Monday Memo, December 11, 2023

Dear A&S Colleagues,

This edition marks the final Monday Memoof 2023. It is also my two-year anniversary at UofL, and I want to express what a pleasure and a privilege it has been to produce this newsletter over that period of time. A responsibility that I take very seriously, it's a joy to hear from all corners of the college about the achievements and activities of our amazing faculty, staff, students, and alumni. 

In my early days at UofL, I considered rebranding this publication with a more ambitious title, something with a nod to the golden age of newspapers, like chronicle or examiner, press or sentinel. But I concluded that people are accustomed to "the MondayMemo," and I'm glad I didn't make any changes as a newcomer. (Brandon Harwood is clearly on my wavelength and refers to it as "the Monday Missive," which I love.) The Monday Memo expresses how the A&S mission translates into stories of commitment, to teaching our students, research in our disciplines, and engagement in our community. 

As we embark on a new year, I'm reminded of how our tireless dean, Dayna Touron, often exhorts us to attend each other's events—a goal in which she truly leads by example.  In 2024, I encourage all of us to commit to attending activities and events outside of our immediate spheres, to learn from and support our colleagues in other disciplines. Whether it’s a lecture, performance, or a James Webb telescope image over beer, these interactions can spark new ideas and a deeper appreciation for the incredible work being done across our college. Let us seize the chance to broaden our horizons, forge new connections, and strengthen the bonds that unite us as a dynamic and innovative academic family.

Sincerely,

Julie Wrinn, Chief of Staff 

P.S. This edition also marks the final Monday Memo byline by Janet Cappiello, Arts & Sciences liaison to the Office of Communications and Marketing, who is retiring in early January 2024. Be sure to read Janet's terrific profile of December 2023 graduate Destini Potter, below. Our college will greatly miss Janet's stellar writing and reporting! 

 

Research Agenda

 

Above, left to right: Kevin Gardner, Dayna Touron, Cheri Levinson, and Kim Schatzel

Cheri Levinson, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, has been awarded $11.5 million in three grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to better understand and address the devastating effects of eating disorders. Prof. Levinson is also director of the UofL Eating and Anxiety Treatment Lab and will use one of these grants, the prestigious NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, to create novel personalized treatments for eating disorders that integrate social determinants of health (food insecurity, racism) into treatment. 

Levinson’s NIMH-funded project title was Innovations in Personalizing Treatment for Eating Disorders Using Idiographic Methods and the Impact of Personalization on Psychological, Physical, and Sociodemographic Outcomes. Her research focuses on building new treatments, primarily using new technologies such as individual network analysis, ecological momentary assessment, and wearable sensor technologies.

These awards demonstrates that Levinson's lab is receiving national recognition at the highest levels for pioneering innovative treatments for a debilitating illness, exemplifying the STEM research being conducted in the College of Arts & Sciences to address real-world problems.

Dr. Levinson is also founder of the Louisville Center for Eating Disorders, the only specialty eating disorder clinic in the state of Kentucky. She has received several awards for her work including the 2023 SSCP Susan Nolen-Hoeksema Early Career Award (2023), University of Louisville 2023 UofL Entrepreneurship and Innovations Awards Trailblazer Award, Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award, 2021 Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award, and the 2020 American Psychological Association Theo Blau Award.

“Dr. Levinson’s work will undoubtedly improve the lives of millions living with eating disorders," said Dean Dayna Touron, "and we are very proud to count her among our faculty.” Read more.

 

Community Engagement

 

On December 7 the College’s Center for Environmental Policy Management, directed by Sociology Chair Lauren Heberle, released the 2023 State of Metropolitan Housing Report, co-authored with Rebecca Halpryn (Sociology PhD student), Dr. Scott Pruitt (UofL Alum), Sasha Belinova (Sociology MA student), and Laura Krauser (UofL Center for GIS) in collaboration with and for the Metropolitan Housing Coalition (MHC). MHC is celebrating the 20thanniversary of this report, first issued in 2003. The 2023 report is entitled "The State of Housing in a Changing Climate: Building Resilient Homes, Households and Communities." It examines the state of Louisville Metro policies and programs intended to address the need for affordable housing and climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resiliency.  Read the report here. 

Among the extensive media coverage this report has received, Louisville Public Media noted that Prof. Heberle called on local policy makers to address these issues by spending more on improving existing housing and building new housing. “The changing climate is already magnifying the harms that Louisville residents without stable and affordable homes experience,” Heberle said.

