Each month, Capital University takes immense pride in showcasing the remarkable accomplishments of our faculty, staff, and students. These achievements, ranging from groundbreaking research and innovative projects to significant contributions in various fields, reflect the vibrant intellectual community and commitment to excellence that define our institution. Join us in applauding these milestones and the individuals who are not only advancing their respective disciplines but also shaping the future of our university and community.
Congratulations to Rachel Wrenn (seminary) who published the chapter The Potential of the Psalmist's Anger in a book of collected papers entitled Song, Prayer, Scripture: Aspects of the Reception of the Book of Psalms from the Hebrew Bible to the 21st Century, edited by David Davage and Lena-Sofia Tiemeyer (Bloomsbury 2025). This chapter highlights biblical psalms in which the psalmist admits to YHWH that they are angry at God. By extension, Wrenn argues that modern worshippers should be taught to recognize their own anger, even trained to speak that anger at God aloud in worship. There are many benefits to being slow to anger, but being honest about one's anger at God carries benefits as well. Anger can cause adherents to hear and see danger that is right in front of their face and can cause worshippers to recognize the oppressed, ones they might otherwise ignore. Wrenn also recently earned tenure and promotion to the rank of associate professor and was named as the Interim Dean of Trinity Lutheran Seminary.
Kudos to Justin Breidenbach (business) who presented CannaBusiness: Teaching Accounting Ethics and Compliance in an Illegal Industry at the American Accounting Association Conference on Teaching and Learning Accounting. According to Breidenbach, “Integrating emerging industries, like the cannabis industry, into accounting and business curricula can provide unique opportunities to help students understand the evolving landscape of professional duty, regulatory compliance, and ethical considerations. The cannabis industry presents unique legal complexities, such as navigating conflicting state and federal laws, strict financial reporting requirements, and limited access to traditional banking and internal controls. Including such topics prepares students to responsibly manage risk, uphold professional standards, and adapt to real-world challenges in dynamic, high-growth sectors.”
Congratulations to Leigh Johnson (mathematics) who presented AI for the Liberal Arts at the Liberal Arts Statistics Symposium during the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics. Johnson’s presentation was a lightning talk, followed by a discussion on what AI fluency might look like for liberal arts institutions.
Complements to Alexander Pantsov (history) who published three papers and a book review. The first paper was The List of Publications in Russian on Chinese Trotskyism which was published in The Longest Night: Three Generations of Chinese Trotskyists in Defeat, Jail, Exile, and Diaspora, edited by Gregor Benton and Yang Yang (Brill, 2025). This paper examines the Russian historiography of Trotskyism, exploring its development and the various perspectives it has been viewed from over time. The second paper, Kang Sheng: The Making of a Chinese Revolutionary (1898-1933), was published in Russian Sinology and sheds new light of the life and political career of Mao Zedong's right-hand man. Pantsov’s third paper, Chiang Kai-shek ist der Architekt des Modernen Taiwan – und Hat Mehr als Anderthalb Millionen Menschen auf dem Gewissen, was published in Neue Zürcher Zeitung. This work was about Chiang Kai-shek and was published in a leading Swiss newspaper. Pantsov’s scholarly, peer-reviewed analysis Robert L. Suettinger’s The Conscience of the Party: Hu Yaobang, which is a significant book in the field of Chinese studies, was published in The China Quarterly.
Congratulations to Paige Kohn (law) who, along with a panel of eleven other law professors, contributed to a discussion on how to prepare law students for the NextGen Bar exam, which will be debuting in Ohio in July 2028. The session, Reimagining Attorney Competency: Exploring the NextGen Bar Exam’s Vision of Competency and Our Own, was presented at the 2025 SEALS Annual Conference. This panel discussion focused on innovation in legal education to meet the requirements of the new bar exam and ensure law students learn the holistic skills required of successful lawyers.
Kudos to P. Garth Gartrell (business) who published Executive Compensation for Emerging Growth Companies. This work provides a detailed description of legal, regulatory, accounting and exchange rules governing the compensation of boards of directors and C-suite executives.
Honors to Hoyun Cho (education) who presented Korean Teachers’ Perception on AI-Empowered Digital Textbook in Mathematics at the ICMI-East Asia Regional Conferences on Mathematics Education. Cho and his research team explored how Korean mathematics teachers perceive the integration of AI-powered features into digital textbooks, focusing on their expectations, concerns, and perceived impact on teaching and learning.
