Alphabetical listing

Arnold Abels, Presenter
Session: Recognizing and Helping Students in Crisis
Arnold Abels, PhD serves as the Director and Clinical Coordinator of the UMKC Counseling Services. He is a licensed psychologist in Missouri and Kansas. As a graduate of the UMKC Counseling Psychology program, his career has centered on working with college age students for more than 20 years.

Arif Ahmed, Panelist
Session: Mid Career Malaise - Where Do We Go from Here?
Arif Ahmed is the Chair of the Department of Public Affairs and Associate Professor of Health Administration at the Henry W. Bloch School of Management. At UMKC, Dr. Ahmed teaches health policy, health care organizational leadership, healthcare financial management, and quality and safety in health care. He has led three acclaimed executive education programs at the Bloch School.

Billie Anderson, Presenter
Session: Applying a Gap Analysis for Assessment Data
Billie Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Applied Statistics in the Bloch School of Management. Billie is passionate about anything related to data, in particular, creating statistical analyses and visualizations that are useful to assisting organizations make better decisions.

Hadara Bar-Nadav, Presenter
Session: Flash Talks: Innovations in Research, Creativity, and Teaching & Creativity
Hadara Bar-Nadav is an NEA fellow and author of several award-winning books of poetry, among them The New Nudity, Lullaby (with Exit Sign), The Frame Called Ruin, and A Glass of Milk to Kiss Goodnight. She is also co-author of the best-selling textbook Writing Poems, 8th ed. She is Professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

LaVerne Berkel, Facilitator
Session: UMKC Adjunct Faculty Focus
LaVerne Berkel is a professor in the counseling and counseling psychology program in the School of Education. This year she served as a CAFE Fellow with a focus on adjunct faculty.

Margaret Brommelsiek, Presenter
Session: Flash Talks: Innovations in Research, Creativity, and Teaching & Creativity
Dr. Margaret Brommelsiek is an Associate Research Professor in the Schools of Nursing & Health Studies and Medicine conducting ethnographic studies focused on communication and teamwork in the operating room using an artistic lens for finding meaning in patterns of behavior and non-verbal cues. A practicing visual artist, her current body of work is a visual interpretation of her research and the interconnectedness between art and science.

Don Dagenais, Panelist
Session: UMKC Adjunct Faculty Focus
Don Dagenais is an adjunct faculty member at both the Bloch School and the Law School at UMKC. He was a practicing lawyer for 43 years in the field of commercial real estate and has taught at UMKC since 2012.

Theodore Davis, Jr., Panelist
Session: The Fulbright Scholar Program - Global Opportunities
Theodore E. Davis, Jr., Ph.D. is Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer at J.B. & Associates, an advisory firm specializing in management and public relations. Dr. Davis has more than 20 years of success in building, aligning, and restructuring organizations to achieve operational excellence and sustainable financial gains. Dr. Davis served as Fulbright Scholar in Eswatini (southern Africa) teaching at the University of Eswatini's Faculty of Commerce and later as the Interim Director of the Entrepreneurship and Business Development Centre.

Crystal Doss, Panelist
Session: Mid Career Malaise - Where Do We Go from Here?
Crystal Doss is Director of Composition and Teaching Professor in the English Department and affiliate faculty for the department of Race, Ethnic, and Gender Studies. She teaches primarily general education courses in humanities and in women's, gender, and sexuality studies.

Matthew Edwards, Presenter, Facilitator
Session: Flash Talks: Innovations in Research, Creativity, and Teaching & Creativity, Developing Our Culture of Inclusion on Campus: FITIC Past, Present and Future
Matthew Edwards is an Associate Professor of Spanish In the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. He is a disabled researcher whose work focuses on the circulation of cultural objects and ideas produced by marginalized and dissident populations across the Americas. He is the President of the Disability Alliance at UMKC and advocates for the just and equitable treatment of all disabled communities.

