Distinguished scholars

Faculty award winners Jennifer Proctor (left), Jean Saillant, John Burl Artis, Bruce Maxim and Charu Chandra

University of Michigan-Dearborn recognized nearly 90 students and six faculty members Tuesday, March 24, during the 33^rd Annual Honor Scholars and Faculty Awards. The program honored students who have excelled academically and faculty who have distinguished themselves in teaching, research and service.

Faculty awards included:

• Distinguished Service Award: Swatantra (Munna) Kachhal, professor of industrial and systems engineering
• Distinguished Research Award: Charu Chandra, professor of operations management
• Distinguished Teaching Award (Tenured): Bruce Maxim, professor of computer and information science
• Distinguished Teaching Award (Non-tenured): Jennifer Proctor, assistant professor of journalism and screen studies
• Distinguished Teaching Award (Lecturer): John Burl Artis, lecturer II of educational leadership
• Collegiate Lecturer Award: Jean Saillant, lecturer IV of biology

Swatantra (Munna) Kachhal

Over his more than 41 year career at UM-Dearborn, Kachhal has contributed immensely to the improvement of the campus and its academic programs. He is one of the few members of the university who has directly served and shaped all four academic units.

Kachhal’s service to the university includes 26 years as chair of the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department (IMSE). He has been active in faculty governance since 1982, serving on both the Academic Affairs Advisory Council and the Faculty Committee on Campus Affairs. He also served on several committees to improve graduate and undergraduate education, most notably on the Dearborn Graduate Board, Dearborn Undergraduate Board, General Education Transition Committee, and College of Education, Health, and Human Services Program Development Committee.

Kachhal also provided exemplary service to the profession that significantly enhanced the visibility and reputation of UM-Dearborn. He held several national positions in the Institute of Industrial Engineers (IIE). At the local level, he organized and started a Student Chapter of IIE in 1996 and served as faculty adviser for 15 years. Due to his service accomplishments to IIE, he was awarded Fellow status in 1999 and earned the Distinguished Service Award by the Detroit Chapter in 2002.

At the national level, Kacchal has been active in healthcare societies, including more than 20 years of service to Healthcare and Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and as a president and national board member for the Society for Health Systems (SHS). He was awarded Fellow status of HIMSS in 2004 and Diplomat status of SHS in 2008.

Charu Chandra

Chandra joined UM-Dearborn in 1998 as an assistant professor in the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department (IMSE) and joined the College of Business as a professor in 2009. He successfully led the launch of two new programs in the college: the Master of Science in Supply Chain Management and Master of Science in Business Analytics, which is ranked 24^th in the Financial Engineer’s 2015 Master of Business Analytics rankings.

Chandra has dedicated himself to high-quality research for more than two decades. Since the early 1990s, he has published three academic books, more than 50 journal articles and more than 10 book chapters. His works are published in high-impact journals, including IEEE Engineering Management Review, European Journal of Operational Research, OMEGA: The International Journal of Management Science, Computers and Industrial Engineering, and Supply Chain Management: An International Journal. According to Google Scholar, Chandra’s works have been cited more than 1,400 times.

Chandra’s main research areas are supply chain management and enterprise integration issues in large, complex systems. His research specifically focuses on the coordination and integration in an enterprise. He also investigates health enterprise informatics, specifically optimizing patient-centered healthcare delivery for elderly people. His research has intensive and long-term impacts on research community and business practice and has been funded by sources including the United States Department of Energy, Michigan Department of Transportation and Ford Motor Co.

Chandra has actively served on editorial and review duties for academic journals. He worked as an area editor for OMEGA: The International Journal of Management Science and as associate editor for IEEE Engineering Management Review, Journal of Enterprise Transformation, and International Journal of Information Systems and Supply Chain Management.

Bruce Maxim

Maxim’s research and teaching interests include software engineering, human computer interaction, game design, artificial intelligence and computer science education. He has published a number of papers on the animation of computer algorithms, game development and educational computing applications. He co-authored a series of best-selling introductory computer science texts—a recently co-authored a new software engineering text—and created web content to support the world’s most popular software engineering text.

