Our Distinguished Faculty

ART & DESIGN

• Professor Chester Costello and adjunct faculty member Josh Wilson taught design classes to more than 100 students a day in Zigong City in the Sichuan province of China.
• Karly Ceci, Issac Rodriguez, Vada Arndt, Sammy Gonzalez and Mazi Niezgoda (along with professor Paul Erschen) collaborated with Melissa Gianakopoulos, special events manager at Habitat for Humanity ReStore in Joliet, to paint over sixty holiday-themed martini glasses for the store’s annual holiday fundraiser, Tinsel & Tinis Girls Night Out, in November.

CRIMINAL & SOCIAL JUSTICE

• The Cook County Sheriff’s Police K9 Unit gave a visiting lecture to Dr. Anastasios Goulos’s Criminal Justice and Diversity Issues and Criminology classes in September.

ENGLISH

• Students in English course “Free Speech and American Literature, 1914-1965,” taught by Dr. Anna Ioanes this fall, created “We’re with the Banned,” a display about banned books in the Brown Library.

MATH & COMPUTER SCIENCE

• Dr. Angela Antonou represented USF at the Joliet Junior College’s MFG Day in October, where she ran an Electronic Wire Maze activity. It was well-attended, and the high school students enjoyed the challenge of the maze.

PHILOSOPHY

• Professor Dr. Tim Weldon received a CIC Post Summer Institute grant to continue speaking about philosophy on WCSF radio, assisted by radio station student worker Evan Heise.

PSYCHOLOGY

• Alexis Marroquin, who did a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience project in summer 2023 with Dr. Brady Jones, was recently accepted to present the results of their work at the NCUR conference in Long Beach, California. Her project is called “An Investigation of the Effects of Knowledge of Two Social Psychological Concepts.”

SCIENCE

• Professors Dr. Chloe Lash and Dr. Scott Gruenbaum’s ant research with SURE student Carter St. Clair and biology major Jennah Russum was profiled in the article “Getting antsy in the preserves: University of St. Francis researchers study how ants disperse seeds.”

• USF welcomed some members of the first MBA graduating class from the Hanoi, Vietnam program, who chose to attend the commencement ceremony on USF’s main campus in December. Professor Rich Vaughan and Special Programs Coordinator Lisa O’Brien made time to take them to dinner Saturday night after the ceremony.
• Assistant Professor Dr. Joseph Ferrallo and his Business Research class engage in service learning each semester where they provide consulting services to a local non-profit organization. They recently presented their research findings and resulting recommendations to last semester’s client, West Suburban Community Pantry.
• USF’s Small Business Accelerator hosted a meet-and-greet with its eight business members along with several COBHA faculty members, advisory board members, students working in the accelerator, Executive-In-Residence Karl Muth and program director Dr. Bonnie Covelli. Members toured the Accelerator space in USF’s St. Bonaventure campus in downtown Joliet and brainstormed how the various advisory board members can help them grow their businesses and best utilize the grant money received. Projects include building repairs and remodeling, marketing, equipment purchases and training.

• Dr. Srimani Chakravarthi’s practicum in special education connected teacher candidates with transition program students from Lincoln-Way Central High School. In addition, future special education teachers immersed themselves in small group interventions at St. Raymond’s School, as part of their special education methods course, taught by Chakravarthi.
• Elementary Education candidates enrolled in Dr. Donna Metlicka’s Reading Diagnostics and Clinical course provided assessment and reading instruction for second-grade students at St. Raymond’s School. They assessed students individually and provided individualized instruction for each student, using a variety of materials from the USF library.
• COE’s Dr. Karen Blaha, Dr. Erin Evans, Dr. John Gambro and Amy Schroeder conducted a research study on Supporting Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color (BIPOC) Candidates in Undergraduate Teacher Education Programs at a Predominantly White University in 2022. The research was disseminated by Evans and Blaha at the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE) conference, and again by Evans at the Midwest Association of Teacher Education (ATE) conference and the Illinois Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (IATE) conference. | 10
• COE’s Dr. Karen Blaha and CAS’s Dr. Joyce Kraus (Social Work) served as presenters at the annual Lilly Conference in San Diego, California. Their presentation, “Creating a Classroom Culture: Engaging with the Diverse Learning Environment,” offered their perspectives on practices that support a diverse, engaging, and equitable environment that supports the learning and social needs of higher ed students.
• Allyship in the Classroom—The College of Education’s Aspiring Educators group hosted a professional development workshop for all education candidates. The presentation was given by alumna and current COE instructor, Estefani Gonzalez, and Dr. Saundra Russell Smith (Naperville School District 203 and COE Alum) with break-out sessions led by MERIT CORE members Kayla Adams and Robert Elkins.
• Project LEAD: Leaders in Education Advocating for Diversity—In November, COE candidates traveled to Illinois State University to attend the Project LEAD conference, where COE’s Amy Schroeder, Dr. Srimani Chakravarthi and Estefani Gonzalez hosted a breakout session focusing on dismantling biases of the Asian American community.

• USF’s Awards & Recognition Committee presented Dr. Yeijin Yeom, LCON dean, with the Franciscan Charism Award. It recognizes an employee who enriches the lives of others through service to the students and institution. Dr. Yeom is the first dean in USF history to receive this honor.