Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs.
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- Three students representing NAU’s School of Communication—Jordan Vallender, Ava Nichols and Makayla Richardson—earned four national awards at the 2025 Broadcast Education Association (BEA) award ceremony. Pulled from a pool of more than 2,200 entries, the winning projects are as follows:
- The team’s election night coverage earned third place in the Television Newscast (three days a week or less) category.
- The trio accepted the Award of Excellence in Sports News Programming for their Super Bowl special. The BEA also recognized Adriana Sparks and Tony Bacha from NAU’s Sports and Adventure Media certificate program as major contributors.
- Nichols won an Award of Excellence in the Student Sports Competition’s Short Video Story Feature category.
- Richardson won an Award of Excellence in the Student Television News Reporter category.
- The U.S. News and World Report ranked NAU in the top 100 graduate schools in multiple disciplines in its 2025 Best Graduate Schools list. School rankings are determined based on collected expert opinions on each program’s excellence and statistical surveys measuring the quality of a school’s faculty, research and postgraduate outcomes. NAU’s highest rankings include:
- No. 26 in physician assistant programs
- No. 50 in physical therapy
- No. 59 in earth sciences
- No. 61 in occupational therapy
- No. 69 in education
- No. 96 in public affairs
- Cline Library archivist for discovery Sam Meier was selected as a participant in the 2025 Archives Leadership Institute, a grant program funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The program, which mentors 25 archivists, consists of a one-week in-person training experience, quarterly virtual gatherings and a year-long archives project. Participants are selected based on their leadership skills, ability to influence change within the archival field, commitment to the archival profession and professional organizational involvement.
- Two students and one alumnus received honorable mentions in the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program. Astronomy and planetary science student Jack Kohm received an honorable mention in the astronomy and astrophysics field, and applied physics and material science student Ashley Martinez received an honorable mention in the biomaterials field. Environmental engineering and chemistry alumnus Matthew Helms, currently studying at the University of Colorado Boulder, earned an honorable mention in the environmental and ecological engineering field.