UGA Columns April 1, 2019

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University Theatre will end its season with production of ‘Young Frankenstein’ Vol. 46, No. 30

April 1, 2019

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4&5

Celebrating success: UGA to hold Honors Week programs April 1-5

By Camie Williams camiew@uga.edu

Andrew Davis Tucker

UGA students taking part in the Road Dawgs program travel across Georgia to talk with high school students about the collegiate experience.

‘Powerful voice’ Road Dawgs share their stories at high schools across the state

By Krista Richmond krichmond@uga.edu

Ja’Von Holmes knows firsthand the impact the Road Dawgs program makes.

Last year, the group visited Spencer High School in Columbus, where Holmes was a senior making his final decisions about where to attend college. This year, he joined the Road Dawgs to help inspire others as they inspired him.

“It was definitely a reason why I chose to attend UGA, and I want high school students to know that I was in their position at one point, too,” said Holmes, a first-year student majoring in computer science.

“They introduced me to the beginning of my four years at UGA. The things they shared with me have all been true, and I feel that UGA is only getting better with each passing day.”

Road Dawgs, a program where students use their spring break to travel across Georgia to talk with high school students about the collegiate experience, is now in its fourth year and continues to expand its reach. This year, the group traveled to areas affected by Hurricane Michael, including Cairo, Bainbridge and Albany, and visited schools in Norcross and Snellville.

“All of our students have a unique story,” said Arthur Tripp, assistant to the president. “Sharing those stories as a Road Dawg shows the high school students we visit that they, too, can write their own story.

They’re showing the next generation what’s possible.”

The goal of Road Dawgs is to make high school students aware of their opportunities after they graduate and empower them to begin thinking about their futures,

particularly in higher education.

“Road Dawgs gives high school students a chance to connect and interact with UGA students they can relate to, whether that be in interests, background or experiences,” said Michelle Cook, vice provost for diversity and inclusion and strategic university initiatives.

“Students learn from their peers, and this near-peer experience is a powerful voice for the University of Georgia and speaks volumes regarding our commitment to making our institution accessible to students across the state.”

Since the program began, more than 200 students have visited 33 schools in all parts of Georgia.

“We’re laying a foundation with Road Dawgs,” said Patrick Winter, associate vice president for admissions and enrollment management.

See ROAD DAWGS on page 8

TERRY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

The University of Georgia will celebrate the successes of students, faculty, staff and alumni during Honors Week, April 1-5.

“The University of Georgia is a national leader in public higher education because of its outstanding faculty, staff, students and alumni,” said Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Libby V. Morris. “Honors Week recognizes their accomplishments and inspires others to follow in their footsteps.”

Honors Week is an annual UGA tradition dating back to

the 1930s, when then-Chancellor S.V. Sanford dedicated a day to recognize outstanding students. In 2011, the event was expanded to include events recognizing faculty, staff and alumni.

Honors Week activities include the Public Service and Outreach Meeting and Awards Luncheon as well as the Alumni Awards Luncheon, which are open to the public, as well as several invitationonly events. Departments across UGA’s schools and colleges also will hold recognition ceremonies for honored students in their respective disciplines. For more information, visit calendar.uga.edu/.

See HONORS on page 8

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

Proposals sought for second phase of Diversity, Inclusion Grant Program Proposals are now being received for the second phase of the New Approaches to Diversity and Inclusion Program.

The program, which supported 21 innovative programs last year, is being renewed with $300,000 in private funds set aside by President Jere W. Morehead.

“As I said in my State of the University address in January, the University of Georgia must continue to make steady progress toward greater diversity and inclusion if we are to reach our full potential as a public land-grant institution,” said Morehead. “Now, more than ever, I am committed to advancing that important goal.

I am pleased to provide a second round of grant funding to support programs that promote the recruitment, retention and academic

success of ­ u nderrepresented, first-generation, rural and other underserved students.”

Building on the success of the original grants initiated in fall 2017, the second phase will provide awards ranging from $10,000 to $25,000 for programs and projects sponsored by an office or department within a UGA school, college or administrative unit that directly supports recruitment and ­retention efforts.

Phase II will support not only new projects, but also extensions of previously funded efforts that have demonstrated the greatest promise for impact and a sustainable funding model.

“The New Approaches grant program provides units with a unique opportunity to innovate in See GRANT on page 8

CENTER FOR UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES

UGA opens entrepreneur-focused Studio 225 More than 650 undergraduates

By Matt Weeks students and the first step toward “Entrepreneurship has been mweeks@uga.edu

Student entrepreneurship at the University of Georgia has a new home, thanks to a just-opened building at the interface of North Campus and downtown Athens.

Studio 225, named for its West Broad Street address, will be UGA’s Student Center for Entrepreneurship. It is also the first physical manifestation of the university’s deepening focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, said Henry Munneke, associate dean for undergraduate programs at the Terry College of Business, which houses the program.

“Studio 225 is a real gamechanger for UGA ­entrepreneurship

a university-wide initiative called the Innovation District; a hub— or district—on campus to foster innovation, entrepreneurship, discovery and industry collaboration,” Munneke said at a March 19 dedication ceremony. “I am already imagining new companies with aspirations to be the next Amazon or Apple being formed within these very walls.”

UGA’s Entrepreneurship Program has grown rapidly since its inception three years ago. What began with one instructor and 33 undergraduates has become a campus-wide initiative that reaches more than 1,000 students each year and includes a variety of academic and experiential o ­ pportunities.

an integral part of the fabric of the University of Georgia since its inception in 1785. Entrepreneurs created the birthplace of higher education in this country, built this campus, created the city of Athens and have continuously contributed to the growth and expansion of this great university,” said Bob Pinckney, director of the Entrepreneurship Program. “Today, we honor those entrepreneurs and their vision and leadership through the dedication of this facility.”

The new space will house faculty offices as well as several spaces where student entrepreneurs can meet with mentors and each other to develop ideas. In addition to See STUDIO on page 8

to present at CURO Symposium

By Stephanie Schupska schupska@uga.edu

From research on the development of international law in cyberspace to the psychophysiological effects of yoga—and every project in between—University of Georgia undergraduates are gearing up for the annual CURO Symposium, held this year on April 8-9 at the Classic Center in downtown Athens.

Hosted by the Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities, this year’s symposium is again breaking records, becoming the first to include more than

650 undergraduates.

At the two-day event, students will present individually and in teams at oral and poster sessions on topics as varied as chemistry in the arts, hybridization in Chattahoochee bass, newborn hearing screenings, concrete bridge deck cracking, Zika virus transmission, cost savings of health insurance networks, high-fat diet’s effect on gut morphology and the Athens music scene.

“Given the sheer range of topics addressed, the quality of our students’ work and the tremendous support of faculty across campus,

See SYMPOSIUM on page 8

2 April 1, 2019 columns.uga.edu

DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS

‘Educational block party’: International Street Festival to mark 20th anniversary

OFFICE OF THE PROVOST

By Marilyn Primovic mjp82278@uga.edu

Andrew Davis Tucker

UGA alumnus Roger Hunter returned to campus March 20 to deliver the 2019 Charter Lecture in the Chapel.

NASA scientist offers challenge for students

By Krista Richmond krichmond@uga.edu

How rare is Earth? And is there another one?

“Good science begins with good questions,” said Roger Hunter, NASA Small Spacecraft Technology program manager and associate director of the NASA Ames R ­ esearch Center.

Hunter spoke about how his work helps answer those questions during the 2019 Charter Lecture, “NASA’s Kepler Mission and Small Spacecraft Technologies: Today and Beyond,” held March 20 at the Chapel.

“For NASA, there are three fundamental questions: Are we alone? How did we get here? And how does the universe work?” said Hunter, who received his Bachelor of Science in mathematics from UGA in 1978.

Hunter and his team seek answers by identifying and supporting the development of new subsystem technologies to expand the capabilities of small spacecrafts for NASA. One such task was serving as program manager for NASA’s Kepler Mission, which sought to discover and locate Earthlike planets in habitable zones (where the temperature is right for water to pool on the surface) in the Milky Way galaxy.

Kepler completed two missions. After four years, two gyroscopes on the spacecraft failed, but NASA engineers were able to come up with a way to still point the spacecraft accurately enough to find planets by using the remaining gyroscopes and the solar wind.

According to Hunter, during its more than nine years in space, Kepler provided a definitive answer to whether or not there are more habitable planets like Earth.

“The results have been astonishing,” he said. “We found planets galore.”

The spacecraft was 94 million miles away. It confirmed 2,662 planets and observed 530,506 stars. According to Hunter, one out of every five stars has an Earth-size habitable zone planet—and that’s the conservative estimate.

NASA’s work also can help scientists and researchers understand what’s happening on this planet. For example, satellites were used to take images of the Carr and Camp fires in California last year.

Now, NASA is working on the next generation of space telescopes after Hubble. To use one of the future telescopes to look at a planet that is 50 light years away and take images of it, we have to think bigger, Hunter said. Some of the telescopes can have a 40- to 50-meter aperture.

In other ways, the future is also smaller. Hunter mentors students in the UGA Small Satellite Research Laboratory who are preparing to launch satellites the size of a tissue box with NASA and the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Before looking to the future, Hunter also wants these students to understand the past.

He spoke about the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, where Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders became the first humans to reach and orbit the moon. They had a lasting impact on him, saying that in all of the bad that happened that year, those astronauts stood out as something good.

“We had something we could aspire to,” he said. “Now, we need you more than ever. You’re part of the solution.

We want you to realize your dreams, and we want you to make this world a better place. There’s no telling how far your dreams might take you.”

Hunter reminded the audience that the future for NASA looks a little different than it did in 1968. For example, there are now 80 spacefaring nations. The NASA budget is expected to go from almost $350 billion in 2018 (not counting classified budgets) to $2.7 trillion in the next decades.

“I want to offer you a challenge,” Hunter said to the students in the audience. “Kepler’s orbit takes it around the sun at a slightly slower pace than Earth. On Sept. 25, 2060, Earth is going to go right by Kepler. You need to go up and get it. Bring it back, and put it in a museum, because it is, like many of our other missions, a tribute to human ingenuity.”

The International Street Festival will celebrate its 20th anniversary with live cultural performances, food and interactive activities April 6 from noon to 5 p.m. on College Avenue in downtown Athens.

Sponsored by International Student Life, a department within the Division of Student Affairs, the event includes performances, interactive activities and a spot called the Children’s Corner with face painting and crafts.

The founders built the festival on the principle of bringing the world to Athens and Athens to the world, said Leigh Poole, ISL director from 20002013 and current International Center director at Winthrop University.

“My former boss, one of the festival’s founders, wanted people dancing in the streets at an educational block party that celebrated the world,” she said. “This is the epitome of what the festival is about.”

The festival’s interactive offerings have allowed attendees to engage with different cultures in a tactile way. Poole recalled a table where visitors could try on traditional clothing and take photos with a P ­ olaroid camera.

“We worked with a local company to get a refrigerator box to make a changing station for people to use,” said Poole. “This was before cellphone cameras, and we wanted them to take home a photo of themselves trying on the traditional dress.”

Alumna Allison Giddens began volunteering at the festival in the early 2000s as a student and continues to stay involved with the festival today.

One year, the festival grew to where Poole needed to be in multiple places at once and needed someone to m ­ anage the stage.

Brett Szczepanski

UGA’s International Street Festival was founded on the principle of bringing the world to Athens and Athens to the world.

“She felt comfortable with me stepping in to manage the performers’ differences in cultural views on time schedules, language barriers and other challenges,” said Giddens. “This is what makes the festival unique.”

Giddens said she comes back now to watch others discover what she did when she became involved in ISL and the festival for the first time as a student.

“I get to relive that moment each year I return to the festival, and my hope for the attendees is for them to take it all in,” she said.

Over the years, additional tables, performers and community partners have been added. The Children’s Corner has really flourished over the past couple of years as well, said Sai Nagula, ISL senior coordinator.

“This year we are very excited as one our local partners, Oconee County Middle School, will be helping us host the Children’s Corner by running our face painting and some crafting

­activities,” said Nagula.

Halla Jibreen, president of the Arab Cultural Association, a recent addition to ISL, looks forward to sharing the beauty of her culture.

“Being born in the United States, visiting Palestine frequently and s­ peaking Arabic as a first language makes my culture a huge part of my life, and I want to share it with others,” Jibreen said.

The ACA table also will offer Arab geography games and coloring sheets because many people do not know there are 22 Arab countries or where they are located, Jibreen added.

Poole said she can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday in April in Athens.

“It is thrilling to see how the students and leadership of ISL continue to raise the profile and overall experience of the festival,” said Poole. “I can’t wait to see what happens during the next 20 years.”

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK

Hollowell lecturer: Need for moral leadership is urgent

By Laurie Anderson laurie@uga.edu

Good leadership matters, and moral leadership is crucial.

The issue is urgent, Robert M. Franklin Jr. told listeners at the annual Donald L. Hollowell Lecture, because “we are now in a state of steady moral decline—almost a nose dive.”

In a 2018 Gallup poll on perceptions of U.S. moral values, Franklin noted that 49 percent of respondents believed the state of values in America was “poor”—the highest percentage since the poll began in 2002.

The number is troubling, Franklin said, because the perception that unethical behavior is increasingly commonplace could have a snowball effect.

“Democracy requires virtue to survive. People think that if moral standards have eroded, why should they play by the rules?” That attitude could destroy social structures such as families as well as democratic institutions, he noted.

Franklin, an ordained minister, has held many leadership roles, including president of Morehouse College from 2007-2012. He currently is the James T. and Berta R. Laney Professor in Moral Leadership at Emory University.

Moral decline, Franklin believes, breeds tolerance for unconscious biases, but “adding one or two moral leaders to the equation” dramatically transforms the situation.

He cited historical civil rights figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin

Luther King Jr. as examples.

Franklin gave a blueprint for moral leadership by outlining three fundamental skills.

First, he described integrity as a “centering down” that involves “listening for the sound of the genuine in ourselves and in others.”

