In February, seven Drake employees attended a Campus Training and Technical Assistance Institute in Fort Worth, Texas.  Drake is one of four central Iowa schools making up the consortium that received a three-year grant of $510,000 through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women (OVW), which hosted the Institute.

Three Public Safety employees along with the interim dean of students, community standards officer, Title IX coordinator, and violence prevention coordinator attended the three-day institute to learn about strategic planning and community response as well as specific tracks on law enforcement, prevention, and student conduct. The schools will work individually as well as collectively within the consortium to strengthen and formalize education, policies, procedures, and messaging to prevent and respond to sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

—Katie Overberg, Title IX Coordinator

New data affirms that Drake does an exceptional job of preparing its alumni for professional success. Ninety-nine percent of students who graduated from Drake during the 2015–2016 academic year had a job, were enrolled in graduate or professional school, or were engaged in internships or other activities related to their professional goals within six months of completing their studies, according to a University assessment completed this month. Learn more in the Drake Newsroom.

Drake OTD student accepted to prestigious program
Emily Nadolny, a Drake occupational therapy doctoral candidate from Willmar, Minn., recently was chosen to attend the highly selective Second Annual Summer Institute for Future Scientists in Occupational Therapy. Learn more about Emily in the Drake Newsroom.

CPHS alumni honored
The College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences honored four outstanding alumni during the college’s annual Pharmacy and Health Sciences Day, held Thursday, Feb. 23 in Sheslow Auditorium.

Drake alumni Marc Baumert and Grant Knowles received the college’s Young Alumni Achievement Award, issued each year to alumni who graduated within the past 10 years. Nancy Bell and R. Mathew Hosford received the Alumni Achievement Award. Three of the alumni—Baumert, Bell, and Hosford—work in the Des Moines metro area; all have demonstrated remarkable loyalty to their alma mater and extraordinary professional success. Learn more about these remarkable alumni in the Drake Newsroom.

The Drake University National Alumni Board will recognize eight exceptional alumni with awards for professional achievement and loyalty to their alma mater. The 2017 National Alumni Awards ceremony is set for Thursday, April 27. See the list of recipients in the Drake Newsroom.

The School of Education’s gifted and talented endorsement has been approved by the State of Illinois. Thanks to Professor Sally Beisser’s hard work and persistence, teachers from Illinois can now take this endorsement online and know that it will automatically be approved to be added to their licenses.

—Catherine Gillespie, SOE

The U.S. Department of State announced that Drake will again serve as a host institute for the Mandela Washington Fellowship program, which cultivates vital personal and professional connections between Africa and Iowa. Drake first hosted the prestigious program in 2016. Learn more in the Drake Newsroom.

Drake is now accepting applications for its new compliance and risk management program, beginning in fall 2017. The program, offered through Drake Law School and Drake’s College of Business and Public Administration, includes a professional certificate, a Master of Jurisprudence, and a Master of Laws. Read more in the Drake Newsroom.

The spring and fall 2016 editions of Urban Plains—the website created by Drake School of Journalism and Mass Communication news, magazine and digital media production seniors—has captured first place in the large group category of the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) Festival of Media Arts Interactive Multimedia competition. It is the second year that Urban Plains has won the award. This year, Drake tied for first with a team from Elon University, among the 174 institutions represented in this year’s competition. Prizes will be awarded during the annual BEA convention in Las Vegas in April. The competition bills itself as the world’s largest digital media and broadcast contest for faculty and students.

In addition, Drake students won a record 31 awards in the recent Iowa College Media Association contest, including recognition for writing, design, info graphic, photography, editing, and video.

—Kathleen Richardson, Dean, SJMC

MUBS Visiting Student Group
The third group of visiting students from Makerere University Business School (MUBS) is on campus until Feb. 12 for a week-long seminar on leadership. The contingent includes seven students and three faculty members. This group worked closely with many Drake students who traveled to Uganda last summer and will continue to engage with them, and those traveling to Uganda this summer, throughout the week. One of the highlights of the visit is that the group was introduced to the Iowa House Assembly by Rep. Zach Nunn, AS’02, and others on Feb. 6.

2017 Global Faculty Program at Monterrey Tec
Tom Swartwood was selected to participate in Tec de Monterrey’s Global Faculty Program and will travel to Guadalajara March 6–10 to take part. Tom’s goals for the visit include partnering with Tec entrepreneurship faculty to include virtual interactions between the two schools’ entrepreneurship students during an Innovation Week, which Tom has modeled after Tec’s program.

—Kirk Martin, Drake International