For the Record provides information about recent professional activities and honors of University of Delaware faculty, staff, students and alumni.

Recent presentations, awards and publications include the following:

Presentations

Trevor A. Dawes, vice provost for libraries and museums and May Morris University Librarian, was a participant at the 30th Plenary Session of the U.S.-Japan Conference on Cultural and Educational Exchange (CULCON), held at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, on Oct. 5-6, 2023. At the session, Dawes presented the interim report of the binational “Information Access and Sharing in the Digital Age” working group, which he co-chairs with Yuko Takahashi, president of Tsuda Women's University in Tokyo, Japan. The working group is charged with developing recommendations to “enhance access to fact-based balanced and affordable resources to foster mutual understanding and knowledge exchange.” They will present their final report with recommendations at CULCON 31 in 2025.

Awards

Calaia S. Jackson, a doctoral student in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, was named a 2023 Equity & Inclusion Graduate Student Fellowship, awarded by the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM). This and other fellowships support the participation and travel of 40 graduate students, five young professionals and five undergraduate students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds at the 2023 Annual Fall Research Conference in Atlanta on Nov. 9-11. While at the conference, Jackson and the other fellows will network with one another, in addition to members of the APPAM policy council and diversity committee. Jackson, a third-year student in the public policy and administration doctorate program at the Biden School, also works as a health policy research scholar, a national leadership program from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her primary research areas include education and social policy, focusing on public K-12 schools as well as state and local government policies and practices. In her dissertation, Jackson will examine the civic, political and health consequences of exposure to various discipline policies and practices in public schools and ways to inform more just and equitable policies. She is a first-generation scholar originally from Dallas, Texas.

Mary Mitsdarffer, assistant professor in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, attended the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Inaugural Hispanic Health Summit on Sept. 26, 2023. On top of her teaching duties, Mitsdarffer also serves as the current vice president of the Latino Caucus for Public Health (LCPH), which launched a partnership with HHS and three other Latine/Hispanic-serving organizations that share common goals of promoting the health and wellbeing of the Latino community. This exciting development was announced during the health summit by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, the first Latino in U.S. history in the role. LCPH’s mission focuses on representing and advocating for the health interests of the Latine community, both within and outside the American Public Health Association (APHA), while providing leadership opportunities for students and young professionals to engage in research, policy, and advocacy efforts. Caucus efforts over the past few years have centered on Latine health and advancement in the field of public health and other health professions. As a Mexican-American scholar, Mitsdarffer is a part of the two percent of Latine professors at the University of Delaware, and the roughly six percent of Latine faculty in the U.S.overall. She believes in increasing representation, especially as the demographics of the U.S. continue to shift and Latine make up one in four children under the age of 18 and about a fifth of the total population. Mitsdarffer's work focuses on structural inequities, social determinants of health, and resultant health disparities among youth. Her focus lies particularly on how policy can act as a barrier to services and needs among Latine populations. 

Adriana Verdezoto Alvarado, a graduate student in the Department of Health Behavior and Nutrition Sciences, was awarded a scholarship from The American Society for Nutrition Foundation. The scholarship is awarded to help individuals from underrepresented groups attend their NUTRITION 2023 in Boston, Massachusetts. At the conference, she presented her abstract titled “Associations between the Physical Home Food Environment, Diet Quality, and Weight in Children” where she shared secondary findings from a project titled “Child Diet and Health Study” led by associate professor Shannon Robson. The research focused on the availability of different foods in the home environment for children and how it impacts overall diet and food intake. For the third part of her research, Alvarado is running interventions to help increase the availability of fruits and vegetables for children and measure its impact on their diet over a dedicated period. “As kids, we learn our eating behaviors from exposure to food in our homes,” she said. “To reduce the risk for chronic disease, it’s important we increase the availability of foods that make up a high-quality diet for the youth within their home environments.” Alvarado also recently received the WW Diversity Student Travel Award to cover most of the expenses to attend The Obesity Society Conference starting on Oct. 14. 

Publications

Heinz-Uwe Haus, professor of theater, published an article, "How to 'come in between' — Today's mind-scape and the 'self-other integration' in Euripides' theatre," in the new issue of Symposium (The Romanian Institute of Orthodox Theology and Spirituality,Vol. XXX, Nr. 1, 2023,  New York; p. 63-75). Haus analyzes how human reason "is constantly vulnerable to disruption by passion and prejudice." Euripides focus projects both "the claims of autonomy and the claims of duty and community, but for the inevitable clash between these goods is not a reason for rejecting either but an occasion for more refined thinking." In five short chapters, Haus uses recent academic research and his own directing experiences with Euripides tragedies in Greece. He writes: "The study of the texts, the peculiarity of writing of Euripides and the identified circumstances at the time of origin have shown graphically their close connection with the social development of the Athenian polis."

Holly Michael, director of the Delaware Environmental Institute and professor of earth sciences and civil and environmental engineering, published an article about seawater intrusion in The Conversation.

Leadership positions

Three senior leadership positions have been filled in the Office of Enrollment Management. Amanda Steele-Middleton, serving as the University registrar at UD since 2020, has been named the assistant vice president for enrollment management. She brings to the position over 20 years of experience, serving previously at Wright State University, Meredith College and Heidelberg University. Transitioning into the position vacated by Steele-Middleton is Carolyn Quinci, previously the deputy registrar of UD. Quinci has served the University in various capacities for 23 years: as a counselor in the Professional and Continuing Studies ACCESS Center, then assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Health Sciences before transitioning to the Registrar’s Office. She has now been named the University registrar. Yosmeriz Roman has been named the assistant vice president of admissions. She is joining UD from University of Cincinnati, where she served as the assistant vice provost for enrollment management. She currently serves as the president for the Ohio Public Colleges Admissions Council and is a member of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, National Association of Graduate Admissions Professionals and Association of International Educators, and the National Association of College Admissions Personnel, among others.

Helen Fey Fischel became chair of the Delaware Environmental Institute (DENIN) External Advisory Board, an international group of prominent environmental researchers, educators, government, nonprofit and industry leaders. The appointment began in September 2023. DENIN’s 14-member External Advisory Board and the members’ experience and state, national and global networks help to guide the Institute. Board members include several successful UD alumni. Oceanographer Jean Brodeur, Interagency Science Coordinator at NOAA, was a DENIN graduate fellow. UD alumnus Dan Parke, a leader in both energy and conservation enterprises in Brazil, brings strong business acumen and deep commitment to environmental solutions. Former DuPont scientist and UD alumnus Ted Carski serves as a mentor to students involved in DENIN programs. For more about the Delaware Environmental Institute, visit: https://www.denin.udel.edu

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