Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

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HONORS AND AWARDS

Amber DeJohn, Ph.D. (Department of Geography) was awarded the NIH/NCATS-funded K12 Multidisciplinary Program Career Development Award for her project titled “Disentangling Mobility, Cognitive Function, and Digital Behaviors to Understand Social Isolation and Dementia Risk.” Her project aims to identify patterns of physical and digital social engagement and examine their associations with baseline cognitive function to determine whether digital social engagement mitigates social isolation or reinforces withdrawal from in-person social environments.

Val Wongsomboon, Ph.D. (Anne’s College) was awarded a College-sponsored CTSA Career Development Award for her project titled “Development and Feasibility Testing of a Brief AI Literacy Intervention to Improve Help-Seeking and Mental Health Outcomes in Adolescents.” Her project aims to develop and pilot test an intervention on AI digital literacy to teach adolescents about AI limitations for emotional support and help them build help-seeking skills. The goal of this intervention is to build help-seeking behaviors among vulnerable adolescents and prevent the escalation of depressive symptoms.

Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication) has been selected to take part in the 2026 Scripps Howard Leadership Academy hosted by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Nate Newton, Ph.D. (Wertheim College of Business), and two co-authors have been selected to receive the American Accounting Association’s 2026 Notable Contribution to Accounting Literature Award for their paper, “How do team workloads and team staffing affect the audit? Archival evidence from U.S. audits,” published in the July 2021 issue of Accounting, Organizations and Society. They will receive the award and a $2,500 prize at the 2026 AAA Global Connect in August in Las Vegas.

Cassandra Cole, Ph.D., Evan Eastman, Ph.D., and Kyeonghee Kim, Ph.D. (Wertheim College of Business), won the Les B. Strickler Innovation in Instruction Award for their work on “AI-Powered Simulation Games for Risk Management and Insurance Education.” They will receive the award during the national meeting of the American Risk and Insurance Association in August.

Deb Osborn, Ph.D. (FSU Career Center & Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) has been selected as the recipient of the Eminent Career Award bestowed by the National Career Development Association.

Paul Cohen, (College of Motion Picture Arts) produced Groundswell, a documentary directed by two FSU alumni, Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell. The film was awarded the Golden Globe Prize for Documentary at Festival De Cannes.

Elizabeth Ray, Ph.D., Felicia Jordan Jackson, Ph.D. (School of Communication), and Ph.D. candidate Trayana Kaleycheva received the Top Paper Award from the Public Relations division of the International Communication Association (ICA) for their paper, “When Smiles and Frowns Meet Sugar and Fat: Affective Cues, Risk Perceptions, and Nutrition Decisions.”

Jie Chen, Ph.D., RN (College of Nursing), received the Editor of Distinction Award for “Author Service Award 2026” from Springer Nature for serving on the editorial board of BMC Nursing, an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of evidence-based nursing care.

Rachel Duke, Ph.D., Research and Engagement Program Director (Libraries), received the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Foundation Annual Meeting Award to support her attendance at ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2026 in New Orleans, LA.

Javier Rosado, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) received the 2026 Alumni Award from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he did a doctoral internship in Clinical and Community Psychology.

GRANTS

Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information), and Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) received a CTS Pilot Award for their project, “A Reusable AI-Assisted Psychosocial Risk Synthesis Engine for Pediatric Transplant Evaluation,” from the UF+FSU Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Hub.

Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) and Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (Department of Communication Science and Disorders) will serve as principal investigators on a project with IREX on the Early Grade Education Activity (ASAS) in Jordan. LSI will join the project to advance Jordanian-led teacher education initiatives.

Liz Dunne, M.S., and Michael Pritchard, M.A. (Libraries) received a $9,975 grant from the Florida Department of State Division of Library and Information Services for their project “FSU Libraries / Leon County Schools Cross-Sector Professional Learning Community (PLC)” supporting high school librarians and Leon County Dual Enrollment students’ research needs at FSU.

Gary Ostrander, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and Eric H. Holmes, Ph.D., (Research and Graduate Programs) were awarded a $365,437.52 grant from the Florida Department of Health Innovation Fund for “Enacting Niclosamide Activity for Cancer Treatment (ENACT).” 

BYLINES

Marissa Hershon, (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) authored the paper, “The Dwight James Baum Business Records: Rediscovering the Creatives Behind the Ringlings’ Vision for Ca’ d’Zan” which was accepted for the international academic conference, “On papers. Archives for Project, History and Prospects” at the ArCoD Department of Architecture Construction Design of the Bari Polytechnic University in Bari, Italy, in collaboration with A Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa and the Alma Mater Studiorum at University of Bologna HPA Lab, June 2026, and will be included in the peer-reviewed collective volume of the series Quaderni di ArchitecrA – Architettura attraverso gli Archivi dell’editore Quasar in Rome, Italy.

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Why Context Matters: An Exploration of How Sporting Characteristics Shape Coaching Practice,” published in the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education.

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Analysis of coach and athletic director turnover in the Florida school system,” published in the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching.

Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and Ph.D. candidate Christin Domeier co-authored “Water intake mediates cross-sectional associations between urinary kidney injury biomarkers and race in emerging adults,” published in the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Jay Kesten, LL.M. and LL.B., (College of Law), has a forthcoming article, “Presidential Immunity: A Lesson from Corporate Law”, with the Georgia State Law Review.

Kristy Anderson, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Caregiver employment changes and care coordination in families with children and autism,” published in the journal Research in Autism.

Sonnie Mayewski, MSW, and Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Integrating shiny web applications into pediatric transplant research: Development, implementation, and case application,” published in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.

Michael Killian, Ph.D. and Sonnie Mayewski, MSW (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Behavioral health and adherence factors driving emergency and inpatient care among pediatric transplant recipients,” published in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.

Lisa Schelbe, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Corporal punishment in the U.S. Public Schools: A review of state bans,” published in the journal, Children & Schools.

JaNiene Peoples, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Ecological momentary assessment of racial discrimination and same-day and next day alcohol use among Black college students,” published in the journal, Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Michaé Cain, Ph.D., Lauren Stanley, Ph.D., and Dina Wilke, Ph.D. (College of Social Work and Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the article, “An investigation of factors impacting job-stress-related presenteeism among child welfare workers,” published in the Children and Youth Services Review.

Kara Guinan, M.S., and Lauren Stanley, Ph.D. (College of Social Work and Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the literature brief “Understanding Disordered Eating in System-Involved Youths: A Trauma-Informed Overview for Child Welfare Professionals,” which will be published through the Florida Institute for Child Welfare.

Burcu Izci, Ph.D. (College of Social Work and Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the article “Guiding parents on young children’s digital technology use: Insights from preservice and in-service teachers”, in the Journal of Research in Childhood Education.

Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication), and graduate student Mitch Krueger co-authored “Are all uses of AI created equal? An experimental review of AI disclosure types on credibility” in Journalism.

Sun Young Park, Ph.D., Jaejin Lee, Ph.D., and Braidyn Lazenby, Ph.D. (School of Communication) co-authored the research article, “Gut health goes viral: analyzing influencer advertising for dietary supplements on TikTok,” in the International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing.

Zhe He, Ph.D., Mia Lustria, Ph.D. (School of Information), Obianuju Aliche, Ph.D. (College of Medicine), Kyunghye Kim, Ph.D. (School of Information), and doctoral student Lovinta Atrinawati co-authored the systematic review, “Patient Experiences With Online Laboratory Test Presentations From Access to Activation: Systematic Review”, in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing), co-authored “Lifestyle interventions for major depressive disorder (MDD): An expert consensus statement from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.” Published in the Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.

Brittany Lane, MPH, Ph.D., Casey D. Xavier Hall, MPH, Ph.D., Artur Queiroz, Ph.D., BSN, MS (College of Nursing), Rasheda Haughbrook, MS, Ph.D. (Center of Population Sciences for Health Empowerment), Umedjon “Umed” Ibragimov, Ph.D., Liying Wang, Ph.D., Eugenia Flores Millender, Ph.D., RN, PMH-APRN, FAAN, FAANP, Frank “Frankie” Y. Wong, Ph.D. and Amanda Gabster, Ph.D., MSc (College of Nursing),  co-authored “Healthcare Acceptability and Delayed Care Among Older People Living with HIV in the All of Us Program.”

Brendan Weaver, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) authored a chapter within The Oxford Handbook of South American Archaeology.

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored “Understanding the Relations between the Component Skills of Reading Comprehension among English Language Learners from Kenya,” which was published in Reading & Writing quarterly.

Michelle Bumatay, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) edited a special issue of the journal Francosphères (Liverpool UP), vol. 15, Issue 1, titled “Francophone Afrotopias.” She also wrote the introduction, edited an interview with the Francophone Senegalese author Felwine Sarr, and contributed an article titled “Francophone comics by African digital natives: Forming (as) inclusive Afrotopias.”

Michael Neal, Ph.D. (Department of English) had his article, “Following the North Star: Movement Toward Universal Writing Assessment,” published in the Journal of Writing Assessment, a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to topics in writing assessment.

Jacquelyn H. Clements, Ph.D., Digital Projects Librarian (Libraries), authored a review of Welo Hou in the June 2026 issue of ARLIS/NA Multimedia & Technology Reviews.

Delaney W. La Rosa, EdD, MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing), co-authored the textbook “Nursing Education in the AI Era: Practical Guidance for Educators to Provide Equitable Care”. The textbook has been adopted for use at Harvard University and will be featured in the window display at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Karen Geletko, MPH, Jon Mills, Ph.D., Jeffrey Harman, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and three medical students published “Impact of Legislation on Adolescent E-Cigarette Use” in Public Health Reports.

Yang Hou, Ph.D., Dan Liu, Ph.D., and Xiaoli Zong, Ph.D., (College of Medicine) were among the global team of authors of “Age-varying associations between parent-reported executive function and internalizing/externalizing problems in children with neurofibromatosis type 1: an integrative analysis of data from nine institutions,” published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

Karen MacDonell, Ph.D., and Sylvie Naar, Ph.D. (Center for Translational Behavioral Science/College of Medicine) were two five authors who published “Blood Spot Biosampling Technology for HIV Viral Load Collection Among Youth with HIV” in AIDS and Behavior. 

PRESENTATIONS

Dillon Pruett, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders) presented a poster, “The gene VRK2 is implicated in genome-wide analyses of stuttering, language, and rhythm traits,” at the Molecular Psychiatry Association Conference in Lihue, Hawaii.

JR Harding, Ed.D. (Wertheim College of Business) presented in May with FSU students Julian Dirani, Ashley Evans and Kristen Mancinelli at FSU Panama City’s 2^nd Annual Northwest Florida Disability Conference. Their topic was the Evolution of Higher Education and PWDs.

James Hunt, Ph.D. (Office of Institutional Research) presented “Navigating Your Professional Development Through IR Organizations” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Katherine Gipalo, MPA and Samantha Nix, Ph.D. (Office of Institutional Research) co-presented “How Do I Say No? Discussing Strategies for Saying No to Stakeholders” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Heather Epstein-Diaz, MLIS (Office of Institutional Research) co-presented “Data Governance as a Service: Building Trust, Access, and Usability” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Heather Epstein-Diaz, MLIS and Eclipse Ramsey, MSI (Office of Institutional Research) co-presented “AI Readiness Starts with Context: Semantic Layers for Higher Education” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Lee Howell, MBA (Information Technology Services) presented “Metrics Strategies: Aligning Data, Tactics, and Purpose for IR Success” and “Beyond the Numbers: Faculty Achievement in Fine Arts” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Landon Weeks, (Division of University Advancement) presented “Maximizing our Joint Slay: Strategies to Effectively Leverage Campus Partnerships at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Recent Alumni and Student Engagement conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

Frederick Abbott, LL.M. and J.D., (College of Law), presented at the “Order and Disorder in International Trade: The Past and the Future,” meeting hosted by the European Free Trade Association, the World Trade Institute, and the University of Bern, in Bern, Switzerland.

Michael Morley, J.D., (College of Law), presented at the Florida Bar Government Lawyer Section’s first-ever Legacy & Leadership Symposium at The Florida Bar Annex Building in Tallahassee. He presented a “Survey of Recent Cases in Elections Law,” which reviewed court decisions affecting state and federal 2026 elections laws.

Ose Ndebbio, M.S. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare, College of Social Work), and Jessica Greil-Burkhart, MSW (College of Social Work), presented “Scaling Course Improvement Without Losing Instructional Judgment” at the Teaching and Learning with AI conference at the Gaylord Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

Machelle Madsen Thompson, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Malaika Samples, Ph.D. and Tenille Taylor (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) and (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children) presented a half-day training, “Advancing Child Maltreatment Interventions Through Case-Based Training and Virtual Reality,” at the Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children 2026 conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Mona Bozorgi, Ph.D. (Department of Art) chaired a session, Materiality and Response-ability and presented her research titled Affective Matter: On the Exchange Between Image, Substance, and Bodies. She was also part of a juried group exhibition and served as a portfolio reviewer at the Society for Photographic Education Annual Conference in Atlanta.

Yelena McLane, Ph.D. (School of Design) presented a paper titled Generative Affordances in Permanent Supportive Housing: Applying Ecological Theory to Dignified Design at the annual Environmental Design Research Association conference in Amherst, MA.

Grace Aneiza Ali, MFA (Department of Art) was a featured speaker at the Donald Locke Symposium: Edge of Spirit in London.

Erin Morpeth-Provost (Counseling & Psychological Services) presented a general session “EMDR in a University Counseling Center: Client Outcomes and Practical Use in Response to a Campus Crisis” at the American College Health Association annual conference.

Mari Kay Avant (University Health) co-presented two general sessions at the American College Health Association annual conference: “Administration Hot Topics: Marketing Student Health Centers” and “Designing For Impact: Creative Strategies to Market College Healthcare to Gen Z Students.”

Nicole Lilly (Career Center) presented “From Stuck to Sprouting: Tools for Resilient Career Thinking” at the Graduate Career Consortium.

Amy Magnuson, Ph.D., R.D. and Kelly Dykes, BSN, RN, CHPE, CPHIMS (University Health Services) co-presented “The Business Backbone of Student Health” at the 2026 American College Health Association annual conference.

Carrie Meyers and Jim Reynolds (Learning Systems Institute/FSU InSPIRE) presented at the 4th annual Teaching and Learning with AI conference at UCF.

Laura Greene, Ph.D. (Mag Lab), Anna Romanova, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute), and Michael Shatruk, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry) presented as part of the U.S. Science and Education Forum at the Lviv Academic Bridge.

Rob Schoen, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “The human-in-the-loop: Navigating the intersection of AI limitations and expert pedagogy in mathematical task design” at the annual conference of the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Rob Schoen, Ph.D. and Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Impact of CGI on Teachers and Students in Florida” and “Using M-CLIPS to Detect Impact of CGI on Teaching: Results from a Randomized Control Trial” at the 2026 CGI Conference in Arizona.

Lakesia Dupree, Ph.D., Odalis Tavares, Ph.D., Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D., and Shanann Young (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Empowering Families to Support CGI Practices at Home” at the 2026 CGI Conference in Arizona.

Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented, “Patience and Political Asceticism,” as part of the Patience in Adversity Summer Seminar hosted by the Templeton Religion Trust funded grant at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Tarez Samra Graban, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented her papers, “Cultural Lines of Sight: Reconsidering Historical Memory in and of the UN World Conference on Women at Beijing,” and, “Unsettling Expectations about the Resilience of South Africa’s Black Sash,” at the 22nd Biennial Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Portland, Oregon.

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented, “Mysticism and Political Theory,” at the British International Studies Association 2026 Conference in Brighton and the invited lecture, “Critical Political Theology” at King’s College London, in the United Kingdom. He also presented, “Miracles and Democratic Imagination: The Power of an Impossible Hope,” at the International Network in Philosophy of Religion in Paris, France, and, “Religion, Wonder, and the Limits of Reason: Reframing the Debate over Miracles,” at Panteion University in Athens, Greece.

Silvia Valisa, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) co-organized the panel, “Italian Ecopoetry in Translation: An Ecology of Attention,” and presented her paper, “Moving Encounters: Italian Ecopoetry Translation Workshop at FSU,” at the Poetry’s Environments Conference organized by Poetry@Leeds, the poetry center of the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

Alice Maxwell, M.A., Jessie Colegrove, M.A. and Evan Eisenstark (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) presented, “Before the Glow Up: Rebuilding Career Center Marketing for What Comes Next” at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Annual Marketing and Branding Conference in Denver, Colorado.

Saanchi Shah, Ph.D., and Boris Kantor, Ph.D. (Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases/ College of Medicine) presented at the A.J. Anderson Foundation & IPRD Rare Disease Conference in Palm Harbor, Florida. Shah spoke about presented “Sunshine Genetics Updates” while Kantor presented “Gene Therapy for Pediatric Rare Diseases: Current Status and Future Perspectives.”

Rebecca Carter, LCSW, and Karen Cramer, MSW (College of Medicine) spoke at the 2026 National Association of Social Workers-Florida Annual Conference in Orlando on “CBT for Nicotine Dependence: Better Behavioral Health and Recovery Outcomes in Social Work Practice.

Joseph Gabriel, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and his two co-editors of “Dealing with Drugs: New Histories of Risk and Benefit” were guests on a University of Rochester Press podcast about their book, part of the Rochester Studies in Medical History book series.

Regan Bailey, Ph.D., and Patrick Stover, Ph.D. (Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health/College of Medicine) presented at the 31^st Marabou Symposium in Stockholm, Sweden, with the theme “Dynamics of Nutrient Needs to Compensate for Metabolic Decline in Aging.” Stover moderated panel discussions and Bailey presented “Bringing it all  together: Nutrient needs throughout the life cycle.”

Heather Flynn, Ph.D., and Mike Drury, Psy.D., (College of Medicine) presented “Fundamentals of Psychological Treatments for Perinatal Behavioral Health” in a webinar for healthcare professionals.

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Jamie Ho, MFA (Department of Art) had work featured in Fellowship 26 at Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, PA.

Katie Kehoe, MFA (Department of Art) has a series of 6 photographs exhibiting in “Unprecedented” at The Crown Gallery at Metro Art Studios in Bridgeport, CT, and is also in the group exhibition, “The Forest was Rebuilt with Scrap and Ply” at Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan, AL.

Alena Mehic, MFA (Department of Art)’s work “Za Mamu” will be on view at “somewhere i have never travelled”, an exhibition at Behind VA Shadows in Cambridge, MA.

Jiha Moon, MFA (Department of Art) exhibited “Collection, Reframed: Jiha Moon” at Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, NC.

Meredith Lynn, MFA (Department of Art)’s work “Bad Outdoorsmen (Application Video)(Northeast Florida)” is on view at The Orlando Museum of Art for the 12th Annual Florida Prize in Contemporary Art exhibitions. Professor Meredith Lynn’s monograph is available at the Orlando Museum of Art store. 

Lilian Garcia-Roig, (Department of Art) is included in several traveling group shows including, “Let Us Gather In A Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York, which will be followed by a national tour including presentations at the Des Moines Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle.

SERVICE

Kyeonghee Kim, Ph.D. (Wertheim College of Business), joined the Academic Advisory Council of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Center for Insurance Policy and Research, for which she will provide input and guidance on the center’s mission to advance understanding of insurance issues among policymakers, regulators, industry leaders and academia.

Latika Young, MA, Ed.M. (Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement) chaired the panel “Expanding the Scope of CUR: A Panel Discussion about Statewide Efforts to Support Undergraduate Research” and served as host for a lunch discussion table on “Statewide Support for Undergraduate Research” at the ConnectUR conference hosted by the Council on Undergraduate Research in College Park, Maryland.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing), has been appointed as Member at Large to the Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP) Executive Committee. The FAANP program is dedicated to the global advancement of nurse practitioners (NPs) and the high-quality health care NPs deliver.

Jessica Bahorski, Ph.D., APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP-BC (College of Nursing) and BSN undergraduate students Kelsie Nyman and Madison Roy attended the Gadsden County Healthy Start Coalition Baby Bash. They offered height and weight measurement for infants with growth chart tracking.

Leah Sherman, Ph.D., Visual & Performing Arts Librarian (Libraries), was elected Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of the Arts Section of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) for the 2026–2029 term, reflecting her ongoing leadership in arts librarianship.

Laurel Harbin, Ph.D., AICP, LEED-AP (Office of the Provost) and Rabieh Razzouk, MBA (Learning Systems Institute) have each been appointed by FSU President Richard McCullough to serve two-year terms on the Florida State University Schools, Inc. Board of Directors.

Alice Maxwell, M.A. (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) served as faculty for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Annual Marketing and Branding Conference in Denver, Colorado. In addition to helping plan the conference, she moderated the student communications focused panel “What Students Wish You Knew” and served on the panel “AI in Marketing and Branding: What’s Working, What’s Not, and What’s Next” as a speaker.

Cheryl Porter, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) was appointed to the inaugural Research, Engagement, Growth and Scholarship Committee of the Association of American Medical Colleges.  AAMC restructured its groups and replaced the Group on Student Affairs with the Learner Access, Support, Opportunity and Retention Group, of which this new committee is a part.

Susan Epstein, MSLS (College of Medicine) was named to the Information, Discovery & Interchange Topic Committee of the National Information Standards Organization, a library access organization.

NOTABLE

Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication) has been accepted to present at the 27^th annual congress of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association in September in Malaga, Spain.

Richard Morris, (School of Communication Science and Disorders) retired after serving Florida State University for nearly four decades (since 1988).

Giovanni Lopez, (Wertheim College of Business) served as a panelist at the 2026 Technology in Business Schools Round Table annual meeting, hosted by the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business, and offered insights about moving into a new building, including planning, design, construction, technology, implementation and more.

Maria Paula McIntyre Nwenyi (Center for Leadership & Service) is one of 15 FSU faculty and staff members who earned the Institutional Research Data Literacy and Analytics Certificate in Spring 2026.

The Ukraine Task Force, led by Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute), hosted Dmytro Dyadin, Ph.D. and Oleksandr Hrytsyna, Ph.D. as part of the Bridge USA Ukraine Program for Resilience and Reconstruction, which connects Ukrainian and U.S. scholars to foster research, develop education, and rebuild resilience through impactful international partnerships.

Rick Burnette (Sr. Vice Provost & Chief Strategy Officer) participated in “The Higher Education AI Reality Check” IREX webinar discussing FSU’s approach to AI and the broader questions surrounding its use in higher education.

Lakesia Dupree, Ph.D., Odalis Tavares, Ed.D., and Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) worked with educators in Hillsborough County on the Successful Start: Cognitively Guided Instruction project, providing training and support to math teachers serving students in foundational grades.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to tfordyce@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs June 2026 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

ARCHIVE

HONORS AND AWARDS

Carrie Meyers, (Learning Systems Institute/FSU InSPIRE) was awarded the FLATE (Florida Advanced Technological Education Center) Manufacturing Partner-of-the-Year for Service award.

Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN, Lucinda Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) and Thomas Ledermann, Ph.D. (Anne’s College) were awarded the 2nd place professional poster presentation award at the 11th Annual University of Texas at San Antonio, Health Care Summit held in San Antonio, TX.

Frank “Frankie” Y. Wong, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) has been selected as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar for the 2026–2027 academic year. During the Spring 2027 semester, Wong will conduct work in Ho Chi Minh City, Việt Nam, focusing on HIV research and global health challenges. His project aims to support innovative strategies for HIV prevention and long-term disease management while fostering international collaboration and cultural exchange through the Fulbright Program.

Hua (Elaine) Luo, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) received the Society for the Study of School Psychology Early Career Research Award for her project, “Bridging the Training-to-Practice Gap: A Large-Scale Mixed-Methods Study of Job Demands and Curriculum Alignment in School Psychology.”

Cheyenne Egstad, (Career Center) received the Rising Star Award from the Cooperative Education & Internship Association for her outstanding contributions to the field of work-integrated learning.

Kari DiDonato, (Campus Recreation) and Campus Recreation Marketing were awarded two Creative Excellence awards from the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association. “Lakefront Rental Office, Matilda Theme” received first place in the Social Media Campaign category and “Outdoor Trip Essentials” received first place in the Student Generated Content Campaign category.

Elizabeth Cecil, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) was awarded a fellowship from the Association for Public Religion and Intellectual Life to participate in the Representing Religion in Museums summer colloquium in New York City, New York.

Debajyoti Sinha, Ph.D. (Department of Statistics) was elected a fellow of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis in recognition of his significant contributions in promoting Bayesian ideas and methods in society, through scientific works and other activities. The honor will be announced at the annual ISBA banquet in Nagoya, Japan.

Nicole Bentze, D.O. (College of Medicine) was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society.

Tonya Williams, M.D. (College of Medicine) was inducted into the FSU Chapman Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society.

GRANTS

Matthew Lenard, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) is leading a research project examining how specific math skills contribute to upward mobility. Lenard’s project is one of 29 projects in the U.S. selected to receive support through the $7 million Student Upward Mobility Initiative, which funds innovative efforts to identify the PK–12 skills that drive long-term success.

Michael Ormsbee, Ph.D., and Andrew Koutnik, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) received an $84,439 grant from Health via Modern Nutrition for their project “Targeted Assessments of Cognition in Tactical-performance with Ingested Ketones: The TACTIK Trial.”

BYLINES

Nicholas Mazza, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) authored the article “Gerontology as Poetry” in the Brown Journal of Medical Humanities.

Shamra, Boel-Studt, Ph.D., Lauren Herod, MSW, and Darejan Dvalishvili, Ph.D. (College of Social Work, Institute for Quality Children’s Services) co-authored the article, “Advanced Certification Trainings for Child Welfare Professionals: Results from the Formative Evaluation of STARS,” published in the journal Child Protection & Practice.

Gashaye Tefera, Ph.D., Shelby Varol, MSW and Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “‘I’m not just a large lady; I’m a large Black lady’: Intersectional stigma and barriers to healthcare access among Black women,” published in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

Lauren Herod, MSW, MPA, Melissa Radey, Ph.D., and Lauren Stanley, Ph.D. (College of Social Work and Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the psychometric article “The Power of Belonging: Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Belonging Barometer with Child Welfare Workers”, which was published in Children and Youth Services Review. 

Kristy Anderson, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Caregiver employment changes and care coordination in families with children with autism,” published in the journal Research in Autism.

Melissa Radey, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Separated families’ use of formal and informal childcare across 12 European countries,” published in the Journal of Family Studies.

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored “Open Educational Resources in African Languages: The Case Study of Elementary Kiswahili Hujambo textbook,” which was published in the Journal of African Language Teachers Association.

Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN and Lucinda Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) co-authored “Acceptability and Usefulness of a Dyadic Problem-Solving Partnership to Promote Rural Heart Failure Self-care” in the Western Journal of Nursing Research.

Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN, Lucinda Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing), and Thomas Ledermann, Ph.D. (Anne’s College), co-authored “Effects of Coping Resources on Depressive Symptoms in Rural Heart Failure Patient Caregiver Dyads: An Actor-Partner Interdependence Modeling Analysis” in the Journal of Family Nursing.

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Experiences and barriers to career advancement among minority assistant coaches in the National Basketball Association,” published in the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching.

Boris Kantor, Ph.D., (Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases) co-authored an article entitled “Cell-specific DNA methylation in human alpha and beta cells regulates gene expression in type 2 diabetes,” published in Nature Metabolism.

Xiaonan Zhang, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) co-authored, “From Static Constraints to Dynamic Adaptation: Sample-Level Constraint Release for Offline-to-Online Reinforcement Learning,” accepted to the 2026 International Conference on Machine Learning in Seoul, South Korea. She also had her co-authored paper “Longitudinal Behavioral Change Coaching with Multi LLM Agents: Multi-Scale Summaries and Automated Dialogue Steering,” accepted to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2026 conference on Connected Health: Applications, Systems and Engineering Technologies which will take place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in August.

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) authored, “Hope as a Political Practice,” published on the blog Contending Modernities, the University of Notre Dame’s interdisciplinary effort to explore how religious and secular powers interact, as part of his, “Hope in a Secular Age,” symposium, an ongoing series of articles considering the place of hope in contemporary political, philosophical and theological contexts.

Sara Green, MSW, Kayla Hicks, MPH, Sharry Anne Solis, MPH, Jonathan Morgan, and Sylvie Naar, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored and presented a poster titled “Insights from the SHARE Research Program: Approaches, Success and Lessons Learned in Recruitment and Retention of Emerging Adults with HIV in Florida” at the Society of Behavioral Medicine 47^th Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Mike Drury, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored “Training focused on commonalities for the common good: A transdiagnostic approach for the next generation of health service psychologists,” published in the American Psychological Association’s journal, Training and Education in Professional Psychology.

Yang Hou, Ph.D., and postdoctoral scholars Dan Liu, Ph.D., and Xiaoli Zong, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) were part of the Hou-led international team of scholars that published “Age trends of internalizing and externalizing problems in children with neurofibromatosis type 1: a multicenter study,” in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Angelina Sutin, Ph.D., Martina Luchetti, Ph.D., and Antonio Terracciano, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) published “Daily activities and purpose in life” in The International Journal of Wellbeing.

Jacob Eisler, M.Phil., J.D., Ph.D. (College of Law) co-authored the forthcoming article, “Disparate (Algorithmic) Advantage”, in the Stanford Law Review Online: Special Collection on Technology, AI, and the Future of Civil Rights. Eisler also co-authored the article, “The Circuit Court Interim Docket.”

Henry Zhuhao Wang, J.D. (College of Law) co-authored “Evidentiary Rules for Administrative Hearings.”

Panagiotis Takis Tridimas, Ph.D. (College of Law) co-authored the Oxford University Press book, The Foundations of European Union Law. The book provides an in-depth yet accessible explanation of the foundational principles of constitutional and administrative law in the European Union.

PRESENTATIONS

Sherrell Cork, (Office of Business Services) co-presented “How Auxiliary Services are Navigating Strategic Partnerships” at the 2026 National Association of College Auxiliary Services – South Region in Charlotte, NC.

Remy Jennings, Ph.D., (Wertheim College of Business) presented “Family-Interference-with-Work: Antecedents and Outcomes of Employees’ FIW Disclosures” at the Purdue University’s Working Well Conference.

Shane Hockin, Ph.D., and Redgine Michel, (Academic Center for Excellence) co-presented “Developing Leadership While Sustaining Business Success” for the Florida College Learning Center Association Conference.

Nicholas Mazza, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) presented, “Finding Our Way Home: The Place of Poetry in Giving Voice and Hope for the Homeless” at the 46th Annual National Association for Poetry Therapy Conference in Chicago, Illinois.

Shamra, Boel-Studt, Ph.D. (College of Social Work)  presented, “Calming the Storm: Trauma-Responsive Approaches for Working with High Acuity Youth in Out-of-Home Care” as the keynote presentation at the national and virtual conference on Trauma Informed Care: Taking Science to Practice hosted by the University of Northern Iowa, Department of Social Work.

Sherrod, Kristyn, MSW, Patel, Dimple, Jacqueline Martin, LMSW, DSL, Kimberly Wheaton and Gray Hilliard-Koshinsky (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) (CWLA Emerging Leaders Committee) co-presented “Distributive Leadership: Dynamic and Immersive Development of Emerging Leaders” at the Child Welfare League of America 2026 National Conference.

Michael Buchler, Ph.D. (College of Music) gave three juried presentations this spring, including: “Sondheim’s Fractured Pastiches” at the annual meeting of Music Theory Southeast in February (Atlanta), “When Democracy and Equity Collide: Responses that Promote Institutional Learning” at the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions annual conference at the CUNY Graduate Center (New York), and “Musical Markers of Jewishness as Moral Signifiers in Harold Rome’s I Can Get It For You Wholesale” at Sonic Markers of Jewishness On Screen and Off conference at UCLA (Los Angeles).

Lucinda Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) presented “Caregiving with Heart for Heart Failure Caregivers” at the annual Big Bend Hospice and ACTS 2 Caregiving Conference. The focus of this presentation was to provide valuable information regarding heart failure caregiving needs and skills, as well as self-care tips and strategies for caregivers.

Delaney W. La Rosa, EdD, MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing) presented as part of an AI seminar series through The American Association of Colleges of Nursing, designed to equip nursing educators and academic leaders with the foundational knowledge and real-world context needed to prepare students for AI-enabled healthcare environments. The series explores both the fundamentals of AI in healthcare and current applications transforming nursing practice.

Christine Andrews-Larson, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) presented a talk titled “Linear Algebra Applications in Students’ Post Linear Algebra Coursework” at the International Linear Algebra Society conference in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Cheyenne Egstad, (Career Center) co-presented the peer-reviewed conference session “Internships 101: A Toolkit on Increasing Reach of Employer Training” at the 2026 Cooperative Education & Internship Association Annual Conference. She also chaired the Technology subcommittee at the conference.

Darryl Lovett, Ph.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) co-facilitated a discussion with student affairs vice presidents and assistant vice presidents grounded in NASPA’s “Centering the Student Affairs Workforce.” The conversation focused on leadership pathways and career visibility.

Alice Maxwell, (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) presented the keynote speech “Building a Strategic Communications Framework That Advances Student Success” at the College Public Relations Association of Mississippi annual conference.

Cynthia Vied, Ph.D., (Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases) participated in the Quest Diagnostics FOCUS Leadership Series, where she discussed the future of diagnostics and the role of patient-centered partnerships in advancing access to genetic testing for rare diseases.

David H. Ledbetter, Ph.D., FACMG, (Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases) presented at the 20th Genetics of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Conference demonstrating how rare pathogenic variants linked to neurodevelopmental disorders can be grouped into distinct genetic clusters associated with specific biological pathways and clinical patterns.

Pradeep G. Bhide, Ph.D., (Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases) discussed the Sunshine Genetics Act on the DNA Today, highlighting how the legislation established IPRD at Florida State University College of Medicine and launched a five-year pilot program providing no-cost newborn genomic sequencing to support earlier detection and more personalized care for Florida families.

Elizabeth Cecil, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented the invited lecture, “The Lord of the Elements & the Eaglewood Goddess: Hinduism in Monsoon Asia,” at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, California.

Neil Van Leeuwen, Ph.D. (Department of Philosophy) presented, “Rational pressure on ideological imagining?” at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland in May. He also presented, “Pretense is Representation,” on the Acting as if Perspectives on Pretending workshop at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.

Christopher Mulrooney, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) was invited to present “Liver Cancer Prevention in Primary Care: The Florida Healthy Liver Program™” to the Liver Cancers Council of the Global Liver Institute, Washington, DC.

Diana Paquette, Ed.D. (College of Medicine) presented “Smart Space Strategies: Using Policy and Data-Driven Decisions on the development and implementation of the MED Lab Space Policy at the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Group on Institutional Planning-Group on Business Affairs Conference in St. Louis.

