October 2017

In This Issue Dean's Note Welcome New Faculty Faculty Mentorship Program UT Pupils of Jurisprudence New Visiting Faculty Alumni Spotlight Faculty News Upcoming Events Sign-Up for Our Newsletter Dean's Note Dear Friends:   After 30 years in higher education I can say without question that few academic years got off to a more unusual start than this one. As you know, Hurricane Irma made its way to the Tampa Bay area just as the semester began and created quite a bit of disruption. Fortunately, the university’s Emergency Operations Team was up to the task and as a result, after closing the campus to instruction for a week, those students who chose to remain on campus or were unable to leave were kept safe and engaged throughout the ordeal. In the end the campus was spared any major damage and in fact, we were fortunate that we never lost power throughout the storm. I can’t heap enough praise on our dedicated staff who stayed on campus with our students throughout the storm ensuring their safety and well-being. Well done!   With that said, as we start the new academic year our college has now grown to over 1,300 enrolled undergraduate students and more than 125 graduate students. Needless to say things are very busy all across the campus. And with our official campus census population now at 8,913 students, it represents the 21 st consecutive year of enrollment growth at UT.   Along with the growth in our student body has come sizeable growth in our faculty ranks as well. In fact, this year we welcomed the largest number of new faculty members to our college since I began my service as dean. Please take a moment to scroll down and meet some of our new colleagues. I’m hopeful that you will be as impressed with their academic credentials and experiences as I am.   For those who are regular readers of our newsletter you will notice that this year we have added a new section highlighting our CSSME alumni. Beginning with this issue we will reach out and highlight one or two of our former students to learn where they are today and what they are up to. I think you will agree that a UT education can take you quite far!   To say that I am continually impressed with all of the accomplishments of both our students and our faculty is an understatement. We look forward to sharing more of their accomplishments with you in each and every issue of the newsletter.   Until then, I am hopeful that the remainder of the semester will be quite routine and boring.

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Dean

Welcome New Faculty

Laura Buchholz, Assistant Professor, Psychology

B.A., Psychology and Spanish, Niagara University M.A., Clinical Psychology, Kent State University Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, Kent State University

Buchholz earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Kent State University with a dual concentration in health psychology and quantitative methods. She also completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship in integrated behavioral healthcare at the VA Center for Integrated Healthcare in Buffalo, New York.  From 2011 to 2017, Buchholz taught courses in health psychology, abnormal psychology, and quantitative methods at Niagara University and Kent State University. She also developed a special topics course on eating disorders, exercise, and obesity.  Her research interests are broadly in the area of women's health. One area of her work focused on the etiology and consequences associated with alcohol use, exercise and eating pathology, particularly restrictive dieting. She has an interest in using technology in the moment to acquire a better understanding of these relationships. Another area of her work focused on the identification and management of disordered eating among women veterans. Through her work, she hopes to improve assessment and treatment of individuals with disordered eating. In her spare time, she enjoys camping, hiking and going to concerts. When asked what she is most looking forward to most at UT, Buchholz said, “I am most looking forward to working with students by assisting them with the development, analysis, and presentation of their research findings at local and regional conferences.”

Suzanne Ensmann, Assistant Professor of Education

B.S. Clothing, Textiles and Merchandising, Florida State University M.S. Instructional Technology, Indiana University Ed.D. Educational Technology, Morehead State University

