Eight University of the Ozarks faculty members are gaining invaluable professional development opportunities this academic year, thanks to the Dr. Helen McElree Faculty Enrichment Endowment.
The McElree endowment was established in 2015 by the Ozarks alumna and long-time professor of biology at Emporia (Kan.) State. Dr. McElree created the fund to support faculty scholarly and creative activities at Ozarks.
Those who have received McElree funding this year include, Dr. Amy Oatis, associate professor of English; Dr. Chris Hall, assistant professor of English; Dr. Edward Ardeneaux (pictured, above), assistant professor of English; Dr. Juan Carlos Garcia-Pina Rossetti, assistant professor of management; Dr. Macy Jones, instructor of communication; NaLisa Brown, assistant professor of marketing; Dr. Piroska Boros, assistant professor of health science; and Dr. Sergio Molina, assistant professor of physical education.
Oatis will use her McElree funding to attend the American Literature Association Conference in Boston in May. She will present at the conference as part of a roundtable discussion of successful strategies in literature pedagogy, titled “Framing the American Literature Survey and Engaging Our Survey Students.” She also plans to visit several literary sites that will aid her scholarship and teaching.
“The conference location in Boston affords me unique opportunities to rejuvenate and enrich my research and teaching through exploration of important literary sites and archives,” Oatis said. “Funding from the McElree endowment for this trip to Boston will allow me to learn and grow as a teacher and a scholar, and I will bring home so much more than just information from conference panels.”
Hall received a pair of McElree grants. One of the grants allowed him to attend the 2023 University of Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture Since 1900, that was held in February. He presented for the International Virginia Woolf Society Panel a paper titled, “Spanning Flush,” an essay that “uncovers the ways that Woolf’s 1933 novel ‘Flush’ crosses geographical borders, gaps between human and animal experience, and boundaries of class and racial difference.” A second McElree grant will help him attend and present his research at both the Popular Culture Association Conference in San Antonio in early April, and the American Literature Association Conference in Boston in May.
Ardeneaux received funding to attend the Popular Culture Association (PCA) conference in San Antonio, Texas, in early April.
Garcia-Pina Rossetti received funding to take a three-week online certification course in sustainable business strategy from Harvard Business School Online in April.
“I believe that this course will foster my professional development by awarding a certification from a highly respected world academic institution and will make me better prepared to teach our business students in the capstone course, management strategy,” Garcia-Pina Rossetti said.
Jones’ McElree funding will allow her to attend the Society of American Fight Director’s National Stage Combat Workshop in July 2023.
“This funding will allow me to refresh my stage combat skills and train in new stage safety techniques,” Jones said.
Brown will participate in the Wharton Digital Marketing Certificate program through Wharton Online at the University of Pennsylvania.
Boros will attend and present her research at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting and World Congress in Denver in May.
Molina used his funding to attend the College Sport Research Institute Conference on College Sport in Columbia, S.C., in March. He presented a paper that he co-authore titled, “NCAA Division II Student-Athletes’ Perceptions of their Academic Performance and Relationships with Faculty During a Time of Academic Disruption.”
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