AWARDS/HONORS

This spring, John Jones, director of the Media Resources Center, and Carolyn Speer, manager of Instructional Design and Access (in the MRC) were awarded the CPACC certification from the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP).

Carolyn Shaw was selected as the recipient of the Active Learning in International Affairs section Distinguished Scholar award. The award is given by the International Studies Association.

Amy Chesser, assistant professor in Public Health Sciences, was selected as a recipient of the Eugene Washington Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Engagement Award for her project “Women Involved Network (WIN for Kansas): Community Collaboration to Create Health Equity.” This award is for $250,000 over the course of two years.

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PRESENTATIONS

Pamela O'Neal, assistant director of the Office of Adult Learning and doctoral student in the Educational Leadership Program, and Cindy Hearson, Master of Social Work student, have been accepted to present their work at the 67th Annual American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) Conference. Together, O'Neal and Hearson will be presenting on The Adult Mentoring Advantage Program (A-MAP), which was developed and implemented at Wichita State. A-MAP is a peer-to-peer mentorship program designed to help adult learners succeed from orientation to graduation and beyond. The conference will be held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina from Oct. 2-5. Their presentation will be one of over 300 sessions at the conference. Presenters are from a variety of adult and continuing education areas.

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PUBLICATIONS

Noell Birondo, associate professor of philosophy, published “Perspectives on Ancient Ethics,” a critical review of The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Ethics (Cambridge UP, 2017), in The Classical Review. Established in 1887, The Classical Review is the most widely read journal in the discipline of Classics for book reviews. The article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0009840X1800118X. Birondo also presented his paper, “Epistemic Injustice in Anscombe and Aristotle,” at the International Conference on Moral Epistemology, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, with generous support from ACU and WSU.

Noell Birondo, associate professor of philosophy, had his edited collection, Virtue's Reasons: New Essays on Virtue, Character, and Reasons (Routledge, 2017), favorably reviewed in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (2018.08.01), the most widely read journal in the discipline of philosophy for book reviews. The article can be found at http://ndpr.nd.edu.

Linda Moody, assistant professor in the School of Nursing, published “Advancing Nursing Education: BSN Completion Messaging Materials for Associate Degree Program Nursing Faculty,” in Nursing Education Perspectives. The article can be found here. 

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NEW APPOINTMENTS

Lisa Haggard (right), grant/contract specialist, was recently designated as a Certified Research Administrator (CRA). The CRA designation means that Lisa has met the requirements of the Research Administrators Certification Council's and has demonstrated, through experience and testing, the required knowledge to be a professional research/sponsored programs administrator.

Danny Bergman was recently appointed the interim department chair for Wichita State School of Education.

Rich Bomgardner was recently appointed as chair for the Department of Human Performance Studies.

Neal Allen has been named chair of the department of political science. An associate professor, his primary research interests include American politics, Congress and the politics of race. He teaches courses in American politics and law. He regularly provides political commentary about local and state elections on television and radio and was recently quoted in Rolling Stone.

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MISCELLANEOUS

Alicia Sanchez, director of The Office of Diversity and Inclusion, was one of 44 area community leaders and business who graduated from the 10th Advance Kansas class on Friday, May 4. Advance Kansas is a community initiative that brings together leaders from across the community to create and strengthen relationships and acquire skills for addressing diversity challenges and opportunities in organizations and in the community. Class members meet over the course of four months to form relationships and develop skills to become better leaders in increasingly diverse organizations and communities. Between class sessions they work in teams to create community-action projects. Each of this year's projects address what the Chung Report describes as Wichita's Human Capital Challenge. Members of a CEO Roundtable on Diversity and Inclusion established by the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce identified six priorities the region should pursue to tackle the human capital challenge around diversity and inclusion. These issues became the basis of the projects presented at the culmination. Sanchez's project team is proposing a partnership with Young Professionals of Wichita to implement the idea that businesses in Wichita, big and small, will be present on college campuses in a more intentional way to focus on building relationships with high-performing students in the hopes that this network of relationships can contribute to retaining talent even before they graduate. They are calling this partnership The Career Courtship Program. Other members of Sanchez's team are: Blake Blasi, Cornejo & Sons, Inc.; Hayley Hobbs, Butler Community College; Stephen Kamunge, Airbus Americas; Stacey Petrie, Hutton Construction; and Tim Smith, IMA Financial Group Inc.

The Institute for Interdisciplinary Creativity (IIC) has been renamed the Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation (III). The new name continues to build on the initiative of becoming an innovation-focused campus. The name change strengthens the connection between educational programs and the developing Innovation Campus and reinforces the message that the ‘Innovation Campus has come to mean a mindset as well as a physical place'. This change is also consistent with universities across the country that are establishing colleges of innovation as institutions recognize that learning innovation has evolved into an academic discipline.

Alicia Huckstadt, professor and director of graduate programs in the School of Nursing, participated in a Nursing Roundtable with the Wichita Business Journal. Topics included licensure, certification, changing health care needs, diversity in the workforce and the national opioid crisis. https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/feature/table-of-experts/table-of-experts-nursing.html

Sean Gates, Gear Up coordinator at Truesdell Middle School and an alumnus of WSU, was elected Precinct Committee Chairman for the 106th District in Wichita on Aug. 7. The district is from 9th Street and Hillside to 9th and Hydraulic, Hydraulic to Douglas and Douglas to Hillside.

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IN MEMORIAM

James H. Swan, 71, professor at UNT, Denton, Texas, died May 30, 2018. Son of Harvey and Madeline Swan, Jim was born and raised in Wichita. He taught in California and Kansas before moving to Denton. He was a faculty member in Public Health Sciences at Wichita State University from 1992-'04. He retired in 2004. He is survived by wife, Sandy, son, Michael (both of Denton), one brother, Mike Swan and four sisters, Terry, Kathleen, Pat (all of Wichita) and Marilyn (Arizona). Memorial scholarship fund.