Thank you for the continued steps you are taking to protect your health and the health of the campus community. I recognize and empathize with the fact that some of the implemented changes may pose challenges; however, they are necessary to avoid putting the campus community at risk. I am so grateful for your quick response to moving our undergraduate classes online for the reminder of the semester. The goal is to provide continuity in student learning while recognizing the need to act in the best interest of the health and well-being of all students, faculty and staff. Our work will continue to require creativity and innovation in order to help our students succeed. As we continue to navigate these difficult times together, we must remain committed to our academic mission and research enterprise.

As part of that academic mission, access and affordability must continue to be a focus of ours. Many of you are aware that enrollment growth is a priority at many universities across the nation, and ours is no exception. To give students the opportunity to succeed at ECU and go on to have a positive impact on their communities and the world, we first have to get them enrolled. Once enrolled we must provide support structures to help students succeed.

Enrollment growth for the university is two-fold. One piece of the puzzle is new student acquisition, and in the coming year you will likely hear about our collective efforts to acquire new students at ECU. The second piece is retaining those students we currently enroll. From last academic year to this one we did an exceptional job of retaining our students, and as a result our enrollment remained strong despite all of the challenges posed by COVID-19. But we must continue to be innovative, not only in the ways we recruit new Pirates, but also in how we keep our current Pirates on board. As a part of the Strategic Enrollment Planning (SEP) Initiative, a working group was formed to investigate the implementation of meta-majors at ECU. The working group is composed of campus representatives from the faculty, academic advising and career services and is under the coordination of Dr. Derek Maher and Dr. Elizabeth Coghill.

What is a meta-major? Meta-majors are collections of academic major programs of study that have related career paths or coursework. The intent of meta-majors is to help incoming students become acquainted with the many related options in their general area of interest so they can make more informed choices of their major and develop an educational plan that leads to timely degree completion.

After initial research on national models, the working group has proposed a draft plan that is authentic to ECU. The proposed plan is composed of 7 main pathways that cluster similar majors together.

• 1. Business
• 2. Education
• 3. Fine Arts and Humanities
• 4. Health Sciences
• 5. Society and Policy
• 6. STEM
• 7. Exploratory (undecided)

Meta-Major Forums

Over the course of the next several weeks the working groups will seek the input of additional campus stakeholders through a series of forums. This information gathering is vital because what is gleaned from the discussions will help assure a viable meta-major model is developed to help us keep our Pirates on board, promote timely graduation, and address student indebtedness. A final report will be submitted to the Provost in December.

Meta-Major Forums are planned on the following dates using the TEAMS platform and will be no longer than 1 ½ hours in length:

• Monday, Oct. 12 at 3 p.m. - STEM + Health Sciences
• Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 3 p.m. - Humanities and Fine Arts + Society and Policy
• Monday, Oct. 26 at 3 p.m. - Business + Education
• Monday, Nov. 2 at 4 p.m. - STEM + Health Sciences
• Monday, Nov. 9 at 3 p.m. - Humanities and Fine Arts + Society and Policy
• Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 3 p.m. - Business + Education

You are encouraged to participate in a Meta-Major Forum. The working group relies on your participation to strengthen and improve the draft.

Please direct questions regarding the Meta-Majors to Dr. Derek Maher or Dr. Elizabeth Coghill.

Thank you, all, for your commitment to the well-being of our ECU community, and I remind you to take care of yourself and continue to support each other.

B. Grant Hayes, PhD, Distinguished Professor

Acting Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

__________________________________________________________________________

PIRATE ACADEMIC SUCCESS CENTER

Adjusting Our Sails - Expanding Supports for Effective Virtual Learning

Leveraging comprehensive tutorial services and strategic course coaching as proven retention tools; the Pirate Academic Success Center (PASC) is keeping pace with the demand of 8-week course blocks. With funding from a UNC System virtual learning supports grant, PASC combines 5 key practices designed to establish stronger student connectivity to support services and help ECU students thrive in online learning environments.

• 1) Center-based and Tutor Matching Service tutoring on TEAMS platform.
• 2) Engage weekly course specific study groups.
• 3) Support learning with tutor produced Canvas recordings and resources.
• 4) Coach students in strategic learning approaches and key study skills for maximum success.
• 5) Personalize support services with call center outreach.

Block 1 By the Numbers: (prior to 9/21/20)

• 3,944 students with 13,327 service visits
• 3,168 student contacts totaling 4,772 calls
• 305 study group participants with 160 group sessions
• 968 students with 7,958 CANVAS resource views
• 940 student attendees with 46 test review sessions

Connecting to Success Services:

• Schedule Tutoring: www.tinyurl.com/PASCTUTORING or tutormatchingservice.com
• Meet a Study Skills Coach
• Join a Study Group
• Refer a Student

OFFICE OF GLOBAL AFFAIRS

Global Affairs is pleased that Jana Turzakova is the first recipient of the Bob and Eadie Churchill Scholarship for International Study. Jana is originally from Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia. She began her studies in the US in 2017 to gain more knowledge, experience, meet new people and broaden her horizons. Jana first attended College of the Albemarle in Manteo, North Carolina where she completed her Associate's Degree. She joins ECU this fall to complete her Bachelor of Science degree in Hospitality Leadership.

