s success and create a destination area on Macon’s map.”

The businesses also further connect the College Hill Corridor to downtown with Fountain of Juice already planning to offer food delivery to the Medical Center of Central Georgia and other downtown employers.

The Mercer Bookstore, operated by Barnes & Noble, will move from its current location in Penfield Hall on the interior of campus and will take up approximately half of the retail space in The Lofts at Mercer Village.

The Lofts at Mercer Village will be located on Montpelier Avenue across from Ingleside Village Pizza and Jittery Joe’s Coffee. The first floor will have approximately 13,750 square feet of retail space and the top three floors will house up to 117 students in three- and four-bedroom, loft-style apartments that reflect a sleek, urban design. It has been designed to create a vibrant streetscape, enhancing the recent retail development in Mercer Village, which in addition to Ingleside Village Pizza and Jittery Joe’s Coffee, houses Francar’s Buffalo Wings, Georgia Public Broadcasting studios and offices for the College Hill Alliance.

Each bedroom in the loft apartments will have its own bathroom, and the units will feature nine- to 10-foot ceilings, acid-stained concrete floors, accent brick walls and exposed ductwork with large windows in common living areas. The kitchens and bathrooms will have upgraded features such as granite countertops, and each apartment will have its own washer and dryer.

The University’s arrangement with the developers is similar to the one Mercer made with developers of the Hilton Garden Inn five years ago. The University is providing the land and the developers are putting up the structure and will lease the apartment units and retail space, provide facility maintenance and manage the residential operations. The Lofts at Mercer Village will cater to Mercer’s graduate and professional students, as well as upperclass undergraduate students who do not live in University-operated campus housing.

Construction on The Lofts at Mercer Village has begun and the bookstore is scheduled to move into its space in December 2010. The first apartment units should be ready for occupancy in January 2011, with full occupancy anticipated in Fall 2011.

About Sierra Development
Sierra Development specializes in lifestyle-rich multi-family developments throughout the Southeast. By combining top-tier talent with a solid reputation, Sierra Development has become a premier multi-family development company, offering a collection of stunning new landmarks thoughtfully located in upscale niche markets. With properties recognized for their prime locations and enduring standards, Sierra’s communities are synonymous with quality, luxury and exceptional value. Sierra Development transforms ideas and dreams into reality.

About Piedmont Construction Group
Founded by David Thompson and Scott Thompson in 1995, Piedmont Construction Group has evolved into an award-winning, full-service general contractor, construction management and design/build firm with offices in Atlanta, Canton and Macon, Ga. The company’s primary focus is to deliver exemplary construction and management services for clients in the pre/K-12, higher education, institutional, medical, office, light industrial and exhibit sectors; and provide assistance from design commencement, through construction, close-out and final occupancy.

About the College Hill Corridor
The College Hill Corridor’s goal is to restore the social and physical fabric between the Mercer campus and downtown Macon, while adding economic value to the city’s tax base, beautifying residential and commercial areas, attracting and retaining creative young professionals and program fun public events. The College Hill Corridor Commission serves as the community advisory board to the College Hill Alliance and is a diverse organization appointed jointly by the City of Macon and Mercer. For more information, visit www.collegehillmacon.com.

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Students to Study in Asia on Fulbrights

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:32:34 GMT

MACON — Two Mercer University students have earned Fulbright grants to address problems in Asia through research and activism. Hannah Vann, a women’s and gender studies major from Rome, and Kathryn Doornbos, a biology major from Brasstown, N.C., both earned grants from the highly competitive program to extend their interests beyond graduation. The two are both graduating May 15. Doornbos plans to study tick-borne illness in northern Thailand and Vann will conduct research on the women’s movement in Indonesia.

Vann was a awarded a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship and will be teaching English 20 hours each week and plans to devote the remainder of her time to researching Muslim women’s rights activists in Indonesia, the women’s movement, and Indonesian non-governmental organizations that focus on women’s issues. She hopes to leave in August for the yearlong assignment.

“I am excited and terrified and overwhelmed and a hundred other emotions all rolled into one. I decided to apply for the Fulbright after Dr. Chris Grant suggested it, but I never really believed I would get it,” Vann said. “The more I learn about the country, the culture, and the people, the more excited I get. I have no ties to Southeast Asia, either experiential or academic, so I don’t know what to expect. But I am confident that, because of my Mercer experience, my classes here, and the outstanding professors who have invested in me and trained me well, I am prepared to handle whatever comes — even a six month monsoon season.”

Vann has had a distinguished track record as an activist and student while at Mercer. She co-founded the Sex Trafficking Opposition Project and helped to organize a conference at Mercer against sex trafficking. For those efforts, Vann was awarded the Gulf South Summit Award for Outstanding Student Contributions in Service Learning at a regional summit in March. Vann began as an advocate by successfully persuading the Mercer administration to institute provisions for women’s health services in the Mercer Student Health Center. She also volunteered with Crisis Line and Safe House of Middle Georgia and participated in a Mercer On Mission program in Kenya. On campus, Vann is equally involved, having served her peers as a resident adviser, an English tutor and undergraduate teaching assistant.

Doornbos was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant to work in association with Mahidol University in Bangkok and will be conducting research in cooperation with the tropical disease faculty at the university. Doornbos will collect and analyze tick samples in the forests of northern Thailand, with the hope of finding ways to combat Rickettsia bacterial disease.

Doornbos has also had a distinguished career at Mercer, founding the Mercer Empty Bowls project in Macon, an annual event raising money for local hunger-fighting agencies. Doornbos served on the executive committee for Mercer’s Caring for Creation conference in Macon, working to promote the event and to coordinate the conference’s service day. In addition to maintaining a stellar academic record, Doornbos was a research assistant for Mercer biology professor Dr. Alan Smith.

“Having been introduced to Thailand through a Mercer On Mission trip in 2009, I am beyond elated to return as a Fulbright,” Doornbos said. “I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined when I first enrolled at Mercer in the fall of 2006 that I would be leaving with the opportunities that I have before me today. I firmly believe that the experience and education I have gained at Mercer through service-learning, undergraduate research and the liberal arts curriculum have enabled me to pursue whatever I choose. I would especially like to thank Dr. Smith, my research mentor for the past three years, for inspiring my Fulbright proposal and supporting my interest in research from the very beginning.”

Doornbos has been accepted at the University of Alabama-Birmingham to pursue a Ph.D. in microbiology and will defer her entry until she returns from Thailand next year.

The Fulbright Program is the largest U.S. international exchange program and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Each year hundreds of students, scholars and professionals undertake international graduate study, advanced research, and teaching opportunities in university, high school and secondary classroom settings throughout the world. The program was established in 1964 to foster cultural exchange and ambassadorship between the U.S. and international community.

Mercer University Organist on International Radio Broadcast: Pipedreams

Billie Rampley — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:00:39 GMT

MACON – Pipedreams, a syndicated show carried on National Public Radio stations across the country, will air Mercer University Organist Robert Parris’ performance of Leo Sowerby's "Concerto for Organ and Orchestra" at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The recording will air during the week of April 19 and is the first time it will be broadcast since the 2004 performance at the National Convention for the American Guild of Organists.

Only four people have ever performed this challenging piece. Parris performed the concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Walt Disney Concert Hall, one of the finest performance halls in the nation. It was the inaugural performance on the hall's Manuel Rosales-designed pipe organ.

The spectacular piece consists of three movements, all of which require and make extensive use of a full orchestra. Parris, who performed the piece in 1996, is the only person still living to have publicly performed it with an orchestra.

The performance can also be heard by visiting http://pipedreams.publicradio.org.

About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,000 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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25th Anniversary of the Stetson School of Business and Economics

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:44:27 GMT

MACON — Mercer University will host a reception and book signing to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics and the release of Relationship Banker, a biography of the School’s namesake, Eugene W. Stetson, on Saturday, April 24, from 4-5 p.m. in Stetson Hall on the University’s Macon campus.

The event will include an open house of Stetson Hall and the Eugene W. Stetson Room and a special recognition of the Stetson-Hatcher family. The event will highlight the School’s creation in 1984, and its rise to prominence over the past 25 years. In addition, the event will also include a book signing by James L. Hunt, a Mercer business professor and author of Relationship Banker, published by Mercer University Press.

Since its founding, the School has added four graduate programs and earned accreditation by the prestigious Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The School has 960 students in programs on the University’s Macon, Savannah and Atlanta campuses. The School has recently won acclaim for its Master of Business Administration program from Entrepreneur magazine for placing among the top 15 in the nation in two categories of The Princeton Review’s “Student Opinion Honors for Business Schools.” The MBA students cited Mercer’s preparation as superior in the categories of marketing and accounting, putting the University in the same company as Duke, Harvard, Indiana, Michigan and Northwestern.

Hunt’s work, representing 10 years of research, examines the rise of Stetson through the lens of his relationships. The key to Stetson’s banking success — as well as the key to the larger question of who received capital — was his skill at creating and sustaining personal relationships. Stetson’s best clients and associates included Coca-Cola’s Robert Woodruff, financier and railroad baron Averell Harriman, IBM’s Tom Watson Sr. and Morgan’s Thomas Lamont. It is through these relationships that both Stetson and Wall Street banking in the middle decades of the 20th Century can be understood.

Stetson, a 35-year-old banker and Mercer graduate from Macon, became a vice president with the Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, a “Morgan Bank,” in 1916, rising to become president and chairman of Guaranty. From 1916 to his death in 1959, Stetson survived the booms and busts of World War I, the stock-crazed 1920s, the transformation of banking in the Depression and the demands of total war in the 1940s. In 1958, Stetson spearheaded the merger of Guaranty and Morgan, beginning a long series of combinations that eventually produced JPMorgan Chase, currently the largest bank in the United States.

Among those in attendance from Stetson’s family will be grandsons, Robert F. Hatcher, a Macon businessman and banker and Eugene “Gene” Stetson Hatcher, a Macon attorney and a 1981 graduate of the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer.

Bob is the president and chief executive officer of MidCountry Financial Corp. and MidCountry Bank and currently in his fourth term on the Mercer Board of Trustees. He was appointed by the governor as co-chair of the Commission for a New Georgia in 2004.

Gene is a partner with the Macon law firm, Anderson, Walker and Reichert and has two children with Mercer degrees: Gene Jr., a 1997 graduate of the Walter F. George School of Law; and Mark, a 2000 MBA graduate from the Stetson School of Business and Economics.

Streit Named Dean of Nursing

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 14:04:31 GMT

ATLANTA — Mercer University President William D. Underwood today announced the appointment of Linda A. Streit, R.N., D.S.N., as dean of Mercer’s Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, effective July 1. Since July 2009, Dr. Streit has served as the College’s interim dean, succeeding Dr. Susan S. Gunby, who returned to a professorship within the college upon her retirement as dean last summer. Dr. Streit is a tenured professor and associate dean of graduate programs, and she has served as a professor and administrator at the College since 1990.

