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Samford Nursing Professor Named a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice in Nursing

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, April 24 -- Samford University issued the following news release, dated April 22:

Samford University Professor Ellen Buckner has been selected as a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice in Nursing. This lifetime achievement award recognizes individuals whose careers have demonstrated a commitment to interprofessional practice and accessible, affordable health care for all. Nominees are evaluated by their peers and must have made significant and enduring contributions in their profession.

According to Nena F. Sanders, vice provost of Samford's College ... Show Full Article BIRMINGHAM, Alabama, April 24 -- Samford University issued the following news release, dated April 22: Samford University Professor Ellen Buckner has been selected as a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice in Nursing. This lifetime achievement award recognizes individuals whose careers have demonstrated a commitment to interprofessional practice and accessible, affordable health care for all. Nominees are evaluated by their peers and must have made significant and enduring contributions in their profession. According to Nena F. Sanders, vice provost of Samford's Collegeof Health Sciences and dean of Samford's Ida Moffett School of Nursing, Buckner's recognition is aptly awarded.

"Throughout her career Dr. Buckner has consistently been on the forefront of interprofessional education. She has a unique ability to foster communication among professionals from a variety of disciplines and to teach students the importance of working effectively in interprofessional teams," said Sanders. "Her selection as a Distinguished Fellow is a testament to her enduring service to the profession and her outstanding reputation among her peers."

Buckner joined the faculty of Ida Moffett School of Nursing in 2016. Since that time she has played a critical role in developing, implementing and evaluating interprofessional experiences within the nursing school and throughout the College of Health Sciences. Her work has resulted in numerous presentations and publications and has impacted students across a variety of disciplines. Buckner's career as a nurse educator spans more than 40 years and has included positions at universities across the country.

"This is an incredible honor," said Buckner. "What makes me so proud is that this recognizes the collaborations I have had the privilege to engage in throughout my career. To be honored in this way is so meaningful to me because it reflects the interprofessional nature at Samford and the College of Health Sciences' commitment to this discipline."

Buckner was inducted as a fellow at the 2019 National Academies of Practice Annual Meeting in Pentagon City, Virginia.

The National Academies of Practice was established in 1981 to advise government bodies on health care issues and systems. Distinguished practitioners and scholars are elected by peers from across 14 different health professions to join the only interprofessional group of health care practitioners and scholars dedicated to the support of affordable, accessible, coordinated quality care for all.

Roche Center for Catholic Education Head Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill to Retire

CHESTNUT HILL, Massachusetts, April 24 -- Boston College issued the following news:

Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, executive director of Boston College's Barbara and Patrick Roche Center for Catholic Education and a nationally recognized leader in Catholic education, announced she will retire from her post effective July 31.

The former superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and one-time vice president for academic affairs at Trinity Washington University, Weitzel-O'Neill has led the Roche Center, an affiliated center within the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, ... Show Full Article CHESTNUT HILL, Massachusetts, April 24 -- Boston College issued the following news: Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, executive director of Boston College's Barbara and Patrick Roche Center for Catholic Education and a nationally recognized leader in Catholic education, announced she will retire from her post effective July 31. The former superintendent of schools for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and one-time vice president for academic affairs at Trinity Washington University, Weitzel-O'Neill has led the Roche Center, an affiliated center within the Lynch School of Education and Human Development,since July 2010.

"Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill has made enormous contributions to the Roche Center and Boston College over the past decade," said Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, who will serve as interim director of the center until a new executive director is appointed. "She has worked collaboratively to create a center which is a catalyst for transformative Catholic education and applied research. Her vision, experience, and professional networks have allowed her to move the Roche Center forward and position BC as a leader in Catholic education."

Founded in 2007, the Roche Center is named for the late Patrick E. Roche '51, H '01, co-founder of the Wellesley, Mass.- based Roche Brothers supermarket chain, and his wife, Barbara, who donated a $20 million endowment to the center in 2010.

"I am very grateful to the Roche family for their vision, insight, and unprecedented support in establishing this center, which has permitted and encouraged the professional team to grow and advance transformative initiatives serving Catholic schools across the nation, and to expand the role of Boston College as a leader for excellence, equity, and faith formation in Catholic education," said Weitzel-O'Neill. "I am also thankful for the privilege of working with outstanding colleagues in the center, the Lynch School, colleagues across campus, and at other Catholic institutions of higher education, as well as the many school leaders in our programs and in the Archdiocese of Boston."

