Education
Faculty and Staff Briefs July and August 2026
Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.
Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing) received the Quality Matters (QM) Award for her course, Mixed Methods and Implementation Science Research, a methods-focused online class in the newly established College of Nursing Ph.D. program.
Christopher Solís, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was recognized as a finalist for the 2026 Young Investigator Award in the senior category at the International Society for Heart Research–North American Section (ISHR‑NAS) Annual Meeting, held in Minneapolis.
Joi Phillips, Ph.D. (Center for Leadership and Service) received the Kris Knab Service Award from United Partners for Human Services for her leadership, courage, compassion and commitment to the community.
Megan Crowe (Career Center) was invited to attend the third annual Texas A&M Law Pre-Law Advisor Summer Institute & Workshop in Fort Worth, Texas. The invitation reflects her national reputation as a subject-matter expert and meaningful contributions to shaping the development and training of pre-law advising professionals across the country.
Alexandra Clayton (Career Center) won the Favorite Lead Actress in a Mainstage Musical award for her portrayal of Velma Kelly in the Spring 2026 production of Chicago.
Erin Bush, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders) was selected for the 2026 Action Research Network of the Americas (ARNA) Community Development Award.
Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information) has been appointed as Co-Director of the UF-FSU CTSA’s Biostatistics, Informatics, and Research Design (BIRD) Core, as a standing member of the NIH Center for Scientific Review’s Clinical Informatics and Digital Health (CIDH) Study Section.
Wendy Doyle, RRT, PA-C, and Allison Justice, MMS, PA-C (College of Medicine) were named the Florida Academy of PAs Humanitarians of the Year for 2026, given to physician assistants who embody a strong commitment to volunteerism and human rights on a local or state level and promote accessible, high-quality healthcare.
Stephen Quintero, M.D. (College of Medicine) was the recipient of the Florida Academy of PAs Physician Recognition Award for 2026, which honors an M.D. or D.O. licensed in Florida who demonstrates exceptional leadership, professionalism and commitment to the PA/physician team concept. Candidates actively support the PA profession and demonstrate high ethical standards in patient care.
William Bobo, M.D., MPH (College of Medicine) was selected as this year’s Phineas J. Sparer Visiting Professor at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, Tennessee, and delivered the namesake lecture, focusing on new approaches to treating depression through the strategic combination of biological and psychosocial therapies.
Dean Falk, Ph.D. (Department of Anthropology) was awarded a gold medal President’s Book Award from the Florida Authors and Publishers Association and the Mary W. Klinger Book Award from The Society for Ethnobotany, both for her book, “The Botanic Age: Planting the Seeds of Human Evolution.” Her book was also named as a finalist in the Science/Nature/Environment category for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
Xiaonan Zhang, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) had her paper, “Longitudinal Behavioural Change Coaching with Multi LLM Agents: Multi-Scale Summaries and Automated Dialogue Steering,” receive the 2026 Best Paper Runner-Up Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and the Association for Computing Machinery’s conference on Connected Health: Applications, Systems and Engineering Technologies. The project was led by her student, Hansong Zhou, a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Computer Science.
Fanny C. Liu, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) was selected as a finalist for the Rising Stars Session, a showcase of the research by emerging and trainee scientists, at the 2026 Wisconsin Human Proteomics Symposium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Tarik Dogru, Ph.D. (Dedman College of Hospitality) has received the 2026 Research Award from International CHRIE (International Council on Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Education). The annual award honors an International CHRIE member as the first author of an outstanding research article or other publication relevant to culinary, hospitality or tourism management.
Geoffrey Deibel, DMA (College of Music) was invited to be a voting member of the Recording Academy (GRAMMY) class of 2026. Deibel spent the summer of 2026 teaching at the Great Plains Saxophone Workshop (joined by nine current FSU saxophone majors and several alums) and the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Ede, Netherlands. He also recorded a duo album with saxophonist Nick Zoulek and a new album with his award-winning h2 quartet.
Mary Matthews, Ph.D. (College of Music) has been named the winner of the 2026 Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation International Soloist Competition, one of the organization’s highest honors recognizing exceptional artistry, musicianship and ambassadorial potential. The triennial competition includes a live performance, audience engagement, and interview process designed to identify an artist who will represent the Foundation through performance and outreach.
GRANTS
Geraldine Martorella, Ph.D., RN, FAAN; Adam Hanley, Ph.D.; Kathryn Muessig, Ph.D.; and Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH (College of Nursing) were awarded a $250,000 Hillman Innovations in Care grant from the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation to support real-world testing of Pain Pause, a scalable, nurse-led approach to expanding access to evidence-based pain management.
