Stetson-Hatcher School of Business
Astrid Loretta Ayala, Ph.D., associate professor of economics and finance, presented the article “Score-driven Markov-switching models of scale and shape parameters: an application to the Indian stock market” at the International Conference on Empirical Economics at Penn State Altoona held on Aug. 1. The article is co-authored with Szabolcs Blazsek, Ph.D., professor of economics, and Vijaya Subrahmanyam, Ph.D., the C. Ben Harnsberger Professor of Finance. Ayala also served as a discussant for Angela Bikar’s article “The Capital Conversion Trap: Institutional Friction and the Transnational Identity Crisis of Yugoslav Female Returnees (1960-1990)” at the same conference.
Jody Blanke, J.D., the Ernest L. Baskin Jr. Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Law, attended the annual conference of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business in Minneapolis. He presented the paper “Copyright Law and AI: The Building Blocks” in a special Holmes-Cardozo Finalist session honoring the four papers in the running for the best paper award. The article was accepted for publication by the American Business Law Journal.
Szabolcs Blazsek, Ph.D., professor of economics, co-published the paper “Persistence in sustainable development in OECD countries: An international assessment for the load capacity factor” with alumnus Gabriela de Cruz Lima in Environmental Modeling & Assessment. He also co-published the working paper “Climate persistence, structural change, and heteroscedasticity in CENOGRID: A score-driven fractional integration approach” with Raven A. Dupree, a student in the Mercer Undergraduate Research Scholar Training Initiative. Blazsek was also named an associate editor at the Journal of Economics.
Briana Stenard, Ph.D., associate professor, contributed to the July 2026 Atlanta Business Chronicle article “Three Atlanta Instructors Share How Executive Education is Changing,” about her experience and learnings from teaching executive education programs at Mercer.
Ronald Tsang, Ph.D., assistant professor of accounting and program director of the Master of Accountancy program, published the article “A Comparative Analysis of Information Content in Risk Factors and Management’s Discussion and Analysis: Evidence from the Mandatory Cybersecurity Disclosures” in the International Journal of Accounting Information Systems. The paper was previously presented at the 2025 Symposium hosted by the University of Waterloo’s Center for Information Integrity and Information Systems Assurance.
Tift College of Education
Karyn Allee, Ph.D., associate professor of elementary education, co-authored the article “What’s really behind the Southern reading surge?” with Brittany Adams of the University of Alabama, Elias Blinkoff of Temple University and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., of Temple University and the Brookings Institution. The article was published in The Conversation on April 28. Allee and Hirsh-Pasek also co-authored the commentary “Recess is crucial for education outcomes: It’s time for U.S. policy to catch up,” published by the Brookings Institution in its K-12 Education series on May 28. Allee presented the invited webinar “Play as a foundation for joyful, engaged learning” for the international Little Spurt Initiative on June 4 and served as a panelist on the keynote panel “Finding joy and defending DEIB in early childhood teacher education” at the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) Virtual Summer Conference on June 8, moderated by NAECTE President-Elect Ursula Thomas, Ed.D. Fellow panelists included Kimberly Garrett, Ph.D., of Chicago State University, Meghan Green, Ed.D., of Erikson Institute, and Xin Li, Ph.D., of the University of Houston. At the same conference, Allee and Green presented the paper “‘These are the things that are less seen’: Arts-based identity exploration in early childhood teacher education.” Allee has also been named a collaborator, with Justus Randolph, Ph.D., professor in the Georgia Baptist College of Nursing, on the Playful Entrepreneurial Minds consortium, a newly funded international research project coordinated by the University of Lapland and supported by the Research Council of Finland for the period 2026-30. The project, “Playful Entrepreneurial Minds: Playfulness and Hybrid Intelligence in Higher Education and Working Life,” examines how playfulness, entrepreneurial mindset and human-AI collaboration can support learning, well-being and innovation in higher education and working life. Additionally, Allee was featured alongside Hirsh-Pasek in the Education Week Q&A “What Students Lose When Recess Is Squeezed Out of the Schedule,” addressing the academic, social-emotional and equity implications of declining recess access in U.S. schools, on June 23. Allee was also named the Scarborough Endowed Chair in the Tift College of Education for the two-year term, 2026-28.
