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College News - April 2018

- Ash Tiwari’s paper, “The corporal punishment ban in schools: Teachers’ attitudes and classroom practices” has been published in Educational Studies. 


- Heather Goltz’s paper, “Reclaiming pleasure: Empowering cancer patients to manage their sexual symptoms after cancer treatment,” has been accepted for presentation at a learning institute during the Association of Oncology Social Work Conference. She will also participate in the post-conference research institute. 

- Nina Barbieri will participate in the Association of American Colleges and Universities 2018 Summer Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success. She was invited to participate and will join Poonam Gulati, Faiza Khoja, Mikayel Yegiyan, and Joseph Sample on the team from UHD.

- Matt Fugate’s paper, “Local resources: The need for talent development in traditionally underserved populations: Identifying and serving twice-exceptional students, practical approaches,” was accepted for presentation at the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented Conference. During the conference he will also participate as a panelist for the Assessment and Identification Summit.  

- Dawn McCarty has been invited to the University of Detroit Mercy for a multi-day, multi-venue speaking engagement on immigration. Her formal presentation to the university and larger community is titled, “The immigrant situation on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border.” 

- Beth Gilmore successfully defended her dissertation prospectus and will now move to data collection and analysis!
 
- Ash Tiwari’s paper, “Inclusive education practices in schools across the US-Mexico border: Self-efficacy and motivation in graduate college students,” has been accepted for presentation at the American Educational Research Association conference. 

- Damaris Cortez will be traveling to San Salvador for multiple purposes; research development, completing the plan for open access texts for two of the courses in the Social Work program, and finally, to organize the UHD Bachelor of Social Work exchange program with social workers in El Salvador. 

- Beth Gilmore attended and represented us as a member of a team from UHD participating in the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Marketable Skills Conference. This conference represents a partnership between THECB and the Texas Workforce Commission and is dedicated to helping the institution achieve the third goal of the 60X30TX strategic plan. 

- Barbara Belbot and Myrna Cohen have agreed to represent the Faculty Assembly, serving as committee members on the newly formed UHD Distinguished Faculty Award Committee representing the College of Public Service. 

- Special thanks to Ana Esparza, Paulina Gamino, and Stacey Bryant who assisted in the preparations for us to engage with and recruit students who expressed an interest in our majors and who attended the #SayHerName Conference at UHD.  This is a collaboration sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.  Thanks to Tream Charvis, Ana Esparza, Mercedes Gonzales and Lee Smith who participated in the conference on the advising panels. 

- Barbara Belbot hosted a group of criminal justice students and a faculty member from Victoria College; a community college in Victoria, Texas. The students learned about our BAAS-Criminal Justice degree program from former student and promoter, Sonia Herrera who now works at Victoria College. She too was on hand for the campus visit to UHD. 

- The Bilingual Educators Student Organization hosted a meet and greet session with faculty recruiters from various school districts. The event provided Urban Education students with opportunities to interact with recruiters and learn about opportunities in local school districts. 

- Heather Goltz is the 2018 recipient of the Jimmy D. Long, Sr., Louisiana Scholars’ Distinguished Alumni Award. Her name will be placed on a permanent plaque displayed in Morrison Hall, the home of the Louisiana Scholars’ College at Northwestern State University.

- Matt Fugate, Krista Gehring, Yu-Han Hung, Larry Karson, and Dana Smith will serve on the Faculty Teaching Fellows Selection for the College of Public Service. Judith Harris and/or Lori Lovins, members of the CTLE Advisory Board, may serve the committee members in ex officio capacity. 

- Carol Boethel presented a invitational seminar on WUETRCK to UHD IT representatives and UH PeopleSoft liaisons.

- Lori Brusman-Lovins and Rebecca Pfeffer received a grant from the Simmons Foundation for a two-year pilot project to introduce the use of tablets/computers and video communications to increase face-to-face communications between families and residents at Women Helping Ourselves – Atascocita, a residential substance abuse treatment facility. 

- Krista Gehring was invited to participate in the Denver County Court’s Procedural Justice Symposium, a collaboration between Denver County Court and the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. She participated in a panel of experts discussing the negative impact of pretrial incarceration and gave a presentation on evidence-based sentencing practices.  

- Rebecca Pfeffer’s paper, “Trafficking of people with disabilities,” was accepted for presentation at the HT-Radar Human Trafficking Research Conference. 

- Krista Gehring was a guest speaker at the University of Missouri-Kansas where she gave a presentation about her Crimcomics series. The event was co-sponsored by UMKC Departments of Criminal Justice and Criminology and Art and Art History. 

- Beverly Alford’s paper, “What is the child’s role? An observational study of early childhood classrooms,” has been accepted for presentation at the Child’s World Conference at Aberystwyth University in Wales.

- Nina Barbieri and Matt Fugate are working with Steven Villano to develop an Interdisciplinary Advisory Council of one student representative from each academic program in the college. This group will identify opportunities for community service and engagement that are interdisciplinary in nature and share the opportunities with their respective student organizations and faculty advisors. Heather Goltz has expressed a willingness to facilitate needs assessment training for the students to give them the skills they will need when determining potential service activities. 

- Beverly Alford’s paper, “What learning activities do pre-service teachers believe to be most important in early childhood education?” was accepted for presentation at the National Research Conference in Early Childhood. 