Peter Frey Second, cour- Robert Franklin Jr. presented the 2019 Donald L. Hollowell age—a willingness Lecture in Mahler Hall at the Georgia Center. to step forward— also is critical because leaders don’t for African Americans during the civil always have backup. rights era; Rosa Parks; Virginia Dirr, “Although social justice is a team who worked to abolish poll taxes in sport,” he told listeners, “when Rosa the 1930s and 1940s; and Donald L. Parks engaged in civil disobedience Hollowell, the lawyer who played a key that day in Montgomery, she sat there role in desegregating the University alone.” of Georgia.

Lastly, imagination enables a leader Leaders need not be lawyers or “to face the quotidian challenges of judges, though, said Franklin. life—the everyday, routine challenges “If we take seriously our integrity, of life—with an innovative, integrative courage and imagination, aimed at outlook,” said Franklin. serving the common good, and invite Franklin said he was excited by the others in a variety of ways to serve,” imaginative leadership he saw in stu- Franklin said, “moral leadership can dents today who, often through social become part of our identity, no matter media, claim “a better vision than the what our primary vocation or calling status quo.” might be.”

Franklin went on to challenge his The Hollowell Lecture is part of audience to name candidates for a the UGA Signature Lecture Series. It “moral Mount Rushmore.” He began is annually organized by the Center with his own suggestions: Judge Elbert for Social Justice, Human and Civil Tuttle, whose court advanced equality Rights and the School of Social Work.

OUTREACH NEWS

columns.uga.edu April 1, 2019

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Digest University of Massachusetts, Amherst director to give 2019 Coley Lecture

Dr. Don Scott (left), campus director of geriatrics and palliative care for the AU/UGA Medical Partnership, conducts a health assessment during a home visit. To date, internal medicine residents and Scott have visited more than 30 homebound individuals in the Athens area.

New perspective

AU/UGA Medical Partnership teams up with Meals on Wheels to make home visits part of geriatrics rotation

By Mary Kathryn Rogers mk.rogers@uga.edu

Each week, the Athens Community Council on Aging and its 200 volunteers deliver more than 1,300 meals to homebound adults in Clarke and Barrow counties through the Meals on Wheels program.

Some of the 300-plus clients are older adults who have difficulty getting out, while others suffer from disabilities that prevent them from leaving home. This service not only provides individuals with meals but serves as a safety check.

Many of ACCA’s Meals on Wheels clients are at an increased risk for medical emergencies, falls and other accidents, and it is often difficult for them to get to doctor appointments.

Dr. Don Scott was quick to recognize this growing problem after he began volunteering with the ACCA. Scott, one of the few practicing geriatric physicians in the Athens area, is an Augusta University/University of Georgia Medical Partnership faculty member.

He reached out to Eve Anthony, chief executive officer of the ACCA, to see how he could help.

“He immediately recognized the challenges we face as an organization for those clients who are experiencing health and wellness issues and the

­ umerous Meals on Wheels clients who n may not have a primary care provider,” Anthony said.

As the campus director of geriatrics and palliative care, Scott oversees the AU/UGA Medical Partnership Internal Medicine Residency Program’s geriatrics rotation in partnership with St. Mary’s Health Care System. In 2016, the residency program collaborated with the ACCA to make home visits to the Athens-area Meals on Wheels clients part of their geriatrics rotation.

“My goal for the residents visiting the homebound clients is to understand what it means to be a frail, homebound older adult with unique needs,” said Scott. “Whether that need is primary care or simply to adjust their walker, we want to help out any way we can.

Most clients have a regular physician, but they often miss appointments due to their decreased physical function or transportation barriers.”

The ACCA recommends clients to Scott’s team based on the highest level of need. So far, the internal medicine residents and Scott have visited more than 30 homebound individuals in the Athens area, totaling more than $5,000 of free care. Those numbers are continuing to grow.

From adjusting their blood pressure medication to organizing their prescription drugs to providing home

safety visits for those with mental health issues, Scott and his team see a variety of issues. One of his favorite stories is about a woman who needed the brakes repaired on her rollator. He made ACCA aware of the situation, and they worked with a local bike shop to make that repair.

“Having Dr. Scott and the residents in the client’s home doing in-depth assessments gives us access to information on that particular client’s needs that we may not have,” Anthony said.

The residents benefit from the program as well by gaining an increased awareness of the day-to-day challenges these patients face. Going into homes, rather than seeing patients only in an office or hospital, gives residents a new perspective and allows them to develop better patient care plans. This rotation also allows the residents to observe how their treatment plans impact patients.

Second-year resident Rida Younus said, “It helps us truly access the patient as a whole, to not only address their medical needs but their living conditions, which may sometimes make it hard for them to follow through with plans discussed in the office.”

Anthony agreed.

“Through this partnership, we are teaching a new group of physicians a greater understanding of the issues facing older adults,” she said.

WARNELL SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Sea turtle research receives international recognition

By Sandi Martin

smartin@warnell.uga.edu

Over the past decade, researchers at the University of Georgia have been genetically fingerprinting loggerhead sea turtles, vital to the conservation of the endangered animals.

Now they’ve been recognized for their work, which has spanned more than a thousand kilometers of coastline every nesting season. The University of Georgia Sea Turtle DNA Fingerprinting project, which is based in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, was honored recently with the President’s Award from the International Sea Turtle Society.

The award was presented to the research team, which is led by Warnell professor Joe Nairn, who has overseen the fingerprinting project in his lab

since it started in 2008.

Warnell researchers have genetically tagged every nesting female loggerhead sea turtle in Georgia, and starting nine years ago added the entire Northern Recovery Unit to the list. That unit encompasses Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, and the tagging effort covers more than 1,000 kilometers of coastline.

Loggerhead sea turtles were put on the endangered species list in the 1970s. Found in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, loggerheads are some of the largest and most visually striking turtles in the world. Once hunted for their meat and eggs, loggerheads have also historically been prone to being unintentionally entangled in fishing nets. Combined with naturally high mortality rates for small juveniles, this caused the turtle’s populations to

decrease worldwide. The southeastern U.S. hosts one of the two large loggerhead assemblages globally and is critical to conservation of the species.

Nairn said they’ve assigned more than 68,500 nests, identifying 10,852 individual loggerhead females that make up the NRU. The team can then track these turtles in successive years when they remigrate to nest again.

The data they’ve collected has revealed that clutch estimates—the number of nests from an individual turtle in one year—has been historically underestimated.

“Our data produces a more accurate estimate of the number of female turtles nesting in Georgia and the NRU,” Nairn said. “The data also has shown that not all turtles remigrate in two to four years, with some only nesting every six to eight years.”

Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the Trans Policy Clearinghouse coordinator for Campus Pride, will deliver the 25th annual Andrea Carson Coley Lecture at the University of Georgia on April 12 at 12:30 p.m. in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium of the Georgia Museum of Art. The lecture, “The Experiences of Trans Students Today: What We Know and Do Not Know (But Should),” will follow a reception honoring the Coley family at 11:30 a.m. This year’s events also will recognize the milestone of the Institute for Women’s Studies bringing LGBT scholarship to the campus for 25 years.

Both the lecture and reception are open free to the public.

The Andrea Carson Coley Lecture, hosted by the UGA Institute for Women’s Studies, was endowed through a donation from Andrew and Kathy Coley in memory of their daughter, Andrea Carson Coley (1972-1993), who was a certificate candidate in women’s studies. This year’s lecture is co-sponsored by the Georgia Museum of Art and the UGA LGBT Resource Center.

Office of Research, OneSource teams create improved Project Status Report

The UGA Office of Research and OneSource team have responded to requests from faculty and finance personnel about grantsreporting tools by creating an improved Project Status Report in OneSource that provides investigators with a streamlined, user-friendly financial dashboard for active research projects.

In addition to providing remaining balance, expenditures and the option to drill down to detailed transactions, the report also displays project burn rates and provides the option to subscribe to an auto-generated report at the frequency of the user’s choosing.

Also, access to these tools will now be automatic for all PIs, co-PIs and co-investigators with active projects. Additional reference materials, including a link to the report, are available at https://bit.ly/2WmGOho. To support faculty and relevant personnel in the creation and use of Project Status Reports, the Sponsored Projects Administration and OneSource teams are holding 90-minute interactive sessions throughout April. For a schedule of these sessions, log into UGA’s Professional Education Portal (pep.uga.edu) and search for “project.” Users may also email Cathy Cuppett (cathya15@uga.edu) and/or Shawn Hill (shawnh@uga.edu) for more information.

Alumna Mallory Harris named UGA’s first Knight-Hennessy Scholar

Mallory Harris is UGA’s first Knight-­ Hennessy Scholar. The international graduatelevel program provides full funding for students as they pursue studies at Stanford University. Established in 2016, the Knight-Hennessy Scholars program funds graduate studies ranging from medicine to law to doctoral programs as well as joint- and dual-degrees. The 2019 cohort—the second cohort of scholars—includes 68 students who were chosen from 4,424 applicants and represent 20 countries. The program is designed to prepare students to take leadership roles in finding creative solutions to complex global issues.

Harris graduated from UGA in May 2018 with bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and computational biology along with a Spanish minor and an interdisciplinary writing certificate. She will pursue a doctorate in biology at the Stanford School of Humanities and Sciences.

PERIODICALS POSTAGE STATEMENT Columns (USPS 020-024) is published weekly during the academic year and

biweekly during the summer for the faculty and staff of the University of Georgia by the Division of Marketing & Communications. Periodicals postage is paid in Athens, Georgia. Postmaster: Send off-campus address changes to Columns, UGA Marketing & Communications, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Athens, GA 30602-1999.

For a complete listing of events at the University of Georgia, check the Master Calendar on the web (calendar.uga.edu/­).

The following events are open to the public, unless otherwise specified.

Dates, times and locations may change without advance notice.

UGAGUIDE

EXHIBITIONS

Stony the Road We Trod. Through April 28. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

Ideas for Creative Exploration , the Office of Sustainability, the Lamar Dodd School of Art, the Lyndon House Arts Center and the Athens-Clarke County Solid Waste Department. 7 p.m.

Athica. 706-338-2751. lhfancher@gmail.com.

New Gods | Old Gods. Through April 28. Athica. 706-338-2751. lhfancher@gmail.com.

Fighting Spirit: Wally Butts and UGA Football, 1939-1950.

Through May 10. Special collections libraries. 706-542-8079. jclevela@uga.edu.

Nevertheless, She Resisted: Documenting the Women’s Marches. Through May 17. Hargrett Library Gallery, special collections libraries. 706-583-0213. jhebbard@uga.edu.

Life, Love and Marriage Chests in Renaissance Florence.

Through May 26. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. gmoa@uga.edu.

Jean Mann. Through June 23. Visitor Center, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6014. connicot@uga.edu.

Under the Big Top: The American Circus and Traveling Tent Shows. Through July 5. Special collections libraries.

706-583-0213. jhebbard@uga.edu.

Out of the Darkness: Light in the Depths of the Sea of Cortez.

Through Oct. 27. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-1817. hazbrown@uga.edu.

UGA RED CROSS FACULTY AND STAFF BLOOD DRIVE 9 a.m. Reception Hall, Tate Student Center.

CLASS “Spring Wildflowers of Upland Deciduous Forests of Georgia,” an elective course in the Certificate of Native Plants series. $50.

7 p.m. Visitor Center, Classroom 2, State Botanical Garden.

706-542-6156. cscamero@uga.edu.

WORKSHOP Traditional Balinese painting workshop with Made Bayak, practicing artist whose work addresses the human devastation of the Indonesian genocide of 1965-1966 and the environmental devastation of the Balinese island’s environment. This event is part of the exhibition and event series New Gods | Old Gods.

2 p.m. Lamar Dodd School of Art. 443-822-2875. and32587@uga.edu.

TOUR AT TWO Tour of highlights from the permanent collection led by docents.

2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

PEABODY-SMITHGALL LECTURE “Decoding Media’s Coverage of Race, Gender and Differences,” Eric Deggans, television critic for National Public Radio. 4 p.m.

Chapel. 706-542-2902. mblanch@uga.edu.

FILM SCREENING The Look of Silence. The screening is part of the exhibition and event series New Gods | Old Gods. 5 p.m. S151 Lamar Dodd School of Art. 433-822-2875. and32587@uga.edu.

TUESDAY, APRIL 2 CELL BIOLOGY SEMINAR “Novel Pathways in Axon Regeneration,” Yishi Jin, Division of Biological Sciences, University of California–La Jolla. 11 a.m.

175 Coverdell Center.

ECOLOGY SEMINAR “Data-Driven Aquatic Conservation,” Seth Wenger, assistant professor in the UGA Odum School of Ecology and director of science for the UGA River Basin Center. Reception follows seminar at 4:30 p.m. in the ecology building lobby.

3:30 p.m. Auditorium, ecology building. 706-542-7247. bethgav@uga.edu.

PERFORMANCE Musical performance by Gamelan Chandra Natha, a Balinese Gamelan ensemble from the UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music. This event is part of the exhibition and event series New Gods | Old Gods. The exhibition and surrounding events are sponsored by ATHICA with the support of The James E. and Betty J. Huffer Foundation and Creature Comforts Brewery, the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts, the department of anthropology, the Center for Integrative Conservation Research,

THURSDAY, APRIL 4 GYMNASTICS Through April 6. NCAA Regionals. Stegeman Coliseum.

GARDEN EARTH EXPLORERS Also April 6. Families enjoy a morning of adventure discovering Garden Earth through songs, puppets, stories, hikes, activities or games. The Garden Earth Explorers program is an informal way to give young naturalists a better understanding about the importance of this planet. Thursday mornings will be geared toward ages 3-6, and Saturday mornings will capture the interest of more advanced learners ages 7-10. Note: this event will not take place during inclement weather or a scheduled festival.

10:15 a.m. Alice H. Richards Children’s Garden, State Botanical Garden. 706-542-6156. cscamero@uga.edu.

MICROBIOLOGY SEMINAR “EASy Does It: Generating New Metabolic Capabilities in Bacteria,” Ellen Neidle, department of microbiology, University of Georgia. 11 a.m. 404D Biological Sciences Building. khbrown@uga.edu.

GEORGE H. BOYD DISTINGUISHED LECTURE “Can–and Should–Technology Reverse Extinction?” Beth Shapiro, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz and HHMI investigator. A UGA alumna, Shapiro is an evolutionary biologist who specializes in the genetics of ice age animals and plants. 1 p.m. Masters Hall, Georgia Center.

