Professional Notes: September 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
Kimberly R. Enard, Ph.D. (Public Health) will serve as the chair of the Department of Health Management and Policy at SLU. As Enard moves into her new role as chair, Marcea Walter (Master of Health Administration Program) will become the director of the Master of Health Administration program.
Leslie McClure, Ph.D. (College for Public Health and Social Justice) was recently selected to participate in FOCUS St. Louis’s 2025-26 Leadership St. Louis cohort.
Tyler R. Schwartz, M.D. (Otolaryngology) received a Just-In-Time Award from the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences. With this award, Schwartz and the AHEAD Institute will investigate, "Referral Patterns and Socioeconomic Status Effects On Diagnosis of Pediatric Cervical Lymphadenopathy."
Charles Graves, Ph.D. (Earth, Environmental and Geospatial Science) was awarded the Special Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Weather Association (NWA) on Sept. 8, 2025, at their annual meeting. This award is presented to an individual not appropriately recognized by more specifically defined NWA awards and for exceptional contributions to operational meteorology or related activities over an extended period of time.
Mamoun Benmamoun, Ph.D. (International Business) received two major honors at the Academy of International Business (AIB) 2025 Conference. He was awarded the AIB Teaching Innovation Award, which recognizes excellence and creativity in international business education. In addition, he won first place in AIB’s inaugural "AI in IB Teaching" Video Competition, which highlights innovative uses of artificial intelligence in business instruction. The AIB is the premier global community of international business scholars, dedicated to advancing teaching, research, and practice in the field.
Travis Threats, Ph.D. (Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences) has been elected Chair of the Committee on Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. It is a three-year commitment, which starts in 2026.
Threats has also been nominated and elected to be on the Board of Visitors for the College of Applied Health Sciences for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He began serving on the board on July 1, 2025. Threats received his master's degree in speech-language pathology from there in 1984.
Jackson Nickerson, Ph.D. (Business) has co-written a book out now, "With a Bot and a Prayer: Teaching and Learning in the Age of Generativity." The book is free, and a complimentary copy can be retrieved in exchange for an email address.
Kathleen N. Gillespie, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) was a contributing author for the Fourth Edition of the book 'Evidence-Based Public Health.' The book, published this summer, examines practical guidance on how to choose, carry out, and evaluate evidence-based programs and policies in public health settings.
Katie Stamatakis, Ph.D., (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) and researchers from the Saint Louis University Doisy College of Health Sciences, the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and others from St. Louis area hospitals and clinics collaborated to publish the research study "Understanding Injury Patterns and Predictors in Pickleball Players: A Nationwide Study of 1,758 Participants." The study states, "This study provides foundational evidence to advance injury prevention initiatives in pickleball, emphasizing the need for tailored multi-component interventions, including interventions that target neuromuscular deficits in the trunk and extremities, aimed at maximizing the health benefits of pickleball among players."
Flannery Burke, Ph.D. (American Studies) published the book "Back East: How Westerners Invented a Region," with the University of Washington Press in August.
Xiaoyu Liu, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy), Mark Gaynor, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) , Kathleen N. Gillespie, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) and Echu Liu, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) collaborated to publish the research "Evaluation and Implications of Generative AI in Health Administration Education" in the Journal of Health Administration Education. The study evaluated the performance of five LLMs in performing MHA-level tasks and the results highlight both the strengths and limitations of LLMs in health administration education.
SangNam Ahn, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) led the publishing of the research article "Insomnia, major depressive disorders, and risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias" in the Aging & Mental Health Journal. The research concluded that addressing sleep disturbances and depression may help lower dementia risk vulnerable populations.
Steve E. Rigdon, Ph.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) published the research article "Comparisons of Optimal Generally Weighted Moving Average and Exponentially Weighted Moving Average Charts" in the Quality and Reliability Engineering International Journal.
Zhengmin Qian, Ph.D., M.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), Lauren D. Arnold, Ph.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics), and Tom Burroughs, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) collaborated with other researchers outside of SLU to produce the research "Ambient air pollution exposure accelerates the occurrence of 78 non-communicable chronic diseases: an accelerated failure time analysis of a nationwide cohort" published in the GeroScience Journal. According to the research, "This study provides the first evidence that air pollutants could accelerate onset of common chronic diseases. Findings highlight the urgent need for measures to improve air quality to slow progression of disease development.
Cheryl Rathert, Ph.D. (Department of Health Management and Policy) contributed to the collaborative research "Team Creativity as a Catalyst for Care Effectiveness and Well-Being in Primary Care Teams" in the Academy of Management journal. The "study advances understanding of team dynamics in healthcare and provides actionable insights for supporting sustainable and innovative practices in primary care settings."
Kenan Li, Ph.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) led the research "Association of environmental exposome and cognitive function among older adults with and without preclinical Alzheimer’s disease" with collaboration from Enbal Shacham, Ph.D. (Behavioral Science and Health Equity) and Washington University-St. Louis School of Medicine's Dr. Ganesh Babalul in partnership with Wash U's ICTS and the Geospatial Health Data Analytic Core at SLU CPSHJ.
Xiaoyu Liu, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) led the research "Assessing the accuracy and explainability of using ChatGPT to evaluate the quality of health news" with contributions from Echu Liu, Ph.D., M.B.A. and SLU CPHSJ students. The research tested the feasibility of utilizing GPT, as an example of a widely used LLM, to evaluate and explain the quality of health news from a dataset annotated by experts, covering a wide range of health topics.
Mintesnot T. Teni, Ph.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) was the lead author on a study with Anne K. Sebert Kuhlmann, Ph.D. (Behavioral Science and Health Equity), Travis Loux, Ph.D. (Biostatistics) and Ness Sandoval, Ph.D. (Sociology) titled "Examining the low uptake of LARC in Ethiopia: An analysis of individual-level predisposing and enabling factors" in the Frontiers in Global Women's Health journal.
Cheryl Rathert, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) was the lead author on the Journal of Healthcare Management research article "Do Patient-Provider Therapeutic Connections Vary by Race or Ethnicity? A Comparison of Black, White, and Hispanic/Latino Patient Experiences."
Thomas E. Burroughs, Ph.D. (Health Management and Policy) and Hong Xian, Ph.D. (Epidemiology and Biostatistics) contributed with other researchers in St. Louis to the development of the research "Assessing NODM Patients for Early PDAC Diagnosis: Incidence of NODM Before PDAC Diagnosis and Subsequent PDAC Risk" in the Cancer Medicine journal.
Martin Schoen, M.D. (Internal Medicine) and colleagues published the study, "Treatment Patterns and Survival Among Veterans With De Novo Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer" in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Jesuit Higher Education journal published "Alignment and Assessment of University Core Curriculum with Interprofessional Education" about SLU's innovative alignment between Interprofessional Education and the University Core Curriculum. The authors included Anthony Breitbach Ph.D., (Interprofessional Education) and Ellen Crowell, Ph.D. (Core) Curriculum, as well as David Pole, Ph.D. and Haley Cobb Ph.D.
Emily Hite, Ph.D. (Sociology and Anthropology) published an article questioning the justice of water governance, Making Sense of Unsustainable Realities: Hydropower and the Sustainable Development Goals.
Jason T. Eberl, Ph.D. (Health Care Ethics) published an article, “Who Wants to Live Forever? Transhumanist Immortality and Christian Eternity,” in a special issue of the journal Christian Bioethics which he also co-edited. The issue also includes articles by Jeffrey P. Bishop, M.D., Ph.D. (Health Care Ethics and Philosophy), “On the Liturgical Consummation of Any Future Enhancement: A Prolegomenon,” and Benjamin Parviz, Ph.D. (Philosophy and Bioethics), “Christian Hope and Transhumanism.”
Cara Wallace, Ph.D. (Nursing) published "Intentionally Interprofessional Palliative Care: Synergy in Education and Practice." The textbook explores the state of the art related to interprofessional palliative care practice and education, focused on the unique synergy of interprofessional palliative care teams that is greater than the sum of the work of the distinct professions on the team.
Madeline Stenersen, Ph.D. (Psychology) received a grant from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Foundation. Together, they will develop and implement an innovative life-skills program in Northern Thailand that uniquely combines essential life and mental health skill-building with soccer, serving some of the region's most vulnerable populations. Through this partnership, Stenersen and Urban Light will develop, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive curriculum designed to promote healing, resilience, and personal growth through the universal language of soccer. Those interested in learning more about Urban Light can visit urban-light.org.
Benjamin Looker, Ph.D. American Studies) appeared on the panel “Write On: The Power of the Pen,” alongside poets, playwrights, and literacy activists, as part of the Music at the Intersection (MATI) series in Grand Center in mid-September 2025.
Benjamin Looker, Ph.D. (American Studies) and Flannery Burke, Ph.D. (American Studies) appeared together in a public book conversation at Left Bank Books on Sept. 4, covering the topic of Burke’s new monograph, "Back East: How Westerners Invented a Region."
Anthony Breitbach, Ph.D. (Interprofessional Education) participated in three presentations with colleagues at the Collaborating Across Borders IX Conference in Omaha, Nebraska on May 27-30 — Preconference Workshop - Building Capacity for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice Research: Empowering Future Scholars with Mixed-method Methodologies; CAB Café - Shaping Interprofessional Collaboration: Approaches to Integrating the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Core Competencies; and Strategic Engagement in Experiential Interprofessional Education: Best Practices Across Diverse Contexts and Medical Centers.
Jeffrey P. Bishop, M.D., Ph.D. (Health Care Ethics) gave a lecture titled, Does your digital moral twin make a moral decision? Memory, Emotion, and the Moral Hue of Decision, on June 9, 2025.
Nori Katagiri, Ph.D. (Political Science) was invited to speak his research on US Cyber Command at the Adm. James R. Hogg Cyber & Innovation Policy Institute (CIPI) of the US Naval War College, Newport, RI. He also participated in cyber war games during the CIPI Summer Workshop titled CYBERCOM Next.
Katagiri also presented his work on military Artificial Intelligence at the workshop ""Who Are ‘Humans’ in Military AI?"" hosted by Utrecht University and the Asser Institut in The Netherlands. His presentation was titled "Human Response to the Politics of Project Maven," on one of the most controversial AI programs used for military purposes in recent years.
Joanne C. Langan, Ph.D. (Nursing), was a keynote speaker at Thaksin University's 2025 International Conference on Disaster Risk Management for Strengthening Resilience and Sustainability in Communities. The conference held July 14 through July 17 in Songkhla, Thailand, fostered cross-sectoral collaboration and enhanced community-level disaster and emergency management outcomes. Langan presented several topics, including strategies for publishing research and project outcomes in international journals, setting up a disaster shelter, lessons learned from disaster survivors, and multi-disciplinary disaster management.
Students
Jack Guo (Center for Advanced Dental Education student) will serve as a member of the AAE
Foundation’s REACH (Resident Expert Advisory Council on Education) Committee, which brings together endodontic residents from across the country to promote leadership,
professional growth, and organized dentistry. This fall, he will be traveling to Jamaica
as part of the AAE Foundation’s Access to Care initiative, where he'll provide free
endodontic treatment to patients in need.
Derick Simmons (Public Health and Social Justice student) along with Cheryl Rathert, Ph.D. (Department of Health Management and Policy) collaborated to publish the research "Patient Psychological Safety: A Qualitative Study of Patient Experiences" in the Academy of Management journal. The study "offers new patient experience insights, highlighting how providers’ words, non-verbal signals, and other actions—even if inadvertent—might interfere with patients’ perceptions of PPS and interpersonal connection.
Members of the AI and Robotics Lab (AIRLab) team including Hadi Akbarpour, Ph.D. (Computer Science), Vasit Sagan, Ph.D. (Computer Science) Omar Tahri, Ph.D. and doctroal students Shahid Shabeer Malik (School of Science and Engineering student) and Maryam Moshrefizadeh (School of Science and Engineering student) have recently published a paper in IEEE Access titled“EvSat3D: Satellite Pose Estimation and 3D Reconstruction With Event Camera.” This work presents a novel pipeline for satellite navigation that leverages neuromorphic event camera technology to improve pose estimation and 3D modeling accuracy, even under the most extreme space conditions. This publication underscores AIRLab’s dedication to advancing AI and robotics research with real-world impact, particularly in the challenging domain of space applications.
Benjamin Parviz (Arts and Sciences student) had multiple articles published. The article "Christian Hope and Transhumanism" was published in the journal Christian Bioethics, and the article "Gabriel Marcel and the Mysteries of Death and Despair" was published in Church Life Journal.
Benjamin Parviz (Arts and Sciences student) presented the talk "ReThink Transhumanism: Discerning the Limits of Human Enhancement and The Secular Quest for Immortality" and participated in the panel "ReThink Artificial Intelligence: Navigating New Technology with Confidence and Caution" on June 27 at the ReThink 315 Apologetics Camp on SLU's campus.