Professional Notes

Professional Notes

In celebration of National Week of the Young Child (April 19-25) and Early Childhood Professionals' Day, St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman officially proclaimed Friday, April 24, as Donna Nagel, Carolyn Paetzel and Amanda Kaiser Day in the city. Nagel, Paetzel and Kaiser are infant teachers at the University of St. Thomas Child Development Center.  Coleman's proclamation read, in part: "Early childhood development professionals provide an invaluable service to families throughout our community … the University of St. Thomas Child Development Center is a shining example of high-quality child development programming in the city of St. Paul. … Donna Nagel, Carolyn Paetzel and Amanda Kaiser provide exemplary care to the youngest members of our community."

Ten students from the College of Arts and Sciences' Geography Department presented their original research at the fifth annual Minnesota Undergraduate Geography Symposium, hosted by the UST College of Arts and Sciences' Geography Department April 15. Participating students and their research titles included: Michael Kreutzer and Zach Hirsch, "Food Deserts in the Twin Cities: Geographic Theory and GIS"; Renee Huset, "Using Geographic Information Systems to Identify Degraded Forest land for UST Carbon Offset Projects"; Mikkel Haugen, "Comparison of Land Cover/Land Use Assessment Methods for Shallow Lake Research"; Scott O'Donnell, " Neighborhood Housing Types in the St. Thomas Area and Off-Campus Housing at the University of St. Thomas"; Nathalia Roberts, "The Relationship between Income Sorting and Urban Villages in the Twin Cities"; Allie Seiwert, " Publications as a GIS Lab Rat"; Zack Thielke and Whitney Hendricks, "SIM City St. Paul:  Ford Site"; and Jack Westman, "2008 Election and the Creative Class."

Symposium participants included 72 students from six Midwest colleges and senior high school students from the Breck School in Minneapolis.

Dr. Sarah Armstrong, Personal Counseling and Testing, coordinated and presented the symposium, Best Practices in Networking in Psychology Training: MAAPIC: A Model, at the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers conference in Portland, OR.  MAAPIC is the acronym for the Minnesota APA-Accredited Psychology Internship Centers, formed in 1996 to capitalize on individual program strengths and resources and to promote supervisory and administrative competency in psychology training.

Dr. Lily Hwa, College of Arts and Sciences (History Department), is the author of "State Building in the Government of Tang Taizong" published in the summer 2008 Forum for Public Policy, a refereed journal. Last August, Hwa presented the article in Oxford, England. Tang Taizong is one of the most-admired Chinese emperors. Hwa also served as a grant reviewer for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

T. Dean Maines, president of the SAIP Institute, and Michelle Rovang Burke, director of the SAIP Institute, presented "Linking Ethical Business Conduct and the Environment" at the fifth annual Minnesota Environmental Institute presented April 23 by Minnesota Continuing Legal Education and the Environmental, Natural Resources and Energy Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association. The presentation examined parallels between a company's efforts to be more ethically responsible and more environmentally sustainable. The presentation also introduced attendees to the Self-Assessment and Improvement Process (SAIP), a tool to help organizations address issues of corporate ethics and social responsibility.

Dr. Amy Smith, College of Applied Professional Studies, recently was elected president of the Minnesota Academy of Reading. The academy brings together various groups of reading stakeholders to discuss and respond to reading practices and policies in Minnesota.  About 20 years ago, the International Reading Association commissioned the MAR as a Special Interest Council, giving the organization these charges: to provide an opportunity for members to actively engage in the process of sharing and testing professional ideas and to engage in service functions of instruction, consultation and evaluation. Smith is a member of the Teacher Education Department and coordinates the reading programs for CAPS.

Dr. John Spry, Opus College of Business, presented "Consumer Response to New Jersey Lottery Pick 3 Green Ball and Pick 4 Red Ball Lottery Promotions" with co-author Jocelyn Crowley of Rutgers University, at the Midwest Economic Association's 73rd annual conference March 21 in Cleveland. He also moderated the session on Japan and served as a discussant at the conference.

Dr. John Wendt, Opus College of Business, is the author of an article, "Reflection on Beijing: A Time of Transition in the War on Doping," which has been accepted for publication by the American Bar Association's Entertainment and Sports Lawyer.