UHS - August 2009 System Success Stories

UH System Success Stories

MAY 2010


	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.

	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.

	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.

	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.