“Dr. Streit has proven that she is an effective, capable leader, but even more than that, she has a fresh and creative vision, and an entrepreneurial approach that will serve the College well as higher education faces major challenges in the next several years,” said Mercer Provost Wallace L. Daniel. “While maintaining the College of Nursing’s commitment to teaching, she will enhance its research profile and implement its innovative new programs in the field of nursing.

“I want to thank members of the search committee, chaired by Dr. Ted Matthews, vice president for the health sciences and dean of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, for their excellent work in identifying three extremely talented finalists for this important position,” Dr. Daniel said. “Members of the committee made a large contribution in bringing the dean’s search to a successful conclusion, and to them we are grateful.”

Dr. Streit came to the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing in 1990 as an assistant professor to teach in the newly established Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. She was named professor in 1996 and assistant dean for graduate programs in 2001. Named associate dean in 2003, she has overseen the Master of Science in Nursing program and served as chair of the College’s planning committee to design its new Ph.D. in nursing, which launched in the fall of 2009. Dr. Streit has twice earned the College’s Faculty of the Year Award.

“I am thrilled to continue to work closely with accomplished nursing faculty, staff, students, health care partners and alumni,” Dr. Streit said. “The heritage and leadership within the College has been steadfast, and it is now time to bring programs to the next level of preeminence.”

Dr. Streit’s current research initiatives focus on the topic of osteoporosis, evidence-based practice, innovative teaching and learning trends, workforce civility, classroom technology and ethical decision-making. She has earned numerous professional distinctions and awards. Throughout her career, Dr. Streit has presented her research around the globe, in Greece, Taiwan, Russia and Canada. She was chief organizer for the American International Health Care Alliance program, which provided support to nursing faculty and students at The Medical University of I. P. Pavlov in St. Petersburg, Russia. Additionally, she has received a number of external grants to fund her research and secured more than $800,000 for the College’s nursing graduate program for education, training and operational funding.

Active in her field, Dr. Streit has presented regionally, nationally and internationally on topics such as nursing practice, ethics, patient nutrition and a variety of nursing research topics. She serves as a reviewer for book publishers and has written chapters in nursing textbooks and published articles and papers in nursing professional journals. Dr. Streit serves as a consultant to nursing faculty, nursing student groups and agencies, and is a reviewer for health care and nursing programs. She is a member of several critical care groups and professional organizations, including the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

Dr. Streit earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Indiana State University, a Master of Science in Nursing from Old Dominion University and a Doctor of Science in Nursing from The University of Alabama at Birmingham.

About the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing
Founded in 1902 as a school of nursing, the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing is the oldest nursing program in Georgia. Over its 108-year history, the College has graduated more than 6,600 nurses. Since its founding, the College has been dedicated to educating the person, fostering the passion and shaping the future of nursing. The College merged with Mercer University in 2001 and offers a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, a Master of Science in Nursing and a Ph.D. in Nursing. The College will launch a Doctor of Nursing Practice program in the fall of 2010.

Student Wins Rotary Scholarship

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 15:15:22 GMT

MACON — Mercer University sophomore Joshua Coleman has been awarded a 2010-2011 Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship, a yearlong, $26,000 award, which he will use to study in Angers, France, at the L’universitie catholique de l’ouest. Coleman, of Guyton, is an English and French double major.

For more information on the scholarship program, go>.

Coleman will be in France October 2010 through June 2011 and will study French language, culture and literature. In addition to his studies, Coleman will also volunteer with the Rotary Club and the local community, as well as speak to local Rotary Clubs and organizations about his ambassadorial experience.

“Through the knowledge I gain in France, I hope to be better prepared to teach others to look beyond the standing prejudices in this world and to recognize how beautiful we truly are in our humanity,” said Coleman, who plans to attend graduate school for English literature, with a concentration in cultural studies.

“In my education thus far, I have found that studying another language has been invaluable in illuminating the idiosyncrasies within my own humanity, as well as expressing the similarities and differences between cultures,” he said. “In essence, all of humanity is beautifully and uniquely inter-connected and, through the mirror of literature, one discovers how little difference there truly is between the inhabitants of this small planet.”

“Josh is culturally and intellectually motivated to learn about the world. An independent learner with a pioneering spirit, he is eager to tackle new academic and geographic terrain,” said Dr. Eric Spears, director of international education and assistant professor of geography. “Josh represents the exemplary Mercerian who wants to learn more about himself through others. I am enormously pleased that he has been given this Rotary scholarship. He will be a terrific ambassador and future leader.”

During his time at Mercer, Coleman has participated in Model United Nations, served as the minister of executive affairs for the Mercer Quiz Bowl, and worked as a peer advisor for underclassmen. He has also participated in the publication of The Dulcimer, a student-produced literary review, and he is a member of the Southeastern Writing Center Association and Omicron Delta Kappa, a leadership society.

The Rotary Foundation’s Ambassadorial Scholarships program, founded in 1947, is a highly selective, privately funded international scholarship program for university-level studies. The purpose of the program is to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries and geographical areas. While abroad, scholars serve as goodwill ambassadors to the host country and give presentations about their homelands to Rotary Clubs and other groups.

New Web Site for Athletics

Richard L. Cameron — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:25:35 GMT

At 3:30 p.m. today, Mercer University’s Athletics Department officially launched its new-look web site, providing information on all of the Bears’ NCAA Division I intercollegiate programs. The site was designed by PrestoSports of Rockville, Maryland.

The address of the site remains the same, however: www.mercerbears.com.

“I believe our fans and those interested in Mercer Athletics are going to really enjoy the new site,” said Director of Athletics Bobby Pope. “We tried to make it have a very unique look and feel that is exclusive to Bears’ Athletics, yet make sure all of those things that are important to people seeking information are still easily available.

“This was truly a labor of love by the University’s marketing communications office, our athletics media relations staff and the people at PrestoSports.”

In addition to the overall new look, the site features expanded video and interactive links, mobile capacity and electronic communication/response options. The enhanced capability for viewing live statistics is also a plus for MU faithful.

“We tried to listen to what people told us they would like to see in the site,” said MU sports information director Dave Beyer. “We wanted to strike that balance between fun and functionality, which I think we have done. A web site has so many audiences – fans, recruits, parents, media, alumni and the general public – and our challenge was to meet everyone’s needs.”

May Commencements Begin

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 21:31:26 GMT

MACON/ATLANTA — Approximately 1,600 students will be recognized during Mercer University graduation ceremonies on its Macon and Atlanta campuses in May. Mercer President William D. Underwood will confer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees during 10 commencements, and graduates will hear from an array of distinguished speakers.

Among those speaking at the commencements in Macon will be R. Lanier Anderson III, senior circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, who will address the commencement ceremony for Mercer Law School on Saturday. Additionally, Mercer alumnus and noted author, Dr. Ferrol A. Sams Jr., will address the School of Medicine commencement on May 8.

In Atlanta, Dr. Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, will address the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences on May 8, and on May 22, Robert F. Hatcher, president and chief executive officer of MidCountry Financial Corp. and chair of the Board of Regents for the University System of Georgia, will address the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics ceremony, the University’s final spring commencement.

Below is the complete listing for Atlanta and Macon commencement dates, times and speakers.

Macon

Walter F. George School of Law
The Honorable R. Lanier Anderson III, senior circuit judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit
Saturday, May 1, 10 a.m.
University Center
Candidates for degrees: 160

School of Medicine
Dr. Ferrol A. Sams Jr., physician, Mercer alumnus and noted author
Saturday, May 8, 5 p.m.
University Center
Candidates for degrees: 115

Macon Commencement - College of Liberal Arts, Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics, School of Engineering, Tift College of Education and Townsend School of Music
Dr. Drayton M. Sanders II, 2010 graduate and physician
Saturday, May 15, 9:30 a.m.
University Center
Candidates for degrees: 516

College of Continuing and Professional Studies (Macon, Eastman, Henry County, Douglas County and Atlanta Regional Academic Centers)
Beverly (B.J.) Walker, Georgia Department of Human Services commissioner
Saturday, May 15, 2:30 p.m.
University Center
Candidates for degrees: 226

Atlanta - Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus

College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Dr. Otis W. Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society
Saturday, May 8, 9 a.m.
Sheffield Student Center
Candidates for degrees: 137

Georgia Baptist College of Nursing
Dr. Betty L. Siegel, distinguished chair of the Siegel Institute for Leadership, Ethics and Character and president emeritus of Kennesaw State University
Saturday, May 8, noon
Sheffield Student Center
Candidates for degrees: 70

James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology
Dr. Daniel Vestal, executive coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Saturday, May 22, 11 a.m.
Sheffield Student Center
Candidates for degrees: 43

Tift College of Education Undergraduate
Curtis Brooks Tuck, Mercer alumnus and distinguished Georgia educator
Saturday, May 22, 1 p.m.
Sheffield Student Center
Candidates for degrees: 110

Tift College of Education Graduate
Curtis Brooks Tuck, Mercer alumnus and distinguished Georgia educator
Saturday, May 22, 3 p.m.
Sheffield Student Center
Candidates for degrees: 348

Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics
Robert F. Hatcher, president and chief executive officer of MidCountry Financial Corp. and chair of the Board of Regents for the University System of Georgia
Saturday, May 22, 5:30 p.m.
Sheffield Student Center
Candidates for degrees: 157

Tony Award-Winning “Avenue Q” Makes Macon Debut at The Grand

Billie Rampley — Mon, 03 May 2010 14:31:22 GMT

MACON – “Avenue Q,” the three-time, Tony-Award-winning Broadway musical about real life in New York City — as told by a cast of people and puppets — will come to The Grand Opera House on May 16-17 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $43-$47 and can be purchased through Mercer Ticket Sales at (478) 301-5470 or Online at www.TheGrandMacon.com.

“Avenue Q” features music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty, based on an original concept by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. “Avenue Q” is the 2004 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, Best Score and Best Book. It was also nominated for Best Performance by a Leading Actress, Best Performance by a Leading Actor, and Best Director of a Musical.

“Avenue Q” tells the story of Princeton, a bright-eyed college grad who moves to New York with big dreams and a tiny bank account. The only apartment he can afford is way out on Avenue Q, where everyone’s looking for the same things he is: a decent job, a stable relationship, and a “purpose.” Eventually, Princeton learns to embrace the ups and downs of city life and realizes that “the real world” isn’t so bad, after all.

The New York Times hailed “Avenue Q” as “a breakthrough musical of a very different stripe. Savvy, sassy and delicious!” and Entertainment Weekly claimed it was “one of the funniest shows you’re ever likely to see.”