On the trend in other cities eliminating single-family zoning as a limitation, WDRB quoted Prof. Heberle, "What it means is we can have multi-family units built in areas where there are single-family homes and open up more property for more sustainable and more affordable living."

Wave’s coverage of the report notes that 41.1% of renters in the Louisville Metro already spend more than 30% of their income on rent, which is the threshold of what is considered affordable housing, and that Louisville has a 55,000-unit shortage of affordable housing. That challenge is magnified as the report also examines local climate getting hotter and wetter. It suggests the city’s growing number of aging houses may need expensive retrofitting to make them stronger, energy-efficient, and affordable. “Learn to think about this as a complicated issue, and that there isn’t a silver bullet,” said Prof. Heberle. “And that this is going to be an ongoing problem that we have to engage in.”

 

This week the Frazier History Museum will unveil a new exhibit, She Did What She Could: Eliza Tevis and the Origins of Newburg, created and designed by the students in Dr. Glenn Crothers’sIntroduction to Public History class. The exhibit tells the story of Eliza Tevis, an enslaved woman who gained her freedom in the 1830s and purchased land to build a home in the “Wet Woods,” now Newburg, in south Louisville. She married Henry Tevis in 1843, but only after establishing a de facto prenuptial agreement to protect her property. Tevis was also a healer within her community who, according to oral tradition, purchased the children of enslaved people sold to the Deep South, employing them on her own farm and hiring out others. After the Civil War, growing numbers of freed people settled near Tevis, and she became a central figure in the community, then known as Petersburg, helping to establish Forest Baptist Church. Beloved and admired, she died at over ninety years of age in 1887.

Today, many descendants of Tevis still live in Newburg and have established the Eliza Tevis Society to commemorate the life of this intrepid woman. Members of the society shared their historical research with students, including documents, artwork, and artifacts from the Filson Historical Society, Louisville city government, and the U.S. Census. Combining this research with their own, the students crafted the exhibit with the help of Frazier History Museum staff. The exhibit reflects an ongoing collaboration between UofL students, Eliza Tevis Society members, and the staffs of the Frazier and the Filson. This opening will take place on Tuesday, December 12, at 3 pm, the Frazier History Museum, 829 W. Main Street. For more information, contact: Dr. A. Glenn Crothers, Department of History (glenn.crothers@louisville.edu; 502-445-2274)

 

Above: the sun took on a crescent shape Aug. 21, 2017, during a partial solar eclipse experienced in Louisville, as seen here on the Belknap Campus. The April 8, 2024, eclipse will produce a similar scene. 

The Department of Physics and Astronomy is offering an all-online class for anyone from school-age students to senior citizens ahead of the total solar eclipse over north and central America on April 8, 2024. This is a one credit/interdisciplinary science, history, literature, art and film course meant for non-scientists and the public. It's intended as a massive public service/free elective to help enjoy the April eclipse.

“This will be so close to us in Louisville,” said Gerard Williger, professor of physics and astronomy, who is teaching the class. “Those who experience a total solar eclipse will remember it forever. It’s completely different from a partial eclipse: The temperature drops, birds go quiet, the wind dies down, and a few bright stars and planets become visible.”

The course is entirely online and worth one college credit. “The course is unusual in that it does not fulfill a degree requirement, but rather is a free elective, like a golf or tennis class,” Williger said. “The goal is to inform people about this once-in-a-lifetime eclipse, and is not meant to take much time.” 

While the eclipse will only be partially visible in Louisville, it can be experienced in its totality in a band about 100 miles wide from Mexico to Newfoundland, including most of southern Indiana like Paoli and Seymour, less than an hour away. The next time a total solar eclipse will occur this close to Louisville will be on Oct. 17, 2153.

“Special Topics: The Great North American Eclipse of 2024,” begins Jan. 8, 2024. The eclipse will be April 8, and the final class April 15. Lectures will be recorded for flexible viewing. Faculty, staff and families/friends are invited to use tuition remission and pass the word to others, especially your students. There is a reduced/free tuition for Kentucky school students, Metroversity students, and those over 65. Currently, we have 43 enrolled and can accommodate >300 online. For more information, contact Gerard Williger, 502-852-0821, or visit the website. Read more. 