Congratulations to Gail Lehto Zugger (music) who gave a lecture-recital entitled Unaccompanied Repertoire for the Undergraduate Clarinet Studio: What's New in the Lat 20 Years? At the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest. Gail Lehto Zugger presented a 25-minute solo lecture recital highlighting accessible, engaging solo repertoire for the undergraduate clarinet studio composed in the last 20 years featuring a performance of Thomas Zugger's (music) 2006 Alaskan Images for Solo Clarinet. According to Gail Lehto Zugger, Alaskan Images was commissioned following their honeymoon visit to Alaska in 2005. About the presentation, Gail Lehto Zugger said, “It was delightful to perform at the conference just after our 20-year wedding anniversary!”
Gail Lehto Zugger (music) also mentored Elizabeth Corn who was selected to perform in a master class presented by Deborah Bish from Florida State University. Corn performed Crusell's Concerto No. 3 at the International Clarinet Association ClarinetFest. Zugger said, “Bish was quite impressed with Corn and asked them to remain afterwards and spent an additional time working with them. In addition, Corn entered a drawing at the conference and won a brand-new intermediate-level clarinet priced at $1,700.” Congratulations to Corn and many thanks to Zugger for being a great mentor.
Congratulations to Caroline Bergan (music) and students Maya Carpenter, Maxwell Kramer, Savannah Nyang, Jacob Jones, Abigail Mayer, and Hannah Stewart. Bergan served on the faculty of The Patti and Allan Herbert Frost School of Music Program at Salzburg, Austria, presented through the University of Miami. Now in its 40th year, this prestigious international summer music program continues to attract the most promising young artists from around the world to the historic city of Salzburg. Following a rigorous audition process, six exceptional Capital University students earned coveted positions in the program, each receiving generous scholarships in recognition of their talent. Bergan remarked, “Guiding our students through this program in Salzburg was more than teaching—it was an immense privilege to help shape artists in the very heart of a city that lives and breathes music. The transformation I witnessed is profound: the students repeatedly told me their experience was lifechanging. I know they return to Capital not only with greater technical skills and deeper artistry, but with a renewed sense of purpose.”
Caroline Bergan (music) also was a Cooper Bing Competition Finalist with Opera Columbus at the Southern Theater. Through a rigorous audition process, this event draws exceptional singers nationally and internationally. Bergan was selected to compete and won fourth place. Bergan reflected, “Engaging in competitions of this caliber keeps my artistry sharp and my perspective fresh, allowing me to bring real-world experience and insight directly into the classroom and to my students. By continuing to perform at the highest professional level, I hope to inspire my students to pursue excellence in their own musical journeys.” Congratulations!
Kudos to Denise Rector (seminary) who successfully defended her dissertation, Visibilizing Black Women’s ELCA History through Rev. Earlean Mille at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, IL. Rector is the first person to earn a Ph.D. as a recipient of the ELCA Doctoral Student In Residence program, a program designed to increase the number of women professors of color. In her dissertation, Rector argues for and demonstrates a historical ethnographic method. This method re-visibilizes Black women historically, and it is also a theologically-supported act of Neighbor Love and wholeness.
Congratulations to Nate Whelan-Jackson (philosophy) who co-authored a manuscript entitled Supporting Capabilities for Flourishing: Philosophical Foundations of Equity in Health and Well-Being for People With Disabilities, which was published in Inclusion. Whelan-Jackson and Heather Keith (Radford University) confront ways in which narrow conceptions of health motivate extraordinarily limited supports for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Participation with other scholars, non-profit leaders, and self-advocates at a workshop hosted by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, spring 2024, led to valuable conversations about more expansive notions of health. Whelan-Jackson and Keith provide a framework for that idea and the kinds of supports it would bolster, leveraging the concept of creating conditions that support the exercise of myriad capabilities. Whelan-Jackson remarked, “Creating this work was a joy – it’s the first time I've been able to work directly with self-advocates in the process, and I love how that experience shapes and informs the work.”
Honors to Anjel Stough-Hunter (sociology) who published Leveling the Learning Field: Course-Level Strategies to Address the Effects of Social and Economic Inequities in Nursing Bioscience Education in the International Forum for Nursing and Healthcare. Through this work, Stough-Hunter brought a sociological perspective to exploring strategies to help marginalized students succeed in bioscience nursing courses. These courses have high DFW rates, particularly among minority, low-SES, and first-generation college students. Stough-Hunter commented, “This work was especially exciting for me because the lead author is my best friend from my undergraduate nursing program. It was fun to publish an article that was inspired by year of late-night conversations with a friend.”
Kudos to Andrea M. Karkowski (psychology) who gave a workshop entitled Psychological Safety in a Changing Environment at the Columbus Zoo – this was the second workshop in a two-part series for the Columbus Zoo. Karkowski also conducted a workshop, Psychological Safety and Empathy During Change, at Field, a company in Columbus, Ohio. Both workshops focused on how organizational leaders can promote and maintain a psychologically safe workplace during times of change.