Dr. Mike Pinter, Teaching Center director and professor of mathematics, presented a poster at the annual Southern Regional Faculty Instructional Development Consortium (SRFIDC) Conference, March 2-4. The conference, held at Dalton State College in Dalton, Ga. had Embracing Ownership: Encouraging and Empowering Self-Directed Faculty as its theme. Pinter’s poster presentation, entitled “Using Faculty Reading Groups to Build Community and Support Self-Directed Faculty,” described a variety of faculty reading groups used as a faculty development activity at Belmont.
In addition to detailing some planning logistics for the groups, the presentation included reading group objectives, namely: build community among faculty across all areas of campus; provide an opportunity for faculty and selected staff (for example, Student Affairs) to interact; serve as a lead in or follow up associated with a Teaching Center workshop or retreat, or some other campus event; provide an opportunity for faculty to explore current ideas from research on teaching and learning; and provide an opportunity for reflection on spiritual or personal growth and development. Some reading group outcomes were shared in the poster, including data about number of participants over the last ten years.
The National Coalition of 100 Black Women Inc. (NCBW), Metropolitan Nashville Chapter and Belmont University’s College of Business Administration completed their leadership training program with 16 Nashville professionals receiving certification in nonprofit leadership. The African-American Women on Boards Certification Program provided an introduction to the basics of board service, governance, strategic planning and overall responsibilities. The women were awarded their certificates during the 2014 Sister for Sister Conference Leadership Development Workshop on March 21.
Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice Dr. Anthony Blash is now certified, (CPHIMS and CAHIMS) by examination, in the area of health care informatics. Faculty with these credentials continuously set Belmont College of Pharmacy apart as an institution where student pharmacists can pursue a concentration that prepares them for specialization in the practice of pharmacy.
Belmont senior Nicole Brandt presented an interactive workshop about her organization at the Tennessee Conference on Volunteerism and Service-Learning held in Franklin, Tenn. on March 10-11. She is founder of the non-profit organization 
Dr. Danny Biles, professor of mathematics and computer science, along with Marcia Federson of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil and Rodrigo Lopez Pouso of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, served as guest co-editors of a Special Issue of the journal Abstract and Applied Analysis released this year. The issue was entitled “Generalized Differential and Integral Equations” and collected some of the most recent research dealing with topics such as differential inclusions, stochastic equations, fractional equations, discontinuous equations, singular equations, functional equations, fuzzy equations, impulsive equations, dynamic equations on time scales, generalized integration with applications to differential equations, over determined boundary conditions and generalized notions of solutions. Abstract and Applied Analysis is a mathematical journal devoted exclusively to the publication of high-quality research papers in the fields of abstract and applied analysis.