Angela Crevar, Ph.D., assistant professor of education leadership, presented in a panel session at the Teaching and Leading Conference for the Dominican Republic Ministry of Education on effective data usage. Crevar’s work, “Migrant Teaching, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, and Gender Interactions: What ‘Matching’ Really Does (and Does Not Do) for Student Outcomes,” co-authored with Praveen Dubey, Ph.D., and Mattius Rischard, Ph.D., assistant professors at Montana State University-Northern, was accepted for presentation at the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness 2026 Conference. This same work was also accepted for publication in the Annual Review of Comparative and International Education and is currently in press.
Jeff Hall, Ed.D., professor of education, and Lucy Bush, Ph.D., professor of education, presented “Digital docents: Preserving place through Geocaching Adventure Labs” at the 2026 International Society for Technology in Education Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, on June 29.
Vicki Luther, Ph.D., professor, was elected president of the National Association of School University Partnerships. She began her three-year term on July 1 and will serve as president-elect until July 2027, when she will assume the presidency.
Jaclyn K. Murray, Ph.D., assistant professor, led the scoring guide revision and evaluated student free responses for the 2026 College Board AP Physics C: Electromagnetism exam in June. She also shared her work at the AP Physics Symposium, presenting “Driving Student Sensemaking with the Model-Based Argumentation Critique Tool” to an audience of physics professors and educators. She co-authored with Meenakshi Sharma, Ph.D., associate professor of science education, the commentary “High Quality Instructional Tools to Support Equitable Science Instruction,” published in Science Scope. Murray’s professional leadership also extends to the National Science Teaching Association, where the president appointed her to the Research in Science Teaching committee, and she will work to bridge the gap between academic findings and practical classroom application for science educators. Additionally, Murray and her colleagues secured a three-year, $1.99 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Their funded project, “CyberAI SFS: Government-ready Experts in Resilient Cyber AI,” aims to prepare graduate students for high-demand public sector roles by providing specialized education at the intersection of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.
Katherine Perrotta, Ph.D., associate professor of middle grades and secondary education, published the article “History is constantly changing,” a study of teachers’ beliefs about historical empathy through museum professional development, in the Journal of International Social Studies.
School of Engineering
Philip B. Gallagher, Ph.D., associate professor and department chair of human-centered information design and technology, and Sushil Oswal, Ph.D., professor of human-centered design at the University of Washington, presented the research “Experience Architecture for Design Fields: Some Critical Findings from a UX Faculty Survey” at the 2026 International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Professional Communication Society conference held in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on July 12-15. The research highlights survey data illustrating experience architecture use in the designs of accessibility and user experience courses at universities in the U.S.
Guiseppe Getto, Ph.D., associate professor of human-centered information design and technology and director of the Master of Science in technical communication management, received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Professional Communication Society’s Alfred N. Goldsmith Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Communication. The award, given annually since 1975, recognizes sustained achievement and distinction in engineering communication. Getto received the award in recognition of his research, teaching and professional work in technical communication, user experience design, content strategy and artificial intelligence.
Hunmin Kim, Ph.D., assistant professor, co-authored the article “Generalized Backup Plan-constrained Model Predictive Control” with Hyungjin Yoon, Ph.D., of Tennessee Technological University, and student Shrey Patel. The article was published in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics.
School of Law
Margie Alsbrook, J.D., assistant professor of law, was part of a group presenting “Teaching Students How to Evaluate: Rhetorical Situation as Assessment Framework” at the Legal Writing Institute Biennial Conference in Minneapolis in July. She also co-chaired the Second Annual National Conference on AI & Legal Skills: “Innovation, Impact and Integrity” on June 2. Alsbrook also augmented “Practice, Unchanged Duties: Professionalism and Ethics in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” through a program that was organized by Mercer Law Associate Professor Meagan Hurley, J.D., for the State Bar of Georgia. Additionally, she co-authored the short article “From Builders to Editors: Reimagining How We Teach Citations in the AI Era” with Donna Eng from the University of Florida for the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute.
