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September 2017

- On July 14, 2017 at 10:50 a.m. our Social Work Program received their official Commission on Accreditation decision letter reaffirming the national accreditation of the program by the Council on Social Work Education. 

- Hsiao-Ming Wang has been elected to serve as Faculty Senate President-Elect. This is a three year commitment as Dr. Wang will serve consecutive one-year terms as President-Elect, President, and then Past President of the Faculty Senate.

- Nina Barbieri's manuscript, "Do the effects of strain and religiosity on criminal coping differ by race and ethnicity?" was published in the Crime and Delinquency journal. 

- Larry Karson's manuscript, "County judges and cosmetologists: A preliminary inquiry into 'constitutional' county course" was published in the Journal of Criminal Justice and Law. 

- Maria Bhattacharjee and Irene Chen's proposal to present their work with Crockett Elementary teacher, Bertha Vital on "The Use of an E-Bilingual Library to Develop Literacy Skills in Young Children" has been accepted by the Texas Association of Bilingual Educators for the conference on bi-literacy.

- Tream Charvis received her Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation from the Abilene Christian University. Her accomplishment was also recognized at the UHD Staff Council Awards ceremony in June. 

- Angie Goins paper, "Geriatric Social "Work Education: An Historical Perspective on the Social Response to Aging" was accepted for presentation at the Aging and Society: Seventh Interdisciplinary Conference and the Aging and Society Research Network. 

- Lori Lovins' paper, "Impact of an Integrated Treatment Model to Treat Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Criminogenic Needs" was accepted for presentation at the 35th International Academy of Law and Mental Health Conference. 

- Diane Miller and teacher candidates from Urban Education hosted the middle school students they are mentoring in the Camino a la Universidad project with Arnold Middle School. The group traveled to UHD and engaged with representatives from across the university and UH-system including President Juan Munoz and Regent Paula Mendoza. 

- Carol Boethel and Teryana Lamb attended the Texas Association of Certification Officers Summer Conference in Austin, Texas where they gained information to help them maintain best practices for our educator preparation program and related certification issues. 

-  Heather Goltz was a Program co-Chair for the 15th Annual Disparities in Health in America: Working Toward Social Justice Workshop held at Rice University, June 19-24.

- Ashley Blackburn and Shannon Fowler are consulting on a project involving data collection and analysis related to activities in the Harris County Sheriff's Office. 

- Matt Fugate was invited to present on the topic of "Attention Divergent Hyperactive Giftedness: A Path to Creativity" at the Texas Association for Gifted and Talented conference. 

- Nina Barbieri and Diane Miller presented at the Harris County Department of Education's "Amazing Race" event for middle and high school students from the Title One schools across nine school districts in Harris County. The students visited UHD and interacted with Drs. Barbieri and Miller and reported that this was a highlight of their experience!

- Maria Bhattacharjee, Irene Chen, Judith Harris, John Kelly, and Dana Smith proposed a Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence Teaching Circle and have received notice that the proposal was selected for funding. It will be exciting to learn more about their experiences over the next year as they participate in this interdisciplinary teaching circle of faculty from Criminal Justice, Social Work, and Urban Education. 

- Judith Harris' paper, "Jails and prisons: The role of purposive and inadvertent policies and practices on social control," was accepted for presentation at the Asian Association of Police Studies Conference. She will also chair a panel on "Police, community policing, and technology: during the conference. 

- Laura Mitchell engaged her students in a Writing Project with the children who attend the House of Tiny Treasures I school for homeless children. HTT has opened a second campus and identifies the schools as House of Tiny Treasures I and II. 

- Beth Gilmore proposed that we have a Criminal Justice/Social Work Career Panel. Steven Villano, Myrna Cohen, Liza Alonzo, and Lisa Marie Hatfield-Gonzales worked the idea and as a result there will be a Criminal Justice and Social Work Alumni Career Panel on October 3, 2017 at 6:00 p.m. in the Milam and Travis rooms in the Welcome Center. 

- Krista Gehring was a featured guest on Houston Matters two times over the summer; once in the O’Kane Gallery here at UHD where she talked about the death row art and political cartoons on exhibit and another time as she discussed programs aimed at helping prison inmates complete college degrees. 


- Rebecca Pfeffer authored a column for Gray Matters in the Houston Chronicle, titled “Why don’t we extend our sympathy to victims of human smuggling? The case in San Antonio shows the limits of our goodwill”.

- Teryana Lamb’s presentation with colleague Danita Bailey of Texas Southern University, “Across the University Divide: A Look at the Role of the Certification Officer,” was accepted for presentation at the Consortium of State of Texas Teacher Education (CSOTTE) Conference. 

- Franklin Allaire received a College of Public Service Curricular Innovation Award for his project, “UHD-NASA Partnership – Science is Out of This World!”

- Laura Mitchell and Jacqueline Sack received a College of Public Service Curricular Innovation Award for their project, “Co-Teaching Learning Environment: Pre-Service Bilingual Generalists Explore Their Language and Math Identities in a Required Math Methods Course”.

- Krista Gehring received a College of Public Service Scholarly Innovation Award for her project, “Changing the Narrative for Justice-Involved Women and Girls: Journey from Reform to Transformation – Association for Justice-Involved Females and Organizations Conference”.

- Angela Goins received a College of Public Service Scholarly Innovation Award for her project, “Geriatric Social Work Education: An Historical Perspective on the Social Response to Aging”.

- Jacqueline Sack received a College of Public Service Scholarly Innovation Award for her Project, “Transforming Geometric Thinking Within Methods Courses for Teaching”.

- We have nominated Beth Pelz to serve on the Criminal Justice Field of Study Advisory Committee for The Higher Education Coordinating Board for the State of Texas. 

- Rebecca Pfeffer presented the findings of her HPD Study of Human Trafficking and the importance and utility of collecting data to members of the community at a meeting of the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition (HRRC) whose current focus is to create collaborative initiatives to raise public awareness on human trafficking.  Dr. Pfeffer is a Board Member and Research and Advocacy Committee Chair for HRRC. 

- Heather Goltz is the Issue Editor for a Journal of Family Strengths themed issue on Innovative Practices to Eliminate Health Disparities. Included as the Issue Editor’s Point of View is Dr. Goltz’s piece, “It takes a (healthy) village to raise a child: A case for integrating public health and social work research to eliminate health disparities”. 

- Heather Goltz’s manuscript, “Preferred health information sources: An examination of vulnerable middle-aged and older women” was published in the Journal of Family Strengths. 

- Kevin Buckler is the Editor of the Journal of Criminal Justice and Law and just published the second issue of the journal in August, 2017. This issue expands on the central question of the first issue, “Why We are Here?” by asking “Where Are We Going?” and features manuscripts on timely, important legal issues in criminal justice. 

- Bernardo Pohl, Program Coordinator for the Master of Arts in Teaching program admitted 27 new students for Fall, 2017!

- The Department of Urban Education has received approval from the Texas Education Agency that they may offer Special Education Certification. We will now offer Early Childhood through Grade 12 Special Education Certification in our existing BAIS degree.