706-542-5969. cochran5@uga.edu.

MAKE IT AN EVENING Enjoy coffee, dessert and a gallery tour prior to the performance in Hodgson Hall by cellist Matt Haimovitz. Jittery Joe’s Coffee and Cecilia Villaveces’ cakes available. Purchase tickets for the

Spring Dance concert scheduled for April 4-6 The University of Georgia department of dance presents REPERTORY Movement Refracted, the 2019 spring dance concert, April 4-6 at 8 p.m. and April 6 at 2 p.m. in the New Dance Theatre, located in the Dance Building, between Soule and Green streets (off Sanford Drive) on UGA’s South Campus in Athens.

REPERTORY Movement Refracted offers an array of movement and choreographic styles. Based in the essential qualities of human movement and the range of human emotions, this choreographic collage offers a variety of dance styles, aesthetics and sensibilities, showcasing the students’ training as complete performing artists with moving minds and thinking bodies.

“We invite the campus community to come and enjoy a uniquely diverse event performed by UGA dance students,” said Elizabeth Osborn-Kibbe, a faculty member in the dance department and co-director of the concert. “Audiences will be captivated by explorations of both classical and contemporary ballet, the juxtaposition of postmodern pedestrian movement with contemporary sensibilities and the kinetic energy featured in guest appearances by the CORE Contemporary and Aerial Dance Company.”

Faculty and guest choreography will be performed by dance department students.

Attendees are invited to meet the dancers at a reception following the April 5 performance.

Tickets are $16 for adults and $12 for students and seniors. Groups of eight or more are eligible for a $5 group rate. Tickets can be purchased at the Performing Arts Center box office, by calling 706-542-4400 or online at pac.uga.edu. Tickets can also be purchased at the Tate Student Center and will be available at the door one hour before each performance. Parking is available in Jason Thrasher lots adjacent to the Dance Building or in the South Campus parking deck for a fee. A range of dance styles will be presented at the dance department’s spring concert.

Calendar items are taken from Columns files and from the university’s Master Calendar, maintained by Marketing & Communications. Notices are published here as space permits, with priority given to items of multidisciplinary interest. The Master Calendar is available at calendar.uga.edu/.

4&5

2019 Homerathon to feature reading of ‘Iliad’

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3

MONDAY, APRIL 1

columns.uga.edu April 1, 2019

Peter Frey

performance at pac.uga.edu. 5:30 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

CONCERT Matt Haimovitz begins by performing three of Bach’s suites for unaccompanied cello in separate locations around the UGA campus over the course of two days prior to a final performance of the remaining three suites in Hodgson Concert Hall.

Each suite features an overture composed by Philip Glass, Du Yun, Vijay Iyer and others. Tickets start at $25. 7:30 p.m. Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall, Performing Arts Center. 706-542-4400. ugaarts@uga.edu.

FRIDAY, APRIL 5 MOVIMIENTO LATINO Movimiento Latino was founded at the University of Georgia in spring 2008. During the program, admitted high school Latinx seniors will interact with faculty, students and campus leaders.

In addition, they will have the opportunity to attend classes, visit University Housing and eat in the dining hall. Orientations will be given by the Office of Institutional Diversity and the university communities. The program is provided in both Spanish and English. 7:30 a.m. Reception Hall, Tate Student Center.

706-583-8195. mrdst3@uga.edu.

PROPOSAL ENHANCEMENT CONSULTATION Office of Proposal Enhancement staff will offer drop-in consultation on grant proposals on the first Friday of each month as part of the regular Open Writing Time for faculty sponsored by the Office for Faculty Affairs, UGA Libraries and Office of Research. There will be refreshments and a quiet writing space.

8 a.m. Reading Room, Miller Learning Center. 706-542-1530. cbolton@uga.edu.

FRIENDS FIRST FRIDAY Join members of the State Botanical Garden horticulture staff as they preview the upcoming spring plant sale. Learn about the plants that will be available and pick up a few planting tips.

Includes a full breakfast. RSVP at www.botgarden.uga.edu or 706-542-6138. Sponsored by the Friends of the Garden. $12.

9 a.m. Visitor Center, Gardenside Room, State Botanical Garden.

706-542-6138. lpbryant@uga.edu.

WOMEN’S STUDIES FRIDAY SPEAKER SERIES “Operas For This Time: The Queer Temporality of Toshi Reagon’s Parable of the Sower and Other New Works,” CJ Komp, musicology and women’s studies. 12:20 p.m. 250 Miller Learning Center. 706-542-2846. tlhat@uga.edu.

LECTURE “Tolerance of Ambiguity: How Art Helps Us Live Better Lives,” Annie V. F. Storr, Resident Scholar at Brandeis University’s Women’s Research Study Center. Storr also teaches in the Museum Studies Program at Harvard University. Her work focuses on the intersection of art history and lifelong education. She will discuss how encounters with art have a nearly unique potential to foster the under-recognized capacity for a “tolerance of ambiguity.” 5:30 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

SOFTBALL vs. Texas A&M. 6 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium.

strategies apply to artifacts, specimens and paying attention to moments of daily life, as well. Stay after for the public gallery program with Storr in celebration of Slow Art Day. Registration is required; email sagekincaid@uga.edu or call 706-542-8863 to reserve a spot. 11 a.m. Georgia Museum of Art. SPECIAL GALLERY PROGRAM The special gallery program for Slow Art Day will be “Exercises for the Quiet Eye: Easy Looking Activities in Celebration of Slow Art Day.” Drawing on more than 40 years of experience exploring the intersection of art history and lifelong education, Annie V.F. Storr has developed about 50 exercises for looking at works of art that encourage reflection, connection and a “tolerance of ambiguity” when encountering art. 2 p.m. Georgia Museum of Art. 706-542-4662. hazbrown@uga.edu.

BASEBALL vs. Vanderbilt. $5-$8. 2 p.m. Foley Field.

SOFTBALL vs. Texas A&M. Get autographs after the game. 2 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium.

SUNDAY, APRIL 7 BASEBALL vs. Vanderbilt. $5-$8. Noon. Foley Field.

MEN’S TENNIS vs. Arkansas. 1 p.m. Dan Magill Tennis Complex.

SOFTBALL vs. Texas A&M. Dad & Daughter Day. 2 p.m. Jack Turner Stadium.

MONDAY, APRIL 8 UGA RED CROSS BLOOD BATTLE Through April 10. 11 a.m. Memorial Hall.

CLASS: WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY Learn from a professional who has built a successful photography business in Athens. Floyd Downer takes participants through the entire process of planning the project, capturing the most special moments and delighting the newlyweds and their families. In addition to sharing his wealth of experiences, he explains the techniques he used for specific photographs in his portfolio. Course includes practical exercises and field trips. $189. 6 p.m. Mondays through May 20. Georgia Center.

706-542-3537. questions@georgiacenter.uga.edu.

COMING UP WORKSHOP April 9. “Assessment for Reflective Teaching and Learning” will focus on the role of reflective teaching and learning that results from the assessment process. The session will highlight the importance of reflective teaching and learning for improvement of student learning outcomes and improved teaching practices.

9 a.m. M.A.L.L., Instructional Plaza. 706-542-1355. jamie.adair@uga.edu.

CELL BIOLOGY SEMINAR April 9. “Metacognitive Regulation: How Undergraduates Approach Learning in Biology,” Julie Stanton, department of cellular biology, University of Georgia. 11 a.m. 175 Coverdell Center.

BASEBALL vs. Vanderbilt. $5-$8. 7 p.m. Foley Field.

SATURDAY, APRIL 6 WORKSHOP “Close Observation: Techniques for Learning (Almost Anything)

by Looking,” Annie V.F. Storr. Storr is a scholar and educator with more than 40 years of experience exploring the intersection of art history and lifelong education. This workshop focuses on works of art at the museum, but the observation

ECOLOGY SEMINAR April 9. “Dynamics and Viability of Trailing-Edge Bird Populations in the Southern Appalachian Mountains,” Richard Chandler, associate professor of wildlife ecology and management in UGA’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. Reception follows seminar at 4:30 p.m. in the ecology building lobby.

Hosts: Sonia Altizer and Richard Hall. 3:30 p.m. Auditorium, ecology building. 706-542-7247. bethgav@uga.edu.

TO SUBMIT A LISTING FOR THE MASTER CALENDAR AND COLUMNS Post event information first to the Master Calendar website (calendar.uga.edu/). Listings for Columns are taken from the Master Calendar 12 days before the publication date.

Events not posted by then may not be printed in Columns.

The great tradition of epic poetry that emanates from the Homeric tradition has been extraordinarily influential and continues to reverberate from the cinematic arts to literary culture. The ongoing power of this tradition continues on the UGA campus as well with Homerathon 2019.

In 2016, the classics department in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences organized Homerathon, in which faculty, college and high school students, administrators, alumni, local officials, journalists and musicians joined in a two-day reading of the entire text of Homer’s Odyssey. From a podium in front of the Main Library on North Campus, volunteer readers from all over North Georgia collaborated to make the event a great success.

This year, the classics department will reprise the event in the same location April 8 and April 9 with a reading of the Iliad, Homer’s monument to the brutalizing effects of war and the sparks of light that nevertheless can emerge even in the darkest times.

Each volunteer will be assigned about 150 lines of Stanley Lombardo’s Iliad translation (with a pronunciation guide). Reading will commence at 9 a.m. both days and go until about 5 p.m.

Any additional information about the event may be sent directly to Columns. Email is preferred (columns@uga.edu), but materials can be mailed to Columns, Marketing & Communications, 286 Oconee Street, Suite 200 North, Campus Mail 1999.

The University Theatre’s final production of the season will be Young Frankenstein.

UGA Theatre to close 2018-2019 season with well-known musical

By Clay Chastain wclay87@uga.edu

UGA Theatre’s final production of the 20182019 season will be Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan.

The production is directed by professor George Contini and co-directed by alumnus John Terry. Performances will take place April 5-6 and 10-13 at 8 p.m. and April 7 and 14 at 2:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Theatre at 255 Baldwin St. Tickets are $16 or $12 for UGA students and can be purchased online at ugatheatre.com/youngfrank, via phone at 706-542-4400 or in person at the Performing Arts Center or Tate Center box offices.

Based on Brooks’ comedic masterpiece, Young Frankenstein injects the now-classic story of the inept Frederick Frankenstein with music and dance, breathing new life into Frankenstein’s unwitting quest to continue his grandfather’s notorious legacy. Hijinks ensue as Frederick is joined by the bumbling Igor, the aloof Inga and the prudish Elizabeth, culminating in the creation of the Monster—a far more lascivious and “abnormal” version of his grandfather’s experiment. In staging the production for college audiences, director Contini hopes to introduce students unfamiliar with the source material to the parodic elements of Brooks’ original comedy.

“I’m really trying to find a base level of broad comedy that will allow both the actors and the audience to explore the show as a kind of threedimensional cartoon,” said Contini, whose cartoonish mandate has influenced all elements of the production, from promotional materials to costuming to scenic design.

While excited about the prospect of introducing the show to new audiences, Contini is equally excited to engage with fans of the original film.

Young Frankenstein marks the end of UGA Theatre’s 86th season, and David Saltz, head of the theatre and film studies department, said that he “can’t imagine a more fun way to end this amazing year of theater. Mel Brooks is one of the funniest men who ever lived, and George Contini is a comic genius in his own right. The combination of these two talents is sure to produce something wonderfully unique.”

NEXT COLUMNS DEADLINES April 3 (for April 15 issue) April 10 (for April 22 issue) April 17 (for April 29 issue)

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6 April 1, 2019 columns.uga.edu

FACULTY PROFILE

COLLEGE OF ENVIRONMENT AND DESIGN

Photo courtesy of the College of Environment and Design

Members of the award winning design team are (from left) Brian Orland, Rachel Shields, Alfie Vick and Jon Calabria.

CED team wins award for its work in Atlanta’s historic Fourth Ward

By Melissa Tufts mtufts@uga.edu

A design team from the College of Environment and Design recently took home an honor award for research at this year’s awards ceremony of the Georgia chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Faculty members Jon Calabria, Brian Orland and Alfie Vick, research fellows chosen by the Landscape Architecture Foundation, and MLA candidate Rachel Shields were part of a cohort of landscape architects working with HDR Inc., an Atlanta environmental engineering firm, on a project for Atlanta’s historic Fourth Ward. HDR designed the site while the CED team ran evaluations on its performance.

The yearlong study identified and developed methods to quantify environmental, economic and social benefits for this high-performing urban park in downtown Atlanta.

The Georgia chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects sponsors the annual competition for practitioners and academics working in Georgia. This year’s gala announcing the award was held March 9 in Buckhead, Atlanta.

With the hard work of Shields, the team also evaluated the UGA Science Center. Tripp Lowe at the university’s Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources had input as well. Using a drone, Lowe flew and analyzed aerial photography of the sites.

Briefs for both case studies were peer reviewed, assigned a Digital Object Identifier and are accessible online, under the methodology section at https://www.landscapeperformance. org/case-study-briefs/fourth-ward-park.

The Historic Fourth Ward project was among eight exemplary landscape projects for the Landscape Foundation’s 2018 Case Study Investigation program. Now in its ninth year, the CSI program is a research collaboration that matches LAF-funded faculty/student research teams with design firms to measure and document the benefits of high-performing landscapes. Teams conduct research and document their projects through images and narratives that include background information, descriptions of sustainable features and lessons learned. The resulting case study briefs are published in LAF’s award-winning Landscape Performance Series database of more than 150 projects.

Ecology undergraduate student Jessie Motes (left) and Nina Wurzburger collect data at the Coweeta Hydrologic Lab.

Dorothy Kozlowski

Ecosystem ecologist studies how forests respond to disturbances

By Beth Gavrilles bethgav@uga.edu

Ecosystem ecologist Nina Wurzburger studies how forests respond to disturbances like fire, disease and land use change—which was not what she expected to be doing when she joined the faculty of the Odum School of Ecology eight years ago.

Wurzburger’s interest was in how certain plants and soil microbes work together to provide nutrients to their environment, particularly through nitrogen fixation, the conversion of nitrogen from the air into forms usable by plants. Her focus on disturbance began when she received a grant from the Department of Defense in 2013 to study how nitrogen fixation in longleaf pine forests—many of which are found on military bases—influences those forests’ recovery from disturbances like military training exercises and prescribed fire.

