September 2000

Northeast Wisconsin educators share in $72,000 in research grants

GREEN BAY - Algoma, Green Bay, Manitowoc, Plymouth, Pulaski, and Sturgeon Bay school districts, and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, are sharing in more than $72,600 in research grants from the Institute for Learning Partnership.

John Crubaugh, superintendent of schools in Manitowoc, and Michael Marinetti, coordinator of the UW-Green Bay Institute for Research, were co-chairs of the Institute for Learning Partnership committee that designed the grant program and review process. Nine educators from Northeastern Wisconsin serve on the selection team.

UW-Green Bay Prof. Francine Tompkins, director of the Institute for Learning Partnership, says that the funding of teacher-directed, school-based research is important because it gives educators an opportunity to read research about effective educational practices. Too often, research results are disseminated in a format that is not readily accessible to the average practitioner.

"Typically, educational research is developed, conducted and written by university faculty for a university faculty audience," Tompkins says. "Although more recently there has been an increase in publications that include a section on 'application for practice,' very few teachers find the format of presentation in these professional journals to be user-friendly. Research conducted in experimental settings with results reported using statistical terminology is not easily interpreted by classroom teachers, and teachers often question the applicability of the results for their own unique classroom setting."

According to Tompkins there are several major benefits that can be expected from teacher-directed, classroom-based research: "Teachers will begin to be more informed consumers of relevant educational research since all of the grant recipients are required to provide a final written report of their project. Since teachers know how to speak the language of the classroom, we can expect that more teachers will actually read and understand the research. When teachers design and conduct valid and reliable research, we can expect other teachers to be more receptive to their work. Also, unlike the historic model of the profession, where teachers are assumed to be passive consumers of research which is conducted by others, teacher-directed research serves to empower teachers. These once 'passive consumers' are now directly contributing to the professional knowledge base on best practices.

"Teachers now know, based on hard data, what works, what doesn't work and what they can do to improve the learning of their students. As teachers design and conduct meaningful classroom-based research that is consistent with the goals and priorities of their district, everyone benefits."

In this, the second year of the program, the Institute received 46 proposals requesting $296,966 in funding. A total of $72,645 was awarded to 12 recipients. Educators and schools chosen for the awards are the following:

Algoma Elementary and Middle School — led by Principal Ann Smejkal — received a $10,000 award for the project "Using Data to Improve Learning in the Classroom and the System." The project will investigate approaches, at the classroom and the district level, to establish a clear focus for improvement and hone teacher professional practice. Quality data about student learning in the classroom and in the organization will be used for school improvement strategies. Working with Smejkal on the project are Lance Basting, Algoma High School principal; John Katers, UW-Green Bay professor; Judy Sargent, CESA 7 standards and assessment director; and teachers, Kristin Veleke, Donna Straka, Jean Ridgen, Paul Nesbitt, Jeff Buczek, Wade Vandervest, Melissa Dupke, Annette Walaszek, Eric Nelson and Brett Brooks.

Green Bay Edison Middle School — led by Tom Koene, English-as-a-second-language teacher — received a $3,000 award for the project "Eagle Express." To increase reading skills and the pleasure of literacy, students participating in the project will mentor children in their neighborhood. Also working on the project are teachers Liz Olderman, Mercedes Martin, Corri Gossen and Kelly Bazaldua.

Green Bay Franklin Middle School — led by teacher Linda Pletcher and Newport State Park naturalist Leif Williams — received a $8,853 grant for the project "Assessment and Authentic Learning in the State Park." The project goal is the development of authentic learning units in all areas of science using Newport State Park as a learning site.

Green Bay Aldo Leopold Community School — led by Principal Patrick Batey — received a $9,145 grant for the project "Developing, Field-testing and Documenting an Experiential Learning Model for K-8." This exploratory program is designed to enhance school district curriculum by integrating community connections and parent involvement for K-8 students. A field-tested manual will be made to enable other parents and teachers to replicate the effort at their schools. Working with Batey on the project are teachers Melisa Messenger and Renee Knudson and Kathy Takahashi and Janice Jennings of Aldo Leopold's Alternative Parent Teacher Organization.

Green Bay Southwest High School — led by science teacher John Sebranek — received a $2,550 grant for the continued development of a biodiversity web page. The project is a collaboration among students, high school and middle school teachers, and university professors. It will focus on environmental issues in Green Bay. Calculator-based learning technology will be applied. Students will share their data collected in the field via the web page built and designed by students. Teachers Scott Liddicoat and Steve Krings are also participating in the project.

Manitowoc Madison Elementary School — led by English-as-a-second-language teacher Lori Petrie — received a $5,000 grant for the project "Achievement of Primary Students through Guided Reading." Expanding and building on a previous grant project, teachers will use guided reading in a balanced literacy program to enhance the reading achievement of students. Teachers Linda Meyer, Melinda Galbraith, Lori Rehrauer, Polly Vannieuwenhoven, Arlene Kuehnle, Jodee Stahmer and Silver Lake College professor Jacqui Satori are other project participants.

Manitowoc Riverview School — led by kindergarten teachers Kelly Gates and Angela Green — received a $1,300 grant for the project "Constructivism in the Kindergarten Classroom." An effort to improve student learning will be addressed through instructional strategies, assessment measures, student engagement and parent involvement using a team teaching approach.

Manitowoc Washington Junior High School — led by reading teacher Pam Aikens — received a $5,030 grant for the project "The Writing Process through the Eyes of an Author." The project goal is designed to encourage reading and writing by offering a literature-rich environment in which students can connect instruction to experiences beyond the classroom. A visit by an author will help generate excitement for participants. Librarian Robin Mills and English department head Chris Lehrer Rosenberg are working with Aikens on the project.

Plymouth School District — led by school psychologist Sue Williamson — received a $2,828 grant for the project, "Cascade/Parnell Schools' Phonological Awareness Project." The Cascade/Parnell staff and the Plymouth School District psychologist will collaborate to develop activities related to phonological awareness and create lesson plans to improve students' ease of learning and reading. Also working on the project are principals Kandy Gibson and Sue Simning-Hoeft; teachers Donna Schneider, Tanya Triebensee, Shelly Vanderkin and Sharon Mueller, and speech pathologist Betty Steiger.

Pulaski Community School District — led by Darlene Godfrey — received a $4,941 grant for the project "Teaching, Assessing and Motivating Student Writing." A teacher-training project will be developed to increase student motivation and engagement in the writing process and improve scores on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations. Teachers Ann Barszcz, Jill Miller, and Donna Karcz; and Tim Kaufman and Nancy Swanson of the UW-Green Bay faculty, are also involved with the project.

Sturgeon Bay School District — led by Gretchen Lichter-Montee — received a $9,998 grant for the project "K-3 Literacy Team." The goal is to develop a comprehensive K-3 literacy program that features the consistent assessment of student progress and a consistent language for discussing student achievement.

UW-Green Bay — led by Professor Denise Sweet — received a $10,000 grant for the project "Maawanji'ding - Bridging Technology and Tradition in the 21st Century." The project goal is to develop curriculum materials that integrate Native oral histories and new media for use in Wisconsin classrooms. Ojibwe histories, narratives and imagery will be created as CD-ROM based educational materials. Collected materials will be stored on-line to easier coordinate dissemination of the materials, and ensure project sustainability. Other project participants are Sue Masterson, CESA 12 director of staff development, and Alexandra Smith of Brain-Box Digital Archives, United Kingdom.

GREEN BAY - Considered one of the nation's most outspoken critics of grades and test scores as true measures of learning, Alfie Kohn will be the keynote speaker for the Institute for Learning Partnership's Fall Conference, Oct. 19-21.

Kohn will present his keynote address, "The Deadly Effects of 'Tougher Standards': High-Stakes Testing and Other Obstacles to Learning," at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19, in the Phoenix Room of the University Union on the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay campus.

The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited and reservations are suggested. The conference is an opportunity for educators and the general public to discuss educational progress being made in Northeastern Wisconsin.

Along with Kohn's provocative address, the conference will feature area presentations by classroom teachers who report the findings from their own school-based research. That session, the Showcase of Educators, will be held from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21, with presentations from current master's graduates and candidates, professional development certificate program graduates and candidates, undergraduate students, and Institute research teams.

