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

Recent presentations, service, honors and publications include the following:

Presentations

Farley Grubb, professor of economics, presented his paper "Inside versus Outside Money in Colonial America: A Transaction Cost Approach to Monetary Choice and Their Welfare Outcomes" in the session on "Global History of Money Viewed from the Ground" at the 2025 World Economic History Congress, held in Lund, Sweden, on July 28, 2025.

Service

Robyn Philips-Pendelton, professor of art and design, is serving as a regional juror for the 2025 AXA Art Prize. The figurative art competition was judged by regional jurors from across the U.S. and four exhibition jurors. The 40 finalists will have their artwork exhibited in New York City at the New York Academy of Art this November. The first prize of $10,000 and the second prize of $5,000 will be announced in September 2025.

Jessica E. Sowa, professor at the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration and senior faculty fellow at the Institute for Public Administration (IPA), was appointed program co-chair for the 2026 American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Conference. ASPA’s annual conference is one of the organization’s main programs for members and friends. The 2026 conference will take place over five days in Los Angeles, California, featuring the theme of “Building a Bridge to Renewal and Resilience,” focusing on current issues in public administration.

Honors

Ju Young Shin, associate professor of nursing, has been named a 2025 Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing—the highest honor in nursing. Shin was named to the 2025 cohort of nurse leaders for her work in advancing the academy’s mission of improving health and achieving health equity by influencing policy through leadership, innovation and science. “I am honored to be inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in October 2025,” said Shin. “I am grateful to my mentors and colleagues for their unwavering support throughout my journey as an educator, researcher, and clinician dedicated to improving care for older adults.” Shin was sponsored for the prestigious honor by Kathleen Brewer-Smyth, professor in the School of Nursing (SON) and AAN fellow. “Because of her leadership in healthcare for aging adults with neurological conditions, Dr. Shin was selected to be one of only approximately 3,200 who may use the title of fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN), out of the estimated 29 million nurses worldwide,” said Brewer-Smyth. Elizabeth Speakman, chief nurse administrator and senior associate dean of SON, said Shin will contribute to thought policy as a new inductee. “As a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN), I recognize that this distinction is both an honor and an opportunity to engage with thought leaders in nursing—both nationally and globally—on issues that advance health policy and practice in service of the public good,” Speakman said. “Dr. Shin’s work with older adults exemplifies how she advances both the science and practice of nursing.” Shin will be recognized for her substantial contributions to health and healthcare when she is inducted at the academy’s annual Health Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., in October. Both Speakman and Brewer-Smyth were inducted in 2014.

Barton Willage, associate professor of economics at UD’s Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics, was featured in the July 2025 NBER Digest, which highlights select papers from the National Bureau of Economic Research. The working paper coauthored by Willage, “Subscriptions to Prescriptions: Lessons from Louisiana's Effort to Eliminate Hepatitis C,” was selected from recent submissions to be featured in this issue of the NBER Digest. The research evaluates Louisiana’s innovative subscription-based model for hepatitis C treatment, which significantly expanded access to life-saving medications for Medicaid recipients and incarcerated individuals. The program led to a 27% drop in liver transplants, an 11% decline in hepatitis C–related deaths, and treatment of over 30,000 patients—67% of the state’s hepatitis C-positive population.

Publications

Heinz-Uwe Haus, professor emeritus in the Department of Theatre and Dance, reviewed the newest book of Guenther Rüther Stories written down for the next generation: “Let us quietly learn to live again. The Liberation—Germany 1945/46” (“Lat das Leben leise wieder lernen.Befreiung -Deutschland 1945/46"; BZPB, Bonn 2025, 356 pp.). Rüther’s narrative approach of recalling very different and also contradictory realities of life and everyday life in the last months of the war and the immediate postwar period creates an authentic and exciting panorama. The sensitivities and expectations, the despair and the hopes of the people in occupied and destroyed Germany—in East and West—are signposts of our development, which are equally worthwhile for survivors of the time and those born after. Rüther’s detailed knowledge and narrative brilliance encourage the reader to “join in” with his experiences and his attitude, i.e. to challenge “intervening thinking” (Brecht). The reader witnesses how the recollection of the chaos of a disintegrated society and its diverse life situations is able to create narrative order. "Rüther’s entirely non-ideological collection of experiences and behavior at that time inevitably leads to the urgent question of how important to society the memory of Nazi crimes really is today, 80 years after the end of the Second World War. If it disappears, a source of German democracy will dry up," Haus said.

The Institute for Public Administration (IPA), a research and public service center in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, released a new policy brief titled Grant Assistance Program Case Study: Milton Art Crosswalks. Authored by Collin Willard, assistant policy scientist, and Bec Kelleher, public administration fellow and master of public administration 4+1 student, the case study analyzed the town of Milton's recent success in obtaining grant funding through the AARP Community Challenge. The policy brief outlined replicable project planning, implementation, community engagement and intergovernmental coordination processes that can be used as models for municipalities throughout Delaware. IPA’s Grant Assistance Program supports local governments that may lack the resources and capacity to compete for large-scale infrastructure funding. The policy brief is available on UDSpace and the GAP webpage. 

In Memoriam

Lonnie Hearn, retired director of University Media Services, passed away July 24, 2025. Mr. Hearn retired from UD in 2009 after 43 years of service.

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