Ensmann displays her purpose "to make a difference...better a life" through her dedication to education. Prior to arriving at UT, she was the Director of Program Effectiveness for Adult Education and an adjunct faculty member at Indian River State College (IRSC). At IRSC, she taught blended, face-to-face and online courses with highly diverse learners. Ensmann's academic interests include creating meaningful and effective instructional design based upon pedagogically sound learning theories. She strives to incorporate students’ hyper-communication and ubiquitous computing skills of the 21st Century into the classroom. She believes that students should experience the value of servant leadership and a global education. Through her research, she discovered that game-based learning often evokes empathy from learners to the point that these learners become advocates for improvement. This discovery led her to create a prototype of a game-for-change to teach about the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child treaty in order to begin the process of systemic change to afford all children basic human rights.  In the past few years, Ensmann has organized travel to Haiti to rebuild homes and care for orphans. Upon her return, she created IDS Service Learning syllabi to transfer her experience and continue serving while educating. When asked what she is most looking forward to at UT, Ensmann said, "Growing in my quest to become the best version of me! From meeting new colleagues and students to researching opportunities for the ongoing improvement of learning, I am happy to be a part of the University of Tampa."

Sara Festini, Assistant Professor of Psychology

B.A., Psychology, Scripps College M.S., Psychology, University of Michigan Ph.D., Psychology, University of Michigan

Festini enjoys asking questions about the human mind and brain. She earned her Ph.D. from the Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Area of the Psychology Department at the University of Michigan. Her primary research interests encompass human memory, executive functioning, and cognitive aging. She has investigated the association between a busy lifestyle and cognitive function in middle-aged and older adults. She has also conducted research on the voluntary control of memory with “directed forgetting” instructions, the influence of emotion on motor learning, cerebellar functional connectivity in individuals with Parkinson’s disease, and dual-task interference. Festini looks forward to applying her curiosity about the intricacies of the mind, including how cognitive functions vary with age, at the University of Tampa. For the past 3 years, Festini held a Postdoctoral Research Associate position at the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas. She has experience teaching Introduction to Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Human Neuropsychology, and Psychological Statistics. When she is not conducting research, Festini likes tap dancing. While in Dallas, she taught an Intermediate/Advanced Teen Tap class and a Beginning/Intermediate Adult Tap class. She also enjoys spending time by the water, eating sushi, and playing board games with friends. When asked what she is most looking forward to most about working at UT, Festini said, “I’m looking forward to the small class sizes and the strong community feel of the College of Social Sciences, Mathematics, and Education at the University of Tampa. I can’t wait to interact with my students in the classroom and in my lab, and I’m excited to get to know the other dedicated faculty members at UT!”

Jonathan Lewallen, Assistant Professor, Political Science & International Studies

B.A., Political Science, Tulane University M.A., Government, University of Texas at Austin Ph.D., Government, University of Texas at Austin After earning his B.A., Lewallen worked as a Labor Policy Analyst at the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C. He held the positions of Legislative Researcher, Assistant Editor and Editor at Congressional Quarterly, a publication that provides comprehensive information on activities in the United States Congress. Lewallen also worked as a Legislative Analyst in the House Research Organization at the Texas House of Representatives in Austin. While at the University of Texas, Lewallen taught a course on the U.S. federal budget process, including how budgets affect public policy and how federal budgeting has broken down and become dysfunctional in recent years.   Lewallen studies policy processes, specifically agenda setting—how governments come to pay attention to some issues and proposals and not others—and how agendas and institutional policy-making changes over time. His dissertation described and explained a shift in Congress over the past 30 years away from legislating and towards making policy through oversight of the executive branch. He also published research on presidential veto threats, the connection between congressional committee jurisdictions and issue attention, and when Congress makes mistakes writing legislation. He has recently started researching and writing about cybersecurity as a policy issue and how the U.S. government is addressing it.   In his spare time, Lewallen enjoys going to the beach, playing with his new dog Bree, and checking out things to do in Tampa. He also likes watching basketball and is waiting for the fall season to start.    When asked what he is most looking forward to at UT, Lewallen said, "I’m looking forward to joining a great department and working with UT students on research and learning about public policy." Gabriel Paez, Assistant Professor, Criminology B.S., Marketing/Information Management & Technology, Syracuse University M.P.A., Criminal Justice Policy and Administration, City University of New York Ph.D., Criminal Justice: Policy, Oversight and Administration, City University of New York From 2010 to 2016, Paez taught a variety of both graduate and undergraduate courses at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. In the Department of Public Management, he taught Research Methods; Cases & Techniques in Quantitative Policy Analysis; Leadership, Supervision and Performance; Seminar in Justice Administration & Planning; Introduction to Public Administration; Planning and Policy Analysis; and Introduction to Public Administration. In the Department of Sociology, he taught Introduction to Sociology. In the Department of Department of Law, Police Science, he taught Criminal Justice - Theory in Practice. His areas of specialization and research interests include criminal justice policy, policing, program evaluation, public policy analysis, victimization, juvenile justice and statistics & methods. In his spare time, Paez enjoys spending time with his wife and children.  When asked what he is most looking forward to at UT, Paez said, "working with the faculty in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice and with the students at UT."

