UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

Tara Prestholdt

Your 2019 ACUBE Excellence in Teaching Award Winner: Tara Prestholdt

Tara Prestholdt, biology, won the 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Association of College and University Biology Educators (ACUBE). The award is offered annually to honor faculty who both practice and promote effective, innovative teaching in the biology classroom.

While the entire campus is no doubt aware of Prestholdt’s polymathic proficiency, mathematics professor Stephanie Salomone explains it best: “Tara is a true mentor to her undergraduates. Tara’s expectations for her co-researchers are high. They will not just do good science, but they will be able to explain their work to people who are as far as possible from experts. They will not just enjoy science, or like science; they will find science exciting,the process of discovery exhilarating, and the difficult cognitive task of explaining science to laymen motivating. Every student that I’ve known who has worked in Tara’s lab has come out skilled in scientific research, and eager to get back into the lab or the field to do more.

“Further, Tara Prestholdt is dedicated to improving undergraduate education on campus and beyond. Tara’s work on the NSF-funded REFLECT project has helped transform the culture of undergraduate STEM education at UP into one that responds to the evidence of what makes for great teaching – active, hands-on, engaged approaches to instruction. She is a supportive mentor for other faculty who are new to evidence-based practices, she is innovative in her own approaches to teaching, and she is a leader who deeply deserves this recognition.”

 

 

 

New Grants Signal Science Success

The College of Arts and Sciences Natural Sciences and Mathematics division is pleased to announce that four junior faculty in the departments of biology, chemistry, and environmental studies have each received external grants to support their research and K-12 outreach work in the local community. Collectively, these individual grants total almost $180,000, with an additional $50,000 in matching funds contributed by CAS. This success in funding is a demonstration of the commitment faculty have made to pushing the boundaries of science, while simultaneously engaging with undergraduate and local K-12 students in transformational educational endeavors. The first of these grants is funded by the Society for Developmental Biology and the latter three by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, which has been a generous, key contributor to CAS for many years. All four projects will involve undergraduate students.

Laura Dyer, biology, received an SDB Education Grant, “Engaging elementary school students in developmental biology through brine shrimp lifecycle activities.” This grant will provide approximately $1,500 for dissecting microscopes and lab supplies in support of a developmental biology-related project for the fourth graders of Astor K-8 School.

Rachel Hutcheson, chemistry, received a Natural Sciences Grant, “Spectroscopic, mechanistic, and structural investigations of uncharacterized radical S-adenosyl L-methionine enzymes.” Funding in the amount of $59,650 will support research on Radical S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) enzymes, using an anaerobic chamber (a chamber with no oxygen).

Kristin Sweeney, environmental studies, received a Natural Sciences Grant, “Quantifying feedbacks between topography, rock properties, sediment, and ecology on rocky shore platforms of the Oregon Coast.” This grant will provide $58,777 in research funds to use combined measurements of topography, rock hardness, and biodiversity to quantify the extent to which topography influences ecosystem structure and vice versa. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration with Tara Prestholdt, biology, and is a great example of how UP’s close campus community can inspire fruitful cross-departmental partnerships.

Susan Murray, biology, received a Natural Sciences Grant, “Effect of SMAC (second mitochondrial activator of caspases) mimetics on human T cell activation and function.” This project is essentially about understanding the signals that determine T cell activation. $60,000 in funds will help drive research on an overall hypothesis that a new class of chemotherapy drugs called SMAC mimetics, which were developed for their ability to kill cancer cells, might have a very different effect on T cells—namely to relieve T cell negative regulation, and thus improve the ability of T cells to attack a patient’s tumor.

For more information contact the College of Arts and Sciences at x7221 or cas@up.edu. 

 

 

Presentation By 2018 Teaching Award Winner, Nov. 2

Tara Prestholdt, the 2018 recipient of the Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching, will share her thoughts on teaching in a talk titled “Gifts, Presence, and Present’ on Friday, November 2, at 4 p.m., in the Clark Library classroom (Room 211). All staff and faculty are invited to attend and light refreshments will be provided.

For more information, contact the Teaching and Scholarship Committee at tas@up.edu.

2018 Faculty Award Winners Announced

The University’s Faculty Awards were presented on Tuesday, May 8, at the Faculty Awards Dinner, with the following results:

  • The James Culligan Award, established in 1953 in memory of a dedicated servant of the University and presented annually to a faculty member in recognition of distinguished service, was presented to Matthew Kuhn, Br. Godfrey Vassallo Professor of Civil Engineering (pictured). Winners of the Culligan Award wear the medal with their academic regalia, as a sign of the University’s highest faculty honor.
  • The Deans’ Award for Faculty Leadership, presented annually to a tenured faculty member who exemplifies, in an extraordinary way, the qualities of teaching and scholarship described in the University’s Articles of Administration for appointment, advancement in rank, and tenure, was presented to Lorretta Krautscheid, nursing.
  • The Outstanding Teaching Award, presented annually by the University’s Committee on Teaching and Scholarship to a faculty member who is a particular exemplar of the University’s commitment to superb teaching, was presented to Tara Prestholdt, biology..
  • The Outstanding Scholarship Award, presented annually by the University’s Committee on Teaching and Scholarship to a faculty member who presents unusually significant and meritorious achievement in professional scholarship during the past two academic years, and whose work substantively enhances the effectiveness of his or her classroom teaching, was presented to Alexandra Hill, international languages and cultures..
  • The Faculty Award for Outstanding Service, presented annually by the Committee on Committees to a faculty member “who engages in creative service work that transforms not only local communities but also those afar and acknowledges distinguished contributions that express the University’s commitment to responding to the needs of the world,” was presented to Anissa Rogers, sociology and social work.

For more information contact the provost’s office at x7105 or provost@up.edu.

Bon Appétit: Say Goodbye To Plastic Straws

The University of Portland’s food service provider, Bon Appétit, will no longer provide plastic drinking straws in the Bauccio Commons or Cove, or any other food or beverage outlet on campus, effective April 18, 2018. Biology professor Tara Prestholdt and Bon Appétit’s Kirk Mustain point out that UP uses approximately 9,000 straws a month, which would stretch to over a mile joined end to end. That translates to over 13 miles of straws a year, which translates into more than 55 miles of straws over a typical four-year college span. Starting next year, every college graduate of UP will help prevent the use of enough plastic straws to equal the height of a 20,000 story building, stretch from Portland to Salem, or build a straw bridge across the Sea of Cortez. According to environmental studies professor Steve Kolmes, UP boasts the first University dining service in the U.S. to successfully institute a campus initiative to ban plastic straws.

Sustainability is a hallmark at UP. Shiley Hall is LEED Platinum certified; Fields and Schoenfeldt Halls are LEED Gold certified; and the Clark Library and Beauchamp Center are LEED Silver certified. Bon Appétit partners with local farmers when possible, and the University’s biodiesel processor converts used vegetable oil into biodiesel fuel. The University was also the first university on the West Coast to eliminate disposable plastic water bottles in 2010, and was honored as a Champion of Sustainability by McKinstry, a full-service consulting, construction, energy, and facility services firm with offices around the country, in 2015. Fr. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C., joined 200 colleges and universities in signing the statement on the Paris Climate Agreement, and annually, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Sustainability (PACS), comprised of students, faculty, and staff, identifies continuous opportunities for sustainable objectives. Most recently PACS issued an Earth Day challenge to the UP community: students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to make a commitment to take at least one tangible step toward increasing sustainability on campus.