Academe welcomes news from WSU 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 

Coordinator of student organizations, Chas Thompson, was named the Coordinator-Elect for the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) Student Government West Institute. Thompson will serve on the institute faculty as coordinator-elect for the 2016 institute and as institute coordinator for the 2017 institute.

Randy Ellsworth, William Woods, Walter Horn, Don Nance and Sylvia Coats were chosen for membership into the Academy for Effective Teaching. The academy is an organization of retired faculty members who distinguished themselves during their teaching careers. Current faculty are responsible for nominating retired instructors for membership.

The Office of Student Success worked with Craig Lindeman, Sandra Denneler and Andy Hurt to design the 2015 Orientation Booklet. The booklet was recognized at the 2015 National Orientation Directors Association annual conference as the “Outstanding Brochure or Booklet.” To view the booklet, go to http://bit.ly/1lTsafP.

Esra Buyuktahtakin, assistant professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, and former doctoral student Halil Cobuloglu won the 2015 Institute of Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) Best Publication Award in Environment and Sustainability. The award was given for their research paper, “A Mixed-Integer Optimization Model for the Economic and Environmental Analysis of Biomass Production.” Buyutahtakin received the award at the INFORMS annual conference in Philadelphia.

Delinda Royse, director of development for the Division of Student Affairs, was honored on Dec. 21, 2015, as the Papa John’s 2015 Marketing Partner of the Year. She received a plaque and was honored at a ceremony for her continued work with WSU and Papa John’s.

Alexandre Shvartsburg, assistant professor of chemistry, was selected as one of three WSU faculty to receive the 2015 Coleman Fellowship.

Graduate Daniel Whisler received the 1st place prize in the American Prize in Conducting. The Youth Performing Arts School, which Daniel directs, received 3rd place in the America Prize in Orchestral Performance.

GRANTS

Doris Chang, women’s studies, received a $5,000 Professor Liao Shutsung Research Grant of the North American Taiwanese Professors Association.

Greg Houseman, biological sciences, received a $629,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for his project, “Interactive effects of exogenous and endogenous spatial heterogeneity on plant diversity.” This work will be conducted at the WSU Biological Field Station and will include significant involvement with Maize High students.

Victor Isakov, mathematics, received a $274,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for his project, “Some inverse problems: increasing stability and drift-diffusion models.”

PRESENTATIONS

Stan Longhofer, director, Center for Real Estate, and Chris Huffman of Huffman Corridor Consulting will address the Transportation Research Board at its annual meeting of approximately 12,000 transportation professionals. They will discuss their paper, “The Role of Access upon Sale Price of Real Property.” Huffman and Longhofer recently completed a two year correlation study of the effects of certain site, improvement and transportation variables upon sale price of income producing real property in Kansas. The study is the largest of its kind to look at these relationships at the site level.

Elizabeth Behrman, professor of mathematics and statistics, recently returned from two invited talks in India. She delivered the keynote address at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) International Conference on Research in Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks in Kolkata, and was an inaugural speaker at the Quantum and Nanocomputing Systems and Applications conference in Agra.

Heidi VanRavenhorst-Bell, clinical educator, Human Performance Studies, presented “A Comparative Study on Tongue Muscle Performance in Weightlifters and Runners.” The presentation was given at the 2015 Annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) national convention in Denver.

Katie Cramer, associate professor, Curriculum and Instruction, delivered two presentations at the National Council of Teachers of English Convention in Minneapolis, “The T* in LGBT*: Disrupting Gender Normative School Culture through Young Adult Literature,” and “Using YAL to Interrogate the Heteronormative, Transphobic Culture of School Sports.”

Lyston Skerritt and Chad Warrick, Fraternity and Sorority Life, have been invited to present at the 2016 Association of Fraternal Leadership and Values Annual Conference. The presentation entitled “Innovative. Intentional. Influential. MARKETING” highlights the current system of marketing, which is designed to intertwine with the admission process for perspective students. The model is recognized for its ability to present all organizational options – Interfraternity, Multicultural and Panhellenic – to incoming students.

