Category: Professional Notes

Please join us in the Trinkle Hall Rotunda on Tuesday, May 10 at 3 p.m. for a reception to recognize Jane Gatewood’s 20 years of service to UMW.

 Thanks to her steady and dependable leadership, the Fredericksburg campus Writing Center provided excellent assistance to scores of students on all sorts of writing tasks.  She was also a valued resource for the Writing Intensive Committee and for the faculty who sought her assistance in planning and teaching writing intensive courses.  To say that her contributions will be missed is an understatement. I hope you can make it to the reception to thank Jane and wish her well as she retires from UMW.

 Trinkle Hall Rotunda, Tuesday, May 10 at 3 p.m.

John T. Morello

Michelle L. Howe Pearson, 2011 Colorado Teacher of the Year, spoke at the inaugural College of Education Educator in Residence Lecture and Celebration April 27 at the Stafford campus.

The social studies department chair who teaches at Hulstrom Options K-8 school marks the first Educator in Residence to speak at UMW after the program was created to celebrate graduates and give them the opportunity to interact extensively with an accomplished UMW education alum.

Pearson earned her bachelor of arts degree from Mary Washington in 1991 and has also completed graduate work and continuing education from Delta State University, Adams State College, and Colorado State University.

Kathryn Loesser-Casey, professor of biological sciences, and Debra Hydorn, professor of mathematics, gave the poster presentation “Putting BIO2010 Into Practice: A Course on the Research Process for STEM Majors” at the Association of American Colleges and Universities conference “Engaged STEM Learning: From Promising to Pervasive Practices” held in Miami in March. The poster presentation provided an opportunity for Hydorn and Loesser-Casey to share information about the UMW course, Biology 260 The Research Process, with faculty from across the STEM disciplines.

Keith E. Mellinger, associate professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics, had the article “Spreads, Arcs, and Multiple Wavelength Codes” published in the journal Discrete Mathematics. In addition, his article “On the Number of K-Gons in Finite Projective Planes” was published in the Italian journal Note di Mathematica.

Jason Davidson, associate professor of political science and international affairs, will discuss his new book, “America’s Allies and War: Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq,” during a book forum at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, May 10 at 4 p.m.

The book forum is free and open to the public. Advance registration is required for all Cato events. Seating is limited. The forum also will be streamed live over the Internet. For more information, visit http://www.cato.org/event.php?eventid=7943.

The website says, “The United States pledges to defend our NATO allies under Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty. Why, and in what ways, do the allies reciprocate? Jason Davidson will present evidence from his unique analysis of transatlantic burden-sharing to explain why Britain, France, and Italy provide or refuse military support for U.S.-led uses of force. Sixty original interviews with top policymakers and analysts provide insight into allies’ decisions regarding the Kosovo War (1999), Afghanistan (2001), and the Iraq War (2003). Davidson shows that such decisions reflect a combination of factors such as alliance value, threat, prestige, and electoral politics. Join us for a discussion that will include recommendations for how U.S. policymakers can increase the allies’ contributions to global security, and shift some of the burdens of defense off the shoulders of American taxpayers.”