May 1, 2003
Faculty Senate
When we meet our colleagues in Seattle, one of the most common questions we get is, “So, what’s going on at UW, Bothell?” Rather than continuing to give the usual glib reply (“a lot”), we thought we would use this article as a forum to describe the inspiring people who surround us.
Our faculty, involved in many exciting research projects, have a strong impact on local and national communities. We cannot describe everyone’s research. So, we will be, by definition, guilty of the error of omission as we proceed to chronicle the intellectual output of our colleagues. With an eye on equity, we describe the work of three peers per program.
Let us start with the Education program. Cherry Banks is an internationally renowned expert on multicultural education. She has literally traveled the world presenting her research in this area. Jane Van Galen’s research focuses on questions of the purposes of education in our society. She has most recently written about the ways that social class shapes schooling experiences. The Education program’s newest hire is Taylor Webb, who conducts research in the areas of teacher education, teachers’ professional rights and responsibilities, organizational politics, and school reform.
The Interdiscplinary Arts and Sciences program is a large, vibrant intellectual community with scholars who have diverse interests. Alan Wood is a legend around here. He is on his way to writing his opus — an unprecedented integrative look at world history. Most recently, he finished writing a book about democracies in Asia. Dan Jaffe is an expert in global and regional atmospheric pollution, especially carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen oxides, aerosols and metals and in long-range transport of air pollution in the Arctic and Pacific regions. He is especially interested in the rapidly developing regions of Asia. Nives Dolsak is one of our recent hires, and her research examines institutional challenges in governing common pool resources at multiple levels of aggregation. Her recent work analyzes the applicability of marketable permits for managing natural common-pool resources of various spatial extents.
The Business program has many prolific scholars. Pete Nye, an expert in negotiations, recently published a paper titled “The wrath of the fairness-primed negotiator when the reciprocity norm is violated.” Jacqueline Meszaros’ research into the effects of the recent Nisqually earthquake on small businesses around the region has received national and regional attention — including a mention in The Seattle Times. Gowri Shankar’s recent work focuses on employee’s choice between defined-contribution and defined-benefit retirement plans.
Computing and Software Systems has developed a strong reputation for scholarly output. Michael Stiber collaborates with neuroscientists and mathematicians and uses the crayfish nervous system as an example of a biological computer. He heads the Bio-computing Lab at UW, Bothell. Frank Cioch’s specialty is assessing the degree of fit of software engineering techniques, tools and methods to any given situation, and tailoring their application to enhance their effectiveness. Baili Liu’s work focuses on Human Computer Interaction — ranging from basic research issues related to perception, cognition, and social aspects to more applied issues.
Last, but far from least, we present the Nursing program faculty. Our newest hire in the program is the director, Mary Baroni. She is an expert in early child development. Her specific research interests include the physical growth and behavioral development of medically fragile infants and young children. Carol Leppa is a founding faculty member. Her research interests include palliative care approaches in chronic illness and end-of-life care in nursing home and adult family home environments. Andrea Kovalesky’s current work looks at population-based interventions for substance abuse with a current focus on faith communities.
We hope we have succeeded in giving you a flavor for the strong and diverse intellectual community at UW, Bothell. What do we want you to do after you are done reading this article? First, visit our Web site at http://www.uwb.edu. Second, visit our campus. Third, pick up that phone and make that connection.
Editor’s note: This is one of a series of articles written by chairs of Faculty Senate councils and committees. Carole Kubota is chair of the General Faculty Organization (GFO) at UW Bothell. Sandeep Krishnamurthy is the vice-chair. The GFO Web site is http://www.uwb.edu/gfo.
