College of Education
Dr. Karen Allee, assistant professor of early childhood education, received a Provost’s Office Seed Grant from Mercer for a project, titled “Kinesthetic Classroom Pilot Study: Does the use of kinesthetic or dynamic classroom furniture improve children’s learning, behavioral, and health outcomes?” Dr. Allee presented “Play as a function of learning: A multivariate analyses of student outcomes in two pedagogically different US Title I kindergarten classrooms” at the 2022 International Mind, Brain, and Education Society Conference in Montréal, Canada. Dr. Allee, Dr. Lucy Bush, associate professor of education and assistant dean of Atlanta teacher education and educational leadership, Dr. Jeff Hall, associate professor of education and associate dean for student affairs, Dr. Kara Cowdrick, visiting clinical professor of elementary education, Dr. Sybil Keesbury, associate professor of education and director of The Holistic Child Program, Dr. Sharon Augustine, associate professor of education and assistant dean of teacher education in Macon and at the Regional Academic Centers, and Dr. Annemarie Kaczmarczyk, assistant professor of elementary education, presented “Innovative learning environments for improving teacher candidate outcomes: The three Cs (Collaboration, co-teaching, and community)” at the 2022 Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Annual Conference in Ottawa, Canada. At that same conference, Dr. Allee and Dr. Kaczmarczyk also presented “Developing pre- and in-service teachers’ understanding of critical issues in education through literature circles.” Additionally, Dr. Allee presented “Play as promise? Results from a quasi-experimental study of two kindergarten pedagogical approaches” at the Jean Piaget Society 2022 Conference: Putting Development Back into Evolution in Philadelphia.
Dr. Mary Kay Bacallao, professor of education, and collaborator Stephanie Nicole Miller were cited regarding their research on the historical right to an abortion in America in a National Review Bench Memos article, titled “Research Shows No Historical Evidence of Right to Abortion.”
Dr. Lucy Bush, assistant dean, received a Provost’s Office Seed Grant from Mercer for a project, titled “PLAy CLASS: Pedagogy and Learning Apprenticeship to Collaborate, Learn, Assess, Study, and Scale.”
Dr. Susan Cannon, assistant professor of elementary and middle grades education, received a Provost’s Office Seed Grant from Mercer.
Dr. Robert Helfenbein, professor of curriculum studies, was quoted in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story, titled “Abrams vows $50,000 base pay for teachers. Will that sway educator votes?”
Dr. Jeffrey W. Keese, assistant professor of teacher leadership, received a Provost’s Office Seed Grant from Mercer for a project, titled “Examining Differences in Conceptualizations of Teacher Leadership.”
Dr. Susie Morrissey, assistant professor of mathematics education, received a Provost’s Office Seed Grant from Mercer for a project, titled “Investigating the Feasibility of Merging Large Datasets to Relate Geographic Information to Student Performance.”
Dr. Katherine Perrotta, assistant professor of middle grades and secondary education, and Dr. Karyn Allee, assistant professor of early childhood education, co-authored the chapter “Designing and teaching a local history curriculum to promote culturally-relevant pedagogies in middle grades social studies” in the book Contemporary Perspectives Through Action Research Across Educational Disciplines: The K-12 Classroom (IGI Global). Dr. Perrotta also received a Provost’s Office Seed Grant from Mercer.
College of Health Professions
Dr. Huey Chen, professor of public health, and Liliana Morosanu, instructor of public health, co-authored “Evaluation of the Processes and Outcomes of a Physician Leadership Program: The Continuous Feedback Loop Design” in the Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 2022, 10-1097, doi:10.1097/CEH.0000000000000436.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Dr. Garland Crawford, associate professor of chemistry and director of the University Honors Program, and Dr. Kathryn Kloepper, professor of chemistry and vice provost of engaged learning, co-organized and co-chaired the symposium “Addressing the needs of the non-chemistry majors in general education courses” at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education held July 31-Aug. 4 at Purdue University. As part of this all-day symposium, Dr. Crawford presented “Kitchens as laboratories: A distance education food chemistry course for non-science majors,” and Dr. Kloepper presented “Engagement of non-chemistry majors through a citizen science service-learning project.” Dr. Crawford also organized and chaired the session on “Oral communication in the chemistry curriculum.”
