Category: Kudos

A number of sports organizations, including those in European club football and tennis, have levied sanctions against Russia in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine. The Associated Press recently approached Usha Haley for her opinion.

Haley is the W. Frank Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business, and elected chair of the World Trade Council of Wichita.

Haley has done in-depth research on the efficacy of sanctions and boycotts and has featured some of this research in her book on Apartheid in South Africa, “Multinational Corporations in Political Environments:  Ethics, Values and Strategies.”

Usha Haley’s research covering the difficulties of identifying opportunities in emerging markets was recently covered in a thought-leadership article by IQ Insigniam Quarterly on Emerging Markets. Insigniam is a global consulting firm for large organizations.

Haley is the W. Frank Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business, and elected chair of the World Trade Council of Wichita. She is an expert in emerging markets.

The Food Institute, a leading think tank in the food industry, recently approached W. Frank Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business and professor of management Usha Haley. They asked Haley about her views regarding how the food supply chain and consumers will be affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Haley is also the elected chair of the World Trade Council of Wichita. The institute’s analysis of the cascading effects of the Ukraine crisis, including their interview with Haley can be viewed on The Food Institute website.

Wendy Veatch, manager of the Barton School’s Professional Edge program, was invited to present on “The Future of Rural Entrepreneurship Research” at the 2022 Small Business Institute (SBI) Annual Conference in Charleston, South Carolina Feb. 24-26. SBI encourages applied research related to small business and entrepreneurship from all disciplines, as well as workshops, pedagogical practices, best practices, and roundtables submissions.

Veatch helped create Wichita State’s Growing Rural Businesses Program as part of WSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship. The program has provided training for over 335 Kansas businesses.

Dr. Marche Fleming-Randle, vice president and chief diversity officer at Wichita State, will be inducted into the Black Educators Hall of Fame at 4 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 26 at the Rhatigan Student Center.

Fleming-Randle is the first African American female vice president for Military and Veterans Affairs at WSU. Her research and academic interests include mental health, child and youth programs, educational leadership and diversity. She is an educator, author, motivational speaker, and public intellectual.

The event is sponsored by the Art That Touches Your Heart foundation and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

The American Counseling Association (ACA) announced Feb. 16 that Dr. Edil Torres Rivera, professor of Counseling and director of Latinx Studies at Wichita State, has been elected to serve as the ACA’s president-elect beginning July 1. Rivera will begin serving as the ACA’s 72nd president on July 1, 2023.

“Being the first Latinx male to be ACA president and the first Puerto Rican is a humbling experience and yet provides a great sense of pride and satisfaction to be able to serve the counseling profession nationwide,” said Rivera.

Rivera specializes in multicultural counseling, group work, chaos theory, liberation psychology, technology, supervision, multicultural counseling, prisons, Puerto Rican studies, identity development, and gang-related behavior. His research has appeared in numerous prestigious national journals, and he serves on two editorial boards.

Rivera also leads WSU’s Latinx Studies program. The Latinx Studies Initiative, launched in 2019, allows the university to better serve its growing number of Latinx students by hiring educators with expertise in Latinx needs.

“Dr. Torres Rivera has established himself as a key leader within the Wichita State community and the counseling profession,” Dr. Clay Stoldt, interim dean of the College of Applied Studies, said. “He consistently brings expertise, energy and commitment to his work leading WSU’s Latinx Studies initiative and as a counseling educator. We are thrilled that Rivera has been elected to this prestigious position and know the ACA will benefit from his leadership, just as we have.”

A member of the ACA Governing Council from 2018 to 2021, Rivera also served on the ACA Executive Committee. From 2010-2011, Rivera served as President of the Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development (AMCD).

Students in grades 6-12 recently participated in a design contest for a CubeSat mission patch—part of a NASA grant project that includes Dr. Nickolas Solomey’s research on solar neutrinos. Patch design entries included themes and elements to represent Wichita State, NASA and particle physics. The runners-up and winning design were chosen by Solomey and his team of graduate students working on the solar neutrino project.

Winning designer: Rylee Salts, Topeka High School

Runners-up :

• Aaralyn Spencer, Altamont Grade School
• Samantha Chestnut, Topeka High School
• Cora Ambrose, Topeka High School
• Elly Han, Altamont Grade School

This design contest was in partnership with the Ad Astra Kansas Foundation. The winning design will be used as the patch for the NASA mission.

Dr. Jenny Pearson, Wichita State professor of sociology, has been elected president of the Midwest Sociological Society. The society is a nonprofit, regional, professional society dedicated to building community among sociologists and to advancing sociological knowledge, teaching and practice for social scientific purposes and social betterment. A number of Wichita State University faculty and students attend the conference and present their research each year.

Pearson will serve a four-year term in April as president elect-elect; followed by president-elect and program chair; president; and immediate past president. She previously served as the Kansas state director and the co-founder and chair of the MSS LGBTQ+ Task Force, collaboratively working toward making the organization and annual conference more inclusive for LGBTQ+ members.

For December 2021, Wichita State’s CARE Team had an increase of 59.16% through the academic year of Aug. 1 through Dec. 31, 2021. There was also a 32.26% increase when comparing December 2020 and December 2021.

January had an increase of 64.97% for the  academic year of Aug. 1, 2021, through Jan. 3. This included a 138.1% increase when comparing January 2021 and 2022.

The CARE Team exists to support students through difficulty by connecting them with the resources and help they need to succeed academically and personally.

While State Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS) program at WSU focuses on preparing students for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers, their students also have a creative side. Recently, four Wichita State UBMS participants were published in the Mikrokomos program. Nayeli Villalobos and Setarah Soureshjani; Alissa Brown and Kenly Nicolas-Estrada, UBMS alumni, submitted writing samples they developed during their summer 2021 creative writing class. The class was taught by Robert Yates Wichita State graduate instructor.

Mikrokosmos is the literary journal of WSU’s Master of Fine Arts program. It accepts written non-fiction and fiction submissions from all students and alumni at WSU. UBMS participants would like to thank Mikrokomos for the opportunity they gave to these youth leaders to express their voices.

For more information about the essays, please contact derrick.veasey@wichita.edu.