Kohn was described by Time magazine as "perhaps the country's most outspoken critic of education's fixation on grades and test scores." The former teacher turned author and lecturer has written eight books and dozens of articles on human behavior, education and social theory. His criticism of rewards and competition has helped to shape the thinking of educators, parents and others, across the country and abroad.

He lectures widely and has been featured on more than 200 television and radio programs, including appearances on "Oprah," "Donahue" and the "Today Show." His work has been headlined in the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News and World Report and many other magazines and newspapers, and his own articles have been featured in Parenting, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and many others.

His best-known books are Punished by Rewards (1993) and The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and Tougher Standards (1999). Part of the latter book has just been revised and updated and released separately by Heinemann as, The Case Against Standardized Testing: Raising the Scores, Ruining the Schools. His books will be available for purchase during the conference.

A reservation form for the keynote address and the Showcase of educators can be obtained by calling the Institute for Learning Partnership at 920-465-5555.

The Institute for Learning Partnership is a collaborative effort for improved teaching and learning in Northeastern Wisconsin. Its partners include the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, the 37 school districts of CESA 7 and the 26 school districts of CESA 8, teachers, education unions and associations, business and civic leaders, and school boards.

GREEN BAY - Carmen Leuthner, formerly a teacher in the Green Bay School District, is the new education outreach program manager for the University of Wisconsin -Green Bay Office of Outreach and Extension.

Leuthner is responsible for the development, delivery and evaluation of professional development learning experiences for kindergarten through grade 12 educators in Northeastern Wisconsin. Her work will include oversight of credit courses, clock hour conferences, workshops and in-service programs for teachers, administrators, and educational support personnel.

Leuthner returns to UW-Green Bay where she earned a bachelor's degree in December of 1996. She was most recently a science teacher at Washington Middle School, Green Bay, and also taught at Lombardi and Edison middle schools (Green Bay) since August of 1997. She is currently working on a master's degree in Educational Leadership.

"I am committed to working with school districts to customize continuing education offerings to support the fine teaching and learning that is already taking place in our schools," Leuthner says. "Lifelong learning not only benefits educators, but enhances the lives of the students whom they teach and the quality of the community in which they live."

GREEN BAY - Eight graduates of the Institute for Learning Partnership's Professional Development Certificate Program (PDC) took center stage, Wednesday, Sept. 20, at the first-ever PDC recognition ceremony in the University Union at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Established in summer of 1999, the Institute for Learning Partnership's PDC is the first in the state to receive endorsement by the Wisconsin Education Association's Professional Development Academy.

The continuing-education program is a standards-based, practice-focused program drawing its foundation from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and recognized by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Receiving certification were Robert Kleckner of Two Rivers; Diane Schmidtke of Pulaski; and Marcy Levine, Maureen Mulloy, Todd Naze, Therese Waldkirch, Jaelene Wentland and Joyce White-Langemak of Green Bay.

"Now that we have eight educators in four northeast Wisconsin school districts completely through the program, we will begin to see the impact of their professional growth in our classrooms," says PDC coordinator Lynn Gerlach.

"I predict a much more refined understanding of the recent brain research among our teaching faculties along with a movement toward database decision making," Gerlach says. "We are also going to feel the effects of a window opened and a breath of fresh air in our learning community. This is a proud moment for the people who worked so hard to establish the Institute for Learning Partnership."

The Institute for Learning Partnership at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is a collaborative effort of the University, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, educators in CESAs 7 and 8 and business and civic leaders, to improve teaching and learning in Wisconsin.

GREEN BAY - A Vietnamese art historian will speak on "Historical and Contemporary Vietnamese Art," at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 4, at the Neville Public Museum. Boi Tran Huynh, director of international education and instructor in art history at Dong Nai College of Decorative Arts, in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, is on a six-week visit to the United States to study U.S. art and culture under the auspices of the Asian Visiting Scholars Program, based at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

The free lecture at the Neville Museum is sponsored by the Visiting Scholars Program, the University's Communication and the Arts academic program and the Office of International Education.

Huynh and her hosts, UW-Green Bay Prof. Emeritus H. Jack Day and his wife, Jan, will give a presentation, "Our Vietnam Experience," at 9:15 a. m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10 at United Methodist Church, 501 Howe St.

Huynh has degrees in fine arts and in Russian, and completed a graduate diploma in art history at Monash University, Australia. She has lectured in Australia and in Germany. In addition to visiting art insti-tutions in Wisconsin during her U.S. trip, Huynh will spend time in Chicago, Cincinnati, and Washington, D.C.

UW-Green Bay Art Department Chair Curt Heuer says Huynh's public presentations provide opportunities to learn about an art and culture that most Americans know little about. Heuer, who teaches a course in World Art, will be Huynh's professional host while she's in the area.

The Days and Huynh met and became friends in Bien Hoa in 1996 where Day was chief technical adviser on a project sponsored by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the United Nations Development Program to assist in training staff and upgrading the facilities of a provincial environmental agency similar to Wisconsin's Department of Natural Resources. Huynh enlisted Jan Day in team teaching conversational English to other faculty members at the College of Decorative Arts. The Days made about ten extended trips to Vietnam during the three-year U.N. project.

"For Americans, Vietnam is a very special developing nation," says Day. "Because of the war, most of what people here know about Vietnam is negative." He explains that Americans know little about the country today, as it becomes more open and active in the world community. "We are delighted to promote a broader understanding of the people and culture of Vietnam," says Day. "We're interested in building bridges."

The Days, along with Prof. Emeritus Robert Wenger and his wife Lena, established the Asian Visiting Scholars Program, which has received support from the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation. Huynh is the second to visit. Prof. Li Wei, of the Institute of Environmental Sciences at Beijing Normal University, People's Republic of China, will end a year-long visit in January 2001. Wenger was a visiting professor at Beijing Normal University in 1987-88 and the couple has visited China twice since.

GREEN BAY - An experienced advancement professional who has been involved with major nonprofit organizations in the Green Bay community and held senior educational leadership positions at both the national and campus levels will join the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay as interim Assistant Chancellor for University Advancement.

Beverly Copeland Carmichael of Green Bay will assume the part-time interim post Oct. 2.

The University is continuing a national search to permanently fill the position. The assistant chancellor will oversee the institution's fundraising, advocacy, alumni, marketing and communications functions. The operations are being integrated as the University mobilizes to seek additional support for its "Learning Experience" package of academic and facility enhancements.

"We are delighted that Dr. Beverly Carmichael has agreed to accept this role at a very exciting time for our University," said UW-Green Bay Chancellor Mark Perkins. "We will rely on her to advise and assist us as we consolidate and expand our advancement efforts."

Carmichael holds a doctorate in higher education from The George Washington University with special emphasis on management science. She earned her master's degree at George Washington and her bachelor's at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Fla.

In the late 1980s she was director of development for Flagler College, directing the offices of development and fund-raising, public information, alumni services and college publications. Previously, she had been associate executive director, and director of membership and development for the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education; she shared responsibility for the AAACE's day-to-day fiscal management and organization of its national conferences and educational programs, and she testified before Congress and advocated widely for adult and continuing education programs nationwide.

Carmichael is well-known in the Green Bay community for her leadership on behalf of Encompass Child Care, Inc. She served as the organization's president from 1996-98 during the $2.1 million campaign for the Cornerstone center on North Broadway. Other local involvement includes her current service as vice president of the Service League of Green Bay.

GREEN BAY -- "No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women, Violence and Citizenship," is the topic for Linda K. Kerber, University of Iowa professor of American History, who will speak at 11 a.m. Monday, Oct. 2, in the Christie Theater at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The theater is located in University Union on the campus at 2420 Nicolet Dr. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Kerber is author of No Constitutional Right to be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship. The book won two awards given by the American Historical Association: one in women's history and another in legal history.

The book focuses on obligations - to pay taxes, to work, to serve on juries, to endure military service, and the like - in light of the legal principle based on the Constitution by which a woman's rights and obligations were "covered" by those of a man. The principle defined women as daughters, wives and mothers, whose obligations were taken care of by men.

Kerber points out that obligations that only some citizens endure can easily become rights that only they enjoy. For example, the duty of white male citizens to serve on juries also functioned as a right that they guarded well into the 20th century. Kerber argues that those who seek rights also must understand obligations. "We cannot embrace the rights without acknowledging the obligations," she writes.