Maxim is the architect of UM-Dearborn’s ABET-accredited computer science curriculum and software engineering curriculum. He served on the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers committees that created the standard curricula for both these areas, and he created more than 20 courses in graduate and undergraduate programs within the Computer and Information Science Department (CIS), teaching 28 different CIS courses during the past 30 years. He was designated as a UM-Dearborn service learning fellow for 2009-2010.

Maxim teaches courses in software engineering, game design and artificial intelligence and is principle instructor for the industry-based senior design courses. Through experiential learning, he allows students to experience the role of a software engineering consultant, including all aspects of project management and dealing with non-technical issues that make up professional practice. Colleagues say Maxim enjoys sharing his love of the field with his students and helping them experience the satisfaction that comes from delivering a high-quality software product that solves a significant problem.

Jennifer Proctor

Proctor joined UM-Dearborn five years ago. Colleagues say she is both intensely engaging and seriously challenging in the classroom—balance is the keyword in her pedagogy. Her courses integrate theoretical study with elements of media production, an approach that has centered the development of the journalism and screen studies (JASS) discipline.

Upon arriving at UM-Dearborn, Proctor immediately began teaching a wide variety of media-related courses, including introductory Screen Studies, Issues in Cyberspace, American Cinema, Script Writing, Audio Production and Web Design. She instituted new courses, revamped and developed online versions of existing ones and worked toward establishing JASS as its own major, which was instituted two years ago.

One of Proctor’s new courses, New and Emerging Media, trains students in interactive technology. On first offering, the class produced a mobile scavenger hunt to serve UM-Dearborn’s new student orientations and later created a large-scale interactive documentary about Detroit-based storyteller and activist Satori.

John Burl Artis

Artis brings more than 40 years of experience as an educator and administrator to the classroom. As a lecturer II in the College of Education, Health, and Human Services (CEHHS), he teaches courses at the master’s, education specialist and doctoral levels. In addition, he teaches educational foundations courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels and provides invited seminar presentations to undergraduate student teachers on the topics of school law and ethics.

Artis collaborates with programmatic faculty across the CEHHS and mentors students who are in the advanced stages of educational pursuit. Artis is popular with students and, at last count, serves on 15 doctoral committees.

Colleagues say Artis continually supports students through personal interaction, communication and one-on-one advising. They note the intensity with which he seeks the most current information for the courses he teaches, his instructional methodologies, his ethical standards and his professional development that maintains his connection to the local community.

Those local ties are broadly valuable to the university and his students, particularly those preparing for careers in K-12 school systems who take coursework in principal preparation, superintendent preparation and central office internships.

Jean Saillant

Saillant joined UM-Dearborn more than 30 years ago. During that time, she has taught a variety of biology classes and participated in UM-Dearborn’s original “distance learning” classes and off-campus collaborative nursing program. Colleagues say her courses have been popular because of their content and because of students’ learning experiences with Saillant.

For many years, Saillant served as the discipline chair of biology, leading the program through growth spurred by increased interest in the health professions.

Now, as the official biology student adviser, Saillent provides a tremendous amount of service to the discipline's hundreds of students. She mentors students at many levels and supports them in both direct and indirect ways. Students in organizations frequently ask her for advice, alumni contacts and other assistance. She also supports student groups at their outreach and fundraising events and attends their extracurricular activities.

