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The UH David M. Underwood Chapter of American
Humanics program
has received the prestigious 2008-2009 Outstanding Fundraising
Benchmark Award by the national American Humanics organization.
The award recognizes consistent excellence in fundraising practices.
American Humanics is housed in the Graduate College of Social Work
and is a national alliance of colleges, universities and nonprofits
dedicated to preparing the next generation of nonprofit leaders.
UH is one of the country’s most environmentally responsible
colleges, according to The Princeton Review (www. PrincetonReview.com).
The nationally known education services company selected UH for
inclusion in a unique resource it has created for college applicants
- “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 286 Green Colleges.”
Stuart
A. Long, professor of electrical and computer engineering, is the
recipient of the 2010 Esther Farfel Award–the highest honor
accorded to a UH faculty member. Long, who joined UH in 1974, has
received numerous honors including the 1983 Halliburton Award of
Excellence, the 1991 University Teaching Excellence Award and the
Engineering Alumni Association’s 1992 Distinguished Faculty
Award. He also was presented the 2002 UH Alumni Organization Outstanding
Faculty Award.
Alumni
Dwight Davis (’00), former NBA forward, received the New
Hampshire-Jobs for America’s Graduates National Workforce
Development Leadership Award for his extraordinary contributions
in helping at-risk students succeed in school and pursue a career
and/or a postsecondary education.
Aimee Hammerstrom (’09) is the recipient of the Texas
Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ 2009 Leo F. Godley
Resident/Fellow Award.
Gov. Rick Perry recently appointed Joyce
A. Tipton (’79)
and reappointed W. Benjamin Fry (’72) to the Texas State
Board of Pharmacy. Fry owns Fry’s Prescription Pharmacy
in San Benito and Small Fry’s, a Harlingen pediatric pharmacy.
Tipton is chief pharmacy officer of Baylor College of Medicine
and interim director of quality and patient safety for Baylor
Faculty Group Practice.
Faculty
Stanko Brankovic and Zhu
Han, assistant professors of electrical
and computer engineering, have received the National Science
Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Award, which provides
support to faculty members who have demonstrated great potential
early in their careers.
Ira Colby, dean of the Graduate College of Social Work, was
inducted into the prestigious National Academies of Practices
as a distinguished scholar in social work.
Stuart Dryer, professor of natural sciences and mathematics,
and Metin Akay, professor of engineering, were each awarded the
distinction of fellow from the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society
for their respective work, making distinguished contributions
to the advancement of science.
Tahir Hussain, associate professor of pharmacology, and Ming
Hu, professor of pharmaceutics, have received $2.65 million in
renewal awards from the National Institutes of Health for their
respective research projects into obesity and flavonoids.
Architecture professor Rafael Longoria and assistant architecture
professor Susan Rogers received the Association of Collegiate
Schools of Architecture Collaborative Practice Award for 2009-2010
for the Collaborative Community Design Initiative, a new program
of the Community Design Resource Center at the Gerald D. Hines
College of Architecture.
Raúl A. Ramos, associate professor of history, is the
recipient of the inaugural National Association for Chicana and
Chicano Studies (NACCS) Tejas Foco (state branch) Book Award.
The NACCS Tejas award recognizes an outstanding, singleauthored
nonfiction book written by scholars in any number of disciplines
that best addresses a significant subject related to the state’s
Mexican community.
Staff
Track and field head coach Leroy Burrell was selected as the
Conference USA Men’s Indoor Coach of the Year for the ninth
time.
Head diving coach Jane Figueiredo was named the Conference USA
Diving Coach of the Year for the ninth consecutive year.
Patricia Gras, senior producer at HoustonPBS, was inducted to
the Houston Hispanic Media Professionals as an honorary member
for her contribution to the field of journalism.
Students
The basketball team won the Conference USA Tournament championship
and claimed its first NCAA tournament berth in 18 years.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
History awarded Julie Cohn, doctoral history student, the 2010-2011
IEEE life member fellowship in electrical history. The fellowship
will support research for her dissertation titled “Expansion
for Conservation: The Growth of North America’s Power Grid
through the Twentieth Century.”
Anastasia Pozdniakova was named the NCAA Diver of the Year.
She also won her second consecutive 1-meter diving title at NCAA
Swimming and Diving Championships. Additionally, she won the
3-meter diving competition at the Conference USA Swimming and
Diving Championships and was honored as the diver of the meet.
Krystafer Redden has been appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to serve
as the student representative to the Undergraduate Advisory Committee
of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Matthew Reichl is among the 2010 recipients of the Barry M.
Goldwater Scholarship. He is just the second student in UH’s
history to receive this prestigious honor. The scholarship program,
established by the U.S. Congress in honor of the late Senator
Barry Goldwater, awards scholarships to students pursuing careers
in engineering, math and science. It is awarded to 300 college
sophomores and juniors each year, and is considered the most
prestigious award for an undergraduate student of the sciences.
