In the Spotlight: Jan. 9, 2015

Kudos to these faculty, staff and students

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  • NAU’s four-week winter session saw 1,115 students in 2014, up nearly 5 percent from last year’s total of 1,064. Winter Session is the four-week period between the end of the fall term and the beginning of the spring term when students can enroll in accelerated courses.

  • Ann Marie Chischilly, executive director for the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals, attended the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization meetings on “Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities on AnnMarieWIPOIntellectual Property and Traditional Knowledge” held in Geneva, Switzerland, in early December. Chischilly represented the United States and learned from the world’s leading indigenous leaders including Les Malezer, co-chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples. ITEP currently assists 566 tribes throughout the United States in developing their Climate Change Adaptation Plans with training on intellectual property designed to enhance the Climate Change program in the future.
  • Michael Amundson, history professor, has published a new book, Wyoming Revisited. Amundson uses rephotography to show how landscapes across the state have endured over the last century. He carefully duplicated Joseph E. Stimson’s photos from more than a century ago of 117 locations featuring street views of Wyoming towns and cities as well as views from the state’s famous natural landmarks such as Yellowstone National Park. The book features Stimson’s original black and white images next to repeat black and white images taken by Amundson in the 1980s and a third view in color taken in 2007-08 and accompanied by a detailed explanation of the landscape’s history. In addition, Amundson includes six in-depth essays that explore the life of Joseph E. Stimson, the rephotographic process and how it has evolved, and how repeat photography can be used to understand history, landscape, historic preservation and globalization.
  • Three undergraduate students have been awarded the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship, which offers $15,000 to encourage talented science, technology, engineering and math majors to earn a teaching credential and commit to teach in high-need school districts. Brianna McGregor, Amanda Montgomery and Kirsten Roberts received the award and will participate in an induction program after they graduate for support during their first years of teaching to promote retention.
  • Contracts and Purchasing Services published the first issue of the Buying Times newsletter in December. Announcements include a new bid threshold for procurements of $100,000 and information for registering campus volunteers. CPS also encourages departments to start working with Purchasing Services as soon as they receive notice of a grant. Read more here.
  • Extended Campuses’ Marketing Team won six distinctions at the Educational Digital Marketing Awards in Digital Video, Institutional Website, Social Media, Blog Site, QR Code Content and Microsite.
  • A paper by Laura Umphrey, professor in the School of Communication, was recently published in the International Journal of Wellbeing. The study, titled “The relationship of hope to self-compassion, relational social skill, communication apprehension, and life satisfaction,” takes an interdisciplinary approach to test a model of the relationship between hope and well-being.
  • John Paul Roccaforte, senior research specialist with the Ecological Restoration Institute, recently collaborated with NAU researchers on an article titled, “Forest structure and fuels dynamics following ponderosa pine restoration treatments, White Mountains, Arizona, USA,” published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. The study examined effects of forest treatments at different elevations, comparing areas with prescribed burns and other plots treated by thinning and burning. The researchers found that burn-only treatments have limited effectiveness in restoring forest health. Researchers and collaborators include David Huffman, Pete Fule, Wally Covington, W. Walker Chancellor, Michael Stoddard and Joseph Crouse.  
  • Ann Marie deWees, director of Extended Campuses Marketing, and Sandra Kowalski, director of University Marketing, co-presented, “7 Strategies to Double Your Team’s Productivity,” at the 2014 American Marketing Association Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education in Austin, Texas. The presentation introduced participants to the agile marketing methodology and described NAU’s productivity gains since adopting this approach.
  • The film Vectors of Autism, produced by education professor Susan Marks and directed by NAU alumnus John Schaffer, earned The People’s Choice Award from the We Speak Here film festival. Previously, the film won the Excellence Award from the Superfest International Disability Film Festival; was an official selection to the DocuWest Film Festival and accepted in the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival; and won Heart of the Festival at the Sedona International Film Festival and earned the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 2013 Media Award.

  • Chelsey Baca and Tessa Powell, undergraduate students in the Athletic Training Education program, have been selected to represent NAU at the iLead Athletic Training Student Leadership Conference Feb. 27-28 in Dallas. Assistant professors Scot Raab and Monica Lininger applied and received a grant from the National Athletic Trainers Association Ethnic Diversity Advisory Committee to send students of diverse backgrounds with all costs covered. Both students submitted a letter of interest and were selected for their leadership qualities, dedication, passion for the profession and scholarly behavior.

  • Educational Technology master’s students in the ETC655 class recently published two eBooks in Apple’s iTunes bookstore. The eBooks highlight Open Educational Resource and serve as a resource for educators interested in integrating online technology to support their online instruction. Digital learners also could use this book to support their learning by creating digital personal learning environments. Students Ryan Cornelius, Dana Martin and Cathleen McCarthy contributed to PLE & ONLE: A Learner’s Companion and Christopher Sheehan, Stephen Saint-Coeur and Christopher Udvare worked on Online Education: The PLE and The ONLE. Both eBooks are free to download.