College of Liberal Arts
Dr. Jonathan Addleton, adjunct instructor of international and global studies, is one of six Northwestern University alumni who will be inducted into the Medill Hall of Achievement on May 18. The Hall of Achievement was established in 1997 to honor Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications alumni whose distinctive careers have had positive effects on their fields. Dr. Addleton spoke about his recent book, The Dust of Kandahar: A Diplomat Among Warriors in Afghanistan, at the American Foreign Service Association April 6 in Washington, D.C. He also took part in a panel, titled “Unseen Sacrifices,” April 8 at the Annapolis Book Festival in Annapolis, Maryland. Additionally, Dr. Addleton was interviewed about his experience as a U.S. ambassador for an editorial in the Quad City Times based in Davenport, Iowa.
Dr. David A. Davis, associate professor of English, was appointed by the College Board to the College Level Examination Program test development committee for American Literature.
Dr. John M. Dunaway, professor emeritus of French and interdisciplinary studies, was interviewed March 23 via Skype on topics of multiculturalism and tolerance by English as a Second Language (ESOL) students at Bosphorus University in Istanbul, Turkey. He delivered a paper, titled “Volkoff's The Torturer: The Drama of a French Intelligence Officer in the Algerian War,” at the annual Southeast Conference on Christianity and Literature at Covenant College April 7 in Lookout Mountain. He hosted a screening and led a discussion of the movie Remember the Titans with Mercer football players April 13 on campus. This event was in collaboration with Willis Slater Productions' 19th annual Ethnic Awareness Week. He also was the invited guest preacher at High Street Unitarian Universalist Church April 23 in Macon, where he spoke on “A Vision for Beloved Community.”
Dr. Sarah E. Gardner, professor of history and director of the Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies, gave a book talk on her forthcoming publication, Reviewing the South: The Literary Marketplace and the Southern Renaissance, 1920-1941 (Cambridge University Press), April 13 at the University of South Carolina.
Dr. Will Jordan, associate professor of political science and co-director of the McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles, presented “Self-Interest Well Understood in the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses April 20-23 in Dallas, Texas.
Dr. Kathryn Kloepper, associate professor of chemistry and director of the Great Books Program, has been appointed director of the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), beginning July 1.
Dr. Achim Kopp, professor of foreign languages and literatures, presented preliminary results in the “Qualitative Narrative Assessment” session at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses April 20-23 in Dallas, Texas.
Dr. Paul Lewis, professor of religion, led a breakout session March 24 at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Georgia's Spring General Assembly. The topic of the session was “Wisdom Calls: The Moral Story of the Old Testament.” The session was based on his book of the same title, which was published in April by Nurturing Faith. He also spoke on the topic of President Trump as an ethical leader on a panel sponsored by the ethics, leadership and service (ELS) minor. His ELS 100 class designed and conducted a survey identifying potential leaders and projects for the Lynmore Estates Neighborhood Association. The survey was done on behalf of Macon Area Habitat for Humanity and the Lynmore Estates Neighborhood Association.
Scot J. Mann, associate professor of communication and theatre, taught master classes in stage combat at the 26th annual Stage Combat Workshop hosted by Louisiana Tech, where he also served as an adjudicator and respondent. He also directed August: Osage County for Mercer Theatre, which featured professors, alumni, students and professional actors.
Dr. Amy Nichols-Belo, assistant professor of global health studies and anthropology, organized a panel, titled “Innovative, Underused, and Reimagined Methodologies,” and presented a paper, titled “'It Depends': The Challenges of Cultural Consensus Theory for Defining Witchcraft and Traditional Healing in Mwanza, Tanzania,” at the Society for Applied Anthropology conference March 28-April 1 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She also gave the keynote address at the Georgia College Women's and Gender Studies Symposium on April 19. Her lecture was titled “Witch-killing, Albino Murders and Government Surveillance: The Gendered Politics of Violence and Traditional Healing in Tanzania.”