Jordanna Enrich,Panelist
Session: The Fulbright Scholar Program - Global Opportunities
Jordanna Enrich is Director of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program at the Institute of International Education. In partnership with the U.S. Dept. of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Director Enrich oversees a diverse program offering 400 awards in 130 countries that enables approximately 800 U.S. academics, administrators, and professionals to go abroad for teaching and research opportunities, professional projects, and seminars each year. Director Enrich has graciously offered to schedule individual sessions with attendees who have questions about Fulbright U.S. Scholar opportunities.

Andrew Heise, Panelist
Session: Developing Our Culture of Inclusion on Campus: FITIC Past, Present and Future
Andrew Heise is Assistant Teaching Professor in the Entrepreneurship & Management department in the Henry W. Bloch School of Management. He also co-founded Arts Entrepreneurship Podcast: Making Art Work.

Lorie Holt, Facilitator
Session: Mid Career Malaise - Where Do We Go from Here?
Lorie most recently earned a PhD in Curriculum & Instruction with a focus on culturally responsive pedagogy and faculty/professional development at UMKC. She has served as the Director of the RDH to BSDH degree program in the Division of Dental Hygiene since 2007 and is currently serving as Interim Director for the DHE graduate program. Lorie serves as the CAFE Pillar Lead for the Faculty Life and Leadership.

Margaret Kincaid, Panelist
Session: Mid Career Malaise - Where Do We Go from Here?
Dr. Margaret Kincaid is an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry department in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences. She has been teaching for ~13 years, with a primary focus on microbiology, biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology. She is also the graduate advisor for students enrolled in the MA in Biology program, a one-year graduate program designed to prepare students for admission into health profession programs.

Yugyung Lee, Presenter
Session: WeListen: AI Facilitated Focus Group
Yugyung Lee is a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. She is responsible for the creation of WeListen for the Jackson County-supported "Our Healthy Eastside KC" (OHEKC) project. She is the co-director of the NSF IUCRC CBL (Center for Big Learning) and the primary investigator of the NSF OCEL.AI (Open Collaborative Experiential Learning in AI) and NSF SCC (Smart Connected Communities). She has written over 180 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers in the fields of AI/ML, AR/VR, and Cyber Security. She received the UMKC Excellence Faculty Research Award in 2021, the STEMMY Award in 2019, and the NT. Veatch Award for Distinguished Research and Creative Activity in 2015.

Angellar Manguvo, Panelist
Session: UMKC Adjunct Faculty Focus
Dr. Angellar Manguvo is an Instructional, Curriculum, and Assessment Specialist at the UMKC School of Medicine. She has served as a Graduate Adjunct Professor in the School of Education since 2015.

Amy Mecklenburg-Faenger, Presenter
Session: "But I'm Not a Writing Teacher": Helping Students Grow as Writers
Dr. Amy Mecklenburg-Faenger is a Professor of English at Park University and founder and director of ParkWrites, a university-wide writing across the curriculum program. Her recent article “Making WAC Accessible: Reimagining the WAC Faculty Workshop as an Online Asynchronous Course,” was published in Across the Disciplines in 2022. Dr. Faenger also serves as editor for the peer-reviewed journal InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching and Learning (insightjournal.net).

Peter Morello, Facilitator
Session: The Fulbright Scholar Program - Global Opportunities
Peter Morello is associate professor of journalism at UMKC. Dr. Morello served as Fulbright Scholar and Senior Specialist teaching at universities in Ethiopia (Addis Ababa Graduate School of Journalism,) Russia (Tolyatti State University,) and Eswatini (University of Eswatini.) He also conducted workshops sponsored by the U.S. Dept of State for practicing journalists in those countries. Dr. Morello is currently Fulbright Liaison for UMKC.

Carla Noack, Presenter
Session: Empathy for Self-Care
Carla Noack is an Associate Professor of Theatre in the Conservatory as well as the UMKC Faculty and Staff Ombudsperson. Her work centers around connection and presence.

