College of Continuing and Professional Studies
Dr. Diane Clark, assistant professor of counseling, presented “School Counselor Ethics and the Law” to the graduation coaches in the Fulton County Schools on April 13 in Atlanta.
Dr. Linda Foster, assistant professor of counseling, Dr. Kenyon Knapp, associate professor of counseling and assistant dean for graduate programs, Dr. David Lane, professor of counseling, and Dr. Donna Lane, adjunct professor, have been selected to present “Cultural Considerations for Global Teaching: Experiences from Haiti” at the 2011 Associate for Counseling Education and Supervision convention on October 26-30 in Nashville, Tenn.
Dr. Richard Martin, associate professor of public safety, recently completed an accreditation assessment of the California State University Northridge Department of Police Services for the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), as the site visit team leader.
Dr. Kyra Osmus, professor in the human services program in the Department of Counseling and Human Sciences, served as conference chair and site coordinator for the 36th annual meeting of the Southern Organization for Human Services held March 23-26 at the Macon City Marriott. More than 100 human services students, faculty and practitioners from the southeastern region participated in the conference.
Dr. Charles Roberts, associate professor of mathematics, presented “Addressing Equity in Mathematics Education: The Need for Aggressive Action” at the annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics April 15 in Indianapolis, Ind.
College of Liberal Arts
James Eric (Jay) Black, assistant professor of journalism, had a paper, titled “Silent Cal and the Invisible Audience: The Sociotechnological Significance of the Presidential Voice,” accepted for publication in the academic journal History Research. This will mark his sixth publication in four years.
Dr. Natalie J. Bourdon, assistant professor of women’s studies, presented a paper April 16 at the Association for American Geographer’s Annual Meeting in Seattle, Wash. Her paper, titled “What is in a Word?: Exploring Feminist Cross-Cultural Research on Feminism,” was part of a panel titled, “What’s Feminist About this Work: Challenges and Insights from Feminist Research Methodologies,” sponsored by the Geographic Perspectives on Women Specialty Group.
Dr. David A. Davis, assistant professor of English and Southern Studies, gave a talk on African American World War I literature at Georgia College and State University on April 12, led a discussion on African American foodways at the Tubman African American History Museum on April 18 and was interviewed on WFSK 88.1 Nashville about Victor Daly’s Not Only War on April 20.
Dr. John Marson Dunaway, professor of French and interdisciplinary studies and director of Mercer Commons, delivered a paper, titled “Léopold Sédar Senghor and Martin Luther King, Jr.: Faith, Action, and the Prophetic Word,” at the annual Southeastern Conference on Christianity and Literature at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va., on April 9.
Dr. Curtis Herink, professor of mathematics, presented a paper, titled “Coding Subsets with Ordered Monomials,” at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Section of the Mathematical Association of America held in April at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Dr. Achim Kopp, professor of Latin and German and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, presented a paper, titled “A Sourcebook on the Moravian Mission in Colonial Georgia: A Mercer University Publication Project,” at the 35th Annual Symposium of the Society for German-American Studies in Newark, Del., on April 15. He also served as moderator of a session on “Immigrants and Immigrant Aid” at the same meeting, Kopp was elected treasurer of the SGAS for the 2011-13 term.
Shawn Loht, visiting assistant professor of philosophy, presented a paper, titled “An Existential Reading of Heraclitus’ Fragment 101,” at the North Texas Philosophical Association’s 44th Annual Meeting at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas, on April 7.
Scot J. Mann, assistant professor and theatre director, recently choreographed violence and movement for the Alliance Theatre’s production of August: Osage County and Legacy of Light for the Horizon Theatre. He received critical acclaim in the Atlanta Journal Constitution for his work on Superior Donuts at the Horizon, as well. At Mercer, Mann directed the hit musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, featuring a cast of Mercer students and alumni.
Dr. Deneen Senasi, assistant professor of English, accompanied two Mercer English majors, juniors Shea Simmons and Matt Gorgans to Ithaca College for the National Conference for Undergraduate Research, March 31-April 2. Simmons and Gorgans each presented two pieces of their original research, focusing on works ranging from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Milton’s Paradise Lost to Barrie’s Peter Pan and the “mashup” novels based on the works of Jane Austen. The students submitted their research to the national conference as part of their work in the English department’s advanced course on literary criticism and theory, taught by Dr. Senasi in the fall 2010 semester. Dr. Senasi also participated in a workshop on scholarly publishing conducted by Jerome Singerman, senior humanities editor at the University of Pennsylvania Press, at the annual meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America in Seattle, Wash., April 6-9.
