Faculty, staff, alumni announce recent presentations and publications

11:42 a.m., March 2, 2012--For the Record provides information about recent professional activities of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent honors, presentations, publications and service include the following:

Campus Stories

From graduates, faculty

As it neared time for the processional to open the University of Delaware Commencement ceremonies, graduating students and faculty members shared their feelings about what the event means to them.

Doctoral hooding

It was a day of triumph, cheers and collective relief as more than 160 students from 21 nations participated in the University of Delaware's Doctoral Hooding Convocation held Friday morning on The Green.

• Doctoral hooding
• Old Swedes
• Summer SAT, ACT prep
• 'Opus 13' pre-sale

Honors

Mary Ann Mieczkowski, a UD alumna, director of Exceptional Children Resources in the Teaching and Learning Branch of the Delaware Department of Education and a member of the Center for Disabilities Studies' Community Advisory Council, received the 2012 Government and Professional Relations Outstanding Advocate Award at the NASP annual convention. She was recognized for the overall leadership and advocacy she has shown on behalf of children and school psychologists. NASP noted her efforts to fully include students with disabilities, advance the use of functional behavioral assessment and related programming, support social skill interventions, and also emphasize the importance of evidence based school mental health programming.

Presentations

Staff members from the Delaware Positive Behavior Support (DE-PBS) project at the Center for Disabilities Studies presented at the National Association of School Psychologists annual convention in Philadelphia in February. The presentation, titled "School Climate and School-wide PBS: Assessing Needs and Outcomes," provided an overview of the Delaware School Climate Survey, the Delaware Assessment of Strengths and Needs for PBS and the project's new DE-PBS Key Features Evaluation. The presentation team included CDS staff members Debby Boyer, Sarah Hearn, Eileen Baker and George Bear, with Linda Smith of the Department of Education.  DE-PBS graduate student Megan Pell presented a poster session titled "A Longitudinal Investigation of School-wide Positive Behavior Support" with Bear and former CDS graduate assistants Chunyan Yang and Jessica Blank.

Eileen Sparling and Terri Hancharick, staff members in the Health and Wellness unit at the Center for Disabilities Studies, presented at the Delaware Recreation and Parks Society's Trail Conference in Rehoboth on Feb. 22. Their session, "Achieving Accessibility in Outdoor Recreation Settings: Resources, Tools and Tips for ADA Compliance," gave attendees an overview of the elements of accessibility in facilities, equipment and communication. Sparling and Hancharick also provided resources for planners and administrators to assist with making recreation settings attractive and accessible to all Delawareans.

Brian Freedman, director of the Transition, Education and Employment Model (TEEM) unit, and Dan Fendler, assistive technology specialist with the Delaware Assistive Technology Initiative (DATI) at the Center of Disabilities Studies, presented at the 2012 Conference on Volunteerism: Creating Connections on March 1. Freedman's presentation, "Inclusion of People with Disabilities: Benefits and Strategies for Success," highlighted the impact of opportunities for inclusion in volunteer organizations and general strategies for identifying and implementing basic accommodations in order to support the success of individuals with a variety of disabilities. Fendler spoke about "Disability Inclusion Technologies," providing information about different assistive technologies that can improve an individual's access to his or her job.

Publications

Rudi Matthee, Munroe Distinguished Professor of History, published "Facing a Rude and Barbarous Neighbor: Iranian Perceptions of Russia and the Russians from the Safavids to the Qajars," in Abbas Amanat and Farzin Vejdani, eds., Iran Facing Others: Identity Boundaries in a Historical Perspective (New York: Palgrave, 2012), pp. 99-124.

Alvina Quintana, associate professor of women’s studies and Latin American studies, is an editor of Feminist Cyberspaces: Pedagogies in Transition, published by Cambridge Scholars and co-edited by Sharon Collingwood and Caroline Smith.

Service

Center for Disabilities Studies staff members Beth Mineo, Jamie Wolfe and Terri Hancharick, along with Pat Maichle of the Developmental Disabilities Council (and a member of the CDS Community Advisory Council), Jane Gallivan of the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services, Lisa Furber of the Disabilities Law Program, and self-advocates Brigitte Hancharick, Drew Netta, Staci Forrest, Nancy Teel, Bill Monaghan and Barbie Monaghan, are Delaware's delegation to the Allies in Self-Advocacy Summit in Baltimore in March. According to Administration on Developmental Disabilities Commissioner Sharon Lewis, delegates from each state will develop a plan for promoting self-advocacy for people with disabilities that will be implemented in their state. She wrote in a statement, "Our hope is that these summits will bring together the leadership of the developmental disabilities field to energize and guide our efforts to support the self-advocacy movement at both a state and national level."

To submit information to be included in For the Record, write to ud-ocm@udel.edu.