Faculty experts roundup

Achievement, leadership and knowledge sharing are highlighted in this installment of our rundown of recent news from OHIO faculty

April 26, 2024

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Patton professor receives counseling honor

Christine Suniti Bhat, department chair and professor of the Department of Counseling and Higher Education, was selected as a recipient of the distinctive ACA Fellows Award
from the American Counseling Association. The award acknowledges ACA members of professional distinction for significant and unique contributions to the counseling profession on a national level.

Bhat was honored at the April 11 ACA Conference with the award, which is given to members whose work “has influenced, changed, and significantly advanced the counseling profession and/or counselor practices through their professional practice; scholarly achievement; leadership and governance; and/or teaching, training, supervision and mentoring.”

With trees and lawn behind her, Christine Bhat smiles at the camera

Dr. Christine Suniti Bhat, department chair and professor of the Patton College of Education's Department of Counseling and Higher Education, received the American Counseling Association Fellows Award at the annual ACA conference on April 11.

"College and Character" journal editors

Patton College faculty members Laura Harrison and Pete Mather are the incoming editors of NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education's "Journal of College and Character," a publication for which they both have written and reviewed for many years.

“A big part of our vision is to continue extending the journal's focus on the humanizing, relationship-centered aspects of higher education and its embrace of interdisciplinary work,” Harrison wrote in a LinkedIn post about the editorship. 

A professional journal that examines how colleges and universities influence the moral and civic learning and behavior of students, the publication features scholarly articles and applied research on issues related to ethics, values, and character development in a higher education setting.
 

Back-to-back competitive fellowships for HCOM professor

Berkeley Franz, associate professor of Community-based Health and Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Ralph S. Licklider, D.O. Endowed Faculty Fellow in Population Health Science in the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine, was accepted for a two-year competitive fellowship in implementation science with the SPIRE Center at Brandeis/Harvard. Franz is also currently completing a two-year competitive fellowship with Stanford University’s Center for Dissemination and Implementation. Through these professional development opportunities, Franz hopes to bring more implementation science expertise to OHIO.

International design award for VisCom professor

Adonis Durado, assistant professor in the School of Visual Communication (VisCom), won an Indigo Design Award for the logo/branding of the VisCom Focus (VisCom's student gallery). The ceremony will take place in Athens, Greece.

Conference "spotlights" OHIO expertise in learning

The Spotlight on Learning Conference took place April 16 at Baker University Center with the theme, "Great College Teaching in Practice." 

Focused on providing examples of “high-impact, highly effective instructional strategies,” the half-day conference also provided practical ideas for implementing those strategies. Attendees came away with a digital toolkit of diverse peer-tested teaching practices to use in summer or fall 2024 courses and beyond.

Students, faculty and staff members from across the University presented.

  • "Feedback Friends and Foes": Laura Harrison (see above) and OHIO colleagues Becky Challenger, Erin Morgenstern and Oumarou Abdoulaye Balarabe offered a humorous presentation of feedback do’s and don’ts (friends and foes) that help students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds write more effectively.
  • Courtney Koestler, associate professor of Teacher Education and director of the OHIO Center for Equity in Mathematics and Science, presented on a collaborative research project funded by the National Science Foundation to create more equitable learning opportunities for elementary students and the practices applicable to all mathematics instruction.
  • “Deep Learning Connecting Students, Faculty, and Alumni to Promote a Creative Path to Success": Graduate student Emily Jones and Chao-Yang Lee, associate professor in the College of Health Sciences and Professions, presented a seminar designed to enrich the educational experience through alumni engagement.
  • "Ohio Teaching Excellence with A.C.E. A Pedagogy of Full Inclusion, Self-Agency and Emotional Well-Being": Janice Collins, associate professor of broadcast journalism, began the Active Centralized Empowerment (A.C.E.) program at OHIO in 2003 and shared practices promoted in its current award-winning form.
  • “Bridging the Experiential Learning Gap Global Interactions from Home": Purba Das, professor in the School of Communication Studies, and Elizabeth Koonce, associate professor of instruction in English, presented on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and how it brings together faculty and students from around the globe.