She soon discovered that historical disturbances were playing a role, too.

“I became interested in how forest ecosystems respond to disturbance, because those outcomes are sometimes surprising,” she said. “Contemporary disturbances are more severe or are novel compared to what they were historically.”

Wurzburger began to incorporate disturbance and recovery into her research on nitrogen fixation. At the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in the southern Appalachians, she is currently looking at how the legacies

of past disturbances, such as disease and timber harvesting, affect the functioning and composition of the forest today. Because Coweeta is a site of long-term ecological research, such events going back nearly 100 years are well documented. She’s also studying the effects of fires that burned nearby in 2016, particularly how the exclusion of fire for a century might affect the ecosystem and its ability to recover from fire.

“Data suggests that historically, these forests burned every five to 10 years,” she said. “So the fact that they haven’t burned in a long time might be a disturbance in and of itself.”

Wurzburger is also starting a new project on the Big Sur coast in California, where a disease called sudden oak death is killing tanoak trees.

“This forest is changed dramatically by the absence of tanoak, and part of the effect is that there’s additional fuel for fire,” she said. “As a result, we have fires that are more severe and more frequent than they were historically.

We are trying to understand how tree disease and fire are interacting to affect the ecosystem’s response, and what it will look like in the future.”

On campus, Wurzburger teaches ecosystem ecology to undergraduates and graduate students, which, she finds, has benefits for her research.

“Teaching leads you to focus on themes or key principles, and in the process I often draw from my own research experiences,” she said. “And by

FACTS Nina Wurzburger

Associate Professor Odum School of Ecology Ph.D., Forest Resources, University of Georgia, 2007 M.S., Soil Science, University of California Davis, 2000 B.S., Environmental and Resource Science, University of California Davis, 1997 At UGA: Eight years

engaging with students, I learn about their view of ecosystems, and that often deepens my own understanding, which feeds back to my research. So I really see the two going hand in hand.”

Wurzburger does not confine her fascination for forest ecosystems to her academic pursuits. She is currently the president of the Athens-Clarke County Community Tree Council, which has received funding from Keep America Beautiful and UPS to plant trees in a number of Athens Housing Authority neighborhoods.

“I love studying ecosystems, and I’m fascinated by how they work and respond to disturbances, but we should also think about our urban ecosystem,” she said. “It’s been rewarding to work on these projects to plant more trees so we can improve Athens for the next 50 years.”

COLLEGE OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Puerto Rico Public Health Trust names new award for UGA faculty member

By Lauren Baggett lbaggett@uga.edu

The Puerto Rico Public Health Trust recently honored UGA College of Public Health professor Jose F. Cordero by establishing an award in his name aimed at recognizing professionals in public health whose trajectories have a positive impact on institutions and citizens of the island of Puerto Rico.

The new Dr. Jose Cordero Award was unveiled during “Caribbean Strong: Building Resistance with Equity” held Feb. 27March 1 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The three-day summit, which focused on disaster preparedness in the Caribbean region, was sponsored by the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust and the Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health Inc.

A native of Puerto Rico, Cordero is the Gordhan and Jinx Patel Distinguished Professor of Public Health and head of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics in the College of Public Health, where he mentors graduate researchers in infectious disease studies and infant and maternal health. His own work is focused on improving maternal and infant health in Puerto Rico.

Cordero currently co-directs the Puerto Rico Test Site for Exploring Contamination Threats, or PROTECT, Center as well as the Center for Research on Early Childhood Exposure and Development, both of which examine how exposure to environmental contaminants contributes to the high rate of preterm birth in Puerto Rico. At the advent of the Zika epidemic in 2015, the PROTECT Center was poised to assist the CDC with Zika surveillance and prevention efforts in

Puerto Rico. Cordero quickly became an expert on the risks Zika posed to expectant mothers and a key voice in advocating for Zika prevention education and funding.

In addition to his research and clinical work, Cordero serves as the executive director of the Puerto Rico Brain Trust for Tropical Diseases Research and Prevention, a group that seeks to facilitate and speed up the development of rapid tests, vaccines, vector control and prevention strategies for diseases like Zika, Dengue, Chikungunya and others.

Cordero’s many contributions to public health include identifying nutritional deficiencies of infant formula; advocating for nutrient fortification in corn and flour to prevent neural tube defects in Hispanic children; promoting child immunizations in the U.S. to eliminate measles, mumps and rubella; and championing early diagnosis for children with autism.

For 27 years,C ­ ordero served at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he focused on improving the health of mothers and children, and in 2006, Cordero returned to the island to lead the newly formed University of Jose Cordero Puerto Rico Graduate School of Public Health.

“This award is the latest evidence of Dr. Cordero’s indelible impact on Puerto Rican communities and will live on for those following in his footsteps doing great public health work,” said Marsha Davis, interim dean of the UGA College of Public Health.

“This is a wonderful way to honor Jose, whose commitment to the communities he serves has always been paramount.”

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

columns.uga.edu April 1, 2019

PRESIDENT’S TASK FORCE ON STUDENT LEARNING AND SUCCESS UPDATE

In the past 16 months, great progress has been made on the dozen recommendations from the university’s Task Force on Student Learning and Success in its December 2017 report.

The recommendations seek to advance the institution’s longstanding commitment to excellence in undergraduate education.

The task force was co-chaired by Vice President for Instruction Rahul Shrivastav and Vice President for Student Affairs Victor K. Wilson. The group consisted of 20 senior faculty and administrators from a number of schools, colleges and units.

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EMPHASIZE WRITING SKILLS IN THE CURRICULUM

MAKE DATA LITERACY A CORE PART OF UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

A faculty committee has developed a proposal that includes learning requirements for students, as well as rubrics to determine how to meet the requirements. Town Hall meetings for faculty input were held early in 2019, and the proposal will be presented to the University Curriculum Committee (UCC) later this year.

A faculty committee has developed student learning outcomes for data literacy and determined how students will meet the requirements. Faculty input was gathered at a fall 2018 campus information session, and a revised proposal will be presented to the UCC later this year.

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DEVELOP A PROGRAM TO EXPLORE THE GRAND CHALLENGES OF OUR TIME

UPDATE ORGANIZATION OF GENERAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM; DEVELOP AREA-SPECIFIC CURRICULAR MAPS

A working group of faculty, staff and students, led by Vice President for Public Service and Outreach Jennifer Frum, was assembled to develop program ideas to explore grand challenge areas. The group submitted its final recommendations in fall 2018, and new programs related to those recommendations are now under development.

The General Education Subcommittee of the UCC has been discussing meaningful ways to fold various university-wide requirements into the general education curriculum, including meeting with the USG Council on General Education.

Currently a proposal is being prepared that will be submitted to the UCC.

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DEVELOP A PROGRAM THAT ALLOWS STUDENTS TO WORK IN TEAMS TO SOLVE REAL-WORLD PROBLEMS

TRANSFORM COURSES AND CLASSROOMS TO ACTIVELY ENGAGE STUDENTS

The Honors Program has launched a new seminar course where multidisciplinary teams of Honors students work with partners representing different sectors through a partnership with Envision Athens, which represents nonprofits, government and business entities.

The Center for Teaching and Learning developed the Active Learning Summer Institute in 2018 for 32 faculty, who met for six weeks to redesign courses and implement evidence-based instruction. More than 8,600 students benefited from full or partial redesigns of courses in the 2018 fall semester. Another 24 faculty have been selected for the second ALSI scheduled for this summer.

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STRENGTHEN SYSTEMS TO DOCUMENT AND PROMOTE EFFECTIVE TEACHING

INCREASE THE PROPORTION OF SMALLER CLASSES

A joint working committee from Faculty Affairs and the UCC is working on a plan for using multiple methods of evaluating teaching effectiveness, including institutionalizing peer evaluation.

This has been an ongoing initiative since 2015, with support coming from the latest faculty hiring initiative in 2018 that will bring 25 new faculty members to campus.

ENHANCE THE FRESHMAN COLLEGE SUMMER EXPERIENCE

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DEVELOP COHORT-BASED SUPPORT PROGRAMS FOR UNDERSERVED STUDENTS The ALL Georgia scholarship program debuted in fall 2018 to help increase graduation rates for students from rural areas.

The program provides resources and programs to help students succeed. Beyond the selected scholarship recipients, 4,200 plus students from rural areas of Georgia receive sustained, curated information to assist them in their sense of belonging in the university community. The 1st at the First program was introduced as a pilot program in fall 2018 for first-generation students.

Early adopters will be 1st at the First Leaders, serving as peer mentors to incoming first-generation students this fall.

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ESTABLISH A CAMPUS-WIDE COUNCIL ON THE FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE The Council on the First-Year Experience was established in February 2018 and meets monthly.

The council has created an inventory of first-year programming and is developing a cohesive plan to coordinate communication to students and parents about campus opportunities.

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EXPAND RESOURCES AND PROGRAMS TO ACCLIMATE AND SUPPORT TRANSFER STUDENTS The Transfer Working Group was formed in February 2018 and has been meeting monthly to study issues that impact transfer students. Recommendations from this group have been implemented, including improving the transfer equivalency process, offering transfer-student tailored academic workshops and seminars and walk-in hours in the Exploratory Center and creating partnerships between academic and Student Affairs units to develop programs and connect students to campus resources. A new transfer student coordinator was appointed to help direct transfer student programming.

ABOUT COLUMNS Columns is available to the community by ­subscription for an annual fee of $20 (second-class delivery) or $40 (first-class delivery). Faculty and staff members with a disability may call 706-542-8017 for assistance in obtaining this publication in an alternate format.

Columns staff can be reached at 706-542-8017 or columns@uga.edu

Early Start | Early Success debuted in summer 2018, enabling first generation students to participate in the Freshman College Summer Experience (FCSE) and receive holistic support. As part of FCSE, they enrolled in three courses including a discipline-based course taught by innovative faculty, a service-learning course that fulfills the experiential learning requirement for most majors, and a literacies seminar focused on disciplinary learning. They also formed academic and social networks, equipping them to succeed.

Editor Juliett Dinkins

Art Director Jackie Baxter Roberts

Communications Coordinator Krista Richmond

Photo Editor Dorothy Kozlowski

Writers Kellyn Amodeo Leigh Beeson

The University of Georgia is committed to principles of equal opportunity and affirmative action.

The University of Georgia is a unit of the University System of Georgia.

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8 April 1, 2019 columns.uga.edu HONORS

STUDIO

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PSO meeting and luncheon

Honors Week will begin April 1 with the 28th annual Public Service and Outreach Meeting and Awards Luncheon. It will be held from 9:15 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel; the awards luncheon will be held at noon.

Although the meeting and luncheon are open to the public, online registration is required at https://bit.ly/2UfccB0.

A luncheon in the Magnolia Ballroom will honor the 2019 Public Service and Outreach award recipients. Faculty and staff can attend professional development sessions during the morning and afternoon. Throughout the day, attendees can view poster presentations highlighting the courses and projects developed by the 2018-2019 Service-Learning Fellows during their yearlong fellowship with the Office of Service-Learning.

Faculty Recognition Banquet

The Faculty Recognition Banquet also will be held April 1. An invitation-only event, the banquet will be held in Mahler Hall of the Georgia Center. The reception will begin at 5:45 p.m., and dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m.

Hosted by the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, the banquet will recognize the winners of the 2019 awards for teaching excellence, including the Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professorships and the Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, as well as faculty and graduate students who will be honored for outstanding teaching and mentoring.

leaders, as well as student recipients of the Presidential Award of Excellence and ­national scholarship winners.

Honors Program Graduation Banquet

The Honors Program Graduation ­Banquet also will be held April 3.

An invitation-only event at the Classic Center, the banquet will recognize Honors Program students who graduated in the summer or fall of 2018 as well as the graduating class of May 2019. Recognitions presented at the banquet include the Lothar Tresp and Hatten Howard Outstanding Professor awards as well as the Jere W. Morehead Award, which is given to an exceptional alumna/alumnus or friend of the Honors Program.

Research Awards Banquet

The 40th annual Research Awards ­ anquet will be held April 4 at B 5:30 p.m. in Mahler Hall of the Georgia Center. The invitation-only banquet is sponsored by the University of Georgia Research Foundation and recognizes excellence in UGA research and scholarly creativity.

Awards are given annually to honor outstanding faculty and graduate students.

Alumni Awards Luncheon

Hosted by the Office of the President, the Presidential Honors Week Luncheon will be held April 3 as part of Honors Day. The invitation-only event will recognize the university’s most distinguished undergraduate scholars, including First Honor graduates and Student Government ­Association

Honors Week will conclude April 5 with the Alumni Awards Luncheon. The event, which will begin at 11:30 a.m., will be held in the Grand Hall of the Tate Student Center.

Although the luncheon is open to the public, online registration is required at alumni.uga.edu/alumniawards/.

The Alumni Awards Luncheon celebrates distinguished alumni, faculty members and friends of UGA. The UGA Alumni Association will present the Alumni Merit Award, Faculty Service Award, Young Alumni Award, Family of the Year Award and Friend of the Year Award to recognize those who demonstrate dedication to the University of Georgia.

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ROAD DAWGS

this important area, tapping into the creative energy that abounds at this institution,” said Michelle Cook, vice provost for diversity and inclusion and strategic university initiatives.

“It amplifies the message that diversity and inclusion are shared core values at UGA.” Last year’s innovative programs addressed a range of topics such as outreach to provide information to incoming firstgeneration college students, a College of Public Health pre-collegiate summer institute and a School of Law initiative to expand representation of individuals in the law profession.

Proposals for new funding will be accepted through May 8. As was done in the first phase of the program, Cook and Assistant to the President Arthur Tripp will convene a committee to evaluate the proposals and award the grants. For more information or to submit proposals, visit the New Approaches website at https://bit.ly/2FBfzue.

“When our students talk about their time at UGA and share their own stories, these high school students see and hear why higher education matters and, more importantly, is within their reach. That connection can be a crucial part in their decisions about what is next.”

Road Dawg events start with a cheer, letting high schoolers know that it’s great to be a Georgia Bulldog, and end with “calling the Dawgs.” But it’s the conversations in between that matter.

