Summer Professional Notes
A round-up of awards, presentations, papers and the other professional achievements of SLU faculty, staff and students.
Faculty and Staff
Dannielle Joy Davis, Ph.D. (School of Education) is serious about being a SLU woman “for and with others.” As part of her work preparing African-American youth for college, Davis teaches qualitative research to high school students, guides them in research projects and coaches them to present their research to international audiences.
This summer a group of her high school students presented their research to conference audiences in Cuba and Ghana. The students so impressed the Cuban audience that they were invited back to speak a second time and are scheduled to return next spring. The research guidance, academic coaching and international exposure has helped students broaden their college selection choices.
In addition Davis also coaches elementary school African-American boys in The Circle of Excellence, a program she founded and has directed for three years. Thus far, three Circle of Excellence students have traveled with Davis internationally.
“I want The Circle of Excellence boys to see first hand the high level of scholarship and presentation skills I expect them to work towards,” she said. “They admire and look up to the teens.”
Thomas F. Madden, Ph.D. (History) has received a 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar Award. Madden is professor of history and director of the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Saint Louis University. The NEH Public Scholar Award recognizes outstanding humanities scholars who have made important contributions to their fields and who translate their specialized research into books that engage wide audiences. During the tenure of his NEH Public Scholar Award, Madden will complete work on a mass market book exploring the decline and fall of historical republics from antiquity to the modern age.
Bruce Bacon, M.D. (Internal Medicine) was awarded the Richard B. Teitelman Distinguished Service Award by the Legal Services of Eastern Missouri at their For the Common Good Award on Thursday, Aug. 23, 2018 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, St. Louis. Bacon served as an expert in litigation filed by Legal Services, Saint Louis University Legal Clinic and the National Health Law Program to ensure that Missouri Medicaid recipients could receive new ground-breaking medications that cure Hepatitis C.
As a result, Missouri Medicaid recently changed its policy and an estimated 13,000 Medicaid recipients now have access to a cure for Hepatitis C. Dr. Bacon is co-director of the Saint Louis University Liver Center and a professor with the Department of Internal Medicine.
Departmental Awards
SLUCare Marketing captured two Hospital Marketing National Advertising Awards – a bronze for its website and silver for print advertising. In addition, Sarah Gladson, SLUCare marketing director, received a 2018 Top Marketer of the Year Recognition. The awards were presented by DTC Perspectives Inc., at its Hospital Marketing National Conference in Atlanta in June.
Students
Carlos Ruiz (Ph.D. student, American Studies) wrote an article for the online magazine Latino Rebels on the embattled Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and its relationship to popular culture.
Shahram Ahmadi Nasab Emran (Ph.D. student, Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics) published an article in the Daily Caller on Iran's rejection of talks with the US on the nuclear issue titled, "Why is Iran's Khamenei defiant now?"
Kevin Bockerstett (M.D./ Ph.D. student, School of Medicine) and Daniel Pike (M.D./ Ph.D. student, School of Medicine) recently received highly competitive F30 NIH research training grants that support two years of research and the final two years of medical school. A graduate assistant in the lab of Richard Di Paolo, Ph.D. (Molecular Microbiology and Immunology), Bockerstett is studying the role of a particular signaling molecule produced by the immune in preventing the development of gastric cancer. Pike, who works in the lab of David Ford, Ph.D. (Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), is developing an animal model to investigate the role of chlorinated fatty acid in causing lung injury during sepsis.
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