Congratulations to the following recipients of the 2021 Hand Awards for Distinguished Faculty Achievement.
The Hand Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievements are made possible through the continued generosity of trustee emeritus and alumna Dolly Hand and her husband, Homer Hand. Through their support of excellence in higher education, we are honored to recognize outstanding faculty. The awards have been presented to faculty since 1988, with recipients whose names many in the audience will recognize as faculty who have been transformative to this institution—Michael Rickman, Karen Kaivola, and Leonard Nance to name a few
This year, we recognize the professional achievements of two outstanding faculty members in two primary areas: Research, Creative, and Professional Activity and Community Impact. Historically, there have been Hand awards that recognized the stellar work of faculty who have been at Stetson for a short period of time, and then go on to do great things at Stetson. Some examples include then-Assistant Professors Terri
Witek, Stephen Robinson, Sue Ryan, and Isabel Botero, who all received the Hand recognition just a few years after they joined the University. Both recipients of this prestigious recognition are junior faculty members. In sum, during their short tenure at Stetson University, they have made significant contributions to their fields, to Stetson’s vibrancy and vitality, to our academic culture, and to the world beyond this campus.
The first 2021 Hand award honors a faculty member who was invited to join the faculty at Stetson University five years ago and who has already helped to bring $1.6 million in funding to our campus. In addition to an impressive publication record, she has experienced exceptional success in obtaining grant funding, and demonstrated an amazing ability to forge strong collaborative efforts with faculty from a diverse array of academic departments at Stetson, including Biology, Environmental Science, Health Sciences, Chemistry, Philosophy, and Physics in the quest of academic excellence. Her publications and successful grant applications showcase her success in integrating cutting edge molecular techniques and scientific equipment with high impact teaching practices and novel pedagogical approaches to the great benefit of Stetson students. One nominator wrote, “She is interested in inspiring all students through exposure to research.” One of her photographs was selected for the cover of the journal Development. In the STEM disciplines, this selection is recognized as a distinction. One nominator wrote, “Her work involved photographing cilia of cells and she has produced photographs of cells that are quite beautiful.”
For her professional commitment, and in recognition and celebration of her substantial scholarly contributions, it gives me great pleasure on behalf of the faculty and staff at Stetson University to present the first of two 2021 Hand Awards for Research, Creative, and Professional Activity to Assistant Professor Lynn Kee.
Lynn Kee, Assistant Professor of Biology
This year’s second 2021 Hand award honors a faculty member who has accomplished an extraordinarily impactful breadth and scope of timely work within the short three years of her tenure at Stetson University. Invited in 2018 to join the faculty as Brown Teacher-Scholar Fellow in Sustainable Food Systems, she rapidly became a key force in the development of Stetson’s Sustainable Foods Systems program, and broad to this academic endeavor the lenses of equity and inclusion especially aimed at uncovering issues of race, class and gender in the U.S. food system. Working with other Stetson faculty and students, she has co-developed multiple programs in the broader community, forging strong connections with local elementary schools, boys and girls clubs, the Artisan Alley Market, local farmers, and the Tomoka Correctional Facility. As a Stetson teacher-scholar, she has experienced successful grantsmanship to support her craft of educational outreach as a grant recipient of the Nina B. Hollis Institute for Educational Reform and the recent collaborative Andrew Mellon Foundation grant. Her many peer-reviewed publications are strong evidence that others find her work on the intersection of equity, education and food production of great significance. For her professional commitment, and in recognition and celebration of her substantial contributions to Stetson and the communities of central Florida, it gives me great pleasure on behalf of the faculty and staff at Stetson University to present the second 2021 Hand Award for Community Impact to Assistant Professor Sarah Cramer.
Sarah Cramer, Visiting Assistant Professor in Sustainable Food Systems
Presented by Dr. Rosalie Richards, Associate Provost for Faculty Developmenton May 6, 2021 at the 2021 Academic Awards and Recognition Ceremony
Congratulations to the recipient of the 2021 William Hugh McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching
Established in 1974, the McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching is considered to be Stetson University’s most prestigious award based on the highest attainment of teaching excellence as personified by the former Dean of the University, William Hugh McEniry. Exceptional teaching in the classroom is at the heartbeat of this award, along with intellectual growth, professional competency, academic activities outside of the classroom, and impactful service to students and the University as a whole.
