Congratulations to the outstanding recipients of the honorary title, Emeritus for their many years of distinguished services to the University of North Texas
Emeritus status is recommended for the following individuals:
Joseph Banowetz
Professor, College of Music
Dr. Joseph Banowetz has enjoyed a long and illustrious career as an international piano virtuoso and leading authority on the study and performance of piano repertoire. He is widely regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on piano performance and pedagogy. Dr. Banowetz has mentored hundreds of students who have gone on to enjoy successful careers as concert pianists and teachers at universities in the US and abroad. He has authored two definitive books on piano performance published and translated into seven languages and recorded over 50 critically acclaimed commercial CDs. His other scholarly contributions include numerous authoritative pedagogical editions of piano masterpieces published by major music publishing companies. With hundreds of thousands of followers on the Spotify music internet site, he has amassed a truly international audience. Dr. Banowetz has supported the profession by serving on international competition juries, boards of advisors, and has given numerous performances and masterclasses in many countries. His decades of service to UNT includes his service on numerous committees, and his dedicated support of all divisional activities. Dr. Banowetz retired in May 2022.
Mary Curtis
Professor, G. Brint Ryan College of Business
Dr. Mary Curtis was a highly respected member of the faculty of the Department of Accounting in the G. Brint Ryan College of Business for 23 years. She assisted numerous students in launching their accounting or academic careers and made significant contributions to the accounting discipline through many research publications in the very top tier of accounting and business journals. Dr. Curtis has been an especially active researcher and contributor within the accounting discipline. Her research has consistently appeared in the premier business and accounting journals including The Accounting Review; Accounting, Organizations and Society; and the Journal of Business Ethics. Her research is at the forefront of the fields of accounting information systems, ethics, and audit practice. Dr. Curtis published over 50 articles during her career and continues to be very active with several papers currently under review. In addition, she actively mentored junior faculty members and doctoral students, and many of her publications and numerous conference papers are co-authored with UNT doctoral students or collaborating faculty. In addition to her extensive university service, Dr. Curtis has a consistent record of exceptional service to the accounting discipline. She served as a senior editor of one of the leading accounting journals, Journal of Information Systems, and as a reviewer for several top tier accounting journals. Her outstanding service to the discipline has been widely recognized through the receipt of three Distinguished Service Awards from the American Accounting Association’s Accounting Information System section. Dr. Curtis played a key leadership role in the college and in the ITDS Department during her 20 years as a UNT faculty member. She served for 10 years as department chair, and under her leadership the ITDS department launched graduate degree programs in business analytics and information systems and technology. These programs laid the foundation for significant growth in graduate enrollments for the college and the university with over 1,000 students now enrolled. Within the information technology discipline, she has demonstrated an extensive record of service as an editor or editorial review board member for journals such as the Journal of Information Technology Page 140 of 176 Management, and Journal of Internet Commerce, a reviewer for several of the top journals in the information systems field, and as a committee member for several national professional organizations. Dr. Curtis retired in September 2022.
Rebecca Glover
Professor, College of Education
Dr. Rebecca Glover has served UNT for 27 years as a faculty member in Human Development and Family Science. This includes full-time status from 1995-2019 and on modified service from 2019-2022. Dr. Glover contributed to the advancement of the teaching, service, and research missions of UNT in very broad, impactful ways. During her tenure at UNT, Dr. Glover led the graduate and undergraduate programs in Human Development and Family Science for many years as well as functioned as the assistant chair in the Department of Educational Psychology. In addition, she served many years on multiple important committees at the college and university levels, most notably the Institutional Review Board and the Graduate Council. Dr. Glover’s research agenda demonstrated a continuous focus on various aspects of moral functioning, in addition to exploration of other areas of development, and led to numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Glover’s professional leadership is evidenced clearly as a member of the executive committee for the Association for Moral Education, president of the Society for Research in Human Development, reviewer for the Journal of Moral Education, and associate editor for Child Development Abstracts and Bibliography. Dr. Glover retired in July 2019.
