Angela Ufheil, a 2017 graduate of the Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication, placed 14th in this spring’s national Hearst personality/profile-writing contest. There were 114 entries from 61 schools received in the 58th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation’s Journalism Awards.

Ufheil was recognized for a feature she wrote for her senior capstone project, the multimedia website Urban Plains. The article profiled Frank Cordaro, a former Catholic priest who is a human rights advocate and anti-war activist. Since graduation, Ufheil has worked at The Des Moines Register, as a freelance writer and recently took a job with 5280, the award-winning Denver city magazine.

— Kathleen Richardson, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Catherine M. Staub, the Fisher-Stelter Chair of Magazine Journalism, has won the inaugural VisCom Teaching Award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s Visual Communication Division.

Staub was recognized for her JMC 119 Magazine Publishing curriculum, during which the students come up with the concept for a new magazine, conduct market research, meld the visual and written elements, and create a prototype. The award will be presented on Aug. 6 during the annual AEJMC conference in Washington, D.C.

— Kathleen Richardson, School of Journalism and Mass Communication

The College of Business and Public Administration recently honored several of its staff and faculty during an awards ceremony. Congratulations to the following award recipients!

Annette Watson — Brooks Excellence Award
The Brooks Excellence Award is given to a staff member who fully embodies the values of the College of Business and Public Administration and provides outstanding service to the College and our stakeholders.

Yiqing Chen — Harry Wolk Research Award
The Harry Wolk Research Award is given to an outstanding researcher.

Lance Noe — College of Business and Public Administration Excellence in Teaching Award for Adjunct or Part-Time Instructors

Lisa Gardner — College of Business and Public Administration Service Appreciation

Greg Christie — College of Business and Public Administration Unsung Hero Award. The Unsung Hero Award goes to someone who makes a substantive yet unrecognized contribution, a person who often works behind the scenes and plays a key supporting role.

Mary Edrington — College of Business and Public Administration Outreach Award. The Outreach Award goes to an individual who has served as an outstanding ambassador for the College, making connections with community and industry leaders, alumni, donors, and colleagues across campus.

Pat Heaston — College of Business and Public Administration Extra Blue Mile Service Award. The Extra Blue Mile Service Award recognizes a person who has provided a lifetime of service to the College.

Danette Kenne — College of Business and Public Administration Blue Star Award for Leadership. The Blue Star Award for Leadership was created to recognize an individual who played a key role in advancing the College.

Scott Johnson — College of Business and Public Administration Blue Star Award for Impact. The Blue Star Award for Impact goes to an individual who created a program from scratch. That program has grown in size and has become a hallmark and differentiating feature of the College.

Randy Blum — College of Business and Public Administration Legacy Award. The Legacy Award goes to a departing colleague who has left a lasting mark on the College.

J. Royce Fichtner — College of Business and Public Administration Paragon Award. The Paragon Award and goes to a person that is viewed as a model of excellence, someone who is exemplar in one or more ways.

Susan Watson — David B. Lawrence Outstanding Undergraduate Teacher of the Year

Brad Meyer — Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award

— Dianna Gray, College of Business and Public Administration

Each year, the Iowa Chapter of the American Marketing Association, along with Meredith Corporation as a sponsor, recognizes outstanding leadership, high academic achievement, and active participation in the marketing profession by awarding a $500 scholarship to an AMA Iowa Collegiate student member. This year, Rebecca Crepeau, recent Drake graduate of the College of Business and Public Administration, received the scholarship. She currently serves as the Vice President for the Drake AMA Chapter.

— Dianna Gray, College of Business and Public Administration

Debora Christensen, associate professor of biology, and Thomas Rosburg, professor of biology, recently received distinguished science awards from the Iowa Academy of Science. Christensen was presented with the Distinguished Iowa Science Teaching Award and Rosburg with the Distinguished Iowa Scientist Award during the academy’s annual meeting at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa, on April 20. The awards honor and promote educators for their innovative teaching practices and exceptional scientific research at the post-secondary level.