While at the Roche Center, Weitzel- O'Neill co-founded the Two-Way Immersion Network for Catholic Schools, which supports the implementation and assessment of dual-language immersion models in Catholic school classrooms throughout the U.S. Since 2012, she has also overseen the Emmaus Leadership Series, with collaborative contributions from the Lynch School, the School of Theology and Ministry, and the Carroll School of Management. This national cohort program provides executive leadership development for Catholic school presidents, principals, and heads of school to strengthen them for the demands of today's education governance.

In 2017, Weitzel-O'Neill received the C. Alfred Koob Presidential Merit Award for distinguished service to Catholic education from the National Catholic Educational Association, an organization of more than 200,000 educators in Catholic schools, universities, and religious education programs.

She is a co-author with STM Associate Professor Hosffman Ospino of the 2016 report "Catholic Schools in an Increasingly Hispanic Church," based on the first National Survey of Catholic Schools Serving Hispanic Families. Also in 2016, she and Ospino hosted the first-ever National Summit on Catholic Schools and Hispanic Families, which engaged 200 recognized national thought leaders in focused conversations.

Weitzel-O'Neill is a co-editor of the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools, which have been adopted nationally and implemented at the school, diocesan, and state levels. Weitzel-O'Neill continues the work, along with co-editor Lorraine Ozar of Loyola University Chicago, focusing on research, publications, and new digital resources. She serves on multiple boards, including the Governing Board for the Journal of Catholic Education, and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

During her eight-year tenure as the Archdiocese Diocese of Washington, D.C., superintendent, she was responsible for 29,000 students in 96 early-learning, elementary, and secondary schools, the largest non-public school system in the area. She was credited with strengthening the schools' academic programs, introducing a standards-based curriculum, and enhancing professional development standards. Additionally, she was instrumental in efforts to secure the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a federally funded initiative that enabled thousands of low-income children to attend non-public schools in the nation's capital.

Researchers Outline How Humans Reduce Uncertainty in Social Situations

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, April 24 -- Brown University issued the following news release, dated April 22:

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- A team of Brown University scientists proposed a psychological model of three interrelated ways people reduce uncertainty in social situations.

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Do my friends find me funny? Am I making a good impression during this job interview? For most, such questions and concerns are a routine part of life.

A new perspective paper from Brown University scientists establishes a framework to apply rigorous mathematical models of uncertainty originally developed for non-social situations, ... Show Full Article PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, April 24 -- Brown University issued the following news release, dated April 22: * * * - A team of Brown University scientists proposed a psychological model of three interrelated ways people reduce uncertainty in social situations. * * * Do my friends find me funny? Am I making a good impression during this job interview? For most, such questions and concerns are a routine part of life. A new perspective paper from Brown University scientists establishes a framework to apply rigorous mathematical models of uncertainty originally developed for non-social situations,such as whether or not to purchase a lottery ticket, to social scenarios such as determining an interviewer's opinion of an interviewee.

"Humans are predicting machines -- our whole lives are spent trying to figure out what is the best move to do next," said Oriel FeldmanHall, an assistant professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences at Brown. "In general, another person's motivations, desires or beliefs are hidden, so we have to figure out how to navigate through the world when we're interacting with other people without that knowledge. What our next action is going to be depends on how others respond."

The framework was a collaboration between FeldmanHall and Amitai Shenhav, also a Brown assistant professor of cognitive, linguistic and psychological sciences. In the paper, they explore the sources of social uncertainty and how people react to social uncertainty, and they propose a model of three interrelated methods people use to reduce social uncertainty.

The paper was published on Monday, April 22, in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

The three ways people reduce social uncertainty range from automatic, almost instinctive processes to more cognitively demanding processes.

The authors define the first method, automatic inference, as the process of predicting another person's behavior based on their appearance and the social norms of the environment. The second method, controlled inference, is the process of updating initial impressions using new information such as putting yourself in the other person's shoes and imagining how you would behave in that situation. Social learning, the third method, involves updating your beliefs and actions using past experiences or secondhand information of the person's past behavior. People use all three processes to different extents in order to reduce their social uncertainty.

One example presented in the paper to illustrate the three ways people resolve social uncertainty involves lending a stranger money. For automatic inference, one person might be willing to lend more money to another who appears trustworthy or kind. However, deciding to lend more money to someone based on sharing an emotional connection or evidence of shared values is an example of controlled inference. Social learning could then come into play if the lender hears from a friend that the recipient is trustworthy.

The authors also discuss the negative consequences of mental shortcuts people use to reduce social uncertainty.

"First impressions and stereotypes serve a purpose as we live in very noisy worlds where we have to make snap judgements about people all the time," said FeldmanHall, who with Shenhav is affiliated with Brown's Carney Institute for Brain Science. "You can't get a holistic picture of every single person you encounter on the street, but the reliance on first impressions can go wrong when people are unwilling to seek more information and get a bigger picture of who the person is, and instead stay narrowly focused on their first impression."

