Faculty spotlights

Nancy Ohanian

In 2018, The National Press Foundation announced that Art Professor, Nancy Ohanian, whose syndicated political illustrations are published in some 250 newspapers each week, has won the prestigious Clifford K. and James T. Berryman Award for Editorial Cartoons. 

Ohanian was honored during an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C., for a body of work that has skewered elected officials from both major parties but that have found a particularly rich target with President Donald Trump. 

“As a political cartoonist, everything can be a symbol,” she said. “There’s a difference between looking at an object as its identity and seeing it as a symbol that might imply something else.” 

Edelman CCCA Dean Sanford Tweedie said, “That Nancy is the first full-time educator to win this award in its nearly 30-year history speaks not only to her prominence in the field and the skill of her artistry, but also to her tremendous dedication to her craft. Nancy has a keen eye for capturing the political moment through imagery that is both dynamic and compelling.” 

 Jade Jones

In 2018-2019 Edelman CCCA welcomed its first Dean’s Fellow, a position designed to provide a promising new instructor with teaching opportunities, mentoring and professional development. 

Jade Jones joined the Writing Arts Department, where she taught and worked alongside the graduate students in the M.A. in Writing Arts’ Teaching Experience Program. “It’s fulfilling to have students find their passions through writing,” Jones said.

Jones received her undergraduate degree in English from Princeton University. Before coming to Rowan, she earned her M.F.A. at the University of Iowa where she studied fiction. In 2019, Jones won the prestigious PEN Award for her short story “Today, You’re a Black Revolutionary" about a girl named Bri who climbs a flagpole in South Carolina and removes a Confederate Flag. 

“I have been widely inspired both by my community of faculty and the Rowan community as a whole,” she said. “It has been great to see how I have grown as an instructor, which would not have been able to happen without the invaluable support system I have found at Rowan.” 

Heather Lanier

From online magazine Slate to The New York Times, Assistant Professor Heather Lanier is getting great reviews for her memoir, Raising a Rare Girl.

Lanier not only is, in fact, raising a rare girl, but has written a rare book.

The memoir about her daughter, Fiona, is a deeply personal account that details the struggles and joys of parenting a child with a very rare condition, Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, but also lays bare some of the beyond hurtful experiences that she and other parents of Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome children experience.

Lanier, who detailed some of her experiences during a 2017 TED talk that has had more than 2.5 million views to date, said following Fiona’s birth, when she weighed just four pounds, 12 ounces, her doctor noted the low birth weight, then opined the reason: “either bad seed or bad soil.”

“Then there was the doctor, later on when she was about three, who just spontaneously started pontificating (apropos of nothing) about whether parents of disabled kids had the right to consider euthanasia,” she said. This attitude, it seemed, was not rare.

“Among my fellow Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome parents, I’ve heard horror stories,” she writes in the book.

Write from the heart

A faculty member within Rowan’s writing arts program in the Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts, Lanier teaches her students to write from and about their experiences; to use pain—and joy—as motivation; and to be honest, with themselves and their readers. And clearly that is what she’s done with Raising a Rare Girl. 

Released July 7 by Penguin Press, promotional copy on her publisher’s site begins to describe Lanier’s experience, from eating organic and “trying to do everything right” during her pregnancy to the shattering diagnosis shortly before delivery that not only would she not have a “Super Baby” but that her daughter might not reach her second birthday.

“In writing the book mostly I’m trying to write a good story,” Lanier said. “But I am trying to address the pressure of what a child should do and when.”

And she found that the clinical, detached nature of some physicians and therapists can miss a person for who he or she is.

“It turned out my baby girl loved reggae,” she told audience members during the TED talk. “And her onyx eyes eventually turned the most stunning Lake Tahoe blue” from which “she loved to gaze intently into other people’s eyes.”

Her book about Fiona, now eight, began as a blog, Star In Her Eye, simply an outlet for her experience when Fiona was about one year old that sometimes drew as many as 200,000 readers.

“I wanted to reach those tired parents scrolling on the internet at 2 a.m., seeking a connection,” she said.

Reviewing Raising a Rare Girl in The New York Times, Kate Braestrup declared that, “Lanier’s writing is clean and beautiful.” On August 13, the Times followed up the review by naming the book one of ten “NY Times Editor’s Choice Picks” for the week.

Slate’s reviewer called Raising a Rare Girl “a remarkable book...as I read it, I found myself thinking that all expectant and new parents should read it.”

