黑洞社区

Academe welcomes news from 黑洞社区 faculty and staff about research, teaching and service activities. This column recognizes grants, honors, awards, presentations and publications, new appointments, new faculty, sabbaticals, retirements and deaths of our current and former colleagues. 

Dinorah Azpuru, associate professor, political science, was invited to form part of the Academic Council of the Latin American Association of Political Science. Based in Latin America and headquartered in Brazil, ALACIP gathers scholars linked to the world of political science in Latin America. 

Deborah Ballard-Reisch, Kansas Health Foundation Distinguished Chair in Strategic Communication and professor, Elliott School of Communication, received the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language and Gender's 2012 Teacher/ Mentor Award.

Seth Bate, community and organizational specialist, Center for Community Support and Research, recently published 鈥淧aul Mesner Puppets: Marking 25 Years in Kansas City.鈥� It is the cover story for the summer 2012 issue of The Puppetry Journal. 

Fred Besthorn, associate professor, social work, was a featured keynote speaker at the recent Social Work and Social Development Conference held in Stockholm, Sweden. He is widely regarded as an expert in the field of environmental social work and has many published works addressing the interconnection of environmental awareness to the practice of social work.

Barb Chaparro, associate professor, psychology, has been named a 2012-2013 Coleman Faculty Entrepreneurship Fellow, a program sponsored by the Coleman Foundation to increase and build support for entrepreneurship education across the 黑洞社区 campus. 

Sherry Chapman, instructor, social work, has established with Carolyn Shaw, associate professor, political science, the chartering of Pi Gamma Mu, an honorary society for social sciences at 黑洞社区. Chapman is also the secretary of the Kansas Association for Play Therapy.

Dan Close, associate professor, Elliott School of Communication, has been elected to the Kansas Sunshine Coalition's board of directors. The organization monitors and acts on complaints of open meetings/open records violations by governmental bodies and officials. 

Nancy Deyoe, assistant dean for Technical Services, and Ginger Williams, associate professor, University Libraries, presented 鈥淩eaching Youth Through Diverse Collections and Teen/Community-Driven Programming鈥� at the second National Joint Conference of Librarians of Color.

Steve Farmer, Barton Distinguished Chair in Business, has been invited to serve as associate editor of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes by the editor Xiao-Ping Chen, chair and professor, Department of Management and Organization, Michael G. Foster School of Business, University of Washington. OBHDP is published by Elsevier. 

Ed Flentje, professor, Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs, presented at the Docking Symposium on Kansas Politics at Southwestern College.

Philip Gaunt, professor, Elliott School of Communication, director, Interdisciplinary Communication Research Institute, has published a science fiction novel, 鈥淭he Blane Game.鈥� Gaunt鈥檚 book will be available in local bookstores soon. For an advance copy, contact Gaunt at 978-6072.

Aimee Geist, curator of education at the Ulrich Museum of Art, was honored with the Outstanding Museum Art Educator from the Kansas Art Education Association at the group鈥檚 annual fall conference Oct. 27 in Wichita.

Debbie Gordon, associate professor, women鈥檚 studies, participated in the Ninth Annual Beirut Program in Beirut, Lebanon, a two-track exchange program of lectures and colloquia with leading professors and public intellectuals on Lebanon and the Arab world. The program also included meetings with social, political and economic leaders from across Lebanon鈥檚 political spectrum. 

Ruth Hitchcock, associate professor, Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology, graduated from the Leadership Academy sponsored by the Association for Play Therapy at its Oct. 9-14 conference in Cleveland, Ohio. The academy鈥檚 six-month curriculum especially explores leadership concepts and the Policy Governance Model that defines organizational roles and responsibilities.

William Hendry, professor, biological sciences, procured a grant in the amount of $48,750 for 鈥淭ranslational Studies of Gynecological Cancer with a Unique in vivo System鈥� from the Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence.

Mary Liz Jameson, associate professor, biological sciences, Natural Science Collections Alliance member, testified before Congress about the need for digitizing science collection data. 

Kyoung Lee, assistant professor, social work, became a commissioner on the Commission for Diversity and Social and Economic Justice at the Council on Social Work Education. 

Melissa Mallon, assistant professor and coordinator, library instruction, had an article, "The New Distance Learners: Providing Customized Online Research Assistance to Urban Students on the Go," published in Urban Library Journal.

Jeffrey May, biological sciences, procured a grant in the amount of $37,500 for 鈥淒iagnostic Relevance of Human Urinary FSH Glycoform Assessment to Ovarian Aging鈥� from the Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence.

Eunice Doman Myers, associate professor, Spanish, and associate dean, Liberal Arts and Sciences, gave a paper, "The Plight and Plots of African Immigrants in Angela Reyes' Los trenes de marzo (11-M)鈥� at the Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature at the University of Nebraska on Oct. 12.

Michael Palmiotto, professor, criminal justice, published the textbook 鈥淐riminal Investigations, Fourth Edition鈥� CRC-Press, 2013, and the refereed article (co-authors D. Vejnovic and V. Lalic) 鈥淧olicing Football Violence and Ethnic Hatred in Bosnia and Herzegovina鈥�: in Journal of Defendology, Volume XL, No. 32, 2012.

Michael Palmiotto was appointed editor of the Journal of Defendology in September. The journal is published in Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovina, in Serbian and English. 

Sabrina Perez-Glatt, field practicum coordinator, School of Social Work, has been appointed to the Sedgwick County Council on Aging.

Eric Wilson, instructor, Elliott School of Communication, was an invited presenter at the annual Bombardier Safety Standdown symposium. He partnered with two Bombardier staff members to present "Beyond the Scene of the Accident," a half-day workshop on aviation media relations and crisis communication.

Li Yao, biological sciences, procured an Institutional Core Facility Support grant in the amount of $40,000 for 鈥淚nverted Microscope, Nikon Fluorescence System, Digital Imaging System, Motorized Stage鈥� from the Kansas IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence.

IN MEMORIAM 

John David Boyd, 73, professor emeritus of art and design, died Oct. 25 in Wichita. Services have been held. He is survived by his wife of 44 years, Lorraine; son Aaron (Jenny) of Wichita; daughters Sarah Blythe (Kurt) of Chapel Hill, N.C., and Alice Villegas (Diego) of Cincinnati, OH; three grandchildren, and countless students. 

Annie Pearl Johnson, 75, retired custodian, Physical Plant, died Oct. 26. Services have been held. She is survived by daughters Sharon (Anthony) Trotter, Cosandra (Derrick) Carr and Lisa Johnson; sons, Willie Lee (Sherelle) Johnson, Robert Earl Johnson and Anthonio (Tuyet) Johnson; sister, Dorothy Jean Johnson; brother, Augusta Johnson; 18 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and three great-great-grandchildren. 

James McKenney, 77, professor emeritus and former chair, political science, former director, Honors Program and Taft Institute, died Oct. 25 in Wichita. Services have been held. He was preceded in death by his father, James D., mother, Thelma, and step mother, Mary E. Survivors include his wife, Mary K.; sister Sharon and her husband (Roland) Simantel of Wasco, Ore.; brother Richard and his wife (Vona) McKenney of Eugene; sister Kathy and her husband Bela Kirchberger of Salem, Ore; and sister Jane and her husband John Hyder of Salem, Ore. Children and their families include James R. of Grants Pass, Ore.; Alison (Mitch, Maeley, Mariah) McKenney Brown of Valley Center; Sean P. (Kristie, Christopher, Bailey, Kaleigh) of Honolulu , Hawaii; and Colin (Brenda, Megan, Braeden) of Valley Center. Memorials may be sent to the Valley Center Public Library Building Fund c/o the Friends of the Library, 321 W. First, Valley Center, KS 67147.