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 current and former colleagues.

AWARDS/HONORS

Michael Birzer, professor and director, School of Community Affairs, received the 黑洞社区 President鈥檚 Innovation Ventures Award for his work on the Wichita/Sedgwick County Law Enforcement Training Center鈥檚 move to 黑洞社区鈥檚 Innovation Campus.

Sam Brown, professor and director, Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs, received a Chester Newland Citation of Merit Award given by the American Society for Public Administration.

Kevin Hager, associate professor, Elliott School of Communication, took first place in the 2016 Kansas Association of Broadcasters contest in the special program category. 鈥淐elebrating Cindy鈥� is the tribute and farewell to KWCH anchor Cindy Klose.

Meladee Garst, psychologist at the Counseling and Testing Center (CTC), was recently awarded the TRIO Achiever award for the tristate chapter. Garst participated in the McNair Scholar program as an undergraduate student at 黑洞社区 before earning her doctorate from Oklahoma State University in counseling psychology. In addition to her clinical duties of helping students, Garst coordinates efforts of the CTC to reach out to underserved/marginalized students on campus. She is being recognized as an outstanding TRIO alumnus who has made significant civic, community or professional contributions through her career in the same state of which she was a participant in the program.

Two 黑洞社区 projects received American Institute of Architects (AIA) Wichita awards. The KMUW remodel received a merit award for Excellence in Interior Design for GLMV Architecture and the Experiential Engineering Building received an honor award for Excellence in Architecture for WDM Architects.

Tony Vizzini, provost and senior vice president, was selected for induction into the SAMPE 2017 Fellow Program for his extensive history of research support, technology advancement, individual mentoring and support of the society. The SAMPE Fellow Award is conferred as recognition by the SAMP Global Fellow Committee for significant contributions made to both the society and the industry in areas of advancing materials and process engineering technology.

Alicia Sanchez, director, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, is a 40 Under 40 honoree for The Wichita Business Journal. She will be one of the honorees at a dinner and awards presentation on Thursday, June 22, at the Hyatt Regency Wichita. A profile of all honorees will be inserted in the Wichita Business Journal on Friday, June 23. The 2017 Wichita Business Journal 40 Under 40 Awards are sponsored by Meritrust Credit Union, Metro Courier and Oxford Senior Living.

Michael Palmiotto, professor, School of Community Affairs, recently published the book, 鈥淧olice use of force: Important issues facing the police and the communities they serve.鈥� The book has earned a 鈥淗ighly Recommended鈥� review from Choice magazine. This rating is a key opinion-maker in library purchasing, with only a small fraction of all academic publications selected for this recognition.

David Klamm, instructor and coordinator in forensic science, recently received the Director鈥檚 Commendation from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation for his response to the Feb. 25, 2016 Hesston mass shooting. Klamm was employed by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at the time of this incident.

Kayla Jasso, advisor and outreach coordinator, sport management, and Jean Patterson, professor in educational leadership, were both recognized at the Shocker Pride Celebration and were presented with the President鈥檚 Distinguished Service Awards.

Gayla Lohfink, associate professor, curriculum and instruction, was recognized with the Outstanding Teacher award from the Academy of Effective Teaching.

Gayle Martin, program manager, Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs, received the President鈥檚 Distinguished Service Award.

Jennifer Pearson, associate professor of sociology, was elected the Kansas State Director for the Midwest Sociological Society.

Brigitte Roussel, associate professor of French, received the 2017 John R. Barrier Distinguished Teaching Award. The award honors humanities and social sciences faculty who exhibit excellent teaching and influence upon the lives and career choices of their students.

Susan Sterrett, Curtis D. Gridley Professor in History and Philosophy of Science, was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Eric Wilson, instructor, Elliott School of Communication, was selected for a competitive fellowship to attend Reynolds Week at the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business Journalism. The center is part of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Arizona State University.

Deborah Shaar, reporter for KMUS, received the Sigma Delta Chi award from the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) for Radio Investigative Reporting. Her stories exposed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) plan to eliminate the weather observation program at Eisenhower Airport without local input about potential safety issues. She reported on the story for six months until the eventual resolution in Congress that mandated the FAA to do a thorough safety review before making any changes.

