Faculty and Staff Notables

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College of Continuing and Professional Studies

Dr. Thompson Biggers, associate professor of communication, presented at the National Communication Association Convention in Orlando, Fla.

Dr. Kenyon Knapp, assistant dean of graduate studies and associate professor of counseling, was selected to be an editorial reviewer and advisory board member for the national journal, Professional Issues in Counseling. He will review articles for potential publication and providing feedback to authors.

Dr. Karen Rowland, assistant professor of counseling, was honored as the state’s Counselor Educator of the Year at the Georgia School Counselors Association annual conference Nov. 8 in Athens. Dr. Rowland also supervised two workshop presentations lead by one doctoral student and four master’s degree students. LaTessa Hill, Ania Farley and Tiffany Hudson’s workshop topic was “There’s No Place Like Home: School Counseling and the Homeless Population” and Beth Adcock and Bonnie Beck’s topic was, “Adolescent Substance Abuse: Methamphetamine on the Rise.”

Dr. Colleen Stapleton, associate professor of science, and Dr. John Payne, assistant professor of science education in the Tift College of Education, presented “Rocks, Water, and Erosion” at the National Science Teachers Association Area Conference in Atlanta Nov. 1-3. Dr. Stapleton presented a geologic history of the southeastern Appalachian Mountains, including erosion and sediment transport and deposition. Dr. Payne and Dr. Stapleton led activities for pre-K teachers that demonstrated these processes and help enable teachers to incorporate earth science content for their students.

Dr. Lynn Tankersley, assistant professor of criminal justice, presented a paper, titled “Practical Advice for Going Gradeless” at the 2012 annual meeting of the Criminal Justice Association of Georgia on Nov. 9-10 in Savannah.

College of Liberal Arts

Dr. David A. Davis, assistant professor of English, gave the presentations, “How to Play Mammy” and “Coals to Newcastle: Teaching Southern Studies in the South,” at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference in Raleigh, N.C., Nov. 9-11. Davis also published the fall issue of the Society for the Study of Southern Literature Newsletter, http://www.mercer.edu/sst/ssslnewsletter.html.

Dr. Andy Digh, associate professor of computer science, served as director of the 2012 Southeastern Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Programming Contest held Nov. 2-3 on the campus of Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta.

Dr. Kathryn Kloepper, assistant professor of chemistry, and Kasie Knapper, senior chemistry and psychology major, presented their research at the Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Baton Rouge, La., Nov. 4-7. Their poster was titled “Impact of Environmental Conditions on Metal Desorption from Industrial Kaolin.” Knapper won first place for best undergraduate research presentation. Dr. Kloepper gave an invited talk, titled “Strategies to Improve the Quantity and Quality of Student Participation in Analytical Chemistry.” On Sept. 14, Dr. Kloepper and Knapper presented at the 2012 Herty Medalist Undergraduate Research Symposium at Morehouse College. Knapper won first place for best poster presentation.

Dr. Paul Lewis, associate professor, was named editor of Tradition and Discovery, the journal of the Polanyi Society at the society’s recent annual meeting in Chicago. He has been associate editor since 2002 and takes over from the editorial reigns from his college religion professor, Phil Mullins. Production of the journal will move from Missouri Western State University to Mercer in the next year.

Dr. Anya Silver, associate professor, gave two poetry readings, one at the Crossroads Writers Conference in Macon on Sept. 6 and one at Georgia State University on Oct. 11.

Dr. Rosalind Simson, associate professor of philosophy, delivered a lecture in the philosophy department’s monthly Friday lecture series on Nov. 16. Her talk was titled, “Abortion and Responsibility: Reframing the Abortion Debate” .

Dr. Bridget Trogden, associate professor of chemistry, and College of Liberal Arts students Cory White and Danielle D’Auria presented “The Flipped Classroom: Shifting ‘The Sage on the Stage’ to ‘The Guide on the Side’” at the Georgia Educational Technology Conference. In this presentation, they discussed the experience and the student success data pertaining to using a flipped pedagogy in organic chemistry coursework.


Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics

Dr. Linda Brennan, professor of management, published “Can Virtual Mentors Add Value to Business Ethics Education? A Case-based Exploratory Study” with Dr. Bob Perkins, visiting assistant professor of management, in the Journal of Business Ethics Education, Volume 9.

Dr. Robert Perkins, visiting assistant professor, had his article, titled “Leading an Ethical Corporate Culture? Apply Seven Lessons from the U. S. Marines,” accepted for publication by the Journal of Business Ethics Education.

Georgia Baptist College of Nursing

Lana Chase, clinical assistant professor, and Ann Keeley, clinical associate professor, presented “Effects of Mental Illness on the Family: Experiential Family Assessment to Promote Students Affective Learning” at the American Psychiatric Convention held in Pittsburgh, Pa., Nov. 7-10.

Susan Estes, clinical associate professor, presented a research paper titled “ ‘Cultural Engagement: Baccalaureate Nursing Students’ Experience in Appalachia” co-authored by Dr. JoEllen Dattilo, associate dean for the Undergraduate Program, and Fran Kamp, clinical associate professor, at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 15-17.

Dr. Helen Hodges, professor and RN-BSN coordinator, has been appointed to the Editorial Board for the Journal of Nursing Education.

Dr. Laura Kimble, professor, presented “A Novel Measure of Nuisance Bleeding with Chronic Antiplatelet Therapy” at the American Heart Association Scientific Session held in Los Angeles, Calif., Nov. 3-7.

Karen Maxwell, clinical assistant professor, and Dr. Patricia Troyan, associate professor, presented a poster, titled “Lateral Violence and Bullying: An Outline Tutorial for Nursing Students,” at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 15-17.

Freida Payne (Fuller), professor and FNP program coordinator, served as a reviewer for a new textbook Role Development of the Nurse Practitioner, published by Jones & Bartlett.

Dr. Patricia Troyan, associate professor, presented a poster titled “The Goldilocks’ Factor: Too Much, Too Little, or Just Right?” coauthored by Dr. JoEllen Dattilo, associate dean for the undergraduate program, at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Conference held in San Antonio, Texas, Nov. 15-17.

School of Engineering

Dr. Sinjae Hyun, associate professor of biomedical engineering and director of engineering research, presented two posters with his undergraduate research assistants at the 2012 Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting on Oct. 25-27 in Atlanta. One poster was titled “Computational and experimental measurements of inhaled aerosol deposition in simplified dry and moist-and-temperature-controlled mouth-throat airway models,” coauthored with Daniel DoHyun Yoon, biomedical engineering student, Young-Eun Hyun, summer undergraduate research assistant from Yale University, and Dr. Chong. S. Kim at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chapel Hill, N.C. His team also presented a poster with two senior biomedical engineering students, Anthony Fratino and Yoon, titled “Experimental study of micron-sized aerosol deposition within a subject specific human airway model.”

School of Medicine

Dr. Hamza Awad
, assistant professor, published his article, titled “Young Patients Hospitalized with an Acute Coronary Syndrome,” in the Coronary Artery Disease Journal

Dr. Arthur M. Baker II, assistant professor, co-authored two articles, “Estimating risk factors for development of preeclampsia in teen mothers,” in Archives Gynecology and Obstetrics, Volume 286, Number 5 (2012), 1093-1096 and “Estimating risk factors and perinatal outcomes for gestational diabetes and impaired glucose tolerance in teen mothers,” in Diabetes Metabolism Research Review 2012 Nov;28(8):688-91.

Dr. James J. Burke II, associate professor, co-authored two articles titled “A phase II evaluation of trabectedin in the treatment of advanced, persistent, or recurrent uterine leiomyosarcoma:  A gynecologic oncology group study,” in the Journal of Gynecologic Oncology, 124 (2012) 48-52 and “Lymphatic Mapping and Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy in Women with Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Vulva:  A Gynecologic Oncology Group Study,” published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, 10.1200/JCO, 2011.41.2528.  Dr. Burke also co-authored a book chapter, “Perioperative and Critical Care,” in the Principles and Practice of Gynecologic Oncology (Sixth Edition).

Dr. David B. Byck, chairman and program director in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, was honored as the outgoing president of the Georgia Ob/Gyn society. He served as the scientific program chairman for the meeting. Dr. Byck also served as the program director and moderator for a joint meeting between the Georgia Ob/Gyn Society and the Georgia Pediatric Society regarding “The Medical Implications of HB 954.” Dr. Byck also served on the program committee and as moderator on “House Bill 954: Clinical, Legal and Ethical Implications in Obstetrical and Newborn Care” at the the Network of Georgia Neonatologists Conference in Atlanta on Nov. 3.

Dr. Richard Elliott, professor and director of medical ethics, and Dr. R. Stephen Williams, assistant professor, co-authored “Does religion affect medical students’ attitudes toward ethical dilemmas?” it the Journal of the Medical Association of Georgia. 2012;101(2):22-3.

Dr. Cheryl Gaddis, instructor and assistant program director of the Master of Public Health Program, presented a poster session at the 140th American Public Health Association annual meeting and conference in San Francisco, Calif., Oct. 29. Her topic, titled “Assessment of the Physical Activity Participation of Students during the School Day in a Rural County,” was based on research she has conducted to determine if children enrolled in public elementary school in a rural county receive at least 60 minutes of physical activity on a daily basis as recommended by the American College of Sports Medicine and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Harold Katner, professor of internal medicine, Dr. Rita Kumar, assistant professor, and several research division staff members coauthored a poster, titled “Lopinavir/Ritonavir Once Daily Monotherapy Pilot Study: The MONDAKAL Study,” presented at IDWEEK, a meeting of the Infectious Disease Society of America in San Diego, Calif., Oct. 17-21.
Dr. Edward C. Klatt, professor of biomedical sciences, gave a workshop, titled “Effective Teaching and Learning,” Nov. 2 and a round table discussion, titled “Totally Terrific Teaching Tips,” Nov. 3, for the 2012 National Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Pathology held in Boston, Mass.

Dr. Edward C. Lauterbach, professor emeritus of psychiatry and neurology, recently served as guest co-editor for the neuropsychiatry issue of the online journal Parkinson’s Disease and co-authored the editorial “Neuropsychiatry of Parkinson’s disease.” Parkinson’s Disease 2012;2012:908943 with colleagues from Argentina, Brazil and Australia.

Dr. Rob McKallip, assistant professor, Dr. Olga Uchakina, research assistant III, Dr. Christy Bridges, associate professor, and Clara Castillejo, an undergraduate from the College of Liberal Arts, had their paper, titled “The role of hyaluronic acid in SEB-induced acute lung inflammation,” accepted for publication in the journal Clinical Immunology.

Dr. Scott C. Purinton, assistant professor, co-authored “Malignant uterine perivascular epithelioid cell tumor; a case report in Clinical Ovarian Cancer, COC MS# COC-D-12-00005.” Dr. Purinton also co-authored a book chapter, “Perioperative and Critical Care,” in the Principles and Practice of Gynecologic Oncology (Sixth Edition)

Dr. Eric K. Shaw, associate professor of community medicine, co-authored “Physician recommendation and patient adherence for colorectal cancer screening” in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, 25(6), 782-91.

Dr. Mike U. Smith, professor of medical education and director of AIDS education and research, presented an invited paper for the Science Education Department Colloquium at the University of Georgia, titled “The GAENE—Generalized Acceptance of EvolutioN Evaluation: Development of a new measure of evolution acceptance,” Nov. 9. Dr. Smith was also invited to present a paper at the Genetics education for the 21st Century workshop, at Kontakt der Kontinenten (the Netherlands), sponsored by the Netherlands Genomics Initiative.

Dr. Melton Strozier, chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, recently attended the annual conference of state and provincial psychologist licensing boards in San Francisco, Calif., as the delegate representing the state of Georgia. The purpose of conference is to coordinate psychologist licensure and practice among the various licensure boards throughout North America.