Dr. Wallace L. Daniel, Distinguished University Professor of History, had his article “The University as a Community of Learners” republished in a special edition of New Directions in Teaching and Learning, edited by Catherine Walhburg (Summer 2022): 7-13. Additionally, he published a review of Sergei Sergeevich Bychkov’s Priest Gleb Yakunin: The Difficult Way of the Truth-Seeker in the Journal of Church and State 64, No. 3 (Summer 2022): 525-527.
Dr. David A. Davis, professor of English, published an entry on “Class and Economics” in The Routledge Companion to Southern Literature. He presented papers on “The Urban Space in Faulkner’s Rural Modernism” at the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha conference, “Sharecropping Unionization Narratives” at the Space Between conference, and “S-Town and the Problem of Southern Temporality” at the Society for the Study of Southern Literature conference.
Dr. Andy Digh, associate professor of computer science, served as an online reader and grader for the AP Computer Science A Exam offered June 2-11. Dr. Digh was among teachers from universities and high schools across America selected by the College Board to help grade exams taken by approximately 64,000 students worldwide.
Dr. Sarah E. Gardner, Distinguished University Professor of History, served as a visiting scholar at Gettysburg College’s National Endowment for the Humanities Institute for Faculty on “Civil War Archives: A New Social and Cultural History” on June 15. She spoke on “Literature in the Archives and Literature as Archive.” Additionally, Dr. Gardner was recently elected to a four-year term on the Executive Council of the Society of Civil War Historians.
Dr. Jonathan C. Glance, professor of English, presented a paper, titled “The Phantoms in the Archives: Toward Archival Approaches to Adaptation Studies,” at the annual conference of the Association of Adaptation Studies hosted June 23-24 by the University of Lisbon in Portugal.
Dr. Kathryn Kloepper, vice provost of engaged learning and professor of chemistry, presented “Finding the magic angle(s) with undergraduate research” at the Rocky Mountain Conference on Magnetic Resonance held July 25-29 at Copper Mountain, Colorado. This invited talk was part of the Vaughan Lecture Symposium in honor of Dr. Chad Rienstra.
Scot J. Mann, associate professor of communication and theatre, served as lead instructor for the Society of American Fight Directors Teachers Certification Workshop. The course certifies individuals to teach and choreograph stage combat credentialed by the largest organization of its kind in the world. Mann also taught master classes in stage combat and movement for Florida State University, the University of Florida, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and East Carolina University.
Dr. Margaret Meadows, assistant professor of chemistry, and Dr. Kerry Strickland, assistant professor of chemistry, co-presented “Ten minutes a semester: Evaluation of a short wellness intervention for undergraduate chemistry and biology courses” at the Biennial Conference on Chemical Education held July 31-Aug. 4 at Purdue University. Austin Chaffin, adjunct instructor, Dr. Laura Simon, assistant professor of sociology, Dr. Kathryn Kloepper, professor of chemistry and vice provost of engaged learning, and Dr. John Stanga, assistant professor of biology, were co-authors on this work.
Tanya Ott-Fulmore, assistant professor of practice and journalist in residence, launched the latest season of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail Podcast, a narrative podcast series where historians and experts explore some of the most significant events of the Civil Rights movement.
Tennille Shuster, associate professor of graphic design, completed an artist-in-residence appointment at Ashantilly Press this summer, where she letterpress printed numerous broadsides, completed production of artist’s book 3 Summer Days in an edition of three, and conducted numerous letterpress demonstrations for the public. Additionally, Shuster’s artist book I Look at the World won second place in the 11th International Juried Exhibit “Art of the Book: Artist Books, Altered Books and Paper Sculpture” on display through Nov. 1 at the Rochester Public Library in New York. Shuster also completed a collaborative artist’s book edition, titled Back in the Day, which was acquired by the Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection at the Library of Congress and the Special Collections at the University of Delaware.
Dr. Kate Siegfried, assistant professor of communication studies, was awarded a competitive grant from the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society to fund research for her current book project, Rhetorics of Exile. She will use the funds to visit archives in South Africa, Northern Ireland and Ireland. Additionally, she had an article, titled “‘Our Right to Travel’: Charting a Black Internationalist Cartography in Paul Robeson’s 1952 Border Concert,” accepted for publication in the journal Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture.