The KMUW news department received two regional Edward R. Murrow Awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association. News Director Aileen LeBlanc and Assistant News Director Carla Eckels were recognized in the Hard News category for 鈥淭hen and Now: The Summer of Justice.鈥� Nadya Faulx, digital news editor, and Beth Golay, digital content and marketing director, were recognized in the Excellence in Social Media category for 鈥淧rimary Primer.鈥�

Wonyoung Kim, assistant professor, sport management, was given the College of Education Technology Innovation Award. Kim has been a driving force in many partnerships between the department and the community. He also presented 鈥満诙瓷缜� Partnership Studies鈥� at the 2017 Kansas Recreation and Park Association Annual Conference in Manhattan, Kansas.

Mark Vermillion, department chairman, sport management, was awarded the Emory Lindquist Endowed Faculty Award.

GRANTS

Zheng Chen, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, was awarded a $500,000 National Science Foundation Career Award for his project, "Artificial Muscle Based on Dielectric Elastomers for Dexterous and Compliant Prostheses," which he began in May. The award amount is the total for the five-year project period.

Wichita State is developing a new technology that may affordably produce fuel-grade ammonia using only air and water as ingredients. The project has received an $855,000 federal grant from U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) - the first of its kind awarded to a Kansas institution as the lead. Shuang Gu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is the principal investigator of the project, "Alkaline Membrane-Based Ammonia Electrosynthesis with High Efficiency for Renewable and Scalable Fuel Production."

PRESENTATIONS

Mark Schneegurt, professor of biological sciences, presented at the Wichita Science Caf茅 in February. Schneegurt discussed the finding of water on Mars and Europa Enceladus and best chances of finding life on other celestial bodies. He also discussed current and past robotic missions to potential habitats across the solar system.

Timothy Craft, associate professor and director, Koch Global Trading Center, presented 鈥淭he Creative Class and the Future of Wichita鈥� and Arwiphawee (Sai) Srithongrung, associate professor, public administration, presented 鈥淭he Value of Artists to the Local Economy鈥� at the 2017 Wichita Industry Research Exchange.

Glyn Rimmington, professor of global learning, and Mara Alagic, associate professor of mathematics education in curriculum and instruction, College of Education, presented a paper on 鈥淎nimated GIFs as Conceptual Tools" at the 19th Annual Bridges: Mathematics and Art Conference in Jyvaskyla, Finland. The first Bridges conference was held in Winfield, Kansas under the leadership of Reza Sarhangi, an alumni of 黑洞社区 mathematics, who passed away in 2016. Rimmington and Alagic also presented a paper, 鈥淎pplication of TPL Relational Criteria and Adaptive Leadership to reducing the Urban Divide,鈥� for the second Annual Conference on Urban Culture at the Crossroads, Inter-University Center in Dubrovnik, Croatia. They also have had a chapter on "Corporate social responsibility: Third Place Learning for absorbing diverse perspectives" published in the new book "Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity Management鈥� by Springer-Verlag.

Sana Malik, adjunct faculty in the Department of Public Health Sciences, was invited to present at Seeking Refuge: Faith-based Approached to Forced Migration at Princeton University. Her topic was Health, Mental Health and Migration. Details of the program can be found at . Malik also presented 鈥淭he New Frontiers of Global Public Health,鈥� at the U.S. Alumni Thematic International Exchange Seminar. She was chosen by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State based on commitment to create lasting positive change in the local community and around the world.

Cathy Durano, educator, curriculum and instruction, spoke to high school students at the 15th annual Student Ambassador Society Leadership Conference. More than 270 students attended the conference from schools in Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Nebraska.

PUBLICATIONS

Alicia Huckstadt and Karen Hayes, School of Nursing faculty members, published the article 鈥淯sing Information Technology to Tailor Diabetes Care,鈥� in the April issue of 鈥淐linical Advisor.鈥� Their feature was the lead online article and is also available in print. Go to .

Neal Allen, assistant professor, political science, wrote a column on Special U.S. House elections for the Parsons Sun in April.

