Dear Faculty,
As we approach the end of the fall semester, I want to express my sincere appreciation for your unwavering commitment to our students. Your dedication does not go unnoticed as you continue to foster a dynamic and enriching learning environment and push the boundaries of scholarship and research.
Our main focus continues to be Pillar 2 of the University’s Strategic Plan, “Academic Distinction—Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Research,” and we are thrilled that it is moving forward as planned. Our new core curriculum started this fall; a new faculty mentorship program, housed in the newly established Center for Faculty Success and Development, is taking shape; the collection of data for the strategic program positioning initiative is complete; strategies to increase high-impact practices and transformative partnerships are being developed; and a Venture and Innovation Center has been established. As we continue to move Pillar 2 forward, your participation and collaboration is of paramount importance as the Strategic Plan belongs to all of us.
We have much to celebrate and to be proud of as an academic institution. As we all take a breather during the upcoming holiday season, I encourage you to reflect on your accomplishments because I know there are many. Thank you for your continued efforts and for being the driving force behind the success of our academic community.
Wishing you a restful and rejuvenating break.
Best regards,
Grant Submissions and Awards
| Fall 2023 to Date | Fiscal Year to Date | |
| 9/1/2023-11/16/2023 | 6/1/2023-11/16/2023 | |
| Grants Submitted | 26 | 37 |
| Grants Awarded | 10 | 30 |
| Amount of Granted Awarded | $1,688,623 | $3,754,648 |
Sciences Award
Ales Vancura, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, was awarded a new National Institutes of Health R15 AREA (Academic Research Enhancement Award) totaling $492,000. This is a three-year award that began on September 1 and runs through August 31, 2026. The award is titled, “Regulation of transcription termination by checkpoint kinases Mec1p and Rad53p.” The goal of this project is to understand the mechanisms responsible for the regulation of transcription termination by DNA checkpoint kinases Mec1p and Rad53p.
Education Award
Xiaojun (June) Chen, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The School of Education, received a National Science Foundation subaward totaling $16,250 passed through California State University, Fresno. The award period is October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2026, and is titled, “MCA Support Engaging and Inclusive STEM Education with Extended Reality (SEISE-XR).” The goal of this project is to contribute to the understanding of the TPACK technology integration framework in relation to STEM faculty professional development, incorporating extended reality (XR) technologies in teaching and learning.
Director Appointed for New Venture and Innovation Center
James M. Kinsley, M.B.A., Professor of Practice in the Department of Management, Entrepreneurship, Consulting, and Operations in The Peter J. Tobin College of Business, has been appointed Director of the new Venture and Innovation Center (ViC) and will report directly to the Provost.
Prof. Kinsley joined St. John’s University in 2019. Prior to joining St. John’s, he spent most of his career in management and environmental consulting, working for a range of international organizations including KPMG, ERM, Atkins (now AtkinsRéalis), Merrill Lynch (now Merrill), and the British government’s Department for International Trade.
At Atkins he led its strategy and markets consulting business, and while working as a Vice Consul at the British Consulate General in New York, he established a new trade and investment operation focused on the infrastructure sector. He also set up his own consulting business, ACG, while living and working in Africa.
Prof. Kinsley earned a master’s degree in geography from Oxford University, an M.B.A. from Cranfield School of Management, and a diploma in marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
In his role as Director, he will oversee all aspects of the new Venture and Innovation Center at St. John’s. ViC represents a visionary project that will foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship, providing support to new ideas and start-up businesses. As the ViC ecosystem grows and develops, it will provide resources for student and employee innovators and entrepreneurs, offering a range of services and programs. We are currently working through some of the foundational elements of this exciting project and will provide you with further updates shortly.
Director Named for New Center for Faculty Success and Development
Effective January 2, Heather Ball, Associate Professor and the Critical Pedagogy Librarian for Student Success in the University Libraries, will assume the role of Director of the new Center for Faculty Success and Development.
Aligned with pillar two of the University’s Strategic Plan, “Academic Distinction: Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Research,” the Center for Faculty Success and Development will continue the Center for Teaching and Learning’s dedication to professional development and faculty success, as well as implement a new University-wide faculty mentoring initiative created under the auspices of the Office of the Provost.
Expanding upon mentoring activities conducted at the departmental level, this initiative will initially focus on new and early career faculty but will also include midlevel and senior faculty members as we move forward. The mentoring initiative will be carried out in collaboration with deans, chairs, and faculty members from across the University to establish programmatic goals, guidelines for mentors and mentees, and program outcomes. We are excited about the mentoring initiative and look forward to its implementation.
Professor Ball has taught multiple courses within the Department of Core Studies and the Division of Library and Information Science’s graduate program. She is also the Coordinator of Information Literacy Instruction within the Libraries, a revitalized program that will offer in-person and asynchronous instruction modules pertaining to all facets of research for both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Professor Ball came to St. John’s in 2017, having earned her bachelor’s and master of letters degrees in medieval studies from New York University and the University of Glasgow (respectively); her master’s degree in library science from Queens College; and after 10 years serving as the Global Network Research Manager for a leading global advertising agency.
She is currently pursuing her doctorate through the University at Buffalo, with a projected Spring 2024 graduation date. Her dissertation research investigates the impact of an individualized information literacy workshop series (designed with the critical race theory as its theoretical framework) on the learning outcomes of first-year students of color. Her other research interests span multiple disciplines, namely information science, Victorian studies, digital humanities, and medieval Britain.
During her time at St. John’s, Professor Ball has fostered collaborative relationships with a variety of departments and centers on campus, including the Academic Center for Equity and Inclusion; Inclusive Teaching Institute; Institute for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies; Respond and Partner to Engage our Community Team (RESPECT); the R.I.S.E. (Reach, Inspire, Succeed, and Empower) Network, Spectrum; and the Veterans Success Center, and serves on several University- and library-level committees.
Cynthia R. Phillips, Ed.D., will continue to lead the Center for Teaching and Learning for the remainder of the calendar year. We ask that you join us thanking Dr. Phillips for her leadership and excellent service during the last seven years.
Online Program Revitalization Update
Caroline Fuchs ’04MLS, University Librarian, Dean of Libraries, and Professor, will lead the effort to revitalize St. John’s University distance education offerings and instructional design services.
Three programs—Cyber Security Systems, Homeland Security, and Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) programs—are piloting the unified addition of an online asynchronous modality to existing in-person offerings. This effort is in direct response to growing online markets and student needs, particularly on the graduate level. The revitalized asynchronous online programs will integrate student recruitment, marketing, online program transitions, and content delivery into pedagogically sound courses that are designed to ease a student’s transition into the digital learning environment.
It is notable that distance-learning program initiatives not only support but also bolster registration in their in-person counterparts. We anticipate a complementary growth in our brick-and-mortar courses as our presence increases in the asynchronous online environment as we assist faculty in bringing these exceptional programs to a wider audience.