Heather Baxter, J.D., associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law, was elected president-elect of the Legal Writing Institute. She will serve in that role from 2026-28 before assuming the presidency for the 2028-30 term.
Steve Johnson, J.D., professor of law, will publish “Automating the Administrative State? Caution and Humility in the Use of Generative AI in Rulemaking” in Administrative Law Review Accord this fall.
Savanna Nolan, J.D., associate law librarian for administration and public services, was honored with the 2025-26 Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section Outstanding Articles (Long Form) Award for Effectiveness of Research Plans for “A Case Study, 44 Legal Research Services,” with Thomas “TJ” Striepe. The study was funded by a $5,000 grant from the American Association of Law Libraries LexisNexis.
Karen J. Sneddon, J.D., dean and professor of law, presented the Deans Workshop “Working Together: Building Strong Connections Across Campus and Beyond” and “What’s in a Job Talk?” at the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, held on Amelia Island, Florida, July 29.
Scott Titshaw, J.D., professor of law, published “Adding Family Complications to Birthright Citizenship” in the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal. He also joined a panel presentation and published the paper “Citizenship by Law or Legacy” at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in San Diego.
Pam Wilkins, J.D., professor of law, and Lindsey Gustafson, J.D., presented “Hearing from the Stakeholders: Tenure-track Hiring in Legal Writing” on July 17 at the 2026 Biennial Conference of the Legal Writing Institute.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
David A. Davis, Ph.D., professor of English, published the collection Bale After Bale: How Cotton Defined the Twentieth-Century South with the University of Virginia Press.
Andy Digh, Ph.D., professor and co-chair of computer science, participated in the 2026 College Board Advanced Placement Reading, scoring the AP Research Exam online from June 2-13. AP Research papers were developed and submitted by approximately 53,000 high school students this year, less than 1% of the high school population.
Andrew Gardner, Ph.D., lecturer in integrated studies, published an article on Baptists and “Advocacy” in the Oxford Handbook of Baptist Studies.
Benjamin Greulich, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, and undergraduate research students Kaitlyn Eidson, Hannah Fitzgibbons, Rachel Garver, Huy Lam, Cion Kim, Emma Teng and Shreya Sudakar co-published the research article “Human PRSS8 functions as a targetable, endogenous TGFBR3 sheddase via the novel cholesterol-PRSS8-TGF-β axis” in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.
Marc Jolley, Ph.D., senior lecturer in philosophy and director of Mercer University Press, co-edited and published the book Thoreau & Philosophy. In July, he attended the 85th Annual Gathering of the Thoreau Society in Concord, Massachusetts, and read the paper “Thoreau and Flourishing.” He was also on a panel at the Annual Gathering celebrating the publication of the third and final volume of Thoreau’s correspondence, The Correspondence of Henry D. Thoreau: Volume 3: 1857–1862.
Paul Lewis, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Roberts Department of Religion, convened sessions and led a strategic planning discussion at the Polanyi Society’s “Polanyi for the 21st Century” conference, held June 8-10 at Nashotah House Theological Seminary in Nashotah, Wisconsin.
James Davis May, Ph.D., associate professor of English and director of creative writing, published three poems in the summer issue of Image, and his poem “Pocket Dial” was featured on the June 26 episode of The Slowdown.
Maggie Meadows, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry, presented the talk “RAMP-ing Up Safety Culture with Student-Led Safety Training” at the 2026 Biennial Conference on Chemical Education in Madison, Wisconsin. The talk was co-authored with Joe Keene, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry; Kathy Kloepper, Ph.D., professor of chemistry and chief-of-staff; and Troy Nash, Ph.D., director of University Assessment, and featured innovative approaches for teaching laboratory safety to undergraduate students.
Amy Nichols-Belo, Ph.D., professor of anthropology and global health studies, had the book chapter, “‘Waganga Use Culture, Not Science’: Traditional Healing, COVID-19, and Epistemic Contestation in Tanzania” published in July in Public Health and Spiritual Afflictions in Africa and the Diaspora Epistemic Politics of Plural Healing Worlds, edited by Boris Koenig.