 

GIS Day 2023

 

The College’s Center for Geographic Information Sciences held another fantastic GIS Day on November 15, 2023. Approximately 100 students, alumni, faculty, and staff attended this event, which featured a keynote address by Theresa Reno-Weber, Chief Operating Officer of the Louisville-based start-up Goodmaps. Goodmaps provides indoor navigation services for a range of clients, from airports to libraries to Walmart.

Four Geographic and Environmental Sciences alums are currently employed as full-time staff members at Goodmaps: Grace Embree, Elliott Holmes, Hinzee Smith, and Matt Tichenor. Additionally, the department has three current students interning there now.

Students engaged Reno-Weber with a range of thoughtful questions, from how to balance thoroughness with speed in mapping new spaces; how to map indoor spaces without violating privacy and security; and how revenue is earned in GoodMaps’s business model. Congrats to the GEO department and especially to DJ Biddle, Director of the GIS Center, for cultivating this partnership and putting on such a high quality event for our students and alumni.

 

Call for Applications

 

Above: "I am Going 1" (Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 48 x 60 inches) 2023 by Suyun Son, MFA candidate at the Hite Institute of Art + Design, UofL

Bingham Faculty Fellows in the Humanities and Culture: The Commonwealth Center for Humanities and Society (CCHS) seeks a mix of tenured and tenure-track A&S faculty engaged in humanistic scholarship. People who have received a CCHS fellowship in the past are eligible to apply. Applications consist of a current CV, brief update on results from previous fellowship (if applicable), letter of support from your department chair and a 1,000-word proposal for a project you will pursue and how it fits with the 2024-25 theme, “Stories of Place.” The application deadline is January 12, 2024. For more information, visit the webpage.

 

Faculty, staff, trainees, and students are encouraged to apply for KYNETIC Product Development Grants (Kentucky Network for Innovation and Commercialization). Cycle 9 pre-application submissions are now open. Pre-applications will be due February 13th, 2024, by 5:00pm ET. Submission portal:  https://redcap.uky.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=LREWDKWYJCA83M34. If you have questions or need assistance with your pre-application, please contact us to share your product idea at kynetic@louisville.edu.

Funded by the NIH, KYNETIC offers entrepreneurial education and product development grants to accelerate the translation of academic innovations into biomedical products by investigators throughout the Commonwealth of Kentucky. KYNETIC is led by the University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development, and Kentucky Commercialization Ventures (KCV).

 

Alumni Spotlight

 

Dr. Ivan Benitez's (PhD in Criminal Justice 2022) recent work on the Louisville Metro Gun Violence Dashboard was highlighted in a press conference held by Mayor Greenberg, Lt. Colonel McKinley from Louisville Metro PD, and Office for Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods (OSHN) Director Callanan (link to press conference). Dr. Benitez has been working to create the dashboard to provide the city with a usable data system that allows users to view gun violence trends by geographic area. The system will also be used by OSHN and LMPD to identify areas for gun violence interventions, and to track efforts to curb gun violence. Dr. Benitez is the OSHN Gun Violence Data Fellow. The dashboard is available for review at “Louisville Metro Gun Violence Dashboard.”  

 

Dec. 2023 Commencement

 

Above: Biology major Destini Potter presenting her undergraduate research.

By Janet Cappiello

Destini Potter always had an interest in a medical career. After her 56-year-old mother died of a sudden heart attack when Potter was 18, she knew she wanted to be a cardiologist. True to her name, nothing was going to get in the way of that goal.

On Dec. 15, Potter will join hundreds of other summer and fall degree candidates at the KFC Yum! Center for commencement exercises. Cheering her on from the stands as she celebrates her biology undergraduate degree will be her three brothers and two sisters. 

“I want to make my Mom proud because she always believed in me,” said Destini. After her mother died, Potter’s father turned to drugs to cope. His addictions led her to sever her ties with him. 

Potter, 24, who lives with one of her sisters in Taylorsville and commutes to UofL, said she was determined to get her college degree “no matter what,” even though it meant she would have to put herself through school. To help lessen the financial burden, the first-generation student began her college career at Jefferson Community & Technical College (JCTC) in Carrollton after graduating from Trimble County High School in 2017. She transferred to UofL two years later, and she works part-time as a certified nursing assistant in Taylorsville.

“I don’t want other people to go through what I did, so I want to do the best that I can to help people protect their health so that other people won’t have their parents pass away when they are young,” Potter said.

She found a home at UofL, where she conducted field research on insects and developed lasting friendships, including finding fellow Dungeons & Dragons players. Among her favorite faculty members are Mark Running, professor of biology, Sachin Handa, associate professor of organic chemistry, and Steve Yanoviak, who gave her a research position in his entomology lab. Read more.

 

Kudos

 

Kudos to Dr. Mary Z. Ashlock (above, right), Vice Chair and Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Communication, for receiving a 2023 Tenured Teaching Award from the National Communication Association (NCA), Organizational Communication Division, on November 17, 2023. Dr. Ashlock was presented with the award during a panel spotlighting honorees at the annual NCA Convention in Washington, DC.

 

Kudos to doctoral student in Psychological and Brain Sciences Lora Haynes for leading an effort by her department's DEI Committee in developing a DEI Little Free Library that is housed on the first floor of Life Sciences (see below). Faculty and students are welcome to give or take books. It has books for every reader from children to academics. 

 

Kudos to Felicia Jamison, assistant professor in the History Department and the Department of Comparative Humanities, for participating in Telfair Museums’ “Community in Conversation: Legacy of Slavery in Savannah” event in October. At the symposium, held at Savannah State University, scholars from across the country presented scholarship on Black history in Lowcountry Georgia. Jamison’s paper analyzed the federal government’s use of eminent domain to build a military fort during World War II that displaced hundreds of Black people from their land. Symposium papers will be published in an edited volume by the University of Georgia Press.

 

It's not often that local media cover UofL course offerings, but Siobhan Smith-Jones's spring 2024 course, COMM 460/510: Beyond Beyoncé: Communication of an Icon, caught the attention of Wave3. Kudos to Prof. Smith-Jones for such a creative offering and successful promotion! Watch more.

 

Margath Walker, professor of geography and geosciences, Department of Geographic and Environmental Sciences/UPA, College of Arts and Sciences, has recently been appointed as co-editor for the RGS-IBG Book Series. Published by Wiley on behalf of the Royal Geographic Society, the book series will move to LSE Press in January 2024. The series is known for publishing theoretically informed and empirically rich texts reflecting cutting-edge research in geography and cognate disciplines.

 

All About Awards

 

Nominations for A&S Awards are being accepted through December 13 (extended from Dec. 6), 2023, at this link. This year we have 30 award categories: 20 for faculty (including 1 for Part-time Lecturers and 2 others inclusive of PTLs), 9 for staff, and 1 for Graduate Teaching Assistants. Each winner receives $400 and recognition at the A&S Celebration of Excellence on April 23, 2024. The 12 Distinguished Faculty Awards have categories and guidelines that aligned precisely with the university-wide presidential awards, so that A&S winners in those categories can become our College’s nominees for, and are fully qualified for, presidential awards. Now is the time to think back over the past year and recollect those colleagues who have positively impacted you, your area, our students, and our mission.

 

Nominations are invited for the 22nd annual Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau Gender Equity Award, which honors the memory of Dr. Mary K. Tachau, a women’s rights activist and nationally recognized constitutional historian who became the first female chair of the History Department. The award will be presented to a member of the UofL community whose work has directly furthered gender equity. The prestigious award will be announced by the UofL Women’s Center and the UofL Commission on the Status of Women at the Women’s Center virtual Empowerment Program on March 21, 2024. The nomination deadline is January 19 by 5:00 p.m. Contact Tami Harbolt at tlharb01@louisville.edu for further details and a nomination form. 

 

A&S Events

 

“We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The African American Theatre Program at the University of Louisville cordially invites you to: Celebrating Dr. King’s Legacy:  Young Changemakers Building Our Future Artivism in Action. Monday, January 15, 2024 at 1:00PM, The Playhouse. 1911 S. 3rd St., Louisville, KY 40208. Free and open to the public.

 

 

UofL Events

 

Mini Boot Camp for Generative AI: Learn how to incorporate AI tools into your courses by attending this mini boot camp on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, 9 a.m -12 p.m. In this half-day interactive workshop, participants will enhance and reimagine their teaching through collaborative exercises and presentations, with the goal of each participant leaving the workshop with a remade assignment for teaching in the era of AI. Participants can attend virtually or in person in Ekstrom Library, room 244. For more information, visit the webpage.