Kerber's appearance at UW-Green Bay is the first in the fall Historical Perspectives lecture series sponsored by the Center for History and Social Change.

GREEN BAY -- If there's one thread uniting the four University of Wisconsin-Green Bay mainstage productions scheduled for 2000-2001, it's that all the plays are by great playwrights, says theater chairperson Laura Riddle. "All of the playwrights are incredibly well-known internationally," she noted, when announcing the schedule.

The season includes The Last Night of Ballyho by Alfred Uhry, The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard, Company, with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare.

Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo opens the season on October 20-21 and 26-28. Uhry's earlier play, Driving Miss Daisy, won the Pulitzer Prize, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Academy Award for best screen adaptation. He received Tony, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and American Theatre Critics Association awards for Ballyhoo Uhry wrote the book for Parade, which recently played at the Weidner Center.

Ballyho is set in Atlanta in 1939. The movie, Gone With the Wind is premiering in Atlanta and Hitler is invading Poland. The situation involves an assimilated Jewish family discovering their roots. "It's a romantic comedy," says faculty member John Mariano, who will direct. "As serious as it sounds, it's really entertaining." The play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. each evening in University Theater in Theater Hall.

The intimate Studio Two in the Weidner Center is the site for Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound. Performances are set for November 10-11 and 16-17 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 18 at 7 and 9 p.m. Stoppard'sRosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead catapulted him to theater fame in the mid-1960s. He has had many other successful plays and shared an Oscar for best screenplay for the movie, Shakespeare in Love. Recently, he wrote the book for a stage musical adaptation of the film, The Full Monty. Stoppard this year received England's highest honor, the Order of Merit.

Riddle, who'll direct, describes The Real Inspector Hound as British farce and says it satirizes, among other things, British farce and theater critics. "It blends the theatrical with the real," she says. "Stoppard loves playing with the idea that you're seeing something you think is real even though you know it's a play."

Company, the season's musical, mounted by the Theater and Music departments, will be performed February 23-24 and March 1-3, 2001, in University Theater. All performances are at 7:30 p.m. The musical, which first opened in 1970, earned Sondheim Tony awards for both music and lyrics. Familiar songs include "Side by Side by Side" and "The Ladies Who Lunch."

Director Mariano says Company "transformed the face of musical theater in this country." Says Mariano, "It was the first 'concept' musical." Instead of presenting a tidy story, the theme looks at the institution of marriage through a series of married couples and their bachelor best-friend. Denise Carlson-Gardner will direct the dance, and musical directors will be John Plier, vocal, and Tom Pfotenhauer, instrumental.

A little more than 400 years after its first performance in 1600, William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night will close the season. It is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. on April 20-21 and 26-28, 2001, in University Theater. Director Riddle points to a recent Broadway revival and a production this year by the Guthrie Theater as among indications of a renewed interest in the play.

Riddle bills it as "another romantic comedy" on the schedule. "It's classic Shakespeare," she says. "It has a lot of the conventions that Shakespeare is famous for-lots of love triangles, disguises, and the like." The UW-Green Bay Theater Department last mounted a Shakespeare play, As You Like It, four years ago.

Ticket information for UW-Green Bay mainstage productions is available by calling 920-465-2217 or 1-800-328-8587.

GREEN BAY - Robin D.G. Kelley, New York University professor of history and award-winning author, will speak on "'When History Sleeps': Excavating the Dreams of the Oppressed" at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 5, in Phoenix Room B of University Union at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, 2420 Nicolet Drive. The event is free and open to the public.

Kelley says we need to discover how oppressed people in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries imagined freedom. "Their vision of freedom often involved...an image of equality that we might find startling," he says.

Kelley's books, including Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression (1990), Race Rebels: Culture, Politics and the Black Working Class (1994), and most recently, Yo' Mama's Disfunktional! Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (1997) and other writings, have received awards from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the U. S., the Southern Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Village Voice called Yo' Mama's Disfunktional! one of the 10 best books of 1998.

Kelley is co-editor of an 11-volume series, Young Oxford History of African-Americans, and is author of the tenth volume, Into the Fire: African-Americans Since 1970. Kelley's articles and papers have been widely published in scholarly and literary publications. He is at work on two other books: one on the jazz musician Thelonious Monk, and another surveying African-American history.

His appearance at UW-Green Bay is co-sponsored by the Center for History and Social Change and the Office of Student Life.

GREEN BAY - What should preschool children know and be able to do with technology when they enter first grade?

That's the question UW-Green Bay faculty member Patricia Ragan-Anderson will seek to answer with the aid of a grant from University of Wisconsin System PK-16 Initiative funds for Professional Development in Instructional Technology for Teachers. The grant provides $30,225 for the first year, and an anticipated $28,900 for a second year.

"We're doing something that's never been done," says Ragan-Anderson. Though some in the past have held that computers don't match the learning styles of young children, research is beginning to show that it does, but that it needs to be used in a different way, she explains. The UW-Green Bay study will try to discover what and how. "We're hoping we'll have a model for the nation," she says.

In the first year, early childhood and technology professionals will seek to identify what level of technology is desirable for both children and teachers in early childhood settings. They'll draft standards, test them, and then UW-Green Bay faculty members will incorporate those standards into the University's professional courses in early childhood education.

In the second year, UW-Green Bay will sponsor a series of workshops on integrating technology into early childhood programs for family and center-based daycare staff, administrators, and Head Start and public school preschool teachers.

Ragan-Anderson says that technology now in early childhood settings may consist of a computer in a writing center or a science center. "I'd like to think technology is more than just computers," she says. Ragan-Anderson suggests there may be new ways to use computers and that digital cameras, palm pilots, and other technology may be useful in young children's discovery and learning. "We are getting requests from early childhood programs for help with technology," she adds.

Also working on the grant project from UW-Green Bay are instructors Christine Ferron, early childhood, and Arthur Lacey, educational technology, along with Karen Recka, director and trainer for Brown County Community Coordinated Care.

GREEN BAY - The renowned women's suffrage activist Susan B. Anthony, who visited Green Bay in the 19th century, will "visit" again in a dramatic portrayal on Thursday, Oct. 5, from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Christie Theater at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The theater is located in University Union on the campus at 2420 Nicolet Drive. There is no admission, but donations are suggested.

"Susan B. Anthony Returns to Green Bay" is the dramatic presentation by Beverly and Stuart Smith. Educator, actor and musician Beverly Smith will portray Anthony. Stuart Smith, an actor, singer, storyteller and president of AD/Smith, Inc., is the narrator. UW-Green Bay Prof. Kim E. Nielsen will provide an introduction.

The program is scheduled in the 80th anniversary year of women's suffrage in the U.S. The coming election marks just over 20 times that women have been able to vote for president of the country.

Beverly Smith, who created the portrayal based on her original research, says she performed Anthony several times before discovering that Anthony had spoken in Green Bay. She found the references while doing research on Green Bay pioneer Elizabeth Baird- whom she also portrays - and since has uncovered many newspaper articles, letters, and the like on Anthony's visits. "It's a dream come true to be able to tie my research to a national figure who was here," says Smith.

Anthony spoke here in December 1877, and was among keynote speakers at a three-day woman's suffrage convention in Green Bay in November 1886. After the 1889 speech, one Green Bay newspaper wrote, "She speaks fluently and makes a better speech than almost any man before the public today." Anthony died in 1906, 14 years before women got the vote.

Smith and Nielsen both note that the suffrage movement was not limited to voting rights. Smith points out that the title of Anthony's 1877 Green Bay speech was "Woman Wants Bread, not the Ballot," and local newspaper reports said that it "grappled with the whole question of woman's rights."

Nielsen explains that the suffrage movement sought economic options, educational opportunity, religious equality, and right to self-fulfillment for women. "One of the reasons women need to get involved in greater numbers is that these other goals still have not been met," she says. Nielsen teaches in the Social Change and Development and Women's Studies programs.

"Susan B. Anthony Returns fo Green Bay" is sponsored by the Friends of the Cofrin Library, an organization that supports the library at UW-Green Bay.

GREEN BAY -- Samuel L. Braus is the new director of the Northeast Wisconsin Partnership for Children and Families, with headquarters at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Braus comes to the staff with more than 20 years experience in child welfare. He most recently was an education specialist and visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois Jane Addams College of Social Work, Chicago, and also was executive director of Care Works, Inc., Lindenhurst, Ill., a private agency providing training for child welfare professionals and foster and adoptive parents, and crisis intervention and counseling services. Braus was a founder of that agency. He has a Master of Social Work degree from Jane Addams College of Social Work.

