FACULTY AND STAFF ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND BEST PRACTICES // December 2024

Derek Whaley, along with two co-authors, published "Adaptive Sport and Recreational Therapy: A Scoping Review to Explore Practices for the Profession" in Therapeutic Recreation Journal. Four themes emerged about recreational therapy services and adaptive sports and warrant additional research on adaptive sports and recreational therapy services and recommendations for practice, such as establishing best practice guidelines for this specialty area.

Maynard Schaus, Vic Townsend, Shane Boyd, Deirdre Gonsalves-Jackson, Eric Johnson, Soraya Bartol, and Marielle Postava-Davignon published the article "Transformation of an introductory biology course sequence to improve student success in a bottleneck course" in the most recent issue of Journal of STEM Education: Innovations and Research.

Sara Sewell published “Echoes of Disembarkation at Auschwitz-Birkenau: The Sonic Memories of Survivors,” in Transizioni di memoria: Narrazioni della violenza nel XX e nel XXI secolo (Transitions of Memory. Narratives of Violence in the 20th and 21st Century), ed. Matteo Cassani Siminetti and Roberta Mira, Rome: I Libre die Viella, 2024, 175-88.

Tyler A. Lehrer reviewed Bardwell L. Smith's Precarious Balance: Sinhala Buddhism and the Forces of Pluralism for Reading Religion, which is an online publication of the American Academy of Religion.

President Scott D. Miller serves as executive editor for the President to President thought leadership series. The fourth chapter of the 2024–2025 series is now available online. In “Logging On: Lessons from an Academic Transformation,” West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee, Ed.D., investigates the power of a high-quality student experience, exploring how campuses can adapt to ensure students graduate with marketable skills and a sense of purpose. He shares ideas for prioritizing students’ changing academic needs, demonstrating how this approach ultimately drives long-term success for colleges and universities. Dr. Miller’s daily blog, Dialogue, can be found at prezscottmiller.blogspot.com.

Several VWU faculty participated in the Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology annual conference, held virtually:

Jeff Toussaint presented "Racial Justice as Peace" (co-authored with student Samantha

Silvia), a project that intersects and expands both race and peace studies. Kathy Stolley and Robin Takacs presented "Addressing Homelessness: A Two Decade Case Study of Applied Sociology and Service-Learning in Action." Co-authored with Takeyra Coats, the presentation provided a retrospective of the Virginia Wesleyan Emergency On-Campus Winter Shelter (2007-2016) and Shelter January-Term class (2007-2024). John Glass presented "How Applied Sociologists Can and Should Act to 'Save the World'."

Alice Jones presented as part of a high-density panel titled, "Continuing the Conversation: Research Directions to Hold Fathers in Higher Regard," at the National Communication Association Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA.

Clair Berube presented a paper entitled "The Impact of Math Anxiety on Preservice Teachers" at the Virginia Association of Science Teachers annual conference. Co-authors of the paper are Bill McConnell, Lydia Kennedy and Rebecca John.

Taryn Myers chaired a symposium entitled "Intersectionality of eating pathology in sexual and gender minority individuals: Prevalence and related sociocultural factors" at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Convention. She presented her talk, "Examining rates of and relationships with eating psychopathology in a mixed sample of gender minority individuals," as part of the symposium.

Michelle Albert Vachris presented a paper titled, "Experiential Learning in Economics Courses," at the 94th meeting of the Southern Economic Association in Washington, DC.

Caitlin Williams, serving as a mentor, presented the poster, “Dimerization of Response Regulator CDR20291_1748 of Clostridioides difficile,” with Senior Veronika Murphy, at the Virginia Branch Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Blacksburg, VA.

Tyler A. Lehrer presided over an "Author Meets Critics" roundtable on Justin Henry's book, "Ravana Kingdom: The Ramayana and Sri Lankan History from Below," at the 2024 American Academy of Religion Annual Conference.

Bill McConnell presented a paper titled, "Political Discord, Preservice Teachers, and Teacher Education," at the 2024 International Symposium: Democracy for Education at the Heidelberg University of Education in Germany. McConnell also presented a paper titled, "A Phenomena-based Urban Heat Island Effect Investigation for Elementary Students," and an original elementary curriculum titled, "Shared Waters" at the annual meeting of the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) in New Orleans, Louisiana, as part of a panel discussion at the South Virginia Association for College Teachers Conference in Rock, Virginia. He presented the Shared Waters Curriculum at the annual meeting of the Virginia Association of Science Teachers (VAST) in Williamsburg, Virginia, as well. In addition, McConnell presented a poster titled, "The Influence of Environmental Education in a Core Education Course,” at the North American Association for Environmental Education Conference in Pittsburgh, PA.

Travis Malone and Sue Larkin presented "Demonstrating Democracy Through Team Teaching" for the Education for Democracy - Demokratiebildung International Symposium hosted by Center of International Teacher Education at the Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany.

OTHER

Doug Kennedy was interviewed by the Dallas, Texas NBC news affiliate to comment on

Scouting America's sale of its Norman Rockwell painting collection. Proceeds will aid in funding the organization's $2.4 billion Survivor Trust. He was also interviewed by the AP and his comments were distributed widely.

April Christman developed and co-facilitated two therapy groups offered at Haygood United Methodist Church with social work senior, Meadow Spears '25, embodying the signature teaching pedagogy of social work education. One group for teens sought to enhance emotional awareness and regulation skills, while the second group designed for mother/daughter pairs fostered improved communication and strengthened relationships.