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.
  
• 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, where Kirkpatrick placed second.
• 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, Tenn., 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 University, and the University of North Texas.
  Dr. William Rankin, associate professor of English, was a keynote speaker at "The Connected World: How Technology Changes the Nature of Higher Education" at Rutgers University on March 12. He spoke 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 Hood, Stephanie Talley, and 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.
• 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 serves as branch chair of the NASW/Texas Abilene Branch for a three-year term ending 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.
  
• 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.