Faculty and Staff Notables

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College of Continuing and Professional Studies

Dr. Caroline M. Brackette,

assistant professor of counseling, was selected to participate and completed training to become a member of the Georgia Professional Standards Commission Board of Examiners. She also volunteered in providing disaster mental health counseling to survivors of tornados that swept through Hoover, Ala.  Dr. Brackette served on a panel for the “Unity in the Beloved Community” black history discussion sponsored by McAfee School of Theology Multicultural Student Association.

Dr. Hani Khoury, professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Informatics, has been named one of 11 nationwide recipients of the 2011 Upton Sinclair award for his dedication to education. Each year since 2005, the Upton Sinclair writers have continued to study trends in education.

Dr. Kenneth Revels, associate professor of information systems, was awarded the College of Continuing and Professional Studies Excellence in Teaching Award for 2012.

Dr. Lynn Tankersley, assistant professor of criminal justice, presented a practice session, titled “Engagement: Strategies for Engaging the Adult Learner in Interdisciplinary Writing Courses,” at the 4th annual conference on Higher Education Pedagogy held in Blacksburg, Va., on Feb. 8.

College of Liberal Arts

Dr. Jamie Cockfield, Willis Borders Glover Professor of History, had his review of Gudrun Persson’s Learning from Foreign Wars, 1859-1937, published in Slavic Review.

Dr. Heather Bowman Cutway, associate professor of biology, has been appointed by President Underwood as the co-chair of the College Hill Corridor Commission. 

Dr. Wallace Daniel, distinguished university professor, presented the 19th Annual William E. and Miriam S. Blake Lecture in the History of Christianity at Virginia Commonwealth University on Feb. 23. The title of the lecture was “Saintly Martyr or Religious Heretic? Alexander Men and the Russian Orthodox Church.”

Dr. John Marson Dunaway, professor of French and interdisciplinary studies, was interviewed by the Rev. Tony Lowden about his work with the Beloved Community initiative on “The Gospel Corner,” on WIBB radio 1280 AM/97.9 FM on March 14. Dunaway also authored a devotional that appeared March 4 on MyMinistryMinute.com, a weekly resource that is circulated via email to Christian professors all over the United States. It was titled, “Dialogues with Denise.” Dunaway also reviewed an article for the journal, Christianity and Literature.

Dr. Shawn Loht, visiting assistant professor, had an article, titled “Heidegger’s Phenomenology of the Greek Gods,” accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Philosophy Today. The article is scheduled to appear in the Fall 2012 issue. Dr. Loht also presented a paper, titled “On the Concept of the Human Body in Heraclitus,” at the Southeast Philosophy Congress at Clayton State University in Morrow, on Feb. 19.

Frank J. Macke, professor and chair of Communication Studies and Theatre, recently published the following articles or papers: “Laureano Ralon’s Interview with Frank Macke.” Figure/Ground, (2012, February 14), http://figureground.ca/interviews/frank-macke/; “Deception, Sin, and the Existential Bargain of Adolescent Embodiment: Identity, Intimacy, and Eroticism,” in Schutzian Research: A Yearbook of Worldly Phenomenology and Qualitative Social Science 3  (2011), pp. 133-151; and “A Semiotic Phemenology of ‘Contact’: The Phatic Function of Body and Flesh in Jakobson’s Model of Communication,” in The American Journal of Semiotics 27.1– 4 (2011), 81–94.

Dr. Creighton Rosental, associate professor, had his book Lessons from Aquinas nominated for the 48th Georgia Author of the Year Awards by the Georgia Writers Association.


College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Dr. Ajay K. Banga, professor, was awarded a $27,500 grant for “Formulation, development and testing of analgesic skin patches” from Little Innovations LLC. Dr. Banga also received a $10,000 grant for “Excipient analysis in formulations” from ProPharmaCon LLC.

Dr. Nader H. Moniri, assistant professor, published “Sedative-Hypnotics” in Foye’s Principles of Medicinal Chemistry, 7th edition. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2012:485-507. Lemke T. and Williams D.A., editors.

Dr. Susan W. Miller, professor, published “Clinical Scenario and Case Study” I in Foye’s Principles of Medicinal Chemistry, 7th edition. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2012: 486-487,504. Lemke T. and Williams D.A., editors.

Dr. Kathryn M. Momary, assistant professor, was selected as vice chair for the molecular pharmacology section of American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics

Dr. Linda L. Brennan, professor and accreditation strategic planning director, had her work, titled “The Scientific Management of Information Overload,” accepted for publication in the Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 17, No. 1.

Dr. Tammy Crutchfield, professor, and her yearlong marketing research and strategy course have transformed into a marketing agency in the spring semester. This spring, they are working for the Mercer baseball team. Their goal is to get more fans in the stands from both the Mercer and Middle Georgia communities. They are branding the Mercer Bears as Middle Georgia’s Hometown Baseball Team, and their tagline is “Take Me Out to the Bears Game.” They are targeting individual groups on campus and in the community with special events to show them how much fun it is to hang out at the Bears game.  Their work has had a marked impact on attendance and atmosphere at the games. Dr. Crutchfield is also leading a group of business students, in a new course titled “Good Business: The Act of Serving Others.” The purpose of this business course is to perpetuate an ongoing business that serves the mission of a community partner. The team is working at Stone Academy After School Program to identify how they might add value for those being served by the Stone Academy and to facilitate trade to meet that need. This semester, the team has set out to enrich Stone Academy by establishing the principle of hard work and the pursuit of your dreams. They are building relationships with 30 sixth, seventh and eighth-graders to determine their aspirations and build personalized life plans for each of these young people, filling the void between dream and reality with the practical steps needed to get there. Community businesses are being pursued to partner with Mercer and Stone Academy to meet this goal. Dr. Crutchfield is also serving on the board of directors at the Macon Bibb County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

Kathy Mack, assistant professor, had her paper, titled “Taking an aesthetic risk in management education: reflections on an artistic-aesthetic approach,” accepted by the journal Management Learning and should be published in 2012.

Dr. J. Michael Weber, associate professor, served as the president and program co-chair for the 31st annual Association for Marketing and Health Care Research conference, held in Park City, Utah, Feb. 29-March 3. He also presented a paper, titled “Entrepreneurial Branding: the High West Case,” at the same conference.

Georgia Baptist College of Nursing

Dr. Dare Domico, professor and associate dean for graduate programs, was appointed the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses Education Approval Committee.

Susan Estes, clinical assistant professor, and junior nursing students Rachel Arias, Paige Brantley, Lauren Erikson, Melisha John-Baptiste, Lindsay McKnight, and Katie Quinn-Thornton presented “The World is Our Classroom: Cultural Immersion in Appalachian Kentucky” at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry  meeting on March 26. Estes also serves as the Atlanta Campus Faculty Advisor to the BCM. She also developed, coordinated and led a group of 20 nursing students on a “Cultural Immersion Experience to Appalachian Kentucky” during spring break. On the trip students participated in various activities to enhance cultural awareness and appreciation. Activities included health fairs, clothing distribution, intergenerational activities, tutoring, working with community nurses, and many other service learning activities to benefit the underserved population of Pike County, Ky. Estes, Quinn-Thornton and McKnight will be providing a poster presentation, “Community Nursing and Cultural Immersion: Baccalaureate Nursing Students’ Experiences in Appalachian Kentucky” at the National Student Nurse Association in Pittsburgh, Pa., April 11-15. Estes, Fran Kamp, clinical associate professor, and Dr. JoEllen Dattilo, associate dean, are conducting a qualitative research, titled “Community Health Nursing and Cultural Engagement: Baccalaureate Nursing Students’ Experience in Appalachia.” Estes also presented “Utilizing Pharmacology Tools Through the Curriculum” at the Educator Enrichment Conference at Emory University School of Nursing on March 16.

Elaine Harris, clinical associate professor, delivered the keynote address at the Piedmont Healthcare Research Conference on March 16. She has also been serving on an advisory committee at Hospice Atlanta, an educational initiative for Atlanta area clergy regarding end-of-life care. She presented the first session, “The Dramas of Grief.”  Forty-eight Clergy from a wide variety of faiths were in attendance.

Mercer Engineering Research Center

Peter Bryant, manager of the Electronic Systems Division, and Tracy Tillman, senior principal electrical engineer, had two photographs from a paper they wrote titled “System Design of a C-17 Radome Test Station” appear on the back cover of the February 2012 IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine. The complete paper will appear in a later edition this year.

Denise Cornell, logistics specialist, received the Support Contractor Logistics Award for her hardware configuration management leadership on the B-1B and B-52 aircraft electronic warfare systems.

James J. Hundley, director of the electronics and software systems engineering directorate, received the Association of Old Crows, Dixie Crow Chapter, Executive Management Award for Industry. The Association of Old Crows is an internationally recognized electronic warfare organization whose mission is to further the development and fielding of advanced electronic warfare solutions. Hundley was recognized for his 32-plus years of support to the electronic warfare mission area spanning both government and MERC service.

Kelly Layfield, logistics specialist, received the Most Radiant Award for professionalism and leadership skill motivating a diverse team of B-1B and B-52 specialists supporting fielded electronic warfare systems.  

Mark May, senior principal engineer, received the Jerry Sowell Radio Frequency Award for his development and implementation of advanced radio frequency geolocation and pulse train deinterleaving solutions.

Dr. Robert McGinty, senior principal mechanical engineer, is teaching an online graduate course in finite deformation continuum mechanics to engineers from Michelin Tire Corporation in Greenville, S.C., and Ladoux, France. He is also developing a website, www.continuummechanics.org, to support the course.

School of Engineering

Dr. Joan Burtner, associate professor of industrial engineering and industrial management, delivered a presentation, titled “Design and Analysis of Open Response Surveys: Lessons Learned,” at the Institute of Industrial Engineers Healthcare Systems Process Improvement Conference in Las Vegas, Nev., on Feb. 19.

Dr. Donald Ekong, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, presented a paper, titled “A Survey of Android Programming Courses,” at the 2012 IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Southeast Conference in Orlando, Fla., on March 16.

Dr. Behnam Kamali, professor of electrical and computer engineering, presented an article, titled “The Development of Aeronautical Mobile Airport Communication Systems; AeroMACS,” at the 2012 KEEN Regional Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship Education held at Mercer University, on March 16. This presentation reflected Dr. Kamali’s research activities in aerospace communications in collaboration with NASA Glenn Research Center.

Dr. Philip T. McCreanor, associate professor and director of the Engineering Honors Program, presented “Irrigation and the Composition of Residential Gray Water,” at the Georgia On-site Wastewater Association’s Continuing Education Workshop, Bibb County Health Department in Macon on Jan. 25. He also delivered oral and poster presentations of  “Sustainability Comparison of Bioreactor Landfills and Traditional ‘Dry Tomb’ Landfills” at the 27th International Conference on Solid Waste Technology and Management, Philadelphia, Pa., March 11-14.

Dr. Laura Moody, associate professor of industrial engineering and industrial management, presented “Lean and Human Factors in the ER: A Critical Review of the Literature” at the 2012 Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care, March 12-14, 2012 in Baltimore, Md.

Dr. Scott Schultz, associate professor of industrial engineering, presented “Radar Warning Receiver Scheduling – Modeling Methodology and Solution Approach” at the 2012 Dixie Crow symposium in Warner Robins. Collaborators on this work included Dr. Paul MacNeil, associate professor of software engineering, F.M. Barron, senior principal software engineer of Mercer Engineering Research Center, and several graduate engineering students.

School of Medicine

Dr. Christy Bridges, assistant professor, traveled to San Francisco, Calif., to present a poster, titled “Multidrug resistance-associated proteins and their role in the elimination of mercuric ions,” at the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology.

Dayle A. Daines, assistant professor of microbiology, published a paper, titled “Regulation of the vapBC-1 Toxin-Antitoxin Locus in Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae” in the journal PLoS ONE 7(3): e32199, with Susan D. Cline, associate professor of biochemistry, and Sehresh Saleem.

Dr. Steven Hobbs, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Medical Psychology, represented Mercer at the Mid-Winter Meeting of the Council of Clinical Health Psychology Training Programs (CCHPTP). Prior to that meeting, Mercer’s Clinical Medical Psychology Program was awarded associate membership in CCHPTP, a 20-member group of programs recognized by Division 38 (Health Psychology) of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Harold Katner, chief of infectious diseases, received the Willis Slater Productions 14th Annual Ethnic Awareness Award on March 10, for “his unselfish dedication to research/treatment of HIV, AIDS, internal medicine, infectious diseases and providing clinical care to those who have lost health care providers.” The award was presented at a ceremony at the Douglass Theater in Macon.

Dr. Edward C. Lauterbach, professor emeritus of psychiatry and neurology, presented the invited lecture “Managing Patients With Pseudobulbar Affect” at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry symposium “Recognizing And Managing Pseudobulbar Affect,” March 19. The meeting was held at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington D.C., March 16-19. 

Dr. Robyn Mowery, assistant professor and clinic director for the Marriage and Family Therapy Program in Atlanta, and Dr. Bowden Templeton, assistant professor, gave two presentations at the International Family Therapy Association’s World Family Therapy Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in March. Their first presentation, a lecture, was titled “Enhancing Multicultural Sensitivity in Ethical Decision-Making: Mowery’s 7 Ps, Part I,” and introduced Dr. Mowery’s original framework for ethical assessment and decision-making in general clinical situations. The second presentation, “Applied Ethical Decision-Making in Medical Family Therapy: Mowery’s 7 Ps, Part II,” was a workshop during which participants had an opportunity to practice applying “Mowery’s 7 Ps” to decisions faced by patients, their families and medical health care providers faced with breast cancer. Dr. Mowery is the clinical director for the Family Therapy program at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta and Dr. Templeton is the director of Family Related Medical Education on the Macon Campus.  

Dr. Yudan Wei, associate professor, presented a research paper titled “Association between urinary concentrations of dichlorophenol pesticides and obesity in U.S. adults” at the 51th Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting that was held in San Francisco, Calif., March 10-15. Ms. An Nguyen, summer research scholar in 2011 and currently the 2nd year medical student, was co-author of the paper.

Staff and Administration

Tony Kemp, associate director of Academic and Advising Services, judged the extemporaneous speaking events for the Region 4 AA literary meet at Jasper County High School on March 9.  He was also invited to serve as a judge for the Class AAAAA, AAA and A state literary dramatic interpretation competition.

Tift College of Education

Dr. Sharon Murphy Augustine, assistant professor, presented with Anthonette “Toni” Collie, a doctoral student in curriculum and instruction and a Locust Grove High School teacher, and David Peterson, a senior English and secondary certification student, at the annual Georgia Council of Teachers of English Conference in Callaway Gardens. Their presentation was titled “Real Men Read: How Could Language Arts Classrooms Produce More Boys Who Choose to Read.”

Dr. Jane Metty, assistant professor of education, and Dr. Clemmie Whatley, assistant professor of education, presented at the first annual STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) conference hosted by Georgia Southern University in Statesboro on March 8-9 along with Dr. Kimberly Emanuel, science coordinator for Henry County Schools, and Dr. Lya Snell, math coordinator for Henry County Schools. The subject of the presentation was to present the initial evaluation and relate the first year experience with respect to a professional learning experience involving 76 K-12 math and science teachers under the leadership of Dr. Metty and Dr. Whatley. The focus of the professional learning experience (SMILE) is to build teacher capacity in both math and science while also making clear the seamless integration that exists within the STEM disciplines. Dr. Metty also co-presented with two of her pre-service teachers at the Georgia Science Teacher Associations Annual conference in Atlanta on Feb. 16-18. Dr. Metty and student Joan Baldridge presented an inquiry addressing environmental adaptations using Pine Cones to capture participants attention. Dr. Metty and student Katrina Hammonds presented a graphical organization of multiple concepts having to do with atomic structure and periodicity. Dr. Metty also served as a regional judge and serves as a member of the Student Research Council for Henry County Schools held on Feb. 2-3 at Heritage Park in McDonough. As a member of the student research council, Dr. Metty assisted teachers in compliance with institutional board rules and regulations.

dr. debra leigh walls rosenstein, associate professor and chair of Atlanta Teacher Education Program, and Dr. Justus Randolph, assistant professor, presented “No Graduate Student Left Inside” at the U.S. Coalition on Play conference at Clemson, S.C., in February.

Walter F. George School of Law

David Ritchie, associate professor, spoke on a roundtable panel at the University of Southern California on March 20. The panel, titled “How do We Bring the Rule of Law to Places that Don’t Have it?,” was sponsored by the Levan Institute for Humanities and Ethics, the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and Jewish World Watch. Ritchie, who is also a Carnegie Global Ethics Fellow, is currently in Macau, working with the vice rector at the Macau University of Science and Technology. The law department at MUST is interested in developing a strong legal analysis and communication program, and Ritchie is consulting with them about Mercer’s renowned legal writing program.

Jack L. Sammons, Griffin B. Bell Professor of Law, delivered a paper titled, “Listening to Law” at the Religious Legal Theory Conference at Pepperdine Law School on Feb. 25. He also delivered a paper titled “The Origin of the Opinion as a Work of Art” at the Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Law, Culture, and Humanities held at Texas Wesleyan on March 17.

Nancy Terrill, continuing legal education coordinator, was named as the Macon Bar Association’s representative on the state-wide Georgia Legal Services Board of Directors.

Scott Titshaw, associate professor, co-wrote an article titled, “A Future without the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)? And Navigating a Present in Which DOMA Unfortunately Still Exists,” which will appear in this year’s edition of the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s Immigration and Nationality Handbook. On Feb. 23, he was quoted as an expert on assisted reproductive technology and U.S. immigration law in a front page article in Israel’s leading daily paper, Haaretz. On Feb. 8, Titshaw spoke at the John Marshall Law Journal 2012 symposium on a panel discussing international human rights law and human rights enforcement in U.S. immigration law. On March 14, he joined Greg Nevins, the supervising senior staff attorney of the Southern Regional Office of Lambda Legal, in a training session for asylee and refugee service providers on the legal issues faced by LGBT asylees and refugees. The training was organized by the Heartland Alliance and Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services of Atlanta. On March 16, Titshaw participated in a panel on “Immigration and Individual Rights” as part of the St. John’s Law School of Law Symposium Border Patrols: The Legal, Racial, Social and Economic Implications of U.S. Immigration Policy. On March 27, he delivered, “A Comparative Introduction to the German Legal System: Impressions of German law, legal education and practice from an American perspective” at the University of Georgia School of Law. On June 13, Titshaw will participate in a panel discussion titled “A Future Without The Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA)?” at the annual national conference of AILA in Nashville. Titshaw was also a guest on the nationally syndicated radio show and podcast “Creating a Family” on March 28 where he spoke on the legal and immigration issues when going abroad for egg donation or surrogacy.