Mona Kerby and Susan Parrish | McDANIEL COLLEGE

McDaniel College has appointed Mona Kerby the L. Stanley Bowlsbey Chair in Education and Graduate and Professional Studies and Susan Parrish, associate professor of biology, has been selected as the John Desmond Kopp Professorship in the Sciences.

Kerby will hold the new appointment through Spring 2020. She is a professor and coordinator of the school librarianship master’s degree, the writing for children and young adults graduate certificate and learning technologies specialist graduate certificate programs at McDaniel.  A former kindergarten teacher and school librarian, Kerby is the author of more than 10 children’s books, including “Owney, the Mail-Pouch Pooch,” which earned the California Young Readers Award and the Vermont Red Clover Award. She is active with the American Association of School Librarians and has served on the selection committee of the United States Board on Books for Young People.  The L. Stanley Bowlsbey Chair in Education and Graduate and Professional Studies was established in 2010 by JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey as a tribute to her husband.

Parrish will hold this new appointment through Spring 2020. A specialist in molecular biology, Parrish teaches courses such as “Our Unseen Enemies: Emerging Viruses,” “Genomics,” and “Advanced Molecular Genetics.” Her research focuses on how RNA levels can be modulated to regulate gene expression during virus infection and the development of the social amoeba, Dictyostelium discoideum. She is a member of the Genomics Education Partnership. The John Desmond Kopp Professorship in the Sciences was established in 2006 through a $1.25-million bequest from John Desmond Kopp.