Mark Chaet, M.D. (College of Medicine) participated in Thayer Leadership’s Battle-Tested Open Enrollment leadership training program at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Amy Hall, Ph.D., and Karen MacDonell, Ph.D. co-presented a poster titled “Motivational and psychological predictors of asthma medication adherence in Black emerging adults” at the Society of Behavioral Medicine 47^thAnnual Meeting in Chicago.

George Rust, M.D. (College of Medicine) recently provided expert insight into developments surrounding the hantavirus and the importance of strong public health systems during disease outbreak response efforts in an interview aired live on FOX 35 in Orlando.

Nadia Banteka, S.J.D, (College of Law) participated in the 2026 Carolina Law Scholarship Roundtable on Immigration, Policing, and Detention at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Banteka presented her latest paper, “Police-Created Suspicion” (with Erika Nyborg-Burch). The roundtable brought together an outstanding group of scholars, to support cutting-edge legal research and scholarship.

Brian Slocum, J.D., M.A, Ph.D. (College of Law) was invited to the Georgetown Law Center as a moderator and speaker. The event focused on a forthcoming Oxford University Press book, Corpus Linguistics and the Interpretation of Statutes over Time.

Jake Linford, J.D., (College of Law), hosted a two-day Florida Intellectual Property & Technology Law Workshop at the College of Law which featured scholarship from accredited professors and Linford’s latest scholarship, “Education, Wealth, and WEIRD Trademark Surveys” (with Justin Sevier).

Brian Slocum, J.D., M.A, Ph.D. (College of Law) presented chapters from his co-authored forthcoming Yale University Press book, Twenty-First Century Textualism, at Yale Law School during a Theories of Statutory Interpretation Seminar.

SERVICE

Allison Justice, MMS, PA-C, (College of Medicine) is president-elect of the Florida Academy of Physician Assistants.

Rima Nathan, J.D. (College of Law) hosted an Estate Planning Clinic for Legal Services of North Florida through the Claude Pepper Elder Law Clinic with the Legal Services of North Florida Tallahassee Pro Bono team to provide their services to the greater community.

NOTABLE

Iain Quinn, Ph.D. (College of Music) was elected to fellowship of the Learned Society of Wales.

Bernard McDonald (College of Music) has drawn numerous plaudits from veteran critics following his début with Indianapolis Opera at The Tobias Theater at Newfields, Indianapolis, IN.

Carrie Meyers and Jim Reynolds (Learning Systems Institute/FSU InSPIRE) organized and implemented the “America 250 Challenge in AI Literacy” program challenging teachers to co-design a curriculum using artificial intelligence. The goal was to create a lesson that celebrates US history, culture, and innovation.

Rabieh Razzouk (Learning Systems Institute) awarded the first-ever FCR-STEM Innovating Educator of the Year award to Holley-Navarre fifth grade teacher Anna Prindle.

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) led the second Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program between the Armenian State University of Economics (ASUE) and FSU. In the Spring of 2026, 24 students from both universities participated in this 10-week asynchrounous virtual exchange program as part of a U.S. Department of State grant to enhance entrepreneurship education in Armenia.

Delaney W. La Rosa, EdD, MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing) has been appointed to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Emerging Technologies in Nursing Task Force. The national task force brings together nursing leaders and innovators to explore the impact of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies on nursing education and practice to help shape recommendations and strategies to prepare the future nursing workforce for a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape.

Frederick Abbott, J.D. (College of Law) participated as a panel judge in Beijing, China for the East Asia and Oceania Regional Round of the 24th Edition of the John H. Jackson Moot Court Competition in International Trade Law.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to tfordyce@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs: May 2026 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others. 

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.  

ARCHIVE 

HONORS AND AWARDS 

Wisley “Wes” Dorce, M.S. (FSU Innovation Hub) was named the 2026 Florida TRIO Achiever Award recipient at the Southeastern Atlantic TRIO Conference. An alumnus of the Federal TRIO program, Dorce was selected by his peers as Florida’s top achiever. 

Chongyu Wang, Ph.D., Jingfang Wang, Ph.D. and Tingyu Zhou, Ph.D. (Wertheim College of Business, RMI, REE & Legal Studies) received the Real Estate Valuation Manuscript Award from the American Real Estate Society (ARES) for their paper, “The Disruption of Generative AI in Real Asset Markets.” 

Camilo Loaiza Bonilla, MFA (The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art) was awarded the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Intro Journals Project Award in Poetry. The selected work was published in Hayden’s Ferry Review. 

Carlo Cinaglia, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was awarded the 2026 Penn GSE Recent Alumni/Early Career Award of Merit. This award recognizes an outstanding graduate from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education who has made significant contributions to their field. 

Aimée Boutin, Ph.D., (College of Arts & Sciences) Rachel C. S. Duke, Ph.D., Kelly Grove, MS and Jonathan DaSo, MA (University Libraries) received the Modern Language Association’s fifth annual MLA–EBSCO Collaboration for Information Literacy Prize for the course “FRT 3503: Paris World Capital.” The award recognizes innovative courses that integrate information literacy into humanities instruction.  

Dei Allard, Ed.D. (University Housing) was awarded the James E. Scott Outstanding Student Affairs Professional Award by NASPA Region III for demonstrating exceptional leadership and innovative programming that creates impactful campus environments. 

David Peters, (Campus Recreation) was inducted into the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) Championship Series Hall of Fame at the 2026 NIRSA + IDEA World Conference and Expo in Washington, DC.  

Leanne Duke, Ph.D, (Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases) Viral Vector and Gene Editing Core was named a 2026 winner of the prestigious Journal of Biological Chemistry/Herbert Tabor Early Career Investigator Award. 

Ying “Mai” Kung, DNP, MPH, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, CNE, FAAN (College of Nursing) received the 2026 Advocacy in Action Award from the Florida Association of Nurse Practitioners and was honored at their annual conference.   

Jessica Bahorski, Ph.D., APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP, Casey Xavier Hall, MPH, Ph.D., Jairo Pena, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) and Crim Sabuncu (College of Social Work) received the 2026 NAPNAP Research Poster Award for their work titled “Infant Feeding Practices of LGBTQ+ Families” at the at the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners’ (NAPNAP) 47th National Conference on Pediatric Health Care in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Paul Niell, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) was awarded the 2026 ALAA/LASA-VCS Afro Latin American/Afro-Latinx Scholarship Prize for his essay, “Following the Footsteps of  Juana Agripina: Slavery, Memory, and the Architecture of Invisibility in Ponce, Puerto Rico,” published in Architectures of Slavery: Ruins and Reconstructions. 

Michael Carrasco, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) presented research at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in San Francisco, the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico City, and the VI Reunión de Investigadores del Cuaternario y el Antropocenoat National Autonomous University of Mexico. His work was recognized with the Journal of Plant Species Biology Best Paper Award. 

GRANTS 

Zhe He, Ph.D. and Balu Bhasuran, Ph.D. (School of Information) secured a national AI infrastructure award, “Fine-Tuning Open-Source Large Language Models to Support Real-World Patient–Clinician Communication in Laboratory Test Results Interpretation,” from the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Pilot (NAIRR) to advance patient–clinician communication and cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence for healthcare.  

Sonia Hazard, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) received the Louisville Institute’s Grant for Researchers for her project “Christianity and the Book in the Cherokee Diaspora, 1821–1861.” 

Michael Diamond, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science) is a co-principal investigator on a newly awarded $493,065 grant from Ocean Visions for the project, “Leveraging Next-Generation Satellite and Suborbital Observations to Guide Mixed-Phase Cloud Thinning for Arctic Sea-Ice Preservation.” He is also a co-principal investigator on a newly awarded $234,340.95 grant from the Environmental Defense Fund for the project “Attributing aerosol-induced crop yield changes: Disentangling light partitioning effects from climate cooling using observations and crop models.” 

Gretchen Stahlman, Ph.D. (College of Communication & Information) was awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services Planning Grant to develop sustainable data curation internships for Library and Information Science students and support curation of the Unified Astronomy Thesaurus.  

Marcia Mardis, Ph.D. (College of Communication & Information) received a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, supporting research in disaster resilience and crisis leadership. 

Mary Matthews, Ph.D. (College of Music) co-authored the book “Into the Depths” which was awarded the 2026 Newly Published Music Award in the Pedagogy category by the National Flute Association.   

BYLINES 

Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders) authored “The Foundations of Arabic Word Reading: Evidence from a 2-Year Longitudinal Study,” published in the Scientific Studies of Reading. It is the first longitudinal study on Arabic that captures all code-related skills.

Azat Gündoğan, Ph.D. (Division of Undergraduate Studies) authored “(Un)making Gebze: Labour and Spatial Politics in Istanbul’s Industrial Periphery,” published in Justice, Power and Resistance.

Charles Panarella, Ph.D. (FSU Florence) authored “International Study Centers as Hubs for Leadership Learning,” published in New Directions for Student Leadership.    

Charels Panarella, Ph.D. (FSU Florence) and Kathy L. Guthrie, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) published “Leadership Learning as a Way to Thrive” with Emerald Publishing.  

Aoife Keogh, Ph.D. (FSU Florence) authored “The Early Years of Ireland in the European Economic Community Managing Membership,” published with Routledge.   

Adam Tratner, Ph.D. (FSU Republic of Panama) coauthored “Complicated Grief Among People Who Lost Loved Ones to COVID-19 in Panama,” published in the journal COVID. 

Kezia Carpenter, Ph.D. (FSU Republic of Panama) co-authored “Narrative Resilience and Recovery: A Community-Engaged Study of Human Trafficking Survivors’ Recovery Narratives” in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.  

Flavia Ramos-Mattoussi Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) authored “Re-Imagining Visual Dialogue: Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Arts-Based Research Through the Fotodialogo Method” and “Reimagining Visual Dialogue in Community Health Education: Integrating Hand-Drawn and Ai-Generated Images in The Fotodialogo Method” published in INTEND2026 Proceedings. 

Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article “Some Critical Questions for Use by Students: Nudging Social Work Education into a More Evidence-Informed Direction,” published in the journal titled Research on Social Work Practice.  

Gashaye Tefera, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) coauthored the article “The Role of Technology in Tackling Social Isolation and Maintaining Mental Health Among Older Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” published in the journal Discover Public Health. 

Kristy Anderson, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Autistic Adolescents’ and their Parents’ Perspectives on a National Flourishing Item Set: A Construct Validation Study,” published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.  

Leonore McWey, Ph.D., Qiong (Joanna) Wu, Ph.D., (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) Eugenia Flores Millender, Ph.D., (College of Nursing) Melissa Radey, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and doctoral candidate Carson Outler co-authored the article “Public and Private Safety Nets, Maternal Stress, and Child Mental Health Outcomes Among Low-Income Families” in the Journal of Family Social Work.  

Shamra, Boel-Studt, Ph.D., Lauren Herod, MSW and Darejan Dvalishvili, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article “Advanced Certification Trainings for Child Welfare Professionals: Results from the Formative Evaluation of STARS,” published in the journal Child Protection & Practice. 

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “An Analysis of National Governing Bodies’ Coaching Certifications in England,” published in Quest. 

Braidyn Lazenby, Ph.D. (School of Communication) authored “Informal Caregiver Uncertainty: Exploring the Presence of Uncertainty in Eating Disorder Reddit Posts,” published in the Journal of Eating Disorders. 

Margaret Sullivan, Ph.D. (School of Information) and graduate student Jonah Hancock authored “The Effect of Self-stigma on the Health Information Seeking and Health Behaviors of Opioid Users” in the Journal of Documentation. 

Richard Waters, Ph.D., Elizabeth Ray, Ph.D. (School of Communication) and doctoral student Eldaneka Rolle co-authored “Shaping Future Professionals: Industry Perspectives on Graduate Internships” in the Journal of Public Relations Education. 

Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders) co-authored “The Foundations of Arabic Word Reading: Evidence from a 2-Year Longitudinal Study,” published in the journal Scientific Studies of Reading. 

Kelly Farqharson, Ph.D., Christopher Constantino, Ph.D. and alumna Paige Lovell (School of Communication Science & Disorders) authored “Targeted Speech Sounds and their Association to Children’s Grade Level and Therapy Dosage” in the journal Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics. 

Ashley Krutz-Ordner, MS (Office of the Provost) authored the chapter “Role of Full-Time International Safety and Security Professionals” published in the new release of NAFSA: Association of International Educators publication “Crisis Management in International Education: Education Abroad.”   

Dianna S. Bradley, MA, Crystal Mathews, Laura Pellini, MA and Leah Reilly Sherman, Ph.D. (University Libraries) authored “Beyond the Gallery: Hybrid Exhibitions in the Academic Library” in the journal Creating Digital Exhibitions: A Practical Guide, published by Bloomsbury Press.  

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) co-authored “Thinking Religion in Place,” published in the Journal for the Academic Study of Religion.    

Charles Upchurch, Ph.D. (Department of History) authored “Rethinking Periodization, Priorities, and Liberalism in British Queer History,” published in the Journal of British Studies in their debating the field series.  

Darryl Lovett, Ph.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) served as chair of a NASPA workgroup that published “Centering the Student Affairs Workforce.” The white paper responds to pressing and persistent challenges on how to sustain, support, develop skills, and prepare the leadership capacity of the people who do the work of student affairs. 

Kyanna Austin, (Student Engagement) co-published “Understanding, Discussing, and Embodying Leadership Through Graduate Student Government” in The Journal of Campus Activities Practice and Scholarship, Volume 1, Issue 8. 

Kathleen Powers Conti, Ph.D. (Department of History) guest edited the 2026 Spring issue of the Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly magazine, “The Architecture of Continuance: The Act of Understanding, Preserving, and Conserving.”     

Boris Kantor, Ph.D., Leanne Duke, Ph.D. and Pradeep Bhide, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases) co-authored the review article “CRISPR-Cas Editing Technologies for Viral-Mediated Gene Therapies of Human Diseases: Mechanisms, Progress, and Challenges,” which was published in Molecular Therapy Clinical Development Journal.   

Susan LaJoie, DrPH, Rebecca Carter, LCSW, and Chenikka Usher, MSW (College of Medicine) co-published “Tobacco and Nicotine Cessation in Military Service Members and Veterans: Implications for Area Health Education Centers” in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine. 

Ericka Horne, DrPH (College of Medicine) co-authored “Adverse Childhood Experiences Are Associated with Falling Among Middle-aged and Older Adults,” published in the Journals of Gerontology. 

Prince Addo, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored “The Association of Adolescent Sleep Health, Depressive Symptoms, and Substance Use with Future Cardiac Risk: A Marginal Structural Model Analysis,” published in Discover Public Health. 

Martina Luchetti, Ph.D., Antonio Terracciano, Ph.D., and Selin Karakose, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored “Socio-emotional Well-Being is Associated with Cognitive Function and Informant-rated Cognitive Decline: Results from the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol in Europe,” published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society. 

Changhyun (Lyon) Nam, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) and graduate students Rebecka Anne Phipps and Samantha Reisky have co-authored a book chapter titled “Chapter 5: Circular Economy in Practice: Comparative Insights from the Apparel and Coffee Shop Industries” in the Sustainable Business Practices and Social Entrepreneurship.   

Balu Bhasuran, Ph.D. and Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information) co-authored the portfolio papers, “Entry-level Guide to the Use of Large Language Models for Medical Research,” and “Evaluation of Causal Reasoning for Large Language Models in Contextualized Clinical Scenarios of Laboratory Test Interpretation,” that were accepted in the general biomedicine and digital health journals, Nature Protocols and npj Digital Medicine, respectively.   

Kelli Alces Williams, J.D., (College of Law) Matthews & Hawkins Professor of Property, has a forthcoming article, “You’ll Be Sorry When I’m Gone: On Spiteful Wills and Equity,” in the Wake Forest Law Review. 

Henry Zhuhao Wang, J.D., (College of Law) Mason Ladd Professor of Law, published a new article, “The Shadow of the Rules of Evidence on ADR,” which is the first article to critically examine how evidentiary rules influence alternative dispute resolution. 

PRESENTATIONS 

Thayumanasamy Somasundaram, Ph.D. (Institute of Molecular Biophysics) co-presented “Out of the Silo and Into the Future” at the 2026 ABRF Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders) presented “Linguistic and Cognitive Correlates of Arabic Literacy: Concurrent and Longitudinal Evidence” at the College of Education at the University of Oxford. 

Marissa Hershon, MA (The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “A Lacca Povera  Bureau Cabinet at Ca’ d’Zan:  An Exploration of Print Imagery on 18th-century Venetian Furniture” at the international symposium “Cut Along the Dotted Line: Craft Practices and Manufactured Pictures, XVIIIth-XXIst Centuries” at the Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA) in Paris, France.  

Brooke Keller, Ph.D. and Fran Tignor, MA (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “Supporting Students from Kindergarten Through Graduate School and Beyond” at the MuseumNext: Museums and Schools Summit international conference.  

Lakeisha Johnson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders) and Denisha Smith, Ph.D. (Florida Center for Reading Research) co-presented the Distinguished Donn Bailey Lecture titled “Coding Confidently: A Tutorial on Coding for AAE” at the National Black Association for Speech-Language-Hearing convention.  

Lakeisha Johnson, Ph.D., Denisha Smith, Ph.D., Jasmine Smith MA and Kennedy Milton (School of Communication Science & Disorders) co-presented “Where Language Meets Literacy: SLPs Driving Change through Research-Practice Partnerships” at the National Black Association for Speech-Language-Hearing convention. 

Brandon Bowden, Ed.D., Zduy Chu, Ed.D. and Carlos Gómez, Ph.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) presented “The Written and Unwritten Role of an AVP during Crisis” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference. 

Camilo Loaiza Bonilla, MFA (The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art) moderated the virtual panel “Latinx Digital Poetics: Resistance Through Joy” for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Annual Conference 2026. 

Coral Silver, MA (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “The Lions, the Creatures, and the Chrismon: Jaca Cathedral’s Brotherly Agents of Religious Change” at the 23rd biennial New College Conference on Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 

Coral Silver, MA (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “At Death’s Door: The Sepulchral Stage of Antonio Canova’s ‘Monument to Maria Christina of Austria’ (1805)” at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). 

Charles Upchurch, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented “Claiming the Revolution: Feminists, LGBTQ People, and 1776” at Tallahassee Pridefest. 

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented at the “Women in Law Enforcement: Role, Challenges and Prospects” International Conference held in Chișinău, Moldova. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova organized the conference. 

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D., (Learning Systems Institute) presented three sessions at the National Academy of the State Border Guard Service (NASBGSU) in Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine featuring work being conducted by the FSU Institute for Trauma and Resilience and Nicholas Mazza, Ph.D. (College of Social Work). 

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D., and Adrienne-Barnes-Story, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Class Size Realities: Evidence, Practice, and Pathways for Learning at Scale“ at the World Banks’ Education and Skills Ops Hub Event. 

Lenore McWey, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and Melissa Radey, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) presented “When Metrics Mislead: Parents’ Lived Realities in the Public Safety Net” at the Association for Computing Machinery conference, Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona,  in Barcelona, Spain. 

Shamra, Boel-Studt, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) presented “Calming the Storm: Trauma-Responsive Approaches for Working with High Acuity Youth in Out-of-Home Care” as the keynote presentation at the national and virtual conference on Trauma Informed Care: Taking Science to Practice hosted by the University of Northern Iowa, Department of Social Work.  

Garret Hall, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) moderated the panel “Why Can’t We All Get Along? Current Issues in the Science of Math Education” at the 2026 Badar-Kauffman Conference. Jenny Root, Ph.D., and Robert Schoen, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) served as panelists. 

Carlo Cinaglia, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) presented “Unpacking Postsecondary World Language Enrollment: Investment, Identity, and the Social Construction of Success and Expertise” at the 2026 American Association for Applied Linguistics conference. He also presented “Caring Against the Grain: Scaling Mentorship for Language Teacher Well-being” and “Teacher Educator Identity Tensions and Transitions: Answerability, Agency, and Awareness” at the 2026 TESOL International Convention. 

Holly Smith, MS (Sustainable Campus) presented on the Sustainability Fellows Program at the annual conference of the League of Environmental Educators in Florida (LEEF). The program engages students from any discipline in advancing sustainability efforts at Florida State University and in the Tallahassee community. 

Dianna S. Bradley, MA, Crystal Mathews, Laura Pellini, MA and Leah Reilly Sherman, Ph.D. (University Libraries) presented “From Exhibition to Engagement: Art in the Library and Campus Connections at Florida State University” at the FLVC Professional Development webinar series.

Sarah Butler (University Housing) presented “Fresh, Fierce, and Forward” at the 2026 Southeastern Association of Housing Officers. 

David Peters (Campus Recreation) presented “Plan, Prepare, Pivot: Leading and Managing Through the Unexpected” at the 2026 National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association Annual Conference in National Harbor, MD. He also co-presented “Intramural Sports Foundations and Future Trends,” a preconference workshop, and co-presented the general education session, “Plan, Prepare, Pivot: Leading and Managing Through the Unexpected” at the 2026 NIRSA + IDEA World Conference and Expo in Washington, DC. 

Rebecca Peters, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented “Shifting Paradigms: How Women Directors in Bollywood Redefine On-Screen Femininity” at the annual Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2026 Conference in Chicago, Illinois. She also presented “Agency, Attire, and Allyship: Feminist Reframing in Women-Directed Bollywood Films” at the Association for Asian Studies 2026 Annual Conference in Vancouver, Canada. 

Michael Diamond, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science) and three students in his research group presented work at the 18th Symposium on Aerosol–Cloud–Climate Interactions and the 23rd Conference on Middle Atmosphere during the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Houston, Texas.  

Molly Hand, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented “’To plant thee . . . and make thee full of growing’: Unearthing Skull Moss in Early Modern English Culture” at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America in Denver, Colorado. 

Charles Upchurch, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented on his teaching, research and service as they relate to LGBTQ history in April at a symposium sponsored by the Rutgers British Studies Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Jenny Root, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-presented a paper titled “The Methods Must Match the Moment” at the 2026 Badar Kauffman Conference at Kent State University. 

Shuyuan Metcalfe, Ph.D. (School of Information) and doctoral students, Ghazal Hussain and Yue “Luna” Liu, presented “Synthetic Lies, Digital Truths: A Systematic Review of Computer-mediated Deception Research in the Era of AI And Deepfakes,” at the 2025 International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Subhasree Sengupta, Ph.D. (School of Information) and doctoral students Yue Liu, Ghazal Hussain, and Odirile Moja highlighted AI research at the 2026 SAIS Conference. 

Kaylee Webb, (Career Center) participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by RippleMatch, discussed the evolving education-to-employment landscape, critical gaps and transitions from academic institutions to the workforce, and the new definition of “job-ready” in today’s labor market. 

Amy Magnuson, Ph.D., RD, LD/N (University Health Services) presented “From Feedback to Framework: Embedding the Center for Health Advocacy and Wellness (CHAW)’s Mission in Campus Wellness Strategy” at the Southern College Health Association Annual Conference in Raleigh, NC. 

Kari DiDonato, (Campus Recreation) presented “Redefining the Pipeline: Rethinking Recruitment and Onboarding in Campus Recreation” at the 2026 National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association Annual Conference in National Harbor, MD. 

Evan Fondren and Joe Svisco (Student Union) presented “Bridging the Gap: Building Culture Across Campus Event Services Roles” and “Resilience in Action: Supporting Student Staff Through Crisis and Recovery” at the Association of College Unions International 2026 Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Stormy McGivern, MA, and Emily Porter (Student Organizations and Involvement) presented “From Pause to Participation: Enhancing Campus Traditions to Meet the Evolving Needs of Our Students” at the 2026 Association of College Unions International Annual Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Wen Zhu, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) gave the lecture, “Conformational Dynamics as an Additional Dimension in the Activity Regulation of Human Asparagine Synthetase,” at the 29th Enzyme Mechanisms Conference in January in Carlsbad, California. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) and Xan Nowakowski, Ph.D., MPH (College of Medicine), co-presented “Social Media Influencers Board for Rare Diseases: Novel Community Engagement for Recruitment and Dissemination” at the 47th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) in Chicago, IL.   

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH, Lisa Hightow‑Weidman, MD, MPH (College of Nursing) and Sylvie Naar Ph.D. (College of Medicine), co-presented “Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the HIV Prevention Kings Digital Health Intervention: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Signals of Impact” at the 47th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) in Chicago, IL.  

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) Sylvie Naar Ph.D., Terra Bradley Ph.D. (College of Medicine), Philip Worts, Ph.D. (Brain Science & Symptom Management Center), Dawn Carr (Department of Sociology) co-presented “Breaking Barriers and Boosting Efficiency: Accelerating Translational Science in the Creation of a New Academic Health Center” at the Translational Science 2026, Poster Presentation in Milwaukee, WI. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) co-presented the poster, “Intervention Training Competency and Satisfaction Contrasting Hospital and Community Nurse Outcomes: Preparation Phase of EPIS” at the 47th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) in Chicago, IL. She also co-presented the posters, “Community-informed Strategies to Enhance the Feasibility and Acceptability of a Postpartum Community Health Worker Intervention in Alabama” and “Correlates of HIV and STI Knowledge: Findings from the Alabama Youth Survey on HIV Prevention.” 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) co-presented “Phone Intervention for Maternity Care Workers and Nurses to Address Perinatal Deaths in Cameroon: Pilot Study” at the 2026 Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) Annual Meeting in Boston, MA. 

Delaney Wright La Rosa, EdD, MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing) presented “AI Applications in Healthcare: Strengthening Clinical Judgment and Patient Advocacy” with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) AI Webinar Series as part of a five-part webinar series.  

Delaney Wright La Rosa, EdD, MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing) presented “Building AI Foundations: Literacy, Optimization, and Ethical Grounding” at the Indiana Center for Nursing’s Igniting Change: Nursing Workforce Innovation Series, a four-part virtual series designed to explore innovation in nursing practice, leadership, and workforce development. 

Cheryl Porter, Ph.D., (College of Medicine) presented “When the Caregiver Hurts: Facing Trauma in Medical Education” at the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Group on Student Affairs “Together We Lead” Conference. 

Nancy Hayes, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) led a webinar, “Communication Skills in the Age of AI” for the National Board of Medical Examiners. 

Jen Atkins, Ph.D. (School of Dance) attended the annual joint conference of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association in Atlanta as Vice President of Awards and co-presented with MFA student Madeline Aldana-Gray. She also mentored MFA student Jay Tavares in his presentation, along with FSU School of Dance graduate student Anna Paterson. 

Flavia Ramos-Mattoussi, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented a paper and poster “Re-imagining Visual Dialogue: Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Arts-based Research Through the Fotodialogo© Method,” and “Reimagining Visual Dialogue in Community Health Education: Integrating Hand-drawn and AI-generated Images in the Fotodialogo Method,” at the 20th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED2026). The work was published in the INTED2026 Proceedings. 

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES 

Carrie Ann Baade, MFA (Department of Art) was awarded a residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts where she continued her ongoing project “Birthplace.” She was included in “VISIONARY VOICES: Echoes of Inner Worlds,” an international group exhibition at the Leonora Carrington Museum. Baade also presented a lecture at the Edward James Museum titled “Heretic Knowledge: Intuition, Imagination, and the Painted World” and the solo exhibition “Heretical Body” at the Amelia Center Gallery. 

Jiha Moon, MFA (Department of Art) is presenting the solo exhibition “Half Moon” at the MOCA Jacksonville. 

Jawole Zollar, MFA (School of Dance) toured with Urban Bush Women in four cities in February, presenting the works Shelter and Batty Moves in Portland, OR; Moscow, ID; Notre Dame, IN; and Louisville, KY. 

Lilian Garcia-Roig, MFA (Department of Art) was featured in several exhibitions including “Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and “Imagining an Archipelago: Art from Cuba, Guam, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Their Diasporas” at the Colby College Museum of Art. She also presented the solo exhibition “Hyphenated Encounters” at the Frank C. Ortis Art Gallery and was included in “Nature’s Studio: Two Centuries of American Landscape Painting” at the Art Museum of South Texas. 

Meredith Lynn, MFA (Department of Art) was included in the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art at the Orlando Museum of Art. She also presented work in The Hunter Invitational V at the Hunter Museum of American Art as part of the Tennessee Triennial.  

Jonathan Christensen Caballero, MFA (Department of Art) recently participated in five exhibitions at the 60th conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts in Detroit. 

SERVICE 

Casey Xavier Hall, MPH, PhD (College of Nursing) was selected as Associate Editor for the Journal of Research in Nursing and Health.  

Jessica Bahorski, PhD, APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP (College of Nursing) and undergraduate students Kelsie Nyman and Madison Roy attended the Gadsden County Healthy Start Coalition Baby Bash on March 7, where they offered height and weight measurements for infants with growth chart tracking. 

Michael Diamond, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science) was elected chair of the American Meteorological Society’s Science and Technology Advisory Committee on Atmospheric Chemistry. 

Sonia Hazard, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) was elected as a member of the American Antiquarian Society, a lifetime membership to a 214-year-old national research library and community of learners dedicated to discovering and sharing a deeper understanding of the American past. 

Alice Maxwell, (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) is serving faculty for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Annual Conference for Marketing and Branding Professionals 2026 in Denver, Colorado. 

Jen Atkins, Ph.D. (School of Dance) completed her first quarter as Co-Executive Editor of Dance Research Journal. 

NOTABLE 

Carrie Meyers and James Reynolds (Learning Systems Institute) announced eight free AI professional learning courses for Northwest Florida Gulf Coast K-12 teachers as part of the educational and workforce development arm of the FSU InSPIRE project. 

Robert Hanna, (Learning Systems Institute) represented the FSU InSPIRE project at East Milton Elementary School’s STEM Night. 

 Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) visited Ukraine’s Khmelnytskyi Polytechnic Vocational College of Lviv Polytechnic National University for professional communication sessions with students.  

 Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) and FSU’s Ukraine Task Force hosted IP3 co-Founder and Retired Rear Admiral Michael Hewitt on a multi-day visit to Tallahassee to explore avenues Florida State University could employ its talent and resources through joint ventures to help rebuild Ukraine. 

Alissa Costabile, MBA, PMP, (IGNITE Tallahassee) represented IGNITE FSU at ICBI40 – InBIA’s 40th International Conference on Business Innovation in Chicago and at eMerge America, in Miami. 

Elizabeth Swiman, MS, ISSP-SA (FSU Facilities) was featured in a special edition of USA Today on sustainability. This edition highlighted her role in developing campus-oriented sustainability programs aligned with Florida State University’s academic mission. 

Kathryn Keene, DNP, RN, PCCN, CNE (College of Nursing) was accepted into Sigma Theta Tau’s Global Leadership Mentoring Community – Cohort 6. The cohort is composed of global nurse leaders from academia, practice and professional organizations and emerging leaders with interests in education, research, practice and community service.  

Holly Hanessian, MFA (Department of Art) was conferred Professor Emerita status upon her retirement.  

Charles Upchurch, Ph.D. (Department of History) was interviewed to provide historical context for the Lord John Grey character in the “Outlander” television series. His interview was published in The Daily Express, The Scottish Daily Express and The Irish Star. 

Ericka Horne, DrPH (College of Medicine) graduated and received her McKnight Fellowship Jacket at the Annual McKnight Fellows Meeting in Tampa, where she served as a mentor. 

Erika Loic, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) delivered the keynote lecture at the 2026 University of Michigan History of Art Graduate Student Symposium. 

Jawole Zollar, MFA (School of Dance) attended the Collegium for Arcia Diaspora Dance at Duke University in Durham, NC. 

Suzanne Farrell (School of Dance) staged George Balanchine’s Meditation for an upcoming documentary in Phoenix, AZ. Farrell also staged and coached the New York City Ballet in New York, NY. 

Hannah Schwadron, Ph.D. (School of Dance) was featured in a review of Funny Moves: Dance Humor Politics in CHOICE magazine.  

Hannah Schwadron, Ph.D. (School of Dance) taught the Structures for Change improvisation workshop at Gibney Dance Center in New York, NY. Schwadron also served as a program reviewer for the Dance Studies Association conference, reviewing 28 individual submissions. Schwadron was also contracted to share research in a graduate seminar at the University of Oregon focused on dance and prison research. 

Tom Welsh, Ph.D. (School of Dance) had a DSSE (Dance Science & Somatics Educators) presentation accepted and worked with two DSRG (Dance Science Research Group) colleagues, including a former student, to revise their presentation proposal and develop revision strategies. Welsh also served as a reviewer for proposals for the International Association for Dance Medicine & Science (IADMS) 2026 Conference in Melbourne, Australia. 

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to tfordyce@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs: April 2026  appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

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HONORS AND AWARDS 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing), was awarded the 2026 Robert H. DuRant Award for Statistical Rigor and Innovation in Adolescent Health Research from the Society of Adolescent Health and Medicine.  

Alicia “Ali” Craig-Rodriguez, DNP, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, DIPACLM (College of Nursing) was selected as a fellow of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. 

Allison McHugh, DNP, MHCDS, RN, NE-BC (College of Nursing) was inducted as a member of the National Academies of Practices at their annual conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. 

Olivia Cook, Ph.D. (Department of Psychology) was named the 2026 National Postdoctoral of the Year by the National Postdoctoral Association. 

Zduy Chu, Ed.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) was awarded the 2026 Doris Michiko Ching Shattering the Glass Ceiling Award by the NASPA Asian/Pacific Islander Knowledge Community for his work and impact on the student affairs profession through leadership, service and scholarship. 

Hannah Cronic (Department of Student Support and Transitions) received the 2026 Unsung Shero Award at Oasis Center for Women & Girls Trailblazers luncheon in recognition of her mentorship to students and her work as a victim advocate. 

Mark Belfast, Ph.D. (College of Music) was named the 2026–2027 College Music Educator of the Year by the Florida Music Education Association. 

Shenifa Taite, Ed.D. (College of Medicine) received a 2026 Exceptional Mentor Award from the American Medical Women’s Association. 

Ewa (Ava) Bienkiewicz, Ph.D. and Pradeep Bhide, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) were selected as senior members of the National Academy of Inventors. 

Amber Ward, Ph. D. (Department of Art Education) was awarded the 2026 National Art Education Association, Ecology and Environment Interest Group Publication Award for her book “Relational encounters with folk school pedagogies: Craft as creative inquiry.” 

E. Rankin, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) was awarded the 2025 Article of the Year by Corrections: Policy, Practice and Research for her publication “Correctional Officer Stress and Prison Management: Does Stress Alter Rule Enforcement Modus Operandi?”  

GRANTS 

Weikuan Yu, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) was awarded an $85,000 Lawrence Livermore National Lab grant for research on data reduction for efficient checkpoints and restarts of large language model applications. Yu and his team plan to develop a checkpoint/restart library to enable data reduction for the checkpoints of large-scale large language model applications. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) secured $400,000 in funding as co-Investigator from the American Heart Association project “Preventing Cardiovascular Collapse in Sepsis through Senolytic Therapy.” 

