Since joining the University in 1981, Dr. Richard Klonoski has centered his philosophy on the core values of Jesuit education: academic rigor, learning integration, cura personalis, curricular blending past and present, and social justice. He believes strongly that the most important outcome of Jesuit education is the preparation of our students (particularly those in professional and pre-professional programs) to become men and women for others, to reflect on life in a greater context of community, and to cultivate meaningful relation between the self and others. His course offerings, which include Philosophical Reflections on Commercial Life, Wealth and the Human Good, Philosophy of the Person, and Philosophy of Education, reveal that his teaching focus is to develop young men and women with the ability to address the issues of the world, issues that serve as obstacles and pathways to a better human condition.

Only in his second year out of his doctoral program, Dr. Yipeng Liu has taken his discipline by storm, publishing groundbreaking research in his field’s most prestigious journals. His first peer-reviewed journal acceptance, published early in his second semester here, was included in the May 2010 issue of Decision Support Systems. He was published again in December 2010 in the European Journal of Operational Research in an article that introduced modifications to an existing quantum computing algorithm. These were followed quickly with three more acceptances now in print. It seems clear that Dr. Liu is fast becoming a leader in his discipline.

Dr. Habib Zanzana brings to the University a multicultural perspective that few can match. Although his academic specialization is French, he also teaches all levels of Spanish and, when the department noted a developing interest in an Arabic course, he participated in an intensive Arabic language program for teachers of Arabic. A person who was seemingly born to be an educator, Dr. Zanzana discovered ways of developing student commitment with some exciting approaches to teaching language. For example, he wrote and produced a puppet show in Arabic that played to an audience composed of members of the University and visitors from the community. The show has been performed off campus as well. He constructed a Moroccan sitting room in Brennan Hall and also co-organized a Moroccan photo exhibit with a local photographer.

Dr. Susan Trussler, as much as anyone on our campus, has defined what global competency represents at The University of Scranton. She has shaped and directed the Kania School of Management’s International Business program and her skilled work as the advisor of the Fulbright Program has propelled the University to national prominence for the number of Fulbright awards awarded to our students. Through her engagement in the classroom, and as faculty moderator of the International Business Club, she has imbued her students with a deep appreciation and a passion for cross-cultural understanding and business opportunity. Her research, much of which happens in collaboration with other Kania scholars, contributes to excellence in international business education on campus and beyond, and highlights such issues as internationalizing business statistics, economic literacy of economics educators in transition countries, and women entrepreneurs in the global economy.

Dr. Daniel Mahoney and Dr. Harry Dammer have developed and launched an innovative cross-disciplinary program that greatly enhances the preparation of students for roles in the detection and prevention of accounting fraud. In an initiative that is unique among universities in Northeastern Pennsylvania and rarely seen elsewhere in the country, they have combined their expertise to offer a track in forensic accounting that provides students with critical knowledge and skills in such areas as fraud examination, auditing, criminology and white-collar crime. Because of their work, University students now have access to a curriculum that is ideally suited for developing careers in the growing field of forensic accounting.

Dr. Daniel West’s efforts to foster service and leadership opportunities for his colleagues at the University and globally are well known. One of his more recent accomplishments was his role in securing the Health Profession Education and Training Grant, a two-year, congressionally directed project awarded to our Department of Health Administration and Human Resources. The grant supports a series of grant-writing workshops, as well as the inaugural Panuska Summit. The summit offers 100 participants the opportunity to engage is conversations about critical health care issues such as defining the health profile for Northeast Pennsylvania (NEPA) residents for 2020; identifying resources to support the health profile; addressing patient outmigration issues from NEPA; and recruiting talented health care professional to the region.

Dr. Gloria Wenze has demonstrated a leadership role and service commitment that has had an incredible impact of the quality of opportunities available to our students. She brought to the University her rich background of military experience — she retired as a Navy captain. With her fellow faculty in our Department of Education, she has developed a much richer culture of collaboration and a stronger focus on proactive development of their academic programs. Her work with the regional community is also reflective of her leadership skills. She is central to an ongoing project with the United Neighborhood Centers, where educators provide opportunities to students who are at risk and to an often ignored segment of our population whose cognitive skills are challenged.

Sister Mary Ann Foley is recognized throughout our campus and beyond for her commitment to issues related to justice and to the Jesuit and Catholic mission of our University. She is, indeed, a person who is committed to this work in her personal, professional and spiritual life. Sister Foley served as Education for Justice coordinator for many years having been a founding member of the group that develops structures and programs to support this most important aspect of University mission. Her activities are directed at different audiences. She served as a speaker and leader for University Ministries’ Student Silent Retreat Program. With colleagues from other departments, she coauthored a Clavius Grant Program proposal for interdisciplinary study. The proposal, "Issues of Peace and War in the Twenty-First Century," was funded and served as an important event for faculty conversations about peace and justice issues.

Dr. Susan Mendez teaches a wide range of courses that address the description of this award — that is, "she incorporates a broad mix of perspectives reflecting the richness of our pluralistic society, including substantial readings about ethnic, racial, class, religious and feminist issues." Some of her course titles include: Multi-Ethnic Literature, Borderlands Writings, Women of Color: Literature & Theory, African Diaspora Studies, and Women in Film. Her honors tutorials have included: Latino/a Literature and Health, Human Rights in Latin American Literature & Film, Woolf & Latina Literature, Feminism & Corporate America, African-American Women Novelists, Latina Writers on Nation, and Short Genre & Ethnic Struggle. Dr. Mendez incorporates diversity in her basic courses as well. Her first-year literature and writing courses include issues of race, gender, class and ethnicity. Likewise, her pedagogy is one that encourages participation and emphasizes listening to all discussants as they present "diverse" perspectives. Her courses are usually linked to many extra- and co-curricular diversity programming activities that integrate her students’ classroom experience to an applied personal immersion.

From management-education reform and e-learning in multicultural environments to the case method of learning and teaching, the transformative business pedagogical expertise of Dr. S.P. Chattopadhyay has helped to shape not only the education received by students at The University of Scranton, but the thinking and practices of management educators around the world. His research on pedagogical innovations has reached a worldwide audience through publication in Journal of Global Business Issues, The Journal of American Academic of Business, Cambridge and India’s SMART Journal of Business Management.

Dr. Crina Gschwandtner is committed to behaviors that address sustainability in her daily living and work habits. She is careful not to waste material resources and she asks others to consider behaviors that would promote stronger stewardship. But beyond this admirable personal dedication, she has also moved forward to incorporate issues of sustainability into her courses and into her professional research agenda. She regularly teaches her Environmental Ethics course and integrates sustainability topics in the required ethics courses. Recently, she started writing on topics in ecological theology and was published in Orthodoxy and the Natural Environment and in a soon-to-be-released monograph "Gift and Economy." She is currently writing a dissertation on ecological theology for her second doctorate.