2020 Summer Bridge Faculty and Staff Notes

The following faculty and staff achievements were provided for publication in the 2020 summer edition of The Bridge magazine, which is expected to be mailed to respective alumni during the week of August 16, 2020. The online issue will be posted to the Archives section of uiubridge.com soon after.

Dr. Dana Bates, assistant professor of mathematics, presented on “Building Student Self-Assessment Tools” at the annual conference of the Iowa Council of Teachers of Mathematics in October 2019.

Shon Bruns, associate registrar, and Jeff Butikofer, professor of chemistry, were presented the 2019-20 Upper Iowa University Outstanding Staff and Faculty Service awards. Bruns has served UIU for nearly 21 years, while Butikofer has served nearly 15 years. All potential award recipients were nominated by their peers. For additional information, see the story posted to to Bridge Online at https://bit.ly/2ZoYdtf.

Edyta Cichon-Barche, coordinator for international student/scholar services, was among a panel of speakers, who presented “Advising Hacks for Small Schools: Tipp and tricks for managing student advising in a small school international office” at the ISSS (International student/scholar services) Practices and Technology Conference in June.

James Conroy, adjunct instructor, wrote the book, “Fraud Dog: Cases of a White Collar Cop.”

Bryce Corbin, adjunct instructor, wrote “Students’ Wants and Preferences for Essay Feedback in College Level English Courses,” which was published in the Fall/Winter 2019 edition of English in Texas, a journal of the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts.

Dr. Adrianne Finlay, professor of English, sold the foreign rights to her novel “Cut Off” to an Hungarian publisher last spring, and then more recently sold the foreign rights to her novels, “Cut Off” and “Your One and Only” to a Brazilian publisher.

Laura Gleissner, assistant professor of art, and Elissa Wenthe, interim dean of the School of Arts & Sciences and professor of Art, held a two-person exhibition titled “Artificial Order” at the Waldemar A Schmidt Gallery at Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, from February 17 to March 29.

Deborah Graham ‘12, adjunct instructor, was awarded the 2020 Louisiana Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) School Social Worker of the Year Award during ceremonies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Dr. Melinda Heinz, associate professor of psychology, presented a number of papers and poster presentations at the November 2019 annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America in Austin, Texas.  The titles included “I May be Alone But I Don’t Feel Lonely: Insights from the Oral Narratives of Childless Centenarians,” “Promoting and Attracting Students to Careers in Aging Services,” and “Quality of Care in a Long-Term Care Community.”  She also made a poster presentation, titled “Personality and Groups: Influence of Assertiveness on Group-Oriented Beliefs” at the Midwestern Psychological Association’s November 2019 annual conference in Chicago.

Adriel Hilton, adjunct instructor, was among the editors of the new text, “Multiculturalism in Higher Education: Increasing Access and Improving Equity in the 21^st Century.”

Tiffany Kragnes, assistant professor of criminal justice, was recently admitted to the Arizona Bar as a licensed attorney in that state. She also participated in a roundtable discussion on Emotional Labor in the Classroom in March 2020 at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas.

Dr. Panagiotis Markopoulos, Master of Science in Counseling program director and lecturer, received a certification of recognition for academic/professional services while representing UIU as co-chair of the poster session review panel from Chi Sigma Iota (CSI). He has been with CSI, an international honor society, for eight years, chairing and co-chairing in different positions.

Dr. Sara Reed, assistant professor/director of public administration, was scheduled to present a paper titled “The Influence of Sociocultural Labeling on Graduate Student Perceptions of Writing Success” at the Midwest Political Science Conference in Chicago, Illinois, before its cancellation in April 2020.

Amy Tucker, director of academic success, was nominated and selected as a 2020 Young Alumni Award recipient by Wartburg College, given to young alumni who are demonstrate the four pillars of the institution’s mission—leadership, service, faith, and learning.