Faculty and Staff Notables

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College of Health Professions

Mallory Aycock, clinical assistant professor of physician assistant studies, and Catherine Sadowski, clinical assistant professor of physician assistant studies, received a $2,800 PA Oral Health Research Integration grant for “Longitudinal Integration of Oral Health Training into Physician Assistant Student Education.” 

Dr. Sheena Brown, clinical assistant professor of physician assistant studies, authored “Changing the Face of Health Care Providers, One Student at a Time” on Dec. 7 for the Physician Assistant Education Association.

College of Liberal Arts

Dr. David A. Davis, associate professor of English, was elected to the executive committee of the Society for the Study of Southern Literature.

Dr. Sarah E. Gardner, professor of history and director of the Center for Southern Studies, presented “Civil War Era Dime Novels” as part of a roundtable on “Literatures of the Civil War” at the Modern Language Association Conference Jan. 4-8 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Jonathan C. Glance, Benjamin W. Griffith Jr. Professor and chair of the Department of English, has a chapter, titled “A Screenplay-analysis of Huston's The Man Who Would Be King,” in the recently published book John Huston as Adaptor, part of the Horizons of Cinema series by the State University of New York Press.

Dr. Derek Glasgow, assistant professor of political science, authored “Has the Clean Air Interstate Rule Fulfilled its Mission? An Assessment of Federal Rulemaking in Preventing Regional Spillover Pollution,” which was accepted for publication in the Review of Policy Research.

Scot J. Mann, associate professor of communication and theatre, taught various movement and stage combat disciplines for the internationally renowned, annual stage combat workshop hosted in Chicago by Movement and Combat Education (MACE). He also adjudicated skills proficiency tests with the Society of American Fight Directors.

Dr. Anya Silver, professor of English, recently published “No, it's Not” in Inspired Georgia, ed. Judson Mitcham, UGA Press: 2016, 111. Her poems “Persimmon,” “Stage IV,” “No, it's Not” and “From Nothing” were republished in The Turning Aside: The Kingdom Poets Book of Contemporary Christian Poetry, ed. D.S. Martin. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 212-214. “Just Red” was republished in Ted Kooser's syndicated newspaper column, “American Life in Poetry,” on Dec. 26. Dr. Silver had a poetry reading at Georgia Tech on Nov. 3. Her book From Nothing was selected as one of the Parker Palmer Center for Courage and Renewal's most courageous books of 2016. She also was interviewed on the “Poetry Matters” blog on Dec. 31.

Dr. Richard F. Wilson, Columbus Roberts Professor and chair of the Department of Religion, completed three years as president of the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary in Monrovia, Liberia, on Dec. 31.

Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics

Dr. Gina L. Miller, professor of marketing, presented a paper, titled “Self-Planning as a Tool for Student Success in Online Marketing Classes,” at the Society of Marketing Advances annual conference on Nov. 4 in Atlanta. The corresponding paper was published in the conference proceedings.

Dr. Nikanor Volkov, assistant professor of finance, recently presented research at the Southern Finance Association's annual meeting in Sandestin, Florida, and at the Academy of Financial Services annual meeting in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is scheduled to present two papers at the Eastern Finance Association's annual meeting in Jacksonville, Florida. Dr. Volkov also was invited to serve a two-year term on the Technical Advisory Board of the Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness.

Dr. Lane Wakefield, assistant professor of sports business, will serve as session chair for the special session on “Sponsorship Effectiveness in International Sport” at the 2017 Winter American Marketing Association Conference Feb. 17-19 in Orlando, Florida. He recently became vice chair of industry engagement/social events for the Sport and Sponsorship-Linked Marketing Section of the American Marketing Association. Dr. Wakefield will co-present “Sponsorship Filtering: How Brands Disappear Among Fans Who Appear the Most” at the American Marketing Association 2017 Winter Educator's Conference in Orlando, Florida. He presented “Fan Identification Field Exercise” and co-presented “Fear of Missing Out on Ephemeral Social Media” at the Sport Marketing Association's 2016 Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Georgia Baptist College of Nursing

Dr. Tammy Barbé, assistant professor, had a manuscript, titled “What is the value of Nurse Educator Certification? A comparison study of certified and non-certified nurse educators,” accepted on Dec. 19 for publication in Nursing Education Perspectives.

Penfield College

Dr. Wesley N. Barker, assistant professor of religious studies, recently completed a certificate program in online course design and delivery. The 15-hour certificate program consists of three levels of hands-on instruction in the use of the University's learning management system, the application of instructional design methodologies to content development and the implementation and delivery of learning through the use of online tools.

