College of Education

Dr. Karyn Allee, assistant professor of elementary education, co-authored a paper, with colleagues from the University of Central Florida and the University of Macau, on the benefits of play to improve executive function and academic outcomes for economically disadvantaged children in the Journal of Research in Childhood Education. Dr. Allee presented an extended session called “Pushing back against accountability shove-down in early elementary (PK-3): In search of evidence a play-based approach yields greater results for marginalized students to justify instructional shifts” at the National Association for the Education of Young Children 2022 Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. Dr. Allee was also a recent guest on a ResearchPod podcast episode called “How play and learning can increase educational equity.”

Dr. Leah Panther, assistant professor of literacy education, presented “Tomorrow won’t be easy: Poetry to teach the day after” with graduate student Whittney Conley and “Writing selves and communities in a multigenerational writing collaborative” with doctoral students Hannah Edber and Latoya Tolefree at the National Council of Teachers of English annual conference in Anaheim, California.

Dr. Katherine Perrotta, assistant professor of middle grades and secondary education, presented “The road to the 19th amendment: Examining the women’s suffrage movement during the Reconstruction Era with historical empathy pedagogies” at the Georgia Council for the Social Studies conference in Athens. Dr. Perrotta also taught a three-session professional development webinar, titled “Historical empathy in women’s history,” for the National Women’s History Museum.

College of Health Professions

Dr. Jeannette Anderson, clinical associate professor of physical therapy, and Dr. Lisa Lundquist, dean and professor, presented “Problem Solving with a Comprehensive Strategy: Application of the Four Frames of Leadership” at the American Physical Therapy Association Education Leadership Conference on Oct. 30 in Milwaukee.

Dr. Ann Lucado, associate professor of physical therapy, and Dr. Nicholas Orton, clinical assistant professor of physical therapy, co-authored a manuscript, titled “Classification-based low back pain management in a patient: a case report,” published in the Journal of Student Physical Therapy Research.

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Dr. Heather Bowman Cutway, professor and chair of biology, gave a keynote address, titled “Silene catesbaei: Conserving an Endangered Species in the Urban Wild,” on Nov. 3 for the annual Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance meeting in Brunswick. At this meeting, Dr. Bowman Cutway also received the Good Egg Award for her work conserving federally endangered plant species fringed campion.

Dr. Sarah E. Gardner, Distinguished University Professor of History, presented “Phoebe Yates Pember’s Southern Stories; or, How a Diehard Confederate Learned to Love Reconciliation” Nov. 18 at the Midwest Modern Language Association Conference.

Dr. Jonathan C. Glance, professor of English, presented a paper, titled “Marcia, Marshy, Marcia: Adapting ‘Your Arkansas Traveler’ to A Face in the Crowd,” at the annual South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference held virtually on Nov. 11–13.

Dr. Sahar Hasim, assistant professor of biology, joined her research students Katherine Freel and Deborah Roh at the ASM Conference on Biofilms held Nov. 13-17 in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the students presented their research.

Dr. Linda Hensel, professor of biology, had four students from her research lab — senior neuroscience major Abdulreheem Kaimari, senior biology major Dontavious Jones, junior biochemistry and molecular biology major Ryan Brownlee and senior biochemistry and molecular biology major Emily Colton — attend the Southeastern Medical Scientist Symposium, a multi-institutional regional meeting that brings together aspiring physician scientists from schools around the Southeastern U.S.

Dr. Matt Marone, professor of physics, was interviewed for the podcast “White Canes Connect” produced by the National Federation of the Blind — Pennsylvania Chapter.

Dr. Bryan J. Whitfield, professor and chair of religion, presented two papers at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature held Nov. 19-22 in Denver: “What Hebrews Has Taught Me about Preaching” and “Reacting to the Past: Constantine and the Council of Nicaea.”

Dr. Carolyn Yackel, professor of mathematics, authored “Representing Catalan Solids in Temari” in the Journal of Mathematics and the Arts.

Dr. Johnathan Yerby, associate professor of computer science, recently published and presented two research papers. His first paper, co-published with undergraduate student Ian Vaughn, was titled “Deliberately confusing language in terms of service and privacy policy agreements,” presented at the International Association for Computer Information Systems conference in Las Vegas and published in the journal Issues in Information Systems. Dr. Yerby’s second paper, “Something that Works: The Evolution of a Steganography Exercise,” was presented at the Computing Education + Information Systems Applied Research conferences at Clearwater Beach, Florida, and published in the proceedings for the conference.

College of Nursing

Dr. Tammy Barbé, interim dean and associate professor, and Dr. Justus Randolph, professor, co-authored an article, titled “Demographic differences in satisfaction and work-life balance of prelicensure nursing faculty,” with Ph.D. graduate Dr. Ryan P. Crawford in Nurse Educator. Dr. Barbé and Dr. Patricia Troyan, associate professor, co-authored an article, titled “A national qualitative study of work-life balance of prelicensure nursing faculty,” with Dr. Crawford in Nursing Education Perspectives.

