2005 Archived Faculty & Staff Achievements
December 2005
Dr. Dan F. Bakke, president, has been named vice chair/chair-elect of the Camp Robinson/Camp Pike Community Council.
Mary Koscheski, adjunct instructor, has co-authored a chapter in the book Managing Special Populations in Jails and Prisons. The editor was Stan Stojkovic. It was published by Civic Research Institute in Kingston, N.J. Dr. Christopher Hensley and Koscheski wrote Chapter fourteen Sexual Victimization of Inmates-Issues for Prison Management. The chapter is noted in that Koscheski is an instructor at Pulaski Technical College.
Carol Langston, vice president for college advancement, has been named vice chair of the executive committee of the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.
Carolyn Pittman, adjunct instructor, presented Our Town at the Little Rock Community Theatre during the last two weeks in January at the School for the Blind. Pittman played the part of Mrs. Soames in this production.
Julie Williams, instructor of Early Childhood Development, and Trude Puckett, instructor of Early Childhood Development, have been selected to be peer reviewers for the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s Associate Degree Accreditation Review. They will be responsible for evaluating early childhood associate degree programs that have applied for national accreditation.
Pearson/Prentice Hall has published an expanded edition of The Community College Experience, a textbook authored by Amy Baldwin, distance education coordinator. The expanded edition will be called The Community College Experience PLUS (2007) and will be available for fall 2006 adoptions. The book garnered attention at the publisher’s national sales meeting in Orlando, Fla., early in January 2005.
November 2005
Debbie Kirby, library director, has been selected to serve on the Community College Advisory Board for the Thomson Gale Corporation. Thomson Gale is a world leader in authoritative reference book and research database publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. Board members will evaluate and advise in the areas of curriculum development, library resources, and student and faculty outreach. She also will serve on the Intellectual Freedom Committee of the Arkansas Library Association. Committee members appear at hearings for challenged materials and promote the concept of intellectual freedom.
Wendy Davis, librarian, has been elected secretary of ArkLink for 2006. ArkLink is the state-wide nonprofit consortium of 47 college and university libraries organized to facilitate cooperation among libraries, promote shared resources, increase purchasing power and share services.
Deborah Wilson, payroll officer, and Kayla K. Smith, accounting technician II, just completed their Associate of Arts at Pulaski Tech.
Kellye Mashburn, director of institutional research, planning and effectiveness, was elected treasurer of the Arkansas Institutional Research Organization (AIRO) at its November meeting.
Augusta Farver, dean of business, Summer Brown, enrollment coordinator, and Pulaski Tech students Dillon Terry and William Clay attended the American Student Association of Community Colleges conference in Orlando, Fla., in November. This organization teaches and encourages leadership, citizenship, and advocacy among community college students and advisors across the nation. Each person in attendance benefited greatly from the networking experiences, interesting sessions, and innovative speakers.
Peggy Peterson, director of TRIO Scholars, Tonya Willingham, TRIO Scholars education specialist, and Lisa Phwandaphwanda, TRIO Scholars retention advisor, attended the annual SouthWest Association of Student Assistance Programs (SWASAP) conference in Albuquerque, N.M., Nov. 12-16. SWASAP is the regional TRIO association.
Howard Nesmith, adjunct instructor in the Business Division, was elected as the 2006 president-elect for the Arkansas Chapter of the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing (NIGP). NIGP is an educational and research organization dedicated to help governments manage tax dollars wisely. He will become the chapter’s president in 2007.
Billie Wallace, adjunct instructor in the Fine Arts and Humanities Division, achieved the National Board Certification in Adolescence through Young Adulthood English Language Arts.
October 2005
Dr. Judy Pile, Pulaski Technical College site director at Baptist Health Schools of Nursing and Allied Health, has been elected to a three-year term on the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges Board of Directors. She will serve as vice chair of the Administrative/Professional Division.
Award-winning writer Stephan Zimmermann, author of The Sonja Factor and The Christmas Strike, has announced the release of his latest offering, The Dogwood Murders. A novella set in rural Arkansas, The Dogwood Murders finds Nancy Harrington returning to her native Ozark town for her mother's funeral. A few days later, her older sister dies in a horrific car crash. The story asks the question - is Nancy the innocent victim of a series of tragic events ... or is she a cold-blooded killer?
Zimmermann, whose taut international political thriller, The Christmas Strike, was well-received by readers, collaborated with native Arkansan, Bill House, to create the authentic flavor of rural small-town America. The novella was set for publication by www.Lulu.com in late October. A pre-publication made-for-television film package is already under option.