Tift College of Education

Dr. Richard Binkney, associate professor, Dr. Ron Knorr, assistant professor of education, and Fallon Binkney, graduate of the Tift College of Education, had their work, titled “The Impact of Technology on Elementary School Libraries as Reported through a Questionnaire Survey of Elementary School Librarians,” published by the ARPN Journal of Science and Technology, Volume 2, No. 9, October 2012.

Dr. William Lacefield, professor of mathematics education, Dr. Geri Collins, assistant professor of education, Dr. Jacquelyn Culpepper, associate professor of education, and Dr. Margaret Morris, professor of education,, presented “How Might Historical Empathy Foster Social Justice? Cross-Curricular Ideas for Teacher Educators” at the annual conference of the Southeastern Regional Association of Teacher Educators, held Oct. 25-27 in Little Rock, Ark. Dr. Collins, Dr. Culpepper and Dr. Lacefield also presented “Historical Empathy is not just for Social Studies!” at the annual conference of the Association for Middle Level Education, held November 8-10 in Portland, Ore. Dr. Lacefield attended the “Increasing Confidence and Competence in Algebra and Multiplicative Structures” Teacher Workshop, held at King’s College in London, England, in September. There, he participated in a roundtable discussion focusing on mathematical problem solving.

Dr. Dana H. Lilly, professor of early childhood education, and Dr. Catherine M. Gardner, professor of education, made a presentation, titled “Practicing What We Preach: Innovative Strategies for Differentiating Instruction to Meet the Needs of Adult Learners in a Hybrid Learning Environment” at the 2012 National Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference and Expo in Atlanta in November.

Jane Mety, assistant professor of education, is providing a series of professional development workshops for Henry County Schools to assist its science teachers as they prepare to implement the new Next Generation Science Standards frameworks. Mety is also serving as a member of the Georgia Department of Science Education Standards Review Board. Mety is also serving on the Scientific Review Committee for Henry County Science Fair this year. They are charged with approving science fair projects and reviewing them for compliance with the International Science and Engineering Fair. They act as an IRB committee for students who are completing science fair projects. As lead teachers on the various Henry County campuses have questions they contact this committee for advice. Mety presented with Dr. Clemmie Whately, assistant professor of education, and Kimberly Emanuel, science coordinator for Henry County Schools at the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators, in Atlanta on Oct. 11. The presentation was titled “They can’t teach STEM if they don’t know STEM: Increasing teacher capacity.” Mety presented at the Southeast Regional Association of Teacher Educators in Little Rock, Ark., Oct. 26. The purpose of the presentation was to share the results of a pilot professional development series designed to increase the math and science teacher knowledge and pedagogy so that these teachers would see ways in which they could integrate math into science instruction and ways to use science to make mathematics concepts relevant. On Nov. 10, Dr. Whately and Mety presented at the School Science and Mathematics Association conference in Birmingham, Ala. The subject of this presentation was the share the lessons learned and data collected from a yearlong professional development experience designed to increase math and science teachers’ knowledge and instructional strategies. Mety served as a sponsor and chaperone for a 7th grade field trip with Locust Grove Middle School. The trip, held Nov. 7-9, was to St. Simons Island and Cumberland Island where they engaged in a variety of ecologically based workshops and activities provided by Driftwood Educational Services. On Nov. 1, Mety served as a judge for the Georgia Honors Program for Henry County Schools. She judged 10th and 11th grade student applicants in the areas of physics and chemistry.

Dr. John Payne, assistant professor of science education, and Dr. Colleen Stapleton, associate professor of science in the College of Continuing and Professional Studies, delivered a presentation to the National Science Teachers Association, Atlanta Area Conference on Science Education. The program title was “Rocks, Water, and Erosion.” The NSTA conference was held in Atlanta Nov 1-3. The presentation was designed to help early childhood teachers develop a better understanding of the relationship between rocks and sediments so that they could develop age appropriate and content correct activities in this area for their students.