Edward Pompeian, Assistant Professor of History

B.A., History and American Studies, St.Olaf College M.A., History, The College of William and Mary Ph.D., History, The College of William and Mary

While completing his Ph.D. research in 2010, Pompeian spent a year on a Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship as a visiting student and scholar at the Universidad Andres Bello in Caracas, Venezuela.  He taught as an Adjunct Visiting Professor at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, from 2013 to 2015 and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at St. Olaf College from 2015 to 2017.  His area of specialization is Colonial Latin American and Caribbean history. He is interested in comparative and transnational histories of revolution, trade, slavery, and cross-cultural exchange in the Atlantic World, as well as environmental history. In his spare time, he enjoys relaxing with his partner and their eighteen-month-old son, walking their dog, a black-lab mix, being outdoors, and dreaming of being a musician. When asked what he is most looking forward to at UT, Pompeian said, "I am excited to begin working alongside my new colleagues in the Department of History, Sociology, Geography, and Legal Studies. I also look forward to learning more about UT's Cuban connections and taking advantage of the Center for Teaching and Learning to continue enhancing my teaching pedagogy and skills."

Andrea Walker, Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice

B.A., Criminology, South Oregon University M.A., Criminal Justice, Boston University’s Metropolitan College Ph.D. Criminal Justice and Criminology, Washington State University

At Washington State University (WSU), Walker was awarded the Arnold and Julia Greenwell Scholarship for Humanities and Social Sciences for her efforts in teaching and service to the university, as well as the Student Research Funding Award from the Association of Doctoral Programs in Criminology and Criminal Justice for her dissertation project, “A window with a view: A thematic analysis of providing sex offender treatment in Washington State.” At WSU, she taught Crime Control Policies, Violence toward Women, Criminal Law, and Ethics in Criminal Justice. She received the Outstanding Ph.D. Instructor Award (2016) from the Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology and the Outstanding Criminal Justice Graduate Student Instructor Award (2017) from the Associated Students of Washington State University. She believes that while scholarly research is certainly important, educating students is by far the most critical and gratifying part of academia.      Walker’s research interests include criminal law and procedure, courtroom workgroup, and sex offender policy & reentry. Her research has been published in Criminal Justice Review, Criminal Law Bulletin, Community Mental Health Journal, and Sexuality & Culture. She is currently working on projects that include examining predictors of Failure to Register, as well as collateral and financial consequences of offenders who are released under community supervision.  In her spare time, Andrea enjoys reading fiction, traveling, learning how to golf, and attending cultural and athletic events. When asked what she is most looking forward to at UT, Walker said, “I am so very excited to experience [the students’] academic journey with them and anticipate learning far more from them about their world, than I could ever teach them in a classroom.”

Faculty Mentorship Program

The CSSME Faculty Mentorship Program was designed to help new faculty members not only settle into their new positions at The University of Tampa but also the Tampa Bay area. The program, which launched last year, has received positive feedback from participants. In order to promote open communication, a tenure-track faculty member is matched with a senior faculty member. Mentors and mentees meet and consult on issues from scholarship to where to find a doctor in Tampa. Thank you to our mentors: Mary Anderson, Steve Blessing, Kathryn Branch, Liv Coleman, Ryan Cragun, Tony Erben, Kevin Fridy, Charles Groh, Pattie Johnston, Leslie Jones, Tammy Schimmel, Spencer Segalla, Michael Stasio and John Sumner, who have volunteered to participate in this program.

