Kirsten Beyer is a Ph.D. candidate in Geography of the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences studying the geography of health. She holds an M.P.H. in global health, also from the University of Iowa. Before joining the Geography Department, she worked for three years with a local nonprofit organization dedicated to violence prevention. Her research interests include geographic information science, participatory research, health disparities, cancer prevention and control, environmental health, and intimate partner violence. She is currently in the process of completing her dissertation research, which incorporates community participation in exploratory spatial analysis of colorectal cancer incidence, stage and mortality data. She was an Obermann Insititute fellow in 2008, and the Institute was very instrumental in moving her dissertation proposal forward and helping her to secure funding for her work. Her dissertation has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the University of Iowa Prevention Research Center, the Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research, and a Ballard-Seashore dissertation year fellowship from the UI Graduate College. Kirsten currently serves on the Advisory Board to the Graduate Institute. She plans to graduate in August 2009.
Linda Bolton is an Associate Professor in English. Bolton's work focuses on the ethics of difference, with regard to our relationship to the Other as human, as alter-species, and as Earth. Her book, Facing the Other: Ethical Disruption and the American Mind explores six moments in 18th- and 19th- Century American literature, politics, and performance when the face of the Other, as Native and African, disrupts the discourse on freedom to assert the primacy of justice. Bolton's work in ethical philosophy has led to her collaboration with visual artists in a three-woman national exhibition, "Memory and Oblivion: Legacies of Enslavement in the Americas." She continues to work collaboratively with Public Arts Sculptor, Barbara Grygutis. Grygutis and Bolton were the designers for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial at Battle Creek, MO. Bolton is currently working on a new book manuscript, "Monumental Shame: The Legacy of a Daughter's Inheritance", as well as a series of ethical meditations in metal. She was awarded the 2007 Collegiate Teaching Award from the College of Liberal Arts and received the national 2008 Integrity Award of the National Association of Collegiate Schools, the only national student-nominated award for professors who inspire and instill integrity in their students. She is a board member of the Iowa City Crisis Center and Food Bank.
Kenneth G. Brown, Ph.D. is currently UI Huneke Faculty Research Fellow and Associate Professor in the Henry B. Tippie College of Business. Professor Brown conducts research on learning and motivation and their relationships to needs assessment and evaluation practices. His research on employee learning via Internet technology has been recognized with awards from both the American Society of Training and Development and the Society of Human Resource Management. The recipient of both collegiate and university teaching awards, Professor Brown recently began to incorporate service learning into his courses. In these courses, upper-level undergraduate students have consulted with local nonprofits including the Johnson County Crisis Center, the Retired Seniors Volunteer Program, the Englert Theatre, the Iowa Children's Museum, and the Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity ReStore.
Mike Chasar received his Ph.D. from the English Department of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2007 where he is currently a visiting faculty member. His dissertation, Everyday Reading: U.S. Poetry and Popular Culture, 1880-1945, won the 2007 Council of Graduate Schools/UMI Distinguished Dissertation Award, the nation’s top honor for doctoral dissertations, and the UI Graduate College’s 2007 Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize. To quote from a recent “Be Remarkable” feature on Mike, his dissertation focuses on the “lost outlets for verse—including radio poetry shows that built enthusiastic fan bases and Burma Shave jingles that stretched commercial poems over miles of open road—and their impact on poets like William Carlos Williams.” Iowa Citians will also be familiar with his regular column of “good bad poetry” in the Press-Citizen.
Patti Clayton is the founding director of the Center for Excellence in Curricular Engagement in the Office of the Provost and executive vice chancellor at North Carolina State university. She also serves as a senior scholar with the Center for Service and Learning at IUPUI and consults with universities around the country.
Carolyn Colvin is an associate professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program in the Department of Teaching & Learning in the College of Education. She has directed an adult tutoring program for immigrant adults in a nearby rural community, and it is around this program that she conducts community-based research drawing on pivotal literacy moments experienced by adult students to frame her research. Most recently, she has written about what constitutes culturally responsive pedagogy for immigrant adults in order to create literate pathways for learning and citizenship. At the present time, she is conducting a discourse analysis of the US Citizenship test and documenting the journey of immigrant adults who study to take their test as a critical step in the process toward becoming naturalized US citizens. Her work appears in The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, The Handbook for the National Reading Conferences, and other literacy publications.
