Notable & Quotable

Leah Poloskey, clinical instructor in the athletic training education program, has been selected to participate in the National Athletic Trainers Association’s Mentor/Mentee Program. The program uses mentorship to build a solid knowledge base and acquire an understanding of the balance necessary to becoming a successful researcher and educator in the field of athletic training.

Assistant professor of communication and media Melissa “Mish” Zimdars, author of “Watching Our Weights: The Contradictions of Televising Fatness in the ‘Obesity Epidemic,’” was quoted in a Los Angeles Times article March 24, 2020 discussing the portrayal of fat women on television.

Assistant professor of women’s and gender studies, Debra Michals, was quoted in an article in The Nation, based on her research on feminist federal credit unions. The author was looking at what these credit unions from the 1970s might teach lenders in the pandemic.

Assistant Professor Rickey Caldwell contributed to a recent Zippia panel, Understand How the Pandemic Changed the Job Market. Caldwell was among thousands of experts surveyed across many different fields and his market insights were featured on the main page.

Assistant professor of higher education Elaine Ward in the Winston School of Education and Social Policy recently served on the planning committee for a Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and Campus Compact sponsored symposium Advancing Equity Through Publicly Engaged Scholarship: Transforming Faculty Rewards Policy & Practices. Dr. Ward coordinated and moderated the closing session with female faculty and community-engaged scholars of color who spoke on issues of equity and promotion and tenure. Dr. Ward currently serves as the external evaluator on a related Massachusetts Department of Higher Education grant to three state universities to advance equity for faculty of color in academic work and specifically in the promotion and tenure process.

Dr. James Kaklamanos, associate professor of civil engineering, was one of two earthquake engineers interviewed by Interesting Engineering on the multitude of buildings that collapsed in Turkey and Syria following the devastating earthquake.

Assistant Professor and Director of the K-12 Teacher Preparation Program Kathryn A. Welbywas featured on WalletHub’s recent article examining States with the Most & Least Equitable School Districts.

Alicia Malone, assistant professor of criminology, co-edited a volume, “Girls, Aggression and Intersectionality: Transforming the Discourse of ‘Mean Girls’” in the United States,” for Routledge’s Research in Gender and Society series. “Girls, Aggression and Intersectionality” examines how intersecting social identities, such as race, ethnicity, class, sexuality and age, shape media representations of, and criminal justice responses to, girls’ aggression. Former Merrimack professor Krista McQueeney, now at the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, served as co-editor.

The Winston School of Education and Social Policy Associate Dean Russ Olwell wrote an op-ed column for The Eagle-Tribune newspaper April 15 urging school districts to hire graduates when schools reopen. Merrimack students studying education have been relentlessly proactive in their commitment to helping K-12 teachers while schools are closed. They are showing that the next generation of teachers will be excellent and worthy of the profession.

George Heffernan, department chair and professor of philosophy, collaborated with his colleague Marco Cavallaro of the University of Koblenz-Landau in Germany to collect the 14 papers from internationally renowned scholars, co-wrote the Preface, single-authored two major papers and translated several papers from German. The Existential Husserl: A Collection of Critical Essays is now in press and published by Springer.

April Bowling, Sc.D., assistant professor, Department of Public Health and Nutrition, School of Health Sciences was featured in WalletHub’s recent article Best Cities for an Active Lifestyle.

Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Nicole Frisch-Scottwas the co-author of a recent study, Time for a Change: Examining the Relationships Between Recidivism-Free Time, Recidivism Risk, and Risk Assessment,published in Justice Quarterly. The study was featured in a press release from the Crime & Justice Research Alliance.

Ana Silva, associate professor of finance and chair of the accounting and finance department, was quoted in a WalletHub.com “Ask the Experts” column about secured credit cards. Asked how the issuer of a secured credit card with no annual fee makes money, Silva responded, “Issuers charge high APRs on the unpaid balances each month. Late fees are also charged when a customer misses a payment. Some issuers charge a fee for setting-up an account. Issuers also charge the interchange fee on every credit card transaction. In addition, some banks cross-sell other products such as insurances.”

Associate Professor of marketing Joseph Stasio provided expert commentary for Money Geek on a new auto insurance calculator.

Director of Campus Music Activities Hugh Hinton is the winner of the 2021 Choir Master Prize in choral conducting. This award is given each year to the person who earns the top score in the National Choir Master certification examination.

Dr. Michael Stroud, professor and department chair of psychology, and Dr. Kirstie Dobbs, associate professor of practice for the department of political science and public policy, have created assignments that expose their students to new educational techniques: Podcasts and TED Talks.
Stroud’s podcast, Curious Minds, is available via Apple Podcasts. Please click the link below to view the TED Talks. Kirstie Dobbs’ podcast, Voices of Gen Z: The Future of Democracy can be found via Spotify Podcasts.

Melissa Zimdars, assistant professor of communication, was quoted in a May 16, 2017, post by technology blogger Richard Hartley about new measures taken by Facebook to root out “fake news.” Zimdars, who has gained national attention for creating a list of untrustworthy news sites, said it seemed Facebook was largely responding to bad press. “My initial read on it is it’s ultimately kind of a PR move. It’s cheap to do. It’s easy. It doesn’t actually require them to do anything,” she said.

Paul Zipper, adjunct lecturer in criminology and a detective lieutenant atthe Massachusetts State Police, was profiled in a March 20, 2017, Boston Globe story about his work leadingthe force’s Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit. Investigators who have worked with Zipper said he makes friends easily, helping him crack cases. “His strength is dealing and working with people and befriending them,” said State Police Sgt. Paul Horgan. “He also had and still does have a great talent for getting people to talk to him, and suspects eventually wanting to confess to him.”

Michael DeCesare,professor and chair of sociology, was quoted in a Feb. 7, 2018, Boston Globe story about the ongoing search for the next president of Harvard University. DeCesare, who chairs a committee on university governance at the American Association of University Professors, said the school ought to pick an academic, to send a message to faculty that their work is important. “For Harvard to kind of reaffirm the importance of an academically oriented president would go a long way,” he said.

Sociology assistant professorDaniel Herda’s latest article, with Dr. Bill McCarthy of UC-Davis, is “No Experience Required: Violent Crime and Anticipated, Vicarious, and Experienced Racial Discrimination.” The article is in press atSocial Science Research.