Ann L. McLean, Partnership director for the past three years, continues as an evaluation specialist and is an associate professor at UW-Green Bay. Founding director Betty Baer retired in 1997.

The Partnership fosters collaboration among 32 county and tribal agencies to provide training for child welfare workers. Counties and tribes involved include Brown, Calumet, Door, Florence, Fond du Lac, Forest, Forest County Potowatomi, Green Lake, Kewaunee, Lac du Flambeau Tribe, Langlade, Lincoln, Manitowoc, Marathon, Marinette, Marquette, Menominee, Menominee Tribe, Oconto, Oneida, Oneida Tribe, Outagamie, Portage, Shawano, Sheboygan, Sokaogon Chippewa Community (Mole Lake), Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe, Vilas, Waupaca, Waushara, Winnebago, and Wood.

The organization is supported by federal funds designated for child welfare training distributed through the Division of Children and Family Services of the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services. The NEW Partnership has its roots in a 1991 grant to the UW-Green Bay Social Work program from the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Social Services for the purposes of developing a sequence in child welfare in the Bachelor of Social Work program and training child welfare workers in four counties. When the NEW Partnership began in 1993 it was the first program of its kind in Wisconsin.

GREEN BAY -- Steven R. Neiheisel has joined the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay as assistant dean for enrollment services. He will be responsible for the Admissions, Financial Aid, and Registrar's offices.

Neiheisel fills the position vacated last spring when Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Services Myron Van de Ven retired after 30 years with UW-Green Bay.

Neiheisel has 25 years of higher education experience including serving as a registrar, in records, registration and admissions management, and as an academic services coordinator. He previously was dean of enrollment management at Carroll College, Helena, Mont., and prior to that, served as director of enrollment management at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Neiheisel earned Ph.D. and master's degrees, both in higher education administration, from The Ohio State University. His bachelor's degree is from California State University, Dominguez Hills.

GREEN BAY -- Marsha J. Sternard is interim chairperson of the Nursing program at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She will serve during the 2000-2001 academic year to replace Jane Muhl, who has been appointed interim dean of Professional Programs and Outreach.

UW-Green Bay has had a degree completion program enabling Registered Nurses to earn the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree since 1980. Four years ago, the UW-Green Bay program joined with four other UW campuses to offer a statewide degree completion program partly through distance learning. Beginning this fall, UW-Green Bay's B.S.N. degree is available nationwide, with courses offered almost entirely over the Internet.

Sternard, of Sturgeon Bay, has several years' connection with UW-Green Bay. She earned its B.S.N. degree in 1989 and has taught nursing courses since 1994. She began serving as an adviser to students in the Statewide Collaborative Nursing Program in 1998.

Sternard was director of nursing at Dorchester Healthcare, Sturgeon Bay. She holds a nursing diploma from Bellin College and earned a Master of Science in Nursing focusing on nursing administration from Marquette University. Sternard is pursuing a Ph.D. in urban education with a minor in nursing at UW-Milwaukee.

The new national B.S.N. program is an outgrowth of the Statewide Collaborative Nursing Program formed by UW campuses at Eau Claire, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, and Oshkosh which offer nursing degree completion programs. In the statewide program, each campus provides some of the courses and students may earn their degree from any of the five universities. The same academic program is offered in the national program, but administration and advising are provided by Green Bay, and the degree earned is from UW-Green Bay. Muhl, who was chair when it was developed, says the national program, BSN-LINC, is available to Registered Nurses in states outside of Wisconsin who meet eligibility requirements.

GREEN BAY - Joan Thron, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, has won the Teaching Excellence Award given by the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents. Thron teaches in the Education and Humanistic Studies departments.

At the ceremony in Madison, UW System President Katharine Lyall said the awards are a reminder "that teaching and learning remain the cornerstones of our university system."

Thron told the Regents that fortune, as well as patience and perseverance , have a role in successes. "I have the great, good fortune to teach some remarkable students," she said. "Where do they get the courage to leave their homes and all that must surely make them comfortable and come to us so that we can disturb that comfort with our questions? How I value their willingness to imagine beyond what they know." Thron added that she has been "remarkably lucky" to spend her teaching life in the University of Wisconsin System and thanked the regents for "holding steady to a belief that teaching and learning matter."

Thron received a plaque and a check for $5,000 to be used for professional development.

Thron joined UW-Green Bay in 1973, first working in the Academic Support Program and six years later became a lecturer in Education and Humanistic Studies. She was director of Academic Support from 1981-1984. Thron was promoted to associate professor in 1998. In addition to teaching, Thron has developed several new courses, including one of the 12-credit "building blocks" of the undergraduate teaching curriculum. Last year, she and a colleague designed one of the sequential courses for UW-Green Bay's new Education master's degree program.

Thron received the UW-Green Bay 1999 Founders Association Award for excellence in teaching.

Year 2000 Regents awards also went to Prof. Charles R. Young, director of the Computer Music Center at UW-Stevens Point, and to the Departments of Geography and Geology at the UW Colleges.

Thron is the second individual UW-Green Bay faculty member to win a statewide teaching excellence award since the Regents instituted the program in 1992. Prof. John Harris, Business Administration, received the award in 1996. The Human Development faculty won the departmental award in 1994.

GREEN BAY -- An exhibit of 75 photographs in various photographic media, ranging from traditional black and white prints to digital images, opens with a reception from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15 at the Lawton Gallery at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The show continues through October 17 in the gallery in Theater Hall on the campus at 2420 Nicolet Dr.

Midwest Photography Invitational XI includes the work of 20 artists from across the country. "Photography is the most contemporary of the arts," says exhibit curator Jerry Dell, a faculty member at UW-Green Bay. "In its many forms, print, cinema, video, and digital imaging among them, photography is the dominant visual force of our time."

Wisconsin artists included in the exhibit include Ray Spicer, Omro, a faculty member at UW-Oshkosh, and Rebecca Nolan, formerly of Washington Island and Salem, Wis., and a graduate of UW-Green Bay. Nolan now lives in St. Louis, Mo.

The every-other-year invitational, which originates at UW-Green Bay, began in 1980.

The exhibit will tour from mid-January 2001 through April 1, 2002. Wisconsin Union Galleries in Madison will display it from June 1 through July 15, 2001. Other sites scheduled are in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.

Lawton Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

GREEN BAY -- Rarely is the sound of a jackhammer music to the ear. But for those who have lectured in Environmental Science Room 114, alias "The Pit" for the past 30 years, the sporadic rat-a-tat-tat this past summer was as soothing as a lullaby to a six-month old.

Construction workers used jackhammers and other means to gut ES 114. By mid-June demolition of the oldest major lecture hall on campus was complete, with all 370 gold-colored seats tossed aside, and the brown carpeting torn up.

Completion of the project to the tune of $232,000 means continuous tabletops with 160 swing-out seats, dimmable lighting, state-of-the-art audio/visual equipment, carpeted tiers, fresh paint and, alas, no more "Section F."

Section F, according to faculty members, was the dark and distant section at the very top of the lecture hall, behind a railing, where late-arriving, sometimes disruptive and, presumably, "F" students, positioned themselves over the years.

The project was to be completed by Sept. 5, and not a day too soon, according to those who led the ever-popular "Intro to" lectures — Intro to Environmental Sciences, Intro to Human Development, Intro to Human Biology, and so on.

Nearly every full-time student who has attended UW-Green Bay since the Environmental Sciences Building was constructed in 1969 has attended classes in the ES 114 lecture hall. As difficult as it was to sit, listen and learn while surrounded by 300-plus students, it was also a challenge for the lecturers.

Some professors kept a close watch this summer on the demolition progress — likely with big grins on their faces.

"Yes, I did look regularly into old ES 114 to see how she's doing with her radical surgery," says Biology Prof. Emeritus Richard Stevens, "and so did Chuck Ihrke, (professor emeritus), when I asked him yesterday!"

Stevens, who has taught Introduction to Human Biology for 30 years, has vivid but not entirely fond memories of "The Pit."

