Faculty & Staff News

Jackie Amos, Senior Administrative Assistant, Ursuline Studies Program, is a 2020 winner of the Sister Pat McCaffrey, OSU Staff Award in recognition of her outstanding work and contributions to the Ursuline community. Janet Baker, DNP, APRN, ACNS-BC, CPHQ, CNE, Associate Dean, Graduate Nursing programs; Mary Lind Crowe, PhD, RN, Adjunct Faculty, Nursing; Sr. Kathleen Flanagan, OSU, MSN, RN, former director of undergraduate nursing; and Amy Petrinec, MSN ’04, PhD, RN, published their research titled: “HealthRelated Quality of Life of Older Women Religious: Negative Influence of Frailty,” in the Western Journal of Nursing Research from MNRS. Also see Zeni.

Alaric Best, Head Coach of Track and Field, has been inducted into the State University of New York at Delhi Athletics Hall of Fame. A star athlete, he was a member of the Class of 2008.

Mary Jo Cherry, PhD, Professor, Education, served as an Ambassador for the American Cancer Society fund drive, ResearcHERS: Women Fighting Cancer of Northern Ohio. The drive raised funds to support cancer research projects led by women. James Connell, PhD, Educational Administration Director, has been selected by the Ohio Department of Education to be a reader for the new round of RemotEDx grants. This series of grants is for non-profit and communitybased student learning and remote education partners. Gina DeMart-Kraus, Director of Housing and Residence Life, is a 2020 winner of the Sister Pat McCaffrey, OSU Staff Award in recognition of her outstanding work and contributions to the Ursuline community. Sister Virginia DeVinne, OSU, Director of Mission, was elected Vice-Chair of the Incarnate Word Academy Board. She also serves on the Governance Committee of the board. Also see page 6. Kimberly Dillon-Bleich, PhD, RN, Associate Dean and Assistant Professor, Nursing, along with Ursuline faculty members Laura Goliat and Patricia A. Sharpnack, and 11 other Northeast Ohio nurse leaders, coauthored a paper titled "Reducing Barriers for RN-BSN Education: The Assessment Competency Evaluation," which was published in Nursing Education Perspectives, the journal of the National League for Nursing. Cynthia Glavac, OSU, PhD, ’78, Professor Emerita, retired after teaching literature and composition courses at Ursuline for 26 years (1992-2018). She has since assumed the role of archivist for the Cleveland Ursuline Sisters. As an archivist, Sr. Cynthia makes available for research the legacy of the Ursulines by maintaining historical documents and artifacts that also include a large collection on Dorothy Kazel, OSU. Laura Goliat, BSN ’79, DNP ’14, APRN, FNPBC, Associate Professor, Nursing, along with Phyllis Kronk, and

presented a webinar for the American Hospital Association titled “Same Storm, Different Boat: Using TeamSTEPPS Strategies to Navigate the Unchartered Waters of Virtual Learning.” Along with three other Northeast Ohio nurse leaders, Goliat co-authored a paper titled “Implementing TeamSTEPPS to Facilitate Workplace Civility and Nurse Retention,” published in the Journal for Nurses in Professional Development. Molly Haaga, PhD, ATR-BC, LPC, Assistant Professor, Art Therapy, is the 2020 winner of the Part-Time Teaching Excellence Award.

Jessica Headley, PhD, LPCC-S, Assistant Professor, Counseling & Art Therapy and Co-Director, Women’s Center, earned her supervisory designation (the “S”) and now holds the highest licensure for her profession. She is working with her colleagues on publications and presentations related to teaching, creativity, social justice, and feminist counseling practice. Linda Heigel, MSN, RNBC, NEA-BC, Nursing Instructor, passed the Nurse Executive, Advanced Certification Examination, a certification that is accredited by the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification.

Barbara Helms, MBA, Registrar and Director of Academic Operations, joined the staff. She comes to us from Lake Erie College where she was registrar for 14 years. Robert Hunt, MA ’00, Adjunct Faculty, Education, and Superintendent of Schools for Chagrin Falls, Ohio, was named Superintendent of the Year by the Buckeye Association of School Administrators. In July he assumes the role of superintendent of the Barrington 220 Community Unit School District in Chicago. Deanne Hurley, Vice President for Student Affairs, became a certified COVID-19 Contact Tracer through an online, noncredit course authorized by Johns Hopkins University

and offered through Coursera. The certificate is offered through the Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Jennifer C. Johnson, DNP, RN, CNE, Assistant Professor, Nursing, was selected to serve a two-year term on the Ohio Board of Nursing Advisory Committee for Nursing Education. She earned a Certificate in Nursing Education from the National League for Nursing. Phyllis Kronk, DNP, Assistant Professor, Nursing, see Goliat. Lynn Lucas, MBA, Institutional Research Coordinator, joined the staff this year. She has worked in institutional research for the past two decades.

