Dr. Jeanette McNeill, nursing professor at the Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing & Health Professions, is among distinguished nurse educators who will join the National League for Nursing’s Academy of Nursing Education when she will be inducted as fellow at the 2012 NLN Education Summit this fall in Anaheim, California. The 2012 fellows and honorary fellows together bring the academy’s total to 154 leaders in nursing education from nursing programs across the higher education spectrum and from other organizations committed to health care.
Dr. Philip Aitsebaoma, associate professor of the Rosenberg School of Optometry, was honored with the NOSA Mentor of the Year Award. This award is presented to National Optometric Association Optometrists who display the most interest in helping students across the different schools of optometry as voted by the NOA executive council and National Optometric Student Association members.
Dr. Roger Barnes, sociology professor, had his “Writing Myth: Exploring the Personal” published in my- thopeotry.com, a leading journal of Jungian analysis. His op-ed column “Death Penalty Undermines Justice” appeared July 12, 2012 in the San Antonio Express-News. He served as the keynote speaker at the Bexar County Task Force Against Elder Domes- tic Violence in September on “Generational Diversity in U.S. Society.”
Mike Gilliam, San Antonio Light- house for the Blind, announced that Dr. Andrew Buzzelli, dean of the Rosenberg School of Optometry, was unanimously sup- ported in his nomination as a member of the SA Lighthouse for the Blind’s Leadership Advisory Council.
Dr. Judith Beauford, director of doctoral studies, and Suzanne Meche, doctoral student, presented “Does Language Influence Mathematical Abilities in Number Sense?” at the International Congress of Mathematics Education in Seoul, Korea in July 2012.
In May, Dr. David Campos, professor of education in the Dreeben School of Education, finished writing a book titled, “Educating Latino Boys: Looking Positive, Looking Forward.” The release date is scheduled for December. The publisher is Corwin, a SAGE company. He also co-authored (lead author) on a book titled, “Reaching Out to Latino Families of Eng- lish Language Learners,” which received an award on June 4, 2012 from the Association of Educational Publishers. The book was published by ASCD.
Dr. James Chapman, assistant professor of optometry and director of externship programs, will be involved in a unique, public-private partnership which is working to develop a new state-of-the-art eye and vision clinic that will deliver expert care by faculty and externs from the University of Houston College of Optometry and the UIW Rosenberg School of Optometry. The proposed clinic will be housed at the historic First Christian Church of Fort Worth and the partners hope to have it open by January 2013. According to a program spokesperson, in its first five years, the Fort Worth clinic could provide top-flight care through more than 28,000 patient encounters and a world-class educational experience for 116 optometry externs. University partners will invest $400,000 in diagnostic testing and treatment equipment and nearly two million dollars of unreimbursed care per year. Eye care companies such as Alcon will provide medications, solutions and low-cost glasses for patients.
Cynthia S. Escamilla, general counsel, was a conference presenter for two sessions at the 52nd Annual Conference of the National Association of College and University Attorneys held in Chicago, June 27-30, 2012, with more than 1,400 NACUA members attending. For the first conference session, Escamilla presented: “Navigating the Federal Regulations High- way: a Review and Preview of New Laws and Regulations Affecting Higher Education in 2011-2012.” For the second session, Escamilla led the discussion group: “Minors on Campus: Institutional Policies and Practices.”
Dr. Jesús Cuéllar-Fuentes, associate professor of the School of Mathematics, Science, and Engineering, has announced that the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), USDA has issued a grant for $295,000 to the project entitled “Preparing Hispanics for Leadership in the Applied Statistics Field”; the project is a statistical consulting laboratory and that started Sept. 1, 2012 and will end on Aug. 31, 2015.
Dr. Mary Ruth Moore and Dr. Susan Hall, professors in the Dreeben School of Education, recently published “Listening and Reading Comprehension at Story Time: How to Build Habits of the Mind” in Dimensions of Early Childhood.