"It has taken special dedication to teach the big 'Intro' classes, many of which are occupied by non-majors," says Stevens. "The professor has to learn more than his or her graduate specialty material to teach a broader subject matter... Some professors never make it. Some never try!"

ES 114's reputation definitely didn't lend itself to being the classroom of choice.

It had a reputation for being hot and stuffy.

"Ventilation was a problem," says Environmental Science Prof. Mike Morgan. "One time a student about five rows up sat through the entire class with his jacket on. When he went to stand up, he passed out, tumbling four or five steps down. We had to call the rescue squad."

Sometimes it was downright electrifying.

Earth Science Prof. Joe Moran recalls giving a lecture on dynamic atmosphere... "I stepped on an exposed wire on the floor that then made contact with a metal strip. A spark and brilliant flash of light woke up the students in the first rows. It was a shocking experience!"

And for some reason, the room was a magnet for unusual behavior.

Relates Moran, "in the spring of 1970, a group of students interrupted my lecture with an impromptu anti-Vietnam War skit. It only lasted a few minutes but I was so caught by surprise that I did not react and just stood in stunned silence — along with my 200-plus students."

But ES 114 could also be lots of fun.

Says Stevens, "One time I gave a lecture on the effects of a breakfast of mainly sweets and carbohydrates on one's mental and emotional state a few hours later (diet and brain activity). Generally decreased mentation and irritability are the outcomes. I also mentioned that lots of people have their addictions and that one of mine is donuts. The next class I arrived to find a dozen donuts on my podium!"

Stevens says his best experiences in ES 114 over the years involved the special students who "caught on" to the ideas and actually wanted to talk after class. Morgan and Moran concur.

"Even in those 250 plus size classes there were some fascinating discussions after class," Stevens recalls. "Some actually read some of the reserve materials recommended, and wanted to learn something not necessarily in their majors. Thus, I got to know and really work with some very good students despite such large classes."

"One student," Stevens says, "wrote a note saying he had read a business article and discovered how all this Human Biology stuff really applied to challenges of business decision making! Hey, this is education.'"

Moran's fondest memories are of returning adults. "It was a pleasure to have them in the classroom. They were mature individuals with a wealth of life experiences that enriched the learning experience for the other younger students around them. It was fascinating to see the generations interact."

Moran, Morgan, Stevens, Ihrke and others began their rallying cry many years ago to have The Pit remodeled as an improved learning environment. "Once we had tenure," said Morgan, "we started rattling our swords." They said plans for remodeling have only been seriously considered in the last five to eight years.

Moran and company felt it had been an injustice to many first-year students over the years. He said his idealism about higher education was greatly affected by the ES 114 experience.

"UW-Green Bay was (and still is) a small university and yet year after year we introduce our freshman class to the university experience in large lecture halls," Moran says. "Some freshman had all their classes in large lecture halls with enrollments of 150-plus. Financially efficient? Of course! Quality education? Hardly! I felt bad for the students — especially those coming from small high schools. They expected personal instruction and received very little...

"...We always seemed to have funds for repainting walls, exterior lighting, ...new shrubs, things like that, but not for maintaining or upgrading ES 114. After 30 plus years, all that apparently has changed. ES 114 has been rebuilt with tables instead of chairs."

Concludes Stevens, "There will always be a 'love-hate' or at least a struggle relationship with The Pit, but I'll never forget her. I will appreciate having fewer students in that room but, personally, I never resented the 250-300 plus students, especially when the big class contained a nucleus of interested students.

"That's what makes it, problems and all, all worthwhile!"

GREEN BAY -- Opposing political candidates claim differing positions on the environment. How do you evaluate them? Two groups of scientists using the same statistics offer opposite conclusions. Who is right? Some say PCB-contaminated sediments should be dredged from the Fox River; others say they should not. How do you decide?

Helping citizens understand and evaluate competing viewpoints and complex environmental issues is the goal of two University of Wisconsin-Green Bay faculty members who are offering a series of free community workshops entitled, "Critical Thinking, Science, and the Environment." The workshops are on Thursdays, Sept. 21, Oct. 5, and Nov. 2. All are scheduled from 6:30 to 9 p.m. in the University Union on the campus at 2420 Nicolet Drive.

Professors Andrew Fiala, of Humanistic Studies and Philosophy, and David Dolan, of Natural and Applied Sciences and Mathematics, are organizing the series with the aid of a $5,000 environmental education grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Both men emphasize that no special academic background is necessary to understand the sessions.

"This is for lay people who have an interest in environmental issues," says Dolan. The two say the workshops can benefit teachers, students, environmentalists, members of groups who may be affected by environmental decisions, and others. And while the complex issues in restoring the Fox River-Green Bay ecosystem will serve as a primary example, Fiala says, "We hope people can use the resources they gain in the workshops to apply to other issues."

Individual workshop topics are:

Critical Thinking, Thursday, Sept. 21: Helps participants learn to distinguish good arguments from bad, recognize persuasive techniques and language, and understand methods of proof.

Scientific Reasoning, Thursday, Oct. 5: Explains scientific methods and the statistical reasoning used in environmental arguments. Participants gain tools that will help them evaluate results.

Ethics and Politics, Thursday, Nov. 2: Differentiates between the two and helps people understand which positions and decisions are ethical and which are political.

Dolan and Fiala say they had the idea for the workshops after attending a public presentation on an environmental issue and realizing that it was difficult for many in the audience to evaluate the content. "It's good for citizens to be able to understand arguments and to make decisions based in critical reasoning," says Fiala.

The workshops are free, but advance registration is recommended. To register or for more information, call the Humanistic Studies office at UW-Green Bay, (920) 465-2348, or e-mail Dolan at doland@uwgb.edu.

GREEN BAY - The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay opens the 2000-01 academic year with the start of fall-semester classes on Tuesday, Sept. 5.

News for the first day at UW-Green Bay includes:

* Enrollment remains "hot."
UW-Green Bay projects an opening-day enrollment of about 5,400 students, with a near-record FTE (full-time equivalent) count of approximately 4,433. That's nearly 2 percent above the state-assigned FTE target of 4,357. Steven Neiheisel, UW-Green Bay's assistant dean for enrollment services, says strong demand fueled by new freshmen and transfer applicants and an increase in the retention rate for continuing students have combined to exceed projections. Neiheisel forecasts a tighter admissions picture for mid-year applicants (those seeking admission for spring semester), as well.

* New freshman class boasts more top students.
UW-Green Bay has typically ranked high among state schools in terms of the academic preparedness of its new freshmen, and that trend is continuing. The incoming class of 995 freshmen includes 23 valedictorians and 14 salutatorians; the total of 37 newcomers who graduated either first or second in their high school class is a new high. The average high school GPA of entering freshmen continues to climb, with the mean of 3.30 also a new high and an encouraging indicator. Officials say freshmen typically see their college grades drop a half gradepoint from high school; the higher gradepoints and levels of achievement provide a safer cushion above the "C" average that often defines the cutoff point for success at the university level.

* New facilities are on the way.
Students returning from summer vacation will notice the American flag atop the shell of the new $20 million, state-of-the-art academic building just east of the library. Barely more than foundation when students left in May, the structure was recently topped off; attention will soon to be turned to interior work and completion by fall 2001. Also new on the facilities front is a $17 million remake and expansion of the Laboratory Sciences Building, which was endorsed last week by the UW System Board of Regents and will begin next fall.

The total of tuition and fees for a Wisconsin resident studying full-time at UW-Green Bay is $3,305. The total for an out-of-state student is $10,833.

John Majewski, auditor Business and Finance
Majewski has been a controller, chief financial officer and general manager in converting machinery manufacturing and food processing, and most recently was chief financial officer for a Native American gaming and regulatory system partnership and general manager of a Native American casino/bingo hall operation. He earned his UW-Green Bay degree in managerial accounting in 1987 and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Jeffrey Selner, accountant, Business and Finance
Selner joined UW-Green Bay in July. His educational background includes accounting and microcomputers and he comes from a position with the Oneida Tribe where he was a program accountant and member of a team responsible for upgrading financial software.

Janice Enli, financial specialist, Purchasing
Enli came to UW-Green Bay last October from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections where she was a financial specialist. Her degree in business administration is from UW-Whitewater.

John Hagermann, custodian, Operations
Hagermann comes to UW-Green Bay from Bellin Hospital where he worked in maintenance. He'll work in the Student Services area of campus.