“We’re having conversations about majors, scholarships, study abroad programs and even graduate school,” said Nia Freeman, a third-year student in human development and family science who participated in Road Dawgs for the third time. “These conversations matter, and it’s so rewarding to talk with students and see that you’ve sparked something in them, whether that be a desire to prepare for the ACT or an interest in a particular major.”

After answering a few questions in a panel

Presidential Honors Week Luncheon

The University Woman’s Club will hold its 2019 spring fashion show, “Sailing into Summer with Pizzazz,” April 9 at 11:30 a.m.

The event, which also includes a luncheon and the installation of new officers, will be held at the Athens Country Club on Jefferson Road.

Guests are welcome, but tickets are required.

A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will support the UWC scholarship fund for women at UGA.

huddle rooms, conference rooms and study nooks, the building includes a variety of multipurpose educational rooms—such as a maker space, pitch deck and a collaboration space—where students can work through business plans and showcase ideas to potential investors.

Studio 225 will also host activities, such as the Entrepreneurship Speaker Series, pitch competitions, accelerator programs and group meetings.

The program and its many offerings provide inspiration for students like undergraduate Josefina Rodriguez Sturba, president of UGA’s Society of Entrepreneurs, who said the space will help turn dreams like hers into reality.

“My plan was to get my degree to improve my family’s business. To my surprise, I found my home in UGA’s Entrepreneurship Program,” she said. “I learned that I could build my own business if I dared. The professors here are my closest mentors and advocates. My peers are my teammates as well as my co-founders.”

The Entrepreneurship Program is a collaborative initiative between UGA and the Athens community. It runs on three tracks

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Bulletin Board

UWC fashion show

Guests check out the space during the March 19 opening of Studio 225.

Faculty research funds

Student Affairs is accepting proposals for FY20 funding for research projects until May 15.

The funds support projects that can increase understanding of elements of student success in a broad sense and involve a partner from Student Affairs.

Visit https://faculty.studentaffairs.uga. edu or email Beate Brunow at b.brunow@uga.edu for more information.

Bone health study

Researchers at the UGA Bone and

discussion, the Road Dawgs break out into the audience to answer more specific questions about attending college. For example, Pryce Nwabude, a fourth-year student in psychology and two-time Road Dawg participant, spoke with one student this year who is interested in majoring in psychology and was able to share information about research and internship opportunities and post-graduate options.

To ensure the high school students have all the information they need, information cards are handed out so that the Office of Undergraduate Admissions staff can reach out to them later.

“UGA is definitely one of the most inclusive schools I know when it comes to having a chance to leave your mark on the school. You’re given so many opportunities on campus; it is only about when to seize your moment,” Holmes said. “The students who come to visit may change the minds of several high school students and be a huge influence on why they might attend college.”

Body Composition Laboratory and Clinical and Translational Research Unit are conducting a research study in 8- to 17-year-old boys with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder to assess the roles of diet, physical activity and the gut microbiome on bone health.

For more information, send an email to bone@uga.edu or call 706-542-4918.

Bulletin Board is limited to information that may pertain to a majority of faculty and staff members.

AJ Reynolds

—academic, experiential and economic development—with the aim of encouraging and supporting student entrepreneurs across campus.

Through classroom opportunities like the Entrepreneurship Certificate Program, contests such as UGA’s Next Top Entrepreneur and experiences like the Launch Pad Living Learning Community, the program enhances education and bolsters student achievement.

The University of Georgia has a strong history of research and development, technology transfer and entrepreneurship. Last year, UGA ranked first among 193 U.S. institutions for the number of commercial products reaching the market, according to a survey released by AUTM, a nonprofit organization that tracks technology transfer among universities, colleges and other research institutions.

SYMPOSIUM from page 1 the CURO Symposium is always a vibrant event,” said David S. Williams, associate provost and director of the Honors Program and CURO. The symposium will open April 8 at 11:15 a.m. and includes 216 oral presentations and 395 posters. The undergraduates participating are pursuing 96 majors from 13 UGA schools and colleges. Collectively, they are conducting research with 361 faculty members from 80 departments.

Jennifer McDowell, professor and chair of the Behavioral and Brain Sciences Program in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, will deliver the keynote address on “Minding Your Brain” at 3:30 p.m. in Ballroom E. The poster session and reception will follow at 4:30 p.m.

Oral presentations will continue April 9 at 9:30 a.m. with the last session ending at 4:45 p.m.

“I am looking forward to the keynote address by Dr. Jennifer McDowell, a highly regarded researcher and mentor,” said Maria Navarro, associate director of Honors and CURO. “I believe her presentation will be informative and meaningful to all in attendance.

“I also encourage faculty and students to attend the poster session. It is very special to be in a room full of students talking passionately about their work,” Navarro also said. “For undergraduates considering engaging in research, it is a good opportunity to network with mentors and learn from the experiences of other students.”

The symposium gives UGA students the opportunity to present their projects to faculty, graduate students and peers.

It is open to all undergraduates pursuing faculty-mentored research in any discipline.

A UGA bus marked “Special” will provide transportation to the Classic Center, with stops at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education & Hotel, the Tate Student Center and the Arch.

The CURO Symposium is sponsored by the Office of the President, the Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, the Office of Instruction, the Office of Research, the UGA Libraries and the Honors Program.

For more information, visit symposium. curo.uga.edu.

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Josiah Meigs Teaching Professors Five faculty members will be honored as Meigs Professors April 1 at the 2019 Faculty Recognition Banquet.

The professorship is the university’s highest recognition for instruction at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Meigs Professors receive a permanent salary increase of $6,000 and a one-year discretionary fund of $1,000.

Dorothy Kozlowski

Peter Frey

Andrew Davis Tucker

Andrew Davis Tucker

Dorothy Kozlowski

Lonnie T. Brown Jr.

George Contini

Gary T. Green

Ronald Pegg

Shelley Zuraw

A. Gus Cleveland Distinguished Chair of Legal Ethics and Professionalism School of Law

Professor Theatre and Film Studies Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources

Professor of Food Science Technology College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Associate Professor of Art History Lamar Dodd School of Art

Lonnie T. Brown Jr. “lives by his word” and “teaches by his actions,” and by doing so is setting the bar for instruction at the School of Law. Brown joined the law school’s faculty in the fall of 2002 and served as its associate dean for academic affairs from 2013 to 2015. Over

A creative inspiration to the students engaged in performance at all levels, George Contini exemplifies the scholarship of artistic training and the pursuit of excellence that sends so many on to professional careers on stage and screen.

“Whether I am working with

Gary Green makes learning an adventure.

He does this by serving as a catalyst for student learning—igniting their interest in and passion for course material—rather than simply being a provider of course material.

Although Green has taught

Whether food scientist Ronald Pegg is chasing coffee “from bean to cup” in Costa Rica or pinpointing the phenolic antioxidant constituents in Georgia pecans, he has a passion for inspiring an investigative spirit in his students.

“I attempt to instill in my

Shelley Zuraw has a knack for making Renaissance and Baroque art feel much more modern.

“My field is shifting, and I need to prepare my students, not for the Renaissance art I was trained in, but for the way it is now,” she said.

Perhaps more importantly, she makes it come alive and turns

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Distinguished Research Professors University

The title of Distinguished Research Professor is awarded to faculty who are internationally recognized for their contributions to knowledge and whose work fosters continued creativity in their discipline. See more at research.uga.edu/research-awards/.

Andrew Davis Tucker

Jon Amster Cracking secrets of complex molecules

File Photo

John Burke

Advancing understanding of plant domestication and crop evolution

Jon Amster, professor and head of the department of chemistry, is a pioneer in mass spectrometrybased analytical approaches to understanding glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). These carbohydrates are essential to organisms from bacteria to humans, binding to proteins for cell signaling, inflammation, pathogenic infections and cancer.

But GAGs are among the most challenging molecules to analyze.

Scientists don’t fully understand how cells create these highly complex molecules, which can

John Burke, professor in the department of plant biology, is a world leader in fusing traditional evolutionary analyses with stateof-the-art genomic approaches in plant domestication research. His research has increased understanding of the genetics and genomics of crop domestication, the critical role of hybridization in plant evolution and the risks associated with crop-wild gene flow. In his studies of sunflowers and related species (Helianthus species complex), he

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Peter Frey

Jason Colquitt Benefits of workplace fairness and justice

The research of Jason Colquitt, the William Harry Willson Distinguished Chair in the department of management, clarifies the benefits of managing employees fairly. He has been a major force in growing this research area from a narrow social psychology topic to a thriving research field. He explores behavior that leaders can develop in themselves to treat their employees fairly, as well as the impact of fair behavior on employee trust in leaders, satisfaction with work and commitment to employers. Colquitt developed a See COLQUITT on page H

Professor

Dorothy Kozlowski

Chad Osburn

Diana Downs

Usha R. Rodrigues

Diana Downs, professor of microbiology, has made transformative contributions to her field by exploiting genetic analysis to help solve important biochemical mysteries of bacterial life. A key theme of her research is that pulling one thread of metabolism reveals interconnected threads in unexpected ways. By using a biochemical genetic approach, she has advanced understanding of thiamine synthesis, specifically uncovering connections between this pathway and others in the cell. Her genetic

Usha R. Rodrigues has been named University Professor, an honor bestowed on faculty members who have made a significant impact on the University of Georgia beyond their normal academic responsibilities. Rodrigues has expanded curricular and experiential learning opportunities for students while also fostering a culture of women’s leadership at UGA and the broader academy.

Rodrigues, the M.E. Kilpatrick Chair of Corporate Finance and Securities Law, served as the associate dean for faculty development in the

The metabolic complexity of bacteria

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2019 HONORS & AWARDS

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Research Awards

2019 ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR AWARD

2019 INVENTOR OF THE YEAR

The Entrepreneur of the Year Award recognizes a faculty member who has started a company based on UGA research.

The Inventor’s Award is for a unique and innovative discovery that has made an impact on the community.

Andrew Davis Tucker

Marc van Iersel is the Vincent J. Dooley Professor of Horticulture in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

He has spent more than 20 years supporting the horticulture industry through his research examining crop physiology and smart greenhouse production systems.

A pioneer in optimizing controlled environment agriculture, van Iersel was elected as a Fellow of the American Society for Horticultural Science in 2018, recognizing his lifetime contributions to the horticulture industry.

In 2017, he and colleague Erico Mattos co-founded Candidus Inc., a UGA agtech startup that is delivering customized lighting solutions for greenhouse agriculture, maximizing plant growth while minimizing electricity costs. Candidus’ novel technology creates predictability for growers by providing consistent lighting, which yields stronger, healthier plants.

In addition to his role as CTO of Candidus, van Iersel served as mentor and advisor of UGA startup Reservoir LLC, a wireless irrigation company with a patent-pending sensor designed to improve irrigation efficiency.

Holly Sellers, professor at the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, pursues clinical and molecular virology research with an emphasis on viruses that cause respiratory, enteric and musculoskeletal diseases in poultry, focusing on the identification, characterization and control of those viruses. She also directs virology services at PDRC and mentors graduate and professional students.

Her research has led to 12 invention disclosures and five U.S. patents, with another application pending and a multitude of foreign patents and applications.

Sellers’ technologies have been made available to industry partners through more than 20 license agreements, leading to four commercial poultry vaccines as well as numerous autogenous vaccines that together support and secure Georgia’s $28 billion poultry industry.

Sellers is a UGA alumna who received both her master’s and Ph.D. in medical microbiology from the College of Veterinary Medicine.

Peter Frey

Creative Research Medals

Creative Research Medals are awarded for outstanding research or creative activity within the past five years that focuses on a single theme identified with the University of Georgia.

Peter Frey

Kelly E. Happe

Peter Frey

Andrew Davis Tucker

Mable Fok

Nathan T. Carter

CREATIVE RESEARCH MEDAL IN THE HUMANITIES AND ARTS Implications of race and gender in genomic science

CREATIVE RESEARCH MEDAL IN NATURAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING How to unblock emerging wireless systems

CREATIVE RESEARCH MEDAL IN SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES Clarifying the relation of personality to work and life outcomes

Kelly E. Happe, associate professor in the communication studies department of the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and the Institute for Women’s Studies, blends the insights of rhetorical research and feminist science studies to address genomic science.

She makes a strong case that it is improbable for any science involved with race, gender and genomics to avoid re-inscribing problematic historical ideas and social norms.

In her groundbreaking 2013 book, The Material Gene: Gender, Race and Heredity after the Human Genome Project, Happe explores the rhetorical effects of genomics on both medical and lay understandings of disease, gender, race and heredity.

One of her primary concerns is the legacy of eugenics in today’s genomic research. Race, she writes, is being recast in subtle ways as deficiency or abnormality by the Human Genome Project and other genomic research efforts.

Carrying this critique further, she argues that genomic research treats susceptibility to disease as something one inherits rather than acquires, and therefore genomic research problematizes black bodies.

The interdisciplinary research of Mable Fok, associate professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, spans system design, hardware implementation and algorithms in an effort to overcome the future crunch in spectral bandwidth.

She has identified some of the bandwidth limitations of emerging 5G wireless systems and proposed a combined use of light and artificial neural algorithms to address them. Light can provide the flexibility, bandwidth and speed lacking in existing electronics. Artificial neural algorithms can provide the necessary computer recognition and automation tasks.

Turning to nature for inspiration, her research team has employed a light-based device that mimics an algorithm in an electric fish’s jamming avoidance response. The experimental device can autonomously move the frequency of an emitted signal away from other signals, potentially reducing interference.

This research could inspire new ways to accommodate increasing numbers of wireless devices and data transmissions competing for space on limited available bandwidth.

Nathan T. Carter, associate professor of psychology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, is a leading researcher in the fields of industrial-organizational psychology and personality assessment.

His work challenges the traditional assumption that higher levels of personality traits—agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion and openness—are associated with improved work outcomes such as task performance and broader well-being outcomes such as job and life satisfaction.

But with his expertise in measurement theory and statistical analysis, Carter has shown that individuals with extremely high levels of personality traits actually often show fewer positive outcomes at work and other life outcomes than those with more moderate standing. Limitations in standard scoring and analysis practices had obscured accurate associations, resulting in a mixed literature on the topic.

In Carter’s current research, he is developing insights that further understanding of personality and its role in work behavior and other important life outcomes.

2019 HONORS & AWARDS

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Early Career Scholar Awards

Andrew Davis Tucker

Hitesh Handa

Dorothy Kozlowski

Justin A. Lavner

Dorothy Kozlowski

Liza Stepanova

FRED C. DAVISON EARLY CAREER SCHOLAR AWARD

CHARLES B. KNAPP EARLY CAREER SCHOLAR AWARD

MICHAEL F. ADAMS EARLY CAREER SCHOLAR AWARD

Hitesh Handa, assistant professor in the School of Chemical, Materials and Biomedical Engineering, focuses on developing new biocompatible coating materials for medical implant applications. He strives to transform medical device research from a largely trial-and-error process to one guided by theoretical and experimental understanding of reaction pathways at the molecular level.

His multidisciplinary work combines basic chemical sciences, materials chemistry and bioengineering with biology and animal models. Handa aims to develop coating materials that mimic the human body’s production of nitric oxide, which has anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties and can prevent thrombosis on medical devices, making them safer for patients.

Handa’s work has been funded by NIH, CDC, U.S. Army, Veteran Affairs, Geneva Foundation, Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and various medical device companies.

His research group has generated 10 patent disclosures in a three-year period, reflecting his desire to translate these technologies to clinical practice through his startup inNOveta Biomedical LLC.

Justin A. Lavner, assistant professor in the psychology department in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has advanced understanding of how marriages change and why some relationships succeed and others struggle.

He has focused on the newlywed years as a critical period of risk in marital life and identified a set of baseline vulnerability factors that increase the likelihood of more negative marital trajectories and divorce during this period. These vulnerability factors include maladaptive personality traits, poor communication and elevated levels of stress.

He has outlined practical implications of his research, suggesting an expanded set of targets for preventive interventions for couples and families. Interventions, Lavner argues, should not only build a couple’s skills but also focus on reducing stress.

His findings offer the field a flexible, broadly applicable framework for understanding relationships that is capable of guiding family policy and clinical interventions to promote well-being for couples and families.

Liza Stepanova, assistant professor of piano in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, has had an exceptional four years on the faculty in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music.

As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed in concerts in many of the most important music venues across the globe. In just the past two years, she has appeared in four commercial recordings released on four labels, reflecting the breadth and reputation of her appeal.These recordings cover a range of projects and include world-premiere performances

by American composers.

During her career, Stepanova has performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, and she has two more recordings slated for release within the next year.

Her public artistic success lays the foundation for her role as pedagogue, modeling the successful performing artist at the highest level and building the next generation of young pianists.

Her numerous articles, invited book chapters and conference presentations contribute to the understanding of French Atlantic theatre and the cultural similarities and differences among work by artists from Africa, what is now known as “black France,” the U.S. and the Caribbean.

Creative Research Awards

Creative Research Awards recognize outstanding bodies of work that have gained broad recognition.

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Emilie Phillips Smith

Andrew Davis Tucker

Lance Wells

WILLIAM A. OWENS CREATIVE RESEARCH AWARD

LAMAR DODD CREATIVE RESEARCH AWARD

Emilie Phillips Smith, professor and former department head of human development and family science in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, studies the role of sociocultural variables in child and family development.

She engages children and families of diverse racial-ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds in rigorously tested approaches to reduce youth hyperactivity and problem behavior and promote positive identity and development. Smith’s work deploys rigorous cluster randomized trials integrating multimethod approaches to examine the effects of evidence-based practices on children, their caregivers and care settings. This applied research has demonstrated positive effects not only on individual youth, but also on violence, aggression and victimization across multiple schools, locales and universities.

A pioneer in implementation science, she is advancing the use of connected technologies and telehealth in building capacity for fostering effective practices. Her studies are interdisciplinary, highly original and influential, involving collaborations with colleagues and community stakeholders and providing unique research opportunities for students.

The research of Lance Wells, professor in the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center, provides a foundation for understanding O-glycans, which play a critical role in determining protein structure, function and stability.

Aberrations in these molecules are responsible for certain human diseases and also associated with disease risk factors.

Wells’ laboratory work on O-glycans has shown a creative fusion of cutting-edge “omic” biochemical analytics with an ability to identify important and novel biological questions.

He deploys an innovative combination of methodologies, including mass spectrometry, protein biochemistry, genetics, proteomics and cell and molecular biology.

Wells’ experiments have greatly helped advance understanding of the roles of these molecules in biology. For instance, his research into abnormal O-glycans underlying congenital muscular dystrophy has provided a molecular understanding of the etiology of this disease. His work has also elucidated a number of high-potential therapeutic targets in disease states such as Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes and cancer.

Dorothy Kozlowski

Elizabeth Wright

ALBERT CHRIST-JANER AWARD FOR CREATIVE RESEARCH Elizabeth Wright, professor of Spanish in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, studies how empire building shaped Spanish literature and culture at the dawn of the modern era.

Her scholarship combines an imaginative and dexterous use of literary texts and archival materials to offer subtle insights and new ways of understanding the cultural ferment associated with modernity. Since 2017, she has been the editor of the Bulletin of the Comediantes, the premier journal in her field.

Her current book project, Stages of Servitude: Scenes from the Atlantic Slave Trade, ponders how slave trafficking took root, even though rulers and the population at large took note of its cruelty and illegality. But this study also explores how enslaved and free black people negotiated economic advancement and even claimed artistic validation, thereby casting new light on a long-neglected dimension of Spain’s Renaissance.

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2019 HONORS & AWARDS

Public Service & Outreach The Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach will recognize eight faculty and staff members for outstanding service to the state and UGA on April 1 at the 28th annual Public Service and Outreach Meeting and Awards Luncheon.

Walter Barnard Hill Fellow

Comparable to a distinguished professorship, the Walter Barnard Hill Fellow Award for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach is UGA’s highest award in public service and outreach. in crops today, such as weed control and use of pesticides. He College of Agricultural and collaborates with the Georgia Department of Agriculture, U.S. Environmental Sciences Department of Agriculture, the Stanley Culpepper is a profes- Environmental Protection Agency sor and Cooperative Extension and farmers across the country to agronomist in the College of assist Georgia farmers.

Agricultural and Environmental One challenge facing farmers is Sciences. Since coming to UGA glyphosate-resistant Palmer amain 1999, Culpepper has been on ranth, the most devastating weed the cutting edge of agriculture, in the history of U.S. agriculture. research and extension, discover- Culpepper was the first to confirm ing new ways to help farmers feed the pest in Georgia and find ways and clothe the world. to effectively control it. Today, Culpepper conducts more nearly all of Georgia’s cotton manthan 100 research experiments agement programs have stemmed each year dedicated to developing from Culpepper’s research in the feasible solutions for challenges management of this superweed.

Stanley Culpepper

Additionally, Culpepper and Tommy Gray, director of plant industry at the GDA, developed a pesticide stewardship training program, called Using Pesticides Wisely, the first of its kind for large-scale agriculture. Using this curriculum, Culpepper prepares Extension agents to train constituents.

Culpepper has made significant discoveries in replacing methyl bromide, a highly effective treatment against weeds and diseases that can enter the atmosphere and cause health problems in humans. He developed two alternative methods, both widely and rapidly adopted. For that effort,

Culpepper became the first person in Cooperative Extension and applied agriculture to win the prestigious, international Montreal Protocol Award, given to those who have contributed to the preservation of the ozone.

“Dr. Culpepper’s dedication to public service, his leadership in building cooperative relationships between Georgia growers and EPA decision-makers and his commitment to collaborative problem-solving to help advance Georgia agriculture are commendable and deserve recognition,” said Richard P. Keigwin Jr., director of the EPA Office of Pesticide Programs.

Walter Barnard Hill Award

Five faculty members and service professionals are 2019 recipients of the Walter Barnard Hill Award for Distinguished Achievement in Public Service and Outreach. The award recognizes their contributions to the improvement of the quality of life in Georgia and beyond.

Jeffrey Humphreys

Amanda Burgess Marable

David Meyers

William G. Tyson

Theresa Wright

Jeffrey Humphreys is the director of the Selig Center for Economic Growth in the Terry College of Business. During his nearly 30-year career at UGA, Humphreys has been recognized as one of the foremost experts on the Georgia economy. His expertise and economic forecasting is sought after and utilized by countless private businesses, government officials and nonprofit organizations.

Humphreys was instrumental in growing Terry College’s Georgia Economic Outlook series across the state beginning in 1989, helping the program expand beyond Atlanta and ultimately reach 10 cities and more than 3,000 attendees each year.

Humphreys’ research and analysis is at the core of the outlook series, which provides reliable insights regarding Georgia’s economic outlook for the coming year.

Humphreys has lent his expertise to numerous boards and governing bodies over the years, including as a member of the Athens Chamber of Commercial Small Business Council (1990-96), a board member on the Athens Convention & Visitors Bureau (1993-2003) and as an appointed member of the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors since 2003.

As an Extension 4-H specialist and senior public service associate in UGA Cooperative Extension, Mandy Burgess Marable is at the crux of Georgia 4-H’s relationship with school systems and the Georgia Department of Education. Marable has reached more than 1.6 million youths across the state through her various curricula, although her impact doesn’t stop at state lines. Marable serves as a National Peer Reviewer for the National 4-H Curriculum Database, among other national appointments, while regularly presenting and leading trainings across the country.

Marable spearheaded the Garden Earth Naturalist program, a partnership between the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, the Georgia Museum of Natural History and Georgia 4-H to help youth better understand and care for the Earth’s ecosystems.

In addition to promoting healthy ecosystems, Marable advocates healthy habits for youth through the Georgia 4-H and Health Rocks!

Less Stress on the Test publication, which contains coping strategies for students to conquer high-stakes testing anxiety.

David Meyers is a public service associate at the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development.

For two decades, Meyers has been instrumental in designing and implementing programming for youth currently or previously experiencing foster care or homelessness.

Meyers has leveraged partnerships with state agencies such as the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services to develop the statewide Embark Georgia network and Embark UGA program. Embark UGA consists of partnerships around UGA that provide a robust portfolio of resources to increase higher education access and retention among underrepresented youth facing homelessness. The program is now being replicated across all of the University System of Georgia and Technical College System of Georgia institutions.

Meyers also is an adjunct faculty member in the School of Social Work, where he teaches introductory undergraduate social work courses. In 2017, he was named UGA’s Bachelor of Social Work Teacher of the Year. Additionally, he mentors and is a field instructor for graduate-level social work students.

For the past 24 years, William G. Tyson has been providing leadership in southeast Georgia’s agricultural industry. He has made valuable contributions to the field of corn, cotton, peanut and soybean production while serving as the county extension coordinator and agricultural and natural resources agent of Bulloch County.

The major diseases affecting peanuts in Bulloch and Effingham counties are cylindrocladium black rot and white mold. For more than a decade, Tyson has studied the use of fungicide to combat these diseases, accumulating the most expansive collection of large on-farm white mold data in the region.

Asian soybean rust, a tropical disease creating tremendous waves of loss across the globe, was first observed in Georgia in Tyson’s region.

Tyson worked with specialists and scientists in the area to create pilot plots of soybean—essentially serving as a warning system for farmers in the area on when to use fungicide.

His efforts reached neighbors across the nearby South Carolina border; Clemson University and South Carolina Cooperative Extension collaborated with Tyson to create educational materials on the disease.

Theresa Wright is director of assessment and evaluation for the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach and the unit manager for the Carl Vinson Institute of Government’s Survey Research and Evaluation Initiative.

Wright has served as the principal investigator on more than 50 sponsored projects with nearly 20 clients, frequently working with state agencies and local governments to serve some of Georgia’s most vulnerable residents.

Wright served on the University System of Georgia’s Comprehensive Administration Review Committee.

She also served as committee chair for the Public Service and Outreach Assessment and Evaluation Initiative, which led to her being named director of that initiative.

Some of Wright’s most notable contributions have come in the areas of juvenile and criminal justice, as well as early care and learning, where she led the evaluation team for the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council’s Juvenile Justice Incentive Grants and the Department of Juvenile Justice’s Community Services Grant programs.

2019 HONORS & AWARDS ENGAGED SCHOLAR

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STAFF AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE

Alexander Scherr

Genell Gibson

UGA School of Law Alexander Scherr is an associate professor and director of the Veterans Legal Clinic at the University of Georgia School of Law. He has been a steadfast ambassador for clinical legal education at the School of Law for more than two decades, creating a profound impact on the breadth and scope of clinical and experiential learning opportunities at UGA. Since joining the law school in 1996 as its first director of civil clinics, Scherr has been instrumental in the substantial growth of clinical and experiential course offerings—from three to 18, as of fall 2018. The expansion of these courses has led to a significant increase in student participation, growing from less than 35 percent of graduates in 1996 to nearly 90 percent in 2018.

Over the past two years, Scherr led a team of law school faculty, staff and administrators who expanded the available summer public interest fellowships from eight to 48, while also tripling the funds given to students.

Scherr’s focus on how lawyers can affect legal and social change, as well as his training of young lawyers to recognize and integrate that mindset into their own practices, has had an impact on the Athens area as well. The Public Interest Practicum course, which he ran from 1996 to 2016, provided counsel, advice and informal advocacy to low-income residents in the community. Through PIP, Scherr collaborated with the College of Family and Consumer Sciences in 2011, adding legal help to the college’s ASPIRE (Acquiring Strategies for Personal Improvement and Relationship Enhancement) Clinic, which offers holistic counseling and education

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Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant

services to UGA and the Athens community.

His law students visit a variety of locations in the community and provide both legal advice and law-related education to people who could not normally afford lawyers.

“Engaged scholarship occurs ‘when research informs outreach, and outreach and teaching inform research.’ Nothing could more accurately describe Professor Scherr’s work,” said Peter Rutledge, dean and Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law. “All portions of his work interconnect. His teaching, research and scholarship revolve around community issues and meeting the needs of Georgians. He routinely finds ways to engage students in answering the call to improve the lives of others.”

Genell Gibson has been a staple at the University of Georgia Marine Education Center and Aquarium in Savannah since 1994.

In her role as administrative assistant/ Marine Education Center and Aquarium manager, she greets incoming visitors, manages fees and admission, maintains the education resource center and directs incoming calls and requests.