BYLINES 

Kyle Smith, Ph.D., Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral candidates Christin Domeier, Joseph Vondrasek and Thomas Bissen co-authored “Acute Kidney Injury Biomarker Responses in Young and Older Female Adults Following Mild Hypohydration” published in Renal Physiology. 

Carlo Cinaglia, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Mentoring for Well-Being in (un)caring Institutions: Possibilities and Limitations for Language Teacher Education” published in The Modern Language Journal. He also co-authored “The Principle-practice Gap: A Methodological Synthesis of Discrepancies Between Narrative Inquiry Ethical Ideals and Actual Reporting Practices” published in Language Teaching. 

Christopher Solís, Ph.D. and postdoctoral scholar Helene Tigro, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “In Silico Conformational Dynamics of the α-actinin-2 actin-binding Domain upon Phosphorylation” published in Biophysical Journal. 

Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and Ph.D. candidate Thomas Bissen co-authored “Obesity and Ventilatory Responses During Exercise in the Fitness Registry and the Importance of Exercise National Database (FRIEND)” published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. 

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “10 Steps to Successfully Developing a New University Program in Kinesiology and Sport Science” published in Quest. 

Ibrahim Yigit, Ph.D., MA and Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) co-authored “Association Between HIV Knowledge and Stigma Among HIV Healthcare Workers in the Dominican Republic: The Role of Empathy and Social Distance” published in Stigma and Health. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) co-authored “Individual and Interpersonal Barriers to Maternal and Neonatal Care in Cameroon” published at the International Journal of Women’s Health. She also co-authored “I Want to Live: A Qualitative Investigation of Barriers and Facilitators to Maintaining Mental Health and ART Adherence in People with HIV in Philadelphia” published in the Journal of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care. 

Anne Coldiron, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored “Visibility: Contingencies, Ruptures, Kinds” as a chapter in the book “The Translator’s Visibility” published by Routledge. She also authored “Translation and Early Printing: Caxton” in volume three of “A Cultural History of Translation” published by Bloomsbury.  

Lindsey Eckert, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored “’Rather Ridicule than Censure’: Lady Caroline Lamb, Frances Arabella Rowden, and the Art of Respectability” published in volume 23 of the Literature Compass journal. 

Stanley Gontarski, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored “Surrealism Re-Viewed: L’Esprit Surréaliste” published in volume 15 of the Humanities journal.  

Robin Goodman, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored the monograph “Milestones in Critical Feminist Theory” published by Routledge. 

Charlie McMartin, Ph.D. (Department of English) co-edited the book “Next-Gen Perspectives on Leadership: Coalitional Strategies for Launching Careers, Renewing Curricula, and Defending Democracy” published with Utah State University Press. 

Charles Upchurch, Ph.D. (Department of History) authored “Claiming the Revolution: Gender, Sexuality and the Radical Promise of 1776” published in Ms. Magazine, as a part of their FEMINIST 250: Founding Feminists series.       

Stephen Tripodi, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article “Sex Differences in the Association Between Childhood Cyberbullying Victimization and College Sexual Assault: Moderating Roles of Parental Monitoring and Relationship with Deviant Peers” published in the journal Violence Against Women. 

Michael Killian, Ph.D., Sonnie Mayewski, MSW, Skyler Brumm, MSW (College of Social Work) and Callie Little, Ph.D. (Florida Center for Reading Research) co-authored the article “Growth Trajectories of Medication Adherence in Pediatric Organ Transplantation and their Relationship to Postransplant Health Outcomes” published in Transplantation Direct. 

Kristy Anderson, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article “National Profile of Adult SSI Recipients with Autism and Intellectual Disability in Medicaid” published in the journal Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH and Ibrahim Yigit, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) co-authored “Association Between HIV Knowledge and Stigma Among HIV Healthcare Workers in the Dominican Republic: The Role of Empathy and Social Distance” in the journal Stigma and Health. 

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ed.D. and Ana Marty, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) authored “Examining the Teaching Practicum in Zambia: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Opportunities” in the Global Education Review. 

Anna Romanova, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) authored “Psycho-Emotional Climate and State of Participants in the Educational Process Amidst Crisis in Ukraine” published in Clinical and Preventive Medicine. She also authored “Model for Managing Psychological Safety and Resilience in Educational Institutions During War” published in University Scientific Notes. 

Sladjana Lukic, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) published “The Production of Clitics in Serbian Speakers with Stroke Aphasia,” providing a sensitive linguistic marker for distinguishing aphasia profiles in Brain Sciences. 

Suvranu De, Sc.D., (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) co-authored the textbook “Quantum Computing for Engineers,” a new guide to translate the principles of quantum mechanics into practical computational tools for engineers, which was published by Springer. 

Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Elizabeth Madden, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) and Lucinda Graven, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) co-authored “Caregiving Burden and Depressive Symptoms in Aphasia Caregivers: The Moderating Role of Friendship Support” in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 

Dawn Carr, Ph.D. (Claude Pepper Center), Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D. and Melissa Radey, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored “Sex Differences in the Association Between Occupational Environment Exposures and Cognitive Function Outcomes in Later Life” in The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Social Sciences. 

Laura Vaughn, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and Kyanna Austin (Department of Student Engagement) authored “Understanding, Discussing, and Embodying Leadership Through Graduate Student Government” published in The Journal of Campus Activities Practice and Scholarship. 

Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and doctoral candidates Sonnie Mayewski and Zhe Yang co-authored “Mental Health, Nonadherence, and Healthcare Utilization in Pediatric Solid Organ Transplantation: Evidence from a Multistate Cohort” published in the journal Pediatric Transplantation. 

Katie Berry, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and Emily Davison, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored “SB 204 Evidence Brief 1: Caregiver Training” which was added to the Child Welfare Information Library and featured in the monthly newsletter. 

Frederick Abbott, J.D, LL.M (College of Law) authored “The WTO TRIPS Agreement in the Post-WTO World: The Emerging Common Law of International IP” published in the journal Trade, Law and Development. He also published his book “Advanced Introduction to Pharmaceutical Law” published by Edward Elgar. 

Erin Ryan, J.D. (College of Law) authored the book “Law for the Land: The Public Trust Doctrine, Mono Lake, and a Quiet Revolution in Environmental Law” published by Cambridge University Press. 

Michael Carrasco, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) authored “The Spread of Cycad Aulacaspis Scale (CAS): Ecological Collapse and Cultural Erosion of Cycas revoluta in the Amami Islands, Japan” published in the South Pacific Studies journal. 

Grace Aneiza Ali, MA (Department of Art) authored “A Curator’s Annotations” published in the art magazine Burnaway. 

Changhyun (Lyon) Nam, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) authored “How People Decide to Protect their Health: A Protection Motivation Theory–Theory of Reasoned Action Perspective” published in the Korean Journal of Health Promotion. 

Bani Malhotra, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-authored “Disability Level and Visibility: Associations with Unmet Academic Accommodation Needs and Attitudes Toward Requesting Accommodations” published by PLos, “The Disability Identity Development Scale-Short Form: Development and Validation in General and TGNB Disability Samples” published in the journal Rehabilitation Psychology, and “Psychological Adjustment in Inpatient Settings” published in the journal Inpatient Neuropsychology. 

PRESENTATIONS 

Nick Freeman, MBA and Diamond Boston (Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement) presented “Not Just a Bridge, but a Launchpad” at the Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience, hosted by the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) co-presented the poster “Nephrology Care and Poverty Among People Living with HIV and End-Stage Kidney Disease” at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. 

Mirine Richey, DrPH, MPH, IBCLC (Research Faculty, Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy) presented the findings from “Breastfeeding Initiation Rate Quality Improvement Project for Tennessee” at the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs Conference in Washington, D.C. 

Charles Upchurch, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented “Claiming the Revolution: Feminists, LGBTQ People, and 1776” at Tallahassee Pridefest. 

JaNiene Peoples, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) presented the posters “Disentangling Daily Between- and Within-Person Dynamics of Racial Discrimination and Alcohol and Cannabis Use Among Black College Students” and “Co-Designing Digital Substance Use Research: Lessons from a Community-Engaged EMA Study with Black College Students” at the American Academy of Health Behavior conference in Austin, Texas. 

Nilay Ozok Gundogan, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented “Noble Descent and Genealogical Claims in Ottoman Kurdistan” during the “Genealogy, Family History, and Life Writing across Early Modern European and Mediterranean Nobilities” panel at the Renaissance Society of America’s Annual Meeting, in San Francisco, California. 

Changhyun (Lyon) Nam, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship), Michael Trammell, Ph.D. (Herbert Wertheim College of Business) and graduate student Cristina Brasfield presented “From Waste into Opportunity: Community-Based Recycling, Upcycling, and Sustainability” at the United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship conference. 

Changhyun (Lyon) Nam, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) and graduate students Cristina Brasfield and Akerke Kuanysh presented “Click, Trust, and Buy: Digital Entrepreneurship and Sustainable Innovation in Secondhand Luxury Platforms,” at the United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship conference. 

Changhyun (Lyon) Nam, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) and graduate student Akerke Kuanysh presented “A Cross-Cultural Study of AI-Driven Feedback for Women’s Empowerment in Entrepreneurship Education” at the United States Association for Small Business & Entrepreneurship conference. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing), co-presented “Alabama Womb2Heart Pilot Randomized Trial for Postpartum Individuals with Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes” at the Society of Maternal and Fetal Medicine Pregnancy Meeting in Las Vegas, NV. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH, Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH (College of Nursing) and Sylvie Naar (College of Medicine) co-presented “HIV Prevention Intervention Pilot Trial: Knowledge, Stigma, and Mistrust” at the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine 2026 Annual Meeting in Seattle, WA.  

Allison McHugh, DNP, MHCDS, RN, NE-BC (College of Nursing) and Manuel A Utset, JD, (College of Law) presented “’Bridging the Gap: Law and Nursing, Reimagined Together’ Empowering Interdisciplinary Health Leaders” at the NAP Annual Meeting & Forum in Indianapolis, IN.  

Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN (College of Nursing) presented “The Heart of the Matter: Promoting Optimal Cardiovascular Health” at the Southeast Regional Clinical and Translational Science Conference. 

Megan Buning, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) presented mental skills training for 780 dentists, hygienists and office workers serving as the keynote speaker for Family Dental Health’s professional learning day in South Carolina. 

Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Engaging the Next Generation of Geoscientists: Summer Camp Partnership for Hands-On Ocean Science Education” at the 2026 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. 

Sladjana Lukic, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Neurolinguistic Profiling of Aphasia Across Subtypes Using Naturalistic Language Sampling” at the Southeast Clinical and Translational Science Alliance Conference.   

Subhasree Sengupta, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Analyzing the Interconnections Between the Multi-level Activity Systems of Deepfake-Infused Co-creation” at the 28th Annual SAIS Conference in Asheville, N.C. 

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ed.D.  (Learning Systems Institute) chaired “Transforming Teacher Education: From Colonial Legacies to Compassionate Pedagogies” and presented “Leveraging Pre-Service Teacher Education to Improve Foundational Learning: Evidence from the Zambia Pre-service Teacher Education Study” at the 2026 CIES Conference in San Francisco. 

Celia Reddick, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Concerted Community Engagement: Refugee Education and Parents’ Daily Acts of Resistance” at the 2026 CIES Conference in San Francisco. 

Kate Schell, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) chaired “Teachers’ and Families’ Perspectives on Language-in-Education Policies” and presented “’Dancing to the Music’ in the Philippines: Local Enactment of Shifting, Ambiguous Language-in-Education Policies” at the 2026 CIES Conference in San Francisco. 

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D., Kate Schell, Ph.D., Celia Reddick, Ph.D., and Adrienne-Barnes-Story, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Multilingual Realities, Monolingual Policies: Translanguaging in Malawi’s Classrooms” at the 2026 CIES Conference in San Francisco. 

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D., Celia Reddick, Ph.D., Adrienne-Barnes-Story, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) and Sana Tibi, Ph.D.(Department of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Refugee Resettlement Amid Anti-Refugee Rhetoric: How Refugee Families Navigate School in a Southeastern US City” and “Refugee Trajectories, Mobility, Aspirations, and Political Constraints” at the 2026 CIES Conference in San Francisco. 

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. and Adrienne-Barnes-Story, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Observing Overcrowded Malawian Classrooms Through the Teaching Through Interactions Framework (TTIF) Lens” at the 2026 CIES Conference in San Francisco. 

Melba Marin-Velasquez, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute), Anairis de la Cruz Benito, Ph.D. (FSU Fellows Society), Ayesha Khurshid, Ph.D., Lama Jaber, Ph.D., and Katherine Yaun, MA (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) presented “Maya Muslim Women as Vulnerable Agents: Teaching & Learning of Maya Medicine in Chiapas, Mexico” at the 2026 CIES Conference in San Francisco. 

Stormy McGivern, MA and Emily Porter (Department of Student Engagement, Office of Student Organizations and Involvement) presented “From Pause to Participation: Enhancing Campus Traditions to Meet the Evolving Needs of Our Students” at the 2026 Association of College Unions International Annual Conference in Pittsburgh. 

Diamond Boston (Center for Academic Retention & Enhancement) co‑presented “Not Just a Bridge, but a Launchpad” at The First-Year Experience Annual Conference. She also presented “First Time in College Success” at the National College Fair. 

Erin Morpeth-Provost, Ph.D. (Counseling & Psychological Services) co-presented the pre-conference session “High Stakes, Human Impact: Trauma-Informed and Collaborative Approaches to Psychiatric Hospitalization in University Counseling Centers” and presented the breakout session “EMDR in a University Counseling Center: Client Outcomes and Practical Use in Response to a Campus Crisis” at the American College Counseling Association annual conference. 

Alice Maxwell (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) co-presented “Using Communications to Support Strategic Problem-Solving and Help Achieve Goals” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference in Kansas City, MO. She also co-presented “Building the Digital Student Affairs Division” at the same conference. 

Amy Hecht, Ed.D. (Vice President for Student Affairs) and Brittany Devies, Ph.D. (Fraternity and Sorority Life) co-presented “Telling Time: Time Management of Women in Senior Student Affairs Roles” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference. 

Brandon Bowden, Ed.D., Zduy Chu, Ed.D. and Carlos Gómez, Ph.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) presented “The Written and Unwritten Role of an AVP during Crisis” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference. 

Brittany Devies, Ph.D. (Fraternity and Sorority Life), Kathy Guthrie, Ph.D. (Anne’s College) presented “Applying Content: Integrating Theory, Design, and Student-Centered Learning” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference. 

Darryl Lovett, Ph.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) presented “The Evolving Nature of the Profession: Exploring the Value of Students Affairs” and co-presented “Centering the Student Affairs Workforce” and “Leveraging On-Campus Professional Development: How SSAOs Create Impactful On-Campus Learning That Drives Staff and Student Success” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference. 

Jordan Felton, Adarius Simpkins and Kendall Harris (Center for Academic Retention & Enhancement) co-presented “Not Just a Checked Box: Underrepresented Graduate Students as Leaders, Advocates, and Policy Influencers” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference. 

Shelley Ducatt, Ph.D. and Haley Gentile, M.S. (Department of Student Support and Transitions) presented “From ‘Hunger’ to ‘Basic Needs’: Lessons from the Evolution of a Campus Food Pantry” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference. 

Shelley Ducatt, Ph.D. (Department of Student Support and Transitions), Amy Haggard, Ph.D.  (Student Conduct and Community Standards) and Rachel Kirshner, J.D. (Office of Investigations and Assessment, DSST) co-presented “Report to Resolution: Leading Organizational Conduct Processes with Purpose and Impact” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference. 

Stefany Moncada and Xiomara Romero (Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement) presented “Thriving Together: Dual-Impact Wellness for Student and Staff Success” at 2026 NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education Annual Conference. 

Nicole Bentze, D.O. (College of Medicine) and medical student Alachua Madison Flowers presented “Gratitude Notes: A Meaningful Tool Enhancing Both Professional and Personal Development of Medical Students and Faculty” at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Conference on Medical School Education. 

Tana Jean Welch, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “HEAL: The Value of a Literary Journal in Medical Education” at the Festival of Creative Arts Health and Humanities Symposium. 

Sylvie Naar, Ph.D. (Center for Translational Behavioral Science) Jessica De Leon, Ph.D. and Terra Bradley, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “Breaking Barriers and Boosting Efficiency: Accelerating Translational Science in the Creation of a New Academic Health Center” at a poster presentation at the Southeast Regional Clinical and Translational Science Awards Conference. 

Christopher Mulrooney, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented the Artifacts of Culture Change pre-conference keynote session titled, “Obstacles & Pathways to Using the Artifacts: A Florida Study of Culture Change Implementation in Real Life” for the 16th Annual Summit of Louisiana Enhancing Aging with Dignity through Empowerment and Respect. 

Rodney Reeves, Ph.D. (Department of Classics) presented “Toxic Waters of Constantinople: A Reassessment of the Sixth Century Demographic Collapse Through Lead Contamination in Civic Hydraulic Infrastructure” at the Archaeological Institute of America & The Society for Classical Studies 2026 Annual Meeting. 

Marissa Hershon, MA (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “Cedar Hill’s Reception Room: An Egyptian Revival Interior in New England” at the Historic Deerfield-Wellesley College annual symposium. 

Michael Carrasco, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) presented “Las Formas Del Dios: Materialidad, Iconografía, y Presencia en el Mundo Mesoamericano” (The Forms of God: Materiality, Iconography and Presence in the Mesoamerican World) at the 8º Ciclo de Conferencias: Etnoarqueología, Cosmovisión e Iconografía de las Divinidades, held at the Museo del Templo Mayor-INAH in Mexico City. He also co-presented “Invasiones Biológicas en el Antropoceno: El Colapso de Patrimonio Biocultural en las Islas Amami, Japón” (Biological Invasions in the Anthropocene: The Collapse of Biocultural Patrimony in the Amami Islands of Japan) at the Escuela Nacional de Estudios Superiores Morelia in Indeco la Huerta, Mexico. 

David Gussak, Ph.D. (Institute for the Arts and Art Therapy with the Imprisoned) presented “Creativity in an Uncreative Space: Arts and Art Therapy with the Imprisoned” after coordinating a 6-week long exhibition of work from incarcerated artists at Madison Correctional Institution. 

Sharanya Jayaraman, Ph.D. and Christopher Mills, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) presented their poster “CS1 in the AI Era: Boundaries, Practice, and Conceptual Mastery,” at the 2026 Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, a leading international conference on computer science education. 

Jean Young, MA, (FSU Museum of Fine Arts) presented “The Simple Secrets of Success: Points to Consider When Applying for an Art Show” at a monthly meeting of the Artists’ League of the Big Bend. 

Terry Londy, MA, (Department of Interior Architecture & Design) presented “How Can a Poster Create a Deeper Connection to the Viewer Through Adding Dimensionality and Materials?” at the Design Principles and Practices Research Conference in Rome, Italy. He also presented “Elective Classes that Can Elevate Student Design Portfolios, Setting Them Apart from the Competition,” “Northstar Center, a Midcentury Exercise in Lessons Learned: A Case Study,” and “Experiential Graphics in Trauma-Informed Design: A Case Study,” at the Interior Design Educators Council Conference at Columbia College, Chicago. 

Nicole Bentze, D.O., FAAFP, FAMWA, Shermeeka Hogans-Mathews M.D., FAAFP (College of Medicine) and medical student Profilia Nord presented “Mental Health Stigma, Help-Seeking Behaviors, and Barriers to Mental Health Care Among Family Medicine Physician Educators” at the 2026 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Conference on Medical Student Education. 

Nicole Bentze, D.O., FAAFP, FAMWA (College of Medicine) participated in a panel discussion on “Supporting Students Through the SOAP Process” at the 2026 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Conference on Medical Student Education. 

Joanne Saxour, M.D., FAAFP (College of Medicine) participated in a roundtable discussion about “Teaching Office Procedures to Medical Students Using Non-Animal Materials” and presented “Impact of Mid-Rotation Formative Assessment on Medical Student Performance in a Family Medicine Clerkship: A Comparative Study” at the 2026 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Conference on Medical Student Education.   

Kehinde Ishangi, MFA (School of Dance) presented “Embodying the Black Dance Legacy” at the International Association of Blacks in Dance Conference, “Soul to Sole” in Atlanta, GA. 

Kehinde Ishangi, MFA (School of Dance) presented “Embodying Functional Anatomy in Ballet Technique” at the American College Dance Association held at Brenau University in Gainesville, GA. 

Flavia Ramos-Mattousi, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Reimagining Visual Dialogue in Community Health and Education: Integrating Hand-Drawn and Ai-Generated Images in the Fotodialogo Method” and “Re-Imagining Visual Dialogue: Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Arts-Based Research Through the Fotodialogo Method” at the INTED 2026 conference in Valencia, Spain. 

Kaylee Webb, MS (Career Center) participated in a roundtable discussion hosted by RippleMatch, discussed the evolving education-to-employment landscape, critical gaps and transitions from academic institutions to the workforce, and the new definition of “job-ready” in today’s labor market. 

Carrie Ann Baade, MFA, (Department of Art) curated and hosted “Horizons: Women’s Voices”, an International Women’s Day gathering on Vision Train, an online global community for artists.   

Daniel Luedtke, MFA, (Department of Art) presented “MAKERS SPACE: Ceramic Hydrographics” at the 60th Annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference “Volumes”. 

Bani Malhotra, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-presented “From Setbacks to Strengths: Role of Positive Psychology Constructs in Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation” at the Annual Meeting of the APA Division of Rehabilitation Psychology. 

Jen Atkins, Ph.D. (School of Dance) delivered an invited lecture on Mardi Gras history at the Hermann-Grima + Gallier Historic Houses Museum in New Orleans. 

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES 

Daniel Smith, MME (School of Dance) performed Andrew Lloyd Webber’s symphonic suites (The Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard) with the Panama City Symphony. 

Carrie Ann Baade, MFA (Department of Art) presented a solo exhibition “The Heretical Body” at Gulf Coast State College’s Amelia Center Gallery. 

Jiha Moon (College of Fine Arts) had her work “Blue Face Jug (Daughter of Sea king)” shown at Derek Eller Gallery during Frieze Los Angeles, a leading international contemporary art fair. 

Alena Mehić, MFA (College of Fine Arts) had her work featured in “Heirlooms: Strange Logics of Inheritance” at Wavelength Space in Chattanooga, TN. 

Marty Fielding, MFA, (Department of Art) was featured in “Artstream” at the 60th Annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference, “Volumes” in Detroit. 

Jonathan Christensen Caballero, MFA, (Department of Art) was featured in three exhibitions as part of the 60th Annual National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Conference: “Volumes” in Detroit. These were ‘A Human Experience’ at Sisson Gallery, Henry Ford College, “Dead Center”, a group exhibition with University of Kansas faculty, alumni, and resident artists and “Turn Up the Volume!” at The Carr Center.   

Lilian Garcia-Roig, MFA, (Department of Art) had her work “Hyphenated Nature: Northern Florida-Cuban Painting Relations (after Carta)” featured in the “Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way” exhibition at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. 

Carrie Ann Baade, MFA, and Katie Kehoe, MFA, (Department of Art) exhibited their work in the College Art Association Parallel Worlds exhibition. 

Meredith Lynn, MFA, (Department of Art) had her work “Bad Outdoorsmen (Jackson’s West)” exhibited at the “Hunter Invitational V” group exhibition at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga, TN. 

SERVICE 

Annie Wofford, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was appointed to the editorial board for Research in Higher Education. 

Kathleen Powers Conti, Ph.D. (Department of History) served on the program committee for the 2026 joint conference between the National Council on Public History and the American Association for State and Local History. 

Abby Cloud Langdon (New Student Family Programs) served as an Attendee Experience Co-Chair at the inaugural 2026 Spring Learning Conference with NODA – Association for Orientation, Transition, and Retention in Higher Education. 

Ransome Eke, M.D., Ph.D. (College of Medicine) is serving as a board member of the Capital Area Healthy Start Coalition. 

Joedrecka Brown Speights, M.D. (College of Medicine) served as Doctor of the Day in the Florida Senate. 

Bill Boyer, DHSc (College of Medicine) was recently appointed to the National Association of Designated Institutional Officials’ Education Committee, further advancing FSU’s national presence in Graduate Medical Education. 

Ben Wicker (University Housing) completed his three-year term within the presidential cycle for the Southeastern Association of Housing Officers (SEAHO). He led agreements with the international governing body for continuing education credits through SEAHO’s annual conferences and brokered an agreement to utilize investment fund returns for its members to attend events for both organizations as the first region to do so. 

Shermeeka Hogans-Mathews, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) graduated from the Leadership Education for Academic Development and Success Fellowship Program and spoke at the Association of Departments of Family Medicine Annual Meeting in Orlando. 

NOTABLE 

Megan Buning, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) completed the national Mental Health First Aid Youth Instructor training and now holds a certification through the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. 

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) was part of a delegation who met with the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Panama. 

Celia Reddick, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) chaired the business meeting for the Language Issues SIG at the 2026 CIES Conference in San Francisco. 

Annie Booth, MA (Museum of Fine Arts) co-juried the 39th Annual Mahaska Whitley Student Juried Exhibition, at LeMoyne Arts. 

Daniel Smith, MME (School of Dance) accompanied two master classes taught by nia love, MFA (School of Dance) at Shenandoah Conservatory in Winchester, VA. 

Katie Kehoe, MFA (College of Fine Arts) attended the Partnership for Academic Leadership in Sustainability summit in New York. This summit brought together faculty and staff from across the U.S, Canada and Ireland to share strategies, approaches, and resources for teaching sustainable practices in higher education. 

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs March 2026 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

ARCHIVE

HONORS AND AWARDS

Lina Rojas, MAAPP (Office of Governmental Relations) was honored by the News Service of Florida in the digital feature “2025 News Service of Florida 40 Under 40,” which highlights 40 rising stars under the age of 40 in government, business and advocacy.

Michael D. Carrasco, Ph.D. (College of Fine Arts) and FSU alumnus Joshua Englehardt, Ph.D. (Department of Anthropology) had their paper “Threats to Cycad Biocultural Heritage in the Amami Islands, Japan” awarded with the 19th Plant Species Biology Best Paper Award in the Journal Plant Species Biology.

Panayotis League, Ph.D. (College of Music) was recognized with a Bronze Medal from the Global Music Awards for his album “Bedroom Volume,” which was the only album in the Indie category to receive honors in the Winter 2025-2026 cycle.

Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN (College of Nursing) was nominated and inducted into Sigma Xi (The Scientific Research Honor Society) in recognition of scholarly achievements and contributions to the advancement of knowledge.

Alexandra Yeager (Fraternity and Sorority Life) was recognized as Advisor of the Year for the Southern Region by the Order of Omega.

Brittany Devies, Ph.D. (Fraternity and Sorority Life) was awarded the 2026 Outstanding Fraternity/Sorority Advisor Award by Alpha Chi Omega National Headquarters.

Clair Bailey, M.S. (University Housing) with assistance from student Resident Assistants, received the NASPA-FL Program of Distinction Award: Housing, Residence Life, Contracted Services, Student Conduct, for the October program they created on wellness, “Escape the Haunted Habits.”

GRANTS

Christopher Solís, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) is a co-awardee on a Networking Mini-Grant sponsored by the Biophysical Society, which will help organize the FSU networking event “The Exhaustive Chase: Investigation of Striated Muscle Regulation in Health and Disease.”

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing), Sylvie Naar, Ph.D. and Iván Balán, Ph.D. (Center for Translational Behavioral Science) were awarded a three-year R01 grant totaling $616,000 from the National Institutes of Health for their study “Healthy Choices to Reduce Stigma and Improve Self-Management of Alcohol and HIV among Young Adults”.

BYLINES

Joseph Watso, Ph.D. and Jonathan Hoch (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Can We Protect Our Hearts by Sweating Out Excess Sodium?” published in Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews.

Joseph Watso, Ph.D., Jonathan Hoch, Christin Domeier (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and FSU alumna Pannonica Silvestri co-authored “Prognostic Value of Exercise Blood Pressure: Role of Fitness and Exercise Training,” published in Heart and Circulatory Physiology.

Adrienne-Barnes-Story, Ph.D., Kate Schell, Ph.D. and Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored “Pedagogical Practices in Overcrowded Classrooms: Evidence from Education Stakeholders in Malawi,” published in Current Issues in Comparative Education.

Matt Schmidli, Ph.D. (School of Theatre) published Issue 40.1 of the “Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism,” edited by Aaron Thomas (School of Theatre).

Kristy Anderson, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored “Antipsychotic Drug Prescriptions for Transition-age Youth on the Autism Spectrum,” published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Melissa Radey, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored “Complex Relationships Between Justice and Injustice in Organizations: Reducing Work-Related Burnout Among Child Welfare Workers,” published in Human Service Organizations.

Yaccov Petscher, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored “Peer Assisted Writing Strategies for Kindergarten: An Efficacy Study,” published in Scientific Studies of Reading.

Hugh Catts, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information), Yaacov Petscher, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and Ashley Edwards, Ph.D. (Florida Center for Reading Research) co-authored “Evaluation of the Consistency of Speech Verification System with Human Raters in Early Literacy Screening Assessment,” published in Frontiers of Education.

Terri Bourus, Ph.D. (Department of English) wrote the article review “Henry IV: Falstaff in Brooklyn,” published in volume 43 of the Shakespeare Bulletin journal by Johns Hopkins University Press. Bourus’ essay reviewing Jonathan Lamb’s book, “How the World Became a Book in Shakespeare’s England” was also published in volume 48 of Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme.

Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) co-authored “Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Initial Evidence for Enhancing Problem-Solving in Rural Heart Failure Dyads,” published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. These findings support the potential benefit of dyadic problem-solving interventions in improving problem solving, HF self-care, and depressive symptoms, especially in rural patients.

Lauren Stanley, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored “Patience and Protocol: Advice to Newly Hired Child Welfare Workers from Experienced Colleagues,” published in the Journal of Public Child Welfare.

Nicholas Mazza, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) authored the poems, “Prayer for Ukraine,” published in the Journal of Family Social Work. Mazza also authored “Hand and Heart of Healing” and “Consultation,” both published in Fresh Words: An International Literary Magazine.

Qinchun Rao, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Pelagic Sargassum as a Sustainable Source of Food-Grade Alginate: Selective Functional Modulation by High-Pressure Processing and Sonication,” published in Food Hydrocolloids; “Quantitative Western Blot Assay for the Detection of Chicken Serum Albumin (Gal d 5),” published in Food Chemistry; and “Immunological and Proteomic Characterization of Food Allergens in Almond Hulls,” published in Sustainable Food Proteins.

Helene Tigro, Ph.D., Michelle Parvatiyar, Ph.D. and Christopher Solís, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Desensitization of the Cardiac Troponin Complex by TnI Phosphorylation and Epigallocatechin-3-Gallate,” published in ACS Omega and highlighted on the cover of Volume 11, Issue 1.

Tenley Bick, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) published her essay “Armatures of a Different Value, of Boundless Feeling: The Art of Buzz Spector” in the exhibition catalog for “Buzz Spector’s Recto | Verso” at Zolla / Lieberman Gallery in Chicago.

Lorenzo Pericolo, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) published the book “Deleuze’s Modern Baroque: The Fold, Leibniz, the Formless, and the Objectile.”

Allison Menezes, M.D., Nicole Bentze, D.O. (College of Medicine) and alumna Britany Long, M.D. (Class of ’25) co-authored “Quantifying Patient Interest in Plant-Based Diets in Primary and Specialty Medical Practices” published in the International Journal of Disease Regression and Prevention.

Andrew Epstein, Ph.D. (Department of English) had his essay “William James, Attention, and Post-1945 American Poetry” published by the Cambridge University Press in the book, “William James and Literary Studies.”

Laura Greene, Ph.D. (Department of Physics and National High Magnetic Field Laboratory) co-authored a National Science Foundation-funded report on Reproducibility in Condensed Matter Physics.

PRESENTATIONS

Erika Loic, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) presented “Monstrous Conquests in Medieval Iberia: The Aquelarre Tabletop Roleplaying Game and Its Bestiarium Hispaniae” at the Medieval + Monsters Conference, hosted at Dominican University and the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Jack Krebs, MA (Academic Center for Excellence) presented “Navigating Policy and Practice for the ‘Maxed Out’ Dual Enrollment Student” at the Florida Alliance of Dual Enrollment Partnerships conference held at Indian River State College.

Jen Atkins, Ph.D. (School of Dance) spoke in the Gallier Gatherings Series at the Hermann-Grima Gallier Historic Houses Museum in New Orleans.

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) presented “Pilot Implementation of Nurse-Physician Phone Support Intervention for Maternity Health Worker” and “Womb2Heart Pilot Randomized Trial for Postpartum Individuals with Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes” at the Society of Maternal and Fetal Medicine Pregnancy Meeting.

Denise Bookwalter, MFA (Department of Art) presented about the Small Craft Advisory Press at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts and the University of Nebraska Omaha.

Jessica Bahorski, Ph.D., APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP (College of Nursing) co-presented “Postpartum Depression Screening by Pediatric Clinicians in North-Central Florida” at the 10th annual Perinatal Mental Health Conference, Florida Maternal Mental Health Collaborative.

Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D. and Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented research findings on their study on large class sizes in Malawi and how to go about teaching students in these environments. Results were reported on by The Daily Times in Malawi.

Meghan Mick, MLA and Kelley Robinson, MFA (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) presented their paper “Grounded Learning” at the National Conference on the Beginning Design Student.

Lynn Jones, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) presented a section of her book in the paper “Imperial Imagery in the Province: The Case of the ‘White Bearded’ Unknown Saint in Cappadocia” at the 51st Annual Byzantine Studies Conference.

Nicole Bentze, D.O. (College of Medicine) and Giovana Perez-Oliveras (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) were speakers for “Arts & Healthcare: The Human Side of Healing,” hosted by the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County.

Shermeeka Hogans-Mathews, M.D. and Nicole Bentze, D.O. (College of Medicine) were selected to present their lecture “Mental Health Stigma, Help-Seeking Behaviors, & Barriers to Mental Health Care Among Family Medicine Physician Educators” at the 2026 Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Conference.

Nell Robinson (University Health Services) presented “REACH Beyond the Office: Expanding Prevention Through Collaborative Partnerships” at the 2026 NASPA Strategies Conference in Chicago.

Amy Magnuson, Ph.D., RD, LD/N, Nell Robinson and Zabe Thompson, MPH (University Health Services) presented a concurrent session “From Listening to Leading: Using Qualitative Data to Re-Envision Campus Health and Wellness” at the 2026 NASPA Strategies Conference in Chicago.

Rachel Blakesley, Ph.D. (Student Conduct and Community Standards) presented her doctoral work, “Turn It Up: Amplifying Historically Marginalized Students’ Experiences with Interpersonal Conflict in the Residence Halls,” at the Association for Student Conduct Administration’s annual conference.

