Dr. Deborah S. Bosley received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois and her doctorate from Illinois State University. She is the Director of the Center for Writing, Language, and Literacy at UNC Charlotte. She also is an associate professor of English and teaches technical and professional communication to undergraduates and graduate students. Her research and scholarship focus on health literacy, financial communication, cross-cultural communication, and rhetorical strategies to improve comprehension of written information. Because Dr. Bosley believes that citizens have the right to understand the information that affects their lives, she is a passionate advocate for the importance of clear, concise writing particularly in federal and state regulations and compliance information. For the past fifteen years, she has been a technical communications’ and plain language consultant for such companies and government agencies as TIAA-CREF, IBM, Hoechst Celanese, Wachovia Bank, Bank of America, AT&T, the Center for Disease Control, and the Mecklenburg Department of Social Services, to name a few.
Dr. Ruben G. Carbonell is Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. He joined NC State in 1984, after ten years in the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of California, Davis. He was Department Head of Chemical Engineering at NC State from 1994 to 1999. He is currently Director of the William R. Kenan, Jr. Institute for Engineering, Technology, & Science at NC State University, and Co-Director of the NSF Science and Technology Center for Environmentally Responsible Solvents and Processes. His main areas of research include molecular recognition processes for biological molecules using ligands derived from combinatorial libraries, and their applications to separations, detection and pathogen removal. Professor Carbonell was born in Cuba, moved to the US in 1958, and earned his BS degree in chemical engineering from Manhattan College in 1969 and the PhD degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University in 1973. In 2003 he was named a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and in 2007 he was awarded the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence at NC State University, the highest award given to university faculty.
Dr. Keith Debbage is a Professor of Geography at UNC-Greensboro with research interests in urban planning and urban economic development. Since the late 1990’s, Dr. Debbage has received over $260,000 in grants and contract awards. Most recently, he has conducted an Economic Analysis and Land Use Study for the Greensboro Partnership and Alamance County Chamber of Commerce. In 2006, Dr. Debbage received a corporate gift from FNB Southeast Bank to develop a Transport Logistic Quotient Ranking and he was a subcontractor for HDR Engineering for the Heart of the Triad Land Use Transportation Study. Dr. Debbage also conducted three co-authored, funded land use corridor studies for the city of Greensboro Planning Department during the late 1990’s and a Triad biotechnology study funded by the Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in spring 2005.
Dr. Dennis Grady is the Director of the Appalachian State University Energy Center and Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science/Criminal Justice. He holds degrees in economics from UNC-Chapel Hill, urban planning from Georgia Tech, and political science from Emory University. He has been on the faculty of ASU since 1989 and Chaired the Department of Political Science/Criminal Justice from 1994 – 2001. Prior to joining the academy, Dr. Grady served in various administrative capacities in North Carolina state government ranging from planning analyst to agency administrator. He has also served in the non-profit sector and was the founder of the Community Design Center of Atlanta, a neighborhood development corporation serving low-income communities across the southeastern United States. He has written widely on public policy topics ranging from state economic development policy to environmental politics. His current work is focused on state renewable energy policy analysis and implementation.
Dr. Ken R. Harewood received his BA in Biology from New York University and his MS and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from City College of the City University of New York. After one year's postdoctoral research at the Alfred Kimball Research Institute of the New York Blood Center where his research focused on gene expression regulation, Dr. Harewood joined the Central Research Division of Pfizer Inc where he applied molecular genetic strategies to study the role of oncogenes in the development of human cancer. As Director of the JLC-BBRI and PI of North Carolina Central University's (NCCU's) Cancer Program, he leads a project team that is conducting molecular genetic and epidemiological studies to determine the relationship between allelic variation and prostate cancer in the minority community. This work is part of a major collaboration between NCCU's JLC-BBRI and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's (UNC-CH's) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Aminifu R. Harvey is a tenured full professor in the Department of Social Work at Fayetteville State University. Dr. Harvey has been at Fayetteville State since January of 2005. Previously, he was an associate professor of social work at the University of Maryland Baltimore for thirteen years. His areas of interest include cultural competency, HIV/AIDS and issues pertaining to Black males. Some of Dr. Harvey’s work includes the development and directing of a three year drug intervention grant for Black male adolescents from the federal government, the development of an HIV/AIDS intervention for incarcerated African American males for the state of Maryland, as part of this project he also, trained the trainers in this intervention. Additionally, he worked to develop an effective and competent transitional foster home for young males in the foster care system. Dr. Harvey has consulted with foundations, conducted program evaluations, presented at numerous conferences, both nationally and internationally and has published extensively.
Dr. Bruce B. Henderson came to Western Carolina University in 1978 after receiving his BA and MA in psychology from Bucknell University and his PhD in child psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. He has worked as a teacher of preschool children with handicaps and briefly as a school psychologist. He has received the Botner Superior Teaching Award and the Board of Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. His basic research has focused on the development of memory in children and on the development of curiosity. Dr. Henderson has written frequently about issues in higher education, including his recent Teaching at the People’s University: An Introduction to the State Comprehensive University (Jossey Bass). Bruce and his wife Judy live in Cullowhee and have three grown children.