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The
Institute for Higher Education Policy has selected UH-Downtown to
receive a $100,000 Walmart Minority Student Success Award for the
High-Impact Learning to Promote Progress program, which recruits,
retains and graduates firstgeneration college students.
The Corporation for National and Community Service named the university its 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor
Roll, recognizing its outreach programs for area elementary and
high school students and a growing, family-oriented Destination
Downtown open house program. The award is the highest federal recognition
a university or college can receive for such initiatives.
The
College of Business received re-accreditation status from the Association
to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), which has a
goal of advancing quality management education worldwide through
accreditation and thought leadership. The business college is among
less than 5 percent of the world’s business schools that
have received and maintained AACSB international accreditation.UHD
was among 63 institutions of higher education that maintained their
accreditation in business. Don Bates is the dean of the business
college.
Alumni
Salma Akbar Rivzi (’04) received the
regional top teacher award at the 2010 National Engineers’ Week
Future City competition. Rivzi, a science teacher at Al-Hadi
School of Accelerated Learning in Houston, coordinated her team’s
participation. The team won the highest overall combined score
of Houston-area schools at the contest.
Faculty
Jose Alvarez, associate professor of history, has been admitted
into the Academic Fellows Program of the Foundation for the Defense
of Democracies, “Defending Democracy, Defeating Terrorism.” Alvarez
will study in Israel for two weeks in summer 2010, in the field
and at Tel Aviv University.
Edmund Cueva, chair of the department of arts and humanities
and professor of humanities, has been named to the journal The
Marketplace of Ideas advisory board of the Council on Law in
Higher Education.
Aaron Gillette, assistant professor of history, has been awarded
a grant from the Goethe Institute in Germany to study German.
Gillette was also selected for a fellowship to conduct research
at the University of Siegen in Germany.
Gene Preuss, assistant professor of history, has been nominated
as a Texas Institute of Letters finalist for his book “To
Get a Better School System.” The awards recognize poetry,
short stories, scholarly authorship, journalism, children’s
books and book design.
Students
Students from the university will participate in the 2010 “Know
Your Heritage: Hispanic College Quiz,” a television game
show. The team includes team captain Marlyn
Davila and members
Carlos Cruz, Jose Uribe and Manuel
Fernandez. Wilzon Marinero is the alternate and Michelle Falcon, assistant director of student
activities, is the team’s coach.
Melissa Chan won an award for best abstract in chemistry and
biochemistry-related research at the Texas Academy of Science
conference. Her research presentation looked at the creation
of a crystalline compound that can extend the life of rechargeable
batteries. Chan also earned an honorable mention award at the
2009 Regional Undergraduate Chemistry Symposium at Rice University.
In April, she presented additional findings at the UHD Student
Research Conference and the National Conference of Undergraduate
Research.
The UHD Powerlifting Club won its third consecutive World Association
of Benchers and Deadlifters national collegiate team title. John
Hudson, assistant professor of English, coaches the team. Antonio
Moreno set a new national collegiate record. Linda
Okoro won
overall Best Lifter honors for women’s deadlift and women’s
total.
Yolanda Turner, Damarcus Jones and Ben
Gomez presented
the workshop “More Than Just Talk: Using Student-Facilitated ‘Dialogue
to Action Circles’ to Promote Institutionalization” at
the 2010 Achieving the Dream Strategy Institute. Gene
Preuss,
assistant professor of history, and Gary
Greer, university college
assistant dean, led the team.
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UHCL was
named to the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community
Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community
Service in recognition of the university’s commitment to
service and civic engagement.
The Society of Human Resource Management
recognized UHCL’s Master of Arts in Human Resource
Management with
full competency status, making it one of only 47 programs in the
United States that has received this certification.
UHCL received high marks for on-campus safety
in stateuniversity.com’s national rankings for the Top 50
Safest Public Colleges and Universities in Texas based on crime
statistics. The scale used for rating accounts for severity of
a crime as well as frequency of crime. Nationally, the university
ranked 22. It ranked fourth in the state, behind three junior/
community colleges, and is just one of the few universities scoring
in the top 10.
UHCL presented the 2010 President’s Cabinet Leadership Award
to associate professor of legal studies Jim Benson and
the 2010 President’s Cabinet Philanthropy Award to alumni Camille and Bill
Shock.
The Greater Texas Foundation awarded a $25,000 Rising to the Challenge
grant to Success Through Education programs and
a $25,000 Generation Proud grant to the Celebrating Our
Elders program. Both grants will provide scholarship assistance
to first-generation, community-college transfer students during
2010-2011.
The
Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics
Teaching awarded a $125,296 grant to Brenda Weiser,
associate professor of science education, for science teacher training,
mentoring and outreach during 2010-2011. Weiser also received $34,000
from the Society of Petroleum Engineers-Gulf Coast Section and
$15,000 from the American Petroleum Institute to support UHCL’s
regional science collaborative workshops and institutes.
Alumni
Ryan O’Connor’s (’09) graduate
research project on recycling was accepted for publication by
the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.
