Around the Academy

Five Holy Family University professors are recipients of the 2023 Ray and Mildred Taylor Awards to fund four important research initiatives.

The award program was established through an endowment created by Carol Taylor H’22, RN, Ph.D., a former University faculty member who served from 1979-1987 and 1995-1997 in the School of Nursing & Health Sciences. Taylor and her family created the award to honor her parents: Ray and Mildred Taylor. Carol was honored by the School of Nursing & Health Sciences in October 2012 with its highest award, the Distinguished Nursing Alumni Award. Taylor was honored by the University with a doctor of humane letters, honoris causa, at Holy Family's 2022 Commencement.

The Ray and Mildred Taylor Awards provide funding to faculty who have completed at least two years of full-time teaching at Holy Family. Requests are made in the form of formal proposals to the Ray and Mildred Taylor Committee, with priority given to those projects that advance faculty research and scholarship.

The 2023 Taylor Awards were awarded for the following proposals:

• Mapping the Philadelphia Entrepreneurial Ecosystem - Donald Goeltz, DPS (School of Business & Professional Studies)
• Criminal Justice Reform at the County-level: Process and Outcomes Findings of the Bucks County Human Services Co-Responder Program and Examining Reentry ‘Upstream’ Following the Nordic Penal Model - Patricia Griffin, Ph.D. (School of Arts & Sciences)
• Quality Mediation Counseling and Its Impact on High Conflict Divorce - Jenai Grigg, Ph.D. (School of Arts & Sciences)
• Campus Greenhouse to Facilitate Environmental and Animal Welfare Research - Elizabeth Carroll, Ph.D. and Edward Waddell, Ph.D. (School of Arts & Sciences)

The members of the 2023 Taylor Grant Award Committee are:

•  Melissa Rampelli, Ph.D., Chair (School of Arts & Sciences); 
• Beth Jones, Ph.D. (School of Education); 
• Jaclyn Myers, Ph.D. (School of Arts & Sciences); 
• Karl Malaszczyk, J.D., LLM (School of Business & Professional Studies); 
• and Michelle Murphy-Rozanski, Ph.D., MSN, RN, CRNP (School of Nursing & Health Sciences).

New American Sign Language Courses 

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry’s Office for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing, over 1 million Pennsylvanians have hearing loss. Holy Family students have been developing new language skills to help communicate with that population in the American Sign Language I and American Sign Language II courses, which launched in Fall 2022 in the School of Arts & Sciences. Both courses are taught by Larisa Yanez, who graduated from The College of New Jersey with a Master of Arts degree in Teaching, Education of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing. For her first several years as an educator, Yanez worked exclusively with Deaf children. She later became ASL Teaching Certified and began teaching at Holy Family University in Fall 2022. 

Yanez points out that learning ASL yields immediate practical usage. “There are a lot of reasons why students should consider taking an ASL course,” says Yanez. “Philadelphia has a large Deaf population, so it would not be surprising to come across a Deaf person. I’ve had students tell me while taking my course that they’ve encountered Deaf individuals at their jobs, like one of my students who worked at Wawa. People with other disabilities also use sign language to communicate. For example, my mother, who is a speech therapist, uses sign language to help communicate with children with autism. It is also important for accessibility, equity, and raising awareness for different issues involving the Deaf community.” 

While ASL is used widely in education, Yanez notes that her students in the School of Nursing & Health Sciences have also found that learning ASL could offer an important professional advantage. “I love how many nursing students are currently in my class. Many people don’t realize that there are different perspectives on hearing loss. There is the medical model that says, ‘We need to fix this,’ that assists individuals with cochlear implants, hearing aids, and other devices as well as speech therapy. However, hearing loss is not looked at as a disability in many situations and instead is seen as more of a cultural difference. There is a part of the community that doesn’t feel like they need to be ‘fixed,’ and medical professionals may not understand that. Having that cultural perspective and understanding as well as interpreters within the medical setting is important and can help bridge barriers, especially in a high-stress situation in a hospital.” 

Yanez also shares that many of her students have found that learning ASL is a useful life skill even outside of professional settings. “My students have said that outside of class when they see each other at a distance or through a window they’ve been able to communicate, or they have used ASL to communicate from a distance at a concert or a loud party,” she explains. “Even the ASL that they learned in a short amount of time has been useful to them in situations that you might not think of. You don’t need to travel to use this particular language skill – you can use ASL in one setting or another every day.” 

Psy.D. Program Hosts 6th Annual Ethics Forum 

Holy Family University’s Psy.D. program hosted its 6th Annual Ethics Forum with a program focus on Ethical Considerations for Media and Professional Identity. Led by Diane Menago, Psy.D., program and clinical training director of the program, this year's doctoral cohort presented the challenges facing mental health professionals with the misconceptions and ethically questionable information circulating about mental health. This yearly event allows our newest cohort of students to shine while sharing the latest research and scholarship on a topic of their choice regarding the field of ethics in psychology. 

Drs. Wright, Agnew, and Sullivan Present Strategic Planning Research at 2022 Online Learning Consortium Accelerate Conference

School of Education faculty Roseanna Wright, Ph.D.; Maria Agnew, Ph.D.; and Claire Sullivan, Ph.D. presented at the 2022 Online Learning Consortium Accelerate Conference in Orlando, FL, which presents the most innovative and impactful research and effective practices in the field of online, blended, and digital learning.

The presentation by Drs. Agnew, Sullivan, and Wright, “Implementing a HyFlex Course Delivery Format Through Collaborative Planning and Co-Teaching: Creating a Unique Capstone Senior Learning Experience,” demonstrated the HyFlex course delivery format pilot for online education. The pilot program uses a three-pronged model of collaborative course planning, collaborative IT planning, and collaborative instruction and takes a step toward making it a viable model that will benefit students. The information presented resulted in several requests for the School of Education faculty to share the University’s model with other institutions.  

“I have attended the OLC Accelerate conference since 2014 and have always been amazed at the energy of the participants and the quality of the presentations,” said Dr. Wright, who led the presentation. “Since that first conference, I have tried to bring this energy back to Holy Family through COBOL as we have grown our online course and program offerings. I was honored to join my colleagues in sharing our expertise at this year’s Accelerate conference and very proud that what we offered was so well received. Our model of the HyFlex format provides a unique learning experience for our students and a doable teaching experience for our faculty. Far from playing ‘catch-up,’ it is clear that online at Holy Family is based on a global understanding of the best practices and a commitment to quality in higher education.” 

Dr. Agnew added that the conference offered the faculty the opportunity to meet with other educators at the conference. “Not only did we get to present what is best practice in the field, but we also met people from all over the world who appreciate what we are doing and want to initiate professional collaborations with Holy Family.” 

“Presenting at this conference was both validating and energizing,” shared Dr. Sullivan. “Validating to know that we are not only on but ahead of the curve in terms of the HyFlex delivery model and collaborative planning and teaching and energizing to realize that there is so much more to learn and include in our courses. It was wonderful to step away from campus with colleagues and just be immersed in the future of higher ed.”