Virginia Wesleyan University will become Batten University on July 1, 2026.

FACULTY AND STAFF ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND BEST PRACTICES // December 2025

Sara Ryan won second place for her poem "Gather" in the first poetry contest hosted by Norfolk's Church of the Good Shepherd, part of their Creative Summer Series. The theme, The Rhythm of Life, asked poets to share their reflections on the natural and spiritual world.

Ben Haller's chapter in the Oxford Critical Guide to the Odyssey appears 11/25 in digital form via Oxford Academic. His paper, "Polycratess Delia, Egypt, and his Plans for an Ionian Expedition," presenting work arising from his Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies Fellowship in Summer 2024, was accepted for presentation at CAMWS 2026.

Following peer review, Jeff Toussaint’s entry titled “Colorblind Peace: Unveiling Racism and Race in Peace Scholarship for the Movements and Ideas section of the digital reference product Routledge Resources Online Race and Racism” has been accepted for online publication.

President Scott D. Miller serves as executive editor for the President to President thought leadership series. The fourth chapter of the 2025-26 series, “Intentional Efforts in Belonging,” is now available online. In “Building Campus Belonging at Moravian University,” Bryon L. Grigsby, Ph.D., shares how adding campus traditions like live greyhound mascots, Hound'em rallying cries and Heritage Day increased his engagement with the campus community. President Miller also shares daily reflections and leadership perspectives on his blog, Dialogue.

Sara Sewell co-hosted with Kobi Kabalek (Penn State University) an online workshop on "Emotions of Holocaust Scholars." The workshop brought together a group of international scholars for a day of presentations and discussion of researchers', audiences', and students' emotions as they explore the Holocaust.

Terry Lindvall presented his paper "Witnesses for the Prosecution: The Plaintiffs' Case Against C. S. Lewis" at the C. S. Lewis and Kindred Spirits International Conference at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Iași, Romania.

Bill McConnell led a workshop entitled, “Using Digital Simulation/Modeling to Investigate Run-Off,” at the annual conference of the Virginia Association of Science Teachers in Alexandria, Virginia. The workshop highlighted his work with multiple schools across Virginia and Pennsylvania on an environmental education curriculum, Shared Waters.

April Christman and Benjamin Dobrin collaborated with recent VWU Bachelor of Social Work graduate, Samantha Silvia '25, to developthe workshop, "The Role of Christianity and Religious Organizations on Suicidality and Health Outcomes," at the 2025 North American Association for Christians in Social Work Annual Conference. The workshop trained practitioners on how to develop safety plans with clients to facilitate least restrictive care options.

Christman and Dobrin also developed and presented the workshop, "Bridging Faith & Wellness: A Prevention Model for Student Mental Health," at the conference. The workshop trained practitioners on how to integrate spiritually informed interventions into principles of public health to improve community mental health outcomes.

In addition, Christman and Dobrin partnered with local agency, Communities in Schools (CIS), to develop and deliver a workshop, "Pathways to Success: Social Work," at Bayside High School. CIS operates in 30 schools across Hampton Roads and provides behavioral interventions to students in efforts to increase graduation rates. The workshop provided psychoeducation on identifying career aspirations and pursuing college education.

Jennifer Slivka presented a paper titled, "Re-imagining Women’s Lives in Caoilinn Hughes’s The Alternatives,” at the Midwest Regional Meeting of the American Conference of Irish Studies, held at Northern Illinois University.

Stephen Hock presented a paper titled "That's the Shadow Ticket! (In Which a Quick-Change Scholar Does a Few Impersonations)," as part of a panel that he chaired on the topic of "Late Pynchonian Epistemologies" at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association conference in Atlanta.

Caitlin Williams and senior Baylee Brown presented a poster titled "Overcoming Technical Barriers during Creation of a Bacterial One-Hybrid Library for Clostridioides difficile" at the American Society for Microbiology - Virginia Branch annual meeting.

Michelle Albert Vachris presented her paper "Using Podcasts to Teach Environmental Economics" at the 95th annual meeting of the Southern Economic Association in Tampa, Florida.

Clair Berube presented a paper entitled "The Impact of Explicit Math Anxiety Instruction on High, Moderate, and Low Math-Anxious Preservice Teachers" at the annual national NSF NOYCE Summit Conference in Washington DC. Co-authors are Bill McConnell, Rebecca John and Lydia Kennedy.

OTHER

Along with his co-authors Caroline and Cary Joseph, Terry Lindvall was the featured guest on the international podcast, "Pints with Jack" with "After Hours" host David, to discuss their book, The Joy of Narnia: Teaching Middle School Students to Laugh.

Benjamin Dobrin and April Christman attended Virginia Beach Community Development Corporation's 40th anniversary celebration event with VWU graduates and VBCDC representatives Tanisha Davis '03, Chief Programs Officer, and Jane Brown '25, Neighbor Advocate. For four decades, VBCDC has been a leader in advancing housing stability and community development across Virginia Beach.

Tyler A. Lehrer served as "Team Captain" for VWU student and faculty teams at the 25th anniversary WorldQuest, a world affairs, international politics, history, geography, and global cultures trivia night put on by the World Affairs Council of Hampton Roads.

Sara Ryan was invited to be a part of the Virginia Poets Database, an archival project spearheaded by ODU's Luisa A. Igloria. The project aims to show the richness and diversity of poetry and poets in the state, and is permanently housed in the Digital Commons of the Perry Library at ODU.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

After researching local environmental issues and research-based education frameworks, 12 students in Elizabeth Malcolm and Bill McConnell's class, HON 110: Contemporary Environmental Issues, applied their learning to develop and teach hands-on sustainability lessons for all of 4th and 5th graders at Norfolk Collegiate Lower School. NCLS students learned about oyster restoration and causes of non-point source pollution.