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

Recent presentations and awards include the following:

Presentations

On Dec. 7, the annual Delaware Winter Freight Meeting occurred at the Chesapeake Utilities Corporation headquarters in Dover, Delaware. The Delmarva Freight Working Group — composed of the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT), Dover/Kent County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Salisbury/Wicomico MPO, UD’s Institute for Public Administration (IPA), and Wilmington Area Planning Council (WILMAPCO) — presented the meeting. Troy Mix, associate director of IPA, moderated and coordinated the gathering and later presented with Reidel Vichot, IPA graduate public administration fellow, on “Piloting Local Freight Profiles for Planning and Public Awareness.” Other presenters included Dora Cheatham, executive director of the Delaware Sustainable Chemistry Alliance; Shane Breakie, vice president of Sustainability and Organic Growth, Chesapeake Utilities Corporation; Anson Gock, DelDOT transportation planner; Marilyn Smith, executive director of Dover/Kent MPO; and Cliff Grunstra, vice president and chief marketing officer of Carload Express. IPA is a research and public service center in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration. 

In November, Fran O’Malley, director of Delaware Center for Civics Education (DCCE) at UD’s Institute for Public Administration (IPA), and Scott Abbott, assistant director of DCCE, attended the Council of State Social Studies Specialists (CS4) annual meeting in Nashville, Tennessee. CS4 is an Associated Group of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), which includes those responsible for supporting social studies in state education departments. At the CS4 business meeting, Abbott was elected as the Executive Secretary for CS4, and he will serve in this role on the CS4 Executive Board for the next two years. The CS4 Executive Board is responsible for leading CS4 and planning the annual meeting. IPA is a research and public service center in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration. 

In December, Fran O’Malley, director of Delaware Center for Civics Education (DCCE) at UD’s Institute for Public Administration (IPA), and Scott Abbott, assistant director of DCCE, attended the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) Annual Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. On Friday afternoon, O’Malley co-facilitated a presentation titled “Expanding Elementary Social Studies in Inclusive, Collaborative, and Local Ways.” Co-presenters for this session included Scott Bacon, UD Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship; Mike Feldman, Delaware Department of Education; Holly Golder, Red Clay Consolidated School District and co-chair of the Social Studies Coalition of Delaware (SSCD); and Darren Guido, formerly of Caesar Rodney School District and the other former co-chair of SSCD. Later that day, O’Malley and Abbott co-presented the session “Moving from Ineffective to Effective Integration in Elementary Classrooms” along with co-presenters Feldman; Nathan McAlister, Kansas Dept. of Education; and Heather Ransom, Kentucky Dept. of Education. The session focused on unveiling a new infographic that supports educators on the proper use of integration in support of social studies in elementary classrooms and was just published by CCSSO in June 2023. IPA is a research and public service center in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration.

Awards

Five UD leaders are named among The Delaware Business Times’ inaugural Delaware 222 list of the state’s most impactful business, nonprofit and civic leaders. The list is composed of those who "are creating jobs here, serving populations in need or helping to shape the state’s public policy of the future." UD President Dennis Assanis was recognized in the education category, along with Levi Thompson, Dean of UD's College of Engineering. Yushan Yan, Henry Belin du Pont Chair in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, was named to the Manufacturing category for his role as the founding director of UD's Center for Clean Hydrogen. The Biopharmaceuticals category features Kelvin Lee, director of the Manufacturing USA National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL); Lee is also UD's interim vice president of research, scholarship and innovation. UD Director of Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation Chrissi Rawak was one of only three individuals in the Athletics category. The full list is available on the Delaware Business Times website. 

James Jones, Trustees Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Africana Studies, recently received the 2023 Senior Scholar Lifetime Achievement IDEA award from the Federation of Associations of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS). IDEA awards recognize distinguished research, professional practice and activities that advance inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility in the discipline. Jones received the honor for his lengthy and outstanding career of mentorship, original scholarship and significant impacts in advocacy and service. Jones’s book Prejudice and Racism is widely regarded as a classic analysis of race, class and culture in psychology. The award joins many he received during his 50-plus-year-long career, including being elected to the National Academy of Science in 2023.

Monique Head, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in UD’s College of Engineering, has been named a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Head has earned this title through her work on structural monitoring and evaluation, including how structures are impacted by earthquakes and other extreme loading conditions. Recent projects undertaken by the Head Research Group include evaluating the resilience of living shorelines, determining the importance of individual bridge elements using data-driven models, and assessing the vulnerability of bridges in high seismic regions. ASCE is an international professional development organization for civil and environmental engineers with over 150,000 members based in 177 countries. ASCE fellows have at least 10 years of responsible charge of civil engineering work while members of the society, innovative contributions to society through civil engineering and a license in professional engineering or professional land surveying. Being an ASCE fellow is a prestigious honor held by only 3% of ASCE members. 

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