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Faculty and Staff
RESILIENCE. PURPOSE. HOPE. Faculty and Staff
In addition to holding titles of professor and chair for the Department of Engineering, Engineering Technology and Surveying, Dr. Keith Johnson is the first to be named Vice President for Equity and Inclusion at ETSU. Upon his arrival 28 years ago, Johnson thought his tenure would be brief . The culture he encountered was much different than anywhere else he had lived and it was nearly impossible to find a radio station that played familiar music and voices. The experience presented an opportunity . “I saw a need to educate and mentor students and to be a part of this community,” he said. “I realized there was a void and a need to make ETSU a more inclusive environment.” Johnson and his growing family established roots in the community . He has since mentored hundreds of students, many of them from racial groups often underrepresented in science and engineering, while also facilitating summer STEM camps, advancing engineering curriculum in higher education and helping establish a chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers at ETSU. “Over the years, students of color have depended on me to be a role model for them and I felt a responsibility to care for them like one of my own and see them through to graduation.” Johnson continues to mentor students and faculty as chair while also championing the work started by the late Dr . Chris Dula and Dr . Angela Lewis . Over the last year, he and an advisory council developed the Office of Equity and Inclusion and added two members to the team – Dr . Chassidy Cooper, (coordinator) and Kim Maturo (office coordinator). This important work also led to the development of an Equity and Inclusion Strategic Action Plan offering an inclusive excellence framework with six major goals and the overarching objective to become a HEED (Higher Education Excellence in Diversity) designated institution . The plan focuses on assessment, implementation of training and learning opportunities to enhance understanding of diversity and inclusion. “Inclusion is all about providing pathways, directions, encouragement and support for those we serve to reach their fullest potential,” Johnson said. One of those pathways started more than a decade ago. “A Diverse ETSU” initiative led by Johnson hosts highly-qualified faculty applicants from underrepresented race and ethnicity groups on campus . The strategic plan calls for a renewed focus on recruitment by “rolling out the blue carpet” for visitors. Twenty-eight years into a “brief” stop at ETSU, Johnson remains dedicated to equity and opportunities for underserved populations.
Dr. Tom Donohoe
University Registrar Donohoe served as Associate Registrar at ETSU for nine years managing and participating in daily and seasonal operations for the Office of the Registrar, including registration, student records, and end-ofterm processing .
Garrison Burton
Title IX and Title VI Coordinator A native of East Tennessee, Burton previously worked in general corporate and legal billing compliance .
Dr. Mark Fulks
University Counsel Prior to joining ETSU, Fulks spent seven years in private practice . From 20002012, he was Senior Counsel in the State of Tennessee’s Criminal Justice Division.
Whitney Goetz
Executive Director, ETSU National Alumni Association Goetz returned to Johnson City after working in human resources for the state treasury . Her career has included serving as a staff member in constituency relations and policy for U.S. Senator Bob Corker both in Washington D.C. and Nashville.
Dr. Adam Green
Chief of Staff and Secretary to the Board of Trustees Green came to ETSU from West Virginia where he spent 12 years working for the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Green’s tenure with the commission included more than four years as Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and an additional four years as Senior Director of the Division of Student Success and P-20 Initiatives.
Dr. Brian Partin
Director, University School Partin has served in Tennessee public education for more than 20 years . Prior to his arrival at ETSU, he was principal at Robinson Middle School in Kingsport . Previous leadership roles include principal at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, also in Kingsport, and at Crieve Hall Elementary in Nashville.
Dr. Chassidy Cooper
Program Coordinator, Equity and Inclusion
Before arriving at ETSU, Cooper was an academic advisor and first-year experience instructor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Wykoff
Hoff
Several individuals represented ETSU in statewide leadership positions and programs.
Dr . Randy Wykoff, dean of the College of Public Health, was selected to serve on Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s new Health Care Modernization Task Force and was also named to Leadership Tennessee’s Class of 2019-2020 .
Dr. Mike Hoff, associate vice president and chief planning officer in ETSU’s Office of Planning and Decision Support, was selected as one of 15 members of the inaugural cohort of the Tennessee Higher Education Leadership and Innovation Fellows program . Dr . Jennifer Axsom Adler, assistant director of the Roan Scholars Leadership Program, joined 30 other mid-career professionals from across Tennessee to take part in the second class of Leadership Tennessee NEXT . Dr . Wesley Wehde of the Department of Political Science, International Affairs and Public Administration received a National Science Foundation Enabling the Next Generations of Hazards Researchers Fellowship aimed at developing junior faculty to become excellent scholars in their individual disciplines as well as in the broader hazards and disasters research community .
The 2019 Distinguished Faculty Award winners included:
Research – Dr . Alok Agrawal (Quillen College of Medicine)
Service – Dr . Andrea Clements (College of Arts and Sciences)
Teaching – Dr . Lori Meier (Clemmer College)
Four ETSU faculty and staff were honored at the 19th Annual Martin Luther King Jr . Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, held Jan . 18 at Memorial Park Community Center: Joy Fulkerson, Dr . Keith Johnson, Laura Terry, and Nathnael Tadesse .
A financial and compliance audit of ETSU conducted by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury resulted in no findings or recommendations. The report was released by the Division of State Audit Feb . 27, 2020 . Conducted annually, the audit was for the July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019 fiscal year.