Dana Laundrie, custodian, Operations
Laundrie, who previously was in the security department at Procter and Gamble, is assigned to the Cofrin Library.

Lyle Uitenbroek, custodian, Operations
Uitenbroek will cover the campus as a "rover" in all possible jobs. He joins the University from a position with Van's Fencing Co., Kaukauna.

Leon Zitlow, custodian, Operations
Zitlow comes to UW-Green Bay from a position at Automotive Supply Co., Ashwaubenon. He'll work in the Cofrin Library.

Shane Haines, police officer, Public Safety
Haines transferred to UW-Green Bay from the staff at UW-La Crosse. He has an associate degree in police science from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.

Christopher Strazishar, retail and recreation supervisor, University Union
Strazishar completed his UW-Green Bay degree in May with a business administration major emphasizing management and a minor in information sciences. He joins the staff for the year. Strazishar was Phoenix Club manager from spring 1999 through last May.

Kathryn M. Delie, group sales coordinator, Weidner Center
Delie joined the staff last February. She graduated from UW-Green Bay in May 1999 with a communication processes major and a minor in information sciences. She was Weidner Center ticket office supervisor from 1997 to 1999 and prior to that served as a sales associate.

Lynn M. Schmutzler, assistant ticket office manager, Weidner Center
Schmutzler started work in February. A December 1999 UW-Green Bay graduate, her major was communication and the arts and her minor was art. Schmutzler was ticket office supervisor from 1997 until last February, and previously was a Weidner Center guest service associate.

Mary Valitchka, program assistant, Faculty and Academic Staff Governance Office
Valitchka is returning to the UW-Green Bay campus where she earned her degree in humanism and cultural change in 1976.

• Liberal Arts and Sciences

Stephen Perkins, academic curator of art, Communication and the Arts
Perkins is completing a Ph.D. in art history at the University of Iowa. He was a curatorial assistant at the University of Iowa Museum of Art, and served as a research assistant in the Alternative Traditions in the Contemporary Arts Archive and in the Main Library Special Collections. His own work was exhibited earlier this year in the University's Drewelowe Gallery. Perkins earned a master's degree in art history from San Francisco State University and, in the United Kingdom, completed a diploma in art therapy from St. Albans Art School, Hertfordshire, and a diploma in creative photography from Trent Polytechnic.

Dawn Abernathy, program assistant, Human Biology/Human Development
Abernathy's previous UW-Green Bay work experience was in the American Intercultural Center. She has a bachelor's degree in botany from UW-Madison where she also completed a concentration in African studies.

Chad Goeden, associate adviser, Office of International Education
Goeden, who completed his UW-Green Bay degree in May with a major in German, was a study abroad/national student exchange advising assistant last spring semester. He joined the staff in May and will serve for the year. His experience includes a year as an exchange student in Kassel, Germany, teaching German at Montessori Children's World, tutoring in the public schools, and serving as a UW-Green Bay language lab assistant.

• Professional Studies and Outreach

Kathleen E. Altergott, adviser, Nursing
Altergott joined the staff in June from a position as clinical supervisor at Aurora Health Center in De Pere. She'll advise for the year in the national and collaborative nursing programs. Altergott completed a master's degree in management and organizational behavior with an emphasis in health services management at Silver Lake College. Her diploma in nursing is from Bellin College, and she earned a B.S.N. from UW-Green Bay in 1993. Altergott is certified in gerontological nursing by the American Nursing Association.

Carmen L. Leuthner, education outreach program manager, Office of Outreach and Extension
Leuthner has been head counselor and camp counselor for the summer Youth Opportunities program at UW-Green Bay since 1993 and was interim program manager of Youth Opportunities during spring 1997. Leuthner has taught science at Washington and Lombardi Middle Schools and sixth grade at Edison Middle School. She graduated from UW-Green Bay in 1996.

Janet McNeil, program assistant, Outreach and Extension
McNeil joined UW-Green Bay last February. She came from a position with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and has 15 years of experience in working with Wisconsin state agencies.

Julie Smith, program assistant, Outreach and Extension
Smith began working in the Outreach Office in 1995 during her student days. She earned her UW-Green Bay degree in 1998 with majors in business administration and accounting.

Lori Entringer, program assistant, Small Business Development Center
Entringer joined UW-Green Bay in June from a position with the University of Wisconsin Hospitals in Madison. She earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Marian College, Fond du Lac.

• Student Services

Jennifer Pfundtner, adviser, Office of Admissions
Pfundtner joined UW-Green Bay last October from a position as service team leader for Schneider National, Inc. She completed a bachelor's degree at UW-Green Bay in 1999 with a major in public administration and a minor in business administration. Pfundtner was a student telecounselor and recruiter team leader in her senior year.

Diana Borrero-Lowe, coordinator, American Intercultural Center
Borrero-Lowe will join UW-Green Bay from Central College, Pella, Iowa, where she was assistant dean of student life and director of multicultural student life. Her master's degree in student affairs in higher education is from Colorado State University, Fort Collins, and she earned her bachelor's degree at Boise State University, Idaho.

Misty Davids, adviser, American Intercultural Center
Davids has been an interim adviser in the American Intercultural Center since November 1999. Prior to that, she was a district sales manager for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Davids graduated from UW-Green Bay in May 1999 with a major in communicaton processes and a minor in American Indian studies. She completed an internship in the American Intercultural Center during her student days.

Sao Vue, adviser, American Intercultural Center
Vue will join UW-Green Bay from Family Services where she was a family support worker for healthy families and a project coordinator for the Sexual Assault Center. She previously had been a work director with Associated Banc Corporation Services. Vue has many community activities, including serving on the board of the Multicultural Center of Greater Green Bay. Her degree in human development is from UW-Green Bay.

Karla A. Miller, program coordinator, Career Services
Miller formerly was associate director for special events in Career Services at St. Norbert College. She earned a Master of Science in Education in college student personnel at UW-La Crosse where she also earned a bachelor's degree in biology. She was a career adviser at UW-La Crosse.

Jackie Hallada, typist, Counseling and Health Center
Hallada comes to UW-Green Bay from a position as secretary/receptionist for the Damkoehler Paper Co., Oconto.

Jane M. Hemphill Lynch, adviser, Financial Aid
Lynch joined UW-Green Bay last February and continues through June. She previously was on the staff of St. Norbert College, most recently as coordinator of diversity recruitment and adjunct instructor. Lynch was an associate adviser in financial aid at UW-Green Bay in 1990-1992. She has a bachelor's degree in political science from Jackson State University, Mississippi, and a master's degree in education focusing on college student personnel from UW-La Crosse. She is working toward a Ph.D. in education at UW-Madison.

Barbara Tomashek-Ditter, program assistant, Registrar's Office
Tomashek-Ditter earned her bachelor's degree at UW-Oshkosh. Her previous work experience was in the College of Business on that campus.

Ruth Weeks, program assistant, Registrar's Office
Weeks, who has 36 years of customer service experience, will serve as the main receptionist. She attended business college and has completed numerous work-related seminars.

Tracy L. LaRock, area coordinator, Residence Life
LaRock was a residence hall director at St. Mary's University of Minnesota where she recently completed a master's degree in human development. LaRock earned a bachelor's degree in 1998 in human development and family relations at UW-Stout.

Linda R. Amburgy, program coordinator, Student Life
Amburgy, on the staff of Western Washington University, Bellingham, since 1994, most recently was coordinator of programming and leadership development. She is a training consultant for Lifeskills Consulting, Bellingham, and the Center for Career Development, Oshkosh. She has a Master of Science in Education in counseling, with an emphasis in higher education, and a Bachelor of Science in Education, both from UW-Oshkosh.

Steven R. Neiheisel, assistant dean for enrollment services, Student Services
Neiheisel previously served as dean of enrollment management at Carroll College, Montana, and prior to that, as director of enrollment management at the University of Illinois at Springfield. His experience includes serving as a registrar; in records, registration and admissions management; and as academic services coordinator. His Ph.D. and master's degrees, both in higher education administration, are from The Ohio State University. He earned a bachelor's degree in information systems and mathematics at California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Cassandra C. Nicolson, director, Upward Bound
Nicholson began duties at UW-Green Bay last January. She previously was with the Upward Bound program at Kansas State University, Manhattan, first as tutoring coordinator, then head residence counselor, and most recently as student services coordinator. She has two degrees from Kansas State — a bachelor's in interdisciplinary social science and a master's in student counseling and personnel services.