Dr. Jim Johnson is the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the Urban Investment Strategies Center. He is also co-director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise. His research interests include community and economic development, the effects of demographic changes on the U.S. workplace, interethnic minority conflict in advanced industrial societies, urban poverty and public policy in urban America, and workforce diversity issues. With support from the Russell Sage Foundation, he is researching the economic impact of Sept. 11 on U.S. metropolitan communities. Dr. Johnson's research focuses on the causes and consequences of growing inequality in American society, particularly as it affects socially and economically disadvantaged youth; entrepreneurial approaches to poverty alleviation, job creation, and community development; interethnic minority conflict in advanced industrial societies; and business demography and workforce diversity issues. He received his PhD from Michigan State University, his MS from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and his BS from North Carolina Central University.
Dr. Elizabeth Layman is Professor and Chair in the Department of Services and Health Information Management at East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina. She has a baccalaureate degree from the University of Minnesota, a post-baccalaureate certificate in health information administration from the College of St. Scholastica, a master’s in organizational leadership from the College of St. Catherine, and a doctorate in higher education from Georgia State University. Prior to joining the faculty at East Carolina University in 1996, she worked in academic health centers in Minnesota and taught at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia. She is a fellow of the American Health Information Management Association, one of the first two in the United States. Her research focuses on leadership in allied health and its turbulent environment, job design and work settings, and ethics. She edited the research journal in her field and is a co-author of a text on health care reimbursement.
Dr. Beryl McEwen has been Chair of the Department of Business Education, School of Business and Economics at North Carolina A&T State University for the past 12 years. During this time she has had many committee assignments including the UNC Faculty Assembly (1997-2003), the UNC Innovations in Faculty Work Life Committee (2002-2005), the Teacher Education Council, NCA&T (1995-present), the Institutional Review Board, NCA&T (2000-Present), as well as accreditation reviewer for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and external examiner to the University of Technology, Jamaica. She has had over 50 papers published in business education and related areas, including online learning, and is active in six professional organizations. She is the current editor of the Delta Pi Epsilon Journal and former editor of the NABTE Review and the OSRA Journal. Dr. McEwen has an MS and a PhD from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a B. Ed. from the University of Technology, Jamaica. Prior to joining the faculty at North Carolina A&T State University she was an Assistant Professor at Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, IL.
Dr. David B. Oxendine is a Lumbee Indian and a native of Pembroke, N.C. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater from Catawba College, a Master’s degree in Counselor Education and a Doctorate in Psychology both from North Carolina State University. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Dr. Oxendine has completed a screenplay based on the book by William McKee Evans entitled To Die Game, which currently is under consideration for production by several producers. On the academic side, Dr. Oxendine’s research interest in is prejudice, discrimination and stereotyping and how these constructs intersect and interact throughout our society whether in the classroom, business world or in personal lives.
Dr. Nelson Reid, a native North Carolinian, has A.B. and M.S.W. degrees from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. He has held academic and administrative appointments at UNCW since 1998 serving as Chair of the Department of Social Work from 1998 to 2004 and Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences 2004-2005. He is currently a Professor and Public Service Fellow. Prior academic and administrative appointments include Ohio University, Auburn University, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of Cape Town, and North Carolina State University. Dr. Reid’s field of study is social policy and social administration, involving the history, development, and substance of social welfare provision. Principle areas of teaching include American social welfare history, social programming, policy analysis, and ethics as applied to both social policy and social work practice. Main areas of research include the development of social welfare and the influence of social ideals, the character of the social work profession, and social service organization and management.
Dr. Thomas Ricketts is a Professor of Health Policy and Administration and Social Medicine, and Director of the Health Policy Analysis Unit in the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The focus of his research has been on policy making for the health care workforce and access to care for rural and underserved populations. He was the founding director of the North Carolina Rural Health Research and Policy Analysis Center which he led for 12 years from 1988 until 2000. In 2003, he became the director of the Southeastern Regional Center for Health Workforce Studies which he currently leads. Dr. Ricketts works actively in health workforce policy making and research. He has developed national and state policies governing the distribution of health resources and health care practitioners. Since 2001 he has chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee for the United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings TM. In 2004 he was appointed to a four-year term on the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services (US DHHS). Dr. Ricketts is Editor of the North Carolina Medical Journal having previously served as Editor of the Journal of Rural Health from 1990 until 1996. He is a member of the American Public Health Association, Academy Health, the Association of American Geographers, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Dr. Michael L. Walden is the William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at North Carolina State University. Walden is also a specialist with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Services. He is widely known for his ability to relate larger economic trends to individual consumers. Every two weeks, he writes the “You Decide” newspaper column exploring key economic issues. Dr. Walden received his Ph. D from Cornell University in 1978.