Dr. Eric Spears, assistant professor of geography and director of international education, presented a paper, titled “Scalar Theory and Praxis in Social-Ecological Systems Theory: the Case of Jekyll Island, Georgia,” at the Association of American Geographers meeting in Seattle, Wash. on April 15.
Dr. Richard F. Wilson, Columbus Roberts Professor of Theology and Chair of Christianity, was in Washington, D.C., March 7-9 to participate in the Missions, Evangelism, and Theological Reflection committee of the Baptist World Alliance as part of the annual meeting of the BWA’s executive committee. Dr. Wilson is the 2010-2015 chair of the BWA’s Commission on Christian Ethics. Dr. Wilson also was in Chicago, Ill. April 1-2 for the spring meeting of National Network Board meeting of the Lilly Fellows Program, a consortium of more than 90 private, church-related colleges and universities across the United States. His four-year term on the board will end in October.
College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Dr. Ashish A. Advani, clinical assistant professor, was awarded a $54,000 contract from Total Therapeutic Management Inc. for Drug Information Residency. Dr. Advani was also appointed to the 2011-2012 Educational Affairs Committee for the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy.
Dr. Joseph T. Dye, assistant professor, was appointed to the 2011-2012 Program Planning and Development Committee for the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy.
Dr. Michael W. Jann, professor, co-authored “Maternal treatment with opioid analgesics and risk for birth defects” in American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 2011 March 24; 204(4):314 e1-11.
Dr. Lisa M. Lundquist, clinical associate professor, co-authored “Professional technical standards in schools and colleges of pharmacy,” in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 2011; 75(3):article 50.
Georgia Baptist College of Nursing
Dr. JoEllen Dattilo, associate dean for the undergraduate program and professor, presented at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Hot Issues Conference in Baltimore, Md., on April 15. The research presentation was about the use of hand-held devices and electronic resources as a learning tool in the clinical area.
School of Engineering
Dr. Behnam Kamali, professor of electrical and computer engineering, submitted an article, titled “On Selection of Proper IEEE 802.16-Based Standard for Aeronautical Mobile Airport Surface Communications (AeroMACS) Application,” to IEEE-ICNS 2011 conference. The article is co-authored by Robert J. Kerczewski of NASA Glenn Research Center and was accepted for publication and presentation at the conference to be held in Washington, D.C., in May.
Dr. Philip T. McCreanor, associate professor, presented “Configuration Of Resistance Type Moisture Sensor” at the 26th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management, Philadelphia, Pa., March 27-30. He presented “Using a Thesis Project on Gray Water Re-use to Develop the Foundations for Future Student Research Projects” with Douglas Doud and “Senior Design to Graduate Thesis: Designing and Evaluating a Bench-Scale Sand Filter for the Treatment of Residential Wastewater in Georgia” (with paper in proceedings) with Sarah Dorminy at the American Society for Engineering Educators Southeastern Section (ASEE-SE) 2011 Annual Conference, at The Citadel, Charleston, S.C., April 10-12. He was also the faculty advisor for 10 entries into the Student Poster Competition at the ASEE-SE 2011 Annual Conference, several of which won their respective categories.
Dr. Richard Mines, director of Master of Science in Engineering and Master of Science programs and professor of environmental engineering, made a presentation, titled “Integrating Digital Storytelling into an Engineering Design Course,” at the American Society for Engineering Education Southeastern Section Conference hosted by The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., April 10-12. Dr. Mines also received the 2011 Tony Tilmans Section Service Award for his outstanding service rendered to the American Society for Engineering Education Southeastern Section. Dr. Mines first became a member of ASEE in 1995 and served as the Secretary of the Civil Engineering Division. He held numerous offices within the organization before serving as president of the Southeastern Section in 2003.
Dr. Laura E. Moody, associate professor and chair of industrial engineering and industrial management, presented a paper, titled “Learning by doing: A studio-based approach to teaching ergonomics and human factors,” at the American Society for Engineering Education Southeast Section Meeting, April 10-12.
Dr. Scott Schultz, associate professor of industrial engineering, was the technical program chair for the 2011 ASEE-SE conference held in Charleston, S.C., April 10-12. Seventy-eight papers and presentations covering a wide range of engineering education topics were presented by engineering faculty located in the Southeast.
