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Congratulations Corner

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Office of the Provost

Georgia Southern University

Soaring Beyond in Excellence

At Georgia Southern, we celebrate the achievements that inspire us to reach new heights. The Congratulations Corner is your space to spotlight the incredible work happening across our campuses—whether it’s earning accolades, publishing impactful research, or receiving noteworthy appointments.

Let’s continue to soar together! Share your success stories with Mary Kate Allen at mallen@georgiasouthern.edu to be featured in the next newsletter.

These are the successes highlighted in the latest edition of Excellence in Action.

Publications

WCHP

Diana Botnaru, MD, published the book chapter “Leveraging a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Values Framework to Build Online Faculty Learning Communities” in the book Enhancing the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Online Learning Environments 

Joseph Kardouni, PT, DPT, Ph.D., wrote and published a perspective piece titled “PTs’ Role on US Army Human Performance Teams: How Physical Therapists Contribute to a Multidisciplinary Approach to Improving the Health of Soldiers” on the American Physical Therapy Association website

CAH

Annie Mendenhall, Ph.D.; Chris Cartright, MFA; Natalie Ingalsbe, MA; Amanda Schumacher, MFA; and Robert Terry, Ph.D. published a chapter, “Disaster Austerity and the Redefinition of First-Year Writing Workloads” in WPAing in a Pandemic (Utah State University Press, 2025). 

Kendra R. Parker, Ph.D., was a Live Oak Public Library Women’s History Month speaker on March 22, 2025, at Garden City Library with her presentation, “Who Was Octavia E. Butler?”

Julia Griffin, D.Phil, was the winner of the Ekphrastic Review’s “Send In The Clowns”  poetry contest, and won $100, which sadly turned out to be $100 Canadian.

Amanda Konkle, Ph.D., Department of English, published the chapter “Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, and Method Acting: Between Art and Commerce.” In The Routledge Companion to American Film History, edited by Pamela Robertson Wojcik and Paula J. Massood. Routledge, February 2025: pp. 114-124. 

Amanda Konkle also published “Specifications for Success?: Experiments with Minimizing Grades at a Regional Public University.” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies Teaching Dossier 10.2, Spring 2025.

Smith, Reed. “Comforting the Afflicted and Afflicting the Comfortable: How a Small Number of Journalists Fought for Japanese Americans during the Internment,” American Journalism: A Media History Journal, 41, no. 3 (2024).

JPHCOPH

Kalu KA, Yin J, Adhikari A. Associations between Atmospheric Ozone, PM2. 5 and Prevalence of Diabetes in Georgia, United States. Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association. 2025;10(1):7. Link: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/jgpha/vol10/iss1/7/

Koutijian, P., Bohler, R., Senst, T., Siddiqi, K., Rochani, H., Koldony, A. (in press). Evaluation of an In-Jail and Post-Release Comprehensive Treatment Model for Opioid Use Disorder in Massachusetts. Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871625000699.

Ian Alexander Sellars, Jian Zhang, Gunnar Preston Rogers, Yudan Wei. Maternal smoking during pregnancy and blood lead levels in US children aged 1–15 years: associations modified by age and race. Paediatrics & Child Health, 2025;, pxae112, https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/pxae112

R. Rajakaruna, D. Capps-Ludwig, L.A. Durden and M.E. Eremeeva. Detection of Rickettsia and Bartonella in fleas and ticks collected from pets at veterinary clinics in Georgia, United States. Journal of Parasitology (DOI: 10.1645/24-109).  

Ibrahim Alliu, Lili Yu, Hani Samawi and Jing Kersey (2025). Optimizing Sample Size for Accelerated Failure Time Model in Progressive Type-II Censoring through Rank Set Sampling. International Journal of Statistics in Medical Research, 14, 86-99.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-6029.2025.14.09.

