Category: Professional Notes

Leanna Giancarlo, chair and associate professor of chemistry at the University of Mary Washington, will discuss issues surrounding boosting student performance in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, during an interview scheduled to air on the “With Good Reason” public radio program. The program, “STEM Education in America,” will air beginning Saturday, Jan. 26^.

Leanna Giancarlo

Giancarlo, one of four experts in the program, will explore the negative stereotypes of scientists in pop culture. The program also will feature Linda Rosen, the chief executive officer of Change the Education, Robert Tai, associate professor in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education at the University of Virginia and Sevan Terzian, associate professor and associate director of graduate studies at the University of Florida’s College of Education.

Giancarlo earned a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, after receiving a bachelor’s of science in chemistry from the University of Scranton. Giancarlo is a member of the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, the Virginia Academy of Science and the American Chemical Society. A recipient of UMW’s Alumni Association Outstanding Young Faculty Member Award, she also received a School of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Fellowship while at the University of Pennsylvania.

“With Good Reason” airs weekly in Fredericksburg on Sundays from 1-2 p.m. on Radio IQ 88.3 Digital. To listen from outside of the Fredericksburg area, a complete list of air times and links to corresponding radio stations can be found at http://withgoodreasonradio.org/when-to-listen/.

“With Good Reason” is the only statewide public radio program in Virginia. It hosts scholars from Virginia’s public colleges and universities who discuss the latest in research, pressing social issues and the curious and whimsical. “With Good Reason” is produced for the Virginia Higher Education Broadcasting Consortium by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is broadcast in partnership with public radio stations in Virginia and Washington, D.C.

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News release prepared by: Sarah Tagg            

Stephen Farnsworth, professor of political science and director of the university’s Center for Leadership and Media Studies, has been named President-Elect of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society. Nine UMW students have won national writing awards from the 600-chapter honor society, more than any other university in the nation. More than half of those UMW students were recognized for papers written in Farnsworth’s Research and Writing class or for honors projects that he directed. Farnsworth has served for eight years as a member of the honor society’s national executive council.

Robert Rycroft, professor of economics, will speak at “The Changing Face of Philanthropy” workshop on Thursday, Jan. 24. The workshop, presented by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Hampton Roads, will explore new fundraising techniques and strategies as well as ways to engage the newest generation of philanthropists. The workshop will take place at the Sandler Center for the Performing Arts in Virginia Beach from 10 a.m. to noon and at the Downing Gross Cultural Arts Center in Newport News from 3 to 5 p.m. For more information, visit http://www.culturalli.org/changefacephil.html.

Gwendolyn Hale, Writing Center Director and Writing Program Director, and junior Ethan Bottone received the Southeastern Writing Center Association’s Christine Cozzens Research Grant and Initiative Award. They received the award for their project “Virginia is for Writers,” which is designed to begin multiple high school-university writing center collaborations throughout the state. Bottone is a geography and biology double major and a peer tutor at the Writing Center at the Fredericksburg campus.

Jennifer Henderson, a 1994 UMW alumna and a professional tutor in the Writing Center at the Stafford campus, is the recipient of the 2013 SWCA Professional Tutor Award.

Assistant Professor of Music Mark Snyder’s multimedia work Harvey was featured on RTQE, (Remember those Quiet Evenings), a Sunday evening program of electronic, experimental, classical, and improvised conduct for survivors or the 20th century hosted by Gregory Taylor which has aired since 1986 on Sunday evenings on WORT-FM in Madison, Wisconsin.

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