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2010 Accolades
September
Dr. Robert Gannon, professor of biology, has received additional funding from Institut de Recherches Servier to continue the research project entitled “Evaluation of Servier Compounds for Efficacy in Modulating Hamster Circadian Activity Rhythms” through July 1, 2011.
Mark Williams, coordinator of Alcohol and Other Drug Education, received funding from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety for VSU’s peer education program to reduce alcohol-related driving incidents. This grant will fund two major campus awareness events during Academic Year 2010-2011 that will highlight information about underage drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol.
August
Dr. Melissa Rinehart, assistant professor of anthropology, authored the most recent online Featured Post for Anthropology Now, an independent initiative committed to being the public voice for anthropology and enriching public understanding of the world and its cultures. Rinehart's two-part article titled, "On Anthropology, Inspiration from Haiti," was also included in the publication's online Haiti Watch section. The first installment, published June 18, detailed the planning and execution of the rice, bean and water drive held at Valdosta State University's north campus. She discussed her motivation for starting the initiative, the attention received from students and media, and results of the successful drive, which yielded 35,000 pounds (7 tons) of food and water for victims of the earthquake in Haiti. In the second installment, published June 22, she discussed the moral conviction she observed during the drive as well as the anthropological implications of initiating humanitarian efforts. With primary research interests in Native American studies, removal, language shift and revitalization, Rinehart easily made a connection with the oppressed population of Haiti and felt compelled to join efforts to alleviate the post-earthquake devastation. Her event, organized in a little more than one week, benefited Second Harvest Food Bank as well as the Feed the Children refugee camp, which housed more than 15,000 Haitians. To read Rinehart's Featured Post, go to http://anthronow.com/2010/06.
Dr. Denise T. Reid, professor of mathematics, was selected as one of 10,000 US educators that will read and score the College Board's Advanced Placement Examinations this June in Kansas City. Those chosen represent many of the finest academic institutions in the world. The AP Program gives more than 1.5 million capable high school students an opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses and examinations. Based on their exam performance, successful students receive credit and/or advanced placement when they enter college. More than 2.9 million examinations from more than 30 AP Courses were evaluated from university and high schools. "The Reading draws upon the talents of some of the finest teachers and professors that the world has to offer," said Trevor Packer, vice president of the Advanced Placement Program at the College Board. "It fosters professionalism, allows for the exchange of ideas, and strengthens the commitment to students and to teaching." The AP Reading event is a unique forum in which academic dialogue between high school and college educators fosters collaborations and the sharing of best practices.
VSU student Lacey Taylor, authored an essay titled, “It’s Not Just a Bike,” which was chosen for publication by textbook publisher Bedford-St. Martin’s Press for the ninth edition of The Bedford Guide for College Writers. The essay will appear as a sample student essay in the chapter titled, “Proposing a Solution.” Taylor’s essay was written during fall 2008 as an assignment for her ENGL 1101 class. Her instructor, Roy Pace, asked students to propose a solution to a problem students faced. Her essay suggests ways to protect bicycles on campus. Impressed by her essay, Pace suggested Taylor, who is a third-year student majoring in Mass Media, submit the article for publication.
Dr. Dorothy Dye, Division of Social Work, received continued funding from the South Georgia Regional Commission’s Southern Georgia Area Agency on Aging for operation of My Friend’s House Alzheimer’s Daycare Center on the VSU campus. This contract provides funding for the provision of day services to clients with memory loss and respite for family members for Fiscal Year 2010-2011. Up to 5,000 hours of service will be provided to community residents by Dr. Dye, the ADC staff, and Master of Social Work students.
Dr. Emily Cantonwine, assistant professor of biology, recently secured a gift from DuPont Crop Protection to support her research program. She will focus on research on peanut leafspot disease treatment with the funds supporting, in part, a student research assistant.
Dr. Mark Blackmore, professor of biology, received an extension through June 2011 for his research contract from the Lowndes County Board of Health, for his project titled “West Nile Virus Research." Dr. Blackmore and his student assistants will continue to identify mosquito populations in Lowndes County and monitor for the presence of the West Nile virus.
July
Dr. Emily G. Cantonwine, assistant professor of biology, received a continuation award for a research project titled "Exploiting the Organic Peanut: Refining Production Systems for the Southeast." The project is funded by Hebert Green Agroecology, Inc. under a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dr. Cantonwine’s research involves identifying conditions to suppress fungal diseases of peanut seeds and seedlings for organic production systems.
Brian Day, assistant professor of communication arts, received funding from the City of Valdosta to continue operation of Channel 17, a governmental access channel that provides information to the general public.
Assistant professors of nursing, Dr. Maura Schlairet, principal investigator, and Dr. Melissa Benton, received a grant from The Daisy Foundation for a study titled “Effect of Age on Outcomes of a Resistance Training Program in Breast Cancer Survivors.” The research will add to the body of knowledge regarding potential benefits of exercise for controlling lymphedema and body weight for this population.
June
Dr. Marty Giddings, director of the Division of Social Work, secured a contract with the Georgia Department of Human Resources through Georgia State University for the project titled LCSW Supervision Project. This contract will enable the Division of Social Work to continue provision of clinical supervision to eleven MSW participants who are employed by the State of Georgia Division of Family and Children Services.
Dr. Jean Temple, associate dean of nursing, acquired a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), award for the project titled “Advanced Education Nursing Traineeships – FY2011.” This project will provide tuition assistance for post-baccalaureate nursing students in the nurse practitioner, nurse educator, and/or nurse administrator programs.
Dr. Donna Sewell, professor of English, received a grant for the project titled "Blackwater Writing Project 2010." This project, which builds on previous years' successes, will provide an Invitational Summer Institute and other professional development activities for teachers from a 13-county area and across all subject areas, with a goal of improving the teaching of writing in K-college classrooms.
May
English Department faculty and students recently presented papers at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Georgia Philological Association, hosted by Brewton-Parker College, in Mt. Vernon, Ga. on Friday, March 12. Presenters included graduate students Darcy Fallon, Brittany Howard and Elaine Frieman; lecturers Rebecca Gaskins and Gardner Rogers; assistant professor Richard Carpenter; associate professor Karen Jacobsen; and professor David Buehrer. Buehrer's article, "On Writing 'The Book of Love': Nabokov's "Lolita" and Garcia Marquez's "Love in the Time of Cholera" as Self-Reflexive Metafictions," also appears in the most recent issue of the Journal of the Georgia Philological Association 4 (2009): 166-80.
VSU History Professor Dr. John Dunn was selected Dunn as an Academic Fellow for 2010-11 by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a non-partisan policy institute headquartered in Washington, D.C. He will travel to Israel at the beginning of June for an intensive course about terrorism and, more specifically, democracy’s role in defeating the worldwide terrorist threat. Going to Israel will equip him with background and context to provide his students with a balance of perspective when he addresses conflicts in the Middle East. The fellows will be in seminars from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., listening to Israeli government officials, police officers, historians and political scientists share their views about Israel’s approach to the “war on terror.” Dunn, who has taught at VSU for the past decade, said he plans to spend his one free day walking well-preserved ruins in the city of Akko (pronounced Acre) -- the site of a famous Egyptian siege in 1831, which is the focus of a conference paper he plans to present in 2011. Clifford May, president of FDD, said educating professors who directly influence the minds of the future is the best way to share various mindsets and approaches to quelling turmoil in this fragile region. Read more at http://www.valdosta.edu/news/releases/dunn.050310/ .
Becky Murphy, assistant director for Employee and Organizational Development, received a grant from the Georgia Department of Human Resources/Lowndes County Board of Health for the “Shape Up and Ship Out” Project. The funds will be used for supplies for the VSU Walking Club to motivate and support members in reaching their fitness goals.
April
Mimi McGahee, director of the Educational Technology Center (ETC), received a grant from the Georgia Department of Education for operation of the VSU Center. The ETC will continue to manage, coordinate and conduct approved training courses at the center and on-site in local schools and school systems.
Nursing Instructor Brenda Dyal was selected through a competitive process to participate as a Scholar in the Nurse Faculty Mentored Leadership Development Program (NFMLD) created by Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) with generous support from a grant from the Elsevier Foundation. As stated in the award letter: By enhancing the personal leadership development of new nurse faculty, the NFMLD Program will promote faculty retention and cultivate high performing, supportive work environments in academe.
Leslie S. Jones, associate professor of biology recently received two Teacher Quality Awards from the U.S. Department Education through the University of Georgia for proposals titled, "Strengthening the Teaching of Grades 4-5 Science in South Georgia Elementary Schools" and "Strengthening the Teaching of K-3 Science in South Georgia Elementary Schools." These projects will provide teachers with content and instructional strategies using Georgia ecology as the focus of integration of science standards into other subject areas.