Nina Davis, MS, Lynn Sleeth, RN, BSN, MSN and Warren Oliver, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) co-presented the panel discussion “Implementing Self-Directed Learning Strategies to Bridge the Gap Between Foundational Nursing Knowledge and NCLEX Readiness” at the 39th International Society for Self-Directed Learning Symposium in Cocoa Beach, FL.

Robert Hanna (Learning Systems Institute) presented at the FSU Law School’s AI Day in the Capital.

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Jean Shon, MFA, (Department of Art) opened her solo exhibition “Bleed” at Atlanta Contemporary in Atlanta, GA.

Matt Schmidli, MFA (School of Theatre) began producing and directing a narrative short film called “Arizona,” a modern western with principal photography.

Denise Bookwalter, MFA (Department of Art/ Small Craft Advisory Press) exhibited a collection of Small Craft Advisory Press publications at the CODEX International Book Fair and Symposium in San Francisco, CA.

Katie Kehoe, MFA (Department of Art) exhibited her work in “Parallel Works” and participated in the Artists’ Roundtable presentation at the College Art Association Conference in Chicago. Kehoe also exhibited three works in the juried group exhibition “Ancestral Futures,” curated by artist and ceramicist Donté K. Hayes, at ARC Gallery in Chicago, IL.

Carrie Ann Baade, MFA (Department of Art) exhibited work within “Visionary Voices: Echoes of Inner Worlds” on view at the Leonora Carrington Museum in Xilitla, Mexico.

Monika Gossman (School of Theatre) finished principal photography of the feature film “STRIPPED.” She was also a finalist at the Los Angeles International Screenplay Awards with short film script “Lemonade.”

Chari Arespacochaga, MFA (School of Theatre) directed “Primary Trust” at the Asolo Repertory Theatre and serves on the organizing committee of Performance Studies International in Jacarta.

Jamie Ho, MFA (Department of Art) participated in a panel and had her work featured in the exhibition “Becoming Sticky: Equatorial Vision” during the Decolonization and Global Justice Conference at the University of Oregon’s Erb Memorial Union.

Meredith Lynn, MFA (Department of Art) was featured in “The Hunter Invitational V” group exhibition at the Hunter Museum of American Art.

Liliya Ugay (College of Music) premiered her one-act opera “Thirty Angels” at the 2026 National Opera Association Conference to a sold-out audience. She was also honored to serve as a keynote speaker for the Composition in Asia Symposium at the University of South Florida. As a part of the symposium, she performed her monodrama “Chhlong Tonle” at Zinober Concert Hall.

Tom Welsh, Ph.D. (School of Dance) completed an editorial review of the manuscript “Interdisciplinary Research on DanceSport and Sports Biomechanics . . .” for the International Journal of Dance Medicine & Science.

nia love, MFA (School of Dance) was selected as a teaching guest artist for Movement Research’s Summer MELT program in New York, NY. She also completed production on the feature documentary “Let the Eagle Scream.”

Iain Quinn, Ph.D. (College of Music) was a Visiting Scholar at the University of St. Andrews and gave a lecture for the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts in addition to teaching and performing an organ recital. He also performed a recital at St. Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh. His most recent CD, “Poulenc, Hindemith, Pinkham: Works for Organ and Orchestra,” recorded with the English Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ken Woods, has been released on ESO Records.

SERVICE

Jen Gillette, MFA (School of Theatre) served as the Costume Designer for Primary Trust at the Asolo Repertory Theatre.

Mora Beauchamp-Byrd, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) served as a panelist at the conference “Why Black Museums: Other Geographies, New Fields” at the University of Texas at Austin.

Christopher Solís, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) served on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant study section “Basic Biology of Blood, Heart, and Vasculature” which scores grants submitted to the NIH for extramural funding of research projects.

Tiffany Rhynard, MFA (School of Dance) attended the Dance on Camera Film Festival at Symphony Space in New York City as Vice President of the Board. She also received an artist residency at the Azule Art Residency Center.

Stephanie Sickler, MFA (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) was inducted into the Council of Fellows of the Interior Design Educators Council.

Felicia Williams, Ph.D. (Department of Student Engagement) was elected as the 2026 chair-elect of the Leadership Education Member Community for International Leadership Association and will transition to hold the chair position in 2027.

Kathleen Powers Conti, Ph.D. (Department of History) was selected to participate in “Whose History, Whose Voice? The Future of Interpreting Enslavement at Historic Sites,” a year long working group with the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture at William & Mary.

Sabrina L. Dickey, Ph.D., MSN, RN (College of Nursing) was selected for the Board of Directors for Big Bend AHEC/Big Bend Rural Health Network.

Lauren Gillis, MFA (School of Theatre) served as Vice President of Conferences for the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance, planning and producing the 2026 International Conference in San Diego.

Marlo Ransdell, Ph.D. (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) co-led the event “It’s the Weather” at the Challenger Center of Tallahassee for the 2026 Festival of the Creative Arts.

Christina Parker-Flynn, Ph.D. (Department of English) was elected president of the Literature/Film Association, the largest and most active scholarly organization in the United States dedicated to the study of literature and film.

Julie Decker, M.Ed. (Division of University Advancement) participated in the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) District III conference. Decker served on the CASE DII Cabinet as a roundtable host for Newcomers to the profession and a session host for Board Recruitment and Management. Additionally, Decker served on the board at the Winter Institute for CAAE (Council of Alumni Association Executives) as the Chair of the Governance Committee.

Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) recently participated in an Institute for Successful Longevity sponsored panel discussion, alongside Dawn Carr, Ph.D. (Claude Pepper Center) and special guest speaker, Dr. Ken Langa on “Staying Sharp and Connected: What Science Says About Aging Well” at the Tallahassee Senior Center. The event was moderated by Zhe He, Ph.D. (Institute for Successful Longevity).

NOTABLE

Julianna Baggott, MFA (College of Motion Picture Arts) had her short story “Attachment Parenting” picked up by Amazon MGM with Davis Entertainment producing, for TV adaptation.

Tiffany Rhynard, MFA (School of Dance) had her feature documentary gain new screening licenses in Australia, Ireland, Luxembourg, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States through Kanopy Educational Distribution. Her other feature documentary “Not My Enemy” reached more than 4,600 viewers streaming on KweliTV. She also completed principal photography for the feature documentary “The Mirage.”

Kevin Jones, Ph.D. and Bill Peterson, M.M. (College of Music) have released a new single on all streaming platforms. They have also been invited to perform a recital at the 2026 International Trombone Festival in Riga, Latvia.

Tim Glenn, MFA (School of Dance) created 22 costumes for Days of Dance and finalized a 72-page DanceScript pre-visualization for his new work, “Hammers, Sticks, & Strings.”

Helanius J. Wilkins, MFA (School of Dance) completed his Green Box Residency in Green Mountain Falls, CO, with a performance of his work “The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging.”

Laura Greene, Ph.D. (Department of Physics / National High Magnetic Field Laboratory) was appointed to be a part of the consensus study “On Being a Scientist Panel on Responsible Conduct and Stewardship of the Research Process” with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Jen Atkins, Ph.D. (School of Dance) was appointed Executive Co-Editor of “Dance Research Journal.” Atkins was also named Vice President for Awards for the Popular Culture/American Culture Association.

Casey Dozier, Ph.D. (Career Center) was chosen to participate in the 2026 Career Teaching Academy Cohort at the National Career Development Association Conference for select career practitioners in higher education who teach undergraduate career exploration and planning courses.

Tom Welsh, Ph.D. (School of Dance) assisted a young dance science researcher at Elon University in preparing a competitive proposal for the Leadership Alliance Summer Research-Early Identification Program.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to tfordyce@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs February 2026 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

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HONORS AND AWARDS

Sladjana Lukic, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) was awarded the National Institutes  of Health / National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences K12 Multidisciplinary Program Career Development Award for her project “Neurolinguistic Investigations of Aphasia and Typical Language Processing.” The project aims to compare different speech elicitation methods in capturing key linguistic variables across core language processing domains and explore their neural correlates to improve diagnosis in people with post-stroke and primary progressive aphasias.

Alicia Craig-Rodriguez, DNP, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, DIPACLM (College of Nursing) was awarded Fellow status by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine in recognition of her outstanding achievement in the field of lifestyle medicine and her exceptional dedication to advancing the mission of the college.

Celia Reddick, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) was awarded a 2026-28 Jacobs Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Fellowship. The program supports researchers whose work advances understanding of how children and youth learn and develop across contexts and systems.

Elizabeth McQueen, Ph.D. (School of Theatre) received the Cambridge University Press Prize at the American Society for Theatre Research annual conference in Denver for her plenary paper “Changing Taste: The Performance of Terroir in the Illicit Gin Assemblies.”

Yushun Dong, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) was awarded the BlueSky Track Second Prize at the 2025 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) International Conference on Data Mining for his paper “Navigating Between Explainability and Extractability in Machine Learning as a Service” which identified fundamental tension in modern machine learning systems.

Jamie Ho, MFA (Department of Art) was named this year’s Fellowship International Award Recipient by Silver Eye Center for Photography.

Aaron C. Thomas, Ph.D. (School of Theatre) was recognized with the Publishing Subvention Award for his new book “The Violate Man: Male/Male Rape in the American Imagination” at the American Society for Theatre Research annual conference in Denver.

Charles E. Brewer, Ph.D. (College of Music) is a co-recipient of the American Musicological Society’s  2025 Noah Greenberg Award for the project “ReSounding Habsburg Balletti.”

Shannon Staten, Ph.D. (University Housing) was awarded the 2025 Florida Housing Officers Impact Award by the Florida Housing Officers Association. Staten was also recognized by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Housing Directors for her 12 years of service and dedication to the athletes of the ACC.

Aimée Boutin, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) received the Modern Language Association -EBSCO Collaboration for Information Literacy Prize for her collaborative work in creating the FSU course, FRT 3503 Paris World Capital, presented at the Modern Language Association convention in Toronto, Canada.

Amber Ward, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) was awarded a full year sabbatical in 2026/27 to advance her craft-oriented research.

GRANTS

Elizabeth Madden, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) is a co-investigator on a newly awarded High Priority, Short Term project (R56) grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders working on the research project “Evidence-Based Modeling Approaches to Customizing Treatments for Acquired Dyslexia.”

Christopher Solís, Ph.D. (Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Sciences) is a co-awardee in a Networking Mini-Grant sponsored by the Biophysical Society. This grant will help organize the networking event at FSU entitled “The Exhaustive Chase: Investigation of Striated Muscle Regulation in Health and Disease.”

Lisa Hightow-Weidman, M.D., MPH, Casey D. Xavier Hall, Ph.D., MPH, Eugenia Flores Millender, Ph.D., R.N., PMH-APRN, FAAN, FAANP, Frank “Frankie” Y. Wong, Ph.D. and Jean-Marc Wise, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) were awarded a $2,277,208.00 million Food and Drug Administration (FDA) research and development contract for the project “Modernizing and Decentralizing Clinical Trials with AI, Digital Health, and Community-Driven Innovation to Deliver Better Health for All Americans.

BYLINES

Thayumanasamy Somasundaram, Ph.D. (Institute of Molecular Biophysics) and David S. Butcher, Ph.D. (National High Magnetic Field Laboratory) published “Regional and National Shared Research Resources: Challenges and Opportunities” in the Journal of Biomolecular Techniques.

Braidyn Lazenby, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) published “Informal Caregiver Uncertainty: Exploring the Presence of Uncertainty in Eating Disorder Reddit Posts” in the Journal of Eating Disorders.

Shannon Hall-Mills, Ph.D. and Lakeisha Johnson (School of Communication Science and Disorders) co-published a research article based on their seed grant from FSU-CRC titled “The KASE for Telepractice” in the Journal of Communication Disorders.

David E. Landau, J.D., Ph.D. (College of Law) co-authored the article “The Democratic Minimum Core” for the Democracy Project by NYU Law.

Brian G. Slocum, J.D., Ph.D. (College of Law) co-published “Pragmatic Textualism” in the Duke Law Journal.

Melba Marin-Velasquez, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) authored “A Flight of Imagination into Temazcal Relationality: A Journey Into Research as a More Relational Process with Community Knowledge Co-Creators” in Departures in Critical Qualitative Research.

Colleen Ganley, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored the article “Girls and Boys Solve Math Problems Differently — With Similar Short-Term Results but Different Long-Term Outcome”  published in The Conversation.

Rob Schoen, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored the article “Effects of a Professional Development Program on Teacher Beliefs about Mathematics Teaching and Learning After One and Two Years: An Experimental Study” published in Teaching and Teacher Education.

Setor K. Sorkpor, Ph.D., MPH, MSN, RN, Ibrahim Yigit, Ph.D. and Yijiong Yang, Ph.D., MHA (College of Nursing) co-authored “Experienced and Anticipated HIV-Related Stigma and Depression Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women Living with HIV in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana: The Role of Internalized HIV Stigma in BMC Public Health Examining HIV-Related Stigma and Depressive Symptoms Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women Living with HIV” in BMC Public Health.

Yang Wang, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science) co-authored the paper “Diets and Environments of Late Pleistocene Pygmy and Columbian Mammoths: Isotopic Evidence from Southern California” published in PLOS ONE.

Terri Bourus, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored the chapter “Theatrical Environments” in the book “Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Early Modern Authorship.”

Jeff Chanton, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science) co-authored “Drought-induced Peatland Carbon Loss Exacerbated by Elevated CO2 and Warming” which focuses on peatland carbon cycle changes, published in volume 390 of Science. Chanton also co-authored “A Climatically Significant Abiotic Mechanism Driving Carbon Loss and Nitrogen Limitation in Peat Bogs” which focuses on abiotic carbon loss and nitrogen limitation in peat bogs, published in volume 15 of Scientific Reports.

Gary Taylor, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored the chapter “The Politics of Attribution” in the book “Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Early Modern Authorship.”

Charles Upchurch, Ph.D. (Department of History) authored “Researching the History of the Southern Conference on British Studies” at the request of the North American Conference on British Studies as a part of the celebrations of the NACBS’s 75th anniversary.

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) co-authored “Art-Making as Spiritual Practice” and was interviewed on the New Books Network podcast episode “New Books in Secularism.”

Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored “Exploring the Implementation Functions of Older Adults’ Participation in Age-Friendly Community Initiatives,” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Stanley Gontarski, Ph.D. (Department of English) had his essay, “Who Wrote Godot?, or Beckett’s Bad Quartos” published in volume 11 of Skenè: Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies, “What Is the Word: Late Beckett Throbbing Between Drama and Poetry.” He also had his article “A Theatre of Boredom and Theatrical Distrust (André Gregory, Chekhov and Beckett)” published in The Theatre Times.

Kaela Byers, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the poster “Putting Families First: Early Impact of Family First Prevention Services on Family Well-Being” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Christopher Solís, Ph.D. (Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Sciences) published “Desensitization of the Cardiac Troponin Complex by TnI Phosphorylation and Epigallocatechin-3-gallate” published by the American Chemical Society.

Sonnie Mayewski, MSW and Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “Telehealth’s Promise and Limits: Trends and Disparities in Pediatric Preventive Care Access, 2021-2023” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) authored the article “Using Experimental Research Designs to Evaluate Social Work Practice in China” published in the China Journal of Social Work. Thyer also authored the book chapter “The Intersections of Behavioral Analysis and Social Work” published in the book “Applied Behavior Analysis for Business and Technology Applications.”

Gashaye Malaku Tefera, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored “COVID-19 and Immigrant Status: A Qualitative Study of Malawian Immigrants Living in South Africa” published in the European Journal of Public Health.

Tanya Renn, Ph.D. and Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Margarita Amado-Blanco, MSW and Savannah Smith, MSW (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children) co-authored the article “Adapting Trauma-Informed Group Therapy Treatment: Applying the ADAPT-ITT Framework” published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma.

Daejin Kim, Ph.D. (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) published “Evaluating Innovative Design Strategies in a Maternity Unit: A Post-Occupancy Evaluation Approach” in HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal.

Gashaye Tefera, Ph.D. and Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW (College of Social Work) co-authored the article “‘I’d Rather Sit at Home and Suffer in Silence’: Black Women’s Experiences with Weight Stigma” published as an advance online publication in the APA PsycArticles.

Tom Welsh, Ph.D. (School of Dance) received final acceptance for two empirical research studies involving FSU dancers, to be published in the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science. Lead authors are Casey Copeland, MA (School of Dance) (“Mental Resilience Training for Dancers”) and Kaitlin Morgan (“Développé Training for Dancers.”)

Lisa Schelbe, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the poster “Transforming Higher Education to Support Student-Parents” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Katie Berry, Ph.D., Emily Davidson, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) and Lauren Herod, MSW/MBA (College of Social Work) co-authored “How Do Child Welfare Policymakers Use Research in Decision-Making? A Use of Research Evidence Qualitative Study” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Gashaye Malaku Tefera, Ph.D. and Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “”Forget It. I’m Not Going to See Another Provider” the Intersection of Weight Stigma and Healthcare Access for Black Women” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Lisa Schelbe, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “Exploring the Impact of a Multisite Student Parent Advisory Board across Campus Communities: An Ethnographic Case Study” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Lauren Stanley, Ph.D. and Jiwon Speers, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the presentation “Validation of the Belonging Barometer with Child Welfare Workers” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Kaela Byers, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “Impact Evaluation of the Saint Francis Fatherhood FIRE Program on Father Engagement and Family Outcomes” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “Social Networks as an Engagement Strategy in Child Maltreatment Prevention Programs: A Scoping Review” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Gashaye Malaku Tefera, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “‘I  Would Rather Sit at Home and Suffer in Silence’: Perceptions, Experiences and Impacts of Weight Stigma Among Low-Income Black Women in Missouri” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Tenley Bick, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) published her essay “Armatures of Different Value, of Boundless Feeling: The Art of Buzz Spector” in the exhibition catalog for “Buzz Spector: Recto | Verso,” opening at Zolla/Lieberman’s south location in Chicago. The essay is the sole critical text in the catalog.

Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D. and Manjun Kim, MA (College of Social Work) co-authored the poster “Health, Support, and Service Needs of Older Adult Kinship Caregivers in Florida: Preliminary Findings from the Oak Project” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Lauren Herod, MSW, Lauren Stanley, Ph.D. and Emily Davidson, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the poster “Self-Care Practices over Time Among Child Welfare Workers: A Longitudinal Growth Curve Analysis” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

John Moore, Ph.D. and Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “Substance Use Screening Among Older Adults: Associations with Substance Type and Healthcare Setting” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

John Moore, Ph.D., JaNiene Peoples, Ph.D. and Tanya Renn, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “Service Utilization and Screening Among U.S. College Students with Substance Use Disorder” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Chelsea Brass, Ph.D., MPA (Florida Institute for Child Welfare, FSU College of Social Work) co-authored “Exploring the Link Between Relationship Cycling and Aggression in Challenging Romantic Relationships” published in the Journal of Family Violence.

Megan Vogt, MSW, MS and Tanya Renn, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “Justice in Motion: Potential for Health Interventions and Practice Changes for Young Women with Legal-Involvement” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Melissa Radey, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Lenore McWey, Ph.D., Qiong Wu, Ph.D. and Ming Cui, PhD (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored the article “Family Safety Nets and Child Outcomes of Families Involved with the U.S. Child Welfare System,” published in the Journal of Social Service Research.

Shelby Varol, MSW, Alisa Gutherie, MSW, Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW and Gashaye Malaku Tefera, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the poster “Healthcare Experiences of Transgender and Gender Minority Migrants in the US: A Scoping Review” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Trevor Meagher, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) published “College Towns and Creativity: Exploring Potential Interactions Between Educational Institutions and Local Cultural Economies” in “Cities,” vol. 169.

Wen Guo, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) published “Developing Socially Responsive Competencies in Arts Administration Through Teaching Cases: Needs, Barriers, Debates & Possibilities for an Essential Pedagogy” in The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society.

Wen Guo, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-authored the chapter “AI Adoption in the Creative Sector: Practices, Perceptions, and Prospects Among Arts and Culture Organizations and Administrators” in “The Art of Digital Governance,” vol. 6.

Karina Donald, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-published “Visual Narratives of Resilience: Caribbean Families’ Coping Before and Since COVID-19” with graduate students Ko-Hui (Cole) Lin and Xingyi Li in “Family Sciences.”

Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW and Gashaye Malaku Tefera, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the presentation “Mental Health Experiences of African Refugees in the United States: A Scoping Review” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Shamra Boel-Studt, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and Darejan Dvalishvili, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the posted “Exploring Caregiver Experiences with Navigating and Securing Residential Care for Children with Intensive Needs” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Tanya Renn, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and Margarita Amado-Blanco, MSW (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children) co-authored the poster “The Impact of Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Meta-Analysis” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) had his article “Die Genealogie der Wunder: Bedeutung und Materielle Praxis” published in volume 31 of the Hermeneutische Blätter journal, “Wunder.” Newheiser also had his co-authored paper, “What Kind of Speech Makes for Peace?” published with the Journal of Ethics in Antiquity and Christianity. He also published the essay “There is Power in Negative Political Theology” with the Political Theology Network.

Leah Reilly Sherman, Ph.D. (FSU Libraries) published “Taking the Museum to the People: Cultural Heritage, Community Engagement, and Postwar Poland’s Museobus,” in Museums as Places of People, Time, and Memory: The Intersection of Place and History, published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Daejin Kim, Ph.D. (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) published the journal article “Evaluating Innovative Design Strategies in a Maternity Unit: A Post-Occupancy Evaluation Approach” in HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal.

Katie Kehoe, MFA (Department of Art) contributed to: PUBLIC 72: (Searching for) Home, an interdisciplinary journal with a core focus on visual art.

Audrey Jacobs, Ph.D., Ashley Williams, Dianna Bradley (FSU Libraries), Minki Jeon, Ph.D. and Sara Shields, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-published “Gameful Learning: Reflections on Co-Designing an Art Gallery Board Game” in CoDesign, the International Journal of CoCreation in Design and the Arts.

Wen Guo, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-published the article  “Examining AI Adoption Willingness Among Nonprofit and Government Arts Administrators: Perceptions, Barriers, and Sector-Specific Considerations” in the book “The Art of Digital Governance.”

PRESENTATIONS

Hannah Cronic and Sarah Lull (Department of Student Support and Transition) presented two sessions at the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Strategies Conference, “We’re All In This Together: A Case Study in Collaboration” and “Lessons Learned: Providing Support for Sexual Violence Victims That Are Minors.” Amy Haggard (Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards) also contributed to the presentation.

Allison B. Peters, Ph.D., Holly Hunt, Ph.D. (Division of Undergraduate Studies) and Samantha Nix, Ph.D. (Institutional Research) co-presented “Re-Envisioning Institutional Care: A Panel on Data-Informed Innovation for Academic Recovery” at the 2026 Undergraduate Education at Research Universities Annual Conference.

Ebe Randeree, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) presented “AI Impacts on Teachers, Career Pathways/Workforce and Students!” at the 2026 Florida Career Pathways Network Symposium.

Delaney La Rosa, Ed.D., MSN Ed., RN, (College of Nursing) presented “AI and Nursing Workforce Centers” at the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers & Florida Center for Nursing Membership Assembly, leading a workshop on using artificial intelligence to support research and policy development.

Allison McHugh, DNP, MHCDS, RN, NE-BC and LeeAnne Barfield, Ph.D., DNP, APRN-BC, CNE, FACHE (College of Nursing) co-presented “An Innovative, Evidence-Based Graduate Curriculum That Prepares Nurse Executives for the Real World” at the AACN Doctoral Education Conference in Bonita Springs.

Robin Goodman, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented “Gender of the Machine: AI, World Literature, and Reclaiming the Social Brain” at the virtual World Literature Webinar Series.

Tanya Renn, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) presented “Intersecting Justice: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Alaska Native Experiences with the Criminal Legal System” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Gashaye Malaku Tefera, Ph.D., Shelby Varol, MSW, John Mathias, Ph.D. and Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW (College of Social Work), Ellen Piekalkiewicz, MA and Carli Lucius, MSW (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children) co-presented “Vulnerability and Resilience During a Natural Disaster: Exploring the Experiences of Foster Children in Florida” at a symposia at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

John Mathias, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) was the discussant of the symposia “Disaster Risk Reduction across the Lifecourse: Social Work Insights and Interventions” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC. Mathias also convened the special interest group “Creating Social Responses to a Changing Environment (Grand Challenge for Social Work)” at the same conference.

Bart Klika, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) led a symposia on “Paid Family Leave and Infant Maltreatment” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Erin Ryan, J.D. (College of Law) delivered the keynote lecture “COVID, Federalism, and Pandemonium in Florida: Implications for Multilevel Governance in the U.S. and Beyond” at the international conference Multilevel Governance in the Post-Pandemic Era: New Dynamics, New Challenges.

Yelena McLane, Ph.D. (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) presented “Designing for Dignity: Architectural Strategies for Holistic Resident Care” as part of the Brain and Beyond…Seminar Series.

Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D. and Melissa Radey, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and Dawn Carr, Ph.D. (College of Social Sciences  and Public Policy) presented the poster “Sex Differences in Occupational Exposures and Cognitive Function in Later Life” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Christy Mantzanas, Samantha Hightower and Tiffany Leung (Career Center, Employer Relations) co-presented “The Career Services Power Pack: Smart-data Integration, Bold Frameworks, and UX Design for Sustainable Partnerships” at the Southern Association of Colleges and Employers conference, where they shared methods to develop storytelling  data, formulas and AI techniques to predict career fair outcomes, and how to integrate UX design principles for program sustainability.

Elizabeth Crowley, MSW (Florida Institute for Research and Development), Sanoop Valappanandi, MSW and John Mathias, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Ellen Piekalkiewciz, MA, Savannah Smith, MSW and Carli Lucius, MSW (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, Children), Tian Tang, Ph.D. (College of Social Science and Public Policy) and Arda Vanli, Ph.D. (College of Engineering) co-authored the presentation of, “Disaster Preparedness of Social Workers in the Southeastern United States: A Survey Focused on Hurricane-Pandemic Co-O ccurrences” at a symposia at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Lindsey Eckert, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented the papers “Lady Caroline Lamb’s Graham Hamilton and the Migratory Possibilities of South America” and “Lady Caroline Lamb, Lima, and the Coastal Disaster of Ada Reis” at the annual Modern Language Association Convention in Toronto, Canada.

Mora Beauchamp-Byrd, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) was a featured speaker at the conference “Why Black Museums: Other Geographies, New Fields” at the University of Texas at Austin.

Lynn Jones, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) presented a section of her forthcoming book in the paper “Imperial Imagery in the Province: The Case of the ‘White Bearded’ Unknown Saint in Cappadocia” at the 51st Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, held at Wayne State and Oakland Universities in Detroit, MI.

Erika Loic, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) presented “Monstrous Conquests in Medieval Iberia: The Aquelarre Tabletop Roleplaying Game and Its Bestiarium Hispaniae” at the Medieval + Monsters Conference, hosted at Dominican University and the Newberry Library in Chicago.

Charles Upchurch, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented “Fitzroy Kelly to Karl Heinrich Ulrichs: Queer Politics Before Identity” in November at the Southern Conference on British Studies in Tampa, Florida. He also presented “Called it Macaroni: Politics, Queer History, and the American Revolution” at the North American Conference on British Studies in Montreal, Canada.

Melissa Radey, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Lenore McWey, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences ) and Lisa Magruder, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the poster “Changes in Parents’ Relationships after Child Protective Services Involvement within the Context of Domestic Violence” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Hannah Schwadron, Ph.D. (School of Dance) was contracted by Bloomsbury Press to review the edited volume “Queering Partner Dance.”

JaNiene Peoples, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the poster “Investigating How Parental Education Moderates the Effects of Depression on Male College Students’ Beliefs Toward Degree Completion” presented at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Tanya Renn, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) presented “A Call for Research on Criminal Legal Systems Involvement Among American Indian and Alaska Native Populations” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Kristina Hakansson, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) gave the invited talk “FT-ICR Mass Spectrometry at 21 Tesla: From Isotopic Fine Structure to Unparalleled Top-Down Proteomics” at a workshop on complex mixtures at the Federal University of Goiás in Goiânia, Brazil. Hakansson also gave the invited talk “Tyrosine Sulfation: A Tricky Posttranslational Modification Requiring High End Mass Spectrometry” at the University of Florida.

Daejin Kim, Ph.D. (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) presented “Perceptions and Acceptance of Smart Home Technologies in the U.S. and South Korea” at the Housing Educators Research Association conference.

Gashaye Malaku Tefera, Ph.D., Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW and Shelby Varol, MSW (College of Social Work) participated in the symposia “‘They Don’t See Us as Humans’: Multilevel Factors Affecting Trust in Healthcare Among African Immigrants in the U.S.’” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Andrei Malaev-Babel, MFA (School of Theatre) delivered a keynote address and led  a masterclass at the 2025 Stanislavsky Symposium, held at the University of Malta’s Valletta Campus.

Hannah Schwadron, Ph.D., (School of Dance) presented a reading of her co-authored introduction and solo-authored chapter in “Funny Moves: Dance Humor Politics” at the University of Florida Department of Dance in Gainesville, FL. While there Schwadron also facilitated a movement workshop on dance humor in improvisation and choreography for dance majors. She also co-facilitated original research with a School of Dance student group at the Florida Restorative Justice Association conference in partnership with the Tallahassee Bail Fund. Their workshop, “Move and Be Moved: Freedom Dreaming to Direct Action in Dance, Song, Story,” was presented at St. Paul Methodist Church in Tallahassee.

David Gussak, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) presented the paper “Upwardly Intensifying and Reinforcing the Arts and Art Therapy with the Imprisoned” at the 56th Annual American Art Therapy Association Conference in Portland, Oregon.

Katelyn Bittinger, Sarah Butler (University Housing) and Stormy McGivern (Department of Student Engagement) presented “Curriculum in a Crunch” at the Institute on the Curricular Approach which spotlighted how University Housing and affiliated campus partners foster student learning over the short six-week Summer B semester.

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Introduction to Higher Education in the USA” to a group of Ukrainian officials in Washington DC,  as part of the U.S. Department of State’s International Leadership Visitors Program.

Nancy Gerber, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) presented on the panel “Arting Your Doctorate and Other Stories” at the American Art Therapy Association Conference in Portland, Oregon.

Barbara Parker-Bell, Ph.D.,(Department of Art Education) presented “Art Therapy & Creativity: Resources for Well-being during Times of Challenge and Transition” at “Education Without Stress: A Mental Health Support at Educational Institutions,” an event supported by the Press, Education, and Culture Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.

Samoop Valappanandi, MSW (College of Social Work) presented the poster “Perceptions of Forest Resource Change and the Role of Participation: Evidence from Marginalized Communities in India” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Lisa Schelbe, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-convened the special interest group “Foster Care and Higher Education” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Pooja Ichlani, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) presented the poster “Unearthing Women’s Lost Narratives: Tracing the Roots of Intimate Partner Violence in the Big Bend Region of Florida” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Sonnie Mayewski, MSW and Yaacov Petscher, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and Nuria Gutiérrez, Ph.D. (Florida Center for Reading Research) co-presented at the workshop “Going Beyond the Mean Effect: A Hands-on Introduction to Quantile Regression for Social Work Research” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Changhyun Nam (Lyon), Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) presented five conference papers — consisting of one oral presentation and four posters — at the annual International Textile and Apparel Association conference held Nov. 19-22 in St. Louis, Missouri. Nam presented the papers “AI Image Generators in Apparel Design and Product Development: Enhancing Creativity”; “Technological Innovation and Environmental Awareness in the U.S. and the U.K.: Fashion 3D-Printed Accessories”; and “M-Commerce With Luxury Fashion Goods in Pre-Owned Markets.” Additionally, Nam presented collaborative research including “Rethinking Wetsuit Design: Enhancing Comfort, Fit and Sustainability,” co-authored with Florida State University graduate research assistant Lucia Villanustre and undergraduate student Avaree VandeKerkhoff and “Enhancing Young Consumers’ Trust and Engagement in the Secondhand Luxury Goods Market Within M-Commerce: A Qualitative Approach,” co-authored with undergraduate research assistant Evita Ilushenko.

Michael D. Carrasco, Ph.D. (College of Fine Arts) co-presented the paper “Semiotic Rupture and the Emergence of Writing: Toward a Multimodal Model of Representational Innovation” at iTHEMS RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences in Wako, Saitama, Japan.

Kris Salata, Ph.D. (School of Theatre) spoke about his new book “Grotowski’s Process” at the Performance Studies international conference in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Karina Donald, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-presented at the National Council on Family Relations conference in Baltimore, Maryland.

Trevor Meagher, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) had two presentations “Moving the Goalposts: Exploring Mission Change and Operational Capacity in Arts and Culture Nonprofits” and “Is the Tide Rising, or Are We Just Rowing Harder? Operational traits in placemaking-engaged nonprofits” at the annual Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action conference in Indianapolis, IN.

Sarah Fahmy, PhD, (School of Theatre) delivered a paper virtually at PSI in Fortaleza, Brazil.

Aaron C. Thomas, Ph.D. (School of Theatre) delivered a talk on his new book published by the Vanderbilt University Press at Villanova University in Villanova, PA.

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Clint Sleeper, MFA (Department of Art) co-curated and organized an online exhibition “about not by, for not from,” hosted by The Wrong Biennale.

Katie Kehoe, MFA (Department of Art) had her work “The Visitor in Wildfire Shelterwear, 46.23214N, 113.75486W” included in the Texas Photographic Society’s (TPS) ‘TPS:33 The International Competition’ exhibition at The Center for Contemporary Art in Abilene, Texas.

Meredith Lynn, MFA (Department of Art) was featured with her solo exhibition “Bad Outdoorsmen. The Complete Season” at the Illges Gallery at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia.

Jamie Ho, MFA (Department of Art) opened her solo exhibition “magic mirrors” at Art League Houston.

Daniel Gott, MFA (School of Theatre) performed his Actor-Musician Sessions in the Tallahassee community as part of his research and creative work project.

Daniel Smith, MME (School of Dance) made his debut as Principal Pianist with the Panama City Symphony performing the musical drama “Beasts of the Bayou” in Panama City. He also performed a cabaret concert with Broadway legend Bernadette Peters in Destin.

Denise Bookwalter, MFA (Department of Art) exhibited works from Small Craft Advisory Press and shared student collaborative book work from her letterpress and artists’ book courses at Staple + Stitch Art Book + Print Fair Chicago.

Jiha Moon, MFA (Department of Art) had her exhibition “Purgatory Mutt” at Mindy Solomon Gallery” reviewed by @plasternyc and listed in Galerie magazine in the Art & Culture section article “8 Must-See Solo Gallery Shows in November.”

Jiha Moon, MFA (Department of Art) was announced as a 2026 Arts/Industry Artists-in-Residence at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.