Honor Scholars

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Anthropology
Moleca Ghannam

Art History
Julie-Ann Magdowski

Behavioral Sciences
Alexandria Williams

Biochemistry
James Matchynski

Biology
Shelby Szymoniak

Chemistry (ACS)
David Renard

Chemistry (Instructional)
Monica McCormick

Criminal Justice Studies
Fatmeh El-Ali

Earth Science
Marc LeDent

Economics
Michelle Gordon

English
Rachel Garrison

Environmental Science
Ryan Keeling

Environmental Studies
Jennifer Shockling

French Studies
Tyree Martin

General Studies
Larry Lehna

Health Policy Studies
Erin Justin

Hispanic Studies
Zachary Herr

History
Matthew Graff

Humanities
Madeleine Burkhart

Integrated Science
Shannon Snideman

International Studies
Justin Stucki

Journalism and Screen Studies
Deborah Tackett

Liberal Studies
Shannon Kelley

Mathematics
Joseph Gaber

Microbiology
Celeste Alexander

Philosophy
Ashley Strawser

Physics
Michael Micheletti

Political Science
Jacqueline Vidosh

Psychology
Shelby Wilson

Social Studies
Julia Cuneo

Sociology
Desiree Edwards

Urban and Regional Studies
Thomas Makled

Women’s and Gender Studies
Benita Robinson

Graduate Program in Psychology
Ashley Lang

Graduate Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics
Ariel Roddy

Graduate Program in Public Policy
Anthony Sclafani

Graduate Program in Public Administration
Charles Schoder

Master of Science in Environmental Science
Jessica Fabisiak

College of Business

Accounting
Catherine Lisiecki

Digital Marketing
Kathleen Schmidt

Finance
Thomas Percin

General Business
Lauren Georges

Human Resource Management
Fatema Alqamoussi

Information Technology Management
Michael Martinez

Management
Jason Gross

Marketing
Felicia Adamczyk

Supply Chain Management
Tajeshwar Sandhu

Graduate Program in Accounting
Holly Stefanski

Graduate Program in Accounting and Finance
Christopher Allen

Graduate Program in Business Administration
Amanda Fleig

Graduate Program in Business Analytics
Jared Gruber

Graduate Program in Finance
Alan Orrick

Graduate Program in Information Systems
Elizabeth Voigt

DUAL DEGREE

Graduate Program in Business Administration and Master of Science in Finance
Elyse Sherman

Graduate Program in Business Administration and Master of Science in Industrial & Systems Engineering
Gary Kempen

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Bioengineering
Ronald Koslakiewicz

Computer Engineering
Vladyslav Slyusar

Computer and Information Science
Mo’Ath Nazzal

Electrical Engineering
Andrew Souder

Industrial and Systems Engineering
Chelsea Szpond

Mechanical Engineering
Trevor Madin

Software Engineering
Rafi Almhana

Graduate Program in Automotive Systems Engineering
Chinmay Patil

Graduate Program in Computer Engineering
Rajvir Kaur

Graduate Program in Computer and Information Science
Carlos Devoto

Graduate Program in Electrical Engineering
Victor Vulcu

Graduate Program in Energy Systems Engineering
Jad Salamouni

Graduate Program in Engineering Management
Michael Tucci

Graduate Program in Industrial and Systems Engineering
Junxuan Li

Graduate Program in Information Systems and Technology
Bader Alkhazi

Graduate Program in Mechanical Engineering
Yuxin Shen

Graduate Program in Program and Project Management
Mitchell Habian

Graduate Program in Software Engineering
Renato Frias

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Bachelor of Arts in Education (Social Studies)
Danielle Campbell

Bachelor of Arts in Education (Science Studies)
Zeinab Skaf

Bachelor of Arts in Education (Special Education)
Hanan Beydoun

Bachelor of General Studies
Emily Phee

Bachelor of Arts in Education (Mathematics Studies)
Freda Shatara

Bachelor of Arts in Education (Language Arts)
Jihan Al-Husaini

Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education
Caylan Tyler

Master of Arts in Education
Joshua Donald

Master of Arts in Education Leadership
Rima Hassan

Master of Arts in Educational Technology
Karen Procopio

Master of Education in Special Education
Rebecca Greenshields

Master of Science in Science Education
Kelsey Galvan

Master of Arts in Teaching
Dominic Scala

Education Specialist (Ed.S.)
Leo Yaros

Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.)
Afrin Alavi