Katharine Northcutt, Ph.D., professor of biology, published the article “Fostering Belonging Through Introducing Diverse Scientists in Undergraduate Neuroscience Lectures” in the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education.
Chinekwu Obidoa, Ph.D., professor of global health studies and African and African American studies, co-authored the study “Mental Health of Undergraduate Emerging Adults in a Socio-Economic Crisis in Nigeria,” which was presented at the Global Mental Health and Well-Being Summit in London on May 25-26.
Tyler B. Parker, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science, published the article “Deft Diplomacy: How Oman Thrives amid Turbulence” in the Project on Middle East Political Science’s Studies 60: Weak States in a Turbulent Middle East. He also published the reflection “Gulf Politics, Publications, and Pedagogy” for the Southeast Regional Middle East and Islamic Studies Society’s Summer 2026 newsletter. Parker delivered the guest lecture “Oman’s Culture and Heritage” for the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center’s SABLA Arabic immersion program students via Zoom. Additionally, he was interviewed for and quoted in the Newsweek article “Iran War Gives ‘Switzerland of Middle East’ Key Say in Fate of Hormuz” on June 30 and the Finnish Broadcasting Co.’s current affairs program “Maailmanpolitiikan arkipäivää” on Aug. 15.
Martin Zhao, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, attended the 10th International Conference on Education and Information Technologies in Suzhou, China. He was invited to deliver the keynote address “CharActER: A Proposed AI System for Teaching Chinese the WRITE Way.” Zhao also presented research on applying artificial intelligence for Chinese language instruction. The paper “Knowledge Annotation and Infusion for a Chinese Teaching AI: An Expert System Approach,” which summarizes the latest results of this research, was accepted for publication in the International Journal of Education, Culture and Society. The paper was co-authored with Rajwol Chapagain, CLAS ‘26, and Andy Digh, Ph.D., professor and co-chair of computer science.
School of Medicine
Mohammed Abdelsaid, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology, mentored lab participant and second-year medical student Brooke Weaver, who was awarded the prestigious 2026 American Heart Association Student Scholarship in Cerebrovascular Disease and Stroke. The award recognizes outstanding medical student research in cerebrovascular disease and stroke and provides the recipient with a research fellowship award and a travel grant to attend the 2027 International Stroke Conference in Houston.
Yahya A. Acar, M.D., assistant professor and director of medical simulation, earned the Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator – Advanced credential from the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. The credential is the highest level of certification for healthcare simulation educators, recognizing advanced expertise in simulation-based education, program development, leadership and research. The achievement reflects Acar’s ongoing commitment to advancing simulation-based education in support of the School of Medicine’s mission to prepare physicians dedicated to serving the people of Georgia, particularly in rural and underserved communities, while further strengthening the school’s educational excellence through innovation, scholarship and high-quality simulation training.
Andrew Benesh, Ph.D., assistant program director of the Master of Family Therapy Program, became a Certified Animal-Assisted Intervention Specialist with the Association of Animal-Assisted Intervention Professionals.
Keisha R. Callins, M.D., professor, was selected as a fellow for the fourth cohort of the Medical Justice in Advocacy Fellowship with the American Medical Association and the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine. She also completed all the requirements of “Climate and Health Medicine: A Clinical Training Program for Healthcare Educators,” a partnership between the Global Consortium for Climate and Health Education at Columbia University and the European Network on Climate and Health Education at the University of Glasgow. Additionally, Callins published the article “Menopause and Environmental Toxics: How Clinicians Can Advance Reproductive Justice” in Island Press and authored the commentary “Georgia can do more to protect health coverage for its youngest residents” for the Georgia Recorder.
Raghavan Chinnadurai, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of biomedical sciences, with five School of Medicine students, published the research article “AMD3100 modulates the secretome responses of human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells but not their inhibitory effect on T cell proliferation” in Scientific Reports.
Ahmed Eltokhi, Ph.D., assistant professor in the department of biomedical sciences, served as first author for the article “Investigation and computational prediction of gating pore currents in NaV1.2 mutations across clinical phenotypes.” He also received a $75,000 grant from the American Epilepsy Society Junior Investigator Awards for his research “Pathogenic Gating Pore Currents in Epilepsy and Autism.”