Dr. Anya Silver, professor of English, led two poetry workshops and gave a poetry reading at the Gathering of Writers April 1 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. She also served as poet in residence April 10-11 at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio, where she taught a master class, gave a poetry reading and judged a high school poetry competition. She also gave a poetry reading April 4 at the Middle Georgia State College and University Arts Festival in Macon.
Dr. Charlotte Thomas, professor of philosophy and co-director of the McDonald Center for America's Founding Principles, continued her work on the Association for Core Texts and Courses advisory board at the 23rd Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses April 20-23 in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Thomas also presented “Mercer's Great Books Program: Why we don't define greatness (and, perhaps, neither should you)” as part of a session chaired by Dr. Kathryn Kloepper, associate professor of chemistry and director of the Great Books program.
Dr. Douglas Thompson, associate professor of history, presented a lecture on “Art and Medicine” April 11 for the Mercer chapter of the American Women's Association of Medicine. His book, Richmond's Priests and Prophets: Race, Religion, and Social Change in the Civil Rights Era, was published by University of Alabama Press and released at the end of April. The official publication date is June 6, but the book is available from bookstores and online sites in May.
Dr. Bridget Trogden, associate professor of chemistry and director of the Quality Enhancement Plan, delivered a presentation, titled “Cultivating Visionary Students: Using a Pitch Competition to Support Social Innovation Ideas,” in March at the Gulf South Summit on Service-Learning.
Dr. Fletcher Winston, associate professor of sociology, attended the Southern Sociological Society annual meeting in Greenville, South Carolina, with students in his “Empirical Research Project” course. Two students, Jackie Atchison and Alize Mitchell, presented their research papers at the conference. In addition, Dr. Winston presented a paper, titled “Policy Outcomes of the Student Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement.”
Marian Zielinski, professor emerita of communication and theatre, had artwork titled “Griffith and Broadway” on exhibit at Artfields, a southeastern juried art exhibition April 21-29 in Lake City, South Carolina.
College of Pharmacy
Dr. Renée Hayslett, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences, co-authored “Adolescent chronic restraint stress (aCRS) elicits robust depressive-like behavior in freely cycling, adult female rats without increasing anxiety-like behaviors” in Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology.
Dr. Joshua D. Kinsey, clinical assistant professor and director of the community pharmacy residency program, was recently elected to serve a two-year term as president of Georgia Pharmacy Association (GPhA) Region Five.
Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics
Jody Blanke, Distinguished Professor of Computer Information Systems and Law, presented a paper, titled “Privacy and Outrage,” at the joint Annual Conference of the Canadian Academy of Legal Studies in Business and the Pacific Northwest Academy of Legal Studies in Business in Vancouver, Canada.
Dr. Geoffrey Ngene, assistant professor of finance, Dr. Allen Lynch, associate professor of economics and quantitative methods, and Ann Mungai, adjunct professor, co-authored a manuscript, titled “Long Term Dependency Structure and Structural Breaks: Evidence from the U.S Sector Returns and Volatility,” that was accepted for publication in the Review of Pacific Basin Financial Markets and Policies, a Q3 ranked journal.
Georgia Baptist College of Nursing
Laura Darden, clinical assistant professor, presented a poster, titled “Cyberbullying in Adolescence and Young Adulthood,” at Mercer's Atlanta Research Conference in April.
Dr. Ruth McCaffrey, professor, presented “Using Yoga to Increase Balance and Reduce Pain” at the Gerontology Association of America Conference in April.
