College of Continuing and Professional Studies
Dr. Charles H. Roberts, associate professor of mathematics, attended a national meeting of the American Association of Colleges and University March 27-29 in Chicago. The meeting was titled “Diversity, Learning, and Student Success: Policy, Practice, Privilege.”
Dr. Kathy D. Robinson, assistant professor of counseling, will lead a team from Atlanta on May 16 to attend the fifth College Suicide Prevention Conference at Middle Georgia State College. The conference is hosted by the suicide prevention program of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) and the Suicide Prevention Coalition of Georgia (SPCG). The theme is “Building Suicide Safer College and University Communities: Strategies and Interventions.” Dr. Robinson also serves as the chair for the outreach committee for the state of Georgia in the development of this conference.
College of Health Professions
Dr. Cheryl Gaddis, assistant professor of practice, and M.P.H. candidate Nicole Watts, presented “Food Access and Security Assessment of Bibb County, Georgia: A Food Security Monitoring Pilot Study” at the Georgia Public Health Association's 85th Annual Meeting and Conference in Atlanta, March 10.
College of Liberal Arts
Craig Coleman, associate professor of art, wrote a Knight Neighborhood Challenge Grant, which was awarded to the Art Department in April. The $65,000 grant will be used to create a temporary public art program over the next two years in Tattnall Square Park, titled “Art in the Park.” Coleman also had a solo exhibition of his art, titled “Projected Worlds,” at Middle Georgia State College. The exhibit was on display from Nov. 11, 2013-Jan. 17, 2014 in the Peacock Gallery of Russell Hall. He presented a gallery talk on Nov. 11 at 6 p.m. in the Peacock Gallery. Coleman's art was included in a traveling collage exhibition, titled “GLUE,” at The University of Florida's WARPhaus Gallery in Gainesville, Florida. The show was on display from March 7-30.
Dr. Wallace L. Daniel, Distinguished University Professor of History, had a keynote lecture that was delivered at the Keston Center for Religion, Politics and Society's fall meeting at Baylor University published by the Keston Institute, Oxford, England, in its Keston Newsletter, no. 19 (2014). The article is titled “The Memory Keepers, Past and Present.”
Dr. David A. Davis, associate professor of English and Southern studies, was selected as a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Scholar and will attend a four-week institute, titled “Reconsidering Flannery O'Connor,” to be held in Milledgeville at Georgia College.
Dr. John Marson Dunaway, professor of French and interdisciplinary studies, was selected Faculty Member of the Year by the Student Government Association at the Honors Convocation, April 11. Dr. Dunaway delivered the annual Last Chance Lecture, April 10, and he was also awarded the third annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major for Justice Award presented by the Evangelical Ministers Alliance of Macon and Vicinity. It was presented in absentia, April 4. Dr. Dunaway read a passage from his newly-published translation of Vladimir Volkoff's The Pope's Guest (Mercer UP, 2013) at the Annual Southeast Regional Conference on Christianity and Literature at Palm Beach Atlantic University, April 4.
Dr. Sarah E. Gardner, professor of history, participated in a roundtable discussion, “Beyond Southern Honor,” and presented a paper, “The Making of a Bestseller: Lillian Smith's Strange Fruit and World-War II America,” at the Society for the Study of Southern Literature Conference in Arlington, Virginia, March 27-29.
Dr. Leona Kanter, associate professor of sociology, received a proclamation from Georgia Secretary of State Brian P. Kemp, March 6, proclaiming her an Outstanding Georgia Citizen. Dr. Kanter was nominated by a former student, Farooq Mughal (CLA '00), who is the former co-chair of the Atlanta Steering Committee of the White House Initiatives on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Summit.
Dr. Achim Kopp, professor of foreign languages and literatures and director of the Great Books Program, attended the 38th Annual Symposium of the Society for German-American Studies in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, April 10-12. He delivered a paper, titled “Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg's Journey to the Colony of Georgia, 1735-36,” and, in his capacity as treasurer of the Society, gave the treasurer's report to the executive committee and the members.