Dr. Caroline M. Brackette, associate professor of counseling, authored a book chapter, titled “Hope Deferred,” in the edited text Child and Adolescent Counseling Case Studies: Developmental, Relational, Multicultural, and Systemic Perspectives published by Springer Publishing Company. Dr. Brackette presented “Addressing the Mental Health and Relational Needs of Black Student-Athletes” at the third annual Black Student-Athlete Summit at the University of Texas at Austin. The summit was live-streamed on ESPN.com. She was also featured as a subject matter expert for an article on ESPN's The Undefeated website, titled “Black Student-Athlete Summit Raises Awareness about Mental Health: Panelist Educate and Encourage Attendees to be More Proactive in Conversations about Mental Health,” written by associate editor Maya Jones. She also was an invited guest on the “Into the Fold” podcast segment on mental health and the Black student-athlete for the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

Dr. Colleen Stapleton, associate professor of science, and Dr. Sabrina Walthall, associate professor of science, attended the summit of InTeGrate grant recipients Dec. 7-8 at Carlton College. The purpose of the summit was to foster collaboration among the 16 universities that were recipients of the InTeGrate grant, funded by the National Science Foundation's STEP Center supporting teaching of undergraduate geoscience in the context of social issues. The goal of Mercer's grant is to improve earth literacy among adult learners and pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers.

School of Law

Scott Titshaw, associate professor and dean of academic affairs, will serve as a discussion leader and panelist for a panel, titled “Everybody Wants to Rule the World: Advocacy and Ethics,” at the annual conference of the Georgia-Alabama Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) in Atlanta in February. He served as discussion leader for “Life or Death: Immigration, Intersectionality and What You Can Do to Help on the National Call-In Panel,” co-sponsored by the National LGBT Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Association and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association in November. He also served as panelist on “The Immigration Debate: Confronting our Fears” as part of Mercer's “Perspectives in Law” series in November.

School of Medicine

Dr. Jennifer L. Barkin, assistant professor of community medicine and obstetrics and gynecology, published an invited editorial, titled “Self-Esteem in Women and Messaging Across the Life Course,” in the Journal of Women's Health.

Dr. Hemant Goyal, assistant professor of medicine and assistant program director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program, published “Level of red cell distribution width is affected by various factors” along with a letter to the editor in the December edition of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine.

Dr. David Gu, assistant professor of physiology, recently published a peer-reviewed research article, titled “Activation of bitter taste receptors in pulmonary nociceptors sensitizes TRPV1 channels through PLC and PKC signaling pathway,” in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology (doi:10.1152/ajplung.00468.2016). Carolyn Gilbert, research technician, and Deanna Joe, summer scholar and current third-year medical student, are co-authors of the study.

Rebecca Hayes, education coordinator for the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship and Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, was invited to speak on “Introduction to Program Management” at the fourth annual conference of the Massachusetts Society of Academic Medical Administrators Feb. 28 in Boston.

Staff and Administration

Jeff Barrett, IT support technician of client support services, successfully completed the requirements to be recognized as a Microsoft Certified Professional.

Aaron Coonce, IT support specialist of client support services, successfully completed the requirements to be recognized as CompTIA Network+ Certified.

Dr. Melissa Cruz, director of graduate admissions, was invited to serve on the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers Public Policy Advisory Group.

Steve Ford, IT support analyst of client support services, received the 2017 Help Desk Institute (HDI) Runner-Up Analyst of the Year Award for the South Central Region. HDI is a national organization of professionals whose mission is to elevate the customer experience through the development of the technical support industry.  

John Hamner, IT support specialist/junior SCCM administrator of client support services, successfully completed the requirements to be recognized as a Microsoft Certified Professional.

Ben Kienker, IT support technician of client support services, successfully completed the requirements to be recognized as CompTIA A+ Certified.

Scott Mahone, assistant director of regional academic center operations, will serve as TEMPO Military Planning Wargame facilitator and guest speaker for the Department of Defense Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation Feb. 20-22 in Fort Benning in support of the upcoming Defense Resources Management and Logistics (DRML) course. The course, conducted in Spanish, is designed to provide senior-level military, police and civilian officials with decision-making skills, budgeting and financial management principles and concepts related to defense resources and logistics management in a global environment. Participants are from the countries of Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. 

Tift College of Education

Vicki Luther, associate professor of education, conducted two paper presentation sessions, titled “Examining Preservice Educators' Perceptions of Teaching Children of Poverty” and “P-20 Collaboration and Induction Practices: Enhancing Teacher Preparation in Georgia,” Jan. 3-6 at the Hawaii International Conference on Education.

Townsend School of Music

Adrian Gnam, Distinguished Artist in Residence, organized the 14th annual International Conductors Workshop and Competition held Jan 13-16 at Lanier High School in Atlanta. Fifteen conductors from China, South Korea, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, New York, Michigan, Indiana and California, conducted the professional ICWC Orchestra on a culminating free concert on Jan. 16 featuring works by Schubert, Brahms, Dvorak, Verdi, Strauss and Tchaikovsky. The conductors participated in seven rehearsals and a master class during the four-day workshop, which has become one of the most well-known and highly regarded conductor training programs in the nation.

Amy Schwartz Moretti, associate professor, director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings and Caroline Paul King Chair in Strings, appeared as guest artist performing works by Brahms, Mozart, Ravel and Aaron Jay Kernis for chamber music concerts at the Winter Festival of the Seattle Chamber Music Society in Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall on Jan. 20-22. As a member of the Ehnes Quartet, Moretti recorded two string quartets in England – Schubert's “String Quartet No. 14 in D minor 'Death and the Maiden' D810” paired with Sibelius' “String Quartet in D minor 'Voces Intimae' Op. 56” – that were featured on a new album released on Nov. 18 by Onyx Classics.