Mercer Engineering Research Center
Dr. Joshua Finn, professor, published an article on thermoelectric cooling systems in the March edition of SAE International Journal of Passenger Cars – Electronic and Electrical Systems. The paper, titled “Control of a Thermoelectric Cooling System for Vehicle Payloads – Theory and Test,” will be presented at this year's Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Finn's paper presents control system algorithms for precise temperature control of sensitive electronics and vehicle payloads using thermoelectric cooling devices. These devices present the unique advantage of solid state cooling mechanisms, which can be scaled to extremely small sizes. Traditionally, thermoelectric systems are plagued by poor efficiency, usually in the 10-percent range. Dr. Finn's paper addresses this problem using an amplitude modulation strategy, which greatly reduces the power consumption of thermoelectric coolers in order to push efficiency up into the 20- to 28-percent range.
James and Carolyn McAfee School of Theology
Dr. Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford, Carolyn Ward Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages, delivered the Todd Lecture Series in Old Testament March 20-21 at Memphis Theological Seminary. Her lectures were titled “A New Journey through the Psalms: A Feminist Reading of Psalms 90-92” and “A New Journey through the Psalms: A More Inclusive Reading of the Enthronement Psalms.”
Penfield College
Dr. Kenyon Knapp, associate professor of counseling and coordinator of the counselor education and supervision doctoral program, traveled to Anaheim, California, on April 19 to present a Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) “Site Team Member Training” with Dr. Robert Urofsky, vice president of CACREP at the National Council on Rehabilitation Education Conference. Additionally, Dr. Knapp co-presented with doctoral student Jacqueline Robinson at the Licensed Professional Counselor's Association of Georgia annual conference May 10 in Savannah.
Dr. Laurie Lankin, professor of counseling and human sciences and program coordinator for the undergraduate degree in human resources administration and development, received Penfield College's Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Dr. Whitney Phillips, assistant professor of literary studies and writing, was interviewed by Vice.com about her forthcoming book with co-author Dr. Ryan M. Milner, titled The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online (Wiley, June 2017).
Dr. Charles Roberts, associate professor of mathematics, was presented the Historical Leaders Award by the Michigan State University Black Faculty and Administrators Association. The award was given in recognition of Dr. Roberts' sustained and continuous service to MSU and specifically the black community. Dr. Roberts was instrumental in initiating, directing and working with several student academic enhancement programs at the university, including the current Charles Drew Science Scholars Program.
Dr. Lynn Tankersley, associate professor of criminal justice, completed the FBI Atlanta Citizens Academy Program over six weeks in February and March.
School of Engineering
Dr. Makhin Thitsa, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, gave an invited talk titled, “Formal Power Series Method for Nonlinear Control Systems,” March 28 at Georgia Institute of Technology as part of the Decision and Control Laboratory's DCL Seminar series.
School of Law
David Hricik, professor of law, published the third edition of his book Mastering Civil Procedure with Carolina Academic Press. In addition, he gave a presentation at Vanderbilt School of Law on the impact of technology disruption on patents, and gave presentations to bar associations in Michigan and California on ethical issues in patent practice. Additionally, Hricik and Karen Sneddon, professor of law, celebrated the 10th anniversary of their regular column, “Writing Matters,” in the Georgia Bar Journal.
School of Medicine
Dr. Christy Bridges, associate professor of biomedical sciences, presented her work, titled “Multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 and its role in the pharmacokinetics of inorganic mercury,” at the annual meeting of the Society of Toxicology March 11-16 in Baltimore, Maryland. She published a manuscript, titled “The aging kidney and the nephrotoxic effects of mercury,” in the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, Critical Reviews. She also published an invited review, titled “Mechanisms involved in the transport of mercuric ions in target tissues,” in the Archives of Toxicology. Two of her students, Hannah George and Sayna Nijhara, presented their research, titled “Mercury Accumulation in 75% Nephrectomized Wistar Rats and their Fetuses,” as part of Mercer's annual BEAR Day.
