Faculty and Staff Recognition Ceremony: October 8

A recognition ceremony to honor faculty and staff accomplishments will be held on Thursday, October 8, at 12:15 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Rockwell Hall.

The event will recognize Buffalo State recipients of Chancellor’s and President’s awards. In addition, all new faculty and staff members will be welcomed to campus. The entire campus community is invited to participate in this fourth annual event. A reception will follow in the auditorium lobby of Rockwell Hall.

President’s Award for Excellence in Service to the College

Stephen E. Gareau
Stephen E. Gareau, professor of computer information systems, is a lifelong learner with a personal commitment to continuous learning and improvement. He has earned a Ph.D. and four master’s degrees, along with a host of certificates and awards. This remarkable body of work serves as a foundation for his service engagements. He has been able to integrate teaching and scholarship with service, and many people and organizations have benefitted from his efforts.

Gareau always goes beyond the typical faculty obligations in his quest to educate students, improve the institution, engage with the external community, and reach the lives of those who are less powerful and less fortunate. He is actively engaged with Buffalo State’s Volunteer and Service-Learning Center, having implemented service-learning into various courses. These experiential classes contribute to students’ growth and citizenship development, while aiding non-profit organizations.

As graduate coordinator of the educational technology master’s program, Gareau has been involved in designing the program as well as new courses. In addition, he has led outreach efforts to non-traditional student groups. He has designed and delivered many presentations on topics aimed to make visiting international students and faculty more comfortable while at Buffalo State. He also undertook his own initiative to connect with graduate students who ceased their studies relatively close to graduation because of academic, personal, or professional reasons. This effort led to procedural changes within the department that have reduced the number of students who leave before graduating.

He was instrumental in the development of his department’s facilities in the new Technology Building. Over a 5-year period, he designed many facilities on the second floor, tested hardware and software, worked closely with campus staff, faculty, and vendors, and performed many other functions throughout the process. He worked tirelessly with little external recognition, but his effort will have an impact that will last for many years.

President’s Award for Excellence in Academic Advisement

Kimberly A. Blessing
Kimberly A. Blessing, professor of philosophy in the Philosophy and Humanities Department, has served as an academic adviser for the past six years, mastering institutional policies, regulations, and procedures. During her tenure as department chair, she assumed responsibility for the systemization of advisement activities and created a wide array of documents, worksheets, and planners to help advisers and advisees track progress and plan for future semesters.

Blessing is highly regarded by both her students and colleagues. Students often comment on the many ways in which she has transformed their lives, while colleagues point to her as a model of exemplary academic advising and student mentoring. She is especially gifted at identifying academically at-risk students and coaching them to success. She also places a particular emphasis on advising students to venture beyond the college to participate in conferences, extracurricular functions, and apply to graduate school. In addition, she founded the Women in Philosophy Club to help mentor and encourage female philosophy majors.

Blessing is a tireless advocate for her students. She spends significant amounts of time with each student, keeping detailed records of their sessions, and helping them navigate the requirements of the major while pushing them to craft a coherent plan of study for a genuine education, not just a transcript. Time and again, she sends the message that she believes in her students and their ability to succeed. More often than not, students do succeed because of her support.

In the most recent review of the Philosophy and Humanities Department’s advisement program, an external reviewer noted that it “is the best philosophy department advising initiative that I have ever seen.” This remark is a credit to Blessing’s leadership and her commitment to student success.

President’s Award for Excellence as an Undergraduate Research Mentor

Bridget María Chesterton
Bridget María Chesterton, associate professor of history and social studies education, is demanding, passionate, and relentlessly dedicated to her students and their scholarly success. She is a talented writer, a respected researcher, and insightful editor, and a fierce intellect. As a mentor, she combines the ability to convey total support for her students with an uncompromising demand that they do their best work and present it to the broader academic community.

Chesterton teaches HIS 300W Research and Writing Seminar, which is required of all history and social studies education majors. This is often where her student mentorship activities begin. She has designed a syllabus with a series of assignments aimed at preparing students to become active members of the historical profession. This course provides students with the confidence and enthusiasm to pursue a meaningful career.

