Nathaniel King (Library Director) received the 2021 Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Information and Library Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. The award recognizes “outstanding professional library or information science achievements at national, state or local levels." Nathaniel has also been appointed to the Board of the Association of College and Research Libraries' College Library Director Mentor Program for a 3-year term.

Jesse Poole was elected Chair of the Global Awards Committee for the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA).

Roberta Kaufman (Education) was elected Vice President of the state NFA/AAUP Executive Board, which represents all NSHE campus chapters.

Chris Harris (Communication) published a chapter in Pop Culture and the Civic Imagination: Case Studies of Creative Social Change, which received the Popular Culture Association's 2021 Ray and Pat Browne Edited Collection Award. Chris wrote chapter 26, "A Vision for Black Lives in the Black Radical Tradition."

Heidi Batiste served as Faculty Advisor to NS's first-place team in the Collegiate Business Case Competition at the 2021 Society for Advancement of Management International Conference.

Jo Meuris completed a short animated film titled "Aurora," which won several awards, including the Award of Excellence Special Mention in the Animation category at the Accolade Global Film Competition.

Alena Principato received an award from the PR Xchange Awards Competition hosted by the American Library Association for designing the Library Quick-Start Guide.

Amber Lopez-Lasater finished her Doctorate in Public Policy.

Ivelina Petkova earned her MS in Leadership and Management.

Aster Sigel earned a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction: Interaction and Media Sciences.

Angel Ball (Speech Pathology), Danette Barber (IR), Wendi Benson (Psychology), Kayla Bieser (Biology), Zarah Borines (Nursing), El Hachemi Bouali (Geosciences), Angela Brommel (Arts & Culture), Adam Davis (Visual Media), Jonathan Dunning (Psychology), Katie Durante (Criminal Justice), Logan Kennedy (Criminal Justice), Chris Garrett (CTLE/Education), Lance Hellman (Human Health Sciences), Rachel Herzl-Betz (Writing Center), Emily Hoover (English), Laura Decker (English), Kelly Svoboda (English), Samuel Piccone (English), Amber Howerton (Chemistry), Sam Jewell (Biology), Heather Lang-Cassera (First Year Experience), Carol Lee (Psychology), Laura Naumann (Psychology), Jollina Simpson (Writing Center), Christina Squires (Psychology), Samantha Jewel (Biology), Aster Sigel (Undergraduate Research), Hon-Vu Duong (Biology), and Zach Woydziak (Chemistry) all had items published this year.

Shartriya Collier (Education), Jennifer Edmonds (Biology/Environmental Science), Kebret Kebede (Biology), Vanessa Mari (Education), Gwen Sharp (Vice Provost/Sociology), and Kimberly Williams (TRIO Upward Bound) submitted grant proposals to various agencies.

Molly Appel (English), Kayla Bieser (Biology), Melanie Bradle (Speech Pathology), Irene Cepeda (HSI Grant), Shartriya Collier (Education), Christy Fleck (Speech Pathology), Kevin Graziano (Education), Roberta Kaufman (Education), Alex Kunkle (Advising), Melanie Murray (Education) and Dennis Potthoff (Education) all got word that grants have been funded, in amounts from a few thousand to $2.6 million!

The TRIO Upward Bound program recently held its annual awards and graduation ceremony (in person!). More than 70% of the first-generation students in the program plan to attend college, and five will enroll at Nevada State this fall. #TRIOWorks. Carlos Navarro, Phil LaMotte, Yesica Placencia-Flores (all Student Life) received a NASPA Innovation Grant to launch the “Podcasts to Reduce Barriers” project. Also, 21 Nepantla students will walk at graduation!

Cynthia Bezard (Education), El Hachemi Bouali (Geosciences), Shirli Brautbar (History), Nicholas Carroll (Spanish), Vu Duong (Biology), Roxanne Farrar (Humanities), Cecelia Fernan (Nursing), Cathleen Furtado (Education), Susan Growe (Nursing), Courtney Hafen (Humanities), Lance Hellman (Human Health Sciences), Amber Howerton (Chemistry), Ludy Llasus (Nursing), Nina Marcellus (Nursing), Patricia Nill (Nursing), Latricia Perry (Nursing), Bryan Sigel (Biology), and Anna Taber (Nursing) all completed the ACUE Effective Online Best Practices Certificate. More faculty will be finishing up in the coming weeks.