Lanier, who previously penned two award-winning poetry chapbooks, Heart-Shaped Bed in Hiroshima and The Story You Tell Yourself, said she’s gratified for the nice things others have written about her work but believes reviewers and readers are ultimately reacting to her memoir because it rings true.

“I tell students that the best work often comes from where you feel a little raw,” she said. “The best writing often comes from a place of deep vulnerability. That’s a lesson in every creative writing class I teach.”

Keir Politz & Jonathan Mason

In February, students and faculty in the Radio, Television & Film department won acclaim in the prestigious annual Broadcast Education Association’s Festival of Media Arts Awards competition and for high quality reportage.

Among the BEA winners, writer/director Keir Politz and producer Jonathan Mason, assistant professor and associate professor, won the Best of Festival Faculty Film Award for Entropia, a narrative shot partly off campus in Glassboro and at the Edelman Fossil Park in Mantua Township. The film follows the trials of a Polish piano tuner in search of truth and beauty.

Politz also won an Award of Excellence for his television screenplay for Country of the Blind.

One of the most prestigious faculty and student media competitions in the country, the festival, part of the Broadcast Education Association Conference, recognized winners during an April awards program in Las Vegas.

Edelman CCCA Dean Sanford Tweedie said the recent accolades befit programs that, for decades, have produced communicators of the highest caliber.

“I’m very proud,” Tweedie said. “Our students and faculty love what they do, they work hard at it, and the results speak for themselves. But it’s also nice to be recognized.”

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New full-time faculty

 John Akass (Lecturer, Radio, Television & Film) is the coordinator of Rowan Productions at Rowan University. Hailing from the UK, Akass is a producer, entrepreneur and educator with nearly 40 years professional experience in the UK media industry, working as a reporter, news editor, editor and producer for titles including the Daily Mirror, TV-AM, Talk Radio and BBC World Service Television. He has run his own digital agency, Media Citizens, for the past 20 years, delivering corporate films, web and app publishing services and digital media training for digital inclusion programs. Akass has also worked as a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at University of the Arts, London and produced a short film for cinema. 

Kim Akass (Professor, Radio, Television & Film) came to Rowan from the UK and is a founding editor of the television journal Critical Studies in Television (SAGE), editor of the website CSTonline and a series editor of the "Reading Contemporary Television" for IB Tauris. She is currently researching the representation of motherhood on television for a forthcoming book From Here to Maternity:Representations of Motherhood in the Media. 

Emily Baker (Lecturer, Art) received her BFA in Interior Design from California State University, Chico and her MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2016 where she focused on performance, installation and bronze casting. She has shown her work nationally and was recently accepted to spend time with Dupont’s nylon archives at the Hagley Museum in Delaware. In her spare time, she travels to attend cast iron pours and conferences throughout the United States and is gearing up to present work at the International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art in Berlin, Germany. Before relocating to New Jersey, she was the Foundry Studio Artist at Salem Art Works in Salem, NY, a Visual Artist at The Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, VT, and was the recipient of a micro-residency at The Steel Yard, in Providence, RI. She was also awarded a residency at The Santa Fe Art Institute during their 2020 Labor theme. She recently joined the faculty at Rowan University in the fall of 2020 as the Sculpture Area Coordinator and a Full-Time Lecturer. 

Angela Cirucci (Assistant Professor, Communication Studies) is a digital media scholar focusing on the symbolic meaning of programming languages, the intersection of institutional practice and user knowledge, and user experience. Often focusing on identity, Dr. Cirucci has a passion for studying how digital spaces impact the lives of marginalized communities. In addition to conducting research and teaching, she loves to travel. So far she has visited 10 US National Parks, 27 states and 14 countries.

Miles Coleman (Assistant Professor, Communication Studies) is an award-winning rhetoric scholar, specializing in rhetoric of science, digital rhetoric and communication ethics. He has an interest in issues of public science literacy and responsible debate in offline and online contexts. When not in the office, you can find him playing music or adventuring with his family.

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Nicholas DiUlio (Lecturer, Journalism) has taught journalism at Rowan since 2008 and focuses on teaching students how to craft innovative digital-first nonfiction storytelling and long-form narrative journalism. In addition to his role as lecturer, DiUlio is the former editor of South Jersey Magazine and an award-winning journalist with more than 15 years of experience whose work has appeared in publications such as Philadelphia Magazine, New Jersey Monthly and Slate.com. He teaches Digital Journalism I & II, Magazine Article Writing, and Media Ethics and he is the faculty advisor for Rowan University’s student newspaper, The Whit.