Beverly Thelke, counselor, Upward Bound
Thelke joined the staff last fall. She previously was a financial aid counselor at UW-Oshkosh where she earned a Master of Science in Education with an emphasis on student development in higher education. Thelke's bachelor's degree, also from Oshkosh, is in human services.

• Athletics

Sheila Blackman, assistant sports information director
Blackman has served as a sports information assistant for the past two years and interned in the office while earning her UW-Green Bay degree in communication processes. She fills the position for the year. Blackman previously was a sports writer with the Appleton Post-Crescent.

James Dean, assistant men's and women's swimming and diving coach
A sports reporter/anchor for WLUK-TV, Fox 11, Dean began diving at 12. He placed in the top six in state high school competitions in Alaska during his junior and senior years, competed with a diving club during junior college in Idaho, and made the diving team as a "walk-on" at Brigham Young University. He joins the staff for the year.

Karen M. Neuman, head women's tennis coach
Neuman has been director of tennis for the Oneida Golf and Country Club since 1988. She was a ranked junior player, a Wisconsin high school finalist, a collegiate competitor at UW-Eau Claire, and spent five years playing in the European circuit. She earned a U.S. Professional Tennis Associate degree at Sinclair Community College, Dayton, Ohio. Neuman joins the University for the year.

Michael Thomas, assistant men's and women's soccer coach
Thomas comes from Fort Collins, Colorado, where he coached the Fort Collins Arsenal Soccer Club. He has played professionally with the Boulder (Colorado) Nova soccer team and with the Myrtle Beach (South Carolina) Sea Dawgs. He has been a staff member and director of many soccer camps. Thomas, who joins UW-Green Bay for the year, earned his bachelor's degree in history from Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado, and competed on its soccer team.

Ben Wilson, assistant women's volleyball coach
Wilson, who joins the staff for the year, worked with Lakeshore Athletics, Chicago, this past summer, organizing triathlons and marathons. He formerly helped to organize volleyball leagues through Sport and Social Clubs of the U.S. and taught volleyball to children through a program organized by Midwestern Volleyball Professionals. His degree in history is from Loyola of Chicago.

• Information Services

Matthew Clark, administrative systems project manager, CIT
Clark comes from a position as financial analyst/supervisor at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College where he also taught computer-related courses. He holds a master's degree in management and organizational behavior from Silver Lake College, and two bachelor's degrees: one in computer science from Lakeland College and one in accounting from UW-La Crosse. He joined the staff last October.

Barbara Holschbach, database specialist, CIT
Holschbach has been a programmer, systems analyst, and database analyst at insurance companies and with the Milwaukee Public School System. She earned both bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science at UW-Milwaukee and has additional coursework in Visual Basic, SQL administration, Oracle database administration and Windows NT and PeopleSoft applications. She joined the staff in April.

Stan Lardinois, information systems programmer/analyst, CIT
Lardinois has an associate degree in data processing from Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, a bachelor's degree in business administration and computer science from Lakeland College, and an M.B.A. from UW-Oshkosh, He has completed courses in SQR/SQL database management tools, and PeopleSoft applications. Lardinois had various positions during 15 years on the staff at NWTC and 15 years at CESA 7 offices before coming to UW-Green Bay in April.

Chris Secrest, help desk professional, CIT
Secrest has expertise in desktop applications and is the primary Macintosh support person. He's enrolled at UW-Green Bay working toward a degree in information sciences. Secrest previously was a student at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks where he also worked in information technology providing desktop applications and hardware support and help desk services.

David M. Dettman, instruction and reference librarian, Cofrin Library
Dettman most recently was the librarian for the Legislative Reference Bureau of the City of Milwaukee and prior to that, had various positions at the Golda Meir Library at UW-Milwaukee. Dettman graduated from UW-Green Bay with majors in English and humanistic studies, completed a master's degree in English at UW-Eau Claire, and earned a Master of Library and Information Science at UW-Milwaukee. He joins UW-Green Bay for the year.

Holly Egebo, reference librarian, Cofrin Library
Egebo joined the reference staff last February, complementing her classified position as a library service assistant in circulation. She previously was a medical librarian at St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center where she had the distinction of being the institution's first professional librarian. Her master's degree in Library and Information Science is from UW-Milwaukee and she earned her bachelor's degree at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion.

Robert M. O'Donnell, manager, Media Services
O'Donnell most recently was instructional technology specialist/distance education coordinator at the UW-Marathon County. Previously he was an instructor/assistant professor in community development with University of Wisconsin Extension/Cooperative Extension Service, during which time he received the Excellence in Teaching award from the Wisconsin Extension Community Development Association. O'Donnell's M.B.A. is from UW-Oshkosh and his bachelor's degree is from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

Karin E. Krieger, instructor of Human Biology/Biology
Krieger's Ph.D., work in interdepartmental genetics is at Iowa State University. She was an instructor in the Department of Zoology and Genetics there and was active in Project LEA/RN (Learning Enhancement Action/Resource Network), a group of faculty and graduate students working to encourage use of active, cooperative, and other innovative teaching strategies in Iowa State classrooms. Krieger earned her bachelor's degree in biology at Gustavus Adolphus College, Minnesota.

Uwe Pott, assistant professor of Human Biology/Biology
Pott, who joined the faculty last January, came from the Laboratory of Developmental Neurogenetics, at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health where he was a visiting associate. He held a Fogarty Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Laboratory from 1995-1998. Pott studied biology at Heinrich Heine University, DŸsseldorf, Germany, completed a master's thesis at the Institute of Microbiology, and earned a Ph.D. at the Brain Research Institute, University of Zurich, Switzerland.

Dean D. VonDras, assistant professor of Human Development/Psychology
VonDras joins UW-Green Bay from adjunct professorships at Webster University and St. Louis Community College. He earned Ph.D. and master's degrees in psychology at Washington University, St. Louis, and a bachelor's degree with a music major and a psychology minor at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Among his teaching interests are social psychology, life-span development, and health psychology. VonDras was consulting editor for Health Psychology's special issue on aging and health psychology.

Donald Birchfield, adjunct associate professor of Humanistic Studies/English
Birchfield, who joins UW-Green Bay for the year, is a published poet and writer of short stories, and the author of eight children's books. He has been editor of a literary quarterly special issue and a poetry anthology, and was general editor of the eleven-volume Encyclopedia of North American Indians (Marshall Cavendish), for which he received the 1997 Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers Writer of the Year Award. He is a founding board of directors member of the Wordcraft Circle and is active in many professional organizations. He has taught at Cornell University and the University of New Mexico and presented at many workshops and conferences. Birchfield, an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, has a bachelor's degree from Western State College, Gunnison, Colorado, and a J.D. degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

Rosemary Ackley Christensen, assistant professor of Humanistic Studies/American Indian Studies
Christensen most recently was a visiting professor at UW-Madison. She earned an Ed.D. in educational policy, organizational theory and leadership at the University of Minnesota and an Ed.M. at Harvard University. She is a continuing student of the Ojibwe language and the list of curriculum materials she has prepared on the language is extensive. Christensen has served as an educational consultant and evaluator for local, state and national organizations and agencies, and has published widely on education issues, particularly pertaining to Native American education. Christensen serves on the Board of Trustees at Northland College, Ashland.

Derek S. Jeffreys, assistant professor of Humanistic Studies
Jeffreys earned both bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees — the latter in religious ethics — at the University of Chicago. His teaching interests include theological and philosophical ethics, philosophy of religion, comparative ethics, and political philosophy. He received the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia Award for Overseas Teaching in 1998-1999, the year he spent as a visiting professor at Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. Jeffreys comes to UW-Green Bay from a lectureship at California State University, Chico.

Jennifer J. Popiel, assistant professor of Humanistic Studies/History
Popiel completed both master's and Ph.D. degrees in history at the University of Pennsylvania where she was a Benjamin Franklin Fellow from 1994-1999. She also received the Mellon Pre-Dissertation Fellowship. Popiel's major field is European history, 1648 - 1945, and minor fields include French social and cultural history, 1648 - 1914, and women and the family. Her bachelor's degree in history is from Trinity University, San Antonio.

Namji Clara Kim, assistant professor of Communication and the Arts/Music
Kim joins UW-Green Bay from Graceland College, Lamoni, Iowa, where she was a piano instructor and accompanist. She completed a Doctor of Musical Arts at Manhattan School of Music and master's and bachelor's degrees at the Julliard School. She received first prizes in piano, chamber music and harmony at the Conservatoire National SupŽrieur de Musique de Paris, and a first prize in piano at the Conservatoire National RŽgional de Rueil-Malmaison. Kim has performed in solo and chamber recitals in France, Korea, Switzerland, Austria and Spain, as well as in the United States.

Kaoime E. Malloy, assistant professor of Communication and the Arts/Theate
Malloy is a member of United Scenic Artists with an extensive list of credits in costume design and construction. She previously was an adjunct professor at the University of Iowa where she earned her Master of Fine Arts in theatrical design with a costume emphasis. Her Bachelor of Fine Arts in drama production is from the University of Arizona. Malloy's credits include productions at various University of Iowa theaters, Iowa Summer Repertory, Grinnell College, Cornell College, Coe College, University of Arizona theaters, and many other venues. Her costume design for Oh What a Lovely War was a national design finalist selection at the American College Theater Festival at the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C.

John Plier, assistant professor of Communication and the Arts/Music
Plier earned a Doctorate of Musical Arts in voice performance and pedagogy at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, from which he also received a Master of Music degree. His bachelor's degree is from Lawrence Conservatory of Music. Plier was a graduate assistant in voice, musicology and music education, and personal assistant to the head of the voice department at Peabody Institute. A tenor, Plier has sung major solo parts in works by Handel, Bach, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Dvorak and Haydn, and has performed opera roles with companies including the Chamber Opera of Chicago, Florentine Opera, National Opera Company, and many others. His awards include the Uihlein Award, Metropolitan Opera Upper Midwest Region, and Most Promising Midwestern Artist, American Institute for Musical Studies.

Marion Weedermann, assistant professor of Natural and Applied Sciences/Mathematics
Weedermann's research interests include dynamical systems and nonlinear functional differential equations. She received a Ph.D. in mathematics with a minor in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology. Her master's degree is from Jozsef Attila University, Szeged, Hungary. Weedermann was a graduate teaching assistant at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Li Wei, visiting research scholar, Natural and Applied Sciences
Wei is an associate professor at Beijing Normal University where he is director of the Environmental Assessment Division in the Institute of Environmental Sciences and deputy director of the Research Center for Environment and Transport. He came to UW-Green Bay last January to spend a year as a visiting research scholar. His primary research field is environmental planning and management. He has consulted on projects for the United Nations Development Program and for the World Bank.

Laurel E. Phoenix, instructor of Public and Environmental Affairs/Geography
Phoenix is completing Ph.D. requirements in forestry with a watershed management emphasis at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry of the State University of New York, Syracuse, where she won a full tuition scholarship award. Phoenix has served as a senior research aide at the Research Foundation of SUNY/ESF, and research assistant at the New York Center for Forestry Research and Development. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees in geography from the University of Colorado at Boulder where she also taught courses.

Andrew Austin, assistant professor of Social Change and Development
Austin had the distinction of being named graduate student of the year at the University of Tennessee where he recently completed his Ph.D. in sociology. He earned a master's degree in sociology at Middle Tennessee State University, and a bachelor's degree in psychology at the same institution. Austin's research interests include political economy, crime and justice, race and ethnicity, environmental sociology, culture studies, political sociology, and life-course analysis. He was an instructor in the Evening School and a graduate teaching associate at Tennessee.

• Lecturers

Janet K. Dehn, lecturer in Human Development
Dehn is an application developer at Clinical Programming, Menominee, Michigan, a developer of expert computer software for the behavioral health care field, and an adjunct instructor in general studies at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College. She previously was associate director and children's program director at the Menominee County Community Mental Health Center. Dehn earned a Ph.D. in sociology at Washington University, St. Louis, and a bachelor's degree from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo. She joins UW-Green Bay for the year.

Elizabeth Michalec, lecturer in Human Development
Michalec most recently was a licensed mental health care finder for Choice Behavioral Health Partnership and an independent practitioner and consultant in practice in Florida. She joins the staff for the year. Michalec has both Ph.D. and master's degrees in clinical psychology from Florida State University, Tallahassee. Her bachelor's degree is from UW-Milwaukee. She previously was a visiting assistant professor at the University of North Florida Department of Rehabilitation Counseling, Jacksonville, and is a Florida-licensed rehabilitation counselor.

Carl Battaglia, lecturer in Humanistic Studies/Composition
Battaglia's Ph.D. work at UW-Madison is in composition and rhetoric. He earned a master's degree at Madison, and has a bachelor's degree from the English Honors Program at Canisius College, Buffalo. He taught freshman composition at Madison. His experience with the Writing Center there included coordinating the Online Writing Center and he was responsible for developing its World Wide Web site. He also served as a consultant for assessing freshman composition at UW-Madison.

Glenn F. Peters, lecturer in Communication and the Arts/Arts Management
Peters' experience includes managing capital projects for the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Taliesin-Spring Green, and other institutions; strategic planning and management consulting for organizations such as the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Theatre Circle and others; and developing resources from entities including the Kresge Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowments for the Arts and for the Humanities, the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Fund, and other corporations and individuals. He earned a bachelor's degree in finance and did graduate work in public administration at Arizona State University, completed a Master of Arts in Business from the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at UW-Madison, and continues studies toward a Ph.D. at Madison. He joins UW-Green Bay for the year.

Sharon Steinberg-Plier, lecturer in Communication and the Arts/Music
Steinberg-Plier has a Master of Music in voice performance from Indiana University, a Bachelor of Music from Ithaca College, and studied abroad in Siena, Italy. A soprano, she has been a winner, finalist, and semi-finalist in numerous competitions. She previously taught at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and other institutions, as well as in her private studio. She has sung in oratorio and orchestral performances and performed in opera roles with groups such as the National Opera Company and other notable companies. She joins UW-Green Bay for the year.

Linda Tabers-Kwak, assistant professor of Education
Tabers-Kwak comes to UW-Green Bay from a position as literature/composition instructor and district-level public relations administrator with Libertyville/Vernon Hills High School District, Libertyville, Illinois. Her teaching experience includes all levels of high school literature, writing and journalism, and advising the school paper. She completed a Ph.D. in leadership, foundations and counseling psychology at Loyola University, Chicago. Tabers-Kwak has two master's degrees-in English from Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago, and in English education from the University of South Florida, Tampa-and a bachelor's degree from Barat College, Illinois.

Christine Vandenhouten, visiting assistant professor of Nursing
Vandenhouten is a member of the Bellin College of Nursing faculty and practices perioperative nursing at St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center. She holds the Master of Science in Nursing from UW-Oshkosh, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Marian College, and is certified by the National Certification Board of Perioperative Nursing, Inc. She received the 1998 Nishioka Family Faculty Excellence Award at Bellin College. Vandenhouten joins UW-Green Bay for the year.

• Lecturers

Samuel L. Braus, director, Northeast Wisconsin Partnership for Children and Families
Braus joins UW-Green Bay from a position as education specialist and visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois Jane Addams College of Social Work, Chicago, and as founder and executive director of Care Works Inc., Lindenhurst, Illinois. Braus also has experience as a trainer and as an instructor of volunteers, professionals, clients, and others in a variety of settings. He has a Master of Social Work degree from Jane Addams College of Social Work and a bachelor's degree in history from St. Joseph College, Renselear, Indiana.

Kathleen Kurth, lecturer in Nursing
Kurth previously was an adjunct faculty member at Cardinal Stritch University and a staff nurse in the intensive care unit at Columbia Hospital, Milwaukee. She earned both the Master of Science in Nursing and the Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Cardinal Stritch University.

Marsha J. Sternard, interim chair of Nursing
Sternard joins UW-Green Bay for the year. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in urban education with a minor in nursing at UW-Milwaukee. She earned a Master of Science in Nursing from Marquette University, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at UW-Green Bay, and an R.N. diploma at Bellin College. She is certified in nursing administration, advanced, by the American Nurses Association. Sternard was director of nursing for Dorchester Healthcare, Sturgeon Bay. Her previous UW-Green Bay commitments have included serving as an adviser in the statewide collaborative nursing program and teaching nursing courses.