In the Spotlight: Jan. 8, 2021

Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs

Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?

E-mail your announcements to Inside@nau.edu, or use our online submission form.

  • Lisa Hardy, associate professor of anthropology, and Kerry Thompson, chair of the Department of Anthropology, were featured in the podcast titled, “Native Communities, the Federal Government and the Pandemic” published with Government Executive. They discuss how tribal governments are handling the COVID-19 crisis.
  • Professor of forestry Andrea Thode received $402,000 to continue funding for the Southwest Fire Science Consortium. The consortium is a collaboration across several different agencies, NGOs and institutions in the Southwest which strives to see quality science used to make management decisions and assist scientists working on the questions managers need answered.
  • Michelle McAllister, assistant professor in the W. A. Franke College of Business, co-authored the article, “Make Tax Planning a Part of Your Company’s Risk Management Strategy” published in the Harvard Business Review. The article reports about the relationship between strong risk management at the board of directors level and corporate tax planning behaviors.
  • Fifteen employees from the Phoenix Police graduated with a master’s degree in organization leadership from Northern Arizona University. The degree emphasizes criminal justice administration while covering current issues in the police force, counterterrorism, HR law and intelligence.
  • Associate professor Mark Loeffler and assistant professor Christopher Edwards, both from the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, were quoted in the Mashable article, “What the first new moon rocks in decades can tell us”. The article discusses the research possibilities of the new moon rocks brought back by the Chinese National Space Administrations Chang’e 5 mission.
  • Professor of forestry Kristen Waring co-authored the article, “Using Hyperspectral Imagery to Detect an Invasive Fungal Pathogen and Symptom Severity in Pinus strobiformis Seedlings of Different Genotypes” published in Remote Sensing. The study analyzed the potential of using hyperspectral imaging to find and diagnose the degree of infection of the non-native white pine blister rust in southwestern white pine seedlings from different seed-source families.
  • Assistant professor of physical therapy Amit Kumar co-authored two articles. “The Impact of the Covid-19 Epidemic on Older Adults in Rural and Urban Areas in Mexico,” published in The Journal of Gerontology, compares clinical and demographic characteristics for people in Mexico diagnosed with COVID-19 by age group and describes cases and mortality in rural and urban communities. “Posthospital Nursing Home Utilization and Quality Indicators Among Medicare Beneficiaries in Puerto Rico: Comparison With the United States,” published in JAMDA, contributes new information to the literature regarding post-acute nursing home utilization and quality indicators among Medicare beneficiaries in Puerto Rico compared with the U.S.
  • Associate professor of forestry Matthew Bowker co-authored the article, “To dry perchance to live: Insights from the genome of the desiccation-tolerant biocrust moss Syntrichia caninervis” published in The Plant Journal. The study discusses orthogroup analyses which revealed an expansion of ELIP genes encoding proteins important in photoprotection and a transcriptomic response to desiccation which identified four structural clusters of novel genes.
  • Alark Saxena, co-PI and assistant professor of forestry; Patrick Jantz, assistant research professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems; and Alder Keleman Saxena, assistant research professor of anthropology received a grant from the Norwegian Research Council for the project titled, “Prioritizing the Displacement-Environment Nexus: Refugee and IDP Settlements as Social-Ecological Systems.” The project, led by Anwesha Dutta of Michelsen Institute in Norway, received $1.45 million and will span five years with collaborators in four countries.