Needless to say, this year’s McEniry selection committee had an incredibly challenging job with Stetson being a community full of highly deserving teacher-scholars. That said, this year’s awardee stood out as an exceptionally impactful educator at Stetson and also within her field. There is a clear record demonstrating that she is phenomenal teacher and a dedicated leader in her field. And she had thoughtfully written nominations demonstrating her deep commitment to high-quality teaching at Stetson and beyond.
A nomination by a fellow faculty member notes: “[This professor] is in her nineteenth year as a member of the Stetson faculty…and clearly, [she] is one of Stetson finest scholar-teachers. While her stature as a publishing scholar is highly meritorious, her skills and accomplishments as a teacher are no less remarkable. She is highly organized, mature, innovative, engaged, and passionate.”
This professor is described as a master teacher who cares most about student learning, and she considers part of her teaching role preparation of students for professional success.
A student nomination states: “[This professor] goes the extra mile in every aspect, teaching and beyond. She teaches some of the most challenging courses at Stetson and in the computer science field. While the coursework is rigorous and intellectually demanding, she provides ways to grasp the difficult concepts in ways that suit all learning styles. As an advisor, she’s not only concerned about short-term academic success, but also long-term professional development and your best interests. Additionally, she never fails to encourage and inspire. I switched my major to computer science after a semester and felt very out of place at first. Having [this professor] as a mentor was a really important part of staying encouraged; she connected me with other women in the field and introduced me to conferences and other opportunities.”
This year’s recipient is a professor of computer science who recently received the Florida Council Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Outstanding Engineering Educator Award, a testament to her commitment to teaching excellence and the quality of education that she provides students, as well as her outstanding contribution to the electro-technology profession. I am delighted and honored to announce this year’s award winner! Please join me in wishing a heartfelt congratulations to the recipient of the 2021 William Hugh McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching… Dr. Hala ElAarag!!
Congratulations to the recipient of the 2021-2022 Sabbatical Awards:
Eric Kurlander, William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of History,“Before the ‘Final Solution’: A Global History of the Nazi ‘Jewish Question’”
Maria Rickling, Associate Professor of Accounting, Chair of M.E. Rinker, Sr. Institute of Tax and Accountancy, “A Research Proposal: A Unique Point of View to Innovating the Accounting Curriculum”
Leila Roach, Associate Professor of Counselor Education, Chair of Counselor Education, “Exploring and Expanding Mental Health Services in Bhutan”
Peter Smucker, Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Director of Music Theory, “Values, Currencies and Economies of Video Game Music”
Nancy Vosburg, Professor of World Languages and Cultures, “Antonia Huerta’s Cybercrime Fiction; Ushering in a New Subgenre in Spanish Literature”
Robert Askew, Assistan Professor of Psychology, “Imparting Clinical Meaning to Pain Intensity Ratings”
Grace Kaletski-Maisel, Assistant Professor, Learning & Information Literacy Librarian, “Trajectories of Information in Literacy Learning”
Dejan Magoc, Professor of Health Science, “Promoting Active Living Through Behavior Change”
Michael McFarland, Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies, “Discourse Strategies in Sudden Change Rhetoric: Argument and Invention in Evangelical Preaching”
Emily Mieras, Chair of History; Associate Professor of History and American Studies, “Progressive People” in “Elysian Lands: History, Memory, and the Making of Community Identity in the American South 1870-1970”
Ramachandran Subramanian, Professor of Leadership, “Developing Teaching Cases in Corporate Governance”
John York, Professor of Chemistry, “Utilizing Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Quantum Mechanical/Molecular Mechanical (QM/MM) Methods for the Study of Metal-Ligand Bonds in Proteins”
If you have attended one of our conferences in the past, then you know that you’re in for a half-day jam-packed with an inspirational keynote from a sitting university president, informative and interactive leadership development workshops, and opportunities to expand your professional network.
Limited scholarships to cover the registration fee are available, thanks to the generous support of Prez Roellke. Apply here on/before April 7, 2022.
Tap the EventBrite link to join us and/or share with a colleague and your professional networks. Questions? Contact [email protected] or [email protected].
