Faculty and Staff Highlights: Jensen, Sasek, Stack, Hoover and Martin

June 08, 2026

Share:

Webster University faculty and staff highlights offer a roundup of recent Webster faculty and staff activity and achievements.

Scott Jensen

Scott Jensen received the Top Panel Award from the Sports Communication Interest Group of the Central States Communication Association at its annual conference in April in Minneapolis.

Jensen's panel, "Translating Our Meanings of Sport: Perspectives on Place and Shaping Connections to Sport," included his paper "Translations from Childhood: Reflections on Foundational Memory Places and Shaping of Sports Fandom."

Jensen will serve as chair of the interest group in 2026-27 and will lead programming at the April 2027 conference.

He also presented "Respecting Voices and Nurturing Self: Pursuing Balance While Teaching in Challenging Times" as part of the States Advisory Showcase Series. The program was selected for the fall Speech and Theatre Association of Missouri conference.

Samantha Sasek and Patrick Stack

Samantha Sasek and Patrick Stack were among four recipients of Brown School Fellowships through the Counseling and Life Development (CLD) department. Brown School interns accepted into the CLD internship program are eligible for a stipend.

Elizabeth Hoover

Elizabeth Hoover, PhD, presented at "Behind This Mask: Celebrating Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore," an event at the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis on June 13. Hoover read from "A Confession and a Costume Box," her recently completed book-length poem inspired by archival research on Cahun. A portion of the work will appear in a special feature on the queer ekphrastic in the literary journal Copper Nickel. She also participated in a panel discussion with director and actor John Cameron Mitchell, curators Dean Daderko and Svetlana Kitto, and art historian Jennifer Shaw.

Claire Martin

Claire Martin, PhD, received the 'Ohana Award from the Counselors for Social Justice division of the American Counseling Association (ACA) in May, recognizing counseling professionals who affirm diversity and advocate for social justice.

As part of a Webster Faculty Research grant on political trauma and community healing, Martin co-organized two community gatherings with Black Ferguson residents at the Imago Dei art gallery at The Garden Studio Café. The events focused on political events, civic engagement and their impact on individual and community well-being and concluded with a healing session led by a licensed professional counselor.

Martin also presented at the International Association for Wellness Counseling annual conference in May. Her solo presentation, "When Voices are Silenced: Epistemic Injustice as Racial Trauma," examined how epistemic injustices drive racial trauma and its impact on social determinants of health, and proposed a wellness-centered framework for promoting healing. She was invited to serve as a closing panelist for "Reimagining Wellness Counseling: Cultural, Relational and Justice-Oriented Perspectives."

Martin was elected president-elect of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD), the largest division of the ACA with more than 1,250 members. She will begin her three-year term July 1, 2026, and assume the role of AMCD president July 1, 2027. Martin has been a member of AMCD since 2014.