In the Spotlight: April 4, 2010

Kudos to these faculty, staff and students

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  • Jim Allen, executive director for the School of Forestry, is chair-elect of the Southwestern Society of American Foresters, a regional chapter of the Society of American Foresters that includes Arizona and New Mexico. Allen will serve as the chapter’s chair in 2011.
  • Michael Lerma, an instructor for Politics and International Affairs and doctoral student at the University of Arizona, is one of six UA students awarded a Dissertation Fellowship award from the Marshall Foundation. Lerma’s research involves looking at traditional teachings and pre-colonial Diné governance of the Navajo Diné Tribe in an attempt to address some of the domestic and international issues the Navajo Nation is currently facing.
  • Lindsey Kirkaldie, a third-year Native American physical therapy student, received the American Physical Therapy Association’s Minority Scholarship for 2010. Only six students from across the country are chosen and the winners will be presented the scholarship at the association’s annual conference in Boston in June. The award acknowledges and rewards student participation in minority affairs activities and services, the potential for superior achievements in the profession of physical therapy, appropriate display of professionalism as a future physical therapist and academic excellence.
  • Chelsea Bergner, a junior elementary education major, had a book critique titled “‘Essie’s Story:’ Insightful Words from an Old Teacher to the Teachers of Today,” published in the February/March issue of NABE News, the magazine of the National Association for Bilingual Education. Bergner wrote the critique for an assignment in Jon Reyhner’s BME 310 Introduction to Multicultural Education course this semester.
  • Students from two biology courses and the Botany Club are collaborating with the Flagstaff community to integrate sustainability principles into a garden behind the Biology Department. The project began in 2008 when two students began to clean up a vacant, trash-filled lot on north campus. Peggy Pollak, a senior lecturer in biology, became involved by offering an applied botany course that uses the plot as a living laboratory. One student used a part of the garden for a South Beaver elementary school project. Another student applied for and was awarded a grant to purchase a roof-water collecting tank and drip-system components. NAU donated a picnic table. The garden is now admired by many passersby each day.