Kelly Camm, adjunct professor, Carrie Jaeger, assistant professor, and Dr. Jack Rudnick Jr., professor, department of business administration, recently achieved Black Belt Six Sigma status. The four-month certification program included weekly web-based classes, face-to-face meetings, and successful completion of a major project. The certification is based on the body of knowledge from the American Society of Quality. Dr. Robert Gee was the Master Black Belt Instructor.

Dr. Florence Dwyer, associate professor, department of foreign languages, participated in fall 2016 in the Franco-American project, “French Art Discovery: Midwest Network.” She was part of a team of educators from France and the Midwest who created pedagogical material on French artwork that can be seen in art museums in the Midwest. Dwyer was responsible for the Cincinnati area and created files for paintings and sculptures in the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Taft Museum of Art. In Spring 2017, she presented “La Nuit de Feu: Expérience mystique chez Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt?” at the 37th Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures. The presentation focused on the spirituality in the work of the French contemporary Catholic writer, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt.

Dr. Chris Lorentz, professor, department of biological sciences, Director of Environmental Science Program and Director of the Biology Field Station, was nominated and awarded the 2017 TMC Alumni Association Lasting Influence Award. This award honors a staff or faculty member who has made a difference in the career/life decisions of TMC alumni.

Dr. Jodie Mader, associate professor, department of history, was selected as one of twenty people from around the country to attend a summer seminar in Washington, D.C., entitled Visualizing the Holocaust and the Use of Digital Humanities in the classroom. The seminar was led by Rachel Deblinger and Paul Jaskot and held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum with the goal of training those attending on various online digital tools in order to help teach the Holocaust to the modern learner.

Dr. Jack Rudnick Jr., professor, department of business administration, represented Thomas More College and the field of higher education as a panelist for the Northern Kentucky Region Program, “Bridging the Talent Gap.” The program, sponsored by the Society for Human Resources Management, was held in Covington, Ky. Discussion, along with questions and answers, included recommended strategies for dealing with the skills and competencies that employers need from graduating students. Dr. Rudnick also had his research cited by the New England Journal of Medicine (332) in the article “Abuse and Neglect of Elderly Person” (Lachs and Pillemer) and collaborated as a faculty advisor with faculty and staff from the master’s degree program at the Yale School of Public Health and Jewish Senior Services to develop/co-author a paper “Interfaith Approach to Elder Abuse: Developing a Screening Tool to Assist Faith Leaders Reporting of Elder Abuse.” The project, based in southern Connecticut, replicated his research in a 2008 Kentucky study on the awareness and knowledge levels of clergy members about the global elder abuse and neglect crisis. In addition to Dr. Rudnick, the collaborating team included Olayinka Agboola, MB.ChB, Suraj Arshanapally, Haeyoon Chang, Joan Monin, PhD, Debbie Humphries, PhD, and Elina Kurkurina from Yale School of Public Health, Erin Burk-Leaver MPH, MA, and Laura Snow MPH from Jewish Senior Services.

Dr. Catherine Sherron, professor and chair, department of philosophy, was selected from a competitive, national pool of nominees to participate in a faculty seminar on the teaching of interfaith understanding. The seminar is offered by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) and Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), with support from the Henry Luce Foundation. Twenty-five faculty members participated in the five-day Teaching Interfaith Understanding seminar in June at DePaul University in Chicago, Ill. The program aims to broaden faculty members’ knowledge and to strengthen their teaching of interfaith understanding with the development of new courses and resources.