The Provost’s Office is pleased to announce that Professor Craig Owens, professor of English, has been appointed the Director of Drake’s Center for Teaching Excellence. The appointment to this position is for a three-year period, with the possibility of renewal.

Associate Provost Arthur Sanders said: “We are excited that Craig has taken this position. We had a strong pool of applicants from which he emerged. In his application, his vision of the Center was a place that focused on promoting effective, efficient, and enjoyable teaching and learning at Drake, and he outlined a number of activities designed to achieve that vision. I look forward to working with him as he works to implement that vision.”

Craig expressed enthusiasm for taking on this role. “For as long as I can remember, teaching has felt like a calling for me. Since I came to Drake in 2003, I have been motivated by faculty, administrative staff, and coaches’ strong commitment to teaching and to a university culture where every encounter presents opportunities for learning.” He further noted that he is “thrilled—and, honestly, a little nervous to have this chance to help advance that culture and to build lasting resources for sustaining it in the coming years.”

Craig says that his top priorities in the near term include learning about the many teaching support resources already available on campus, consulting with members of the campus community to find out more about both urgent and long-term teaching support needs, instituting a teaching mentorship corps, and securing donor and foundation support for the Center’s efforts.

We congratulate Professor Owens on his appointment as the inaugural Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence.

— Arthur Sanders, Associate Provost

The Provost’s Office is pleased to announce that Professor Renee Cramer, professor of law, politics and society, has been appointed the Herb & Karen Baum Chair of Ethics and the Professions. The appointment to this Chair is for a three-year period. Full professors at the University whose teaching and/or research examines issues of ethics and the world of practice are eligible for this position.

The Baum Chair brings together other Drake faculty members with research and teaching interests in ethics into an on-going forum on ethics and the world of practice that will enhance their own scholarly work, their teaching and student learning, and the broader campus discourse. In the second year of appointment, the Baum Chair will organize the Baum Symposium on Ethics and the Professions, to be held on the Drake campus and which involve appropriate outside participants, as well as Drake Faculty, students and staff. Professor Cramer will work with a team of students to develop the Symposium.

Professor Cramer’s symposium will focus on the role of university education in creating the ethical leaders we need across the professions, and the university’s ethical obligation to provide access and affordability to an increasingly diverse range of students, preparing them to enter public life and the workplace with the competencies they need for success. Working with a team of students will insure that the symposium reflects student experiences in and expectations of higher education.

We congratulate Professor Renee Cramer on her selection as the Herb & Karen Baum Chair of Ethics and the Professions.

— Arthur Sanders, Associate Provost

The Provost’s Office is pleased to announce that Professor Maria Valdovinos, professor of psychology, has been appointed a Levitt Distinguished Professor of Psychology.

The Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professorship has long been an important way to recognize and reward superior performance by Drake University faculty members. The criteria for selection includes teaching effectiveness as demonstrated by teaching in a classroom setting and/or mentoring in an experiential learning setting, professional contributions through scholarly activity, demonstrated leadership, consulting activities, and contributions to the mission of the department, college and university.

Some highlights from her nomination packet:

Dr. Valdovinos has a Ph.D. in Developmental and Child Psychology and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She specializes in the application of behavior analysis to improve the lives of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She teaches multiple courses within her areas of expertise including lower division classes appropriate for first and second year students as well as upper level seminars appropriate for students of junior and senior level standing. Students often describe Professor Valdovinos as a “fantastic teacher” and a “phenomenal professor”. She is also an outstanding mentor, guiding students in meaningful scholarly endeavors and applied learning experiences.

Dr. Valdovinos has an exemplary record of scholarly accomplishments that is programmatic, high quality, and impactful.  Her research integrates basic and applied scientific methods, examining how psychotropic medication affect problem behaviors.  She was named a Fellow of the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. Drake students appear as co-authors on most of her presentations and publications.  She has been principal investigator on two large federal research grants, and she has been named both a Troyer Fellow and a Centennial Scholar. 

