Dr. Diane Bonfiglio Named URCA Director; Dr. Brent Mattingly Named Acting Chair of HSRB

Dr. Diane Bonfiglio has been appointed Director of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity for the College of Arts and Sciences at Ashland University.  As Director, Dr. Bonfiglio will be responsible for initiatives promoting undergraduate scholarly activity.  Most notably, she will assume a leadership role in the planning of this year’s URCA Symposium.

The URCA Symposium is a yearly event that showcases the research and creative activity completed by students across the College of Arts and Sciences.  In the Symposium, students make oral or poster presentations to share the results of their scholarly activity.  This is an event at which the Department of Psychology has had a strong showing; in the most recent Symposium, thirteen Psychology students were among those who presented their work.

Dr. Bonfiglio served on the planning committee for the first URCA Symposium in 2010 and has remained on the committee since then.  Dr. Bonfiglio is stepping into the Director’s role that was recently vacated by Dr. Andrew Greene (Biology and Toxicology), who stepped down from the position after three successful years.

Additionally, Dr. Brent Mattingly has been named Acting Chair of Ashland University's Human Subjects Review Board (HSRB).  Dr. Mattingly's duties will consist of ensuring that all research conducted with human subjects at AU protects the rights and welfare of research participants.  Additionally, he will oversee modifications and improvements to the process.  The primary goal of HSRBs is to ensure that all research conducted at an institution complies with research ethics guidelines and federal law.