UT Pupils of Jurisprudence

Meet the newest undergrad members of the Chris W. Altenbernd-Bruce R. Jacob Criminal Appellate American Inn of Court! Orientation for new members took place the first week of classes and monthly meetings will begin in a few weeks. University of Tampa students are placed in groups known as “pupilages” and have the honor of working alongside attorneys, judges, and law students to put on legal education programs at each meeting. The Inn meets the entire school year so students will have plenty of opportunities to network and learn about the legal profession. The Chris W. Altenbernd-Bruce R. Jacob Criminal Appellate American Inn of Court promotes professionalism and civility among the lawyers who practice criminal appellate law in Florida's Second District Court of Appeal. It is the only inn in the United States that accepts undergraduate members. The University of Tampa also has the honor of hosting one of the inn meetings this spring. Way to go UT!

New members of The Chris W. Altenbernd-Bruce R. Jacob Criminal Appellate Inn of Court with Assistant Professor Kristen Foltz.

New Visiting Faculty

Amy Eggers, Visiting Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, received her Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. Eggers specializes in looking at the relationship between immigration, family dynamics, and crime/victimization. Her research interests are geared towards examining the intersections between demographic factors and crime/victimization. Her research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Race and Crime, Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, and the Journal of Criminal Justice.

Gyldas Ofoulhast-Othamot, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies, received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. He has worked as an adjunct instructor at UT since 2015.  Ofoulhast-Othamot's teaching and research interests include international development policy, comparative public administration and public policy, comparative government and politics, and the politics and public administration of sub-Saharan Africa. His research focuses on diverse phenomena such as decentralized environmental governance and rural development, urban and metropolitan governance, local governance and decentralization policies, public sector reforms, and the developmental state.

Zachary A. Pilot, Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology, received his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University. Pilot has previously taught Introduction to Psychology and Research Methods and Statistics courses. Pilot is interested in the development of social cognition throughout the lifespan and in special populations, like actors. His additional research interests include identity development, first generation student performance and pedagogy. He is preparing manuscripts on social cognition and identity for submission to peer reviewed journals.

Alumni Spotlight

Mandi Barringer, B.A., Sociology, 2009 Mandi Barringer recently graduated with her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Central Florida (UCF), where she also received her M.A. in Applied Sociology in 2011. As part of her Graduate Research Assistantship, she was the Program Manager for the Institute for Social and Behavioral Sciences (ISBS) housed through UCF’s Sociology Department. Barringer has co-authored several articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Qualitative Inquiry, Sociological Spectrum, Sociological Inquiry, and Men and Masculinities. Barringer now holds a position as a Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of North Florida (UNF), where she teaches courses such as research methods, sexualities, gender and introduction to sociology. In addition to teaching, she is involved with UNF's Northeast Florida Center for Community Initiatives, an organization that provides high quality research and evaluation support to community, local, state and federal programs affecting community life in Northeast Florida. She also serves as the Chair of the Vision Committee for the Sociologists for Women in Society, South (SWS-S), an organization of social scientists dedicated to the development of feminist theory and scholarship, institutional diversity, and social justice. She plans to continue researching and collaborating on manuscripts in the areas of sexualities and applied research.  The small class sizes and the individualized mentoring that faculty provide to their students attracted Barringer to UT. She credits much of her current success to her time at UT and the continued support and advice of Drs. Ryan Cragun, Norma Winston, and Bruce Friesen, who took the time to mentor her during her tenure as an undergraduate student at UT. Barringer remains in touch with her former advisors here at UT and has developed relationships with new faculty, including Dr. J. Sumerau, who has helped her in her academic career. Barringer recommends that incoming students at UT should hit the ground running by getting involved in research projects and other programs outside of the classroom. Barringer said, “Getting involved in research and internships early will help students build a strong portfolio, which helps set them apart on the job market or when applying to graduate school. Students should also seek out faculty members they have a good rapport with to discuss their future career/educational goals.”

Heather Bowen, B.A., Government & World Affairs/Music, 2014 After graduating from UT, Heather Bowen earned her Juris Doctorate in the spring of 2017 from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, Illinois. During her time at Northwestern Law, Heather was heavily involved in giving back to the community. She worked with Just The Beginning – A Pipeline Organization (JTB-APO), a nonprofit organization that offers pipeline programs directly aimed at inspiring young, under-served and minority students in middle school, high school and college, with the goal of increasing diversity in the legal profession and the judiciary. As an Assistant Program Director with JTB-APO, she worked with judges, lawyers, and middle and high school students on legal reasoning, case analysis, writing, negotiation, and oral argument exercises. She also served as a lead instructor, organizer, and employee manager for the JTB-APO Summer Legal Institute program model in Minnesota, Indiana, Maryland, and Illinois. For two years, Heather served on the Associates Board – Development and Marketing Committee of the Legal Prep Charter Academy. Legal Prep is a legal-themed, open-enrollment charter high school located in Chicago’s West Garfield Park neighborhood. Its goal is to increase diversity in the legal profession by providing a legal-themed curriculum to Black and Hispanic students that subsequently allows them an opportunity to succeed at four-year colleges and universities and beyond. While serving on the board, Heather assisted in a writing workshop for Legal Prep juniors, by honing their writing skills via the preparation of college application essays. In addition, she served as a mentor strengthening students’ confidence, professionalism, and responsibility towards themselves, their peers, and society in general, and motivated the students to take the next step in succeeding in college. Through these and additional initiatives and fundraisers, Heather has helped encourage a culture of philanthropy by investing in the future of Legal Prep and its students.  Heather is currently working on her post-graduate fellowship opportunity at Start Small Think Big located in Harlem in New York City where she uses her legal skills to continue to effect positive change for her community and broader society. There, she assists clients in building and sustaining thriving businesses so that they will increase their personal financial security and stimulate economic activity in underserved New York City communities. She focuses on the following main areas of law: choosing and forming an appropriate legal structure for the business; restructuring to permit additional equity participation; corporate governance housekeeping; contract review and drafting; commercial lease review and negotiation; employment; tax; intellectual property; doing business online; and some regulatory, licensing, and permitting needs. Heather cannot over-emphasize the importance of giving back to others by “reaching back as you climb” and frequently encourages others to do the same.

Faculty News

History, Sociology, Geography & Legal Studies

Associate Professor of Sociology Ryan Cragun presented "Atheists in Argentina: Developing A Nonreligious Identity in a Predominantly Catholic Society" at the International Society for the Sociology of Religion at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland on June 7.

Associate Professor History Spencer Segalla presented "“Agents of Colonialism in a Provincial French Town: Frejus after the 1959 Malpasset Dam Collapse” at the 43rd Annual Conference of the French Colonial Historical Society in Aix-en-Provence, France on June 15.

Mathematics

Associate Professor of Mathematics Angela Angeleska presented "Coherent Graph Partitions" at the The Second Malta Conference in Graph Theory and Combinatorics on June 30. The presentation reported the findings of a study performed by Angeleska and Zoran Nikoloski of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Golm Germany on a new type of graph partitions, called coherent partitions.  Interested in joining the UT Math Club? Connect with us on Facebook

Associate Professor of Mathematics/Assistant Dean of CSSME Leslie Jones presented "Factors influencing the population of Sheepshead, Archosargus probatocephalus, in Tampa Bay" on July 16 at the The Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Austin, TX. Jones collaborated with Assistant Professor of Biology Bridgette Froeschke and Associate Professor of Mathematics Brian Garman to study the impact of environmental factors in Tampa Bay such as temperature, rainfall, dissolved oxygen and salinity, and their influence on population levels of sheepshead in years 2008, 2009, and 2014. Their study provided a window into some of Tampa Bay's unique properties, as well as preliminary data for their examination of sheepshead populations in Florida.

