First Presidential fellows cast their research net broadly

From social awareness to dental care

The first six Presidential Faculty Development Fellows will spend the next academic year focusing on their research interests before their portfolios are reviewed for promotion. The fellowships, announced earlier this month by UW President Richard L. McCormick, provide assistant professors with up to one academic year to focus on one aspect of their portfolio, either teaching or research. The fellowships provide the recipient’s department with support to replace the faculty member’s teaching and are available for assistant professors in tenure and non-tenure track positions. The 1999 fellows and their plans for using the fellowships are:

Edith Cheng

Edith Cheng, Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been recognized as an outstanding educator and has received the prestigious Council on Residency Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology’s national Faculty Teaching Award. She is also an enthusiastic researcher, investigating chromosome pairing and its relationship to genetic issues in prenatal diagnosis.

What exactly happens to chromosomes in older women that results in a higher rate of defects? Why does the body destroy some eggs and not others? Cheng hopes her research looking at chromosomes using the technique of fluorescent in situ hybridization will help find answers. She began the research in 1991, working with Genetics Professor Stan Gartler, and she has received research support from the National Institutes of Health.

The fellowship next year will give her a chance to reduce her clinical teaching responsibilities and concentrate on preparing material for publication. Cheng is a graduate of the UW School of Medicine who worked as the first prenatal genetic consultant at UW Medical Center before she entered medical school. She also holds a master’s degree in genetic counseling.

Phillip Dunston

Phillip Dunston, Civil Engineering, has had to assume major responsibility for teaching during his first four years at the UW because of the loss of a senior faculty member in his department.

“The award comes at just the right time for both me and the program as we move in a more high-tech direction,” Dunston said. “I have just joined a committee of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat to co-edit a monograph on robotics and information technology for tall building construction. I am in the midst of plans for a construction automation technology seminar for the local construction industry later this summer, and am talking with two potential collaborators to investigate the application of augmented reality in the management of construction projects. At least one proposal is in the works for this topic this calendar year. I find this topic to be probably the most exciting thing I have yet had the opportunity to pursue. The fellowship gives me the necessary flexibility and helps the department to better support me in focusing my efforts.”

Lauren Goodlad

Lauren Goodlad, English, joined the department as an acting assistant professor in 1994 and defended her dissertation in 1995 and became an assistant professor. Her research is in Victorian literature and culture, especially on the intersections between Britain’s expanding state and works by Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Martineau, and Charles Dickens and John Stuart Mill. She looks at a wide range of social and political issues, including the infamous New Poor Law and its aftermath.

“Nothing is more important to a professor’s development than the opportunity to complete a project in a sustained, concentrated fashion,” she said. “My work is very cross-disciplinary, involving history, psychoanalysis and feminist theory as well as literature. For me, the fellowship represents a rare opportunity to challenge myself, to get at the heart of questions that I find very intellectually compelling. I hope that will also mean making a strong contribution to my field, and helping me to share my enthusiasm with students.”

Kathleen M. O’Neill

Kathleen M. O’Neill, Law, came to the University in 1993 to direct and teach in the Law School’s Basic Legal Skills program, which provides beginning law students with tutorial instruction in legal analysis, research and writing.

“This wonderful fellowship will give me crucial uninterrupted time to engage in my own legal analysis, research and writing,’ O’Neill said. “My project explores whether Washington law is adequate to deal with questions of who owns, or should own, intellectual property developed during employment. The topic is timely as the state makes a rapid transition to a “high tech” economy where businesses’ and individuals’ most significant assets may be their inventions or processes. I will describe current law and controversies, canvass employers for existing practices, recommend employment contract clauses and perhaps new legislation, if my research indicates that would be desirable. I hope to provide useful legal guidance to employees, employers and the public that will promote fairness, efficiency and minimize costly legal disputes. I am deeply grateful for this gift of time.”

Biren (Ratnesh) Nagda

Biren (Ratnesh) Nagda, Social Work, joined the UW as an assistant professor in 1996 after receiving his doctorate from the University of Michigan. His work focuses on understanding how empowerment, diversity and social justice can influence multicultural transformation in society. “One role of the educator is to develop a more democratic citizenry, that is to empower people to participate collectively and in socially just ways in their various communities—neighborhoods, workplaces and education settings,” Nagda said.

When Nagda arrived at the UW, he was immediately immersed in developing an innovative curriculum of interracial dialogue as part of the school’s required course, “Cultural Diversity and Justice.” With funding from the Council for Social Work Education, UW Office of the Provost, and the Hewlett Foundation, Nagda and colleagues redesigned the curriculum, trained dialogue facilitators and developed evaluation procedures. Each spring quarter students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds meet weekly in small groups. As the 10-week quarter progresses, facilitators lead the groups to more and more intimate discussions of race, ethnicity, racism and interracial alliances for social justice. He hopes to share this model with others at the University who may be interested in initiating similar efforts in their departments. He also has extended his work to community-based intergroup dialogues in order to document effective practices, and develop evaluation and research tools.

Now, with the support of the fellowship, Nagda will have time to integrate his hands-on work with intergroup dialogue theories, develop “best practice” models, and evaluate the impact of these efforts on intergroup understanding and collaboration. He also will continue to look at how issues of race and gender impact worker empowerment in social service agencies. “To receive a concentrated amount of time to work on research and writing is truly a gift,” Nagda remarked.

Frank Roberts

Frank Roberts, Peridontics, joined the School of Dentistry faculty two years ago after earning his dentistry degree at the University of Tennessee in Memphis, completing a residency in periodontics and earning a Ph.D. in molecular immunology at the University of Alabama. In addition to teaching and research, he has been treating patients at both the UW and the Veterans Affairs dental services.

“For me, the main advantage of the fellowship is that it gives me a chance to concentrate on one aspect of my career,” Roberts said. “With lab research, when you can concentrate on getting projects up and going, then it becomes easier to keep them going.”

Roberts’ research focuses on understanding the response of the host (or dental patient) to periodontal disease. He will be publishing research results and preparing grant requests to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. ¶