Sarah Fahmy, Ph.D.  (School of Theatre) continues her award-supported performance installation project at museums across the US. Including venues such as: The Institute of the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Detroit Institute of Arts Museum, The Arab American National Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Met, Penn Museum, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Harvard Art Museum, Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

Katie Kehoe, MFA (Department of Art) had her work “Time is of the Essence” featured in ‘PUBLIC! Issue 72’, “(Searching) for Homem,” an interdisciplinary journal with a core focus on visual art.

Mona Bozorgi, Ph.D. (Department of Art) had her project “Threads of Freedom” featured in “see-zeen” issue 18, an independent online magazine curating contemporary photography by international emerging artists.

SERVICE

Michelle Kazmer, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) was elected to the iSchools Organization’s Board of Directors for 2026-2027.

Marisa Sweeny, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) hosted a panel at the closing event of her exhibition “Motherwork”, at the Carlow Gallery in Pittsburgh , PA.

Chelsea Nam, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science) was elected to serve on the American Meteorological Society Scientific and Technological Activities Commission Committee on Radar Meteorology.

Christopher Solís, Ph.D.(Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Sciences) served in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant study section Basic Biology of Blood, Heart and Vasculature (BBHV), which scores grants submitted to the NIH for extramural funding of research projects.

Alice Maxwell (Division of Student Affairs Communications and Marketing) is serving as the Region III Representative in the Knowledge Community leadership team for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Fundraising and Communications Knowledge Community.

Sarah Fahmy, Ph.D. (School of Theatre) was elected to the American Society for Theatre Research Executive Committee for the 2025–2028 term.

Lisa Schelbe, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) was elected as the director-at-large as a part of the board of directors for the Society for Social Work and Research for a three-year term appointment.

Erin Gallivan, Ph.D. (Counseling & Psychological Services) was invited by the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) to serve on a panel of experts for the AGPA College Counseling and Other Educational Settings Special Interest Group to share her expertise on group training for senior staff in university counseling centers.

Jeff Broome, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) was elected President of the Florida Art Education Association.

Daejin Kim, Ph.D. (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Housing Educators Research Association.

Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-convened the special interest group “Heterodox Social Work” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) organized the workshop “Going Beyond the Mean Effect: A Hands-on Introduction to Quantile Regression for Social Work Research” at the Society for Social Work and Research Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information) organized and chaired a full-day workshop “Open-Source LLM Applications for Health Applications” at the 2025 AMIA Annual Symposium.

Shi-Ling Hsu, J.D., M.S., Ph.D. (College of Law) was elected to the American Law Institute, recognized for his significant contributions to legal scholarship and leadership in shaping the future of the law.

David Gussak, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-led the roundtable discussion “University–Prison Partnerships: Facilitating Transformation Through the Arts” at the 61st Annual Conference of the International Council for Arts Deans in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Hannah Schwadron, Ph.D. (School of Dance) taught a Movement and Mindfulness workshop at the Leon County Detention Facility in Tallahassee.

Trevor Meagher, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) was elected to the Board of Directors for Social Theory, Politics, and the Arts.

Daejin Kim, Ph.D. (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Housing Educators Research Association.

Kevin Curry, MFA (Department of Art) has been appointed as an at-large (city) board member for COCA (Council on Culture and Arts).

Daniel Luedtke, MFA (Department of Art) is on the board for Tally Zine Fest at the Challenger Learning Center.

NOTABLE

Susana Santos, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) led the joint project between the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship and the Learning Systems Institute, which set up the S2I2 Entrepreneurship Center at the Armenian State University of Economics with co-PI Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute).

Marty Fielding, MFA (Department of Art) taught a two-day workshop at Rain City Clay in Seattle, WA.

Malaika Samples, Ed.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) organized a workshop titled “Bridging the Gap Between Coursework and the Field: Faculty Simulation Training for Hands-On, Trauma-Informed Learning.” The session focused on trauma-informed simulation methods to strengthen experiential teaching, with follow-up sessions planned for the spring to support implementation.

Rabieh Razzouk, MBA (Learning Systems Institute) built the CPALMS platform, which hosted The Florida Department of Education’s Civics Seal of Excellence portal.

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) led FSU’s Ukraine Task Force in hosting Serhiy Kvi, President of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. FSU Provost Jim Clark and Kyit  signed a memorandum of understanding signifying the university’s commitment to work together on future research projects.

Setor K. Sorkpor, Ph.D., MPH, MSN, RN (College of Nursing) was selected to participate in the Yale School of Nursing Comprehensive Advancement in Research Education Program as part of the 2025–2026 cohort, a competitive national program focused on advancing nursing research capacity in social determinants of health.

Anne Stagg, MFA, Kevin Curry, MFA and Keith Roberson, MFA (Department of Art) were invited by FSU Department of Physics Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor Harrison B. Prosper (Department of Physics) to CERN Switzerland to attend a conference, tour the facilities and present talks.

Tiffany Rhynard, MFA (School of Dance) became Vice President of the Board for Dance on Camera (formerly Dance Film Association). She also continued production on her feature documentary “The Mirage” during Fall 2025. Rhynard was also invited to teach “Dance Film” at the Pigmentos International Dance Festival in Puebla, Mexico.

Marissa McClure Sweeny, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) was featured in the second episode of Carlow University’s documentary series “A More Merciful World.”

Andrei Malaev-Babel, MFA (School of Theatre) led a three-day Demidov Masterclass for the International Demidov Association in Athens, Greece. While in Athens, Malaev-Babel also taught a one-day masterclass for Greek actors participating in the Demidov Association’s Acting Certificate Program.

Tom Welsh, Ph.D. (School of Dance) processed injury risk screening results for 27 first-year dancers and facilitated individualized debriefing opportunities. Welsh also re-engineered the Targeted Cross-Training collaborations in which 23 first-year dancers will complete five weeks of training with nine coaches through the Science of Dance Training seminar and practicum.

Pooja Ichplani, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare, College of Social Work) is actively involved in the faith-based task force against domestic violence facilitated by the Florida Partnership to End Domestic Violence (FPEDV). The group constitutes faith leaders, survivor advocates, practitioners and researchers across the state, and meets monthly to brainstorm innovative strategies for prevention of and response to domestic violence.

Andrei Malaev-Babel, MFA (School of Theatre) received approval from the Routledge Editorial Board for his four-volume series “Unlocking Creativity: The Complete Works of Nikolai Demidov’s Acting Pedagogy.”

Hannah Schwadron, Ph.D. (School of Dance) was voted as the next president of Dance Studies Association.

Helanius J. Wilkins, MFA (School of Dance) completed Phase 1 of the Green Box Residency in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado. His residency focused on developing a new stage production premiering in February 2026 and leading community engagement activities. He is a member of the program’s fifth cohort.

Nancy Gerber, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-taught a workshop “Storying Statistics” at the American Art Therapy Association Conference in Portland, Oregon.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to aprentiss@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs December 2025 and January 2026 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

ARCHIVE

HONORS AND AWARDS

Casey Yorks (Division of Undergraduate Studies) and graduate assistant Rebekka Friborg led “Noles Everywhere,” a group of trained student staff selected to support off-campus and out-of-state students, which won the Innovative Retention Program Award at the 2025 NODA: Orientation, Transition and Retention Annual Conference.

Lynn Hobeck-Bates, M.Ed. and Bethany Ritz, MFA (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) received an Award of Distinction for The Ringling’s “Watermelon Regatta” conservation press release at the Florida Public Relations Association’s PR and Comms Summit Golden Image Awards.

Anna Posbergh, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was inducted as a North American Society for the Sociology for Sport (NASSS) research fellow at the annual NASSS conference.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing) was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in Washington, D.C.

GRANTS

Noël Wan, Ph.D. (College of Music) received a Research and Creation Grant from the Canada Council of the Arts for her electroacoustic harp project “The Mother’s Teeth: Feminism, Futurity, and Noise.”

Alexandra Cintron Jimenez, (Center for Global Engagement) received a conference travel grant to NAFSA: Association of International Educators to attend the 2025 Region VII Conference in Mississippi and was recognized with the 2025 New Professional Award.

Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH, Casey D. Xavier Hall, MPH, Ph.D., Eugenia Flores Millender, Ph.D. , RN, PMH-APRN, FAAN, FAANP, Frank “Frankie” Y. Wong, Ph.D. and Jean-Marc Wise, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) were awarded a $2,277,208.00 million Food and Drug Administration (FDA) research and development contract for the project “Modernizing and Decentralizing Clinical Trials with AI, Digital Health, and Community-Driven Innovation to Deliver Better Health for All Americans.” Led by Millender, with Drs. Xavier Hall and Wong as MPIs and Drs. Hightow-Weidman and Wise as key personnel, the team will advance decentralized, at-home clinical trials by identifying participation barriers, co-designing community-based curricula, leveraging AI and digital health tools for secure data transmission, and empowering community organizations in outreach and support. Anticipated outcomes include a practical playbook for at-home clinical trials, a scalable curriculum, and implementation guidance to inform FDA regulatory science and sponsor practices.

BYLINES

Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN, Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) and Michael Killian, Ph.D., MSW (College of Social Work) co-authored “Effects of a Group-based Online Lifestyle Medicine Intervention Among Rural Participants: A Randomized Controlled Trial” in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.

Carla Wood, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) published “Beyond Definitions: Examining Morphology-Focused Vocabulary Strategies in Second Grade Classrooms” in Literacy Research and Instruction.

Jessica Bahorski, Ph.D., APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP (College of Nursing) co-authored “Central Adiposity, Rather Than in Utero Exposure to Maternal Obesity or Gestational Diabetes, Predicts Metabolic Syndrome Risk in Children Aged 4–10 Years,” published in Pediatric Obesity.

Kelly Farquharson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) published “Identifying and De-Implementing Low-Value Practices in Education: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach for District and School Leaders” in the Journal of School Leadership.

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “What Are You Thinking When You Coach? An Exploration of Tennis Coaches’ Cognitions Using Stimulated Recall,” published in the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching. He also co-authored “Salaries of High School Coaches in Florida and the Never-Ending Cycle of Turnover,” published in Quest.

Shannon Hall-Mills, Ph.D. and Lakeisha Johnson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) published “The KASE for Telepractice,” a research article based on their seed grant from Florida State University’s Council on Research and Creativity, in the Journal of Communication Disorders.

Dawn Sowers, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) published “Short Mobile Training Is Effective and Efficient in Preparing Educational Personnel to Interact With Students With Cerebral Palsy Who Utilize AAC With Eye Tracking” in Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools.

Laura Widman, Ph.D. (Institute on Digital Health and Information) co-authored “A Digital Program to Promote Sexual Communication Between Early Adolescents and Parents: Development and Acceptability Testing Results” published in the Journal of Sex Research. This paper describes the development and initial user testing for a new digital program to help parents and early adolescents talk more openly about puberty and growing up.

Jacob Eisler, JD, Ph.D. (College of Law) had his article “Towards Defensible Judge-Made Democratic Process” featured in the Southern California Law Review. His article “Gerrymandering Is Democratic” was also featured in Compact Magazine.

Kadir Kozan, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) is leading a special issue “The Role of Technology in STEM Education: Opportunities and Challenges” in the journal Education Sciences in collaboration with his colleagues.

Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) authored “Teaching and Managing Large Classes: A Scoping Review of Methods With Primary and Secondary Learners” published in the International Journal of Educational Development.

Rob Schoen, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) authored “Effects of a Professional Development Program on Teacher Beliefs About Mathematics Teaching and Learning After One and Two Years: An Experimental Study” published in Teaching and Teacher Education.

Anthony Nguyen, Ph.D. (Department of Philosophy) authored “Colonial Injustice and Self-Respect” published in Philosophers’ Imprint.

Sonia Hazard, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) authored “Empire of Print: Evangelical Power in an Age of Mass Media” published by Oxford University Press.

Robin Goodman, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored “Film as World Literature” published by Bloomsbury Publishing.

Ibrahim Yigit, Ph.D., MA and Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) co-authored “Demographic Factors and Correlates of Trust in Types of People and Information Sources: Findings From the SAM-KAP Alabama Youth Survey on HIV Prevention.”

Jessica Bahorski, Ph.D., APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP (College of Nursing) co-authored “Finding the Best Pregnancy App to Support Your Health” in Society for Behavioral Medicine.

Shermeeka Hogans-Mathews, M.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored two publications, “Doulas Make a Difference: Optimizing Doulas’ Education to Improve Perinatal Mental Health Outcomes” and “A Call to Action: Leveraging Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Medical Education Reform” published in PRiMER Publications.

Jo Brown Speights, M.D. and Jessica De Leon, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored “Characteristics of Persons With Varying Vaccination Personas: Data From the CDC-funded Pandemic Project” published in Discover Public Health.

Jessica De Leon, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) authored “Impact of Web-Based Lifestyle Medicine Intervention: A Qualitative Study Among Rural Participants” published in Nursing Reports.

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

Malaika Samples, Ed.D., M.P.A., Katerina Manias, M.A. and Kyle Cook, M.A. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-presented “Innovations in Child Welfare Education Through Virtual Reality” at the 2025 National Association of Social Workers Virtual Forum, highlighting the Florida Institute for Child Welfare’s Experiential Learning Lab at FSU and demonstrating how immersive technologies are being used to prepare future social workers.

Paul Marty, Ph.D. (School of Information) spoke at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities annual conference.

Casey Yorks, M.S. and Danielle Porter, M.S. (Division of Undergraduate Studies) presented “Bridging the Distance: Supporting Out-of-State Students” at the 2025 NODA: Orientation, Transition and Retention Annual Conference in San Francisco.

Barbara A. Ramsay, MAC (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) co-authored and presented “Just Like the Real Thing: Jules Allard et Fils Reproduction Boiserie Period Rooms at The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art” at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Rick Burnette, Ph.D. (Office of the Provost) with Paul Marty, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) and Bobby Sprinkle, MS (Information Technology Services) presented “Classroom Agentic AI Learning Tools” at the ASU Agentic AI Conference.

Nicole Bentze, DO (College of Medicine), alumni Rebecca Gibons, MD, Benjamin Behers, MD and Julian Melchor, MD co-authored “Stevens-Johnson Syndrome or Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis From Antihypertensive Medications: A Systematic Review of Cases” published in the journal Medicine.

Rick Burnette, Ph.D. and James Hunt, Ph.D. (Office of the Provost) presented “From Insight to Impact: Advancing the Data-Engaged Campus for an AI-Ready Future” at the Educause Annual Meeting.

Rick Burnette, Ph.D. (Office of the Provost) and Paul Marty, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) presented “Innovation in Action: What Members Are Teaching Each Other About Technology in Practice” at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities Annual Meeting.

Ebe Randeree, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) presented “Developing Leaders on Campus” at the Community Leadership Series hosted by the FSU Center for Leadership & Service; “What Skills Are Tech Employers Looking For” at the Florida Technology Student Association Leadership Conference; “In the World of AI, Can Universities Meet Tech Employer Needs” and “Positioning Yourself to Win on LinkedIn — Effective Personal Branding” at the Innovation Technology Entrepreneurship Network Wired Conference.

Dawn Sowers, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) presented “Reimagining AAC: Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Idiosyncratic Communication Gestures” at the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication virtual conference.

Gretchen Stahlman, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) and doctoral candidate Rajesh Das co-presented “The Unified Astronomy Thesaurus as a Platform for LIS Training in Scientific Knowledge Organization” at the Library and Information Services in Astronomy conference.

Kristen Guynes, Ph.D. and Michelle Torres-Chavarro, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) co-presented at the Florida Educators of Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Conference, covering the Morphological Analysis Pathway to Reading project (MAP-R).

Kristen Guynes, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) presented “Evolving Roles and Responsibilities of Educational Sign Language Interpreters” at the Florida Educators of Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing Conference.

Carla Wood, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Elevating Future Pathways: Innovating Interprofessional Education Models to Advance Autism Support and Instruction” and “Morphology Meets Technology: A Digital Approach to Vocabulary Instruction” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention.

Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Longitudinal Predictors of Arabic Word Reading” and “Staples of Screening for Dyslexia in University Students” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Michelle Therrien, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) presented “Mapping Play: Using GIS to Capture Playground Experiences of Children Who Use AAC” and “Friendship in Context: Using the Participation Model to Plan Assessment and Support for AAC Users” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Dawn Sowers, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Paradigm Shift: The Power of Leveraging AI to Pair Unaided AAC With Speech Output,” “Targeted Motion in AAC Displays for Autistic Children: Visual Attention Patterns and Learning” and “Elevating Typical AAC Assessments: Implementing the CVI/AAC Framework for Individuals With Cortical Visual Impairment” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Mollie Romano, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Speech-Language Pathologists’ Knowledge and Use of Caregiver Coaching Practices Across Work Settings,” “Learning Early Infant Feeding Cues: A Responsive Infant Feeding Intervention” and “The BabyTok Project 3.0: A Preventive, Social-Media Based Intervention for Caregivers of Young Infants” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Eundeok Kim, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) presented her paper “The Role of Sustainable Fashion Businesses in Promoting Sustainable Consumption Through a Regenerative Economy” at the Sustainable Fashion Consumption Symposium hosted by the Center for Business and the Environment at Yale School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut.

Richard Morris, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Use of a Training Program to Improve Voice Quality Perception” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Elizabeth Madden, Ph.D. (School of Communication and Disorders) presented “Clinical Considerations for Assessment and Treatment of Reading and Writing Impairment in Post-Stroke Aphasia” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Kari Lien, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Speech Sound Disorders in Children With Cleft Palate: A Phonological Lens for Assessment and Intervention” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Kaitlin Lansford, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Ideas and Tips for Publishing Small Datasets: Case Studies, Surveys and Preliminary Data, Oh My!” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

John Romig, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral student Trisha Phillip presented “Using Repeated Teaching to increase the Rate and Variety of Preservice Teachers’ Use of Opportunities to Respond” at the Council for Exceptional Children’s Teacher Education Division Conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

Yunjung Kim, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Effects of Deep-Brain Simulation on Speech in Parkinson’s Disease: Focusing on Festination” and “The Intersection of Language Variation and Dysarthria: A Speech Science Approach” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Lakeisha Johnson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Little Learners, Big Gains: Utilizing SLP Expertise to Transform Pre-K Literacy Practices Through a PLC” and “Exploring the Contributions of Child-Level Factors to the Marking of Regular Past Tense in Writing” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Shannon Hall-Mills, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Quality Connections: Written Academic Vocabulary Use Among Adolescents With and Without LLD,” “Reimagining Language to Literacy: SLPs Shaping Reading Support for School-Age Children” and “Pathways of Possibility: Strategic and Practical Approaches for SLP Literacy Support” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Kelly Farquharson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Developing the Scoring for Expressive Evaluation and Diagnosis (SEED) Paradigm for Speech Sound Disorders,” “Phonological Profiles of Elementary-Aged Children With Speech Sound Disorders: Preliminary Data From a Large-Scale Study” and “Is Dyslexia a Sequencing Disorder? A Systematic Review of Implicit Sequence Learning Across Domains” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Christopher Constantino, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Subtle Discrimination, Significant Consequences: Exploring Microaggressions and Mental Health in Adults Who Stutter” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Erin Bush, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) and doctoral candidate Shaylyn King-St. Remy co-presented “A Qualitative Exploration of SLPs’ Perspectives on an Adaptive Professional Development Model for Dialogic Reading” at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Andrea Barton Hulsey, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “The Communication Bill of Rights, 3rd Edition: Guidance for Advocacy and Practice” and co-presented “Play and Read With Me: Fidelity of a Literacy Intervention for Children With Limited Speech” with doctoral candidate Brianna Coltellino at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Convention.

Jennifer Lemmer Posey, M.A. (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “A History of the Circus and Folk Art” at Jeanine Taylor Folk Art exhibition Folk Art Under the Big Top.

Jane Harris and Giovana Perez-Oliveras (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “Educating & Engaging Museum Volunteers: Flexible Strategies for Guide Training in Changing Times” at the 2025 Florida Association of Museums.

Jane Harris and Emma Driggers, M.A. (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) co-presented “Volunteerism in a Changing Landscape” at the 2025 Florida Association of Museums.

Jane Harris (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “Advancing Trust Through Museum Guide Programs in the Post-Pandemic Era” at the 2025 American Alliance of Museums Virtual Summit.

Jessica Bahorski, Ph.D., APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP (College of Nursing) co-presented “A Mixed-Methods Study to Understand Differences in Use of Responsive Infant Feeding” at the 2025 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention in Washington, D.C.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing) presented “A Triad of Diseases: A Treatment Strategy for Patients With T2D, CVD and CKD” at NP Associates for Continuing Education Orlando.

Yijiong Yang, Ph.D., MHA and Buna Bhandari, MPH, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) co-presented “Challenges of COVID-19 Vaccination Effectiveness in Individuals With Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias” at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting and Expo 2025.

Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN, Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) and Michael Killian, Ph.D., MSW (College of Social Work) co-presented “Lifestyle Medicine Programs Can Impact Determinants of Rural Health Behaviors” at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2025.

Sarah Cartwright, Ph.D. (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented on The Ringling’s pre-1915 European print holdings for Vanderbilt University’s symposium “European Prints in Museums in the American South” on the VU Museum of Art’s Fall 2025 exhibition “Paper Backs: Hidden Stories of European Prints From the VUMA Collection.”

Emily Brown, MS and Tara Johnston, M.Sc. (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) co-authored and presented “A Treatment Odyssey: The Preparation of 201 Ancient Cypriot Objects for Permanent Display” at the 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works.

Brittney Pieper, M.A. (Career Center) led a roundtable discussion “Resumes That Win” offering career readiness strategies for student-athletes entering the job market at the 2025 FloridaACE Annual Conference. It was selected as “Best of Roundtables,” and Pieper was asked to hold a second presentation at the FloridaACE Digital Summit.

Ericka Horne, DrPH (College of Medicine) presented “Community Impact Through Integration of the Translational Science Benefits Model” at the Florida Public Health Association’s Annual Educational Conference in Kissimmee, Florida.

Ericka Horne, DrPH, Jo Brown Speights, M.D., Ransome Eke, M.D. and Jessica De Leon, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “Insurance Coverage and Differences in Unmet Healthcare Needs: Insights From a Florida-Based Study” at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Expo in Washington, D.C.

Christopher Mulrooney, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented the closing keynote session “The Future We Choose” for the national symposium “Empower Your Possible: A Longevity Ready Maryland Initiative” in Linthicum, Maryland.

Taylor Thompson, Ph.D., Cheryl Porter, Ph.D. and Nicki Taylor, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented the workshop “Calm Under Pressure: Best Practices in Test Anxiety Intervention for Medical Students” at the Medical Education Learning Specialists Annual Conference.

Delaney La Rosa, Ed.D., MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing) presented “Supercharge Your Study: AI Tools for Smarter Learning” at the AI Nurse Nexus: Unmasking AI. The session focused on teaching students to use AI tools to improve clinical judgment and critical thinking.

Amy Hecht, Ed.D. (Vice President for Student Affairs) served as a panelist at the Student Success US 2025 conference organized by Times Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed. The session was titled “Anxiety to Agency: Helping Students Take Control of Their Worry.”

Felicia Williams (Student Engagement) presented “Ubuntu in Action: Cultivating Collective Leadership for a Resilient Future” at the 27th Global International Leadership Association conference in Prague, Czechia. Williams also served as a judge for the Undergraduate Poster Presentation.

Amy Baco-Taylor, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science) gave a virtual presentation at the “Towards 30×30: Asia’s Contributions to MPA Expansion and Challenges” workshop in Yeosu City, South Korea.

Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) was an invited speaker for the “Transcendentalism’s Past, Present and Future” workshop hosted by the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Aimée Boutin, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) presented “Georges de Peyrebrune’s Burlesque Railway Odyssey” at the 51st annual Nineteenth-Century French Studies Colloquium in Reno, Nevada. She was also a guest on the Nineteenth-Century French Studies Unbound webinar series “The Stoics: A Bilingual Critical Edition by Louisa Siefert Adrianna Paliyenko in Conversation With Aimée Boutin.”

Erin Bennett and Danny Chiarodit (Career Center) partnered with Chris LaFever (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) to present “Emerging Supervisors Development: Reflective Practice for Growth” at the Association of Counselor Education and Supervision national conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) presented “Palliative Care and Advanced Cardiovascular Disease” at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Carmen Zachry, Rob Hanna, Zaida McGinley, Carrie Myers and Jim Reynolds (Learning Systems Institute) presented engineering design lessons during a visit to InSPIREd School Rising Leaders Academy.

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Emily Zhukov, MFA (FSU Republic of Panama) collaborated with paleobiologist Erin Dillon, Ph.D., at STRI’s Punta Culebra Nature Center to reconstruct ancient reef shark communities and their responses to human and environmental impacts. Zhukov’s sculpture of an Eastern Pacific nurse shark (Ginglymostoma unami) allows visitors to explore shark resilience and habitat protection through interactive art, including a coral reef base featuring prey and mollusk examples from Panama’s earliest inhabitants. Zhukov is also co-founder of Estudio Nuboso, an organization dedicated to promoting awareness and regenerative practices through art and ecology.

SERVICE

Danielle Porter, MS (Division of Undergraduate Studies) hosted the “Partnering With NODA: Reimagining Support for Retention and Transition Professionals” roundtable at the 2025 NODA: Orientation, Transition and Retention Annual Conference.

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) and Bhushan Dahal (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) were primary organizers for “Educators Shaping Futures: A Global Knowledge Exchange” in cooperation with the World Bank, UNESCO and the Ministry of Education in Ethiopia. The event took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and drew 341 participants from 41 countries.

Ericka Horne, DrPH (College of Medicine) was elected to two leadership positions within the American Public Health Association’s Public Health and Education Promotion section: Governing Councilor for the 2025-2027 term and Mentoring Committee Chair for the 2025-2026 term.

John Byrnes, PA-C (College of Medicine) participated in a humanitarian trip to Ukraine as part of a team delivering combat medical kits and providing training to Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Liying Wang, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) served as a member of the expert advisory panel for the American Psychological Association to develop guidelines regarding the use of generative AI chatbots and wellness applications for mental health.

Ignacio Messana, Ph.D. (Florida State University Valencia Study Center) serves as treasurer of the European Association of Study Abroad (EUASA) and is a member of the advisory committee of APUNE (Association of American Programs in Spain). He has also been selected to be part of the Forum EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) conference committee in Lisbon.

Renaine Julian (FSU Libraries) participated in the 4th Annual Open Science and Innovation in Ukraine conference as an invited panelist on the topic of open research and reproducibility. Julian shared his work on disciplinary differences in research data-sharing behaviors and applications for university administrators.

Joanne Saxour, MD (College of Medicine) served as guest editor for the Florida Academy of Family Physicians’ summer publication, Diabetes.

Xin Henry Zhang, Ph.D. (Department of Statistics) was invited to serve as an associate editor on the editorial board for the Theory and Methods section of the Journal of the American Statistical Association for three years starting Jan. 1, 2026. JASA is one of the premier journals in statistics and was established in 1888.

NOTABLE

Undra Baldwin, MS CYBR, MBA, CIA, CISA, CDPSE, CFE, CIG (Office of Audit and Advisory Services) attended the Tallahassee Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors meeting, where Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey presented a proclamation recognizing Fraud Awareness Week. As chapter vice president, Baldwin accepted the proclamation on behalf of the chapter alongside the chapter president.

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) partnered with the World Bank to conduct the LEAP program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The program was titled “Strengthening the Teaching Profession and School Leadership” and took place over three days.

Randolph Clarke, Ph.D. (Department of Philosophy) was named on the top 10 list of “Most Cited Living Philosophers With Google Scholar Pages Working on Free Will & Moral Responsibility.”

Alfred Mele, Ph.D. (Department of Philosophy) was named number one on the top 10 list of “Most Cited Living Philosophers With Google Scholar Pages Working on Free Will & Moral Responsibility.”

Mike Stukel, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science) led a National Science Foundation-funded month-long research expedition, “California Current Ecosystem Process Cruise P2510,” in the Pacific Ocean with 30 scientists. The crew focused on understanding the processes driving long-term change in California’s current ecosystem with a specific focus on the impact of recent marine heatwave disturbances.

Yushun Dong, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) had his paper “TyphoFormer” win the Best Short Paper Award at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Spatial Information 2025 international conference.

Alina Dana Weber, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) received the Goethe-Institut/American Association of Teachers of German Certificate of Merit for furthering German teaching in the U.S. at the Celebrating Excellence in German Language Excellence award ceremony.

Carmen Zachry, Rob Hanna, Zaida McGinley, Carrie Myers and Jim Reynolds (Learning Systems Institute) launched the advanced manufacturing virtual tour video series from Maritech and Fort Walton Machining as part of FSU InSPIRE.

Rebecca Carter, MSW, LCSW (College of Medicine) recently completed Training of New Trainers curriculum and has been accepted into the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, enhancing the college’s capacity to provide evidence-based approaches to behavior change.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to aprentiss@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs November 2025 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others. 

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

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HONORS AND AWARDS

Amy Farnum-Patronis (University Communications) received the 2025 News Service of Florida Above and Beyond Award, hosted by the News Service of Florida. 

Lawrence S. Krieger, J.D. (College of Law) was named the 2025 recipient of the Michael K. Reese Quality of Life Award by The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division at the Florida Bar Annual Convention. The award recognizes his efforts in promoting mental health support and wellness initiatives in the curriculum for legal professionals. 

Veronica Fleury, Ph.D., Lindsay Dennis, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences), Kelly Farquharson, Ph.D. and Erin Bush, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) received a meritorious award for their presentation “A Qualitative Exploration of SLPs’ Perspectives on an Adaptive Professional Development Model for Dialogic Reading” at the American Speech-Language Hearing Association’s annual conference. 

Besiki Stvalia, Ph.D. (School of Information) co-authored “College Students’ Credibility Assessments of GenAI-Generated Information for Academic Tasks: An Interview Study” and received the 2024 Association for Information Science and Technology’s SIG AI Best Published Paper Award. 

Rachel Fendler, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) was awarded the Florida Higher Education Educator of the Year Award by the Florida Art Education Association. 

Jonathan Christensen Caballero, MFA (Department of Art) was awarded first prize for his work “We are Home / Estamos en Casa” in the juried exhibition “Multi-Faceted: Mixed Media & Connected Identities” at the Arts Council of Fayetteville | Cumberland County Gallery in Fayetteville, NC. 

Laura Reid Marks, Ph.D. (College of Medicine Center for Translational Behavioral Science) was elected to Fellow status in the 2026 American Psychological Association, based on her outstanding contributions to the field of psychology. 

Erin Bush, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders), Erika Fundelius, Ph.D. (Office of Graduate Fellowships and Awards), Jenny Root, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral candidate Saurym Quezada have been honored with the Teacher Education Division Publications Award from the Council for Exceptional Children. The article “You Are Just a Life Role Model: A Multiple Case Study of Teachers with Visual Impairment in the Field of Visual Disabilities” was selected as the most outstanding publication of the year in Teacher Education and Special Education. 

Jean Shon, MFA (Department of Art) was chosen to be a Cummings resident at the Griffin Museum of Photography for the 2025/2026 year.

GRANTS

Michael Roper, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) received a $432,800 National Institutes of Health grant for the project “Centrifugal Microfluidic System for Functional Cellular Analysis.” 

Robert Spencer, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science) received three grants that combine to $1.1 million in funding from the National Science Foundation and NASA to examine the connectivity of elemental cycles within Arctic ecosystems. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) led part of a major funding effort as the UF Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Florida received a $43 million award from the National Institutes of Health to accelerate translating research into real-world health solutions. The award, which includes a seven-year grant plus two training grants, will bolster infrastructure, workforce development and collaborative efforts across the UF-FSU CTSA hub to move discoveries from lab to clinic more quickly. 

Andrea Barton Hulsey, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders) received a $2 million Step Up Technology grant award from the Office of Special Education Programs. The project “PATHS to Reading: Promoting Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Based Teaching for High Impact Early Reading Skills” will develop modules for supporting the implementation of literacy and AAC. 

Michael Diamond, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science) received a $47,170 Reflective grant for his project “Polar Bear Fasting Season Length as an Ecologically Relevant Metric for Evaluating High-Latitude/Low-Altitude SAI Deployment Outcomes.” 

Oliver Steinbock, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) received a $452,542 National Science Foundation grant for his project “Exploring Diffusiophoretic Micromotors in Self-Organizing Reaction-Diffusion Systems.” His work was highlighted as the “Hot Science” news piece in Discovery magazine. 

Gretchen Stahlman, Ph.D. (School of Information) received an Institute of Museum and Library Services planning grant to establish a sustainable data curation internship program for Library and Information Studies students. 

Marcia Mardis, Ph.D. (School of Information) received a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program National Implementation grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. This grant will support an initiative for disaster resiliency. 

BYLINES

Alexander Tsesis, J.D. (College of Law) authored “The Originalist Framing of Free Speech Doctrine,” which was originally published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review in Summer 2025 and featured on Lawrence B. Solum’s blog, “Legal Theory Blog.” 

Colleen Ganley, Ph.D. and Rob Schoen, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) published “Examining How Grade Level and Teaching Experience Are Related to Math Anxiety and Anxiety about Teaching” in The Elementary School Journal. 

Flavia Ramos-Mattoussi, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) published “The Erosion of Academic Freedom and Global Engagement in U.S. Higher Education under Presidential Executive Orders in 2025” in EDULEARN Proceedings. 

Jie Chen, Ph.D., RN (College of Nursing) co-authored “Mechanistic Insights into a Self-Management Intervention in Young Adults with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Pilot Multi-Omics Study,” published in the journal Biomedicines. 

Ibrahim Yigit, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) and Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing), co-authored “Development and Validation of an Updated Internalized HIV Stigma Scale Among People Living with HIV,” published in the journal AIDS and Behavior. 

Ibrahim Yigit, Ph.D. and Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) co-authored “Disclosure Concerns Moderate the Association Between Internalized Stigma and Antiretroviral Medication Adherence Among People with HIV in the Dominican Republic,” published in the journal AIDS Care. 

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “A case for thinking about thinking in sports coaching: Understanding situated cognition as a means to inform coaching practice,” published in the International Sport Coaching Journal. 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D., and Shouping Hu, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Does Advanced High School Coursework Enhance Community College Women’s Pathways to Computing Degrees? Evidence from Florida,” published in Review of Higher Education. 

Gashaye Tefera, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), co-authored the article “Improving Quality of Life Among Substance Users in Nigeria: Implications for Evidence-Based Practice” in the Handbook of Addiction, Recovery and Quality of Life. He also co-authored “The Overlooked War in Northern Ethiopia: Examining Psychological Capital, Mental Distress, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among Internally Displaced People in Amhara Region,” published in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry. 

Robert Schoen, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Examining How Grade Level and Teaching Experience Are Related to Math Anxiety and Anxiety about Teaching,” published in The Elementary School Journal. 

Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Hypohydration Augments the Acute Increase in Urinary Biomarkers of Kidney Injury Following the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run,” published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. 

Annie Wofford, Ph.D., Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D., Bret Staudt Willet, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral students Anum Fatima and Xinting Wu co-authored “Minority-Serving Institutions’ Role in Enhancing Access to Computing Doctoral Education: A Multi-Method Landscape Analysis,” published in Innovative Higher Education. 

Erin Bush, Ph.D., (College of Communication and Information) Jenny Root, Ph.D., (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) doctoral student Saurym Quezada and FSU alumna Erika Fundelius co-authored “You are Just a Life Role Model: A Multiple Case Study of Teachers with Visual Impairment in the Field of Visual Disabilities” published in Teacher Education in Special Education. 

Roxanne Hughes, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and graduate students Khadija Zogheib and Sharon Ndubuisi co-authored “Instilling a Sense of Belonging in STEM through a Virtual Summer Program for Girls,” published in Connected Science Learning. 

Wen Guo, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) published “Developing Socially Responsive Competencies in Arts Administration through Teaching Cases: Needs, Barriers, Debates & Possibilities for an Essential Pedagogy” in the Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society. 

Dave Gussak, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) published the edited volume of “The Wiley Handbook of Art Therapy-2nd Edition” by Wiley Publishing.  

Rachel Fendler, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) and Sara Shields, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) co-authored an article, “Curricularizing social movements: Intersecting Art, Pedagogy, and Social Change” in the Journal of Cultural Research in Art Education. 

Meghan Mick, MLA (Department of Interior Architecture and Design) published the article “Beyond Sustainable: A Responsible Framework for Design” in The International Journal of Design Education. 

Bret Staudt Willet, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and alumnus Hunhui Na, Ph.D., co-authored “Ex-Edchat: Historic Retrospective of X/Twitter #Edchat,” published in the Computers & Education journal. 

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) co-authored the National Research Update on Adolescent Health Research in the United States, published in the October issue of Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine Research Update. 

Melissa Radey, Ph.D., Schyler Brumm, MSW (College of Social Work), Lenore McWey, Ph.D. and Carson Outler, MFT (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored the article “‘It Seems so Simple … the Actual Execution is Difficult”: Self-Defined Needs of Parents Entering the Child Welfare System,” published in the Journal of Public Child Welfare. 

Melissa Radey, Ph.D., Kristy Anderson, Ph.D., Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and Emily Dolce, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored the article “Young Adulthood Milestones and Supports Within the Context of Autism,” published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 

Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) published “Transposed-Letter Priming Effects in Arabic-English Bilinguals: Shifting Toward a Default Orthographic Processing Mode” in the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. She also published “Staples of Screening for Dyslexia in University Students” in Dyslexia: An International Journal of Research and Practice. 

Elizabeth Madden, Ph.D. and Michelle Therrien, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) published “’It Was Hard for Him to Deal with my Strokeness’ to ‘I Can’t Ask for No Better Friends than the Ones I Got Now’: Friendship Experiences Throughout Post-Stroke Aphasia Recovery” in Qualitative Research in Communication Differences and Disorders. 

Mark Bauer, Ed.D., Roxann Mouratidis, MSLIS and Martin Wood, Ed.D. (College of Medicine) published “From Startup to Sundown: Exploring the Life Cycle of an Open Access, Patient-Centered Journal” in Case Studies in Library Publishing. 

Nick Sellers, Ph.D. (School of Communication) had his chapter “GAMES FOR GOOD: Exploring the Potential for Traditional Video Game Narratives to Reduce Mental Health Stigma” published in the book Communicating Disability: Expanding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Health Communication and Mass Media. 

Amy Hall, Ph.D. and Karen MacDonell, Ph.D. (College of Medicine Center for Translational Behavioral Science) co-authored “Middle-Range Theory of Asthma Self-Management,” published in Sage Journals – Nursing Science Quarterly. 

Sara Green, MSW, and Andrea Cheshure, M.S. (College of Medicine Center for Translational Behavioral Science), co-authored and presented their research, in partnership with youth community members, to identify and pilot tailored strategies for young adults at high risk of HIV in North Florida at the 2025 National Sexual Health Conference. 

Nathan Falk, M.D., Rosa Joseph, M.D. and Marvin Dieujuste, M.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored “Lymphadenopathy: Evaluation and Differential Diagnosis,” published in American Family Physician. 

Adam Tratner, Ph.D. (FSU Republic of Panama Campus) co-authored “Ethical Disclosure of Biomarkers for Alzheimer Risk in Latin American Participants,” published in the journal Frontiers in Dementia. He also co-authored “Association Between Cognitive Function, Socio-Clinical Factors and Biomarkers Among Panamanian Adults Living with and without HIV: A Cross-Sectional Study,” published in the journal Scientific Reports.

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

Rob Hanna, Zaida McGinley, Carrie Meyers, and Jim Reynolds (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Co-Designing with AI: Empowering Science Educators for the Future of Learning” and “AI Savvy Science Classroom: Teaching Critical Thinking in the Age of AI” at the Florida Association of Science Teachers 2025 Conference.  

Subhasree Sengupta, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “A Context-Aware Q&A Motivational Agent for Project-Based Learning in Computing Education” at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology 2025 conference. She also presented “Case Studies as a Pedagogical Approach in Responsible Data Literacy: A Conceptual Exploration” at the Association for Library and Information Science Education 2025 conference. 

Flavia Ramos-Mattoussi, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “The Erosion of Academic Freedom and Global Engagement in U.S. higher Education Under Presidential Executive Orders in 2025” at the EDULEARN25 Conference in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. 

Andrea De Giorgi, Ph.D. (Department of Classics) presented “Daphne and the Making of Antioch’s Suburbia” at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Cy Weise, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented “How to Survive Techno-Hellscapes: On Crip Wisdom and Crip Critique,” at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. 

Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) presented the award lecture “Heart Failure Science: Building a Program of Research” at the 30th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America in Minneapolis, MN. 

Gen Ramirez (Center for Leadership and Service) presented “Leading Like Miss Frizzle: Knowing How to Take Leadership Learning into Outer Space as a New Leadership Educator” at the October 2025 International Leadership Association Global Conference. 

Wen Zhu, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) presented “Identifying a Tunnel-Gating Residue in Human Asparagine Synthetase” at the American Chemical Society’s Florida Annual Meeting and Exposition in Palm Harbor. 

Lauren Stanley, Ph.D., LCSW (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) presented “What Drives Burnout in Child Welfare Workers? Understanding the Strongest Predictor” for Practice & Research Together Canada. 

Jenny Root, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) presented “What Does it Take? Evaluating the Feasibility of a Math Curriculum for Students with Autism and Intellectual Disability” at the Association for Behavior Analysis International’s Single Case Conference in Minneapolis. 

Hugh Catts, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) delivered the keynote address “Revisiting the Definition of Dyslexia” at the Danish Dyslexia Association meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. Catts also presented this at the Wisconsin Reading League Conference in Brookfield, WI. 

Ellen Nimmons, MS (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented on FSU’s School of Communication Science and Disorders Intensive Clinical Advancement Program at the Southeastern Universities Clinical Educators annual conference at Auburn University. 

Hugh Catts, Ph.D. (School of Communication Sciences and Disorders) delivered the keynote address “Revisiting the Definition of Dyslexia” at the Danish Dyslexia Association meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Enrique Urrea-Mendoza, M.D. (College of Medicine) spoke at the 6th Annual All-Community Virtual Conference on Multiple System Atrophy, organized by the Defeat MSA Alliance, delivering a lecture on advanced treatments for Multiple System Atrophy and was a featured panelist in the Q&A session for patients and researchers. Urrea-Mendoza also spoke at the first Panhandle Parkinson’s Educational Symposium, presenting “The Plastic Pandemic and Its Potential Link to Parkinson’s Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Conditions.” 

Carrie Ann Baade, MFA (Department of Art) served as the Keynote Speaker of Beyond the Looking Glass: A Colossal Dream, the annual Florida Art Education Association Conference in St. Petersburg, FL. 

Jiha Moon, MFA (Department of Art) served as the Keynote Speaker at the American Ceramic Circle Annual Meeting in Atlanta. 

Rebecca Giguere, MPH (College of Medicine) presented “Mystery Shopping at Free HIV Testing Clinics in Florida: Notes from the Field on Anonymous Testing Policies” at the 2025 National Sexual Health Conference. 

Christopher Mulrooney, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “Experiencing Mutuality: Listening Well to Each Other on the Topic of Person-Directed Living Practices” at the annual Planetree International Global Person-Centered Care Forum in Baltimore, MD. 

Nicole Ennis, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “An Examination of Drug-Drug Interactions in Adults Aged 50 and Older New to Medical Marijuana Use” at the 2025 Cannabis Research Conference.

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Camilo Loaiza Bonilla, MFA (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) had a solo exhibition, “Raíces/Roots: Camilo Loaiza Bonilla,” featured at The University of Tampa’s Scarfone/Hartley Gallery. He also had a companion book published by The University of Tampa Press. 

Denise Bookwalte, MFA (Department of Art) exhibited her collaborative work with partner Tricia Treacy at the New York Art Book Fair in New York City. 

Katie Kehoe, MFA (Department of Art) exhibited her work in the group exhibition: “Imaginary Worlds: Invented Spaces and Places” at the Annmarie Sculpture Garden and Arts Center in Solomons, MD. 

Mona Bozorgi, MFA (Department of Art) had her work featured in “from within, so together” with Tokie Rome-Taylor at Swan Coach House in Atlanta and “Fibration III: Anxiety and Hope” at L’Space Gallery in New York. 

Marty Fielding, MFA (Department of Art) exhibited his work in ‘Conveying’ at the Schaller Gallery in Baroda, Michigan, and in a solo show, ‘Intentional Acts’, opening at the Plough Gallery in Tifton, GA. 

Jiha Moon, MFA (Department of Art), exhibited her work in a solo exhibition, “Purgatory Mutt,” at Mindy Solomon Gallery in Miami, and in “EMILY COLE: Ceramics, Flora & Contemporary Responses” at the Thomas Cole Historic Site in Catskill, NY. 

Ilana Goldman, MFA (School of Dance) staged Trey McIntyre’s ballet Wild Sweet Love for Richmond Ballet’s first program of the season in Richmond, VA.

SERVICE

Mark Zeigler, M.S. (College of Business) served as a faculty member for the Fall Academy of the Florida Association of City Clerks, teaching an advanced public speaking course. He also served as a guest colloquium speaker for the faculty, staff and graduate students in FSU’s Institute for Sports Sciences and Medicine. Zeigler also moderated the Opening Nights event featuring Authors James Patterson and Patrick Leddin that celebrated the release of their new Leadership and Management book, “Disrupt Everything.” 

Rob Hanna and Zaida McGinley (Learning Systems Institute) traveled to Holley-Navarre Intermediate School to work with students as part of FSU InSPIRE’s STEAM Night. 

Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) hosted Hillsborough County students at Riverview Elementary for “Spooky STEAM Nights” to support K-5 math learning goals. 

Jonathan Christensen Caballero, MFA (Department of Art) was announced as a juror for the annual Artaxis Fellowships.  

Jen Atkins, Ph.D. (School of Dance) has been appointed the new co-executive editor of Dance Research Journal.   

Brandon Bowden, Ed.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) was selected to serve on the 2026 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Associate Vice President Symposium Committee. 

Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) served as a panelist on “Sex Differences in Heart Failure: Ask the Experts” at the 30th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America. 

Kristen Guynes, Ph.D. and Casey Guynes, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) hosted a community gathering at Wakulla Springs State Park for families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing through SCSD’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing/American Sign Language Educational Outreach Program. 

Denise Gonzalez, Ed.D. (College of Medicine) was selected for the inaugural cohort of the Community of Practice for Medical Admissions Reform, a collaborative effort to improve equity and effectiveness in medical school admissions. She is the only representative from a Florida medical school. 

Katie Berry, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) participated on the conference panel “Lived Experts Leading the Way: Co-Creating Care for Child Welfare-Involved Youth” at the Annual Commonwealth of Virginia CSA Conference at Virginia Tech in Roanoke, VA. 

Charles Fleischer, M.D. (College of Medicine) served as co-chair on behalf of the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Global Health Advisory Group at the 2025 Global Health Summit, presenting and leading sessions that advanced discussions on health equity and improving care in resource-limited settings. 

Allison Wing, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science), was elected to the Members Nominating Committee, one of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research’s governance committees. 

Kevin Curry, MFA (Department of Art) was selected as a member of the Board of Directors for the Southeastern College Art Conference. During SECAC’s conference in Cincinnati, OH, Curry’s work, “Sausages,” was exhibited at SITE1212. 

NOTABLE

Lakesha Brown, M.S. (Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement) completed the 2025 Spring National TRIO Alumni Association Engagement Ambassador Cohort II Training, a professional development initiative of the Council for Opportunity in Education. 

Kaylee Webb, M.S. (Career Center), provided career guidance through one-on-one advising sessions to help students prepare for professional opportunities in the sports industry at the 2025 Sport Management Conference at FSU. She also obtained the Adult Mental Health First Aid certification from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Additionally, she completed the Law School Admissions Council, a month-long program to assist professionals who advise pre-law students. 

Stephen McDowell, Ph.D. and Jaejin Lee, Ph.D. (School of Communication) met with the president of Kyungpook National University (KNU) to discuss areas of collaboration and sign a memorandum of understanding between KNU and FSU. 

Rachel Bailey, Ph.D. (School of Communication) became an associate editor at the Journal of Media Psychology. 

Eric Holmes, Ph.D. and Gary Ostrander, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) were issued a patent for their work with the drug Niclosamide in conjunction with specific enhancers to treat viral infections, such as the human coronavirus. 

Malaika Samples, Ed.D., MPA, Kyle Cook, MS and Kristina Finch, MS (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) launched FSU’s first Child Advocacy Studies Badging Program, enrolling its inaugural student cohort in Fall 2025. They are partnering with the Zero Abuse Project and Florida higher education institutions to expand CAST statewide. 

Jamie Ho, MFA (Department of Art) completed a residency at the Bemis Center in Omaha, NE. 

Lilian Garcia-Roig, MFA (Department of Art) completed the Surf Point Residency in York, ME. 

Daniel Smith, MME (School of Dance) is a 2025 quarterfinalist for the GRAMMY Music Educator Award.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to aprentiss@fsu.edu. We publish monthly. 

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs October 2025 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others. 

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased. 

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HONORS AND AWARDS

Fred E. Karlinsky, J.D. (College of Law) received the Florida Insurance Council’s Mark Trafton Distinguished Service Award at the 2025 Summer Symposium in Fort Lauderdale. The award recognizes exceptional service and leadership in the insurance industry. 

Henry Zhuhao Wang, S.J.D., J.D., LL.M. (College of Law) was named a 2025 Association of American Law Schools Teacher of the Year for Florida State University. 

Nasrin Alamdari, Ph.D., P.E. (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) was selected to receive the prestigious A. Ivan Johnson Award for Young Professionals from the American Water Resources Association. The national recognition highlights her innovative research combining artificial intelligence with environmental water management solutions. 

Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information) was elected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Health Sciences and Informatics. 

Fraternity and Sorority Life received the 2025 Elevation in Practice — Innovation Award from the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors for their newest program, 5 Senses of Hazing. 

Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication) was awarded third place for his research “Public Relations Practitioners’ Expectations for Graduate Education” in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Public Relations Division. 

Carla Wood, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) was named a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and higher education doctoral program alumnus Ciera Fluker, Ph.D., were awarded Edited Book of the Year by the American Association for Hispanic Higher Education for their 2024 publication of “Latin* Students in Engineering: An Intentional Focus on a Growing Population.” 

Alina Dana Weber, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) received the Goethe-Institut / American Association of Teachers of German Certificate of Merit for furthering German teaching in the U.S. 

Barbara Hamby, M.A. (Department of English) had her poem “Ode on Words for Parties (American Edition)” honored in The New Yorker’s best of the last 100 years anthology book “A Century of Poetry in The New Yorker 1925-2025.” 

Norman (Trip) Wyckoff, MLIS (University Libraries) received the Fred L. Standley Award in recognition of his significant contributions to research librarianship and library development at the campus, state, national and international levels. Named for longtime FSU advocate Fred L. Standley, the award honors a legacy of scholarly excellence and service to the University Libraries. 

Kathleen Kennedy, M.D. (College of Medicine, Sarasota Regional Campus) was honored with the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) Leadership Council Inspire Award.  During Women in Medicine month, AMWA honors the trailblazing women physicians who continue to make a profound difference in health care and beyond. 

Shermeeka Hogans-Mathews, M.D., FAAFP (College of Medicine) received the 2025 Florida Academy of Family Physicians’ Exemplary Full-Time Educator Award. 

Panayotis (Paddy) League, Ph.D. (College of Music) had his new album, a collaboration with Athens, GA-based ensemble Hog-Eyed Man, selected by The Daily as one of the Best Country Records released in July. 

Noel Wan, D.M. (College of Music) received the FAA Emerging Legacy Award, the University of Illinois’ highest honor for early career alumni of the College of Fine and Applied Arts. 

GRANTS

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral student Holly Henning, M.A., MBA received an $11,447 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for a strategic communications project “Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Strategic Communications Project.” 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) received a $290,356 subaward from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the National Science Foundation’s CREST II Center for their project “Evaluation: CREST Phase II (CREST-CER): Center for Complex Materials Design & Hybrid Materials Processing.” 

Brian Miller, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) received a $616,401 National Institutes of Health grant for his project “Enzyme Recruitment in Metabolic Plasticity and Evolvability.”  

Thomas Needham, Ph.D. and Martin Bauer, Ph.D. (Department of Mathematics) received a $253,888 National Science Foundation grant for their collaborative project “CIF: Small: Generalized Optimal Transport Models: Theory and Computation.” 

Michael Shatruk, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) received a $986,000 Department of Energy grant from the Physical Behavior of Materials program for his project “Multistate Optical Switching with Phase-Change Molecular Materials.” 

Charles Fleischer, M.D. (College of Medicine) received a $192,927 National Science Foundation grant for his collaborative project “C2H2 EAGER Collaborative Research: Explore a Model-Data Framework to Advance Predictions of Red Tide and its Impact on Respiratory Illnesses Under Changing Temperature.” 

Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D., MSW, LSW (College of Social Work) received the 2024 Rose Dobrof Runner-Up Award from the editorial board for the Journal of Gerontological Social Work and Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work for her article “‘I’m Part of Something that Matters’: Exploring What Older Adults Value Through Their Engagement in Age-Friendly Community Initiatives” published in the Journal of Gerontological Social Work. 

BYLINES

Bret Keating, M.S. (Advising First) authored “From Magic to Meaning” published in NACADA: Academic Advising Today Journal. 

Eric Walker, Ph.D. (Department of English) published “Absent Fathers, Adoption from China, and Kathryn Ma’s The Year She Left Us” in the Adoption & Culture journal. 

Kadir Kozan, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral student Chaewon Kim, M.A. published their research “First-Year STEM College Students’ Study Strategies: Perceived Effectiveness and Use” in the Education Sciences journal. 

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ph.D. and Bodunrin Arkinmade, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) published “If I Do Not Bear Such a Burden Today, I Will Bear it in the Future: The Reasons for Private Tutoring and its Perceived Academic Impact on Children in Nigeria” in the International Journal of Educational Development. 

Secil Caskurlu, Ph.D. and Kadir Kozan, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “The Community of Inquiry Framework and Learning Analytics: A Systematic Review of Previous Research” published in Computers & Education Open. 

Kadir Kozan, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral students Jaesung Hur, MS, Idam Kim, MEd and Alex Barrett, M.A. co-authored “Instructional Designers’ Integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence into their Professional Practice” published in Education Sciences. 

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and athletic coaching alumna Tessa Taylor co-authored “A Practical Guide to Coaching International Student-Athletes (ISAs) in Interscholastic and Collegiate Sports in the United States of America” published in the International Journal of Kinesiology in Higher Education. 

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Strategies to Positively Affect Retention in Online Kinesiology-Based Collegiate Courses” published in the International Journal of Kinesiology in Higher Education. 

Thomas Ledermann, Ph.D. and Myriam Rudaz, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “On Partial Versus Full Mediation and the Importance of Effect Sizes” published in Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science. 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences), postdoctoral researcher and higher education alumna Janel Acosta, Ph.D. and human development and family sciences alumna Valentina Iturriaga, Ph.D. co-authored the book chapter “Student Success for Latin* Students” in the Routledge Handbook on Postsecondary Student Success. 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D., (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral students Zahra Gholami, M.A. and Xinting Wu, M.A. co-authored “Public Financing of STEM Education: Research Evidence and Policy Recommendations” published in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D., Shouping Hu, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and Yang Li, Ph.D. (FSU Career Center) co-authored “Pathways into Computing Fields by Florida’s Community College Students” published in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice. 

Russell B. Clayton, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) and students Junho Park, Sazzad Mahmud Shuvo, Kristina Simon Sherry Rasul, and Jessica Weinberg, co-published the study “Investigating Psychophysiological and Self-Report Responses to Antioral Nicotine Pouch Social Media Videos” in Health Psychology. 

Kelly Farquharson, Ph.D., Jennifer Westmoreland, MS (College of Communication and Information) and doctoral students Mary Allison Moody and Christy Timm Fulkerson published a research article “Print Referencing Virtual Coaching for Paraeducators: A Single-Case Experimental Design” in the American Journal of Speech Language Pathology. 

Zhe He, Ph.D. and Mia Lustria, Ph.D. (School of Information) published “Introducing the Adherence Promotion with Person-Centered Technology (APPT) Trial: Rationale, Methods, and Baseline Characteristics” in Contemporary Clinical Trials. 

Lakeisha Johnson, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) published an article, “Exploring Oral Language, Spoken Language Variation, and Reading Profiles Among Black Children,” in Seminars in Speech and Language. 

Dillon Pruett, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) was published in Nature Genetics for his “Large-Scale Genome-Wide Analysis of Stuttering” study. 

Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) and doctoral scholar Holden Allen co-authored an article “Looking Beyond the Lines: Mental Health Co-occurrences and Future Treatment Considerations for Dyslexic Populations” in Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools. 

Shouping Hu, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and Joe O’Shea, Ph.D. (Office of the President) published the comprehensive volume “The Routledge Handbook on Postsecondary Student Success.” 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D., Shouping Hu, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and higher education doctoral program alumnus Teng Zhao co-authored “The Impact of Merit Aid on STEM Major Choices: A Propensity Score Approach” published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and alumnus Marcus Nicolas co-authored “The (Mis)Education of Black Boys: Exploring the Contributing Factors of Their Accelerated Curricular Decision-Making Process” published in the Journal of African American Males in Education. 

Chelsea Armbrister, Ph.D., Tarik J. Dickens, Ph.D. (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) and Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Manufacturing Inclusive Excellence: An Intersectional, Mixed Methods Study of Engineering Identity Among Undergraduate Research Students at a Historically Black University” published in the American Society for Engineering Education, PEER Proceedings. 

Anthony Nguyen, Ph.D. (Department of Philosophy) authored “Self-Respect and Justice” published in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 

Michelle Bumatay, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) authored “Framing France in the Indian Ocean: Of Shipwrecks and Fertile Women,” published in the book “Graphic Narratives of Resistance: Advocating for Representation and Social Justice in French-language Bandes Dessinées” by Edinburgh University Press.  

Elizabeth Coggeshall, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) authored “A Transmedia Commedia: The View from Dante Today” published in the Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies. She also published the article, “Building and Maintaining the Crowdsourced Archive Dante Today” in Limina: Intorno al testo 1, and the article, “Into the City of Deep Downpression’: Lorna Goodison’s Tradaptation of Dante’s Inferno,” with Sx Salon. 

Kathleen Powers Conti, Ph.D. (Department of History) authored “Beyond the Absence: Recovering the Architectural Imprints of Slavery at Virginia’s Berkeley Plantation,” published in the book “Architectures of Slavery: Ruins & Reconstructions” by the University of Virginia Press. 

Christina Parker-Flynn, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored “Eyeing Egypt: Transparent Orientalism on the Edge of Cinematic Modernity in ‘The Eyes of Mummy Ma’ (1918)” included in the book “Refocus: The Historical Films of Ernst Lubitsch” published by Edinburgh University Press. 

Stanley Gontarski, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored the essay “‘Everything oozes’: Mud and Molebane in Beckett’s Dystopian Landscapes,” published in the book “Beckett and Nature” by Bloomsbury Publishing. His essay “‘Well, Cut My Legs Off and Call Me Shorty’: Flann O’Brien, the American Mythos and Its Argot” was also published in Volume 15 of “Studi Irlandesi: A Journal of Irish Studies.” 

Tarez Graban, Ph.D. (Department of English) co-authored “The Promise(s) and Peril(s) of Big Data: Historiography, Data Feminism, and Tracing Women of Color” published in the book, “Rhetorica Rising: Feminist Rhetorical Methods for Social Change” by the University of South Carolina Press. 

Vincent Joos, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) authored “Ecos de Revoluções Passadas: Arquitetura, Memória e Políticas Espectrais nos Bairros Históricos de Porto Príncipe,” published in “Rotas Caribenhas: etnografia, mobilidade e conhecimento” through Editora da Universidade de São Paulo.  Joos also authored the article “Pathologizing and Controlling Haitian Bodies: The U.S. Border through Discrimination, Incarceration, and Deportation” published in the Journal of Latino-Latin American Studies. 

Ross Moret, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) authored “AI, the Conflicted University, and the Classroom” published in the Journal of Philosophy of Education through Oxford University Press. 

Alina Dana Weber, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) authored “Velvet Eyes and Bowie Knives: Reading Karl May’s Tracks in Thomas Mann’s ‘Der Zauberberg,’” in the journal Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte. 

Cy Jillian Weise, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored the poem “So Your GF wants to Come Out as Bi and Polyamorous to Her Very Conservative Family” published in the anthology “Super Gay Poems: LGBTQIA+ Poetry After Stonewall” by Belknap Press, an imprint of Harvard University Press. 

Brittany Devies, Ph.D., Jarred Pernier, MEd and Freddy Juarez, MS (Fraternity and Sorority Life) co-published “Metrics, Outcomes, and Assessment: Creating Data-Driven Decisions in Leadership Programs” in New Directions for Student Leadership. 

Brittany Devies, Ph.D. (Fraternity and Sorority Life) and Kathy Guthrie, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-published “Framing the Use of Context in Leadership Programs” and “Future of Leadership Learning: The Possibility of ILA’s General Principles” in New Directions for Student Leadership. 

Michael Nair-Collins, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) published “Death is Biologically Real; Laws About Death are Social Constructions” in the American Journal of Bioethics. 

Katie Berry, Ph.D. and Emily Davison, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored a manuscript titled “Developing a Digital Single-Session Intervention to Promote Trauma-Informed Caregiving: Insights from Foster Caregivers and Child Welfare Providers,” published in the Journal of Cognitive Psychology. 

Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) authored “Using Experimental Research Designs to Evaluate Social Work Practice in China,” published in the China Journal of Social Work. 

Gashaye Melaku Tefera, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and doctoral students Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW and Shelby Varol, MSW co-authored “Trust Matters: A Qualitative Study on Healthcare Access and Utilization Among African Immigrants in the United States,” in the Journal of Community Health. 

Nicole Bentze, D.O., FAAFP, FAMWA and Megan Verdoni, MPAS, PA-C, CAQ-EM (College of Medicine) co-authored “The Impact of Faculty Pin Recognition” published in the Journal of Faculty Development. 

Alexandra Cowan-Pyle, Ph.D. and Regan Bailey, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored “The Reporting of ‘What We Eat in America’ Nutrient Intake Data in the Scientific Literature: A Scoping Review” published in the Journal of Nutrition. 

Bill Boyer, DHSC, MS, CHSE (College of Medicine) contributed to the recently revised 11th edition of “American College of Surgeons’ Advanced Trauma Life Support Provider and Instructor” course manuals. He is one of four Senior Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) educators in the United States and sits on the 14-person ATLS Senior Educator Advisory Board. 

Bonnie Spring, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored “Optimizing a Physical Activity Intervention with Mindful Awareness Lessons in Breast Cancer Survivors: Fit2thrivemind Protocol” in Contemporary Clinical Trials. 

Brittany Devies, Ph.D., Jarred Pernier, MEd and Freddy Juarez, MS (Fraternity and Sorority Life) co-authored “Applying Content: Integrating Theory, Design, and Student-Centered Learning” published by New Director Student Leadership. 

Barbara Hamby, Ph.D. (Department of English) published her book of poetry “Burn” with the University of Pittsburgh Press. 

Rodney Jordan, M.M. (College of Music) authored “Your Sound Is Your Calling Card,” published in in the October 2025 issue of DownBeat Magazine and in the magazine’s annual “Best Colleges to Study Jazz” edition. 

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

Jane Harris (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “Educating & Engaging Museum Volunteers: Flexible Strategies for Guide Training in Changing Times” at the American Alliance of Museum’s Annual Meeting in Los Angeles, Calif. The session explored flexible, inclusive training models developed at The Ringling to support volunteer guides during and after the pandemic, with a focus on accessibility, learner-centered design and sustained engagement. 

Subhasree Sengupta, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) was a featured panelist on the “Artificial Intelligence and its Impact on Higher Education” Zoom panel, part of the FSU Department of Scientific Computing’s Artificial Intelligence Seminar. 

Rachel Bailey, Ph.D., (School of Communication) doctoral student Sun Young Park, alumna Pooja Ichplani, Ph.D. and graduate teaching assistant Yu Liang presented “Utilizing Competing Biological Motivations: Can We Improve Food Neophobe’s Attitudes toward Lab-grown Meat?” at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference. 

Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication) and doctoral students Junho Park, M.A. and Sun Young Park, MS presented “The Effect of Representation of Number and Visual Saliency of Bike Safety Message on Navigation Applications” at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference. 

Ying Yang, Ph.D. (School of Communication) and doctoral student Junho Park, M.A. presented “How AI-generated Labels on Social Media Testimonials Expressing Mental Distress Affect Reader Engagement and Support Provision” at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference. 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) presented “Shaping Policies and Practices as Researchers and Practitioners: A Focus on Latin* Students in Engineering Education” at the American Society of Engineering Education meetings in Montreal, Canada. 

Stanley Gontarski, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented “Samuel Beckett’s Regimes of Ignorance: Ethico-political Acts of Resistance” at the Associazione Italiana di Anglistica biennial conference at the University of Turin in Italy. He also presented “How to Read Bill’s Brain: A Neuromatic Approach to Reading Burroughs’ Archives” at the European Beat Studies Network Conference at the University of Hildesheim, Germany. 

Chris Constantino, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) and doctoral student Angelica Bernabe co-hosted a Stuttering Affirmative Therapy workshop for the Spanish-speaking community through Centro Especializado en Tartamudez. 

Dillon Pruett, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) was an invited speaker for the inaugural Stuttering Treatment and Research Society (STARS) Research & Education Conference held at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, CA. 

Ebe Randeree, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) co-presented a workshop “Decoding LinkedIn” at the STARS CELEBRATION Annual Meeting in Dallas, TX. 

Tarez Graban, Ph.D. (Department of English) helped lead the international workshop “A Transnational Retrospective 50 Years After the First World Conference on Women” at the Feminisms and Rhetorics 2025 Conference in July at the University of New Hampshire, Durham. She also presented her paper “South Africa’s Black Sash as Theorists of Rhetorical Genre and Resilience, from 1955 to 1995” at the 25th biennial International Society for the History of Rhetoric Society Conference at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. 

Fanny Caroline Liu, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) co-organized the hybrid event “Early Career Researchers Connect” at the 3rd International Top-Down Proteomics Symposium in Hamburg, Germany. 

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented “Awe and the Study of Nonreligion” at Jesus College in Oxford, England. His presentation came from the project, “Awe-some spirituality: A theological and psychological cross-disciplinary exploration of awe underlying spiritual yearning of the nonreligious,” which is funded by the John Templeton Foundation and for which Newheiser serves on an advisory board. 

Robert Romanchuk, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) presented “His Mother is a Jewess: Digenis Akritis and the Septuagint” in August at the International Congress of Slavists in Paris, France. 

Lisa Ryoko Wakamiya, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) presented “Nabokov’s Book Reviews and Writing about the Present” at the International Congress of Slavists in Paris, France. 

Wen Zhu, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) spoke at the seminar “Dissecting the Conformational Dynamics of Enzymes” through the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Florida in Gainesville. 

Ibrahim Yigit, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) co-authored “Development and Validation of the Microaggression Scale for Refugees (MSR): Independent Contributions of Microaggression and Experienced Stigma to Psychological Distress and Somatic Symptoms” in the Journal of Affective Disorders.   

Allison McHugh, DNP, MHCDS, RN, NE-BC (College of Nursing), co-presented “Validating a Healthy Work Environment Assessment Tool in the Academic Workplace” at the Association for Leadership Sciences in Nursing international conference. 

Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH and Kathryn Muessig, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) co-presented a conference poster co-authored by Rahim Miller, MSMS, EMT-B, Zoë Njemanze, MPH, Swetha Mukalel, Judah Dean, MSW, Carissa Crews, MPH, CHC (Institute on Digital Health and Innovation), Jacob Stocks, MSC and Adrian Williams, MPH (College of Nursing) titled “A Community-Centered Approach to Digital Interventions for Underserved Youth,” at the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions Annual Scientific Meeting. 

Delaney La Rosa, EdD, MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing) presented “Examining AI’s Evolution from Chat-based Assistants to Agentic Systems, the Market Inflection Points of 2024–2025, and Practical Implications for Industry and Workforce Readiness,” at a talk hosted by the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering that covered major developments from 2022 through near-future projections and offered recommendations for technologists, leaders and educators. 

Delaney La Rosa, EdD, MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing) presented “AI for Industry” at the FSU SC Artificial Intelligence Seminar hosted by the Department of Scientific Computing. 

Christopher Mulrooney, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “Pathways to Culture Change Implementation: What Mobilizers & Administrators Can Learn from Each Other” at the annual conference of AgingIN (formerly known as Center for Innovation & Pioneer Network). 

Katie Berry, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) and doctoral student Lauren Herod, MPA presented “Use of Research Evidence in Florida’s Child Welfare Policymaking” at the Macro United Conference in Washington University in St. Louis. 

Katie Berry, Ph.D. and Emily Davison, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) presented “Co-Adapting an SSI Parenting Intervention with Foster Parents to Fit the Relational Context of the Foster Parent/Youth Relationship” at the 5th International Single Session Intervention Symposium. They also presented “Foster Parents’ Experiences Navigating Complex Needs of Older Youths” at the 2025 Florida Department of Children and Families Summit. 

