Spring 2004
Nancy Amberson, coordinator of Foreign Student Services, serves as Secretary/treasurer and local arrangement coordinator for The Tennessee Association of International Educators (TAIE). Amberson was responsible for bringing the annual TAIE state meeting to the UTC campus for the first time, with 31 state institutions participating in the event.
Richard Brown, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga has been appointed a member of the 2004-5 The Southern Association of College and University Business Officers Comprehensive College and University Committee. The Comprehensive College and University Committee is responsible for promoting the interests of its constituent group by identifying, presenting, and promoting professional issues and challenges facing the Comprehensive College and University institutions. This is accomplished through professional development, membership services, and networking opportunities.
Pam Carlisle, graduation specialist and a Veterans Affairs certifying official for the Records and Registration Office was recently elected president of the Tennessee Educational Association of Veterans Program Administrators.
Steven Cox, assistant professor and head of Special Collections and University Archives gave the keynote address at the Chattanooga Area Historical Association annual luncheon. Cox spoke about the life of General John T. Wilder, who lived in Chattanooga after the Civil War and helped establish the region as a mining center.
Sandy Cole, project director for Bradley/Walker GEAR UP program, was invited to speak before the Tennessee House Education Committee in Nashville. The House Education Committee is charged with investigating a lottery scholarship that would provide monetary incentives for middle and high school students, using grades and test scores as criteria.
Cole was recently honored for her work with Reality Check at the 2004 Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce Business Expo. Reality Check is a program offered through the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce to local high school freshmen to experience life as if they were 25 years old and the primary wage earner of their household.
J. Hill Craddock, Davenport Associate Professor, biological and environmental sciences, has been interviewed for an episode of The Natural South entitled “The Story of the American Chestnut” on Turner South. Craddock serves as coordinator of the Chattanooga Chestnut Tree Project.
Susan Davidson, nursing, has been chosen as one of Chattanooga’s Women of Distinction. Nominations were submitted by community residents. Women of Distinction awards recognize outstanding professional achievement and outstanding volunteer and philanthropic service. Davidson has been a volunteer for many years with the American Lung Association. She has served ALA as president of the Southeast Regional Council, secretary of the state board and has chaired a number of committees, including the Women of Distinction Committee. She is a member of several professional organizations, including the Tennessee Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society for Nurses. Davidson is a member of Advanced Practice Nurses, the committee on collegiate nursing education and served as faculty council secretary for three years. She has twice been named the outstanding nursing faculty member at UTC.
Robert Espeseth, Jr., rowing coordinator, was one of six former University of Wisconsin student-athletes to be inducted into the University of Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame. Espeseth is now listed among 127 members of the UW Athletic Hall of Fame. Espeseth was a member of four consecutive (1972-75) collegiate championship crews. A four-time Olympian, he won a bronze medal in the 1984 Summer Olympics in the men’s pair with coxswain. In 1986, he was named US Rowing Male Athlete of the Year after winning the world championship in the men’s four without coxswain. Espeseth is also a member of the UW Rowing Hall of Fame.
Gregory Grant, Grote Professor of Chemistry, presented CRYSTALLIZATON OF CONFORMATIONAL DIASTEREOISOMERS, in the Division of Inorganic Chemistry at the 227th National American Chemist Society Meeting in Anaheim, California.
Nick Honerkamp, acting head of Sociology, Anthropology and Geography recently lead “Exploring the Riverwalk,” the newest in the Regional History Museum’s City Tour Series of on-site public programs.
Lauri Hyers, psychology, has been selected by The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI) Grants-In-Aid Program as a Winter Award Recipient for her scientific research discussed in Coming of Age in Contemporary Society: The Significance and Impact of Secular Rites of Passage for the Well-being of Girls as they Transition into Womenhood. SPSSI is a non-profit organization that supports research on the psychological aspects of social issues, and is a Division of the American Psychological Association.
