College of Education
Dr. Sybil Keesbury Martin, professor of education, and Nicole Lutch, director of field placement, presented “Reimagining the Office of Field Placement” at the National Field Experience Conference in Nacogdoches, Texas, on April 11.
Dr. Katherine Perrotta, assistant professor of middle grades and secondary education, chaired the panel “Becoming Teacher-Leader-Scholars: Reflections on Curricular and Instructional Leadership in K-20 Spaces in Georgia” with Ph.D. candidates Katlynn Cross-Harris, Jessica Jang and Caitlin Hochuli at the American Educational Research Association Biography and Documentary Research Special Interest Group business meeting. Dr. Perrotta also presented a paper titled “A study on student participation in enriched critical citizenship education about the COVID-19 pandemic” at the American Educational Research Association Social Studies Research Special Interest Group session. Dr. Perrotta also co-authored with Dr. Leah Panther, associate professor of literacy education, and Sally Stanhope, DeKalb County teacher, a paper titled “Casting Shadows and Shedding Light: Promoting Historical Empathy with Youth Participatory Action Research in Shermantown and Stone Mountain, Georgia” that was presented by doctoral candidate Rosi Sanchez at the American Educational Research Association Teaching History Special Interest Group.
Dr. Jim Vander Putten, associate professor of higher education, presented a paper titled “The Importance of Terminology Consistency in Research on Faculty Social Class Origins” and co-presented a research study with Dr. Amanda L. Nolen, Georgia Tech, titled “Mapping Knowledge Domains of the Scholarship on Department Chairs: A Scoping Review of Literature” at the American Educational Research Association annual conference in Denver.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Debbie Blankenship, professor and director of the Reg Murphy Center for Collaborative Journalism, spoke on how campus news can serve communities at the Elevate: HBCU Media Conference on April 17-18 in Atlanta.
Dr. Craig Byron, professor and chair of the biology department, co-authored a paper titled “Bite force production and the origin of Homo” that was published in the peer-reviewed journal Royal Society Open Science on April 23.
Dr. Wallace L. Daniel, Distinguished University Professor of History, delivered the 2025 Keston Spring Lecture “Speaking Truth to Power: The Revolt of a Russian Priest” on March 2 at Baylor University.
Dr. David A. Davis, professor of English, gave a talk titled “Behind the Cotton Curtain: Sharecropping and the Literature of the Civil Rights Movement” at the University of North Texas on April 17.
Dr. Ben Greulich, assistant professor of biology, received the Undergraduate Faculty Travel Award to present his research titled “PRSS8 functions as a targetable, endogenous TβRIII sheddase via the novel cholesterol-PRSS8-TGF-β axis” at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology national conference held in Chicago on April 12-16.
Dr. Paul Lewis, professor and chair of religion, presented “King David: Very Model of a Modern Major Messiah?” at the annual meeting of the Association of Core Texts and Colleges in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 4.
Dr. Tyler B. Parker, assistant professor of political science, presented a paper titled “Qatar and Oman as Mediators at Home and Abroad” at the Gulf Foreign Policies in Flux: Drivers, Developments and Trends workshop during the Second Gulf Studies Symposium held at Georgetown University, April 11-12.
Dr. Jackie Pinkowitz, assistant professor of media studies, presented a paper titled “Staging an Indigenous Gothic in Contemporary TV” at the Association for the Study of American Indian Literatures conference in April. She also presented a related paper titled “Mediating the Indigenous Gothic” at the Southeastern American Studies Association Conference in New Orleans in March.
Dr. Katherine Roseau, associate professor of French, presented a paper titled “Reclaiming Paris Under Nazi Occupation: Place, Memory, and Identity in Jewish Diaries” at the conference on Individual and Collective Experiences of Place: Attachment, Belonging and Participation in Pau, France on April 11.
Dr. Creighton Rosental, professor of philosophy, and Dr. Kevin Honeycutt, associate professor of philosophy, were discussion leaders and presenters for a panel session on Machiavelli’s The Prince at the Association for Core Texts and Courses annual conference on April 5.
Dr. Charlotte Thomas, professor of philosophy, director of the Great Books program and co-director of the Thomas C. and Ramona E. McDonald Center for America’s Founding Principles, organized the 30th annual conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses (ACTC) held April 3-6 in Madison, Wisconsin, and co-organized the Spring 2025 ACTC Undergraduate Conference “Happiness in Connection” held March 7-9 at the Dharma Realm Buddhist University in Ukiah, California. Dr. Thomas also presented “Images of Images within Images: The Wonders of Plato’s Image of Education in the Allegory of the Cave” at the 2025 Great Hearts Symposium for Classical Education held Feb. 19-21 in Tempe, Arizona.
