Spectrum - Volume 17 Issue 16 January 19, 1995 - Achievers

A non-profit publication of the Office of the University Relations of Virginia Tech,
including The Conductor , a special section of the Spectrum printed 4 times a year

Achievers

Spectrum Volume 17 Issue 16 - January 19, 1995

Sharon DeMar Yeagle, director of the Department of Recreational Sports, has been appointed by President Paul Torgersen as a Virginia Tech Institutional Representative to the American Council on Education/Virginia Identification Program for a three-year term.

Yeagle was recently elected to the Board of Directors School of Management for the National Intramural Recreational Sports Association. She will serve as a faculty member from 1994-97.

Gerry Kowalski, director of residence education, was elected president of the Virginia Association of College and University Housing Officers.

Margie Lawrence, executive housekeeper, was recently awarded the Educator of the Year award from the National Executive Housekeepers Association for her work in teaching certification classes for other housekeepers.

Janet Walberg Rankin, associate professor of exercise science in the Department of Human Nutrition and Foods, made a presentation on the "Ergogenic effect of carbohydrate intake during long- and short-term exercise," at the Nutritional Ergogenic Aids Conference in Chicago, which was sponsored by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute.

Doris Kincade, professor of clothing and textiles in the College of Human Resources at Virginia Tech, was a scheduled presenter at the International Textile and Apparel Association meeting. The presentation, which she co-authored, was entitled "EDI Usage by Apparel Manufacturers."

Virginia Tech clothing and textiles master's student Siddartha Sarin and professor Rinn Cloud gave a poster presentation at International Conference and Exhibition of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists held in Charlotte, N.C., based on Sarin's thesis, "Liquid transport mechanisms in cotton-polypropylene laminated nonwoven fabrics influencing pesticide penetration."

Sarin also presented a paper, co-authored by Cloud, based on the thesis at the Annual Conference of Industrial Fabrics Association International (IFAI) Meeting held in Indianapolis, Ind.

Muzaffer Uysal, a professor of hospitality and tourism management in the College of Human Resources at Virginia Tech, had his proposal, "A Synthesis of Satisfaction Research in Leisure and Tourism: Methodological and Theoretical Issues," funded by the National Park Service-Southeast Region for $15,000.

Michael J. Sporakowski, a professor family and child development, received the Distinguished Service to Families Award at the annual meeting of the National Council on Family Relations held in Minneapolis. He also assumed his duties as president-elect and member of NCFR's board of directors. He presented a poster session co-authored by Mindy Conklin and Jean Daniels , graduate students in FCD, titled "Family Life Education: The State of the States."

Mahmood A. Khan, head of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, was invited to serve on the International Scientific Committee for the "Project Franchising." This project is sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Labor and the Center for Tourism Studies and Promotion in Italy. Khan was a keynote speaker at a recently organized international conference on franchising in Rome. The topic of his presentation was "American Restaurant Franchises in International Markets," which was attended by government officials and industry representatives. Khan was also invited as a speaker on different topics related to international franchising in Thailand, Malaysia, and Japan.

Steve Parson, associate professor of administrative and educational services, is the 1994 recipient of the National Community Education Association's (NCEA) Contribution Award. He was honored at the association's 29th annual national conference. The association, a national, non-profit membership organization devoted to promoting community involvement in public education and lifelong learning opportunities for all community residents, presents the award annually to an individual who has provided exemplary service to the association. Parson has served on the NCEA board as president, as chair of the National Program Committee, as guest editor of the Community Education Journal and as co-chair of the Program Validation Task Force. Parson has been a member of the faculty of the College of Education for the past 20 years. He is the co-director of the Virginia Centers for Community Education, a cooperative effort of Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia. Through work with the Danforth Foundation, he has been active in restructuring the way school administrators are prepared.

Harold Stubblefield, director of the Adult and Continuing Education program area in the College of Education, is the author of Adult Education in the American Experience: From the Colonial Period to the Present . The book, co-authored by Patrick Keane, is the first history of the field in more than 30 years. It is published by Jossey-Bass.

Marcie Boucoulalas, associate professor of administrative and educational services in the College of Education, served as U.S. representative to the World Assembly of Adult Education, held in Cairo, Egypt, in September. The assemblies are held every four years to bring adult educators from various country together to discuss current issues in the field, to compare approaches, and to set agendas.

