July 2005 Accolades

Necia Wolff, Blume Library, recently was selected as one of 24 librarians from public school and academic libraries as a participant in the TALL Texans Leadership Development Institute. The TALL Texans awards recognize future leaders in librarianship in the state. Wolff is the third librarian from the Blume Library to be named a TALL Texan in the past 10 years. Previous recipients have been Nancy Cunningham and Diane Duesterhoeft.

Andrew Hill, Service Learning Center, was the keynote speaker last spring at the Service Learning Faculty Lunch, sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement at The University of Texas at El Paso where he discussed how to engage faculty and students in the community through community-based teaching and learning in order to enhance student learning and promote civic engagement.

In June, Hill was a co-presenter at Closing the Gaps: 21st Annual Recruitment and Retention Conference, which was held in Austin and sponsored by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. As part of a panel on “A Model of Community Efforts,” he discussed how colleges and universities could build a greater sense of civic engagement by establishing programs with community partners. The presentation included a legislative perspective provided by Texas Rep. Mark Strama and an academic perspective provided by Stephanie Fabritius, Ph.D., associate provost of Southwestern University.

Mary Lynne Gasaway Hill, Ph.D., English, presented “Ductus Exemplo: Student Leadership by Example in Civic Engagement at a Catholic and Marianist University,” as part of a panel last spring at the annual conference of the Texas Campus Compact.

Hill co-presented data from a book chapter she wrote with fellow panelist Migdalia Garcia and Andrew Hill, Service Learning Center, and Patricia Mejia, 21st Century Leadership Center. The team also was invited to share their research at the Partners in Service conference, which was held at the headquarters of the San Antonio Area American Red Cross. The event was sponsored by the Service Learning Intercollegiate Collaborative, in partnership with Marking Connections, an Annie E. Casey Foundation Neighborhood Initiative.

This summer, Hill presented at Closing the Gaps: 21st Annual Recruitment and Retention Conference, which was sponsored by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Speaking at the Austin conference with colleagues from community colleges, four-year public institutions and the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at the University of California at Los Angeles about “Service Learning 101: A National and State Perspective,” Hill addressed the benefits of using service learning as a pedagogical tool.

Andre Greene, Residence Life, was selected as a panelist/presenter in a session on mid-management at the National Association Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) New Professionals Institute. The weeklong conference, held in June, was attended by new professionals in student affairs from throughout the southeastern United States.

Richard S. Pressman, Ph.D., English, has been selected to serve on the executive committee of the South Central Modern Language Association representing the American literature section.

Carol Luckhardt Redfield, Ph.D., and Pamela Fink, Ph.D., computer science, discussed computer science careers at the Pre-freshman Engineering Program held at St. Mary’s this summer.

Redfield recently spoke about “Computers in Fiction” in June to youths participating in the JOVEN project.

She also was a guest-of-honor speaker at the San Antonio Star Trek Starfleet International Convention where she presented “Computers in Fiction: Can We Do the Artificial Intelligence?” Redfield was joined by three minor Star Trek stars.

Redfield also was a featured speaker at the International Space Development Conference in Washington, D.C., where she presented “Computers in Space Fiction.” She attended the conference as a member of the National Space Society’s Conference Coordinating Committee and the Education Committee.