College of Pharmacy

Dr. Johnathan Hamrick, clinical assistant professor, co-authored “HPV vaccine communication competency scale for medical trainees: Interdisciplinary development study” in JMIR Formative Research, 2022 Nov 4, 6(11):e38164. DOI: 10.2196/38164.

Dr. Nicole Metzger, clinical associate professor, won third place in original research for her poster, titled “Evaluation of prior authorization approval and patient assistance program acceptance between pharmacy trainees and clinical pharmacy specialist,” at the 2022 Global Conference of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. 

Dr. Susan Miller, professor, authored the chapter “Considerations for Medication Use in the Geriatric Patient” in Clinical Pharmacokinetics, 7th ed., edited by Murphy JE, Bethesda, ASHP, 2022, 123–43. DOI: 10.37573/9781585286607.007.

Dr. Nader Moniri, professor, co-authored, with graduate student Priyanka Karmokar, “Oncogenic signaling of the free-fatty acid receptors FFA1 and FFA4 in human breast carcinoma cells” in Biochemical Pharmacology, 2022 October 26, 206:115328. DOI: 10.1016/j.bcp.2022.115328.

Dr. Lorenzo Villa Zapata, assistant clinical professor, co-authored, with Pharm.D. student Yeseul Lee, “COVID-19 vaccine adverse events in a population aged 5–17 years: a study from the VAERS database” in Anales de Pediatría, 2022 November 3. DOI: 10.1016/j.anpedi.2022.10.011. Dr. Villa Zapata also co-authored “Complications associated with foodborne listeriosis: A scoping review” in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, 2022 November 10, 19:11. DOI: 10.1089/fpd.2022.0012.

College of Professional Advancement

Dr. Arla Bernstein, assistant professor of communication, presented on “Community Engaged Research During the Pandemic and Beyond” at the National Communication Association Conference on Nov. 20 in New Orleans. The presentation addressed the following topics: benefits of community-engaged scholarship, overcoming challenges to community-engaged scholarship during the pandemic, models for faculty and student development of community-engaged scholars, and the role of community-engaged scholarship in tenure and promotion.

Dr. David Lane, professor of counseling, on Nov. 4 published his eighth children’s book, titled I Have Questions. Lots and Lots of Questions. A True Story of Christmas. Dr. Lane was named a finalist in the American Writing Awards in the category of Children’s Picture Book for his book My Dog Can’t Jump. He was also named a finalist in the American Writing Awards in the category of Children’s Fiction for his book The Banana Farm.

Dr. Zhiling Long, assistant professor of computer science, was invited to serve on the program committee for the Special Session in Applied Computing and Intelligence of the 2023 AIMS International Conference on Dynamical Systems, Differential Equations and Applications.

Dr. Richard H. Martin, professor of criminal justice and homeland security, reviewed “Posttraumatic growth and posttraumatic depreciation: Associations with core beliefs and rumination” for the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

School of Business

Jody Blanke, Ernest L. Baskin Jr. Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Law, presented a webinar, titled “Preparing for the California Privacy Rights Act,” for the Chicago Bar Association’s Cyber Law and Data Privacy Committee on Nov. 15.

Chris Orrison, adjunct instructor of risk management and insurance, co-presented at this year’s Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) Society In2Risk national convention in San Francisco. He and his wife, Melissa Orrison, an amateur Kennedy family historian, presented “The Kennedy Tragedies Through a Risk Management Lens,” which consisted of a lively discussion of Kennedy-related historical events from a risk management perspective. In2Risk is one of the premier CPCU events in the U.S.

School of Engineering

Dr. Alireza Sarvestani, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, organized a symposium on Cell Mechanics and Mechanobiology for the annual technical meeting of the Society of Engineering Science held Oct. 16-19 at Texas A&M University. Also at the symposium, he gave a talk, titled “Thermodynamic Bases of Mechanotransduction at Intercellular Adherens Junctions.” Dr. Sarvestani chaired a session on Mechanics of Soft Materials at the ASME 2022 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition held Oct. 30-Nov. 3 in Columbus, Ohio. He also gave two session talks, “Effect of Network Polydispersity on Finite Deformation Elasticity of Vitrimers” and “Spontaneous Enlargement of Receptor Clusters in Response to Pulling Traction.”

School of Law

Patrick Longan, W.A. Bootle Chair in Ethics and Professionalism, received the 2022 Mercer Law School Board of Visitors Excellence in Teaching Award.

Scott Titshaw, professor of law, authored “Inheriting Citizenship,” 58 Stanford Journal of International Law 1 (2022). He also presented a virtual lecture, titled “Possible Effects of Dobbs and Some Children’s Citizenship Issues,” for the Certified Amicable Divorce Professional Training in Sandestin, Florida, in October. Additionally, he was invited to speak as a panelist on “Acquired and Derived Citizenship” at the AILA South Florida 44th Annual Immigration Law Update in Miami in February.

