Accomplish ments

We celebrate the accomplishments of UR’s talented faculty and staff.

See more accomplishments and submit your own grant, publication, or honor at richmond.edu/ faculty-staff.

OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

NANCY BAGRANOFF, professor of accounting, received the 2021 AICPA Distinguished Achievement in Accounting Education Award from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

DENIZ BESIK, assistant professor of management, submitted a statement to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Agriculture regarding the food supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic.

JAMIE BETTS, photographer, received the designation of Certified Remote Pilot from the Federal Aviation Administration, allowing him to operate the University’s drone under the FAA’s small unmanned aircraft systems requirements.

KRISTIN BEZIO, associate professor of leadership studies, published the chapter “‘Mountainish Inhumanity’: The Politics of Religion, Refugees, and Ego from ‘Sir Thomas More’ to Donald Trump,” in William Shakespeare and 21st-Century Culture, Politics, and Leadership (Edward Elgar Publishing), which she co-edited with Anthony Russell, associate professor of English and comparative literature.

CAROL BROWN, professor of law, was appointed to the Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia board of directors and accepted an invitation to become academic liaison for the Real Property Section of the Virginia State Bar.

SUNNI BROWN, director of media and public relations, won first place in the National Federation of Press Women’s annual communications contest and first place in the Virginia Professional Communicators’ annual communications contest in the Information for the Media — Media Pitch category for her media relations work with Jory Brinkerhoff, associate professor of biology, related to similarities between Lyme disease and COVID-19. Brown and Cynthia Price, associate vice president of media and public relations, won third place in the Web and Social Media — Social Media Presence — Nonprofit, Government, or Educational category for “@URNews2Use: Twitter Feed for Media Relations.”

CINDY BUKACH, MacEldin Trawick Professor of Psychology, co-presented “What Happens When Things Go Off the Rails?: Grant management for when the best-laid plans don’t go as planned,” as part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science — Improving Undergraduate STEM Education summer labs series.

COLLEEN CARPENTER-SWANSON, assistant professor of biology, received a $25,000 grant from the LGS Foundation for her research on Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome, a severe childhood-onset epilepsy.

KATE CASSADA, associate professor of education, was named president of the Virginia Professors of Educational Leadership.

RONALD A. CRUTCHER, University Professor and president emeritus, was presented with a House Joint Resolution honoring him as a distinguished leader at UR and in higher education. CRUTCHER’s memoir, I Had No Idea You Were Black: Navigating Race on the Road to Leadership, was featured in the research and books section of the Council of Independent Colleges’ spring Independent newsletter.

RANA DAJANI, visiting scholar in leadership studies, co-published “iOntoBioethics: A Framework for the Agile Development of Bioethics Ontologies in Pandemics, Applied to COVID-19” in Frontiers in Medicine; “Peer Mentoring Women in STEM: An Explanatory Case Study on Reflections from a Program in Jordan” in Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning; and “The Effects of Reading-Based Intervention on Emotion Processing in Children Who Have Suffered Early Adversity and War Related Trauma” in Frontiers in Psychology.

MONTI DATTA, associate professor of political science, received the University of Richmond 2020–21 Advisor Excellence Award.

KELLING DONALD, professor of chemistry, received a $376,067 grant from the National Science Foundation for his research on chemical bonding.

LISA DONOVAN, adjunct assistant professor of education, co-published Teacher as Curator: Formative Assessment and Arts-Based Strategies (Teachers College Press).