Alumni & Friends
Bethel Focus
A Magazine of Bethel University
Faculty Asides
Mark Coronna (Adjunct, College of Adult & Professional Studies/Graduate School) was recently promoted to executive vice president of securities and insurance at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services based in Minneapolis. Wolters Kluwer is a multibillion-dollar publishing and information services firm based in Holland. The Minneapolis office provides regulatory compliance services for banks, securities firms, and insurance companies.
Dick Daniels (Adjunct, College of Adult & Professional Studies/Graduate School) recently spoke on “Service Learning…A Context for Character Formation” at the National Service Learning Conference in Albuquerque, N.M. He also spoke on “The Messy Work of Character Formation” at the National Forum on Character Education in Washington, D.C., sponsored by the Character Education Partnership. In addition, Daniels recently published a series of nine character journals for middle and high school students called “Reality Check.”
Curtiss DeYoung (Anthropology and Sociology) recently visited Middletown, Ohio, where he was hailed as “Dr. Curtiss DeYoung, Civil Rights Activist and Social Justice Lecturer.” He was the guest facilitator for the entire weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. activities in the town of approximately 50,000 people. At one point, organizers were so moved by DeYoung’s speech that they decided to present him with a special plaque. Later, the mayor presented him with a key to the city.
Mary Ann Harris (Business and Economics) successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, “The Impact of Storytelling on Traditional Advertising Measures,” at the University of Minnesota.
Andrew Odubote (Anthropology and Sociology) successfully defended his dissertation in August.
Don Postema (Philosophy) participated in a panel of professional experts chosen to provide recommendations for procedures that would be implemented in the event of a pandemic in Minnesota. The project, funded by a federal grant, also addresses possible applications for other unforeseen events that could lead to health-related emergencies. A final report on the panel’s conclusions and recommendations will be released in spring 2008.
In addition, Postema and Dr. Julie Hauer, director of the Palliative Care Service at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul, jointly presented a session for staff at Gillette titled “Should Feeding Tubes Always Be a Part of Palliative Care?” In Postema’s portion of the presentation, titled “Feeding Tube Myths,” he tried to dispel popular misconceptions about the medical provision of nutrition and hydration.
Jay Rasmussen (Education) presented a workshop for faculty at Leech Lake Tribal College in Cass Lake, Minn., in October, focusing on “Strategies to Stimulate Student Involvement in the Classroom.” Rasmussen has presented nearly a dozen similar workshops in varied venues throughout the U.S.
Ruben Rivera (History) successfully defended his dissertation at Boston University in November.
An article by Wayne Roosa (Art) titled “A Meditation on the Joint and its Holy Ornaments” was the cover story for the January/February 2008 issue of Books & Culture.
Sara Shady (Philosophy) has been recognized by her alma mater, Taylor University, as its 2007 Distinguished Young Alumna for Professional Achievement.
Brian Turnquist (Math and Computer Science), accompanied by his daughter Berit, spent part of last summer living and working in Germany. Turnquist regularly collaborates with professors Clemens Forster and Martin Schmelz at the Universities of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Mannheim-Heidelberg, as well as with Katharina Zimmerman of Harvard University, in ongoing research into the neurophysiological basis of pain.
Fred Van Geest (Political Science) published a paper titled “Deepening and Broadening Christian Citizenship: Going Beyond the Basics without Succumbing to Liberal and Communitarian Ideal” in the winter 2008 issue of Christian Scholar’s Review.
Gretchen Wrobel (Psychology) spent 10 days last summer in England working on an upcoming book she is co-editing on adoption. International Advances in Adoption Research for Practice is a compilation of work from major adoption researchers aimed at disseminating research findings in a manner accessible to practitioners in the adoption field.
“I met my co-editor, Elsbeth Neil, a senior lecturer in social work at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, several years ago,” Wrobel says, “and a shared interest in adoption research fueled us to develop a book proposal.”
More than a dozen research papers are included in the collection, addressing topics such as nature and nurture, the history and changes in international adoptions, and responses of adolescent adoptees. The volume will be published this July by John Wiley and Sons.
Samuel Zalanga and James Hurd (Anthropology and Sociology) are active in the Association of Third World Studies (ATWS), a professional organization that advises the United Nations on how to improve the lives of people in Third World Nations. They both contributed papers at a fall ATWS meeting in Peru. Zalanga has recently been named associate editor for the African section of the Journal of Third World Studies.