Faculty/Staff News of Note
December 2003
Dr. Diane H.
Parente, assistant professor of management, recently attended the thirty-fourth
Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting in
Washington, D.C. She was an invited
workshop presenter for "Tips for Successful Integration of Simulation
into the Classroom: Process and Outcome." She was a co-chair and
organizer with Thomas Gattiker of Miami University of Ohio for a panel
on "Innovative Data Sources for Empirical Operations Management
Research: Alternatives to the Key Informant Survey."
Parente also co-authored "Business in the Engineering Program:
If You Only Have Room for One Class" with Kenneth J. Fisher,
professor of engineering, and Michael J. Lobaugh, lecturer in
engineering, and was a Research mentor for the Doctoral Consortium for
the second year.
Dr. Dawn Blasko and Dr. Victoria Kazmerski, associate professors of psychology, and undergraduate students Dotty Shaffer and Kristen Shaffer recently presented their work on the cognitive neuroscience of creative language at the forth-fourth annual meeting of the psychonomic society in Vancouver B.C., Canada, on November 9. Their presentation titled, "Haiku Electrified: ERP indices of listening to haiku poetry," was coauthored with recent graduate Matthew Stevenson.
Biddy Brooks, assistant head of the Division of Undergraduate Studies and evening program coordinator, has been appointed to a three-year term on the University's Commission for Adult Learners. The charges for the commission are: provide a visible University-wide body whose primary purpose is to contribute to a supportive academic climate for adult learners; monitor the recruitment, retention, customer satisfaction, and status of adult learners; recommend changes in policy, practice, and procedures that negatively impact adult learners; foster coordination and information exchange regarding programs and services that attract adult learners to Penn State and retain them; advocate for adult learners' concerns by providing service and consultation or conducting special studies where appropriate. In addition Brooks is serving as co-chair of the Awards and Incentive Grant Programs committee.
Dr. Douglas M. Charles, lecturer in history, has an article titled "Before the Colonel Arrived: Hoover, Donovan, Roosevelt and the Origins of the American Central Intelligence," which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Intelligence and National Security.
Dr. Chris Coulston, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, presented his paper titled "Emergent Shortest Paths" at the Artificial Neural Networks in Engineering conference held in St. Louis, Missouri. The paper was co-authored with undergraduate computer engineering student Lee Mitchell.
John Kerwin, assistant professor of communication, attended the National Conference on Students in Transition, presented by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience, November 16-18 in Orlando, Florida. While there he presented "First Year Experience - Are You Ready?", a video produced at Penn State Behrend by Kerwin and Dr. Clare Porac, professor of psychology. Kerwin also presented research data gathered by Dr. Ken Miller, director of Student Affairs, who presents the video to students as part of their freshman orientation. Mary-Ellen Madigan, director of Admissions and Financial Aid, has also distributed the video to high-school counselors and advisors in Erie and the surrounding region.
Dr. James A. Kurre, associate professor of economics, and co-director of the Economic Research Institute of Erie, presented a paper at the 50th Annual North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The paper was titled "Why Does Manufacturing Productivity Vary Across Metro Areas?" and was co-authored with Amy Hunter. Amy is a Behrend alumna, working in the Philadelphia area. This paper started as an ERIE project funded by the Behrend Summer Undergraduate Research Program, and is part of a series of papers examining the issue of productivity in Erie and other sub-state areas. While at the conference, Kurre also chaired a session and discussed two other papers.
Dr. Avinandan Mukherjee, assistant professor of marketing, was the co-author of an article titled "The Relative Influence of Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction on Service Quality of Customer-Contact employees in Banking Call Centres," which has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Services Marketing. Mukherjee was also awarded membership on the editorial board of the Journal of Asia-Pacific Marketing (UK) for 2004-2005 for his expertise in Asia-Pacific marketing.
Dr. Brian O'Leary, lecturer in integrative arts, published an article titled "Hollywood Camera Movements and the Films of Howard Hawks: A Functional Semiotic Approach" in New Review of Film and Television Studies.
Nicole Louise Reid, lecturer in creative writing, has published her first novel, In the Breeze of Passing Things.
Dr. Peter B. Southard, assistant professor of management, attended the thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Decision Sciences Institute, November 22-25 in Washington D.C. Southard presented "Toy Trains and History Lessons: Teaching Your Passion" (a refereed paper) and "Optimizing Costs for Multiple Carriers on Multiple Routes with Variable Demand: An Experiment Using Discrete Event Simulation" (a research abstract).
Carla Torgerson, director of the Center for Teaching and Educational Technologies, and Ron DelPorto, lecturer in computer science, attended the 23rd Annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching from November 20-23 at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Torgerson and DelPorto also attended the Workshop Plenary by Tom Angelo and Craig Nelson on November 20.
Dr. Gary Viebranz, lecturer in music and director of instrument ensembles, served as one of the guest conductors for the official 30th birthday celebration of TubaChristmas on November 30 at Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio. The "by-invitation-only" ensemble was composed of 100 professional and student tuba and euphonium players from across the country. Viebranz also performed as a member of the ensemble.
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