School of Medicine
Dr. Lee Bowen, director of counseling services, and Dr. Steve Livingston, director of the master’s program in family therapy in Macon and Atlanta, recently presented a program, titled “Helping Families Heal: Treating Divorcing Families in Family Therapy,” at the 19th World Family Therapy Congress, sponsored by the International Family Therapy Association in Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands, March 30-April 2. Dr. Bowen, currently serving on the Board of Directors of the International Family Therapy Association, has also been named to serve as program chair for the 20th World Family Therapy Congress to be held in Vancouver, B.C., March 21-24, 2012. In addition, Dr. Bowen has been nominated to serve as president-elect of the International Family Therapy Association.
Dr. Christy Bridges, assistant professor of histology, Lucy Joshee and Rudolfs Zalups published a manuscript, titled “Role of MRP2 in the homeostatic handling of mercuric ions twenty-four hours after exposure of rats to mercury-thiol conjugates,” in Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol. 251:50-58. Dr. Bridges’ grant, titled “Proximal Tubular Transport of Mercury and Effects of Reduced Renal Mass,” was funded by the National Institutes of Health. The award is for 3 years in the amount of $300,000.
Dr. William J. Bromberg, associate professor of surgery, presented a paper, titled “Direct Comparison of Helicopter vs Ground Transportation of injured trauma Patients,” at the 41st Annual Scientific Meeting of the Western Trauma Association in Big Sky, Mont. on March 3. Co-authors include Dr. Melissa Busken, Dr. Matt Hamilton, Dr. Everett Bonner, Dr. Ed Meister and Dr. M. Gage Ochsner. Dr. Bromberg was also named vice chair of the Georgia Committee on Trauma by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma.
Dr. Marie Dent, associate professor of community medicine; Mary Mathis, instructor of community medicine; Monita Outland; Dr. McKinley Thomas, associate professor of community medicine, and DeShawn Industrious, a Master of Public Health student, coauthored a paper, titled “Chronic disease management: Teaching medical students to incorporate community.” The article was published in Family Medicine in December. The work was supported in part by the American Association of Medical Colleges and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through a population health grant received by the School of Medicine. Dr. Dent gave an invited presentation, titled “Population Health at Mercer University School of Medicine,” on Jan. 18 to the Public Health Educators Network. The webinar was broadcast to Ottawa where representatives of the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada were meeting to discuss population health in Canadian medical schools.
Dr. Richard L. Elliot, professor and director of biomedical ethics, published a paper titled, “Ethical response to outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases,” with Mary Kate Claiborne, second-year medical student, and Martin Greenberg, professor of pediatrics, in the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia 2011;100(1): 24-25. Dr. Elliott also published a paper with Robert McClain, forth-year medical student, titled “Physician, heal thyself!” in the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia 2010;99:24-25 and a paper, titled “”˜Evidence-Debased Medicine’ and the Integrity of the Medical Profession,” in The Journal of Clinical Ethics 2011;22(1):71-73.
Dr. Robert C. Fore, emeritus professor of medical education, was named the 2011 Distinguished Alumnus for Lifetime Achievement by the University of Georgia College of Education. Dr. Fore was formerly associate dean for graduate and continuing medical education and is currently professor of internal medicine and associate dean for academic affairs at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga.
Dr. Warren Hutchings, assistant professor in the Department of Family Medicine and director of student health services, has been appointed to the Georgia Health Information Exchange Board of Directors, beginning Feb. 14. The Georgia HIE Board will govern the establishment of a statewide HIE in Georgia that will be charged with creating a network that will allow timely exchange of vital health information and accelerate the pace of health information technology development across Georgia.
Dr. Richard O. McCann, assistant professor of basic science, , supervised the research of Jorjetta Ilieva, senior biology major, who was awarded first prize at the Southeastern Meeting of the Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honor Society in Huntsville, Ala., April 13-16. Her presentation, titled “Structure, Function, and Evolution of Cell Adhesion Proteins,” was based on her research with, Dr. McCann, Angela Lowrey of the division of basic medical sciences and senior Austin C. Ellyson.
Dr. M. Gage Ochsner, professor of surgery, presided over the 41st Annual Scientific meeting of the Western Trauma Association in Big Sky, Mont. His presidential address, titled, “Patient Safety: The Surgeon’s Role – Past, Present and Future,” was presented on March 1. Dr. Ochsner was named second vice president of the Southeastern Surgical Congress at their recent meeting in Chattanooga, Tenn., and has been named secretary-treasurer of Georgia Surgical Society.
