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The faculty and staff at Florida State University play a vital role in its objectives and are essential to its numerous achievements.
Throughout the year, awards and recognitions are conferred to individual faculty and staff members throughout the campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are generated monthly to celebrate achievements and offer a platform where accolades, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service, and any other significant contributions can be highlighted.
HONORS AND AWARDS
Ebrahim Ahmadisharaf, Ph.D. (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) has been appointed to the American Society of Civil Engineers Environmental and Water Resources Institute Fellows class of 2025.
Ryan J. Owens, J.D., Ph.D. (Florida Institute for Governance and Civics) received the C. Herman Pritchett Award for his publication “Cognitive Aging and the Federal Circuit Courts: How Senescence Influences the Law and Judges.”
Leonardo Liu, Ph.D. (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering) earned the 2024 Eberhard F. Mammen Young Investigator Award, a prestigious international accolade in thrombosis and hemostasis, bestowed by the editorial board of Seminars in Thrombosis & Hemostasis. This award acknowledges emerging global leaders whose research enhances the scientific comprehension of blood clotting processes.
Ebrahim Randeree, Ph.D. (College of Communication & Information) was granted a 2025 Aspirations in Computing Educator Award from the National Center for Women & Information Technology.
Kacee Reguera (University Libraries) was celebrated with the Society of Florida Archivists Award of Excellence. The organization highlighted her mentorship of library staff, significant contributions to transitions and vital projects in Special Collections and Archives, and her efforts in the governance of the Society of Florida Archivists (SFA) and the SFA Journal.
Rory Grennan, MLIS (University Libraries) has been chosen for the 2025 cohort of the Archives Leadership Institute due to his outstanding leadership abilities and a strong dedication to the archival field.
Rachel Bailey, Ph.D. (School of Communication) received the Editor’s Choice of the Year Award from the Journal of Media Psychology (JMP). This is the inaugural year JMP has introduced this category of award, as no reviewer had previously been selected for exceptional work by nearly all editors at JMP.
Suzanne Sinke, Ph.D. (Department of History) was granted the 2025 German Residency Award from the Organization of American Historians for this summer to instruct at the University of Augsburg in Augsburg, Germany, as well as to deliver guest lectures elsewhere.
The FSU Career Center and Michael Reff (Career Center) were bestowed the 2025 Best Practices Award for the Experience Recognition Program by the Cooperative Education & Internship Association.
Garret Hall, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) received the Lightner Witmer Award from Division 16 (School Psychology) of the American Psychological Association, which acknowledges early career professional and academic school psychologists who have shown scholarship warranting special recognition.
Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) had an abstract chosen as one of the Walter B. Cannon Lecture Abstracts of Distinction for the 2025 American Physiology Summit (APS) and was also the recipient of the American Journal of Physiology- Regulatory and Integrative Physiology Impact Paper Award presented at APS.
Kyle Smith, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was honored as a 2025 Fellow for the Transdisciplinary Research on Energetics and Cancer Training Workshop funded by the National Cancer Institute.
Donna M. Johnson-Byrd, DNP, RN, NCSN, CNE (College of Nursing) has been awarded a prestigious fellowship with the Golisano Pediatric Nursing Institute of Developmental Disability. This fellowship signifies a significant advance in increasing awareness and facilitating access to early intervention strategies for children and families in Florida and across the nation.
Steven J. Palazzo, Ph.D., MN, RN, CNE, ANEF (College of Nursing) was appointed as a reviewer for the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education following a highly competitive selection process involving over 500 applicants nationwide.
Yushun Dong, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) was honored with the International Studies Office Graduate Academic Excellence Honors award in May from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Dong was also recognized with the Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award at the Engineering School of the University of Virginia.
Li Pon (Career Center) was acknowledged as a 2025 Cooperative Education & Internship Association fellow at the International Work-integrated Learning Conference held in April in Arizona.
Cathy McClive, Ph.D. (Department of History) coauthored the article “Women at the Centre: Medical Entrepreneurialism and ‘La Grande Médecine’ in Eighteenth-Century Lyon,” which received an honorable mention for the 2025 Koren Prize of the Society for French Historical Studies.
