Bon Voyage to Bethany Sills, June 1

May 26, 2017

After 12 years of service to student activities, Bethany Sills will be leaving The Bluff to start a new chapter in her career as a professional development manager with Audigy Group. Her last day will be June 2, according to Jeromy Koffler, student activities.

Bethany was hired as a program assistant in June 2005 and was promoted to assistant director and multicultural programs coordinator in 2007. In her time at UP, Bethany has collaborated with students, faculty, and staff to develop countless events that educate about identity and celebrate cultural, racial, and religious heritage. She was also invited to serve on the Presidential Advisory Committee for Inclusion and to assist the Division of Student Affairs in the development of a diversity and inclusion website and strategic plan.

There will be a celebration on Thursday, June 1, in the Bauccio Commons Terrace Room, at 3 p.m., to appreciate and thank Bethany for her service to the students and the University community. For more information contact Koffler at koffler@up.edu.

Jacquie Van Hoomissen has been selected by the steering committee of the NSF ADVANCE Partnership project (Advancing STEM Careers by Empowering Network Development) to join the inter-institutional peer mentoring network of Administrators in the Northwest region. As a member of an Administrator Alliance, she will work with teams to evaluate how campus policies and practices impact professional advancement and leadership development of a diverse faculty in STEM fields. The goal of the program is to reduce institutional obstacles to advancement for women in STEM fields, create more equitable communities, and foster the retention and advancement of a diverse STEM faculty population.

Hannah Highlander, mathematics, edited An Introduction to Undergraduate Research in Computational and Mathematical Biology: From Disease Dynamics to Big Data (with Carrie Diaz Eaton, Alex Capaldi), New York, NY: Springer. ISBN 978-3-030-33645-5, February 2020.

Simon Aihiokhai, theology, was cited in The Tablet, December 9, 2019: “Africans Warn Numerical Growth Has To Be Matched By ‘Tools of Liberation.'” See the article here. He was also elected as a member of the Board of Directors for a three years term at the College Theology Society in March 2020.

Elizabeth Lee, institutional research, has been elected to the Association for Institutional Research’s Board of Directors as a member-at-large. AIR is an organization that seeks to empower higher education professionals to utilize data, analytics, and evidence to make decisions and take actions that benefit students. Elizabeth has cycled off as treasurer for the Pacific Northwest regional organization for institutional researchers in time to serve at the national level. Full election results are available at this link.

Cara Poor, Shiley School of Engineering, contributed “Evaluation of agricultural byproducts as amendments in bioretention systems for metal and nutrient removal” (with Ben Guidice, Jacob Bib, and student coauthor Camille Morgan) to Journal of Environmental Engineering, 146: 04020029, March 2020.

Hillary Merk, Jacqueline Waggoner, James Carroll, Heidi Parrett, and Claire Tooley, education, presented one paper at the annual conference of the Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) in Atlanta, GA, February 28-29, 2020. The paper was titled “From High School to Teaching: Developing a ‘Grow Your Own’: Pathway for A More Diverse Teaching Profession.”

Jacqueline Waggoner, Hillary Merk, Randy Hetherington, James Carroll, and Bruce Weitzel, education, presented at the annual conference of the Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) in Atlanta, GA, February 28-29, 2020. The paper was titled “Trauma Informed Practices and Teacher Preparation.”