Regis College is pleased to announce that 11 faculty members across all four schools have been granted promotions or sabbatical leave.

“I’m so proud of each of these stellar faculty members who enrich our intellectual community and help elevate the experience of our students through their mentoring,” said university President Antoinette Hays, PhD, RN.

“These faculty members embody the best of Regis and stand as exemplars of the mission and vision that support this institution,” said Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Mary Erina Driscoll. “We are grateful for the expertise, ingenuity, and ethos of service they share with our community and our students every day.”

Kelly Carlson, PhD, has been promoted to associate professor of nursing. Dr. Carlson started her tenure at Regis in 2018 as clinical faculty in the psychiatric mental health nursing program prior to becoming the mental health nursing program director in 2020. In addition, Carlson co-teaches in the transdisciplinary addiction certificate program. She has practiced as a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner in various settings for 15 years. Her research interests include violence prevention, substance use, and nature-based interventions.

Elizabeth Conant, EdD, has been promoted to associate professor of health and fitness studies. Dr. Conant began at Regis in 2010 teaching in the health and fitness studies department and in 2019, became the undergraduate sport management program director. In 2018, Conant was appointed Regis Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) and currently serves as the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) FAR committee chair. As a former interscholastic athletic director and intercollegiate head women’s soccer and lacrosse coach with advanced degrees in both athletic administration and sport management, Conant blends her professional experience with sport management theory and practice. Her research interests include athletic administration, role conflict management, and women in sport leadership.

Jason Clemence, PhD, has been promoted to associate professor of humanities and education. In addition to teaching in the humanities and education departments, Dr. Clemence also serves as student teaching placement supervisor and as advisor for the film studies minor. He specializes in writing, introductory literature, British literature, film history and theory, and humanities pedagogy. His research interests include psychoanalytic/feminist film theory, the Victorian novel, and intersections of style and grammar in the college writing classroom. His most recent work assesses issues of morality, surveillance, and narrative form in the cinema of Michael Haneke.

Jennifer Krusinger Martin, PhD, has been promoted to associate professor of general education. Dr. Martin teaches seminar and writing workshop courses at Regis including first-year seminar, blending liberal arts curriculum with professional preparation and community engagement. She serves in faculty and administrative roles including co-director of the first-year experience, director of the writing program, and director of early college programs. Her teaching and scholarship involve writing transfer research and pedagogy across disciplines, 18th and 19th-century literature, and creative writing. Her work attends to higher education’s role in fostering the cognitive capabilities and modern literacies needed to prepare graduates for a professional landscape increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence and machine learning. Martin focuses on interdisciplinary pathways for student learning and research and leads the Common Read initiative.

Eugene Slason, EdD, has been promoted to associate professor of mathematics. Dr. Slason has been the quantitative reasoning coordinator at Regis since 2016, teaching courses in mathematics, statistics, and education. His research focuses on teaching and learning and he has contributed to textbooks on mathematics literacy. He is studying the gamification and game-based learning and their impact on undergraduate students.

Lauren Bent, EdD, associate professor of EdD in higher education leadership, has been granted sabbatical leave to complete two scholarly articles related to her study, “Kids, Covid-19, and Camp: Exploring Perceptions and Outcomes of Summer Camp Attendance During the Covid-19 Pandemic” and continue research pertaining to sense of belonging and inclusion among Regis College students.

Helen Sabolek Consiglio, PhD, associate professor of psychology, has been granted sabbatical leave to continue research on the impact of behavioral interventions including virtual yoga on mental health outcomes in adolescents. Dr. Sabolek Consiglio has been at Regis for 10 years and teaches in the psychology and neuroscience programs. Recent publications in collaboration with the Neurodevelopmental Laboratory on Addictions and Mental Health at McLean hospital can be viewed online.

Elizabeth Pitney Seidler, PhD, associate professor of economics, has been granted sabbatical leave to study health economics teaching capacity in Latin American countries. Dr. Seidler is a convener for the International Health Association (iHea) Teaching Health Economics Special Interest Group (SIG). She plans to present her results at an organized session of the 2023 iHEA Cape Town Congress.

Kreg Segall, PhD, professor of english, has been granted sabbatical leave to write a scholarly article based on Edmund Spenser's Complaints volume of 1591, focusing on his narrative poem, "Virgils Gnat," and work on a study of Spenser's two narrative poems "The Ruines of Time" and "The Teares of the Muses." In addition, he will be writing a sequel to his interactive novel ‘Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale.’”

Steven Threlkeld, PhD, associate professor of neuroscience, has been granted sabbatical leave to complete a National Institutes of Health (NIH) renewal application for the grant “Neonatal brain injury: Mediating factors for improved neurobehavioral outcome,” complete two original scientific manuscripts, and collect preliminary data for the development and submission of an NIH R01 grant. Dr. Threlkeld began his work at Regis in the fall of 2016, as the inaugural neuroscience program director. Over the last six years, more than thirty Regis students have participated in NIH funded research on campus, with several serving as co-authors on peer reviewed research publications. View the articles; TrkB-enhancer facilitates functional recovery after traumatic brain injury and Effects of age, experience and inter-alpha inhibitor proteins on working memory and neuronal plasticity after neonatal hypoxia-ischemia .

Danqing Xiao, PhD, associate professor of biology, has been granted sabbatical leave in order to conduct research exploring the connection mechanism of Alzheimer’s disease. She has the opportunity to learn two-photon imaging technique to study local neuronal circuitry in the Alzheimer’s Disease model of mice, which is currently on-going in Dr. Zhang’s laboratory at the Capital Medical University in Beijing, China.