Jiaqi Li, assistant professor, Department of Counseling, co-presented “Counselors partnering to eradicate extreme global poverty and hunger: An innovative action agenda to leverage philanthropy,” and “Intersections of race, sexual orientation, and social class in multicultural counseling competence: Implications for practice and training,” at Texas Counseling Association’s 59th Annual Professional Growth Conference in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Jean Patterson, professor in Educational Leadership, presented at the American Educational Studies Association’s annual meeting held in San Antonio. She presented her papers, “Reclaiming desegregation history: Voices from Douglass School, Parsons, KS” and “The jewels of the community: African American grandmothers raising their school-aged grandchildren,” co-authored with graduate Alicia Thompson.

PUBLICATIONS

Arwiphawee Srithongrung, associate professor in the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs, contributed budget reform advice to Volicker Alliance’s publication, “Beyond the Basics: Best Practices in State Budget Transparency.” Volicker Alliance is a nonpartisan organization that provides financial management and budget recommendations to state governments. To read the report, go to http://bit.ly/1SJQ3ma.

Susan Unruh, associate professor, Department of Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology, and graduate Bilal Obeidat published "Adjusting to learning in the US: Saudi students speak out," in the Journal of Higher Education Theory and Practice.

Jennifer Stone, assistant professor in Curriculum and Instruction, recently published “A model of how children construct knowledge and understanding of engineering design within robotics focused contexts,” in The International Journal of Research Studies in Educational Technology. To read the article, go to http://bit.ly/1Znxv0v.

Jiaqi Li, assistant professor, Department of Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology, co-authored “Voices from the field of social justice: Defining moments in our professional journals.” The article was published in the journal Multicultural Education. He also co-authored “Using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (adolescent version) to identify secondary students with emotional disturbance,” which was published in the journal Best Practices in Mental Health.

Susan Unruh and Nancy McKellar, associate professors in the Counseling, Educational Leadership, Educational and School Psychology department, recently finalized a contract with Springer International to write a book titled “Assessment and Intervention for English Language Learners: From Research to Practice.” The manuscript is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2016.

NEW APPOINTMENTS

Shelly Coleman-Martins became executive director of university marketing in Strategic Communications. She will serve as chief operating officer of the university’s marketing and communications team, with responsibilities including university branding, management of marketing and communications staff and marketing activities.

MISCELLANEOUS

The Human Performance Studies Department hosted the Kansas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Convention (KAHPERD) in October for the organization’s 95th anniversary. KAHPERD is the leading advocate in Kansas for promoting healthy and active lifestyles.

Wichita State University’s Center for Community Support and Research changed its name to the Community Engagement Institute and transformed itself to include six individual centers, each with new center directors. The new centers are:

• Center for Leadership Development (Seth Bate)
• Center for Organizational Development and Collaboration (Amy Delamaide)
• Center for Applied Research and Evaluation (Tara Gregory)
• Center for Behavioral Health Initiatives (Randy Johnson)
• Center for Public Health Initiatives (Sonja Armbruster)
• The ImpACT Center (Teresa Strausz)

The goal of the institute is to promote best practices in organizations and communities interested in improving people’s lives, as well as fostering connections with community partners looking to create positive change. For more information about the department, go to www.wichita.edu/cei.

IN MEMORIAM

Marion “Lee” Posey, retired electrician for Wichita State University, died Jan. 3. Posey is survived by his children, Kenneth D. Posey, Jennifer L. Posey-Trube (Brandon) and Michael J. Posey; sister, Helen Springs; brothers, Don Posey, Charles Posey, Arthur Posey and Jeff Jones; and many friends.

Andrew Santee died Dec. 25, 2015. He worked as a maintenance painter for Wichita State University before retiring due to illness. He is survived by his wife, Kath Santee; mother, Martha Santee; siblings, Hershel Santee, Glenda Forbes and Brenda Leiber; sister-in-law, Sherry Locke; numerous nieces and nephews and family pets.