Tag: Faculty

Pankaj Maskara wins International Teaching Award

Pankaj Maskara, Ph.D.

Pankaj Maskara, Ph.D., CFA was awarded the “Innovation in teaching” award by Financial Management Association International (FMA), leading association of finance professionals and educators around the world, at their annual meeting in New Orleans on Nov 25, 2019. Prof. Maskara’s innovative method of incorporating human literacy in finance education enhances students’ employability, promotes entrepreneurship, and prepares his students for the age of artificial intelligence. It motivates students of finance to leverage their creativity and people skills in addition to their math and technical knowledge. Prof. Maskara says “developing entrepreneurial mindset among our students is the most effective, probably the only, way to prepare our students for the challenges that lie ahead for them.”

FMA awards three professors per year for teaching innovations that are broadly transferable in terms of teacher skills / connections and have measurable impact on students, institutions of higher education, and the finance profession. Professor Maskara’s method of teaching has helped his students get jobs, internships, mentorship, promotions, consulting projects, and business opportunities while performing tasks assigned as a part of his class. He prepares his students to deal with uncertainty, manage expectations, identify inefficiencies as business opportunities, make decisions in the environment of incomplete and incorrect information, and to connect with others. His students find his methods very unorthodox and challenging but highly enriching.

A student’s comment neatly sums up Prof. Maskara’s effectiveness as a teacher.

“I feel that you should know that you were the most influential professor that I have had throughout my college experience. So many students share my opinion, but while we are still students they cannot be taken seriously since they could be seen as flattery. I hold you, as several others do also, as my highest role model and hope one day you will be able to look back and be proud I was your student. It is my opinion that your influence on me was so strong that any future success of mine was directly due to you.”

Know more about Prof. Maskara’s teaching innovation and his philosophy at

http://www.fmaconferences.org/NewOrleans/Papers/FMA%20award.pdf   and

http://fmaconferences.org/Innovation%20Award%202019/Incorporating%20human%20literacy%20in%20finance%20education.pdf

NSU Faculty Honored for Receiving External Funding

Richard Deth, Ph.D., Professor, College of Pharmacy with External Funding Recognition plaque; Ronald J. Chenail, Ph.D. NSU Interim Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs;

The External Funding Recognition Reception is an annual event that provides recognition for the efforts of NSU faculty and staff who have received external grant funding in the previous fiscal year. Fiscal Year 2019 had great activity in the area of external funding, with total cumulative active awards of approximately $119 million. This event recognized the extraordinary efforts of all faculty who contributed to this accomplishment and encourages the continued pursuit of all external funding.

There were 130 NSU Principal Investigators and Co-Principal Investigators from 12 colleges and 7 units who were honored at the NSU External Funding Recognition Reception for their external funding successes in FY 2019.   The event took place at the Grande Oaks Golf Club on October 16, 2019. The event was hosted by Ron Chenail, Ph.D., NSU Interim Provost and Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs, and Gary S. Margules, Sc.D., NSU Vice-President for Research and Technology Transfer.

Naushira Pandya, M.D., CMD, FACP, Project Director, Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Program; Chair and Professor, Department of Geriatrics, Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine with External Funding Recognition plaque; Ronald J. Chenail, Ph.D. NSU Interim Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs;

AAUW-NSU and Halmos Team Up to Build PACE E-STEAM

On October 7, NSU AAUW went to the PACE Center for Girls for the first session of the E-STEAM Project. There the volunteers set up three activity stations. These included “Coding with Ozobots”, where girls learned how to write code for a small robot that responds to color patterns, “Lemon Power”, where girls learned how to make a battery out of lemons to light up a small, LED bulb, and “Art/Monoprinting”, where the girls created a design with paint on a styrofoam cup and learned how to monoprint the design onto paper.

NSU faculty volunteers for this project included Julie Torruellas Garcia, Ph.D. from Halmos College, Randi Sims, Ph.D. from the Huizenga College of Business, and Kandy Lopez-Moreno, M.F.A. from the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. NSU student volunteers included Art and Design Major Paige Allen and Biology Majors Brianna Thompson, Kyle Hansotia, and Muhammad-Altamash Jawadi.

The Nova Southeastern University branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW-NSU) has been collaborating with the Alvin Sherman Library and Broward’s PACE Center for Girls, a delinquency prevention/intervention program for young adolescent girls ages 12-18. Anyone interested in joining NSU AAUW or participating in the ESTEAM Project for Girls should contact Dr. Randi Sims at sims@nova.edu

Criminal Justice Faculty Member Article on 9/11 Accepted into the Journal of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress

Grace Telesco, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at NSU’s Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice, authored an article titled, Never Forget, Sometimes Forgotten, Often Haunted, which was accepted into the Fall Edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. Dr. Telesco’s article focuses on the trauma experienced by a first responder during 9/11.

Dr. Telesco recalls, “as a 9/11 First Responder in New York City, the images, sounds, and smells of Ground Zero are etched in my mind. Having spent eighteen months escorting family members to the place where their loved ones had last been seen alive is a memory of a tragic time that is impossible for me to forget. I wrote this article in order to explore how the effects of this traumatic event still impacts those of us who responded 18 years later.  I know that despite the fact that many of our students were toddlers at the time, the memory of this event and the amazing recovery work that was conducted should never be forgotten.”

To view the article, please click here.

Psychology Professor Receives two Awards at Faculty Reception

Professor Jeff Kibler, Ph.D., recently received the College of Psychology Professor of the Year Award and President’s Distinguished Professor Award at the 18th Annual Faculty Reception.

