Albert Goldbarth's Newest Creative Exploration
Albert Goldbarth, Wichita State's Adele B. Davis distinguished professor of humanities, is the author of more than 25 books of poetry. His new poetry collection, titled “Selfish,” explores all things self-ish: the origins of identity, the search for ancestry, the neurology of self-awareness and more.
Goldbarth has twice won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry, and is a recipient of the Mark Twain Award from the Poetry Foundation.
Seven Win Recognition
Seven faculty members received eight university-level awards in early May.
Excellence in Research, and Board of Trustees Excellence in Teaching: As moving, inorganic things share our space – such as space debris, drones the size of insects, robots and self-driven cars – it's important to study how those things can avoid collisions with one another and with humans. That's what Animesh Chakravarthy, assistant professor, controls engineering, does, in addition to being a high-scoring teacher on student satisfaction surveys.
Excellence in Community Research: For three decades, Mark Glaser, professor, public administration, has surveyed how citizens feel about their communities to help public officials determine how they can best serve their citizens. His reputation and experience have garnered international interest, leading to a presentation at a World Bank meeting.
Excellence in Creative Activity: Music composer and assistant professor Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn thought moving to Kansas in 2011 could mean “cultural death.” Instead, his best work and accolades of his career, including the national 2013 American Prize for composition, have happened since joining WSU's faculty. His work includes 12 commissions, 53 performances of his pieces and a just-released CD.
Young Faculty Scholar: An oft-cited researcher, David Xu studies how and why we interact with technology. The assistant professor and Barton Fellow, management information systems, researches such things as whether people are more apt to lie in text conversations compared to video chats and how e-commerce tools can be designed to help consumers in buying decisions.
Leadership in the Advancement of Teaching Award: Vinod Namboodiri, associate professor, electrical engineering and computer science, received his third consecutive university award, in large part because of his innovative teaching approaches to improve his teaching and his students' experience. He's become a go-to resource for other university faculty on the topic.
Academy for Effective Teaching: Gina Brown, assistant professor, became a physician assistant to serve people, working in Afghanistan and local safety net clinics. By becoming a clinical educator for future physician assistants, she has broadened her ability to help people. “I felt if I could provide really excellent education to my students, then I can help them provide better care to all the patients they see in the future,” she says. (Turn to Page 38 for more about Brown.)
When he became an educator after 25 years in the corporate world, Brian Rawson, management lecturer, looked for ways to best prepare students for the business world. As a result he's brought several innovations, ranging from managing change in one's personal life to a new approach to team projects to international networking, to his classes.
— Amy Geiszler-Jones
WSU Welcomes New Counsel
David H. Moses will become general counsel at Wichita State, effective July 1. He succeeds Ted Ayres, who is retiring at the end of June.
Moses – whose wife Terri '80/90 was president of the WSU Alumni Association in 2003-04 – has practiced law for 36 years, most recently as managing member of the Wichita law firm Moses & Pate LLC. He has also taught Legal Issues in Sports Administration at WSU for the past decade.
Business School Names Dean
Anand S. Desai has been named dean of Wichita State's W. Frank Barton School of Business. Desai, who has more than three decades of academic experience, most recently served as associate dean for academic administration at Kansas State University. He will assume leadership of the Barton School in July.
Prior to joining KSU in 1994, Desai was on the finance faculty at the University of Florida, the University of Michigan and Iowa State University. His teaching interests are in corporate finance, investments and derivative markets, and he has taught finance courses in Germany, Italy and France. Two of his co-authored research papers published in the Journal of Financial Economics are widely cited as seminal papers in the area of corporate acquisitions.
