College of Health Professions
Dr. Henry Heard, clinical assistant professor, and Dr. Jill Mattingly, clinical assistant professor, completed doctoral studies and received Doctor of Health Science degrees from Nova Southeastern University on March 11.
College of Liberal Arts
Dr. David A. Davis, associate professor of English, gave the presentation “Minding the Store: Furnish Merchants and Sharecropping Microfinance” at the American Literature Association conference in San Francisco, California.
Dr. John Marson Dunaway, professor emeritus of French and interdisciplinary studies, authored a translation of Paul Claudel's sequence of poems on the Stations of the Cross, The Way of the Cross/Le Chemin de la Croix, published in Logos, Vol. 19:2, spring 2016, pp. 177-186. Dr. Dunaway gave a presentation on “Under the Gaze of the Bible: A Sorbonne Philosopher's Reflections on Scripture” at the Southeast Conference on Christianity and Literature on April 29 at Montreat College in Montreat, North Carolina. Additionally, his translation of Vladimir Volkoff's last novel, Le Tortionnaire/The Torturer, was published by Mercer University Press.
Dr. Sarah E. Gardner, professor of history, organized and chaired a panel on “Michael O'Brien, Intellectual History, and the History of the American South” at the meeting of the Organization of American Historians, April 8-11 in Providence, Rhode Island.
Dr. Kathryn Kloepper, associate professor of chemistry and director of the Great Books Program, co-authored “Solid-state NMR structure of a pathogenic fibril of alpha-synuclein” in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. The article was featured on the May journal cover and in “News and Views.”
Scot J. Mann, associate professor of communication and theatre, choreographed violence for the Alliance Theatre's production of “Disgraced.” He also adjudicated skills proficiency tests for with the Society of American Fight Directors for the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Kennesaw State University, Reinhardt University, East Carolina University and the University of Central Florida. He also served as master instructor for professional seminars at Louisiana Tech, the University of Central Florida, Regent University and Georgia Tech. Mann serves as vice president of the Single Action Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois.
Dr. Anya Silver, professor of English, published “Raven,” “Ash Wednesday, Unshowered” and “Tenebra” in Image, spring 2016, 92-94. She also gave a poetry reading at Trinity Eastside Church on May 26 in Decatur.
Dr. Beth Stewart, professor of art and Frances Sewell Plunkett Chair, presented a paper, titled “Interesting Weather Ahead: Thoughts on Leonardo da Vinci's Deluge Drawings,” at an international conference on “The Flow of Ideas: Leonardo da Vinci and Water” held May 20-21 at the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. The abstract will be published in an article in the newsletter of the Leonardo da Vinci Society in the United Kingdom. Dr. Stewart also exhibited six works in a group show, titled “Creative Visions: Works by Mercer University Art Faculty,” from May 13-June 26 at the Lamar Arts Gallery in Barnesville.
Dr. Margaret Symington, professor of mathematics, gave a talk, titled “From Hamiltonian S1-spaces to semi-toric systems,” on March 5 in the Special Session on Symplectic and Contact Geometry at the Southeastern Sectional Meeting of the American Mathematical Society in Athens. Additionally, she gave a talk, titled “Gluing Hamiltonian integrable systems with S1-symmetry,” on March 18 at the conference Topological and Quantitative Aspects of Symplectic Manifolds, hosted by Barnard College and Columbia University in New York, New York.