Joseph Watso, Ph.D. and Andrew Koutnik, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) received a $218,937 National Institutes of Health grant for their project “Time-Efficient Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training as a New Approach to Improve Cardiovascular Function Among Adults with Type 1 Diabetes.”
Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), and Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute), received a $550,000 award from the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) under Jordan’s Early Grade Education Activity (ASAS), a U.S. Department of State-funded initiative.
Xiaofei Jia, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) is among the recipients of a five-year, R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for “Small Molecule Inhibitors of Nef-Mediated Immune Evasion.” The work will be carried out in collaboration with James Frederich, Ph.D. (College of Arts and Sciences) and with researchers at the University of California San Diego and the Veterans Medical Research Foundation.
Peter Beerli, Ph.D. and Nicholas Dexter, Ph.D. (Department of Scientific Computing) were awarded $499,882 from the National Science Foundation for their project, “Population genetic inference software for the genomic age.”
BYLINES
Bret Keating, M.S. (Advising First, Center for Exploratory Students) authored the article “From Earner to Learner: A Need-Supportive Advising Approach,” published in NACADA’s Academic Advising Today.
Yuliya Guseva, S.J.D., LL.M. (College of Law) recently co-authored the third edition of the casebook “Regulation of Cryptoassets and Markets” published by West Academic Publishing.
Barbara A. Ramsay, (The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art) co-authored with Brooke Russell, Mary Slater, and Laurie Ossmann the article “Just Like the Real Thing: Jules Allard et Fils Reproduction Boiserie Period Rooms at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art” published in the Postprints of the Paintings and Wooden Artifacts Group, American Institute for Conservation’s 2025 annual meeting in Minneapolis.
Wayne A. Hochwarter, Ph.D., Patricia M. Kenney, DNP, and doctoral student Destiny Cole (Herbert Wertheim College of Business) co-published “Physician heal thyself: Physician bullying, work outcomes, and the role of psychological safety” in the journal Personnel Review.
Wayne A. Hochwarter, Ph.D., and doctoral student Destiny Cole (Herbert Wertheim College of Business) co-published “Perceptions of organizational politics and work outcomes: interactive effects of envy and enactment” in the Journal of Managerial Psychology.
Wayne A. Hochwarter, Ph.D., and doctoral students Xin (Michelle) Zheng, Hillary C. Keltner, and Zejun (Jenny) Zhao, (Herbert Wertheim College of Business) co-published “Mitigating abusive supervision’s negative effect on employee outcomes: the role of felt accountability” in the journal Leadership & Organization Development.
Meredith McQuerry, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) co-authored “Perceptions of Turnout Gear Fit and Movement Restrictions among Firefighters of Different Gender, Service Type, and Measurement Status” in the journal Applied Ergonomics.
Celia Reddick, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) published “When I go meet my parents, which language am I going to speak with them?”: Tensions between language-in-education policy and programming, and refugee families’ multilingualism in exile in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development and “How decisions are made: Organizational Isomorphism and a focus on English in refugee education” in a special issue of the Journal on Education in Emergencies.
Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored “Exploring the nature of classroom discourse in multilingual classrooms: Questioning for higher-order thinking skills, translanguaging, and knowledge construction” in Teaching & Teacher Education.
Anna Romanova, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) published “Poetry therapy for strengthening the resilience of educational leaders in crisis: a pilot training case study from Ukraine,” in the Journal of Poetry Therapy.
Eduardo De la Vega, MS, Ph.D. and Eugenia Flores Millender, Ph.D., RN, PMH-APRN, FAAN, FAANP (College of Nursing), co-authored “A New Model for Youth-Driven Community Change: Exploratory Testing of Artificial Intelligence–Supported Citizen Science,” published by JMR Publications.
Casey Xavier Hall, MPH, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) and Beth Okantey, MSW (College of Social Work), co-authored “Measurement of acculturation in African immigrants: a scoping review of the Stephenson Multigroup Acculturation Scale” in the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.
Hongyu Miao, MS, Ph.D. (College of Nursing), co-authored “A randomized trial of a digitally delivered, home-based neuromodulation and mindfulness intervention for pain management in older adults with knee osteoarthritis” published in npj Digital Medicine.
Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, CNE, DipACLM, PHNA-BC, FAAN, Lucinda Green, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN, Erin Stearns, Ph.D.(c) (College of Nursing), Jessica De Leon, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored “Rural Perspectives of Online Lifestyle Medicine Intervention Delivery, Digital Data Collection, and Health Behavior Changes: A Qualitative Study” in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.