Christopher Okonkwo, Ph.D. (Department of English) had his work “Akuko na Egwu: Music, a Critically (Un(der)played Leitmotif in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Storytelling” selected as the lead essay in the Summer 2025 edition of Research in African Literatures.
GRANTS
Karen Works, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) was granted a $3,000 National Science Foundation sponsored Center for Parallel and Distributed Computing Curriculum Development and Educational Resources PDC Curriculum Early Adopter Grant and Summer Training Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Jie Chen, Ph.D., RN (College of Nursing) is a co-principal investigator on an innovative National Institutes of Health-funded project aimed at employing Home-Based Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation for pain and symptom control in young adults with irritable bowel syndrome. This project is conducted in collaboration with colleagues at Yale University.
Michael Gubanov, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) secured the renewal of a grant from the Casey DeSantis Florida Cancer Innovation Fund, governed by the Florida Department of Health, for his project, “CancerAlKG: a Web-scale Trustworthy Al-Knowledge Graph-LLM hybrid on Cancer, Constructed and Interrogated for Bias,” utilizing deep learning methods. Gubanov was also honored with an Outstanding PC Chair Award at the 41st IEEE International Conference on Data Engineering, held in Hong Kong, China.
Maximilian Scholz, Ph.D. (Department of History) received a Franklin grant from the American Philosophical Society for his project, “The Dubious Conversion of Friedrich Staphylus, or How Western Christianity Fractured.” His research investigates the connection between migration and religious conversion using archives located in Berlin, Germany.
BYLINES
Mia Lustria, Ph.D., Zhe He, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) and Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) coauthored
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“Boosting Patient Involvement and Comprehension: Is Granting Direct Access to Laboratory Findings via Patient Portals Sufficient?” in the journal JAMIA Open.
Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) in collaboration with doctoral scholars Sonnie Mayewski and Schyler Brummer, coauthored “Inter-Dose Variability of Immunosuppressant Medication Among Adolescent Heart Transplants During Video Directly Observed Therapy” published in the journal Pediatric Transplantation.
Burcu Izci, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) contributed to “Aligning Early Childhood Science Teaching Beliefs, Practices, and Children’s Learning Outcomes: The Impact of a Professional Development Program,” featured in Frontiers in Psychology.
Garret Hall, Ph.D. (Department of Psychology) and Matthew Cooper Borkenhagen, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) coauthored “Parallel Models of Reading and Numerical Cognition,” published in the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.
Elizabeth Ray, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information), Karen Oehme, JD, Ann Perko, JD, Lyndi Bradley, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), and Angi Yoder-Maina, Ph.D. (Resilience Institute for Strength and Empowerment) coauthored the piece “Adapting After Adversity: Application and Outcomes from Resilience-Based Curricula,” which appeared in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma.
Eundeok Kim, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) coauthored “Climate Justice: The Contribution of Higher Education Institutions,” published in Discover Sustainability. Kim also penned the chapter “Certified B Corporations as a Driver for Sustainable Development: An Analysis of Innovative Sustainable Business Models in the US” in the book “North American and European Perspectives on Sustainability in Higher Education” within the World Sustainability Series for Springer Nature.
Stephanie Zuilkowski, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) coauthored the journal article “Books That Talk About My Dreams: Understanding Children’s Book Access, Preferences, Motivations, and Support at Home and in Nearby Environments in Rwanda,” published by the International Literacy Association.
Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) coauthored the book “Hujambo! A Standards-Based Approach to Introductory Kiswahili,” published by the Kansas University Resource Language Center.
Tricia Montgomery, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) coauthored an article titled “Navigating Supervisor Expectations and Securing Clinical Placements: A Guide for Practicum Administrators” in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Journals.
Balu Bhasuran, Ph.D. and Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information) released “Preliminary Analysis of the Impact of Lab Results on Large Language Model Generated Differential Diagnoses” in Digital Medicine.
Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information) collaborated on “Synoptic Reporting by Summarizing Cancer Pathology Reports using Large Language Models,” featured in Health Systems.
Mia A. Lustria, Ph.D., Obianuju Aliche, Ph.D., Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information), and Michael Killian, Ph.D. (Social Work) jointly published “Boosting Patient Involvement and Comprehension: Is Granting Direct Access to Laboratory Findings through Patient Portals Sufficient?” in JAMIA Open.