Dr. Valdovinos has contributed significantly to the University, College and Department through her service activities.  She served as Director of DUSCI for a year and a half, on the Faculty Senate, and the A&S Promotion and Tenure Committee.  She has also provided substantial service to her profession and to the community.  She is currently the associate editor for Behavioral Development and serves on the board of editors for the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and Behavior Analysis:  Research and Practice. She is a member of the National Board of Directors for the Association for Professional Behavior Analysts. And she was awarded the Madelyn Levitt Distinguished Community Service Award in 2014.

Dr. Valdovinos worked relentlessly to establish the Applied Behavior Analysis graduate program at Drake.  This was accomplished through her efforts at securing funding from the State of Iowa This program produces trained behavior analysts to address the treatment needs of children and adults with autism and behavior disorders.

We congratulate Professor Maria Valdovinos on her selection as a Levitt Distinguished  Professor of Psychology.

— Arthur Sanders, Associate Provost

The Provost’s Office is pleased to announce that Professor Charles Phillips, professor of pharmacy administration, pharmaceutical, biomedical and administrative sciences, and associate dean for curriculum & assessment, has been appointed a Windsor Professor of Science.

The Windsor Professorships were established over 20 years ago through a gift from Mary Belle Windsor. Selection is based on teaching effectiveness, professional contribution through scholarly activity, leadership roles, and consulting activities, and contributions to the mission of the department, college and university.

Some highlights from his nomination letter and Dean Chesnut’s comments about his nomination:

Dr. Phillips plays an important and integral role as an instructor in the Pharm.D curriculum. He teaches course work at both the foundational level of the program and at an advanced level that integrates material and develops higher-level skills. He maintains an authoritative but humble presence in the classroom and his personable interactions with students creates a comfortable environment for student learning. He also makes significant contributions to teaching and mentoring outside of the classroom. In addition to outstanding individual student advising/mentoring over a long career, he has been a faculty advisor for over 20 years to Phi Delta Chi, a pharmacy professional fraternity on campus.

Dr. Phillips has a long and productive history of scholarship. He has published peer-reviewed papers and presentations, book chapters, and given invited presentations in many areas of social and administrative pharmacy. More recently, his scholarship has evolved towards work in the area of pharmacy program assessment and his accomplishments have provided notable achievements in this area. He has a number of peer reviewed articles examining best practices in accreditation processes and has published assessment of student learning and critical thinking. Dr. Phillips received a national Excellence in Assessment Award in 2010.

Dr. Phillips has been instrumental in the leadership of the college, serving on our administrative leadership committee continuously since 2003. He has been the Associate Dean for Curriculum and Assessment for the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences since 2016. Prior to that time, he served as Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Assessment (2015-16), and the Assistant Dean of Assessment from 2007-2015. He also served as Chair of the Clinical Sciences Department for 4 years. He has served on Faculty Senate multiple times, including terms as the Vice President and President of the Senate. He has a long history of serving the University as a member of numerous campus committees and taskforces throughout his time at Drake.

We congratulate Professor Chuck Phillips on his selection as a Windsor Professor of Science.

— Arthur Sanders, Associate Provost

From an estimated pool of over 5,000 college sophomores and juniors nationwide, Drake had two recipients of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship Program: Colton Sleister, chemistry and BCMB major, and Lorien MacEnulty, physics and astronomy major. Both students will receive scholarships of up to $7,500 a year to help cover costs associated with tuition, mandatory fees, books, and room and board.

The Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program was established in 1986 and is considered the most prestigious award in the United States to undergraduates in mathematics, natural sciences, and engineering. The award honors the excellence demonstrated by our students in the sciences as well as the University. Academic Institutions may nominate up to four students every year.

Kayla Jenkins, Assistant to the Dean, Arts & Sciences

Work by Drake students has advanced to the national competition in the Society of Professional Journalists’ Mark of Excellence contest. Honors include best sports reporting, best online student publication, and three photography awards.

