Faculty and Student Spotlight
Undergraduate students at ACU regularly join with faculty in major research projects, which provides exceptional preparation for graduate school. These are a few highlights of the awards and research projects of ACU students and faculty.
- Dr. William Rankin, associate professor of English, has been selected as an Apple Distinguished Educator. Rankin is one of a group of more than 1,500 professionals in the fields of K-12 and higher education who are passionate about the potential of educational technology to revolutionize learning. Rankin will attend the ADE Summer Institute in Orlando, Fla., in July 2009.
- Dr. Jackie Halstead, chair of the Department of Marriage and Family Therapy, was recently installed as president-elect of the Texas Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, a professional organization. Halstead will serve as president-elect for a year, president for two years and past president for a year.
- Three students and two faculty members from the Department of Agriculture and Environment traveled to Atlanta, Ga. for the 106th annual meeting of the Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists. Students Katie Kirkpatrick, Kendra Gregory and John Ferguson, accompanied by Dr. Florah Mlanga and Dr. Michael Nicodemus, presented original research in the undergraduate student research competition. Kirkpatrick placed second in the competition.
- Twenty graduate students in the Department of Marriage and Family Therapy gave poster presentations at the Texas Association of Marriage and Family Therapists’ annual state conference in Fort Worth. Dr. Jackie Halstead, assistant professor and chair of marriage and family therapy, and Dr. Jaime Goff, assistant professor of marriage and family therapy, supervised research on such topics as the effect of religious messages on marital sexuality, the effectiveness of premarital counseling, and children in missionary care.
- Dr.
Brian Cavitt, assistant professor of chemistry, was recently elected by a unanimous vote to RadTech
International, North America's board of directors as a board-at-large
member. The selection of a university professor to RadTech's board is a
first in the company's 30-year history.
- Dr. Lynette Sharp Penya, assistant professor of communication, served as a faculty leader in a seminar
entitled "Campaign 2008: The Presidential Inauguration," hosted by The
Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars. Sharp Penya traveled to Washington, D.C. for the seminar, which focused on politics and the transition of power.
Two graduate psychology students, Ashley
Berres from Lakeville, Minn. and Spenser Baldwin from Memphis, worked with Dr. Jeffrey Wherry, professor of psychology, to submit
a grant on behalf of the Abilene/Taylor County Child Advocacy Center for more than $40,000. The CAC was awarded the grant through funds
contributed by the Children’s Justice Act. The grant will allow for the funding of a full-time, dedicated staff member
to perform forensic interviews of children who have alleged sexual abuse.
After more than three decades
in the service of the North American Patristics Society, Dr. Everett
Ferguson, professor emeritus of church history at ACU, was honored with the Distinguished Service Award, the highest
honor given by the society. The North American Patristics
Society (NAPS), an organization dedicated to the study of the history
and theology of early Christianity, recently presented Ferguson with
the award at its annual conference in Chicago.
- Samuel Brinkman, adjunct professor of psychology, has created an assessment system for Alzheimer's disease that has significant implications for early diagnosis of this disease. Brinkman and the GrayMatters® Assessment System were featured in an article in Medical News Today.
- Three teams of ACU senior computer science students participated in the 12th
Annual North Texas Area Student Conference at Midwestern University in April.
The theme of the conference was “Technology & Innovation: The
Keys to Progress,” with Dr. Paulus Micikevicius from NVidia Corporation
as the keynote speaker. The conference included presentations by student
teams from ACU, Midwestern, and the University of North Texas.
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Dr. William Rankin, associate professor of English, will be a keynote speaker at "The Connected World: How Technology Changes the Nature of Higher Education" at Rutgers University on March 12. He will speak on "Mobile Learning: From Principles to Pragmatics."
- Dr. Dana McMichael, assistant professor of English, had her article, "Recreating Faulkner: Cleanth Brooks' Use of Faulkner as New Critical Exemplar," accepted for publication in the fall 2008 issue of rWp: An Annual Review of Robert Penn Warren Studies.
- Al Haley, associate professor of English and writer-in-residence, placed first in the creative nonfiction category for The Missouri Review for his submission, "The Cough."
- Dr. Dana Kennamer Hood presented with student Heather Alkire at the National Association for the Education of Young Children Annual Conference. They shared results of action research on developing primary language phonemic awareness in English language learners. Currently, nine senior Teacher Education majors are participating in action research as part of their student teaching experience, led by Dr. Dana Kennamer Hood, Ms. Stephanie Talley, and Mrs. Julie Douthit.
- Exercise science majors Jessica Boyd and Earl Starey are featured in the online magazine Faith and Fitness. Read about them at www.faithandfitness.net.
- ACU's graduate program in speech-language pathology has been
re-accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) of the
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). The CAA met this
July and approved ACU's re-accreditation for a term of eight years (2008-15). This national
accreditation ensures that the ACU graduate program prepares students for
practice in the field of speech-language pathology.
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Dr. Paul Varner, visiting professor of English, published a collection of essays called Westerns: Paperback Novels and Movies from Hollywood (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007). Varner also has an essay in the book, "Hopalong Cassidy (1910): A Novel That Defined the American Cowboy."
- Dr. Steve Weathers, associate professor of English, has an essay included in the book, "Death with Dignity: Comitatus in Sam Peckinpah's 'New Western.'"
Dr. Tanya Smith Brice, associate professor in the School of Social Work,
was elected to the Board of Directors of the Texas Chapter of the National
Association of Social Workers. She will serve as branch chair of the NASW/Texas Abilene Branch for a three-year
term beginning July
1, 2007 through June 30, 2010.
- Dr. Brian Cavitt, along with three of his students, has published an article in the Journal for Coatings Technology Research. The student co-authors on this paper include ACU graduate Adam McDonough, now a medical student in Alabama; ACU graduate Corry Walker, now a pharmacy student at Texas Tech-Abilene; and Matt Mullings, a senior at ACU planning to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry.
- The family studies undergraduate
program has met the Standards and Criteria required for the Provisional
Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) designation from the National
Council on Family Relations (NCFR). Graduates of ACU who complete the NCFR approved undergraduate program in
Family Studies now qualify to complete an abbreviated CFLE application
process.
- Senior ACU physics major Austin Basye received one of three 2007 Outstanding Student Awards for Undergraduate Research from the Society of Physics Students. This national honor recognized Basye as one of the top three undergraduate physics researchers in the nation, and included a $500 honorarium, a $500 award for his SPS chapter, and a trip to present his work at the 2007 International Conference of Physics Students in London.
- Integrated communication major Jamie Worflar was selected as a summer intern in the statewide Silver Spur Internship Program sponsored by the Texas Public Relations Association. Worflar worked for Blue Current Public Relations in Dallas, one of three employers selected to participate in this year's program. Blue Current is a division of Fleishman-Hillard, one of the nation's largest public relations firms and part of the worldwide Omnicom Group.
