Andy Webster in the School of Pharmacy co-authored an article published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. The paper is titled Pharmacy Faculty Workplace Issues: Findings From the 2009-2010 Council of Deans – Council of Faculties Joint Task Force on Faculty Workforce. Many factors contribute to the vitality of an individual faculty member, a department and an entire academic organization. Some of the relationships among these factors are well understood, but many questions remain unanswered.
The authors examined the literature on faculty workforce issues. They identified and focused on 4 unique but interrelated concepts: organizational culture/climate, role of the department chair, faculty recruitment and retention, and mentoring. Among all 4 resides the need to consider issues of intergenerational, intercultural, and gender dynamics.
Belmont Professor Published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education
Al-Shamma Presents Paper at Chicago Theatre Symposium
Dr. James Al-Shamma, Department of Theatre and Dance, presented a paper at the Chicago Theatre Symposium at Columbia College in Chicago on May 19. It was titled “Sarah Ruhl’s Chicago Roots: Improvisation and Literary Adaptation.”
Belmont Professor Named Tennessee Music Teachers’ Association Composer of the Year
Mark Volker, Belmont’s coordinator of composition and a School of Music professor, was named 2011’s Tennessee Music Teachers’ Association Composer of the Year. Volker was chosen by a committee that worked with the theory-composition chairman after professors were nominated by their local associations. Following the nomination the committee receives a submission of scores, a tape and other information on the candidate.
The selection process is made on the basis of excellence by the composer and contributions to musical composition throughout Tennessee. The award includes a commission to compose a piece for the Tennessee Music Teachers’ Association convention held next summer and consideration for the national composer of the year award.
Curb College Advisory Board Member Invited to Washington, D.C. for Best-Selling Novel
Ruta Sepetys, author of New York Times best seller Between Shades of Gray and Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business Advisory board member was invited on May 25 to Washington, D.C. for a reception at the Lithuanian Embassy. The reception served as a presentation, discussion and signing of her work and the associated history to the U.S. Administration, Congress, Washington think-tank members and the local Lithuanian community.
Sepetys novel, the first she has written, describes a terrifyingly honest account of the mandated Lithuanian relocation in the aftermath of the 1939 Soviet invasion. Sepetys’s heroine Lina is forced from her home at age 15 and travels north with her family to a work camp in the northernmost part of Siberia. There they are required to dig for beets and endure the cruelest conditions to live.
Lina’s only escape is her art, dangerously documenting what she sees through drawing, with the hope that her pieces will make it to her father’s prison camp to tell of her survival. The journey covers 6,500 miles but through her continued determination and passion, Lina survives.
The Lithuanian Embassy said about Sepetys novel, “Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.”
Belmont Wins Best in Show at TCPRA Conference
This past week Belmont University received six honors at the Tennessee College Public Relations Association (TCPRA) annual awards. There were 27 schools represented this year, and Belmont entered in eight categories, taking home six awards. The 2010 President’s Annual Report not only received gold in the “Report” category, but also was awarded “Best in Show” from all 228 entries in all categories.
Awards Received:
“Report” Gold and Best in Show: 2010 President’s Annual Report
“Media Success Story” Silver: Living a Better Story
“Specality Item” Silver: Christmas at Belmont
“College Magazine” Bronze: Fall Circle
“Newsletter/electronic” Bronze: Belmont FYI
“Special Publication” Bronze: The Miracle of Belmont
Education Faculty Partner with Haitian Teachers
Belmont University Education Department Chair Sally Barton-Arwood and faculty member Annette Little are in the Republic of Haiti this week training local educators to use teacher collaboration to better benefit students. Both Belmont professors Barton-Arwood and Little hold doctorates in education and are working with Haitian school directors and key staff to develop Professional Learning Communities. “Their training was very well received by Haitian school directors and key staff of their schools,” said John Engle, with Haiti Partners, a Florida-based organization that works to change the developing country by educating its youth. “Haiti Partners is thrilled to be in partnership with Belmont University.”
In Haiti, 75 percent of teachers lack adequate training, with no formal teacher training at all, according to Haiti Partners. Half of primary school age children are not enrolled in school. Click here to view a clip of Barton-Arwood and Little interacting with school-aged students and their workshop and with Haitian educators.
Faculty to Present Interdisciplinary Research at World Congress on Exercise in Medicine
Several faculty members in the Gordon E. Inman College of Health Sciences & Nursing recently joined with colleagues in the Department of Sport Science for an interdisciplinary research project that assessed associations of predominantly sedentary behaviors and physical activity status with physical fitness among college students.
