Faculty and staff sketches

In the News

Memorial service set for emeritus professor

A memorial service will be held on Friday, June 1, from 3-5 p.m., in Padnos Hall (room 308) for Frederick Bevis, emeritus professor of biology. 

Bevis died February 20 at the age of 83. Bevis began teaching at Grand Valley in 1964 and was a founding member of the Biology Department in 1967, then called the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences. He retired from Grand Valley in 1995.

Library names associate deans

Sarah Beaubien was named associate dean for curriculum, research and user services within University Libraries. Beaubien brings 10 years of experience as a librarian to the position. She has been with Grand Valley since 2010 and most recently served as the head of Collections and Scholarly Communications.

Jeffrey Daniels was named the associate dean for curation, publishing and preservation services, bringing eight years as a librarian to the position. He has been with Grand Valley since the late 1990s, and as a faculty member since 2010. He has previously served as the head of knowledge access and resource management services and began serving as an interim associate dean in 2016. He also served as interim co-dean from December 2016 until June 2017. Daniels is known as a leading voice in the area of electronic resource management and is currently on a national group to advance automation of knowledge bases loading for journal links.

Sketches

Ivo Soljan, professor of English, was  invited to deliver the Robert C. Ferguson Fulbright Foreign Lecture, “The New World Disorder – Then, Now, and in the Future," at the 25th jubilee of the Ferris State University’s Fulbright Association. Soljan also delivered the inaugural lecture, at the establishment of this association, 25 years ago. 

Robert Johnson, visiting professor of nursing, wrote an article, "Going Beyond 'Do No Harm': A Critical Annotation," published in the Annals of Palliative Medicine, .

Trisha Thomas, assistant dean for practice in the Kirkhof College of Nursing, was elected as a Distinguished Fellow in the National Academies of Practice.

Dianne Slager, assistant professor of nursing, and two DNP alumni, gave a presentation, "An Intra-Disciplinary Clinical Learning Experience Ghana, West Africa," at the annual conference of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculty in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Felix Ngassa, professor of chemistry, gave presentations, “Regioselectivity in Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution with Aryl Sulfonates” and “Theoretical Circular Dichroism Spectra of Alpha-Helical Proteins with the Dipole Interaction Model Including the n to pi* Transition,” at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Shawn Bultsma, associate professor of educational leadership and counseling, received the Douglas Blocksma Award from the West Michigan Counseling Association in recognition of outstanding professional service in supporting the field of counseling.