Welcome new faculty

While many other universities have had to cut back on faculty hiring, FIU has held steady its commitment to bring new faculty to the university in 2009 and 2010 to strengthen the academy.

“We not only welcome, but are excited about, this new group of faculty who have joined the FIU community,” said Provost DouglasWartzok. “Their knowledge and experience will enrich the university and sustain our excellence in scholarship, teaching and engagement. These new faculty members will inspire our students to achieve their educational ambitions.”

An overview of FIU’s new full-time, permanent faculty by college hired between August 2009 and August 2010, is posted here. To showcase the caliber of this group of outstanding scholars, four of the university’s distinguished new faculty members are introduced below.

Please join in welcoming these new colleagues to FIU.

William Pelham

William Pelham, professor, Department of Psychology, College of Arts & Sciences, with a joint appointment in Psychiatry in the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine

Pelham’s summer treatment program for children with ADHD, which has been recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA) and CHADD (Children and Adults with ADHD) as a model program, is widely recognized as the state-of-the-art in treatment for children and adolescents with ADHD. He has authored or co-authored nearly 300 professional papers dealing with ADHD and its assessment and treatment, and was recently named as one of the top 10 among the country’s 1,900 academic clinical psychologists in peer-reviewed publications. Pelham is a Fellow of the APA and the American Psychological Society, and past president of the Society of Child Clinical and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP), the International Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, and the Professional Group for Attention Deficit and Related Disorders. He is a past recipient of the CHADD Hall of Fame award and the SCCAP Career Achievement Award.

Recruited in a cluster hire, Pelham joins FIU from the University of Buffalo, SUNY, together with his associates Daniel Waschbusch, professor of psychology, in the College of Arts and Sciences, and James Waxmonsky, associate professor of psychiatry, in the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine.

For information about the FIU Center for Children and Families and the summer treatment program, click here.

Elena Bastida

Elena Bastida, professor and chair, Department of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work

Bastida holds a doctoral degree from the University of Kansas, Lawrence. A medical sociologist, she was further trained in population health and health intervention research through pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to joining FIU, she served as associate dean for research and chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of North Texas Health Science Center.

Since 1990, Bastida has been funded continuously by the NIH and has served them as a member of four study sections, chair of review panels, and in various advisory roles.

Bastida was recently invited to serve until June 2014 on the Social Psychology, Personality and Interpersonal Processes Study Section, Center for Scientific Review, of the Department of Health and Human Services. This important appointment to the NIH peer-review process proves the caliber of Bastida’s “demonstrated competence and achievement in the scientific discipline as evidenced by the quality of research accomplishments, publications in scientific journals, and other significant scientific activities, achievements and honors,” as noted by the director of the NIH Scientific Review in the appointment letter.

Grzegorz Nowak

Grzegorz Nowak, director of orchestra studies and artist in residence, School of Music, College of Architecture and the Arts

Grzegorz Nowak comes to FIU from London, where he is the principal associate conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. His recordings with this orchestra include symphonies of Mendelssohn and Schumann, and the upcoming releases include symphonies of Dvorak and Shostakovich as well as complete symphonies of Brahms and Tchaikovsky.

He began his international conducting career by winning the first prize at the Ernest Ansermet Conducting Competition in Geneva and all the special prizes, including the Grand Prix Patek Philippe, Rolex Prize, Swiss Prize and the American Patronage Prize. He received the Europäische Förderpreis für Musik for the European Musician of the Year in Basel, and was honored with the Distinguished Teacher Award during his tenure as professor at the Bowling Green State University in Ohio. The University of Alberta bestowed the title of Honorary Professor upon him as well. Nowak has conducted some of the world’s finest orchestras and has performed with many of the most widely respected soloists of our time. Nowak’s FIU conducting debut will come at an inaugural concert of the FIU Liszt Society on Wednesday, Oct. 27. The symphony orchestra will feature FIU professor and pianist Kemal Gekic at this concert. For more information click here.

Ruth McEwen

Ruth McEwen, professor and director, School of Accounting, College of Business Administration

McEwen recently served as the associate dean, dean of accreditation and administration, and professor of accounting for the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University in Boston. She successfully led efforts at Suffolk in 2004  for initial accounting accreditation and maintenance of AACSB accreditation for both business and accounting. McEwen taught graduate financial accounting at the intermediate and doctoral levels for more than 20 years and has consulted with the Financial Accounting Standards Board, where she was deeply involved with the FASB’s Codification Project. The author of numerous articles that have been published widely in premier journals in the accounting field, she also authored two Bureau of National Affairs Portfolios and a book, Transparency in Financial Reporting: IFRS versus US GAAP. McEwen was named Graduate Professor of the Year in 2002 and held a visiting appointment at Maastricht University from 2003-2010.  She earned her doctorate from the Georgia Institute of Technology.