Gibson excels at all of her listed duties, but it is her other contributions that set her apart. During her 24 years as a member of Marine Extension and Sea Grant, she has transformed the role beyond its regular office-based duties, serving as a teacher, historian and friend to everyone who visits and works at the facility.

Born and raised in the Georgia community of Pin Point, Gibson picked blue crab for a living as a young adult, a skill she now shares with visitors in the Saturday Explorations at the Aquarium Programs.

Gibson also discusses her unique Gullah/ Geechee heritage, providing people with a special perspective on the life, work and history of the Georgia coast.

Gibson serves as the face of the UGA Aquarium, where she is often the first person to interact with the more than 20,000 visitors each year. She acts as the intermediary between staff and visitors, exemplifying Marine Extension’s “each one, teach one” principle. Her role is critical to understanding how visitors view the facility and how to improve their experience.

“Genell Gibson is the heart and soul of the Marine Education Center and

Aquarium,” said Mark Risse, director of Marine Extension and Sea Grant. “She teaches us daily what is means to be thoughtful, helpful and courteous humans. She reminds us all how fortunate we are to work and live on Georgia’s coast.

“Genell is our historian,” Risse also said.

“She is our link to the human history of Skidaway Island during the Roebling era, our link to the long-retired workers who hail from her community of Pin Point, our link to oyster and crabbing culture, our link to the fine folk who love this coastal area and choose to live and work here.”

Service-Learning Excellence Awards

Service-Learning Excellence Awards recognize faculty for innovative service-learning course design as well as scholarship that stems from academic service-learning work.

Award recipients for 2019 in the Service-Learning Teaching Excellence category are Caree Cotwright, Elizabeth Davis and Cecilia Herles. They are being recognized for excellence in developing, implementing and sustaining academic service-learning opportunities for UGA students in domestic and/or international settings. Joseph Goetz, the award recipient in the Service-Learning Research Excellence category, is being recognized for advancing service-learning scholarship.

Caree Cotwright

Chad Osburn

Each semester, Caree Cotwright engages students in her “Nutrition Education Methods” service-learning course, where they learn about and apply nutrition knowledge through work with community partners such as the Athens Community Council on Aging, the Clarke County School District and the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia.

Cotwright’s students develop and implement nutrition lessons for preschool children using costumes and entertainment, provide food demonstrations and healthy recipes for older adults, and support food distributions and programming with the food bank.

A 2014-2015 Service-Learning Fellow, Cotwright also has published and presented nationally on her model program and received grant support for her outreach and research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Elizabeth Davis

Chad Osburn

For more than 10 years, Elizabeth Davis has integrated community-based projects into her “Writing for the Web” and her “Writing and Community” courses, allowing students to learn more about communities across the state while developing their writing and rhetorical skills.

Her students have partnered with Archway Partnership communities to address real-world needs such as website redesign guidance for Candler, Pulaski and Clayton counties; documenting the history of the Hart County Training School; and creation of a “Traditions Highway” publication to enhance tourism for rural towns and communities along Georgia Highway 15.

A former Service-Learning Fellow and Special Collections Libraries Fellow, Davis also presents nationally on her work, mentors other Service-Learning Fellows and is part of the Service-Learning Research Faculty Learning Community.

Cecilia Herles

Chad Osburn

Since 2010, Cecilia Herles has engaged hundreds of students in service-learning through two courses she developed in women’s studies.

Through her course on the “Gendered Politics of Food” as well as her “Environment, Gender, Race and Class” course, students work with community partners such as Campus Kitchen, Clarke Middle School, the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia and the Athens Land Trust to learn about environmental and social justice, better understanding the complexities of how food systems intersect with issues of access, justice and identity.

A frequent presenter on her communitybased praxis, Herles was a Service-Learning Fellow in 2009-2010 and has been recognized with UGA’s Creative Teaching Award and the Sustainable UGA Outstanding Faculty Award.

Joseph Goetz

Visuelle Photography

Joseph Goetz has co-authored numerous scholarly articles, chapters and books relating to innovative pedagogy for financial planning education, including service-learning.

A co-founder of UGA’s ASPIRE Clinic, Goetz annually teaches the “Clinical Practicum in Financial Planning” as well as a graduate course in “Advanced Financial Counseling and Client Communication,” engaging students in service-learning with low-income clients. Integrating his scholarship with this teaching, Goetz has developed a national reputation as a pioneer in teaching innovation through experiential learning in financial planning and was recognized as the 2013 Financial Counselor of the Year by the Association of Financial Counseling and Planning Education.A past Service-Learning Fellow and Lilly Fellow, Goetz also co-wrote a successful grant proposal to the Charles Schwab Foundation in support of expanding the capacity of the financial planning program’s public outreach and experiential learning opportunities.

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2019 HONORS & AWARDS

April 1, 2019 columns.uga.edu

Richard B. Russell Awards

Three UGA faculty members will receive Richard B. Russell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching April 1 at the 2019 Faculty Recognition Banquet. Russell Awards recognize outstanding teaching by faculty early in their academic careers. Award recipients receive $10,000.

The Richard B. Russell Foundation in Atlanta supports the program.

Dorothy Kozlowski

Peter Frey

Andrew Davis Tucker

Vera Lee-Schoenfeld

Sarah Shannon

Amy Pollard

Associate Professor of Linguistics and Adjunct Professor in Germanic and Slavic Studies Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Assistant Professor of Sociology Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Associate Professor of Music Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

Unique learning opportunities that take Sarah Shannon’s research and classroom experience into the community characterize her commitment to instruction.

The first UGA professor to receive “Inside-Out” certification, Shannon’s innovative course brings students together with inmates at the local jail in a shared learning environment.

Her dedication to training in the Temple University-based program and as a UGA Service-Learning Fellow set the stage for Shannon to create the collaborative partnership with Athens-Clarke County.

The efforts have borne fruit, as some of UGA’s highest achieving students rank Shannon’s “Inside-Out” class the most meaningful academic and social experience of their time at the university.

“I studied alongside students, many of whom hadn’t even completed high school, who used their firsthand experiences with the criminal justice system to push our class discussions to heights I could never have imagined prior to taking the ‘Inside-Out’ course,” said Foundation Fellow Kavi Pandian.

Briana Clark, currently a student at Yale law school, said, “This course was the single most transformative educational experience in my life.”

A 2014-2016 Lilly Teaching Fellow, Shannon has trained and mentored 13 undergraduate students through the CURO program. Inspiring independent research through hands-on learning, including qualitative fieldwork and quantitative data collection, Shannon fosters a love of research that is an extension of her own scholarly passion.

Her investigations into economic and racial disparities in felony conviction rates in the U.S. fuel policy discussions far beyond her field. These, in turn, inspire her work even in the traditional classroom setting. Sociology department head Jody Clay-Warner said that Shannon’s “Communities and Crime” and “Criminology” classes are consistently among the highest-rated undergraduate courses in the department.

Shannon’s courses are brimming with innovation and thoughtful design, according to James Coverdill, associate professor of sociology and undergraduate coordinator.

“The variety of materials she uses, including standard textbooks, academic articles and research books, but also material from podcasts, the popular press and television, make for a wonderful mix of tempos and expectations, all of which keep students engaged and enthusiastic,” he said.

“My teaching philosophy is rooted in Michael Burawoy’s observation that ‘… students are our first public for they carry sociology into all walks of life,’ and guided by John Dewey’s assertion that ‘understanding, by its very nature, is related to action.’ I am keenly aware that the undergraduate students who pass through my classrooms will be ‘carrying sociology’ into their careers in the criminal justice system with the potential to impact policies and the lives of others in substantial ways,” Shannon said.

This sense of calling and responsibility informs her charge to students to engage with theories and empirical studies that explain the causes of crime, the social forces that shape criminal punishment and the effects that each have on individuals and communities.

“Dr. Shannon not only impacted my life, but she also changed the direction of my career,” said Risa Josephine Matsumura, who currently serves in the Peace Corps in the Kyrgyz Republic.

A creative approach to engaging students, including an annual workshop and the development of new courses, has led to Amy Pollard’s great effectiveness and success.

Music school faculty serve students as private tutors, theorists, ensemble coaches and mentors all while maintaining their own professional schedule as musicians. The nation’s most talented music students often make their college choice based on a single factor: who teaches their instrument. Pollard’s bassoon studio has some of the best flocking to UGA to train in a double-reed instrument notorious for its recruiting challenges.

Pollard’s teaching philosophy incudes a comprehensive approach, individualized as much as possible.

“As an applied music professor, I am fortunate to most often work with students one at a time in private lessons,” she said. “My greatest goal as an educator is to teach students to teach themselves. Fostering student creativity is essential so that they can each discover their own voice as a musician, using their own life experiences to provide meaning and personal relevance in conveying emotions through the instrument.”

Pollard’s reputation as a teacher has led to invitations to give lessons and master classes at Rice University, the University of Texas, Michigan State University, Florida State University and LSU, among others. She also has taught at the Interlochen Advanced Bassoon Institute in Michigan.

“As effective and engaged as she has been as a bassoon teacher, her work in other areas of pedagogical need in the school have been foundational to our success and are equally compelling,” said Dale Monson, Hodgson School of Music director. “These include her leadership in such fields as music technology, wellness (physical, emotional), performance anxiety and career development.”

Pollard’s innovative approach to pedagogy led her to champion an ambitious new cross-studio effort, now in its third year. X-Week is an experience designed by Pollard in which Hodgson School students trade teachers for a week—an approach that has been met with enthusiasm from both sides of the music stand.

“This interdisciplinary program has been an enormous success with faculty and staff, and in addition to its instructional benefits, has also strengthened relationships and a sense of common purpose in the HHSOM,” said Peter Jutras, professor of piano.

Jutras, other faculty and students cite additional courses developed by Pollard and their impact on the entire school.

Created alongside faculty colleagues David Zerkel and Connie Frigo, “Music in the Real World” is now required of all undergraduates and focuses on skills for professional success in a constantly evolving music industry. Pollard’s First-Year Odyssey seminar on performance anxiety has helped scores of students in a field where public performance and presence are crucial skills.

“Dr. Pollard is certainly efficient, analytical, talented and highly intelligent, but it is her commitment to her students and reverence for education that set her apart,” said music performance major Jackson Thompson. “I think I can speak for all of her students when I say that we are better for having known her.”

Vera Lee-Schoenfeld’s teaching philosophy is influenced by what she learned from one of her graduate school professors.

“I follow UC Santa Cruz professor Jim McCloskey’s teaching philosophy,” Lee-Schoenfeld said. “The teaching we do in linguistics should impart to students not a body of established results, but rather an analytical method— how to perceive a pattern in a body of observation, how to construct an understanding of that pattern, how to subject that understanding to skeptical scrutiny and how to build incrementally on that initial foundation.”

In her classes, Lee-Schoenfeld employs the discovery method, which does not involve the use of a textbook. Instead, students draw their conclusions from given data sets with guidance from previous lectures. One result of this teaching method is that students become interactive participants in the learning process.

“I enjoyed the raw intensity of critical thinking involved in completing each and every homework assignment,” a former student wrote in a class evaluation. “Analyzing completely unfamiliar languages was a blast, especially given that the grading depended entirely upon the style of argumentation submitted by the student, rather than a prescriptive ‘right answer.’ ” Lee-Schoenfeld’s career in linguistics started via the language-teaching route. She taught French to high school students, English as a second language to international scholars, and German—her native language—at the collegiate level.

“I have since shifted gears and become a theoretical linguist, focusing not on prescriptive grammar rules, which are taught to second-language learners, but on descriptive rules and universal principles, which are posited by linguists to account for native speakers’ implicit knowledge of their language, i.e. how they actually speak,” she said.

In addition to her regular teaching assignments, LeeSchoenfeld took the lead on revising the online version of an introductory linguistics course. It was improved by the addition of new video lectures and assignments and a reorganization of course topics to make the class more engaging and accessible. As a result of these revisions, 200 students took the class last summer.

Lee-Schoenfeld also invests in her students outside the classroom. In addition to mentoring a number of CURO students, she has used a research collaboration with Gabriele Diewald to establish an exchange program for undergraduate students at UGA and the University of Hannover in Germany, where Diewald is a faculty member. In its most recent iteration, the program resulted in a formal partnership funded by the German Academic Exchange Council.

Besides the rewarding experience of being in charge of an integral part of students’ education and the pleasure of establishing a good rapport with students, another benefit of teaching, according to Lee-Schoenfeld, is the chance to learn or re-learn the core aspects of the given subject matter.

“I can think of no better way to deepen one’s understanding of a difficult concept than to re-present it to a group of open and capable, but nonetheless skeptical, students,” she said.

—Juliett Dinkins

—Alan Flurry

—Alan Flurry

2019 HONORS & AWARDS

columns.uga.edu April 1, 2019

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First-Year Odyssey Teaching Awards The First-Year Odyssey Teaching Award recognizes outstanding instructors who have demonstrated creativity or innovation in instruction, connection of seminar content to their research and incorporation of FYOS program goals into the seminar.

Grace Ahn

Jeffrey Berejikian

Todd Callaway

Cesar Escalante

Adam Milewski

Doris Miller

Grace Ahn is an associate professor of advertising in the Grady College. Her seminar, “Harnessing the Power of Digital Technology for Better Lifestyle Choices,” teaches students about the marvels of technology, how digital technology has shifted the rules of communication and social interaction in their everyday lives and how they can harness the power of digital technology to make more informed choices in their future careers.

Jeffrey Berejikian is a Meigs Professor in the international affairs department in the School of Public and International Affairs. His seminar “Foreign Policy and Neuroscience” introduces students to the interdisciplinary study of international affairs. It is organized around the premise that the cognitive processes shaping the decisions of governments on the “big issues” in international politics also affect the choices people make in their everyday lives.

Todd Callaway is an assistant professor in the animal and dairy science department in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

His seminar “Poo and You: Microbes, Our Animals and a Safe Food Supply” helps students learn how food-borne and environmental pathogens and antibiotic resistant organisms reach people. He challenges preconceptions of the relationship between humans and microbes and discusses issues surrounding food production.