Motoko Akiba, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Identifying Structural Inequity During COVID-19: Teachers’ Workload and Resources by Instructional Mode” published in Educational Researcher. FSU alumna Xiaonan Jiang was co-author.
Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Profanity use and its instructional impact in professional coaching,” published in the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching.
Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “NBA assistant coaches’ perceptions of family as a source of stress and coping in elite professional coaching” in The Sport Psychologist.
Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “’I have no one to talk to’: A call for greater support for head coaches in high-performance sport,” published in the Sport Social Work Journal. FSU alumna Tessa Taylor was co-author.
Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “’You want to be paid?’ The complexity of coach developers, free citizenship, and their role in sports coaching,” published in Quest.
Annie Li Zhang, Ph.D. (School of Communication) co-authored “Modern Science Outreach: A Guide for Scientists,” outlining practical strategies for scientists to engage audiences through new media channels.
Melissa Radey, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article “Social Worker Decision-Making and Use of Discretion in Finnish Child Welfare,” published in the Finnish Journal of Social Research.
Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Zhe He, Ph.D., Balu Bhasuran, Ph.D., Mia Lustria, Ph.D., (College of Communication and Information) co-authored the article, “Generating question prompt lists from electronic health record data using large language models: Iterative evaluation study,” in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.
Gashaye Tefera, Ph.D., Shelby Varol, MSW, and Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW (College of Social Work) co-authored the article “‘I Took TB Medicine for Six Months Without Having TB’: Personal and Institutional Factors Affecting Trust in Healthcare Among African Immigrants in Florida, United States” published in the International Journal of Health Planning and Management.
Gashaye Tefera, Ph.D., and Ponsiano Ngondwe, MSW, Ifeolu David, Ph.D., and Shelby Varol, MSW (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “I am just a statistic”: exploring interpersonal factors affecting trust in healthcare among African immigrants in the USA,” published in the International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care.
Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) authored the article, “Reporting LCSW Pass Rate Data should be Added to CSWE’s Educational and Accreditation Standards,” published in the Journal of Teaching in Social Work.
Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) authored the article, “Heterodox Social Work,” published in the online edition of Encyclopedia of Social Work, C. Franklin (ed.), Oxford Academic.
Erin Bush, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), published “Application of team-based learning to support knowledge acquisition and retention of craniofacial content for graduate students studying speech-language pathology” in the journal Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics.
Erin Bush, Ph.D., and Kelly Farquharson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), published “Professional development and implementation of learning: A survey of speech-language pathologists providing services to adolescents with DLD” in the journal Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.
Shannon Hall-Mills, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders) co-published “A randomized controlled trial of social support intervention effects on stress and burnout in school-based SLPs” in the journal Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools.
Yunjung Kim, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), published “The relationship between perceived stress and family quality of life: moderating impact of resilience among family caregivers of individuals with Parkinson’s disease” in the journal Clinical Parkinsonism & Related Disorders.
Kari Lien, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), published “A meta-analysis of the relationship between speech and language development in children with nonsyndromic cleft palate with or without cleft lip” in the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.
Dillon Pruett, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), co-authored an article titled, “Contemporary Clinical Conversations about Stuttering: What Does Genetics Research Mean to Clinicians?” published in the journal Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica.
Kelly Farquharson, Ph.D., Carla Wood, Ph.D., and postdoctoral researcher, Michelle Torres-Chavarro (School of Communication Science & Disorders), published “Spelling errors of monolingual English-speaking students and Spanish-speaking multilingual learners” in the journal Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools.
Zilong Xie, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), published “Lexical bias during speech perception increases under signal degradation but not cognitive load” in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.
Michael Trammell, Ph.D. (Herbert Wertheim College of Business) authored the book Chiefs: A Novel-in-Verse, published by Hysterical Books Press.
Donald L. English, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) authored “Social Media and Mental Health: Opportunities, Risks and Clinical Implications” in The Florida Psychologist, a quarterly publication by the Florida Psychological Association.
Sylvie Naar, Ph.D. (College of Medicine), co-authored “The Dissemination Research Logic Model (DRLM),” published in the journal Implementation Science Communications.
Mary Gerend, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored with third-year medical student Anna Lu “Weight discrimination and cardiometabolic health in underrepresented U.S. adults” in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine.
Yang Hou, Ph.D., Jiaxiu Song, Ph.D., and Dan Liu, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) co-authored “Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in neurofibromatosis type 1” published in Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology.
Angelina Sutin, Ph.D., Martina Luchetti, Ph.D., Antonio Terracciano, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and a colleague from the University of Montpellier, France, published “Purpose in Life and Blood-Based Biomarkers of Brain Health” in the Journals of Gerontology.
