DECEMBER 17, 2007
Academic Accolades
CAS
Paul Abraham, chair of the education department, served on the Fulbright National Screening Committee for English Language Teaching Assistantships. He and other committee members reviewed applications and met at the Institute of International Education in New York on Nov. 29.
Donna Beers, professor of mathematics, published the article “Where Mathematics Meets Biology: Opportunities for Students” in the November issue of FOCUS, a publication of the Mathematical Association of America. On Nov. 5-6, she served on a panel of the National Science Foundation to review proposals for its Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program (STEP), a program to attract and retain undergraduates to pursue majors in those areas. On Nov. 15, Beers was an invited panelist at a daylong algebra symposium for high school mathematics teachers, sponsored by the Education Development Center, Inc. in Newton, Mass., and the Massachusetts Department of Education. The panel topic was, “What algebraic skills and habits are useful for high school graduates to ensure success in post-secondary institutions?” Part of the high school math curriculum, Algebra II is increasingly regarded as a gateway course for higher education, and teaches quantitative reasoning skills important for the workplace.
Communications Lecturer Dan Connell participated in a one-day workshop, titled “Eritrea’s Regional Role and Foreign Policy: past, present and future perspectives,” at Chatham House in London Dec. 17. The workshop was organized by the Horn of Africa Group at Chatham House, Europe’s leading foreign policy think tank.
Assistant Professor of Art Wendy Seller exhibited work in the “Icons + Altars” exhibition at the New Art Center in Newton, Mass., in November and December, and had two paintings in the December Exhibition and Sale (Dec. 5-9) at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. In addition, her work was included in the Boston International Art Fair at the Cyclorama building through the Wynne Falconer Gallery in Chatham, Mass.
Associate Professor of Art Vaughn Sills gave a presentation of her photographs on African-American gardens Nov. 14 at the Royall House and Slave Quarters in Medford, Mass. A book of her work, titled Places for the Spirit: Traditional African-American Gardens of the South, will be published in 2008. Sills recently was granted an award by Artadia: Fund for Art and Dialogue for her work on these photographs.
Wollman’s “Eve”
Richard Wollman, associate professor of English and co-director of the Zora Neale Hurston Literary Center, has been appointed to the advisory board of MassPop, a statewide public outreach program based at UMass/Lowell that brings poetry to the schools and to the public. His sculptures “Eve” and “Woman at a Pool” were on view at the Newburyport Art Association Holiday Show through Dec. 11. Wollman read poems based on his sculptures on Dec. 5 at Poetry Soup at Newburyport High School, and gave a reading of poems Nov. 30 at Grub Street, Boston’s only independent writing center. He read from his new collection, The Art of Need, to celebrate the new issue of Memorious, an online journal based in Cambridge.
CAS GRAD
Joy Bettencourt, assistant professor of education, presented at the national “Crossing Borders, Building Bridges” National Council for the Social Studies conference in San Diego, Calif., on Dec. 1. Her session, titled “Discussion Strategies that Increase Student Participation,” was attended by more than 100 history/political science teachers who actively engaged in several U.S. history-related dialogues utilizing the highlighted discussion strategies.
COLLEGE-WIDE
Kay Petersen, M.D., medical director of the student health center, was named as one of the “Best of Boston” in the area of internal medicine in the November issue of Boston Magazine. Petersen, who also serves as a primary care internist in a practice called Healthcare Associates at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was one of 82 internists listed. The article lists “best” doctors by specialty, generated from a survey of Boston physicians. The article can be accessed here.
GSLIS
GSLIS Assistant Professor Rong Tang’s co-authored paper “Author-Rated Importance of Cited References in Biology and Psychology Publications” was selected as the winner of the Bohdan S. Wynar/ALISE 2007 Research Paper Competition. The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) hosts its research paper competition annually to stimulate the communication of research at its annual meetings. Tang will present the paper during the ALISE annual meeting Jan. 9 in Philadelphia.
SHS
Teresa Fung, associate professor of nutrition, gave an oral presentation of her research titled “Adherence to a DASH-style diet and risk of coronary heart disease and stroke in women” at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, Nov. 4-8 in Orlando, Fla. DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. At the same conference, she also gave a poster presentation on her research titled “Sweetened beverage intake and risk of coronary heart disease in women.”
Gary Gaumer, assistant professor of Health Care Administration; Rebecca Koeniger-Donahue, clinical assistant professor of nursing; and HCA graduates Mary Beth Sudbay and Christina Friel co-published the article “The Use of Information Technology by Advanced Practice Nurses” in the November/December issue of Computers, Informatics and Nursing. The survey was done as part of Gaumer’s Research Design (HCA 531) course, and the data was gathered from a survey of all past graduates of Simmons’s graduate degree nursing programs.
SOM
SOM Professor Bonita Betters-Reed served as a panelist at Adelphi University’s Women and Leadership event Nov. 30, where she discussed the challenges faced by women leaders. The event was part of Adelphi University’s “Women, Peace and Justice” project.
Patricia Clarke, assistant professor of finance, was a panelist at “Working Together to Build Wealth in Lower-Income Communities,” a conference at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Dec. 3. As panelist in the session “Financial Education Program Models,” Clarke discussed the financial literacy service-learning project she developed for Mgmt 260: Principles of Finance. The conference was a forum on strategies for financial institutions, community-based organizations, and public programs to expand access to financial services, financial education and asset development.
SSW
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