In the Spotlight: Oct. 25-29

Kudos to these faculty, staff, students and programs

Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?

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  • Davita Eichner, master’s students in the Department of Global Languages and Cultures , will represent Arizona and NAU at the Southwest Conference on Language Teaching in Reno, Nevada, on March 24-26. Her paper on oral corrective feedback was selected as the Best of Arizona in the recent Arizona Language Association Fall Conference.
  • Crystal Hepp, assistant director of the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute, and Chase Ridenour, Ph.D. student in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber systems, had their research featured in an Arizona Republic article, “Amid Arizona’s worst year for West Nile virus, patients and researchers look for solutions.” The article spoke about Hepp and Ridenour’s research on the transmission of West Nile vrus and a real-time tracking dashboard created by Ridenour.
  • Marianne Nielsen, professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, co-authored a book titled “Finding Right Relations: Quakers, Native Americans, and Settler Colonialism,” published by the University of Arizona Press.
  • Chief Information Officer Steven Burrell, wrote an article “The CIO as Quantum Leader,” which was published in the Educause Review. The article speaks on the importance of flexibility and digital transformations in higher education.
  • Taylor Antone, a recent graduate from the School of Communication, will be working on an animation project funded by LIFT, which offers early career support for Native artist’s grant. During Antone’s year with the LIFT grant, they will create an animated documentary short-film series featuring tribal members from the Gila River Indian Community.
  • Abdihamid Nur, sophomore on the men’s cross country team, and Taryn O’Neill, junior on the women’s cross country team, have been named the Big Sky Men and Women’s Cross Country Athletes of the Week. This is the second time that both athletes have earned this award this season, but it is NAU’s first cross country program sweep of the year.
  • Erika Nowak, assistant research professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability, was recently quoted in an Arizona Republic article “As more wildlife species vanish worldwide, here are 6 in Arizona that face extinction.” Nowak spoke about the conservation status of the federally threatened narrow-headed garter snake.
  • The Northern Arizona men’s basketball team was voted ninth by the coaches and 10th by the media in the Big Sky Preseason Polls released by the league office earlier this week. NAU received 28 points in the coach’s poll and 85 points by the media.
  • James Bowie, principal lecturer in the Department of Sociology, was interviewed on the “A Change of Brand” podcast about the replacement of the Aunt Jemima name and logo.
  • Case Peters was named the 2021 Arizona Occupational Therapy Association’s Outstanding Occupational Therapy Student of the Year. Peters, who will graduate in May 2022, was recognized for his contributions to ArizOTA’s work, including assisting with the creation of a student track and a JEDI networking hour for the fall conference; organizing and co-moderating a new practitioner panel for students based on a state-wide survey of OT/OTA students; co-authoring the ArizOTA student intern manual with interns Alejandra Arroyo and Lauren Hollister; and producing views, online presentations and live interviews for ArizOTA members.
NAU Communications