Dr. Hemant Goyal, assistant professor and assistant program director of internal medicine residency, authored “Identification of Opioid Abuse or Dependence: No Tool Is Perfect” which was published in March in the American Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Harold Katner, professor of internal medicine and pediatrics, along with Seth Kalichman, Ellen Banas and Moira Kalichman, co-authored “Population Density and AIDS-Related Stigma in Large-Urban, Small-Urban, and Rural Communities of the Southeastern USA” in Prevention Science. Dr. Katner also received Navicent Health Foundation's Spirit of Medicine Award on March 9 for demonstrating altruism, compassion, integrity, leadership and personal sacrifice while providing quality health care to distressed and marginalized populations within the community.
Dr. Eric K. Shaw, associate professor of community medicine, presented a poster, titled “Understanding how low-income families in Savannah, GA find and access healthcare providers for their children,” in collaboration with the Chatham County Safety Net Planning Council at the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research annual conference April 5-7 in Savannah. Dr. Shaw also published an article, titled “When studies collide, confusion can reign,” April 22 in The (Macon) Telegraph.
Dr. Mike U. Smith, professor of medical education and director of AIDS education and research, published an article, titled “Teaching the Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium: A 5E Lesson Plan,” in American Biology Teacher, 79(4): 288-293. He was also invited to present a paper, titled “Patient Zero,” and discuss the origins of HIV before the faculty and staff of Mercer School of Medicine as part of a national exhibit by the National Libraries of Medicine.
Dr. Jacob C. Warren, Rufus C. Harris Endowed Chair and director of the Center for Rural Health and Health Disparities, was selected as a health equity ambassador for the American Psychological Association. This national network facilitates the dissemination of health equity information and best practices across community and professional audiences.
Staff and Administration
Ken Boyer, associate vice president for auxiliary services, began his term as president of the National Association of Campus Card Users (NACCU) at the organization's annual meeting April 3 in San Francisco. He has served on the organization's board of directors since 2012 and will serve as president until the 2018 NACCU conference.
Dr. Melissa Cruz, director of graduate admissions for Penfield College, was selected as one of four new faculty members in the American Association of College Registrars and Admissions Officers Strategic Enrollment Management Endorsement Program.
Tammy Hotchkiss, assistant coordinator of the Henry County Regional Academic Center, was selected as the recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Student in Instructional Technology Award by the Department of Educational Technology and Foundations at the University of West Georgia. This award was established to honor an exceptional student who has displayed excellence in scholarship and professionalism. Hotchkiss was also selected as the Most Outstanding Graduate Student for Media with an IT Concentration in March. Additionally, she was recently inducted into Kappa Delta Pi, an honor society in education, and Phi Kappa Phi, an honor society in academic achievement.
Tift College of Education
Dr. Mary Kay Bacallao, professor of education, presented a session on “STEM: Problem Solving with Animals” Feb. 2 at the Georgia Science Teachers Association Conference in Stone Mountain. Georgia science teachers participated in an “Escape the Zoo” activity where they solved math problems involving animal facts.
Dr. William Lacefield, professor of mathematics education, along with Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellows Frances Clay and Beth Harvey, presented “Nurturing Number Sense through Number Enjoyment” at the annual conference of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics April 5-8 in San Antonio, Texas.
Dr. Justus Randolph, associate professor, had one of his journal articles discussed on the “Techniques in Coloproctology” podcast.
Dr. Peter Ross, associate professor of education, presented on evidence-based practices for managing behaviors for youth with autism April 8 at the annual Autism Symposium. The symposium is a joint effort between the Tift College of Education and the Medical Center, Navicent Health, in Macon.
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 for the Doheny Soirée Series April 22 at Doheny Mansion in Los Angeles, California. Sponsored by Da Camera Society of Mount Saint Mary's University Chamber Music in Historic Sites, the concert was presented in the mansion's beautifully acoustic Pompeian Room beneath its “magnificent Tiffany dome” of gold glass with the audience seated in the round. Moretti performed sextets by Brahms and Dohnányi with artists Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Melissa Reardon (viola), Nicholas Canellakis (cello) and Peter Wiley (cello). A reception and dinner with the artists followed the concert.
