News Releases November 2007

Index:
Planetarium presents: Star of Bethlehem
Ellen Brisch: Minnesota Professor of the Year
MSUM offers its first doctoral program: In nursing
Teaching in the urban classroom
Haunted Minnesota
Minnesota immigrants author
Myra Hornbacher: "Madness: A Life"

MSUM PLANETARIUM PRESENTS “STAR
OF BETHLEHEM NOV. 29 THRU DEC. 20
The MSUM Planetarium presents its traditional season show, “Star of Bethlehem” at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays and at 7 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from Nov. 29 through Dec. 20.

Was it a comet, a supernova, a triple conjunction of the planet Jupiter with Saturn, or a miracle? Whatever it was, the event reverberated through the centuries and changed millions of lives.

The show will also explore the stars and constellations of the winter night sky.

General admission is $3; children 12 and under, senior citizens and Tri-College students are $1.50. The Planetarium is located on the MSUM campus in Bridges Hall 167. For more information, call 477-2904.

7th MSUM prof to receive the award in 20 years…
CARNEGIE FOUNDATION NAMES MSUM’S ELLEN
BRISCH MINNESOTA PROFESSOR OF THE YEAR
For a lecture on chemistry, Ellen Brisch might wear a T-shirt illustrated with the periodic table; to explain the skeletal system, she might sing Alan Sherman’s parody “I See Bones”; for a particularly difficult topic, she might turn her classroom into a stage for one of her productions, like “The Great Gastrulation Play,” where she puts students in the roles of specific molecules and cells to explain their interactions.

It’s all meant to grab the attention of students, remove some of the “fear factors” from science and explore the details about biology.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has named the Minnesota State University Moorhead bioscience professor as its Minnesota Professor of the Year.

Brisch is one of 46 winners selected from 384 faculty members nominated by colleges and universities across the country. The announcement will be made today (Thursday, Nov. 15) at a noon luncheon in Washington, D.C.

The Carnegie awards, established in 1981 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, are recognized as among the most prestigious distinctions honoring professors.

For Brisch, who joined MSUM’s faculty in 1999, it is her second national award in two years. She was among 17 college professors selected as “Outstanding Advisors” by the National Academic Advising Association last year.

Brisch is the seventh MSUM professor to win the Carnegie Foundation teaching award in the past 20 years. Professor Emeritus Delmar Hansen, retired MSUM theatre director, received it in 1987; Evelyn Lynch, a former MSUM elementary and early childhood education professor and president of St. Joseph College in West Hartford, Conn., won in 1992; David Mason, a former MSUM English professor now teaching at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, won in 1994; Andrew Conteh, a current MSUM political science professor, won in 1999; Jim Bartruff, a former MSUM theatre director and now director of theatre at Emporia (Kan.) State University, won in 2001; and Mark Wallert, a current MSUM bioscience professor, won it in 2005.

A biology graduate at Oberlin College who earned her doctorate in physiology and cell biology from the University of Kansas, Brisch spent three and a half years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah before coming to MSUM.

“She is my role model, my mentor and friend,” says MSUM biology major Kristine Knoll, who earlier this year was awarded one of the nation’s 317 prized Goldwater Scholarships. “And I can’t imagine anyone else having so many biology t-shirts. She makes it fun by correlating them with her lectures.”

Described as a “renaissance professor” by her dean, Brisch grew up in a family of educators. “I learned early on that a career in education is not just a job, but a way of life,” she said.

A developmental biologist, her research focuses on mitochondria and their impact on disease and on how environmental toxins affect human health. She not only involves students in her own research, but in scores of other campus biology projects as part of what she considers invaluable undergraduate experience.

But teaching is her primary focus, having taught and developed dozens of MSUM courses, from developmental biology to issues in human biology to the biology of women and an honors class on the history of science. She’s also taught a biology course for non-majors every semester she’s been on campus, sharing her fascination with science.

And there’s a reason she won a national Outstanding Advisor award last year. She’s currently a faculty advisor to more than 80 students, including majors in biology, pre-medicine, pre-optometry, health and medical sciences, along with several with undeclared academic interests.

One of her former advisees, Ashley Marek, a former journalism major and editor of MSUM’s student newspaper, The Advocate, credits Brisch with giving her the support she needed to switch her major to pre-medicine. Now attending the University of North Dakota School of Medicine, she said: “Despite the skepticism of even my closest friends, Dr. Brisch never questioned my abilities or goals. I’m confident that had it not been for her guidance, I would not be attending medical school now.”

Outside of the classroom and laboratory, Brisch has been tirelessly involved in the university community:
* For the past four years she’s chaired MSUM’s Dragon Core committee, which guided a major campus transition to an innovative new general education curriculum called Dragon Core.
* She’s been faculty advisor for the biology honors society Beta Beta Beta and the women’s lacrosse team.
* She’s a member of the campus TOCAR program (Training Our Campus Against Racism) and the Women’s Studies committee.
* She helped found Safe Zone, a program offering training and support to members of the campus community struggling with gender issues.
* She’s been successful in participating in a variety of projects, individually and collaboratively, which has garnered more than $400,000 in funding for campus research supplies and equipment.

“Getting students to their next step requires a full range of support, both in and outside of the classroom.” Brisch said. “Besides making lectures and labs compelling and interesting, it involves giving advice, remembering names, providing a consoling shoulder or some tough love, or simply writing letters of recommendation or giving a hello or smile in the hallways. They’re all just pieces of the package to help inspire students to find and reach their goals.”

Bette Midgarden, MSUM’s vice president for academic affairs, who nominated Brisch for the Professor of the Year award, said: “Dr. Brisch is an outstanding teacher, whose colleagues and students praise her knowledge, enthusiasm, classroom demeanor, and ability to reach every student in every classroom and laboratory. Her unflagging enthusiasm is equally evident when she mentors undergraduate research in bioscience, works within the wider university community to strengthen and improve the curriculum, or directs her energies to student advising. Every day, Ellen comes to MSUM committed to helping students better prepare themselves for whatever life will hand them; she is an inspiration to all.”

On a lighter note, Brisch is also a national certified beer judge, and has been a regular adjudicator at local and regional homebrew competitions.

Brisch will join the other state Professors of the Year winners at a noon luncheon at the Willard InterContinental in Washington, D.C., today. An evening reception at the Folger Shakespeare Library will follow from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

MSUM OFFERS FIRST DOCTORAL DEGREE PROGRAM: IN NURSING
The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association has extended MSUM’s accreditation status to include the new Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree program.

Offered through a consortium of four Minnesota Universities—MSU Moorhead, MSU Mankato, Winona State University, and Metropolitan Sate University—the online doctoral program will be available to master’s degree prepared nurses who are place-bound but eager to advance their clinical, organizational, economic, and leadership competencies.

“This program is especially important for nursing education because, as noted in a recent Forum article, there’s a real, and worsening, nursing faculty shortage,” said Jane Giedt, chair of the graduate nursing program. “The DNP program will help address this shortage by preparing more nurse educators who meet the academic qualifications in many of our colleges and universities.”

Giedt added: “This degree prepares nurses at the highest level of clinical expertise, in contrast to Ph.D. programs that prepare nurse researchers. All 26 DNP students already admitted to the program, and halfway through their first semester of courses, say they’ve been waiting for this opportunity for much of their professional lives. They are committed to the highest level of nursing practice at the bedside or in the community and that is exactly the ingredient needed for the best education of future nurses.”

For more information about MSUM’s DNP program, contact Giedt at 477.4699 or email giedt@mnstate.edu or visit web.mnstate.edu/nursing.

At 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Nov. 6….
CHICAGO TEACHER, AUTHOR
TALKS ABOUT EDUCATION
IN THE URBAN CLASSROOM
Gregory Michie, author of “Holler If you Hear Me” and “See You When We Get There,” both award-winning books about teaching in the urban classroom, will talk about his books and his experience as a teacher at 8 a.m. and again at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 6 in MSU Moorhead’s student union ballroom.

Free and open to the public, it’s a visiting scholar lecture sponsored by the university’s College of Education and Human Services.

Michie is an assistant professor of education at Illinois State University where he works with student teachers in Chicago public schools. He taught for nine years in Chicago and received that city’s annual Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. For the past six years he’s worked as a teacher educator, preparing undergraduates and career-changers for work in urban classrooms.

Both his books have received critical praise. His latest, “City Kids, City Teachers for the 21st Century,” a collaborative effort, will be published later this year.

GHOST HUNTER TALKS ABOUT
HAUNTED MINNESOTA NOV. 7
Chad Lewis, co-author of “Haunted Minnesota,” will give a talk about his experiences as a ghost hunter and paranormal researcher at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 7 in MSUM’s Weld Hall Glasrud Auditorium. The free event is sponsored by the university’s Campus Activities Board. Lewis, a University of Wisconsin-Stout psychology graduate, started his paranormal adventures by exploring UFOs and crop circles. He has hunted vampires in Transylvania and searched for Chupacabras in Puerto Rico. His talk will cover all of Minnesota, from wandering ghosts in the North Woods to the haunted bed and breakfast in Wabasha. He’ll also touch on a couple local hauntings: in MSUM’s Weld Hall and the Moorhead High School auditorium.

“NEW MINNESOTANS” AUTHOR
TO SPEAK NOV. 8 AT MSUM
Gregg Aamot, author of “The New Minnesotans,” will speak on people from across the globe who are now living in Minnesota at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8 in the Comstock Memorial Union room 203. It’s free and open to the public.

Aamot is an award-winning Associated Press reporter who has written about immigration and other issues for Minnesota newspapers for nearly 15 years.

In 2005, the number of immigrants and refugees in Minnesota was surpassed only by that of California. The newcomers are mostly Hmong, Somali, Ethiopians and Latin Americans, along with smaller groups from Burma, Togo, Iraq and Liberia. Aamot says they are mostly political refugees who eventually want to return to their homelands.

His book details the challenges and realities immigrants and refugees face while assimilating to the Upper Midwest. Writes Mike Dougherty of the Post-Bulletin: “‘The New Minnesotans’ is a good charting of what immigrants face and what some of them think of the potential of their new surroundings. [It]…will help put the state’s changing demographics in a better focus than much of the rhetoric lobbed back and forth in political debates.”

“The New Minnesotans” is essential reading for anyone interested in Minnesota's changing cultural and economic landscape.  

‘MADNESS: A LIFE’ AUTHOR
MARYA HORNBACHER READS
FOR MCGRATH SERIES NOV. 8
Marya Hornbacher, author of the classic “Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia,” the critically acclaimed novel “The Center of Winter” and the forthcoming memoir “Madness: A Life,” will read from her work at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8 in MSUM’s Comstock Memorial Union 101. She’ll also talk on the writer’s craft at 4 p.m. that day in the same room.

“Wasted” was released when she was just 23 years old and became a classic, published in 14 languages and is taught in universities and writing programs across the world. “Madness: A Life,” about the difficulties and promise of living with mental illness, is already being called “the most visceral, important book on mental illness to be published in years.” It’s scheduled for release in 2008.

 A Pulitzer Prize nominee, she lives in Minneapolis with her husband Jeff.