Jenny Drumgoole (Assistant Professor, Art) is a Philadelphia artist who inserts herself into marginal spaces for pseudo-celebrity within popular culture. Her most recent video-based performance work involves the artist physically and virtually infiltrating competitive events with subversive art actions which question our obsessions with celebrity, desire and the limits and illusions of individuality in popular culture. Drumgoole received her MFA in photography from the Yale School of Art in 2006.​

Robby Gilbert (Assistant Professor, Radio, Television & Film)

Amanda Haruch (Lecturer, Writing Arts)is a graduate of the Writing Arts department and rejoined the Rowan University community after graduating with her MA in English from the University of Idaho. She now teaches the courses she loved the most as a student: those involving technologies and writing. Outside of teaching Writing with Technologies and Writing, Research, and Technology she teaches courses in the First-Year Writing program and brings her love for technology into the composition classroom.

Cherita Harrell (Lecturer, Writing Arts) earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Rutgers University-Camden and a Master of Science in Education at Walden University. She graduated summa cum laude from Rowan University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Writing Arts and was the recipient of the Excellence in Writing Arts Award in 2013. She is a doctoral candidate at Walden University in the Ed.D. program for Reading, Literacy and Assessment. Harrell's scholarly interests include literacy and assessment, critical race theory and black feminist thought. Her research explores the relationship between black feminist thought and creative writing; specifically, how creative writing coursework rooted in black feminist thought may help to improve the literacy development of students of color, as well as create spaces that allow for the exploration of students’ lived experiences through forms of expression, such as oral stories, narratives, visual media and other literary contributions.

Nina Isaacson (Lecturer, Radio, Television & Film) is a filmmaker and visual artist with significant creative practices in video, painting, photography and comics. Her film and video works have exhibited at the Icebox Project Space in Philadelphia and at the Portland Museum of Art in Portland, OR. Her film production credits include executive and lead creative roles on award-winning fiction, documentary and hybrid films, which have screened internationally. In 2015 Nina founded Flamethrower Films, a production company and constraints-based incubator of experimental film and interdisciplinary projects. Isaacson teaches Foundations of Media Production and Filmmaking 1.  

Jennifer Kitson (Assistant Professor, Art) is an urban, cultural geographer who also teaches in the Geography, Planning, & Sustainability department. She studies social and environmental issues through the embodied experience of place. Dr. Kitson contributes to the geohumanities, a field at the nexus of geography, art and humanities scholarship, through creative and sensory engagements with space, place and environs.​

Yannick Kluch (Assistant Professor, Communication Studies & Lead Faculty Consultant for Social Impact) previously worked at the Office of Inclusion at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Originally from Germany, his teaching and research focus on equity, diversity and inclusion in athletics, athlete activism, critical sports communication pedagogy and identity construction in sport. He is also the lead faculty consultant on social impact the Center for Sports Communication & Social Impact. In 2020, Kluch was appointed to serve on the inaugural Team USA Council on Racial and Social Justice, convened by the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

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Heather Kirn Lanier (Assistant Professor, Writing Arts) is an award-winning essayist, memoirist, and poet. She’s the author of two award-winning poetry books, The Story You Tell Yourself and Heart-Shaped Bed in Hiroshima. Her memoir, Raising a Rare Girl, was released this summer and her related TED talk, “‘Good’ and ‘Bad’ Are Incomplete Stories We Tell Ourselves,” has been viewed over two million times. 

SoYoung Lee (Assistant Professor, Public Relations & Advertising) received her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Lee’s interests are focused on strategic and marketing communications in a brand crisis, brand-consumer relationships, digital media and consumer psychology. She specializes in digital media and psychology and how psychological variables influence the effectiveness of marketing and brand strategic communications. Her recent publications appear in journals such as the International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics, and Public Relations Review. Dr. Lee also has presented research papers at The American Academy of Advertising (AAA), American Marketing Association (AMA), and Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

Paul Monticone (Assistant Professor, Radio, Television & Film) is a film and media historian whose research primarily centers on the industrial and cultural institutions of the Hollywood studio era. His research also includes genre and aesthetics, nontheatrical cinema (industrial, educational, advertising), and film historiography. His work has appeared in Cinema Journal, the Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and Behind the Silver Screen: Editing and Visual Effects (Rutgers, 2015). 