Michelle Therrien, Ph.D. along with doctoral scholars Ashley Sellers (School of Communication Science and Disorders) and Peter Marti (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) published “A systematic review of AAC interventions using speech generating devices for autistic preschoolers” in the journal Augmentative and Alternative Communication.
Hristo Chipilski, Ph.D. (Department of Scientific Computing) published “Exact Nonlinear State Estimation” in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences through the American Meteorological Society.
Elizabeth Coggeshall, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) published “Resonant Texts in Noisy Spaces: Approaching the ‘Publics’ of the Public Humanities” through the Modern Language Association in partnership with Cambridge University Press.
Paul Renfro, Ph.D. (Department of History) featured an excerpt from his book “The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America” in Teen Vogue, commemorating the 35th anniversary of Ryan White’s death. He also released his book “The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America” in audiobook format.
Ravi Howard, Ph.D. (Department of English) published “Mobile’s Forgotten Banana Docks: An Alabama Hub Once Brought the Caribbean Fruit to the Nation” in the Spring Food issue of Oxford American. The article highlights the Gulf Coast’s historical context in the global banana trade while intertwining Howard’s family labor narrative that inspired the work.
Corey Moss-Pech, Ph.D. (Department of Sociology) launched a new book titled “Major Trade-Offs: The Surprising Truths about College Majors and Entry-level Jobs,” examining the influence of college majors on early-career employment opportunities and challenging common beliefs regarding the connection between higher education and the job market.
Alice Maxwell (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) authored a peer-reviewed article “Exploring a Model for Student Success Communications that Welcomes Collaboration Across Higher Education Divisions” published in the journal Perspectives: Policy & Practice in Higher Education by Taylor & Francis, United Kingdom.
Bryant Harden, Ph.D. (Center for Global Engagement) coauthored “Teaching Feminist Theories” in The Palgrave Handbook on the Pedagogy of International Relations Theory. He also published his review of “Enlightenment and the Gasping City: Mongolian Buddhism at a Time of Environmental Disarray” in Mongolian Studies: The Journal of the Mongolia Society, and contributed “Becoming a Global Citizen: The Transformative Power of Study Abroad” to the book How Studying Abroad Changed My Life: Tips and Strategies for a Transformative Experience.
Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) coauthored “‘You Coach Coaches?’ A Rationale for the Coach Developer Role and Practical Guidelines for Effective Working Relationships with Coaches,” published in Quest.
Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) coauthored “Differential Effects of Female Aging on Sympathetic Blood Pressure Regulation at Rest and During Stress in Humans,” published in Physiological Reports, alongside exercise physiology Ph.D. candidates Christin Domeier, Thomas Bissen, and Joe Vondrasek.
Annie Wofford, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) along with doctoral candidate Holly Henning coauthored “’We Can Change the Culture Through Those Individual Engagements’: Social Exchange and Equity-Mindedness in STEMM Doctoral Students’ Roles as Mentors,” featured in Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education.
Annie Wofford, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) also coauthored the piece “Fostering Transfer Student Interest in Computer Science PhDs: An Examination of Advising…”“`html
Intervention Utilizing a Staged Innovation Design,” featured in Research in Higher Education.
Frank Y. Wong, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) serves as the principal author of the seventh edition book “Community Psychology.” This version provides a lucid and engaging summary of community psychology, covering fundamental ideas to practical applications in mental health, education, and public health. It incorporates updated findings, broadened theories, and highlights the discipline’s continuous evolution and significance.
Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN (College of Nursing) is the primary author of “Palliative Care and Advanced Cardiovascular Disease in Adults: Beyond End-of-Life Care,” an innovative American Heart Association Scientific Statement, recently published in Circulation.
Jie Chen, Ph.D., RN (College of Nursing) collaborated on an article titled, “Sex-Differences in Mothers’ Own Milk and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Preterm Infants,” published in Frontiers in Pediatrics.
Lucinda J. Graven, Ph.D., APRN, FAHA, FAAN, Laurie Abbott, Ph.D., RN, DipACLM, CNE, PHNA-BC, FAAN (College of Nursing), along with doctoral candidate Josef Hodgkins, coauthored the article “Supporting Physical and Mental Health in Rural Veterans Living with Heart Failure: Study Protocol for a Nurse-Led Telehealth Intervention” published in JMIR Research Protocols.