Karen Geletko, MPH (College of Medicine) presented “From Screening to Cessation: An Equitable and Holistic View of Tobacco and Nicotine Use Interventions at Healthcare Visits” at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health in Chicago, which synthesized research she conducted with Jon Mills, Ph.D., Jeffrey Harman, Ph.D., (Center for Translational Behavioral Science) Katelyn Graves, Ph.D., Shermeeka Hogans-Mathews, M.D. (College of Medicine) and medical students John Acosta-Penaloza and Hanna Lateef. 

Delaney La Rosa, Ed.D., MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing) presented at the launch summit for the FSU College of Nursing sponsored Nursing AI Innovation Consortium, which was held with the National League for Nursing 2025 Education Summit as part of a panel on “Future Nursing Priorities for Responsible AI.” 

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing) authored and presented “Cracking the Code: Billing and Coding Simplified for Nurse Practitioners” at the South Florida Council of Advanced Practice Nurses. She also authored and presented “Cultivating a HAPPY & HEALTHY Future at The Crossroads of NP Practice, Education, Research, and Policy” at the 2025 Florida Nurse Practitioner Network Conference Pharmacology Workshop and “Self-Management through Person-Centered Lifestyle Medicine and Shared Medical Visits” at the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists. 

Delaney La Rosa, Ed.D., MSN Ed, RN and LeeAnn H. Barfield, Ph.D., DNP, APRN-BC, CNE, FACHE (College of Nursing) co-presented at the 2025 Florida Nurses Association’s annual conference: “Elevating Nursing Innovation in a Digital Age.” Dr. La Rosa presented the keynote “Centering AI in Nursing, a Framework for Transformative Leadership” and Dr. Barfield presented the closing plenary “Leading the Charge: Leveraging Healthcare Technology and Innovation to Advance Nursing Practice and Patient Outcomes.” 

Ericka Horne, MPH, CHES® (College of Medicine) presented “Community Impact through Integration of the Translational Science Benefits Model” at the Florida Public Health Association Annual Education Conference. Horne also wrapped up her term as co-chair of the Student Engagement Committee and started her term as secretary on the FPHA board’s executive committee. 

Ransome Eke, M.D., Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented the poster “Telehealth Use Among U.S. Adults with Chronic Medical Conditions: Findings from the Medical Expenditure Panel (MEPS) Survey” at the American College of Epidemiology Conference. 

Rahim Miller, MSMS, EMT-B, Swetha Mukalel, Judah Dean, MSW, Carissa Crews, MPH, CHC (Institute on Digital Health and Innovation) co-presented and co-authored “From Stakeholders to Co-Researchers: Advancing HIV Research Through the Subject Matter Research Consultant Model” with Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH, Kathryn Muessig, Ph.D., Jacob Stocks, MSC and Adrian Williams, MPH (College of Nursing) at the 2025 Florida HIV CPR Conference. 

Ying Mai Kung, DNP, MPH, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, CNE, FAAN (College of Nursing) presented the introduction at the Fullbright Taiwan Orientation. 

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES 

Jonathan Holden, D.M.A., Shannon Thomas, D.M.A., Greg Sauer, D.M.A. and Read Gainsford, D.M.A. (College of Music) performed a Central Florida tour with concerts in Tallahassee, the Historic Asolo Theatre at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and Design in Sarasota and the Blue Bamboo Performing Arts Center in Winter Park. 

Leon Anderson, M.M. (College of Music) released his debut album Live at Snug Harbor on Outside in Music, praised in “The Blade” as “world-class music” and a brilliant tribute to New Orleans’ jazz tradition. 

Amy Fleming, MFA (Department of Art) had her work featured in the exhibition “Gig Posters for Gig Professors” at SMALLS gallery in Tallahassee. 

Jiha Moon, MFA (Department of Art) has the solo exhibition of her artwork “Ten Moon” featured at the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center. 

Jean Shon, MFA (Department of Art) had her work featured in the exhibition “What Would I Not Give” at the Community Artists’ Collective in Houston. 

SERVICE

Eric Walker, Ph.D. (Department of English) was elected co-chair of the Executive Committee of the Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture. 

Becky Greenhill, M.Ed. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) established the Langford Family Speech & Hearing Mobile Clinic Fund, thanks to the generosity of the Langford Family. This initiative will help expand FSU health services. 

Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) is serving as associate editor of Research in Higher Education. She is also serving as an inaugural vice chair for the Association of the Study of Higher Education’s new fellowship program. 

Freddy Juarez, MS (Fraternity and Sorority Life) was appointed to the 2025 Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors Governance & Nominations Committee. He has also been named the Southeastern Greek Leadership Association’s Associate Executive Director. 

Brittany Devies, Ph.D. (Fraternity and Sorority Life) was appointed to serve on the International Leadership Association’s Committee on the Advancement of Leadership Programs for the 2026-28 term. 

Ericka Horne, MPH, CHES® (College of Medicine) was chosen to serve as a Governing Councilor for the American Public Health Association’s Public Health Education and Health Promotion Section for the 2025-2027 term. 

Josef V. Hodgkins, MTS, BSN, RN (College of Nursing) completed reviewer duties for the Southern Nursing Research Society’s 40th Annual Conference. 

Cyneetha Strong, M.D. (College of Medicine) served as keynote speaker for the opening session at Global Liver Institute’s Liver Health Symposium. She also served as the facilitator of a workgroup of providers titled “Engage & Elevate: Gathering Provider Insights on Screening and Patient Needs in Liver Health.” 

Ericka Horne, MPH, CHES® and Community Outreach Assistants Kai Pinta and Montezza Lee (College of Medicine) shared information about the eight dimensions of wellness at Florida A&M University’s Annual Grape Harvest Festival in Tallahassee. 

Megan Crowe, MS, Ed.S. (Career Center) was selected to serve on the new class of the Law School Admission Council’s Prelaw Advisory Council for a two-year term. 

NOTABLE

Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) is leading the Successful Start Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) project in Hillsborough County, Fla. 120 teachers participated in the project focusing on CGI in math. 

Elizabeth Madden, Ph.D. and Ellen Nimmons M.S. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) launched the Intensive Comprehensive Aphasia Program. The program helps stroke survivors with aphasia and their care partners through an innovative, team-based rehabilitation experience. 

Anna Romanova’s, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) Ukrainian translation of Angi Yoder-Maina’s, Ph.D. (FSU Resilience Institute for Strength and Empowerment) book “Healing Is What Makes Peace Work” was launched in Ukraine where 1,000 free copies were distributed. 

Patty Ballantine, MPA (College of Medicine) earned a Master of Public Administration degree with a concentration in Leadership and Strategic Management from the Askew School of Public Administration at FSU. 

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., ARNP-C, FAANP (College of Nursing) was promoted to Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs in the College of Nursing. 

Katie Berry, Ph.D. and Emily Davison, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) conducted primary research and submitted a report to the Task Force on the Monitoring of Children in Out-of-Home Care, a legislatively mandated task force charged with making recommendations to the Legislature to improve the child welfare system. 

Malaika Samples, Ed.D., MPA, Kyle Cook, MS, and Kristina Finch, MS (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) launched Florida State University’s first Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) Badging Program, enrolling its inaugural student cohort in Fall 2025. As Assistant Director of Academic Innovation, Samples is partnering with the Zero Abuse Project and Florida higher education institutions to expand CAST statewide.  

Josef V. Hodgkins, MTS, BSN, RN (College of Nursing) has been selected to join the research team developing guidelines for behavioral treatment of intrinsic Circadian Rhythm Sleep-Wake Disorders.  

LeeAnn H. Barfield, Ph.D., DNP, APRN-BC, CNE, FACHE (College of Nursing) was accepted into the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Elevating Leaders in Academic Nursing Fellowship. 

Cindy Telfort, MPH and Montezza Lee (College of Medicine) earned a Community Health Worker certification. 

Kerwyn Flowers, D.O. (College of Medicine) was named dean of the Tallahassee Regional Medical School Campus. She has served as the director of Rural Medical Education since 2019. 

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to aprentiss@fsu.edu. We publish monthly. 

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs September 2025 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

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HONORS AND AWARDS

Lisa Spainhour, Ph.D. (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) received the Florida Engineering Society Outstanding Service to the Engineering Profession Award from the Florida Engineering Society.

Ames Morton-Winter, M.A.Ed., ALM (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) received the 2024 Outstanding New Professional Award from the Florida Association of Museums.

Yue Li (University Libraries) has been honored with the 2025 President’s Recognition Award from the Chinese American Librarians Association.

Brittany L. Lane, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) was selected as a 2025-2026 National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty Launching Future Leaders in Global Health (LAUNCH) Global Health Fellow through the UJMT Global Consortium, which includes the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Johns Hopkins University, Morehouse School of Medicine and Tulane University. As a LAUNCH Fellow, Lane will spend a year in Malawi conducting research on relationship dynamics, HIV-related partner communication and use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis, or PrEP — a preventive treatment for people who are at high risk of contracting HIV — among young couples.

Jerod Hutchinson (University Libraries) received the 2025 Julia Zimmerman Award, which honors a staff member who exemplifies the values of collegiality, trust, teamwork, inclusion, innovation and service.

Mike Drury, Psy.D. (College of Medicine) achieved an  American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) specialty board certification in Behavioral & Cognitive Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology.

Mark Gallagher, M.D. (College of Medicine) was named a Cleveland Clinic Patient Experience Champion for outstanding patient advocacy at Cleveland Clinic Martin Health — continuing contributions to a positive health care environment for patients and staff alike. He was also appointed the TeamHealth Regional Patient Experience Officer.

Noël Wan, Ph.D. (College of Music) was awarded the 2025 FAA Emerging Legacy Award, the University of Illinois’ highest award for early career alumni of the College of Fine and Applied Arts. The award recognizes “individuals who have impacted their fields in transformative ways — catalysts with distinguished service to the arts” in the fields of architecture, music, visual art, dance and theatre.

Panayotis (Paddy) League, Ph.D. (College of Music) had his new album selected by The Daily as one of the best country records released in July. The album is a collaboration with Athens, GA-based ensemble Hog-Eyed Man.

GRANTS

Xian Mallory, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) received a $290,049 National Science Foundation grant for her project “Collaborative Research: CISE Crosscutting Small: SCH: Using Explainable AI and Quantum-inspired Computing to Uncover Genetic Insights.”

Michael Carrasco, Ph.D. (College of Fine Arts) received a grant from the Cycad Society for his project “Documenting and Preserving Cycads and Cycad Culture on Amami Ōshima, Japan in Response to Critical Existential Threats.” 

Sarah A. Johnson, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) is a principal investigator on a multi-PI grant from the National Institutes of Health’s Botanical Dietary Supplements Translational Research Teams program. The project is titled “Examining Gut Microbiome as a Determinant of Blueberry Polyphenol Bioavailability to Optimize Dose and Phytochemical Standardization for Functional Effects in Humans.”

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) received a Global Philosophy of Religion project grant, a subgrant of the John Templeton Foundation, for the project “Indigenous Spirituality and Human Meaning in the Amazon.”

BYLINES

Erin Morpeth-Provost, Ph.D. (Counseling & Psychological Services) co-authored “Voices of Students in Crisis: Qualitative Interviews with College Students Hospitalized for Psychiatric Distress” published in Psychiatric Quarterly.

Michael Carrasco, Ph.D. (College of Fine Arts) had his article “Threats to Cycad Biocultural Heritage in the Amami Islands, Japan” featured as an Editor’s Choice by the RIKEN Center for Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences.

Erin Ryan, J.D. (College of Law) authored “The Four Horsemen of the New Separation of Powers: The Environmental Law Implications of Loper Bright, West Virginia, Sackett, and Corner Post” published in the Minnesota Law Review.

Kris Salata, Ph.D. (School of Theatre) authored “The Unwritten Grotowski: Theory and Practice of the Encounter,” published by Routledge for the first time in Greek.

Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) with the contribution of doctoral candidates Joseph Vondrasek, Christin Domeier and Thomas Bissen co-authored “Central Blood Pressure and Arterial Stiffness Among Ultramarathon Runners Across the Lifespan” published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.

Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Cardiac Responses to Environmental Heat Exposure in Young and Older Adults” published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. He also co-authored “Sodium Intake and Biological Sex Influence Urinary Endothelin-1 in Salt-Resistant Adults: A Pilot Study” published in the American Journal of Physiology – Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Annie Wofford, Ph.D., Lara Perez-Felkner, Ph.D. and Bret Staudt Willet, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored a research note “Geography of Computing Graduate Degree Opportunities: Examining the Characteristics of Minority-Serving Institutions” published in Research in Higher Education.

Eundeok Kim, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship ) co-authored the book “Teaching Sustainability Competencies Across the Disciplines: A Guide for Instructors (2nd Ed.) published by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored “Competence-Based Curriculum Implementation in Africa: A Scoping Review of Pedagogical and Assessment Practices” published in the Journal of Curriculum Studies.

Melba Marin-Velasquez, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored “Connecting with Land: Knowledge Production and Transfer in a Maya Tzotzil Muslim Community in Chiapas, Mexico” published in Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.

Jai Bum Koo, Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. and Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored “Roles, Relationships, and Experiences among the Stakeholders in the Teaching Practice in Malawi” published in Teaching and Teacher Education. They also co-authored “Teacher Educator Knowledge, Skills, and Self-Efficacy: Systemic Impacts on Initial Teacher Education Program” published in Trends in Higher Education.

Sabrina Dickey, Ph.D., MSN, RN (College of Nursing) and Amy L. Ai, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article “The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Differences in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Resilience, Altruism, and Substance Use among Black and White Student Volunteers” published in the journal Traumatology.

Nicholas Mazza, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) authored “Poetry Therapy and Death: Professional and Personal Experience” in The Italian Journal of Poetry Therapy. He also authored the Foreword for Anna Liudnova’s “Dialogue with Yourself: Recovery Through Writing;” and “Poetry Therapy Across Boundaries: Finding and Promoting Peace in our World” in the book, “When words heal. The silence echoes,” Italy: Mille Gru Edition.

Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Yaacov Petscher, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) and Nuria Gutierrez, Ph.D. (Florida Center for Reading Research) co-authored “Quantile Regression in Social Work Research” published in the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research.

Carolina Gonzalez, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) authored the blog “Of Invented Languages” published with Cambridge University Press.

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) co-edited the collection “Art-Making as Spiritual Practice: Rituals of Embodied Understanding” published as an e-book by Bloomsbury Academic.

Adam Tratner, Ph.D. (Republic of Panama Campus) co-authored and published “A Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Analysis of Cognitive Function and Well-Being of Older Adults in Panama During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in the journal COVID.

Tanya Renn, Ph.D., Lauren Herod, MSW/MPA and Stephen Tripodi, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Implementing a Trauma-Informed Intervention in a County Jail: Feasibility Study of STAIR” published in the journal Research on Social Work Practice.

Deb Osborn, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral candidate Jacob Stamm co-authored “Beyond the Game: Exploring the Interplay of Career Thoughts, Career Adaptability, and Athletic Identity in Shaping Postgraduate Paths for Student Athletes” published in the Journal of Postsecondary School Success. Co-authors include Combined Counseling Psychology and School Psychology Ph.D. alumni Ryan Sides, Ivey Walker and Bobbi Villarreal.

Antonio Terracciano, Ph.D., Martina Luchetti, Ph.D., Angelina R. Sutin, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and post-doctoral students Selin Karakose, Ph.D., Amanda A. Miller, Ph.D. co-authored “Meta-analyses of Personality Change from the Preclinical to the Clinical Stages of Dementia” published online ahead of print in the journal Ageing Research Reviews.

Geraldine Martorella, Ph.D., (Center for Translational Behavioral Science), Adam Hanley, Ph.D. and Kathryn Muessig, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) co-authored “Patients’ Perception of a Brief Web- and Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Pain Following Discharge After Total Joint Arthroplasty: Qualitative Description” published in JMIR Nursing.

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

Nancy Gerber, Ph.D. (Department of Art Education) presented “Transforming through Research. The Future of Art Therapy in a Changing World” at the European Federation of Art Therapy conference in London.

Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) co-presented her work “Advancing Nursing Through Translational Workforce Development: An Integrated CTSA System-Level Approach” at the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Nursing Research 40th Anniversary Symposium, Clinical Center, Bethesda, MD.

Amy Magnuson, Ph.D. and Hannah Stone (University Health Services) presented “Strategic Planning, Identifying KPIs, and Performing Leadership Rounds” for college health centers at the American College Health Association Conference.

Adam Hanley, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) presented posters featuring the companion articles “Patients’ Perception of a Brief Web- and Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Pain Following Discharge After Total Joint Arthroplasty: Qualitative Description” and “Online Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention for Subacute Pain After Total Hip or Knee Replacement: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial” at the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions in San Diego.

Ben Wicker, Ed.D., M.Ed. and Shannon Staten, Ph.D. (University Housing) presented “A Lesson in Self-assessment and its Impact on the Housing Staff” at the June Association of College & University Housing Officers – International annual conference, Campus Home. LIVE!

Alice Maxwell, MA (DSA Marketing and Communications Office) presented on her article “Exploring a Model for Student Success Communications that Welcomes Collaboration Across Higher Education Divisions” at a webinar hosted by Taylor & Francis, publishers of the UK-based journal “Perspectives: Policy & Practice in Higher Education.”

Shannon Staten, Ph.D. (University Housing) presented “Making 20 New Contacts in an Hour: Connecting with Women Leaders” at the June Association of College & University Housing Officers International conference: Campus Home. LIVE!

Megan Buning, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and sport psychology master’s student Eli Zemach conducted a training for the state of South Carolina’s high school football officials. The presentation focused on training the mental aspects of officiating for approximately 500 football referees.

Shelley Ducatt, Ph.D. (Department of Student Support and Transitions) and Shannon Staten, Ph.D. (University Housing) co-presented “A Student Affairs Coordinated Response to Natural Disasters: Best Practices and Lessons Learned” at the NASPA Region III Summer Symposium.

Nicholas Mazza, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) presented “Poetry Therapy Across Boundaries: Finding and Promoting Peace in Our World” at the First International Poetry Therapy Symposium in Italy. He also presented “Promoting Health and Well-being through Language, Symbol, and Story” to the Korean Poetry Therapy Association and gave the virtual presentation “Poetry Therapy and Bibliotherapy in Clinical Practice” to the Israel Bibliotherapy Center. Mazza also gave two virtual presentations to Ukrainian therapists providing therapy for front-line military and educators, including “Healing through Poems: How to Deal with Trauma Using Poetry Therapy” and “Healing Words: Poetry Therapy Techniques for Resilience and Hope.”

Savannah Collier, MSW and Caroline Senkowicz, MSW, RCSWI (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children) presented “Building Resilience: Harm Reduction Strategies for Preventing Teen Substance Misuse” at the National Association of Social Workers, Florida Chapter Annual Conference.

Karen Geletko, MPH (College of Medicine) presented “The Impact of Secondhand Vape Exposure on Adolescents’ Willingness to Try Vapes” at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health in Chicago, based on research conducted with Jon Mills, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Harman, Ph.D. (College of Medicine).

Yushun Dong, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) presented “Fairness-Aware Graph Learning: A Benchmark” at the 2025 Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Knowledge Discovery in Data conference in Toronto, Canada.

Barry J. Faulk, Ph.D. (Department of English) co-chaired the roundtable discussion “Dylan versus the Professors: A Roundtable of Teaching Bob Dylan” at The World of Bob Dylan 2025 Conference in July at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

Dassani Natera, MSW and Kristin Jordan, MSW, MPA (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children) co-presented “Student to Student: Empowering Young Minds via MSW Student Led Training on Clinical Rebound & Recovery” at the National Association of Social Workers, Florida Chapter Annual Conference.

Tai Cole, MSW and Raegan Hamillton, MSW, RCSWI (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children) co-presented “Cracking the Code: Effective Therapies and Tools for Tackling Behavioral and Emotional Challenges in Young Clients” at the National Association of Social Workers, Florida Chapter Annual Conference.

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) chaired the online panel “The Crisis of the Humanities — and What We can do About it” for the American Academy of Religion’s (AAR) annual meeting in June as Vice Chair of the AAR’s Committee for the Public Understanding of Religion.

Christopher Mulrooney, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “Pathways to Culture Change Implementation: What Mobilizers & Administrators Can Learn from Each Other” at the annual conference of AgingIN (formerly known as Center for Innovation & Pioneer Network), in St. Louis, Missouri.

Karen Geletko, MPH and Rebecca Carter, LCSW (College of Medicine) co-presented “Enhancing Tobacco Treatment Services in Florida’s Behavioral Health Population” at BH CON 2025, a statewide behavioral health conference presented by the Florida Behavioral Health Association in Orlando.

Marissa Hershon, M.A. (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) was invited to represent The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art and speak about the Museum’s growing studio glass collection and The Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion at the first Curatorial Convening at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. She was also invited to present a lecture on “María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Berengo Studio: Collaborations in Glass” at the Boca Raton Museum of Art for the special exhibition.

Kevin A. Johnson, Ph.D., F. Andrew Kozel, M.D., (College of Medicine), Psychology doctoral student Megan Senda and medical student Austin M. Spitz presented the poster “Preliminary Analysis of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Treatment Outcomes for Veteran Sexual Assault Victims with MDD and PTSD” and scored in District 19’s Top Ten at the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Conference.

Rhiannon Paget, Ph.D. (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “Real Valor: Staging Seppuku in Meiji Photography and Prints” at “Making it ’Real’: Social and Cultural Transformations across Meiji Japan,” hosted by the East Asian Studies Program, Princeton University.

Delaney W. La Rosa, Ed.D., MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing) was invited to present a six-part series on Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare to the Health Equity Influencers Program for Nurse Educators, hosted by Mercy University.

Ben Wicker (University Housing) presented a session on current issues to a cohort of 60 international housing and residence life professionals at the James C. Grimm National Housing Training Institute at the University of Washington.

Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Reading Anxiety in Arabic University Students” at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading Conference in Calgary, Canada.

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Grace Aneiza Ali, MFA (Department of Art) curated “Amazonia Açu,” a landmark exhibition at the Americas Society in New York, which was featured in Hyperallergic’s New York Fall 2025 Guide.

Tenee Hart, MFA (Department of Art) opened a solo exhibition “…no place like home” at the UCF Art Gallery in Orlando.

Kevin Curry, MFA (Department of Art) installed his piece “Quotidian” with assistance from the Master Craftsman Studio in Tallahassee as part of the Council on Culture & Arts / Tallahassee Downtown Improvement Authority’s Sculpture Scape TLH.

Arianne Johnson Quinn, Ph.D. (College of Music) presented “The Art of Making Art: Establishing a College of Music Archives at Florida State University” at the annual meeting of The International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centers in Salzburg, Austria.

Karen McLaughlin Large, DM and Mary Matthews, DM (College of Music) were invited to perform at the 2025 WindWorks Festival in Husavík, Iceland. They presented a recital for two flutes and electronics that featured two works by FSU student composers “I Like Rollercoasters” by Ky Nam Nguyen and “Things You Can Magnetize” by Brian Juntilla. Both works were composed for the 2024 FSU Festival of Creative Arts in collaboration with the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory

and the School of Dance. This was the European premiere of both works. Matthews also gave a masterclass on her book, “Beatboxing & Beyond,” at Tónlistarskólinn á Akureyri.

Alexander Jiménez, DM (College of Music) served as conductor of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) Young Artist Orchestra. Working with FSU alumna and BUTI executive director, Nicole Wendl, MM, Jimenez invited the Marcus Roberts Trio members, Marcus Roberts and Rodney Jordan, (College of Music) with Jason Marsalis to perform their renowned take on George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Joining Marcus on the drum set was Leon Anderson, Jr., M.A. (College of Music). The concert was held in the Seiji Ozawa Concert Hall on the grounds of the Tanglewood Music Festival, and included the “Negro Folk Symphony” of William Dawson, “The Rhyme of Taigu” by Zhou Long and the Gershwin.

SERVICE

Alissa Costabile, MBA (Inspiring the Generation of New Ideas and Translational Excellence, IGNITE) served as a panelist at the Doolittle Institute Innovation Discovery Event.

Erin Morpeth-Provost, Ph.D. (Counseling & Psychological Services) was selected to serve on the National Register of Health Service Psychologist’s new committee for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies.

Kathryn Keene, DNP, RN, PCCN, CNE (College of Nursing) served as a judge for the Sigma Chapter Key Awards for Sigma International Honorary Nursing Society.

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) traveled to Bata, Equatorial Guinea as part of the U.S. State Department Speakers Series to lead several workshops in Spanish and English to help the host country improve its educational system.

Nicholas Mazza, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) has been serving as a social work and psychological consultant, therapist, and poet for Ukraine. He is currently serving as a member of Florida State University’s Ukraine Task Force.

Marissa Hershon, M.A. (The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) serves on the Decorative Arts Society’s Robert C. Smith Award Committee, which met to make an annual award selection for an outstanding article in the field of decorative arts.

Geoffrey Deibel, Ph.D. (College of Music) served as faculty saxophonist, coach and instructor at the Cortona Sessions for New Music, a 12-day long program in Ede, Netherlands, that pairs performers and composers of contemporary music.

NOTABLE

Jamie Ho, MFA (Department of Art) completed an international residence at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts.

Rabieh Razzouk, MBA, Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ph.D., Carrie Meyers, and Heather French (Learning Systems Institute) completed work on the “Coordinated Screening and Progress Monitoring” grant from the Florida Department of Education.

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) organized a campus visit for a group of nine senior Ukrainian higher education officials as part of the State Department International Leadership Visitors Program.

Angie Cherry, DNP, RN (College of Nursing) became a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator.

Bhushan Dahal, MBS (Learning Systems Institute) met with Former President of Nepal, Dr. Ram Baran Yada.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to aprentiss@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs August 2025 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

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HONORS AND AWARDS

Ayyalusamy “Rams” Ramamoorthy, Ph.D. (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) was awarded the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) fellowship for his groundbreaking research on Alzheimer’s, Type 2 Diabetes and Parkinson’s disease.

Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing), has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Heart Failure Society of America’s (HFSA) Nursing Research Leadership Award to be presented in September at the HFSA’s annual conference in Minneapolis.

Casey Rust, M.D. (College of Medicine) was honored with a United Hero Award by UnitedHealthcare, based on high scores from patients surveyed after being treated at a faculty clinic run by the college’s Florida Medical Practice Plan.

GRANTS

Shonda Bernadin, Ph.D. (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) received a $10,000 AMIE Innovation Investment Award from Boeing to further drone research. Bernadin will lead the Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Mentoring Program’s RF Sensor Drone Payload Summer Project.

Bayaner Arigong, Ph.D. (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) received a $7,000 AMIE Innovation Investment Award from Boeing to further research in wireless communication systems. Arigong’s research focuses on beamforming technology, specifically developing a new type of phased array capable of operating across a wide frequency range from 2 to 18 GHz.

Andrea Barton-Hulsey, Ph.D. and Michelle Therrien, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) received a $5 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to fund the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication.

Kelly Farquharson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) was awarded a $12,500 grant from the Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases for her work “Developing the Scoring for Expressive Evaluation and Diagnosis paradigm for pediatric speech disorders.”

Yushun Dong, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) received a $600,000 National Science Foundation grant for the project, “Secure Machine Learning as a Service for Collaborative Scientific Research.”

Choogon Lee, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) was awarded a one-year grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to study the genetic basis of circadian rhythms and sleep disorders.

Yang Hou, Ph.D., and Angelina Sutin, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) were awarded a three-year grant by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, endorsed by the Department of Defense, to study daily patterns and predictors of cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults with neurofibromatosis Type 1.

Jarrod Mousa, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) is a co-Principal Investigator (PI) on a grant to study increasing the protective capacity of antibodies by enhancing Fc-mediated responses awarded to the University of Georgia.

Xiaonan Zhang, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) received a $200,000 National Science Foundation grant from the Security, Privacy, and Trust in Cyberspace program.

BYLINES

Ravinder Nagpal, Ph.D. and Chester Ray, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Microbiome-based Therapeutics Towards Healthier Aging and Longevity,” published in Genome Medicine.

Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral student Joseph Vondrasek co-authored “Advanced Phenotyping in Patients with a Fontan Circulation Uncovers Effects of Pulmonary Vascular Disease,” published in Heart and Circulatory Physiology.

Annie Wofford, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and doctoral candidate Holly Henning co-authored “We Can Change the Culture through Those Individual Engagements: Social Exchange and Equity-Mindedness in STEMM Doctoral Students’ Roles as Mentors,” published in Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education.

Annie Wofford, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Building Transfer Student Interest in Computer Science Ph.D.s: Examining an Advising Intervention Using a Staged Innovation Design,” published in Research in Higher Education.

Lakeisha Johnson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) authored the poster “Educators’ Knowledge of Dyslexia and Developmental Language Disorders” and coauthored the poster “Understanding Social Risk and Resilience in Urban and Rural Areas” at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading Conference in Calgary, Canada.

Russell Clayton, Ph.D. (School of Communication) authored “’What Can the Heart Tell Us About Thinking?’ A Three-Decade Review of Heart Rate Measurement and Its Future Applications to Advertising Research,” published in the Journal of Advertising.

Changhyun (Lyon) Nam, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) published “Cradle to Cradle Footwear Design Model: Bio-Based Material Shoes and Wearer’s Perceptions and Acceptance” in the journal in Fashion and Practice.

Mollie Romano, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) and graduate students Diana Abarca and Frances Baehman authored “A Low-Cost, Social Media–Supported Intervention for Caregivers to Enhance Toddlers’ Language Learning: Mixed Methods Feasibility and Acceptability Study,” published in JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing), co-authored “Boot Camp: Preparing the Next Generation of Nurse Practitioners,” published in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners.

Freddy Juarez, MS, Jarred Pernier, M.Ed. and Brittany Devies, Ph.D. (Fraternity and Sorority Life) co-authored “Organizational Change Framework: Navigating Change for Individuals and Organizations” in New Directions for Student Leadership.

Nadia Banteka, J.D., LL.M., LL.B. (College of Law) authored “Police Vigilantism” in the Virginia Law Review.

Jake Linford, J.D. (College of Law) co-authored a new Open-Source Contracts Casebook, a major scholarly milestone several years in the making.

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ph.D. and Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored “Pre-service Teacher Education – The Linchpin for Embedding Sustainable, Scalable Change in Education Systems,” published by What Works Hub for Global Education.

Eundeok Kim, Ph.D. (College of Entrepreneurship) co-authored “Using Artificial Intelligence in Sustainability Teaching and Learning” published in the journal Environmental Sciences Europe.

Cathy McClive, Ph.D. (Department of History) co-authored the article, “Women at the Centre: Medical Entrepreneurialism and ‘La Grande Médecine’ in Eighteenth-Century Lyon,” which won Nursing Clio’s 2025 Best Article Prize for scholarship on women’s historical contributions to the field of medicine.

Bonnie Spring, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) was the principal investigator (PI) and a co-author of “Effects of a Physical Activity mHealth Intervention (Fit2Thrive) on WCRF/AICR Cancer Prevention Score among Breast Cancer Survivors: A Secondary Data Analysis,” published in Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers. She was also PI and a co-author of “How Community-Based Organizations View and Use Data: Practices, Challenges, and Opportunities,” published in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. In addition, she was PI and a co-author of “Speaking of Survival: Oncologists’ Approaches to Risk Behavior Conversations with Cancer Survivors,” published in the Journal of Cancer Survivorship.

Mary Gerend, Ph.D. (College of Medicine), Farnaz Solatikia, Ph.D. (Office of the Vice President for Research) and doctoral student Christina T. Myers authored “Using Cancer Survivor Narratives to Increase Parents’ Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Intentions,” published in Health Psychology.

William Bobo, M.D., MPH (College of Medicine) published “Prenatal Antidepressant Exposure and Risk of Depression and Anxiety Disorders: An Electronic Health Records-Based Cohort Study” in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Boris Kantor, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored “SNCA-targeted Epigenome Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease Alleviates Pathological and Behavioral Perturbations in a Mouse Model,” published in bioRXiv. He also co-authored “Trends and Challenges of AAV-delivered Gene Editing Therapeutics for Unmet Needs in CNS Disorders: Implications for Neurodegenerative Disease,” published in Molecular Therapy – Nucleic Acids.

Thesla Berne-Anderson, Ed.D., Aihua Wang, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and doctoral student Benjamin Linkous co-authored “Shaping the Future Clinical Trial Workforce Through Early Educational Programs,” published in Clinical Researcher.

Cyneetha Strong, M.D., George Whiddon, M.D., Christopher Mulrooney, Ph.D. and Alma Littles, M.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored a letter to the editor in Hepatology Communications in response to “Population Screening for Cirrhosis,” describing the Florida Healthy Liver Program.

Robert Hickner, Ph.D. and Mostafa Ali, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Creatine Monohydrate Supplementation and NOX Impact Skeletal Muscle Microvascular Blood Flow: A Pilot Study” alongside co-authors, including postdoctoral researcher alumni Paul Baker, Holly Clarke, and Cesar Meza.

Feng Bao, Ph.D. (Department of Mathematics) and Hristo Chipilski, Ph.D. (Department of Scientific Computing) co-authored the article “Nonlinear Ensemble Filtering with Diffusion Models: Application to the Surface Quasigeostrophic Dynamics,” published in the American Meteorological Society’s Monthly Weather Review journal.

Rosemary Kellison, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) co-authored the book, “Solidarity and Power Feminist Approaches to Religious Ethics” published by Bloomsbury.

Judith Pascoe, Ph.D. (Department of English) authored “A Good Mother Is Hard to Find” about American novelist Flannery O’Connor’s mother, published in the summer issue of the Georgia Review.

Tanya Peres, Ph.D. (Department of Anthropology) co-authored the chapter, “Turkey Management and Use in the Eastern Woodlands of North America,” in the book, “Exploring the History of Turkey Management and Domestication: A Transatlantic Perspective” about the history of turkey management and domestication, published by the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

Hugh Catts, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “A Computer Adaptive Measure of Word Reading Ability” at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading Conference in Calgary, Canada.

Shannon Hall-Mills, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “The Impact of Educational Supports and Adjustments on Academic Achievement in Students with Developmental Language Disorder” at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading Conference in Calgary, Canada.

Kathleen Powers Conti, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented her research on documenting historic vernacular community spaces at the annual Vernacular Architecture Forum conference in Wilmington, Delaware, in May.

Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Reading Anxiety in Arabic University Students” at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading Conference in Calgary, Canada.

Carla Wood, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) presented “Morphological Analysis Pathway to Reading” at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading Conference in Calgary, Canada.

Ebe Randeree, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) presented “What Skills are Tech Employers Looking for?,” “Leadership Development through Student Engagement,” and “Building Effective Advisory Board” at the 59th Annual Florida Association for Career and Technical Education Conference and Trade Show in Orlando, FL.

