Northeastern Illinois University has awarded tenure and promotions to associate professor to 16 members of the faculty, who were introduced during the June 18 Board of Trustees meeting at El Centro.
“I congratulate the newest members of our faculty to earn tenure,” Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Richard J. Helldobler said. “This is an important milestone in their development as teachers, mentors and role models for Northeastern’s current and future students. Their promotions also build on Northeastern’s tradition of teaching and research excellence.”
Here is the list of awards of tenure and promotion:
Jennifer Banas
Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics
Banas’ research interest is in technology integration and teacher professional preparation. She is a peer reviewer for the American Journal of Health Education, Tech Trends and Educational Technology, Research and Development. Banas has presented her research at numerous national and international conferences. She received grant funding on two occasions, and participated in a joint university NIH P20 program grant with the Lurie Cancer Center at Northwestern University. Banas is a recipient of Northeastern’s Excellence in Service Award.
Anastasia Brelias
Educational Inquiry and Curriculum Studies
Brelias research interests are in access, equity and excellence in mathematics education educators' professional preparation. Brelias has worked on a grant with Special Education colleagues related to the federal Race to the Top initiative, and has assisted in the redesign of the Special Education Program. She served as the primary author of both the ISBE accreditation and NCATE Specialty Professional Association reports for Secondary Education Mathematics.
Huseyin Colak
Educational Inquiry and Curriculum Studies
Colak’s research interest is in how teacher candidates think about and learn science. He conducts and presents research with our students at local and national conferences, and was part of a validation team for science assessments for the Chicago Teacher Pipeline Project, a partnership with Loyola, UIC and National Louis University.
Gabriel Cortez
Educational Leadership and Development
Cortez’s research interest is in exploring grass roots community participation in public school policy. Cortez serves as president of the Board for the Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Task Force and has held memberships in six other professional organizations.
Maria De La Torre
Justice Studies
De La Torre's research interest is in immigration and social movements of Latinos and Latinas from the perspective of gender and human rights. She has presented her research in local and national venues, and successfully applied for several grants to support her research. De La Torre recently developed an innovative research project on oral histories of Mexican community activists in Chicago, which has led to several grants and a new website.
Charles Funk
Management and Marketing
Funk's research interest is in country-of-origin effects in global integration strategies; international alliance formation, evolution and management, particularly focusing on the minimization of transaction costs via the use of more relational forms of management; efficient organizational growth and contraction; and the relationships among firm strategy, dynamic capabilities and absorptive capacity. Funk was the recipient of the Stonebraker Research Award, a recognition awarded by the College of Business and Management.
Ryan Gallagher
Economics, in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies and Economics
Gallagher’s research interests include industrial agglomeration and colocation, property tax financing and local school districts, and cannibalization in the casino industry. Gallagher has been awarded internal funding to support research with students through COR, Research Communities and summer Student-Faculty grants, and regularly presents his work at local, state and regional conferences.
Francisco Gaytán
Social Work
Gaytan’s research focus is on the educational attainment, cultural and psychosocial adjustment to life in the U.S., and access to higher education of Latinos and immigrants. Gaytan presented his research at numerous national and international conferences.
Pamela Geddes
Biology
Geddes' research interest focuses on invasive plant species and the mechanisms that underlie successful invasions in wetlands as well as ecological interactions in freshwater aquatic communities. She has actively pursued funding from external and internal sources. She has been the PI or Co-PI for a number of grants including ones awarded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the U.S. Department of Energy. She was also the PI for 12 internal grants, including Research Committee, COR and Student Center for Science Engagement awards. She and her students have presented their research at approximately 60 conferences or symposia at the local, regional and national level.
Robert Heitzinger
Music
Heitzinger has presented an outstanding series of recitals that include challenging music from a variety of composers, styles and periods, ranging from “Die schöne Magelone” by Johannes Brahms, to themes such as “Rule Britannia! Poetry and Song of the British Isles.” His 2011 Jewel Box Series recital was broadcast nationally on WFMT. Heitzinger has performed with professional organizations including Grant Park Music Festival, Ravinia Festival and Lyric Opera of Chicago. In 2010, he performed five recitals and conducted four master classes in China, and performed a recital and held a master class in Italy in 2011. He presented at the Fourth Annual Faculty Research and Creative Activities Symposium. As a result of his excellent scholarly productivity, Heitzinger earned two Faculty Excellence Awards in Research and Creative Activities.
Kenneth Nicholson
Chemistry
Nicholson works closely with Chemistry and Biology students, supervising their interdisciplinary research. They present at the NEIU Student Research and Creative Activities and Midwestern Undergraduate Research Symposia, and the American Chemical Society and National Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans conferences. Nicholson included his students as co-authors in three peer-reviewed publications. A number of his former students now attend Ph.D. programs in prestigious universities. Nicholson received the 2011-12 Faculty Excellence Award in Research. The National Science Foundation recently awarded him the Major Research Instrumentation grant, for the Acquisition of Nanoscope V Controller and Software for Scanning Probe Microscopy.
Thomas Parry
Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics
Parry's interests lie in three distinct areas of expertise: motor skill learning, assessment and physical activity during adulthood. He presented at the state, regional and national level on “specific variables that influence motor skill learning and how practitioners can implement them.” Two research manuscripts related to these presentations are currently being developed. In the area of physical activity, Parry serves as a doctoral dissertation committee member and has published two research articles around the subject of factors that influence how adults experience physical activity.
Olivia Perlow
Sociology
Perlow’s scholarship, grounded in black feminist theoretical framework, contributes to Sociology, Women’s and Gender Studies and African American Studies. Of particular importance is her cutting-edge work on the experiences of black women in higher education. Her peer-reviewed articles have been published in The Official Journal of the White Privilege Conference and The Matrix Center for the Advancement of Social Equity and Inclusion, and her book chapter was published in Mothers in Academia. She presented papers at professional conferences, including the Critical Ethnic Studies Association, the Midwest Sociological Society, the National Women’s Studies Association and the National Association of Black Studies. Perlow co-organized Northeastern’s Third Annual African and African American Studies Research Symposium.
Aaron Schirmer
Biology
Schirmer’s research focuses on the study of circadian rhythms and their effect on animal behavior and physiology. His research involves collaborations with other faculty in the Biology department and numerous undergraduate students. He has had productive collaborations with the Shedd Aquarium and Lincoln Park Zoo. He disseminated his research findings in over 75 presentations at regional and national conferences. Schirmer has supported his research with grant funding. Since 2009, he has authored and co-authored 17 grant proposals, 14 of which have been funded.
Sandra Williams
Human Resource Development, in the Department of Educational Leadership and Development
Williams’ research interests focus on online mentoring and core organizational values. Williams has participated in numerous conferences at the local, regional and national level. She is a member of three professional organizations and the President of the International Association of Continuing Education and Training.
Mickie Wong-Lo
Special Education
Wong-Lo’s expertise is in cyberbullying, building positive behavioral supports for students with emotional/behavioral challenges and implementation of responsive learning environments for culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. She has a considerable list of conference presentations and speaking engagements at the international, national, state and local levels. Wong-Lo’s reputation as an expert in the area of cyberbullying is highlighted by the numerous invitations to serve as a keynote speaker on the topic.
