Professional notes
Dr. Dave Brennan, Marketing Department and Institute for Retailing Excellence, was a panelist on “Getting to 10 on University Avenue ” as part of University UNITED ’s annual meeting July 19 in St. Paul.
Dr. Daya Dayananda, Mathematics Department, presented a paper, “Prostate Cancer: Modeling and Analysis of Prostate Specific Antigen Level,” July 15 at the International Biometric Conference in Cairns, Australia. The paper contains some of the research results obtained by the UST mathematics faculty group working on prostate cancer comprised of Dayananda, Dr. John Kemper and Dr. Mikhail Shvartsman. Some of the results on this topic can also be viewed in the recent paper that appeared in Mathematical Biosciences, Vol. 190, pages 113-126 (2004).
Professor Kenneth Goodpaster, Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics, and research associate T. Dean Maines, co-presented a plenary session panel for the Caux Round Table, “The Self Assessment and Improvement Process: A Transcultural Tool for Creating Corporate Conscience,” at the International Society of Business, Economics and Ethics 2004 World Congress July 14-17 in Melbourne, Australia.
Dr. Mel Gray, Economics Department, attended the biannual meeting of the Association for Cultural Economics International in Chicago. As president-elect, he organized the program, which featured 144 papers in 36 concurrent sessions plus four plenary sessions and two round tables. Participants represented 29 nations and all continents except Antarctica. Gray was a featured speaker at one of the plenary sessions, “Economics and Arts Management – Business Economists’ Perspectives.” At the closing plenary, Gray assumed the presidency of ACEI, a post he will hold for two years, until the next biannual conference in Vienna; also, the second edition of Gray’s co-written book, The Economics of Art and Culture, already available in Korean and Portuguese, soon will be published in Chinese as well.
Joan Griffith, Music Department, has received an American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers award. Awards are granted by an independent panel and based on the value of composer’s original compositions as well as recent performances.
Father Jan Michael Joncas, Catholic Studies and Theology Department, is the author of an article, “A Tale of Two Acclamations: the Priestly Function of Liturgical Music,” in Pastoral Music Vol. 28, No. 6, August-September 2004, pages 13-20.
Dr. Ellen Kennedy, Service-Learning Department, conducted a workshop for MoneyGram, a worldwide electronic funds transfer organization. Kennedy’s program, "Images of Immigrants,” focused on understanding various immigrant communities. Kennedy also led a service-learning seminar in Heredia, Costa Rica, for Friends World Program, a division of Long Island University in New York. As part of her community-outreach activities for service-learning, Kennedy recently accepted positions on the boards of directors of the Southdale YMCA and the Edina Rotary Club.
Dr. Mitchell Kusy, Organization Learning and Development, was selected as a Fulbright Scholar. Operational for the next five years, the scholarship will entitle Kusy to become involved in two- to six-week academic assignments outside the United States – funded by the Fulbright Scholar program. The Fulbright program matches the scholar’s expertise with the needs of various graduate-level programs in selected universities internationally. The Fulbright Scholar program is sponsored jointly by the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs, the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, and the U.S. Embassy. Kusy hopes to bring greater international opportunities and recognition to both the master’s and doctoral programs in the Organization Learning and Development Department at St. Thomas. It is his goal to have the department’s graduate programs become an international academic benchmark in the field of organization development in terms of application, research and theories.
Dr. Susan Marsnik, Legal Studies in Business Department, was invited to participate in the Oxford Round Table on European Union-U.S. Trade Relations in August at St. Anthony’s College, at the University of Oxford, Oxford, England. She attended the conference with Patrick Kelly, partner from the law firm of Fredrikson and Byron, the law firm that supported their participation. On Aug. 22, she presented a paper, “ Active Learning in Legal Studies Education: Negotiating and Drafting of Contracts,” with Larry DiMatteo at the Academy of Legal Studies in Business Annual Meeting. The paper was selected for publication in the conference proceedings. She also participated at the conference as a panelist on the topic, “International Business Ethics,” was elected vice president of the ALSB’s International Business Law Section and moderated a section on ethics. “External Environment, Trust and East-West Trade,” an interdisciplinary international business and law paper she co-wrote, was accepted for presentation and publication in the proceedings of “Catalysts and Impediments of Economic Development in Central and Eastern Europe,” October 2004, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Dr. Pamela Nice, Faculty Development Center, and her film, “Letters From Cairo,” were the subjects of an article, “Airing Views,” in the March issue of Egypt Today.