Due to adult situations, including full-frontal puppet nudity and adult humor, “Avenue Q” may be inappropriate for children under 13. “Avenue Q” has not been authorized or approved by The Jim Henson Company or Sesame Workshop, which have no responsibility for its content.

For more information on “Avenue Q” visit www.avenueq.com.

Mercer Student-Athletes Tops in Charity

Richard L. Cameron — Thu, 06 May 2010 13:35:20 GMT

MACON — For the third-consecutive year, Mercer University student-athletes have earned the top spot among its Atlantic Sun Conference cohorts as the best fund-raisers for charity.

Spearheaded by the Bears’ Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Mercer’s student-athletes raised a total of $3,484.75 in the A-Sun Conference’s fifth annual SAAC fundraising competition among the league’s 11 schools.

Overall, A-Sun student-athletes brought in a whopping $15,594.56 which benefits such charities as the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, LiveStrong, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, North Metro Miracle League, Youth Encouragement Services and the Ronald McDonald House.

“We are very proud of the hard work by the members of our SAAC committee and all of our student-athletes,” said MU director of athletics Bobby Pope. “Their efforts were exemplary and it shows by the fact that Mercer was able to lead this campaign, as well as doing so for a third-straight year. We take this competition very seriously, because we believe that the community and outreach efforts are a very big part of the overall education process.

“The best part about this type of ‘competition’ is that there truly are no losers. Several worthy charities all benefited from the money raised and all of the student-athletes are ‘winners’ simply by participating.”

Mercer University’s primary fund-raising effort is hosting an exhibition basketball game as a part of the “Coaches vs. Cancer” program.

The purpose of the SAAC is to promote and actively encourage the involvement of student-athletes on campus and in their communities, while allowing those student-athletes to have an open line of communication to voice their concerns to institutional administrations and the conference office.

“The student-athletes that comprise the A-Sun SAAC are the best of the best on their respective campuses and their desire to hold this fundraising competition annually is a testament to their character and to their desire to give back to their local communities,” said Atlantic Sun Senior Associate Commissioner/ Senior Woman Administrator Sherri Booker. “In the A-Sun as we work to ‘Build Winners for Life’ we are extremely proud of all student-athletes who contribute so much time and effort in organizing these fundraisers each year.”

Center for Theology and Public Life

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Thu, 06 May 2010 17:32:03 GMT

Mercer University will launch a new center this fall that will provide a venue for theologically based discussions on current issues and controversies. The Center for Theology and Public Life, led by Dr. David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, will hold events on the Macon and Atlanta campuses each year focused on discussing current controversies from a sound theological and ethical perspective.

The center will hold two major public events each year – one in Macon and one in Atlanta – along with other smaller, student-focused events throughout the year, with the goal of holding frank, and theologically informed, discussions on major issues facing society. The events will be similar to those that Dr. Gushee has already led in recent years – including a conference on torture and the Atlanta Caring for Creation conference, which was part of a campus-wide ethics initiative. That event sparked a similar conference in Macon the following fall.

“This will help enhance something that is very distinctive about Mercer, and that is the exploration of all perspectives in the context of freedom of inquiry,” Dr. Gushee said. “We don’t have the constraints of either a strictly secular environment or rigidly conservative environment, and in that sense, we’re an ideal host for this. There is so much about the issues of the day that is missed by those environments. In a strictly secular environment, the idea is that religion doesn’t matter and, in the rigidly conservative environment, there is the idea that only our view matters. But, in fact, we know that religion matters, and that there are many significant perspectives from many different viewpoints.”

As part of its mission, the center will promote public dialogue, research and constructive solutions related to important public issues in which theology and ethical reflection can make a significant contribution. Though Christian thought will be central to the work of the center, Dr. Gushee said, its programs will also feature perspectives from other faith traditions as well.

“The center fits in with one of the primary purposes of the University: to engage the community in exploration, from diverse perspectives, of the most important, often most contentious, issues of our times,’ said Dr. Wallace Daniel, the University’s provost. “Hopefully, Mercer can play an important—and much needed—role in elevating the level of conversation and reflection on such matters.”

Among those who will be invited to participate in the events will be theologians, ethicists, social scientists, policymakers, religious leaders and activists. All invitees will be known for their intellectual credibility, fair-mindedness and capacity to engage in constructive, solution-oriented public dialogue, Dr. Gushee said.

“David Gushee is one of the leading ethicists in the world today,” said Mercer President William D. Underwood. “His access to the prominent thinkers of our age and his prophetic writing and speaking will give this center a significant platform from which to engage students, faculty and others in substantive dialogue about tough issues that confront humanity.”

- Theology Classes Henry County

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:20:54 GMT

McDONOUGH — Beginning this fall, Mercer University’s James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology will offer three of the core courses for its master’s programs at the Henry County Regional Academic Center. In addition, students can also take two courses online as well – one in the fall and one in the spring – allowing them to take a large portion of their master’s core courses without having to travel to the Atlanta campus.

The courses fulfill requirements for McAfee’s Master of Arts in Christian Ministry and Master of Divinity degrees.

“The McAfee School of Theology understands itself as a resource for ministers, churches and students preparing for various ministerial vocations,” said Dr. R. Alan Culpepper, dean of the School. “Knowing that many students in south Atlanta and middle Georgia are working and find it difficult to commute to Mercer’s Atlanta campus, McAfee will offer master’s level courses for the first time this fall at Mercer’s Regional Academic Center in Henry County.”

All three courses at the Henry Center will be taught in the evenings and include Pastoral Care, taught by Dr. Skip Johnson, on Mondays; Faces of Jesus: A Global Perspective, with Dr. Ron Johnson, on Tuesdays; and Old Testament l with Douglas Watson, on Thursdays. There will also be two online courses, one in the fall, Hebrew Exegesis l, taught by Dr. David Garber, with an online meeting on Thursday evenings, and one in the spring, Church History II, taught by Dr. Loyd Allen.

Interested students should contact the Admissions Office at the McAfee School of Theology: (678) 547-6474 or at http://www2.mercer.edu/Theology/Prospective_Students/default.htm.

Haiti Trips

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 12 May 2010 18:48:21 GMT

Two teams of Mercer students and faculty, funded by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, will travel to Haiti on Thursday to help the victims of the Jan. 12 earthquake and lay the groundwork for future trips to help the country and its citizens recover from their wounds, both seen and unseen.

CBF has awarded $50,000 to Dr. Ha Van Vo, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, who will lead a team of engineering students to fit prosthetics for Haitians who lost legs during the devastation. Team members will fit approximately 10 prosthetics during their first visit and determine the logistics for a second visit later this summer to fit additional victims. In addition, CBF has funded a $30,000 grant to the Department of Counseling and Human Sciences in Mercer’s College of Continuing and Professional Studies to investigate the prospects of training Haitians to provide post-traumatic stress counseling to the quake’s victims.

Dr. David Lane, counseling program coordinator and professor of counseling, and Reid Doster, a CBF representative, will serve as the assessment team for the first trip, which will take place May 13-17. The two will spend time in Port-au-Prince to assess the availability of facilities and resources needed to train Haitian citizens to serve as lay counselors for Haitians suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the earthquake that claimed the lives of thousands of Haitians. The team currently has a recruitment goal of 15 trainees.

“We see this as something that can be very meaningful for a group of hurting people,” Dr. Lane said.

When they return from the assessment trip, the counseling department will develop a proposal for a return trip designed to get students involved in the training of the lay counselors, Dr. Lane said. “If we can develop a model that works, we would like to eventually provide advanced training to Haitians,” he said. “Essentially, we would train trainers, who can teach fellow Haitians lay counseling.”

The Haitian earthquake pulverized buildings throughout Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, injuring thousands of people, and many have undergone amputations. According to recent reports, conservative estimates by aid groups suggest that at least 75 people per day face amputations because of the quake. The desperate poverty of the country means that few, if any Haitians, will be able to afford conventional prosthetics.

In March, University Minister and Dean of the Chapel Craig McMahan, who coordinates the Mercer On Mission program, traveled to Haiti with CBF officials to lay the groundwork for this month’s delegation. Upon returning from this summer’s Mercer On Mission triop to Vietnam, he will travel back to Haiti with a Mercer team to fit another 40 amputees. In addition to fitting the amputees, Dr. Vo hopes to work with local officials to explore ways to produce the prosthetics in that country.

“We want to do whatever we can to help them,” Dr. Vo said.

Mansfield and Genelle Jennings Distinguished University Chair in Music

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 12 May 2010 20:30:53 GMT

MACON — Mercer University President William D. Underwood has announced the establishment of the Mansfield and Genelle Jennings Distinguished University Chair in Music in the Townsend School of Music’s McDuffie Center for Strings. The gift establishing the endowed chair comes on the heels of two recently endowed funds: the Helen Wall Rich Endowed Professorship in Keyboard Performance and The G. Leslie Fabian Endowed Chair of Music.

“These three significant gifts for the Townsend School of Music within the last few weeks will further strengthen the McDuffie Center for Strings and the Townsend School of Music and accelerate their development as centers of excellence within the University,” Underwood said. “We are profoundly grateful to these families for making such generous investments in our academic programs.”

Founded by world-renowned violinist Robert McDuffie in 2006, the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings is a highly selective program that prepares students for success in the real world. The Center, an institute within the Townsend School of Music, provides students with the opportunity to study with some of the nation’s most elite strings musicians while also earning an academically well-rounded undergraduate education.

The Mansfield and Genelle Jennings Distinguished University Chair in Music will help ensure the success of the Center by attracting the finest faculty to the School of Music and the Center for Strings. McDuffie, a Grammy-nominated artist who has appeared as a soloist with most of the major orchestras of the world, will be the first holder of the Chair.

“It is a privilege to support both Mercer University, a world-class educational institution headquartered in Middle Georgia, and Robert McDuffie, a world-class musician whose roots are in Middle Georgia,” said Genelle Jennings. “Together they form an inspiring partnership contributing the finest in cultural and educational values to our area and on to the entire world. The impact of the McDuffie School for Strings is incalculable. We are proud to play a small part in this special program.”

Mansfield Jennings, a member of the University’s Board of Trustees, is chairman of ComSouth Corp., a full-service telecommunications company based in Hawkinsville. His wife, Genelle, has a long history with McDuffie. The two met in Macon while taking violin lessons from the same instructor.

“The Jennings family’s extraordinary gift to endow the Distinguished University Chair in Music is yet another example of their quiet but tenacious support of arts education in the state of Georgia,” McDuffie said. “Genelle and Mansfield’s support for Mercer’s vision to create the Center for Strings has been unwavering from the moment they heard about it. Their friendship of over 25 years to me and my family has been faithful and unconditional. It will be my highest honor to be the first holder of the Chair.”

Founded in 2006, the Center for Strings is on track to meet its enrollment goal of 26 students: 12 violinists, six violists, six cellists and two double bassists. The Center enrolls six new students each year.