Dr. Isaac Fung was published in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Disease. Molecular Epidemiology of Oropouche Virus, Ceara State Brazil, 2024. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/31/4/24-1471_article 

COE

Cain, E. J., & Hicks, A. (2025). Where are you from?: Putting scholarship to work through place-based identities. ACPA Developments. 22(1). https://developments.myacpa.org/private7J9pRkXzLq/07/where-are-you-from-putting-scholarship-to-work-through-place-based-identities-cain-hicks/2474/

Perry, J. R., & Cain, E. J. (2025). A place-based approach to rural school counseling. Journal of School Counseling, 20, Article 1. http://www.jsc.montana.edu/jsc_2025_vol20_article_1.html

Kim, J. & Muhammad, E. A. (2025). Exploring teachers’ experiences with blended learning during the COVID 19 pandemic: Insights for teacher preparation. SRATE Journal. https://www.srate.org/JournalEditions/Volume34-1/PDF/Kim%20and%20Muhammad.pdf

Piedmont, E., & Moldavan, A. M. (2025). From digits to difference: Taking civic action to support shelters and empower students. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 37(4), 19–25.

Cossa, N.L. (2025). Parent perceptions of children’s early writing practices. Journal of Childhood Literacy and Societal Issues. 3(2) 91 – 108. doi.org/10.71085/joclsi

Reidel, M., Cornett, A., Piedmont, E., Greer, K., Barrow, B., & Reyes, A. (2025). “Dust to eat, dust to breathe, dust to drink”: Using systems thinking to uncover the causes of the dust bowl. 37(4), 10-15.

Piedmont, Erin V., & Moldavan, Alesia M. (2025). From digits to difference: Taking civic action to support shelters and empower students. Social Studies and the Young Learner, 37(4), 19-25.

Ross, S. & Walton, C. (2025). “Teaching Against Antiblackness within Divisive Educational Contexts. Journal for Multicultural Education. DOI:10.1108/JME-01-2025-0007

Presentations & Accolades

CAH

Robert Batchelor participated in a panel discussion in Boston, MA on March 22 on “New Directions in the History of Cartography,” at the Renaissance Society of America.

Robert Batchelor gave a talk on March 26 at the Coastal Discovery Center on Hilton Head entitled “Chinese Plants in the Lowcountry: The Legacy of John Bradby Blake (1743-1773)” https://www.coastaldiscovery.org/explore/experiences/discovery-lecture-series/ 

Ahmet Akturk, Robert Batchelor, and Kathleen Comerford gave a joint presentation on March 13 at the Jepson Museum of Art in Savannah about the new exhibition “Venice and the Ottoman Empire” https://www.telfair.org/event/members-talk-venice-ottoman-empire/ 

Michael McGrath (World Languages and Cultures) recently published his 150th book as General Editor of Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs (Juan de la Cuesta Hispanic Monographs – Tagged “Cuesta”– Linguatext), one of the world’s leading publishers of scholarly literary criticism, critical editions, and critical translations of Medieval to modern works, with a focus on the Spanish Golden Age (16th and 17th centuries). 

Dr. Pamela Bourland-Davis (Communication Arts) received the National Communication Association PRIDE award for her contribution to PR Education, to the Commission on Public Relations Education and the Journal of Public Relations Education.

Dr. Dean Cummings  (Communication Arts) presented his screenplay “White Man Camouflage” at the Austin Under the Stars Film Festival, September 2024.

PCOB

Dr. Axel Grossmann is the 2025 recipient of the Martin NeSmith Faculty Award for Excellence in Service.

Dr. Gabby Swab is the 2025 recipient of the Gary M. Davis Excellence in Business Research Award.

Dr. John Harris is the 2025 recipient of the W.A. & Emma Lou Crider Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Jerry Burke is the 2025 recipient of the William A. Freeman Professor of the Year Award.

All of these award winners were recognized at the 4th Annual Parker College of Business Gala.