Dr. Anya Silver, professor of English, gave poetry readings at: Lee University, Cleveland. Tennessee, March 25; Mercer, March 18; Wesleyan College, April 8; Middle Georgia State College, April 14. Her poem, “In the Sanatorium,” was published by the Academy of American Poets as their Poem of the Day, April 8. Dr. Silver was interviewed by Georgia Public Broadcasting about her new book, and 13WMAZ filmed a news segment on her.
Dr. Vasile Stanescu, director of debate, was chosen as the Judge of the Year by the Georgia Parliamentary Debate Association. Dr. Stanescu also debated with Joel Salatin, who appeard in the film “Food, Inc.,” in Vermont.
Marian Zielinski, professor of theater, published an art quilt, titled “Beckoning of Night,” in the spring 2014 issue of Studio Art Quilt Associates Journal. The quilt is on display at the Cafrritz Foundation Arts Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, until May 9. She also won third place in the Middle Georgia Art Association's spring show for an art quilt, titled “Genesis,” also on exhibit until May 9.
College of Pharmacy
Dr. Maria M. Thurston, clinical assistant professor, co-authored “Clinical considerations for insulin pharmacotherapy in ambulatory care, part one: introduction and review of current products and guidelines” in Clinical Diabetes 2014;32(2):66-75.
Georgia Baptist College of Nursing
Kim Callahan, clinical assistant professor, Desiree Clement, clinical instructor, and Sarah Podbielski, clinical instructor, presented a poster, titled “From Clinical Expert to Novice Educator: Strategies to Facilitate the Nurse Role Transition,” at the 2014 Atlanta Research Conference, April 12.
Susan Estes, clinical associate professor, and Elaine Harris, clinical associate professor, presented nursing research, titled “The New Normal: The Widespread Use of Clinical Adjunct Faculty,” at the National Conference for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Commons, in Savannah, March 24 (co-investigator Dr. JoEllen Dattilo, associate dean and professor). Estes also presented research, titled “Cultural Engagement: Baccalaureate Nursing Students' Experiences in Appalachia,” at the Mercer Atlanta Research Conference, April 12 (co-investigators Fran Kamp, clinical associate professor and Dr. Dattilo). Also at the Mercer Atlanta Research Conference, Estes and Mary Beerman, clinical assistant professor, presented “The Flip Side: Students' View of a Non-Traditional Approach” (co-investigators Harris and Dr. Dattilo). Estes and Harris presented a poster of inter-professional research, titled “Evaluation of Graduate and Professional Degree Student Perceptions of Spirituality Using Validated Survey Instruments,” at the Mercer Atlanta Research Conference, April 12 (nursing co-investigator Ann Keeley, clinical associate professor). Estes participated as a panel member to review Medical-Surgical vSim Scenarios (clinical virtual simulation scenarios) published by Laerdal Medical and Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, April 2. Estes also participated as a reviewer of Lippincott (Virtual Simulation) Clinical Scenarios for Fundamentals of Nursing by Laerdal Medical and Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, March 26. Estes also reviewed the textbook Focus on Adult Health: Medical Surgical Nursing, (2014) Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, March 4.
Laura P. Kimble, professor, presented a poster at the April 2014 Society for Behavioral Medicine conference.
Grace G. Lewis, clinical associate professor, presented at the 62nd Annual National Student Nurses Association Convention: The Evolution of Breakthrough to Nursing.
Karen Maxwell, clinical assistant professor, received the Judy Bonner Nurse Educator of the Year Award from the University of Alabama. Maxwell is a current doctoral candidate at The University of Alabama.
McAfee School of Theology
Christy Y. Dinkins, enrollment associate, will graduate with a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from Georgia Southern University, May 9.
Dr. R. Alan Culpepper, dean, was an invited participant at the annual Interfaith Theology Conference at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Jan. 19-23, and he has begun planning an interfaith theology conference at Mercer this coming fall. In March, he chaired a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools reaffirmation visit to the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and April 6-8 he attended a conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on “Student Debt and the Cost of Theological Education,” jointly sponsored by the Lilly Endowment and the Association of Theological Schools.
School of Engineering
Dr. Susan Codone, associate professor of technical communication, was selected as a Governor's Teaching Fellow, a highly selective program sponsored by the Institute of Higher Education and the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia. Dr. Codone will participate in a two-week summer symposium May 12-23.
