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Faculty Achievements


Wren Bareiss (Communication) is the editor of the journal Qualitative Research in Medicine and Healthcare.

Stephen Bismarck (Education) is the 2022 recipient of the Exemplary Service to the Teaching Profession Award from the South Carolina Association of Teacher Educators (SCATE).

Michele Covington (Criminal Justice) is the author of the new book “Guns in America,” an overview of gun issues in the United States.

Matthew Brisebois, Chien-Ting Wu and James Kamla (Exercise Science) co-authored the article “Dietary Practices and Supplement Use Among CrossFit Participants” in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, and Brisebois presented the findings at the society’s international conference in June.

Logan Camp-Spivey (Nursing) co-authored “Survey of South Carolina Public School Personnel Perspectives on Barriers and Facilitators to Regular Physical Activity and Healthy Eating Behaviors in Schools” in the Journal of School Health; “Use of a Simulated Medication Administration Scenario With Embedded Errors to Foster a Culture of Safety” in Nurse Educator; “Theoretical and Contextual Considerations for Self-Management Strategies of Children and Adolescents With Chronic Diseases: An Integrative Review” in Journal of Child Health Care; and “Innovative Teaching Strategies Using Simulation for Pediatric Nursing Clinical Education During the Pandemic: A Case Study” in Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Virginia Cononie (Library) was recognized among the Movers & Shakers – Advocates by the Library Journal for conceiving, compiling, publishing and promoting the book “Share Your Story,” a collection of more than 100 testimonials and photos from library supporters that was sent to South Carolina lawmakers.

Ona Egbue (Engineering) received the American Society for Engineering Management Fellow Award in October. She currently serves as the chair of the Engineering Economy Division, American Society for Engineering Education. She also co-authored “A Unit Commitment Model for Optimal Vehicle-to-Grid Operation in a Power System” in the International Journal of Electrical Power and Energy Systems and “Push Them Forward: Challenges in Quasi-Governmental Organizations’ Influence on Rural Broadband Infrastructure Expansion” in Government Information Quarterly. She recently presented at the International Conference on Smart and Sustainable Technologies in Bol, Croatia, and the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition in Minneapolis.

Ron Fulbright (Informatics) was granted a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for his “Swarm-Based Firefighting Drone and Mass Aerial Drop System and Method.” The patent covers several design features of a drone customizing flight time and lifting capacity while also reducing the cost of manufacture and operation.

Polinpapilinho Katina (Advanced Manufacturing Management) published research in four different journals: Discrete Dynamics in Nature and Society, Evaluation, International Journal of System of Systems Engineering, and Journal of Cleaner Production. He also co-edited, and contributed to, the new book “Complex System Governance: Theory and Practice.” He presented two research papers at the 2022 ASEM International Annual Conference in Tampa, Florida, and was part of the team that was awarded the 2022 Meritorious Service Award by the American Society for Engineering Management.

Lex Lancaster (Art History) is the author of the new book “Dragging Away: Queer Abstraction in Contemporary Art.” Their book is the first to be published on the topic of queer abstraction.

Kim Land (Marketing) was named director of the Honors Program at USC Upstate.

Shirleatha Lee (Nursing) was appointed to the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education Standards Committee.

Walter Lee (Education) facilitated two sessions at the annual meeting of the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) in Orlando. Accompanying Lee were students Shaekwon Heard and Rebekah Long, who represented Upstate in the inaugural class of student ambassadors. Heard and Long also presented with Lee at one of the sessions.

Alex Lorenz (LLC) authored “Correct Me if I’m Wrong: Student Attitudes towards Learning Russian Grammar” in the forthcoming collection “Student-Centered Approaches to Russian Language Teaching.” With student Dawson Adams, he published “Origins of Religion: A Comparison Between the United States and Germany” in the SC Upstate Research Journal. He also received a Scholarly Startup Grant for his research on the life and language of German immigrants in South Carolina and their economic, cultural and linguistic contributions to the Upstate.