Bridget Draxler is a third year Ph.D. student in the English department of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences studying eighteenth-century British literature. As part of the 2008 Obermann Graduate Institute, Bridget designed a Rhetoric course entitled "Campus and Community: The Rhetoric of Civic Engagement." Students in her course design research projects that combine academic research, local research, and memoir. In addition, Bridget is curating an exhibit at the Old Capitol Museum scheduled to open February 14, 2009 entitled "Fresh Threads of Connection: Mother Nature and British Women Writers." As part of the 2009 British Women Writers Conference, which will be hosted by the University of Iowa, this exhibit (along with coordinating activities and speakers throughout the semester on this topic) will address visiting scholars, students at the UI especially those in general education courses, the public at large, and elementary students in Iowa City.
Barbara Eckstein is UI Professor of English and Interim Associate Provost for Academic Administration at the University of Iowa. Her two books address the interaction of storytelling and the production of urban spaces. Story and Sustainability: Planning, Practice, and Possibility for American Cities (2003), co-edited with James Throgmorton of the Urban Planning program at the University of Iowa, is available from MIT Press. Sustaining New Orleans: Literature, Local Memory, and the Fate of a City (2005) is available from Routledge. She is currently directing the project “An Endangered River Runs through Us: Three Iowa River Journeys.” Each is a guided tour of a portion of the river with site visits combined with talks and readings by experts and writers.
Jean Florman Before joining the UI Center for Teaching staff, Associate Director Jean Florman taught nature and science writing and freelance writing at the University and worked as a writer and public radio producer. Her work has appeared in national magazines and newspapers, and on KUNI Public Radio, as well as in publications for McGraw-Hill, Meredith Publishing, the UI Foundation, and many University of Iowa schools and colleges. She has published two books and has degrees in anthropology and law.
Susan R. Johnson is the UI Associate Provost for Faculty. She received her B.S., M.D., and an M.S. in Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health from the University of Iowa where she is now Professor. In 1999 she received a secondary appointment in the Department of Epidemiology in the College of Public Health. Dr. Johnson’s clinical and research interests are in the areas of menopausal health issues, particularly the use of hormones and other drugs for prevention in post menopausal women, and premenstrual syndromes. She is currently the Study Chair for the NIH sponsored observational study of the menopause transition, Study of Women Across the Nation (SWAN). She is active on the state and national level in the licensing and credentialing of physicians; she currently serves on the Executive Board of the National Board of Medical Examiners, and on several committees of the Federation of State Medical Boards.
Craig Just is an Associate Research Engineer at IIHR – Hydroscience and
Engineering at UI and is Vice President for Research and Development at Ecolotree®, Inc. With graduate degrees in environmental science and chemistry, Dr. Just has excelled at the interface of environmental analytical chemistry and applied engineering in support of and leading top-quality research projects the areas of: phytoremediation of explosives; water quality and cyberinfrastructure; fate determination of contaminants during wastewater treatment; and poverty reduction and community building in poorer countries such as Guatemala, Mexico and Haiti.
Kate Karacay is a first-year doctoral student in International Education in the UI College of Education. She was a Fellow in the 2007 Graduate Institute. Her research interests include social justice education, gender and education and Islam. Kate has an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Iowa. Her research for this degree focused on international human rights human trafficking Turkey. Her community activities include service with the Iowa City Human Rights Commission, the Iowa United Nations Association, and the Iowa Network Against Human Trafficking. She is currently working as a graduate assistant at the Women's Resource and Action Center as the Iowa Women Initiating Social Change (IWIS) coordinator.
Michael Lombardo is the City Manager for the City of Iowa City. He is the chief administrative officer for the City. In that position he implements policy decisions made by the City Council, appoints and supervises directors of operating departments, supervises the personnel system in its many facets, and oversees City contracts, public improvements, building, and maintenance. He also proposes the City budget to the Council each year. He arrived in 2008 just in time to take charge during the summer floods.
Katie Moermond received her Bachelor’s degree in Art and Design in 2004 from Iowa State University, Ames, with an emphasis in photography. Kathrine is currently pursuing Museum Studies instruction at the University of Iowa. She plans special programs and coordinates events for the Old Capitol Museum as the Education and Outreach Coordinator. She also serves as the local district coordinator for National History Day in Iowa.
Gregg Oden is a professor at UI jointly appointed in the Departments of Computer Science and Psychology and co-chair of the University's Flood Mitigation Task Force. He previously served six years as chair of the Campus Planning Committee and as chair of the Psychology Department. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at San Diego. His scholarly interests lie within the domain of cognitive science.
Jim Peterson was born and raised in Iowa City and graduated from the University of Iowa with B.A. and M.A. Degrees in Spanish. He has owned or worked for various telephone, cable TV and data network operators as an engineering technician, Project Engineer, General Manager, VP of Operations, President, Owner and Consultant. He has worked in Iowa, Africa, the Philippines, the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe. More recently he has developed commercial and residential rental properties in partnership with other Iowa Citians and tried his hand at “Angel Investing” As a member and current President of Eastern Iowa Angel Investors, LC. Since becoming a Rotarian in 2000 he has been active in various international projects in Mexico and Central America, including serving as coordinator for the Xicotepec, Mexico Project for four years.
Jonathan Rattner is a filmmaker, Iowa Arts Fellow, and a 2008 Obermann graduate fellow. Last year, he received an M.F.A. in Film and Video production from the UI Department of Cinema and Comparative Literature, and he is currently pursuing another M.F.A. in Intermedia Arts. Both programs are a part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He has screened his work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The World Social Forum in Brazil, The University of Iowa Museum of Art, and festivals and colleges in Europe and the United States. He has used video production as a community activism tool for over ten years, working with nonprofits in N.Y.C and seeking to redress problems of child development and education, housing displacement, prison recidivism and poverty. For the last three years he has been the creative director at the Iowa City Senior Television station where he helped launch Iowa City Senior Television Online and introduced "the Linn street collective," an intergenerational collaborative program involving the Senior Center Television Crew and University of Iowa students.
Hazel H. Seaba is the Assistant Dean for Assessment and Curriculum and a Professor (Clinical) at the UI College of Pharmacy. For about thirty years she was the Director of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy’s Division of Drug Information Service (DDIS). DDIS is the publisher of the Iowa Drug Information Service (IDIS). While at DDIS she developed the Iowa Drug Information Network and implemented a customized drug information training program for international pharmacists. She has authored several book chapters on drug information.
Rachel Marie-Crane Williams, Art Education, received an MFA and Ph.D. from Florida State University. Her research interests include prison studies, womens studies, visual culture, qualitative research, and graphic novels. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Art Education, Visual Arts Research, andThe Journal of Arts Management Law and Society. In 2003, Northeastern University Press published an anthology she edited titled, Teaching the Arts Behind Bars. Currently, she is an associate professor of art education at the University of Iowa. She lives in a converted barn with her husband, two children, two dogs, two fish, and an undetermined number of mice.
Jon Winet is an artist, researcher and teacher. He directs the Intermedia program in the UI School of Art and Art History, and is an Associate Professor in International Programs. He also is director of the Virtual Writing University Experimental Wing. In his creative practice, he produces collaborative projects revolving around politics, art, language and image in the Information Age. He is currently producing and directing "The Electoral College," a hybrid new media art | journalism project exploring the 2008 U.S. presidential election and democratic practice in America. In 2007 he was the recipient of The University of Iowa President's Award for State Outreach and Public Engagement." for his work on "Iowa City Senior Center Television Online!" and "Intermedia Artists in Community," a practice-based seminar placing art students in Iowa City non-profit organizations for semester-long internships.
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