ECU’s annual study abroad fair is an essential event to promote awareness of study abroad on campus. This fall the Office of Global Affairs has transitioned the fair online. With hundreds of programs available to students, the fair has been spread out over several "Wanderlust Wednesdays" of the fall semester. Students can view the full schedule and links to the live events or recordings and begin making their post-pandemic study abroad plans today!

ECU alumna Chaniece Mulligan kicked off our virtual Study Abroad Fair by speaking about her experience studying through an ECU exchange program in Costa Rica. She offered a refreshing perspective on study abroad and directly correlated how her experience contributed to her successful navigation to law school and continues to benefit in her career as an attorney. Hoping to encourage and provide opportunity for ECU students to follow her path, Chaniece donated funds and established a study abroad scholarship for students in the Black Student Union.

In August, Dr. Rosina Chai, one of the founders of ECU’s international virtual exchange programming, passed away in California. Rosina left an indelible mark on ECU and on thousands of students and alumni both here and at our GPE partner institutions. Only through a special vision, extreme perseverance and genuine collegiality could anyone accomplish the incredible task of creating the award-winning Global Understanding program and the GPE network. We now know empirically what Rosina knew instinctually: the program she created allows students to build intercultural skills that last a lifetime and encourages students to continue to engage in other international activities. Her legacy is now well entrenched as the shining star in ECU’s suite of international programs. Thank you, Rosina.

FEDERAL WORK STUDY AND STUDENT EMPLOYMENT

The offices of Federal Work Study and Student Employment are pleased to tell the campus that we have awarded FWS “eligibility to earn” to almost 500 students for the 2020/21 academic year. At this time we have only about 100 students working and only 51 open positions posted on the HR website, Hire-A-Pirate.

We have students working on campus and at local nonprofit organizations off campus. If you need some help or know of a nonprofit off campus that needs help, we have hundreds of students still living in Greenville and seeking employment. Please post your position and allow the FWS program to pay their wages!

OFFICE OF STUDENT FINANCIAL AID

Financial Aid office staff are working and ready to assist you and your students by answering any of your financial aid questions. Whether you choose to email, call, schedule an appointment or stop in the office during our open hours of 8:30-10 a.m. and 1:30-3 p.m. Monday-Friday. Our office is located on the second floor of the Old Cafeteria Complex where we also have a secure drop box if there are documents you need to drop off during the hours our doors are closed to visitors. Our contact information is as follows:

• Phone: 252-328-6610
• Fax: 252-328-4347
• Email: faques@ecu.edu
• Mail: ECU Student Financial Aid, Mail Stop 510, Greenville, NC 27858

We are diligently processing files for our students who are currently enrolled in the fall semester and will begin working with our newly admitted for spring semester students in mid-October.

The real news for October is that NOW is the time to start planning for 21/22. The 2021-22 FAFSA for became available online on Oct. 1, 2020. We strongly encourage our current and prospective students to complete the FAFSA as soon as possible to receive the maximum amount of aid available. We generally say it is a good Thanksgiving weekend project!

The Offices of University Scholarships and Financial Aid have already begun our annual round of individual and joint high school nights and outreach events. We began in September, and October's calendar is filling up with virtual high school nights. If you know of a school that needs a visit, please ask them to contact Scholarships@ecu.edu.

The FAFSA application can be found online at www.fafsa.gov. Please contact us with any questions you may have about the process. We look forward continuing to help our Pirates and future Pirates fund their education at East Carolina University.

OFFICE OF RESEARCH, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & ENGAGEMENT

ECU, Navy partnering for newly established Naval Community College

East Carolina University and 18 of its Pirate Promise community college collaborators have been selected as partners for the new United States Naval Community College (USNCC) effort. The joint effort by the country’s three maritime services — the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard — developed the USNCC to deliver distance education and online learning to their enlisted members. ECU is leading the only organized group of North Carolina higher learning institutions to be awarded a USNCC contract and expects to receive educational services task orders — mini-contracts that define a specific project’s scope, cost and schedule — in the coming weeks that will better outline future student requirements.

ECU associate professor elected to National Academy of Inventors Senior Members Class

Associate professor Sharon Rogers Moore was elected to the National Academy of Inventors 2020 Senior Members class, the organization announced Aug. 11. The College of Health and Human Performance’s faculty member became just the second ECU inventor to receive the honor, joining a class of 38 academic inventors across 24 research universities, government offices and nonprofit institutes. Moore, whose research focuses on improving the health, safety and well-being of athletes, was awarded a patent in 2015 for her prototype scale that provides repeated weight assessments of athletes to monitor their hydration. These measurements led to a novel approach of tracking the health of athletes, reducing the risk of athlete collapse in extreme heat and humidity.

ECU postdoc receives NIH fellowship

ECU postdoctoral scholar Benjamin Hale received a prestigious Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health, the organization announced in August. The fellowship provides funding to promising postdoctoral candidates who have the potential to become productive, independent investigators in scientific health-related research fields. Hale, who joined Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology Associate Professor Chris Geyer’s lab in 2018, is studying how diet affects fertility.

ADVISING

Pre-Professional Advising established a partnership with Kaplan to provide test prep classes to ECU students, staff/faculty, and alumni at discounted rates (up to 50% off).

Pre-Professional Advising held Prescription for Success on Sept. 11. The 10th annual event was designed to better prepare students pursuing health professions requiring an advanced degree. The target audience was first-year students (freshmen and transfers) or students who recently decided to pursue a health profession requiring an advanced degree. It also provides the opportunity to showcase the outstanding programs in the ECU Health Sciences Division and connect students with faculty and professional school students. Fifty students participated in the virtual event. Students who attended commented that the event gave them a better understanding of what they should be doing.

COLLEGE UPDATES

COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES

Kirstin L. Squint (Whichard Distinguished Visiting Professor; English and Gender Studies) invites the public to attend a virtual, livestreamed event from 7-8 p.m. Oct. 21, featuring Dr. Cathleen Cahill, associate professor of history at Penn State University. Cahill will discuss her new book, “Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Changed the Suffrage Movement,” followed by a Q&A session. For more information and to register for the event, visit the ECU Calendar.

Okmyung “Paul” Bin (Economics) has assumed the role of assistant director of ECU’s Center for Natural Hazards Research. Throughout his 20-year career at ECU, Bin has developed a national reputation for his research on coastal housing markets with emphasis on hurricane and flood hazards.

Jamie Kruse (Economics) was named 2020 Outstanding Alumni of the University of Nebraska, Department of Agricultural Economics.

M. Hunter Koehl (Philosophy and Religious Studies alumnus, 2017) has been named a Dixon Fellow for Legal Aid of North Carolina from 2020 through 2022.

Calvin Mercer (Philosophy and Religious Studies), as part of his service to the community, recently co-authored a book that teaches children about how government works, with the theme of gender, racial and religious inclusion. The award-winning book, “There Ought to Be a Law: A Bright Day at the State Capitol,” has been endorsed by a state senator and education professors. Hundreds of copies have been provided free to children.

Nichelle Huber (M.A. student, Psychology) and Ana LePage (M.A. student, Psychology) were selected for the Journal of Pediatric Psychology Student Journal Club. They will conduct mentored manuscript reviews and write commentaries on notable cutting-edge articles in the field of pediatric psychology.

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

The College of Business (COB) has named Dr. Victor Mbarika as the Stallings Distinguished International Scholar. He joins the COB from Southern University, where he earned a full professorship and an endowed fellowship. He established the Information and Communication Technology University (ICTU). The organization uses a U.S.-based curriculum to provide quality Information Technology, Engineering, Managerial Human Capacity Development specially targeted for Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia.

Thanks to a generous gift from Mark and Tracy Copeland, Dr. Amy McMillan has been named the Copeland Director of Diversity and Inclusion in the COB. With this role, McMillan will serve as the COB’s liaison with other diversity and inclusion offices and campus activities. She will lead the College’s efforts to highlight the importance and need for welcoming the many cultures and backgrounds needed to make COB students stronger in the workplace. McMillan also will spearhead the Copeland Diversity and Inclusion Fellowship. In this program, participants will immerse themselves in an extensive range of programming that includes multicultural infused experiences in the classrooms and a celebration of the diverse backgrounds.

The School of Hospitality Leadership’s chapter of Eta Sigma Delta, the International Hospitality honor society, recently was recognized in the top three chapters of all global hospitality programs in the United States. Eta Sigma Delta is part of the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education. The SHL ECU chapter advisor is Dr. Cynthia Deale.

The COB has entered into a bilateral agreement with Lenoir Community College to allow LCC students who graduate with an Associate of Arts in Business Administration degree to enter the COB with a declared BSBA major. This agreement marks the first of its kind for the COB.

Thanks to an NC IDEA Ecosystem grant, the Crisp Small Business Resource Center in the Miller School of Entrepreneurship recently launched the Accelerate Rural NC program. The program, which started Sept. 1, is helping 14 Pitt County businesses bring their innovative products and services online and to global markets. Participating companies also are getting paired up with mentors from industry leaders such as ETSY, Amazon, NC Rural Center, Mayne Pharma, and 25 other major companies.

The fourth annual Pirate Entrepreneurship Challenge kicks off Oct. 12. Registration is still open for ECU students to participate and launch their ideas. $100k in prizes are available. To register for the largest entrepreneurial challenge in North Carolina, students can visit https://business.ecu.edu/msoe/pec/. Last year’s winner, FishingLicense.Us, came from Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences. The deadline to register is Oct. 5 p.m.

Fall 2020 has brought the COB numerous changes. Included in those changes are three new department chairs. Dr. Cal Christian is the new chair for the Department of Accounting. Dr. Paul Ravi is the new chair for the Department of Management Information Systems. Dr. Brad Karl is the new chair for the Department of Finance and Insurance.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION

The Department of Educational Leadership received a $3.7 million grant to establish the PIRATE Leadership Academy for principal preparation to serve eastern North Carolina. Eight PIRATE principal fellows will be admitted each year for the next five years. Each of the 30 school districts will have the opportunity to have one PIRATE fellow starting with the first cohort this fall in the northeastern region of the state.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is investing $500,000 in Partnership Teach as part of its rural health initiative.

Faculty members in the counselor education received a $998,990 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant to fund Project Don’t Wait to address disaster mental health preparation and response in rural communities.

The ECU Community School has reopened for the new academic year with safety procedures promoting social distancing, mask wearing and awareness of COVID-19. The school also benefited from a spring fundraising effort by two COE faculty members to ensure Community School students have access to interesting, age-appropriate books over the summer.

The Department of Library Sciences has celebrated several achievements this summer. Dr. Kaye Dotson has published a new book called “The Value of Games: Putting Play Back into Practice for Children,” which discusses traditional childhood games. Dr. Africa Hands’ research into the assets that first-generation college students have and how they can be focused during times of transition, such as the recent COVID-19 pandemic, has been published. Dr. Rita Soulen was featured as the School Library Connection’s monthly researcher spotlight for her recently published article, “School Librarian Interventions for New Teacher Resilience: A CLASS II Field Study.”

ECU alumnus and 2018 Principal of the Year Tabari Wilson went viral this summer for surprising all 220 graduates of West Craven High School with a car parade and a yard sign celebrating them.

Counselor education faculty were highlighted in the August 2020 Counseling Today cover story, “Black mental health matters.” A counselor education graduate student, Chanale Propst, has been awarded a $10,000 scholarship from the National Board for Certified Counselors Minority Fellowship Program.

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

Dr. Jianchu (Jason) Yao began the fall semester as the college’s new associate dean for academic affairs. Yao came to ECU in 2005 as the college’s engineering program began. He said his top priority is student success and continuing to build the college’s Student Success Center. He wants to create a stronger sense of community among CET alumni, industry partners, students, staff and faculty, while also encouraging a collaborative working environment and individual growth and development among faculty.

The UNC System announced that a team from East Carolina University has been awarded a grant through UNC’s Research Opportunities Initiative (UNC ROI). The $1.4 million grant will go toward the development of a no-waste, sustainable water desalination system in which renewable wave and solar energy would be used to convert seawater into clean water and solid salt crystals. It is the first time that an ECU-led team has received an ROI grant since the program began in 2014-15. Dr. Kura Duba, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering is the principal investigator. The team includes Dr. Faete Filho, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering, and Dr. Tarek Abdel Salam, director of ECU’s Center for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering (CSE3). The effort also involves Dr. Zhen Zhu, assistant professor from the Department of Engineering; Dr. Mike Muglia, research assistant professor from the Coastal Studies Institute and Dr. Mehran Elahi, a professor at Elizabeth City State University associated with the CSE3.

The Department of Technology Systems has two new UR Model 10 robots that are considered the future of manufacturing and industry. The collaborative robots, or cobots, can work with people in close quarters without endangering them, and are easier to program, more capable and easier to implement than older, traditional robots. Students will enhance their job prospects by working on the robots, and the college can bring in industry partners to see how the new robots can help solve manufacturing problems while also showcasing the abilities of the robots to determine if they would be the right fit for individual businesses.

Dr. Ali Vahdati, assistant professor in the Department of Engineering, received a Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant of $115,777 from the National Science Foundation to create detailed computer models of infected and inflamed lungs. The goal is to gain new insights into the mechanical aspects of breathing and mechanical ventilation based on imaging data from hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Vahdati will be working with Dr. Stephanie George, associate professor in the Department of Engineering, and Drs. Veeranna Maddipati, Andrew Ju, Jennifer Stahl and Sean Peach, all faculty with the Brody School of Medicine, on the research project. The computer models developed through the research will be used as instructional material for multiple courses at ECU.

COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS & COMMUNICATION

The ECU Chamber Singers won second place in The American Prize in Choral Performance in the College/University division, 2019-20 competition. The American Prize provides cash awards and international recognition for the best recorded performances by ensembles and individuals each year in the United States at the professional, college/university, church, community and secondary school levels. Directed by James Franklin, the Chamber Singers are the select choral ensemble at ECU.

Professor Jill Carlson was selected as a 2020 Woman of Distinction by ECU. Started by the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Women, this important event continues on, led by the Women and Gender Office.

Art education professor Borim Song has been selected to receive the North Carolina Art Education Association Higher Education Art Educator of the Year award at the virtual conference in October.

Ken Wyatt (Cinematic Arts and Media Production) received the Chairman’s Award for best overall faculty entry, Blood Sweat and Tears, in the BEA Festival of Media Arts. The Broadcast Education Association additionally recognized the filmmaker for his reaction to news of the award, captured on their website.

Music Education professor Cynthia Wagoner published a research-based pedagogical article “Integrating Literacy within the Performance Classroom” in the Music Educators Journal in June 2020. She has been virtually visiting classrooms in Elizabeth City and Orange County presenting to high school musicians and is involved in Virtual Mentor Training for the NCMEA Mentoring program this fall, focused on the career development of music teachers.

Jen-Scott Mobley, assistant professor of theatre, will be representing ECU on the national stage and forge more connections on behalf of SOTD with the ATHE constituency, as she was elected vice president for Conference 2022 by the full membership of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

During the month of September, Assistant Professor of Dance Jessica Teague created a virtual exchange with her advanced ballet class and the Kenya Dance Center in Nairobi. The exchange take place every Wednesday in September during class on McGinnis stage. Students took class virtually together each week, engaging student teachers, creating a short choreography via zoom, and learning African dance from member of the class and faculty in Nairobi.

Patch Clark was a co-presenter with Eleanor Kane from the University of Shimane, in Japan at the International Virtual Exchange Conference. Clark presented "Here be dragons: The practice and impact of sharing stories through VE on American and Japanese students" for the virtual IVEC International Conference at Newcastle University, UK.

Music Education Professor Raychl Smith has been accepted to present two virtual conference sessions for the North Carolina Music Educators Association Conference:

• "The long and winding road: Your grandparent’s music" is finally making an appearance in schools. Featuring the Gibsonville Ukulele Club, Mendenhall Middle School Modern Band, and ECU Popular Music Ensembles
• Empathy, self-care, and compassion for music education majors

ECU Art professors Seo Eo, Mi-Sook Hur, Timothy Lazure and a number of ECU alumni including Barbara McFadyen and Ben Owen III were among 25 artists invited to exhibit work in celebration of Pocosin Arts 25th anniversary. Pocosin Arts, located in Columbia, NC, is an active arts center with gallery, educational and retreat space. The artists participated with guests in a virtual reception on Sept. 12 via Zoom.

In lieu of physical exhibitions, Bethesda Fine Arts has opted to showcase artists virtually on their weekly eblasts. Art Educator and painter Cynthia Bickley-Green was featured in August. Among the works showcased was Lamentation, a work that will be featured on a billboard for the North Carolina Museum of Art. In related news, her painting Predella is on the cover of the National Art Education Association Newsletter.

School of Journalism professors Cindy Elmore and Brian Massey launched a voter-information initiative, Voter411ENC.org. The site offers nonpartisan information about candidates running for elected offices in Pitt County and the N.C. Statehouse. It also offers overviews of the job responsibilities of each position for each contested office, and a link to the county’s voter registration system. The site currently is funded through grants from the school and the College of Fine Arts and Communication.

Cinematic Arts and Media Production professor Michael Tierno was featured in an article entitled “Location Sound Insights with Michael Tierno” on the Student Filmmakers website. The site also promoted Tierno’s book, “Location and Post-Production Sound for Low-Budget Filmmakers.”

Pam Hopkins, director of the Speech Communication Center, presented “You (and your communication skills) are the Key to Successful Interviews!” for Brody School of Medicine’s Grand Rounds on Sept. 16.

Music Performance and Music Education major Kyle Newell received the U.S. Department of State Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship, an award for students who need funds for international study. Newell is the Vice President of ECU’s chapter of the National Association for Music Education, and he manages the Eastern Youth Orchestra under the direction of professor John B. O’Brien. He studies bassoon with Director Chris Ulffers.

Cinematic Arts and Media Production major Charlee Moss reports that her student film “DEBT” was selected for the 2020 Raleigh Film Festival. The virtual event was held Oct. 2-4.

Theatre majors Haley Sanders, Celine Greene, and Ethan Wolf contributed to the IVEC (International Virtual Exchange) Conference at Newcastle University, UK, during the Student Voices: Visions of the Future Through Past and Present Insights session. The session was attended by students and faculty from around the world including Morocco, Italy, Syria, Mexico, Nigeria, Brazil, Japan and the United States.

Alumna Lindsay McCormick (BS ’07) received the School of Communication Distinguished Alumni Award. She is co-founder of Bites Toothpaste Bits. She has been named as Fast Company’s Most Creative People of 2020.

The School of Communication started a social media conversation this summer to amplify the voices of Black and Brown alumni and students. #SOCBlackVoices shares the thoughts of alumni and students on race and communication on Thursdays.

COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND HUMAN PERFORMANCE

Anisa Zvonkovic, dean of the College of Health and Human Performance, received the National Council on Family Relations’ (NCFR) 2020 Alexis J. Walker Lifetime Achievement Award in feminist family studies.

