Faculty

Before the start of the semester, faculty huddled together to prepare themselves to give their best to their students and new classes.  At the opening breakfast of the 2017 Faculty Hui, they shared what they did over the holidays and the classes they would be teaching. The gathering came to order with prayer and an ‘oli, which quietened the room and focused the faculty on the purpose of their individual curricula in light of Marianist educational values.

During the two-day gathering held January 11-12 on campus, Bro. Bernard Ploeger, S.M. presented his presidential address with an open forum to discuss the state of the university. Divisions met to hone their strategies and goals to ensure student success. In addition, Janet Davidson was announced as associate provost of Academic Affairs. Faculty Development and Assessment with Brian Richardson (Faculty Center director), Cari Ryan (Assessment specialist) and Makana Mattos (Institutional Design) will be led by her.

Breakout sessions were well-received. Faculty shared with their colleagues on innovative ways to teach, scholarship and research involvements, and the distinctiveness of a Marianist education.  Faculty genuinely enjoyed exchanging ideas and expertise with one another.  Sessions included:

• Google for Education – Elizabeth Park
• Writing Learning Outcomes – Brian Richardson and Candice Sakuda
• Speech Choir Performance of Forgiveness for English Language Learning – Eva Washburn-Repollo
• Experiential Learning – Gail Grabowsky
• Grant Writing Strategies – David Carter
• Yale Summer Fellowship: Why Should We Teach Slave Narratives? – Allison Paynter
• Teaching Students the Value of Using Evidence in Practice-Based Professions – Julie Elting
• The Larger Perspective of Video in Education – Tom Galli and Allison Paynter
• Strategies for Interdisciplinary Pedagogy: A Report from the Watery Field – Scott Wylie, Katrina Roseler
• Strategies for Using Rubrics – Brooke Carlson
• Breakout Edu – Makana Mattos
• Train the Mind and Cultivate the Heart: Marianist Education – Dave Coleman, Edna Magpantay-Monroe, Charlie Peterson

Discussions inspired at the Faculty Hui carried into the first week of classes as faculty continued to ponder new ways of teaching.  It was a great start to a new beginning.

Chaminade University of Honolulu announced that Janet T. Davidson, Ph.D., has been selected as the University’s new associate provost for Academic Affairs.

“We are pleased to welcome Dr. Davidson into the Office of the Provost and the Center for Teaching and Learning,” said Chaminade University provost, Helen Whippy, Ph.D. “Dr. Davidson will bring her teaching expertise, academic scholarship, and capability of collaborating with colleagues to Academic Affairs as our new associate provost.”

Davidson has been at Chaminade University in a full-time capacity since fall 2005. She has served as an associate professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice. At the undergraduate level, Davidson taught: Introduction to Criminal Justice Systems; Women and Crime; Ethics in Criminal Justice; Criminology; Corrections: Prisons and Community Alternatives; as well as statistics. At the graduate level, she taught: Research Methods; Inmate Rights; and Reentry and Rehabilitation. In addition, Davidson advised both undergraduate and graduate students regarding their programs of study. Most recently, she co-managed Chaminade’s inaugural undergraduate research program.

Davidson published numerous peer-reviewed and applied research publications. Most recently, she published “The Challenges of Determining Student Engagement in a Digital, Mobile Learning Age” in a special-edition Mobile Learning themed volume of GLOKALde, which she co-edited. She also coordinated the blind peer review of five of her Chaminade colleagues’ manuscripts, also published in the special edition volume focusing on mobile learning.

Prior to Chaminade, Davidson worked at the Hawaii Department of the Attorney General as a research analyst. She earned her doctorate in Sociology with specific focuses on crime, law, and deviance, as well as her M.A. and B.A. in sociology from the University of Hawaii – Manoa. Her research interests include institutional and community corrections, recidivism, and issues related to gender and crime.

Chaminade University welcomed Cari Anne Ryan as its new assessment specialist for the Center for Teaching and Learning. With her hire, the Office of the Provost completed its trifecta of director (Brian Richardson), instructional designer (Makana Mattos), and assessment specialist (Cari Ryan). Ryan will work with the faculty on course and program assessment, program review, designing and implementing assessment plans, and closing the loop on assessment.

Previously Ryan taught Writing and Research Methods at Pacific Rim Christian University.  She also served there as a Student Learning assessment coordinator and library director.

Ryan earned a B.A. in Art History and English from Seton Hall University in New Jersey and an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.