Category: Kudos

In recognition of her accomplishments and commitment to raising continuing generations of teachers, Provost Shirley Lefever, executive vice president, has been selected as the 2024 Hans C. Olsen Award for the Distinguished Teacher Educator from the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE).

The award was established by ATE to select and honor individuals whose contributions to the preparation of teachers are worthy of special recognition, and it will be presented in-person at the ATE 2024 annual meeting in March during the awards gala.

The College of Health Professions was honored to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Structural Heart Program at Ascension Via Christi, along with its new partnership that will transform the future healthcare.

The celebration was held at Wichita’s Mark Arts and was attended by more than 200 guests, including Ascension leadership and medical staff, Wichita State leadership, senior leaders from two global structural heart device manufacturers and their teams; local, state and national governmental officials; and community leaders.

Four College of Engineering students traveled to Tampa, Florida, to attend the Collegiate Entrepreneur’s Organization (CEO) national conference and global pitch competition Nov. 2-4. The students had previously won the 2023 Koch Innovation Challenge, and their team, ViBracelet, was selected out of about 300 teams to advance with about 100 other teams to the conference and competition.

At the competition, the students presented a working prototype of their big idea venture, the ViBracelet, which is a wearable vibration alarm that gives members of the deaf community a safe and reliable way to wake up from sleep. The team is comprised of JC Wright (aerospace engineering), Trinity Madden (formerly engineering technology, now applied engineering), Will Panakos (product design and manufacturing engineering) and Loralei McClure (product design and manufacturing engineering).

Although the team did not advance to the top 25 in the competition, they performed well and made connections with potential partners and investors. Prior to the competition, Nancy Kersenbrock, assistant director of the Center for Entrepreneurship, and Doug Stucky, the manager of program and development for the College of Innovation and Design, provided mentorship related to developing a business model and pitching their big idea venture.

Every year, Times Higher Education posts its university rankings across all subjects. This year, Times Higher Education reached out to Usha Haley, Barton Distinguished Chair in International Business, to explain the change in the top 50 in the sciences and business.

Usha Haley, W. Frank Barton Chair in International Business, was recently interviewed for an article on Elon Musk for Yahoo! Finance, the leading global platform for business news with over 93 million unique users in the United States alone.

Usha was interviewed for her expertise on Chinese business strategy for the article, “How Elon Musk’s China challenges may cost Tesla its next $800 billion in market cap.”

The Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) congratulates Dr. Trisha Self, associate professor; Terese Conrad, clinical professor; Dr. Cynthia Richburg, professor; Dr. Karissa Marble-Flint, associate professor; and emerita faculty Dr. Kathy Strattman and Dr. Barbara Hodson, on their recent authorship of three chapters in the second edition of “The Communication Disorders Casebook” by Dr. Shelly Chabon, Dr. Ellen Cohn and Dr. Dorian Lee-Wilkerson.

Dr. Self and Conrad wrote a chapter in the infant/toddler cases section. Their chapter highlights how to develop a communication assessment and treatment plan for a toddler with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Dr. McCormick Richburg cowrote a chapter in the hearing section of the book. Her case highlighted the move from identification to implantation for a child with progressive sensorineural hearing loss caused by a Connexin 26 mutation. Dr. Marble-Flint along with Dr. Strattman and Dr. Hodson wrote a chapter regarding literacy/phonology. Their case was about twins who had highly unintelligible speech and are working on enhancing phonological and literacy skills.

The casebook helps students and practitioners have a comprehensive resource showcasing the steps of evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of individuals with speech, language, swallowing and hearing challenges and their families.

Jeremy Fielding, a YouTube personality, recently toured the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) and has started a series of engineering-focused videos all featuring Wichita State and NIAR.

Fielding spoke with members of the Shocker Racing team about the engineering work they do as part of the team. He’s also produced an introduction to robotics video, with insight from members of NIAR during his visit. Fielding’s visit to WSU and the Shocker Racing team was also detailed on the Solidworks Education Blog, which is managed by Dassault Systemes, an Innovation Campus partner. More videos from his visit to NIAR are coming soon.

Fielding creates content specifically related to engineering and was originally contracted by Dassault Systemes to showcase how WSU and NIAR utilize the company’s CAD software.

The Shocker Career Accelerator (SCA) is proud to announce that Career Coach Rachel Valentine is now a Certified Career Services Provider (CCSP).

Rachel’s dedication, expertise and passion for helping individuals achieve their career goals is evident, and SCA is inspired by Rachel’s commitment to personal and professional growth. In addition to passing her CCSP, Rachel is currently in the clinical mental health counseling master’s program at Wichita State.

The Shocker Support Locker would like to thank the Rudd Foundation for donating 1,150 items to the locker from its recent food drive.

The locker would also like to thank students, faculty and staff who participated in Food for Fines, which resulted in 697 items being donated to the locker.

The Shocker Support Locker thanks Shocker Nation for its support.

Dr. Dinorah Azpuru, professor of political science, was invited as the Keynote Speaker at the X Central American Congress of Political Science Sept. 13 in Panama City, Panama.

Azpuru delivered a 45-minute conference called “Democratic Deficits and Contemporary Political Regimes in Central America” (title originally in Spanish). Political science scholars and students from several countries in Latin America and Spain attended the congress.