WCHP

The following nursing faculty led podium presentations at GANE in Pine Mountain, Georgia:

  • Christopher Rodriguez, DNP, presented “Doctor of Nursing Practice Project” and “Cultivating Belonging in Academic Nursing” 
  • Celine Pfund, Ed.D., MSN-Ed, RN, presented “Let’s Dialogue! Competency Based Education and Ways to Implement it Into Nursing Education”

The following DPT faculty, students and alumni presented research at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting in Texas:

  • Second year DPT students, Kiley Robb, SPT, CSCS and Zachary Roming, SPT, ATC, presented “Educating Future Army leaders to Optimize Performance and Minimize Setbacks” 
  • Haley Worst, PT, DPT, Ed.D., Jennifer Emberton, DPT (’09), Nancy Henderson, PT, DPT, and colleague Kristen Zosel, presented “The Retiring Tactical Athlete: Health and Rehab Consideration for End-of-Career and Post-Career”
  • Alumna Rachael Lacey, DPT, presented “Battlefield Mothers: Perinatal Care for Postpartum Recovery in Tactical Athlete”
  • Sidney Stoddard, PT, DPT, Ed.D., presented “Examining the Effects of Neurocognitive Multitask Activities on Functional Test Limb Symmetry in Healthy Adults”; the research was conducted by Stoddard, Logan Hill, SPT, Ian Allen, PT, DPTS, OCS, Joseph Kardouni, PT, DPT, Bryan Riemann, Ph.D., and George Davies, DPT
  • Joseph Kardouni, PT, DPT, along with Nicholas Barringer, Ph.D., RDN and Bradley Ritland, PT, Ph.D., presented “Health and Therapy: The Influence of Sleep, Nutrition, and Mindset on Injury Risk and Rehabilitation”
  • Sidney Stoddard, PT, DPT, Ed.D., George Davies, DPT, and Joseph Kardouni, PT, DPT, presented an education session titled “Bridging the Tactical Athlete Readiness Gap: Enhancing the Return-to-Duty Functional Performance Testing Through Innovative Research Solutions”

The following WCHP faculty presented at the SoTL Conference hosted by Georgia Southern University

  • Estelle Bester, Ph.D., presented “Artificial Intelligence (AI): The Beauty and the Beast”
  • Mandy Hubbard, DNP, and Alan Skipper, DNP, presented “The Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health and Implications for the Educator”
  • Josh Kies, DNP, and Kari Mau, DNP, presented “Elevating Graduate Student Performance and Outcomes Through Efficient and Effective Use of Individually Customized High Fidelity Simulation: A Pedagogical-Based Best-Practice Process”
  • McKinley Thomas, Ph.D., presented “Student Learning Outcomes as a Conduit Toward Career Readiness” and “The Bachelor of Health Sciences Degree: Origins, Processes, and Lessons Learned Through Changing Directions”
  • Diana Botnaru, MD, and Jody Langdon, Ph.D., presented “Speed SoTL-ing”
  • Diana Botnaru, MD, presented “What is a SOTL Author? A  Conceptual Framework for Navigating Questions of Authorship” and “Tenure-Seeking Faculty Perceptions of SoTL”
  • Tony Pritchard, Ed.D., presented “Using Microteaching to Improve Teaching Effectiveness”
  • Jody Langdon, Ph.D., presented ” Moving the Needle: How the Professional Experiences of University Faculty Shape the Learning Experiences of Students”
  • Christina Gipson, Ph.D. and Jessica Mutchler, Ph.D., presented “Enhancing Learner Engagement and Leadership Development Through Virtual Service-Learning: Insights from the FitMind Program”

Libraries

Coates, K., King, D. L., Jr., Lackner, J., & Oates, N. (2025, February 25 – March 1). Crossing a river, not climbing a ladder: The fluidity of career exploration [Conference presentation]. Association of Research Libraries 21st Annual Leadership Kaleidoscope Symposium, Atlanta, GA, United States. 

