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Professional Notes: Back-to-School Edition

08/20/2020

A round-up of awards, presentations, papers and the other professional achievements of SLU faculty, staff and students. 

STUDENTS

Symposia and Presentations
Students participating in the SLU McNair Summer Research Symposium.

The students who participated in this year's SLU McNair Summer Research Symposium. Submitted by Jamie Motley, Ph.D.

On Friday, July 31, the McNair Scholars Program at Saint Louis University (SLU McNair) hosted its third annual summer research symposium. The virtual symposium was the culmination of the eight-week McNair Summer Research Internship Program, during which six McNair Scholars worked on research projects under the supervision of a faculty mentor.

Throughout the eight weeks, the scholars also participated in weekly McNair workshops and GRE preparation, as well as received 1:1 academic counseling and tutoring.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire eight-week McNair Summer Internship Program was held virtually this year.

The six summer research interns and their mentors (noted in parentheses) include SLU students Fatima Al-Hanoosh (Hiroko Yano, Ph.D.), Hope Conyers (Mitzi Brammer, Ph.D.), and Brendan Underwood (Jonathan Smith, Ph.D.); Washington University students Beth Asnakew (Alaina Baker-Nigh, Ph.D.) and Miguel Campos (Marvin Meyers, Ph.D.); and Harris-Stowe State University student, Tekahla Flint (Devita T. Stallings, Ph.D.).

The interns, who are all SLU McNair Scholars, will also present their summer projects at the virtual  Heartland McNair Research Conference in September. Their work will be featured in the online SLU McNair Research Journal during the latter part of the fall semester.

The McNair Scholars Program is led by Jamie D. Motley, Ph.D., and the McNair Summer Research Internship Program is coordinated by Anthony D. Parker-Gills.

Awards AND HONORS
SLU's current Panhellenic Council/Advisor that was taken at NPC Academy in January.

Members of SLU's current Panhellenic Council and their advisor at National Panhellenic Conference Academy in January 2020. Submitted photo

SLU’s College Panhellenic has been honored with the National Panhellenic Conference College Panhellenic Innovation Award for Innovation in Leadership and Innovation in Programming for the 2019 - 2020 academic year.

The award recognizes College Panhellenics that demonstrate success in the areas of academics, community impact, judicial procedure, leadership, recruitment, programming and marketing.

The award was made possible through the efforts of two College Panhellenic Council officer terms, the creation and development of several new initiatives over the past year and the resiliency of students in leadership roles that ensured that excellence in all areas of membership were achieved.

Despite the struggles that came with the impact of COVID-19, the College Panhellenic made the necessary pivots the programming and operations that made it possible to maintain meaningful connections and provide development opportunities in a virtual capacity.

Publications

Amelia Flood, a doctoral candidate in the Department of American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, published an article, “‘Neither citizen nor alien’: Migration, Territoriality, and Malfunctioning Empire in the US Virgin Islands,” in the Journal of Transnational American Studies (JTAS) “American Territorialities” Special Forum in July 2020.

FACULTY AND STAFF

Awards and Honors

The Pathologist, a publication by Texere Publishing in partnership with the American Society for Clinical Pathology, has named Daniela Hermelin, M.D., assistant professor of pathology in the School of Medicine, for inclusion in the magazine’s 2020 Power List in the Solid Foundation category.

The magazine annually identifies outstanding educators, mentors, diagnosticians and innovators in the field of laboratory medicine. Hermelin, who also serves as associate medical director of the clinical core laboratory and transfusion medicine for SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital, was selected for inclusion in a category that celebrates “the educators, mentors and selfless individuals who go above and beyond to support others.”

"Dr. Hermelin certainly embodies this statement every day," T. Scott Isbell, Ph.D., associate professor of pathology and director of the division of laboratory medicine, said. "I am proud to call her a colleague, and our patients, medical students, resident physicians, fellows and clinical laboratory professionals benefit daily from her dedication to patient care and education."

For more information on this year’s Pathologist Power List, click here.

Appointments

The School of Social Work in the College for Public Health and Social Justice has named Natalie Parks, Ph.D., as its new program director for the school’s Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Program. Parks’s appointment began prior to the start of the 2020-2021 school year.

In addition to her administrative role, Parks serves on faculty in the School of Social Work as an assistant clinical professor, teaching a range of ABA courses, including Principles and Concepts in Behavior Analysis, Behavior Change and Processes, Behavior Change and Ethics, Supervision and Organizational Behavior Management and Thesis.

Natalie Parks, Ph.D.

Parks comes to the ABA Program with more than 20 years of experience in the field. She has co-authored three books: Leadership in Behavior Analysis, Feedback F!@#ups!, and OBM Entrepreneur, and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters focused on skill acquisition, behavior reduction and extending the dissemination of findings from behavior analysis research.

Her research interests include organizational behavior management; diversity and inclusion; staff training; feedback; leadership; performance management; and social justice applications of behavior analysis.