Mary Jones
Professor, G. Brint Ryan College of Business
Dr. Mary Jones played a key leadership role in the college and in the Information Technology and Decision Science (ITDS) department during her 20 years as a UNT faculty member. She served for ten years as department chair, and under her leadership the ITDS department launched graduate degree programs in business analytics and information systems and technology. These programs laid the foundation for significant growth in graduate enrollments for the college and the university with over 1,000 students now enrolled. While Dr. Jones was chairperson, the department solidified its national leadership in the mainframe program and became internationally recognized in this area with students routinely winning national competitions. She also worked to develop and strengthen corporate relations and proved highly successful in expanding the department’s advisory board and raising funds to support student scholarship and faculty research. Dr. Jones has a stellar record of research excellence. She has published 55 peer reviewed journal articles with several appearing in top ranked journals such as MISQ, Information and Management, and Decision Support Systems. Her research has been widely recognized and impactful as evidenced by presentations at over 30 academic and professional conferences. Dr Jones served as the principal investigator on seven grants which funded more than $50,000. She has worked closely with her doctoral students and has been especially effective in assisting them in their publishing efforts. Within the information technology discipline, she has demonstrated an extensive record of service as an editor or editorial review board member for journals such as the Journal of Information Technology Management, and Journal of Internet Commerce, a reviewer for several of the top journals in the information systems field, and as a committee member for several national professional organizations. She retired in December 2021.
Leon Kappelman
Professor, G. Brint Ryan College of Business
Dr. Leon Kappelman’s 30-year academic career was devoted to educating and inspiring future Information Technology (IT) leaders. He helped students build close connections with IT leaders, preparing them for long-term career success. He was a transformational leader for the Information Technology and Decision Science (ITDS) department. In his 4.5 years as Department Chair, Dr. Kappelman launched a Master of Science (MS) in Information Systems and Technology, a new science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program. This degree, combined with MS and Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees in Business Analytics, grew ITDS graduate enrollment by a factor of 10 (from under 100 to over 1,000). He hired 11 faculty members, guided faculty through the promotion and tenure process, and built a truly cohesive team. He was a bold and visionary leader who inspired and motivated those who worked with him. Dr. Kappelman’s contribution to the Information Sciences discipline includes over 60 academic publications, including many in top infrastructure service journals such as MIS Quarterly and Management Information Systems, listed on the Financial Times 50 most influential journal list. Many of his articles were coauthored with doctoral students. He has also made a lasting impact on the information technology management profession through his thoughtful leadership, trade publications and his involvement with the Society for Information Management (SIM), an association of senior IT executives. Dr. Kappelman’s engagement with SIM brought numerous industry connections to the ITDS department and its students. As a SIM fellow, Dr. Kappelman has led a multi-year SIM-sponsored Chief Information Page 141 of 176 Officer IT Trends study, one of the most long-running and comprehensive longitudinal studies of IT Management trends. Dr. Kappelman retired in December 2021.
Kent McGregor
Professor, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Kent McGregor has been a devoted, proud UNT citizen for nearly four decades in Geography and the Environment at UNT. When Dr. McGregor was hired, UNT was a directional, teaching school with a different name—North Texas State University. It is estimated that he has taught over 30,000 students during his career, with nearly half of those in Introduction to Earth Science, which he has taught 109 times. Three fundamental qualities demarcate Dr. McGregor’s career: 1) his care for engaging students in direct learning experiences; 2) his deep, gentle compassion and kindness for everyone he spends time with; and 3) his unmistakable ability to make intelligent, informed choices. The choice that embodies all three qualities has been his dedication to stay true to his original motivation in academia, which has been to enrich the lives of students. Each experience that he provides blends in a feel of mentoring. His approach is to walk side-by-side with students during every encounter. His lectures have always been intellectually demanding, but also personal and engaging. Dr. McGregor’s style has remained kind and interactive, but also with firm, well-reasoned expectations. He has taught many different classes in many different formats. During his career, the world of teaching changed dramatically from chalkboards to overheads and 35 mm slides to PowerPoint projections, Blackboard, and Canvas. Dr. McGregor never stopped evolving as an educator, all the while pursuing a thread of research despite the high number of courses, he taught each semester. His willingness and ability to teach a large number of courses provided the underlying support that allowed newer faculty to become highly productive researchers. Dr. McGregor retired in September 2020.