September 2005
Juanita Williams, director of Children First, has been awarded a Diamond Award by Major General Morrow of the Arkansas National Guard for her work to support Guard members with childcare services during their recent deployment.
August 2005
Kay Clowney, adjunct instructor of business, recently spoke to the college students at the state NAACP convention in Conway.
Martha Sue Grummer, associate registrar, has recently completed her Master of Arts degree.
Joyce Taylor, executive director of the Pulaski Technical College Foundation, was named Ambassador of the Month for the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce in August.
Stephan Zimmermann received the unanimous vote of the new Social Sciences Department to serve as chair. The new department covers economics, geography, history and political science with five full-time and roughly 40 adjunct faculty members.
July 2005
Amy Baldwin, Joey Cole and Angie Macri-Hanson made two presentations at the 7th Annual WebCT Conference in San Francisco. The first presentation was Using WebCT for More Than Just Teaching and the second presentation was No One Can See You Smile Online.
Steven Brown, adjunct instructor of business, has been listed in the 9th Edition of Who's Who of America's Teachers. This is his second time to be included in the publication. He also recently became a licensed polygraph examiner.
Brown also has published a text, Legal Terminology, which is part of the West Legal Studies Series. It has been adopted by Pulaski Tech for use in the Legal Terminology class. Copies are in the campus bookstore and are available online at Amazon.com or westlegalstudies.com Shelley Esposito, the chief editor for West Legal Studies, said the national sales force was very excited by the book because it is the most comprehensive text on the market. They were so pleased with Brown’s work on the project that he is now working on a second book for West Legal Studies, Labor and Employment Law.
Don Gundolf, instructor of computer information systems, recently completed instructor training for a new IP Telephony course at Cisco international headquarters in San Jose, Cal. IP Telephony is a rapidly expanding technology that allows telephone service to share the same network infrastructure as data service. Telephone service has traditionally required a separate network.
The course was not only the pilot for the new Cisco Networking Academy curriculum, it also served as a pilot for a new curriculum development and delivery system designed to get instruction in emerging technologies to the students sooner. Cisco is a major manufacturer of network infrastructure equipment and the Networking Academy is its educational arm. Gundolf is currently teaching the course as a ‘special topics’ class, but it will become a regular course offering for students seeking a networking emphasis in the next catalog.
Lennon Parker recently represented Pulaski Tech at the Campus EAI Consortium's exclusive Members Only Learning Conference in Cleveland, Ohio. Parker’s studies at the conference focused on the interior design process of a Web portal, which will be implemented at the college.
Christy Sherrill, instructor of accounting, attended The Arkansas Great Teachers Workshop sponsored by the Arkansas Association of Two-Year Colleges July 17-20 at Winthrop Rockefeller Center on Petit Jean Mountain. She was one of 19 instructors from two-year colleges in Arkansas that met together recently to discuss innovative ideas, problem areas and how to be better instructors.
Cathy Underwood has been asked by the dean of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law to prepare the curriculum for the new Professional Practicum that all newly-licensed lawyers will be required to attend beginning this November.
June 2005
Earl Davis, a member of the Pulaski Technical College Computing Services staff, successfully completed a training course and achieved certification as a Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technician during July 2005. This certification signifies that the holder has the knowledge needed to install, maintain and provide support to users in a Microsoft Windows XP Desktop environment.
Ruth Anne Goff’s biography has been included in the 9th Edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers, 2004-2005, which will be available this September. She also has a book in committee at Kregel Publications.
Allen Loibner, instructor of English and journalism, has been named director of the Arkansas Scholastic Press Association. Part of the honor is that the association will be housed at Pulaski Technical College. The ASPA’s members are yearbook, newspaper, literary magazine and broadcasting programs from across the state at the high school, junior high and middle school levels. ASPA helps teachers develop curriculum, organizes staff development opportunities for teachers, organizes workshops for students, and helps improve the overall quality of scholastic journalism in the state.
May 2005
Vondra Armstrong, instructor of paralegal technology, received the Susan K. Reid Award for Teaching Excellence at the Employee Recognition Luncheon on May 19. Janet Naylor, adjunct instructor of business, received the Adjunct Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence.
Amy Baldwin, distance education coordinator, Joey Cole, dean of fine arts and humanities, and Angie Macri-Hanson, chair of the English Department, presented "Managing Adjunct Faculty Effectively with Technology" and "Research Writing and an Ethical College Community" at the 27th annual NISOD International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence in Austin, Texas, on May 30-31.