Adam Hanley, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) coauthored the piece “Positive Emotion Dysregulation in Opioid Use Disorder and Normalization by Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial” published in JAMA Psychiatry.
Marsha E. Hartline, DNP, RN, CNML, CNE, FACHE (College of Nursing) coauthored “Exploring the Nonlinear Impact of Emotional Work Demands and Work Passion on Job Satisfaction” published in the Journal of Managerial Psychology.
Jing Wang, Ph.D., MPH, RN, FAAN, Chengdong Li, Ph.D., and Yijiong Yang, Ph.D., MHA (College of Nursing) collaborated on the article “Quantifying Environmental Waste from Diabetes Devices in the U.S.” published in Diabetes Care.
James Whyte, ND, Ph.D., FNAP, FAAN, Mia Newlin-Bradner, Ph.D., MSN, RN, CNE (College of Nursing), along with doctoral candidate Josef Hodgkins, coauthored “A Comparative Analysis of Care-Seeking Behaviors in Individuals Living with Congestive Heart Failure During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the U.S. and U.K.” published in the Journal of Nursing Education and Practice.
Tracey Dowling, Anissa Ford (Career Center), along with two FSU students were featured in an article highlighting the FSUshadow program, “Where Experiential Learning Doesn’t Break the Bank,” in the Chronicle of Higher Education Special Report: Hands-On Career Preparation.
Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing) coauthored “Boot Camp: Preparing the Next Generation of Nurse Practitioners” published in the Journal for Nurse Practitioners.
Changhyun (Lyon) Nam, Ph.D. (Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship) published “Stacked Crystalline Nanomembrane GaAs/Si Tunnel Diodes on Polypropylene Substrates Derived from Disposable Masks” in Materials Letters by ELSEVIER.
PRESENTATIONS AND CONFERENCES
Perry Wisinger, Ph.D. (College of Business) presented “Kenyan Elephants and United Nations Trade Policy” at the Midwest Political Science Association conference held at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago.
Sonia Cabell, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) delivered various studies at the American Educational Research Association Annual Conference. Her presentations encompassed “Investigating Teacher Knowledge and Adaptability: Improving Literacy Outcomes in K-3 Students;” “Exploring Determinants of Kindergarten Teachers’ Implementation of a Widely Utilized Content-Rich Literacy Curriculum;” “Word Learning for All Students: Metalinguistic Awareness and Vocabulary Instruction with Multilingual and Multidialectal Students;” and “Kindergarten Teachers’ Explicit Vocabulary Instruction During Informational Text Read-Alouds and Variability by Classroom Characteristics.” She also showcased “Using Strive-for-Five Conversations to Enhance Students’ Language Comprehension” at the 2025 Alaska Science of Reading Symposium.
Leah Sherman, M.A., MLIS, Dianna S. Bradley, M.A., Crystal Mathews, M.A., MLIS, and Laura Pellini, B.A. (University Libraries) jointly presented “Integrating Art into the Academic Library Space: Fostering Community through Art-Centered Outreach” at the Art Libraries Society of North America 2025 virtual conference.
Rachel C. S. Duke, Ph.D. (University Libraries) presented “Focusing on Medieval Texts: Three Active-Learning Assignments and Their Results” at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Kari Lien, Ph.D., and Yunjung Kim, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) participated in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s Lessons for Success program at the association’s national headquarters in Rockville, Maryland.
Balu Bhasuran, Ph.D., and Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information) presented “LabQAR: A Curated Dataset for Question Answering on Laboratory Test Reference Ranges and Interpretation” at the AMIA 2025 Informatics Summit held from March 10 to 13 in Pittsburgh.
Sonia Cabell, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) reiterated her presentation “Using Strive-for-Five Conversations to Enhance Students’ Language Comprehension” at the 2025 Alaska Science of Reading Symposium.
Hugh Catts, Ph.D. (College of Communication and Information) spoke on “Rethinking Reading and Writing: The Importance of Knowledge and Higher-Level Thinking in Literacy Development” at the 2025 Amplify Spring Science of Reading Summit: The Deep Links Between Reading, Writing, and Language.