Dr. Bryan J. Whitfield, professor and chair of religion, and Dr. Tom Bullington, lecturer of great books and integrative studies, participated in the Summer Institute of the Association of Core Texts and Classes on “Rejuvenating and Reinventing the Liberal Arts: An Introduction to the Texts of the Trivium, from the Ancients to Modernity,” which was held July 17-25 at the University of Chicago. Their presentation, a proposed revision of Mercer’s great books curriculum, suggested ways the program might give greater focus to the trivium, particularly rhetoric.
Dr. Carolyn Yackel, professor of mathematics, had her paper “Wallpaper Patterns Admissible in Itajime Shibori” (Vol. 15, Issue 3-4) selected for the 2021 Journal of Mathematics and the Arts Outstanding Paper Award. Additionally, her artwork, titled “There Were Angels’ Wings,” was selected for inclusion in the 2023 American Mathematics Society Mathematical Art calendar.
College of Nursing
Dr. Seongkum Heo, professor and Piedmont Healthcare Endowed Chair, co-authored “Factors affecting turnover intention among new graduate nurses: Focusing on job stress and sleep disturbance” in Healthcare, 10(6), 1122; “An instrument assessing attitudes and beliefs toward human papillomavirus vaccination” in Public Health Nursing, 39(4), 856-864; and “Factors associated with human papillomavirus vaccination and the intention among undergraduate nursing students: A cross-sectional, correlational study” in the Journal of Community Health Nursing, 39(3), 178-192.
Dr. Justus Randolph, professor of nursing, authored “A tribute to George Julnes from a devoted mentee” in the American Journal of Evaluation, 43(2), 304-305.
College of Pharmacy
Dr. Jill Augustine, assistant professor, co-authored “A Classroom Activity to Increase Student Pharmacists Confidence in Dealing with the Opioid Epidemic” in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 2019 November, 83(9): 7199, DOI:10.5688/ajpe7199. Dr. Augustine also co-authored, with Dr. Kathryn Momary, associate professor, and Dr. Lydia Newsom, clinical associate professor, “Development of a script concordance test to assess clinical reasoning in a pharmacy curriculum” in Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 2022 August 22, DOI:10.1016/j.cptl.2022.07.028.
Dr. Ajay K. Banga, professor, received $157,647 from a major undisclosed consumer health company for his project, titled “Enhanced skin delivery of cosmeceuticals and derivatives.”
Dr. Clinton E. Canal, assistant professor, co-authored “Selective serotonin 5-HT2A receptor antagonists” in Biochemical Pharmacology, 2022 June, 200:115028, DOI: 10.1016/j.bcp.2022.115028.
Dr. Mahavir Chougule, associate professor, co-authored, with graduate students Sarthak Shah, Arun Kumar Kotha and Rama Kashikar, “Nanomedicine based approaches for combating viral infections” in the Journal of Controlled Release, 2022 Aug 8, 338:80-104, DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2021.08.011.
Dr. Lori Dupree, clinical assistant professor, co-authored “Teaching Pharmacy Students a Systematic Approach to Medication Order Verification” in Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 2022 July 22, DOI: 10.1016/j.cptl.2022.07.004.
Dr. Jordyn P. Higgins, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice in oncology, was appointed chair of the Clinical Practice Advisory Group of ASHP New Practitioners Forum because of her previous leadership within other ASHP committees and her current practice setting. Additionally, Dr. Higgins published an article, titled “A Safety Analysis of Programmed Death 1 Pathway Inhibitors in Patients with Solid Tumor Malignancies and Preexisting Autoimmune Diseases,” in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology. The results of this study suggest that pembrolizumab and nivolumab can be safely administered in patients with controlled preexisting autoimmune diseases without a significant increase in immune-related adverse events.
Robert Lamb, director of finance and administration, was appointed to the American Associate of Colleges of Pharmacy Audit Committee for the 2022-23 academic year.
Dr. Kathryn Momary, associate professor, co-authored “A safety analysis of programmed death 1 pathway inhibitors in patients with solid tumor malignancies and preexisting autoimmune disease” in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology, 2022 June 8, DOI: 10.1097/RHU.0000000000001863.
Dr. Nader Moniri, professor, received $424,500 from the National Institutes of Health: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for his grant project, titled “The role of ROS on beta-2-adrenergic receptor function in the human airway.”
Dr. Maria Thurston, clinical associate professor, co-authored “Well-being may be the missing component of professionalism in pharmacy education” in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 2022 June 28, 86(5):391-4, DOI: 10.5688/ajpe8808. Dr. Thurston also wrote a book chapter, titled “Gout and Hyperuricemia,” in Pharmacotherapy Principles and Practice, 6th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill), 2022.