Christensen has been teaching at Drake since 2008. She has taught 10 different courses. Her main courses include the physiology portion of the general biology course and the mammalian physiology course and lab. Known for her collaborative instruction in the classroom and laboratory, Christensen utilizes diverse strategies to engage students, including video clips, in-class demonstrations, computerized virtual experiments, small group discussions on case studies, and prerecorded lectures. Christensen is also a mentor to approximately 10 research students each semester. Her students have also served as coauthors on research papers and posters at professional meetings.

Rosburg has been teaching at Drake since 1996. He has taught 14 different courses primarily in the subjects of ecology, botany, biological research and statistics, natural history and nature photography. He is known among his peers for his scholarly activity, which includes authoring over 125 scientific papers and reports, contributing to four field guides, and presenting hundreds of lectures and conference papers/posters, many with Drake undergraduates. Among his students, he is known for enhancing learning opportunities through hands-on trips to natural areas and by serving as a mentor to those conducting research.

The Office of the Provost is happy to announce that Jenny Tran-Johnson has accepted the position of Drake University Registrar. She has been serving as interim registrar and will assume her permanent role July 1.

Jenny has a bachelor’s in biology from Drake, a master’s in leadership in student affairs from the University of St. Thomas, and she recently finished her doctorate in education from Drake. Jenny started at Drake in May 2008 as the director of student programs in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. In 2013, she accepted the role of assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences. Jenny also teaches in the leadership education and development (LEAD) concentration.

— Drinda Williams, Office of the Provost

Last month, Chris Nickell, director of environmental health and safety, was named the 2017 Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) shareholder of the year for work done on the Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council (ITRC) Stormwater BMP Performance Verification team. He received the award April 17 at the ITRC annual meeting in Anaheim, California.

Rainfall, if not managed properly, can cause a variety of unwanted challenges, such as flooding, or collecting impurities such as chemicals and debris that can potentially pollute and contaminate waterbodies. As part of the Stormwater BMP Performance Verification team, Nickell works to better manage stormwater by examining the effectiveness of best practices and technologies. He also works to verify that practices comply with regulations administered by the Clean Water Act.

Nickell has been a part of the ITRC for over a year. He serves as the lead for the operations and maintenance team, a sub division of the Stormwater BMP Performance Verification team.

On April 19, Erin Lain, associate provost of campus equity and inclusion, and Gary Johnson, director of HR operations, hosted the 2018 Central Midwest Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC) annual conference at Shivers Courtside Club. Drake is a founding member institution of Central Midwest HERC, which recently completed its second year.

According to its website, Central Midwest HERC’s vision is to promote equity and excellence in higher education recruitment worldwide and to be a premier resource for recruitment and retention of highly trained, diverse applicants to higher education institutions and community partners in the region.

The group seeks to:

• Create a robust, multi-institution network that strengthens participating institutions and the region as a whole;
• Serve as a recruiting, marketing, and professional development resource for HERC member institutions;
• Enhance the ability of member institutions to connect spouses/partners of candidates and new hires to regional employment opportunities, including through partnerships with key partners from business and industry;
• Generate cost savings and efficiencies for member institutions through education regarding the national discount and cooperative advertising programs, partnerships, and services; and
• Evaluate HERC’s qualitative and quantitative return on investment.

Read more about HERC and the resources available to members on the Central Midwest HERC website.

— Gary Johnson, Human Resources

Kieran Williams, adjunct professor in the Department of Political Science, was featured on the cover of the May 4 issue of The Times Literary Supplement.

Williams contributed a full-page essay on Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring of 1968. His book on that topic, titled “The Prague Spring and its Aftermath,” (Cambridge University Press, 1997) is regarded as one of the definitive works on those events, and recently was cited in an article in The Economist.

The Times Literary Supplement, published in London since 1914, is one of the world’s top publications for book reviews, essays and commentary. The issue in which Williams was featured included a special section dedicated to the 50th anniversary of 1968.

Williams has taught at Drake since spring 2004. Previously he taught for nine years at University College London’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies, where he was an associate professor in politics and a frequent consultant to the UK Foreign Office.

A comparativist and specialist in the politics of Central and Eastern Europe, he has authored or co-authored three books, serves on the editorial boards of four journals, and is a regular reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement.