Faculty Highlights

Associate Professor of Accounting Jerrell Habegger leads a class in the University's new Business and Communications Building.

Susquehanna faculty demonstrated their commitment to their students and scholarship in the past year. The following highlights represent a small sample of the ways they continue to support the University's main goal and chief accomplishment: excellence in teaching and learning. The number of full-time faculty holding their doctorate grew to 91 percent. Collectively, the faculty authored nine books and 167 journal articles, made 101 conference presentations, and gave 33 major performances. Members also received 23 external academic grants totaling approximately $500,000. Many faculty shared research opportunities with undergraduates: 57 students from disciplines throughout the University presented findings at Susquehanna's annual Senior Scholars' Day in April. Twenty-four students also presented results at regional professional meetings.

Longstanding efforts to encourage student excellence earned Professor of Economics Warren Fisher the 1999 Susquehanna University Teaching Award. Fisher holds the Ph.D. in economics from the University of Connecticut. Before joining the faculty in 1988, he taught at the State University of New York at Fredonia and also held positions as a senior policy analyst and a senior economist for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.

Highly regarded research and collaborative work with students brought Assistant Professor of Biology David Richard the 1999 John Horn Distinguished Service Award. Richard holds a Ph.D. in insect endocrinology from the University of Edinburgh. Before coming to Susquehanna in 1993, he was a research associate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1997, he receive3d a three-year, National Institutes of Health award to continue exploring the role of the endocrine system in the reproductive development of Drosophila, the fruit fly.

Academic leaders with broad experience have joined Susquehanna to lead two new schools created in a 1999 academic reorganization. Laura Niesen de Abruna, former professor of English at Ithaca College and American Council on Education fellow, is the new dean of arts, humanities and communications.
Lucien T. ("Terry") Winegar, former professor of psychology and assistant dean of faculty at Randolph-Macon College, is the new dean of natural and social sciences.
De Abruna earned her doctorate in modern American and British literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She taught English at the University of Texas, Austin, and the Universidad de Puerto Rico before joining the Ithaca faculty in 1983. She spent two years as a visiting Fulbright scholar in Belgium and Luxembourg.
Winegar earned the doctorate in human development from Bryn Mawr College. He taught at Haverford College and the Pennsylvania State University before joining the faculty at Randolph-Macon in 1986. He is also widely published and has been named a Council for the Advancement and Support of Education Professor of the Year.

Assistant Professor of English Rachana Sachdev organized the University's fourth annual Shakespeare Conference.

Seventy-five students and faculty from 15 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, participated in the University's fourth annual Shakespeare Conference organized by Assistant Professor of English Rachana Sachdev. Sachdev delivered a paper on "Shakespeare in Chinese Perspective and Performance" at the International Conference on Shakespeare at the Shanghai Theater Academy in China in September of 1998.

Assistant Professor of Spanish Wanda Cordero-Ponce and Associate Professor of Spanish Leona Martin co-directed "Reconstructing the Past: Reaching for the Future," a Latino oral history project conducted by regional Latino high school students and Susquehanna students of Hispanic heritage. The project inspired the theme, "Our Heritage; Our Future/Nuestra Herencia; Nuestro Futuro," for the University's fourth annual Latino Symposium held in April. The American Association of Colleges and Universities, The Aid Association for Lutherans and The Pennsylvania Humanities Council provided funding for both initiatives.

Assistant Professor of Communications Thomas Boyle presented a paper, "Intermedia Agenda Setting in the 1996 Presidential Election," at the national conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications. Boyle is advisor to The Lanthorn yearbook, the Paul Dannelley Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America, and Sterling Communications, a student-run public relations firm.

Associate Professor of Business Administration William Ward is co-editor of The Opening Bell a new economics newsletter.

Associate Professor of Economics Antonin Rusek and William Ward, the University's Alan R. Warehime Professor of Business Administration, are co-editors of The Opening Bell, a new business and economics newsletter published by the Sigmund Weis School of Business.

Associate Professor of Psychology Thomas Martin has been awarded a $99,500 contract with the National Institutes on Aging Gerontology Research Center to lead a study of adult personality development in Russia. Martin recently collaborated with colleagues at Yaroslavl State University and the Gerontology Research Center to develop a Russian-language version for an American standardized personality test.

Assistant Professor of Music Peter Dennee and Megan Wood '01, a music education manor, presented research on Andrew Carnegie's philanthropic efforts to provide organs to Central Pennsylvania churches at the Pennsylvania Music Educators Conference. Dennee is coordinator of the music education program and director of the Susquehanna University Chorale.

An essay by Professor of English Gary Fincke has been selected for inclusion in Best American Essays for the third straight year. Fincke is director of the University Writers' Institute and men's tennis coach. In the past year, he has published 45 poems, four short stories, five essays, a series of columns syndicated in newspapers around the country, and a new volume of poetry, The Technology of Paradise.

Associate Professor of Biology Jack Holt and students prepare water samples in Fisher Science Hall.

Associate Professor of Education Patricia Nelson and associate Professor of Biology Jack Holt have received a National Aeronautics and Space Administration Opportunities for Visionary Academics (NASA NOVA) grant to develop and innovative science course for future K-12 teachers. Susquehanna students and faculty and University of Puerto Rico faculty participated jointly in a two-week field/laboratory experience in Puerto Rico in August for the new course, which focuses on biodiversity.

Women of Troy, a spring campus theatre production directed and cho0regraphed by Assistant Professor of Theatre Pamela D. Chabora has earned two American College Theatre Festival (ACTF) awards for the ensemble and for multi-media innovation. Student cast members have been nominated to perform a scene at the national ACTF festival in January 2000 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

Associate Professor of Accounting Richard Davis supervised a team of Susquehanna students assisting the elderly and economically disadvantaged individuals with preparing tax returns. His scholarly activities for the year include co-authoring two articles in the Journal of Taxation: "Bargain Purchases of Inventory: Can Taxpayers Rely on LaCrosse" and "How Retailing's 'Best' Inventory Accounting Practices Produced Distorted LIFO Pools."