Moldavan, A.M., Reagan, K.J., Botnaru, D., Brady, A.C., Nafziger, B., & Sainz-Mesenbrink, J. (2025). Leveraging a scholarship of teaching and learning values framework to build online faculty learning communities. In R. Rahimi & L. Soares (Eds.), Enhancing the scholarship of teaching and learning in online learning environments (pp. 47-74). IGI Global Scientific Publishing. https://doi.org/doi: 10.4018/979-8-3693-7595-2.ch003  

JPHCOPH

Dr. Jing Kersey presented at the ENAR Annual Biometric Meeting in New Orleans, LA. The title of the presentation was, “Fβ-Score for Medical Diagnostics of Binary Tests: Proposing New Measures of Accuracy”

Dr. Hani Samawi presented at the ENAR Annual Biometric Meeting in New Orleans, LA. The title of the presentation was “Micro-average F1 and Macro-average F1 for Diagnostic Accuracy Measure with Cut-off Points Criterion of Ordinal Disease Classification”

Dr. Rob Bohler presented on Wednesday at the USG Momentum Summit on the Center for Addiction Recovery and the importance of collegiate recovery programs.

Dr. Rob Bohler participated in a webinar through Mass General Hospital’s Health where he presented his preliminary research on the role of recovery community centers in rural areas. The presentation was titled Recovery Community Centers in Rural Areas: Addressing Unique Challenges to Better Serve Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder.

Dr. Rob Bohler negotiated a contract with the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities to secure resources to hire a Program Coordinator for the Center for Addiction Recovery. This position will be responsible for supporting and coordinating student activities in CAR, promoting recovery services to grow enrollment in CAR, and developing networks/partnerships with internal and external stakeholders.

COE 

Casler-Failing, S. L., Moldavan, A. M., Allen, O. M., & Herring, G. D. (2025, February). Learning with Dash: Supporting all learners by integrating robotics across the curriculum. Session presented at the third annual Empowering Educators Conference of The Georgia Council for Learning Disabilities, Savannah, GA.

Nguyen, H., Chamblee, G., & An, T. (2025, March 5-8). Enhancing preservice teachers’ knowledge through the Georgia Numeracy Project and The Individual Knowledge Assessment of Number (IKAN) [Conference Presentation]. ICRMSE XVII Consultation, Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico.

Moldavan, A. M. (2025, February). Harnessing AI in teacher education: Elevating teacher questioning to support productive struggle. Session presented at the SoTL Commons Conference, Savannah, GA.

1) Eisenreich, H., Smithey, M., Masch, G. (Feb 2025). Engaging undergraduates: Exploring student learning from professional conferences. Presentation at the SoTL Commons Conference, Savannah, GA.

2) Smithey, M., Moldavan, A. (Feb 2025). Leveraging a framework to design professional development addressing social justice interdisciplinary and community connections. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, Reno, NV.

3) Billings, E., Smithey, M., Knapp, M., Swartz, B. (Feb 2025). Supporting teacher candidates’ in developing their professional practice through embedded mediated field experiences. Presentation at the annual meeting of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators, Reno, NV.

Smith, J., & Moldavan, A. M. (2025, February). Exploring place value and making algebra concrete. Session presented at the third annual Empowering Educators Conference of The Georgia Council for Learning Disabilities, Savannah, GA.

Jin, H., Lima, C. (2025, March 23-26), Leveraging mathematization process to enhance automated scoring of learning progression-based items. [Conference presentation]. National Association of Research in Science Teaching 98th Annual Conference. Washington D.C. United States

Kim, J., Sorgen, C., Moldavan, A. M., Lubin, J., & Jensen, L. (2025, February). Harnessing generative AI in higher education: Key takeaways from a faculty learning community’s journey. Session presented at the SoTL Commons Conference, Savannah, GA.

Cornett, A., & Piedmont, E. (2025). Horton House: Immersive Site-Based Experience. STEM Leadership Academy. Jekyll Island, Georgia.

1. White S. & Hinchman, T. (2025, March 17-21). Frameworks and Approaches for Inclusive Science Instructional Design. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. TBD). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

2. Hinchman, T. (2025, March). Holy Priceless Collection of Etruscan Snoods, Batman: A Thematic STEAM Challenge. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. TBD). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

 3. Hinchman, T. (2025, March). Examining Targeted Interventions on Elementary Pre-Service Teachers’ Perception of Scientists. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. TBD). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Beck, S., Stevenson, A., & Bodur, Y. (2025, May 11). “‘To tell the truth, I feel uncomfortable teaching English Learners…’ A Decade of Teacher Attitudes about Immigration and Migrants.” ATE 2025 Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA.