Faculty
Sandra Browning, assistant professor of curriculum
and instruction, received a $103,186 grant from the Texas Regional
Collaboratives for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching
for UHCL’s regional mathematics collaborative initiatives
in math teacher training, mentoring and outreach during 2010-2011.
Ashish Chandra, chair and professor of healthcare
administration, was selected to serve on the board of the Asian
Health Care Leaders Association.
Alecya Gallaway, Environmental Institute of
Houston historian, was selected to receive the 2009 Ruth Lester
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Historical Commission
in recognition of her contributions to historic preservation
in Texas.
Daniel Spencer Haworth, assistant professor
of history, and Susan McCormack, assistant professor of curriculum
and instruction, were awarded a $10,000 grant from the Texas
Higher Education Coordinating Board’s College and Career
Readiness Initiative to fund a series of curriculum development
seminars for social studies education, in which UHCL student
teachers will be paired with professional teachers from local
school districts.
Students
Undergraduate student Chris Padron and graduate
student Erin Lane received 2009 Dr. Patricia
Potter Wilson School of Education Outstanding Students Scholarships
in recognition of their academic achievements and leadership
capabilities.
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The Association of Small Business Development Centers has reaccredited
the Small Business Development Center for
the next five years.
UHV hosted the second annual Association of Independent Institutions
(A.I.I.) Softball Championship May 6-8 in Victoria. The event brought
together the six best teams in the A.I.I. to compete for a berth
in the 2010 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics softball
championship tournament.
Olga
Chapa, assistant professor of business administration,
received a Highly Commended Award in the 2009 Emerald/European
Foundation for Management Development Outstanding Doctoral Research
Awards. She received the award in the human resource management
category for her research, “A Qualitative Study of the Hispanic
Gender Role and Social-Cultural Factors Influencing the Attraction
Process: The Recruitment of the Latina to Meet 21st Century Labor
Shortage Challenges in America.” The Association of Small
Business Development Centers has reaccredited the Small Business
Development Center for the next five years.
Alumni
Lee Crews (’99) was named principal of Sugar Land’s
Clements High School.
Lisbeth Wicker (’09) was named one of two Outstanding
First Year Teachers for 2010 by the Katy Independent School District.
She is a first-grade teacher at Kilpatrick Elementary School.
Faculty
Charles Alcorn, managing editor of the UHV American Book Review
and an English instructor, is coordinating a project to publish
a book about UHV’s 36-year history. The new book, tentatively
titled “The University of Houston- Victoria: An Oral History
of an Academic Journey,” is expected to be published in
November.
Timothy Berkey, assistant professor of education, Tim
Hudson,
UHV president, and Ziad Swaidan, associate professor of marketing,
recently published a paper titled “Culture and Personal
Values: Theory and Review” in the European Journal of Management.
DeMonica Junious’ article “Stress and Perceived
Faculty Support Among Foreign-Born Baccalaureate Nursing Students” appeared
in the advanced online edition of the Journal of Nursing Education
and will appear in the May print edition of the journal. Junious
is an assistant professor of nursing.
Elsa Leggett and Mary
Mayorga, assistant professors of counseling,
made presentations at the conventions of the Association of Counseling
Educators and Supervisors and the Texas Counseling Association.
Management professor Nagarajan Ramamoorthy and UHV President
Tim Hudson co-authored a chapter in the textbook “Real
Learning Opportunities at Business School and Beyond.”
Kathryn
Tart, founding dean of the School of Nursing, was appointed
to the Texas Medical Center Council of Nurse Executives by UH
System Chancellor Renu Khator. The committee works to promote
nursing care in health care facilities and nursing education.
Assistant nursing professor Shainy Varghese had an article, “Caring
in Telehealth,” published in the Journal of Telemedicine
and Electronic Health.
Staff
UHV was recognized with three ADDY awards for advertising creative
excellence in projects related to the university’s annual
report and the School of Nursing. Members of the marketing department
who worked together on the projects include marketing director
John Ellis, creative services manager Steven
Nickel, communications
manager Paula Cobler, graphic designer Melody
Vecera, former
communications specialist Thomas Doyle and Internet technician
Harry Bashaw.
Mary Borden, online support technician for the School of Business
Administration, Emily Krenek, online support technician for the
School of Education & Human Development, and Crystal
Luna,
financial aid specialist, were selected as employees of the month
for December, January and February, respectively.
Robin Cadle, director of stewardship and planned giving, was
one of 100 outstanding women leaders chosen for the Leadership
Texas Class of 2010. Leadership Texas is the flagship program
of the Foundation for Women’s Resources in Dallas.
Students
Shefali Aggarwal, Kadima
Agostinho, Chunlu Chuang, Aly
Mazen and George
Thomas were on the team that took first place in the
fall Master of Business Administration conference case competition.
The winning team for the M.B.A. simulation competition at the
conference consisted of Ashish Gupta, Kenneth
Hester, Narayanan
Kavilveedu and Shailaja Thakkar.
Ann Hinrichs had an article she wrote about the benefits of
online classes at UHV published in Focus on Women, a quarterly
magazine.
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