Awards, publications and appointments: recapping 2023-24 faculty highlights

Marymount prides itself on employing top-notch faculty who are true leaders and innovators in their fields. From new appointments on national boards to prestigious award nominations, Marymount professors truly impacted the community this year.

During the 2023-24 academic year, our faculty continued to learn and grow alongside our students. With new appointments, publications and research, our esteemed faculty members had a busy and productive year expanding their horizons and serving as true innovators in their fields.

Several of our faculty and staff members have been honored with new appointments inside and outside the University. Among these is Dr. Skye Donovan, appointed the Interim Dean for the College of Health and Education. Beyond her position at Marymount, Skye is preparing to assume a larger, national leadership role. A current member of the American Physical Therapy Association's (APTA) national board, Skye is running unopposed for the position of Vice President of the APTA. This appointment will become official in November. This truly positions Skye and Marymount by extension to become nationally recognized leaders in the field of physical therapy practice and education.

Similarly, Alison Gregory,the Marymount Dean of Libraries and Assistant Provost for Special Projects, is taking on a new leadership role with the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Alison was recently elected to serve as the VP for Chapter Development for Phi Kappa Phi, which will involve serving on the PKP board's executive committee and supporting over 300 chapters of the Honor Society nationwide.

Professor Jennifer Yang, the Dean of the School of Business, has been a longtime member of the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) and was recently named the Vice President of Conferences for the ITAA. As a Vice President, she will sit on the ITAA Council, the organization's governing body, and oversee the planning and execution of ITAA conferences until 2026.

After spending her summer teaching DMV area high school students about the fundamentals of Criminal Justice during Marymount's summer "Introduction to Criminal Justice" program, Dr. Sarah Fischerreceived an exciting appointment from the American Society of Criminology. She will serve as co-president of the ASC's Division of Feminist Criminology, which focuses on using feminist perspectives to examine systems of oppression related to offending, victimization, and the legal system. We hope that through her continued collaboration with feminist scholars in the criminal justice field, she can help increase Marymount's dedication to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the social sciences and across all disciplines.

Many of our faculty also published papers and presented research findings in journals and conferences during the 2023-24 academic year. Dr. Catherine Diaz-Asper, a Marymount Center for Optimal Aging Fellow for the 2023-25 term, published two research papers this summer, one in the Journal of Alzheimer's Diseaseon the future of cognitive screening for cognitive impairments and another in Psychiatric Researchon the use of large language models for assessing cognitive disorders. Dr. Eric Aldarepresented Marymount's Criminal Justice department when he presented "Smarter Policing in Lean Times: Optimizing Resource Allocation to Maximize Efficiency" at the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing's national conference in Spokane, WA. Dr. Linda Cote represented Marymount's Psychology department on an international scale when she presented her research on "Acculturation of Maternal Responses to Infant Distress in U.S. Immigrant Families" at the International Congress on Infant Studies' annual symposium held in Glasgow, Scotland. Additionally, Dr. Alex Mbaziira, Dean of the School of Technology and Innovation, co-authored a paper with Neethu Shenoy, a doctoral alum, which was presented at the International Conference on Electrical, Computer, and Energy Technologies (ICECET), an IEEE conference in Sydney Australia. Dr. Linda Mills of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences moderated a "Future of Intelligence Studies" panel at the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit on August 28, featuring intelligence educators, CEOs, and former CIA officials.

We also had several faculty members who won grants and funding for their research efforts. Dr. Courtney Porter of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences was part of a team that secured a $200,000 federal grant from the National Institute of Justice that will fund the completion of research on the needs of graduate students in the criminal justice profession and allow the team to present their findings at conferences through 2026. Dr. Alvaro Cintas-Canto of the School of Technology and Innovation received the National Science Foundation's CRII: Secure and Trustworthy Cybersecurity (SaTC) Grant totaling $174,987 for his research on Reliable Hardware Architectures Against Side Channel Attacks.

We are also excited to celebrate the faculty and staff members who have brought their innovation and expertise to the broader community. Professor Moira Densonof the School of Design and Art teamed up with Dr. Eric Bubar of the School of Science, Mathematics and Engineering, to create an interactive presentation for the 2024 HUD Innovative Housing Showcasehosted by All Eco Design Center on the National Mall in June. Throughout the three day exhibition, Moira, Eric and their student research fellows used VR technology to empower older individuals to explore new innovative and more sustainable housing options that will better meet their evolving needs. Attracting over 5,000 visitors, including lawmakers, members of the media and the general public, Marymount's booth showcased the transformative power of VR technology in the field of Architecture and Design.

This summer, we saw the completion of the ongoing MU Pathways to Action, Truth, and Healing (PATH) projectby a team consisting of Camille Buckner, Sara Hallisey, Barb Kreutzer and Susan Agolini. The MU PATH program, made possible through the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center grant from the Lumina and Kellogg Foundations and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), aims to advance racial justice and build more racially equitable communities. The program consisted of documenting locations across campus once inhabited by indigenous tribes and the native plants that we can still find in those locations today. This project helps to ensure that Marymount can create a more equitable community in the future by recognizing the contributions of the indigenous communities of the past.

Two of our faculty members also published books of distinction. Dr. Sara Pappain the School of Health Sciences teamed up with Diana Karczmarczyk of George Mason University to publish her first-ever book, Health Education and Promotion: A Skills-based Approach.The UK-based Routledge Publishing, a part of the Taylor & Francis group, published the book. Dr. Cassandra Good, who teaches in the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, also recently published a book entitled First Family: George Washington's Heirs and the Making of America,which traces the lives of George Washington's descendants through the first century of American independence. The book was named a finalist for the George Washington prize, which recognizes literary works that advance a broader public understanding of early American history. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at Mount Vernon in September. Good luck to Dr. Good!

We are proud of all our faculty who are making an impact at Marymount and are committed to supporting our students and being change-makers in their fields!

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