Reagan, K., Nafziger, B., Moldavan, A. M., Botnaru, D., Maurer, T., & Randtke, W. (2025, February). Tenure-seeking faculty perceptions of SoTL. Session presented at the SoTL Commons Conference, Savannah, GA.

An, T., Chamblee, G., & Nguyen, H. (2025, March 5-8). A number talks task for cultivating preservice teachers’ number sense about place values [Conference Presentation]. ICRMSE XVII Consultation, Valladolid, Yucatan, Mexico.

Eisenreich, H., Moldavan, A. M., Maurer, T., Nafziger, B., Maher, E., Jin, H., Huffling, L., Casler-Failing, S., Smithey, M., & Bkrich, K. (2025, February). Professional learning: Faculty and student insights from collaborative participation in academic conferences. Session presented at the SoTL Commons Conference, Savannah, GA.

Harris, K., & Massey, C. (2025, March 6). Successful teacher preparation models: Addressing the teacher shortage and retention crisis [Conference presentation]. National Association of School and University Partnerships Conference, New Orleans, LA.

Nafziger, B., Brady, A. C., Moldavan, A. M., & White, J. (2025, February). Project CREATE—Culturally responsive engineering and teacher: Classroom library and professional learning community for faculty and students. Poster presented at the SoTL Commons Conference, Savannah, GA.

Jackson, J. & Smithey, M. (2025, March 6-8). A Tale of Two Partnerships: Leveraging Collaboration for Mutual Success [Conference presentation]. Twentieth annual convention of the National Association of School and University Partnerships.

1) Unal, A., & Hobe, J. (2025, March 17–21). Empowering future educators: Exploring preservice teachers’ readiness for AI integration in elementary education [Roundtable presentation]. Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education (SITE) Conference, Orlando, FL, United States

 2) Unal, A., & Unal, Z. (2025, March 17–21). Investigating the preferences and challenges of math/algebra, economics, ELA, and social studies teachers in utilizing AI tools [Conference presentation]. Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education (SITE) Conference, Orlando, FL, United States

3) Unal, Z., & Unal, A. (2025, March 17–21). The impact of professional development on K-12 educators’ AI integration: A mixed-methods study of attitudes, self-efficacy, and implementation [Paper presentation]. Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE) Conference, Orlando, FL, United States.

Barrow, E. Reidel, M., Cornett, A., & Piedmont, E. (2025, March). Teaching Global Issues Using Project-Based Learning in Teacher Education. National Council of History Education Conference (NCHE), St. Louis, Missouri.

Cornett, A., & Piedmont, E. (2025). Building Community Partnerships. STEM Leadership Academy. St. Simon’s Island, Georgia.

Cornett, A., & Doornbos, L.(2025). Using Critical, Place-Based Inquiries to Explore Local Asian American Histories. National Council for History Education (NCHE). St. Louis, MO.

Barrow, E. (2025, March). Demystifying World History: Why are Secondary Preservice Teachers Afraid of the Content? A presentation for the National Council of History Education Conference (NCHE), St. Louis, Missouri.

Appointments

WCHP

Tamerah Hunt, Ph.D., is currently serving on the planning committee for a workshop on Exploring Risks of Repeated Head Impacts in Youth and Strategies to Minimize Exposure to be hosted by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine in April

JPHCOPH

Dr. Yelena Tarasenko has been asked to chair the Internal Scientific Secretariat (which is part of the Scientific Committee) primarily responsible for ensuring that EUCanScreen members across 29 countries follow the publication policy. Her first task is to co-develop a publication policy for the Consortium. https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/projects-activities/implementation-cancer-screening-programmes-eucanscreen_en

Dr. Gulzar Shah has been appointed to the ASPPH Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Committee for a term from March 2025 to March 2027. This committee provides the Association for Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH) Board of Directors with guidance on organizational policies and leadership on critical issues related to ASPPH activities. As a committee member, he will officially represent the interests of ASPPH and its collective membership to key partner organizations and agencies, such as the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) and the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH).