Faculty and Staff Achievements Roundup: SOE Faculty Members Offer Presentations to New Visions High School Students

This is part of a monthly series highlighting the honors and achievements of Buffalo State University faculty and staff. The roundup is compiled from the previous months’ submissions to the Daily Bulletin and department newsletters.

Throughout the month of November, faculty members from Buffalo State’s School of Education continued to engage with high school seniors participating in the New Visions Education Pathways Academy. The program, which is a collaboration with Erie 1 BOCES, allows high school students to explore careers in education while earning college credit. The class is held five days a week in Bacon Hall 110.

This semester, the following presentations were given:

• Christopher Shivley, associate professor of elementary education, literacy, and educational leadership: Action Research
• Tom McCully, team leader for the Educational Leadership Program: The Leader in Me 
• Brandon Kawa, director of the International Graduate Program for Educators and Pixita del Prado Hill, professor of elementary education, literacy, and educational leadership: International Teaching Options and Intercultural Competence 
• Patrick Ravines, director and professor the Patricia H. and Richard E. Garman Art Conservation Department: The Conservation of Art as Cultural Heritage 
• Wendy Paterson, Dean of the School of Education: Using Puppetry to Teach Literacy to All Learners
• Susan Keller-Mathers, associate professor at the Center for Applied Imagination: Creative Studies
• Drew Kahn, SUNY Distinguished Service professor and director of the Anne Frank Project (AFP): Story-based Learning and the AFP
• Katie McCabe, assistant professor of exceptional education: Disability and Inclusion 

“The New Visions Education Pathways Academy is a highly successful high school to university pipeline program,” Paterson said. “Because we award students a microcredential of 17 credit hours, our Pathways students enter Buffalo State as second semester freshmen. The advantages of this program are measurable, but it is the student population and their extraordinary teacher, Anthony Lleras, who make this program exceptional. Our faculty members are thrilled to work with them.”

In addition to the School of Education’s New Visions presentations, here are some other recent outstanding achievements by Buffalo State faculty and staff members:

Erin Barr, assistant professor of history and social studies education, presented “We Are Aiding to Sustain a Revolution” at the Buffalo Irish Center. The lecture addressed the neglected and untold stories of Irish American women’s involvement in politics during the nineteenth century. 

For his research productivity, Valentin Brimkov, SUNY Distinguished Professor of mathematics, was ranked in the top 0.1% in the discipline of image analysis (out of 69,627 scholars) and in the top 0.71% for all scientific fields (out of 28,929,092 scholars) by ScholarGPS, a California-based company that uses a database of over 200 million publications, 3 billion citations, and data science techniques to rank scholars from over 55,000 institutions worldwide.

Tiffany Bromfield, associate director of residence life and inclusion, received the best presentation award at the 70th annual Northeast Association of College and University Housing Officers Conference, held in Mystic, Connecticut. Her presentation, “Crocs or Not: Supervising Gen Z,” discussed working in a multigenerational workplace and strategies for successful supervision of the rising generation from the perspective of a millennial manager.

Tim Bryant, associate professor of English, presented “Identity and Role Confusion in Fantasy Roleplay Literature and Games” at the 121st annual conference of the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association, held in Palm Springs, California. The paper applied Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development to a reading of fantasy novels in which players get lost in the worlds of their games and an evaluation of how such literature engages the developmental goals and challenges of adolescence.

An article by Elizabeth “Betty” Cappella, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor emerita of higher education administration; Geraldine Bard, professor emerita of English; Christopher Hulsman, senior assistant librarian, Butler Library; and alumna Melissa Blattner, titled “Promoting Altruism through Literacy, Volunteerism, and Service-Learning Programs to Enhance Social Justice, Equity, and Peace,” was accepted for presentation at the Oxford International Educational Research Symposium to be held in March 2025. Each presenter affiliated with the university will focus on different aspects of Projects Flight’s highly regarded literacy programs that promote social justice. Project Flight, a not-for-profit agency that started at Buffalo State University, has been in operation since 1993 and has received numerous awards and recognition locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally.

Buffalo State head men's soccer coach Francesco Cardillo and his staff were named the United Soccer Coaches Region III Coaching Staff of the Year. Cardillo and his staff are the second in program history to earn the recognition and first since predecessor Mark Howlett, who earned the honor in 2017. Cardillo led the Bengals to one of their best seasons in program history with a record of 16-3-4 (7-1-1 SUNYAC), which set a Buffalo State program record for wins in a single season. Cardillo's squad reached the SUNYAC Championship for the first time since 1984 and earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2017. 

Catherine Cardina, professor and chair of the Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics Department, published the article “Technology Use Among Physical Education Teachers Before, During, and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Connectivist Approach” in the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education. The article’s coauthors were Taemin Ha of CUNY Queens College, Xiaoping Fan of SUNY Cortland, and Sheri M. Treadwell of SUNY Brockport.

Bridget María Chesterton, professor of history and social studies education, published the article “In Guaraní Lands: Paraguay as a Brazilian Tourist Destination in the Magazines and Newspapers of Brasil and Paraguay during the Stroessner Years” in Revista Historia Autónoma in Madrid, Spain.

Carolyn Guzski, associate professor of music, received the Dr. Virginia Radley SUNY Fellowship SUNY Radley Fellowship. Named in honor of the first woman to be appointed as a SUNY state- operated campus president, the fellowship provides support for a SUNY faculty member with scholarly expertise in history or an associated discipline and is designed to discover, celebrate, and elevate the history of women's roles and leadership in New York State.

Jill Norivilitis, professor of psychology, and Jie Zhang, SUNY Distinguished Professor of sociology and director of the Center for China Studies, published the article “Educational Discrepancy and Its Impact on Couples’ Subjective Well-Being in China” in the Journal of Clinical Psychology and Neurology 2 (2):1–6. The article’s coauthors were Xiaoning Sui and Jiwen Zhang. Zhang and Norvalits also published their article “Self-Esteem and Depression as Mediators between Social Support and Satisfaction with College” in the Journal of Anxiety and Depression (with coauthor Tuozhe Zhu). Zhang also published the article “Religion, Psychological Strain, and Suicidality in China: A Preliminary Study” in the OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying. (with coauthors Bob Lew, Yanzheng Liu, Ksenia Chistopolskaya, and Sibo Zhao) and the research study “Physical Exercise and Life Satisfaction of Urban Residents in China” in the journal Behavior Sciences (with coauthor Buerzhasala Ha).

A presentation on the Michael and Nancy Chicola International Professional Development Schools program and the International Graduate Program for Educators was accepted for the annual National Association of School University Partnerships (NASUP) in March. Presenters will be Wendy Paterson, Tamara Horstman-Riphahn, Pixita del Prado Hill, Brandon Kawa, and Sherri Weber.

Kerry Renzoni, associate professor and chair of the Music Department, received the E.O. Smith Humanities Award for her work researching young children’s musical play in preschool settings. 

Karen Saxon, applied voice lecturer of music, received the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Diversity Council IDEA Award for her contributions to the Buffalo community.

Mark Warford, associate professor of modern and classical languages, was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Ceoltas Ceoltoiri Eireann-North America's North Atlantic Region at the Irish Cultural Centre of Greater Boston in recognition of his work in the promotion of Irish traditional music.

Daniel Wentland, lecturer in the Business Department, published the book Stop and Think: Ending the Political Game, which explores the ineffective nature of economic handouts through political programs. The book was featured at the Southern Management Association (SMA) Conference.

Pictured: New Visions Education Pathways Academy students with instructor Anthony Lleras and presenter Jonise Hall.