Building on her work as faculty adviser to the campus chapter of Phi Alpha Theta (PAT), the national history honor society, she encourages students to present their original research at regional conferences. Prior to each regional PAT meeting, she spends months working with student presenters helping them refine their papers and presentation techniques. The efforts have paid off: since 2011, no fewer than 29 students in the department have presented original research at PAT meetings and four were awarded a Best in Conference Prize. Chesterton generously gives of her time. She has devoted countless hours to mentoring students. It is a rare day when she is not in her office speaking with students about their classes, research, and future plans. She is a co-presenter at the department’s annual workshop on applying to graduate programs in history and was the driving force behind establishing The Exposition, the department’s annual online history journal, which provides students with a venue to publish their original research.

Amy M. McMillan
Amy M. McMillan, associate professor of biology, is an excellent scientist and educator, and these skills converge in her ability to teach, inspire, and advise undergraduate students. She not only models how to be a scientist, but she expects it of them. Over the past decade, she has amassed an exemplary record, mentoring or co-mentoring nearly 40 students conducting independent research and for honors theses and various summer research programs.

Her dedication to undergraduate research and mentoring comes through collaborations, undergraduate fellowship programs and presentations, and collegial interactions. She views undergraduate mentorship as a vocation and core part of her job worth nurturing.

Most of her work involves genetic analysis, a conceptually difficult topic in biology that is difficult to measure. She fosters a lab environment in which the more advanced students bolster her mentoring. Her lab is not a collection of independent students in proximity, but an organism unto itself where the more advanced students guide the novices. The advanced students learn how to take leadership roles and allow McMillan the opportunity to offer a greater number of students with meaningful research experiences.

A central tenet of McMillan’s approach is that she does not assign undergraduates menial tasks. Instead, they are given the opportunity to do real research in a real lab. Students do not conduct small side experiments, but instead contribute to McMillan’s ongoing research program. Another of her tactics is allowing students the freedom to fail, as she notes that valuable lessons in learning, problem solving, and responsibility often result from failure. McMillan’s former students are well accomplished as a result of their preparation in McMillan’s lab. She often ignited their passion for the field and provided them with the confidence to continue their work outside the walls of her lab, which has led them to career advancement.

President’s Award for Excellence in Research, Scholarship, and Creativity

Carol A. DeNysschen
Carol A. DeNysschen, chair and associate professor of health, nutrition, and dietetics, has generated an impressive record of excellence in research, scholarship, and creativity that focuses on significant issues in cancer care. She collaborates at a high level with research institutions such as Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the University at Buffalo, while using her expertise to teach undergraduate students at Buffalo State.

Since joining the Buffalo State faculty in 2008, she has published seven articles in multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journals. One of these publications was written with students who participated in the Buffalo State Undergraduate Summer Research Program. She has also received funding for several research and educational projects. Two research projects are currently underway that test nutrition and exercise interventions designed to reduce symptoms and treatment side effects experienced by cancer patients and survivors. These projects are of great significance in extending scientific knowledge in this area.

DeNysschen is very active in her professional organization (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics). She has been designated as a fellow of the Academy, an honor recognizing her service and contributions to the dietetics profession and dedication to optimizing health through food and nutrition. Locally, she serves as president of the Western New York Dietetics Association, an organization from which she has twice received Outstanding Educator Award for her excellence in conducting presentations and workshops on dietetics issues.

She has demonstrated that a full-time teaching professor at an academic unit, without support of graduate students in the major, can be a productive researcher. Evidence of her creativity can be seen in her design of novel exercise and nutritional interventions as well as in creatively integrating research into her work with students.

Ruth X. Guo
Ruth X. Guo, professor of computer information systems, has maintained an impressive balance across Buffalo State’s mission of research and scholarship, learning and teaching, and community service. She is a very generous scholar, always supportive and facilitative in the achievements of her students and colleagues. Her research and scholarly work includes a range of subject areas from preparations and practices in using digital technologies to the use of service-learning in K–12 education to video data use in teacher education e-portfolios.

Guo is well respected in the field of educational technology across international settings. Her innovations in curriculum and teaching within educational technology at Buffalo State provide international models for flexible, twenty-first century learning. This engaged and sustained scholarship into dynamic modes of learning and teaching sets her work apart. Her commitment to excellence and innate curiosity has resulted in significant scholarship that benefits the discipline as well as her teaching, mentorship of graduate students, and service-learning opportunities.

