Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs.
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- Nick Smallwood, a senior videographer for NAU-TV, won the CASE District VII Rising Star Award at the annual district conference in San Francisco. The Rising Star Award recognizes professionals with fewer than seven years of experience whose early career accomplishments demonstrate innovation, creativity and leadership.
- Political science doctoral student Richard Mbayo will be running for the Parliament of Uganda in January 2026, beginning work on his campaign this semester.
- Department of Sociology associate professor Katsuya Oi co-authored the article “The generation of hope: Optimism and cognitive status among Black Americans born before 1964,” published in Social Science & Medicine. The study examines how dispositional optimism and the presence of certain personality factors influence the likelihood of developing dementia among older Black Americans.
- Department of Anthropology professor Sharon Moses was promoted to fellow status in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Fellow status is given to academy members demonstrating an active commitment to forensic science fields through substantive research, publications and curricula.
- Students and faculty from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences contributed to a special social science and policy section of the journal Practicing Anthropology. Department of Anthropology professor Lisa Hardy and Department of Social Work assistant teaching professor Brandie Reiner co-authored the section’s introduction, “The State of Policy in Practice: A Social Science Perspective.” Other contributions to the section include “Inspiring Civic Engagement Through Bioarchaeology and Biological Anthropology” by anthropology professor Corina Kellner, “Anthropological Insights for Water Policy” by anthropology associate professor Lucero Radonic and “Anthropological Engagement in Lyme Disease Advocacy” by interdisciplinary health graduate student Carly Thompson-Campitor.
- Department of Politics and International Affairs professor Sara Rinfret was appointed to the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration’s (NASPAA) Governance Roles Review Taskforce. This group will create a framework defining NASPAA governance roles to streamline decision-making and ensure transparency within the organization.
- Department of Politics and International Affairs assistant professor Yixin Liu won the American Political Science Association’s Paul Volcker Junior Scholar Research Grant for his project “Big Brother is Being Watched: Can Nonprofit Oversight Mitigate Environmental Injustice?”
- Department of Anthropology professor Kelley Ann Hays-Gilpin will give the 2025 Distinguished Lecture in the Art of the Ancient Americas, titled “Artifacts and Ancestors: Exploring Archaeological Collections with Hopi and Pueblo Artists,” on April 1. This event is hosted by the Johns Hopkins University Department of the History of Art.
- Students from the NAU Green Fund accepted the Crescordia Award for Circular Economy Solutions at Arizona Forward’s 43rd annual Environmental Excellence Awards on March 8. NAU was recognized for its USEFULL program, which saves 25,000 pounds of single-use plastics every year through the implementation of reusable takeout containers at three on-campus dining locations.
- Nearly 50 medical anthropologists from three Arizona universities—including eight faculty members and graduate students from NAU—attended the annual Medical Anthropology in Arizona Symposium in Tempe, Arizona, on Feb. 28. The symposium aims to foster relationships between medical anthropologists across the state to facilitate collaborative research initiatives.