Dr. Mohammad Nasir Uddin, assistant professor, co-authored “Liposomal Drug Delivery of Blumea lacera Leaf Extract: In-Vivo Hepatoprotective Effects” in Nanomaterials, 2022, 12(13):2262, DOI: 10.3390/nano12132262.
Dr. Lorenzo Villa Zapata, clinical assistant professor, co-authored “A disproportionality analysis of drug-drug interactions of tizanidine and CYP1A2 inhibitors from the FDA Adverse Event Report System (FAERS)” in Drug Safety, 2022 August, 45(8):863-871, DOI:10.1007/s40264-022-01200-4. Dr. Villa Zapata also co-authored “Overriding drug-drug interaction alerts in clinical decision support systems: A scoping review” in Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 2022 June 6, 290:380–384, DOI: 10.3233/SHTI220101, and “QTc prolongation with the use of hydroxychloroquine and concomitant arrhythmogenic medications: A retrospective study using electronic health records data” in Drugs – Real World Outcomes, 2022 Sep, 9(3):415-423, DOI:10.1007/s40801-022-00307-5.
College of Professional Advancement
Dr. Wesley Barker, associate professor of religious studies, published “A Theology of Lips: Beyond the Wounding of Desire,” in Horizons of Difference: Rethinking Space, Place, and Identity with Irigaray (SUNY 2022), edited by Ruthanne Crapo Kim, Yvette Russell and Brenda Sharp.
Dr. Zhiling Long, assistant professor of computer science, received a Provost’s Office Seed Grant from Mercer for his research on machine learning techniques for medical image analysis.
Dr. Richard H. Martin, professor of criminal justice and homeland security, reviewed the following articles for peer-reviewed academic journals: “The relationship between employee risk communication and non-adaptive evacuation behavior in Chinese hazardous chemical companies: The mediating role of emotional exhaustion and risk perception” for the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on Aug. 2, and “Pistol shooting performance correlates with respiratory muscle strength and pulmonary function in police cadets” for the journal Sustainability on June 4.
Dr. Jacqueline S. Stephen, assistant professor, director of the Office of Distance Learning and instructional designer, and Ashley Fru, a human services and psychology undergraduate student, presented at the 54th annual conference of the Association Supporting Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) June 15 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Their presentation provided insight into post-COVID-19 employability (transferability) skills, discussed alignment of academic courses with emerging remote careers and future workforce needs, introduced an online high-impact practice for preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s careers, presented findings from a qualitative study on student readiness and preparedness for the transition to remote study and work, and discussed implications for teaching and learning.
Dr. Clinton Terry, professor of history, was awarded Gold (best in category) in General History by the Midwest Independent Publishers Association for his book Surveying in Early America.
Mercer Engineering Research Center
Dr. Thomas Brussat, technical adviser in the rotary wing product area, gave a presentation on “Structural Risk Analysis of Helicopter Dynamic Components” at the 2021 Aircraft Structural Integrity Program conference in Austin, Texas. Based on this work, MERC is developing a tool that will allow the United States Air Force to estimate the replacement lives of safety critical components on their helicopter fleets.
Ed Irwin, principal biomechanical engineer, presented a paper, titled “Early Intervention to Reduce Falls in Community-Active Seniors: A Pilot Study,” at the Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) Conference held in July in New York. The paper was published in Vol. 44 of the AFHE 2022 conference proceedings.
Andrew Smelser, aerospace engineer in the fixed wing program, was recognized as Restoration Volunteer of the Year at the Museum of Aviation in Warner Robins. He received this award for his contributions to restoring the museum’s World War II-era B-17 bomber and VB-26 bomber.
Mercer University Press
Marc Jolley, director and senior lecturer of philosophy and great books in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, presented his paper, titled “Thoreau, Douglass, and the Cultivation of the Soul,” at the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering held July 6-10 in Concord, Massachusetts.
School of Business
Dr. Ehsan Ahmadi, assistant professor of management science, authored a paper, titled “Intelligent inventory management approaches for perishable pharmaceutical products in a healthcare supply chain,” in the journal Computers and Operations Research.