William Lee, music, was recently awarded the Music Educators National Conference Service Award, “in recognition of his scholarly contributions to the history of music in America and his service for six years as an editorial board member of The Journal of Research in Music Education. “ The journal is recognized as the primary research journal in the field. The award was given by the 500-member History Research Special Interest Group of the Music Educators National Conference (MENC ). MENC is a 100,000 member organization of music educators in the US. Lee also reviews for the Quarterly Journal of the History of Education and he is on the editorial board of the Journal of Historical Research in Music Education.
Theresa Liedtka, has been named Dean of the Lupton Library. Liedtka is presently the Assistant University Librarian at California State University at Fullerton. She will assume the duties of dean on June 15. The position of Dean of the Lupton Library was last held by Sheila Delacroix, who returned to a faculty position. Mike Bell has served as Interim Dean for the last year.
Harry McDonald, UTC Chair of Excellence in Computational Engineering discussed research and education in computational engineering during a meeting of The Hamilton County Chapter of the University of Tennessee National Alumni Association.
During performances in Munich, Germany, the UTC Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble performed the works of professors in the UTC Music Department. The ensemble premiered a low brass work by UC Foundation Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition Jonathan McNair, and two of William Lee’s arrangements were performed. Kenyon Wilson, adjunct professor of music, played a solo with the group by Tennessee composer Robert Jager.
Gretchen Potts, assistant professor of chemistry, was an invited to speak at a symposium held at the Pittsburgh Conference (Pittcon), a national conference for analytical chemists attended by over 25,000 people this year. This year the conference was held in Chicago, IL. Potts presented in the division of Undergraduate Research and Education: A Showcase of Faculty at Primarily Undergraduate Institutions. Potts presented her paper COMBINING CREEKS WITH CHEMISTRY IN CHATTANOOGA: AN ENVIRONMENTAL FIELD STUDY AND RESEARCH PROJECT FOR UNDERGRADUATES. She was assisted by students Jane A. Dickerson and Chanda K. Price.
Chris Smith, Kay Chitty Professorship of Nursing, has been chosen as one of Chattanooga’s Women of Distinction. Nominations were submitted by community residents. Women of Distinction awards recognize outstanding professional achievement and outstanding volunteer and philanthropic service. Smith has won numerous awards, including UTC Student Provost Research Award, the Margaret T. Rawlings Award for Community Service given by Girls Preparatory School and the Elise Chapin Moon Sustainer Service Award from the Junior League. She has served on the boards of the Boys’ Club of Chattanooga, Chattanooga CARES, St. Barnabas Nursing Home and is a past president of the Junior League of Chattanooga. She chairs several committees at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. She is pursuing her doctorate in nursing at East Tennessee State University.
Felicia B. Sturzer, foreign languages, presented a paper, “La bonne compagnie and the Dialectic of Pleasure in Crébillon’s Les Egarements du Coeur et de L’esprit” at the Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies conference, March 4 - 6, 2004, in Savannah, GA and chaired a session on “Dictionaries and Encyclopedias”. She published a review on Lynda L. Lange, ed. Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (University Park: Penn. State U Press, 1002) in XVIII New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century, Vol. 1 (Spring 2004, 105-107). She served on the Editorial Boards of Women in French Studies and XVIII New Perspectives on the Eighteenth Century. She was also acting department head for the Dept. of Foreign Languages and served on the Executive Board of the Southeastern American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
A fond farewell goes to two hard-working, longtime advocates of the University. Richard McDougall, (Dean Mac) Vice Chancellor for Student Development has given 34 years of service to the University. Dan Quarles has been with UTC for 27 years, most recently as Acting Associate Provost for Academic Administration. He has also served as a faculty member.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the accrediting agency for UTC, has given final approval of the Ph.D. in Computational Engineering, the first research doctorate to be offered by UTC. The University will begin admitting students to the program immediately and hopes to award its first Ph.D. degree by 2006.