Michelle Bumatay, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) delivered the keynote address “Creating Comics: Space-Making and Community-Building” during a workshop on Teaching Comic Books in Language Classes at Pomona College in Claremont, California. She also presented an invited lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles, discussing her latest book, “Black Bandes Dessinées.”
Kathleen Powers Conti, Ph.D. (Department of History) presented “Fostering Solidarity in Consulting through Community and Communication” and “Establishing a Peer-Review Clearinghouse for Public Historians” at the National Council on Public History’s annual conference in Montreal, Canada. She also conducted a workshop at the conference on consulting in public history and historic preservation.
Andrew Epstein, Ph.D. (Department of English) delivered the 2025 Richard W. Gunn Memorial Lecture, presenting the paper “William James, Attention, and Post-1945 American Poetry” for the English Department at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas.
Tarez Samra Graban, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented “The Necessity for Re-Alignments: Global Rhetorical Traditions, Linguistic Justice, and Myths of Co-Optation” at the Conference on College Composition and Communication in Baltimore.
Nilay Özok-Gündoğan, Ph.D. (Department of History) delivered a presentation on “Kurdish Nobility in the Ottoman Empire: Loyalty, Autonomy, and Privilege” at Stanford University’s Abbasid Program.
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in Islamic Studies at Stanford, California. She also showcased her research paper “Beyond the Cautionary Preamble: Decolonizing the History of Ottoman Kurdistan” at the Stanford Humanities Center conference Kî ne em? Kurdish Literature and Its Studies: An Interdisciplinary Conference; delivered her research presentation, “Forging Empire: Mineral Extraction, State-Making, and the Colonization of Ottoman Kurdistan, 1720 – 1870,” at Stanford University’s Humanities Center; shared “Decolonizing Kurdish Studies” for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California Berkeley; and discussed “The Kurds in a Changing Middle East” at the California Kurdish Community Center in Pacifica, California.
Christopher Okonkwo, Ph.D. (Department of English) delivered the inaugural talk for this year’s African Literature Association’s Lecture Series titled “Tracking Fela’s Cameos in African Fiction.”
Michael Shatruk, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) presented the plenary lecture “Two-Dimensional Spin-Crossover Materials and Heterostructures” at the Florida Quantum Summit hosted by the University of Florida.
Silvia Valisa, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) co-organized and spoke at the third symposium of the Interdisciplinary Network for Nineteenth-Century Italian Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada, co-sponsored by the Department of Italian Studies at the University of Toronto. Valisa offered the presentation “Un Secolo Dopo L’Altro: Sonzogno Come Case Study.”
Wen Zhu, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry) presented a talk titled “Conformational Dynamics Regulate the Accessibility of Ammonia in Human Asparagine Synthetase” at the 15th Annual Southeast Enzyme Conference in Atlanta.
Bryant Harden, Ph.D. (Center for Global Engagement) showcased his chapter on “Teaching Feminist Theories” from the recently published The Palgrave Handbook on the Pedagogy of International Relations Theory at the International Studies Association Annual Conference in Chicago.
Grace Fennema, M.Ed. and Brittany Stover (Student Engagement) presented “Illustrating the Past, Designing the Future: Art as a Tool for Student Empowerment” at the 2025 National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Annual Conference held in New Orleans.
Bridgid Shannon (Center for Leadership & Service) delivered “Pathways to Peace: Storytelling Tools and Global Models to Lead with Curiosity, Boost Collaboration, and Sustain Engagement” at the 19th Florida International Leadership Conference. Shannon also conducted a seminar on community entry and critical community engagement for FAMU-FSU Partners United for Research Pathways Oriented to Social Justice in Education (PURPOSE) Research Fellows, providing a framework for community engagement in PURPOSE Fellows’ research since 2019. Furthermore, she facilitated “Healing Harmonies: Using Music to Inspire and Empower Through Life’s Challenges,” a pre-conference session at the Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Through Higher Education held in Tennessee in March, and co-facilitated “Place-Based Frameworks for University-Community Engagement.”
Bridgid Shannon (Center for Leadership & Service), Hillary Harbauer (University Housing), and other community collaborators showcased “PeaceJamming: Youth-Centric Coalitions for Positive Peace & Healing-Centered Praxis” at the Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Through Higher Education, held in Tennessee.