Jody Blanke, Ernest L. Baskin Jr. Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Law, was selected as a finalist and presented at the Charles Hewett Master Teacher Symposium at the annual conference of the Academy of the Legal Studies in Business in Louisville, Kentucky, in August. He also presented a paper, “California Dreaming: Can Strict Enforcement of ‘Inferences Drawn’ Under the California Consumer Privacy Act Become a Reality,” and moderated a paper session on technology law. Additionally, Blanke was the discussant on a paper, titled “Imperfect and Uneven Bargaining: Privacy’s Contract Problem,” at the annual Privacy Law Scholars Conference in Boston in June.
Dr. Laura Boman, assistant professor of sports marketing and analytics, published “The unintended effects of tamper-evident food closures” in the International Journal of Hospitality Management. She also received a Provost’s Office Seed Grant from Mercer, as well as an Association of Consumer Research-American Marketing Association Transformative Consumer Research Grant with co-author Ganga Urumutta Hewage.
Dr. Antonio Saravia, associate professor of economics and director of the Center for the Study of Economics and Liberty, and Dr. Andrés Marroquín, associate professor of economics, co-authored and published “Political Ideology Mismatch as a Determinant of the Intention to Migrate: Evidence from Latin America” in the most recent issue of the International Journal of Social Economics. They also participated of the 2022 Summit for University Center Leaders organized by Mercatus in Washington, D.C. Dr. Saravia also published several op-eds in highly reputed newspapers in Latin America and gave interviews to various media outlets, including The Den, 13WMAZ, 41NBC and CNN, on different economic issues such as inflation, recession and concerns regarding student debt relief.
Dr. Agnieszka Shepard, assistant professor of management, organized and presented a symposium, titled “Leader pandemic management, charisma, and safety behaviors: A tale of three countries,” at the Academy of Management, the world’s largest management conference. Her co-authors were former student Lilah Donnely, who is pursuing her Ph.D. at Auburn University, and current student Thomas Neely.
Dr. Dexter Wimbish, adjunct professor, completed his Doctor of Education degree at Grand Canyon University on April 24. His dissertation was titled “Examining the Impact of Formal Mentoring on Job Satisfaction and Engagement Levels on African American Higher Education Faculty.”
School of Engineering
Dr. Arash Afshar, associate professor of mechanical engineering, co-authored an article, titled “Computational Study of Non-Porous Auxetic Plates with Diamond Shape Inclusions,” in the Journal of Composites Science.
School of Law
Ishaq Kundawala, professor of law and Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute and W. Homer Drake Jr. Endowed Chair in Bankruptcy Law, had his article “Biting the Bullet: A Bipartisan Solution to Increase Debtors’ Access to Chapter 7 Relief While Exempting Firearms in a Bankruptcy Case” selected as the lead article in Vol. 56, Issue 1 of the Indiana Law Review. His article proposes, for the first time, three separate bankruptcy amendments to increase debtors’ access to Chapter 7 relief. He also advocates for a provocative yet logical bipartisan solution that could be utilized to gain the necessary support from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Latisha Nixon-Jones, assistant professor of law, was selected to attend the 2022 Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Higher Education Symposium in June, where she gave a presentation on current post-disaster legal issues. Additionally, she was selected as a New Scholar to present a works-in-progress during the 2022 Southeastern Association of Law Schools Legal Conference. The work-in-progress she discussed was “The Unequitable Treatment of Vulnerable Populations under the FEMA Whole Community Approach.”
Cathren Page, associate professor of law, served as an organizer, facilitator and mentor for the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) Speed Mentoring session at the LWI Biennial Conference, one of the largest conferences for law professors in the world. She also hosted two social events to welcome new members at the Southeastern Conference of Law Schools (SEALS). Page presented on the “Story, Post-Truth, and the Rule of Law at a Law and Literature” panel at SEALS, where she illustrated how tricky spotting the truth can be with a game of two truths and lie and pointed out the literary techniques used to make facts sound true or false. She then provided examples of the dangerous implications of post-truthism with respect to Ukraine, COVID-19 and racial violence/mass shootings. She talked about narrative’s role in addressing the problem. Page participated in the Taos Toolbox Writing Workshop this summer. She was invited by authors Walter Jon Williams and Nancy Kress as one of only 18 participants worldwide in the workshop. “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin spent a day with the group, and Williams and Kress served as facilitators each day as the writers critiqued one another.