Marilyn Morris
Professor, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Marilyn Morris was a member of the UNT Department of History from 1991-2022. Dr. Morris earned her PhD from the University of London and then worked as an assistant editor of the Benjamin Franklin Papers at Yale University before accepting a position at UNT as an assistant professor. A specialist in eighteenth century British political and cultural history, Dr. Morris published The British Monarchy and the French Revolution (Yale, 1998) and Sex, Money and Personal Character in Eighteenth-Century British Politics (Yale, 2014) in addition to numerous book chapters and articles in journals including Gender and History. Her research was supported by the Huntington Library, the Lewis Walpole Library, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Harry Ransom Center, among other institutions. Dr. Morris performed foundational work to advance the study of sexualities and LGBTQ studies at UNT. Between 2003-2014, she held leadership positions on campus building and promoting these fields. In honor of this work, the Women and Gender Studies Program created the “Marilyn Morris Award for Outstanding Academic Contributions to LGBTQ Studies,” naming her the first recipient of the award in 2019. Dr. Morris retired in July 2022.
Erin O’Toole
Librarian, University Libraries
As a science librarian, Ms. O’Toole’s expertise in providing research support to faculty, students, and colleagues, was demonstrated by her vast knowledge of science journals, databases, blogs, and book collections. She created highly used subject and course guides that connected faculty and students to the resources they needed. She taught numerous library instruction sessions and workshops helping hundreds of students develop effective search strategies as they began their library research. As the Libraries’ support contact for RefWorks, a web-based reference manager that enables researchers to have a centralized place for their research resource materials, she assisted students and faculty with developing their RefWorks databases. As a scholar, Ms. O’Toole’s portfolio includes four book chapters, three conference proceedings, three encyclopedia articles, ten journal articles, an academic blog, over thirty presentations given at state and national conferences, 13 posters, and two grants. Her service includes serving as a Faculty Senate Senator, co-chair of the Neurodiversity Professional Network, program organizer for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, chair of the Texas Library Association’s Reference Roundtable, faculty mentor, and serving on numerous library and university committees. Ms. O’Toole also served as faculty advisor for Eagle Chat: Support Group for Neurodiverse Students. Her outstanding dedication to supporting students and faculty was recognized when she received the George and Ruth Christy Award in May 2020 for exemplary service. Ms. O’Toole retired in June 2022.
Ian Parberry
Professor, College of Engineering
Dr. Parberry is a pioneer of academic game development education and research who has been teaching game programming to undergraduates since 1993, when he established the Laboratory for Recreational Computing. Dr. Parberry has authored over 100 technical publications which have been cited thousands of times. His works include two research monographs and five books. He was named an Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Distinguished Member in 2015. Dr. Parberry's notable research achievements Page 142 of 176 include foundational proofs regarding the speed of algorithms, including that conventional computers can be exponentially faster than neural networks (planar Hopfield networks), which were early theoretical models of artificial intelligence, and proving two problems are NP-complete, meaning that these problems cannot be solved within any reasonable time frame, regardless of the speed of a computer. Dr. Parberry's current research interests range from procedural content generation to cognitive assessment of video gameplay using research methods from neuropsychology. He served as editor of ACM SIGACT News, the quarterly newsletter of the ACM Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory, from 1991 to 2002. He has also served on the editorial boards of several journals. He served from 2009 to 2014 as a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Society for the Advancement of the Science of Digital Games, which organizes the annual Foundations of Digital Games conference. Dr. Parberry was interim chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering from 2009 to 2011. He retired in September 2022.