Marlene Schommer-Aikins, professor, Counseling, Leadership, Education and School Psychology, co-authored 鈥淟inking ways of knowing and cognitive flexibility to a critical controversial issue: Guns on campus.鈥� It was published in 鈥淚nternational Journal Advances in Social Sciences and Humanities.鈥� Go to to read the full article.

Danny Bergman, associate professor, curriculum and instruction, authored 鈥淐ontent analysis of science teacher representations in Google Images.鈥� It was published in 鈥淐ontemporary Issues in Technology & Teacher Education.鈥�

Katie Cramer, associate professor, curriculum and instruction, was lead author on a book chapter in 鈥淭eaching, Affirming and Recognizing Trans and Gender Creative Youth: A Queer Literacy Framework,鈥� edited by SJ Miller. It was recently announced that the book won the 2017 American Educational Research Association, Division K (Teaching and Teacher Education) Exemplary Research Award.

Jose Enrique Navarro, assistant professor of Spanish, recently published 鈥淕lobal Bolano: Reading, Writing and Publishing in a Neoliberal World鈥� in the anthology, 鈥淩oberto Bolano as World Literature.鈥� This volume examines the connections of this Chilean novelist with other classic and contemporary literary masters and analyzes Bolano麓s impressive worldwide reception.

Mark Schneegurt, professor of biological sciences, published an open educational resources (OER) textbook by OpenStax, 鈥淢icrobiology.鈥� It is available on Amazon at . Commentary on the OER imperative has appeared in 鈥淎merican Scientist鈥� in print and online. Go to . Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, tweeted about the OER commentary, which was mentioned in the article at .

Dinorah Azpuru and Michael Hall, associate professors of political science, published an article on democracy in the Washington Post. It was published in 鈥淭he Monkey Cage,鈥� a peer-reviewed online political science journal hosted by the Post. To read the article, go to .

Gayla Lohfink and Michelle Adler, associate professor and assistant professor, curriculum and instruction, published the article 鈥淭eacher candidates鈥� appropriating reading comprehension strategies鈥� in 鈥淟iteracy, Practice & Research.鈥�

Yumi Suzuki, assistant professor, School of Community Affairs, published an article about Japan鈥檚 rape law reform, which was uploaded by a policy organization of the Australian National University. Suzuki鈥檚 important work in this area broadens the international spotlight on 黑洞社区 criminal justice. To read the article, go to .

MISCELLANEOUS

Noell Birondo, associate professor of philosophy, was appointed to the American Philosophical Association鈥檚 Committee on Inclusiveness in the Profession.

Soon Chun Lee, assistant professor, curriculum and instruction, attended the Collaborative Around Research Experiences for Teachers (CARET) Meeting at NASA Ames Research Center in California in January. CARET is a multi-institutional research project funded by Research Action Cluster program in the Network of STEM Education Centers.

Glyn Rimmington, professor of global learning, delivered a three-day workshop on Global Teamwork to 20 post-doctoral research fellows from across Europe for the Center for Ecological Synthesis & Analysis of Biodiversity (CESAB) in Aix-En-Provence, France.

Nickolas Solomey, professor, mathematics and statistics, was selected to be a NASA Faculty Fellow at Marshall Space Flight Center over the summer. He will be exploring development for a new space probe of a 鈥淪pace Based Neutrino Detector,鈥� which he proposed to NASA headquarters in 2016.

Jeff Noble, assistant professor, sport management, received tenure. Noble came to 黑洞社区 in 2004 as an instructor, and became an assistant professor in 2011, teaching the Intro to Sport Management class and graduate level courses. He focuses on teaching, research and service, consistently exceeds expectations.

Wichita State and Emporia State are collaborating on a $1,053,000 project that will examine whether periodic cattle grazing on Conservation Reserve Program grasslands can enhance plant and animal habitat across Kansas. Greg Houseman and Mary Liz Jameson, associate professors of biological sciences, will be the lead scientists for 黑洞社区. This three-year project is funded through the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, using funds procured from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wildlife Restoration Grant Program. The national program seeks to address and develop programs in individual states that benefit wildlife and wildlife habitats.

IN THE NEWS

Pamela O鈥橬eal, recruiting manager, Office of Adult Learning, discussed services available to adult students in an interview aired on B98 FM.

