Faculty/Staff Accomplishments -June 2024

In this issue, we celebrate the accomplishments of faculty and staff in child development, economics, history, and psychology. We also share about faculty/staff who presented during the Southeastern College Learning Center Association Annual Conference, which was held at Meredith.

Professor of History Dan Fountain participated in a joint meeting of Baptist scholarly organizations on May 21. Fountain was part of a panel discussion on Baptist history and presented his paper, “The Role of Baptist and Meredith College Leadership in White Supremacist Advocacy and Policy in Early Twentieth-Century North Carolina.” This was an opportunity to share the findings of the collective Universities Studying Slavery/Anti-Racism initiative work with Baptist heritage partners. The event was hosted by the Baptist History and Heritage Society, The National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, and The Association of Ministry Guidance Professionals. 

Professor of Psychology Mark O’Dekirk and Assistant Professor of Psychology Candalyn Rade presented at the UNC Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) Summit in Greensboro, N.C., in May. Their talk, “Group-based CUREs in a Psychology Research and Statistics Sequence,” focused on how they integrate multiple points of research experiences for students throughout our research methods and statistics courses for psychology majors. 

Associate Professor of Psychology Betty-Shannon Prevatt presented a research poster, Importance of Patient-Provider Racial Minority Concordance in Postpartum Depression Screening, at the National Perinatal Association conference in Anaheim, Calif., on May 15. Findings from the Advancing Insight Into Maternal Social Support (AIMSS) study provide some insight to a possible mechanism for reducing health disparities for maternal mental health in birthing people belonging to a racial minority group. Racial minority concordance between patients and providers may be a key factor in developing patient trust, increased engagement with care providers, honest reporting of depressive symptoms, as well as being a key component to effective screening and treatment of postpartum mood disorders for racial minority mothers.

Assistant Professor of Child Development Amy Scrinzi was the motivational speaker at the 2024 Early Childhood Provider Appreciation Banquet for Stokes County early childhood providers, administrators, and policymakers on May 9. 

Professor of Economics Anne York was recently featured in two media outlets. On May 24, York was featured in the national broadcast of Marketplace for a story titled “For female workers, an ailing feeling about financial health.”  Marketplace is heard by more than 11.7 million listeners each week on more than 800 public radio stations nationwide. She was also included in a WTVD (ABC11) story on the summer job market for high school students. “More young people hired as businesses prepare for summer hiring season” ran on May 28. 

Faculty and Staff Present at Southeastern College Learning Center Association Annual Conference
The Southeastern College Learning Center Association annual conference was held at Meredith on Friday, June 7. Several Meredith faculty and staff presented as part of the event, which was hosted by Student Success Center.

• Director of StrongPoints Emily Caldwell presented “Enhancing Tutoring and Coaching with Generative AI”
• Assistant Professor of Psychology Candalyn Rade and student co-researchers SarahElla Trustman and Brynn Oliver presented “Undergraduate Student Perceptions of and Barriers to Accessing Student Success Center Resources”
• Professor of Economics Anne York presented “Learning How to Learn: A Case Study from Principles of Microeconomics”
• Learning Specialist and Tutoring Coordinator William Christy presented “Budgeting Time Effectively in a Tutoring Session.”