Each month, Capital University takes immense pride in showcasing the remarkable accomplishments of our faculty, staff, and students. These achievements, ranging from groundbreaking research and innovative projects to significant contributions in various fields, reflect the vibrant intellectual community and commitment to excellence that define our institution. Join us in applauding these milestones and the individuals who are not only advancing their respective disciplines but also shaping the future of our university and community.
Congratulations to Dr. David Reed (computer science) who is the is the lead for Capital University on the statewide Higher Education Initiative to Increase Computing Graduates. A group of 15 Ohio colleges and universities, including Capital, is working to recruit and graduate more students in computer science and related computational fields. The $2 million NSF grant supports the five-year Ohio Pathways to Undergraduate Computing Success project, which aims to increase the state’s capacity to fill the growing employer demand. Baldwin Wallace is the lead institution on the grant.
Congratulations to Dr. Olga Shonia (education), Dr. Sally Creasap (education), Dr. Paul Hopkins (education), and Dr. John Soloninka (education and psychology) who received The Ohio Deans Compact on Exceptional Children Grant. The two-year $200,000 grant will support the development and implementation of blended/inclusive teacher preparation programs leading to dual licensure in general and special education.
Kudos Dr. Andy Carlson (history) and Tristen Davis (Student and Community Engagement). Carlson and Davis, in collaboration with Lyn Logan-Grimes, Cultural Arts Director of the King Arts Complex in Columbus Ohio, were selected by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) Legacies of American Slavery: Reckoning with the Past, Public History Institute. The team developed an interdisciplinary and cross-institutional project that will strengthen and inform the public memory and interpretation of slavery and challenge and inform citizens across our state and region. Their work will create replicable processes for others to contribute to the body of knowledge regarding the history and legacy of slavery in our region, while also contributing artifacts of history and learning to local institutions.
Congratulations to Crystal Miner (student) and faculty mentor Dr. Christine Anderson (biology). Their work entitled Occurrence of Frogs and Toads in Relation to Habitat Quality at Capital University’s Primmer Outdoor Learning Center in Hocking County was supported by an external grant from the Ohio Biological Survey. According to Miner, "This experience has allowed me to gain more knowledge about how the environment and the species within them help to create a healthy and well-functioning ecosystem. This project has helped us to learn more about the habitat quality at Primmer that could lead to even more interesting discoveries in the future."
Kudos to Dr. Hoyun Cho (education). Cho’s work, Development of Mathematical Task Analytic Framework: Proactive and Reactive, was published in the Journal of Korean Society Mathematics Education Series A: The Mathematical Education.
Congratulations to Dr. Nisreen Daoud (education), Bradley Conrad (education), and Hoyun Cho (education) who recently published the manuscript, Becoming: The Story of First Year Teachers’ Student Teaching in the Time of Uncertainty and its Impact on Their First Year of Teaching, in the journal, School-University Partnerships. The team worked with new graduates who were in their first and second year to provide mentorship while they shared their stories about what it was like to be a new teacher and second year teach.
Dr. Hoyun Cho (education) is one of only two US professors who has been invited to participate in the project Development of Korean National Mathematics Textbooks Grade 1-2 based on the Revised 2022 Curriculum, which is funded by Korean Ministry of Education. The team includes 13 professors (10 professors in Korean and 2 professors in the United States) and 58 teachers. Well done, Dr. Cho.
Congratulations to MSN students Christine Heckler and Becky Anderson presented Tips and Tricks to Simulation Debriefing at the Ohio Student Nurses Association (OhSNA) conference. Their hour long interactive presentation explored how debriefing skills commonly are not taught to student nurses and what can be done to improve nurses’ debriefing skills.
Congratulations to Professor Cynthia Holder Rich (seminary) whose chapter Race, Theology, and the Church: A Transatlantic Conversation, and a Model for a Church in Productive Tension is being published in Decolonial Horizons (Palgrave MacMillan), edited by Raimundo Barreto and Vladimir Latinovic. For this project, Professor Rich worked with two other professors on a two-year experiment in teaching a course together to students in the United States and Tanzania, discussing both separately and together the impact of race and racism on theology and ecclesiology.