Dr. Mark Neuzil, Journalism and Mass Communication, wrote the cover article for the July-August issue of the History Channel Magazine. “Bosse’s Mississippi” is about the Gilded Age photographer and the Army Corps of Engineers’ involvement in river navigation.
Dr. Debra Petersen, Communication Studies and Luann Dummer Center for Women, participated in the National Communication Association’s Hope Institute for Faculty Development July 19-24 at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. The annual institute is an assembly of many of the nation’s top scholars and teachers of communication, communication studies and linguistics.
Sister Carol Rennie, O.S.B., School of Education, was elected the ninth prioress of St. Paul ’s Monastery, Maplewood, on May 2. She was installed on June 6. St. Paul’s is a Benedictine community of sisters who have been in St. Paul more than 50 years. Rennie had been director of the community’s Benedictine Center and director of the Oblates of St. Benedict. She is an adjunct instructor at St. Thomas.
Sister Katarina Schuth, O.S.F., received an honorary doctor of letters in May from Boston College, along with Tim Russert of “Meet the Press.” Her citation read: “In her ministry as teacher, scholar, lecturer and writer, we witness the Franciscan spirit born of the command, ‘Go, Francis, and repair my house.’ Holder of the Endowed Chair for the Social Scientific Study of Religion at the St. Paul Seminary School of
Divinity of the University of St. Thomas, she is a leading authority on our nation’s Catholic seminaries. Using the social scientist’s techniques of field study and interviews, which she perfected during doctoral studies in cultural geography at Syracuse University, she mapped the culture of seminaries and sketched a changing landscape of insights and trends for the future of Roman Catholic seminaries, bringing enlightenment and renewal to priestly formation and broadening our understanding of the relationship between the Church and American culture. Boston College delights in honoring a distinguished member of the academy and woman of the Church, joyfully conferring upon Katarina Schuth, O.S.F., the degree of doctor of letters, honoris causa.”
Dr. Kenneth Snyder, St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity, was among four UST theologians who presented papers at the meeting of the North American Patristic Society, May 27-29, at Loyola University in Chicago. His paper was titled “Can Rhetorical Analysis Reveal the True Purpose of the Epistula Severi?” Dr. Joseph Hallman, Theology Department, spoke on “Images of Divine Reciprocity in Maximus the Confessor.” Also from the Theology Department, Dr. Pavel Gavrilyuk presented “Melito’s Influence Upon the Theopaschite Motifs in the Anaphora of the Apostolic Constitutions 8.12,” and Dr. Cornelia Horn presented “Raising Martyrs and Monks: A Diachronic Comparison of the Use of Children’s Role Models in Patristic Literature.”
Dr. Susan Webster, Art History, was awarded a research grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts to support summer research on her book in Ecuador.
Rachel Wobschall, Constituent Relations, has been reappointed to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s Ombudsman Committee for Mental Health and Mental Retardation. She joined the committee in 2002. She is former executive director of the Governor’s Advisory Committee on Technology for Persons With Disabilities.
Dr. Fred Zimmerman, Engineering Department, gave a talk titled “The Status of U.S. Manufacturing,” in May to a group of 70 of the Roseville Seniors. On June 9, he addressed the Golden Valley Optimist Club. He spoke on the status of manufacturing in Minnesota. On July 8, Zimmerman met with top officials of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development on options available to expand industry in Minnesota. On July 14, he delivered the keynote address on “The Importance of Manufacturing to Minnesota” at the Fox and Hounds Club, an organization of Minnesota business leaders.
Zimmerman also recently received a $7,495 database gift in kind from Manufacturers’ News so that research into industrial relocation can continue. Zimmerman and Dave Beal of the St. Paul Pioneer Press used an earlier version of this database in writing the book Manufacturing Works: The Vital Link Between Production and Prosperity. The database will enable comparison of movements and employment levels by county, industry and individual company.
