UHCL promotes 11 faculty members

July 26, 2017 | Jim Townsend

University of Houston-Clear Lake recently promoted 11 faculty members, six of whom were elevated from assistant professors to associate professors with tenure, while five ascended from associate professors to full professors.

Four members of the College of Business were promoted: Professor of Healthcare Administration Femi Ayadi, Professor of Accounting Constance Lehmann, Associate Professor of Management Aleksey Martynov and Associate Professor of Management Information Systems Douglas Steel.

Ayadi, whose doctorate is from Georgia State University, teaches healthcare finance and health economics. She serves as coordinator for the health-administration internship program.

Lehmann, who has a doctorate from Texas A&M University, has published research focusing on expertise development and case-based learning methods in academic and professional journals.

Martynov teaches strategic management and strategic-management seminar, and is published in the International Journal of Strategic Change Management.  He has a doctorate from University of Kansas.

Steel teaches internet applications in business, internet application development and more. He is published in several scholarly and professional journals. His doctorate is from University of Houston.

Three received promotions in the College of Science and Engineering: Professor of Industrial Hygiene and Safety Magdy Akladios, Professor of Biology and Environmental Science George Guillen and Associate Professor of Computer Science and Computer Information Systems Pradeep Buddharaju.

Guillen is executive director of UHCL’s Environmental Institute of Houston. His doctorate is from University of Texas School of Public Health. He worked in several state and federal environmental agencies before joining UHCL.

Akladios is department chair of Physical and Applied Sciences. He received his doctorate from Western Virginia University. Research interests include ergonomics, safety engineering, human factors and more.

Buddharaju received his doctorate from UH, where his dissertation in face-recognition imaging garnered UH’s Best Ph.D. Award. Other research interests include mobile computing, pervasive gaming, human-computer interaction, computational physiology and, biometrics.

The College of Education saw the promotion of Professor of Curriculum and Instruction Denise McDonald and Associate Professor of Special Education Elizabeth Beavers.

McDonald earned her doctor of education from UH. Areas of expertise include qualitative research methodology, self-study, narrative inquiry and ethnography.

Beavers’ expertise is in the fields of special education and early childhood, developmental disabilities, language and literacy development and more. Her doctorate is from University of Southern Mississippi.

In the College of Human Sciences and Humanities, two were promoted: Associate Professor in Fitness and Human Performance William Amonette and Associate Professor of Psychology Amanda Johnston.

Amonette is director for the Exercise and Health Sciences graduate program and Fitness and Human Performance undergraduate program. He has a doctorate in rehabilitation sciences from University of Texas Medical Branch.

Johnston’s research focuses on understanding stereotypes in gender groups, social change, and motivation. Recent works explored why women opt out of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Her doctorate is from Miami University.

For more information about UHCL’s diverse faculty, more than 80 graduate and undergraduate programs and three doctoral programs, visit www.uhcl.edu.