Elizabeth Omiteru, Tina Muncy, Wayne Paul, Terence Sullivan and John Wright received the 2010 Blazer Book Awards. Each semester, the Council on Staff Affairs honors five deserving staff members who are participating in the USG Tuition Assistance Program by awarding them $100 toward the cost of their books. Winners must be full-time staff members, have at least a 3.0 GPA overall and participate actively in the university and the local community. These students must excel professionally and academically, and work diligently to advance the university's mission.
In April, Rebecca Thorn presented a paper on the role of the narrator in William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel Vanity Fair at the annual National Council for Undergraduate Research conference in Missoula, Mont. Rebecca wrote the paper, “The Byproduct of a Bystander: Knowledge and Epistemology in Vanity Fair," for a senior level course on the Victorian novel during spring 2009.
March
The Journal of Real Estate Literature will publish an article, titled "A Review of Service Quality Research in Real Estate," which was authored by Dr. Tim Reisenwitz, marketing professor, and Dr. Vicky Seiler, John Hopkins University.
Dr. J. Richard Carter, professor of biology, was recently awarded CY2010 (Year 4) funding from the Department of Defense/U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity/Moody Air Force Base for his project, "Effects of Prescribed Burning on Representative Forest Communities at Moody Air Force Base and Grand Bay Wildlife Management."
Dr. Charles E. Backes, professor of adult and career education, received another year of funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Georgia Department of Education, and Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education Resource Network for the New Teacher Institute and New Teacher Institute Internship and Mentoring Program. This project provides new Trade and Industrial and Healthcare Science Technology Education teachers across Georgia with basic instructional skills as they make the transition from industry to the classroom.
Dr. Len Weld, department head for accounting and finance, published an article, “The Battle over the Current Deduction of Takeover Defense Expenses Continues,” in the April edition of the Taxes – The Tax Magazine.
Gretchen Bielmyer, assistant professor of biology, received additional funding from the city of Jacksonville, Fla., in collaboration with the University of North Florida. Her project, "State of the River Report for the Lower St. Johns River," involves analyzing and comparing the water quality in representative tributaries and the main stem of the Lower St. Johns River.
February
Dr. Fred Ware, professor of management, presented a case and teaching note at the 18th annual meeting of the Southeast Case Research Association (SECRA) on February 12 in Myrtle Beach, S.C. During the conference, Ware was elected to be a charter member of the SECRA Fellows Program, a core group advisory body to the SECRA officers. Participation at this year's event was sponsored by a VSU Faculty Development grant.
The case "Choosing Dr. Taylor's Retirement Plan Option," authored by Drs. Kent Moore and Sanjay Gupta of the Langdale College of Business Administration, earned the Best Case Award out of 38 presentations at the Southeast Case Research Association conference in Myrtle Beach, S.C. on February 12.
Cliff Landis, technology librarian in Odum Library, was chosen as the ACL Member of the Week on February 16. Read more at http://www.acrl.ala.org/acrlinsider/2010/02/16/member-of-the-week-cliff-landis/ .
January
Dr. Mel Schnake and Dr. Donna Cunningham, professors of business management, published an article titled “The employee free choice act: Political possibilities and regulatory realities” in the Journal of Employment and Labor Law.
Dr. Cliff Lipscomb, professor of Economics, and Dr. Aubrey Fowler, professor of marketing, published an article "Building a Sense of Home in Rented Spaces" in the International Journal of Housing Markets and Analysis.
Suzanne Barnett, director of the small business development center has been promoted by the UGA SBDC to a Senior Public Service Faculty.
Dr. Marty Giddings, director of Social Work, received a grant award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/GA Department of Human Services for a continuing project entitled IV-E Child Welfare Grant for MSW Students. This program is designed to increase the number of Master of Social Work (MSW) graduates who seek and obtain employment with the Social Services Unit of the Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), to increase the number of DFCS employees with the MSW degree, and to better prepare MSW graduates for DFCS Social Services employment.
Dr. J. Richard Carter, professor of biology, was awarded a grant by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct a vegetation survey of the Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Lanier County, Ga. The survey will document the occurrence of vascular plant species with special emphasis on rare, threatened, and endangered and exotic invasive species, characterize the major plant communities, classify the plant communities according to a system developed by the Nature Conservancy, and map the plant communities. The results of this study are expected to provide baseline data that will be useful in the management of the Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge.