Category: Professional Notes

For the second time in three years, Leigh Frackelton, professor in the College of Business, was recognized as a “Super CPA” Educator by the Virginia Society of CPAs (VSCPA).  Every year, Virginia Business Magazine partners with the VSCPA to highlight Virginia’s top CPAs for their important contributions to the profession and the Commonwealth.  An official ballot is sent to all Virginia CPAs asking them to identify the names of peers they consider to be the best at their craft, and again, Leigh Frackelton was one of nine educators selected.

The Center for Teaching Excellence and The Center for Honor, Leadership and Service were awarded a 2012-2014 service-learning seminar grant through the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU) and the Bringing Theory to Practice Project.

Dr. Mary Kayler (Director, Center for Teaching Excellence and Innovation), Dr. John P. Broome (Assistant Professor, College of Education) and Christina Eggenberger (Director of Service, Center for Honor, Leadership, and Service) received funding to host a seminar entitled, “Civic Engagement: Recasting and Drawing Upon a Wider Net.”

The seminar to be held in late January is designed to bring together faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, and College of Business along with UMW students and local community members to explore and strengthen the role of civic engagement within UMW and with the broader community.

For more information, contact Dr. Mary Kayler, mkayler@umw.edu

Xiaofeng Zhao, assistant professor in the College of Business, presented “Implementing Statistical Process Control for Customer Waiting Time” at the Decision Science Institute’s annual meeting in San Francisco on Nov. 18. The paper, co-authored with Hui Zhao, has been published in the peer reviewed proceedings. Xiaofeng Zhao also chaired the session on quality management tools.

Susan Knick, director of conferences and scheduling, and Abbie McGhee, coordinator of community events, recently delivered presentations at the 2012 Regional Summit of the Association of College Conferences and Events Directors – International. The summit was attended by members of institutions of higher education from Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and D.C.

Knick’s presentation, “9-1-1, What’s Your Emergency?” focused on emergency planning and preparations for events and conferences.  She has been invited to deliver an extended version of this presentation to the 33rd Annual International Conference of the association this March in Toronto, Canada.

McGhee’s presentation, “No Money, no problem, free online resources, tips and tricks,” focused on free online software that can be used in every day applications.

Jack Bales, Reference and Humanities Librarian, had his latest baseball article, “‘It Was His Fairness That Caught Wrigley’s Eye’: William L. Veeck’s Journalism Career and His Hiring by the Chicago Cubs,” published as the lead article in the spring 2012 issue of the peer-reviewed Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture. By poring over original source materials, Bales corrected long-held beliefs of how Cubs owner William Wrigley, Jr. met and hired sportswriter Veeck in 1918.  He also uncovered new information about Veeck’s early newspaper career.  Bales spent a week this summer at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, New York, working on several projects.  He has shared his findings with other baseball scholars, and his research was mentioned in the December 3 issue of Sports Illustrated.