Dr. Paul E. MacNeil, associate professor, presented the results of his research at an annual national meeting of the American Physical Society in Savannah on April 7. This research applies computational intelligence techniques to a computational physics problem. The title of the presentation was “Equation Solution Figures of Merit, Metaheuristic Search, and the Schrodinger Equation.” The abstract appears in the April 2014 issue of the Bulletin of the American Physical Society.
Dr. Richard O. Mines Jr., professor of environmental engineering and director of engineering graduate programs, presented “The Impact of Testing Frequency and Final Exams on Student Performance” at the American Society for Engineering Education Southeastern Section Meeting hosted by Mercer, March 30-April 1. The paper was published in the conference proceedings.
Dr. Behnam Kamali, professor of electrical and computer engineering, published and presented an article, titled “IEEE 802.16j-Relay Fortified AeroMACS Networks; Benefits and Challenges,” at IEEE Integrated Communications, Navigation, and Surveillance Conference (IEEE ICNS 2014) in Washington, D.C., in April. This article was written jointly with Rafael Apaza of NASA Glenn Research Center and reflected Dr. Kamali's continued collaborative research work in AeroMACS area with NASA and FAA.
School of Medicine
Dr. Edward C. Lauterbach, professor emeritus of psychiatry and neurology, was appointed to the editorial board of the American Journal of Neurodegenerative Disease as a senior editor.
Dr. Eric K. Shaw, associate professor of community medicine, served as a research consultant for an Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)-funded research conference that brought together representatives from primary care practices from across the U.S. who were identified as being exemplar Patient-Centered Medical Homes and have implemented innovative healthcare service and health information technology strategies. The conference was held in Denver, Colorado, April 8-10.
Dr. Melton Strozier, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was cited in the journal American Psychologist as one of several psychologists who have made notable contributions to medical education. (“Psychologists in Medical Schools and Academic Medical Centers: Over 100 years of Growth, Influence, and Partnership.” Robiner et al., 69:3, p. 240). Dr. Strozier attended the semiannual conference of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) in San Antonio, Texas, April 10-13, representing Georgia to this international association of psychology licensing boards.
Staff and Administration
Tony Kemp, associate director of Academic and Advising Services, served on the production staff for the second consecutive year for the Sixth Annual Georgia High School Musical Theatre Awards at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, April 16-17.
Stetson School of Business and Economics
Dr. Susan Gilbert, dean, gave the talk, “The Business School Business,” at the Delta Sigma Pi Southeastern meeting.
Dr. Allen K. Lynch, associate professor of economics and quantitative methods, had an article, titled “Measuring the impact of crime on house process” (in Applied Economics 33 (15), 1981-1989), receive its 100th citation, according to Google Scholar.
Dr. Kathy Mack, assistant professor of management, had her paper, “Nashville Sounds! Music and Voice in Management Education,” accepted for presentation at the Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, to be held this June.
Dr. Geoffrey M. Ngene, assistant professor of finance, presented three papers at the Southwestern Finance Association (SWFA) conference at Dallas, Texas, in March: “Long Memory or Structural Breaks: Some Evidence for African Stock Markets,” “Testing Random Walk in the Presence of Multiple Structural Breaks: Evidence from Emerging Markets, and Fundamentals versus Speculation: What Really Drives Spillovers and Informed trading in Futures” and “Spot markets of Refined Petroleum products?” One of his undergraduate students, Charles Lambert, presented a paper, “Short predictability of Commodity Futures Returns using Multiple variance ratio Tests,” which was co-authored by Dr. Ngene.
Dr. Faye Sisk, professor of management and director of the Executive and Professional M.B.A. Programs, presented at the EMBA Council Meeting in New Orleans, March 11. Her presentation was titled “Academic Integrity and Student Advising,” and was co-presented with Carol Spansel, associate director of executive education at Tulane University.
Tift College of Education
Dr. Kevin Jenkins, associate professor, was appointed to the board of directors for Globe Charter Academy in DeKalb County. Also, Dr. Jenkins and Dia Sekayi of Georgia Tech had an article, titled “Teacher's Perceptions of the Implementation of Response to Intervention in Light of IDEA Goals,” published in the Feb. 14 edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals.