Jaclyn Partyka (Lecturer, Writing Arts) joins the Writing Arts Department from the School of Critical Studies at the University of the Arts and the English Department at Temple University. She teaches in the First-Year Writing program, where she works to foster reflective approaches to digital literacy within the writing process. Her research focuses on authorship, genre and contemporary multimodal literacies. Dr. Partyka’s scholarly writing has appeared in Contemporary Literature and Metaliterate Learning for the Post-Truth World (2018) and she has forthcoming chapters in the edited collections Trump Fiction: Essays on Donald Trump in Literature, Film and Television (2020) and Reading the Contemporary Author: Narrative, Authority Fictionality.

Juliana Rausch (Lecturer, Writing Arts)

Julia Richmond (Assistant Professor, Public Relations & Advertising) received her Ph.D. from Drexel University. Dr. Richmond teaches undergraduate Public Relations and is affiliated with Rowan’s interdisciplinary Sports Communication and Media program housed in the Ric Edelman College of Communication and Creative Arts. Before completing her doctorate, Dr. Richmond worked as a social media coordinator and communication consultant for various clients in Philadelphia. Her academic research is situated at the intersection of crisis communication, sports communication and critical studies. When she is not teaching or researching, she enjoys watching Rowan's Women’s Basketball.  

Catherine Romano (Lecturer, Writing Arts) has been part of the faculty at Rowan since 2015.

Donna Mason Sweigart's (Associate Professor & Department Chair, Art) continuing research ranges from 3D modeled functional object installation to large-scale body adornment/fashion. She uses both traditional methods of fabrication, computer-aided-design/rapid prototyping and alternative digital fabrication techniques to accomplish her works. In summer 2020, Sweigart became the chair of the Art Department.

Shari K. Thompson (Lecturer, Radio, Television & Film) earned her B.A. from Georgetown University and an M.F.A. Temple University. Prior to joining the faculty at Rowan, she served as an Assistant Professor at Howard University and an adjunct professor at Temple University and Stevenson University. Thompson’s area of concentration is scriptwriting for both film and television. Her research interests center on race and representation in film, social issue documentary and the intersection of film and philosophy in contemporary cinema. Her documentary, The Leesburg 33, screened at the Langston Hughes African American Film Festival in Seattle, WA and was broadcast on WYBE, formerly a local Philadelphia station and PBS affiliate. She has also presented original research on racial ideology and the Disney Princess at the National Association of African American Studies Conference in Baton Rouge, LA.

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New & innovative programs

Bachelor of Arts in Health & Science Communication

Two years ago, no one foresaw the novel coronavirus and worldwide spread of COVID-19, but many knew, sooner or later, that a global contagion was coming.

Anticipating health and science challenges—and the often difficult task of communicating about them— faculty and administrators in Rowan University’s Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts began work on a program to train aspiring journalists, bloggers, public relations professionals and others to tell science and medical stories with authority, clarity and conviction.

The result, a new Bachelor of Arts in Health & Science Communication, is now available to students.

“The B.A. in HSC will prepare students for STEM employment opportunities in a variety of fields, including media relations, public relations, health and science journalism, social media, new media, advertising, advocacy, technical communication and medical writing,” said Dr. Joy Cypher, a professor in the Department of Communication Studies who helped develop the new degree. “It will also provide students with a solid foundation for which to apply for graduate and professional programs in areas such as science communication, public health, scientific writing, pharmaceutical writing, medical school, health or environmental advocacy and genetic counseling.”

Among courses created to support the new program are Introduction to Health and Science Communication and Developing Health and Science Literacy, both of which are offered this fall, and students interested in the program are encouraged to take one or both of them.

Health communication is hardly new, but Cypher said a longstanding public interest in health and wellness, the worsening climate crisis, an aging populace and a burgeoning need to explain these and other medical/scientific issues fueled the new program’s development.

“In the field of communication, health and science is big,” said Cypher, who is also the coordinator of the new program. “There are a lot of jobs.”

Though plans for the new degree program began at least two years before the COVID-19 outbreak, Cypher said the deadly pandemic, in which as many as 25 percent of those affected worldwide reside in the U.S., exemplifies the need for communication professionals who speak science.

“With COVID, we see how knowledge is a moving target,” she said. “When we’re dealing with something like climate change or a new drug, it’s not often that we know everything. How we talk about science or environment helps demystify some of the things that science is and is not. Communicators need to clarify for their audience what is known and what is not known.”