Ethlyn McQueen-Gibson, BSN ’83, DNP ’17, Adjunct Faculty, Nursing, had an article titled “The Healthy Meal Program: A food insecurity screening and referral program for urban dwelling older adults” published in Public Health Nursing. She co-authored two articles in the Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community, “Creating Structural Community Change Around Racial Equity and Homelessness,” and “If You Build It, Will They Come? The Association between Location Preference for Receiving Mental Health Support and Substance Use in African Americans 50 and Older.” She won the Virginia Nurses Foundation 2020 Year of the Nurse Award. She also participated in a Virginia Department of Health panel discussion on the COVID-19 vaccine.

Gina Messina, PhD, Associate Professor, Religious Studies, presented a webinar in January on navigating grief for Hope Squad, a nation-wide schoolbased suicide prevention program. She was invited to present by Abigail Allard ’20, communications specialist for the organization. Gretchen M. Miller, MA ’99, ATR-BC, ACTP, Adjunct Instructor, Counseling and Art Therapy, guest edited a special issue dedicated to Online Art Therapy for the International Journal of Art Therapy. This special issue includes research and practice papers highlighting the emerging field of online art therapy. Stacey G. O’Brien, DSW, MSSA, LISW-S, Assistant Professor, Social Work, completed her doctoral work and has been awarded the degree of Doctor of Social Work. Her qualitative research explored the implicit curriculum of a bachelor of social work program. JoAnne Podis, PhD, Professor Emerita, English, was the featured (virtual) speaker at the December meeting of the Connecticut Region of the Jane Austen Society of North America. Entitled “Teaching Jane: Adaptation and Engagement in the 21st Century,” her talk focused on the value of film adaptations of Austen’s works and on ways to engage students whose lived experiences are vastly different from those of her characters.

Regina Prosser, PhD, RN, Adjunct Associate Professor, and her Lakeland Community College colleague, Kathleen Gravens, PhD, RN, co-authored an article titled "Beyond Traditional RN-BSN Programs: Partnership for Dual Admission Progression Programs" for “Nursing Education Perspectives,” the journal of the National League for Nursing. The article highlights the collaboration between Ursuline and Lakeland to develop and implement the RNBSN Dual Admission Progression pathway in the traditional RN-BSN online program. Patricia Sharpnack, BSN ’84, DNP, RN, CNE, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAAN, Dean of The Breen School of Nursing and Health Professions, and Joan Kavanagh, PhD, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, associate chief nursing officer, Cleveland Clinic co-authored an article, "Crisis in Competency: A Defining Moment in Nursing Education," published in The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, the scholarly journal of the American Nurses Association. Sharpnack and six other Northeast Ohio nurse leaders, co-authored a paper titled “Beyond Articulation Agreements: Expanding the Pipeline for Baccalaureate Nursing in Ohio," which was published in Nursing Education Perspectives, the journal of the National League for Nursing. Also see Goliat. Lynn Ulatowski, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biology and Faculty Athletics Representative, was nominated to represent the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (GMAC) at Women Leaders X, a two-day women’s leadership conference held virtually in October. Featured were seminars by inspirational women’s leaders including Brene Brown. Robin Roberts was the keynote speaker. Dr. Ulatowski and her advisee, junior Marina Marusic, were two of 500 individuals who participated in the 8th annual Rally for Medical Research 2020.

Caitlin Yeager, PhD, RNC-NIC, Instructor, Nursing, successfully defended her PhD dissertation at Villanova University and was recognized by the Ohio March of Dimes as a Nurse of the Year in the education category on the same day. Lita Yu, PhD, Associate Professor, Biology, is the 2020 winner of the FullTime Teaching Excellence Award.

Laurel Yuratovac, Academic Advisor, UCAP, is the 2020 winner of the Advising Excellence Award.

Mary Beth Zeni, ScD, RN, EBP-C, Associate Professor, Nursing (Principle Investigator), and Janet Baker, DNP, APRN, Associate Dean and Associate Professor, Nursing (Project Coordinator), with colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh, presented their research abstract, titled “An Innovation in Education: The Integration of Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Experiences into a Graduate level Nurse Practitioner Program,” at the virtual 2021 Trinity Health and Education International Research Conference sponsored by the Trinity College School of Nursing & Midwifery in Dublin, Ireland. Zeni also co-presented a Learning Institute on program evaluation prior to the American Public Health Association annual conference. She was invited to join the inaugural Overdose Fatality Review Quarterly Stakeholder group organized by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office. And she was invited to join the Elder Services Institute LLC Subsidiary Board of the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging.