Dr. Mary Elizabeth Ellzey, professor of English and chair of the Department of English and Modern Languages, was named first runner-up in the West Virginia Humanities Council’s 2013 Faculty Merit Foundation Professor of the Year.
Dr. David Gonzol, associate professor of music, director of music education, and graduate coordinator for the M.M.M.E. program, was invited to be the guest conductor of the Washington County, Maryland, Public Schools 2013 Elementary Arts Festival Chorus, made up of 119 5th grade students, on October 3, 2013 at North Hagerstown High School.
Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt, professor of English, submitted a West Virginia Humanities grant for the 2014 Appalachian Heritage Writer-in-Residence. The grant brought the beloved West Virginia author Homer Hickam to the Eastern Panhandle supported a series of programs around Hickam’s work, particularly the Coalwood Trilogy—Rocket Boys, The Coalwood Way, and Sky of Stone.
Stephanie A. Slocum-Schaffer, associate professor of political science, presented a paper titled “Two Bird with One Stone? Using the Political Science Capstone Course to Enhance Student and Departmental Learning” at the American Political Science Association’s annual Teaching and Learning Conference in Philadelphia, February 7-9, 2014.
Tracy L. Seffers, registrar, completed the 2012-13 HERS Institute for women in higher education leadership, held at Wellesley College in April 2013. Her leadership project, “DegreeWorks: A Collaborative Implementation,” is currently in-progress at Shepherd.
Dr. Clarissa Mathews, associate professor of environmental studies, serves on the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Working (BMSB) Group investigating methods of controlling the invasive stink bug in the United States. She was awarded $3,000 by the NASA Research Enhancement Award (REA) and provided talks at the national BMSB Working Group Meeting and the National Meeting of the Entomological Society of America in Knoxville, Tennessee.
After several months of reading and research, Dr. Timothy Nixon, associate professor of English, authored a 5,000-word entry on Chicano poet Gary Soto for the new edition of the Dictionary of Literary Biography.
Dr. Kevin Williams, professor of mass communications, developed a multimedia ebook titled The Depths of Perception: A Communicology of SCUBA Diving. The book features interactive widgets (e.g., 3-D interactive models, several forms of presenting text and pictures, hundreds of pictures, interactive maps, access to web cams, and more).
Dr. Jason Best, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, was an invited career panelist at the 2014 International Pulsar Timing Association Summer Science Meeting and Student Workshop. This annual two-week meeting brings together faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students from numerous countries to discuss scientific issues surrounding gravitational waves, pulsar surveys, the interstellar medium, and detection instrumentation.
Dr. John C. Landolt, adjunct research professor of biology, co-authored a paper published by the international journal Mycologia. The work, titled “New small dictyostelids from seasonal rainforests of Central America,” describes nine new species and one sub-species using a combination of traditional morphological characters together with DNA sequence analyses.
Dr. Laura Clayton, professor of nursing education, presented a workshop titled “What is Evidence-based Practice and Who Cares?” to registered nurses and nurse practitioners at the Martinsburg Veterans Administration Medical Center on September 17.
Dr. Richard Stevens, associate professor and program coordinator of the college student development and administration master’s program, wrote a book review of Linking Theory to Practice: Case Studies for Working College Students (3rd ed.) for the Journal of College Student Development. He was also interviewed for the article “Next Generation: A Roundtable Discussion on Student Affairs Graduate Preparation Programs” in Leadership Exchange: Solutions for Student Affairs Management.
Sara Maene, director of institutional research, was elected to the inaugural board of directors of the West Virginia Association for Institutional Research (WVAIR). WVAIR brings together institutional research professionals statewide to provide information on best practices with the objective of improving higher educational resources within West Virginia.
Dr. Ed Snyder, professor of environmental studies, and Dr. Jeffrey Groff were awarded a West Virginia Division of Energy, State Energy Program Grant in the amount of $15,000. The grant, titled “Alternative Energy: Real World Applications,” was used to fund a two-day conference on renewable energy held at Shepherd University April 12 and 13, 2013. Approximately 15 Shepherd students conducted workshops during the conference and helped plan the event.