Angelina Sutin, Ph.D., Martina Luchetti, Ph.D., Antonio Terracciano, Ph.D., Daisy Zavala, Ph.D., Elizabeth Milad, Ph.D., Selin Karakose, Ph.D., and Justin Brown (College of Medicine) and their University of Montpellier colleague published “Purpose in life and mortality: A meta-analysis of the published literature and individual-participant data of 488,765 participants followed for up to 32 years” in Psychological Medicine.
Matthew Goff, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) published his co-edited volume “Enoch Studies in the 2020s: New Vistas,” about the development of enoch studies, the study of the ancient Jewish texts attributed to Enoch, with De Gruyter Brill, a major academic publisher.
Mark LeBar, Ph.D. (Department of Philosophy) had his book, “Just People,” published by Oxford University Press.
Joseph M. Gabriel, Ph.D. (Department of History) had his edited volume, “Dealing with Drugs: New Histories of Risk and Benefit,” published in University of Rochester Press.
Gary Taylor, Ph.D. (Department of English) had his book, “Textual Genealogies and Shakespeare’s History Plays,” published by the Cambridge University Press. It is available as an open-access title thanks to financial support from the FSU Library and the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
S.E. Gontarski, Ph.D. (Department of English) had his book “The Anthem Beckett Studies Reader” published by Anthem Press and his book “Beckett Critical Reader” published in paperback by Edinburgh University Press.
Takemichi Okui, Ph.D. (Department of Physics) had his paper, “Monopole-Fermion Scattering and the Solution to the Semiton/Unitarity Puzzle,” selected as one of two high-energy physics theory papers for “Physics Review Letters Collection of the Year 2025.”
Cathy McClive, Ph.D. (Department of History) contributed the chapter “‘The ordinary terms of chest wounds’, or how to become a forensic surgical expert in early modern France: evidence from a seventeenth-century surgical corporation notebook” to the edited volume, “Learning to Cut: Surgical training and practice, 1450-1800” published with open access by University College London Press.
PRESENTATIONS
Rhiannon Paget, Ph.D. (The Ringling) presented “Dazzling East and West: Japanese Acrobats and the Making of a Transnational Japanese Spectacle” at the Norton Museum of Art.
Mark Zeigler (School of Communication) presented “Public Speaking and Professional Success” at the 2026 Young Professionals Summit hosted by the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce.
Mark Zeigler (School of Communication) gave the opening keynote address at the North American Securities Administrators Association Brokers Training Conference in Orlando.
Alison Daechsel and Samantha Keller, (Division of University Advancement) presented “The Missing Link: Why Advancement Teams Need Event Operations” at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Special Events conference in Chicago.
Whitney Powers and Zia Barnes, (Division of University Advancement) presented “Reimagining the Experience: Breathing New Life Into Advancement Events” at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Special Events conference in Chicago.
Monique Wilkinson, MS, (Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy) represented the CPEIP at the One Goal Summer conference and highlighted the FSU 10 Components of Quality Care.
Mimi Graham, Ed.D. (Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy) presented on the impact of trauma in the criminal justice system at the Florida Association of Community Corrections Annual Training Institute.
Mirine Richey, DrPH, IBCLC, (Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy) led a two-day interactive learning workshop focused on supporting families and enhancing practice at the South Dakota Department of Health annual Pregnancy Care Program Conference.
Mimi Graham, Ed.D., and Valerie Dallas, MSW, LCSW, (Center for Prevention & Early Intervention Policy) attended and presented “Building a Trauma-Responsive Dependency/Child Welfare System” at the Zero to Three 20th Annual Cross Sites Meeting.
Eundeok Kim, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) presented her paper “Implementing Regenerative Business Models and Strategies to Advance the Sustainable Development Goals” at the Transatlantic Symposium on Sustainable Development at the University of Murcia, Spain.
Annette Jones, Ph.D., Robert Fuselier, Liying Miao and Christopher Riley (Office of Digital Learning and Academic Technology) presented “Ctrl+Alt+Delete: Rebooting Pedagogy & Practice for Teaching with AI” at the University of Central Florida Teaching and Learning with AI conference at the Gaylord Convention Center in Orlando.
Jacob Eisler, J.D., Ph.D. (College of Law) presented at “The Future of the Dormant Commerce Clause: A Debate,” an event hosted by the Tallahassee Lawyer Chapter, with Florida Supreme Court Justice the Honorable Adam Tanenbaum.
Henry Wang, J.D., S.J.D. (College of Law) presented “Academic Career and Publishing” for faculty and students at the Durham Law School (U.K.).