Vu Duong, Katie Durante, Carol Lee, Derryce Howzell, Nina Marcellus, and Chris Garrett completed the CTLE Best Practices in Online Teaching Certificate. And 100% of full-time faculty participated in at least one CTLE training, webinar, or other professional development offering!

Griselda Wille (History) and Gwen Sharp each led teaching-focused webinars. Chris Garrett presented on our course quality assurance program, while Sierra Adare-Tasiwoopa api and Jack Agamba (both CTLE staff) presented about different elements of online teaching and design at the Intermountain Teaching for Learning (T4L) Conference. Sierra and Nate Silva (Biology) presented on gamification in classes at the Lilly West Conference. And Tiffany Garrett (Library Services), Lauren Johnson (Library Services), and Nathaniel King (Library Services) each presented on topics such as course materials, assessment, and textbook affordability.

The Early Childhood Education and the Data Science majors were approved this year. And the Master's program in Speech-Language Pathology graduated its first students, as did our new 3+1 Visual Media program with TMCC! Shartriya Collier got Sankofa up and running, providing a vital form of support for Black students and several great virtual talks and cultural events. The Office of Student Life and the CARE Team collaborated with NSSA on #StingOutStigma to fight suicide.

And, of course, the Office of Student Life built out a whole suite of programming for our first-ever residential students!

Juan Guzman-Morales will become the Coordinator of Alternative Media and Interpreting effective July 1st. Rachel Herzl-Betz is now the Writing Center Director. Jesse Poole was named the new Associate Director of Academic Advising and Student Success Initiatives.

This year, NSHE considered pricing models that would have made our dual credit program difficult (if not impossible) for us to maintain. Tony Scinta helped the committee approve a different model that was more equitable. NSHE also considered new gateway math courses for business and health sciences, which may have made these majors more complicated for our students to navigate. Tony helped to keep this recommendation from becoming a mandate.

Jennifer Lamoreaux led the effort to offer college classes to over 2,600 high-school juniors and seniors in the dual credit program. For context, this is more students than NSC had in the entire college in 2012.

Stefany Sigler (Advising) was a featured speaker for National Transfer Student Awareness Week at Governor State University. Dr. Edith Fernandez (College and Community Engagement) spoke at the annual TRiO Upward Bound Graduation Ceremony, where she was recognized as the TRiO Honoree of the Year.

Leilani Carreño (Nepantla Director) and Johanna Araujo (former Nepantla Coordinator), along with two students, participated in the inaugural student panel Super Session for the Western Association for College Admission Counseling (WACAC), which had over 900 attendees. WACAC's president said he was "enthralled and inspired" by their session.

Laura Hinojosa (Case Manager) joined Chancellor Rose's Mental Health Taskforce, while Heidi Batiste (Business) was appointed to the Clark County Business Development Advisory Council. Tony Scinta (Executive Vice Provost) participated in our accrediting body's Diversity Council, and Katie Durante (Criminal Justice) joined the Las Vegas Metro Police Department's Citizen Review Board. Sharneé Walker (DRC) was elected President of the Nevada Association on Higher Education and Disability. Katie Durante (Criminal Justice) was appointed to the Las Vegas Metro Police Department's Citizen Review Board.

David Kelsey created a video for Immunize Nevada explaining how to get a COVID-19 vaccination in ASL. Several faculty and staff volunteered at COVID-19 vaccination clinics, including Gwen Sharp, Gregory Robinson, Kat Furman, and Kim Smith. At those same clinics, our nursing faculty and nursing students joined with CSN and UNLV to administer vaccinations. Amey Evaluna led the efforts to hold regular COVID-19 Incident Management Planning Team meetings.

By coming together as a team, our Scorpions Give program raised $65,741 from 266 donors. Your donations have also helped support the Dawn Butler Dream Big Memorial Fund, which now provides a scholarship for new students.

The Nepantla Team and the Office of Arts & Culture worked with students to create the first Nepantla mural, which is on exhibit in the LAS building. The Undergraduate Research and Creative Works Conference Committee hosted a fantastic event showcasing our students and featuring a keynote by Dr. Julia Lee. Also, campus leadership and the ASC team completed 12 hours of Anti-Racism training.

Thank you for an amazing spring semester! If you're interested in seeing even more faculty/staff accomplishments, take a look at this list compiled by LAS. We're looking forward to seeing everyone again in the fall!