Laurie Abeel, associate professor in graduate education, passed her Black Belt test in Tae Kwan Do on Saturday, April 28 at the Karate Sports Academy in Warrenton. She started as a white belt in April 2004 and three knee surgeries (with one more at the end of May) and eight years later has finally earned her black belt!
Members of UMW’s Center for Economic Development recently completed certifications and attended a conference.
Susan Ball, Early Venture Specialist for the UMW Small Business Development Center, completed the U.S. Department of Commerce International Trade Certification. Ball also attended a Social Media Marketing conference here in Fredericksburg, Va.
Brian Baker, Executive Director for Entrepreneurship and Business Development, completed two International Economic Development Council (I.E.D.C.) certification courses: Economic Development Credit Analysis and Real Estate Development and Reuse.
Kevin Bartram, director of the UMW Philharmonic, wrote an op-ed in a recent edition of The Free Lance-Star about the state of the arts in the Fredericksburg area. Bartram is chairman of the Fredericksburg Arts Commission.
The Potomac Theatre Company in Potomac, Md. 
will present adjunct instructor Mark Scharf’s plays “Get Stuffed, Replay,” and “Grey Hair and Zits” during its one-act festival, “Wit, Wisdom, Wickedness & Wonderment,” from June 15 to 24.
His play “Hired Gun,” which is semi-finalist for the 2012 Eugene O’Neill National Theater Conference, will be produced in July by the Theatrical Mining Company in Baltimore, Md. His play “Replay” will also appear at the Spotlighter’s Theatre in Baltimore in August as part of an evening of one-act plays entitled “The Things We Do.”
“Replay” is now available from Heurer Publishing. Scharf was recently named “Playwright-in-Residence” by the Twin Beach Players, who have commissioned Scharf to write a stage adaptation of “Frankenstein” to be produced in October 2012 for Halloween.
Previously, the Oberon Theatre Ensemble presented a staged reading of Scharf’s play “The Whispers of Saints” on March 25 at The Lambs Club in New York City.
Courtney Clayton, Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, presented her research at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association on “Preparing Social Justice Teachers: Rethinking Action Research Curriculum for Transformation” as part of Division K – Teaching and Teacher Education/Section 5: Preservice Teacher Education Coursework: Practices to Improve Teacher Knowledge, Understanding, and Application of Subject Matter. She also served as discussant for a paper session titled, “Preparing Teachers to Work with English Language Learners and Immigrant Students”.
AERA is concerned with improving the educational process by encouraging scholarly inquiry related to education and evaluation and by promoting the dissemination and practical application of research results.
AERA is the most prominent international professional organization, with the primary goal of advancing educational research and its practical application. Its more than 25,000 members are educators; administrators; directors of research; persons working with testing or evaluation in federal, state and local agencies; counselors; evaluators; graduate students; and behavioral scientists.