Dr. Martin Q. Zhao, associate professor of computer science, presented a paper co-authored with Dr. Andy Digh, professor of computer science, titled “Chinese the WRITE Way: An Innovative Approach to Teaching Chinese Characters Through Stories Behind the Scripts” at the 19th International Technology, Education and Development Conference in Valencia, Spain. Dr. Zhao also hosted a workshop demonstrating CSViewer for Analysts v1.2 during the 94th American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference in Baltimore. Students Troy Kleger and Jaylene Bayona assisted with the workshop. At the same conference, Dr. Zhao also gave a presentation titled “Skeletal Growth Modeling for the Cayo Santiago Rhesus Macaques with Stepwise Regression Supported in CSViewer for Analysts.” Dr. Zhao had a paper that was co-authored with students Kleger and Hari Sanku; Dr. Rui Gong, assistant professor of mathematics in the College of Professional Advancement; and Dr. Qian Wang, formerly with Mercer Medicine, titled “Developing a CSViewer for Education Application with Natural Language Interactions” accepted to the International Conference on the AI Revolution: Research, Ethics and Society conference in Las Vegas. For the same conference, Dr. Zhao also had a paper accepted that was co-authored with student Jenny Chen titled “Codification, Annotation and Rule-based Inferencing for CharActER: A Proposed Application for Teaching Chinese the WRITE Way.” Sanku attended the conference and presented both papers for the team on April 16.
College of Nursing
Dr. Tammy Barbé, dean, received a $500,000 Nursing Education Program Expansion Grant from the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce to support the new Bachelor of Science in nursing program offering on the Macon campus. Funds will be used to purchase educational supplies and equipment to support the nursing skills and simulation labs.
Clinical assistant professors Dr. Kathy E. Davis, Dr. Omolara Fyle-Thorpe and Dr. Emma El-Shami co-authored with College of Health Professions faculty Dr. Nora Beth Collier, clinical assistant professor of physical therapy; Dr. Leslie F. Taylor, professor of physical therapy; and Dr. David W.M. Taylor, clinical associate professor of physical therapy; and Dr. Susan W. Miller, professor of pharmacy practice in the College of Pharmacy, an article titled “Seeing is Perceiving: Using Visual Art to Explore Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Older Adults” that was published in Nurse Educator. Additionally, Dr. Davis and Dr. Maura Schlairet, professor and associate dean for the undergraduate program, presented a poster at the National Consortium of Nursing Academic Coaches conference in Auburn, Alabama, on the topic of what they do to ensure academic success in the College of Nursing.
College of Pharmacy
Dr. Ajay K. Banga, professor and chair of pharmaceutical sciences, co-authored a paper titled “Tetrodotoxin Delivery Pen Safely Uses Potent Natural Neurotoxin to Manage Severe Cutaneous Pain.”
Dr. Philip Mensah, clinical assistant professor, was featured in an article titled “The rise in food allergies and how pharmacy can help” published in Pharmacy Today.
Dr. Nicole Metzger, clinical professor, was selected for the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Mentored Research Investigator Training program with Dr. Nader H. Moniri, professor and associate dean for research, as her research mentor. The prestigious two-year longitudinal program is designed to assist pharmacists with developing the abilities necessary to conduct investigator-initiated research, either independently as a principal investigator or as an active co-investigator within a research team.
Dr. Nader H. Moniri, associate dean for research and professor of pharmaceutical sciences, and graduate student Razan Teyani published an article titled “Free-Fatty Acid Receptor-4 (FFA4/GPR120) modulates cholesterol-induced responses in macrophages” in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Dr. Moniri; Dr. Clinton E. Canal, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences; and graduate students Alex Rogier, Yiming Chen, Hamad Alali, Tyler Dick and Jayla Coley published an article titled “Discovery and Structure-activity Relationship of Synthetic Cathinone-Derived Acetylcholine M2 Receptor Antagonists” in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. Posters for the papers were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics in Portland, Oregon. Additionally, Dr. Moniri and graduate students Mohsina Mukti and Farnoosh Moghaddam presented “Free-fatty acid receptors-1 and -4 modulate papillary renal cell carcinoma migration” and “Free-fatty acid receptor-4 (FFA4) as a potential therapeutic target for Parkinson’s disease,” respectively, at the Atlanta Research Conference.
College of Professional Advancement
Dr. Hani Q. Khoury, professor of mathematics, attended the 2025 International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics held in Coronado Island, California, March 5-8. Dr. Khoury also participated in the third Global Disability Summit held in Berlin April 2-4. The International Disability Alliance, the Government of Germany and the Government of Jordan hosted the summit, gathering more than 4,500 participants from 100 countries. The summit resulted in 800 new commitments from governments, development actors, private sector and civil society.