The award review committee noted that Dean Z’s professional portfolio highlights how rigorous, feminist family research on work and families has the potential to impact actual families, policymakers, and practitioners. Her leadership in the work-family field specifically, but also her leadership vis a vis journals, NCFR and the field of family science were also highlighted. Congratulations, Dean Z!

Congratulations to Angela Lamson, professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Science, who is the 2020 recipient of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy’s (AAMFT) Outstanding Contribution to Marriage and Family Therapy Award, the highest honor in the field.

Several ECU MFT alumni will also receive AAMFT awards in November: Morgan Lancaster will be receiving the Graduate Student Research Award; Kristen Puckett will be receiving the AAMFT Thesis Award; and Braden Brown (MedFT alum) is receiving the AAMFT Dissertation Award.

Kinesiology faculty members Stacy Warner and Bhibha Das received the 2019-2020 Honors College Faculty Mentor Award.

Archana Hegde, human development and family science professor, was the special invitee and speaker at India’s National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT) inaugural National Conference on Early Childhood Education, which took place virtually this summer.

Social Work Professional Development Lecture Series

Join us via WebEx on Wednesday, Oct. 14, from noon to 2 p.m. for “I’m Black and I’m Proud! The Shift in the Effect Racial Injustice has on Self-Worth Development for Black People in the U.S. and Its Influence on the Societal Response to Racism.”

Historically, people of African descent have been enslaved, oppressed, and marginalized in the United States. As a result, Black people have engaged in a continuous fight for change in places of employment, the education system, criminal justice system and in their communities. Although progress has been made, plagues of learned helplessness, apathy, and anger have been embedded in the psychological response to racial injustice. Today we see a shift in these responses as levels of self-worth have been increased due to power shifts in societal structures and international support for the Black Lives Matter Movement. Click here to register.

Sponsored by the ECU School of Social Work and East Carolina University’s Continuing Professional Education Office.

Aging Well Together Virtual Talk Series

Thanks to all who joined us for HHP’s Aging Well Together initiative’s virtual talk on legal decisions as we age. If you missed it, a recording is available - Password: cE4FpMm@

The next virtual talk will be “HOPE at HOME: Transitioning a community-based exercise program to Zoom” with Anne O. Brady, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina Greensboro, on Oct. 14 at 4:30 p.m.

As the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many segments of university life, the HOPE (Helping Others Participate in Exercise) program was forced to change course. HOPE is a community-based exercise program that operates on the campus of UNCG and allows kinesiology students to interact with and lead community members in a supervised exercise setting. The talk will discuss how the program transitioned to virtual exercise training and will focus on the challenges, benefits, and ultimately the opportunities that arose. A link to the WebEx meeting will be shared ahead of the talk.

Five undergraduate students in Kinesiology received 2020–2021 Undergraduate Research Awards.

• Bradley Kleinert, mentor Nick Murray
• Josh Lawton, mentor Nick Murray
• Whitney Piercer, mentor Nick Murray
• Kim Sanford, mentor Christine Habeeb
• Riley Warlick, mentor Nick Murray
• Madison Weeks, mentor Chris Mizelle

Madison, an exercise physiology major, also received a UR Mini Award through REDE for her project, Functional Connectivity and Graph Theoretical Metrics in Motor Control.” Her focus will be on the theta band, which is well known in the cognitive regulation of motor behavior.

May 2020 graduate Sarah Kautz, who graduated with her B.S. in Public Health and completed undergraduate research in the kinesiology department with Dr. Das, is now participating in the MedServe fellowship program. This is a two-year program that aims to improve the health of the medically underserved communities of North Carolina while exposing tomorrow’s most promising future providers to primary care practice in a way that inspires them to be life-long champions of health equity.

Brenton Laing, Ph.D. in Bioenergetics, received the 2020 ECU Thesis and Dissertation Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in Life Sciences for “Adaptations of the Hypothalamic Arcuate Nucleus in Response to Exercise and Hunger.”

HONORS COLLEGE

The Honors College has expanded to include transfer students from a North Carolina community college. The college will accept 10 transfer students starting this fall.

The Honors College has reached its goal of enrolling 800 students with this year’s entering freshman class.

ECU has welcomed the newest class of EC Scholars this fall who plan to pursue degrees in a variety of majors including biology, communication, public health and nursing.

The HNRS 2000/3000 instructional team has had their research on the best practices in Honors pedagogy published in the most recent issue of "Honors in Practice." Congratulations to Beth Chaney, Tim Christensen, Alleah Crawford, Katherine Ford, Wayne Godwin, Gerald Weckesser and Todd Fraley! A special congratulations also goes to EC Scholars senior Phoenix Little who was also listed as an author.

Mona Amin, an ECU Honors '17 alumna, is helping the COVID-19 Health Literacy Project to translate coronavirus information into various languages for families, which includes fact sheets for young children.

Honors senior Olivia Sessoms was selected as one of 14 undergraduate recipients across the state to receive a North Carolina Space Grant Undergraduate Research Scholarship.

INTEGRATED COASTAL PROGRAMS

Dr. David Lagomasino was one of three panel speakers during the EuroScience Open Forum- Coastal Zone Sustainability Session held early this month in Trieste, Italy. Though he was not able to attend in person, the virtual/in-person panel discussed the importance of water resources along the coast and the various modeling and new technological capabilities that can be used to make more informed decisions of coastal management to ensure water resources into the future.

Paper on quantification of mangroves published

Mangrove forests can be found around the world and vary according to their environmental setting. Aspects of climate and tides can dictate things like the structure, height, and species diversity of mangroves. However, until recently, mangrove spatial distribution had not been recorded according to those settings. A group of researchers including ECU Department of Coastal Studies’ Dr. David Lagomasino released a paper in Scientific Reports quantifying mangroves according to those settings, entitles “A global biophysical typology of mangroves and its relevance for ecosystem structure and deforestation”. The team found, based on the extant of mangroves in 2016, that roughly 40% of mangrove systems were deltaic, 27% were estuarine, 21% were found on open coast, and 11% were lagoonal. Over the last 20 years, lagoonal mangroves saw the most loss in forest extent due which were attributed to expansion of tourism and fisheries.

Paper published in July highlighted in the Washington Post

Dr. David Lagomasino, working alongside the lead author of the paper Liza Goldberg (high school intern) and two others from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, used a machine-based learning approach to produce land cover maps from over one million NASA Earth observing satellite images. The paper, entitled "Global declines in human‐driven mangrove loss”, was published in the July issue of Global Change Biology. Within the research findings, the team reports that 62% of global mangrove loss since the beginning of the 21st century has resulted from human land-use change. Of those losses, 47% were a result of agriculture and mariculture practices like rice paddies, shrimp ponds, and palm oil cultivation; and nearly 80% of human-driven losses occurred within six Southeast Asian countries. While anthropogenic causes of mangrove loss are extremely prevalent in those countries, human-driven mangrove loss has declined by 73% worldwide. The paper also made the cover and cover image of Global Change Biology: Volume 26, Number 10.

Dr. Mike O’Driscoll (Coastal Studies) and his research with Drs. Humphrey and Iverson (Environmental Health Science) were included in an article focused on sea level rise and coastal wastewater treatment by the Coastal Review Online, this article was featured by the Pullitzer Center in a series of articles focused on Changing Minds on Climate Science.

Efforts to contain the coronavirus have slowed, but failed to halt, work on a study being conducted by the Coastal Processes Group at CSI that examines beach nourishment and its potential long-term impacts on indigenous ecosystems. The study seeks to identify and document recovery following a beach nourishment and reconstruction project conducted in 2014 on Pea Island along North Carolina's Outer Banks. The project was sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Transportation and justified as a stop-gap remedy designed to protect a vulnerable section of NC Highway 12 along the island. This research, though independent, piggybacks on and leverages that project, taking advantage of the opportunity to study the changes in beach morphology and the life and death trajectories of the many resident plants and animals in the impacted zone, during the period up to 5 to 7 years following sand placement. This is a critical period within which to identify and assess the long-term modification and degree of re-stabilization of the sandy habitat and how these have influenced the diversity and abundance of species that comprise the new beach ecology. Dr. Reide Corbett and his team (above) will complete the final field survey this month and expect to complete the associated laboratory work and data analyses by the spring of next year. Results should find an audience with both scientists interested in nourishment impacts, as well as coastal engineers and managers who might look to these results to inform future nourishment projects and plans.

Dr. Jim Morley (Asst. Professor, Dept. of Biology; Asst. Scientist, Coastal Studies Institute), along with colleagues from four other universities, the Smithsonian, and NOAA fisheries, were recently awarded a 3-year, $299K grant from the Lenfest Ocean Program (of The Pew Charitable Trusts) to examine how regional habitat availability and species life history affects geographic shifts of marine fish and invertebrates. The postdoc that will conduct this research will be located at ECU and the Coastal Studies Institute. This project will involve the integration of existing biological and environmental data from both the northeast and west coast U.S. Ultimately, a better understanding about life-stage specific habitat requirements, and also connectivity between life stages, will help assess species vulnerability to climate change. Winter flounder will likely be one of the species included in their analysis.

Dr. David Griffith (Department of Coastal Studies), along with Drs. Ariane Peralta, J. Randall Etheridge, Gregory Howard, and Enrique Reyes, recently received an NSF award for a project entitled, “An integrative analysis of perceptions, policy, and land use impact on coastal agricultural watershed resilience.” Griffith also just had an article accepted in Anthropology Now entitled, “Working through the Pandemic: what crises can tell us about economics.”

Dr. Linda D’Anna (Coastal Studies Institute) is in the midst of a study with local stakeholders which will help her to assess the social licensing of Marine Renewable Energy generation off the N.C. coast. In other words, she wants to explore the social acceptability of using ocean waves, currents, and space to generate energy. Social acceptance of a project or idea which uses resources as never before is often a product of the fit between place and technology. In this case, D’Anna poses the question, “Is the use of the ocean to generate energy a good match with the ecological, economic, and social values of the Outer Banks?”

Unable to host in-person programs starting in March, the CSI Education and Outreach team found new ways to engage and stay connected with the community. In the spring they published a series of five videos called “Kitchen Science” on the CSI YouTube Channel. Each of these one-minute videos covers a different topic and provides explanation and direction for a fun, at-home science experiment using items families are likely to already have. Over the course of the summer, the team also offered a 30-minute live-streamed “Summer Science on the Sound” program each Wednesday for six weeks. Each week focused on a different topic and included at least one activity to complete at home. The recordings are available for viewing anytime on the YouTube channel. Fall programming, as well as a virtual 360-degree tour of CSI, is currently being developed, and “Kitchen Science” will make a return. Stay tuned for more information on CSI social media platforms.

Ten students from UNC Chapel Hill are participating in the Fall 2020 UNC Outer Banks Field Site on the ECU Outer Banks Campus, and two of the students, Lauren Colonair and Heidi Hannoush, have been paired with the CSI Education and Outreach team for their internships. So far, the students have enjoyed socially distanced fieldtrips, labs, and outdoor classes.

CRM-ICS Ph.D. student accolades:

• Eugene Frimpong, one of our most recent CRM graduates just began a post doc at the University of Maryland.
• Farisal Bagsit, another one of our recent CRM graduates, was just offered and started a faculty position at the University of Philippines College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, University of the Philippines Visayas.
• CRM Student Henry Raab, who is in his final semester of his PhD studies, has been offered, and accepted an ORISE Scholar postdoc position at the EPA in Raleigh. He will be working in the Ward-Caviness lab in the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment investigating the link between environmental exposures (mostly air pollution) and disease as well as the underlying molecular mechanisms that may mediate exposure-related effects.
• CRM PhD student Tara Van Niekerk has just received a fellowship from the National Park Service to sediment analysis of cores taking from the HMS Fowey in Biscayne National Park, Florida. Tara has also been selected as a recipient of the Society of Underwater Technology’s (SUT-US) 2020 Scholarship Program.
• Integrated Coastal Sciences (ICS) Ph.D. student Samantha Farquhar has been offered an internship with the National Park Service (NPS) through the Federal Virtual Student Service program. She will be working with Dr. Tracy Ziegler of the Cape Hatteras National Park to create a spatial-temporal analysis of sea turtle nesting thoughout the years then perhaps forecast how climate change might affect this nesting. Sam also has a coauthored publication that has just gone to press (Gomez, G.. Farquhar, S.D., Bell, H.C., Laschever, E., Hall, S. (2020). The IUU Nature of FADs: Implications for Tuna Management and Markets. Coastal Management, In press.
• ICS PhD student Jaclyn Best will be presenting her master's research at the (En)Gendering Transboundary Water Governance: Feminist Perspectives on Water Conflict and Cooperation conference, hosted virtually by IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education in Delft, Netherlands. For information or to register, click here. The program schedule may be found here. Best is also publishing a paper as part of the workshop entitled, "(In)visible women: Representation and Conceptualization of Gender in Water Governance and Management".
• ICS PhD student Elnaz Pezeshki recently had two coauthored papers published: Sharafati, A., Pezeshki, E. A strategy to assess the uncertainty of a climate change impact on extreme hydrological events in the semi-arid Dehbar catchment in Iran. Theor Appl Climatol 139, 389–402 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-019-02979-6 and Sharafati, A., Pezeshki, E., Shahid, S. et al. Quantification and uncertainty of the impact of climate change on river discharge and sediment yield in the Dehbar river basin in Iran. J Soils Sediments 20, 2977–2996 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02632-0 Elnaz also recently won a Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science, Inc (CUAHSI) travel grant to offset student registration fees to the 2020 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.

ACADEMIC LIBRARY SERVICES

The History Speaks Lecture Series presents The Civil Rights Movement in Greenville and Pitt County, a virtual talk with ECU Assistant University Archivist Patrick Cash, on Thursday, Oct. 8 from 7-8:30 p.m.

This event is free and open to public, but registration is required. You will receive a Webex invitation with a link and password to view the talk the week of. This talk will be recorded; if you cannot attend but would like to receive a recording of the talk, please also register.

Sponsored by the Eastern North Carolina Village and Farm Museum

If you missed our virtual genealogy webinar “Discovering the Hidden Women in Your Family History” with genealogist Diane Richard, you can view a recording.

While the library building access is currently limited, you can enjoy digital versions of exhibits online. The latest, "Ways of Making," currently on display on the first floor of Joyner, highlights eastern North Carolina artist Freeman Vines’ hanging tree guitars, in conjunction with an exhibit of more of his work at the Greenville Museum of Art.