Dr. Joseph R. Jones, assistant professor of education, has authored a book that will be released this summer. Unnormalizing Education: Addressing Homophobia in Higher Education and K-12 Schools is in the final publication stage. In the book, he coins the term “unnormalizing education” and examines educators' roles in dismantling heteronormativity within educational environments. Dr. Jones' article, “Purple Boas, Lesbian Affection and John Deere Hats: Teacher Educators' Role in Addressing Homophobia in Secondary Schools,” was published this month in Teacher Education and Practice, a top-tier educational journal. Further, he was invited to write an article for Educational Practice and Reform, which he titled “Unnormalizing Education: Reconceptualizing How Teacher Education Programs Can Combat Homophobia in K-12 Schools.” In addition to his scholarly publications, he has presented eight presentations at international/national and regional conferences this semester.
Dr. William Lacefield, professor of mathematics education, presented “Building Bridges between Children's Literature and Mathematics” at the British Congress of Mathematics Education, held April 14-17 at the University of Nottingham in Nottingham, U.K. At the same conference, Dr. Lacefield and Cathy Costello, head of mathematics at the British Recording Industry Trust (BRIT) School of London, presented “Building Bridges between Number Sense and Number Enjoyment.”
Townsend School of Music
Amy Schwartz Moretti, director of the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, associate professor and Caroline Paul King Chair in Strings, performed trios by Beethoven, Brahms and Schoenfeld with cellist Edward Arron and pianist Pauline Martin for the Chamber Soloists of Detroit at the Henry Ford Estate in Michigan, April 2, and the First Presbyterian Church of Farmington, Michigan, April 4. She performed the “Chopin Trio” with cellist Gregory Sauer and pianist Michelle Schumann for the Austin Chamber Music Center concerts in Austin, Texas, April 11-12.Moretti's collaboration with James Ehnes for “Prokofiev's Sonata for Two Violins” is part of the two-CD set, James Ehnes Plays Prokofiev: Complete Works for Violin (Chandos*Naxos), which won the 2014 Juno Award for “Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble,” in Winnipeg, Manitoba, March 29. Ehnes' new album of Khachaturian's “Violin Concerto” paired with “Shostakovich's String Quartets Nos. 7&8” (Onyx Classics), recorded with the Ehnes Quartet, of which Moretti is a member, has been released in the U.K. and Europe and will be released April 8 in the U.S. and Canada.
Walter F. George School of Law
Theodore Blumoff, professor of law, published the book, “When Nature and Nurture Collide: Early Childhood Trauma, Adult Crime and the Limits of Criminal Law,” (Carolina Academic Press 2014). His article, “Rationality, Insanity, and the Insanity Defense: Reflections on the Limits of Reason,” will appear in 39 Law and Psychology Review (2014).
Rachel Gordon, access services librarian, gave four presentations at the Southeastern Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries Annual Meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, in April. At the preconference institute, “Show Your Career Who's Boss,” she coordinated and participated in a panel of law librarians who shared their experiences working in different types of libraries. At the conference, she presented “What You Don't Know Can Hurt You: Privacy Audits,” which explored privacy laws and issues in law libraries, and provided instructions on how to conduct a privacy audit. Gordon also gave two short ignite talks: “RECAP the Law,” explaining a free browser extension supplementing PACER for federal court documents, and “Get CLE Credit Where Credit is Due,” covering how to earn continuing legal education credits for law school and library activities.
David Hricik, professor of law, published the book Patent Ethics – Litigation (2d ed. LexisNexis 2013). Hricik also presented a national webinar for the American Intellectual Property Law Association on Conflicts in Patent Practice, and gave a presentation for Georgia probate judges on ethical issues using technology in Athens. Hricik also gave a presentation on spotting conflicts of interest to the Georgia State Bar IP Section. Hricik was appointed to serve as chair of the Student and Law Clerk Committee of the Federal Bar Association.
Jeremy Kidd, assistant professor of law, published “Kindergarten Coase,” 17 Green Bag 2d 141 (2014). Kidd presented “What is Litigation Financing?” before the Insurance Interim Committee of the Indiana State Legislature, Oct. 9, 2013. Kidd also presented “Kindergarten Coase” at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting, Aug. 8, 2013.
