MARSHFIELD - The following UW-Marshfield/Wood County faculty and staff have recently been awarded grants, presented papers, received awards and/or attended conferences.

● Dr. Douglas Oba, assistant professor of Biology, was recently presented the Arthur M. Kaplan Award for the 2006-2007 academic year by UW Colleges Chancellor David Wilson.  The Arthur M. Kaplan Award program was established to recognize outstanding contributions made to education by UW Colleges faculty and academic staff.  It recognizes the positive spirit that Provost/Vice Chancellor Emeritus Arthur M. Kaplan contributed to enhance education in the UW Colleges.

Oba also attended the annual American Society for Microbiology Conference for Undergraduate Educators in May at the State University of New York-Buffalo.

● Dr. Dana Haagenson, assistant professor of Chemistry, spoke on his lab “Densities and Compositions of Pennies” at the 234th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in August in Boston.

● Dr. Katie Kalish, assistant professor of English, published a paper called “Finnegan for Freshmen:  Why Joyce’s Most Difficult Work may be Easiest for Students to Grasp,” in the Spring 2007 edition of the “Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction.”

● Dr. Laura Lee, associate professor of biology, is the co-principle investigator for “Creating Livable Communities as an Economic Development Strategy,” a joint project with UW-Barron, UW-Stevens Point and the UW-Extension.  The group received a $23,850 UW-System Program Innovation Fund Grant for the project.

Lee has also been named Institutional Assessment Coordinator for the UW-Colleges.

● Kitty Kingston, professor of Art, received a $800 grant from the Campus Professional Development Fund to attend Frogman’s Print Workshop in July at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, S.D.  The workshop is among the most prestigious printmaking and papermaking intensives in the country; drawing professional artists, instructors and students both nationally and internationally.

● Dr. Mathew J. Bartkowiak, assistant professor of English; published an article and interview in the “Journal for the Study of Radicalism” entitled “Motor City Burning: Rock and Rebellion in the WPP and the MC5,” and “Interview with John Sinclair” (co-Authored w/ Ann Larabee at Michigan State University). 

He was also acknowledged in Barbara Ehrenreich’s new book Dancing in the Streets for research efforts and had been invited to be a native English-speaking assistant to translator for the Japanese version of Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.

● Jeannie Pitsch, Spotlight Series coordinator, attended the Midwest Arts Conference in September in Columbus, Ohio.

● Dan McCollum, assistant campus dean, was a reader for AP Psychology in June, in Louisville, Ken.  He also attended the national Distance Education Conference in August in Madison.

● Dr. Julie Tharp, associate dean and professor of English, received a $2,000 grant from the UW-Institute for Race and Ethnicity.  The grant will provide funding to bring the authors of “Apple Pie and Enchiladas” to campus in support of the campus-community common reading and campus theme.

She was also appointed by the UW Colleges to the UW-Institute for Race and Ethnicity Board of Directors.

● Amanda Lang and Kami Weis, Student Services coordinators, attended the National Career Development Association (NCDA) conference in July in Seattle.

● Chris Meyer, network administrator, has been appointed to the Sustainable Marshfield Committee.  He continues to chair the Leadership Marshfield Council.

● Ann Applegate, music lecturer, was the guest pianist for Voca Lyrica - an all female chorus from Big Rapids, Mich., which performed in July at the Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia.

● Steven Decker, assistant professor of Communication and Theatre Arts, attended a week-long workshop in the Alexander Technique in August at Viterbo University, La Crosse. The Alexander Technique is a method that works to change (movement) habits in our everyday activities.

He was also the UW-M/WC campus representative at the First Year Engaged Readers Conference in August in Fond du Lac.

● Ruth Elderbrook, library director, attended the American Library Association conference in June in Washington, D.C. 

● Dr. David De Lyser, assistant professor of Music, attended the Music Management and Recruitment Workshop in June at DePaul University in Chicago. 

● Laurie Petri, academic librarian, and Elderbrook attended Wilsworld 2007, a technology conference for librarians in July in Madison.

They also attended “Grant Writing for Digitization Preservation Projects” in July at the Marshfield Public Library.