Faculty and staff news
Ben Broening, associate professor of music, has been named a Fulbright Scholar in Estonia for spring 2007. Broening will lecture on contemporary American music while studying Estonia’s composers and strong choral music tradition. Broening applied for Fulbright work in Estonia because of both family connections there and the opportunity to share his knowledge of a broad range of styles, techniques and conceptual models of electro-acoustic music with the country’s contemporary composers. Estonian composers are just beginning to work in electro-acoustic music, and Broening will be able to examine how they come to terms with new technical and aesthetic issues.
Robert C. Dillard, chief of University Police, received a tribute from the Delaware House of Representatives. Legislators honored Dillard for “outstanding work assisting Delaware State University” in establishing a campus police department. Dillard evaluated and advised Delaware State throughout the process of forming a sworn police force. Dillard joined Richmond in 1970 as police chief and has molded the campus department into one of only a handful of certified campus police forces in the country.
Jennifer Erkulwater, assistant professor of political science, has published the book Disability Rights and the American Social Safety Net. The publisher, Cornell University Press, calls it “a major contribution to the study of political science” that has garnered “considerable praise by scholars in the field.”
The Council for Advancement and Support of Education has named RichmondNow, edited by Linda Evans, a gold medal winner in its 2006 Circle of Excellence awards program. RichmondNow was recognized in the Tabloid and Newsletter Publishing Improvement category. Now in its second year of publication, RichmondNow replaced two former publications, Richmond Matters and Spider Network. Gordon Schmidt designed the original template for the publication. RichmondNow also won first place in the Magapaper/tabloid category of the Virginia Press Women 2006 Communications Contest.
Mary L. Heen, professor of law, has been appointed general counsel of the American Association of University Professors, the 45,000-member professional association of faculty, graduate students, librarians and academic professionals based in Washington, D.C.
Heen will have overall responsibility for AAUP’s legal work, including monitoring legal developments in higher education, apprising AAUP of emerging legal issues with implications for labor and employment law, freedom of expression, intellectual property rights, and preparation and review of legal briefs. She will also serve on AAUP’s executive committee.
Heen will continue her academic duties at Richmond while serving a two-year term with AAUP.
The Virginia Father’s Day Council of the American Diabetes Foundation of Richmond honored E. Bruce Heilman, chancellor, as Father of the Year. Heilman served as president of the University from 1971–86. He was chosen based on his community leadership and his support for advocacy, research and education initiatives of the American Diabetes Association. These initiatives help ADA fulfill its mission to prevent and cure diabetes.
Woody Holton, associate professor of history, was selected to participate in the Organization of American Historians’ 2006–07 Distinguished Lectureship Program. His article, “Divide et Impera: The Tenth Federalist in a Wider Sphere,” was selected for inclusion in OAH’s Best American History Essays.
Ron Inlow, associate vice president for auxiliary services emeritus, received the National Association of College & University Food Services’ Lifetime Distinguished Membership Award in Toronto, Canada, for “outstanding contributions and dedicated support” to the association and to the university and college dining services industry over the last 40 years.
Ping Li, professor of psychology, published a letter in Science commenting on the evolutionary history of the Chinese writing system (Science, Vol. 311, p.1867). He also edited Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics, a project involving three volumes by more than 150 contributing authors from around the world. The first of the series has been released by Cambridge University Press.
Lit Maxwell, business librarian, had his review of The American Association of Advertising Agencies’ Web site published in Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship. He looked at such things as ease of navigation, currency of information, mission, intended audience and criteria for inclusion of information.
Jeff McKee, Osher Institute faculty member, was inducted into the Richmond Broadcasters Hall of Fame and received the Frank Soden Lifetime Achievement Award. A former radio personality in Richmond, McKee teaches the course “School of Rock.”
Cheryl Pallant, English and dance instructor, has published her newest book, Contact Improvisation (McFarland and Co.). She also has work appearing in the upcoming issue of Women’s Studies Quarterly and No Tell Motel, where she is a featured poet.
Thomas Poulin, adjunct faculty in SCS, has been elected to the chapter council of the Hampton Roads chapter of the American Society of Public Administration. He will present his paper, “Transitioning from Emergency to Disaster: A Model for Analyzing Effective Disaster Response Organizations,” at the Southeastern Conference for Public Administration in September 2006.
Rod Smolla, dean of the School of Law, was elected to membership on the board of Media General Inc. Media General publishes the Richmond Times-Dispatch and owns 25 daily newspapers, 26 television stations, interactive media and part of a newsprint business.
LaRee Sugg, assistant athletic director, qualified for the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open golf championship by posting a score of 151, nine over par, in a 36-hole sectional tournament at Knollwood Country Club in West Bloomfield, Mich. She previously competed in five other Opens. Sugg did not make the cut, shooting 82 in both the first and second rounds under rainy conditions. Her Open journal is available online.
William Wheeler, adjunct faculty in SCS, was appointed the new peer review editor of The Organization Development Journal during the Organization Development Institute’s 36th annual information exchange in Chicago in May.
Michele Eicher Whiteside, events and technology manager, received the Session of the Year Award from the Association of Collegiate Conference and Events Directors-International at the ACCED-I 26th annual conference on March 27. The award recognizes an outstanding session presented at the previous year’s ACCED-I annual conference. Nominees are determined based on the rating of sessions by conference attendee evaluations. Whiteside received the award for her session titled “Training Your Staff, Faculty and Students to Use Your Internal Event Planning System.”