Karen J. Sneddon, interim dean and professor of law, published the article “Square Pegs and Round Holes: Differentiated Instruction and the Law School Classroom” in 48 Mitchell Hamline Law Review 1095. She also co-authored the book Developing Professional Skills: Trust and Estates (West 2022) with Carla Spivack. Sneddon co-presented, with Professor Sue Chesler, “Top Ten Ideas for the Transactional Drafter’s New and Improved Guidebook” on July 20 at the Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference in Washington, D.C. Sneddon also presented “Confronting New and Old Identities: A Discussion Group on Law and Literature” on July 31 at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools 2022 Annual Conference in Miramar Beach, Florida. Sneddon and David Hricik, associate dean for faculty research and development and professor of law, co-authored the article “Five Tips for Writing Success as a New Lawyer or Law Student Clerk” in 27 NO. 6 Georgia Bar Journal 68. Sneddon and Hricik also co-authored “Back to Basics: Writing About Case Law in Briefs and Motions” in 21 NO. 1 Georgia Bar Journal 66.
Scott Titshaw, professor of law, published the article “Inheriting Citizenship” in 58 Stanford Journal of International Law 1.
School of Medicine
Dr. Marshall Angle, associate dean for evaluation and assessment and assistant professor of medical education, co-presented virtually, with Dr. David Baxter, associate professor and senior associate dean, Dr. Susan Cline, senior associate dean for strategic planning, accreditation and evaluation, Dr. Natalie Hogan, director of medical practice, and Dr. Robert Sarlay, assistant professor and senior director of medical practice, “The Medical Practice Reasoning Assessment: Reliable Assessment for Clinical Reasoning and Professionalism” at the Association for Medical Education in Europe-Ottawa Conference held Aug. 26-28 in Lyon, France.
Dr. Raghavan Chinnadurai, assistant professor of oncology, authored “Chemokine Assay Matrix Defines the Potency of Human Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stromal Cells” in Stem Cells Translational Medicine.
Carolann Curry, associate professor of community medicine and library and information science, was accepted as a 2022-2023 fellow of the Medical Library Association’s Research Training Institute.
Dr. Edward C. Klatt, professor of biomedical sciences, along with Carolyn A. Klatt, associate director of library and information science, assistant dean for faculty affairs and development and associate professor, and Summer Scholars Cullen D. Smith and Neel Atawala, published the paper “A review of web-based application of online learning in pathology and laboratory medicine” in the Journal of Pathology Informatics. The Summer Scholars program provides first-year medical students the opportunity to participate in a research project.
Dr. Anthony Kondracki, assistant professor of community medicine, was awarded a 2022-2023 Provost’s Office Seed Grant from Mercer for a project, titled “Estimating Prevalence and Identifying Trends in Maternal Mortality by Sociodemographic Characteristics and Cause of Death in the State of Georgia (2016-2019).” Dr. Kondracki will use the award to estimate the current prevalence of maternal mortality to identify sociodemographic predictors and leading underlying causes across rural and urban counties in Georgia. Pregnancy-related direct and indirect obstetric deaths will be examined in association with leading underlying causes in at-risk populations of women.
Dr. Richard Parrish, professor and medical educator, co-authored two manuscripts: “Compounded nonsterile preparations and FDA-approved commercially available liquid products for children: A North American update” in Pharmaceutics 2022, 14, 1032, and “Pediatric Perioperative Clinical Pharmacy Practice: Clinical Considerations and Management: An Opinion of the Pediatrics and Perioperative Care Practice and Research Networks of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy” in The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics 2022, 27(6):490-505. Dr. Parrish was also involved in five poster presentations, three of which were presented at the School of Medicine’s Summer Medical Student Research session: “Pharmacotherapy Prophylaxis in Elective Colorectal Surgery: Preliminary Results From A Multi-Site Retrospective Cohort Study,” “Expanding Pharmacotherapy Data Collection, Analysis, and Implementation in ERAS® Programs,” “Review of the ERAS Pharmacological Guidelines for Visceral Surgeries,” “Urgent need for electronic transmission of standardized compounded nonsterile preparation (CNSP) orders to prevent medication errors: A nationwide descriptive survey” and “Effect of pharmacotherapy prophylaxis on postoperative complications, length of stay, and re-admission within an ERAS® colorectal & gynecological program: a retrospective cohort feasibility study.”
Dr. Sarah Rotschafer, assistant professor of neuroscience, received a National Institutes of Health: National Libraries of Medicine G08 grant for $142,000 per year for up to three years to develop an Autism ToolKit that will help families in rural Georgia learn more about autism and find resources that serve their communities. She was interviewed about this project by media outlets 13WMAZ, 41NBC and WSAV.
