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Russell Sage College faculty members conduct research, write books and peer-reviewed articles for leading journals, participate in juried art exhibitions and hold leadership roles in professional organizations. Here are some highlights from the 2020-2021 academic year.
Associate Professor of Educational Leadership Daniel Alemu, Ph.D., is a co-author of “A Social Network Study of Transformational Teacher Influence,” which appeared in Teacher Development in September 2020.
Associate Professor of Theatre David Baecker, MFA, reviewed Death In Modern Theatre: Stages Of Mortality by Adrian Curtin for the Omega Journal of Death and Dying.
Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy Leslie Bennett, OTD, OTR/L, presented her collaborative work revising the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Code of Ethics document at the association’s annual conference.
Associate Professor James R. Brennan, Ph.D., PT, was awarded The Reverend Dr. Edith Grace Craig Reynolds Chair of Religion & Philosophy.
Professor of Psychology Ellen Cole, Ph.D., wrote the foreword for Retirement Experiences of Psychologists, published in April 2021 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. She co-edited Older Women who Work: Resilience, Choice and Change, published in September 2020 by the American Psychological Association, and co-authored one of the book’s chapters, “The Secret Poor Among Us: Older Women who Work to Make Ends Meet.”
Associate Professor of Art History Melody Davis, Ph.D., was chair of sessions on the history of stereoscopy for the 3D-Con of the National Stereoscopic Association in August 2020 and presented “The Racialized Black Body in Comic Stereoviews” at Sage’s Faculty Research Colloquium in November 2020. She read poetry from her book, Ghost Writer, at Cafe Lena’s YouTube livestream in January 2021; presented “Plasticity in Virtual Space: Stereoviews of F. G. Weller and Other View Companies of the Late-Nineteenth Century United States” at the College Art Association conference in February 2021; and was interviewed for the program AHA! on WMHT in March 2021. “Bathing with the Enemy: Lee Miller” by Professor Davis will be published in Lee Miller: A Surrealist Eye, forthcoming from Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Associate Professor of Educational Leadership Francesca Durand, Ph.D., presented “Assessing Dispositions of Teacher and Leader Candidates” at the February 2021 Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation Quality Assurance Symposium. She presented “Disrupting Inequities in Diverse Schools: A Participatory Performance of School and District Leader Discourses” and “Diagnostic Classroom Assessments of ELA Grades 3-8 Deficits to Inform Instruction” at the American Educational Research Association 2021 annual conference in April.
Assistant Professor of 3D Art and Extended Media William Fillmore, MFA, had a solo online exhibition with Marvelous Gallery.
Lecturer in Occupational Therapy Wendy Gaughan, MS, OTR/L received her Occupational Therapy Doctorate degree from New York University in May 2021.
“Review of Study of Novel Treatment of Gulf War Illness” by Associate Professor of Psychology Donald Graves, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology Gayle Skawen:nio Morse, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University at Albany and University of Toronto, appeared in the Journal of Mental Health & Clinical Psychology in July 2020. “A Pilot Study to Examine Psychological and Neuropsychological Outcomes and a Novel Detoxification Program for Gulf War Illness” by Professors Graves and Morse and their colleagues appeared in Military Medicine, the journal of The Society of Federal Health Professionals, January-February 2021.
Associate Professor of Nursing Victoria Greenwood, DNS(c), MS, RN-BCDNS(c) completed a Doctor of Nursing Science degree in May 2021.
Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Laurie Hepler, DPT, was recertified as a Clinical Wound Specialist.
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry Thomas Keane, Ph.D., presented a poster, “The Coupled Photochemistry of Ammonia and Acetylene: Relevance to Jupiter, the Great Red Spot and Extra-Solar Giant Planets” at the 52nd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, Division of Planetary Sciences, held online in October 2020, and a paper on the same topic
at the American Astronomical Society, Topical Conference Series 8: Habitable Worlds, held in February 2021. He participated in “Teleology in Physics and Biology,” a livestream event hosted by The Angelicum Thomistic Institute in Rome, in March 2021.
“Perhaps it Was Too Soon: College Students’ Reflections on the Timing of Their Sexual Debut,” co-authored by Assistant Professor of Psychology Julie Verette Lindenbaum, Ph.D., appeared in The Journal of Sex Research in March 2021. She presented a paper, “Contextual Factors at Sexual Debut,” at the annual Capital District Feminist Studies Consortium Conference in January 2021.
“Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Nurses: Where is the Financial Safety Net?” by Associate Professor of Nursing Nancy Michela, DAHS, MS, RN and colleagues appeared in the May 2021 issue of the American Nurses Association’s Online Journal of Issues in Nursing.
Professor of Psychology Gayle Skawen:nio Morse Ph.D., is a co-author of “Protecting and Defending our People: Nakni tushka anowa (The Warrior’s Path),” a report from the American Psychological Association’s Division 45 Warrior’s Path Presidential Task Force, which appeared in the Journal of Indigenous Research in February 2021, and she is the co-editor of Understanding Indigenous Perspectives: Hallucinations, Visions and Dreams, published in 2020 by Cognella. In fall 2020, she moderated a discussion on the role of indigenous peoples in women’s suffrage for The Women’s Institute at Russell Sage College; presented “Haudenosaunee Leadership” for the Society of Indian Psychologists mentor program webinar; and was a mentor for the Kanatsiohareke Indigenous Writers Retreat program.
Professor of English Tonya Moutray, Ph.D., has been awarded a Durham Library Research Fellowship at the Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University, England. She will spend February 2022 conducting research at the Palace Green Library and Ushaw College Library in Durham. Professor Moutray is an editor of the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Romantic-Era Women’s Writings, a digital resource that examines the period through a transnational and interdisciplinary lens as shaped by women writers. She is also developing an entry on Religion in the Romantic period for the volume. She serves on the board of the Hart Cluett Museum (formerly the Rensselaer County Historical Society) in Troy, New York.
Occupational Therapy Instructor Christine Mulligan, OTR/L, CHT received her Occupational Therapy Doctorate degree from Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions in April 2021.
Associate Professor of Chemistry Emilly Obuya, Ph.D., is leading a collaborative effort among students at Sage and RPI and industry experts to develop recycling and environmental outreach materials for the community. She also received a grant from the Louis and Hortense Rubin Community Fellows Program to digitize the City of Troy’s educational outreach initiatives for waste handling and disposal. This ongoing collaboration has also involved Sage students.
“Teaching Children With Sma 1 to Expressively Communicate Using Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems: Extending Functional Communication Teaching Using a Model Of Verbal Behavior” by Associate Professor of Applied Behavior Analysis Cheryl Ostryn, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is forthcoming in the Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals.
Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Katrin Ramsey, DSc, presented “Wayfinding Back from the Pandemic: Embracing Clinical Practice Guidelines and Integrative Leadership Wisdom” at a symposium hosted by the Eastern District of New York chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association in March 2021. Professor Ramsey was also named one of Saratoga Today’s 2021 Women of Influence.
“The Use of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist: Human Services in Development of Interventions To Increase Fidelity” by Sarah Russell, BCBA, lecturer in Applied Behavior Analysis and Autism, appeared in the International Journal of Developmental Disabilities in October 2020.
Professor of Economics Manijeh Sabi, Ph.D., received a Fulbright award and will conduct research in Turkmenistan during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Lecturer of Interior+Spatial Design Baani Singh was interviewed for the February 2021 issue of Architect magazine.
“Effects of Balance Training on Nonmotor Symptoms in Individuals With Parkinson Disease,” coauthored by Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Gurpreet Singh. Ph.D., appeared in Topics in Geriatric Rehabilitation in 2020. Professor Singh chairs the membership committee of the New York Physical Therapy Association and the awards section of the Academy of Research in American Physical Therapy Association. Two posters by his students were accepted at the World Congress of Physiotherapy 2021 online global meeting: Kathleen Monroe presented “Effects of Exercise on Freezing Of Gait in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease: A Systematic Review” and Sarah Amedure, Alex Denny, Courtney Laughlin and Torri Sperl presented “The Effects Of Concussion on Dual-task Performance In Adolescents: A Systematic Review.”
Associate Professor of Physical Therapy Rupali Singh, Ph.D., PT, presented “Multisensory Training in Individuals with Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy: A Systematic Review” at the World
Physiotherapy Congress.
Jody Singley, MS, RN, lecturer in Nursing, completed a certificate program, “Caring Science, Mindful Practice,” an introduction to implementing Jean Watson’s Human Caring theory.
In April 2021, Professor of History Harvey Strum, Ph.D., presented on the impact of foreign policy on the 1809 common council elections in New York City and 1810 New York state and congressional elections at the Midwestern Political Science Association’s online conference, and on the impact of the start of the War of 1812 and the Federalist resurgence at the Western Social Science Association conference. His article, “A Lovely Rye Bread,” about Jewish farmers in Rensselaer County from 1890-2016, is forthcoming in the summer 2021 issue of New York Archives. He organized panels in international relations for the April 23-24 conference of the New York State Political Science Association and reviewed papers in political communications for the August conference of the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
“Grieving the loss of a child in times of COVID-19,” a peer-reviewed research article by Professor of Occupational Therapy Barbara Thompson, OTD, LCSW, OTR/L and international colleagues, is forthcoming in the Journal of Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice. Professor Thompson co-authored a chapter on art and grief therapy that is forthcoming in the Handbook of Grief Therapy, published by Routledge. Her painting, “Quarantine in the Canadian Maritimes” was included in The Rev, one of Sage’s creative journals.