December 9, 2021 9-10 a.m. EST; join the watch party, register here TOPIC:Effective External Board Relations for Higher Education Leaders President Rhea Law, University of South Florida
Higher education leaders actively engage with Boards of Trustees, advisory boards, community boards, etc. Fostering and maintaining effective relations with external boards is imperative.
In addition to her extensive legal and higher education accomplishments, President Rhea Law joined Stetson University’s Board of Trustees in 2019, serving as chair of the Stetson Law Board of Overseers.
October 22, 2021 9-10 a.m. EST; join the watch party, register here TOPIC:What a long, strange trip it’s been! Dr. Martha Saunders, president, University of West Florida.
Dr. Saunders will share her leadership journey and lessons she’s learned along the way.
We had a great workshop today on Imposter Syndrome: What is it and What to Do With It! presented by Dr. Karen Griffin. As promised, attached is the presentation from today’s workshop.
Have a great weekend and I hope to see you on October 22nd at 9:00 a.m. ET for our virtual Coffee and Conversation with Dr. Saunders, President of the University of West Florida. I already sent the invitation and registration information to you.
Career success is about more than just whether we can get the job done–it’s how we do it. One key to getting things done well is professionalism. More than just a way of describing someone (i.e. professional vs. unprofessional), professionalism is a practice that we can all engage in. Professionalism as a practice may be the secret to better organizations, better outcomes, and more satisfying work experiences. Additionally, professionalism can make it easier to market yourself both inside and outside your organization. We’ll talk about the tenets of professionalism, how to become a more professional practitioner, and how they can help with career navigation.
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EVENT: Coffee & Conversation with presidential sponsor and president, Dr. Mark B. Rosenberg, Florida International University
TOPIC:Leading with Collaboration in Community
DATE: March 26, 2021
TIME: 9-10 a.m.
LOCATION: Join the Coffee & Conversations Watch Party
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EVENT: 2021 State Conference
THEME:The Hill We Climb: Leading with Hope
DATE: April 9, 2021
TIME: 9 a.m.-noon
COST: $25
LOCATION: Live Virtual Event – registration information forthcoming
MINI-GRANTS: Mini-grants are available to cover the cost of registration. Deadline: March 22, 2021. Mini-grant recipients will be auto-registered for the conference and will receive confirmation via EventBrite. We are indebted to Prez Chris Roellke, presidential sponsor of the ACEWNFL, for this generous support.
ABOUT THE ACE WOMEN’S NETWORK OF FLORIDA: Stetson University is a proud Presidential Sponsor of the ACE Women’s Network of Florida. The ACE Women’s Network is a national system of networks within each state with the goal of advancing and supporting women in pursuing higher education leadership. ACE aims to develop programs that identify, develop, encourage, advance, link and support (IDEALS) women in higher education careers. For details about the ACE Women’s Network and Stetson’s activities, visit the website or contact Rosalie Richards or Lua Hancock.
Spring 2021 Dates & Times: various Communities of Care A community of care is an inclusive, caring, safe, and supportive group organized intentionally to address and improve the well-being of each of its members. Information is forthcoming on different communities and how to join.
February 1, 2021 noon-1 p.m. Register here Stetson’s ACEWNFL Speaker Series
Lila Jaber, ’88, ’90 and Stetson University Trustee is currently serving in her third decade of regulatory policy and government practice. She recently retired from one of Florida’s leading law firms, Gunster Yoakley & Stewart, where she successfully built and led a statewide regulatory and legislative government affairs practice earning her the role of Regional Managing Shareholder. Notably, Lila is also the architect of Florida’s Women in Energy Leadership Forum, an annual initiative that highlights the workforce and economic development contributions of the electric and natural gas industries by affording women a platform to share their personal stories and career paths to inform, inspire and motivate others.
January 22, 2021 9-10 a.m. Join the Coffee & Conversations Watch Party here TOPIC: Presidential Transitions in Higher Education: Focusing on Institutional Priorities (aka Leadership transitions when there is no playbook)
Dr. Chris Roellke, president and ACEWNFL presidential sponsor, Stetson University
Dr. Wendy Libby, president emerita and inaugural ACEWNFL presidential sponsor, Stetson University
Fall 2020 Dates & Times: various Communities of Care A community of care is an inclusive, caring, safe, and supportive group organized intentionally to address and improve the well-being of each of its members. Information is forthcoming on different communities and how to join.
November 16, 2020 Noon-1 p.m. join here Should I stay or should I go: When to bloom in place or seek new opportunities This brown bag conversation will help women identify personal and professional priorities and, with these in mind, develop a sense of whether it is time to advance their careers in place or uproot to pursue a new position. Participants will be encouraged to be deliberate in seeking professional experiences, to create and use a professional support network, and to advance their careers while keeping personal and professional priorities at the forefront.
Dr. Alicia Slater is in her third year as Dean of the School of Science at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY. Prior to taking that position, she was a Professor of Biology and held various academic and administrative positions during her 17 years at Stetson University. Dr. Slater currently oversees graduate allied health and undergraduate science programs and serves on the President’s Cabinet and Deans Council at Marist College. She is very grateful to the many mentors who have supported her along her way and encouraged her to continue growing, even when that meant uprooting her family and moving from Florida to New York!
SAVE-THE-DATE November 6, 2020 10:00 a.m. Join the Coffee & Conversations Watch Party here Leading Cultural Change: Promoting Social Justice on Campus
Dr. Georgia Lorenz, president and ACEWNFL presidential sponsor, Seminole State College
October 16, 2020 9:00 a.m. Register to join the Presidential Coffee & Conversations Watch Party here The Path Forward: React, Respond, Reset President Avendano’s leadership in the current environment will guide everyone who seeks senior leadership positions. During the Q&A session, participants will be able to engage in dialogue with Dr. Avendano.
Dr. John Avendano is president and ACEWNFL presidential sponsor at Florida State College at Jacksonville. He possesses over 30 years of community college experience and served previously as president and CEO of Kankakee Community College in Illinois. Dr. Avendano was a first-generation college student and English is his second language. He received his associate degree from Waubonsee Community College, bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology from Northern Illinois University, master’s degree in adult continuing education from Northern Illinois University, and his doctorate in educational administration and foundations from Illinois State University. In 2019, the Daily Journal recognized Dr. Avendano as its 2019 Citizen of the Year.
October 15, 2020noon-1 p.m. register here Courageous Conversations: Women Experiencing Microaggressions & Bullying in Higher Education This presentation on microaggressions and bullying in higher education will help to identify the sometimes “invisible elephant” in the room and increase awareness, knowledge and skills of multicultural competencies. Through critical, courageous conversations, thetools presented will encourage transparent and authentic communication and assist with developing strategies for successful navigation and advancement in the academy, especially in leadershiproles.
Michelle Mitcham, Ph.D. , LMHC, NCC, CCMHC, CFM, is passionate about empowering women and families. At Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, she is associate professor and CACREP liaison, and serves as the institutional representative of their ACE Committee. Her research interests include leadership, multicultural competencies, diversity, equity, and inclusion, empowerment, advocacy, social justice and transformational multicultural pedagogy. In 2020, she was selected as one of “25 Women You Need to Know” by the TallahasseeDemocrat. Dr. Mitcham earned a Master’s degree at Webster University in clinical mental health and school counseling and a doctoral degree in counselor education and supervision from the University of Central Florida.
October 14, 2020 6:00-7:00pm; register here Women in Leadership Viola Thompson, president and CEO, Information Technology Senior Management Forum
Stetson’ School of Business Administration presents female leaders who will share their stories of successes, challenges, lessons learned, and how they have defined their paths.
Stetson’ School of Business Administration presents female leaders who will share their stories of successes, challenges, lessons learned, and how they have defined their paths.
Women in Action Women in Action is a virtual event that creates an open dialogue about various topics that affect women as leaders. This is a monthly event is hosted by Stetson’s Wellness & Recreation to celebrate women leaders as they speak about their experience as women in leadership positions.
Colleen Vanderlip is the Director of Wellness & Recreation here at Stetson. She will be presenting on her leadership journey as a woman in her field. She will also be speaking about the ways to incorporate self-care into a schedule full of Zoom and other commitments!
October 1, 2020 noon-1 pm; join the luncheon here Virtual Meet & Greet Luncheon Welcome to the ACE Women’s Network of Florida kick-off luncheon for the 2020-21 academic year. Lua and Rosalie look forward to joining you to connect/re-connect, identify plans already in place (see fall calendar items above), and learn what you would like to see happen this year. As in the past, this year’s programming center around the ACE Women’s IDEALS: identify, develop, encourage, link, and support. Bring your lunch and a colleague!
September 30, 2020 6:00-7:00pm; register here Women in Leadership Yamila H. Harris, vice president of Service Delivery, Atos
Stetson’ School of Business Administration presents female leaders who will share their stories of successes, challenges, lessons learned, and how they have defined their paths.
September 23, 2020 6:00-7:00pm; register here Women in Leadership Adrian Torres, senior vice president, global head of Hospitality and Food Beverage Support, Oracle Corporation
Stetson’ School of Business Administration presents female leaders who will share their stories of successes, challenges, lessons learned, and how they have defined their paths.
May 1, 2020 noon-1 pm: join us here End-of-Semester Brown Bag Join us for lunch to celebrate leadership, courage, grit, determination, and service.
April 8, 2020 noon-1 pm: join the conversation here Virtual Book Club Brown Bag As we work through extraordinary change, we hop to use this time to focus on how you are doing and how you are leading through change (see Section One: The Moments and the Myths of our book, pp 19-43). To supplement our discussion, can I draw your attention to a few resources to review at your own leisure?
• Why You Should Ignore All That Coronavirus-Inspired Productivity Pressure – an op ed at the Chronicle of Higher Education:
• Self-care and COVID-19: Getting Ready for the Marathon – a blog post at Psychology Today
• The Science of Wellbeing – a series of short lectures by Yale University psychologist Laurie Santos
Shadow-A-Leader for a Day Program –suspended due to covid pandemic
Women’s History Month – suspended due to covid pandemic
February 3, 2020 noon-1 pm; Lee’s Garage: CUB 2nd Floor – Deland Campus Book Club Potluck Bring your favorite lunch dish to share as early as 11:30 am! Coffee and water will be provided. Come prepared to share: a lunch meal and what you’ve learned. Open to ALL staff and faculty, regardless of gender identity
December 17, 2019 noon-1 pm; Lee’s Garage: CUB 2nd Floor – Deland Campus Book Club Kick Off & Winter Potluck Mixer Sign Up NOW! Join Drs. Rosalie Richards and Lua Hancock as we kick of our winter read.
Bring your favorite lunch dish to share as early as 11:30 am! Coffee and water will be provided. Open to ALL staff and faculty, regardless of gender identity
The first 35 book club participants to sign up at the Deland Campus will receive a free copy of this year’s winter read, Brené Brown’s Dare To Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.Dare to Lead is a “practical playbook” based on research with 150 global C-suite executives. Dr. Brown starts her research by asking what people should do differently to lead during our modern times, when “we’re faced with seemingly intractable challenges and an insatiable demand for innovation.” With strategies extracted from her research, this book challenges readers to lead bravely and courageously.
November 4, 2019 12:00 pm-1 pm, Deland Hall Boardroom RSVP Exploring Your Personal Leadership through Strengths The first 10 participants to sign up receive CliftonStrengthsTM Assessment free. Open to ALL staff and faculty, regardless of gender identity Bring your lunch, a colleague, and your STRENGTHS Assessment.https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1191420036642160646&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.stetson.edu%2Fworld%2Fstetson-chapter-of-the-ace-womens-network-of-florida%2F&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px
CliftonStrengthsTM empowers you to perform better by doing more of what you naturally do best. Throughout this workshop, you will explore the meaning and application of your personal Strengths to develop a plan to use it to the best of your ability. Additionally, we will dive deeper in the application of Strengths to your leader role in higher education.
Lizzie Dement currently serves as the assistant director of Student Development & Campus Vibrancy at Stetson University where she oversees Student Leadership initiatives and Strengths-Based learning for the institution. Lizzie earned a B.S. in political science & social science at Florida State University, an M.Ed. in higher education & student affairs at the University of South Carolina, and worked previously at Arizona State University. During Lizzie’s time at Stetson University, she worked to help the institution become a Strengths-Based Campus where all incoming undergraduate students take the CliftonStrengthsTM Assessment.
For Mercedes Tichenor, PhD, good advising starts with “building relationships.”
“That’s what I try to do with my students, whether I’m advising them for courses or advising them about career plans or even personal matters and issues,” said Tichenor, associate chair and professor of Education. “I think building that trust in that relationship is the first thing.”
Tichenor’s approach earned her the honor of being named Faculty Advisor of the Year for 2020-21, which was announced during Convocation at the start of the Fall 2021 semester. Now in its eighth year, the honor is presented by the Advising Office in Academic Success.
Joanne Morales Bembinster, associate director of Academic Advising, shared some of the comments from students’ nominations of Tichenor.
“Dr. Tichenor has gone above and beyond through her role as an advisor to many students in the Education Department,” said student Gretchen Nerber. “She not only is knowledgeable about courses and scheduling, she genuinely cares about the students and their futures. She is willing to have conversations that are critical in a student’s academic career that will guide them in the future years, all while giving support and kindness when needed.”
“My faculty advisor is always there when I need her,” said student Kelly Chapman. “She believes in me and shows her support often. Starting college was difficult, but she made me feel right at home.”
Supporting Students At Stetson
Chris Colwell, PhD
Chris Colwell, PhD, chair of the Education Department, praised Tichenor for her unwavering commitment to support students.
“It is not an exaggeration to say that she knows each and every one of her students and supports them in every aspect of their educational journey here at Stetson,” he said.
Tichenor also serves as director of Student Teaching in Stetson’s Education Department. She works in area schools with Stetson seniors who are interning in classrooms.
“One of the first things we tell them is get to know your kids. Stand by the door and greet them when they come in. Talk to them about things that interest them. It’s easier to manage groups of students when you have respect for each other,” she said.
“Can you teach advising? I think we as teacher educators can certainly model it for our students,” Tichenor continued. “We are training our students to not just teach academics but to teach the whole child. This includes social and emotional learning. So advising aside, I think as teacher educators we need to model all of that.”
Faculty Advisor Of The Year Announcement
Tichenor recalled watching Convocation at home on her computer in mid-August. She listened as Provost Noel Painter, PhD, began announcing the recipient of the Faculty Advisor of the Year award.
Noel Painter, PhD
“This year’s Faculty Advisor of the Year has consistently and thoughtfully realized the Stetson commitment to creating caring and individualized relationships, and providing thoughtful guidance, offering time, resources, mentorship and career advice to students in her program,” Painter said. “Words taken from the nominations describe her as compassionate, genuine, respectful, supportive and kind.”
At home, Tichenor thought, “Oh, wow, those are some really nice things people are saying.’ ” And then, Painter announced her name as this year’s recipient.
John Tichenor, PhD
“It really was a surprise,” she recalled. “I was happy and excited, of course, that my name came up.”
Tichenor received another surprise, too. Her husband John Tichenor, PhD, chair and associate professor of management, had been named the 2018-19 advisor of the year. After his wife’s name was announced, he presented the three-dimensional glass award to her in their own home. Stacy Collins, interim executive director of Career and Academic Success, had conspired with John Tichenor to get the award in his hands for the big moment.
“It’s a very nice honor and I’m delighted to have been chosen,” Tichenor said.
The grant, Seeding Justice: Collaborative Learning Landscapes in Carceral Spaces, was made possible by the foundation’s The Future of Higher Learning in Prison initiative. CEP is the first recipient at Stetson to receive a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
In 2015, a Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs research article titled “Higher Education in an Era of Mass Incarceration: Possibility Under Constraint” by Erin L. Castro, PhD, et al, showed that among the more than 2.2 million individuals behind bars in the United States, only 6% have access to formal postsecondary educational opportunities.
Since its inception in 2015, CEP has been committed to offering high-quality liberal-arts education to incarcerated students, and for the past three years has been teaching incarcerated students credit-bearing courses and providing them with additional learning, research and teaching opportunities.
Pamela Cappas-Toro, PhD
“The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant will benefit incarcerated students by providing them with an opportunity to be more fully engaged in food studies, learn about planting and harvesting produce in an outdoor classroom,” said Pamela Cappas-Toro, PhD, who is one of CEP’s co-directors and associate professor of world languages and cultures at Stetson.
Besides Cappas-Toro, CEP is led by co-directors Andy Eisen, PhD, visiting assistant professor of history; Melinda Hall, PhD, associate professor of philosophy; and Jelena Petrovic, PhD, associate professor of communication and media studies.
The grant will allow CEP to offer five new courses, including two food studies classes on sustainable food production that explore race, class and gender in the food system, two humanities courses that are aimed toward food studies, and a special topics class on race, food and nation in the Americas.
The grant also will provide CEP with an opportunity to create the garden, an outdoor classroom, and employ a garden manager and postdoctoral fellow in the humanities.
Both positions will have an integral part in the outdoor classroom component, which will include collaboration with CEP faculty and students and a community garden learning landscape with heirloom or historically significant crops such as Seminole pumpkins, Everglades tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cowpeas, Alabama red okra, African runner peanut and Florida broadleaf mustard greens.
Sarah Cramer, PhD
“A food studies education is wonderful because it allows the Community Education Project students at the Tomoka Correctional Institution to develop the skills and access the resources to analyze and critique something as fundamental in our lives as food,” explained Sarah Cramer, PhD, visiting assistant professor in sustainable food systems at Stetson, who is teaching two of the grant-funded food studies courses.
The grant monies also will be used for a second edition of CEP’s literary journal More Than Our Blues, which is edited by Denise Yezbick, PhD, who taught two courses at TCI before CEP’s program became accredited, and data analysis and assessment conducted by Steven Smallpage, PhD, assistant professor of political science at Stetson.
Steven Smallpage, PhD
“My job is running the data analysis and assessment to translate all of the excellent, hard work that the Community Education Project’s faculty, staff and students have contributed to the program into a language that helps everyone better visualize its return on investment,” said Smallpage. “By doing that, we will understand which interventions and initiatives work and which ones need to be tweaked along with the process for making those adjustments.”
CEP will be collecting a steady stream of student survey responses and reports from its faculty and staff on activities, perceptions and overall satisfaction. CEP students also will be continuously updated on the program’s progress.
One of the grants seeks to increase the number of professional counselors from underrepresented populations.
The Counselor Education Department will be providing students at Stetson University and other universities with specialized mental-health counseling training, thanks to two research grants totaling $2,764,570. The grant awards are the largest combined sum received by a department at Stetson.
Spiritual And Religious Competencies Project (SRCP)
SRCP is designed to equip mental-health professionals with the competencies for addressing the religious and spiritual dimensions in people’s lives.
The SRCP grant goals are:
Generate methods and tools for defining, studying and assessing religious and spiritual competencies.
Establish methods for training mental-health professionals in religious and spiritual competencies.
Synergize diverse stakeholders with a commitment to promoting religious and spiritual competencies.
Fuel the momentum for systemic and cultural changes in ways that religious and spiritual competencies are addressed in mental-health care.
Stetson’s three-year subaward is $1,724,985, which is the largest private foundation grant in the university’s history to support a single-investigator faculty research project.
The “Research in Religious and Spiritual Competencies in Clinical Training” research project will be funded by Stetson’s subaward.
Jesse Fox, PhD
“The project was born out of a vision to bring the four major mental health disciplines, which are psychology, counseling, social work and marriage and family therapy, together and create religious and spiritual competence models for training and research,” said Jesse Fox, PhD, principal investigator for the Stetson research project.
Religious and spiritual competence is a holistic framework for training mental health professionals to recognize and be responsive to pious dimensions of their clients’ lives.
Fox and his colleagues Joseph Currier, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of South Alabama, who is the principal investigator for the entire research project, and Cassandra Vieten, PhD, executive director of the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation, will develop and implement funded studies on religious and spiritual competence during the next three years. Stetson also will host two summits with Currier, Vieten and other top-research clinicians in the mental-health field to catalyze a new research and clinical training culture.
“Religion and spirituality offer people strong resources for living healthy lives,” added Fox, who is an associate professor of counselor education at Stetson. “Religion and spirituality help people cope more effectively with challenges and crises and provide pathways toward the ultimate meaning in the human experience.
“The goal is to bring an openness to training mental-health counselors to be more responsive to their clients and provide them with the knowledge to create environments that are characterized by deep compassion, acceptance and wisdom in navigating the many challenges people face from cradle to the grave,” said Fox.