Three members of the Health Sciences faculty – Dr. Lynn Shores, professor of nursing; Dr. Jeanne Sowers, associate professor of occupational therapy; and Dr. Christine Manville, assistant professor of occupational therapy – were among six research team members from Belmont and Vanderbilt universities who co-authored the study. Other Belmont team members included Dr. Sarah Adams, associate professor of sport science, and Dr. Patrick Schneider, associate professor of sport science. Dr. Mary Dietrich, research associate professor and statistician at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, was also part of the team.
A number of doctoral students in the School of Occupational Therapy assisted in the study of 122 students in a general education wellness class at Belmont. Participants completed a physical fitness battery consisting of cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular endurance, body composition and flexibility measurements. In addition, they completed a survey to assess time spent in predominantly sedentary behaviors including computer and internet use, television watching, texting and playing video games. Self-reported physical activity levels were also assessed to determine if participants were inactive, insufficiently active or active according to the aerobic component of the current physical activity recommendation. Tests of gender differences in each of the study variables were also conducted.
The findings will be presented on June 2 by Dr. Schneider at the American College of Sports Medicine’s World Congress on Exercise in Medicine in Denver, Colorado.
Mage to Lead Belmont’s Center for Executive Education
Gene Mage has been named executive director of Belmont University’s Center for Executive Education.
Before joining Belmont University, Mage served as a senior client partner and principal consultant for Kenexa (KNXA, NASDAQ OMX), a global, human resources consulting firm, where he led Kenexa’s North American leadership development business. Prior to joining Kenexa, Mage ran his own company and served for 12 years with Corning Incorporated in both marketing and leadership development.
The author of two books and more than 200 articles on leadership and management, Mage earned his Master of Business Administration with distinction and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Cornell University. His particular areas of expertise include leadership assessment and development as well as deploying large scale learning initiatives in global organizations.
For more than 25 years, the Center for Executive Education at Belmont University has been a leading provider of both open enrollment and customized leadership development programs to major organizations. Mage remarked, “This is an exciting time in the history of the Center for Executive Education at Belmont University. Belmont has a long heritage and deep commitment to the leadership development space. Looking ahead, we will be dramatically enhancing both the scope and reach of our services to meet the needs of forward-looking organizations around the world. I have also been greatly encouraged by the commitment our long-term clients are making to Belmont and their eagerness to partner with us as we create the future together.”
College, Middle School Students Team Together for ‘Edgehill’s Best’
Once again this spring Belmont journalism faculty and students worked with hand-selected 7th and 8th grade students from Rose Park Magnet Middle School to produce a newsletter, Edgehill’s Best, for the nearby Edgehill community. Belmont media studies faculty member Linda Quigley and her students partnered for the second year with Rose Park teachers Nicola Vincent and Alison Forte to assist middle school students in developing ideas, writing stories and designing a final printed product to share with the community.
The group’s final class was held on campus May 4 when the middle school students completed layout and design of the piece in the University’s journalism lab. The finished product, Edgehill’s Best, will be distributed to students at Rose Park Middle and Carter Lawrence Elementary Schools and in area businesses, churches and community centers as well as placed in locations around campus (Freeman, Beaman, Wheeler, Hitch, Cafeteria, etc.). Click here to see additional photos from the final class.
LaShawn Morrow, Michael Coffee Named 2011 Rose Park Scholars
In 2007, Belmont University committed to enhancing the E.S. Rose Park athletic center in Nashville’s Edgehill Community, a renovation that was completed and opened in the last month. In addition to the facilities Belmont planned, they also committed to the creation and funding of the E.S. Rose Park Scholarship program, a program that annually sends two deserving residents from the Edgehill community to Belmont. Since 2007, Belmont has welcomed five Rose Park Scholars to campus, providing educations worth more than $141,000 to date.
This year was no different. In the fall, Belmont will welcome LaShawn Morrow of Big Picture High School and Michael Coffee of Hillsboro High School to join its incoming 2011 freshman class. Both recipients received their awards last week, Morrow at her senior breakfast and Coffee in a private ceremony at Hillsboro’s library. Belmont’s Greek communities participated in a weeklong fundraising event this April, raising money to award both recipients Macbook laptops upon their arrival at Belmont. The recipients were notified of their computers when they received their scholarships.
Morrow is looking forward to her arrival at Belmont and is planning on majoring in nursing in the fall. Morrow is honored to be a part of the Belmont community where she can both serve and learn. She said, “The scholarship will help to inspire others just like me to be all that they can be. My dream was to become a Bruin, and the Rose Park Scholarship helped to make that dream come true.”
Coffee would agree. He currently works at Harris Teeter and said that before the Rose Park scholarship, he wasn’t sure what his future would hold. “Belmont is a truly a blessing for me. I honestly don’t know where I would be… Belmont is my blessing.”