Patrick E. Longan, W.A. Bootle Chair in Ethics and Professionalism, published “Legal Ethics, Annual Survey of Georgia Law” in 65 Mercer Law Review 175 (2013); “Defining and Enforcing the Federal Prosecutor's Duty to Disclose Exculpatory Evidence: Foreword,” in 64 Mercer Law Review 363 (2013) (with James P. Fleissner); and “Introduction to a Conversation with The Honorable W. Homer Drake, Jr.” in 20 Journal of Southern Legal History 1 (2013). Longan was the moderator for a presentation on “Ethics and Professionalism: Perspectives After Forty Years at the Bar,” in Macon in March. Longan was the program co-chair for the Beginning Lawyers Program, Georgia Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Atlanta in February. Also in February, Longan was the moderator for “Acting for Your Client” at the Beginning Lawyers Program in Atlanta. Longan presented on “Lawyers and Fiduciaries,” the Clifton B. Kruse Jr. Memorial Ethics and Professionalism Lecture, National Institute on Aging and the Law, in Washington, D.C., in November. Longan also was a panelist for “Interviewing the Client with Diminished Capacity” at the National Institute on Aging and the Law.
Teri McMurtry-Chubb, associate professor of law, has been elected president-elect of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD). McMurtry-Chubb is the first person of color to lead ALWD, a non-profit professional association of directors of legal reasoning, research, writing, analysis and advocacy programs from law schools throughout the United States, Canada and Australia. ALWD has more than 300 members representing more than 150 law schools. McMurtry-Chubb will serve as president-elect from Aug. 1, 2014-July 31, 2015, and will assume the presidency of the organization on Aug. 1, 2015. She has served on the ALWD Board of Directors for the last three years, and is the first person of color elected to a position on the board.
Michael D. Sabbath, Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute and W. Homer Drake Jr. Endowed Chair in Bankruptcy Law, presented a paper on “Bankruptcy and the Elderly” at the 20th Annual Mid-South Conference on Bankruptcy Law in Memphis, Tennessee. He also presented a paper on “Recent Developments in Bankruptcy Law” at the 40th Annual Bankruptcy Law Institute in Atlanta, March 20-22. Sabbath, along with Patrick Longan, W.A. Bootle Chair in Ethics and Professionalism in the Practice of Law and director of the Mercer Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism, and Lisa Ritchey, Mercer Law alumna, recorded an oral history of the Honorable W. Homer Drake Jr. A transcript of this oral history was published in Vol. 21 of the Journal of Southern Legal History (2013) in March. The oral history is available online at www.youtube.com/mercerlawschool.
Jack Sammons, professor emeritus, conducted a seminar at Notre Dame University with Robert Audi, April 15, on the topic, “The Role of Intuition in Judicial Decision-Making.”
Karen J. Sneddon, associate professor of law, published “Memento Mori: Death and Wills” in 14 Wyoming Law Review 211 (2014). Sneddon was a speaker for “Who I will Become: Legal Writing's Role in the Formation of Professional Identity” at the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conference, Boyd School of Law in Las Vegas, Nevada, March 29. Sneddon is a member of the 2014 Committee on Committees for the AALS Section on Legal Writing, Legal Research and Legal Reasoning. Sneddon also received the 2013-2014 Adjunct/Visiting Faculty of the Year award at the William S. Boys School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The award is determined by student vote.
Scott Titshaw, associate professor, will be a panelist for “After Windsor” at the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Workshop on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues in June. Also in June, Titshaw will be a panelist for “Marriages Between Same-Sex Couples Cases” at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Annual Conference in Boston. In April, Titshaw was a moderator for “Resolving Business Disputes having an International Aspect: Georgia's New International Arbitration Code and its Use,” at ATLAS & ILSA in Macon. Titshaw presented on “Immigration and Same Sex Couples; Views on Sexual Minority Issues” at the Third Annual Same Sex Legal Issues Conference at the State Bar of Georgia in Atlanta in March. Titshaw also presented “Administrative Proceedings: Social Security and Immigration” at the ABA HIV/AIDS Law and Practice Conference in Atlanta in February. Titshaw was awarded the Fulbright-Schuman E.U. Affairs Program Award (2014-15), jointly financed by the U.S. State Department and the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission, to conduct research at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and at Leiden University's Grotius Centre for International Studies in The Hague, Netherlands.