In 2018, Kibler participated in a National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel on “The Cardiovascular Consequences of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.” The panel included experts on neuroscience, cardiovascular disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The panel identified research gaps and made recommendations on research priorities.

Kibler’s research has received over $1.4 million in funding from the NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as other agencies. Kibler has co-authored multiple articles and book chapters with students and serves as director of the Psychology Services Center’s Biofeedback and Health Psychology Center.

At NSU, Kibler has also been involved with various boards and panels, including the President’s Faculty Research and Development Grant, the Academic Review Committee, the Faculty Advisory Council, and the University Research Board.

“I was grateful to receive the President’s Distinguished Professor Award,” Kibler said. “Given my interests in faculty development and dedication to enhancing success in scientific research at NSU, receiving this university recognition for my scientific accomplishments was a nice reminder of how much our extra efforts are valued.”

Halmos Faculty and Students Co-Publish New Journal Article

Robert Smith

This summer, Halmos faculty members Louis Nemzer, Ph.D. and Robert Smith, Ph.D. with Halmos undergraduate and graduate students published a journal article entitled, “The public and private benefit of an impure public good determines the sensitivity of bacteria to population collapse in a snowdrift game.”

Published in Environmental Microbiology, the paper identifies the conditions that facilitate the survival of cooperative microbial populations and has implications in understanding the stability of both beneficial (soils, sediments, gut microbiome) and detrimental (infectious) microbial communities.

Louis_Nemzer

“One goal of this research is to better understand the conditions that are most likely to lead to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria” said Dr. Nemzer. “This work helps shed light on when mixed populations of resistant and normal bacteria are most sensitive to treatment with antibiotic medications.”

The Halmos students, who are also co-authors, are from both the undergraduate and graduate programs. The biology undergraduate student authors are Aimee Doiron, Rodrigo Muzquiz, Marla C. Fortoul,

Aimee Doiron Student

Meghan Haas, Tom Abraham, and Khadija Chowdhury.  The biology graduate student authors are Rebecca Quinn and Ivana Barraza.

For more information: doi:10.1111/1462‐2920.14796

CAHSS Faculty Participates in Communicating Sciences Module in College of Pharmacy

Eric Mason, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Writing and Communication in NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS), presented to graduate students as part of the Communicating Sciences module in the course, “Bioethics: Principles of Life Science Research,” in NSU’s College of Pharmacy, taught by Robert Speth, Ph.D. His presentation covered the connection between rhetoric, science, and ethics, challenging students to become better communicators and advocates for public literacy about science.

Mason’s presentation was an extension of his work as Faculty Coordinator with the NSU Writing and Communication Center, where he works with NSU faculty to design and implement pedagogies that help students improve their writing and communication skills. Mason’s areas of academic interest include critical theory and pedagogy, visual rhetoric, computers and composition, cultural studies, and service learning. His scholarly work focuses on how the various modalities of composition—textual, visual, aural, and digital—intersect with cultural practices.

New Conference Brings Together Neuroscience and Exercise Science

A new conference created by faculty members from NSU’s College of Psychology and Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences will focus on the intersection between neuroscience and exercise/sport science. The inaugural Society for NeuroSports Conference will take place Nov. 15-16 at The Wyndham Deerfield Beach Resort, 2096 NE 2nd Street, Deerfield Beach, FL, 33441.

“There’s no academic society for people to present their research,” said Professor Jaime Tartar, Ph.D., of the College of Psychology. “We hope to have people from all these fields who are doing similar work come together and share ideas.”

Associate Professor Jose Antonio, Ph.D., of the College of Health Care Sciences, said he is excited about the collaboration between the two fields. “We’re hoping for those who attend that they’ll learn information in terms of how the brain is impacted or affected by exercise, and also how it might be negatively impacted by participation in contact sports,” he said.

To register, visit https://www.neurosports.net/ConferencesDetails.php?IDconf=109

Halmos Joins Other NSU Members in Presenting at Experiential Education Conference

In the last week of September, Halmos staff member Judith Slapak-Barksi, Ed.D. joined with College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences faculty members Molly Scanlon, Ph.D. and Kevin Dvorak, Ph.D. at the 48th annual conference of the National Society for Experiential Education in St. Pete Beach, Florida. The theme of the conference was “Internships & Beyond: Solutions and Strategies for the Evolving Spectrum of Experiential Education”. The NSU trio presented a session entitled, “Faculty and Staff Development for Web-Enhanced, Technology-Rich, and Blended Learning in Experiential Education”.

The National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE) is a nonprofit membership organization composed of educators, businesses, and community leaders. Founded in 1971, NSEE also serves as a national resource center for the development and improvement of experiential education programs nationwide.

For more information: https://www.nsee.org/

Halmos Faculty Shares the Importance of Children’s Foot Development.

On Thursday, September 17, Halmos faculty member Mark Jaffe, D.P.M. conducted a presentation to over 25 families who attended the Start Smart Storytime for Little Minnows that morning. During this invited presentation, Jaffe informed the parents of the importance of their child’s foot development and taught them how to assess their kids shoes using the “1,2,3, Shoe Test”. After the presentation, Jaffe, along with six students, they screened about half of the children.

Prior to any community outreach, all student volunteers are trained on how to teach parents to analyze their children’s shoes. Prior to this event, Jaffe trained 15 of Halmos’s students to work with him on such outreach projects.

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