Kudos to these faculty, staff, students and programs
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- Colin Sahlman, David Dunlap, Nico Young and Alyssa Colbert qualifed for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field National Championships this weekend. The men will compete on June 7 and 9, while the women will compete on June 8 and 10.
- Colbert recently set a new school record in the 200-meter with a personal best time of 23.42 at the NCAA West Regional at the end of May.
- Sahlman earned the Big Sky Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Freshman of the Year award following his outstanding performance at the conference championships. Sahlman was impressive in his first Big Sky Outdoor Championship appearance, taking gold in both the 800-meter and the 1,500-meter.
- Mike Smith, head coach and director for NAU Track and Field and Cross Country, swept the Big Sky Coaching awards, earning his fifth Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Coach of the Year title and his fourth Men’s Outdoor Track & Field Coach of the Year title.
- NAU-TV has been named a 2023 finalist in the Sports Video Group (SVG) College Sports Media Awards, in association with the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), for their game production of men’s basketball February 11 game versus Portland State University. The SVG Awards, along with the Emmys, are the gold standards for recognizing the best in TV/digital sports productions.
- The NAU Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) and the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) have partnered to bring faculty high-quality and research-backed credentialed professional learning courses. Course takers learned evidence-based practices and implemented classroom activities to increase student retention, strengthen belonging and achievement and close equity gaps. ACUE’s courses are consistently rated as engaging and relevant by faculty and staff nationwide and lead to the only nationally recognized Certificate in Effective College instruction, endorsed by the American Council on Education. Topics faculty engaged in included: foundations of effective instruction, course and class design, inclusive learning environments, formative and summative assessment, civic and service learning, active learning techniques, higher-order thinking and learning and career readiness and 21st-century skills.
- Carl Dindo, director of Counseling Services for Northern Arizona University, was featured on the Office Hours with EAB podcast to discuss innovative approaches to meeting student mental health needs. The episode, “How NAU Streamlined Student Access to Mental Health Resources,” aired on May 2.
- Bruce Hungate, Regents’ professor of biological sciences and director of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society, Ecoss Ph.D. alumna Lifen Jiang and assistant professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems (SICCS) Toby Hocking are coauthors of “Microbial carbon use efficiency promotes global soil carbon storage.” published in Nature. This article suggests that understanding the microbial processes underlying carbon use efficiency and their environmental dependence may help the prediction of soil organic carbon feedback to a changing climate.
- Duan Biggs, the Charles Olajos and Ted Goslow Chair for Southwestern Environmental Science and Policy in the School of Earth and Sustainability, shares the success of the planning workshop for the New Strategic Action Plan for Large Carnivores in Uganda 2023-2033. This incredible resilient conservation effort is supported by the Uganda Wildlife Authority, Volcanoes Safaris, Griffith University, the Lion Recovery fund, the Siemiat Kowski Foundation and NAU.
- Jennifer Blaney, assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, received the prestigious NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. The National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program supports 25 early career scholars working in critical areas of education research. These $70,000 fellowships support non-residential postdoctoral proposals that make significant scholarly contributions to the field of education. The program also develops the careers of its recipients through professional development activities involving National Academy of Education members.