Joyce Brooks

Educator to receive honorary degree at YSU commencement
Joyce E. Brooks of Canfield, an educator who has served in various leadership capacities through a career that has spanned more than 50 years, will receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree during Youngstown State University’s summer commencement 10 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15 in Beeghly Center.

Brooks graduated from Canfield High School in 1957, earned a bachelor’s degree in education from YSU in 1961, was an elementary teacher in the Greenford Local School District and then served nine years as a reading specialist in the Canfield Local School District. She later was the project director of the Right to Read Federal Project in the Canfield schools. Brooks earned a master’s degree in education from YSU in 1970.

In 1980, she became director of personnel services/staff development with the Mahoning County Office of Education, and nine years later she was named director of personnel for the Youngstown City School District, retiring in 1993.

At YSU, she has served as assistant to the dean of the Beeghly College of Education. She also was coordinator of the Mahoning Area Consortium Tech Prep, a member of Region 12 School–to–Work Executive Committee, an educational consultant with the Ohio Department of Education, coordinator of the Mahoning Valley Vision of Education, and a founding member of the Mahoning Valley Opportunity Center Governing Board.

In 1997, she was appointed to the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center, and she was elected to the Mahoning County Educational Service Center Governing Board, serving as president in 2008.

She is a member of several associations, including the Ohio School Board Association Board of Trustees, Northeast Regional Ohio School Boards Association Executive Council, Buckeye Association of School Administrators Project Outreach, Phi Delta Kappa Mahoning Valley Chapter and Delta Kappa Gamma, Gamma Pi Chapter. She is active in the Austintown Community Evangelical Covenant Church, the Youngstown Mahoning County Public Library, Youngstown/Mahoning Valley United Way and the Canfield Republican Women’s Club.

Last year, the MCCTC Conference Center was named in Brooks’ honor. She received the OSBA Award of Achievement in 2008 and 2009, the Industrial Information Institute Inc.’s Outstanding Educator Award in 2007, the Federated Women Community Service Award in 2005 and the Ohio Educational Service Center Association Outstanding Leadership Award in 2004.

Rich Center for Autism plants Outdoor Healing Garden

  Student Nathan Bachelor, with the help of lead instructional specialist Tony Candel work in the new Outdoor Healing Garden at the Rich Center for Autism. With the red shovel is student Michael Carroll.

The Outdoor Healing Garden, located on the lawn in front of Fedor Hall, is now underway.

The garden project is possible thanks to a $3,000 grant from the Kennedy Family Foundation, a component of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley.

The new garden is being planted with the assistance of the YSU Grounds Department.

Until now, the Rich Center has not had a designated outdoor activity space for the more than 50 children who attend the Center’s therapeutic program. Outdoor recreation has been limited to group walks around the campus of YSU.

Because the characteristics of children with autism are exhibited in behavior excesses and behavioral deficits, it is believed that an outdoor garden can be therapeutic in addressing those conditions.

For children with autism, the Healing Garden offers: a place for students to escape classroom demands, avoiding sensory overload; opportunities for children to work on delayed gross and fine motor skills by engaging in activities that help to reduce rocking, spinning and flapping; a place for quiet time away from the constant demands of learning and working; a reward to motivate good behavior; and another environment in which to live, work and play.

The Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley is operated exclusively for charitable, educational and scientific purposes which effectively assist and promote the well–being of residents of Mahoning and Trumbull Counties. Information about the foundation can be found at www.cfmv.org.

YSU faculty and staff awards, publications, presentations
Bonnie Young Laing, assistant professor, Social Work, had an article entitled “Organizing Community and Labor Partnerships for Community Benefits Agreements in African American Communities: Ensuring Successful Coalitions” published in the Journal of Community Practice special issue on economic justice, labor and community practice.

Bradley Shellito, associate professor, Geography, coauthored a peer–reviewed journal article entitled “SATELLITES: Students and Teachers Exploring Local Landscapes to Interpret the Earth from Space,” which was published in The Journal of Geoscience Education. Shellito’s coauthors were Judy Lambert, Mikell Hedley, Kevin Czajkowski, Carolyn Merry, William Slattery, Scott Sheridan, Teresa Benko and Mandy Munro–Stasiuk.