Dr. Charlotte Thomas, professor of philosophy and co-director of the McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles, helped organize the A.V. Elliott Conference on Great Books and Ideas, March 22-24, on the Macon campus. The theme of this year's conference was “1776” and it included 11 nationally and internationally recognized scholars for two days of panel presentations and lectures. The conference also featured a panel of presentations by Mercer undergraduates. Dr. Thomas was an invited participant in “Freedom in the Enlightenment,” the 2016 spring colloquium sponsored by the Benjamin Franklin Initiative with support from the Templeton Foundation and Jack Miller Center for America's Founding Principles, May 4-6, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She served as discussion leader for “Free Will, Character, Fate, and Dharma in the Mahabharata,” a colloquium sponsored by Liberty Fund, May 12-15, in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was interviewed by Celeste Headlee for the Georgia Public Broadcasting show “On Second Thought” on ancient democracy for a segment, titled “Does Democracy have a Timeline?” Additionally, Dr. Thomas is leading a group of 18 Mercer students, faculty, alumni and friends on a three-week travel and study program, titled “Philosophy and Art in Athens,” which runs from May 23-June 10. Eric O'Dell, assistant professor of art, and Marc Jolley, director of Mercer University Press, are also faculty members in the program. Classes offered this summer are “Drawing Fundamentals,” “Human Nature and Art,” “Philosophy of Mythology” and an INT 301 based on Herodotus's Histories. Next summer, the program will return to Florence, Italy.
Dr. Bryan Whitfield, associate professor of Christianity, presented a paper, titled “Hebrews and Numbers,” at the annual meeting of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion meeting, May 24 at Baylor University.
Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics
Jody Blanke, Ernest L. Baskin Jr. Distinguished Professor of Computer Information Systems and Law, co-authored the article “Smart Cities, Big Data, and the Resilience of Privacy,” which made the Social Science Research Network's top 10 in downloads in 11 different categories. Blanke also led a study abroad trip for MBA and BBA students to Prague and Vienna.
Dr. Susan Gilbert, dean, was included for the third year in a row in the Atlanta Business Chronicle's “Who's Who in Education, the Top 100 Leaders in Education,” published in the May 13 edition. Additionally, Dr. Gilbert spoke at The State of Small Business Summit, a conference hosted by SCORE, May 5, at Middle Georgia College and State University.
Stephanie Morris, instructor of accounting, organized a successful effort to have a chapter of Beta Alphi Psi, the international honor organization for accounting, finance and information systems students attending universities accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, approved at Mercer.
Dr. Briana Stenard, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship, co-authored “Educational Mismatch, Work Outcomes, and Entry into Entrepreneurship,” which was accepted for publication in Organization Science. Dr. Stenard also co-authored “Technology Commercialization: Cooperative versus Competitive Strategies” in Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Economic Growth, Vol. 19.
Mercer Engineering Research Center
Dr. Nathan Branch, senior mechanical engineer, and Greg Wood, principle mechanical engineer, won the award for the Best Paper in the Product Support Systems Technology category at the recent American Helicopter Society Forum in West Palm Beach, Florida. Dr. Tom Brussat, subcontractor, was also an author. The award-winning paper is titled “HH-60G Airframe Service Life via Multi-Element Damage Monte Carlo Risk Analysis.”
Penfield College
Dr. Caroline Brackette, associate professor of counseling, was appointed to serve as co-chair of the American Counseling Association's Professional Standards Committee. President-elect Catherine Roland and the board approved the appointment at the March ACA Governing Council meeting. The appointment is for the 2016-2017 year, beginning July 1.
Dr. David Lane, professor of counseling, and Dr. Donna Lane, adjunct professor of counseling, had an article, titled “Utilizing Narrative Methodology in Trauma Treatment with Haitian Earthquake Survivors,” published in the Journal of Loss and Trauma. Additionally, Dr. David Lane and Dr. Donna Lane presented “Trauma Narrative Treatment” at the Licensed Professional Counselors Association of Georgia's annual convention on May 6 in Stone Mountain.
Dr. Charles H. Roberts, associate professor of mathematics, presented a paper, titled “Implementing, Coordinating and Sustaining a Success Strategy for Mathematics Instruction with High Impact Supplementary Support,” at the 27th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning, April 4-7, in Jacksonville, Florida.
School of Engineering
Dr. Susan Codone, associate professor and director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, completed the first of two Fulbright Specialist assignments at Universidad Central del Este (East Central University) in April in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. The second assignment is planned for June. Dr. Codone is working with faculty and administration to increase the effectiveness of academic units and to provide professional development for professors, with support from the U.S. Embassy's educational affairs office and guidance from the Dominican Republic Ministry of Education and Ministry of Higher Education.
Dr. Richard O. Mines Jr., professor of environmental engineering and director of MSE and associated MS programs, co-authored a paper, titled “Oxygen Transfer Studies in the Activated Sludge Process,” which was published in the proceedings and presented as a poster at the 2016 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress on May 22-26 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Six of the co-authors were Brazilian students who worked with Dr. Mines in his laboratory last summer.
School of Medicine
Dr. Jennifer L. Barkin, assistant professor of community medicine and obstetrics and gynecology, was nominated for the Herbert W. Nickens Award for outstanding junior faculty. The award is sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Dr. Edward C. Klatt, professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Biomedical Problems Program director, received the Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Pathology Informatics, May 24, at the Pathology Informatics Summit meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Klatt also served as the poster judge at the meeting.
Judy Meirose, library instructor and systems and electronic resources librarian, received her Sierra System Coordinator certificate from library software vendor Innovative Interfaces Inc. in May.
Staff and Administration
Dr. Kelly McMichael, director of university assessment in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, presented “Assessment as Telling Your Learning Story,” an interactive session at the annual conference of the Association for Assessment of Learning in Higher Education, June 6-8, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Tift College of Education
Dr. Justus Randolph, associate professor, co-authored “Academic achievement and creative and playful learning on technology-enriched playgrounds: An international investigation” in Interactive Learning Environments, 24(3), 409-422.
Dr. Wynnetta Scott-Simmons, associate professor, co-presented a symposium, titled “Unsettling Ethics in the Curriculum: Research Praxis and Pedagogies,” at the American Educational Research Association's annual conference in Washington, D.C. Dr. Scott-Simmons also co-presented “Passionate Pursuits from an Emic Perspective: African American Female Doctoral Candidates Researching for Recognition, Inclusion, and Transformation” at the Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative's annual conference in Savannah.
Townsend School of Music
Amy Schwartz Moretti, director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, associate professor and Caroline Paul King Chair in Strings, presented a recital, May 22, in Seattle with pianist Orion Weiss performing works by Mozart, Dvo?ák, Gershwin/Heifetz and Massinet to benefit the Seattle Chamber Music Society.
University Libraries
Laura Botts, associate professor in the Division of Library Services, served as president of the Association of Librarians and Archivists at Baptist Institutions and presided over the May 23-25 meeting at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. At the meeting, she also presented on “Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Baptist Women in Ministry Collections at Mercer University.”
Gregg A. Stevens, public services librarian, presented the poster “Building Connections: Outreach during the First Year as a Liaison Librarian” at the annual meeting of the Medical Library Association (MLA), May 17, in Toronto, Ontario. Also at that meeting, he was presented as one of the four recipients of the 2016-2017 MLA Rising Star Award.
Kathryn Wright, instructor in the Division of Library Services, held a mini-workshop, titled “Identification and Care of Archival Materials: Best Practices for Archivists and Historians,” at the May 23-25 meeting of the Association of Librarians and Archivists at Baptist Institutions at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
Walter F. George School of Law
Erin Corken, adjunct professor, authored “The Changing Expectation of Privacy: Keeping Up with the Millennial Generation and Looking Toward the Future” in 42 Northern Kentucky Law Review 287 (2015).
David Hricik, professor, was elected to the American Law Institute and also selected as a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. In addition to giving several speeches around the country to state, local and national bar associations, the fourth edition of a book that he co-authors, Patent Ethics (Prosecution), was published.
K. Alex Khoury, adjunct professor, authored “Electronic Discovery, Eleventh Circuit Survey,” which was accepted for publication in 67 Mercer Law Review.
Dr. David Ritchie, professor of law and philosophy and director of international programs, met with the staff of the Education USA office in Bangkok, Thailand, to discuss Mercer's international programs.
Scott Titshaw, associate professor, authored “Same-Sex Spouses Lost in Translation? How to Interpret 'Spouse' in the EU Family Migration Directives” in 34 Boston University International Law Journal 45 (2016).
