MAY 2022
FOREVER RISING
The Forever Rising newsletter is an award-winning, monthly publication from FAMU's Office of the Provost and the Division of Academic Affairs.
FOREVER RISING TABLE OF CONTENTS EXCELLENCE WITH CARING University Updates p. 2 Academic Excellence p. 3 College/School Spotlight p. 4 Faculty Feature p. 5 Emerging Leaders Initiative p. 6 Legislative Update p. 7 Message from Maurice p. 8
Cadets report to the stage to receive their commissions during Florida A&M University's Spring 2022 Commencement ceremony on Friday, April 29.
UNIVERSITY UPDATES KEY EVENTS Board of Trustees Committee Meetings Wednesday, June 1
Board of Trustees Meeting Thursday, June 2 FAMU Foundation Board of Directors Meeting Wednesday, June 1 through Sunday, June 5 FAMU National Alumni Association Convention Friday, June 3 Deadline to Apply for Summer Commencement Friday, June 17 Florida Board of Governors Meeting Wednesday, June 29 and Thursday, June 30 Summer 2022 Commencement Friday, July 29 Board of Trustees Retreat Wednesday, August 10 and Thursday, August 11 Faculty Pre-planning Conference Tuesday, August 9 through Friday, August 12 Fall 2022 Semester Begins Monday, August 22
GREAT THINGS ARE HAPPENING FAMU NAMED ADOBE CREATIVE CAMPUS
FAMU NAMES NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
FAMU has been named an Adobe Creative Campus giving students, faculty and staff full access to Adobe Creative Cloud's suite of products and services. As part of the collaboration, the entire community may access the software on all devices, including desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets ensuring users can hone their digital fluency skills at any time The FAMU community also has access to Adobe Stock, which includes more than 200 million royalty-free images.
Gloria Walker, Ed.D., will join the the University as its next chief financial officer and vice president for administration. Walker, a certified public accountant, previously served as vice president for business affairs and chief financial officer at the University of New Orleans. She will begin work at FAMU on Friday, June 3.
This spring, FAMU's School of Journalism & Graphic Communication became the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to pilot Google’s Shape Co-Lab. The program is designed to educate and inspire more students to pursue careers in user experience (UX) and technology.
Suvranu De, Sc.D., has been named the next dean of the FAMUFSU College of Engineering. De is the J. Erik Jonsson ’22 Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he serves as head of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering and director of the Center for Modeling, Simulation, and Imaging in Medicine. His first day will be Friday, July 15.
FAMU RECEIVES $1.2 MILLION GIFT FROM FRANK AND LAURA BAKER
FAMU PROFESSOR NAMED TO CAPITOL HILL OCEAN WEEK (CHOW) ADVISORY COMMITTEE
FAMU BECOMES FIRST HBCU TO PILOT GOOGLE’S SHAPE CO-LAB
FAMU received a $1.2 million donation from Frank and Laura Baker to help students with financial challenges graduate in four years. The gift will be used to establish the Frank and Laura Baker Graduation Fund, which will provide funding for students who are qualified to graduate in four years, but have an outstanding account balance with the University.
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NEW DEAN SELECTED FOR FAMU-FSU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Assistant Professor Mila Turner, Ph.D., has been named to the Capitol Hill Ocean Week (CHOW) Advisory Committee as a leader in marine science and policy. The Advisory Committee, comprised of the country's leaders in marine science and policy, will guide the development of CHOW’s conference program to focus on the most pressing issues facing the ocean and the Great Lakes.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE Our Successes
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FAMU has been ranked #3 in the nation for the best respiratory-care therapy undergraduate program in the United States by Prepler. an automated degree planning and course mapping website.
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The FAMU-FSU College of Engineering establishes multi-year collaboration with Danfoss Turbocor, maker of oil-free HVAC compressors, to provide internships for underrepresented students.
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FAMU's Essential Theatre's fall 2021 production of Sweet Mama Stringbean received the Citizen Artist Award and Special Achievement in the production of a Musical from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival.
Two of FAMU's esteemed deans, Cynthia Hughes-Harris, Ph.D., dean of the School of Allied Health Sciences, and Rodner Wright, AIA, dean of the School of Architecture and Engineering Technology, have announced their retirement and will end their combined 48 years of service to the University at the close of the 2021-2022 year. In addition to their assignments as deans, Hughes-Harris and Wright served as provost and vice president of academic affairs and interim provost and vice president of academic affairs, respectively. Hughes-Harris and Wright contributed to the University substantially, both are credited for notable gains and improvements in their respective schools, and are appreciated for their dedication and commitment to faculty, staff and students at Florida A&M University.