School of Medicine

Dr. Raghavan Chinnadurai, assistant professor of oncology, presented an invited lecture about “Potency and functional analysis of Mesenchymal Stem cells for cellular therapy” at the international digital conference Challenges and Opportunities for Mesenchymal Stem Cells held Nov. 17-18.

Dr. Gal Haspel, associate professor, co-authored “Neurodevelopment: Maintaining function during circuit reconfiguration” in Current Biology. The paper explains how during development neurons are incorporated into functioning circuits by gradual preparation at the subcellular scale, programmed and orchestrated structural transition at the cellular and circuit scale, and concomitant staggered switching of circuit activity, all without catastrophic failure.

Dr. David Hollar, associate professor of community medicine, presented “Integration and Applications of Geospatial Analysis as a Rural Population Health Tool for Medical Students in Practice” on Nov. 14 at the annual Association of American Medical Colleges conference in Nashville, Tennessee. He also volunteered Oct. 23-30 with the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team and Samaritan’s Purse for Hurricane Ian relief to residents of Englewood, Florida.

Dr. Krista Mincey, associate professor of community medicine, was recently elected to the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing (NCHEC), Division Board for Certification of Health Education Specialists. This is a five-year appointment that will start in January 2023. In this position, she will assist in the development of test items for the Certified Health Education Specialist and Master Certified Health Education Specialist credentialing exams offered by NCHEC yearly.

Dr. Anne Montgomery, biostatistician at the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center and assistant professor of community medicine, presented her work on farmer’s mental well-being as a co-author with students on three posters at the State of the Public’s Health Conference on Oct. 27, and as a presentation with co-author Stephanie Basey at the Ohio Farm Stress Collaborative on Nov. 18.

Dr. Richard Parrish, professor and medical educator, and six second-year medical student researchers presented two posters and gave one podium presentation at the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery — USA annual meeting held Nov. 10-12 in Washington, D.C. The medical student researchers were Austin Wiggins, William (Olin) Blair, Camron Sohn, John Roberts, Bowen Powers and Harley Ponder.

Dr. Eric Shaw, professor of community medicine, presented a poster, titled “Exploring community needs and context for appropriate suicide prevention efforts in a rural Southeast Georgia county,” at the annual NAPCRG conference on Nov. 19 in Phoenix. Presentation co-authors included Dr. Kimberly Roth, assistant professor of community medicine, and students Nicholas Howard, Meena Dhir, Fatima Ghiathi and Melanie Shoemaker. Dr. Shaw was a co-author on “A descriptive analysis of patients with attempted suicide at a rural level I trauma center” in the HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Yudan Wei, professor of community medicine, published a research article, titled “Exposure to p-dichlorobenzene and serum α-Klotho levels among U.S. participants in their middle and late adulthood,” in Science of the Total Environment.

School of Music

Dr. Brittan Braddock, director of bands and coordinator of music education, was invited to be a guest speaker in a Q&A at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s (ASO) UpTempo program. The Q&A covered Dr. Braddock’s journey as a conductor, musical background and a basic demonstration of conducting gestures to about 150 secondary students. UpTempo is designed to engage, inspire, and educate middle and high school students interested in classical music with a curated pre-concert experience. The topic on Oct. 15, “Women on the Podium,” was designed to celebrate women conductors as the ASO recently appointed Nathalie Stutzmann as music director. UpTempo is led by a team of dedicated music educators and meets monthly prior to ASO concerts. There were several bands in attendance as well as School of Music alumna Faith Parker with her band from Clements Middle School.

Dr. Nathan Myrick, director of undergraduate studies and assistant professor of church music, presented “Hardcore Community and Radical Hospitality at Furnace Fest XX[i]” at the joint meeting of the American Musicological Society, Society for Ethnomusicology and Society for Music Theory on Nov. 11 in New Orleans. He also presented “Crowd Surfing in a Wheelchair: Trauma, Diversity, and Radical Hospitality at Furnace Fest XX[i]” at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion on Nov. 21 in Denver.

School of Theology

Dr. Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, professor emerita of Old Testament and Biblical languages, gave the Prevatte Old Testament lectures Nov. 8 at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. The titles of her lectures (both on the book of Psalms) were “The Embodied Praise of God in the Songs of Ascents” and “Finding the Feminine in the Enthronement Psalms.”

Dr. Rob Nash, professor of world Christianity, attended the Forum for Peace in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, as a representative of the Baptist World Alliance, where he serves as the chair of the Interfaith Relations Commission. The forum, organized by Sheik Bin Bayyah of the UAE, brought together representatives of world governments, religion professors, clerics and pastors, and leaders of various agencies to focus on the rights of minority religions in nations around the world.

University Libraries

Carly Jessup, research services librarian at Tarver Library, was selected to participate in the ALA Emerging Leaders Program, a leadership development program for early career librarians. Up to 50 librarians across the U.S. and Canada are selected for participation each year.

Featured photo by Matthew Smith