Abraham M. Enyeji, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine in community medicine, published the article “Life’s Essential 8 and Depression in the United States: Findings From NHANES” in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, an Elsevier journal. The study examined the relationship between the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 cardiovascular health metrics and depression severity in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults using National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data.
Tony Gryffin, Ph.D., associate professor of community medicine, presented the research “A Physiological Understanding of Tai Chi and Qigong: Metaerobic Theory and Implications for Enhanced Oxygen Perfusion, Cellular Metabolism and Healing,” from a collaboration with David Gu, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences, at the second annual conference of the Harvard Medical School Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, on the Science of Tai Chi and Qigong. Gryffin and medical student Lindsey Tatum presented the research “A User-Friendly Tai Chi Program for Older Adults in Rural Areas.” Gryffin also presented the research proposal on “Light Intensity Exercise for Cancer Care” at the April meeting of the Mercer-Navicent Science Meet and Greet, which led to a meeting with Paul Dale, M.D., Division of Surgical Oncology Chief with Navicent, and the proposal for a clinical trial focused on rural health opportunities for light intensity physical activity and effects on four months of chemotherapy. Gryffin; Manish Mishra, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences; doctoral students Nicole Wanty and Kendra Jenkins; and medical students Tahiya Anwar and Davis Kidd presented two posters at the 2026 Florida Public Health Association conference, titled “Contrasting Older Adult Health Priorities in Two Rural Georgia Counties” and “Using a Theory-Guided Community Engagement Approach to Identify Nutrition Barriers Among Older Adults in Rural Georgia.”
Stacy Jones, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical sciences, presented a poster at the International Association of Medical Science Educators conference, held from June 6-9. The poster, “A Faculty-Driven Approach to Support the Longitudinal Development of Medical Students’ Self-Directed Learning Skills (SDL),” stems from an ongoing project on SDL skill training. The project is a collaborative effort involving Henna Iqbal, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center; Manisha Arora, Ph.D., associate professor; Kimberly McElveen, Ed.D., associate professor and department chair; Donna Evans, M.D., professor; David Gu, Ph.D., associate professor; and Bonny Dickinson, Ph.D., professor. Jones also completed the International Association of Medical Science Educators Foundations of Health Professions Education Course and has been invited to apply for the association’s Medical Educator Fellowship in 2027.
Edward C. Klatt, M.D., professor in the department of biomedical sciences, served as the poster judge for the 30th consecutive year at the 2026 Pathology Informatics Summit Meeting held in Minneapolis, May 18-21, sponsored by the Association for Pathology Informatics. Klatt also provided funding for 12 trainees in informatics to receive both national and the first-ever international travel awards to attend this meeting. Klatt served as a manuscript reviewer for the journal Medical Teacher in May 2026. Klatt, along with Kim Meeks, director of library and information science and professor, and Carolyn Klatt, professor, sponsored the Summer Scholars project of medical student Tyler Grace Hattaway, who was selected for the oral presentation “Student Engagement and Performance with Formative Assessments in Preclinical Medical Education” at the 2026 Annual Conference of the International Association of Medical Science Educators on June 7 in Augusta. Additionally, Klatt served as a reviewer of proposals on the topic of health equity for presentation at the Health Information and Management Systems Society 2027 Global Health Conference & Exhibition. The organization informs healthcare policy decisions in multiple countries. Finally, Klatt served as a reviewer for educational content submissions in assessment, technology, instruction, cognition and learning for the American Educational Research Association 2027 annual meeting in August.
Anthony J. Kondracki, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Community Medicine, presented the research poster “Maternal Mortality and Racial Disparities Health Indicators in Historical U.S. Data: Does Nonstationarity Matter?” at the Society for Epidemiologic Research Annual Meeting held June 23-26 in Phoenix. He also co-published “Joint Associations of Maternal Smoking and Pre-Pregnancy BMI with Term Low Birthweight and Small-for-Gestational-Age Births: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of 2024 United States Birth Data” in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Kondracki was also awarded a $5,000 grant from the Georgia Healthy Family Alliance to screen women for diabetes and hypertension for the project “Access to Proactive Care for Underserved Women in Taylor County, Georgia.”