Her considerable body of work is a natural reflection of her teaching practice. Over the years, Dr. Guo has amassed an impressive record. Since 2002, she has completed two scholarly books, six book chapters, and 19 refereed publications. This work is used and cited by other researchers (for instance, her research paper, Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants, has been cited by more than 80 other researchers and scholars). Her most recent book culminates a decade of patient data collection, observation, pilots and tests, and analysis of grounded practices in educational technology.

In addition, she provides significant scholarly service to the discipline by her contributions as editor and reviewer for journals, book chapters, and conferences. The common thread in all of her work is her deep dedication to teacher education and the promotion of learning among all students.

President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

Barish Ali
Barish Ali, assistant professor of English, has established a superlative professorial record in teaching, scholarship, and service to students and the profession during his eight years of teaching at Buffalo State. Always a team player, he serves on more than 10 departmental and collegewide committees and interdisciplinary groups.

A specialist in comparative literature and literary theory, Ali has taught 18 different courses, emphasizing the political, cultural, and social connections and their effect on literature. His supportive selection of readings and analytical tools, coupled with ample opportunity for discussion, enable his students to emerge with a better understanding of diverse cultures. His work was recently recognized with the Dr. Muriel A. Howard Presidential Award for the Promotion of and Respect for Equity and Campus Diversity.

Ali is an engaged and provocative thinker and scholar with an impressive scholarly track record. He brings his own scholarship into the classroom through his research and readings. He has four peer-reviewed articles, two book chapters, a translated article, 18 conference presentations, and eight invited lectures. He connects his courses to other literature and education courses to prepare students who may be become teachers with a strong literary foundation.

As the director of the college’s Summer In Istanbul program, he has led students through an immersion course of study where they experience Middle Eastern and Turkish history, culture, and literature. The program was designed, implemented, and managed entirely by Ali, who established connections at Bogazici University, where the students studied. In 2013, he applied for and received a $5,000 SUNY grant to reduce the cost for students. He led a second trip in 2014.

Lynne M. Scalia
Lynne M. Scalia, associate professor of business, has a strong record of teaching excellence. Students comment that she is patient and explains and presents information in such a way that students readily understand major ideas and concepts. She actively seeks and encourages student participation through strategic assignments and innovative instructional techniques, including case studies, simulations, and field activities.

Scalia was responsible for completely revising the format and course requirements of the Business Department Internship Program. She designed a website for the program that highlights the application process, expectations, and internship requests from more than 160 companies in Western New York, with additional listings from Rochester, Syracuse, and New York City, to accommodate students from those areas.

This attention to detail in the internship program has resulted in the vast majority of students reporting favorable internship experiences and 50 percent of fall 2014 interns being offered paid employment after completion of the internship. In fall 2014, Scalia participated in a $7,000 SUNY Works Lumina Grant for Education to develop nine learning modules, which are now available for all internship programs on campus.

While Scalia has demonstrated excellence in teaching, she also has developed her scholarly abilities by securing major grants, publishing, and presenting to colleagues and peers during her tenure at the college. From 1996–2014, she has received $290,500 in grant funding for various projects. She has published articles in peer-reviewed journals on topics ranging from benefits of internships to assessment of online courses. In addition, she has held chairperson, coordinator, and membership positions on nearly 20 different college committees. She has lived the college’s mission to be an excellent teacher, student-centered in and out of the classroom, a willing colleague, and a professional within the community.

Jonathan L. Thornton
Jonathan L. Thornton, professor of art conservation, has taught objects conservation and advised and mentored students for more than 35 years. He has been able to educate and prepare his students for success in both the museum world and in the private business sector, as evidenced by the professional achievements of his former students. A specialist in objects conservation, Thornton has been a key contributor to positioning Buffalo State at the pinnacle of international instruction and research in art conservation.

Thornton’s approach to teaching is to encourage students to think, problem solve, and apply creativity and adaptability to conservation treatment projects. Critical thinking is a hallmark of his pedagogy. Challenged as a new professor to devise a viable curriculum for objects conservation, he created a world-class program, setting a pedagogical standard for conservation instruction worldwide.

