Jewell professor receives Fulbright award

Dr. Ian Munro, professor and chair of the Department of English at William Jewell, is among approximately 800 U.S. faculty and professionals selected to travel abroad as Fulbright Scholars during the 2005-2006 academic year. Dr. Munro has received a Fulbright appointment to spend a year teaching in Morocco. Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late Senator J. William Fulbright, the Fulbright Scholar Program aims to build mutual understanding between the people of the United States and some 140 other countries. In addition to teaching Moroccan students, Dr. Munro will conduct research into the effects of recent educational reforms on the teaching of English language and literature in Morocco. “French has long been the dominant foreign language in the country, the language of literature and the elite,” he says. “But English is playing an increasingly important role.”

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international education exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. Fulbright Scholar award recipients are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement and because they have demonstrated leadership potential in their fields.

Harriman Arts Program’s Clark Morris attends international arts conference

Photo Clark Morris, Executive Director of the Harriman Arts Program of William Jewell College and a member of the William Jewell class of 1991, was selected to attend the Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts, a joint project of National Arts Strategies and the Center for Social Innovation at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business. The two-week session met this summer on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. Morris was nominated by Michael Fields, Executive Director of the Richard J. Stern Foundation. Nominations for the prestigious fellowship were screened by a national advisory committee, and program directors made the final selections.

Each year, 50 outstanding mid-career arts leaders receive fellowships to attend the two-week session on the Stanford campus. The program offers an opportunity for arts leaders to further their professional development and to share collegial insights with their peers in all arts disciplines. This year’s participants included representatives from throughout the United States and internationally, including Australia and Hong Kong. Morris is a member of the William Jewell College class of 1991, and received his master’s degree in business administration from MidAmerica Nazerene University. He joined the staff of the Harriman Arts Program while a student at Jewell and has held a variety of administrative positions on the staff. He was named the program’s Executive Director in 2003.

Donette Alonzo named to multicultural position at Jewell

Photo Donette Alonzo has been named to the newly created position of Director of Multicultural Admission and Student Development at William Jewell College. Alonzo received her master’s degree in Integrated Humanities and Education from Rockhurst University in Kansas City and her B.A. in theology from Kansas Newman College in Wichita. Since 1997 she has served as Director of Multicultural and International Student Affairs at Rockhurst University.

“The position was established to better meet the needs of multicultural students and families,” says Dean of Students Rick Winslow. “Working through both the Student Affairs and Admission offices, the Director will focus on implementing the connective orientation and support programs that lead to student success and satisfaction.”

Areas of primary responsibility will include serving as the key contact for minority prospective students and their parents; the selection, supervision, and training of staff for the College’s Minority Student First-Year Mentor program; and the design and coordination of the College’s Orientation Program and retention services for minority students.

At Rockhurst, Alonzo co-chaired a campus-wide diversity committee and managed and communicated campus diversity issues with faculty, staff and students. She was an advocate for all students of various ethnic backgrounds and sponsored the Black Student Union, Student Organization of Latinos and International Student Club. She serves on a number of community diversity boards in the Kansas City region and has facilitated partnerships at Rockhurst with the National Conference for Community and Justice, Harmony, Inroads, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Coalition of Hispanic Organizations. Previously, she served as Coordinator of Retreats and Evangelization for the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry at the Catholic Diocese of Wichita, Kan., and served as a pastoral associate and youth minister at the Church of the Resurrection Parish in Wichita. She also served as a parish minister for Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish in Overland Park, Kan.

Stufflebean Begins Term as Chair of NACA Board of Directors

Ernie Stufflebean, Director of Student Activities at William Jewell College, has been elected chair of the Board of Directors for the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA). His term began May 1. Stufflebean has served as NACA Board of Directors Finance Committee Chair and Treasurer. He also served as chair of the former NACA Heart of America Region. Stufflebean has been involved in the field of campus activities since 1993. He has previously worked at Missouri Western State College and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Stufflebean received a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice/law from Missouri Western State College and a master’s degree in higher education and administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is a resident of Liberty.

NACA, a national, not-for-profit membership association, has been connecting students and campus activities professionals with entertainment, lecture and promotional firms since 1960. NACA links the higher education and entertainment communities in a business and learning partnership, creating educational and business opportunities for student and professional members. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., NACA’s membership includes more than 1,050 colleges and universities across the country and more than 600 talent, lecture and promotional agencies nationwide. For more information about NACA, please visit www.naca.org.

Deborah Maltby, adjunct instructor in the English and General Education Departments, recently won a School of Graduate Studies Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The fellowships, only four or five of which are awarded in a given year for all the graduate students at UMKC, provide financial support for completion of the dissertation.

Nancy Crigger, associate professor of nursing, published the article, “Pharmaceutical Promotions and Conflict of Interest in Nurse Practitioners’ Decision Making: The Undiscovered Country,” in the June edition of Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

Nelda Godfrey, associate professor of nursing and chair, is the author of a chapter in the new book Educating Nurses for Leadership, edited by Harriet R. Feldman and Martha J. Greenberg (Springer Publishing, 2005). The chapter is entitled “Leadership Education for the Common Good: A Pilot Program,” and it describes the evolution of the Pryor Leadership Studies Program at William Jewell. Godfrey also spoke at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Hot Issues Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona, in May. She was part of a panel that addressed “The Teaching Role Across Institutional Settings,” with the Dean of Nursing from the University of California-San Francisco and the Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences from Texas A & M University.

WJC students K.C. Maynes and Maria Compton are co-authors with Blane Baker, associate professor of physics, of an article entitled “Proton NMR Relaxation Study of the CsHSO4 Solid Acid System.” This article has been accepted for publication in a fall issue of Solid State Communications.

Jewell professor receives international award

Dr. Elizabeth Sperry, associate professor of philosophy at William Jewell College, recently received a $1,500 award in recognition of a paper she presented this summer in Helsinki, Finland at the International Society for Universal Dialogue. The international philosophical society was founded by scholars in Warsaw, Poland, in 1989 as the Berlin Wall was coming down. Dr. Sperry’s paper was entitled “Foucauldian Power, Relational Autonomy, and Resistance Through Friendship.”

“The paper attempts to find a way to make sense of people as both socially constructed and as having the potential for personal autonomy, two concepts which are usually seen as antithetical,” Dr. Sperry said. “Teachers often talk about how their scholarship enables them to be better teachers; this is one case where my teaching informed my scholarship, as it was during a discussion with upper-level students in my Postmodernism seminar that I got the idea that led to this paper.” Dr. Sperry, a resident of Kansas City North, joined the William Jewell faculty in 1996. She received her B.A. from Houghton College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame.

Dr. Michael Cook has received the 2005 Professor of the Year Award from the evening division graduates.

William Jewell College welcomes the following new full-time faculty members for the fall 2005 semester:

Computer Science–Angela Klein, Assistant Professor of Information Systems. B.S., 1989, Southwest Missouri State University; M.B.A., 1995, Rockhurst College.

Chemistry–Jeremy R. Rush, Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry. B.A., 1999, William Jewell College; Ph.D., 2005, Kansas State University.

Education–Steven E. Harris, Assistant Professor of Education. B.S., 1987, William Jewell College; J.D., 1992, University of California-Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall); M.A., 1999, New York University.

English–Sara L. Morrison, Assistant Professor of English. B.A., 1989, Swarthmore College (PA); M.A., 1993, Ph.D., 2002, University of Colorado-Boulder.

Rychetta N. Watkins, 2005, Assistant Professor of English. A.B., 1995, Washington University-St. Louis; M.A., 1999, Ph.D., 2005, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.

Nursing–Kimberly N. Johnston, Instructor in Nursing. B.S.N., 1998, William Jewell College; M.S.N., 2003, University of Kansas Medical Center.

Barbara A. Burns, Assistant Professor of Nursing. B.S.N., 1977, University of Missouri; M.N., 1984, University of Kansas-Lawrence.

Pamela Y. Arnold, Instructor in Nursing. Diploma, 1991, St. Luke’s College; B.S.N., 2004, Webster University.

Physical Education–Fran H. Schwenk, Instructor in Physical Education, Head Football Coach, and Assistant Athletic Director. B.S., 1969, M.S., 1972, Northwest Missouri State University.

Philosophy–Girard Brenneman, Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy. B.A., 1996, DePauw University; M.A., 2002, Ph.D., 2004, Johns Hopkins University.