Jong-Hyuk Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor of genetics in the biomedical sciences department, was awarded a National Institutes of Health Support for Research Excellence – First Independent Research Award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying kidney disease in Cockayne syndrome. The four-year award will provide $713,600 in research funding to support his work. The project will also provide research opportunities for students and trainees, offering hands-on experience in genetics, molecular biology and aging research while fostering the next generation of biomedical scientists.
Vladimir Mayorov, Ph.D., assistant professor; Peter Uchakin, Ph.D., professor; and Christy Bridges, Ph.D., professor, received a $1,726,634 grant from the National Institutes of Health National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute as part of a collaboration with Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The grant supports the project “Targeting Mitochondrial Cyclophilin D in Vascular Oxidative Stress and Hypertension.”
Chefetz Menaker, Ph.D., associate professor of pharmacology, published the clinical research paper “Racial disparities in time to treatment initiation and survival outcomes in patients with vulvar cancer: a national cancer database analysis” in the International Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Anne Montgomery, Ph.D., associate professor in the community medicine department and biostatistician at the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center, co-authored two articles published in the peer-reviewed journal The American Surgeon. “Longitudinal Patient-Reported Outcomes and Early Provider-Rated Cosmetic Associations Following Intraoperative Radiation Therapy in Early-Stage Breast Cancer” was led by Maria Vazquez de Santos, M.D., and co-authored by Trisha Weber, M.D., Faith Rand and Paul Dale, M.D. The second article, “Can Thromboelastography Be Predictive of Venous Thromboembolism After Trauma: A Longitudinal, Prospective, Multi-Institution Study,” was led by Cory Nonnemacher, M.D., and included nine additional co-authors. Montgomery also received funding through the 2026 Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Young Scholars Enhancement Grant Program. The funded project, “Participatory Development and Cognitive Testing of an Evaluation Instrument for Farmer Mental Health Education in Sustainable Agricultural Communities,” engaged two student scholars. The students, undergraduates from Fort Valley State University and Mercer University, helped develop an evaluation tool for agricultural outreach and farmer mental health training programs. In addition, Montgomery presented findings from the National Women in Agriculture Survey at the 2026 International Year of the Woman Farmer ACE Summit in Washington, D.C. The summit was hosted by the American Farm Bureau Federation Women’s Leadership Committee. The national study included responses from more than 4,300 women in agriculture and examined leadership experiences, advocacy participation, barriers to engagement and organizational involvement.
Youngmi Oh, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, published the article “CDKN1A Protects Medium Spiny Neurons from Huntington’s Disease Pathology” in Neurobiology of Disease. The study was conducted by Mercer University researchers, undergraduate students and medical students, highlighting the impact of student-driven research in advancing our understanding of Huntington’s disease. The work was completed in collaboration with the laboratory of Seong Won Lee, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, and investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying Huntington’s disease.
Wendy Walker, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences; medical students Mark “Mack” Murray, Mackenzie Morgan and Anjali Patel; and doctoral student Jacob Allen co-authored the paper “Sleep interruption aggravates sepsis by rewiring the macrophage immune response,” published in The Journal of Immunology. The paper examined the effect of sleep interruption on sepsis. Walker also presented two posters at the 49th Annual Congress on Shock, held May 29-June 4, in Las Vegas.
Iuliia Zhuravlova, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of anatomy and embryology in the biomedical sciences department, published the scientific article “Anatomic Variability of Sphenoid Sinus and its Relations to Age and Sex: Observational and Cross-Sectional Study of Ukrainian Population” in the Translational Research in Anatomy journal. She also coordinated an oral presentation session and co-presented the poster “An Innovative Approach to Engage Medical Students in Academic Medicine” at the 30th annual IAMSE conference in Augusta. In July 2026, Zhuravlova became a member of the IAMSE Publications Committee.
Townsend School of Music
Brittan Braddock, director of bands, coordinator of music education, conducts the Mercer University Wind Ensemble, which has been selected to perform for the 2027 Georgia Music Educators Association State Conference on Jan. 28, 2027. This is the first time in the history of the ensemble that it has been selected to perform for the prestigious event. Featured on the program will be a premiere of the new Symphony for Wind Ensemble by Professor Christopher Alan Schmitz, D.M.A., Fabian Distinguished Artist Bixby Kennedy, D.M.A., will perform a clarinet concerto.
