Six faculty members named Leadership Scholars

Six professors from across campus have been selected 2016-17 Leadership Faculty Scholars.

The 2016-17 scholars include: Damion Blake, Political Science; Phillip Motley, Communications; Doug Redington, Economics; Sandra Reid, Human Service Studies; Amanda Sturgill, Communications; and Tracey Thurnes, Clinical Education and Physician Assistant Studies.

Leadership scholars gather as a cohort for workshops and seminars designed to focus on issues related to leadership pedagogy. They identify a course or project in which to integrate leadership components while several scholars also develop research projects that explore leadership in his or her discipline.

Scholars also receive a stipend after completing the program. More than 25 Elon faculty members from a variety of disciplines have participated in the Leadership Scholars Program since 2012.

About this year’s scholars:

Damion Blake is an assistant professor of political science and policy studies and has been at Elon since Fall 2014. A Jamaican native, Blake has taught courses in the core curriculum and in interdisciplinary studies, in addition to his department.  He has helped to revamp the Politics of the Caribbean course, which he teaches each spring. In the summer of 2015, he was awarded a summer research grant from the Elon College dean’s office to design and develop the course, IDS 222: The Black Man in America, which provides some context to and explanations of the challenges faced by black men in the United States. His research focuses on Caribbean politics, democracy and the impact of drug trafficking and organized crime on governments and governance across the Caribbean and parts of Latin America. Blake also investigates issues related to race, racial injustice and higher education in the U.S. He is member of the African & African American Studies and Peace and Conflict Studies advisory boards. He serves as faculty advisor for the International Studies Honor Society, Sigma Iota Rho.

Phillip Motley is an associate professor in communication design and interactive media in the School of Communications where he teaches both undergraduate and graduate students. His research interests include pedagogies of design and experiential learning, especially service-learning and social innovation. He is currently focused on understanding the value that design thinking and social innovation may hold for liberal arts education through a new immersive semester program that will run in the spring of 2017 (Design Thinking Studio in Social Innovation). He is a co-author of “An Introduction to Visual Theory and Practice in the Visual Age,” and has published scholarship in peer-reviewed journals, including Communication Teacher, Teaching and Learning Inquiry, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, New Directions for Teaching and Learning, and Journalism and Mass Communication Educator. Motley received his MFA in industrial design from N.C. State University and his bachelor’s in fine art from Davidson College. He has worked professionally as a web designer, graphic designer and animator.

Doug Redington is an associate professor of economics in the Love School of Business. He completed his doctorate in economics from the University of Wyoming in 1989, after earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics at Indiana University. Prior to coming to Elon, he taught economics at Colgate University, Franklin & Marshal College and Virginia Commonwealth University. His main area of research and teaching interests is in the field of environmental and resource economics. In addition to numerous courses in the department, he teaches an upper-level core interdisciplinary seminar titled “Sports: Business and Entertainment.” His current research interests include sports economics and statistics education. When not at Elon, he is kept busy with his 6-year old twins.

Sandra Reid is a lecturer in human service studies. She received her bachelor’s degree from Elon College and her master’s in counseling from N.C. Central University. Since coming to Elon, Reid developed a course on the African-American family and she has been a co-leader for the study aboard course, The Call of South Africa. For the past eight years, she has served as a faculty member for the Elon Academy. Reid has been an Elon service-learning scholar and developed a service-learning project in partnership with Positive Attitude Youth Center. Currently, she is chair of the Academic Support and Advising Advisory Committee. After working in the juvenile justice field, Reid was appointed to the N.C. Governors Crime Commission and served as the chair of the Juvenile Justice Planning Committee.

Amanda Sturgill is an associate professor of communications, teaching courses in media writing, analytics and in the Interactive Media graduate program. She holds a master’s degree and doctorate in communications from Cornell University, where her work focused on organizational communication and new technologies as applied to telecommuting. With research interests in new technologies, pedagogy and religion and media, Sturgill has published in numerous outlets, including the Journal of Media and Religion, Teaching and Learning Inquiry and the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and presented work at academic and professional meetings in North America, Asia and Europe. She is past head of both the Communication Technology Division and the Media and Religion Interest group for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications and is presently co-facilitating an international research group focusing on integrating global learning in the university experience.

Tracey Thurnes is an assistant professor and the assistant director of Clinical Education in the Department of Physician Assistant Studies. She is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership Program at Gardner-Webb University, where she also earned her bachelor of science degree. She received her master of physician assistant studies from James Madison University and worked clinically in cardiology before coming to Elon in 2012. In the physician assistant studies program, she teaches Advanced Clinical Reasoning, Clinical Phase Preparation and Clinical Year Seminars I and II. In addition, she serves on the N.C. Medical Board’s Physician Assistant Advisory Council and the Physician Assistant Education Association’s (PAEA) Rotation Exam Review Committee, focusing on internal and family medicine.  She has presented nationally at PAEA, authored a chapter in the book, “Physician Assistant Exam Review: Pearls of Wisdom,” and served as a sub-investigator on multiple clinical trials.

The Elon Leadership Scholars Program is facilitated by Frances Ward-Johnson, Leadership Faculty Fellow and associate professor in the School of Communications, with assistance from the Center for Leadership and the Leadership Advisory Board. For more information, email fward2@elon.edu.