Townsend Dean John Dickson said the Chair will enhance the Center’s ability to provide its students with music instruction of a conservatory quality.

“It is indeed a rare opportunity when a university can create a special project whose unique contributions focus national and even international attention on the institution,” Dr. Dickson said. “The Robert McDuffie Center for Strings is such a project and the Mansfield and Genelle Jennings Distinguished University Chair in Music will solidify the McDuffie Center’s reputation as a model for collegiate strings education in this country.”
Acclaimed soloist and chamber musician Elizabeth Pridgen, Distinguished Artist and Piano Chair in the McDuffie Center for Strings, was earlier this year appointed holder of the Center’s G. Leslie Fabian Endowed Chair of Music. She also serves as assistant professor of piano in the Townsend School of Music.

The Helen Wall Rich Endowed Professorship in Keyboard Performance was established by Ruth Anne Rich in late 2009 in memory of her mother. The professorship supports keyboard studies by recruiting and employing talented keyboard instructors. In May 2009, Rich endowed the Arthur Lowndes Rich Endowed Professorship in Choral Conducting in memory of her father. Helen and Arthur Rich are considered to be the founders of the music program at Mercer.

For more information about the McDuffie Center for Strings and Townsend School of Music, visit music.mercer.edu.

Townsend School of Music
Established in 2006, Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music and the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Studies in Church Music offer undergraduate and graduate professional music studies in a comprehensive university environment. The School is nationally recognized for its outstanding faculty, award-winning students, performance ensembles and state-of-the-art facilities. It is home to the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings. Mercer University is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music.

About Mercer University
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University more than 8,000 students; 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies; major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah; three regional academic centers across the state; a university press; two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center and the Medical Center of Central Georgia; educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta; an engineering research center in Warner Robins; a performing arts center in Macon; and a NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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Gushee Writing for Washington Post

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:11:43 GMT

Dr. David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, has joined the stable of contributors for The Washington Post’s coverage of religion through its “On Faith” Web site.

Dr. Gushee, who also writes for Associated Baptist Press and the Huffington Post, will join a set of Washington Post “On Faith” contributors that includes Martin Marty, Cal Thomas, Arthur Waskow, Susan Jacoby and Brent Walker. The “On Faith” Web site is moderated by Newsweek’s Jon Meacham and The Washington Post’s Sally Quinn.

Dr. Gushee’s academic publishing career began with his doctoral study of Christian behavior in Europe during the Holocaust, which was published in 1994 as The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust. Also translated into German, the book has remained continuously in print and is recognized as an authoritative treatment of the rescuer behavior and motivations. In recognition of his work on the Holocaust, in 2008 he was named to the Committee on Church Relations and the Holocaust of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He will teach a course at the museum this summer for college and seminary faculty.

Overall, Dr. Gushee has written or co-written, edited or co-edited 12 books, and has published hundreds of scholarly and popular articles, book chapters, and reviews in most significant venues related to his field. His work has focused especially in the areas of social ethics, Christian engagement in the public square, and Christian higher education. His newest book is Religious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul, co-edited with his students Jill and Drew Zimmer, released in March 2010 by Mercer University Press.

In the fall, Dr. Gushee will launch Mercer’s Center for Theology and Public Life, which will hold events on the Macon and Atlanta campuses each year focused on discussing current controversies from a sound theological and ethical perspective.

Dr. Gushee, who joined the Mercer faculty in 2007, earned his undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary, his Master of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and his Ph.D. in Christian ethics from Union Theological Seminary in New York.
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Townsend-McAfee Director Named

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 17 May 2010 20:02:44 GMT

MACON – Mercer University’s Townsend School of Music today announced the appointment of Dr. David Keith as the director of the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Studies in Church Music, effective Aug. 1. For 27 years, Dr. Keith served as professor of conducting and church music at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s School of Church Music before assuming his present post as director of music and worship at Brentwood United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn.

Dr. Keith will also serve as graduate studies director for the School of Music and as an associate professor, teaching in the field of church and choral music. As director of the Townsend-McAfee Institute, Dr. Keith will bring together the McAfee School of Theology and the Townsend School of Music to help create a substantive and relevant graduate church music program for the 21st Century church.

“I have known David Keith as a colleague for more than 25 years,” said Dr. John Dickson, Townsend School of Music dean and professor of conducting. “Each of us, through our long tenures at Southwestern and Southern Baptist Theological Seminaries, has shared and shaped the vision of graduate church music through our conducting and teaching. I look forward to working with my colleague as he joins a team of faculty dedicated to the education of pastoral church musicians.”

Dr. Keith will support seminars and workshops for practicing church musicians, the development of a National Youth Choir in alliance with Polyphony, study abroad programs, church music mentor apprenticeships, as well as an innovative curriculum in worship studies for pastors and ministers of music through collaborations between the McAfee School of Theology and the Townsend School of Music.

“It is my desire that the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Church Music link with the McAfee Theology School and aggressively prepare our graduates to serve in the local church ministry,” Dr. Keith said. “Plans are already in the formative stages for the development of extensive and innovative workshops and internships that will give our students hands-on opportunities during their time at Mercer. It is our desire to equip these students in such areas as hymnology, conducting, worship, administration and service playing so that Mercer graduates can be models to help people know, find and communicate with God through the medium of music.”

Dr. Keith received Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. In addition to serving as director of music and worship at Brentwood United Methodist Church, Dr. Keith has also worked as an adjunct professor of music at Belmont University, chorus director for the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and director of choral activities at Howard Payne University.

Med Student Awarded Fellowship

Richard L. Cameron — Tue, 18 May 2010 18:54:31 GMT

MACON -- Shabnam Nourparvar, who just completed her first year at the Mercer University School of Medicine, has been awarded the 2010 Carolyn L. Kuckein Student Research Fellowship from the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

The fellowship provides $5,000 to support her research from June through December working with sponsors Dr. John Boltri and Dr. Monique Davis-Smith of the Department of Family Medicine at the School of Medicine on the FAITH Works project: Families Actively Improving Their Health Works.

The FAITH Works project has the following goals:
• develop a family-based cardiovascular disease prevention program to be implemented in African-American churches that includes parents and children;
• evaluate the feasibility of implementing the program to prevent cardiovascular disease; and
• assess the effect of the program on weight, fasting glucose, exercise and diet.

This study will determine the feasibility of implementing a church-based cardiovascular risk reduction program in African-American families at high risk for heart disease and its complications. If successful, this project has potential for wide dissemination and by improving the diet and physical activity of families will impact multiple generations with better health, according to Dr. Boltri.
Identifying at-risk individuals as a part of an ongoing program will encourage a lifestyle change of improved diet and exercise. Individuals who implement these changes are likely to be at a much lower risk of complications from cardiovascular diseases.

This project will be implemented in Bibb County in two African-American churches. In each church, the children and the adult sessions will run concurrently. The sessions will be delivered at each church by a team of health educators. The two lifestyle interventions will be weight loss and increased exercise with an emphasis on healthy eating. Overweight adults will be encouraged to lose seven percent of their body weight while gradually increasing their exercise to 150 minutes per week. Children will be encouraged to exercise 60 minutes on most days and maintain a body mass index below 85 percent for their age range.
Nourparvar, a native of Roswell, graduated from the University of Georgia in May 2008 with a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology.

About Alpha Omega Alpha
Alpha Omega Alpha, founded in 1902, is dedicated to the belief in the profession of medicine that care will be improved for all by:
• recognizing high educational achievement;
• honoring gifted teaching;
• encouraging the development of leaders in academia and the community;
• supporting the ideals of humanism; and
• promoting service to others.

About Mercer University School of Medicine
Mercer University’s School of Medicine was established in 1982 to educate physicians and health professionals to meet the primary care and health care needs of rural and medically underserved areas of Georgia. The School only accepts Georgia residents into its medical degree program. Students entering Mercer University School of Medicine will be graduated from a school that utilizes a problem-based medical education program that provides early patient care experiences. Such an academic environment fosters the early development of clinical problem-solving and instills in each student an awareness of the place of the basic medical sciences in medical practice. In the fall of 2008, the University expanded its two-year clinical program at Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah into a second full, four-year doctor of medicine program. The School also offers master’s degrees in public health, family therapy, family services and nurse anesthesia.

About Mercer University
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,000 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.

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New Endowed Chair in Pharmacy

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 19 May 2010 19:49:16 GMT

ATLANTA — Mercer President William D. Underwood and College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Dean H.W. “Ted” Matthews have announced the establishment of the T.P. Haines Endowed Chair in Transdermal Delivery Systems; Dr. Ajay K. Banga, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, is the inaugural holder of the endowed position.

The fund will support teaching and research in the College. “The T.P. Haines Endowed Chair in Transdermal Delivery Systems will be used to enhance the visibility of the research being conducted in the College and will help to attract more extramural funding for the Pharmacy program,” Dr. Matthews said.

The Chair was established in memory of Dr. Theophilus Parvin “T.P” Haines, who served as a professor in Mercer’s biology department for 38 years. He joined the College of Liberal Arts faculty in 1943 and was known for his close relationships with his students. He retired in 1980, and the biology laboratory in Willet Science Center on Mercer’s Macon campus was named for the popular professor in 1982. Dr. Haines died in 2004.

Dr. Banga has taught at the College for more than 10 years, where he focuses on pharmaceutical dosage forms and drug delivery systems. He has more than 150 publications and presentations to his credit, and has published 10 peer-reviewed research papers within the last year. He is the author of two books, which are widely used as reference texts in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Dr. Banga is a recipient of the Research Award and the Distinguished Educator Award in the College.

“I am honored to be the first holder of the T.P. Haines Endowed Chair in Transdermal Delivery systems,” Dr. Banga said. “My hope is that this fund will shed light on the important research being done in the College and that it will give the College more opportunities for further research.”

The new chair will support the study of transdermal delivery systems, which allow for the administration of drugs via the skin by using a patch, such as the smoking cessation nicotine patch.

About the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Mercer University
Founded in 1903, the independent Southern School of Pharmacy merged with Mercer University in 1959. It became the first school in the Southeast to offer the Doctor of Pharmacy degree as its sole professional degree in 1981. In addition to the Doctor of Pharmacy, the college has one of the largest concentrations of Ph.D. students in pharmaceutics among colleges of pharmacy in the United States. In 2008, the college introduced a Physician Assistant program and will offer a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree in the fall 2010.

Trustees Grace and Adams Honored

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 25 May 2010 12:51:51 GMT

Former Mercer University trustees Nancy Grace and Cathy Callaway Adams were honored as YWCA “Women of Achievement” during a May 19 luncheon in Atlanta.

