Enlightening Minds Research Review 2022

By Dr. Chelly Templeton, Provost and Chief Academic Officer

What a privilege to showcase the scholarly activity accomplished by Palm Beach Atlantic University faculty during 2022! The Faculty Publications and Presentations section of this digital magazine leads you to fascinating listings of books, book chapters, journal articles, conference presentations and other work by our professors.

I celebrate these creative, dedicated educators who have followed a calling to serve our students. The feature stories noted in the blue panels at the bottom of this page will help you understand some of the qualities that shine across all the disciplines of our faculty.

Read about the three winners of our annual Excellence in Research & Publication Award, including Dr. Mary Kay Copeland, professor of accounting. She explains how her faith fuels her passion for the highest ethical standards within her profession. Her passion for ethics reaches far beyond her classes; her research has touched 50,000 readers across 186 countries.

In booming West Palm Beach, Mary Kay hears from employers eager to hire PBA business graduates. One of the reasons for this, she says, “is because at Palm Beach Atlantic we place such a high value on ethics and morality.” To meet the growing demand for top-notch grads with integrity, the Marshall E. Rinker School Sr. School of Business is planning a 120,000-square-foot building. (The image at the top of this page is the architect’s rendering.)

Perhaps you normally don’t think of college business courses involving research. But Mary Kay believes research is “absolutely critical” in business education. “The researchers in business are the ones who get down to the guts of what companies need to apply,” she says. Several PBA business professors will be among the faculty making presentations at our March 14-15 Interdisciplinary Research Conference.

This year our conference keynote address comes from Dr. Brandon Rickabaugh, assistant professor and research scholar in public philosophy. I think you’ll be surprised to learn about the obstacles Brandon had to overcome before he earned his Ph.D. and became a decorated scholar and sought-after speaker. But you won’t be at all surprised at what he wants for his PBA students: God showering them with encouragement.

Nursing professors Dr. Jane Wilson and Dr. Briana Andrassy provide a wonderful example of collaboration with their award-winning research about the challenges autistic mothers endure in breastfeeding. Their groundbreaking work was cited by the New York Times.

Fulbright veteran and Pharmacy Professor Dr. Fabio Aguiar-Alves loves to involve students in research, as do many others at PBA. He and his students will test various molecules to see which ones are effective against the bacteria causing staph infections. Fabio, from Brazil, joined the faculty in 2022, and he enjoys the rich diversity of the Lloyd L. Gregory School of Pharmacy, with professors hailing from nine nations.

Of course, the best measure of a university’s faculty is the quality of the students it produces. Read about history major Caleb Bowman, who has led overseas trips, studied at the University of Oxford and landed internships on archaeological digs. And learn about Master of Divinity student Alex Aken, one of the first to take advantage of our new chaplaincy program. You will find it a faith-building experience to learn how God is working in the lives of these two young men, and to imagine what they and other PBA alumni will accomplish in the years ahead.

I pray for God’s richest blessing upon those graduates, and upon the faculty who have worked so hard to serve them. Faculty members, please know that I appreciate you. I truly believe your research, your teaching and your mentoring will produce lasting and far-ranging impact for good. And to those who read about these professors and students, I invite you to play a vital part in expanding their impact. Follow this link to learn how.