Bulletin: October 2019

Biology Students Receive National Award at Research Conference

Sarah Sweet ’21, received the John Pless Best Student Presentation at the recent National Association of Medical Examiner’s Annual Meeting in Kansas City, MO. Sarah is studying biology and has been working on research this semester with Dr. Russell Alexander, a forensic pathologist at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner for Maryland. They are focusing on the effects the death of Freddie Gray had on homicides and drug-related deaths in Maryland. She uses a geographic information system to map and interpret deaths in the context of Freddie Gray and the associated uprisings. The research includes collaboration with the Baltimore City Police Department and agents at the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Keira Mull ’20 won the first prize in the Biological Sciences category at the Undergraduate Student Research Symposium held at UMBC this fall. Keira is studying biology. Uloaku Onwumelu ’20 also presented her research. Both students studied abroad for biological research at Yeungnam University in South Korea last summer.

Art Therapy Celebrates

The American Art Therapy Association (AATA) is celebrating their 50th Anniversary this year! Art Therapy Program Director, Cathy Goucher, and NDMU Graduate Art Therapy Associate Faculty, Julia Andersen, will be representing the Program within the Coalition of Art Therapy Educators. NDMU Art Therapy Graduate Program Associate Faculty, Elizabeth Hlavek, Peggy Kolodny, and Amanda Bechtel will be presenting a paper, workshop, and advanced practice course respectively at this year's conference in Kansas City, October 30 through November 2. AATA Board Member, Professor Hlavek will also preside as Speaker of the Assembly of Chapters meeting at the conference

The Art Therapy Program is growing! We are thrilled to be educating 13 art therapy graduate students now and to have 11 in the Women's College major! We are also pleased to continue building a robust network of practicum/internship sites across the region, including special education sites, medical and mental health facilities, hospice and elder care facilities, and community-based organizations meeting the needs of individuals experiencing homelessness, addiction, and trauma.

Faculty Accomplishments Make Us #NDMUProud

Dr. Charles Yoe, Department of Business and Economics, SOASB was placed on the Fulbright Specialist Roster for a tenure of three years by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and World Learning, effective October 11, 2019. 

Dr. Charles Buehrle, associate professor of mathematics has two research articles accepted for publication. They include, "Cycles in the burnt pancake graph" in Discrete Applied Mathematics (with Saúl Blanco and Akshay Patidar) and "On the number of pancake stacks requiring four flips to be sorted" in Discrete Mathematics & Theoretical Computer Science (with Saúl Blanco and Akshay Patidar).

Dr. Jennifer Wester, assistant professor of art history presented at the Southeastern College Art Conference in Chattanooga, TN, on October 18. Her paper, “Yves Klein’s (Im)materiality,” is part of the session Material Obsessions in Postwar Art, chaired by Roja Najafi, Curator of the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

School News

Dr. Katherine Beauchat’s class EDU-303/EDU-510 Elementary Reading Materials has partnered with Tunbridge Charter School and Hannah Cook, AmeriCorps VISTA & YES Program Coordinator here at NDMU to develop a lending library for its Pre-K class. The partnership is named “Book Buddies.”

Each NDMU student in the Elementary Reading Materials class created a "Book Buddies Bag" that contains a children’s book along with supplementary literacy materials and activities for the children to take home every week to complete with their families. The Pre-K students will have a new book bag to take home every week. The bulk donation of bags will take place on October 25.

In September, Dr. Christa deKleine gave an invited talk to the English faculty at the University of Panama titled: “Applying L2 acquisition theory in English language teaching at the university level in Panama: Challenges”. In addition, Dr. deKleine presented with Dr. Ricardo Acosta, “Second language acquisition theory and its implementation at Panamanian universities” at the Annual TESOL Congress in Panama City, Panama.  Both talks were the result of a CFRD-funded research project that investigated the knowledge and beliefs regarding second language learning and teaching of faculty on English Departments at various universities in Panama, including perceived challenges unique to the Panamanian setting.

Faculty Accomplishments

At the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics Regional Conference held in Nashville, TN this month, Dr. Angela Snyder and Dr. Lisa Pallett delivered a seminar called, Supporting Teacher Candidates on Math Task 4 of the edTPA. Dr. Pallett also conducted a second session called, Adding More to Subtraction: Supporting a Variety of Addition and Subtraction Problem Structures.

Dr. Christa deKleine has been invited to serve as a linguistic diversity specialist on a featured panel at the Conference on Acceleration in Developmental Education (CADE): 2019 Mid-Atlantic Teaching & Learning Summit to be held at CCBC on Nov. 8. She will also be presenting a paper co-authored with Dr. Rachele Lawton that is part of a larger project that investigates the attitudes and practices of community college instructors regarding linguistic diversity.  

Dr. Katherine Beauchat attended the recent Reading League Conference in Syracuse, NY, where she presented Word Walk Plus: Investigating the Effectiveness of Explicit Vocabulary Instruction in Primary Grade Read Alouds to classroom teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, academic coaches, and literacy researchers from around the globe who participated in this conference. 

Angelo Letizia’s proposal “Drawing Citizenship: Using the Comics Medium for Academic Research on Citizenship" has been approved for inclusion in the Comics and Comic Art Area of the Pop Culture Association’s (PCA) annual National conference. This year the conference will be held in April in Philadelphia. Letizia will explore how faculty can use the comics medium to present facets of their research, especially faculty whose research focuses on citizenship concerns. 

Advocacy to Action: AACN Legislative Priorities for Capitol Hill Visits 

Kathy Wisser, Dean of the School of Nursing recently attended the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) annual academic leadership meeting. More than 800 Deans and Associate Deans from AACN member schools of nursing come together each year in Washington, DC to discuss organizational and legislative priorities as well as opportunities impacting nursing education. Built into the conference agenda is an opportunity to visit state senators and representatives. AACN staff, in collaboration with Stephanie White, at the University of Maryland arranged visits with legislative staffers for Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen Jr. and Representatives Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD-02), Elijah Cummings (D-MD-07), and John Sarbanes (D-MD-03). The visits culminated in a reception where Lauren Underwood, House Representative 14th District of Illinois and past intern at AACN read a statement that will be added into congressional record for AACN’s 50th Anniversary.

The picture shows Congresswoman Underwood along with (L-R) Tracey Murray, Dean, School of Nursing, Coppin State University; Kathleen Wisser, Dean, School of Nursing, Notre Dame of Maryland University; Jeffrey Willey, Director, School of Nursing, Salisbury University; and Mary Etta Mills, Interim Dean, UMSON. Representative Underwood is a registered nurse who worked at Johns Hopkins University and was appointed by former President Obama to serve as senior advisor at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She is the first woman, person of color, and millennial to represent Illinois’ 14^th Congressional District.

Student Accomplishments

Adam Diallo ’21 was named recipient of the Pharmacy Quality Alliance - CVS Health Foundation Scholars for 2019-2020. This is the 4^th year of this program which supports a Doctor of Pharmacy student to complete a quality improvement project with a faculty mentor during the academic year.  Adam is one of only nine recipients nationally.

Kofi Andoh ’21 was invited to the prestigious Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) headquarters in Chicago for a spring 2020 storytelling forum sponsored by the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He was 1 of 5 selected participants and the only pharmacy student in the nation who was invited.

Faculty Accomplishments

Dr. Christine Skibinski, a faculty member in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences received a patent based on work from her post-doctoral fellowship, “Acid Stable Liposomal Compositions and Methods of Producing the Same.”