The winners were announced at the SPJ Region 7 conference on April 6. Region 7 includes universities and colleges in Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri. The first-place winners of all 12 regions will compete at the national level, and results will be announced in late spring. 

Five Drake regional winners that advance to national competition: 

• Jessie Spangler: Online Sports Reporting
• Urban Plains (the senior journalism capstone website): Best Independent Online Student Publication
• Lorien MacEnulty: Breaking news photography
• Grace Hulin: General News Photography
• JD Pelegrino: Sports Photography

Seven other projects were finalists at the regional competition:

• Samantha Ohlson: Online feature reporting
• Andrew Beall: Online sports reporting
• Jessica Spangler and Mitch Kedzior: Podcast
• Marie Nalan: Breaking news reporting
• Rachel James and Phong Ly: General news reporting
• Times-Delphic: Best All-Around Non Daily Student Newspaper
• Drake Magazine: Best Student Magazine

Kathleen Richardson, Journalism and Mass Communication

KayeLea Kautz, Drake undergraduate student in the School of Education and a leader in Drake’s Save the Children Action Network student organization on campus, had a chance to travel to our nation’s capital last week as part of the Save the Children and Save the Children Action Network (SCAN) Advocacy Summit.

In celebration of Save the Children’s 100th year of changing children’s lives, the global nonprofit is honoring changemakers for children—individuals who have raised their voices and used their influence to drive change for the world’s most marginalized and deprived children. Changemakers are an array of individuals such as policymakers, teachers, CEOs, philanthropists, advocates, and more. At the Advocacy Summit, attendees heard from a panel of changemakers, one of which was Kautz:

• Pat Daly, a global health worker who has dedicated her career to saving the lives of babies and their mothers worldwide
• Mark Geri, a veteran single father of twins in Washington who is helping ensure more children can access high-quality early childhood education
• Tasneem Ghogawala, a proud Pakistani American who is changing children’s lives through philanthropy
• Ruth Kagi, a retired Washington state lawmaker who advocated for the creation of both Washington’s Department of Early Learning and subsequently Washington’s Department of Children, Youth and Families and changed the lives of thousands of children
• KayeLea Kautz, a Save the Children Action Network Student Ambassador from Iowa who, as a mom, is ensuring children like hers get the early learning opportunities they deserve

The three-day event provided advocates the opportunity to attend in-depth advocacy trainings, hear from leading experts on issues impacting children worldwide, and meet with their legislators to advocate for investments in early childhood education in the U.S. and humanitarian support for the world’s children.

“Kids don’t vote, and they don’t donate to political candidates – that means elected officials aren’t often reaching out to them, listening to their voices about the world they live in,” said Mark Shriver, CEO of SCAN and Senior Vice President of U.S. Programs and Advocacy at Save the Children. “These advocates from across the U.S. – including more than 75 high school and college students – are actively engaged and dedicating their time and efforts to be that voice for kids on Capitol Hill and in their home communities. They took time from school and work to make this world a better and more opportune place for children.”

— Catherine Gillespie, Associate Dean, Professor of Education

Peter Levi, assistant professor of environmental science, and Drake’s Stream Ecosystem Ecology Lab (SEEL) were awarded a 3-year, $200,000 grant to collaborate with two local Watershed Management Authorities (WMAs) to research the impacts of current and future restoration work in Fourmile Creek and Walnut Creek. These streams flow through farmland and suburbs before reaching Des Moines—and they have impaired water quality as a result. The work by Levi and students in Drake’s Department of Environmental Science and Sustainability will track changes to the hydrology, chemistry, and biology of the ecosystems while the WMAs implement infrastructure and restoration activities in the watersheds. The study will provide a holistic assessment on the ecological value of watershed improvement investments and will offer guidance for watershed management efforts.

Tricia Atterberg, Sponsored Programs Administration and Research Compliance