In the Spotlight: March 25, 2016

Kudos to these faculty, staff and students

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  • Cyndi Banks, dean of University College, has published a new book titled Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice. The book examines the criminal justice system through an ethical lens by identifying issues in practice and theory, exploring ethical dilemmas and offering suggestions for criminal justice professionals.
  • Jason Thibodeaux, senior associate dean of students, participated in the Association for Student Conduct Administration annual conference held Feb. 3-6 in St. Pete Beach, Fla. Thibodeaux was part of a presentation titled “Secondary Trauma, Self Care and Student Conduct Practice.” The presenters discussed the signs, symptoms and management of secondary trauma that can result from investigating difficult cases involving violence, graphic information and facts upsetting to hear. The impact of secondary trauma and strategies for coping and managing the weight of investigating traumatic situations, both personally and among teams, were also discussed.
  • Arizona K12Center’s promotional video, “Simply the Best” received a silver ADDY award in the category of Public Service, Online Film, Video and Sound. The video was produced by Randy Murray Productions. The ADDY Awards recognizes and rewards the creative spirit in the art of advertising. Watch the video here.
  • Barbara T. Veltri, associate professor of education, had a chapter published in Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through “No Excuses” Teaching. Veltri’s chapter explores supplying the needed manpower and values components required to deal with high levels of attrition in schools.
  • CIE partnershipsNAU electrical engineering faculty Phil Mlsna and Julie Heynssens, advisor Julie Thurston accompanied Liz Grobsmith, interim director of the Center for International Education, to China last week to refine details for exchange students who will attend NAU as seniors in 2017. Terry Baxter, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, delivered a lecture on ABET accreditation to colleagues at Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications. Grobsmith and Baxter also visited Xi’an University of Science and Technology to sign an agreement that will allow students to complete a graduate program through joint study at both universities. CIE’s Wang Feng and Bingyin Cao facilitated both campus visits.
  • Martin D. Sommerness, professor of journalism, edited Survey of Communication, published by McGraw-Hill Education.
  • Rebecca Campbell, Zhong Chen, Cody Canning, Kaitlin Hublitz, Laurie Dickson and Linda Neff presented a paper titled “The Longitudinal Impact of Two Different First-Year Seminars: NAU 100 and NAU 120” during the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition annual meeting in Orlando.
  • Desert at night Harun Mehmedinovic, assistant professor of practice in the School of Communication, filmed and edited a video titled Mojave Blues. In the time-lapse, Mehmedinovic captures an exploding meteorite and a rare flash of zodiac light over the desert. Watch the video here.
  • Faculty and students in the Ethnic Studies program presented papers and contributed to panels during several events last week.
    • The following were presented during the National Association for Ethnic Studies 44th annual conference:
      • Professors Mark BeemanFrederick W. Gooding, Jr., and graduate student Sol Serpas-Guardado presented “Evolving Controlling Images in Contemporary Film: The Jezebel/Mammy Hybrid.”
      • Gooding also presented “Not Another Sequel?! Hollywood’s Persistent Use of Racial Patterns in Mainstream Movies” and a teach-in titled “It Takes a Nation of Millions: Teaching and Organizing Hip-Hop” along with professor T. Mark Montoya.
      • Lecturer Michelle Téllez organized and participated in a panel, “Claiming Space: Building the Arizona Ethnic Studies Network” and An Nguyen participated in a plenary panel “Institutionalizing Ethnic Studies in Arizona.”
    • The following was presented during the National Council for Black Studies 40th conference:
      • Ricardo Guthrie, associate professor, also presented “Dear White People and the Unresolvable Antagonism Between Whiteness and Black Subjectivity.”
  • Northern Arizona University’s Phoenix Biomedical Campus was featured in Downtown Phoenix’s blog. The article “NAU Expands Student Population on Phoenix Biomedical Campus” discusses NAU’s growing graduate programs that fill a much-needed niche in Arizona’s health care workforce and add a boost to the economy. The downtown campus began with physician assistant and physical therapy tracks and has expanded to include occupational therapy and athletic training. Students at the campus benefit from “inter-professional” education working with students from Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. NAU also enjoys close ties with Translational Genomics Research Institute. In fiscal year 2014, the programs made an economic impact of $17.5 million.
  • The Reading Pig Nicholas Clement, NAU’s Ernest W. McFarland Citizen’s Chair in Education, published the book The Reading Pig Goes to School. It is a true to life storytelling of Clement’s haphazardly earned duty as a classroom substitute for a day.
  • Northern Arizona University has been named among the 20 Most Affordable Top-ranked Schools for an Online Master’s in Educational Psychology. NAU’s Educational Psychology department offers an online master’s in educational psychology with school psychology certification. The program includes online coursework and fieldwork experience or an internship. Students take courses in biological bases of behavior, human development, personality adjustment and philosophy of education.
  • Toni DeAztlan-Smith, assistant professor of practice in the School of Communication, was a videographer for “Conviction,” a newly released NBC Dateline web-series. The story was filmed prior to DeAztlan-Smith’s arrival at NAU.
  • Kelly-Rae Meyer, graduate student in the English Literature program, has published an essay “Cathy’s ‘Masculinity’ as Survival in Steinbeck’s East of Eden” in the peer-reviewed journal The Explicator.
  • Junior Xavier Rangel, student producer at NAZ Today, has been named an NBC News Group Summer Fellow by the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Rangel will spend 10 weeks this summer working on NBC’s Dateline in New York City.