Tenure and Promotion
At its meeting on Friday the Academic Affairs Committee of the Board of Trustees approved the tenure and/or promotion of the faculty listed below. They are all to be commended and congratulated for meriting this distinction.
Tenure, Promotion to Associate Professor
Natalie Bayer, History (A&S)
Will Garriott, Law, Politics & Society (A&S)
Leah Kahlmanson, Philosophy & Religion (A&S)
Nanci Ross, Biology (A&S)
Matthew Mitchell, International Business (CBPA)
Lori Solsma, Accounting (CBPA)
Liping Zheng, Economics (CBPA)
Michael Andreski, Social and Adminstrative Pharmacy (CPHS)
Brian Gentry, Pharmacology (CPHS)
Andrea Kjos, Social and Adminstrative Pharmacy (CPHS)
Andrew Welch, Librarian, Discovery Services & Systems (Library)
Jerrid Kruse, Teaching and Learning (SOE)
Cris Wildermuth, Leadership (SOE)
Tenure, Promotion to Professor
Anthony Gaughan, Law
Shontavia Johnson, Law
Tenure, at rank of Professor
Ann Burkhardt, Occupational Therapy (CPHS)
Renae Chesnut, Pharmacy Practice (CPHS)
Sue Mattison, Epidemiology (CPHS)
Promotion to Professor
Charisse Buising, Biology (A&S)
Renee Cramer, Law, Politics & Society (A&S)
Heidi Sleister, Biology (A&S)
Jill Caton Johnson, Literacy Education (SOE)
Distinguished Professorships
The Academic Affairs Committee also recognized the accomplishments of three distinguished faculty by awarding them endowed professorships. Please join me in congratulating Phil Chen, Steve Scullen, and Gholam Mirazal:
Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor: Philip Chen, Professor of Art
Professor Chen joined Drake as an associate professor of printmaking and drawing in 1996. His recent solo exhibitions include the Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing, and, last year, the Museum of Chinese in America in New York City. Chen’s work has been selected for permanent art collections in museums nationally and internationally. These include Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum; San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts; Art Institute of Chicago; Carnegie Institute Museum of Art; New York Public Library; and the Brooklyn Museum. He has received the Louis B. Comfort Tiffany Award in the Visual Arts, and, just weeks ago, the 2015/2016 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.
Windsor Professor of Science: Steve Scullen, Professor of Management and Gholam Mirafzal, Professor of Chemistry
Professor Scullen, current associate dean of CBPA, came to Drake in 2004. His primarily research interests are in job performance measurement and personnel selection in the context of small applicant pools, areas in which he is regarded as one of the top researchers. He has published numerous articles in top-ranked journals, and his research has been cited in such places as the Harvard Business Review and Fortune. He sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Management, Personnel Psychology, and Organizational Research Methods.
Professor Mirafzal joined the Drake faculty in 1999. He has been the recipient of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Teacher of the Year Award in 2007 and College of Arts and Sciences Teacher of the Year Award in 2013. Professor Mirafzal’s scholarship relates to the fields of synthetic and mechanistic organic chemistry and chemical education. He has published in well-respected peer-reviewed journals including 13 articles with students as co-authors. As the Drake faculty representative for the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in Sciences he has coordinated the nomination of 23 students, with eight winning the Goldwater Scholarship and four receiving honorable mention.
Finally, I also want to recognize and congratulate Sally Beisser, professor of education, who has received the Ronald Troyer Research Fellowship. This Fellowship was established by the Drake University Board of Trustees in 1999 to honor former provost Ron Troyer and to recognize both scholarly accomplishment and future promise. Professor Beisser has the distinction of being the first woman and the first faculty member from SOE to receive this award. In the past five years she has published 36 juried publications in peer reviewed journals, 24 juried conference publications in national and international Proceedings, and presented 145 juried conference presentations at state, national, and international conferences. This fellowship will advance her current research on early childhood practice in gifted education.
—Joe Lenz, Interim Provost