UHV promotes 14 faculty members
More than a dozen University of Houston-Victoria faculty members recently were promoted with nine of them receiving tenure and three becoming full professors.
The associate professors promoted to the rank of professors are:
- Jun Yang, School of Business Administration
- Amy Barnhill, School of Education, Health Professions & Human Development
- Teresa LeSage-Clements, School of Education, Health Professions & Human Development
The assistant professors promoted to associate professors and receiving tenure are:
- Joseph Locke, School of Arts & Sciences
- Saba Razvi, School of Arts & Sciences
- Liane Tanguay, School of Arts & Sciences
- Shannon Viola, School of Arts & Sciences
- Moira Baldwin, School of Education, Health Professions & Human Development
- Wayne Smith, School of Education, Health Professions & Human Development
- Raymond Tucker, School of Education, Health Professions & Human Development
- Sherry Vafa, School of Education, Health Professions & Human Development
- Liping Wei, School of Education, Health Professions & Human Development
The clinical assistant professor promoted to clinical associate professor was Jesica McCue in the School of Arts & Sciences. Casey Akins, also with the School of Arts & Sciences, was promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer.
“I am extremely proud of the hard work that these faculty members have demonstrated in the pursuit of scholarly and teaching excellence,” said Chance Glenn, UHV provost and vice president for academic affairs. “These promotions are a testament to this, and we look forward to the impact their collective efforts will continue to have on our student body and our community.”
Faculty members hired as assistant professors at UHV are eligible to apply for tenure and promotion to associate professor after six years. Associate professors may be considered for promotion to professor after five years, although distinguished achievements can warrant earlier consideration.
The promotion review process, which takes almost a year to complete, begins with evaluations by each school’s dean. Their recommendations are sent to the university’s Promotion and Tenure Committee for evaluation. The committee’s recommendations go to the provost, and his recommendations go up the chain to the university president, UH System chancellor and UH System Board of Regents.
Yang is chair of the business school’s department of marketing and operations, and teaches undergraduate and graduate marketing courses. Her research topics include online communities, internet marketing, new product diffusion and health care marketing. Her work has been published in several journals, including Information & Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services and Marketing Letters.
Barnhill teaches undergraduate and graduate literacy courses. She is the coordinator for the graduate curriculum and instruction program, and the VOICE program, and for several years was the coordinator for the UHV teacher education program and director of field experiences for the UHV student teacher program. Her research has included topics such as multicultural literacy, technology and literacy, and she has published and conducted research about utilizing Writer's Workshop with young children. Barnhill has earned grants for UHV’s education program and literacy grants for the UHV Bookmobile.
LeSage-Clements teaches undergraduate and graduate science and curriculum & instruction courses. Starting Tuesday, she will be the coordinator of the UHV teacher education program. Her research is focused on science education, environmental education, and teacher education. Her most recent research on water equality is sponsored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Bay Watershed Education & Training program.
Locke teaches undergraduate and graduate history courses and is director of the history program. His research focuses on the history of the American South and Southwest in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Locke’s work has been published in several quarterly journals. He has a book published through the Oxford University Press called “Making the Bible Belt: Texas Prohibitionists and the Politicization of Southern Religion,” and he co-edited the history textbook “The American Yawp.”
Razvi teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the English department. Her efforts focus on writing original works of literature and studying other works of literature in the context of various topics. Her research includes poetry, literature and science, speculative and science fiction literature, and Sufi literature and translation. She has five collections of poetry published, including “In the Crocodile Gardens,” which was nominated for an Elgin Award. Razvi also has published fiction and essays, has been nominated and won awards and fellowships, given many guest lectures, and judged various poetry and fiction contests.
Tanguay teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in cultural studies, literacy theory, cinema and composition. Her research interests are in cultural and critical theory with an emphasis on neoliberalism. Tanguay has published several articles and book chapters about media and popular culture in relation to contemporary politics and contemporary capitalism. She also has a 2013 book called “Hijacking History: American Culture and the War on Terror” published by McGill Queen University Press. In October, she will present at a virtual conference in London about her work on CNN’s coverage of the 2016 electoral campaign. Her work was published in a book called “Neoliberalism and Media.”
Viola teaches both undergraduate and graduate psychology courses. She is a licensed psychologist and licensed specialist in school psychology. Her research has focused on distance learning in the field of school psychology and various factors relating to special education and serving students in special education. Her work has been published in several journals including Psychology in the Schools, and Journal of Educators Online. Viola’s work has been presented at several conferences, including the National Association of School Psychologists in Boston.
Baldwin teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses on curriculum and instruction, and science. Her research is focused on using emerging technology to correct student mistakes. Her work has been published in conference papers for the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, and she has written newspaper columns about how parents can make science entertaining for children. She is on the UHV undergraduate affairs committee and the core curriculum committee.
Smith teaches graduate counselor education courses. His research and work as a mentor is mainly focused on the overall wellness and identity of students in the Latino international student and youth population. Smith’s work has been presented at the international, national and local levels and includes the use of creative arts, wellness, and personal and professional development. He has helped earn $1.6 million dollars in grants for UHV, including collaborations with several community colleges, public school districts and health facilities.
Tucker teaches undergraduate and graduate kinesiology courses. His research interests include the leadership skills used by coaches in their interaction with athletes and program development in improving athletic performance. He has authored several articles about athletic performance training for the Texas High School Coaches Association’s magazine and in The Sports Journal about leadership and coaching. Tucker is a member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association and the Texas High School Coaches Association.
Vafa teaches graduate education technology courses, curriculum and instruction courses, and undergraduate teacher-education program courses. She serves as program coordinator for the graduate education technology program. She was named the 2018-2019 Outstanding Faculty Member in Service by the UHV School of Education, Health Professions & Human Development. She has published her research in several journals, such as the American Journal of Education and Information Technology, and Kappa Delta Pi: The Record. She has presented her research at several international, national and regional conferences.
Wei teaches undergraduate courses in curriculum and instruction and graduate courses in English as a Second Language and teaching English to speakers of other languages. She serves as the coordinator for TExES Academy and UHV graduate ESL/TESOL program. She is the 2019 recipient of Teaching Excellence Award by the University of Houston-Victoria. She has done research in ESL teacher education. Her research has been published in several journals, including the International Journal of TESOL Studies, and her research has been presented at international, national and regional conferences.
McCue teaches undergraduate and graduate lecture and lab biology courses. McCue’s research is focused on improving health outcomes in people using complementary and alternative medicine modalities. She is a certified yoga instructor and has facilitated several programs where UHV students teach yoga and wellness practices at local public schools. In 2016, McCue received the UHV Teaching Excellence Award. She also has received the Wonderful Woman of UHV award.
Akins teaches criminal justice courses. Her research interests include deviance and family violence. She also is working on a research project that explores the rhetorical strategies used by deviant groups or subcultures to normalize their identity status. She also has worked with campus violence and alcohol abuse prevention initiatives, assessment projects, UHV’s First Year Experience and UHV’s Community of Readers.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