Bob Glidewell, instructor of paralegal technology, married Jeannie Zermatten on May 28.
Amy Rebick, special events manager, received a master of business administration from the University of Central Arkansas in May.
Robert Smith, public safety officer, received the Quenton C. Burge Award for Service Excellence at the Employee Recognition Luncheon on May 19.
Chuck Thomas, instructor of aviation maintenance technology, designed and built an electrical training mock-up of an actual aircraft electrical system. The trainer operates using an electric motor that when selected can operate an alternator type or a generator type aircraft electrical system. This mock-up provides the opportunity for students to operate, adjust and troubleshoot alternators, generators, voltage regulators and miscellaneous switches, electrical wiring and connections. As an added bonus for training, he built different faults into the system that he can select, allowing the student to search for real problems and defects to the electrical system.
Cathy Underwood, instructor of paralegal technology, was re-appointed for another year to the Arkansas Bar Association Editorial Board for Handbooks.
Michelle Verser, administrative assistant to the vice president for instruction, was selected for inclusion in the 9th edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers for 2005. In 2004, she was included in the 8th edition.
Julie Wright, instructor of psychology, and Christopher K. Locke and were married on May 14, 2005, in Little Rock. They spent 10 days in Honolulu, Hawaii, on their honeymoon.
The following Pulaski Technical College faculty and staff successfully completed a training course and achieved certification as Microsoft Certified Desktop Support Technicians during the spring 2005 term: David Harris, Danny Martin, Moses Thomas, Bernica Tackett, William Turner, Veronica Vanaman and Jessica Williams. The training course, led by Tackett, was designed to prepare students to take a series of two Microsoft certification exams for this industry standard credential. The course was an intensive overview of Microsoft Windows XP operating system and application support. This certification signifies that the holder has the knowledge needed to install, maintain and provide support to users in a Microsoft Windows XP Desktop environment.
April 2005Sherry Bowman, R.N., MA, Practical Nursing program chair, was selected for inclusion in the 9th edition of Who's Who Among American Teachers, 2005.
Kali Jernigan Brown, financial aid officer, married Nathan Brown on April 23.
Rhonda Carroll, Nancy Reedy and Betty Raper hosted a meeting of the Arkansas Chapter of the College Reading and Learning Association on April 15. CRLA is a group of student-oriented professionals active in the fields of reading, learning assistance, developmental education and tutorial services at the college/adult level. Its overall purpose is to provide a forum for the interchange of ideas, methods and information to improve student learning and to facilitate the professional growth of its members. Members of CRLA give practical application to their research and promote the implementation of innovative strategies to enhance student learning. Instructors from institutions across the state of Arkansas attended this meeting.
Carol Langston, vice president for college advancement, has been named president of the Junior League of North Little Rock. The Junior League of North Little Rock is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. Projects of the Junior League of North Little Rock include Heaven’s Loft, an incentive program for parents of young children in partnership with Baptist Health-North Little Rock; the historic Manees House in downtown North Little Rock; Safety Town in partnership with St. Vincent Health System; Angel Tree in partnership with the Salvation Army; and League Locker, which provides supplies for middle school students in north Pulaski County.
Ken Leslie and his Collision Repair Technology students were featured in the April 2005 edition of Tomorrow’s Technician magazine. The students built a replica of the General Lee car from the “Dukes of Hazzard” that was featured at a fundraiser for the Special Olympics. Lennon Parker, Web communication specialist, took the photos that were featured in the publication.
Herbert Matthews, instructor of biological sciences, achieved the rank of 1st degree black belt from the American Taekwondo Association on April 9.
March 2005
Summer Brown and Augusta Farver attended the American Student Association of Community Colleges Student Advocacy Conference in Washington, DC. The Student Government Association advisers took three SGA members, Lisa Barringer, Connie Geary and William Clay, who attended great sessions and visited Rep. Vic Snyder, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Sen. Mark Pryor, Rep. Marion Berry and Rep. Mike Ross on behalf of the college. The congressional representatives were presented with information on national priorities of community college students, information on the funding issues of Pulaski Tech, and two federal funding proposals.
Mike McMillan, instructor of computer information systems, had a new book entitled "Data Structures and Algorithms Using Visual Basic.NET" published by Cambridge University Press in March.
