October 2005 Accolades

For the fifth time, Armando Abney, Ph.D., criminal justice and criminology, was nominated and included in the annual edition of “Who’s Who Among America’s College and University Professors.” Students who appeared in the “Who’s Who Among College and University Students” were asked to nominate faculty who have impacted their career and educational choices.

Alex Briseño, professor of Public Service in Residence, recently received, along with San Antonio City Manager Rolando Bono, the International City/County Management Association’s Program Excellence Award for Citizen Involvement at the ICMA annual conference in Minneapolis, Minn.

Briseño, former San Antonio city manager, was honored for the Community Building and Neighborhood Planning Program, along with Bono, his successor.

The professor also was invited to speak for the Masters Leadership Program on Oct. 12 on history and government class day at the Spanish Governor’s Palace and the City Council Chambers. Briseño spoke on the “History of Government in San Antonio.”

Jacqueline Dansby, PhD., Upward Bound, has been elected to serve as first vice president of the Board of Directors of the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame. She also will serve as chair of the Honoree Selection Committee, which is charged with the responsibility of recommending nominees to the board for the selection to the 2006 Hall of Fame. She previously has served as secretary and director at large on the board.

Dansby also recently was appointed to serve a second term as the education adviser to the African American Leadership Institute (AALI) hosted by the Alamo Chamber of Commerce. In this capacity, she will serve as a mentor and provide expert advice to AALI Fellows toward planning and implementing an insightful forum related to current educational issues impacting our community.

The AALI brings professionals together from a wide spectrum of fields to network and explore effective strategies toward addressing critical challenges confronting the community with respect to educational, economic, social and cultural development.

St. Mary’s softball coaching staff was recognized as the South Central Region Coaching Staff of the Year by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association.

Head Coach Donna Fields has led the Rattler squad to the NCAA Division II National Championship tournament three out of the last four years. This past season the Rattlers won their fifth straight Heartland Conference Championship, finishing the season with a 49-11 record.

Mary Lynne Hill, Ph.D., English, has written and published “Stories from the Wake,” part of the monograph series by the North American Center for Marianist Studies.

Recognizing a semantic shift with the word “revolution,” Hill explores in the text what she sees as a “circular response in the wake of linear events.” She offers many examples of how we return or revisit deep symbols to reshape them to fit a new reality. She plumbs how we, as Marianists, may profit from examining the French Revolution when the linked concepts of “God/king/subject” were revolutionized to “God/reason/citizen,” and how we revolve back to use liberté, fraternité and équalité— deep symbols of those times—as deep symbols our time today as Marianists. With this pattern, the power of a community in permanent mission based on these deep symbols is seen as a transformative medium for both Blessed William Joseph Chaminade’s time and our own.

The new work is based on some key ideas from her work that Hill presented to the Conversation Group, a think tank of lay and professed Marianists sponsored by the NACMS, when they met in San Antonio last spring.

Pianist John Moore, music, was a guest performer at a faculty exchange recital at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He performed with soprano Flicka Rahn, professor of music at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He is scheduled to perform with Rahn again on Oct. 18 at the TAMU-CC campus, and on Nov. 9 at St. Mary’s. Other faculty from Corpus Christi also will appear at the St. Mary’s recital.

On Oct. 8-9, Moore performed with the Texas Bach Choir, playing the harpsichord at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and St. Peter Prince of the Apostles Catholic Church. The choir and the Collegium (period instrument orchestra) were conducted by Daniel Long, Ph.D., professor of music at St. Mary’s.

Suzanne Petrusch, Enrollment Management, presented an individual session at the E-recruitment Mastery Workshop in San Diego, and served as a panelist for the closing session.

Dianne Pipes, President’s Office, has been accepted into the Leadership San Antonio 31 program, which is jointly sponsored by The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and The San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The Leadership program provides a learning experience for existing and emerging leaders who live and work in the San Antonio metropolitan area.

Sandra M. Vasquez-Kayruz, M.D., Student Health Center, has been recertified as a specialist in family medicine by the American Board of Family Medicine. She is certified as a Diplomate until Dec. 31, 2012.

Charles Weaver, Emil C.E. Jurica Distinguished Professor of Quantitative Management, had a research paper, “The Changing Image of Hispanic Americans,” published in the August edition of Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences. He has conducted research involving Hispanics since the 1960s.

“The Beautiful Light: The Life and Papacy of Benedict XIV,” by Brother Robert Wood, S.M., St. Mary’s archivist, recently was published. The book highlights Pope Benedict XIV, who had an enormous impact on the Church. A scholar, a man of wit and humor and breadth of vision, he was pope during the Enlightenment. Most present-day rules for beatification and canonization were set by Pope Benedict who also made Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Americas.

He also delivered his paper, “Law and Order in Laredo,” at the October Laredo History Conference held at Texas A&M International University in Laredo.