Sean Gehricke, D.M.A., assistant professor of music production, acted as the co-contractor for the North American segment of Rosalía’s LUX tour during the summer of 2026. In collaboration with Los Angeles-based contractor Jules Levy and the London-based Heritage Orchestra, Gehricke coordinated the integration of large-scale live orchestral components for the international tour. His ongoing engagement in prominent commercial music projects enables him to incorporate contemporary industry practices in orchestral contracting and live production into the curriculum at the Townsend School of Music.
Calista Anne Koch, instructor of harp and director of the Mercer Harp Ensemble, was a distinguished faculty member at the Interharmony International Music Festival in Piedmonte, Italy, this summer. This was the third summer she has been the festival’s harp instructor, a position that was created for her in 2024. In addition to her duties teaching nine harp students who traveled to Italy to study with her, she performed in several chamber and faculty concerts. She was also honored to be one of the few faculty members to give the festival-wide seminar “Composers, Conductors, and Collaborators of the Harp: What You Need To Know.” The lecture helped students, faculty and professionals learn about Koch’s unique instrument.
Richard Kosowski, D.M.A., director of graduate studies, chair of vocal studies and professor of music; Nathan Myrick, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Sacred Spectrum Project; and Eric Amouzou, Ph.D., assistant director of research for the Sacred Spectrum Project, presented “What Counts as Participation? Neurodivergent Children and Worship’s Participatory Infrastructure” at the annual meeting of the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, New Jersey, on July 21. Myrick also played electric guitar for the “Singing Creation and Recreation” Hymn Festival at the annual meeting and played acoustic guitar for the closing worship at the Alleluia Conference at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, on July 23.
College of Nursing
Macy Mosher, Ph.D., clinical assistant professor, and Seongkum Heo, Ph.D., professor and Piedmont Healthcare Endowed Chair, had the article “Impact of disabling backwards navigation on exam scores in an undergraduate nursing program” accepted for publication in Nurse Educator.
Andra Opalinski, Ph.D., associate professor, was named a Wellstar Health System Visiting Nurse Researcher.
Justus Randolph, Ph.D., professor, published the article “TOI-2494 c and TOI-5143 c: A Hot Saturn and a Hot Jupiter with Interior Planetary Companions” in The Astronomical Journal, and he co-published the article “Adult playfulness: Finnish teachers evaluating their own playfulness” in Teachers and Teaching.
Sonique Sailsman, Ph.D., assistant professor, co-presented the pre-conference session “A Spark to Start: Empowering the New Nurse Educators Who Shape the Future” at the 2026 Lippincott Nuts and Bolts Nurse Educator Conference in Pittsburgh in August.
College of Pharmacy
Jill Augustine, Ph.D, Pharm.D., associate professor, received the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Social and Administrative Sciences Section 2026 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award. She also co-authored “Behind the Scenes for Accreditation: Strategies, Stakeholders, and Successes in Pharmacy Program Self-Studies,” published in the American Journal of Pharmacy Education.
Ajay K. Banga, Ph.D., professor and chair of pharmaceutical sciences, co-authored “Nanoemulsion-based transdermal delivery of rilpivirine and dolutegravir for pediatric HIV treatment,” published in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics, and “Advancing transdermal drug delivery: integration of microneedle technology and iontophoresis for enhanced therapeutic outcomes,” published in Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery.
Mahavir Bhupal Chougule, Ph.D., Pharm.D., associate professor, received a $586,359 National Institutes of Health REAP grant for his project “Nebulized azetidine-based transcription factor inhibitor loaded nanoproduct for severe Asthma.” Chougule was also named a member of the Program Planning Committee for the Biological Sciences Section of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, serving July 2026-present. He served as senior and corresponding author for the research article “Nebulized Extended-Release Cationic PEGylated Nanoliposomal Delivery of Antiviral dual inhibitor MPI8 for Targeting SARS-CoV-2 Infection,” published in the Archives of Microbiology & Immunology. Additionally, he delivered the invited talk “Next-generation parenteral nanomedicine conjugated with targeting ligand for therapeutic delivery” at the Emory University Center for ViroScience and Cure and its Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology on July 20 in Atlanta.
Jenna Bloemer, Ph.D., Pharm.D., assistant professor, co-authored “Prenatal cannabinoid exposure alters excitation-inhibition balance through glutamate and GABA receptor-mediated signaling,” published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Martin D’Souza, Ph.D., professor and director of Ph.D. programs, and Mohammad N. Uddin, Ph.D., associate professor, co-authored “Delivery of mRNA Therapeutics Beyond Infectious Diseases: Design Innovations and Applications in Oncology, Cardiovascular, and Rare Genetic Diseases,” published in Pharmaceuticals.
Lori Dupree, Pharm.D., clinical associate professor, and colleagues received $3,000 in funding from the Mercer University Health Sciences Center Interprofessional Education Grant for the project “Mitigating fear of falling and injury in older adults through learning safe falling strategies using judo principles: A simulation-based interprofessional experience for healthcare students.”
Renée L. Hayslett, Ph.D., associate professor, and Jenna Bloemer, Ph.D., Pharm.D., assistant professor, presented “Transforming a P1 Foundational Sciences Course with Specifications Grading” at the 2026 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy annual conference in Grapevine, Texas, on July 21.
T. Vivian Liao, Pharm.D., clinical associate professor, received the 2026 Teacher and Mentor of the Year award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, the 2026 College of Pharmacy Service Award and the 2026 College of Pharmacy Educator Award.
Nader Moniri, Ph.D., professor and associate dean for research, co-authored “The roles of free-fatty acid receptors in the pathophysiology of renal disorders,” published in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
Tonya Pearson, Pharm.D., clinical assistant professor, and Katelynn Mayberry, Pharm.D., clinical associate professor, received $3,800 in funding from the Georgia Society of Health-System Pharmacists for the project “Interprofessional Rural Health Pharmacy Practice Experience for Migrant Farm Work Communities.”
College of Professional Advancement
W. David Lane, Ph.D., professor of counseling, presented two workshops at the Licensed Professional Counselors Association of Georgia’s annual convention in Atlanta in May: “The Diagnostic Conceptualization Paradigm: Keeping A Counselor Worldview in a Medical Model World” on May 12 and “The Narratives of Trauma: Identifying Post Trauma Narrative Lifestyles” on May 14.
Hollis Phelps, Ph.D., associate professor of interdisciplinary studies, published the article “Beyond Description: A Critical Analysis of the Theological Construction of Entheogenic Discourses” in the journal Religions.
Kristin Robertson, Ph.D., assistant professor of writing and literature, was named a finalist for the 62nd Georgia Author of the Year Awards for her most recent poetry collection, Chance of Lightning.
Jacqueline S. Stephen, Ed.D., assistant professor and director of instructional and learning design, co-authored the chapter “Assessing University Assets,” with Chelsie M. Dubay, Ed.D., of East Tennessee State University and Jessica Herring Watson, Ed.D., of the University of Central Arkansas, in Navigating the Doctoral Journey: A Handbook of Strategies for Success (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026). The chapter provides research-informed strategies to help prospective and current doctoral students evaluate institutional resources, program structures and support systems when selecting and navigating a doctoral program. Drawing on scholarship related to doctoral persistence and program integration, the chapter offers practical guidance for aligning university assets with personal, professional and academic goals to support successful degree completion.
Staff and Administration
Emmilee Mitchell, interim associate vice president of the Office of Student Financial Planning, was elected president of the Georgia Association of Financial Aid Administrators during the 2026 Annual Conference and will serve as president-elect for 2026-27. A respected leader in the field of student financial aid, Mitchell has demonstrated a strong commitment to professional excellence, collaboration and service. Her election reflects the confidence of her peers and her dedication to advancing the financial aid profession while supporting student success at Mercer University and across Georgia.
Cenitra Stevenson, assistant director of Upward Bound, earned her Doctor of Education in organizational leadership and change from the University of West Georgia.
