Two faculty at Penn State Shenango recently received promotions. Wendy Middlemiss, assistant professor of human development and family studies, was awarded tenure and was promoted to associate professor, and Shirley Dillaman, instructor in biology, was promoted to senior instructor in biology.
Middlemiss was hired at Penn State Shenango in the fall of 1998 as a full-time assistant professor. In addition to teaching the upper-level courses of the campus' baccalaureate degree program in human development and family studies, Middlemiss serves as co-adviser to the campus' human development and family studies program. She previously was chair of the campus' Faculty Senate for several years and is a member of the campus' Academic Affairs Committee.
Middlemiss has done extensive research on child development and has been published in several journals. Most recently, through a collaborative funded research project involving an intergenerational tutoring program based in Mercer County, she along with Bonnie Meyer at the University Park campus and Kay Wijekumar at Penn State Beaver campus received a three-year grant for more than $1.1 million from The Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. The grant, titled "Intelligent Tutoring Using the Structure Strategy to Improve Reading Comprehension of Middle School Students," supports a Web-based tutoring system which helps students understand the "structure strategy" while learning to read and comprehend.
Middlemiss is a member of several professional organizations and associations and sits on the board of directors of Family Planning Services of Mercer County, the Shenango Valley Community Library and the Shenango Valley YMCA. She has received several professional honors throughout her career including the Penn State Shenango Teacher of the Year Award in 1999 and Central Missouri State University's "Excellence in Service Award" and "Psychology Professor of the Year" in 1996.
She received her bachelor of science degree in speech communication from Syracuse University in 1984 and went on to receive her master of science degree in education psychology from Fordham University in 1988. She returned to Syracuse University in 1988, where she earned a master of science degree and a doctorate degree, both in educational psychology.
Dillaman began teaching at Penn State Shenango as a part-time faculty member in the spring of 1983, and was hired full-time in 1984 to teach anatomy and physiology. She is a member of the campus' Faculty Senate Committee and has served on numerous other committees, as well as several faculty and staff search committees, and numerous accreditation processes for Shenango's Physical Therapist Assistant Program.
Over the last 20 years, Dillaman has applied for and received several grants. A computer technology grant through Penn State's Project Empower Program enabled Dillaman to develop her own "Tutorial of the Human Muscular System." She presents the tutorial, which has been very successful in her own classes, at other Empower convocations and regional and national "Human Anatomy and Physiology" conferences. Dillaman also received a grant for a new autoclave and new microscopes for the microbiology lab. Dillaman has received the Teacher of the Year award at Penn State Shenango on three occasions.
Outside of campus, Dillaman has been an invited speaker at several engagements, including Sharon Regional School of Nursing's graduation ceremony. She is on the advisory board for the Mercer County Career Center. She is an active member of the National Human Anatomy and Physiology Society, in whose journal she was recently published. She reviews anatomy and physiology manuscripts for several publishing companies. Presently, she is working on the production of a photographic atlas for anatomy lab, which she hopes to have published by next summer.
Dillaman completed her undergraduate studies in biology at Slippery Rock College, where she graduated summa cum laude and valedictorian of her class. She went on to Cleveland State University, graduating summa cum laude with a master of education degree in biology.