Academically Speaking

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Dr. Jared Bryant ’03, assistant professor in the School of Divinity and director of Degree Completion, presented a paper at the North American Patristics Society annual meeting in Chicago on May 26. The title of the paper was “Creating a Cosmology: Gregory of Nazianzus’ Implementation of Origen.”

Dr. Juliet Campbell-Farrell, professor in the School of Social Work, participated in a “Facing the Issues” seminar series at First Baptist Church of Perkasie on July 24. Her topic was immigration and the United States.

Dr. Stephanie Chung, associate professor in the School of Education and chair of the Special Education Department, spoke on “Experiencing God’s Rebuilding Work” at the Sanctuary Christian Fellowship Church in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in July. She also presented two seminars on ADHD at the 16th Annual Convention of the Philadelphia Association of Christian Schools in August. In addition, Dr. Chung spoke at the Women in Focus elective chapel at the University of Valley Forge in September, where her topic was “Becoming God’s Women Rebuilders.” The course sequences in Cairn’s new online graduate and undergraduate Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) programs co-developed by Dr. Chung were approved in July by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) and will be launched in January 2017. Learn more about the new autism and ABA programs.

Dr. Coz Crosscombe, assistant professor in the School of Divinity and director of the Urban Ministry First Year Program, participated this August in an urban consultation titled “We Must Rise” in Pretoria, South Africa, in consultation with the University of Pretoria, Tshwane Leadership Foundation, and other local, national, and international foundations. He also taught a workshop, “Exegeting the City,” at the national Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) conference in Los Angeles in September 2016.

Mark Gaspar, associate professor in the School of Business, maintains a long-standing relationship with the George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He advises the Elliott School’s graduate student-run publication, The International Affairs Review (IAR), which celebrates its 21st year in print this year. IAR provides a unique forum for the policy perspectives of tomorrow’s leaders on critical issues facing the world today. Recently, Prof. Gaspar traveled to Washington, DC, to provide a professional writing and policy development workshop to 35 members of the IAR team. He says, “There is great value in thinking through the many issues that confront humanity and developing recommendations for addressing them. Most importantly, the results of preparing and publishing student articles are noteworthy: The process builds expertise and confidence, as well as significantly strengthening students’ resumes.”

Sali Kaceli ’98, director of educational technology and distance learning, presented again at the annual conference of the Association of Small Computer Users in Education. The presentation topic was “Components of an Effective Online Course.”

Christopher Palladino ’94, chair of the History Department and assistant professor in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, delivered presentations at the International Schools of Vienna in March 2016, where he also visited classes taught by Andrea Howard ’11. His presentation topics included the art of conversation, inquiry-based curriculum, and heroic roles of teachers.

In April, Palladino served as the section chair for the New York State Political Science Association annual conference in New Paltz, NY, where Sarah Vieldhouse ’10 delivered a paper on political science. In July, Palladino and his daughter, Isabella, participated in a missions trip to Guatemala (pictured).

In August, he was keynote speaker at the 16th Annual Convention of the Philadelphia Association of Christian Schools, hosted at Cairn. In September, he presented at a Civics Education Summit at Longwood University and led a contingent of former and current Cairn students in a panel discussion on the art of conversation. In November, Palladino returned to Regensburg, Germany, to teach art history for a week for AMBEX, a Christian study abroad program.

Suzanne Schmidt, adjunct faculty in the School of Music, recently adjudicated two piano auditions. In October, she served as a judge for the Dorothy Sutton Piano Festival at West Chester University, an event sponsored by the Main Line Music Teachers Association. She also judged student performances for the Lehigh Valley Music Teachers Association’s Achievement Awards Adjudication, held at Moravian College in November.

Dr. Scott Watson, adjunct faculty in the School of Music, taught three graduate courses this summer: Getting the Most Out of Band (Central Connecticut State University’s Summer Music Institute), Blended Learning in Music Education, and Rehearsal Strategies and Repertoire for Young Band (both at the University of the Arts’ Summer Music Studies program). He also taught music production as part of Parkland High School’s STEMM Academy (Allentown, PA).

In August, Dr. Watson delivered professional development training to the music department of the Winston-Salem-Forsythe County (NC) school district, on topics including instrumental pedagogy, large ensemble rehearsal, and integrating technology for general/elective music classes.

Dr. Watson also had eight composed pieces commissioned and/or published this summer/fall: “Queen Mab” (commissioned by a consortium of 12 university and high school bands nationwide, performed in October by the Orange County School for the Arts Wind Ensemble in Santa Ana, CA), “Magic Valley” (commissioned by the Magic Valley Symphony Orchestra in Twin Falls, ID), “Terracotta Warriors” (commissioned by the Albemarle County Middle School Honors Band in Virginia), and “Race Car” (Alfred, Grade 2), “Capturing in the Blue Riband” (Alfred, Grade 1.5), “Come, Rejoice” (Alfred, Grade 1), “Morning Star” (TRN Publications, Grade 2), and “Silent Night, Holy Night” (TRN Publications, Grade 1.5).

Virginia Whitney, adjunct faculty in the School of Music, studied in Cameroon, Africa, this summer with Cairn music students Angie Tyler ’18 and Daseul Park ’18. Read more about their ethnodoxological research and teaching among the Oroko people.

Dr. Debbie Lynn Wolf, professor in the School of Music and chair of the Music Education program, presented a poster titled “A Two-Year Longitudinal Investigation Comparing Pitch Discrimination and Pitch Matching Skills of Young Children” at the International Conference on Music Cognition and Perception in San Francisco (July 5–9). She also presented a paper titled “Characteristics of Pitch-Matching and Rhythm-Matching Accuracy for Kindergarten Boys and Girls from Argentina” at the International Society for Music Education Research Commission in London (July 18–22). On July 25–29, she presented two workshops at the International Society for Music Education International Conference in Glasgow, Scotland: “Swedish Hymns: International Spiritual Resources” and “Elevating Individual Performance Through Assessment: Techniques that Inspire.”