Parks earned her master’s degree in 2006 and her doctorate in school psychology in 2008 from the University of Missouri-Columbia. While at the University of Missouri she worked as a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) providing early intensive behavior intervention services to young children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders and conducted research on the mental health needs of individuals involved in the juvenile justice system.

Parks was one of the initial BCBAs to work with the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and played an instrumental role in the initial services that were provided there.

Upon completing her training, Parks worked at the Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, where she worked within the inpatient neurobehavioral unit and intensive feeding programs.

At the Marcus Autism Center with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, she ran the day treatment program focused on reducing severe problem behavior and created a parent training program for young children with speech and language delays and problematic behaviors.

While working in California, she worked in various leadership positions in organizations that provide in-home, community-based, and school-based services to individuals with autism.

Most recently, and largely as a result of both experiencing and observing other young leaders promoted into leadership roles without appropriate training, mentorship, or guidance on how to be an effective leader, Parks has focused on Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) – a cutting-edge ABA approach to improve organizational efficiencies and human resources – with an emphasis on leadership, diversity, and inclusion.

She founded and now serves as CEO of Behavior Leader, Inc., which focuses on inclusion and leadership training for organizations in service to their communities, including teachers and school administration staff, fire fighters, police officers, behavior analysts, and human resource professionals. She is also a managing director of TeamABA, LLC, which uses behavior analysis to improve the performance of athletes and those focused on wellness and health.

Publications

Oluwatoyosi “Olu” Owoeye, Ph.D., of the Physical Therapy and Athletic Training Program in the Doisy College of Health Sciences, recently published an article in the Journal of Sports Sciences.

John T. James, Ph.D., of the School of Education, recently published two new articles in the Journal of Catholic Higher Education. The citations are:

Bruce O'Neill, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology and anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, recently published two new works. The citations are:

Tobias Winright, Ph.D., of the Department of Theological Studies and Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics in the College of Arts and Sciences, published a peer-reviewed journal article, “Reimagining Just War as Anchored in, Tethered to, and Tempered by Mercy," in the Journal of Religious Ethics 38, no. 3 (September 2020): 436-457; an invited book chapter, “Conscience and the Military,” in Voting and Faithfulness: Catholic Perspectives on Politics, edited by Nicholas Cafardi (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2020), 204-224, and an invited cover story, “White Privilege—A Confession,” The Tablet 274, no. 9456 (June 13, 2020): 4-5.

As vice president of the national professional organization, the College Theology Society, Winright helped plan and conduct its annual convention – which for the first time was held virtually – on May 28-30.

Keon L. Gilbert, DrPH, of the College for Public Health and Social Justice, coauthored a paper in the Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies. The citation is:

Benjamin Looker, Ph.D., of the Department of American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, was selected as the recipient of this year’s Richard Plant Award by the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (CATR). The Plant Award is given annually for the best English-language article about a Canadian theatre or performance topic.

Looker's winning article was “Staging Diaspora, Dramatizing Activism: Fashioning a Progressive Filipino Canadian Theatre in Toronto, 1974–2001,” in the Journal of Canadian Studies/Revue d’études canadiennes.

Grants

The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has awarded Digital Scriptorium (DS) a $100,000 National Leadership in Libraries grant. Debra T. Cashion, Ph.D., digital humanities librarian and assistant librarian in the Vatican Film Library, in the Pius XII Memorial Library, serves as president and executive director of DS, a national consortium of museums and libraries with collections of pre-modern manuscripts, to which SLU’s University Libraries division is a voting member.

The IMLS grant is for one year to plan the technical rebuilding of the Digital Scriptorium online union catalog and to expand the breadth and diversity of participating collections of pre-modern manuscripts from all cultures.

Digital Scriptorium was among 38 projects out of 155 applications receiving awards.

In her nine years at SLU, Cashion has participated in other successful grant applications, including the President’s Research Fund (2014-2015) and the SLU Office of Research, Research Growth Fund (2019-2021). She is currently project investigator of the METAscripta project.

Presentations

Bradley Bailey, Ph.D., of the Department of Fine and Performing Arts in the College of Arts and Sciences, presented the lecture “O Superman: The Many Faces of the Man of Steel,” for the Saint Louis University Library Associates, who have chosen for the Saint Louis University Campus Read Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

The campus-wide reading campaign will take place before the library associates award Chabon the 2020 St. Louis Literary Award.

Service to the Field

Anthony Breitbach, Ph.D., of the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training in the Doisy College of Health Sciences, was recently named to the Executive Committee of the American Interprofessional Health Collaborative (AIHC).  He also serves as chair of the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) Partnerships, Alliances and Advocacy committee and Interprofessional subcommittee as well as representing the ASAHP on Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) council.

Breitbach is on the Steering Committee for Interprofessional Research.Global; is an associate editor for the Journal of Interprofessional Care; is a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission and serves as public member on the CAE Commission of the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).

SLU-Madrid’s political science faculty launched the Observatory on Contemporary Crises (OCC). This online platform keeps a critical eye on the world’s key international crises through the publication of analyses and insights written by both SLU and non-SLU experts, academics, observers and students. Learn more here.