Dr. Justus J. Randolph, assistant professor, co-authored “A quantitative content analysis of Mercer University M.Ed, Ed.S, and doctoral theses” (1), 81-96. He also co-authored “Using the Binomial Effect Size Display (BESD) to present the magnitude of effect sizes to the evaluation audience” in R. B. Bausell (Ed.). Healthcare Evaluation (Vol. 3)[Fundamentals of Applied Research Series] (pp. 323-330). London, United Kingdom: Sage. (Reprinted from Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 10(14}, 2005). In October, Dr. Randolph co-authored with Dr. Ismail Simbwa Gyagenda, associate professor of education

“Rasch analysis for teachers: A practical method for differentiating instruction and improving classroom assessments.” The paper was presented at the annual meeting of Georgia Education Research Association in Savannah. Also, in October, he presented “Provisional admission and other predictors of attrition in a graduate program in education,” coauthored with dr. debra leigh walls rosenstein, department chair and associate professor, at the annual meeting of Georgia Education Research Association in Savannah. Finally, Dr. Randolph co-authored and presented “Page length and methodological characteristics of education-related dissertations” published in 2011.

Dr. Peter Ross, associate professor, presented his paper at the Intellectbase International Academic Conference in Atlanta Oct. 18-20. The title of the paper is “A Review of Current Bully Etiology and Why School Bully Interventions Don’t Work.”

Townsend School of Music

Dr. Douglas Hill, professor, hosted the Second Annual High School Instrumental Workshop on Nov. 10 at the McCorkle Music Building. More than 120 high school instrumentalists participated in mock auditions and master classes with Townsend School of Music Faculty members: Dr. Monty Cole, Kelly Via, Adrian Gnam, Dr. Katie Holland, Jay Hanselman, Jonathan Swygert, Dr. Tom Gibson, Eric Bubacz, and Dr. Marcus Reddick. Dr. Hill and Dr. David Keith, interim dean and director of graduate studies, represented the Townsend School of Music at the annual National Association of Schools of Music Conference in San Diego, Texas Nov. 15-20. Dr. Hill performed on trumpet in the chamber orchestra as part of the annual Middle Georgia Choral Society’s performance of Handel’s “Messiah” at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Macon.

University Libraries

Theresa Rhodes
, associate director for public services and collections, presented “Eliminate (or at least minimize) the Negative:  Prepared vs. Embarrassed” at the 32nd Annual Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition in Charleston, S.C., Nov. 10.

Walter F. George School of Law


Stephen Johnson
, professor, spoke at the Conservation, Restoration and Sustainability Conference at Brigham Young University on Nov. 9. The topic for his presentation was “Is Religion the Environment’s Last Best Hope?”

Mark L. Jones, professor, published an article, titled “Perspectives On (and In) Legal Education” in the fall 2012 issue of the Mercer Lawyer. He was also a panelist at the Concerned Philosophers for Peace Annual Conference held at Mercer in October. The conference addressed the theme “Struggles for Recognition: Individuals, Peoples, and States” and was co-sponsored by the Carnegie Council. Jones spoke on the topic “Go Ahead; Make My Day, Punk: Towards Peace Through ‘Spiritual Justice’ – An Imaginary Conversation with Clint Eastwood.”

Dr. David Ritchie, professor of law and philosophy, hosted the annual Concerned Philosophers for Peace Conference at Mercer on Oct. 25-26. He also attended the second annual Global Ethics Fellows Conference at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York from Nov. 7-11. While at the conference, Dr. Ritchie gave a talk, titled “Responsibility in Developing a Global Ethic.”

Jack L. Sammons, Griffin B. Bell Professor of Law, will have his most recent paper, “The Impossible Prayers of James Boyd White,” appear in The Legal Imagination: The Future and the First Forty Years published by the University of Michigan Press. It will be presented at Birkback College in London in March at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Law Culture and Humanities. Sammons will also be part of a panel discussing the work of James Boyd White.

Karen J. Sneddon, associate professor of law, presented “It’s About Time: Assessing Transactional Skills in Thirty Minutes or Less” at the Third Biennial Conference on Teaching Transactional Law and Skills at Emory Law School in Atlanta on Nov. 3 with Susan Chesler.