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

Recent appointments, exhibitions, presentations, publications and honors include the following:

Appointments

Michael L. Vaughan, UD’s chief community engagement officer and faculty director of the Community Engagement Initiative, has been appointed to the Longwood Gardens Board of Trustees. Vaughan joins two additional new trustees. Ann C. Rose, chair of the Longwood Gardens Board of Trustees, said the new trustees’ “valuable experience and insight will help ensure Longwood continues to advance its mission, inspire guest, and remain an innovative educational and cultural leader for generations to come.” One of the most-visited gardens in the country, Longwood Gardens encompasses nearly 1,700 acres across sites in the Brandywine Valley.

Exhibitions

Laura Helton, associate professor of English and history, curated the exhibit “To Uncover and Reveal to the World: Arturo Schomburg’s Library,” on display through Dec. 15, 2026, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. The exhibit showcases more than 100 objects from the collection that Arturo Schomburg sold to the New York Public Library in 1926. Many items are on display for the first time. In the Dec. 3, 2026, edition of The New York Review of Books, author Darryl Pinckney praises the exhibition, writing that it “expands our understanding of [Schomburg’s] contribution to the study of people of African descent.” Helton is also coeditor of a companion volume to the exhibition, Black Studies on 135th Street: The Founding and Future of the Schomburg Collection. 

Presentations

On Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, the Delaware Center for Civics Education (DCCE) cohosted the Argue Like a Lawyer competition for Delaware high schoolers at Widener University School of Law, bringing together 160 students from nine high schools representing all three Delaware counties. DCCE Director Fran O’Malley and Assistant Director Scott Abbott organized and judged the competition. This event was supported by the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration Dean Joseph Trainor and cosponsored by the Delaware Law Related Education Center. Participating students analyzed a prompt, then worked in small groups to argue for or against the proposed policy (raising the minimum wage) against students from other schools. DCCE is part of the Institute for Public Administration (IPA), a research and public service center in the Biden School.

On Nov. 12, 2026, Sheng Lu, professor and graduate director of fashion and apparel studies, presented at the 2026 Apparel Importers Trade and Transportation Conference co-hosted by the United States Fashion Industry Association and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City. In his presentation titled "Mature vs. Emerging Apparel Sourcing Destinations: Implications for U.S. Fashion Companies,” Lu shared his latest research analyzing the competitiveness of emerging apparel-supplying countries for the U.S. market against fashion companies’ key sourcing matrix.  

Publications

Jonathan Wood, assistant professor of physical therapy in the College of Health Sciences, recently published new research in npj Parkinson's Disease, a Nature Portfolio journal, examining a theory of why people with Parkinson's disease move slowly. Wood and coauthors Alyssa Eyssalenne, Aaron Wong and Amanda Therrien conducted the study at the Jefferson Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute. They found that participants with Parkinson's disease perceived movement as more effortful than participants without the disease. The findings suggest differences in how people perceive effort may help explain why movement slows in Parkinson's disease. The study was funded by the Klein Family Parkinson's Rehabilitation Center.

Sheng Lu, professor and graduate director of fashion and apparel studies, is the author of “Do U.S. Apparel Retailers Absorb or Pass Through Tariff Costs? Evidence from U.S. Apparel Import and Retail Prices, 2015–2025,” to be published in the Research Journal of Textile and Apparel. 

Honors

Calaia Jackson Franco, a doctoral candidate in the public policy and administration program at the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, was selected as a 2026 Spencer Scholar by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. The scholarship program supports graduate students and early-career researchers through the Spencer Foundation Education Research Mentoring Grant and related mentorship programs. Franco and her fellow recipients were honored at the 2026 APPAM Fall Research Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, in early November.

Ojooluwa Ibiloye, a doctoral candidate in the public policy and administration program at the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration, was selected for the 2026 Excellence, Equity and Inclusion Student Fellowship by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. The program supports students who have overcome substantial obstacles presented by their backgrounds or life circumstances as they pursue education and careers in public policy, analysis and management. Ibiloye is the fifth doctoral student from the Biden School within the last eight years to be selected for the highly selective fellowship. All fellows were recognized at the 2026 APPAM Fall Research Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, in early November. 

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