Academic strengths, welcoming community make new UI professors feel right at home

Can people really ever have the best of both worlds? Five new University of Iowa faculty members seem to think so.

Theresa Armstead, assistant professor of community and behavioral health in the College of Public Health, speaks with students during class. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

The University’s academic environment—a devotion to the arts and humanities, a strong health care campus, and an emphasis on research—attracts innovative teachers and cutting-edge researchers, and the Iowa City area’s strong sense of community makes them feel at home right off the bat.

“The community here is very intimate,” says Theresa Armstead, assistant professor in the Department of Community and Behavioral Health in the College of Public Health. Socializing requires little more than an appetite for homegrown food: “Almost everyone goes to the farmers market,” Armstead says.

An academic’s ideal

Building community is at the core of Armstead’s research, which looks at how power and leadership play out in community organizations. The 29-year-old moved to The University of Iowa from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., for a postdoctorate position in September 2006. She was brought on faculty a year later.

Armstead also serves as deputy director of the University of Iowa Prevention Research Center (PRC), one of 33 centers in the United States funded by the Prevention Research Center Program of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The PRC addresses health disparities among rural populations and works with communities to develop long-term solutions to related adverse health outcomes.

	Stacey Klutts, assistant professor in the Carver College of Medicine, looks at a culture while working in the Iowa City VA Medical Center. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

For Stacey Klutts, the appeal of his joint appointments—assistant professor in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine and staff pathologist at the Iowa City VA Medical Center—convinced him to uproot his family from St. Louis. His UI positions enable him to apply for both National Institutes of Health and Department of Veterans Affairs funds to start up his research lab.

His research looks at how Aspergillus fumigatus, a pathogenic fungus that infects immunosuppressed patients, makes the outer cell walls it needs to survive. He also is interested in developing new methods of diagnosing fungal infections.

Klutts speaks highly of the research community at Iowa. “I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the superiority of some of the talks,” he says, making comparisons with presentations he attended at Washington University in St. Louis.

Pablo Carrica has had a few years to enjoy Iowa’s academic arena. The associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering first came to Iowa City as a visiting professor in 2002. After a year and a half, he was hired as a research engineer before becoming an associate professor last fall. Carrica stays busy at IIHR-Hydroscience & Engineering, where his research involves the use of computer code to simulate fluid flow around ships.

Pablo Carrica, associate professor in the College of Engineering, teaches in his Experimental Engineering Lab. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

What surprises Carrica is the erratic flow—or lack thereof—of students into the classroom.

Carrica was accustomed to a certain teaching style from his days at his alma mater in Argentina, where students couldn’t skip class without being noticed due to small class sizes. To adjust to Iowa and its 30,000 students, Carrica has incorporated pop quizzes into his arsenal in efforts to get more students in the desks. Even that doesn’t always do the trick.

“In my experience, it’s important to go to class,” Carrica says. “Even if you tell students that the best way they could use their time is to go to class, some of them just don’t go.”

That’s not to say it’s a widespread problem: Carrica says he has some “unbelievably good students” in his classes, and says he has excellent teaching assistants.

The type of research done by College of Music assistant professor of flute Nicole Esposito differs from those of most professors. The 28-year-old Esposito’s main role at the University is as a soloist, and an orchestral and chamber musician. When she does see students, it’s mostly on a one-on-one basis in her studio.

	Nicole Esposito, assistant professor in the School of Music in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, teaches flute in her studio in Voxman Music Building. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

Esposito, who moved to Iowa City from Ann Arbor, Mich., five years ago together with her husband and fellow School of Music faculty member Alan Huckleberry, writes articles for relevant journals, and, instead of research, comes up with ideas for recording projects and performances.

She says she may one day write a book about teaching the flute. Her fluid flute playing has led her to perform under many well-known conductors, and at several domestic and international festivals.

“I feel, as a performer, it’s not about me, but about representing the music,” she says. “I see music as a script. The flute player represents the music as an actor represents the script.”

Music plays a role in the work of Mary Cohen, an assistant professor in the College of Education’s Teaching and Learning program and the music education program in the UI School of Music. Her research experience includes measuring the effect of choral singing on people’s sense of well-being. During her time at the University of Kansas, she studied choirs in prisons: what inmates get out of achieving a common goal, and what effect working and trusting other people in the choir has had on them.