Grace, who earned her undergraduate and law degrees from Mercer, was honored as the organization’s 2010 “Woman of Achievement,” and Adams, a graduate of Tift College, was named as one of 10 members of the 2010 Academy of Women Achievers. Both women recently completed five-year terms on the Mercer Board of Trustees.

For more than 25 years, the YWCA has honored Atlanta’s premier female role models through the Academy of Women Achievers. Each year, 10 women are nominated by their peers into the Academy and are recognized at the annual Salute to Women of Achievement luncheon in May. These women represent what every young girl hopes she can and will become with opportunity and support. The Academy of Women Achievers is the first major program to recognize the professional and civic accomplishments of Atlanta’s women. Members of the Academy include Jane Fonda, Mayor Shirley Franklin, Monica Kaufman, Gladys Knight and Rosalynn Carter.

Grace hosts cable news’ only legal analysis program, “Nancy Grace,” which is the highest-rated show on HLN. One of television's most respected legal analysts, Grace came to HLN from Court TV, where she hosted the live daily trial coverage program, Closing Arguments, until 2007. She also has appeared as a legal commentator on CNN’s Larry King Live, ABC’s The View, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Phil, and numerous other cable and network programs. She is based in CNN’s New York bureau.

Adams serves as executive vice president and chief administrative officer for the Atlanta-based Federal Home Loan Bank, where she oversees the bank’s information technology, human resources, and administrative services functions. Adams joined the Bank in 1986, and she has held several high-level bank positions including senior vice president of staff services, group vice president of human resources and administrative services, and vice president and director of human resources.

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- Advanced Counseling Degrees Atlanta

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:23:11 GMT

ATLANTA — Beginning in August, Mercer University’s College of Continuing and Professional Studies will welcome candidates into two post-master’s degree programs, including the College’s first Ph.D. program, on the University’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus. Pending approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the College will offer the Educational Specialist in School Counseling degree, an advanced degree for school counselors, and the Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision, which is only the second such program in the state of Georgia and is intended to produce counseling professors, researchers and leaders.

“Adding these two graduate degrees to the College’s existing portfolio of master’s programs in clinical mental health and school counseling is a significant step for the College,” said Dr. Priscilla Danheiser, dean of the College of Continuing and Professional Studies. “Responding to the high demand for advanced degrees in counseling further demonstrates our commitment to preparing talented, effective and service-oriented individuals for the counseling profession.”

Educational Specialist

The Educational Specialist in School Counseling degree is designed to provide professional development for school counselors and educators seeking an advanced degree and to prepare candidates to become leaders, researchers and advocates for systemic change in the field of school counseling. Upon completion of all degree requirements, candidates with a Georgia S-5 level School Counselor certification will be eligible to upgrade to the Georgia S-6 level certification.

The Ed.S. is a 36-credit hour program and can be completed in a minimum of four semesters, including summer. The semesters include coursework, an internship, a comprehensive exam and a capstone project. The program is designed to be completed in two years for school counselors who elect to continue to work while attending classes. Classes meet once each week for 16-week sessions in the fall and spring and in eight-week sessions in the summer. Some classes will also be offered in a hybrid classroom-online format.

Applicants must hold a master’s degree in school counseling, counseling with a school counseling add-on, a counseling-related field, or education with a teaching related emphasis from a regionally accredited college or university.

The program’s application deadline is July 1. Information and application packets are available through the Web page, http://www2.mercer.edu/CAPS/Graduate+Programs/MCC/default.htm. Interested individuals may also contact Dr. Caroline M. Brackette, associate program coordinator of the Ed.S. program, at brackette_cm@mercer.edu or (678) 547-6058.

Ph.D.

The Ph.D. program is designed for licensed professional counselors or school counselors who want to become professors and researchers in the field of counseling. The curriculum allows students to develop their professional areas of interest and will launch graduates on a path to leadership roles in counseling, as well as research and teaching opportunities in colleges and universities. The Ph.D. will be the University’s fifth; the other Ph.D. programs include Pharmaceutical Sciences, Educational Leadership, Curriculum and Instruction, and Nursing Education.

The Ph.D. is highly sought after and fills a need in the state and across the country by providing highly trained counselors for the profession. The 84-semester-hour program will meet the advanced accreditation standards that will, beginning in 2013, require this specific degree for faculty in counseling programs across the country. The curriculum is also designed to help graduates develop advanced expertise in the application of theories and conceptual models to counselor education, supervision, practice and research; learn to conduct research that advances the field of counseling; evaluate the influences of ethical, social, political, demographic and economic issues on mental health care and counseling; and assume leadership roles in education, supervision, training, practice and research to improve mental health care and counseling.

The doctoral program is a professional extension of the Department of Counseling and Human Sciences core curriculum, which offers more specialized master’s and educational specialist degrees. The master’s and educational specialist degrees are practitioner-oriented and prepare students for the majority of problems which they may encounter in the field. The Ph.D. will educate students to become researchers in the field of counseling, as well as professors and supervisors.

For more information on the program, contact Dr. David Lane, director of the Ph.D. program, at lane_wd@mercer.edu or (678) 547-6301, or visit the program’s Web page,
http://www2.mercer.edu/CAPS/PhD+Program/.

About The College of Continuing and Professional Studies
The College offers degree programs and lifelong learning opportunities for adults who seek leadership roles in their communities and beyond, professional transition and advancement, and lives that have meaning and purpose. The College offers undergraduate degree programs in organizational leadership, human resources administration and development, public safety, liberal studies (individualized), and human services, and graduate programs in counseling, school counseling, and public safety leadership. Its programs are offered on Mercer’s Macon and Atlanta campuses, at the University’s regional academic centers in Henry County, Douglas County and Eastman. Pending SACS approval, the College will begin offering programs this fall in Newnan.

Dr. Williams Honored by Corrections

Richard L. Cameron — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:03:44 GMT

MACON — Roger Alan Williams, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Mercer University School of Medicine and the staff of the Psychology Assessment Center were chosen as recipients of the Partner Agency of the Year Award for 2009 by the Georgia Department of Corrections. The awards ceremony was held at the new Department of Corrections headquarters in Forsyth recently and was accepted by Lin Howland, director of Mercer Medicine, on behalf of Dr. Williams.

For the past five-plus years, Dr. Williams and the psychology team (Tonya Williams, Renee Sullivan and Gill Hanania) have worked with the Macon Transitional Center providing evaluation and counseling services as consultants to the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. The Transitional Center program enables inmates, during the final six months of their prison sentence, to more successfully re-enter society and the work place. Educational, job training and substance-abuse services offered there have been identified by the state as primary interventions to reduce recidivism.

The Transitional Center has also been an essential training venue for the Mercer third-year medical students as part of their psychiatry clerkship. This helps the physicians-in-training learn about the correctional system and challenges of incarceration. Mercer medical faculty and students have generously donated needed clothing and personal supplies to the inmates -- essential to community re-entry.

Dr. Williams has an active practice at the Mercer Medicine Psychological Assessment Center, located on the first floor of the School of Medicine, and has been on the faculty for 15 years. He continues to receive donations for inmates and can be contacted at (478) 301-2107.

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- PA Graduate Earns Prestigious Residency

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:09:39 GMT

ATLANTA — Lindsay Watters, a member of the first class of Mercer physician assistants, has earned a coveted spot in the postgraduate surgical residency program for physician assistants at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. The hospital has been ranked No. 1 in the nation for 19 consecutive years by U.S. News & World Report. After completion of her Master of Medical Science degree at Mercer this year, Watters was accepted into one of five post-graduate positions in the program, which selects from a national pool of applicants.

“They only take the very best of the best,” said Bradford W. Schwarz, M.S., PA-C, director of Mercer’s physician assistant program in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. “It’s quite amazing that a Mercer student was accepted given the fact that this was our first graduating class. I think this speaks directly to the reputation of the university and, hopefully, to the leadership and mission of our program. Lindsay is an exceptional woman and alumna who will do very well anywhere she goes.”

During her tenure with the Johns Hopkins Postgraduate Surgical Residency for Physician Assistants, Watters will train for a wide variety of surgical specialties in academic and private settings.

In addition to completing her physician assistant studies, the Shannon, Ga.-native served as representative to the Assembly of Representatives, representative to the House of Delegates, and junior director of external affairs for the Student Academy of the American Academy of Physician Assistants. As part of her work with the Student Academy she attended the national meeting of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, as well as attended conferences for other health care professions and health care profession student organizations, educating them about the physician assistant’s role within the health care team.

“Mercer’s Physician Assistant Program has given me the tools necessary to not only become a physician assistant, but to become an excellent one,” Watters said. “I am honored and humbled to have been chosen for the inaugural class of students for Mercer’s PA program, because my presence in this program has not only instilled in me the knowledge to be a great health care provider, but the passion, compassion and generosity necessary to make a difference for my patients, and my career.

“The faculty and staff at Mercer continuously inspired me to push the limits and think outside the box, qualities that I know will benefit me greatly in the future,” she said. “Without my training and growth during my tenure at Mercer, I would not have had the skills or the confidence to pursue such a prestigious residency position, and I am forever grateful to the Mercer PA program for challenging me to always strive for more. I look forward to beginning the Johns Hopkins residency this fall, and will take the knowledge and ideals Mercer afforded me on this journey to Baltimore.”

Health-Care Heroes Award

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 26 May 2010 18:52:27 GMT

ATLANTA — The Atlanta Business Chronicle presented Dr. Ha Van Vo, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Mercer University, with its 2010 Health-Care Heroes Award for Innovation during the paper’s 13th annual awards program in Atlanta Thursday evening.

Dr. Vo was recognized for his groundbreaking work in designing and deploying low-cost artificial limbs in third-world countries, including his native Vietnam.

“I’m very thankful to the Atlanta Business Chronicle for this recognition and I’m thankful for my wife and parents who supported me,” Dr. Vo said. “I feel rewarded as well when I can help people to walk again, especially people in Vietnam and Haiti who aren’t able to afford to buy a prosthetic for themselves -- people who were forced to crawl in the dust but are able to walk again.”

The Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Health-Care Heroes Awards honor “the true heroes in Atlanta’s health care industry – those who push us to the forefront of research, innovation and achievement and those who toil behind the scenes in roles that are creative, vital and, often, heartwarming.” Awards are presented in five categories – Physician, Innovation, Employer and Community Outreach. The paper also presented its Lifetime Achievement Award to American Cancer Society CEO Dr. John R. Seffrin. This year the paper presented a special Haiti Service Award to CARE, the Atlanta-based humanitarian organization, for its work in Haiti in the aftermath of last January’s devastating earthquake.

In presenting the award in the Innovation category, the Atlanta Business Chronicle cited Dr. Vo for his work in helping people in developing countries walk and live more productive lives.