Bridgid Shannon, Katelyn Palmer, and Paige Rentz (Center for Leadership & Service) presented “Chords & Contexts: Community Embedded Learning & Communities of Practice” at the Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Through Higher Education.
Kaylee Vasquez (University Housing) and Ella Windlan (UGS Academic Engagement) displayed the posters: “Service and Sustainable Futures in Morocco and Beyond” and “Algorithmic Law Enforcement: The Community Impact of Predictive Policing” (respectively) at the Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Through Higher Education, held in Tennessee.
Tracey Dowling, Ph.D. (Career Center) co-facilitated the sessions “Breaking Into Work-Integrated Learning: The Essentials Toolkit for New Practitioners” and “Cultivating Talent: The Role of Competencies in Work-Integrated Learning Programs” at the Cooperative Education and Internship Association (CEIA) Annual Conference in Arizona. Dowling additionally serves as the CEIA vice president for professional development.
Tracey Dowling, Ph.D. and Li Pon (Career Center) delivered “Internships 101: A Toolkit on Increasing the Reach of Employer Training” at the Cooperative Education and Internship Association Annual Conference, held in Arizona.
Li Pon (Career Center) presented “CEIA Fellow Presentation: Creating an Oasis of Opportunities for International Students” at the Cooperative Education and Internship Association Annual Conference.
Alicia Craig-Rodriguez, DNP, MBA, APRN, FNP-BC, DipACLM (College of Nursing) was an invited speaker at the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association Annual Symposium. She delivered a podium presentation titled “Lifestyle Medicine: The Six Pillars of Health.” Additionally, Craig-Rodriguez co-presented at Sigma Theta Tau International’s Creating Healthy Work Environments 2025 conference in Phoenix. Their discussion, “Caring for the Caregiver: Enhancing Personal and Professional Wellbeing,” highlighted practical strategies to build resilience and foster the well-being of nursing professionals.
Jessica Bahorski, Ph.D., APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP (College of Nursing) presented research in collaboration with the UF College of Medicine, focusing on a cross-sectional analysis of mothers’ perceptions of postpartum visit benefits by rural status.
Jie Chen, Ph.D., RN (College of Nursing), was invited to present at the Scholars Research Panel at the US Association Study of Pain (USASP) 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting as a recipient of the USASP-MAYDAY Clinical/Translational Research Award. Chen and doctoral student Meghan Poe (College of Nursing) also presented their research poster, highlighting their significant contributions to pain research and the advancement of clinical science.
Savanna Harris-Mazon, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC and Lynn Sleeth, MSN, RN (College of Nursing) attended the National Consortium of Nursing Academic Coaches (NCNAC) conference in Auburn, Alabama. They led discussions on enhancing The National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) outcomes through individualized remediation for the Comprehensive Predictor Exit Exam and shared strategies for Health Education Systems Incorporated remediation.
Yushun Dong, Ph.D. (Department of Computer Science) showcased his papers “ST-FiT: Inductive Spatial-Temporal Forecasting with Limited Training Data” and “BrainMAP: Learning Multiple Activation Pathways in Brain Networks” at the 39th Annual Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Conference in Philadelphia. Dong also delivered his papers “Graph Neural Networks Are More Than Filters: Revisiting and Benchmarking from A Spectral Perspective” and “CEB: Compositional Evaluation Benchmark for Fairness in Large Language Models” at the Thirteenth International Conference on Learning Representations in Tampines, Singapore.
Nicole Patton Terry, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) presented “The Politicization of Teaching
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“Exploring, Pursuing a Study-Informed Solution;” “A Fresh Perspective for Exceptional Preschool Curriculum — A Publication from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine;” “The Institutional Challenge Grant: Community-Engaged Research to Enhance Youth Educational Results;” “University Research Collaborations to Mitigate Educational Inequality in College Towns: Crafting a Model in Tallahassee, FL;” “The 28th Discussions with Senior Scholars on Promoting Research and Professional Advancement Pertaining to Black Education;” and “Strategies for Excelling and Succeeding in Your Doctoral Program until Graduation” at the annual American Educational Research Association conference.
