University Collective
Dr. Arcelia Johnson-Fannin, founding dean and professor of the Feik School of Pharmacy (FSOP), was selected for inclusion in the inaugural issue of "Who’s Who in Black San Antonio." She was profiled as an academic entrepreneur in the “Interesting Personalities” section of the book for her work in helping institutions start professional education programs. The magazine was published in October by Who’s Who Publishing Co., LLC.
Debbie Bussineau-King
Debbie Bussineau-King, professor of music, was elected president of the South Texas Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing on Oct. 4. Membership for this organization draws from 15-20 colleges and universities as far north as Belton and south to Brownsville.
Dr. Kathy D. Webster
Dr. Kathy D. Webster, assistant dean and chair of pharmaceutical sciences, was elected president of the chemistry section of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. She also gave a presentation called “FDAAA of 2007: Post-market Safety of Drugs Implication for Practice” to the Central Texas Health-System Pharmacists on Jan. 13, 2008.
Dr. David Fike, research statistician in research development, and Dr. Renea Fike, assistant professor in the Dreeben School of Education, presented “The Impact of Developmental Education on Community College Student Persistence” at the National Association for Developmental Education in Greensboro, N.C., from Feb. 25-28.
Dr. John M. Tovar, assistant professor in the Feik School of Pharmacy (FSOP), has made several recent presentations. He was an invited speaker at Clinical Pharmacy Week in Austria, at the COPD Summit for the American Lung Association in San Antonio and at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He also coauthored articles published in “Postgraduate Medicine” and the “Journal of Family Practice.”
Andrew Borden, an adjunct professor in the School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering, will present a paper called “Mathematics as a Social Construct” at the meeting of the Texas Section of the Mathematical Association of America in Denton, Texas, on April 17.
Dr. Veronica G. Martinez Acosta, assistant professor of biology, coauthored several recent publications. She published a chapter in “Annelids as Model Systems in the Biological Sciences” and an article in “Journal of Experimental Zoology.”
Dr. Jason M. Cota
Dr. Jason M. Cota, assistant professor in the FSOP, coauthored several articles in 2008. The articles were published in peer-reviewed journals titled “Infection and Drug Resistance,” “Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews” and “Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.” He also made a presentation called “Antimicrobial Susceptibility Update: How Changing Breakpoints Change Therapy” at the Central Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists annual seminar in October.
Dr. Denise Staudt, dean of the Dreeben School of Education, and Sr. Tera Maya, education coordinator for the Mexico CCVI schools, initiated the CCVI Mexico Teachers Project. Discussion focused on possible initiatives and opportunities for collaboration between faculty in the Dreeben School of Education and teachers in the K-12 Mexico schools. A number of initiatives exist between UIW and the CCVI Mexico schools. One initiative is bringing teachers from the CCVI Mexico schools to the UIW campus to participate in professional development workshops presented by the education faculty. Another initiative focuses on helping teachers improve their teaching through a process of staff development. As part of this initiative, several education faculty members are traveling to various schools in Mexico to inform, instruct and inspire teachers in the CCVI schools. In addition to these initiatives, two faculty members travel to Mexico to judge the CCVI Spelling Bee each year. Other UIW faculty and staff members involved in these initiatives include Dr. Elda Martinez, Dr. Susan Hall, Dr. David Campos, Dr. Mary Ruth Moore, Dr. Michael Risku, Alfrieda Leiter and Connie Sabo-Risley.
Three members of the School of Nursing and Health Professions have recently obtained certification as Certified Nurse Educators (CNE) from the National League for Nursing. Julie Nadeau, Dr. Sarah Williams and Dr. Jeanette McNeill are among more than 60 CNEs in Texas. Certification recognizes academic nursing education as a specialty area of practice and an advanced practice role within professional nursing, communicating to students, peers, and the academic and healthcare communities that the highest standards of excellence are being met.
Dr. Paul F. Messina, assistant professor in the School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering, published the article “Evaluation of the Utility of the American College Testing Program Examination in Predicting the Probability of Success in Calculus I Among Select Texas Universities” in the “Texas Journal of Science” last year. In February, Messina traveled to Toronto, Canada, to represent the United States at the 2009 Canadian Air Gun Grand Prix. More than 300 competitors from 20 different countries competed at this event. Since resuming his career in the shooting sports after a 25-year break, Messina returned with a gold medal and a 4th place finish.
Dr. G. Scott Weston
Dr. G. Scott Weston, assistant professor in the FSOP, was recently awarded two grants. He was given an NIH Extramural Associates Research Development award of $10,000 for the Identification of Novel Human Urokinase Inhibitors as Potential Anticancer Agents. He was also granted a UIW Faculty Endowment Research award of $2,000 for the Structure-Based Investigation of Novel Inhibitors of Human Urokinase. He also made three recent presentations: at the XIII IMEBORON meeting in Platja d’Aro, Spain, in September; at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy in Chicago in July; and at the 111th annual meeting of the Texas Academy of Science in Corpus Christi in March. Additionally, last year he was appointed the founding chair of the new Biomedical Sciences section of the Texas Academy of Science.
Dr. Kathleen Martin, of the FSOP, and Dr. Elda Martinez, of the Dreeben School of Education, were invited to present a 30-minute workshop in the Best Practices section of the 2008 Assessment Institute at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, (Ind.), on Oct. 27, 2008. The workshop, called “Using Learning, Education, Assessment and Development (LEAD) Teams to Guide Program Assessment and Development,” was well attended. Dr. Trudy Banta, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has invited a publication submission from the presentation to “Assessment Update,” a journal for the latest developments in higher education assessment (in preparation).
Dr. David Campos and Dr. Elda Martinez, both of the Dreeben School of Education, presented a workshop in January called “Building Phonemic Awareness for English Language Learners” to the bilingual faculty of El Instituto Miguel Ángel de Occidente in Guadalajara, Mexico, a CCVI school.