Dr. Yudan Wei, professor of community medicine, Esther Ro, a medical student in the Class of 2022, and Vivian Vu, a former medical student, published a research article, titled “Ambient air emissions of endocrine-disrupting metals and the incidence of hormone receptor- and HER2-dependent female breast cancer in USA,” in Medical Oncology. Ro and Vu have been supervised by Dr. Wei to conduct population-based breast cancer research.
School of Music
Dr. Brittan Braddock, director of bands, coordinator of music education and assistant professor of music, performed bass clarinet in the World Adult Wind Orchestra Project as part of the Mid-Europe Music Festival in Schladming, Austria. Braddock was part of an international wind band with 14 countries represented that performed two concerts. She then traveled to Prague to attend the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles conference held at Žofín Palace. This conference is dedicated to a global exchange of repertoire, techniques and pedagogy.
Dr. Christopher Schmitz, professor of music theory and composition, explored the wilderness of Alaska this summer and wrote original music about it as part of the 10th annual Composing in the Wilderness program led by adventurer-composer Stephen Lias and offered as a joint venture between Denali National Park, Alaska Geographic, The Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Nine composers, selected from a rigorous application process, spent more than a week in the backcountry of Alaska, then returned to Fairbanks where their newly composed pieces were recorded and premiered by members of the contemporary music ensemble Corvus. The final concert included Dr. Schmitz’s new work “Alpine Dance.”
Dr. Kyung-A Yoo, associate professor of collaborative piano, performed a chamber concert on Aug. 20 to celebrate the launch of Classical C.A.R.M.A. (Concerts Aiming to Raise Money and Awareness), a nonprofit organization based in Houston. Violinist Jacqueline Audas is the founder and artistic director of the organization, and Dr. Yoo coached and performed as a partner with Audas for seven years before joining Mercer’s School of Music.
School of Theology
Dr. Nancy L. deClaisse-Walford, emeritus Carolyn Ward Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages, was given the R. Alan Culpepper Lifetime Achievement Award by the School of Theology’s alumni association on Aug. 23.
Dr. Denise Massey, professor of pastoral care and counseling, presented “The Legacy and Continued Contribution of Wayne Oates as it applies to Spiritual Care” on July 20 for the Oates Institute. She also led sessions on “Spiritual Care” and “Team Care” at the Celebration Church staff retreat on Aug. 2.
Dr. Rob Nash, Arnall-Mann-Thomasson Professor of World Christianity, led a Mercer On Mission experience to Morocco, along with Dr. Nathan Myrick, assistant professor of church music and director of undergraduate studies in the School of Music. Thirteen students participated from both the graduate program in the School of Theology and the undergraduate program in Macon.
Dr. Angela Parker, assistant professor of New Testament and Greek, was named to The Top Ten Book List for Parish Ministry by the Academy of Parish Clergy for her book If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I?
Staff and Administration
Jamie Brown, director of operations for the Henry County Regional Academic Center, will present on “Cultivating the Entrepreneurial Mindset” for the Henry County Women’s Leadership Council’s EmPOWER Her Coffee Hour Series on Sept. 1.
Julie E. Cannon, associate director of the Center for Career and Professional Development, participated in a two-day intensive training, titled “Culturally-Informed Clinical Intervention and Supervision for Working with Racial and Intergenerational Trauma,” on Aug. 5-6. The training focused on developing an antiracist clinical and supervisory lens that considers race, culture, privilege and oppression within the context of Dr. Sonja Sutherland’s Cross-Cultural Civility-Mindset Developmental Model.
Kim Meredith, executive director of the Center for Career and Professional Development, and Dr. Stefanie Swanger, assistant director of the Center for Career and Professional Development, were selected to attend the prestigious National Association of Colleges and Employers Management Leadership Institute in Pittsburgh. The five-day intensive institute provided opportunities for university career professionals to strengthen their skillset as campus and industry leaders while connecting with career leaders from across the country.
Dr. Stefanie Swanger, assistant director of the Center for Career and Professional Development, presented her research, titled “Addressing Incivility at Work: Understanding Impact and Advice for Supervisors,” at the 2022 Georgia Association of Colleges and Employers (GACE) Annual Conference. Additionally, Dr. Swanger served as the 2022 conference chair and was elected to the 2022-2023 GACE Board of Directors as technology chairperson.