Caitlyn Shanley (The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “Inspiring Creativity: How Adding Teaching Artist Positions Transforms Community Programs” at the Association of Academic Museums and Galleries (AAMG) in Iowa City, Iowa.
Elizabeth Doud, Ph.D. (The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art) presented “The Mermaid Gaze: Ecoperformance as Method and Praxis for Reimagining Human and More-Than-Human Futures” for the 2026 Conference of the International Platform of Doctoral Research in the Fields of Performing Arts and Cultural Management, “The Language of the Soul: Creativity, Theatre & the Art of Being Human,” at Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania.
Shannon Hall-Mills, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) and doctoral student Claire Dolly, M.S. co-presented “AI Tools for Efficient Language Sample Analysis” to the annual convention of the Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists in West Palm Beach.
Shannon Hall-Mills, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) presented an invited webinar on “Ethical Leadership in CSD Careers” for the Leadership Development Program, sponsored by the Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists.
Delaney W. La Rosa, Ed.D., MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing), presented “Centering Nursing in the AI Era” as the keynote speaker at the Baycare Research Conference 2026 in Clearwater, Florida.
Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH, Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH (College of Nursing) and Sylvie Naar, Ph.D. (College of Medicine), co-presented “Recommendations for HIV Testing Locations to Reach Youth and Emerging Adults: A Qualitative Study” podium presentation at the Sigma Nursing 37th International Nursing Research Congress in Toronto.
Henna Budhwani, Ph.D., MPH (College of Nursing), co-presented “Implementation Science Adaptation of a Digital Health Intervention to Address Maternal and Neonatal Health Outcomes in Cameroon” poster presentation at the Sigma Nursing 37th International Nursing Research Congress in Toronto.
Megan Buning, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and her husband Shaun Buning, a physical therapist and athletic trainer at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital presented to 70 to 80 people with Parkinson’s disease and their caregivers at Westminster Oaks in Tallahassee. Hosted by TMH, the presentation focused on how mental skills can help people with Parkinson’s and their caregivers manage the fear of falling.
Megan Crowe, M.S., Ed.S. (Career Center) co-presented the session “Catching the Wave of Prelaw Societies from a Centralized Advising Center” with pre-law advisors from Vanderbilt University and Auburn University at the 2026 Southern Association of Pre-Law Advisors Regional Conference.
Michon Ashmore (Career Center) presented “Building Bridges: Collaboration Between Career Services and Pre-Health Advising” at the 2026 National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions National Conference, highlighting FSU’s collaborative model between the Career Center and the Office of Pre-Health Advising.
Zduy Chu, Ed.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) facilitated the discussion “Charting Senior Leader Learning Needs and Pathways” with vice presidents and associate vice presidents of student affairs for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.
Emma Massaglia (DSA Marketing and Communications) presented “Our Website is a Mess! Preparing for and Leading a Major University Website Redesign” at the 2026 eduWeb Summit Marketing and Web Conference.
Justin Hultman, Ed.D. (Career Center) and doctoral student Serena Bujtor presented a workshop using the CSI-Clarity Scale to create career decision-making models that explore resiliency and career choice at the National Career Development Association Conference.
Megan Crowe, M.S., Ed.S. (Career Center) has been invited by the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) to contribute recorded training modules. She also spoke at the August 2026 Newcomer Training for new pre-law advisors.
Tai Cole, Ed.D. and Savannah Collier, MSW (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children) presented “From Crisis to Connection: A Multilevel Framework for Regulating Children, Families, and Systems” at the NASW national conference in Washington, D.C.
Tai Cole, Ed.D., and Savannah Collier, MSW (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children), presented the poster “The Role of Social Workers in Strengthening Emotional Readiness for Kindergarten” at the NASW national conference in Washington, D.C.
Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), presented “How to use randomized experiments to evaluate social work practice outcomes,” a three-hour preconference workshop at the 7th International Conference on Practice Research, at Singapore University of Social Sciences.
Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), co-presented the plenary talk, “Publishing social work practice: Research and making an impact across borders” at the 7th International Conference on Practice Research at Singapore University of Social Sciences.
Bruce Thyer, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), presented the plenary talk, “Successfully publishing in scholarly journals: It is easier than you think” at the 7th International Conference on Practice Research at Singapore University of Social Sciences.
Vivian Ko Mills, Ph.D., and Kristine Posada, MSW (Florida Institute for Child Welfare/College of Social Work) and Kari Evans-Amula (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) presented “Somatic training for frontline child welfare professionals pilot evaluation” at the Florida Coalition for Children annual conference in Charlotte Harbor, Florida.