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COLLEGE/SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT School of Journalism and Graphic Communication Answers Call for Knowledgeable, Skilled Practitioners
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his year mark's the 40th anniversary of the founding of FAMU's School of Journalism and Graphic Communication (SJGC). Since 1982, SJGC has produced many notable and successful alumni who represent all areas of journalism, public relations, communications and graphic design. SJGC students have won countless awards and alumni often serve as leaders in their respective organizations, and the school's popularity is growing. In Fall 2021, SJGC attracted 497 students who majored in prejournalism, broadcast journalism, public relations and graphic design. Mira Lowe, SJGC's new dean, credits their long-standing success to the faculty.
"I think it begins with the attention and the care that our faculty have toward the basics," she said. "They call it tough love..., but our students are really getting to understand the importance and why it's critical to learn those basic communication skills." However, in addition to their successes, Lowe said the school has a priority to remain relevant. "My vision for SJGC is to really be on the cutting edge of journalism, communication and research, but also train our students to be confident communicators," she said. "We want to be able to bring that essence more to the forefront of how we're telling stories...how we can build the skillset of our students." To meet their goals the dean said SJGC has plans to grow its offerings, such as bringing a more definitive focus on digital expertise across all platforms and including social media management and social media production courses for its public relations students. "Part of the impetus for curriculum changes is that we have been
The best thing we can do is prepare our students in those core values and core skills, because those skills will take them anywhere. Mira Lowe, dean for the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication
looking at the faculty, our peer institutions and industry trends," said Lowe. "We understand in order for us to be a relevant program we have to keep pace with industry standards." Lowe also said SJGC's partnerships are also essential to their continuing success. "A lot of schools... do not have a targeted division that focuses on how to groom the next generation of visual storytellers...so I'm really excited about the work we are doing with Google." In addition to curriculum enhancements and corporate collaboration, Lowe also said communicators have an obligation to continue to responsibly present social issues that impact communities. "We are helping our students understand...why we need to tell these stories in a compelling way, but also in an evidence based way," she said. "It's our role to help shine a light on those issues in a way that makes things understandable, accessible and actionable." In fields where minorities are often underrepresented, Lowe said SJGC's alumni have provided crucial support "One of the strengths of the J school is its community; the alums here are so engaged. I want us to help our students graduate as confident communicators. Not everyone is going to respect who they are or what they bring to the table."
FAMU's School of Journalism and Graphic Communication will offer the courses and programs listed below to better prepare its students to enter the workforce. Capitol Bureau- an immersive learning experience where students will gain in-the-field training and learn how to cover statewide government issues by developing their civic, government and political knowledge to generate stories of interest Public Relations (PR) Agency-experiential learning environment where students will gain hands-on experience working with real clients using brand awareness, integrated marketing and strategic communications strategics and tactics. Writing Lab-designed to provide one-on-one writing support, coaching and workshops to help students further develop and perfect their professional, written communication skills New courses being added to SJGC's program offerings: Computer Animation Modeling · Conceptual Thinking · Emerging Media Technologies · Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Innovation · Integrated Marketing Communications · Social Justice, Thought and Media · Social Media/Data Analytics · Strategic Communications · User Experience (UX) Design · Visual Storytelling · Web Design
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FACULTY FEATURE Associate Professor's Passion Results in National Recognition and Wins for Students
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ost of us will never forget March 2020: the virus known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the disease it causes, coronavirus disease 2019—simply known today as COVID-19—had been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), and the world literally closed. While everything was shuttered and people across the globe were learning how to social distance, adequately wash hands and properly wear protective masks, educators desperately sought new ways to provide instruction and deliver educational services while also meeting mandated program requirements for education majors. "We were no longer able to go into the physical classroom, so we immediately started brainstorming," said Rebecca Blankenship, Ph.D., associate professor and director of the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) program in the College of Education. At FAMU, Blankenship teaches students in her TESOL program how to provide instruction to English language learners. As part of the College of Education's community partnership, her students work directly with Sabal Palm Elementary, which has one of the highest populations of ELL students in Leon county. Blankenship said her team and her students scrambled to find solutions that would make it possible for the ELL students to continue to receive support instruction without hindering their progress. "We decided to create virtual tutorials, personalized tutorials for every K through five English language learning student," she said. The TESOL students recorded two tutorials each week, with each video including a brief overview of the previous lesson. Then they uploaded the videos to the ELL students' individual campus accounts; and were pleasantly surprised by the ELL students' progress. "There was no attrition, and it didn't just make a difference with the ELL students, it actually made a difference with their families as well," said Blankenship. Because the videos were uploaded to the campus accounts, parents and other family members were learning English along with their students. "It made a larger community impact than just being isolated to the students at the school," she said. Their new approach also resulted in national recognition. "We gathered a year's worth of qualitative research based on the TESOL students' experiences," Blankenship said.