 

LGBTQ+ Affirming Healthcare Series, Session Four: Queer Eye: A Trans Provider’s Perspective. Facilitated by Jyme Rae Charette, DMD, MSD, Board Certified Prosthodontist (he/him). Presented by the UofL LGBT Center, UofL School of Dentistry, and HSC Office of Diversity & Inclusion. January 25, 12 Noon – 1:00 PM, Hybrid – Zoom link and in-person location emailed after online registration closes. Registration (required): https://forms.office.com/r/w34zVTM36c

 

Grant writing workshops: Register now for any of the three remaining grant writing workshops taking place on February 2, March 1, and May 14, 2024, 12 noon - 1:30 pm, from the Office of Community Engagement, Office of the Provost, and Office of Institutional Equity for faculty, staff, and graduate students. Workshops will introduce the basics of grant writing from the lenses of community engagement, present the foundation for developing a letter of inquiry and a full proposal, provide approaches to engage funders, and provide insights into the review process. Register at this link.

 

Mentoring for Success: Faculty and staff, please don't miss the opportunity to be a part of the 2024 Mentoring for Success cohort. The Mentoring for Success program is designed to create mentoring relationships that provide a sense of connection to the greater campus community, support employees in pursuing their personal and professional goals, and help employees align their work with UofL’s values articulated through the Cardinal Principles. Potential mentors can be any UofL faculty, staff member, or retirees who have been an employee of the university for at least two years. Potential mentees can be any UofL faculty or staff member who has been an employee of the university for at least one year.  Apply to be a mentor here. Apply to be a mentee here.  For more information, visit the webpage.

 

Blackboard Ultra Instructor Training Sessions: Prepare for the upcoming Blackboard Ultra migration by signing up for a Blackboard Ultra Training session. The university will fully transition to Blackboard Ultra from Blackboard Original, by the beginning of fall 2024. These virtual hands-on trainings are available to fit your schedule and cover a range of topics. Instructors can also complete the asynchronous Blackboard Ultra Training at any time. Learn more about Blackboard Ultra and sign up to attend a training session online at uofl.me/Ultra-Training.

 

Remembrance of Things Past

 

Dean Touron (far right, in white) and UofL Army ROTC Cadets in the Mega Cavern on Nov. 30, 2023 (U.S. Army Photo by Amy Turner)

ROTC Army cadets were joined by Dean Dayna Touron on a recent festive foot march through the Mega Cavern in Louisville. Cadets dressed for the occasion as they rucked through the Christmas light displays. The Mega Cavern is a 4-million-square-foot former limestone mine in Louisville that stretches under parts of the Watterson Expressway and the Louisville Zoo. Due to the mine's support structures, it is classified as a building and is the largest building in Kentucky. The space is used for business, storage, recycling, and tourism, with offerings including tram-guided tours, zipline tours, a ropes course, an annual holiday lights display, and, previously, a mountain bike park.

 

After 31 years and over 22,000 students taught, Dr. James (Jim) Alexander (below) is retiring from the Department of Biology. Dr. Alexander gave his final research seminar on December 1, followed by a reception. A tree was planted in his honor between Life Sciences and Strickler. Join us in wishing him a happy retirement!

 

Above, top row, l-r: A&S staff Karen Thompson, LyShanna Cunningham, Courtney Griffith, and Clest Lanier; Saxophonist Benny J.; Clest, holding a plaque received from the Yearlings Club for her community service, is standing with her husband, Chuck Lanier, Dean Dayna Touron, and Interim Senior Associate Dean David Shultz. Second row, l-r: Interim Associate Dean Sherri L. Wallace with Commonwealth Attorney Gerina Whethers, Dean Touron, Mayor Craig Greenberg, and Commonwealth Attorney Whethers. Third row: Clest with Yearlings Club President Sedgewick Parker, Mayor Greenberg, and his wife, Rachel. Bottom row, l-r: Mayor Greenberg listening to a constituent, well-known community activist and Yearling Club member Roger Wilkins, and Benny J. and Friends, the featured live entertainment for the fun and festive evening on December 1 to start the holiday season!

 

Heritage Luncheon Catering Recap: For the 2023 Staff Heritage Luncheons, the DECC Office and ULASSA researched locally owned restaurants and caterers, and event planners can all benefit from their sleuthing. The next time you’re planning an event and looking for alternatives to the usual suspects, why not try one of the Staff Heritage Luncheon caterers? They are:

One final recommendation from the DECC Office is this caterer used for Yearlings Club events:

 

By Dr. Sherri L. Wallace

The American Indian Heritage Luncheon on November 28 completed a full year of recognition and celebration of the national heritage months that all encompass unique, diverse traditions and cultures that define our blended American culture and lifestyles.

