Circle of Excellence 2015

Dr. Kathi McDowell, Teaching

Dr. Kathi McDowell earned her Ph.D. in the Biological Sciences in 1992 from the City University of New York, where her areas of specialty were Molecular Genetics and Cell Genetics. She was then at Emory University for 3 years as a post-doc to do research on Dosage Compensation in Drosophila. Following Emory University, Dr. McDowell went to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland for three years as an Intramural Research Training Award Fellow.

In 1998, Dr. McDowell came to NSU as an assistant professor and worked on the downtown Tulsa campus until the Broken Arrow campus was built. I have also taught classes in Tahlequah. She has taught a wide variety of classes including, General Biological Science, Genetics, Cell Biology, Developmental Biology, Biology of Aging, Human Genetic Disorders, and Research in Biology. Most of her classes are taught face to face but she has taught some online.

Dr. McDowell is passionate about the subjects she teaches. She is dedicated to improving the learning experience for her students, and is fundamentally involved in the recruitment and retention of students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). She has been project director for several programs aimed at high school students, college freshmen and transfer students to entice them to go to college, be successful STEM majors, graduate from college and choose STEM careers.

Dr. Joseph Ahlander, Research

Joseph Ahlander is an Assistant Professor of Biology in the Department of Natural Sciences at Northeastern State University earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology in 2004 from Brigham Young University - Idaho. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Molecular and Cellular Biology in 2009 from the University of Arizona. My research aims to understand the genetic and environmental causes of cancer using fruit flies as a model system. He is married to Lende, the most amazing and beautiful person in the world, and his children think he is a superhero. His hobbies include going to the gym and riding his enduro motorcycle. In a word, he is a ninja.

Tom Rink, Service

Tom came to the library world from a truly alternative path he was a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Seven years into his law enforcement career and feeling a bit burned out, he decided to go back to school to get his Masters in Library and Information Studies. When the opportunity presented itself to build a library from scratch for the police department. Tom managed the TPD Resource Center as a solo librarian from 1994 until he concluded his 25-year career with the police department and retired in April of 2007.

Tom came to NSU in November 2007 and is now an Instructor for Library Services on the Broken Arrow Campus where his duties include resource coordination/collection development, information literacy instruction, coordinator of reserves for the Broken Arrow campus, reference, and other administrative duties as required. In addition, he liaises with the faculty from the College of Liberal Arts as well as with the faculty from the Gregg Wadley College of Science & Health Professions. He recently was assigned to the NSU-Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Assurance and Documentation Committee whose goal is to generate awareness regarding HLC and to identify evidence (documentation) that reflects the accomplishments of faculty, staff, students, alumni, and community members.

Tom is very active and has been saying yes to the Special Libraries Association (SLA) at every level (Chapter, Division, and Association) for more than seventeen years and is the current President-elect of the Association. Tom is a member of every division and numerous chapters of SLA. Tom has been an active member of SLA since he first joined in the mid-90s and has held numerous leadership positions at every level (chapter, division and association

Tom was named a Fellow of SLA in 2005, is a Library Journal "Mover & Shaker" (also in 2005), and was the 2014 recipient of the Leadership and Management Division's Karen J. Switt Leadership Award.