Following a thorough vetting process, Dr. Sandra Fortenberry, assistant professor at the Rosenberg School of Optometry (RSO), has been announced as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Texas Optometric Association. This significant achievement reflects great credit upon the university, RSO and the entire faculty. She moves forward in the great tradition of service of UIW by being in a position to affect the health care of the millions of citizens of the State of Texas.
Dr. Kevin Salfen, professor of music, attended the Noh Training Project 2012 in Bloomsburg, Pa. The project culminated in two full performances of the classic Japanese noh play “Atsumori.” For one performance, Salfen played the role of the tsure and for another he sang in the chorus. Salfen also played the nohkan (Japanese noh flute) for a performance of an excerpt from the noh “Takasago.” Salfen served as editor and wrote two articles for “In the Noh: The Newsletter of Theatre Nohgaku.” His review of the film “A Surprise in Texas: The Thirteenth Van Cliburn Inter- national Piano Competition,” was published in “Notes,” the quarterly journal of the Music Library Association.
Maria Gillespie, nursing instructor, has received the South Texas Nurse Image Maker award for the Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing from the Texas Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society. She also received an Ed.D in Higher Education and Adult Learning from Walden University.
In the spring of 2012, Dr. Stephanie Grote-Garcia chaired the annual conference of the Texas Association for Literacy Education (TALE) on the UIW campus. She also co-authored a book titled, “Literacy Trends and Issues” and is this year’s co-author of “What’s Hot, What’s Not,” an annual publication of the International Reading Association.
The exhibit “Iraqi Women of Three Generations: Education, Challenges, and Hopes for Peace” offers images and stories from Sr. Martha Ann Kirk’s research in Iraq in the summers of 2010, 2011 and 2012. The exhibit was generously funded by the Gülen Foundation, University of Houston. The exhibit was shown Oct. 11- 31, 2012 in the Fine Arts Hall at UIW and will be on display in November at the International School of the Americas and March 1-April 12, 2013 at Louis J. Blume Library at St. Mary’s University. The exhibit may be borrowed; for information, visit www.uiw.edu/compassionconference.
Faculty members, Dr. Philip Lampe, sociology professor, Dr. Julie Miller, associate professor of religious studies, and Dr. Roger Barnes, sociology professor, have been editing and publishing a yearly anthology, “Verbum Incarnatum: Social Justice and Economics,” Volume 5, 2012, for the past five years. This anthology includes articles from scholars across the nation as well as UIW.
Dr. Jessica Kimmel, professor in the Dreeben School of Education, is serving as the Chair of Academic Presentations for the World Council for Curriculum and Instruction (WCCI) International Conference in December in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She spent a week with the Taiwanese hosts in San Diego planning the pro- gram. The WCCI Conference will take place from Dec. 27 – Jan. 3 and include a Taiwanese New Year celebration.
Dr. Ken Metz, professor of music, has developed a new method, Chord Tone Analysis, for analyzing tonal harmony, which he hopes will be a useful pedagogical tool for giving students a deeper under- standing of voice leading and help to analyze their own part writing. He also has completed two new works, one for solo vibraphone (Vibes 1, 2, and 4.1) and one for wind ensemble (Fanfare for Freedom).
Chancellor, Dr. Denise Doyle, was recognized by the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO) for her extraordinary efforts in the creation and advancement of UIW’s new optometric education program – the Rosenberg School of Optometry (RSO). The ASCO resolution stated “Dr. Doyle has brought a level of leadership and professional expertise to the establishment of the RSO that has resulted in its profile as a well-defined, excellence-oriented health professions institution guided by a mission of preparing future leaders in optometry through excellence in education, patient care and vision research in an environment committed to personal growth in a context of faith, human dignity and social justice.” In addition, in a statement released by ASCO, its Board of Directors formally lauds the work of Doyle in the establishment of the Rosenberg School of Optometry, “which has brought great credit to the School, the university and the optometric profession.”
Dr. Jo LeCoeur, professor of English, had three poems published in the June 2012 issue of “Shabdagucha, An International Bilingual Poetry Journal.”