Hatters Behavioral Health Coalition (HBHC) Program
The four-year program will provide counselor-education graduate students with an opportunity to counsel underserved populations by melding behavioral and medical health in an interdisciplinary approach to client care during a 12-month internship. The interns also will receive a $10,000 federal stipend for their living expenses.
“This grant will significantly benefit our students now and in the future,” said Page Thanasiu, PhD, HBHC Program director. “The interns will receive specialized training and experience in interdisciplinary behavioral health-care approaches. They also will develop an area of expertise that provides considerable advantage when seeking employment after graduation.”
Jacqueline Williams, PhD
The HBHC Program Internship Coordinator Jacqueline Williams, PhD, assistant professor of practice in counselor education at Stetson, will be providing the grant-funded interns with assistance throughout the program.
The HRSA/BHWET grant goals are:
Train counselors to competently work with medically underserved populations.
Increase the number of professional counselors from underrepresented populations.
Increase the number of organizations utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to patient care that includes both behavioral and primary health care.
“It’s important that counselors and medical practitioners understand the ways in which a person’s culture impacts how they navigate and resolve an illness, stress and other challenges,” added Thanasiu, who is the Counselor Education Department chair. “Clients will have the best chance of obtaining success when mental-health counselors suggest treatments and coping strategies that align with clients’ values and beliefs.”
Another grant component is training programs that teach students to counsel adolescents, children and transitional-aged youth who are at risk for behavioral-health disorders. The Counselor Education Department met the criterion with its play therapy and childhood trauma courses.
The HBHC Program also will be teaming up with Stetson’s Health Sciences and Psychology departments. The collaboration will prepare students for medical and health-focused professions.
“The collaborative efforts by the Counselor Education, Health Sciences and Psychology departments will provide three separate student populations with a chance to learn about the importance of team-based care and how they can be active participants in this approach within their own career fields,” said Thanasiu.
The HBHC Program will have an interdisciplinary, advisory council, comprised of representatives from diverse health-care fields that will guide program development and monitor effectiveness. Partnerships with AdventHealth and other experiential training sites also will provide patients with integrated, behavioral and primary health care.
The Undergraduate Research and Creative Arts Symposium Showcase — an annual celebration of academic achievement at Stetson — is set for Tuesday, April 13.
More than 160 students from the School of Music, School of Business Administration and the College of Arts and Sciences will present research by juniors, seniors and Honors students between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Showcase will be a hybrid presentation. Some events, such as the senior recital and Hand exhibits, will be available both live and online. Two other sessions will be face-to-face but viewable online. Many others will be entirely online.
Students, faculty and staff, along with family outside the Stetson community, must register to attend events virtually. Registration began April 7 and continues through April 13. For those attending live sessions, there are capacity limits, which will be observed. Once the registration form is received, registrants will receive links to the sessions. The Registration link can be found here.
Day classes across campus are being canceled, providing all students with the opportunity to see and hear the work of fellow students. Cultural credit will be awarded by 15-minute participation blocks on Zoom or in person. For every 15 minutes logged into or attending a session, one-third of a cultural credit will be awarded. A maximum of five cultural credits can be earned for the symposium event. At each venue, student ID numbers will have to be used for cultural credit.
Showcase, with its debut in 1999, has grown to be one of the oldest and most distinctive comprehensive Undergraduate Research Days nationwide. Former names include Undergraduate Scholarship and Performance Day and Undergraduate Scholarship Day.
Kimberly Reiter, PhD
COVID-19 halted the celebration in 2020, but not this year.
“COVID may have put us down last year, because we just had no time to put this together, but this year … we are alive and kicking,” asserted Kimberly Reiter, PhD, associate professor of history and chair of the Stetson Undergraduate Research Committee and Stetson Showcase.
The theme this year is New Worlds, acknowledging the challenges that undergraduate research has faced in the past year, and the new understandings that have resulted in conducting that research. The theme also celebrates the opportunities students have created for both learning and research in a world of virtual academe, Reiter said.
The Showcase will be competitive, too. Project judging, encompassing input from selected faculty, staff and industry leaders, will culminate in an awards ceremony. In general, students are asked to discuss their projects at a level that anyone not knowing the area can understand, with the belief that part of an effective presentation is effective communication.
The winners of each of the locations or poster sessions will receive a Maris Prize of $200 and a certificate of excellence.
