In the Spotlight: May 1-5, 2023

Kudos to these faculty, staff, students and programs 

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  • Hailey Lopez, senior in creative, media and film and accelerated master’s student of communications, received the highly competitive Critical Language Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which is supported by the American Councils for International Education.  This program provides opportunities for American college and university students to study languages and cultures essential to America’s engagement with the world. Lopez is the third NAU student to receive this scholarship and will spend two months this summer in South Korea to study Korean, in an immersive environment. 
  • The Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation advances science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to academically outstanding students who are US citizens studying to complete degrees in science, engineering, math, technology and medical research. At NAU these awards are provided to doctoral students nominated from biological sciences, forestry and the School of Earth and Sustainability. This year, 11 NAU graduate students were named ARCS Scholars for the upcoming 2023-2024 academic year. This is the highest number of NAU scholars receiving this award since 2015. Associate professor of biological sciences JJ Duke, Graduate College Associate Dean Laura Elliott Bound, senior academic coordinator Debbie Mariage and 10 scholars recently attended the ARCS Awards Dinner to celebrate the achievement.  
    • Elizabeth Gideon — Biology 
    • Alejandro Grajal-Puche — Biology 
    • Audrey Harvey — Biology 
    • Colin Hubbard — Biology 
    • Sara Gabrielson — Biology 
    • Allison Kelley — Biology 
    • Beatrice Bock — Biology 
    • Emma Lathrop — Biology 
    • Christopher Hancock — SES 
    • Eva Baransky — SES 
    • Joseph Phillips — SES 
  • Frederick De Micco, professor in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, recently co-authored a research article titled, “Strategic Medical Tourism Design: A Case of Switzerland, Hospitality Bridging Healthcare (H2H©).” This paper discusses the role that hospitality bridging healthcare (H2H) provides as an effective means of integrating the leisure hotel guest with the medical tourist guest. Combining these functions in the same physical structure (in this case, a medical resort or medical campus), hotel guests are located near health care/medical guest patients. 
  • The SI Excellence in Leadership award recognizes excellence in leadership while working with students, faculty, staff and SI Leader peers—and highlights outstanding work to facilitate learning, while also modeling personal, professional and academic excellence for others. The spring 2023 Supplemental Instruction Excellence in Leadership award recipients are: 
    • Jenna Hays 
    • Josh VanderMeer 
    • Krischelle Mueller 
    • Kyle Thomas 
    • Mariana Jones 
    • Arielle Condes 
    • Olivia Lara 
  • The Northern Arizona University track & field women’s 4×100-meter relay squad set a new school record in the event in their final regular season meet at the Desert Heat Classic. Alyssa Colbert, Kyairra Reigh, Kenya Coburn and LiNay Perry combined to run a time of 44.67, placing sixth in the event. 
  • The NAU MPA program sent two student teams to compete in the Mesa Project. The goal of the Mesa Project is for MPA students at NAU, ASU and UA to present solutions for issues the City of Mesa is confronting. 
    • Team One: Phoenix Eskridge-Aldama and Eric Wise: Eskridge-Aldama and Wise worked on a scalable tree cover project for the city of Mesa. They address climate change adaptation and mitigation as it pertains to thermal comfort and walkability in the city of Mesa. They modeled and analyzed a potential tree cover expansion effort in Mesa’s downtown district, which aligns with several goals expressed by the City of Mesa. 
    • Team Two: Jessica Watson, Kylie Luth and Vicente Carlos Ontiveros: Watson, Luth and Ontiveros worked on harm reduction suggestions for the city of Mesa in response to the opioid epidemic. Their report builds a background on the current actions in the city of Mesa and the state of Arizona in response to the opioid epidemic. Based on the information analyzed, they suggest implementing the following actions to address the opioid epidemic in Mesa: raising awareness about the availability of naloxone, public education on opioids and a fentanyl test strip and a syringe exchange program. 
NAU Communications