VCU news

Allison S. Gabriel, Ph.D., assistant professor, VCU School of Business

Gabriel was awarded the 2014 S. Rains Wallace Dissertation Research Award from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP).

The S. Rains Wallace award is given to the best doctoral dissertation research in industrial and organizational psychology. Gabriel is invited to the annual SIOP conference May 15-17 in Hawaii to be recognized, present her research and receive a $1,000 cash award. SIOP is an organization for academics and practitioners in the field with more than 8,000 members.

Gabriel has received the Dr. Paul E. Panek Endowed Scholarship in Psychology from the University of Akron, the Academy of Management Health Care Management Scholarship and the John W. White Graduate Fellowship from Penn State University. She teaches organizational behavior and a doctoral seminar for the School of Business.

Gary Garbett, senior communications coordinator, VCU Technology Services

Garbett, a VCU alumnus, published the interactive photography book “Some Heroes” exclusively on iTunes on Jan. 14.

“Some Heroes” is a collection of photographs of ordinary heroes and slice-of-life memories. The photos were taken with multiple devices, including digital cameras, instant cameras and rescued film. Garbett decided to work on the book after producing the short film “My Father’s Son,” which depicts the relationship between a working-class father and his artist son. The film is included with the digital book.

Garbett was a member of the inaugural class of graduates for the master’s degree in product innovation from the VCU da Vinci Center in December 2013. He received a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies with a focus in studio art from VCU in 2010.

Miriam George, Ph.D., assistant professor, School of Social Work

George received a K01 International Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center (2013-2017). George will use the award to aid her research work with Sri Lankan Tamil refugees.

George will examine the longitudinal associations among migration daily stressors, resource utilization, family dynamics and parent/adolescent health in order to identify critical areas for intervention development. She also will develop culturally appropriate interventions for Sri Lankan Tamil refugee families in refugee camps across India that could potentially be applied in other cultures through this research.

“The proposed research is significant to public health because it will not only improve the quality of life for refugees, but also reduce the cost of health care provided by host countries, particularly low or middle-income host countries,” George said.

Marilyn T. Miller, Ed.D., associate professor of forensic science, College of Humanities and Sciences

Miller has been named one of the top 15 crime scene investigation professors by ForensicsColleges.com.

The Forensics Colleges website is a directory of degree programs, professors and careers in the field of forensics. It provides the latest data and information on colleges that offer forensics programs throughout the United States. Law enforcement or police agency experience, workshop and training experience and education were all taken into consideration by the site when selecting these top professors.

“It is an honor to be included with 14 other highly skilled and qualified teachers of crime scene investigation. I have worked with some and they are awesome, so it is a pleasant surprise to be included with them,” Miller said. “This is another feather in the cap for VCU’s great forensic science program.”

Miller teaches a range of forensic science and crime scene investigation classes to both undergraduate and graduate level forensic science and criminal justice majors. She is a fellow in the criminalistics section of the American Academy of Forensic Science, the Southern Association of Forensic Scientists and the American Chemical Society.

Miller is also a faculty member of the Henry Lee Institute of Forensic Science and the National Crime Scene Training Center. She co-wrote Lee’s “Crime Scene Handbook,” a  guide that outlines proven methods of collecting, processing and analyzing physical evidence correctly. She has presented and taught as part of hundreds of forensic seminars across the United States.

Her specialty is crime scene investigation, particularly blood splatter. She has testified more than 400 times in county, state and federal courts of law as an expert witness in the field of forensic sciences and crime scene reconstruction. She has participated in hundreds of crime scene investigations, both as an active investigator and recently as a consultant for both state and defense attorneys. She has also designed, opened and operated forensic laboratories in Florida.

Kenneth Kendler, M.D., Rachel Brown Banks Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and professor of human genetics, School of Medicine

The New York Academy of Medicine has honored Kendler with its 2013 Thomas William Salmon Award in Psychiatry.

In making its award, the academy noted “his brilliant and determined quest to illuminate the etiology of schizophrenia, substance abuse and personality disorders. … Dr. Kendler’s research has truly revolutionized our knowledge of the foundations of mental health. His academic work and translational contributions to the field have set the stage for the next chapters of research and practice in the science of psychiatry.”

Each year, the New York Academy of Medicine’s Salmon Committee on Psychiatry and Mental Hygiene recognizes a prominent specialist in psychiatry, neurology or mental hygiene by presenting the Thomas William Salmon Award for outstanding contributions to these fields. On the same occasion, the Thomas William Salmon Lecturer, chosen from among the nation’s most talented investigators, is invited to share his or her research with the New York area psychiatric community. Kendler was honored as the Thomas William Salmon Lecturer in 2001.

The Salmon Lecture, first given in 1932, and the Salmon Medal, first awarded in 1942, are presented in memory of Thomas W. Salmon (1876-1927), a gifted and beloved physician whose contribution to the cause of the mentally ill and distressed was one of the most notable of his generation.