SERVICE
Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. and Amber Wiest (Learning Systems Institute) traveled to South Africa as efforts progressed on the Community College Administrator Program.
Tricia Montgomery, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) will assume the presidency of the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Science & Disorders, starting July 1.
April Lovett, Ed.D. (College of Nursing) has been appointed as President of Working Well — an organization advocating for workplace wellness in Tallahassee. Lovett will contribute to strategic objectives, champion community health, and lead impactful initiatives that promote healthier, more interconnected workplaces.
Casey Guynes, Ph.D., Kristen Guynes, Ph.D. and Catherine Johnson (School of Communication Science and Disorders) organized a student engagement activity at the Family Deaf Connect event at Buck Lake Elementary School. This was a complimentary event for families with Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children.
Bridgid Shannon (Center for Leadership & Service) served a second term on the Executive Committee for the Gulf-South Summit on Service-Learning and Civic Engagement Through Higher Education.
Bryant Harden, Ph.D. (Center for Global Engagement) was re-elected to another term on the executive committee for Theory for the International Studies Association.
Darryl Lovett, Ph.D. (Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs) was appointed as the NASPA Chair of the Centering the Student Affairs Workforce Workgroup to ensure that Student Affairs professionals are empowered, supported, and equipped to provide significant experiences for students.
Suzan Kurdak (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) was elected to the Consulting Together Community Outreach Board as the director of communications.
Tyrone “TJ” Johnson (Career Center) led the technology committee for the annual Cooperative Education International Conference in April, held in Tucson, AZ. He coordinated audiovisual technology for all facets of the conference with support from Career Center staff: Cheyenne, Egstad, Jessica O’Neill, and Kaylee Webb.
Lyndsay Jenkins, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) was invited to become a member of the Society for the Study of School Psychology.
Carrie Meyers (Learning Systems Institute) facilitated the inaugural workshop for the “Afterschool Math Success: Developing the Vision and Support” initiative, aimed at assisting out-of-school providers and parents in promoting math success and enthusiasm among children from kindergarten through fifth grade.
Rabieh Razzouk, MBA (Learning Systems Institute) headed a multi-year collaboration with the Learning System Institute and the Education Development Center on the Higher Education Capacity Development program in Lebanon, which has recently concluded.
George Williamson, Ph.D. (Department of History) was elected Vice President Elect of the Central European History Society, an affiliated group of the American Historical Association. He will transition through the officer roles of Vice President, President, and Past President over the next four years.
Stephane Zuilkowski, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) led a training session on ELA assessment writing for Florida educators concerning the FAST standardized assessments.
NOTABLE
Adam Hanley, Ph.D. (College of Nursing) and the Complementary Health Innovation Lab are initiating a new collaboration with Beyond Meds and the FSU Lifestyle Medicine Clinic. Together, they will undertake a pilot study assessing Beyond Meds — a digital platform aimed at providing personalized lifestyle medicine prescriptions. In addition, Hanley is instigating another pilot study in partnership with Vivian Rosenthal of Frequency Breathwork and the veterans’ group Heroic Hearts. This study, titled “Breathwork Intervention for Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),” is a single-site clinical trial investigating how cyclical breathwork may enhance the well-being of veterans affected by PTSD.
Kathleen Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, CPNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing) has been invited to design and lead a statewide, advanced continuing education masterclass for Nurse Practitioners through the Florida Nurse Practitioner Network—the state’s foremost nurse practitioner organization.
Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) led the Ukraine Task Force in hosting Dmytro Stepanskyi, a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at Emory University and the American Society for Microbiology Ambassador to Ukraine during a weeklong campus visit, where he engaged with FSU biologists, medical professionals, and scientists.
Elizabeth Madden, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science and Disorders) attended the Aphasia Access Leadership Summit in Pittsburgh. The conference gathered together experts who support individuals with aphasia.
Selena Snowden and Chelsea Alexander (School of Communication Science and Disorders), accompanied by nine undergraduate students, participated in the American Academy of Audiology National Conference and HearTECH Expo in New Orleans.
Please send contributions for Faculty and Staff Briefs to [email protected]. We publish on a monthly basis.
The post Faculty and Staff Briefs April and May 2025 was first seen on Florida State University News.
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