The research was so impressive it helped them secure the gold level quality research award from the United States Distance Learning Association. The team will receive the award and present their findings at the organization's conference in July. Although the recognition is exciting, it's the community impact that ignites her passion for teaching. "We were graduating students that were underprepared to enter the workforce," she said. "It is an obligation as an educator to make sure all students are learning, not just the ones that speak English as their first language. Blankenship, who holds a Bachelor of Arts in pre/law and Spanish, two master's degrees, and a doctorate in second language acquisition and instructional technology, said her obligation to the profession is also why she works to overcome misconceptions about ELL students. "We have little united nations in each classroom. We have to prepare not only our in-service teachers, but our beginning educators... to be an inter-culturally responsive educator." She continued. "I've been a high school teacher, and I taught Spanish for many years, and worked with ELL," she said. "A lot of our students weren't receiving the support services they needed to acquire not only English, but also the different subject-area content they needed." In addition to her ELL research, she has published articles, has a book proposal, and actively engages students about the threats stemming from "deepfakes," which use artificial intelligence to make realistic images of fake events. "I'm teaching them to mitigate the impact of misinformation in a teaching content area to determine what is true and what is not, she said. "It's an obligation to help our next generation of teachers be the best they can be and provide that same collegiality to our fellow faculty no matter the school or college."
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EMERGING LEADERS INITIATIVE INAUGURAL COHORT CLASS 2022 Last semester, FAMU announced its Emerging Leaders Initiative—a new six-month professional development and leadership program for tenured, upper-level faculty. In February, qualified faculty ranked as either an associate professor or a full professor, were encouraged to submit their applications. Twelve faculty were selected to participate in the inaugural cohort, which began meeting on Wednesday, April 27. The Emerging Leaders, directed by lead facilitator Genyne Boston, Ph.D., associate provost for academic and faculty affairs and chief of staff for the Office of the Provost, will meet twice per month to learn best practices in higher education leadership; review case studies and apply information to address critical topics; conduct self-assessments; and engage in mentoring and shadowing experiences. Additional campus administrators and leaders are also scheduled to facilitate future sessions. Members of FAMU's 2022 Emerging Leaders Initiative are listed below.
Tiffany W. Ardley, Ph.D.
Patty Ball Thomas, Ph.D.
Selina Darling-Reed, Ph.D.
Merlin Langley, Ph.D.
Samique March-Dallas, Ph.D.
Marcia Owens, Ph.D.
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Cheron Davis, Ph.D.
Sarah Price, Ph.D.
Kyle Eidahl, Ph.D.
Kenya Washington-Johnson, Ph.D.
Gokhan Hacisalihoglu, Ph.D.
Phyllis Welch, Ph.D.
LEGISLATIVE UPDATE Listed below are some of the activities and bills recently signed by Governor Ron DeSantis. The state's budget has not been signed as of date of publication.
Nursing Education
The governor announced the approval of over $125 million for nursing education for the 20222023 Fiscal Year. Funding includes $100 million to establish the Prepping Institutions, Programs, Employers, and Learners through Incentives for Nursing Education (PIPELINE) program which, based on student success, will financially reward colleges and universities for their nursing education programs; and $25 million for the Linking Industry to Nursing Education (LINE) fund to be used to help schools recruit faculty and clinical preceptors for their nursing programs and overcome the shortage of nursing instructors.
Board Appointment
The governor recently announced FAMU alumna Laura Moody has been appointed to the Eastern Florida State College District Board of Trustees. Moody currently serves as the chief legal counsel for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office. She is of counsel for the Vassar B. Carlton American Inn of Court and a member of the Brevard County Bar Association. Moody earned her juris doctor from FAMU.
Hometown Heroes Housing Program
Governor DeSantis announced the launch of the Florida Hometown Housing Program to help Floridians in 50 critical professions, including law enforcement officers, educators and healthcare professionals, purchase a home. $100 million dollar program will officially launch on Wednesday, June 1.
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Message from Maurice Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Greetings. Thank you faculty, staff and students for your dedication to our university. I am inspired by the countless ways our community works together to propel FAMU to new heights. Now that we have successfully closed another semester and ushered our newly minted graduates into their respective fields, we have the occasion to reflect on the previous year's successes and gains, and develop strategies to address areas of opportunity. We will soon have a new strategic plan that will guide our actions and tactics for the next five years, and we will also address areas for growth, directly-related to the state's Performance Based Funding metrics. However, our efforts will remain data-driven, data-focused and centered on providing excellent instruction for our students. Now more than ever before, our corporate partners are looking to us to help them meet their increasing needs for human capital. Even as their needs expand, we are prioritizing our program offerings to remain a relevant producer of highly-qualified, skilled graduates. Summer months are often times for rest and relaxation, and I encourage everyone to rejuvenate and return invigorated to propel FAMU to new heights. Thank you for your continued service to the University.
Maurice
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