In the Spotlight: March 7-11

Kudos to these faculty, staff, students and programs

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  • Students of the Department of Physician Assistant Studies competed in the Arizona State Association of PAs (ASAPA) conference in Prescott. The program had two teams advance to the second round of the Challenge Bowl, with one team winning the bowl overall. Also, two NAU teams won scientific poster awards and one student won PA student of the year.
    • Challenge Bowl Team A (first place winner): Acascia Collins (first-year), Haley Ferralez, Madison Siegenthaler, Priscilla Barney (alternate)
    • Challenge Bowl Team B: Jessica Boone (first-year), Shaw Mahre, Lissette Tapia, Loren Begay (alternate)
    • Scientific poster (second place winner): Lissette Tapia and Ian McLeod with the poster, “Hypoxic Respiratory Failure in an Adolescent with COVID-19.”
    • Scientific poster (third place winner): Haley Ferralez and Nicole Ferschke with the poster, “Opsomyoclonus: A Rare Complication of West Nile Virus Meningoencephalitis.”
    • PA Student of the Year: Madison Siegenthaler
  • Jut Wynne, assistant research professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Center for Adaptable Western Landscapes, was recently featured in a Newsweek article discussing his February 2022 cave-dwelling crocodile expedition to Belize. This research was conducted with the Crocodile Research Coalition.
  • Fred DeMicco, assistant director and professor in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, recently published an article titled “Why Resorts Should Be Trauma-Informed: The Case for a Trauma Aware Spa.” The article talks about how trauma-informed spa staff can help visitors relax both their minds and bodies during treatment.
  • NAU women’s basketball players Khiarica Rasheed and Regan Schenck were named All-Big Sky Conference Honorable Mentions. For the second consecutive season, Schenck finished near the top of Northern Arizona’s single-season assists list, Averaging 7.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.45 steals in conference play. Rasheed elevated her Lumberjacks career to one of the best the program has ever seen, averaging 11.2 points and 7.2 rebounds in conference play.
  • Zachary Meyer, IT service analyst for Information Technology Services, and Rebecca Yeager, associate professor of instruction at the University of Iowa, published “Question Preview in English for Academic Purposes Listening Assessment: The Effect of Stem Preview on Difficulty, Item Type, and Discrimination” in The International Journal of Listening. The paper compares two methods of presenting multiple-choice questions.
  • Heidi Toth, assistant director of NAU Communications and ASU student, and Robert Estrada, an NAU graduate student studying history, will be presenting in a conference session titled “Native American Stories” at the New Mexico-Arizona History Convention. The three-day event will explore 30 topics surrounding the shared heritage of the two states.
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