Criminology & Criminal Justice

Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Sorle Diih presented "The Relationship Between Devolution, Diminution of the Code of Secrecy and Decline of Traditional Organized Crime in New York" at the 18th Cross-Border Crime Colloquium that was held at Cornenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia on June 12 - 22.

Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Cedric Michel co-authored "Juveniles Arrested for Murder: An Empirical Analysis of 37 Years of U.S. Arrest Data by Race" that will be published in an upcoming issue of Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Education

Associate Professor of Education Patty O’Grady presented "The Positive Psychology Teaching and Learning Taxonomy" at the 125th annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Washington, DC, on August 5 during the Learning, Motivation and Persistence session of Division 15, Educational Psychology. Routledge Press is working with O’Grady to publish her work in positive psychology and education that she showcased at APA. Prufrock Press accepted the book proposal that O’Grady developed and submitted during her sabbatical, "Mindful Practice in the Classroom." The publisher issued a book contract with an early 2018 publication date.

Associate Professor of Education Tony Erben authored Explorando: Introduction to Spanish, an interactive textbook for students to learn Spanish in a way that allows them to make meaningful connections between the words/phrases they are learning within the text and relevant characters/occurrences in their lives. The text enables instructors to adapt content and provides both students and instructors the choice of what content and technologies to use. The text is available through Top Hat Marketplace, a platform that helps educators integrate technology into the classroom.

Assistant Professor of Education Adrianne Wilson facilitated roundtable discussions entitled "A Pipeline for Turnaround Leadership" and "The Many Dimensions of Leadership: Assessing Professional Dispositions of M.Ed. Candidates" at the the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration annual conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico on August 2 - 4.

Discover our graduate programs in Education. Graduate Education

Political Science and International Studies

Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies Denis Rey served as Chair of a session entitled The World and the Caribbean and presented "Artists as Engines of Economic Development in the Caribbean" at the 42nd Annual Conference of the Caribbean Studies Association in Nassau, Bahamas on June 7, 2017.

Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies Kathryn VanderMolen co-presented "Process Preferences in the States" and "Putting Friends in High Places: Gubernatorial Appointments in Term-Limited States" at the State Politics and Policy Conference in St. Louis, MO on June 3.

Psychology

Assistant Professor of Psychology Laura Buchholz co-authored "Identification and Management of Eating Disorders in Integrated Primary Care: Recommendations for Psychologists in Integrated Care Settings" that was published in the June 2017 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings .

Interested in a psychology degree? Watch our YouTube video for more information.

Upcoming Events

Mark your calendars for the following upcoming events at UT: September 27: Associate Professor Kshitij Khare from The University of Florida will present "Statistical covariance estimation in the era of high-dimensional data." in RIVC 107 at 4:00 p.m. October 3: Professor of History Terry Parssinen will present "Is the Trump/Russia Investigation the New Watergate?" in the Plant Hall Music Room at 4:00 p.m. October 4: Civic Education Workshop, "Turn Your Citizenship up LOUD!" Jenkins, COM2, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Pizza and drinks will be served. October 5: Law School Fair, Vaughn Center, 9th Floor Crescent Room, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. October 23: Civic Education Workshop, "Post-Truth Politics (Oxford Word of the Year!)," Jenkins COM2, 6:15 - 7:45 p.m. Pizza and drinks will be served. October 27: Sarah Kirk, a graduating senior at UT studying criminology and political science, will present "Foreigners or Felons" in the Plant Hall Music Room from 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. This presentation is part of the UT Honors Symposium. November 27: Civic Education Workshop, "Improving Civil Dialogue Through Caffeine," Jenkins, COM2, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Pizza and drinks will be served. November 30: History Poster Expo, Plant Hall, Fletcher Lounge, 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.

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