Yogendra M. Panta, assistant professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, presented four first–authored papers at the American Chemical Society 42^nd WRM Conference in Las Vegas. The papers were titled “Electrochemical Detection of Mercury Under Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Convection,” “Electrochemical Surface Plasmon Resonance (E–SPR) Detection of Mercury Under MHD Convection,” “Electrodeposition of Radionuclides Under MHD Convection for Alpha Spectrometric Determination,” and “Mercury Content of Tobacco Products by Means of Automated Combustion Amalgamation Atomic Absorption Spectrometry.” The papers were presented in the sessions “Lab–on–a–Chip Technology: Microfluidics/nanofluidics, for Chemical and Biochemical Applications” and “Mercury, Lead, Arsenic, Chromium and Other Contaminants in the Environment and in Consumer Products.”

Kin P. Moy, assistant professor, Electrical Engineering Technology, participated in the International Standards Organization EMC test standards working group meeting in SAE World Headquarters in Troy, Mich. He served as the chairman of the U.S. delegation, which included representatives from automotive manufacturers and suppliers. Global automotive representatives attended the meeting.

William Greenway, professor, English, had his poems, “Just Man” and “Shinto,” published in the Artful Dodge.

Gabriel Palmer–Fernandez, director, Dr. James Dale Ethics Center, and professor, Philosophy and Religious Studies, published a revised version of his article, “Civilian Populations in War,” in the Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, 2^nd edition, and his article titled “Ethics of Nuclear War” was published in the International Encyclopedia of Peace. Palmer–Fernandez was a panelist on “The Role of Psychologist in Military Interrogations” at the annual meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics, and he served as judge for the XIVth Intercollegiate Ethics Bowl. He was also appointed book review editor for the Journal of Religion, Conflict and Peace. 

Tammy A. King, assistant professor, and John M. Hazy, associate professor, Criminal Justice and Forensic Sciences, along with staff members of the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center, obtained a Title II Grant from the Ohio Department of Youth Services for $45,000 to help lower the number of arrests of minority youth in Mahoning County. The grant provides for a juvenile diversion officer to work with these youths, their parents and the school administrators/teachers educating the young people.

Paul R. Carr, assistant professor, Educational Foundations, Research, Technology and Leadership, had an article entitled “It Takes Two to Tango: The Identity of Those Doing Research on Identity” published in the journal Notos. 

Jason Rakers, director, Network and Telephone Services, presented his research on wireless networks at the Ohio Higher Education Computing Council 2009 Conference in Dayton. His research, “Measuring Wireless Network Success: An Analysis of a University in Ohio,” explored the adoption of wireless by residential students at YSU.

Sylvia J. Imler, assistant professor, Counseling and Special Education, presented her research entitled “Becoming Culturally Responsive: A Need for Pre–service Special Education Teachers” at the Council for Exceptional Children 2009 Convention and Expo in Seattle in April.

Sherry Linkon, professor, English, and John Russo, coordinator, Labor Studies Program, and co–directors, Center for Working–Class Studies, were the featured speakers in the Public Lecture Series titledﾠ “Knowledge, Power, and Social Justice: Educating 
Children Placed at–Risk,” at Western Michigan University. Their topic was “Interdisciplinary Approaches in Studying Teaching and Community Organizing.”

James J. Carroll, professor, Physics and Astronomy, was elected to the Executive Committee of the University Clean Energy Alliance of Ohio. Carroll also presented an invited talk at the 39^th Winter Colloquium on the Physics of Quantum Electronics in January in Snowbird, Utah, and presented an invited talk at the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command’s Isotope Workshop at the Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Md. In addition, along with colleagues from the Army Research Laboratory and Ecopulse Inc., Carroll published “Megavolt bremsstrahlung end point voltage diagnostic” in the Reviews of Scientific Instruments and was chosen as an Outreach Contact for the National User Facility Organization. 

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