“I want to congratulate Dr. Vo on behalf of the faculty, staff and students at the School of Engineering,” said Dr. Wade Shaw, dean of the School of Engineering. “He is a true Health-Care Hero and such a positive influence on campus. We are very proud of him. It is my pleasure to know Ha and his family and enjoy his enthusiasm for learning and helping others.”

Working with students in Mercer’s School of Engineering, Dr. Vo in 2008 designed a Universal Socket Prosthetic (USP) that led to a breakthrough in the manufacture of inexpensive artificial legs. The Clinton Global Initiative University – a program of the William J. Clinton Foundation – recognized Dr. Vo’s and Mercer’s efforts to help amputees in developing nations “as an exemplary approach to addressing a specific global challenge” during the organization’s annual conference in Austin, Texas, in February 2009.

Less than four months after receiving this national recognition, Dr. Vo, along with fellow engineering faculty member Dr. Ramachandran Radharamanan and 12 students, traveled to Vietnam as part of the Mercer On Mission program to fit amputees with 35 artificial limbs they had manufactured using the USP design. These prosthetics cost less than $250 each to manufacture, compared to $15,000 and up for custom-fitted above-the-knee prosthetics.

More than 2,000 Vietnamese are injured each year by unexploded ordnance from the Vietnam War. An estimated 100,000 amputees live in Vietnam today and there are more than 18 million amputees around the world, with more than 80 percent of those living in developing countries.

In February 2010, the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance awarded Dr. Vo with a $37,275 grant to help him perfect his design and set up a prosthetic lab and clinic in Vietnam. Today, he is working with Mercer industrial engineers to design a manufacturing cell that can ultimately be used as a prototype in developing countries, facilitating large-scale production of low-cost prosthetics.

Dr. Vo will return to Vietnam on June 3 with a Mercer On Mission team to fit another 100 Vietnamese with prosthetics and to begin teaching doctors and engineers in that country how to manufacture the devices themselves.

Prospects for deploying this low-cost prosthetic to other developing countries have developed in recent weeks. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship awarded Dr. Vo with a $50,000 grant to deploy the prosthetics program in Haiti. Dr. Vo, along with Mercer engineering students, University Minister Craig McMahan and CBF representatives, traveled to Haiti May 13-17 to fit 20 victims who lost limbs in the 2010 earthquake. The plan is to return in late summer or early fall with additional prosthetics for earthquake victims.

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- New Law Dean Appointed

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:39:51 GMT

MACON — Mercer University President William D. Underwood today announced the appointment of legal scholar Gary J. Simson, the Joseph C. Hostetler-Baker and Hostetler Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University, as dean of the Walter F. George School of Law. The appointment is effective July 1.

Simson will also hold the endowed Macon Chair of Law and succeeds Daisy Hurst Floyd, who has served as dean of Mercer’s Law School since 2004. She announced last year her intention to return to full-time teaching as University Professor of Law and Ethical Formation. In her new position, she will lead the University in collaborations between undergraduate and professional education to prepare students for lives of purpose and responsibility.

Simson, who was dean of Case Western Reserve’s Law School from 2006 through 2008, served as professor of law for many years at Cornell Law School. From 1997-2004 he was associate dean for faculty development and then associate dean for academic affairs at Cornell. A Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude graduate of Yale College, Simson earned his J.D. from Yale Law School and was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

“Gary Simson is among the most respected leaders in legal education,” President Underwood said. “He is an outstanding teacher, an excellent listener, and a wise and thoughtful decision maker. He is also among the most nationally prominent scholars in his field and will be a tremendous leader for the School of Law.”

After graduating from Yale Law School in 1974, Simson clerked for Judge J. Joseph Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He joined the University of Texas law faculty in 1975 as assistant professor of law and was promoted to professor of law in 1977. In 1980 he became professor of law at Cornell. He is admitted to the Bar in Connecticut and New York.

“Professor Simson will be an outstanding addition to the leadership of the Walter F. George School of Law. He brings a high level of scholarship to the position of dean, and he is an accomplished leader both in the academic and legal communities,” said Mercer Provost Dr. Wallace L. Daniel. “His energy, national prominence, strong commitment to legal education, and leadership skills are outstanding qualities, and he will build on the solid foundation that his predecessors have created.

“I want to express gratitude to members of the search committee, chaired by Professor James Fleissner, for their superb work on behalf of the Walter F. George School of Law and Mercer University,” Dr. Daniel said.

“The Dean Search Committee identified many strong candidates, but the candidacy of Gary Simson presented a singular opportunity to enhance the excellence of the law school on several fronts,” Fleissner said. “Gary Simson is a nationally respected scholar and an outstanding teacher who brings a decade of experience in law school administration and a track record demonstrating a strong commitment to ethics, professionalism, and public service. The committee was very impressed with Gary’s wide circle of devoted friends among the most accomplished levels of academia, law practice, and the judiciary. The committee is delighted with President Underwood's appointment of Gary Simson as dean.”

Simson has taught, and written on, constitutional law, conflict of laws and freedom of religion. He is the author of numerous articles in those fields, as well as a leading conflict of laws casebook now in its fourth edition.

“Gary Simson brings to the Mercer deanship long and successful experience as a scholar, teacher, and administrator,” said Russell K. Osgood, president of Grinnell College and former dean of Cornell Law School. “He is committed to building on the strengths of Mercer and contributing to the life of the law.”

“I am honored and excited to be asked to lead this law school whose faculty and innovative curriculum I have long admired,” Simson said. “Dean Floyd will be a hard act to follow, but I look forward to working with the president, provost, and all members of the law school community to help the law school achieve even greater success.”

“I have known Gary Simson from his days as a student at Yale Law School,” said Guido Calabresi, Sterling Professor Emeritus of Law and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale and senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. “He is a superb scholar and teacher. He also, and wonderfully, combines those skills with extraordinarily good administrative abilities. Most important, he is a truly fine human being. He’ll be a great dean at Mercer.”

Simson’s wife, Rosalind Simson, will join the Mercer faculty as associate professor and will be based in the College of Liberal Arts. After earning a B.A. summa cum laude and Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale, she taught for many years at Hobart & William Smith Colleges and most recently at Case Western Reserve. The Simsons have two children: Jennie Anne, who will graduate from high school next month; and Nathaniel, a high school physics teacher in Ithaca, N.Y.

Mercer On Mission Kenya

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Fri, 28 May 2010 15:14:42 GMT

Mercer students and faculty will travel to Kenya next week for a Mercer On Mission trip where they will work on several projects to increase access to clean drinking water for several nursery schools, and the villages that surround them.

A group of 10 students, led by Mercer professors Dr. Laura Lackey, professor and chair of environmental engineering, Dr. Jay Pendleton, associate professor of liberal arts and vice provost, and Dr. Philip McCreanor, associate professor of environmental engineering, will leave Monday, May 31 for the east African nation. Over the course of three weeks, the group will work on several water projects in partnership with Africa Exchange, a nonprofit led by Cooperative Baptist Fellowship missionary Sam Harrell.

“These are truly worthy projects, and we hope we’ll be able to address each problem fully,” said Dr. Lackey. “These projects will provide potable water access to people in some of the most marginalized communities in Kenya.”

The efforts of the Mercer team will focus on engineering problems that Africa Exchange has encountered in its outreach program. As part of its efforts in Kenya, Africa Exchange builds nursery schools in minority-language villages to train students in English and Swahili, so that they can attend free, government-sponsored primary schools, which only teach in those languages. In addition to building the schools, Africa Exchange develops water sources in the villages where its schools are located to free girls to attend school. It is traditional in Kenya for girls to be responsible for providing the family’s water, which can often mean several hours-long trips per day, and a choice between school and water.

The Mercer team will address three separate types of water challenges as part of its trip. First, the group will first travel to a village in the Rift Valley, Loongeiwuan, where Africa Exchange has established a school and drilled a well, providing access to water. However, the water must be filtered because it has too many minerals to be safe to drink, or irrigate with. The Mercer team will take measurements and search for ways to filter the water with locally available materials. Next, the group will travel to the mountains overlooking the Rift Valley to tackle two more engineering problems in the villages of Sisit and Sigor. The group will install a water delivery system, which is itself powered by water. The group plans to install a Kenyan-designed turbine pump in an irrigation raceway to pump water up the mountain to the village. In addition, the group will work with AquaClara International to help villagers build approximately 20 family-sized filtration systems to ensure their water is clean.

Among the students on the trip are nine undergraduate students from the College of Liberal Arts and graduate engineering student Beth Hyde, a 2009 environmental engineering school graduate. Hyde is working on the project as part of her thesis for her Master of Science in Engineering, which will incorporate each of the projects.

“I’m excited about this trip because we’re not just going to give something to these people, we’re empowering them,” she said. “We’re going to provide them with solid products they can use sustainably, that will give them the power to govern their own lives and own health without endless private donations.”

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Engineering Students Win Awards

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:01:45 GMT

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Three Mercer University student teams brought home awards from a recent American Society of Engineering Education Southeastern Section Student Poster Competition held at Virginia Tech. In all, five teams of Mercer environmental engineering students participated in the event, which was attended by students and faculty from engineering programs in the Southeast.

“We were excited to have so many of our students participate in the poster competition and demonstrate their achievements to our faculty colleagues and their peers,” said Dr. Philip McCreanor, associate professor of environmental engineering who led the group. “All of the teams benefited from the presentation of their work to faculty from other engineering institutions.”

Junior Jessica Pippard received a first place award in the Undergraduate Research Division for her poster, titled “Time Domain Reflectometry and Water Level Measurement in Porous Media.” The poster highlighted her research into a new technology to remotely measure liquid levels in landfills.

Sophomores Andrew J. Simms and Kristen N. Wyckoff won a first place award in the First/Second Year Design Division for their poster, titled “The Effect of Sample Storage Time and Temperature on Oxygen Uptake Rate Measurement.” The poster highlighted their efforts to measure water sample degradation, with the hope of developing more accurate techniques for measuring water samples that are not immediately tested.

Seniors Leah Moore and Jamie Joyner earned a third place award in the Junior/Senior Design Division for their poster, titled “Microbial Fuel Cell Wastewater Treatment for Developing Nations.” They highlighted their work on a bench-scale fuel cell that treats waste water while creating electricity, which could have numerous real world applications

The following posters were also presented at the competition: “Open Channel Flow Apparatus: V-notch Weir and Hydraulic Jump Experiments” by Timothy C. Dinkins and Drew R. Hammett and “The Use of Sand Filters for On-site Sewage Management in Georgia” by Sarah Dorminy, Ryan Peters and Jacqueline Lagratta. In addition, Beth Hyde, a graduate student in environmental engineering, presented a paper titled, “Engineering Education as a Pathway to Sustainable Solutions,” as part of the regular conference sessions. Hyde co-authored the paper with Dr. Laura Lackey, professor and chair of Mercer’s Department of Environmental Engineering.

