Professional Notes: June 2025
05/30/2025
Professional Notes is a round-up of awards, presentations, papers, and other professional achievements of SLU faculty, staff members, and students.
Faculty and Staff
Gov. Mike Kehoe presented a proclamation for nurses' week on Wednesday, May 7, at his office in the Capitol. Nurses from across the state representing various Missouri Nurses Association Committees were in attendance. Margaret R. Benz (Nursing) was among those to attend the ceremony.
Sabrina W. Tyuse, Ph.D. (Social Work) was recognized on May 3, 2025, as the first recipient of a new award bearing her name: the Sabrina Tyuse Voter Registration Recognition Award. The award was presented at the League of Women Voters of Metro St. Louis’s annual meeting in honor of Tyuse’s extraordinary commitment to civic engagement.
A passionate advocate for voter participation, Tyuse has helped more than 10,000 individuals register to vote, empowering communities across the St. Louis region to make their voices heard. Her efforts reflect a deep dedication to social justice and public service — values she brings into the classroom and community alike.
The League established the award to celebrate leaders who demonstrate outstanding contributions to voter registration and education and by naming the award after Tyuse, the organization honors her legacy and sets a high bar for future honorees.
Leslie McClure, Ph.D. (Public Health and Social Justice) was named as a member of the 2025-26 Leadership St. Louis Class. Leadership St. Louis is a highly respected program for experienced leaders who have demonstrated a deep commitment to improving the St. Louis region. The immersive nine-month curriculum explores issues such as economic and workforce development, education, health care, local government, arts and culture and more. Leadership St. Louis is designed to challenge participants’ thinking, expose them to new ideas and perspectives, and promote discussion, reflection and action. Many graduates describe the experience as “transformative,” arming them with the tools, resources and connections to lead more effectively in their personal, professional and civic roles.
Zhengmin Qian, Ph.D., M.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) and others from SLU contributed to the research "Time Spent on Social Media and the Risk of Substance Use Among US Adolescents" in the 'Journal of Adolescence.'
Gregory Beabout, Ph.D. (Philosophy) published "Of a New Pope and New Things: Ten things I’ve learned from Rerum Novarum after thirty years of teaching it" in Public Discourse.
SangNam Ahn, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) co-authored a peer-reviewed article titled "Artificial Intelligence and Aging in Place: A Scoping Review of Current Applications and Future Directions," published in The Gerontologist. The paper provides a comprehensive overview of how artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are currently being utilized to support aging in place (AIP) for older adults. The authors examine various AI applications, such as smart home systems, health monitoring tools, and assistive robots, highlighting their potential to enhance the independence and well-being of older individuals.
Katie Stamatakis, Ph.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) contributed to the publish of the research "Is there an association between anthropogenic heat flux and sleep problems among children? Findings from a multicity study in China," in the journal 'International Journal of Environmental Health Research.'
Echu Liu, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) was a contributor to the research "Assessing the Efficacy of Multimodal Approaches in Chronic Pain Management" in 'The Journal of Pain.'
Nori Katagiri, Ph.D. (Political Science) published his latest article on cybersecurity in European Politics and Society. Titled "The rise of offensive cyber and reality of European digital policy," the article discusses how cybersecurity policies of Western European countries, such as the United Kingdom and Germany, remain resilient and committed to defending their digital networks in the era of cyber insecurity and aggressive geopolitical landscape.
Amanda Izzo, Ph.D. (Women's and Gender Studies) published "The Homosocial Gospel: Winnifred Wygal and the Women Couples of the Young Women’s Christian Association of the USA," in Religion and American Culture, Volume 33 - Issue 3 - Fall 2024.
William Rehg, S.J. (Philosophy) published an essay on Jürgen Habermas's philosophy of religion, "Hope in a Post-Secular Age," in the January edition of the magazine Commonweal.
Craig A. Boyd, Ph.D. (General Studies) published two essays on J.R.R. Tolkien's moral thought “Tolkien’s Libertarian Impulse: Domination and the Lust for Power as the Summum Malum,” in Tolkien 2019 Proceedings, (2025) and “Saruman’s Folly and Gandalf’s Wisdom: Augustinian Rhetoric in The Lord of The Rings,” in Tolkien Among the Theologians, ed. Austin Freeman. (2025).
Vince Casaregola, Ph.D. (English) published the following poems:
- "Futures Foretold from within Small Boxes" in Sheila-Na-Gig online. The poem also won the Spring 2025 Editors' Choice Award from the journal. This poem has been set to music by Aaron Johnson, D.M.A., and it received its preliminary performance in March 2024 at the Textual Revolutions session. Prof. Johnson is at work on a fuller development for a larger ensemble and chorus with a tentative performance date in spring 2026.
- "Chicago View" in The Closed Eye Open, Issue XIII.
Ellen Crowell, Ph.D. (English) published “Dream Friend: Sexology, Child Study, and the Queer Imaginary Companion” in Contemporary Queer Modernism, edited by Melanie Micir (Routledge, 2025, pp. 39-60).
Brian Yothers, Ph.D. (English) published “‘Eden’s Bad Boy’: Humans and the Animal World in Melville’s Poetry” in Animals in Classic American Poetry: How Natural History Inspired Great Verse, edited by John Cullen Gruesser (Texas A&M University Press, May 2025, pp. 92-114).
Benjamin Looker, Ph.D. (American Studies) gave a paper at Washington University's "Symposium on the Material World of Modern Segregation" in April 2025. Titled "Spaces of Sanctuary, Zones of Erasure: Recovering Oppositional Histories at Berea Presbyterian Church,” the paper addressed the rich activist legacy of the congregation that, from 1908 to 2004, made its home in the building that SLU now calls Il Monastero.
Daniela Salvemini, Ph.D. (Pharmacology and Physiology) delivered the National Institute of Health (NIH) Director's Lecture in Bethesda, the highest-profile lecture program at the NIH. The Director’s Lectures feature leading researchers from around the globe. Nominated by scientists and interest groups throughout NIH, the speakers are specifically approved by the NIH Director. The title of her talk was "Considering neuropathic pain states as "sphingopathies" amenable to sphingolipid-based therapies."
Amanda Izzo, Ph.D. (Women's and Gender Studies) gave the invited presentation, "The Teamsters Local 688 and the Intersection of Labor and Gender Equality in the 1960s & 70s" for George Washington University in March 2025.
Craig A. Boyd, Ph.D. (General Studies) presented two papers on J.R.R. Tolkien. “Was Thorin’s Deathbed Confession a Eucatastrophe?” was presented at the Western Regional Meeting of Christianity & Literature at Hope International University in March 2025. “Was Gandalf Sanctified? Moral Maturity in the Lord of the Rings,” was presented at the Wesleyan Theological Society at Baylor University in March 2025.
Joanne C. Langan, Ph.D. (Nursing) was the invited Keynote Speaker at this Knowledge Management event in Bangkok, Thailand via Zoom on April 8, 2025.
Joy Stark (Nursing) attended the Jonas Scholarship Conference in Washington, D.C., in March 2025 as a Jonas Scholar. The mission of the Jonas Scholars program, an initiative of Jonas Philanthropies, is to enhance the nursing profession by developing nurse leaders who will address the nursing shortage by educating the future nursing workforce and by investing in the health and well-being of underserved communities Stark was one of 63 doctoral students selected nationwide for the Jonas Scholarship. Conference highlights included lobbying for increased funding in nursing education and nursing preceptorship at the American Association of College Nursing Student Policy Summit.
Courtney Everett (Prison Education Program)was invited by Thomas Mulloy, Director of Government Relations at the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, to speak at a Congressional meeting on Capitol Hill next Tuesday May 13, 2025.
At the SLU Madrid English Department Conference Fermentation Olivia Badoi, Ph.D. (English, Madrid) presented ¨Romanian Modernism and the Fungal Metaphor." Timothy Ryan Day, Ph.D. (English, Madrid) presented ¨Select Readings from Night’s Swift Dragons.¨
Anne Mulhall, Ph.D. (English, Madrid) presented “Absent Mothers in Post-Crash Irish Fiction” at "The Multiple Representations of the Spanish and Irish Mother in Contemporary Literature Conference," at the University of Almería, 7, 8 and 9 of May 2025.
Carolina Toscano, Ph.D. (English, Madrid) presented “Representations of Migrant Motherhood in Contemporary Spanish Literature: From Our Lady of Fatima to Quan Zhou Wu’s Gazpacho Agridulce” at "The Multiple Representations of the Spanish and Irish Mother in Contemporary Literature Conference," at the University of Almería, 7, 8 and 9 of May 2025.
Brian Yothers, Ph.D. (English) moderated a Zoom discussion of Ralph James Savarese and Pilar Martinez Benedi’s Herman Melville and Neurodiversity, or Why Hunt Difference with Harpoons? A Primitivist Phenomenology and David Haven Blake’s The Prosthetic Arts of Moby-Dick on May 10, 2025.
The State Historical Society of Missouri is awarding a Center for Missouri Studies fellowship to a pair of scholars from the Saint Louis University (SLU) School of Education in 2025. Amy Shelton, Ph.D. (PRiME Center) and Joseph R. Nichols Jr., (Education) will share the fellowship for their joint research project, “School District Boundaries and the Preservation of Segregation in Suburban St. Louis.”
Shelton and Nichols will examine how redrawing school district boundaries in St. Louis County in the years following World War II contributed to ongoing segregation during a time of racial transition. From 1948 to 1970, when the St. Louis area’s population was moving from the central city to the suburbs, the number of school districts in St. Louis County decreased from 84 to 25. While school officials attributed the consolidations to financial concerns, the redrawn school district lines generally reinforced existing racial divides and unequal distribution of financial resources among the county’s municipalities.
Anne Dewey, Ph.D. (English, Madrid) received a Collaborative for Humanistic Inquiry (CHI) faculty award for her research project “The Influence of Property on the Construction of Racial Identity in US Law and Literature since 1954.”
Timothy Ryan Day (English, Madrid) received a Faculty Development Research Award for his Shakespearean project “Seeds of Fate.”
Beatriz Jordà (English, Madrid) received a Sister Shirley Kolmer Grant Award for her project on “Navigating Feminism on Social Media: Young Spanish Women’s Perspectives.”
Paul Lynch, Ph.D. (English) received a Senior Faculty Book Award from OVPR for his 2024 book Persuasions of God: Inventing the Rhetoric of René Girard.
Anne Stiles, Ph.D. (English) received a 2025 Beaumont Scholarship Research Award for “The Occult Half-Life of the Vortex Atom.”
Joya Uraizee, Ph.D. (English) received a 2025 Beaumont Scholarship Research Award for "Time Travel: Migration Narratives in Contemporary Africa."
Benjamin Looker, Ph.D. (American Studies) was named the new Editor-in-Chief of the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Managed by The Indianapolis Public Library, the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis is a free, online encyclopedia that serves as the definitive repository of stories and insights about Indianapolis: its people, organizations, places, and events.
Students
A team of Saint Louis University Master of Health Administration students advanced to the finals of the 19th annual UAB Health Administration Case Competition. Case competitions allow students to gain hands-on experience diving into real-world health care problems. This year, the SLU team consisted of second-year M.H.A. students Arianna Goss, Kathryn Laird and Spencer Shreve, alongside first-year student observer Lana Cristiani and overseen by faculty advisor Michael Rozier, S.J., Ph.D. this year’s team advanced to the final round and the SLU team ended up ranking fourth out of 40 teams.
A team of first-year Saint Louis University Master of Health Administration students placed third at the 14th Annual The Ohio State University First-Year Health Administration Case Competition. The annual OSU case competition attracts teams from CAHME-accredited health administration programs to contend in this exciting competition. The top six teams advance to the finals, with the top four teams placing. The SLU team consisted of first-year M.H.A. students Keenan Al-Hosni, Molly Griffin, and Jake Reed, overseen by faculty advisor Thomas Burroughs, Ph.D.
Two students from Saint Louis University’s Nutrition and Dietetics department cooked up success at the 2025 Research Chefs Association (RCA) National Student Culinology Competition, at the Delistar Food Innovation Center. Senior students Hannah Bast (Doisy College Health Sciences student) and Anna Durfey (College Health Sciences student) clinched third place and a $1,000 prize for their innovative crepes filled with pesto chicken and roasted tomatoes.
The RCA is the leading professional organization for those working at the crossroads of culinary arts, food science, and product development. Its field, known as Culinology, blends creativity and science to develop food products that are both delicious and commercially viable.
The competition was a two-phase challenge. In Phase I, student teams submitted a proposal for a high-protein frozen retail meal kit aimed at fitness-focused consumers. The top six teams were then selected to compete in Phase II, where they prepared a freshly made “gold standard” version of their dish on-site. Judges compared this to the team's previously shipped, manufactured version for consistency, flavor, and feasibility.
A team of international students, under the mentorship of Annamaria Szakonyi, Ph.D., (School for Professional Studies) presented their research project last week at the 22nd International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations (ITNG 2025), held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their work, focused on using machine learning to detect malicious URLs, addresses a timely cybersecurity challenge that affects both individuals and organizations worldwide.
The team, including Deepthi Malyavantham Harinath (School for Professional Studies student) and Anuhya Javvaji (School for Professional Studies student) spent the past year developing the research under the mentorship Szakonyi who guided them through the technical and strategic aspects of building a functional ML-based application for phishing and threat detection, and prepared them to present in front of an international audience.
The students' paper was accepted for publication by Springer, marking a series of important firsts: their first international conference, first academic publication, and first time visiting Las Vegas.
Several SLU doctoral students, faculty representing the Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics, the Department of Philosophy, and the School of Law and others presented their research at the annual Conference on Medicine and Religion:
- Abram Brummett, Ph.D.: "Please Baptize My Dying Atheist Son"
- Abram Brummett, Ph.D., Matt Shea, Ph.D. ,and Jason T. Eberl, Ph.D. (Health Care Ethics): "The Emerging Tradition of Secular Bioethics"; "In Defense of Irreligious Bioethics, Part Two"
- Andre Chavez (College of Arts and Sciences student): "Transhumanism and Transubstantiation: A Eucharistic Philosophy of Technology in the Age of the Post-Human"; "A Hylomorphic Theory of Disease"
- Marty Fitzgerald, Ph.D.: "Moral Expertise in Bioethics and the 'Prophetic-Poetic' Ability to Name"; "Luther's Doctrine of Vocation and the Shape of Pluralistic Societies"
- Marty Fitzgerald, Ph.D., and Courtney Thiele, J.D.: "Should Bioethics Be Cosmopolitan?"
- Benjamin Parviz (College of Arts and Sciences student): "Three New Books on Hope, with Bioethical Reflection"
- Dominic Robin (College of Arts and Sciences student): "The Bioethics of Elfland: Imagining a Chestertonian Bioethics"
- Sibil Shibu: "Our Suffering Neighbor': Catholic Health Care & A Moral Obligation to Address Oral Health"
- Julie Dotterweich Gunby (College of Arts and Sciences student): "Moral Residue, Sin, Death, and the Practice of Medicine"
- Peter Swindeman (College of Arts and Sciences student): "A Social Theory of Burnout For Intensive Care Unit Nurses"
- Ashley Yukihiro (College of Arts and Sciences student): "The Hope for a Better Framework: Reworking Our Underlying Understanding of Community"
- Joel Cox (College of Arts and Sciences student): "Of Scalpels and Stethoscopes: Technology and the Plural Character of Medicine"
Ellen Barnidge, Ph.D., (OVPR) and Ph.D. student Ally Terhaar (College of Public Health student) helped publish the research "Choosing between health and hunger: a qualitative study of Medicaid expansion’s role in food security" in the 'Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition.'
Jeffrey P. Bishop, M.D., Ph.D. (Health Care Ethics) and Charles Freiberg (College of Arts and Sciences student) co-authored the essay "Liberal Arts in the Age of AI" in Church Life Journal.