Frank (“Frankie”) Y. Wong, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) presented “What to and How to Measure” at the XV International Conference in Memory of Dr. Alan Gabster in Santiago, Panamá. He also presented “The ABCs of the Social Determinants of Health” at the same conference.

Tingting Liu, Ph.D., RN, FAAN (College of Nursing) presented “The Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Cerebrovascular Health Among Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes” at the Advent Health Research Institute.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM and Alicia Craig-Rodriguez, DNP, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, DipACLM (College of Nursing) co-presented “Happiness for the Health of it!” as a podcast at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing) presented “Type 2 DM in CKD: Improving Cardio-Renal Outcomes” at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners National Conference in San Diego, CA. She also presented “Management Considerations of the Elder Diabetes Patient” at the same conference.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM and Alicia Craig-Rodriguez, DNP, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, DipACLM (College of Nursing), presented “NP Practice with Vitality: Integrating Positive Psychology into Care” at the Florida Nurse Practitioner Network Statewide quarterly Webinar.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing) conducted the boot camp workshop “Preparing the Next Generation of Nurse Practitioners” for the Florida Nursing Practitioner Network Continuing Education Platform.

Anissa Ford, MA (Career Center) was a panelist for the June virtual session “Writing a Strong Conference Proposal” for Southern Association of Colleges & Employers.

Mackenzie Fisher, MS (Career Center) presented “Helping Helicopter Parents Land: Strategies for Navigating Parental Involvement in Career Advising Sessions” at the National Career Development Association Global Conference.

Casey Dozier, Ph.D., Shawn Einarson, MS (Career Center) and graduate assistant Danny Chiarodit co-presented “Revolutionizing Career Development: Leveraging AI in Career Advising, Teaching and Daily Practices” at the National Career Development Association Global Conference.

Casey Dozier, Ph.D. (Career Center) co-presented “Self-Care and Autonomy: Recognizing the Role Each Plays in Career Decision Making” at the National Career Development Association Global Conference.

Alice Maxwell, MA (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) presented “Strategic Marketing in Student Affairs for Student Success” at the 2025 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators National Conference on Student Success in Higher Education in Denver, Colorado.

Bonnie Spring, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “Research Design and Methods in Behavioral Medicine” at the NIH-sponsored Behavioral and Sleep Medicine Summer Institute held at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She also gave the lecture “Navigating the Gap: Where mHealth Meets Real-World Implementation Challenges” and served as an on-site mentor to faculty selected to join the NIH-sponsored Mobile Health Technology Institute held at UCLA in Los Angeles.

Julie Decker, M.Ed. (Division of University Advancement) co-presented “Rethinking Engagement: Data-Informed Strategies for a Changing Advancement Landscape” at the CASE Summit for Leaders in Advancement in New York City.

Jenny Root, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was the keynote speaker at the 2025 PATTAN Math Conference. Her presentation, “Making Math Meaningful, Accessible, and Joyful,” explored common instructional barriers to mathematical proficiency and their impact on student learning and motivation.

Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented “What Is an Archive and Why Do We Go There?” at the International Thomas Merton Society 19th meeting. He also presented “The Calligraphy of Snow and Rock and Sky” at Regis University in Denver, Colorado.

Hongyuan Cao, Ph.D. (Department of Statistics) presented “Testing Composite Null Hypotheses with High-Dimensional Dependent Data” at the NSF@75: Advancing Statistical Science for a Data‑Driven World conference hosted by the American Statistical Association.

Yushun Dong, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) presented “Harnessing Large Language Models for Disaster Management: A Survey” at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics in Vienna, Austria. He also presented “CEGA: A Cost-Effective Approach for Graph-Based Model Extraction Attacks” and “Towards Global-level Mechanistic Interpretability: A Perspective of Modular Circuits of Large Language Models” at the Forty-Second International Conference on Machine Learning in Vancouver, Canada, and “ATOM: A Framework of Detecting Query-Based Model Extraction Attacks for Graph Neural Networks” and “A Survey on Model Extraction Attacks and Defenses for Large Language Models” at the same conference as a corresponding author.

Suzanne Sinke, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented “The Framing of U.S. Immigration Policy: A Familiar or Exclusionary Lens?” as a part of the Colloquium for North American History at the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen in Germany. She also gave a guest lecture, “A Family in Flight:  Expressing and Hiding Emotions in the Shadow of Hitler,” at the University of Augsburg in Germany.

Anuj Srivastava, Ph.D. (Department of Statistics) presented “Statistical Analysis of Complex Image Data: Applications in Medicine; Biology; and Beyond” at the NSF@75: Advancing Statistical Science for a Data‑Driven World conference hosted by the American Statistical Association.

Xin Henry Zhang, Ph.D. (Department of Statistics) presented “Tensor and Subspace Learning Methods with Applications to Medical Imaging” at the NSF@75: Advancing Statistical Science for a Data‑Driven World conference hosted by the American Statistical Association.

Rick Burnette, Ph.D. and James Hunt, Ph.D. (Office of the Provost ) presented “Designing Intelligence: Reimagining IR and Analytics for a Data-Engaged Campus” at the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ (APLU) Commission on Information, Measurement, and Analysis (CIMA) at their Summer Meeting in Washington, DC.

Paul Marty, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) co-presented “Leading the AI Revolution: Case Studies and Strategies for Campus-Wide Integration of Generative AI in Teaching, Learning, and Leadership” at the APLU’s CIMA at their Summer Meeting in Washington, DC.

Heather Epstein-Diaz (Office of Institutional Research) co-presented ” Cultivating Data Resiliency Through Literacy, Governance, and Collaboration” at the APLU’s CIMA at their Summer Meeting in Washington, DC.

Paul Marty, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) and Rick Burnette, Ph.D. (Office of the Provost) co-led the panel “CIMA Panel: Collaboration Between Traditional Data Offices and Academic Innovation Offices” at the APLU’s CIMA at their Summer Meeting in Washington, DC.

SERVICE

Kelly Farquharson, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) was recently appointed as the chair of the Scientific and Professional Education Board for the American Speech Language Hearing Association.

Michelle Torres-Chavarro, Ph.D. and Carla Wood, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) led a team of graduate students on the Team Enhanced Outcomes grant to a children’s hospital in David, Provincia de Chiriqui, Panama, to engage children with rare diseases in language enrichment activities.

Allison Justice, MMS PA-C (College of Medicine) was elected to the Florida Academy of Physician Assistants Board of Directors as the northwest Florida regional director and to the 2025-2026 American Academy of Physician Assistants House of Delegates.

Julie Decker, M.Ed. (Division of University Advancement) served on the summit planning committee of the CASE Summit for Leaders in Advancement in New York City. She was also elected “President-Elect” of the Council for Alumni Association Executives (CAAE) at their Summer Institute held in conjunction with Summit. She has served as the CAAE winter and summer institute co-chair for two years.

Rachel C. S. Duke, Ph.D. (University Libraries) was selected to serve a two-year term as the Associate Editor for “Case Studies on Teaching with Primary Sources”, a peer-reviewed journal sponsored by the Reference, Access, and Outreach Section of the Society of American Archivists (SAA).

Charles McMartin, Ph.D. (Department of English) was selected to participate in the 2025-2027 research seminar “Learning on Location: Place-Based Pedagogies in Higher Education” sponsored by Elon University’s Center for Engaged Learning.

Lauren Haughton Gillis, MFA (School of Theatre) was elected president of the Music Theatre Educators Association and will assume the position in January 2026.

Laurel Harbin, Ph.D., AICP, LEED-AP (Academic Affairs) was selected to serve on the 2025 American Planning Association Education Committee, joining the ranks of certified planning practitioners and university faculty across the U.S. in a strategic initiative to narrow the skills gap in response to emerging trends and technologies.

NOTABLE

Dalisha D. Herring, Ph.D. (College of Business) accepted an invitation to teach three classes at the Florida Bankers Association’s Florida Trust and Wealth Management School, a nationally renowned three-year program that gives students a well-rounded and practical understanding of the trust and wealth management industry.

Mafé Brooks, Michelle Kazmer, Ph.D., Stephen McDowell, Ph.D. and Jaejin Lee, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) hosted an alumni reception in Seoul, South Korea.

Kaylee Webb, MS (Career Center) earned a Certificate in Interpersonal Communication from Tallahassee State College. Additionally, she completed “Tune In to Strive Out Career Wellness Program Facilitator Institute” certification in June from the Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions. Kaylee was also recently chosen to join Ascend, A Practitioner Mid-Level Management Program, by the Cooperative Education and Internship Association Academy.

Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) completed the second summer of her project “Bridging the Gap into the Geosciences,” offering pre-college students an exciting opportunity to explore careers in geoscience through a dynamic summer camp at the Boys and Girls Club of the Big Bend. More than 50 teens participated in the program.

Bhushan Dahal, MBS (Learning Systems Institute) led and participated in the “Educational Conference on Enabling Innovations in Education Planning and Implementation” hosted by Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office. 

Celia Reddick, Ph.D., Julie Twomey, M.Ed., and Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) completed 36 interviews with refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Syria. Of those interviews, 27 were with refugee children and 9 were with their parents and other caregivers as part of their “Strengthening School Experiences for Refugee Young People, Families and Their Teachers in Tallahassee” project.

Lakesia Dupree, Ph.D., Odalis Tavares, Ed.D., and Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) spent two weeks working with educators in Hillsborough County on the Successful Start: Cognitively Guided Instruction year 2 program.

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) traveled to Yerevan, Armenia to implement a project promoting STEM and Social Entrepreneurship through a collaboration between LSI, the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship and the Armenian State University of Economics.

Lauren Haughton Gillis, MFA (School of Theatre) organized and participated in a virtual panel “Navigating the Stage: Training Musical Theatre Swings and Understudies” at the Music Theatre Educators Association Summer Symposium.

Kathleen Powers Conti, Ph.D. (Department of History) served on the Bishir Prize Committee for the Vernacular Architecture Forum. The Catherine W. Bishir Prize is awarded to the scholarly article from a juried North American publication that made the most significant contribution to the study of vernacular architecture and cultural landscapes. The committee looks at how the article breaks new ground in interpretation or methodology and contributes to the intellectual vitality of vernacular studies.

Paul Renfro, Ph.D. (Department of History) signed a two-book deal with Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W.W. Norton & Company. The first book, “Those Fearful Days,” is a work of historical true crime focused on the 1979-1981 Atlanta youth murders. The second, “The Passion of Matthew Shepard,” situates Shepard’s life and 1998 murder within the broader history of the LGBTQ+ movement in the United States.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to aprentiss@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs July 2025 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased. 

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HONORS AND AWARDS

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing) has been selected as part of the Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing’s 2025 class of fellows — the largest and most distinguished cohort in the organization’s history. This prestigious honor recognizes her significant contributions to nursing education, practice and leadership, and her ongoing impact on health care through excellence and innovation.  

Irvin Clark, Ed.D. (FSU Panama City) received the Communication and Leadership Award from Toastmasters International District 77. He was recognized because his “dedication and service to your community exemplify the highest standards of excellence and integrity, aligning perfectly with the Toastmasters mission.” District 77 includes Alabama, Northwest Florida and Southeast Mississippi. 

Nicole Bentze, D.O. (College of Medicine) was honored with a 2025 Exceptional Mentor Award at the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) 110th Annual Meeting, held in conjunction with the Women in Healthcare World Congress in Boston, MA. 

Ericka Horne, DrPH, MPH, CHES (College of Medicine) was named 2025 Outstanding Doctoral Student for the FAMU College of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences’ Institute of Public Health.

GRANTS

Karen Works, Ph.D. (FSU Panama City) was awarded a Center for Parallel and Distributed Computing Curriculum Development and Educational Resources PDC Curriculum Early Adopter Grant, which includes summer training at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. 

Guang Wang, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) was awarded the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot Award, which he will use to conduct research on privacy-preserving generative AI. NAIRR Pilot awards are a joint effort led by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in collaboration with other U.S. federal agencies to provide key AI resources and data. 

BYLINES

Adam Tratner, Ph.D. (FSU Republic of Panama) coauthored and published the article “The Impact of APOE ε4 on Neuropsychological Test Performance in Hispanics: The Panama Aging Research Initiative — Health Disparities Study” in the journal Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders. 

Henry Zhuhao Wang, J.D., LL.M., S.J.D. (College of Law) published “Asynchronous Trials: A New Approach to High-Volume Civil Adjudication” in the Denver Law Review. 

Bodunrin Akinrinmade, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) coauthored “Social Equity and Representative Bureaucracy: The Case of Nigeria’s Federal Character Principle,” published by Public Administration. 

Kathy Trang, Ph.D., Casey D Xavier Hall, Ph.D., MPH, John (“Jack”) P. Barile, Ph.D. (Center of Population Sciences for Health Empowerment) Frank (“Frankie”) Y. Wong, Ph.D., Liying Wang, Ph.D., Eugenia F Millender, Ph.D., RN, MS, PMHNP‑BC, FAAN (College of Nursing) and doctoral candidate Crim Sabuncu (College of Social Work) coauthored “Identifying Subgroups of Intersectional Stigma, Discrimination, and the Association with Mental Health Outcomes Among HIV-Positive Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Latent Class Analysis” in the journal AIDS and Behavior. 

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) coauthored volume two of the book “Hujambo! A Standards-Based Approach to Introductory Kiswahili,” released by the Kansas University Resource Language Center. 

Tarez Samra Graban, Ph.D. (Department of English) wrote the chapter “Thinking Different: Exchanging Archival Data across Transnational Time and Space” in the book, “Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminist Rhetoric,” published by Routledge.  Graban also authored the essay “Recovering ‘The Commons’ between Diversity Agendas,” published in the Rhetoric Society Quarterly, the official journal of the Rhetoric Society of America. 

Matthew Patience, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) coauthored the article “Assessing L1 Mandarin and L2 English influence on the L3 production of French obstruent coda voicing,” published in Second Language Research. 

Richard Wagner, Ph.D. (Department of Psychology) coauthored “The Home Literacy Environment and Reading Development of Children With and Without Learning Disabilities,” published in Developmental Science. 

Tehila Nugiel, Ph.D. (Department of Psychology) coauthored “Longitudinal Associations Between Birth-to-Six Cortical Growth and Childhood Neurocognitive Function,” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Selin Karakose, Ph.D., Martina Luchetti, Ph.D., Angelina Sutin, Ph.D. and Antonio Terracciano, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) coauthored “Marital Status and Risk of Dementia Over 18 Years: Surprising Findings from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center,” published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. 

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) coauthored “A Case for Thinking About Thinking in Sports Coaching: Understanding Situated Cognition as a Means to Inform Coaching Practice,” published in the International Sport Coaching Journal. 

Robert Reardon, Ph.D., Stephen Leierer, Ph.D., Debra Osborn, Ph.D. and Gary Peterson, Ph.D. (Career Center) coauthored “Using the Career State Inventory to Evaluate Career Interventions,” published in the National Association of Colleges and Employers Journal. 

Artur Queiroz,  Ph.D., BSN, MS, Liying Wang, Ph.D., Frank (“Frankie”) Y. Wong, Ph.D. (College of Nursing), Casey D. Xavier Hall, Ph.D., MPH, Hyeouk “Chris” Hahm, Ph.D., LCSW, John (“Jack”) P. Barile, Ph.D. and research scientist Dong H. Cheung (Center of Population Sciences for Health Empowerment) coauthored “Risk and Resilience Trajectories from Adverse Childhood Experience Among Men who have Sex with Men Living with HIV” published in the journal Behavioral Medicine. 

Alice Maxwell, MA., Suzan Kurdak, Emma Massaglia and Alycia Malicz (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) coauthored “Creating Connection Through Collaborative, Integrated Communications to Boost Student Engagement Journey,” published in the Journal of Educational Advancement & Marketing and will be included in The Business and Management Collection online database. 

Tingting Liu, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Hongyu Miao, Ph.D. (College of Nursing), Colm G. Connolly, Ph.D. (College of Medicine), Michael J. Ormsbee, Ph.D., FACSM, FISSN, CSCS (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) coauthored “12-Year Physical Activity Trajectories and Epigenetic Age Acceleration Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults” published in the journal Biological Research for Nursing. 

Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN, Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) and Jessica De Leon, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) coauthored an article “Impact of a Web-Based Lifestyle Medicine Intervention: A Qualitative Study Among Rural Participants,” published in the Nursing Reports journal. 

Adam Hanley, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) co-published a study “Mindful Jazz and Preferred Music Interventions Reduce Pain Among Patients with Chronic Pain and Anxiety: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial” in the journal Cureus. Hanley also recently published the study “242 – Single-Session Group Breathwork Intervention for Adults with Chronic Pain: A proof-of-concept study of Guided Respiration Mindfulness Therapy,” investigating a novel breathwork-based treatment for chronic pain known as Guided Respiration Mindfulness Therapy (GRMT), developed by Dr. Lloyd Lalande of New Zealand. As part of the project, Dr. Lalande and Dr. Steve Pratscher from the University of Florida visited our facility at Innovation Park, where they administered the two-hour, single-session intervention to a pilot group of patients living with chronic pain. 

Frank (“Frankie”) Y. Wong, Ph.D., Eugenia F Millender, Ph.D., RN, MS, PMHNP‑BC, FAAN (College of Nursing), Casey D Xavier Hall, Ph.D., MPH (Center of Population Sciences for Health Empowerment) and doctoral candidate Beth Okantey (College of Social Work) coauthored “How U.S. Social Work Students are Prepared to work with Culturally Diverse Individuals: A Scoping Review of Constructs and Interventions” published in the journal Social Work Education. 

Brittany L. Lane, Ph.D., MPH, Yijiong Yang, Ph.D., MHA, Setor Sorkpor, Ph.D., MPH, MSN, RN-BC, Eugenia F. Millender, Ph.D., RN, MS, PMHNP‑BC, FAAN, Frank (“Frankie”) Y. Wong, Ph.D. (College of Nursing), Casey D Xavier Hall, Ph.D., MPH (Center of Population Sciences for Health Empowerment) and doctoral candidates Crim Sabuncu and Beth Okantey (College of Social Work) coauthored “Discrimination and mental health Among Black and Latino People Living with HIV: Understanding the Role of Religion and Spirituality” published in the journal AIDS and Behavior. 

Brittany L. Lane, Ph.D., MPH, Eugenia F. Millender, Ph.D., RN, MS, PMHNP‑BC, FAAN, Frank (“Frankie”) Y. Wong, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) Casey D. Xavier Hall, Ph.D., MPH (Center of Population Sciences for Health Empowerment) and doctoral candidate Rachel M. Harris (College of Social Work) coauthored “Neighborhood Deprivation, Trauma Profiles, Coping, and Stress Prospectively Predict Depressive Symptoms Among Young African American Mothers in the InterGEN Study: A Latent Class Analysis” published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. 

Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) coauthored the article “Promoting Policy Practice Among Social Work Students: A Review of Outcome Studies,” published in the Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare. 

Frank (“Frankie”) Y. Wong, Ph.D., Brittany L Lane, Ph.D., MPH, Eugenia F Millender, Ph.D., RN, MS, PMHNP‑BC, FAAN, Artur Queiroz,  Ph.D., BSN, MS (College of Nursing), Casey D. Xavier Hall, Ph.D., MPH, John (“Jack”) P. Barile, Ph.D., Zhuo Meng, Ph.D., and research scientist Dong H. Cheung (Center of Population Sciences for Health Empowerment), Jung H. Kim, Ph.D. and doctoral candidates Beth Okantey and Crim Sabuncu (College of Social Work) coauthored “Mediating Roles of Social Support in Lives of Men Who Have Sex with Men Living with HIV” in the journal Health Psychology. 

Qiuchang (Katy) Cao, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) coauthored the article “Mental Health Help-Seeking Among Asian Older Adults in the United States: A Scoping Review” published in the Journal of Ethnic and Racial Diversity in Social Work. Cao also coauthored the article “Social Network as an Engagement Approach in Child Maltreatment Prevention Programs: A Scoping Review,” published in Research on Social Work Practice.   

Gashaye Tefera, Ph.D., Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW, MA. and Shelby Varol, MSW (College of Social Work) coauthored the article “Trust Matters: A Qualitative Study on Healthcare Access and Utilization Among African Immigrants in the United States,” published in the Journal of Community Health 

Stanley Gontarski, Ph.D. (Department of English) had his book “Beckett’s Co-Authors: Rewriting Waiting for Godot” published in the “Other Becketts” book series with the Edinburgh University Press. He also published his essay “Looking for Godot” on the Edinburgh University Press publishing blog. Gontarski’s essay on literary theory and contemporary theater, “Multidisciplinary Theory in Theater,” was also published in the book and series “Theory Across Disciplines” with Bloomsbury Publishing. His overview of American publishing house, Grove Press, has been published as “Stanley Gontarski Informs Pat Thomas” in the book “Evergreen Review: Dispatches from the Literary Underground: Covers & Essays 1957-1973.”

PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES

Whitney Powers and Samantha Keller (Division of University Advancement) presented “From Registration to Reflection: Post-Event Evaluation and Strategic Insights” at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Special Events in Advancement Conference in Nashville. 

Mark Zeigler, MS (College of Business) gave the opening keynote “The Joy of Service” at the Florida City and County Manager’s Association annual convention in Orlando. He also presented “We’ve Been Discussing Emotional Intelligence Since 1995; It’s Time We Used It” at the North American Securities Administrators Broker Training meeting in Pittsburgh, PA. 

Daniel Broxterman, Ph.D., Mariya Letdin, Ph.D., Chongyu Wang, Ph.D. and Tingyu Zhou, Ph.D. (College of Business) demonstrated the depth and impact of FSU’s research at the National Conference of the American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association in Washington D.C. Collectively, they presented five papers, served as discussants for three others and chaired a conference session. 

Zhe He, Ph.D., Mia A. Lustria, Ph.D., Balu Bhusaran, Ph.D. (School of Information), Dhruv Kale, MS (Institute for Successful Longevity), Zenghao Zhang, MS (Department of Computer Science), Dr. Lisa Granville, M.D. (College of Medicine) and Zhenguang Lu, Ph.D. (Department of Physics) copresented “LabGenie – A Patient-Facing AI-Powered Application for Enhancing Older Adults’ Comprehension of Laboratory Test Results” at the American Medical Informatics Association ® (AMIA) 2025 Informatics Summit in Pittsburgh, PA.  

Rachel Bailey, Ph.D. (College of Communication & Information) presented “‘It’s Just Wrong!’ Can We Decrease People’s Disgust Response to Lab-Grown Meat?” and moderated the session “Eating Disorders and Media Content” at the International Communication Association (ICA) Conference in Denver, Colorado. 

Russell Clayton, Ph.D. (School of Communication) presented “An Examination of Oral Nicotine Pouch Current-Users’ Psychophysiological and Self-Report Responses to Anti-Oral Nicotine Pouch Videos on TikTok” and “Under the ‘Zynfluence:’ A Psychophysiological and Self-Report Investigation of Influencer Promotion of Oral Nicotine Pouches on TikTok” at the ICA Conference in Denver, Colorado. 

Arienne Ferchaud, Ph.D. and Jennifer Proffitt, Ph.D. (School of Communication) presented “Exploring How Actual Play Viewers Navigate PSRs with Players and Characters” at the ICA Conference in Denver, Colorado.   

Yin Yang, Ph.D. (School of Communication) presented “Not All Stories Are Viewed the Same: Examining Perceived Narrativity as a Mediator of Period Poverty Narrative Effects” at the ICA Conference in Denver, Colorado. 

Anel Brandl, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) presented her coauthored book, “Estamos Aquí! Comunidades Bilingües e Identidades Regionales de los Estados Unidos” at the 29th Conference on Spanish in the United States at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Brandl also presented her co-authored book at the 12th National Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. 

Jessika Valentine, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) presented the paper “Bridges of Meaning: Connecting Through the Familiar” at the Arabic Teachers Council’s Summer Institute webinar in New York. 

Alina Dana Weber, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) presented the paper “No Mousy Politics: E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Novella ‘Nussknacker und Mausekönig’” at the 17th Annual Conference of the International Society for Cultural History at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland.  

Christian Weber, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) presented the paper “Post-Human Metamorphoses into Insects (Goethe, Nietzsche, Kafka)” at the 17th Annual Conference of the International Society for Cultural History at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland. 

Jessica Clark, Ph.D. (Department of Classics) gave the keynote address “Caesar Knows Best? Frontinus on Preemptive Action and Failing in Advance” at the War in the Ancient World International Conference at the University of Minnesota Duluth. 

Andrea De Giorgi, Ph.D. (Department of Classics) organized and copresented “Ten Seasons of Cosa Excavations” and “The Geoarchaeological and Palaeoenvironmental Project in the Coastal Areas Surrounding Cosa” at the Cosa: Past, Present, and Future – A Conference in Honor of Russell T. Scott in Rome, Italy, at the American Academy in Rome and the German Archaeological Institute.  

Victor Patrangenaru, Ph.D. (Department of Statistics) presented his upcoming book “Nonparametric Statistics on Stratified Spaces with Applications to Object Data Analysis” at the Uncertainty in Multivariate, Non-Euclidean, and Functional Spaces: Theory and Practice Workshop at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cambridge, England. 

Karen Works, Ph.D. (FSU Panama City) presented at the Western Academy Support and Training Center’s Educator Workshop: Exploring Real-Time Data Analytics Using MongoDB & Tableau Desktop, describing how she is incorporating MongoDB into a state-approved course elective, COP4064: Application Development with Non-Traditional Databases.  

Jenny Root, Ph.D., BCBA (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) gave the keynote lecture “Making Math Meaningful, Accessible, and Joyful” at the 2025 Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network Math Conference. 

Alice Maxwell, MA. and Cassidy Shaw (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) presented “Say ‘Hello’ to Collaborative Student Marketing, Engagement and Retention” at the CASE Annual Conference for Marketing and Branding Professionals 2025 in Los Angeles, California. Maxwell also served as faculty for the CASE conference, helping with planning, on-sight session hosting and speaking on the panel discussion: “From the Front Lines: Crisis Communication Lessons.” 

Annika Culver, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented “Otaku Culture: Consuming, Collecting, and Comics in Japan from the 1980s to the Present” to the technology company WP Engine in Austin, Texas. 

Ursula K. Weiss, Ph.D. and Katie McDaniel, MPH (College of Medicine) presented the analysis “Using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to Explore the Relationship between Disability Status and Mental Health among Florida Adults” in collaboration with the Florida Department of Health Office of Public Health Research at the 2025 Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists Annual Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan. 

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) gave the keynote speech “Widening the Lens: Why Sport Specialization isn’t Just an Athlete Problem” at the biannual conference of the Association Internationale des Écoles Supérieures d’Éducation Physique (AIESEP) in Tampa. Baghurst also gave the keynote speech “How our Family Contributes to and Reduces Stress Based on the Experiences of High-Performance Professional Coaches and What that Means for us” at the International Organization of Health, Sports, and Kinesiology’s annual conference in San Francisco, CA. 

Brittney Pieper, MA. (Career Center) presented two roundtables, “The Game Plan: Career Readiness for Student-Athletes” and “Resumes that Win: Application Material for Student-Athletes,” at the Florida Association of Colleges and Employers Annual Conference in Orlando. 

Christy Mantzanas and Li Pon, MA. (Career Center) presented “Summer Career Readiness: Engaging Students in Their Hometowns” at the National Association of Colleges & Employers conference in Philadelphia, PA. 

Felicia Williams, Ph.D., Kyanna Austin and Tatyana Wilson (Student Engagement) presented “Purpose in Practice: Co-Creating the Future of Student Life with Students Through the Lens of Ubuntu and Experiential Learning” at the 2025 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Region III Summer Symposium held in Savannah, GA. 

Lucinda Graven, PhD, APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) was an invited speaker at the “Supportive Palliative Care for Cardiac Patients and Their Families” international workshop held virtually and sponsored by the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing Council International Committee. This workshop brought together experts in the field of palliative care in cardiovascular disease and explored strategies to enhance palliative care for both patients and their families living with cardiovascular disease. 

Alexandra E. Cowan-Pyle, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “Dietary Modeling of Prenatal Dietary Supplements and Research Gaps Using NHANES Data” and served as a panelist on “Real Talk: Navigating Change in the Workplace – Fresh Perspectives, Panel Discussions, and Networking” at the American Society for Nutrition’s annual meeting in Orlando. Cowan-Pyle also presented her research at the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements Prenatal Dietary Supplement Workshop in Bethesda, MD. 

Alicia Craig-Rodriguez, DNP, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, DipACLM (College of Nursing), co-presented “Caring for Caregivers: Enhancing Personal and Professional Wellbeing in Academia” at the 2025 Teaching Professor Conference in Washington, DC and Utilizing Food as Medicine in Clinical Practice at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners Annual Conference. She and her co-presenter offered a compelling case for introducing and implementing nutrition prescriptions in practice as first-line interventions in the treatment of preventable chronic diseases. 

Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) presented “The Differences Between Real Evidence-Based Practice and Selecting Empirically Supported Interventions” via video seminar to the Evidence into Practice Special Interest Group of the European Social Work Research Association. 

Stanley Gontarski, Ph.D. (Department of English) had his annual lecture translated into Polish and published as “Sztuka Samuela Becketta – Fuzja Teatru, Literatury i Zarządzania” [“The Art of Samuel Beckett: A Fusion of Theatre, Literature and Management”] for the Samuel Beckett Seminar at the University of Gdańsk, in Poland.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM and Alicia Craig-Rodriguez, DNP, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, DipACLM (College of Nursing) co-presented “NP Practice with Vitality: Integrating Positive Psychology into Care” on the science of positive psychology and its unique role in enhancing physical, emotional and mental health. They also offered practical strategies for applying evidence-based positive psychology techniques to promote well-being and vitality in clinical practice and improve patient care outcomes, during a presentation to the Florida Nurse Practitioner Network.

Alicia Craig-Rodriguez, DNP, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, DipACLM (College of Nursing) co-presented “Caring for Caregivers: Enhancing Personal and Professional Wellbeing in Academia” at the 2025 Teaching Professor Conference in Washington, D.C., and “Utilizing Food as Medicine in Clinical Practice” at the American Association of Nurse Practitioners Annual Conference.

PERFORMANCES AND EXHIBITIONS

Katie Kehoe, MFA (Department of Art) has a solo exhibition of her work “Time is of the Essence” on display at Gibbs Street Gallery, VisArts, Rockville, MD through July 13, 2025. 

Madeleine Martin, MFA (School of Theatre) is starring in “Uncle Vodka” a new play written by McAdoo Greer and Rebecca Reynolds in New York City. 

Juan Carlos Galeano, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) presented his documentary film “El Río,” followed with a discussion at the 17th Annual Conference of the International Society for Cultural History at the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland.

SERVICE

Dalisha Herring, Ph.D. (College of Business) has been elected to serve as president of the Tallahassee Regional Estate Planning Council. 

Hannah Chronic (Department of Student Support & Transition) was selected to serve on the Alcohol, Other Drug, and Campus Violence Prevention Planning Committee for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) Strategies Planning Conference. 

Debra M Cole, Ed.D., PA-C (College of Medicine) was elected a member of the Florida delegation to the House of Delegates for the Florida Academy of Physician Assistants (PAs) and the American Academy of PAs for the 2025-2026 year. 

Megan Verdoni, MPAS, PA-C (College of Medicine) served as a panel member for the Accreditation Review Commission on Physician Assistant Education (ARC-PA) Accreditation Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Verdoni also organized the inaugural ARC-PA Self-Study regional conference at the college’s Sarasota Regional Campus.   

Rob Hanna, Zaida McGinley, MS., Carrie Myers and Jim Reynolds (Learning Systems Institute) organized and administered eight free professional learning courses to 190 educators across Coastal NWFL as part of the Florida Center for Research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (FCR-STEM) role on the InSPIRE project. 

Annika Culver, Ph.D. (Department of History) participated on the panel of experts at the “Cold War 2.0? Power and Prudence: Lessons of the Cold War for the 21st Century” conference hosted by the Clements Center for National Security, the University of Texas at Austin Department of History, and the America in the World Consortium at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Ericka Horne, DrPH (College of Medicine) organized and moderated the Florida Public Health Association’s Second Annual Student Conference in Celebration, Florida. 

Tarez Samra Graban, Ph.D. (Department of English) was elected chair of the Global and Non-Western Rhetorics Standing Group of the Conference on College Composition and Communication. 

Guang Wang, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) joined the editorial board of the journal series “Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies” as an associate editor. 

Frank (“Frankie”) Y. Wong, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) moderated a panel at the “United for Resilience” workshop, where experts explored strategies to enhance trauma-informed care for National AAPI Organizations — a critical initiative funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He also moderated the 16th AIDS Impact Conference in Morocco, facilitating important discussions on advancing HIV/AIDS care worldwide. 

NOTABLE

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) led the Southern Province data collection team at Rusangu Primary School in Monze, Zambia, to observe and conduct interviews with student teachers as part of a project funded by The Gates Foundation. 

Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) assembled a group of FSU experts who joined a high-level conference with experts from Ukraine to discuss ways to combat human trafficking. The virtual conference, planned by FSU’s Ukraine Task Force and the National Academy of Internal Affairs in Kyiv, brought together experts from both countries. 

Ebe Randeree, Ph.D. (College of Communication & Information) led nine students on a networking trip to Tampa to help them make connections with tech companies in the area. Students on the trip toured Reliaquest, Citibank, and A-Lign, and also attended the Synapse Summit. He also led a team of students to the table at the 2025 Tech Expo at FSU’s Panama City campus. The students ran six tech-based activities to teach K-12 students about technology and tech careers.  

Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) and doctoral candidate Bhushan Dahal joined with The World Bank, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and The Gates Foundation to open registrations for the “Educators Shaping Futures: A Global Knowledge Exchange on Teacher Preparation and Development” conference in Ethiopia. 

Rachel Duke, Ph.D. (Special Collections & Archives) was selected to develop and teach the course “Rare Books for Archivists” by the Society of American Archivists. Duke has also been named Associate Editor of the Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Collective publication Notes from the Field, a peer-reviewed blog highlighting practical lessons from the front lines of teaching with primary sources.   

Adrienne Barnes-Story, Ph.D., Rabieh Razzouk, MBA. and Gena St. John, MBA (Learning Systems Institute) led seven webinars as part of the University Administration Support Program implemented by the International Research & Exchanges Board (IREX). Ten university administrators from Ghana and Nigeria joined their “Improving University Research Administration in Sub-Saharan Africa” workshop. 

Lakesia Dupree, Ph.D., Odalis Tavares, Ed.D., and Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) worked with 30 educators in Hillsborough County on the Successful Start: Cognitively Guided Instruction year 1 program, providing training and support to teachers serving students in foundational grades.   

Laura Redfern, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC (College of Nursing) earned her certification as a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator, a significant achievement that highlights her expertise in health care simulation. 

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to aprentiss@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

The post Faculty and Staff Briefs June 2025 appeared first on Florida State University News.