Dr. W. David Lane, professor of counseling, presented at the February Atlanta Metropol Inc. meeting hosted by Mercer on the Atlanta campus. The presentation addressed the recent change in Georgia law to create a pairing between first responders and mental health professionals for calls involving mental health issues. Dr. Lane presented evidence from a model program in Bexar County in San Antonio and discussed the benefits and issues to anticipate for the new response teams. Atlanta Metropol Inc. brings together the executive leadership of Metropolitan Atlanta’s top corporations and federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to develop a public/private sector partnership. This partnership provides a collaborative environment that promotes shared resources and continuing education focused on keeping Metropolitan Atlanta safe and secure.
Dr. Kristin Robertson, assistant professor of writing and literature, published a new poetry collection, “Chance of Lightning,” with the University of North Texas Press in April. The manuscript was selected as the winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry, judged by Melissa Range.
Dr. Jacqueline S. Stephen, assistant professor, director of the office of distance learning and instructional designer, co-presented with students Chantia Daniels and Charlotte Whitehead “Hitting the Right Notes: Creating Harmony between Teaching Style and Learning Preferences in Online Courses” at the Online Learning Consortium Innovate 2025 conference on April 1. The presentation explored how instructors can align their teaching strategies with students’ learning preferences to enhance engagement and academic success in online environments.
Dr. Ramya Tekumalla, assistant professor of data science, delivered research lectures in Visakhapatnam, India, at GITAM University on March 7 and at Gayatri College of Engineering on March 19. She spoke on the topic “From Noise to Knowledge: Building Scalable Datasets from Social Media,” engaging more than 170 students across graduate and undergraduate programs. The lectures explored techniques in social media data collection, weak supervision and the application of large language models in research.
School of Business
Dr. Ehsan Ahmadi, assistant professor of management sciences, and Dr. Reza Maihami, assistant professor of supply chain management and analytics, co-authored a paper titled “Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Pandemic Management: Case of COVID-19 in the United States” in the journal Big Data Research. The study presents a novel cross-learning methodology that enhances prediction accuracy by training machine learning models on multiple related time series, offering improved decision-making for crisis management, such as pandemics.
Dr. Szabolcs Blazsek, professor of economics, with student Gabriela De Cruz Lima and Luis Gil-Alana, professor at the University of Navarra, Spain, published an article titled “Score-driven fractionally integrated models of black carbon emissions: A cross-country study from 1820 to 2019” in Applied Economics Letters. Dr. Blazsek, with Dr. Vijaya Subrahmanyam, C. Ben Harnsberger Professor of Finance, and Dr. Astrid Ayala, associate professor of management science and analytics, published an article titled “Score-driven expected return and volatility spillovers between the Indian and United States stock markets” in Applied Economics. Dr. Blazsek, with Diego Goirigolzarri, an MBA graduate from Francisco Marroquin University, Guatemala, and Ari Kamau, a Mercer School of Business alumnus, published an article titled “Score-driven credit risk clustering in Guatemala: An extension for unbalanced panels” in Applied Economics.
Dr. Marko Horn, associate professor of entrepreneurship, and Dr. Bill Carty, assistant professor of strategic management, with Class of 2024 students August Jording and Tiffanie Fraley, published a case study titled “Eventful Management at Fall Line Station” in the Journal of Case Research and Inquiry. The case examines Macon event venue Fall Line Station and its work in reestablishing its event hosting and management business post-COVID-19. Jording and Fraley developed the original case as part of Dr. Horn’s entrepreneurship practicum. Jording presented the case in the student category at the Southeastern Case Research Association annual conference in February 2024, where it won Best Student Case. Dr. Horn and Dr. Carty assisted Jording and Fraley in fully developing the case and instructor’s manual and saw it through the submission and publication process. Jording is now pursuing a graduate degree in finance at Lund University, and Fraley is pursuing a graduate degree in nutrition and dietetics at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The Journal of Case Research and Inquiry is published by the Western Casewriters Association.
Dr. Vijaya Subrahmanyam, C. Ben Harnsberger Professor of Finance, was a featured expert in a recent WalletHub article about Best Auto and Home Insurance Companies.
School of Engineering
Dr. Philip B. Gallagher and Dr. Bremen Vance, assistant professors of technical communication in the department of human-centered information design, presented their project, “Going Platinum on Techne Forge: The AI-generated B-side of Seminal 4C’s Rhetoric,” at the 2025 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). Their presentation remixed seminal rhetorical works from the CCCC community into AI-generated music. Using structured chain-of-thought prompting and rhetorical and sonic analyses, the project explored how sound, syntax and sense combine to reveal a pragmatic, inclusive and professional culture within technical and professional communication. The work also highlighted new approaches to AI literacy and authorship in writing education.
Dr. Hunmin Kim, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Dr. Anthony Choi, professor of electrical and computer engineering, with students Avery Goss and Evan Abbott, published and presented a conference paper titled “Robust Lightless Intersection Control Framework for Heterogeneous Vehicles” at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Southeast Conference held in Concord, North Carolina. At the same conference, Dr. Choi Kim and Dr. Choi, with students Joel Seepersaud, Khalil Anderson, Ethan Choi and Gracy Padgett, also published and presented a paper titled “Translating 3D Spatial Data into Tactile Braille: A Depth Camera-Based Approach for Assisting Visually Impaired Individuals.”
Dr. Chandan K. Roy, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, mentored students Hammad Quddus, Landon Yarbrough and Megan Batchelor and published a paper titled “An independent study on designing and building an ASTM D5470 standard apparatus for testing thermal performance of various materials” in the proceedings of the 2025 American Society for Engineering Education, Southeastern Section Annual Conference. For the same conference, Dr. Roy also mentored Batchelor and published a paper titled “Development of a Heat Sink-Focused Heat Transfer Laboratory for Mechanical Engineering Education.”
Dr. Lianjun Wu, associate professor of mechanical engineering, mentored students Jordi Shephard, Melanie McElroy, Michael Norenburg and Belle Lin and worked in collaboration with Dr. Arash Afshar, associate professor of mechanical engineering, and Dr. Dorina Mihut, associate professor of mechanical engineering, to publish a paper titled “Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research in Prosthetic Hand Development: Bridging Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering” in the Proceedings of the 2025 American Society for Engineering Education, Southeastern Section Annual Conference.
School of Medicine
Dr. Jennifer Barkin, professor of community medicine and OB-GYN, was invited to join the steering committee for the Better Health for All Summit, hosted annually by SALA Series and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The summit will take place in Boston in the fall of 2025.
Dr. Ilana Chefetz, associate professor of pharmacology, moderated the BEAR Day session during which undergraduate students in her research laboratory Karisha Khadayat and Aditya Vayalapall presented “Ovarian Cancer cells using colony formation assays,” “Functional Annotation clustering analysis of Platinum resistance in Ovarian Cancer” and “Neutral Networks for oncology: Predicting Chemotherapy Efficacy in Ovarian Cancer.”
Dr. James Drummond, associate professor of microbiology, and Dr. Szabolcs Blazsek, professor of economics in the Stetson-Hatcher School of Business, published an article titled “Extrinsic Mortality in the United States: Socioeconomic Effects of the Global Pandemic, 2016-2023” in Applied Economics Letters.
Dr. Edward C. Klatt, professor in the biomedical sciences department and affiliate at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah Health, released the 36th edition of the Pathology of HIV/AIDS textbook through the Eccles Health Sciences Library on April 15.
Dr. Anthony J. Kondracki, assistant professor of community medicine, presented “Bridging Gaps in Georgia’s Rural Maternal Health: Innovative strategies and collaborative solutions” at the Magnolia Coastlands Area Health Education Center’s fifth annual Maternal Health Symposium held at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro.
Dr. Kimberly McElveen, associate dean of faculty affairs and chair of pathology and clinical sciences education, presented “Doing It All with Joy” on March 26 at the inaugural Women in Philanthropy Giving Circle, hosted by the Georgia Association of Family Physicians. Dr. McElveen was also selected to serve as chair of the Southern Group on Educational Affairs for 2025-26. The group advances excellence across undergraduate and graduate medical education by fostering collaboration and innovation.
Dr. Wendy Walker, associate professor in the department of biomedical sciences, published a paper titled “Interferon Regulatory Factor 3 Exacerbates the Severity of COVID-19 in Mice” in Critical Care Explorations and served as a grant reviewer for a National Institutes of Health Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs study section. Dr. Walker also presented a talk titled “Rest and Recovery: Unraveling the Connection Between Sleep and Sepsis” at the Morehouse School of Medicine department of neurobiology and met with the faculty to initiate a collaboration and promote the reputation of the School of Medicine.
School of Music
Dr. Nathan Myrick, assistant professor, was awarded a $1.25 million grant by Lilly Endowment Inc. to support the “Enhancing Worship for Neurodivergent Children Through Music and the Arts” program. The five-year project will seek to understand the experiences and needs of neurodivergent children in public worship, and collaboratively develop musical resources based on this understanding to foster belonging and inclusion for these children and their families.
Dr. Christopher Schmitz, professor of music, was named a national finalist for the 2025 American Prize in Composition — Orchestra Music (professional division).
Staff and Administration
Michael Bauer, director of facilities for physical plant in Atlanta, will be leaving on May 9, after more than 23 years of service on the Cecil B. Day Campus, to pursue other ventures. His co-workers and staff would like to thank him for “his dedication to improving our campus and wish him the best of luck in his new venture!”
