2024-2025 Faculty and Staff Achievements at St. Edward’s University
From accomplishing milestone recognition on campus to educating the hearts and minds of students abroad, discover how our exceptional faculty and staff at St. Edward's are engaging in innovative endeavors.
A Staff That Succeeds
Roy Johnson, University Arborist, Corrina Acevedo, Director of Facilities, Ricardo Vargas, Custodial Manager and Vincent Branch, Grounds Lead
Johnson, Acevedo, Vargas and Branch helped St. Edward’s to become the first university in Texas to earn Green Grounds recognition for campus-wide sustainability efforts in Spring 2025. Re:wild Your Campus, an environmental nonprofit, honored the institution with Gold Level Certification for its commitment to reducing the use of harmful chemicals on over 90 percent of campus grounds and fostering biodiversity.
Paul Vickery, Environmental Education Coordinator for the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve
Vickery was recently appointed to the Bee Cave Planning & Zoning Commission in Spring 2025, where he will help to provide guidance on land use and development to the Bee Cave City Council.
Travis Williams, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian for the Munday Library
Williams was awarded this year’s Outreach Award from Texas Digital Libraries for his creation of the TexasBeerArchive.org website and accompanying event Hillhops: A Celebration of Texas Beer History. Williams formally accepted the award at the annual Texas Conference on Digital Libraries in Austin, Texas in May 2025.
Rocio Zuniga, International Student Experience Coordinator
Zuniga presented for the first time at the NAFSA 2025 Annual Conference and Expo in San Diego, California May 2025. The topics of her two posters are a reflection of her commitment to improving the experiences for international students at St. Edward’s University; Enhancing First-Year Seminars' Impact for F-1 Student Transition Success; and The 3 Ps of Supporting International Students' Transition and Adjustment.
A Faculty That Flourishes
Sasha West, Associate Professor of Creative Writing
West was named a 2025 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award Finalist. This recognition honors her poetry works and multiple publications; How to Abandon Ship (2024); and Failure and I Bury the Body (2013), which won the National Poetry Series and the Texas Institute of Letters Bob Bush Award.
Adam McCormick, Professor of Social Work
McCormick received the 2024-2025 Distinguished Teaching Award at St. Edward’s University for his contributions toward the social work community and transformative education he provides to his students.
Laurie Heffron, Associate Professor of Social Work
Heffron was recognized as the 2025 Social Worker of the Year by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Texas Chapter Capital Area Branch, honoring her unwavering commitment to her students and advocacy for immigrant rights. Heffron is now a finalist for a state-level award by NASW, which will be announced in Fall 2025. Additionally, Heffron and her co-authors were were recognized with a Textbook Excellence Award by the Textbook and Academic Authors Association for Human Trafficking: Applying Research, Theory, and Case Studies for Social Workers and the Helping Professions (Second Edition).
Jena Heath, Professor of Journalism and Digital Media and Associate Dean in the School of Arts and Humanities
Heath was named Managing Editor of Sound Historian: Journal of the Texas Oral History Association in Fall 2024.
Tom Sechrest, Professor of Human Development and Leadership
Sechrest has been selected to present at the International Leadership Association Global Conference in Prague, Czechia in October 2025. Sechrest will accompany Doctorate of Education (EdD) in Leadership and Higher Education graduate Elissa Jo Roberts ‘23 as they present their session “Connecting Leaders Through Mindful Storytelling” at the conference, where 1,500 leaders, scholars, educators and development professionals from around the world will be in attendance.
Katherine Trevino, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Trevino was chosen to attend the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions 10th annual early-career faculty training program, ELEVATE (Enriching Learning, Enhancing Visibility and Training Educators), this summer. Trevino was one of 15 educators nationwide selected to participate in the three-day fellowship program in Princeton, New Jersey in June 2025.
Debra Zahay-Blatz, Professor of Marketing
Zahay-Blatz spent two weeks (late May to early June 2025) teaching at the UBB Student i-Lab Business incubator for students at Babeș-Bolyai University in Romania as part of her Fulbright specialist appointment. During her first week, she presented research on topics such as branding on social media and creating digital advertisements; her second week involved reviewing students’ business ideas and how they incorporated digital marketing into the plan.
Pioneering Publications
Adesegun Oyedele, Associate Professor of Marketing
Oyedele’s article “Consumers Purchase Decision for Cultural Products Outside Their Countries of Origin: A Craft Retailing Context” was published in Tourism and Hospitality Research in Spring 2025. His article examines how authenticity influences purchase decisions for cultural craft products resold outside their countries of origin.
Chen Xu, Assistant Professor of Economics
Three of Xu’s peer-reviewed articles were published in multiple journals in Spring 2025; "An Analysis of Spillover Effects in China’s Financial Submarkets Based on the R² Decomposed Connectedness Approach" in Applied Economics Letters; "The Impact of Geopolitical Risk on Food Prices: Evidence from the TVP-SV-VAR Model" in Journal of Economics and Finance; and "Return to English Skills in China: Using a Nonparametric Bounding Approach" in Eastern Economic Journal.
Teri Lynn Varner, Professor of Communication
Varner, along with her co-editors and contributors, published the second edition of Listening Across Lives by Kendall Hunt Publishing in Fall 2024. The new edition explores the vital role of listening skills in successful careers and relationships across diverse contexts.
Angela Ju, Assistant Professor of Global Studies and Political Science
Ju’s new book Identities Matter: The Politics of Immigration and Incorporation was published by Oxford University Press in Spring 2025.
Warren Andresen, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice
Andresen’s article “The Haunting True Story of a Gay Man's Murder That Inspired Stephen King's IT” was published in The Advocate in Summer 2024. Andresen's research focuses on the homicides of gay and transgender people.
Yongshin Park, Associate Professor of Operations Management
Park and his co-authors published their article "A Responsive Closed-Loop Supply Chain Network Design Under Demand Uncertainty" in Computers & Industrial Engineering in Summer 2024.
Carlos Castaneda, Assistant Professor of Psychology
Castaneda and his research partners published their article "Love in Lockdown: Romantic Relationships During COVID-19 for Adults With and Without Autism" in The Family Journal in Spring 2025.
Sarah Agarwal, Assistant Professor of Counseling
Agarwal and her research partners published their article "Leaving it in the Sand: Counselor-In-Training Experiences in Group Sandtray Supervision" in the Journal of Creativity in Mental Health in Spring 2025.
Yu Zhong, Assistant Professor of Nursing
Zhong’s article "Assessing the Effectiveness of Nursing Virtual Reality Simulation for English as Second Language Students to Decrease Anxiety in Clinical Courses" was published in the Journal of Nursing Education and Practice in Fall 2024. Additionally, Zhong was awarded the 2024-2025 Texas Organization of Baccalaureate and Graduate Nursing Education Excellence in Research Grant.
Discover More Achievements on the Hilltop
The 2024-2025 school year was filled with even more accomplishments from our faculty, staff and students! Relive the noteworthy highlights from another momentous year of success at St. Edward's University.