Greeting us with a friendly “Boozhoo” or “Hello” in Ojibwe, our featured speaker was Dr. Selene G. Phillips, Wabigonikewikwe, a member of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe nation in Wisconsin and Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at UofL. In addition to studying Indigenous epistemology and native ways of understanding and interpreting Sacagawea, Dr. Phillips performs Chautauquas as Sacagawea, Mary Todd Lincoln, and Chickasaw tribal leader and pilot Eula “Pearl” Carter Scott. Her new character is Zitkála-Šá or Red Bird, also known as the famed Gertrude Simmons Bonnin, the Yankton Sioux woman who wrote about Oklahoma’s exploitation and atrocities that the movie Killers of the Flower Moon portray. She has won the International Women Who Write poetry contest for her award-winning poetry. In her previous career, she worked as a television news anchor, a radio and television news reporter and producer, a communication specialist for Purdue University's Affirmative Action Office, and a vocational counselor and job developer for the American Indian Business Association.

Dr. Phillips brought handmade cultural attire and gifts for the audience as she shared her family history of growing up in Lac du Flambeau, which means “Lake of Torches.” Her tribe is known for its wildlife and recreational economy. The Ojibwe people are one of the largest tribal nations in the North American continent, with its largest concentration in Canada. They were known as one of the people who developed and kept records, challenging the myth that First Nation people didn’t read or write. We learned that Dr. Phillips’ grandmother was one of the last of her tribe to speak the local Ojibwe dialect, fluently. Her family were athletes, members of the military, fishers, anglers, and builders of canoes. Dr. Phillips presented a series of slides to show the vast, beautiful rural landscape of her childhood. From the Waaswaaganing Indian Bowl and the Bear River—the sites for Pow wows—to the modern-day challenges for its public schools and cruelties of the historic boarding school, primarily used for “civilizing” or assimilating Native American children and youth into the dominant American culture, we gained a deep appreciation for the resilience and survival of the Ojibwe Nation. Dr. Phillips shared eye-opening, yet intellectually rich data on how the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council and similar organizations are enhancing the quality of life for all Nations. She also focused on a few Tribal cases affecting the Nations, writ large, such as the ongoing challenges to tribal sovereignty over ancestral land, “colonial violence” or identify fraud of noted academics who claim(ed) Indigenous ancestry, hate speech directed at tribal leaders or people, cultural appropriation of Indian chiefs/warriors as mascots or misrepresentation of historical women figures in children’s books, the backlash against teaching of Native American history, the incessant violence against Native American women—which is the third leading cause of death for females under the age of 20—to name a few. We learned that “it’s not about who you claim [as your Native identity], it’s about who claims you” as part of their Tribal heritage. When asked which is the appropriate identification, “Native American” or “Indigenous American,” Dr. Phillips stated, “listen to what the people say and say that.” Meaning, find out how someone self-identifies and use their language. Good practical advice.

Dr. Phillips left us with ways to support and shop Native American culture, from the “Art Heals: The Jingle Dress Project” that raises awareness about the violence against Native American women to the Eighth Generation’s Coast Salish Pattern Wool Blanket, the 11 Indigenous Designers named in Elle Magazine, 35 Indigenous and Native-owned clothing brands in Good Housekeeping, the 30 Indigenous clothing brands, including the Decolonial Clothing company, to the Soul Curiosity designs that speak to healing yourself through art.  “Miigwetch!” or “Thank you” in Ojibwe, Dr. Phillips, for a truly remarkable presentation!

 As we end this staff educational series sponsored by the A&S DECC office, we commend the committed and steadfast service of the A&S Staff Heritage Month Celebration Committee: Joshua Boydstun, Mary Pat Chiavaroli, LyShanna Cunningham, Yolanda Demaree, Clest Lanier and Lisa Schonburg with Rae Stillwell whose creativity in the design of the heritage promotional flyers was simply outstanding. FANTASTIC JOB!! Thanks to all who attended any or all the heritage luncheons.

Pictured below, L-R: Members of the Staff Heritage Month Committee Yolanda Demaree, LyShanna Cunningham, Joshua Boydstun, Lisa Schonburg, Dr. Selene G. Phillips (featured speaker), Clest Lanier, and Dr. Sherri L. Wallace.