Dr. Ahmed Ijaz Shah, assistant professor of medicine, cardiology and critical care, and surgeon Dr. Fady Wanna, of Cardio Thoracic Vascular Surgery Associates, recently performed for the first time in Middle Georgia a procedure to place a right ventricular assist device outside a patients’ chest, which eliminated the need for the patient to undergo open heart/open chest surgery. The two placed the first minimally invasive temporary right ventricular assist device (RVAD) TandemHeart® at the Medical Center of Central Georgia.
Dr. Wei-Hsiung Yang, assistant professor of physiology, presented a poster, titled “Bitter melon (Momordica charantia) extract suppresses adrenocortical cancer cell proliferation and growth through modulation of the cell cycle pathway and steroidogenic activity,” at the American Association for Cancer Research’s 102nd Annual Meeting in Orlando, Fla., April 2-6.
Staff and Administration
Angel Horton, Admissions Counselor for the Macon Regional Academic Center, has just completed her Master of Business Administration at Liberty University and will walk in her commencement this month.
Tift College of Education
Dr. Theodorea Regina Berry, assistant professor and qualitative research methodologist for the Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction program, was a featured presenter for the Division B Pre-Conference Seminar on Educational Research and Activism for Social Justice at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association in New Orleans, La. Dr. Berry’s presentation was titled “Considerations for Setting Up a Social Justice Agenda.” She was also the discussant presenter for a symposium session, titled “Paying It Forward: Mother Scholars Navigating the Academic Terrain.” Her presentation was titled “Navigating Intersectionality and Multidimesionality as a Woman Scholar of Color.” Dr. Berry also presented a symposium paper with curriculum and instruction doctoral students Matthew Candis, Phaedra Bell Early, Sherri Freeman and Kawanya Kenyatta Isom titled “Race, Research, and Curriculum: A Readers’ Theater,” at the annual conference for the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies in New Orleans, La., April 5-8.
Dr. Robert Ceglie, assistant professor of education, presented at the American Educational Research Association’s National Conference in New Orleans, La., April 10-12. His paper presentation was titled “Persistence and the Science Pipeline: Women of Color and their Persistence in Science Majors.”
Dr. Ron Knorr, assistant professor, presented a paper titled, “Using Activity Theory as an Analysis Tool for Professional Training: The Case of Pre-Service Teacher Cohorts,” to the 4th Annual SoTL Commons conference held March 8-11 on the campus of Georgia Southern University.
Townsend School of Music
Dr. Douglas Hill, professor of music, and the Mercer Wind Ensemble were hosts to guest conductor, Dario Sotelo. Sotelo is the music director and conductor of the Brazilian Wind Orchestra at the Conservatory of Tatui, Brazil. Sotelo conducted the Mercer Wind Ensemble on April 8 at the Grand Opera House. On April 15, Dr. Hill adjudicated high school bands and orchestras at the Festivals of Music held at McEachern High School in Powder Springs. In addition, he presented rehearsal clinics for the ensembles from Maryland, Florida, New Jersey and Delaware. Dr. Hill adjudicated high school and middle school bands and orchestras as part of Music In the Parks on April 16 at Chapel High School in Douglasville. The performing organizations represented schools from Fayetteville, Alpharetta, and Loganville, as well as Oak Ridge and Memphis, Tenn. As a member of the Colony IV Brass Quintet, Dr. Hill performed at the Forsyth First Baptist Hymn Festival on May 1. Hill, Monty Cole and Marcus Reddick will accompany Mercer Wind Ensemble students on a combined tour to San Jose, Costa Rica, May 15-19. The ensemble will present performances at the San Jose Conservatory of Music and Central Cathedral in downtown San Jose.
University Libraries
Liya Deng, government information librarian and assistant professor, and Stan Trembach, instructional services librarian and assistant professor, made a presentation, titled “We Can Do It Together: Collaboration among FDLs, National Network of Libraries of Medicine, and Community-Based Organizations to Promote Government Information,” on April 5 at the Federal Depository Library Council Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
Julie Poole, coordinator of center library services and instructor, received an Association of College and Research Libraries 2011 Librarian Scholarship to attend the Association of College and Research Libraries Annual Conference, which took place March 30-April 2, in Philadelphia, Pa.
Walter F. George School of Law
Ismael Gullon, associate law librarian for collections and technical services, coordinated a program, titled “Passing the Baton: Option or Obligation?” at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Libraries in Columbia, S.C., April 15-16. The program focused on concerns, issues and implementation plans as law librarians retire and “pass the baton” to newer law library professionals.
David Ritchie, associate professor of law, has been given a visiting research professorship at the University of Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for May and June. He will be working there with a group of professors and graduate students on the history of just war theory and the international laws of war and peace.