On March 31, Tom Hunt, Pulaski Tech air conditioning and refrigeration instructor, was elected president of the Arkansas HVACR Association during its annual convention at DeGray State Park. The association is the largest Arkansas industry organization dedicated to the education and professional development of heating, air conditioning and refrigeration contractors. This June, Hunt is rotating off the Arkansas HVACR license board on which he has served for the past eight years after two appointments by Governor Mike Huckabee.
Scottie Burchett, instructor of cosmetology, has been named 2005 Arkansas SkillsUSA Advisor of the Year. In addition, her information was submitted to National SkillsUSA and she was selected "Region II Advisor of the Year" for SkillsUSA. Region II includes Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Martha Bennett attended the McGraw-Hill/Irwin Keyboarding Symposium March 10-12 in Las Vegas. There were participants from across the United States--from New York to Hawaii. There were only about 12 invited instructors in attendance from colleges, universities and technical and private business schools. From the discussions, Bennett brought back ideas about keyboarding classes structure, online delivery and technical and classroom problems with possible solutions. The three keyboarding text authors had wonderful tips, Web sites and presentations. Her favorite demonstration was of the MS-Speech program used to compose a letter incorporating a table. The McGraw-Hill/Irwin technical team showed the impressive new keyboarding software about to be released. The symposium participants had the opportunity to suggest ideas into the final software development stages.
February 2005
Debra Fish, marketing representative for the Business and Industry Center, was February Vangard of the Month for the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce.
Valandra L. German, adjunct instructor of health, was a presenter at this year's Annual Arkansas Society for Public Health Education Conference. She presented in the student track on “Do's and Don't for Preparing for a Health Education Interview.”
Brandi Coleman Hutsell has received a bachelor of science in education with a major in human resource development/adult education from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Trude Puckett, instructor of early childhood education, is serving her second year as state president of the Arkansas Early Childhood Association. In addition, she serves on the State Curriculum Review Committee for pre-kindergarten programs, the Arkansas Professional Early Childhood Professional Registry Review Committee, the Arkansas Child Development Associate (CDA) Advisory Committee, the Central Arkansas Association of Educating Young Children (member-at-large), the North Little Rock Public Schools of the 21st Century Advisory Committee and the Easter Seals Early Head Start Special Quest Committee.
Gary Winkler, adjunct instructor of business/computer information systems, has been nominated for the 2005 edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers. This is his second nomination for the award, having been included in the 2002 edition of Who’s Who.
Gary Winkler also has authored a textbook entitled Driver's Education for the Information Highway, which covers the basics of the Internet such as surfing the World Wide Web, researching information on the World Wide Web, Citing sources, drafting, writing, sending, e-mail along with e-mail ethics, chat room and newsgroup guidelines, and finally, creating a Web site containing graphics, links, lists, and various background colors. The book is published by lulu.com; ISBN is 1-4116-2466-1. It should be available from other sources such as amazon.com, Barnes and noble, and Books A Million soon. It is already listed in the Books in Print.
Stephan Zimmermann, instructor of economics, was one of 40 faculty members from various colleges and universities in the Eighth Federal Reserve District that attended a symposium in St. Louis entitled "A Professor's Guide to the Changing Economy." The all-day function was hosted by senior staff of the St. Louis Federal Reserve. It covered aspects of current economic outlooks for the United States, a review of Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's policy formulations and an update of teaching tools available from the Fed for use in college classrooms.
January 2005
Ed Chess, instructor of history, has submitted an article entitled "The Agricultural Wheel" to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas Culture and History.
Debra Fish, marketing representative for the Business and Industry Center, has been named Vanguard of the Month for December 2004 and January 2005 for the North Little Rock Chamber of Commerce. The Vanguard Committee serves as the public relations arm of the chamber, attending ribbon cuttings and welcoming chamber members at various functions.
Carol Langston, vice president for college advancement, received the Star Award from the Arkansas Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America at its annual meeting in January.
Ben Rains, dean of mathematics/natural and social sciences; Michelle French, adjunct instructor of sociology; and James Becker, social sciences department chair; have been nominated for the 2005 edition of Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers.
Christy Sherrill, instructor of accounting, has been appointed finance committee chair for the Ouachita Council of the Girl Scouts of America. She is also a member of the council’s board of trustees.
Julie Wright, instructor of psychology, and Christopher Locke have set their wedding date for Saturday, May 14, 2005, at 2 p.m. at St. Andrews Anglican Church, Markham and Hughes in Little Rock. All faculty and staff are invited to attend.