Dr. Sanford Tweedie, dean of the Edelman CCCA, said while the new program was not created in response to COVID-19, the outbreak is expanding a need for communicators who understand science and who can explain medical, wellness and scientific issues to others.

“I can’t imagine much that is more relevant than health and science communication these days,” he said.

Comprehending COVID-19

This summer, Rowan introduced an all-new course to students that widely explores the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications moving forward.

Comprehending COVID-19, which is also running this fall, provides students the opportunity to learn from Rowan faculty who are studying the pandemic from multiple areas and bringing a complex, reasoned look at ramifications of it and what we can expect. 

The one-credit course was open to all and free to incoming Rowan freshman and transfer students this summer. It is now being offered at the normal tuition rate.

“The world we thought we knew has been upended,” said Dr. Sanford Tweedie, Dean of Rowan’s Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts, where the course is housed. “Comprehending COVID-19 will help students understand the pandemic from scientific, health, economic and media perspectives.” 

Communication Studies Assistant Professor Dr. Miles Coleman leads the course, which includes presentations by faculty from Edelman CCCA, the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, the Rohrer College of Business, the College of Science & Mathematics, and the School of Earth & Environment.

Presentation topics will include the Biology of SARS-CoV-2, the Geography of Coronavirus, Health Disparities and COVID-19, and Life After COVID-19.

Esports comes to Rowan

In Fall 2020, Edelman CCCA launched the Esports Industry and Entertainment Experience Certificate of Undergraduate Studies (CUGS). Students can learn from those working in the industry such as teachers Gidd Sasser, general manager of Simplicity Esports and coach of Flamengo Esports, and Kacey Doran, M.A., video game scholar. The program is part of a partnership with Rowan and NSG (Nerd Street Gamers), the national network of esports facilities and events dedicated to powering competitive opportunities for gamers, to develop one of the region’s largest collegiate esports gaming and academic programs. Nerd Street is investing more than $1 million to construct a 7,500-square-foot gaming facility on Rowan Boulevard. 

Bachelor of Arts in Applied Professional Communication 

Offered as a 3+1 program at Rowan College at Burlington County (RCBC), the Bachelor of Arts in Applied Professional Communication could save students an estimated $75,000. 

“We wanted to offer an affordable degree that provides students with communication skills to support them in a wide range of professional settings,” said Edelman CCCA Dean Sanford Tweedie. 

Through the 3+1 program, students attend classes on the RCBC campus after completing their associate’s degree while working toward a bachelor’s degree from Rowan University. They take their junior-year courses with RCBC professors, and their senior-year courses on the RCBC campus with Rowan University faculty.

In their senior year, students in the B.A. in Applied Professional Communication will take 30 credits of specialized coursework focused on digital communication, and designed and taught by Edelman CCCA faculty. 

“At a time when colleges across America are rightly being criticized for the high cost of higher education, we continue to identify pathways for students that lower the price of a college degree,” Rowan University President Ali Houshmand said. 

Center for Sports Communication & Social Impact’s New Team

In June 2019, Emmy Award-winning sportscaster Neil Hartman was named Director of Rowan University’s Center for Sports Communication & Social Impact. Hartman filled the role after founding director Dr. John Giannini became the Rowan’s athletic director.

“Sports Communication is a constantly changing industry,” Hartman said. “I’m looking forward to diving in, building on what Dr. Giannini has established and helping Rowan students to be on the forefront of this business.” 

A graduate of Ithaca College, Hartman has worked in sports media for more than 30 years. Prior to establishing his sports production company Talow Media Group, he spent nearly two decades as the main news anchor for Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. He was also a sports anchor at CBS3 and WPHL-TV and hosted his own radio shows on sports radio WIP. Hartman has earned four Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards and was named Pennsylvania Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association for his work. 

In addition to Hartman’s role as director, Professor Yannick Kluch has been appointed as the Center’s lead faculty consultant for social impact.

Dr. Kluch comes to Rowan from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) where he worked in the Office of Inclusion. In 2015 he created We Are One Team (WA1T), a first-of-its-kind, award-winning initiative that utilizes sport to promote diversity, inclusion and social justice on American college campuses. He earned his Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University. 

“In the industry today, diversity and inclusion are invaluable assets that benefit both sports professionals and sports organizations. I look forward to working with Neil to continue creating—between the academic program and the Center—a preeminent sports communication educational experience that promotes positive cultural change not only in the Delaware Valley, but across the US,” Kluch said. 

Sports Communication and Media

The Center for Sports Communication & Social Impact supports the B.A. Sports Communication and Media (Sports CaM) which was launched in Fall 2018 and focuses on the role communication and media play within the sports industry. 

The program—which has grown from 50 majors in 2018 to 237 majors and 29 minors as of Fall 2020— includes a 39-credit B.A. program and a shorter-sequenced minor to position Sports CaM graduates for an important market segment. It's coordinated by Dr. Emil Steiner.

Sports CaM students and graduates have landed internships and jobs with places like the National Football League, 97.3 ESPN Radio, Atlantic City and the NFL Alumni Association.

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Research

Bringing STEM careers to rural students: NSF grant will use virtual reality videos to expose high schoolers to in-demand technical careers

A $496,963 grant from the National Science Foundation will help Rowan University researchers from two colleges introduce STEM careers to high school students in rural South Jersey.

Led by professors Sarah Ferguson and Kara Ieva from the College of Education and Christopher Winkler from Radio, Television & Film, the grant will use virtual reality 360-degree videos to introduce underrepresented students, particularly women and students of color, to in-demand STEM careers.

The team will help students learn more about careers through five-minute VR videos featuring professionals from underrepresented groups who work as survey mapping technicians, geological and petroleum technicians, quality control analysts and environmental engineering technicians, among other careers.

Researchers will work with school counselors at Delsea, Cumberland and Northern Burlington County regional high schools to incorporate the videos into career development modules for 11th grade students.

The project’s title is STEM-VRCE (STEM Through Virtual Reality Career Exploration).

 “The types of careers we are highlighting are often overlooked when we talk about STEM careers. They are in high need and growing in our region,” says Ferguson, assistant professor of qualitative methods in the Department of Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education and principal investigator on the grant.

“Many students are not aware of these career options and have limited access to explore these careers, particularly in rural communities. Yet, these are highly trained technical fields. They pay well and often require a two-year degree or certificate.”

The goal of the project is to conduct research on the efficacy of VR videos and career exploration modules in increasing student knowledge of the careers, increasing student career decision-making self-efficacy and developing clear outcome expectations related to the focus careers. The project will be evaluated externally to assess its overall fidelity, scalability and sustainability. A sample size target of 300 students has been set for the study.

'An immersive virtual field trip'

Industry partners from underrepresented groups in STEM—women and ethnic/racial minorities—will be featured in the 360 VR videos. Winkler, with assistance from undergraduate Radio, Television & Film students, will produce the videos, which will showcase each individual’s work and responsibilities in their work environments.

“It’s an immersive virtual field trip,” says Winkler. “That’s the goal. Viewers will basically be transported to another space. They will get a guided, 360-degree, live-action tour of what these STEM technicians do in their work. It will be an authentic look at each profession.”

Though they can be viewed on phones or online, the videos will be best experienced with VR headsets. The grant provides funding to purchase the equipment for each school in the study.

Ieva, a professor of Counseling in Educational Settings, will develop the curriculum. She will pair the VR videos with a curriculum guide for school counselors and materials for students to use as they view the videos for each STEM career.

The curriculum will be designed around Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), which identifies career choice as a combination of individual self-efficacy regarding a career (belief that the individual can do the work) and outcome expectations (belief that working in the career will produce positive outcomes for the individual).

“There’s a huge potential for this type of career exploration,” says Ieva. “It’s innovative and it increases opportunities for students. Students need auditory, tactile and visual cues for everything they do. STEM-VRCE will bring real life to their front door.”

According to Ferguson, researchers expect that the project will increase interest in STEM careers and ultimately increase the STEM workforce.

Overlooked areas in STEM careers

“Expanding the social knowledge of these fields provides more students with opportunities to undertake meaningful careers in STEM, better supporting the STEM workforce and continuing the development of STEM in the United States,” says Ferguson, noting that career fields such as surveying and mapping technicians, geological and petroleum technicians, environmental engineering technicians and quality control analysts, have double-digit projected growths in the next six years, both in New Jersey and nationally.

Ferguson notes that the careers the study highlights are highly trained technical fields that many students don’t know exist.

“These are often overlooked areas in STEM careers,” says Ferguson. “We mostly talk about engineers, but not the other professionals who work with them. Yet, engineering technicians are a necessary component of the field.”

Ferguson notes that rural school districts make up over 50 percent of the public school districts in the nation. But those districts often lack access and funding for special projects and programs, such as STEM career exploration and advanced courses.

“We have a generation of kids coming out of rough economic situations,” Ferguson says. “And if they don’t have a strong relationship with a mentor or a teacher, they can kind of get lost. This can help them make a better choice…or at least help them reflect on whether this type of career appeals to them or why it does not.”

If the study shows STEM-VRCE is effective, “it could be scaled up to support career exploration and advising around multiple STEM career clusters and potentially change the way we offer career exploration programming,” Ferguson adds.

Rowan University announces $3+ million in funding for research in Camden

In January 2019 Rowan announced the first grants of the Camden Health Research Initiative, a $50 million pledge by the University to fund research in and/or impacting the City of Camden during the next 10 years.

Rowan awarded the initial grants, totaling $3.06 million, to faculty working on 24 projects in 16 departments/divisions in Edelman CCCA, the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU), School of Osteopathic Medicine, Henry M. Rowan College of Engineering, College of Science & Mathematics, College of Education and Cooper University Health Care. All proposals were externally peer reviewed.

The goal of the initiative, approved by Rowan’s Board of Trustees in December 2017, is to stimulate medical and bioscience research at Rowan and CMSRU and with partners and to bring more top research and clinical faculty to the city to work on developing breakthrough medical cures and treatments.

“This major investment in research will further advance the emerging health sciences hub in Camden," said Rowan President Dr. Ali Houshmand. "As we attract top researchers and build more programs we also expect to see the development of more start-ups—and more jobs—in our region, further growing the South Jersey economy.”

Camden Health Research Initiative Grant Recipients

Partnerships Saving Students Money

TAP grants save students millions 

Jude Miller and Amanda Haruch could save Rowan students over $250,000. The Writing Arts faculty members along with Information Literacy Librarian Sam Kennedy make up one of 10 Rowan groups who received a Textbook Alternative Program grant (TAP). Miller, Harcuh and Kennedy are using library resources as well as online open education resources to replace the two standard textbooks that are currently being used in College Composition II classes, one of Rowan’s core courses that all students are required to take. Student savings for 2020 are projected to be $251,472.25. 

The Rowan University Affordability Taskforce projects savings from all Rowan TAP grants to be more than $1 million in 2020.

Rowan partners with LEAP Academy

For the fifth year in a row, Edelman CCCA participated in the Early College program at Camden, New Jersey’s LEAP (Leadership, Education, And Partnership) Academy. Seniors at the charter school take a full load of college courses at Rowan’s Camden campus and Rutgers-Camden. They earn both high school and college credit and take the courses with college faculty. 

Founded in 1997, LEAP Academy is Camden’s first charter school. It challenges students with a curriculum that emphasizes STEM education and boasts a 100 percent college placement rate. Rowan’s participation in LEAP’s Early College program is part of Rowan University President Ali Houshmand’s commitment to increasing access to a four-year degree, particularly among underserved populations. 

“It’s important because it furthers one of Rowan’s stated goals—access to higher education,” said Assistant Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Lorraine Ricchezza. 

Edelman CCCA and Writing Arts offers six sections of Foundations for College Writing, which all students are required to take. 

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Awards & Milestones

2020 Lindback Award

Public Relations & Advertising Chair Suzanne FitzGerald, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA, won the prestigious 2020 Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award last spring. From the Rowan Faculty Center: 

“FitzGerald offers an unusual educator/practitioner perspective with a doctorate from Temple and the Fellow credential awarded to fewer than two percent of all PR practitioners. She has served as PRSSA advisor for 25 years. She has served as Accreditation Chair for the Philadelphia PRSA chapter and on the board of PRSA's Educator's Academy. Her background includes a decade in the data processing, health care, and agency arenas. FitzGerald has published several texts with McGraw-Hill and Kendall-Hunt as well in many scholarly journals.”

This award is funded through a gift from the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation and honors one permanent faculty member with an outstanding record of teaching and a sustained record of commitment to student learning.

2019 Frances S. Johnson Junior Faculty Innovative Teaching Award

Jennifer Kitson, who joined the Art department this year and also teaches in the Geography, Planning, & Sustainability department, won the 2019 Frances S. Johnson Junior Faculty Innovative Teaching Award. Kitson worked with Michael Benson, Coordinator of the Digital Scholarship Center, on the "Glassboro Memory Mapping Project".

The Frances S. Johnson Junior Faculty Innovative Teaching Award was established by Edelman CCCA Dean Dr. Sanford Tweedie to recognize junior faculty who challenge their students in unique, important and interesting ways. 

