Kudos to these faculty and staff
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- Campus Health Services has been awarded $300,000 per year in grant funding for the next two years to expand substance abuse prevention and early intervention efforts on campus. The funding was awarded by the Governor’s Office of Youth Faith and Family as part of SAMHSA’s State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis grants, which aims to reduce opioid-related deaths by addressing addiction to prescription painkillers and illicit drugs like heroin. This funding will allow Campus Health Services to expand universal drug screening and early intervention efforts within the clinic and in the university conduct system. The project also will involve new social marketing efforts and peer-to-peer prevention education to increase awareness of the dangers of prescription drug abuse.
- Ted Schuur, professor of ecosystem ecology in the Center for Ecosystem Sciences and Society in the Department of Biological Sciences, was quoted in an article in The Washington Post titled “‘We all knew this was coming’: Alaska’s thawing soils are now pouring carbon dioxide into the air.” The article details a paper recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper suggests frozen northern soils— often called “permafrost”—are emitting an increasing amount of carbon dioxide into the air as they thaw in the changing seasons.
- Professor Emeritus Con Slobodchikoff from the Department of Biological Sciences was featured in a New York Times article entitled “Can Prairie Dogs Talk?” The article details Slobodchikoff’s work with prairie dogs and their communications skills. Slobodchikoff’s research focuses on prairie dog communication and discovering the details of the language prairie dogs speak.
- Martin D. Sommerness, professor of journalism in the School of Communication, has edited the third edition of Survey of Communication, published by McGraw-Hill Education. Sommerness’ research and teaching focuses on issues in mass media and society as well as mass communication law and ethics.
- The Pima County Board of Supervisors proclaimed May 15-19 as National Senior Corps Week. The Civic Service Institute at NAU has been a sponsor of Senior Corps Programs since 1985 which supports veterans, military families and seniors. The program allows adults aged 55 and over to tutor and mentor children and provide companionship to homebound, older frail adults. In Arizona, 1,000 youth were tutored/mentored by Foster Grandparent volunteers, 1000 homebound older adults were assisted by Senior Companion volunteers and 170 organizations benefited from RSVP volunteers.