Dr. Paul Hopkins (education) conducted a workshop at Worthington Kilbourne High School entitled Assessment 101: Making Assessments Meaningful in our Classrooms. In the workshop, participants examined how to make assessments meaningful in classrooms for educators and students. Hopkins reflected that “Educators can learn so much about their own professional practice by incorporating meaningful formative assessments into their learning experiences.” Good job!
Congratulations to Dr. Leigh Anne Meyer (nursing) who received the Ohio League for Nursing: Outstanding Excellence in Teaching Award during the Ohio League for Nursing Annual Statewide Nurse Educator Summit, March 2023. The award was for Award for signifiant contributions to nursing education in Ohio and the teaching and learning of nursing students. Dr. Meyer said that “It was an honor to receive such an award from my nurse educator peers. I am humbled to have my 13 years as a nurse educator acknowledged in such a way, and I look forward to serving the aspiring nurses of our state for many years to come.”
Kudos to Dr. Leigh Anne Meyer (nursing) who gave a presentation entitled Professional Quality of Life Indicators and Turnover Intention in Forensic Nurses at Sigma’s 34th International Nursing Research Congress in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Meyer’s work examined how forensic nurses provide specialized care to those who have suffered trauma, so the ongoing high attrition of nurses in the role is of special concern. Aspects of professional quality of life, such as compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and burnout play a significant role in turnover intention. Developing our knowledge base of factors that lead to nurses leaving this specialized practice is valuable in creating strategies for developing and maintaining this nursing workforce.
Congratulations to Dr. Liam O'Loughlin (English) who recently published Writing South Asia in Disastrous Time in the South Asian Review. According to O’Laughlin, this special issue of South Asian Review explores our unevenly shared condition of planetary catastrophe–defined especially by COVID and climate change–by turning to fiction, film, and poetry from South Asia and its diaspora. O’Laughlin said that “It was a joy to co-author an introduction and co-edit this special issue with wonderful collaborators in Louisiana and California. Collaboration and co-authorship are still not the norm in humanities scholarship, but thankfully the trend is steadily changing.”
Kudos to Dr. Chad Payton (music) who has been a voice teacher at Seagle Festival in Schroon Lake, New York. Since 2010, Payton spends his summers in the Adirondack Mountains at Seagle Festival, the nation's oldest training program in opera and musical theatre. Having sung for two summers as an Emerging Artist, Payton joined the faculty in 2010 as Company Manager, and then as a Voice Teacher starting in 2016. Each summer he maintains a private voice studio of artists who are finishing their undergraduate degrees or in their masters degrees. Seagle Festival produces at least four mainstage productions each summer, with additional run out performances in the upstate New York area including children's operas, revues, community engagements. Payton stated that “My summers at Seagle Festival require me to stay engaged in my teaching and scholarship throughout the summer months. This eight week program is at a high calibre and provides me with teaching tools to bring back to my voice students at Capital University. It keeps me engaged in the current music industry, connected with composers and stage directors, and aware of new compositions.”
Praise to Dr. Breana Taylor (nursing) recently published the article Belonging in Online Nursing Education in The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. About her work, Taylor said that "Belonging is integral to the professional development and success of nursing students."
Kudos to Roxana Vatanparast (law) who published the article Digital Monetary Constitutionalism: The Democratic Potential of Monetary Pluralism and Polycentric Governance in the Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies. The work explores the democratic potential of pluralism of digital money and polycentric governance, examining two case studies: digital fiat currency that has the privacy-preserving features of cash and promotes financial inclusion and digital money built by and for stateless populations utilizing blockchain technology. According to Vatanparast, “Digital money ought to be taken seriously as it affords diverse forms of democratic experimentation with institutional and technological designs to effect distributive and political transformations for marginalized communities.”