Michael Pragman, Panelist
Session: UMKC Adjunct Faculty Focus
Dr. J. Michael Pragman is the Senior Program Director of the Kansas City Regional Professional Development Center (RPDC) through the University of MO-Kansas City. The RPDC office and training facilities are located at The Historic Union Station offering professional development to educators across the Kansas City region. His team is responsible for leader and teacher workshops working directly with the Missouri Department of Education. Michael specializes in brain research for educators building capacity for teams and has brought that passion to his professional development sessions. He has worked with Board of Educations and Administrative teams building frameworks for working with students.

Meg Reuter, Panelist
Session: Developing Our Culture of Inclusion on Campus: FITIC Past, Present and Future
Meg Reuter, faculty at the UMKC School of Law. I was the lucky participant in the FITIC program in the year that ended in the torture and killing of George Floyd. The value of my FITIC year was enormous and only become more searingly important in the aftermath of his death.

Thomas Rosenkranz, Panelist
Session: The Fulbright Scholar Program - Global Opportunities
Thomas Rosenkranz is a classical pianist and Coordinator of the Keyboard Division and Associate Professor of Piano at the UMKC Conservatory. Professor Rosenkranz served as a cultural ambassador for the U.S. Dept. of State promoting diplomacy through artistic collaboration in North Africa and the Middle East. He presents concerts in areas where classical concerts are rare including Bali and Borneo in Indonesia, Inner Mongolia, and China's Yunnan Province. Professor Rosenkranz will serve as Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan, 2023-24.

Paul Rudy, Presenter
Session: Flash Talks: Innovations in Research, Creativity, and Teaching & Creativity
Paul Rudy is an internationally awarded composer, land artist, photographer and imagineer who lives and creates on 70 acres in NE Kansas. He is Curators' Distinguished Professor in the Conservatory.

Deborah Smith, Presenter
Session: Flash Talks: Innovations in Research, Creativity, and Teaching & Creativity
Dr. Deborah B. Smith is a Professor in the Department of Sociology. She is finishing her 26th year at UMKC. She teaches courses on Research Methods and Lifespan Development. Since the birth of her two children anecdotes illustrating human development topics in her class lectures have improved.

David Thurmaier, Panelist
Session: Mid Career Malaise - Where Do We Go from Here?
David Thurmaier is Interim Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, Chair of the Music Studies Division, and Associate Professor of Music Theory in the UMKC Conservatory. He previously taught at Florida Gulf Coast University, the University of Central Missouri, and Lawrence University. His research interests include the music of Charles Ives and the Beatles.

Beth Vonnahme, Presenter
Session: Leveraging Public Engagement for Research and Recruitment
Beth Miller Vonnahme is Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on the ways in which psychological processes affect the formation and persistence of political choices. Specifically, her published work and ongoing projects explore how voters process and use certain types of campaign information (e.g., scandal involvement, physical characteristics like weight) to evaluate political candidates.

Alicia Wallace, Panelist
Session: UMKC Adjunct Faculty Focus
Alicia Wallace is an adjunct instructor and field supervisor with the School of Education at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. Over the course of her 34-year career in public education, she was a kindergarten teacher, Teaching and Learning Coach, District English Language Arts Coordinator and Mentor Coordinator. During her time at the University of Missouri - Kansas City, she has taught courses including Child Guidance in the Early Childhood Classroom, Health, Safety, and Nutrition in Early Childhood Education, Mathematics in Early Childhood II, and Seminar-Early Childhood Education.

Ye Wang, Presenter
Session: WeListen:  AI Facilitated Focus Group
Dr. Ye Wang, Associate Professor and Department Chair of the Department of Communication Studies. Her publications feature a focus on interactivity and engagement of digital media. She is specialized in content analysis, focus group and experiment design, and AI-empowered text analysis.

Henrietta Rix Wood, Facilitator
Session: "But I'm Not a Writing Teacher": Helping Students Grow as Writers
Henrietta Rix Wood is a Teaching Professor in the UMKC Honors Program and teaches undergraduate courses in writing and research. Dr. Wood is the CAFE Faculty Fellow for Teaching Writing and the co-chairperson of the UMKC University Writing and Reading Board. She has taught college writing for twenty years and has forty years of experience writing for academic and general audiences.