Lauren Stanley, Ph.D. and Vivian Ko Mills, Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare/College of Social Work) co-presented “The Florida Institute for Child Welfare’s Annual Workforce Survey 2025” at the Florida Coalition for Children annual conference in Charlotte Harbor, Florida.
Kelly Farquharson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), Kathryn Cabbage, Ph.D. (Washington State University), Chris Schatschneider, Ph.D. (Department of Psychology), Mary Allison Moody, Ph.D. candidate (School of Communication Science & Disorders), and Alexis Moser, doctoral scholar (School of Communication Science & Disorders), presented “Phonological profiles of children with speech sound disorders: Preliminary data from one academic year” at the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Davis Houck, Ph.D. (School of Communication), joined a panel at the Tallahatchie Courthouse (site of the Emmett Till murder trial) in Sumner, Mississippi, as part of an annual one-week National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) workshop that covers the region’s rich and complicated history.
Lakeisha Johnson, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), was selected to present “I See Me in What I Read” at the Power of Print webinar series.
Ellen Nimmons, M.S., and Elizabeth Madden, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), presented “Empowering Individuals with Aphasia: Implementation and Outcomes of an ICAP” at the Florida Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (FLASHA) Convention in West Palm Beach.
Ruosi Shao, Ph.D. (School of Information), presented “Multi-Turn Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Linguistic Rewards Improves Patient Communication Accessibility” at the AIM-AHEAD Consortium, a conference focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning within the healthcare field.
Debra Danforth, DNP (College of Medicine) presented “Taking OSCE on the ROAD: Application of Mobile Technology” at the 19th annual Education Management Solution User Summit at Florida International University in Miami.
Lauren Harper, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented “Examining Set Shifting in Children with ADHD and Anxiety Disorders: A Replication and Extension Study” at the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology annual conference in Baltimore.
Christopher Mulrooney, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) was invited to be a panelist with World Health Organization researchers to present “The Longevity Summit: Living Longer, Living Better,” designed to bring a global lens to the urgent challenge of extending not just lifespan, but “healthspan.” He was also invited to present “Building Stronger State Coalitions: Partnerships, Sustainability, and Tools for Collective Impact” at the AgingIN National Conference in Denver.
Saanchi Shah, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) presented a poster titled “Sunshine Genetics: Genomic Newborn Screening in the Sunshine State” highlighting the Sunshine Genetics Pilot Program at the Southeast Regional Genetics Group annual meeting in Asheville, North Carolina.
Brenda Echeverri, M.S. (College of Medicine) presented a poster, “Evidence of Engagement and Adherence in mHealth Weight Management: Current Strengths and Challenges” at the American Society for Nutrition annual meeting near Washington, D.C.
Nicole Ennis, Ph.D., Sara Green, MSW, and Katie Kloss (College of Medicine) led a panel discussion, “Driving Human Subjects Research in a State of Change: Measurement, Recruitment, and Ethical Lessons Learned in a Cannabis and Open-Road Driving Performance Protocol,” at the 10th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Research Society on Marijuana in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Rebecca Giguere, MPH (College of Medicine), presented the poster, “Less is More: A Qualitative Examination of the Acceptability and Feasibility of a Gamified-Contingency Management Intervention,” at the 49th Annual Research Society on Alcohol Scientific Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.
Sylvie Naar, Ph.D. (College of Medicine), presented a poster at the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC) Continuum 2026 Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Prince Addo, Ph.D. (College of Medicine), presented the poster, “Estimating the Causal Effects of Adolescent Health Behaviors on Future Cardiovascular Risk,” at the Society for Epidemiologic Research Annual Meeting in Phoenix.
Rafe Blaufarb, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented, “The Great Demarcation: The French Revolution and the Invention of Modern Property,” at the annual Markets and Governance: A Theoretical Appraisal Summer School conference in Frascati, Italy, sponsored by the University of Rome, Tor Vergata, and presented “La révolution constitutionnelle : le cahier de la noblesse d’Agen” (“The Constitutional Revolution: The Ledger of the Noblemen of the Agenois Region”) at a conference of the International Commission for the History of the French Revolution) in Port-Sainte-Marie, France.
Zina Ward, Ph.D. (Department of Philosophy) presented her paper, “Human Categorization and the Case for Cluster Theories of Kinds,” at the annual meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology in Baltimore, Maryland.
David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented, “Disrupting Secular Sovereignty,” at the annual conference of the European Academy of Religion in Rome, Italy.
Eric Walker, Ph.D. (Department of English), presented, “Adoption, Wuthering Heights, and Prediction Markets,” at the 12th biennial conference of the Alliance for the Study of Adoption and Culture at the University of Leeds in Leeds, England.
E. Gontarski, Ph.D. (Department of English) delivered the keynote address, “Neural Circuitry, Information Transfer, and the Arts of Literature and Performance,” at the Beckett Research Group’s Between.PomiędzyFestival of Literature and Theatre in the Tricity region of Poland and delivered the invited plenary lecture, “‘Take Nirvana’ and The Zero Archive: Cuts, Archives, Media Systems and the Work of William S. Burroughs,” at the University of Arizona’s Arizona Quarterly Symposium in Tucson, Arizona.
Tarez Samra Graban, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented her paper, “Rhetoric and the Problematics of Citizenship in Africa in the 21st Century,” at the 11th Biennial African Association for Rhetoric Conference at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, South Africa.
Amy Baco-Taylor, Ph.D. (Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science) was on the Environmental Baseline Conditions Panel and gave the invited talk, “Biology and Ecology of the Benthic Megafauna of Seamounts with a Focus on Critical Mineral-Rich Crusts,” at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop, “A Research Strategy for Seabed Critical Mineral Resources” in Irvine, California.
Candace Ward, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented her paper “‘To Improve Their Condition’: Attitudes to Emigration in the Jamaican Colonial Press” and proposed and chaired the panel, “Labor Flows and Migration Debates in British Colonial Press Spaces, 1800-1914,” at the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals’ annual conference at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
Ronald E. Doel, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented “Interdisciplinarity as Cooperative Practice: Political Insights from American Science in the Long Twentieth Century” at the 72nd annual meeting of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien (the German Association for American Studies) in Münster, Germany and “Technoscience Diplomacy in Cold War Sub-Saharan Africa: How the International Geophysical Year Affected Ghana and Former British Colonies” at the Society for History of American Foreign Relations annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. He also presented, “Transient Versus Permanent Institutions: Re-examining the Impact of the Second International Polar Year, 1932-33” at the annual meeting of the History of Science Society in Edinburgh, Scotland and, “Understanding the Global Oceans: Ways of Knowing in Fruitful Dialogue,” at the Ocean of Life seminar hosted at the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan.
Dawn Iwamasa, Ph.D., CCLS, MT-BC; Lori Gooding, Ph.D., MT-BC; and Flor del Cielo Hernandez, Ph.D., MT-BC (College of Music) presented at the World Congress of Music Therapy 2026, sharing research and clinical insights with colleagues from around the globe. Through presentations as part of the FSU NICU Institute, research collaboration, and trauma-informed pedagogy, they demonstrated the collaborative leadership and scholarly rigor that defines the program, contributing to critical conversations shaping the future of music therapy.
Mary Matthews, DMA, and Karen Large, DM (College of Music) presented performances and educational workshops in Bulgaria and Austria this summer. As featured artists at the Sofia Art and Music Festival, they performed a double flute concerto with the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, presented a duo recital in the renowned Bulgaria Hall, and led a workshop on composing for the modern flute. They were also invited to the Vienna Contemporary Composers Festival in Austria, where they presented a duo recital at the historic Mozarthaus and were joined by FSU’s graduate flute ensemble for two ensemble performances at Ehrbar Saal and the Albertina Modern Art Museum.
Clifton Callender, Ph.D., (College of Music) presented “Automated harp pedaling: a graph-theoretical approach to pitch spelling and pedal settings” at the International Conference on Mathematics and Computation in Music, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The paper was published in Mathematics and Computation in Music by Springer.
EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES
Liliya Ugay, DMA, (College of Music) had works appear on two albums: Hammers Over the Moon on Clara Yang’s xmachina (Bright Shiny Things) and The Beautiful on Min Kwon’s America/Beautiful (Delos). Ugay’s contribution was featured on ASCAP’s “New Music Friday” list and her works also have been featured at the International Viola Society and International Double Reed Society Conferences.
Stephen Mattingly, DM (College of Music) gave performances, lectures and adjudication at the Singapore Guitar Festival, the Fifth Mahidol International Guitar Festival in Thailand, and the Guitar Foundation of America International Convention and Competition in Denver. Mattingly also taught and performed at the CCM Guitar Workshop in Cincinnati.
McKenna Stenson, DMA (College of Music) was featured as conference headliner and conductor of the 11/12 SATB Honor Choir at the Missouri Choral Directors Association. In addition to conducting the honor ensemble, she presented three professional development sessions at the conference.
Kevin Jones, DMA, and Bill Peterson, MM (College of Music) performed at the 2026 International Trombone Festival in Riga, Latvia.
SERVICE
Evan Eastman, Ph.D., (Herbert Wertheim College of Business) has been appointed as a senior editor at the Journal of Risk and Insurance.
Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, CNE, DipACLM, PHNA-BC, FAAN (College of Nursing) will serve as an advisory panel member with the American Heart Association to assist in developing a new educational program called “Beyond LDL: Advancing Care in Triglyceride Management and Cardiovascular Risk.”
Zduy Chu, Ed.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) was appointed to the Vice President of Student Affairs and Associate Vice Presidents Colleague Conversations Planning Committee for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.
Tracey Dowling (Career Center) was elected to serve as president of the Cooperative Education & Internship Association for 2026-27.
Michon Ashmore (Career Center) accepted an invitation to serve on the Pre-Health Abroad Advisory Committee of CEA CAPA Education Abroad, an international internship provider whose pre-health programs offer students opportunities abroad to shadow physicians and gain clinical exposure.
Hugh Catts, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders), co-coordinated the Dyslexia Foundation Biannual Extraordinary Brain Symposium (XXII), entitled “Beyond Phonology: Reconsidering the Language Basis of Dyslexia.” The weeklong symposium took place in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Sylvie Naar, Ph.D. (College of Medicine), served as part of a multiple principal investigator team on the newly funded $1.6 million National Institutes of Health T32 training grant, “NURTURe (Nurse Scientists Using Research, Technology and AI to Uplift Resilient eHealth Outcomes).”
Alma B. Littles, M.D. (College of Medicine) has been installed as the 150th president of the Florida Medical Association.
NOTABLE
Celia Reddick, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) was part of a discussion panel hosted by the Journal of Education in Emergencies discussing Mobilizing an Effective, Equitable, & Just Data and Evidence Ecosystem for Education in Crisis and Conflict Contexts.
Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) led the inaugural Visiting Professor Partnership Program, which brought eight visiting scholars from four leading institutions in India to FSU’s Tallahassee campus for exploratory research collaborations.
Delaney W. La Rosa, Ed.D., MSN Ed, RN and Jean-Marc Wise, Ph.D. (College of Nursing), are co-authoring a book titled “Responsible AI in Health Professions Education: Learning Science, Equity, and Learning Design” scheduled for publication by Springer Nature in 2027. The subtitle is “A Pedagogy-First, Tool-Agnostic AI in Education Textbook for Educators.”
Charles Roop, MS (College of Nursing), has earned the Security+ certification from CompTIA, validating core expertise in cybersecurity and digital threat prevention and enhancing the college’s overall digital safety by bringing up-to-date threat-management strategies to its daily IT operations.
Nina Davis, MS (College of Nursing) has been appointed to the University of Florida Asian Alumni Board as the new programming director.
Nina Davis, MS (College of Nursing) was recently appointed to the planning committee for the 40th International Self-Directed Learning Symposium (ISDLS), an international conference that brings together scholars, practitioners and educators to advance the scholarship and practice of self-directed learning.
Justin Hultman, Ed.D. (Career Center) obtained the National Career Counselor certification awarded by the National Board for Certified Counselors.
Christy Mantzanas (Career Center) was one of 50 professionals who attended a weeklong immersive leadership experience at the National Association of Colleges & Employers Management Leadership Institute.
Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication), completed the 2026 Scripps Howard Leadership Academy at Syracuse University.
Eric Holmes, Ph.D. and Gary Ostrander, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) were granted a patent for “Treatment of Human Coronavirus Infections using Alpha Glucosidase Glycoprotein Processing Inhibitors.”
Gregory Springer, Ph.D., (College of Music) was selected as editor-elect for the journal Update: Applications for Research in Music Education. Update is published by SAGE and is one of the National Association for Music Education’s refereed research journals. Springer will serve in the role of associate editor/editor-elect from 2026-28 and will assume the role of Editor for 2028-32.
Pamela Ryan, DMA, (College of Music) completed a residency at the conservatory “Claudio Monteverdi” in Bolzano, Italy which entailed viola masterclasses and a chamber music recital with works by Reger, Bartok, Berio, Kimber, and Cohen.
Michael Buchler, Ph.D., (College of Music) was one of three scholars selected to lead three days of workshops at the University of Liverpool Popular and Analysis Music Summer School. The event was co-sponsored by the Society for Music Analysis (UK) and the Institutes for Popular Music at both the University of Rochester (U.S.) and the University of Liverpool (U.K.). His workshops were on “Phrase, Form, and Passion in Musical Theatre.”
Genevieve Clarkson, DM, (College of Music) serves as lead tuba instructor with the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps out of Canton, Ohio. In August, the Bluecoats completed an undefeated season, winning the Drum Corps International World Championships with their highest-ever score of 99.1.
Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to tfordyce@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.