More than 40 ETSU faculty and staff participated in the launch of the university’s first Faculty and Staff LGBTQ+ Association . ETSU faculty taught 325,794 credit hours in Fall 2019 .
Dr . Benjamin Caton (Arts and Sciences) and Doug Taylor (Quillen College of Medicine) celebrated 45 years of service to the university.
Dr . Joe Florence and Carolyn Sliger (Quillen College of Medicine) received awards at the Rural Health Association of Tennessee’s annual conference held in November 2019. Florence was presented with the Rural Health Professional of the Year Award. Sliger was awarded the Eloise Q . Hatmaker Distinguished Service Award.
28 faculty awarded tenure and 62 received promotion by ETSU Board of Trustees Dr . Dawn Rowe, an associate professor in the Clemmer College, was named editor of “TEACHING Exceptional Children,” a top-tier, peer-review journal produced by the Council for Exceptional Children, which has over 30,000 members.
Dr. Istvan Karsai, Department of Biological Sciences, received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Award, through which he spent time in Budapest, Hungary, conducting research to be used in the book, Mathematics of Planet Earth: Interdisciplinary Approach to Environmental Conservation, part of a series published by Springer Verlag . Karsai collaborated in his research with Drs . George Kampis and Thomas Schmickl, both former chairholders of ETSU’s Wayne G. Basler Chair of Excellence for the Integration of the Arts, Rhetoric and Science .
Dr . Christine Mullins, assistant professor in the College of Nursing, is the 2019-2020 recipient of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN) Novice Faculty Excellence Clinical Teaching Award . The purpose of the AACN Novice Faculty Teaching Awards is to recognize excellence and innovation in the teaching of nursing by novice faculty at AACN member schools . In February 2020, Dr . Bill Block assumed additional responsibilities as the university’s Vice President for Clinical Affairs in addition to his ongoing role as Dean of Quillen College of Medicine . As Vice President for Clinical Affairs, Block is ETSU’s lead liaison to Ballad Health, handles all contracts between ETSU and its health care partners, and holds clinical oversight of ETSU Health in association with the ETSU Health Advisory Board, which consists of all five deans of the colleges within the
academic health sciences center at ETSU.
Hagemeier Polaha
Quinn Dr . Nicholas Hagemeier (Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy), Dr . Jodi Polaha (Quillen College of Medicine) and Dr . Megan Quinn (College of Public Health) were named ETSU Presidential Fellows for the fall 2020 semester .
The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness appointed Dr . Wilsie Bishop, Senior Vice President for Academics and Interim Provost, to the Defense Health Board Public Health Subcommittee that provides independent advice and recommendations to maximize the health, safety and effectiveness of all Department of Defense (DoD) health care beneficiaries.
Dr . Cerrone Foster, Department of Biological Sciences, was listed among “100 more inspiring Black scientists in America” by CrossTalk, the official blog of Cell Press, which publishes biomedical and physical science research and reviews. Foster’s research focuses on the mechanisms of estrogen loss and its effects on the heart after menopause .
Dr. Pamela Evanshen, chair of the Department of Early Childhood Education, is the co-author of Room to Learn: Elementary Classrooms Designed for Interactive Explorations, published by Gryphon House .
Dr . Jane Broderick, a professor in the Department of Early Childhood Education, is co-author of From Children’s Interests to Children’s Thinking: Using a Cycle of Inquiry to Plan Curriculum, recently published by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Dr . Joseph O . Baker, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, is serving a four-year term as editor of Sociology of Religion, the official peer-reviewed journal of the Association for the Sociology of Religion . Sociology of Religion is the flagship journal for the subfield of sociology of religion, in which Baker specializes . Through this role, Baker will provide a valuable opportunity for ETSU students to see and assist with the behind-the-scenes operation of a peerreviewed publication.
Dr . Benjamin D . Caton III, who retired in the spring of 2020 after 46 years on the faculty of ETSU’s Department of Music, was named the Tennessee Music Teachers Association 2020 Teacher of the Year. Caton has a long and distinguished record of service at the state and local levels of the TMTA, including terms as president, recording secretary and collegiate auditions chair .
World-renowned paleoartist Mauricio Antón shared his knowledge and experience with ETSU Geosciences and Art and Design students as chairholder of the 2020 Wayne G . Basler Chair of Excellence for the Integration of the Arts, Rhetoric and Science . Antón, one of the world’s foremost experts on sabertoothed cats, specializes in the scientific reconstruction of extinct life and is well-known for his influential paintings of early humans, extinct carnivores and other vertebrate fossil groups .
Seven individuals were honored by the ETSU Staff Senate in the presentation of the 2020 Distinguished Staff Awards: Leah Adinolfi, Beth Skinner, Teresa Williams, Lisa Fields, Maria Kalis, Jennifer Mayberry and Career Award winner Mike Orr .
Dr . Candace Forbes Bright, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, is co-author of an article that won the inaugural Zumkehr Prize for Scholarship in Public Memory sponsored by the Charles E . Zumkehr Professorship in Communication Studies at Ohio University. The article, published in the Journal of Heritage Tourism, presents a new method researchers, museums and historic sites can employ to better tell their stories and is based on research funded by the National Science Foundation .