Cohen’s musical endeavors go beyond her research—she conducts a choir at the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center.

A sense of belonging

You might not expect to encounter a new faculty member running beside you at a local marathon or teaching the tree pose in a yoga class but that’s where you’ll find Carrica and Cohen, respectively.

Mary Cohen, assistant professor in the College of Education, does warmup exercises with the choir at the Iowa City/Johnson County Senior Center. Cohen conducts the choir, and teaches yoga once a week as well. Photo by Tom Jorgensen.

Cohen teaches yoga once a week at Core Fitness. She also enjoys the Friday Night Concert Series and the fact that she can go to a farmers market almost any day of the week from spring to fall.

“The sense of community is stronger here,” Cohen says, comparing Iowa City with Kansas City, from which she moved after obtaining her doctoral degree.

Carrica says the area’s trail systems are great for running. The native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has participated in the Iowa City School District’s Run for the Schools half-marathons, and is now training for his second full marathon. An injury forced the 42-year-old to stop playing soccer—now he runs to keep in shape.

Distance runners aren’t the only people who appreciate Iowa City’s pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly atmosphere. Many new professors appreciate the city’s layout, which makes a trip to the store feasible for biking, running, or walking alike.

“In Nashville, people had to get into their car to get to the grocery store, even if it was just across the street, because the neighborhoods surrounding the city did not have sidewalks,” Armstead says.

by Po Li Loo

Five faculty members tackle five questions...

We’ve read about the research interests of selected new faculty, and we know what they like about The University of Iowa and the Iowa City community. But what are their hidden talents? What line of work would they like to try? And do we know what sort of superpower these folks desire? Let’s find out…

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

• Theresa Armstead: Teaching elementary school, working with little kids. I think having young people in your life keeps you grounded and little ones say the most interesting things.
• Pablo Carrica: I'm an amateur musician. If I were more of a risk taker, I'd try making a living out of music.
• Mary Cohen: I’d like to be an improvisational dancer. I already incorporate movement theory into my teaching.
• Nicole Esposito: Supermodel. It looks fun and I love fashion.
• Stacey Klutts: I’d once contemplated being an airline pilot but the lifestyle might be an issue.

What profession would you not like to do?

• Armstead: Any profession where I wouldn’t be able to meet different people.
  
• Carrica: Definitely dancer. It would be pathetic.
  
• Cohen: I would not like a job that did not involve interacting with other people. I love engaging with other people and cannot imagine myself working alone or in a job where there is little to no connection with others.
  
• Esposito: A doctor. I’d be terrified to have someone’s life in my hands.
  
• Klutts: Funeral home director—I have a friend who does this, and it’s a tough and depressing job.

If you could have a superpower, any superpower, what would it be, and why?

• Armstead: Flying, because the people I know are all over the place: North Carolina, Florida, California…
  
• Carrica: Super legs, perhaps. I'd like to qualify for the Boston Marathon but it looks like I'll need superpowers to do it.
  
• Cohen: I’d like the power to be able to heal pain, and the ability to create a community that’s not focused on making money, not being excessive and greedy, while being aware of the environment.
  
• Esposito: Being invisible. I love to observe people. I’d love to be a fly on a wall.
  
• Klutts: I wish I had the power to go without sleep, then I could get a lot of things done and get caught up.

What's one talent you have that would surprise your co-workers?

• Armstead: I have a really good memory. I can sing whole songs from musicals like Rent and Chicago, and recite a whole movie by heart.
  
• Cohen: I can stand on my head for 20 breaths or 30 seconds.
  
• Esposito: I’m pretty good at leg-wrestling.
  
• Klutts: I’m pretty good with “Guitar Hero”—I can do a lot of the “medium” songs.

What pop culture icon do you like and why?

• Armstead: I like strong women characters like the Jackal in the musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. But going with my gut, I’d say Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady—she sought out education and stood up for herself, even though ultimately she did go back to the guy.
  
• Carrica: I like Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe's sidekick. He's a lot of fun and witty.
  
• Cohen: Bono, because he helps the greater community.
  
• Esposito: Sophia Loren. She’s beautiful. Classy but goofy.
  
• Klutts: “Hawkeye” Pierce of TV’s M*A*S*H because he uses humor to get through stressful situations, which I try to do. Plus, you’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing and make it fun.