Baseball Launches NCAA Bid

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:04:42 GMT

The 2010 Mercer University Baseball Team has qualified for its first-ever NCAA championship tournament by virtue of winning the Atlantic Sun Conference title. For more on the team, and its A-Sun triumph, visit mercerbears.com.

The Bears will begin play in the NCAA Atlanta Regional on June 4-7 at Georgia Tech's Russ Chandler Stadium.

Game Times:

Friday:
No. 4 Mercer vs. No. 1 Georgia Tech- 7 p.m.

Saturday:
TBA (3 p.m. or 7 p.m.)

Sunday and Monday: TBD

Tickets:

Adult, Single Game, chairback - $12
Adult, Single Game, reserved bench - $10
Child/Student, Single Game (reserved only) - $6
Adult, Full Tournament Book, chairback - $72
Adult/Child/Student, Full Tournament Book, reserved bench - $60

Tickets by Phone: 404-894-5447 or 888-TECH-TIX

Tickets on-line: www.ramblinwreck.com/tickets

Tickets in Person: Georgia Tech Ticket Office

Bears on the Radio:

All Mercer games from the NCAA Atlanta Regional will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1670 AM. Airtime for Friday's game versus Georgia Tech will be at 6:45 p.m., with Rick Cameron and Bobby Pope calling the action! Listen at gametime on Fox Sports 1670 to listen via the web, go>. Airtime for all other games will be 15 minutes prior to scheduled first pitch.

Bears on TV:

All games of the NCAA Atlanta Regional will be carried by Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) television.

Important Links:

NCAA Baseball Championships page,go>.

Georgia Tech Athletics, go>.

Weather Channel link for Atlanta, go>.

Mercer On Mission Vietnam

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:32:34 GMT

MACON – Two teams of Mercer On Mission students will travel to Vietnam this week to provide aid to amputees and health care to the poor. The trip begins Thursday for the nearly 40 students and faculty from schools and colleges across Mercer’s Macon and Atlanta campuses. The groups will return on June 25.

Dr. William F. Bina, dean of the School of Medicine, his wife, Gayle Bina, an assistant professor of public health, and Dr. Maurice Clifton, associate dean of admissions and student affairs at the Medical School, along with Brenda Rowe and Frieda Fuller, professors in the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing in Atlanta, will lead a group of 15 students on a medical mission to treat patients at two clinics. Meanwhile, Dr. Ha Van Vo, associate professor of biomedical engineering, Dr. Ramachandran Radharamanan, a professor of industrial engineering, and Dr. Craig McMahan, university minister and dean of the chapel, will lead a team of 11 engineering students to fit 100 amputees with a Mercer-designed prosthetic.

The teams will travel as a group, working in concert over 11 treatment days during the trip, which will be interspersed with class time and cultural activities. The groups will set up in a hospital in the southern city of Can Tho and at a clinic in Ca Mau.

Medical Mission

In the first Mercer On Mission trip to Vietnam last year, the team led by Dr. Vo treated nearly 1,000 patients suffering from a variety of maladies. They plan to work with a similar number this time, providing health assessments, treatment, and even medication. The group includes four undergraduate students from the Macon campus, five senior nursing students, two medical students and four Doctor of Pharmacy candidates from the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Atlanta. Each student will participate in all aspects of the clinics, from intake to health education.

“My intent is for this trip to be a service and learning experience,” Dr. Bina said. “Each one of the students will be a part of the entire clinical process.”

Dr. Bina, Dr. Clifton and Dr. Fuller will focus on treatment, while Gayle Bina, and Dr. Rowe will work on the public and global health aspects, Dr. Bina said. As part of Mercer On Mission, the students are taking two courses – health systems and policy and introduction to global health.

“This is a good experience for our students because they will learn that treating patients is a matter of understanding them, understanding their perspective and how to empathize with them,” Dr. Bina said. “It also will provide a better understanding of the global health issues through experiencing the contrasts between the U.S. and Vietnamese systems. From that, they will be better U.S. citizens, because they will better understand the positives and negatives of the U.S. system.”

Prosthetics Mission

In the prosthetics program’s first year, the team fitted 35 prosthetics and cast 27 people for fitting on this year’s trip. This year, the team will deliver the 27 fitted prosthetics, and at least 63 more, Dr. McMahan said. As part of the trip, the students are studying two courses, prosthetic design and biomechanics of amputees with Dr. Vo and innovation and entrepreneurship with Dr. Radharamanan.

In addition to the fittings, Dr. Vo and Dr. Radharamanan will also work with several technicians from Vietnam to establish a prosthetic manufacturing and fitting lab to continue building a fitting prosthetics after the Mercer On Mission trip leaves. The effort to create the lab in Vietnam is funded by a Sustainable Vision Grant of $37,275 from the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance. Dr. Vo invented a low-cost prosthetic that can be fitted without full customization, which makes it an affordable alternative to those in developing nations who must often go without. The Alliance grant will help efforts to increase the functionality of other parts of the prostheses, including the knee, pylon, ankle and foot. The Vietnam program is slated for three years, and Dr. Vo hopes to expand the program to India and Thailand in later years.

Because the project is addressing a worldwide problem, it has garnered national and international attention, including praise from the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009 and 2010. In addition, the Atlanta Business Chronicle presented Dr. Vo with a Health-Care Hero award last month for his work on the prosthetic.

The problem of amputees who must go without prosthetics is particularly acute in Vietnam. More than 2,000 Vietnamese are injured each year by land mines and unexploded bombs left during the Vietnam War. An estimated 100,000 amputees live in Vietnam today, and there are more than 18 million amputees around the world, with more than 80 percent of those living in developing countries.

About Mercer On Mission
Now in its fourth year, Mercer On Mission is a unique blend of study abroad and service-learning that provides life-changing experiences for students through academic instruction, cultural immersion, meaningful service, and spiritual reflection. This year, more than 100 students will travel to countries across three continents to serve others.

Mercer Professors Researching for NASA

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 13:00:08 GMT

MACON — Two professors from Mercer University’s School of Engineering have earned fellowships to conduct research with NASA this summer. Dr. Behnam Kamali, professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Dr. Loren R. Sumner, associate professor of mechanical engineering, left Monday to participate in the NASA Faculty Fellowship Program at Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

The two are working on separate research projects for NASA. Dr. Kamali will research communications technologies in the global and national aviation system and Dr. Sumner will research water use in a hydrogen fuel cell that may one day power the space ship NASA takes to Mars. Each professor will spend 10 weeks at Glenn, conducting research with NASA scientists and engineers, as well as other university professors and private companies engaged in the projects. The Fellowships are renewable for a second year, and each professor may be accompanied by a student during the second year.

Dr. Kamali will research the feasibility of two technologies slated for inclusion in a worldwide effort to modernize and standardize the civil aviation system. The Next Generation Air Transportation System International, or NextGen, includes the goals of modernizing communications systems, airports and airplanes themselves by 2025. Within the communications portion the group is looking at a number of modern technologies to replace the current, antiquated system of communication. The goal is to create a “digital network-centric global aeronautical system for communications, navigation, and surveillance,” he said. Dr. Kamali’s efforts will focus on the ground communication system, which airplanes, airlines and airports use to communicate once planes land, at the gate, and before takeoff. Dr. Kamali will examine two of the leading technologies slated for this system, VDL-2 and Wi-Max, two advanced digital communication technologies.

“If you go digital, everything is possible,” Dr. Kamali said. “For people dealing with aeronautical technology, this a very exciting time, because we are in the midst of technological transformation in civil aviation.”

Dr. Sumner’s research will help a team of scientists that is working on a fuel cell system to power future space ships, which is part of NASA’s Explorer Technical Development Team. The technology will be essential to provide a reusable, renewable and reliable energy source for long-term space travel. Fuel cells use a reaction to convert hydrogen into energy, with water as a byproduct. Fuels cells can also be used to create hydrogen from water, providing a closed loop system to store and use energy – which will be gathered from solar arrays harnessing the sun’s energy to be converted to provide energy for the fuel cell system. Dr. Sumner’s research will focus on the wicking technology in a hydrogen fuel cell, modeling water usage to ensure that the cell has enough water to sustain the reaction that creates energy, without flooding it.

“This will be important for long-term energy storage for planetary exploration. If you want to travel to Mars, you have to have a way to store and convert energy effectively,” Dr. Sumner said.

Mercer University Alumnus on International Radio Broadcast: 'From The Top'

Billie Rampley — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 14:28:34 GMT

MACON – Keitaro Harada, Mercer graduate and former conductor of the Mercer/Macon Symphony Youth Orchestra, will be a featured guest on National Public Radio’s “From The Top” on Thursday, June 17, 11 p.m. – 12 a.m., as well as Sunday, June 20, 1 p.m. – 2 p.m. on Macon public radio station WMUM-FM 89.7. “From the Top” is the hit NPR radio program featuring America’s best young classical musicians and hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O’Riley.

Now celebrating its 10th anniversary season, “From the Top” is heard on nearly 250 stations nationwide and taped before live audiences around the country. Broadcast from Ames, IA, the show airs nationally the week of June 14 and on participating stations and on www.FromtheTop.org. The episode was taped before a live audience at the Fisher Theatre on Tuesday, May 18. On the broadcast Harada performs Adios Nonino by Astor Piazzolla, accompanied by Christopher O’Riley on piano.

Harada, who earned a Bachelor of Music in Performance degree from Mercer in 2007 and a Master of Music in Conducting in 2008, was first featured on the radio show in 2003 when he was a student at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. The 24-year-old conductor is currently the inaugural recipient of the James E. Rogers Institute for Orchestral and Opera Conducting Fellowship at the University of Arizona. His appointments include working with Arizona Opera, Tucson Symphony, Arizona Symphony and University Philharmonic Orchestras. He recently served three seasons as Assistant Conductor of the Macon Symphony Orchestra and was the conductor and founder of the Mercer/Macon Symphony Youth Orchestra. This summer, Harada was invited to be a Conducting Fellow at the Boston Symphony Orchestra Tanglewood Music Center at the invitation of James Levine.

About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University enrolls more than 8,000 students in 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies – on major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah and at three regional academic centers across the state. Mercer is affiliated with two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon, and has educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta. The University operates an academic press and a performing arts center in Macon and an engineering research center in Warner Robins. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia to field an NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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Addie Davis Award

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:30:56 GMT

ATLANTA — Gwendolyn Belton Brown, a May graduate of Mercer University’s James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology, has received the Addie Davis Award for excellence in pastoral ministry by Baptist Women in Ministry.

Baptist Women in Ministry each year presents two Addie Davis awards – one for excellence in preaching and one for excellence in pastoral leadership. Each recognition carries a $1,000 cash award. A McAfee graduating female has received one of the two awards in nine of the 13 years that Baptist Women in Ministry has conveyed the honors. Institutions are invited to submit one nomination each year for each award, and the nominations are reviewed “blind” so the committee is not partial to one school or another.

A Camden, S.C., native, Brown also received McAfee’s William Ollie and Nell Ray Key Excellence and Leadership Award during the School’s May 22 commencement in Atlanta. She currently serves as pastor at In Christ We Trust Christian Church in Grayson. Prior to this appointment in 2005, she and her husband, Charles Brown, were instrumental in church development in the Atlanta area.

Brown graduated from Columbia College in Columbia, S.C. with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in speech and drama. She also earned a Master of Business Administration from Devry University’s Keller Graduate School of Management.

About the James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology
The McAfee School of Theology was established in 1996. Located in Atlanta on Mercer’s Cecil B. Day Graduate and Professional Campus, the School of Theology offers programs leading to the degrees Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry. The School of Theology also offers several joint programs: an M.Div.-Master of Business Administration, an M.Div.-Master of Science in Counseling and an M.Div.-Master of Arts in Church Music through the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Church Music Studies, a collaborative program between the School of Theology and the Townsend School of Music in Macon. For more information, visit theology.mercer.edu.

Grant Supports Teachers

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 14:07:32 GMT

MACON — Forty high school teachers from across Georgia are honing their knowledge of foundational texts, thanks to a new summer program at Mercer University that is being funded by a grant from the Walmart Foundation as part of its community outreach in the state. The teachers are studying how to incorporate the Great Books of the West in their classrooms with faculty from Mercer’s Center for the Teaching of America’s Western Foundations.

The teachers, along with Mercer faculty and administrators, will be on hand Thursday, June 17, for a reception and presentation with several Walmart executives. The event will begin at 10:30 a.m. at Ryals Hall on the historic quad of Mercer’s Macon campus.

“We are grateful to the Walmart Foundation for this funding, because it allows us to share some of the most important ideas in American and Western civilization with Georgia’s teachers, and by extension, Georgia’s students,” said Dr. Will R. Jordan, associate professor of political science, Great Books Program director and co-founder of the Center. “The participants have been wonderful — energetic, full of good questions and ideas. I’m really looking forward to hearing about the success they have with their students.”

“We were honored to fund this grant to Mercer University to provide such an innovative program for Georgia’s teachers,” said Glen Wilkins, senior manager public affairs and government relations for Walmart. “Helping Georgia’s students to better understand our nation’s history is essential to the continued health of our state and this program certainly achieves that.”

The teachers are divided into two cohorts of 20 and are studying in overlapping two-week seminars. The seminars are modeled after Mercer’s Great Books program and organized around the theme “Citizenship and the Culture of Freedom.” The first week of the seminar curriculum will include readings from ancient Greece, examining the birth of the democratic form of government and the requirements of democratic citizenship. The second week’s curriculum will focus on the origins of modern republics, as found in the writings of authors such as John Locke and the American founders.

“The program combines intensive text-based discussion sessions, modeling the Great Books teaching techniques, with workshops dedicated to helping the participants implement these techniques in their classrooms,” said Dr. Matthew Oberrieder, assistant professor of philosophy and Center co-director. “We’re really giving them a lot — readings from Aristotle to James Madison — in two weeks. Thus far, they’ve handled it really well, exceeding even our high expectations. We really anticipate these teachers can go home and help their own students become better readers of texts and more thoughtful and engaged citizens.”

The teachers were selected from a competitive, statewide application pool to attend the seminars. The grant provides participating teachers with room, board, books and a stipend, as well as continuing education credit. In addition, the program includes teaching materials for participants and on the Center’s Web site for these and other teachers’ classroom use.

About Philanthropy at Walmart
Walmart and the Walmart Foundation are proud to support the charitable causes that are important to customers and associates in their own neighborhoods. The Walmart Foundation funds initiatives focused on education, workforce development, economic opportunity, environmental sustainability, and health and wellness. From Feb. 1, 2009, through Jan. 31, 2010, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave more than $512 million in cash and in-kind gifts globally, $467 million of which was donated in the U.S. To learn more, visit www.walmartfoundation.org.

About the Mercer Center for the Teaching of America’s Western Foundations
Mercer’s Center for the Teaching of America’s Western Foundations seeks to provide a new generation of citizens with knowledge of, and appreciation for, the founding principles, values and history of our nation. The Great Books of the West were the education of the American Founders, and America’s freedom and prosperity fundamentally come from the ideas, values, and principles that the Founders’ Great Books explore. To that end, the Center seeks to promote the study and teaching of these foundational works and strengthen the knowledge and understanding of the cultural-intellectual inheritance of America. Mercer is one of a select few colleges or universities in the country and the only one in Georgia that has a Great Books of Western Civilization program as part of its general education curriculum. The Center complements this curriculum with programs including lecture series and campus conferences, and seeks to reinforce the importance of traditional liberal-arts education. www2.mercer.edu/TeachFoundations/

Mercer Alumnus Named Federal Judge

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:38:51 GMT

MACON — The United States Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed Marc T. Treadwell, a 1981 graduate of Mercer University’s Walter F. George School of Law, to fill a vacancy on Middle Georgia’s federal bench. Treadwell, who also serves as an adjunct faculty member for the Law School, will fill the vacancy created when Judge Hugh Lawson took senior status in 2008.

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia spans an area stretching from Georgia’s southwestern corner east through Valdosta, north though Albany and Macon, and east through Athens to the South Carolina border. Treadwell will join another Mercer graduate on the Middle District bench – Judge W. Louis Sands, who holds undergraduate and law degrees from the University and serves on the Mercer Board of Trustees.

“The Mercer Law School community is proud that Marc Treadwell has been appointed to the federal bench,” said Mercer Law Dean Daisy Hurst Floyd. “He is a wonderful lawyer, outstanding teacher, and will be an excellent judge.”

Nominated by President Obama and unanimously supported by Georgia’s Democratic congressmen and U.S. Senators Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, Treadwell is currently a partner in the Macon law firm Adams, Jordan & Treadwell.

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Press Authors Win Awards

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:41:36 GMT

KENNESAW — Two Mercer University Press authors won awards in their respective categories at the 46th Annual Georgia Author of the Year Awards, presented by the Georgia Writers Association at a ceremony held at Kennesaw State University Center on June 19. Mercer business and law professor James L. Hunt won the award for creative nonfiction – biography and Philip Lee Williams won the award for fiction.

Hunt won the biography award for his work, Relationship Banker: Eugene W. Stetson, Wall Street, and American Business 1916-1959, about Mercer alumnus and namesake of Mercer’s Stetson School of Business and Economics. Hunt is an associate professor of law at Mercer and holds joint appointments in the Stetson School of Business and Economics and the Walter F. George School of Law. Hunt’s work, representing 10 years of research, examines the rise of Stetson through the lens of his relationships. The key to Stetson’s banking success — as well as the key to the larger question of who received capital — was his skill at creating and sustaining personal relationships. Stetson’s best clients and associates included Coca-Cola’s Robert Woodruff, financier and railroad baron Averell Harriman, IBM’s Tom Watson Sr. and Morgan’s Thomas Lamont. It is through these relationships that both Stetson and Wall Street banking in the middle decades of the 20th Century can be understood.

Williams’ novel, The Campfire Boys, is his 14th published work and his third with Mercer Press. The novel is a work set during the Civil War. He will release his fourth work with the Mercer Press later this year, a book-length epic poem following the journey of young naturalist William Bartram, titled The Flower Seeker: An Epic Poem of William Bartram. The poem is part of Mercer Press’s effort, titled the Bartram Project.

In addition to Williams' book, the project will also release Bartram’s Living Legacy: the Travels and the Nature of the South, which includes a reprint of Bartram’s classic work alongside essays acknowledging the debt Southern nature writers owe the man called the “South’s Thoreau.” The anthology includes contributions from 16 of the South’s finest nature writers and strikingly illustrated with Bartram-inspired landscape paintings of Philip Juras. Among the authors to contribute to the work are: Bill Belleville, Kathryn Braund, Dixon Bynum, Christopher Camuto, Thomas Rain Crowe, Dorinda Dallmeyer, Doug Davis, Jan DeBlieu, Whit Gibbons, Thomas Hallock, John Lane, Drew Lanham, Roger Pinckney, Janisse Ray, Matt Smith and Gerald Thurmond.

Georgia Author of the Year Awards
The Georgia Writers Association sponsors the annual Georgia Author of the Year Awards. Shortly after its founding, the Georgia Writers Association assumed responsibility for the awards, which were first given in 1964 by the Dixie Council of Authors and Journalists.

About the Georgia Writers Association
Founded in 1994, The Georgia Writers Association supports writing conferences, seminars, and monthly workshops that are held on the 2nd Saturday of most months on the campus of Kennesaw State University. The association is currently housed in the English Department in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw.

About Mercer University Press
Established in 1979, Mercer University Press is celebrating its 30th anniversary and has published more than 1,200 books. Operated by an eight-member staff, the press publishes more than 35 books annually. The reputation of the Press significantly enhances the academic environment of the University and carries the name of Mercer throughout the world. The Press seeks and acquires manuscripts that contribute to the advancement of knowledge; publishes monographs and other texts in the humanities, primarily in history, philosophy, religion, and Southern studies; and disseminates these publications internationally to students, scholars, and libraries. The annual Authors Luncheon is a fundraiser for Mercer University Press. For more information, visit www.mupress.org.
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Expert on Sustainability Coming to Mercer's Atlanta Campus

Mark P. Vanderhoek — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:50:39 GMT

ATLANTA — Mercer University’s Cecil B. Day Campus in Atlanta will get a visit this week from an expert to help make the campus’s operations and buildings more sustainable. The consultant’s services are paid for through a grant from Harvard Medical School’s Center for Health and the Global Environment.

The consultant, Michael Crowley, a scientist with Environmental Health and Engineering Inc. and a lecturer in the Harvard Environmental Management Program, has been working this month with members of Mercer’s physical plant to review building designs, and will spend Wednesday touring and inspecting buildings on the Atlanta campus for the purpose of making recommendations to make them more efficient. He will also be looking for areas and resources on campus for other sustainable projects, including spaces for community gardens and potential projects for students.

On Thursday, Crowley will present initial findings from the building review, and conduct a workshop on campus sustainability for Mercer students, faculty and staff from 9 a.m. to noon in Day Hall on Mercer’s Atlanta Campus.

The event and the grant are part of the Atlanta campus’s Green Team initiative to help make the campus more sustainable. Event organizer and grant writer, Dr. Tanya Sudia-Robinson, a professor of nursing in the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, learned about the grant during the Caring for Creation Conference at the Atlanta campus in February 2009. That event was co-sponsored by Mercer and Harvard’s Center for Health and the Global Environment.

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