Kudos to these faculty, staff and programs
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- Darrell Kauffman, Regents’ professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability, is a lead author on a report featured in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) major assessment report on global climate change, approved by the world’s government. Read more online.
- Larry Liebowitz, assistant coach for the women’s swim team, was featured on 12 News, “Route 2021: Flagstaff is a favorite spot to train for Olympic swimmers.” He was highlighted for his high-altitude coaching of dozens of swimmers who appeared in this year’s Olympic Games.
- Michael Erb, assistant research professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability, published a children’s book, “The Weather Detectives,” which combines a weather-themed mystery with real science and history. Erb hopes the book, released this summer, gets children interested in the study of weather.
- Pradeep Maxwell Dass, director of the Center for Science Teaching and Learning, delivered an invited keynote address at the 2021 International Online Conference of the East-Asian Association for Science Education. His keynote address was titled, “STEM and STEM Education: Collaboratively addressing the global challenges of the 21st century.”
- Jersus Colmenares López, lecturer in the Department of Global Languages and Cultures, received the Leadership Initiative for Language Learning awarded from the Arizona Language Association and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The leadership institute, that lasts two years, works to better the future of the whole region.
- Crystal Hepp, associate professor in the School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems, and Jason Ladner, assistant professor in the Department of Biology, have been selected to research the global threat to human health from animal-borne infectious diseases as part of a new initiative, Scialog: Mitigating Zoonotic Threats. Sponsored by Research Corporation for Science Advancement and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the three-year initiative will hold its first meeting Sept. 30 – Oct. 3, in Tucson.
- Michelle Miller, professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences, delivered a keynote address at a national conference for the American Psychological Association. Her keynote, titled “Pedagogy, Technology, and Psychology: Lessons for a Post-COVID World,” addresses the worldwide pivot to online education, and how psychological science provided key evidence-based principles for effective remote and online teaching.
- The NAUgo app has been recognized for its excellence at the Modo Labs Appademy Awards. It won first place for Best Student Driven App, and second place for Best App for New Student Orientation.
- College Values Online ranked Northern Arizona University on its list of 40 Best Online Colleges for Teaching (Bachelor’s) for 2021. The ranking considered tuition, return on investment and student-to-faculty ratio.
Kudos to these students
Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?
E-mail your announcements to Inside@nau.edu, or use our online submission form.
- The Northern Arizona University men’s tennis team earned a second consecutive All-Academic Team honor from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). Three members of the team, Eban Straker-Meads, Facundo Tumosa and Maciej Ziomber, were named ITA Scholar-Athletes by having a GPA of at least 3.5 for the current academic year. NAU repeated as an ITA All-Academic Team recipient by maintaining a 3.21 GPA during the academic year.
- DJ Arnson and Luis Aguilar, members of the NAU football team, were awarded with one last preseason All-American honor from Stats Perform. It’s the fifth preseason All-American honor for Aguilar and the first ahead of the upcoming fall season. Arnson landed on three preseason All-American teams in 2020, with Stats Perform the first of this fall.
- Aguilar and fellow football player Morgan Vest were named to the 2021 Big Sky Football Preseason All-Conference Team. Aguilar landed on the Big Sky’s Preseason All-Conference Team for the second straight year, while Vest earned the honor for the first time in his career.
- The Northern Arizona University volleyball team earned the Team Academic Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) by having a cumulative GPA of 3.65. This is the third time in the last four years and ninth time overall in program history that the Lumberjack volleyball program was recognized by the AVCA for academic excellence.
- For the sixth time in eight years, the Northern Arizona Women’s tennis program earned ITA All-American Team honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). Six members of the team were named ITA Scholar-Athletes following their success in the classroom. Elinor Beazley, Mimi Bland, Gina Dittmann, Ellie Millard, Madi Moore and Ava Neyestani all landed on the list as the program held a 3.53 GPA overall during the 2020-21 academic year.
- Anthony Sweeney and Jessa Hanson were chosen as NAU’s 2020-21 Big Sky Scholar-Athletes of the Year. Sweeney was one of 10 all-conference performers among the league’s Scholar-Athletes after earning All-Big Sky Second Team honors during the spring football season. Hanson concluded an exceptional 2020-21 season with a Second Team All-American finish in the women’s 10000-meter at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships this summer. Her personal record time of 32:55.24 notched her an 11th-place finish in her national track & field meet debut.
- The Western Athletic Conference announced its 2020-21 Academic All-WAC honorees last week, noting 25 of Northern Arizona University’s swimmers and divers. To be honored by the conference, an athlete must have academically completed one year at their respective universities, while earning at least a 3.2 cumulative GPA. The athletes must have also competed in at least 50 percent of the teams contests in the season. NAU’s full list of 2021 Academic All-WAC honorees is below.
- Kendall Carlson, freshman
- Annie Carlton, freshman
- Jenny Cheetham, senior
- Francesca Criscione, freshman
- Natalie Dinch, senior
- Clara Foster, junior
- Caylah Jago, sophomore
- Maegan Jensen, freshman
- Alyssa Jones, junior
- Victoria Knapp, freshman
- Emily Luberto, junior
- Iliana Moore, junior
- Abbie Nelson, junior
- Reaney Preston, freshman
- Maddy Rey, freshman
- Sam Seiber, senior
- Brooke Seiber, sophomore
- Maddie Seidl, senior
- Katy Smith, junior
- Abigail Tashlein, sophomore
- Keeley Vardeman, junior
- Sophie Velitchkov, freshman
- Astrid Villeda, junior
- Emma Warner, sophomore
- Hope Williams, senior
- The NAU golf team placed two golfers, Aleksandra Chekalina and Elle Kocourkova, on the Women’s Golf Coaches Association’s All-American Scholar lists. Both golfers held a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 during the academic year.