In the Spotlight: March 27, 2015

Kudos to these faculty, staff and students

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BornsteinCheng
President Rita Cheng, right, visited Coconino Community College this week to speak with President Leah Bornstein and community representatives on the CCC2NAU collaboration. The two answered questions about opportunities for new and continuing partnerships within the Flagstaff and northern Arizona communities.
  • Carole Mandino, director of the Civic Service Institute, and Erin Kruse, project director for NAU’s Senior Companion Program, have been invited to the Arizona regional forum for the White House Conference on Aging on May 31 in Phoenix. The White House has held a Conference on Aging each decade since the 1960s to identify and advance actions to improve the quality of life for older Americans. The 2015 White House Conference on Aging is an opportunity to look ahead to the issues that will help shape the landscape for older Americans for the next decade.
  • Diane Vosick and Wally Covington of NAU’s Ecological Restoration Institute co-wrote a chapter for After Preservation: Saving American Nature in the Age of Humans, which was recently published by the University of Chicago press.
  • Eva Putzová, director for university strategic initiatives, will receive the 2015 Woman of Vision award during the fourth annual Arizona Women’s Conference on April 11.
WMUN team 2015
NAU World Model United Nations team (back row, from left), Erin Hodges, Emily Ross, Cheyenne Franklin, Connor MullinsLandon Richards, (front row, from left), Claire Bergstresser and Jasmine Jewell.
  • NAU senior Claire Bergstresser recently won the Outstanding Diplomacy Award at the World Model United Nations conference in Seoul, South Korea. This marks the second year in a row that an NAU student has won the highest award at this international competition. Bergstresser led a team of seven NAU students, who spent the week representing the state of South Korea on a committee discussing international issues.
  • Michael Zimmer, information security analyst, was featured in a recent Qualys case study about NAU’s network security procedures and use of the Qualys Vulnerability Management and Qualys Web Application Security systems. Zimmer works very closely with Qualys to improve NAU’s security posture.
  • PAstudents
    On March 6, the NAU physician assistant student team won the championship at the Arizona State Association of Physician Assistants annual Challenge Bowl in Sedona, defeating teams from other PA programs in the state. The team is made up of first year student Tim Lane and two clinical year students, Brian Kummet and Fallon Damico.

    Ricardo Guthrie, associate professor of Ethnic Studies, presented a paper, “Hollywood Speaks to the Movement: Boycott, Selma and the Hidden Transcript of Black Resistance,” during a Black History Month conference held last month in San Diego. The paper examines how feature films depict iconic figures from the civil rights movement, while challenging post-racial nostalgia of the current age. The essay has been submitted as a chapter in a forthcoming volume: Civil Rights in the Post-Racial Era, edited by Bennetta Jules-Rosette and Lorna Lueker Zukas of the African and African American Studies Research Center at the University of California, San Diego.

  • Jon Reyhner, education professor, was the featured speaker during Gonzaga University’s Rethinking Native American Education: Building Bridges symposium on March 21. He spoke about the history of assimilationist education in the United States and culture-based education for American Indian students.

  • NAU’s online bachelor’s in criminal justice has been ranked among the top 50 degree programs of its kind by Nonprofit Colleges Online. The website evaluated many factors including affordability, accreditation, academic quality, student satisfaction and nonprofit status.

  • NAU’s Logging SportsLoggingSports team sent nine competitors to the annual conclave of the Association of Western Forestry Clubs in Arcata, Calif. NAU finished second overall and earned first place finishes in men’s power saw, men’s timber cruise and women’s underhand chop events. The team also took home the Conclave Sportsmanship Award.
  • NAU Fraternity and Sorority members raised funds and awareness for local social service agencies, people and programs during Greek Week 2015 including: $3,000 for the family of Zaadii Tso, a toddler who was killed in a car accident in Flagstaff; $700 for the Kayla Mueller Foundation, a scholarship fund established in honor of NAU alumna and human rights activist Kayla Mueller; $833 for Northland Cares, a non-profit organization that provides a full range of outpatient services for people infected with HIV/AIDS in northern Arizona; $833 for Hope Cottage,­ a local women’s shelter in Flagstaff; and 3,300 cans for Louie’s Cupboard,­ an on-campus food pantry for students in need.