Sabbatical Summaries | Provost's Office

Dr. Leah Chase spent her sabbatical writing three manuscripts for publication which detail the research she and numerous students have completed over the last several years. She worked collaboratively with Hope student, Anna Koppin ’24, to report a novel mechanism for regulating a membrane protein transporter, System x_c^-, which serves a critical role in the antioxidant response of cells. Dr. Chase also wrote a second manuscript describing additional regulatory processes of System x_c^-, and nearly finished a manuscript reporting a novel animal model for bipolar disorder. Finally, she worked collaboratively with five women faculty from distinct small, liberal arts college to write a “Ten Simple Rules” paper for building a thriving and diverse academic enterprise that will be submitted to PLOS Computational Biology by September 1, 2024.

Dr. Chase also spent time exploring new research initiatives. Specifically, she wrote and submitted a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation Mid-Career Award program, and she learned in June that the proposal was funded. This three-year project will support the development of a new partnership with Dr. Stephanie Cologna at the University of Illinois-Chicago so that collectively they can apply mass spectrometry to the study of the regulation of System x_c^-. In addition, Dr. Chase initiated a new research project with Dr. Brent Krueger to employ molecular dynamics to describe how chloride regulates System x_c^- activity. Both of these new research initiatives will provide new research opportunities for numerous Hope College science students.

Finally, Dr. Chase and her husband celebrated their “nearly” empty-nester status by traveling together, without children, for the first time in 20 years. They spent nearly two weeks exploring the western United States which included hikes in four National Parks and a four-day visit with retired colleagues, Dr. Kathy Winnett-Murray and Dr. Greg Murray in Prescott, Arizona. Since that trip was a rousing success, they decided not to wait another 20 years for the next trip, so they also spent eight amazing days in Barcelona, Spain, seeing as many architectural tours as possible and enjoying the rich Catalan culture. Interspersed throughout the spring were several weekend trips to various colleges throughout Indiana and Ohio to watch their son, Trevor, compete for the DePauw University track team. In early May, their travels culminated in a trip to Penn State College to cheer their daughter, Abby Wallar ’21, on as she graduated from Penn State with her master’s in architecture.

Dr. Kristin Dittenhafer-Reed spent her sabbatical focused on accelerating research projects in her lab at Hope. The goal of her lab’s research is to uncover cellular mechanisms that control the function of mitochondria, the metabolic center of cells. More specifically, the work aims to determine the regulation of the expression of mitochondrial genes. The research is supported by a National Science Foundation CAREER award. Dr. Dittenhafer-Reed worked to fine-tune procedures and collect data for the study of proteins involved in metabolism that are hypothesized to regulate mitochondrial DNA maintenance and gene expression. She mentored five undergraduate research students throughout the spring and summer who collaboratively pursued the research.

Dr. Dittenhafer-Reed attended the 2024 Discover BMB meeting in San Antonio, Texas, the national meeting for the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Two of Dr. Dittenhafer-Reed’s research students attended and presented at the meeting. To further recognize and support her research with undergraduates, Dr. Dittenhafer-Reed wrote and submitted applications for the Council of Undergraduate Research Silvia Ronco Innovative Mentor Award and the Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award.

Dr. Dittenhafer-Reed also developed course materials for the Biochemistry lecture and lab sequence to be used in the 2024–2025 academic year, work also outlined in and supported by the National Science Foundation CAREER award. She reviewed student survey data from the past two years on learning attitudes towards biochemistry, revealing action items for the next academic year. Finally, she enjoyed spending time with her family, including time volunteering in her child’s kindergarten class where she participated in one-on-one reading time and other classroom events.

Dr. Anita Esquerra-Zwiers’s original sabbatical proposal outlined two possible timelines for implementing a multidimensional lactation intervention, MyMMMI Lactation Coach. One timeline involved securing funding in January 2023 and enrolling participants by March. The other option was to implement the study on a smaller scale using professional development funds. However, both timelines were dismissed because funding was not received in January 2023. Instead, funding was obtained in July 2023. Following the approval from HSRB and receipt of funding, recruitment efforts began in January 2024. Recruitment progress has been slow as the original research plan involved using the Ottawa Department of Public Health for recruitment and intervention delivery. Due to the current political climate, efforts shifted to alternative maternity health providers. While a dozen interested surveys were received, only five participants were recruited.

With the funding delay, Dr. Esquerra-Zwier completed professional development training with the American Association of Colleges and Universities and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to enhance her leadership skills. Additionally, she secured a fellowship with AIM AHEAD All of Us to complete training in advanced data analytics. Through the leadership training programs, she gained a better understanding of her leadership qualities and areas for improvement and learned teamwork strategies to achieve institutional goals. She also developed machine learning and artificial intelligence data analytics training that will assist her in analyzing future data sets with MyMMMI Lactation Coach.

Dr. Renata Fernández spent her sabbatical learning about maize and the current “corn war” between the U.S and Mexico, which stems from the pressure the US is putting on Mexico to import genetically modified corn. The conflict led Renata to realize the cultural significance of corn to not only Mexico but the greater Americas as she deepened her study on the impact of this disagreement on food sovereignty, health and culture within the context of food globalization and neocolonialism.

The study of maize also took Renata to:

Take a course with a Mexican NGO, Fundación Tortilla, an outstanding cultural platform whose mission is to divulge, promote and defend the cultural and historical importance of Mexican heirloom corn, its biodiversity and the health of the soil, all of which would be at risk if GMO crops, continue to be imposed on Mexico.
Promote, through education, classes, interviews, panels and workshops the important cultural heritage of nixtamalization and preserving heirloom corn.
Participate in a USDA grant together with several maize experts to identify the best nutritious varieties of corn (out of 200) for preserving traditional tortilla making.
Attend grassroots meetings centered on the defense of the biodiversity of corn.

The spring 2024 semester was a time of joyful rejuvenation and an opportunity to start making progress towards a long-term goal to write and publish a book on work stress from the perspective of what leaders and manager in organizations can do for their employees – grounded in research, but aimed at a practitioner-scholar audience. During the sabbatical Dr. Marcus Fila planned all eight chapters of the book, and wrote two of them to completion. He has also had two research papers accepted for conference presentation, and he and his colleagues are making progress toward these manuscripts being submitted for publication.

Before the sabbatical, Dr. Fila had a book chapter published on a new work psychology construct (the illegitimate absence of tasks). During the sabbatical, he worked with two research colleagues validating the construct with two employee samples in Germany and conducting analyses on relationships with psychological strain and turnover intentions. The ensuing manuscript has been written and is being shortened and revised in readiness for submission to the journal Work and Stress in August.

Dr. Fila has also remained active in the continued development of the Leadership Minor program. He is grateful for having had the opportunity to pursue these goals during my one-semester sabbatical.

During his sabbatical, Dr. Mike Jipping completed two pieces of software. One, called Laberinto, he completed by recognizing he failed. He could not complete the software because he could not fulfill his goal of implement that software on a phone. The second piece of software is close to completion as Mike implements network protocols necessary to complement it.

Mike also learned new systems during his sabbatical. He learned how to build plugins to software systems. He researched security issues with wireless protocols. He built a system for mobile capture of notes into note-taking software. He made presentations to a security class and to HASP.

Dr. Jung Woo Kim presented a masterclass at North Park University in Chicago in March, teaching German and French art songs. At the end of June, he performed a lecture recital titled “Art Songs of East Asia” at the National Association Teachers of Singing (NATS) National Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. The program consisted of a set of Korean, Chinese and Japanese art songs, and the audiences were introduced to some of the finest art songs of these three countries along with some historical background for each song. Not only did it guide audiences in the recognition of differences in the languages, but also in the aesthetics and mentality of poets and composers in these three countries. In addition, he worked on his next recital project, Winterreise (Schubert’s song cycle). The study includes background information, German diction, and poetic and musical analysis. Lastly, he initiated and submitted the proposal of the off-campus program in Korea, “Diving into the Korean Wave,” in June term 2025 with Dr. Mihyun Han. The proposal was approved. Thus, through engaging discussions, experiential learning and exciting excursions, students will delve into the historical roots and contemporary dynamics of South Korean society, exploring its rich artistic heritage as a lens through which to understand broader global phenomena (HCP & GLP flagged).

Sabbatical summary forthcoming.

Dr. Katharine Polasek’s primary goal for her spring 2024 sabbatical was to recruit a research participant with an amputated limb to trial a therapy she developed to alleviate phantom limb pain. This task had proven extremely difficult over the past several years and continued to be a challenge throughout much of the semester. Finally, in April, a research participant volunteered, and she successfully trialed the therapy. Preliminary results are positive, but more work (and additional participants) is needed to draw final conclusions.

In between recruiting participants and waiting for responses, Dr. Polasek analyzed extensive electroencephalogram (EEG) data. She looked for characteristics of actual touch in the brain signals to compare with brain signals generated by artificial touch using electrical stimulation. The results of this research are currently being written up in a manuscript for submission to a scientific journal. Additionally, she was accepted to present her findings at the Gordon Conference on Neuroelectronic Interfaces in Galveston, Texas. This week-long event provided her with an opportunity to immerse herself in the neural engineering field and connect with like-minded colleagues.

In true sabbatical spirit, Dr. Polasek was able to enjoy a spring break trip with her family during her children's break. She also dedicated time to learning German, joined a book club, played lots of hockey and reconnected with friends.

Dr. Stephen Smith’s sabbatical was refreshing, with progress made on multiple projects.

The largest single project of his sabbatical was completing research with Michael Anderson (Washington and Lee University) on an empirical article entitled “The Gravity of Homicide: Interpersonal Violence and International Trade.” Prior to this sabbatical they had presented versions of this piece at several professional conferences; between the comments there and insights from the newest literature on empirical trade techniques (surveyed in early
spring) they extensively revised and improved the piece. It is now ready to send to The World Economy Journal, a submission he anticipates making in the week of August 5.

Dr. Smith also leaned into a research project titled “Trade Liberalization in India: How Firm-Level Actions Affect State-Level Poverty,” which is joint work with Michael Anderson and Judy Dean (Brandeis University). The empirical strategy requires calculating an index of Indian states integration with the global economy, and though progress was made, the task has proven
difficult. They use comprehensive state-level manufacturing data from India’s Annual Survey of Industries and firm-level data from Prowess, both of which required considerable wrangling.

The third research piece on which he worked, “Statism and the Contest of Visions for Economic Development,” in draft form this spring, required considerable reading in the literature for its next revision. Having time to read was a great boon, and he will turn soon to the revision.

Finally, a rewarding project that required considerable work from August 2023 through May 2024 was developing a new “Japan and Vietnam” May Term for the Department of Economics and Business. Along with colleague Jacki Nickel, Stephen designed and ran a pilot version this May with 12 students. Having grown up in Asia, he delight in traveling there with students and thinking about trade, globalization and economic development with them. During this May Term in Vietnam he was invited to give two lectures. At Vietnam National University he spoke on “The Potential for Economic Co-operation Between Vietnam and the United States”; and at the Foreign Trade University he addressed “The US-China Trade War and Its Implications for Vietnam.” Both these presentations were straight-up academic sessions including Q&A with students and faculty. These were wonderful experiences for both Dr. Smith and his students.

From August 2023 through April 2024, Dr. Chris Turlington completed a full academic-year sabbatical at Gentex Corporation in Zeeland, Michigan. During this time, he worked in the chemistry group within the larger research and development program at the company. Gentex is well known for its dimming glass technologies, especially within the automotive industry. Chris worked on a team of scientists to develop new technologies for dimmable glass, and he used his background in chemistry research to aid these efforts. Chris used the summers of 2023 and 2024 to lead his research program at Hope College, and he hired a combined total of 10 undergraduate student researchers those two summers. The summer programs were productive, leading to one publication and many promising results that will be explored further in the coming academic year.

Janet Weeda’s primary achievement of sabbatical was completing chapters 1 to 3 of her Ph.D. dissertation titled Clinical Nurse Civility and Professional Identity Formation in Nursing Students. Her proposal defense was held on May 8, with the committee granting approval. She received Institutional Review Board approval for an exempt status on May 29 paving the way for data collection. Data collection began on July 1 and continues until August 4.

The most important “work” of Janet Weeda’s sabbatical relates to the root of the word referring to “rest.” Soon in the semester she was overcome with the realization that she had never dealt with the trauma that we all experienced through the COVID-19 pandemic. She was able to reach out to friends and colleagues for fellowship over breakfast or lunch, which is difficult during the academic semesters. She transcribed prayers from her church services. She rested.

An important aspect of the rest was family time. Her husband teaches in a high school with an academic calendar that does not duplicate the calendar at Hope College. They were able to travel together to New Mexico, where their son teaches high school science, for Spring Break. She was able to attend more Hope College swim/dive competitions and watch her daughter compete. On April 25 she traveled to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for her son’s Ph.D. defense and returned on May 7 for his wife’s Ph.D. defense.

Janet writes that she “cannot over exaggerate how special it was to be able to participate in those celebrations. I appreciate the opportunity to have sabbatical… it was incredibly valuable to me personally.”