Quinnipiac Honors Faculty Scholar Award Winners

From Quinnipiac University: Quinnipiac University’s Faculty Senate recently honored its faculty scholars and James Marshall Award winner.

Receiving Faculty Scholar awards were: Hilary Fussell Sisco, associate professor of strategic communication; Stanton Krauss, professor of law; Thomas Martin, assistant professor of biomedical sciences; and Christina Pavlak, assistant professor of education.

Fussell Sisco, of North Haven, was honored for her published work and presentations on nonprofit public relations, crisis communication and work-life and gender issues in the public relations profession.

“This award confirms my identity as both an applied social scientist and a teacher-scholar,” she said. “I am able to move theory to practice with my work for the profession of public relations and the future practitioners in my classroom.”

Before coming to Quinnipiac in 2009, Fussell Sisco was an instructor of record at the University of South Carolina and Radford University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in communication studies from Virginia Tech. She also earned her master’s degree in corporate and professional communication from Radford University. She has a doctoral degree from the University of South Carolina.

Krauss, of Fairfield, joined Quinnipiac’s School of Law faculty in 1990. He teaches courses in law, criminal procedure and torts. His research interests include American legal history, the Bill of Rights and criminal procedure.

Krauss was recognized for his two-volume book, “Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,” the multi-volume, “Newspaper Reports of Decisions,” and the single volume, “Three Neglected Pieces.”

“My books make significant new portions of American legal history readily accessible to modern Americans,” Krauss said. “They will allow lawyers and scholars to more easily answer a host of questions about how our 18th-century legal systems actually worked, as well as questions about what contemporaries thought various parts of their constitutions meant. They will give ordinary Americans a unique glimpse into our early history. I think they will remain useful long after I’m done writing. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have done this work, and for the award I have been given for doing it."

Krauss was a Bigelow Teaching Fellow and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago Law School and taught at Washington University Law School and the University of San Diego Law School.

Martin, of Northford, has been a member of the Quinnipiac faculty since 2012. His research centers on different aspects of human performance, specifically the risk factors associated with anterior cruciate ligament knee injuries. Martin has assisted in the creation of a testing paradigm that allows researchers to assess the biomechanics of a cutting maneuver. Another area of interest for Martin has been his research on running, he has worked on a joint study with Yale University where he looked at the effect of marathon running in the kidneys.

Martin has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Quinnipiac in health and science studies and medical laboratory studies, respectively. He also has a doctoral degree in pathobiology from the University of Connecticut.

“As a Quinnipiac alumni, this award is really special to me,” he said. “Knowing that my peers, including many who taught me as a student, felt that I was worthy of this great distinguish is really a great honor.”

Pavlak, of New Haven, who came to Quinnipiac from Boston College in 2013, was honored for her work on literacy education for English learners and the relationship between language, culture, and schooling.

Pavlak holds a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education, a master’s degree in sociology and education from Columbia University’s Teachers College, and a bachelor’s degree in sociology and anthropology and Spanish from Colgate University.

For the past three years, Pavlak has taught a clinical reading course at Fair Haven School in New Haven.
“One of my professional goals is to help future teachers work from an assets-based perspective, as opposed to a deficits-based one, particularly when working with students from marginalized populations, like English learners,” she said. “These particular students, though they may struggle with reading, writing, and/or speaking in English, have so much to offer our communities and us. To be honored for this work, which I care deeply about, is such a gift.”

Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, assistant professor of legal studies, was honored with the James Marshall Award for service to the Quinnipiac community.

“I am delighted to have received the James Marshall Award in connection with the Undergraduate Mock Trial Program and the Global Engagement Fellows Program,” she said. “These programs combine both curricular and co-curricular engagement and enable students to interact with peers from different disciplines, schools and programs. The mock trial program provides students with an arena to put complex theories into practice, and the global engagement program enables students to participate in global human rights workshops and collaborate with community organizations working to address human rights issues within a local context. These academic co-curricular programs complement learning in the classroom and produce outstanding student leaders who have high expectations for their own academic success.”

A Trumbull resident, Gadkar-Wilcox has been a member of the Quinnipiac faculty since 2011, and earned her law degree at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a bachelor's degree from Cornell University.
The William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board selected Gadkar-Wilcox to receive a Fulbright Award to travel to India during the 2015-2016 academic year to continue her research on the framework of the Indian Constitution.

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