At a recent meeting of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education in Nashville, Boucouvalas presented a paper on international collaboration, cooperation, and networking. She has been selected to serve as this year's head of the adult psychology unit of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education as well as secretary for the International Society for Comparative Adult Education. Boucouvalas has also been selected one of 35 international scholars, each from a different discipline, to form the new Academy of Consciousness Studies at Princeton University. The group will establish the foundation for the emerging interdisciplinary field of consciousness studies.

Judith L. Shrum, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, was a panelist in a forum discussion on the state of proficiency-oriented language instruction in Virginia at the Foreign Language Association of Virginia meeting. Shrum also presented a workshop on "Teaching Listening Comprehension Using the Interactive Model."

Shrum is author of the recently published Teacher's Handbook: Contextualized Language Instruction , co-authored with Eileen Glisan. She recently presented a workshop to 120 teachers and 10 administrators on teaching French and Spanish in Carroll County K-5 schools. Shrum has also been nominated to the board of directors for the Northeast Conference for Teaching Foreign Languages.

George Graham, professor of physical education, was recently quoted in a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article on physical education in elementary schools. Graham, who heads the new U.S. Physical Education Association, advocates non-competitive exercise activities that involve all students and help them understand and improve their health. He suggests de-emphasizing team sports and scores in favor of no-win, no-lose games that build motor skills.

Thomas E. Gatewood, associate professor of curriculum and instruction, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Virginia Middle School Association (VMSA) for his contributions to middle-school education in Virginia and the United States. Gatewood recently retired from his position as executive director of VMSA, a position he held for a seven-year period during which the association grew from 4,000 to nearly 17,000 members. He is also former president of the National Middle School Association. Gatewood founded and was editor of its publication, The Middle School Journal .

Carl McDaniels, professor of counselor education and project director for the Virginia VIEW career information-delivery system, presented the opening keynote address at the Canadian Guidance and Counseling Association meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The topic of his presentation was "Counseling and the Changing Workplace." McDaniels also directed a one-day pre-convention workshop on "Creating Effective Career Information Delivery Systems."

McDaniels founded Virginia VIEW 15 years ago. The project has since received more than $5 million in state and federal funding and has recived more than 41,000 calls to its career information hotline.

Jeff Waldron, research scientist in the Fisheries and Wildlife Science Department, served on the steering committee for the recently published Virginia Wildlife Viewing Guide . This first edition is a unique, multi-agency project developed in cooperation with Defenders of Wildlife. The guide gives 80 premier wildlife viewing areas in Virginia, including details of each site, its wildlife, maps, viewing tips, and color photos. Written by Mark Damian Duda and published by Falcon Press in Helena, Montana, the book is one of a series covering other states and had been advocated by Explore Park Director Rupert Cutler, adjunct faculty member in the College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources.

James E. Johnson, associate professor of forestry and extension project leader for natural resources, and David W. Smith , associate dean of the College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources and the Shelton H. Short Jr. professor of forestry, wrote several chapters in the newly released book, Regional Silviculture of the United States, Third Edition . Virginia Tech was the only university to have two authors contribute to the 12-chapter, 640-page book published by John Wiley & Sons Inc. Smith wrote the first chapter, "The Forests of the United States," as well as the chapter on "The Southern Appalachian Hardwood Region." Johnson wrote the chapter on "The Lakes States Region." The book provides a rational framework for the analysis of forest data and the development of innovative solutions tailored to specific forest types and the shifting politico-economic constraints under which forest managers must work. It also deals with the emerging issues of the last decade in biodiversity, endangered species, habitat fragmentation, forest health, landscape management, and neotropical migrants.

Marshall S. White, director of the Pallet and Container Research Laboratory in the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, was invited to attend the "Packaging Design Software" Conference at the Michigan State University School of Packaging in East Lansing, Mich., in December. He discussed the effect of structural design of pallets on the performance of unit loads in material-handling systems. He specifically demonstrated the Pallet Design System (PDS), a CAD program developed at Virginia Tech. This program helps packaging engineers and logistics managers select the optimum configuration for their individual needs. The PDS CAD program has been available since 1984 and is currently used throughout the world by pallet manufacturers and their customers to improve unit load material-handling efficiency. PDS is also the basis for the performance standard for wood pallets published by the National Wooden Pallet and Container Association.

Robert Smith and Robert J. Bush , assistant professors in the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products, had their paper "A Perceptional Investigation into the Adoption of Timber Bridges" accepted in Wood and Fiber Science , slated to run in the April issue. Bush also recently presented a paper titled "Recycling in the U.S. Pallet Industry:Volumes, Methods, and Markets" at the annual meeting of the Forest Products Society, Southeast Section in Atlanta, GA.