David Marlow (LLC) published two articles this year, both with a Chinese scholar who visited the U.S. in the 2019-20 academic year: “Chinese Ecolinguistics: Development and Contribution to the Discipline” in ECO-REBEL and “Toward a More Transcultural Ecolinguistics: Applying Harmonious Discourse Analysis to 'Ode to Autumn'” in the Southern Journal of Linguistics.

Benjamin McCraw (HPPA) published “Alston, Aristotle, and Epistemic Normativity” in Logos and Episteme: An International Journal of Epistemology, and has two forthcoming articles: “Duncan Pritchard on the Epistemic Value of Truth: Revision or Revolution?” in Philosophia and “Epistemic Virtues” in Oxford Bibliographies in Philosophy.

Rebecca Mueller (Education) authored the article “A Conversation Too Late: An Examination of Early-Career Teachers’ Experiences With New Social Studies Standards,” which was recently published in Social Studies Teaching and Learning, and her article “’More Resilient Than I Thought’: Examining the Stress of Teaching Through COVID-19,” was accepted for publication in the Teacher Education Journal of South Carolina.

Melissa Pilgrim (Biology) was the recipient of USC Upstate’s 2021-22 Faculty Excellence in Service award for her contributions to the RISE program; her work as a reviewer on many grant proposals, manuscripts and awards; and her community service with SPACE and the North American Amphibian Monitoring Program.

Josh Ruppel (Chemistry) spoke on “CuAAC Glycosylation of Porphyrinoids: Preliminary Effects of Linker Length on the Photodynamic Inactivation of Mycobacterium” at the 12th International Conference on Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines (ICPP-12) in Madrid, Spain. He also is the co-principal investigator on a $402,695 National Institutes of Health grant, half of which will support research activities at USC Upstate, including paid summer research positions for students.

Sharda Jackson Smith (Education) received a 2022 Distinguished Research & Practice Fellows Award from the National Education Finance Academy.

Nolan Stolz (Commercial Music) served as the commercial music representative on the editorial board of a new series, “College Music Society Pedagogies & Innovations in Music.” The first book in the series, “Commercial and Popular Music in Higher Education,” was published this summer. He also presented research about Black Sabbath's music at an international conference on progressive rock held at the University of Oxford (England). In April, Stolz was the special guest for the season one finale of the "Heavy Metal 101" podcast to discuss Black Sabbath's first eight albums. From February to July, Stolz gave over 40 interviews about his forthcoming Route 66 Suite for orchestra, appearing on over 90 TV stations, in over 80 newspapers, and on over 80 radio stations in the U.S. and Europe (including local and regional NPR stations).

Ginny Webb (NSE) co-authored, with Justin Travis (Psychology) and student Brianna Sacchetti, “Identification of the Main Contributors to Blood Culture Contamination at a Tertiary Care Academic Medical Center” in Infection Prevention in Practice and “Effects of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Blood Culture Contamination at a Tertiary Care Academic Medical Center” in Microbiology Spectrum. With Sacchetti, she co-authored “Factors Affecting Blood Culture Contamination Rates and Effective Reduction Measures” in Reviews and Research in Medical Microbiology.

RISE Recipients

Fourteen USC Upstate faculty were awarded RISE (Research Initiatives for Summer Engagement) grants from the University of South Carolina Office of the Vice President for Research. The RISE program provides financial support for faculty conducting research and scholarly activities during the summer. The 2022 recipients from Upstate are:

  • Warren Bareiss (Communication Studies)
  • Michael Dinger (Management, Entrepreneurship, & Marketing)
  • Allison Ellis (Political Science)
  • Araceli Hernandez-Laroche (Modern Languages)
  • Yin-Chi Liao (Management, Entrepreneurship, & Marketing)
  • Thomas McConnell (English)
  • Benjamin McCraw (Psychology)
  • Anita Nag (Chemistry)
  • James O’Connor (Management, Entrepreneurship, & Marketing)
  • Nicole Richardson (History)
  • Susan Ruppel (Psychology)
  • Scott Tanner (Biology)
  • Ginny Webb (Biology)
  • Griffin Woodworth (Commercial Music)