Carol Wickstrom
Distinguished Teaching Professor, College of Education
Dr. Carol Wickstrom served as a full professor in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration from 2000 to December 2021. She taught numerous undergraduate and graduate students, chairing 21 doctoral committees and serving as a committee member for 33 graduate students. While at UNT, Dr. Wickstrom was recognized with a variety of teaching and service awards including the UNT Distinguished Teaching Professor Award, President’s Council Teaching Award, J. H. Shelton Excellence in Teaching Award, UNT Minnie Stevens Piper Professor and other college and department teaching awards. She received the Outstanding University Teacher Award from the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts (TCTELA), the Jean Greenlaw Literacy Award for Outstanding Literacy Leadership from the Texas Association for the Improvement of Reading, State Leadership in Literacy Award from the Texas Association of Literacy Educators, and the Dr. Edmund J. Farrell Lifetime Achievement Award from TCTELA. Dr. Wickstrom established the North Star of Texas Writing Project (NSTWP) in 2003 and remained its director until her retirement. She acquired more than $1.4M in grants and contracts for tuition, books, and professional development for NSTWP participants. Dr. Wickstrom served the university on the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, Faculty Senate, and other committees. At the college level, she served on the Academic Affairs, College Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure Committee (RPT), Scholarship Committee, and Faculty Affairs Committee. She also served as the interim department chair from 2008-2009. Dr. Wickstrom retired in December 2021.
Timothy Wilson
Professor, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Timothy Wilson has served almost 20 years of distinguished service to UNT in the department of Dance and Theater. He came to UNT to become the department chair and was already a critically acclaimed educator. While at UNT, he has built a reputation for pushing the limits of his students in movement classes, directing, and staging a wide variety of plays, and being a stalwart in departmental service. His teaching portfolio included specialized courses in movement for theatre (from introductory to advanced levels), theatre and the Holocaust, as well as in theatre for social change. For performances on the UNT stage, Dr. Wilson directed Hair: The Musical, Bent, Reefer Madness: The Musical, Ghetto, and The Pearl. He also served as movement/stage combat coach for The Siege of Numancia, Merry Wives, The Philadelphia Story, Marisol, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and Slasher. After stepping down as chair, he was regarded as the colleague who provided the important service on high profile department committees. The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences is proud to support this recommendation for Dr. Timothy Wilson in recognition of his passionate advocacy for theatre as an art form and as an intellectual pursuit, as well as his commitment to his students and colleagues. Dr. Wilson retired in September 2020.
Yolanda Flores Niemann
Professor, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Yolanda Flores Niemann has held several important administrative roles while at UNT, including department chair, dean, vice provost, and senior vice provost for Academic Affairs. Dr. Flores Niemann has taught a wide range of courses in the field of psychology, all with consistently high teaching evaluations. At UNT, she introduced two new courses: Psychology of Race in the US (at the graduate and undergraduate levels), and Professional Development (graduate level). These are timely and important topics on the UNT campus. Dr. Flores Niemann's scholarship has focused on critical race psychology and more specifically, on the role that macro, socio-ecological, contextual forces play in tokenization of faculty of color; faculty development and job satisfaction; the recognition and impact of microaggressions; the generation and maintenance of stereotypes; intergroup perception and relations; pedagogy for courses on social psychology and race. She has authored and/or edited nine books, one of which has sold over 10,000 copies and, though Page 143 of 176 published in 2012, Amazon ranks number 59 among gender and law books as of this writing (Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia). The book is a highly regarded account of the institutional racism and sexism commonly faced by women of color in academia. Dr. Niemann has also authored or co-authored 54 peer reviewed journal articles and/or book chapters. Another book, Surviving and Thriving in Academia: A Guide for Members of Marginalized Groups, was published by the American Psychological Association. Dr. Flores Niemann retired in September 2021.