Professional Activities

Jose Lezcano, Professor of Music, had several performances and premieres this Winter (January through March 2014). He performed a duo concert in Ecuador (Casa de la Musica) with flutist Gustavo Lovato and premiered his duo, “Flauta, Mojito, Habano, y Guitarra”; solo recitals in Florida at Sarasota and for the Hallandale Library; duo concerts with harpist Franziska Huhn (at KSC and for the Hingham Library Series, Massachusetts); three concerts with the Wisteria Chamber Music Society in Greenfield, Massachusetts, and Brattleboro, Vermont; a duo performance of his Sonatina Tropical at the Brattleboro Music Center’s “Composers in our Midst” concert, with KSC faculty flutist Robin Matathias. His “Key West Suite,” commissioned by the Amaral Duo, for two guitars was premiered by them at Montgomery College, Maryland (Feb. 1) and can be heard on youtube at http://youtu.be/RQEcAX1n0_Q.

Alison Pantesco, Contract Lecturer in German, represented the New Hampshire Association of World Language Teachers with her presentation, “Active Learning with Music,” on March 28, 2014, at the New England Conference for Foreign Languages in Boston. Pantesco’s presentation was selected as “The
Best in New Hampshire” at the NHAWLT conference in November.

Campus Safety Officers Kris Fox and Jessica Trombley recently completed certification to teach RAD (Rape Aggression Defense for Women). The RAD Instructor training is an intensive 3 day, 30 hour course. The program focuses on providing risk awareness, risk reduction and self-defense technique options for women if confronted with a physical assault. KSC has been providing free RAD training for faculty, staff and students since 1998. Other certified instructors at the College are Director Amanda Guthorn (RAD Basic and Advanced), Sgt. Victor Malavet, Officer Mike Gomez (Basic and RAD for Men) and Debra Williams.

Associate Director of Campus Safety Stuart Mitchell completed Advanced Clery Act training at Union College in March. The 4-day workshop is a comprehensive training class covering recent changes to the Clery Act, the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) fire safety reporting and missing persons protocols, and new policy and reporting requirements under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).

Beverly J. Ferrucci, Professor of Mathematics, presented a workshop titled, “Let’s Teach More Geometry in the Elementary Classroom!” at the Annual Conference and Exposition of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in New Orleans, LA. More than 120 teachers attended the interactive workshop which shared ways in which elementary school teachers can implement the geometry standards from the Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practices.

Members of the Office of Sponsored Projects & Research partnered with colleagues around the region to present at the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) Region 1 Spring Conference in Mystic, CT (April 28-30th). The sessions they participated in include:

• “Too Small to Do It All? Effective Partnering to Fill Gaps in Research Administration” (Penny J. Miceli, Director, Sponsored Projects & Research, Keene State College; Cara Martin-Tetreault, Director of Sponsored Research, Bowdoin College; Kris Monahan, Director of Sponsored Research & Programs, Providence College; Jahnay Pickett, Manager, Sponsored Programs, Plymouth State University; Joel Relihan, Associate Provost/Research Integrity Officer, Wheaton College)
• Relationship Building from the Perspective of New Faculty (Janet Albarado, CRA, Associate Director, Office of Sponsored Projects & Research, Keene State College; Christine Hempowicz, Ed.D., CRA, Director, Office of Sponsored Research and Programs, University of Bridgeport). A special thank you to Assistant Professor of Communication Chitra Akkoor for participating in this session via remote technology to share her perspective of what new faculty need from their sponsored projects offices.

Congratulations to Janet Albarado for being awarded a travel grant from NCURA to defray expenses related to the trip.

Alyssa Marinaccio, Assistive Technology Coordinator for the Office of Disability Services, presented “Building AT Awareness on Your Campus: Where to Start?” at two assistive technology conferences this spring: ATiA 2014 Orlando Conference (Assistive Technology Industry Association) in January and CSUN 29th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference(California State University Northridge) in March.

In the ‘Leadership’ and ‘Post-Secondary Education’ strands, her presentation focused on the success story of ODS’s implementation of their new AT program (Fall 2012). She shares her story of beginning as an intern and working with Lisa David (Assistant Director) to build an AT Web Resource that began as an initiative to raise AT awareness for incoming and current students at KSC. This user-friendly resource, features free/low-cost technology allowing secondary and post-secondary students to research AT and find something that can meet their individualized learning needs. Alyssa also talked about some of the popular technologies on the web resource that have made it easier for our students to begin using AT. This AT Resource has truly been a launching pad for the AT Program in ODS and has been shared and used by many institutions all over the country. (Among attendees at the CSUN conference was Stevie Wonder. Alyssa got the chance to meet him as he was checking out the latest Refreshable Braille Displays in the Exhibit Hall.)