Thornton has been active in his own research and scholarship. His areas of interest and expertise are in the deconstruction of complex technologies from archeological objects to modern apparatus to understand the structure, construction, and materials and their implication in the overall functioning of the objects. Students join him in this activity, including at Buffalo State’s annual metal smelting project and in labs throughout the year. By involving students, he links his own research with teaching. Since 2012, he has made six presentations at prestigious international conferences around the world, including recent stops in Ireland and South Africa.

Thornton is revered by his students and recognized by his colleagues around the world for his vast experience and willingness to share in a broad range of conservation of historical, archaeological, decorative, and fine art objects and artifacts. Over the years, his students continue to call him for advice on conservation treatment projects and for his letters of support as they advance professionally.

Kevin K. Williams
Kevin K. Williams, associate professor of earth sciences and science education, is able to inspire students who struggle with what they perceive as difficult science content. He adds animation or hands-on materials whenever possible to vary from traditional lecture-style teaching. He has developed special guidebooks to provide reinforcement of class content. This level of dedication to content delivery can be found in any of the classes he teaches from lower-level undergraduate classes, upper-level classes, fieldwork, and independent study.

Over his career, Williams has published 17 articles in peer-reviewed journals and, while at Buffalo State, more than 35 conference abstracts. He has been the primary investigator of four grants ($145,000) and co-investigator of five grants ($600,000). Williams has presented 20 invited talks to such organizations as the Penn Dixie Paleontological and Outdoor Education Center, Buffalo Museum of Science, Buffalo Astronomical Association, and the Buffalo Association of Professional Geologists. The value of his expertise and creativity as a speaker is recognized throughout the region.

Williams has been the director of the Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium since 2010. As director, he is responsible for giving presentations to groups that visit the facility during daytime hours. These groups are diverse, including K–12 students from city and suburban schools, college students from courses on campus, special needs adults from area programs, children in summer programs, and adults from private groups. Although the programs cover similar topics, Williams modifies his presentations to the specific audience.

Whether in the classroom, the field, or the planetarium, Williams demonstrates consistent and superior quality instruction through a dedicated and sincere relationship with his students. He has mentored more than 20 students in a variety of research projects at the undergraduate and graduate levels; most of those students have presented the results of their work at local, regional, and national conferences.

SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Classified Service

Jacalyn Hirtreiter
Jacalyn Hirtreiter, secretary 1 in the Counseling Center, has demonstrated a consistent, exemplary performance throughout her career at Buffalo State. In addition to completing her duties in a skillful manner, she has personal qualities that facilitate the smooth operation of a busy office and promote the center’s mission of providing support, advocacy, and education to our students.

Her ability to keep up with a heavy workload is outstanding. Last year, the Counseling Center provided psychological and psychiatric treatment to more than 800 individual students and consulted with hundreds of additional constituents. Hirtreiter ensures that all constituents are tracked in a database system so that the office can coordinate communication and prevent any students from “falling through the cracks” in a large college system.

Hirtreiter assists counselors in managing the logistics and handout materials associated with the hundreds of outreach events and workshops offered each year. She works within the legal framework, rules, and ethics of a mental health care setting and its strict guidelines. Hirtreiter is an important team member for the center’s annual events, including Mental Health Awareness Week and the Celebration of Life Memorial Service. She provides more than administrative support; she is active in problem solving, preparing marketing materials, logistics, and information tracking.

In addition to her regular work, she has volunteered her time with the college’s Sustainability Committee to help beautify the campus, and was instrumental in helping to set up the Food Pantry started by the Counseling Center and Critical Incident Team. She is customer-service driven and students often comment in surveys about her high level of professionalism, gentle and welcoming demeanor, and concern for students. She is a devoted and dependable employee whose work is characterized by high standards of quality.

SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Professional Service

Thomas C. Koller
Thomas C. Koller, senior associate director of intercollegiate athletics, joined the Buffalo State athletics staff in 2001 and has proven himself as an asset to the department, campus, conference, and community. He supervises several offices with an athletics department that has witnessed significant growth. Due in part to his efforts, Buffalo State has made various upgrades to its athletic facilities, including turf and a new press box at Coyer Field, a new softball complex with dugouts, a $27 million renovation of Houston Gym, and branding enhancements in the Ice Arena and Sports Arena.

Koller has been a revenue-generating engine for the department. He has raised more than $2 million in cash and trade with corporate partners over the past 15 years. He serves as the department’s chief development officer, which includes working as liaison to the college’s Institutional Advancement Office as well as overseeing team fundraising, the Bengal Club, major gift solicitation, and the annual Bengal Club Golf Classic. He has revamped the Bengal Booster Club to increase membership and participation and more than tripled the golf tournament’s annual revenues.

He has spread the word about Buffalo State athletics by creating, hosting, and producing the biweekly Bengal Magazine, a cable television show that celebrates the accomplishments of Buffalo State student-athletes and coaches. He has served on numerous campus committees, including as chair of the Buffalo State Athletics Hall of Fame and master of ceremony for the Buffalo State Scholarship Gala. His positive attitude and leadership style are contagious and he has served as a role model for young staff members in athletics and beyond. This is evident in his role as chair of the Homecoming Steering Committee. He has transformed the event, leading to record participation and the addition of an annual food drive benefitting the Buffalo State Food Pantry.

SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching

Charles G. Arbutina
Charles G. Arbutina, lecturer in computer information systems, is currently the longest-standing faculty member in the department, loyally serving for 34 years as an exceptional adjunct lecturer. He is a person of many talents and is able to teach many undergraduate major courses at all levels of complexity. He brings a wealth of real-world experience into the classroom and is beloved and respected by faculty and students alike.

The majority of his professional career was spent at HSBC; he retired in 2012 after 25 years at the bank. His passion for teaching and mentoring students has driven him to return to Buffalo State semester after semester. He has extensive experience working on complex projects at major institutions and supervising teams of programmers and analysts in the U.S. and abroad. His reliability, flexibility, technical competence, and teaching style are an inspiration to colleagues.

In the past five years, he has taught 23 courses. Not only does he handle highly technical, demanding major courses with ease, but he has also been a significant presence in writing-intensive courses throughout his time at the college. In addition to his teaching duties, he volunteers with student recruitment and open houses and often serves as a guest speaker in other classes. He has collaborated on research activities related to the design of a pre-programming course. More recently, he was part of a SUNY Exploration grant; he facilitated a daylong workshop on the project and mentored students with their research work that they presented at the Student Research and Creativity Celebration.

He is sympathetic to the needs of both traditional and working students. Patient and understanding, he devotes time beyond what is required to working with students outside of class meetings. He is demanding, but he also provides every student with the opportunity to succeed.

Dorothy R. Wiswall
Dorothy R. Wiswall, lecturer emerita in modern and classical languages, is an outstanding and committed teacher of German language and literature. Her teaching is of the highest quality, her rapport with students excellent, and her contributions to the mission of the department are exemplary. She is concerned not only for a student’s positive progress, but for a student’s understanding of personal responsibility for that progress.

Wiswall’s classes involve extensive focus on aspects of the history, culture, geography, and current events of German-speaking countries. Students are exposed to videos, travel brochures, informational booklets, and maps of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Conversation in German is an important part of each class at all levels, usually with a discussion topic for the day. Her friendly manner puts students at ease and inspires them to express themselves.

She brought extensive professional teaching experience to Buffalo State when she joined the Modern and Classical Languages Department in 2001. In addition to garnering several honors and awards prior to her service at the college, she served as vice president of the American Association of Teachers of German of Western New York. Her community service has included working as a docent at the Buffalo Museum of Science and serving as president of the Zonta Club of Buffalo. These activities enhanced her classroom effectiveness and organizational abilities.

As the only German teacher in the department, Wiswall retains some students through six courses, keeping track of the growth in their abilities. She has also worked with students on independent study projects. Beyond language courses, she has also taught a German literature course to meet student need. Due to her dedication and willingness to offer courses, Buffalo State’s minor program in German is thriving, while many other institutions have discontinued their German studies programs.

SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching

Michael J. Littman
Michael J. Littman, chair and associate professor of business, is recognized for his consistently superior, student-focused, and innovative teaching skills, sound scholarship, and exceptional level of service to Buffalo State students. His strong commitment to students starts with advisement, extends into the classroom, and stretches to their post-graduate careers.

Littman has a long record of positive impact on student growth and performance through a variety of offerings, including freshman seminars, senior seminars, honors sections, and graduate-level courses, plus courses cross-listed in history and communications. He has taught 42 different undergraduate and graduate courses at Buffalo State. The focus of his teaching has been to instill and develop the positive personal and professional skills students need for a rewarding role as ethical leaders in their profession and community.

In the past three years, Littman has supervised more than 36 individual undergraduate independent studies and 13 graduate independent studies and master’s projects. Since 2004, he has been principal adviser to 32 graduate students and on the committee of 56 students. Currently, 11 of his former students teach in adjunct positions at the college. He has also mentored international faculty through the Fulbright program and African Regional International Scholar Development Internship program.

Littman also has a strong record of scholarship that supports his excellence in the classroom. He is an internationally recognized scholar and consultant who is often requested to collaborate with a European network of partners. He has participated in projects in the Netherlands, Latvia, and Germany. He has a long history of being a requested reviewer by journals and textbooks in a variety of business areas. He also has served his community as a two-term president of the Williamsville Central School District Board of Education and has served as a member of the Buffalo’s Superintendent Advisory Council on Occupational Education.

James Mayrose
James Mayrose, dean of the School of the Professions, is an aerospace and mechanical engineer with significant publications and awards, including the 2014 Tibbetts Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration for excellence in innovation, which was presented at the White House, and the 2014 Inventor of the Year Award from the Niagara Frontier Intellectual Property Law Association.

He uses practical, interactive teaching methods to explain engineering’s difficult concepts in ways that make them understandable to students. Mayrose’s philosophy in teaching is based on the cognitive constructivism theory, which asserts that persons must be fully engaged in the learning process through active, effective, and meaningful activities, not passive and non-engaging media. Through hands-on laboratory experiments, instructional videos, games, virtual environments, and small group projects, relevant theories and principles are more effectively understood.

Mayrose believes that there is more to teaching than spending time in the classroom with students. He is dedicated to formal and informal student advisement, at-risk advisement, serving as a reviewer for the Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship Program, mentor for the Ronald E. McNair Scholars program, participating in departmental open houses, community service days, and recruitment events. Since 2006, he has supervised numerous undergraduate and graduate students with various funded research projects and mentored 42 students with unfunded undergraduate research projects.

Mayrose’s own research interest areas have been focused on biomechanics, transportation injury, and engineering education. He is CEO and founding partner of Tactus Technologies, Inc., an Amherst, New York-based software company that specializes in virtual reality applications. To date, he has 34 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, five manuscripts under peer review, 51 abstracts, 27 presentations, and 32 grants. By conducting his own quality research and incorporating it into his course content, he is able to share with students his creative solutions to complex engineering problems.

Lisa A. Rafferty
Lisa A. Rafferty, chair and associate professor of exceptional education, represents a model of teaching, presents a unity of teaching and scholarship, and clearly demonstrates a commitment to the mission of higher education for advancing the quality of life for children and families. The results of her dedication to teacher education are enjoyed by teacher candidates and her faculty colleagues in the School of Education and at P–12 schools served by partnerships with Buffalo State.

Rafferty has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses at Buffalo State offered in traditional, hybrid, and online formats. She has also taught doctoral level courses in the University at Buffalo/Buffalo State College Joint Special Education Doctoral Program. Students under her mentorship have published in peer-reviewed national journals and presented at the New York State Council for Exceptional Education conference.

She serves or has served as a contributing and highly regarded member of numerous committees within the department, School of Education, and college. Her service as the Best Buddies chapter co-adviser helped the chapter become a self-sufficient organization that was recognized as the Overall Outstanding College Chapter worldwide in 2012. At the state level, she served on the board of directors of the New York State Association for Childhood Education International and the New York State Council for Exceptional Children.

Rafferty is actively engaged in the facilitation and dissemination of scholarship. She has authored or co-authored more than 20 scholarly works. Her scholarship includes 12 peer-reviewed published articles (10 of which she is first or solo author), and 47 professional conference/workshop presentations. She served as co-editor for the journal, Exceptional Individuals, and currently serves as manuscript reviewer for multiple journals, and is an invited member of the editorial review board of the journal, Education and Treatment of Children. She has earned national recognition as a scholar and researcher.