- Congratulations to Dawn McCarty who has received the University Funded Faculty Leave Award for manuscript preparation for her book, Social Work Practice With New Immigrant Population: Operationalizing a Value-Driven Practice. 

- Hsiao-Ming Wang and Judith Harris will travel to Nanjing China where they will present their paper, “History Repeats Itself: A Note of Financial Crime Prevention,” and recruit international students for the Criminal Justice programs.

- Christal Burnett, Rebecca Pfeffer, and Dana Smith have been nominated as candidates for the 2018-2019 Texas Academic Leadership Academy.

- Franklin Allaire received the Curricular Innovation Award for his proposal, “Transforming Science Methods Courses from Textbook to Journal-Based”.

- Nina Barbieri, Ashley Blackburn, Krista Gehring, Lori Lovins, and Rebecca Pfeffer received the Curricular Innovation Award for their proposal, “Teaching Professor Conference: Teaching to Impact Engagement, Success, and Retention of UHD Criminal Justice Students”. 

- Shahnaz Savani received the Curricular Innovation Award for her proposal, “Special Topics in Social Work: Understanding Suicide SOCW 4399 and Study Abroad Trip to India”. 

- Angela Goins received the Scholarly Innovation Award for her proposal to attend the 2018 Joint World Conference on Social Work, Education, and Social Development Conference and present her paper/poster, “Service Learning With Older Adults with Dementia: A Mixed Methods Study”. 

- The 2nd Edition of Technology in the Classroom For Now and in the Future edited by Janice Nath and Irene Chen has been published with current faculty or emeritus faculty contributors to chapters, Amelia Hewitt, Diane Miller, Bernardo Pohl, Franklin Allaire, Michael Connell, Jacqueline Sack, Beverly Alford, Ash Tiwari, John Kelly, Myrna Cohen, Laura Mitchell, Stephen White, Janice Nath, Irene Chen, Ron Beebe, Christal Burnett, Matt Fugate, and Viola Garcia.  

- The College of Public Service sponsored the first keynote speaker from the social sciences at the Student Research Conference. Dr. Whitney Threadcraft-Walker, a graduate from the Criminal Justice Program, was proposed to the SRC Committee and introduced by Dr. Judith Harris.  Dr. Threadcraft-Walker spoke on “Calculated Risks: Error Analysis, Assessment, and Behavioral Prediction.”

- The following students and faculty members (in order of the program) participated in the UHD Student Research Conference:
  • Jill Costa, “Examination of an Intervention to Address jail Overcrowding,” Faculty Mentor, Lori Lovins
  • Jasmine Major, “Mrs. Warren: Using an Ecomap Approach to Research,” Faculty Mentor, Heather Goltz
  • Tasha Crockett, Lakeitra Jones, Donisha Shepherd, and Armando Villegas, “American Healthcare Accessibility,” Faculty Mentor, Stephen Wernet
- Laura Mitchell is working with YMCA International Services to offer a writing workshop for the N.E.W. You, Newcomer Enrichment and Welcome for Young Adult Program. She will engage and help newcomer young adults gain leadership and writing skills, while creating their own paths for success. 

- The UHD proposal to the Association of American College and Universities has been selected and the following will participate in the 2018 Institute on High-Impact Practices and Student Success Institute; Poonam Gulati, Nina Barbieri, Joseph Sample, and Mikayel Yegiyan. 

The following faculty and students (in order of program) participated in the UHD High-Impact Practices Showcase:
  • Nina Barbieri, Service Learning in the Fifth Ward Enrichment Program
  • Angela Goins with Social Work students Dana Rose and Bianca Menefee, Student Group Research Project on Aging – One Approach to Implement High-Impact Practices  
  • Laura Mitchell, Reading and Writing Connections for Service Learning Projects in Urban Education
  • Diane Miller, with Urban Education students Stephanie Riva and Selena Garcia, Camino a la Universidad
  • Rebecca Pfeffer, Community Engagement: Human Trafficking in Criminal Justice
  • Franklin Allaire with Celestin Ntemngwa, Adjunct, Adrianne Miles, Adjunct, and Annamarie Kamas NASA, Enhancing Science Methods
  • Ash Tiwari, The Role of High-Impact Service Learning in Preparing Techer Candidates to Teach in Inclusive Classrooms
  • Social Work students Dana Rose, Keionna Blancom, and Bianca Menefee, Seniors and Oral Health
  • Urban Education student, Mariam Dadani, Service Learning – Teacher’s Aid
  • Heather Goltz and Dawn McCarty, Multi-Year Data from the HIPS-Funded Disparities in Health in America Summer Workshop and Social Work Course: A Strategy for Embedding “Diversity” into Competencies-Based Education

- Many thanks to the following for their participation in the Spring, 2018 Open House on Saturday, March 24: Nina Barbieri, Ron Beebe, Maria Bhattacharjee, Ana Esparza, Beth Gilmore, Heather Goltz, Mercedes Gonzalez, Bernardo Pohl, Terrilyn Ratcliff, and Lee Smith and UHD students: Amy Fuchs, Selena Garcia, Miguel Guevara, Van Longoria, Maria Lucio, Carla Menchaca, and Ronald Restrepo on panels as well as student representatives from our student organizations in Criminal Justice and Social Work and Urban Education!