Wall of Fame

Each year, faculty and professional staff are nominated by graduates from the previous year for their excellence in teaching and advising. Students are asked to write a letter describing how these faculty and staff members impacted their learning and overall development and/or assisted them beyond their expectations in academic advising. 

2020

Ronald Block, Writing Arts, Teaching

Cristin Farney, Public Relations & Advertising, Advising

Julie Haynes, Communication Studies, Teaching

John Moscatelli, Public Relations & Advertising, Teaching

Nancy Reighn-Garron, Journalism, Advising 

Rachael Shapiro, Writing Arts, Advising

Skeffington Thomas, Art, Teaching

David Vaccaro, Art, Advising

2019

Kenneth Albone, Communication Studies, Advising

Joseph Basso, Public Relations & Advertising, Teaching

Mark Berkey-Gerard, Journalism, Teaching and Advising

Suzanne FitzGerald, Public Relations & Advertising, Teaching

Julie Haynes, Communication Studies, Teaching

Candace Kelley, Journalism, Teaching

Jonathan Mason, Radio, Television & Film, Teaching and Advising 

Diana Nicolae, Radio, Television & Film, Advising

Alison Novak, Public Relations and Advertising, Teaching

Keir Politz, Radio Television & Film, Teaching

Stephen Royek, Writing Arts, Advising

Retirees

Harriet Benavidez, Communication Studies

Mike Donovan, Radio, Television & Film

David Hackney, Public Relations & Advertising

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Beyond the classroom

Center for Art & Social Engagement  

Formerly known as the Westby Art Gallery, the Center for Art & Social Engagement is a new research-based initiative from the Rowan University Art Gallery. 

The introductory project, Estoy Por Aquí / I Am Here, was a visual representation of artist Susan Sterner’s photographic exploration of the challenges faced by women working in the informal economy of central El Salvador. 

Home of the Sister Chapel, the historic feminist art installation currently on display in Westby Hall, the Center will serve as a venue for investigating social issues through arts-based methods, while drawing inspiration from the cooperative spirit of the women’s art movement. 

The Center encourages similar ideas of collaboration and interdisciplinary research that explores diverse and timely social issues through multidisciplinary practices. 

Conceived to welcome a variety of mediums, projects include photojournalism, film and video, historical ephemera, info-graphic presentations, STEM/ STEAM installations, and/or public programming whether from faculty, students or outside organizations and individuals. 

“This is an opportunity for us to work with other departments on campus and engage with communities beyond the campus,” added Rowan University Art Gallery Director Mary Salvante. 

Institute of Innovative Media, Materials & Design

In fall 2020, Edelman CCCA launched the Institute of Innovative Media, Materials & Design (IMMaD). The institute supports collaborative, cross-disciplinary innovations including sustainability, entrepreneurship and design. Coordinated by Art's Jenny Drumgoole, IMMaD provides funding for faculty research and creative activities; houses the Paul Grand and Sunitha Menon Rowan University Creative Inquiry Scholarships; and facilitates cross- and interdisciplinary programming from departments across the university. Look out for more information about IMMad and the Creative Inquiry Scholars in Issue #4. 

Rowan Radio

Rowan Radio 89.7 WGLS-FM won 14 awards this year, including a prestigious Gracie Award. The station aired another season of Wilmington Blue Rocks Baseball, a minor  league affiliate of MLB’s Kansas City Royals. Directed by Derek Jones, Rowan Radio co-produces live editions of the RU Football Coaches Show; carries roughly 100 Rowan athletics sports contests throughout the year; and features over 120 annual live broadcasts of football, basketball, softball, baseball and soccer games. WGLS produced five documentaries; broadcast live from several Rowan University events including Homecoming, Rowan 5K race and Rowan Gives Day; and partnered with Shoprite and the Food Bank of South Jersey for their annual holiday food drive. 

Rowan Writing Center

The Rowan Writing Center, under the direction of Dr. Celeste Del Russo, Writing Arts, continues to increase its tutoring appointments and is developing its services to support students in a variety of composing platforms and media, including STEM poster sessions, videos and public speaking projects. In fall 2019 the Rowan Writing Center received the Access and Inclusion Award from the Academic Success Center and Disability Resources Office and Director John Woodruff. The Center was recognized for their proactive work in seeking support and collaboration to best serve students and tutors around neurodiversity and disability.

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