Donald J. Orth, professor in the Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences Department, was invited to lecture at the "International Symposium on Fish and their Habitat" in Lyon, France. His lecture focused on the application of novel ecological concepts in the area of instream flow management. The conference was attended by more than 200 participants world-wide. Orth was also named co-editor of the Symposium Proceedings to be published in Bulletin Francais de la Peche et de la Pisciculture .

C. Andrew Dolloff, assistant professor in the Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences Department, recently presented a paper, "Fish Production in Appalachian Mountain Streams," at the "International Symposium of Fish and Their Habitat" in Lyon, France.

Jim Berkelman, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences, recently received the $1,000 Leslie Brown Memorial Grant at the annual meeting of the Raptor Research Foundation in Flagstaff, Ariz. The grant will provide partial support for his study of the habitat requirements and conservation needs of the Madagascar fish eagle. Berkelman presented a summary of his work to date in a paper titled "Habitat Requirements of the Madagascar Fish Eagle." The paper was co-authored by Jim Fraser , professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences.

Gerard Toal, associate professor of geography, was recently invited onto the international editorial board of the journal Political Geography . His recent publications include "The critical reading/writing of geopolitics" in the current edition of Progress in Human Geography , "Problematizing geopolitics" in the current edition of Transactions, Institute of British Geographers , and "Present at the (Dis)Integration" in the latest edition of Annals of the Association of American Geographers (with co-author Timothy Luke , professor of political science. In addition, Toal jointly edited a special issue of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space on "Critical Geopolitics," which includes his essay "(Dis)placing geopolitics: writing on the maps of global politics." The special issue has also just been published.

Randy Shifflett, professor of history, received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers to complete a social and cultural history of Fredericksburg during the Civil War. He also was awarded a grant from the Virginia Tech Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching to prepare a computer-based course on the history of the U.S. South.

Paul Finkelman, visiting associate professor of history, has edited a collection of essays, His Soul Comes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harpers Ferry Raid , for the University Press of Virginia. The volume includes a paper by Finkelman, "Manufacturing Martyrdom: The Antislavery Response to John Brown's Raid," and another by Peter Wallenstein, Virginia Tech associate professor of history, on "Incendiaries All: Southern Politics and the Harpers Ferry Raid." The History Book Club has chosen this book as an alternative selection.

Mary Neth, associate professor of history, has published a book, Preserving the Family Farm: Women, Community, and the Foundation of Agribusiness in the Midwest, 1900-1900 , with Johns Hopkins University Press.

Thomas J. Adriance, associate professor of history, delivered a paper titled "Garibaldi's Alpine Campaign of 1859" to a regional meeting of the Society of Military History at the Ohio Valley History Conference in Richmond, Ky.

Kathleen Jones, assistant professor of history, presented a paper titled "How to be a Real Boy: The Child Guidance Construction of Masculinity" to the annual meeting of the History of Science Society in New Orleans.

At the same meeting, Mark V. Barrow Jr. , assistant professor of history, served as chair and commentator for a session titled "Research, Use, and Conservation of Latin American Biodiversity: The Patterns of Interaction with the United States."

Roger Ekirch, professor of history, has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to direct a summer seminar for school teachers in 1995. The seminar, titled "Chapters in the Peopling of Early America," will bring to campus for six weeks 15 teachers chosen in a nation-wide competition.

Peter Schmitthenner, assistant professor of humanities and history, was invited to present a paper titled "Cultural Transformation in the Late Nineteenth Century: India and China Compared" to the Comparative Studies on India and China Seminar at Duke University.

Linda G. Leffel, professor and director of program development in University Outreach and International Programs' Division of Continuing Education, gave an invited presentation on "The Power of Strategic Business Planning" at the national conference, The Art and Science of Conferencing in an Academic Environment: Power and the Role of the Conference Professional. The conference was held in Chicago.

Leffel has been appointed by the president of the National University Continuing Education Association to serve on the National Program Planning Committee for NUCEA's 1996 annual conference in Boston. She was also elected to the executive board of NUCEA's Division of Conference and Institutes.

Rona Vrooman, governmental assistance specialist in Public Service Programs, served as a facilitator for the Virginia Institute of Government Regional Dialogue. The institute met on the Virginia Tech campus.