Ray Hull, professor of communication sciences and disorders, was interviewed on 鈥淰oice of America/World Talk Radio鈥� in May. He discussed protection of hearing, how people respond when they don鈥檛 understand and his books, 鈥淭he Art of Communication鈥� and 鈥淭he Art of Presentation.鈥�

Don Blakeslee, professor of anthropology, was interviewed on NPR鈥檚 鈥淎ll Things Considered鈥� about Etzanoa, a recently discovered Wichita Indian settlement in Kansas. Read the interview at .

IN MEMORIAM

Harry Everett Williford Jr., 90, passed away March 4, 2017. Born in Wichita, Williford was a retired vice president of business management for Boeing of Wichita and also worked as a director of research administration at 黑洞社区. He served as an officer in the United States Navy during World War II and then the Korean War. He was preceded in death by his son, Brian Williford, and sisters, Rita Jones and Virginia Olson. Williford is survived by his wife of 62 years, Mary Ellen Williford; son, Mark (Kim) Williford; daughter, Susan Williford; David Curtis and Earl Sample; grandchildren, Nikki (Frik) Khan, Rachel (Jeremiah) Daly, Mindy Williford and Sean (Danae) Williford; and great grandchildren, nieces, nephews and cousins.

Gerald McDougall, former professor and chair of the Department of Economics and assistant provost of 黑洞社区, died on March 5, 2017. He left 黑洞社区 to become the business school dean at Southeast Missouri State University. Read more at .

Patricia Hayes, 78, died Jan. 3, 2017. She received a teaching degree at Wichita State in 1960, where she was a cheerleader in 1957. Throughout her varied professional career she worked as an attendant in a laundromat, a proofreader at Western Lithograph, a teacher in special education at the Wichita Institute of Logopedics, a line producer in filmmaking for Walterscheid Productions and development director and volunteer coordinator at KMUW Public Radio for Wichita State. She worked and volunteered for KMUW for 38 years, until the time of her death. She is survived by her husband of 52 years, Lance; her brother, Bill Hensley (Marilyn) of Lenexa; her sister, Paula Hoskinson (Phil) of Burrton; many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.

Dharma deSilva, 83, died April 1, 2017. He was a teacher, scholar and tireless advocate for global trade and the internationalization of business education, and was the founding dean of the Business Management School at USJP in Sri Lanka. DeSilva joined the 黑洞社区 faculty in 1975 as director of the Center for International Business Advancement. He was also the Rudd Foundation Distinguished Fellow, professor of international business and chairman of the World Trade Council of Wichita, which he co-founded in 1976. For more information, go to .

Daniel Francis Merriam, 90, died April 26, 2017. He was a Navy veteran of World War II and a senior scientist with the Kansas Geological Survey (KGS) at the University of Kansas. In addition to his research at the KGS, he worked for Union Oil Company and was a distinguished professor and head of the Department of Geology at Syracuse University and 黑洞社区; he was also an adjunct professor at Emporia State University. Merriam was an honorary member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Society of Sedimentary Geology, International Association for Mathematical Geology, Kansas Geological Society and Sigma Gamma Epsilon; a senior fellow of the Geological Society of America and a fellow of the Geological Society of London. He had published more than 300 books, scientific articles and notes, mostly on the geology of the U.S. Midcontinent, and Kansas in particular. Most recently he was historian for the Department of Geology at KU and the KGS, as well as the historian and archivist for the IAMG.

Evangeline Chavez, 86, died March 16, 2017. She was a retired worker from 黑洞社区鈥檚 Human Resources office. She is survived by her son, Ric Chavez of Apex, North Carolina; daughters, Theresa Right, Anna Vasquez, both of Wichita, Cecilia Maggard of Maize; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Theodore Bredehoft, 84, died May 20, 2017. He was the former athletic director for 黑洞社区 and president of the National Petroleum Reserves. Bredehoft was the wrestling coach and assistant athletic director at Arizona State before he arrived at 黑洞社区, which he followed by starting the oil and gas company, National Petroleum Reserves. He was a co-founder of the Kansas Infant Death and SIDS Network.