Men's Head Soccer Coach Amir Hadzic won the All Metro and All Mississippi Valley Conference (MVC) Coach of the Year Awards for his service as a soccer coach at Xavier High School last spring. He was also awarded the 2010 Coach's Achievement Award by the Iowa High School Athletic Association, which was presented at the conclusion of the State Tournament title game on June 5, 2010.
PM Supervisor & Interlibrary Loan Associate Robyn Clark-Bridges was elected secretary of wilderness camp EWALU's board of directors, outside Strawberry Point, where she will serve on the executive, personnel, and property committees.
Adjunct Roy Pettibone was recognized over the summer for over a year of service as a Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteer. Big Brothers Big Sisters provides at-risk children with caring adult mentoring friendships.
Associate Professor of English Carol Tyx's essay, "In Lila's Shoes" was published in the anthology, A Cup of Comfort for a Better World. The anthology features nonfiction essays about volunteering. Tyx's piece describes an experience she had volunteering with Christian Peacemaker Teams in Colombia, South America.
Professor of English Joy Ochs served as the Program Director for Partners in the Parks, Zion National Park, May 10-15. Partners in the Parks is a joint project of the National Collegiate Honors Council and the National Park Service to provide honors students an academic wilderness experience. Senior English and Education student Josh Stoll participated in the Zion program this year. Ochs also participated in the National Collegiate Honors Council meeting of the Honors Semesters Committee May 22-30 in Iquitos, Peru. As a member of the committee, she was charged with helping to plan national and international semesters and institutes for honors faculty and students from around the country. She also participated in a mini-institute to practice and refine the City-as-Text™ pedagogy.
Assistant Professor of English Christopher DeVault will be presenting a paper, "The Nightmare of Edwardian London: Terror, Anarchy, and Modernism in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent and G.K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday," at the 2010 Midwest Modern Language Association Convention in Chicago on November 4-7.
Residence Hall Director Allison Layne Huey will present "When life hands you lemons make tarts, meringues and soufflés: Identifying and Maximizing Campus Resources for Start-Up Programs," as part of the Association of College and University Housing Officers -International (ACUHO-I) Living-Learning Programs national conference. Huey will share the creation of two pilot programs and how they became a Mount Mercy University priority for growth, which launched into a nine-community LLP just one year later. She'll focus on how to meet high expectations with limited resources, rally support on any level, and the importance of leaving room for organic growth that leads your program down a rich path of development.
Professor of Sociology Mohammad Chaichian presented a paper titled "Colonial Domination, Artificial Boundaries, and Disruption of Life for Migrant Workers along the U.S.-Mexico Border" at the International Journal of Arts and Sciences Conference (IJAS) held June 8-11 in Aix-en-Provence, France. The paper is based on Chaichian's field research and observation of the new border fence that was built along the California-Arizona border with Mexico, and based on meetings with numerous groups who provide humanitarian assistance to migrant workers on both sides of the border. He completed a 1,000 miles roundtrip trek during a 12-day trip in August, 2009; visiting four twin cities of San Diego, CA-Tijuana, Calexico, CA-Mexicali, Yuma, AZ-San Luis Rio, and Nogales AZ-Nogales Sonora, Mexico.
Adjunct English Instructor Cecile Goding taught three workshops during this year's Iowa Summer Writing Festival: "Great Shapes for the Personal Essay," "This Too is Life: Memoirs of Illness and Health," and "Look Who's Talking: First Person Workout."
Associate Professor of Nursing Carol Heim and Lecturer of Nursing Becky Lewis were co-presenters for the poster sessions at a Nurse Educators' conference in Minneapolis, Minn., August 12-13. Their presentation, "P.R.E.P.: Key themes beneath the strategies," was based on content, strategies, and outcome data from a new senior nursing course, Professional Preparation.
Associate Professor of Communication Joe Sheller was elected president of the Iowa College Media Association. The ICMA meet in the summer and elect officers for one-year terms.
Professor of Philosophy Joe Givvin presented a workshop on "Teaching the Ethics of Genetic Choice" at the 18th International Workshop/Conference on Teaching Philosophy on July 31 at Costal Carolina University.
Associate Professor of Education Norma Linda Mattingly presented her research on pre-service teachers' responses to multicultural literature and their perceptions of diversity at the Tenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations in Belfast, Ireland in July. While at the conference, she attended plenary presentations, paper sessions, workshops, and colloquiums on a variety of issues of diversity.
Director of the Advance program Colette Atkins presented at the Conference for Mercy Higher Education last June. The theme for this year's conference was "Becoming a Global Citizen in Mercy." The conference was held at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania. Atkins' presentation detailed Mount Mercy's endeavors to become more environmentally sustainable.
Professor of English Jim Grove's article, "To State the Problem Correctly: Facing the Black Tickets in Jayne Anne Phillips's Machine Dreams," was published in the Moravian Journal of Literature and Film.
Director of Prospect Management Steve Groenewold presented at the Heartland Regional PowerCampus User's Conference in Omaha, Neb., last June. His presentations, "Managing a Campaign using PowerCampus" and "Using Microsoft Reporting Services" offered insight and ideas on how to use PowerCampus software in different ways.
Associate professor of Nursing Cathy Penn was recently featured in a "Lab Links" newsletter for State of Iowa public health laboratory members. She was featured for her creative use of the virtual tour of the Oakdale Hygienic Lab in the Fall 2009 "Cities, Sewers and Shots" portal course. To take a virtual tour of Oakdale Hygienic Lab, visit their website.
Associate Professor of Art Kathryn Hagy has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant by the United States Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board to teach at the Fine Arts College of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal during the 2010-2011 academic year. Hagy is currently teaching art, developing her artwork related to water images, and investigating how Nepal's arts flourish under political and social pressure as artists confront censorship or lack of financial/community support. You can follow her travels at her blog, or by becoming a fan of her work on Facebook.
Assistant Professor of History Adam Ebert was recently awarded the Gilbert C. Fite Award for the best dissertation in agricultural history from the Agricultural History Society. Ebert's dissertation, "Hive Society: The Popularization of Science and Beekeeping in the British Isles, 1609-1913," is believed to be the first dissertation from a student writing on a non-U.S. history topic that has won this award.
Head Women's Soccer Coach Raven Blackwell was recenlty featured on the NCSA College Athletic Scholarship's Blog.