Cesar Escalante is a professor in the agricultural and applied economics department in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. His seminar “Social Issues in Agricultural Finance—from Racial and Gender Biases, to Immigration Policies and Microfinance” introduces students to the plight of socially and financially disadvantaged farmers in local and global business operating environments.

Adam Milewski is an associate professor in the geology department in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

In his FYO seminar “Water: The Most Important Resource of the World,” students learn the physical processes governing the distribution of water on Earth, the unique properties of water, the role humans play in altering these resources and methods for water resource analysis. He engages his students through hands-on activities.

Doris Miller is a professor of veterinary pathology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Her seminar “Animal Forensic CSI” provides a hands-on interactive approach to teaching and student learning. She was nominated by a current veterinary student who praised Miller for her interest in her students. Because of the small class size, the student was able to get to know Miller, who helped navigate her toward research, veterinary pathology and veterinary school.

Creative Teaching Awards

—Tracy N. Coley

Congratulations

Presented annually on behalf of the Office of Instruction, the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of the Provost, the Creative Teaching Award recognizes UGA faculty for excellence in developing and implementing creative teaching methods to improve student learning.

Visuelle Photography

Stephanie Moreno

Joseph Goetz, associate professor in financial planning, housing and consumer economics, fosters student engagement creatively through experiential learning. He developed the ASPIRE Clinic, a teaching center that is the first of its kind in the country, through which he created the nation’s first clinical practicum, service-learning course in financial planning.

Under his direct supervision during the past seven years, more than 120 students have provided more than 1,000 sessions of pro bono financial planning and counseling services to more than 400 couples or individuals from the local community. Students are actively engaged in all the steps of the financial planning process and receive regular feedback from their peers and Goetz.

Keith Herndon, professor of practice in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, has engaged nearly 200 students since 2013 through two highly successful extracurricular programs to help them become better prepared to tackle real-world changes in an ever-changing media market.

Each year, 18 Grady Mobile News Lab students experiment with new video editing technologies using virtual reality with funding Herndon secured from the National Association of Broadcasters.Another 15 facultynominated students in the James M. Cox Jr. Institute for Journalism Innovation gain career perspectives each year through eight weeks of training and reflection on conflict resolution and decision making, as well as leadership in the context of a chaotic news media.

Chad Osburn

Mark W. Huber, senior lecturer in management information systems, created a unique approach to teaching his MIST 5770 Information Security Management course, offered every semester to 35 undergraduates. Huber integrates custom cases with a flipped classroom approach, weekly involvement by practicing experts from industry and a final case competition sponsored

by PricewatershouseCoopers, LLC. Cases, associated presentations and remote call-in meetings provide “realistic” in-class experiences to facilitate a deeper understanding of concepts and to foster critical thinking. The challenge of managing meetings and providing consulting advice to clients, who sometimes are intentionally difficult, is an invaluable experience for students.

Sarah Shannon, assistant professor in the department of sociology in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, launched her SOCI4470S service-learning course, the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program, in collaboration with the local Clarke County Sheriff’s Office, to exchange ideas and perceptions about crime and justice, the criminal justice system and imprisonment, from both personal and psychological perspectives. One student called the class “the most meaningful academic and social experience of my time at UGA.” An incarcerated participant likewise reflected on the course’s impact, saying “Inside-Out has given me some hope that positive change may eventually seep into the criminal justice system.”

—Tracy N. Coley

“Honors Week is a wonderful time to celebrate the achievements of our extraordinary faculty, staff, students and alumni. The university is proud of this year’s honorees. I am grateful for everything they are doing to elevate teaching, research and public service at the University of Georgia to new heights of excellence.”

—University of Georgia President Jere W. Morehead

H April 1, 2019 AMSTER

from page A exist in many similar but different forms.

Identifying how GAGs are created and how they may be involved in disease could lead to the development of drugs that block their action. Amster was a leader of the first team to develop high-powered tools into which GAGs were placed and broken into predictable pieces, allowing scientists to learn their sequences and structures. He also developed new software for automated analysis of the data, providing faster sorting and identification tools that could someday hasten biomedical applications including new treatments.

COLQUITT from page A four-dimensional measure of fairness that is by far the most commonly used measure in the field. He was one of the first to find that fairness occurs as a workplace climate—a collective, shared experience—and that “justice climates” have important implications for team performance.

His work includes meta-analyses, longitudinal field studies, laboratory experiments and theory papers. Many of the most productive scholars in the field today got their start as his Ph.D. students.

BROWN

from page A his 16-plus-year tenure, he has enjoyed a rotating teaching load that includes “Civil Procedure,” “The Law and Ethics of Lawyering,” “Georgia Practice and Procedure” and “Ethics in Litigation.” In 2018, this portfolio of classes placed Brown among the law school faculty with the greatest student-contact teaching hours, according to School of Law Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge.

Brown’s classes are educational and entertaining, but more importantly, they leave students with a strong desire to continue to acquire knowledge, according to former student and now U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Michele J. Kim. “Each class during the semester was like an act in an award-winning Broadway play: there was a well-thought-out theme; you were presented with a legal issue that served as the plot line; there were many interesting anecdotes and witty remarks; the audience participated enthusiastically; the thoughtprovoking dialogue and lively banter were timed perfectly (even when totally unexpected questions or remarks were made); and sometimes there was music,” Kim said. “You could not passively sit and watch the day’s lesson. Rather, you were actively engaged in critical thinking that would eventually give rise to a deep understanding of the issues he taught, and at the end of the class you were left wanting to know more.”

This description is amplified by Brown

GREEN

2019 HONORS & AWARDS

columns.uga.edu

BURKE

RODRIGUES

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has examined the molecular and phenotypic evolution of crop plants and the potential for such research to inform modern breeding efforts. Burke has advanced knowledge of the genomic basis of how plants respond to stressful environmental conditions and how hybridization can facilitate such adaptation.

These insights, along with the tools and genomic resources that he has developed, represent major contributions to the discipline. In addition, his research on gene flow and introgression is widely recognized as significant in the growing field of risk assessment of genetically engineered crops.

DOWNS

from page A research has also provided insight into the complexities of chemistry inside all cells and the evolution of new pathways. Her work has yielded ideas and information critical to understanding how pathways are controlled and have evolved. Downs has elucidated previously unknown metabolic networks, revealed subtle metabolic connections in bacteria and mapped new mechanisms of metabolic regulation. These mechanisms are conserved in biology, making her basic biomedical research relevant to applied fields like metabolic engineering, synthetic biology and infectious disease.

being selected for law school teaching awards for 12 out of his 16 years on the faculty.

Brown’s prowess in the classroom also is supported and enriched by his scholarship, which focuses on legal ethics in the adversary process. He is one of the nation’s leading scholars on legal ethics, authoring numerous articles and papers, chairing major symposia in his field and authoring the book Defending the Public’s Enemy: The Life and Legacy of Ramsey Clark (forthcoming, Stanford University Press).

One of the greatest hopes of any educator is to have a profound and lasting impact on his students, and Brown undeniably is making his mark.

Looking back on his experience as a former student, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Clarkson said, “[P]erhaps the greatest testament to [Brown’s] ability as an educator was his unwavering commitment to the idea that there was a ‘right’ way about conducting yourself. As someone who represents the people of the United States, there is not a single day in my professional life that I do not draw on the lesson I learned from Professor Brown. For those poor souls I supervise … I make clear on their first day that one of the few non-negotiable requirements is that they conduct themselves in accordance with the standard of conduct Professor Brown taught me long ago.”

—Heidi Murphy

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more than 25 different classes, his primary responsibilities are for several of the core classes within the Warnell School and the parks, recreation and tourism management major. For the past several years, he also has regularly taught or co-taught 10-12 classes of more than 500 students and mentored 10-12 undergraduates and 12-16 graduate students per year.

“His dedication, energy and passion to ensure student success as well as his drive for innovation in teaching is well recognized by all who have worked with him,” said Rahul Shrivastav, vice president for instruction.

Green’s undergraduate classes employ creative, fun ways to inspire learning, including the use of WALL-E to talk about sustainability and a mystery bag of prizes to encourage the asking of questions. Students also have mock snowball or beach ball fights, where they write their opinions about a topic on a piece of paper, ball it up and toss it around the room. These activities allow students to share their opinions anonymously, which leads to open discussions.

When several graduate students selected to serve as teaching assistants told Green they felt unprepared to teach undergraduates, he created a mentoring system to help them become better instructors. The system developed their teaching skills by providing in-class, mini-teaching opportunities—that developed into full lectures—that provided systematic constructive feedback to the TAs. To continue to improve as an instructor, Green believes he needs to expand his teaching knowledge and skills, while finding new ways to be fresh and innovative. To achieve this, he volunteers to teach campus-wide seminars and workshops, and he mentors other faculty across campus to help them become stronger instructors.

Over time, Green’s role as teacher transforms into one of being a lifelong mentor.

He stays in regular contact with many of his students. For him, people’s long-term education, growth and professional development are the best metrics of his qualities as a teacher and mentor.

—Emily Webb

from page A School of Law from 2015 to 2018 and has served as University Council’s parliamentarian since 2014.

Rodrigues led a dramatic expansion of business law-related offerings in the School of Law, and she worked in collaboration with the Terry College of Business to establish a three-year joint juris doctor/ master’s in business administration program.

She played a role in establishing the Business Law Clinic, which gives students experience in legal services to small business owners and not-for-profit organizations.

In addition, she helped launch UGA’s Corsair Law Society, a student organization that bolsters networking, leadership and career readiness for students interested in transactional law or corporate litigation outside the state.

Rodrigues served as a leader in a faculty collaboration known as eHub that helped spur the development of UGA’s Entrepreneurship Program, and she currently sits on the program’s advisory board. She also chairs

CONTINI

the board of Four Athens Inc., a nonprofit technology accelerator based in Athens.

She was a member of the inaugural class of the university’s Women’s Leadership Fellows Program and participated in a yearlong women’s leadership initiative at the Law School known as Georgia Women in Law Lead. She spearheaded the creation of a multi-school consortium of law schools dedicated to women’s leadership and in 2018 hosted the group’s inaugural conference.

Rodrigues is a Fellow in the Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program and is a member of the American Law Institute.

University Professors receive a permanent salary increase of $10,000 and an annual academic support account of $5,000.

Nominations from the deans of UGA’s schools and colleges are reviewed by a committee, which makes a recommendation to the provost. First awarded in 1974, the professorship is limited to no more than one faculty member per year.

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undergrads on fundamental technique or graduates on advanced theory, I consider each student encounter a creative collaboration,” Contini said. “Blending theory into practice, I strive to be a model of the scholar/artist who engages in applied artistic research by building upon traditional performance history and techniques.

“As often as possible, I seek to involve students with my creative research as collaborators,” he added.“Throughout our shared experience, they also are learning the art of forming a detailed process, documentation and allowing for clear moments of reflection, adjustment and growth.”

He involves students in a range of applied artistic research: using archives to create original plays, developing performances based on personal narratives from marginalized communities, developing characters through historical and embodied research, communitybased international collaborations and the reimagining of canonical dramatic work.

Contini enlists his specializations in acting, directing and writing in pursuit of meeting the production, academic and personal goals of burgeoning theater and film artists.

He introduces more esoteric aspects of theater and performance in ways that make them easily understandable.He created“Queer Theatre and Film,” the extremely popular split-level undergraduate/graduate course that regularly attracts many students from other disciplines such as psychology, women’s studies, journalism and sociology.

Since 2003, Contini has served as director of the London Study Abroad Program. The program has expanded to include programming that provides students with internships at theatrical and production companies in London. He also serves as head of acting in the theatre and film studies department.

Robert Moser, associate professor of Portuguese and director of the Portuguese Flagship Program, worked with Contini as a translator and collaborator on two interdisciplinary projects.

“Contini brings the kind of fearless creativity necessary to overcome formalities and immediately engage his students on a level that was both intellectually and critically challenging, as well as deeply committed to the craft of acting and theater productions,” Moser said.

PEGG

ZURAW

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students the desire for lifelong learning and the realization that the knowledge base of their profession is not static, rather it is dynamic,” Pegg said. “I get no greater joy than when one of my students is conducting an experiment, and I all of a sudden see a light switch on.”

Pegg’s career has been defined by his enthusiasm toward his students and his unique teaching style. His main goal always has been to provide a balanced mix of engaging lectures and hands-on laboratory activities for his students to explore the concepts that are key to understanding the makeup of food and how its constituents can be analyzed.

Working as coach and advisor to the university’s Food Science College Bowl Team, Pegg works to mentor students while they’re in Athens, and many students still seek his advice long after they have left the university.

In recognition of his commitment, his students have voted him Outstanding Undergraduate Faculty or Graduate Faculty of the Year six times. In 2013, Pegg won the Richard B. Russell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, becoming the first faculty member in his department to win the honor.

“For more than a decade, Dr. Pegg has been able to maintain the same enthusiasm for teaching that he had when he started at UGA,” said Josef Broder, CAES associate dean for academic affairs. “That excitement is contagious and inspires a sense of curiosity in his students that never really leaves them.

His work is one reason why food science graduates from the University of Georgia are sought after by industry leaders and research institutions the world over.”

—Sage Barnard

—Alan Flurry

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art history into “a subject that one does not rehearse, but rather lives,” said one of her former students.

In her 27 years with UGA, Zuraw has taught more than 30 courses. She served as area chair for art history from 1998-2008 and associate director of the art school from 1998-2007. During that time, she revamped the school’s art history offerings, planned art history spaces in the school’s building and advised thousands of students.

Her accolades include the Sandy Beaver Teaching Award and Professorship and election to the UGA Teaching Academy.

She also spent 10 years teaching art history to students in the Science Maymester Program in Cortona, Italy.

Zuraw has taught 15 courses in the Writing Intensive Program and said that her commitment to the program “will remain one of the most important examples of my advocacy for teaching.”

She takes that commitment into her own classroom with “S/I’s,” or Sentences and Ideas. Each week, students submit an essay centered on the week’s material. This allows her to “see how much they are grasping of the material, work with them incrementally on their writing and guide them in structuring their own arguments.”

“Unlike the frantic memorization of information on flashcards, this approach equips students with skills necessary for more in-depth art history research by asking us to closely observe, think analytically, make connections and refine the transcription of our thoughts,” a current student said.

—Krista Richmond