FeldmanHall is continuing her research on social uncertainty while incorporating the paper's quantitative framework to model a study on how people learn to trust one another in recurrent money-lending scenarios. She will also study how individuals understand their social networks by tracking incoming college students as they form their social networks and as these networks evolve over several years.

Shenhav will continue his research modeling the neural pathways people use to make decisions, or resolve uncertainty in non-social situations, and how they motivate themselves to overcome cognitively demanding tasks. In the future, Shenhav would like to see how motivation and effort develop in children who experience early life stress.

Both FeldmanHall and Shenhav are supported by the National Institutes of Health's Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence program grant to the Center for Central Nervous System Function (grant number P20GM12345).

Repelling Charges Prevent Cooper Pairs From 'island Hopping' in Insulating State

PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, April 24 -- Brown University issued the following news release, dated April 22:

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- New research shows how Cooper pairs -- quasiparticles that make superconductivity possible -- can also play an opposite role in an exotic type of insulating materials known as Cooper pair insulators.

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Superconductors are able to conduct electricity with zero resistance thanks to Cooper pairs, electron duos that team up and skate through a material unimpeded. In 2007, Brown University researchers made the surprising discovery that Cooper pairs can also exist in insulating materials, ... Show Full Article PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island, April 24 -- Brown University issued the following news release, dated April 22: * * * - New research shows how Cooper pairs -- quasiparticles that make superconductivity possible -- can also play an opposite role in an exotic type of insulating materials known as Cooper pair insulators. * * * Superconductors are able to conduct electricity with zero resistance thanks to Cooper pairs, electron duos that team up and skate through a material unimpeded. In 2007, Brown University researchers made the surprising discovery that Cooper pairs can also exist in insulating materials,helping to block the flow of current rather than enabling it. Now that same lab group has revealed the forces involved in these "Cooper pair insulators."

In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, the researchers show that in the insulating phase, Cooper pairs are held in check by the repulsive interactions between the pairs themselves, not by any disorder in the atomic lattice of the material. That insight could be important in designing materials or devices that take advantage of the superconducting-insulating transition -- a superconducting switch, for example.

"Essential to electronics is manipulating how electrons flow, so finding new ways in which electrons flow leads to new manipulation methods for implementation in novel devices," said Jim Valles, a professor of physics at Brown and senior author on the paper. "This work gives us new information about Cooper pair propagation, which could be helpful in manipulating them in new devices."

In their 2007 paper, Valles and his colleagues performed experiments on thin films made from amorphous bismuth. Thick blocks of amorphous bismuth act as superconductors, but when pared down into slices just a few atoms thick, the material becomes an insulator.

The initial research by Valles and his colleagues showed that Cooper pairs (which are named for Brown physicist Leon Cooper, who won a Nobel prize for describing their dynamics) were present in these films. But instead of moving freely as they do in the superconducting state, the Cooper pairs in the films became marooned on tiny islands within the material, unable to hop to the next island. It wasn't clear, however, what forces were holding the pairs in place. That's what Valles and his colleagues hoped to find with this new study.

One possibility for what holds the Cooper pairs in place is their charge. Each pair has a strong negative charge, and particles with the same charge repel each other. It could be that a Cooper pair has a hard time hopping to the next island because that island is already occupied by another Cooper pair that's pushing back. This creates a charge-related traffic jam that prevents a current from moving across the material.

Valles and his colleagues aimed to test that scenario. For the study, they sprinkled gadolinium atoms into the atomic structure of their bismuth insulators. Gadolinium is magnetic, and magnetism weakens Cooper pair coupling -- potentially causing them to break apart into individual electrons. If a few Cooper pairs broke apart even for an instant, it could free up some island space and give intact pairs room to hop. So if more pairs start hopping as more gadolinium is added, it would be clear signal that resistance in these material is driven by this charge-related traffic jam. And that's exactly what the experiments showed.

"It's this combination of those little islands in the films and the barriers between those islands created by the repulsive interaction of the Cooper pairs that gives rise to this resistance," Valles said.

This is the first time anyone has been able to rule out other factors that may contribute to resistance. One other possibility was a phenomenon known as Anderson localization, which has to do with disorder in the structure of a material. Anderson effects may be important at temperatures near absolute zero, where they contribute to an even more exotic state known as superinsulation, in which resistance becomes infinite. But at relatively higher temperatures, this study shows that it's the charge that's important. And that could have implications for the design of new electronic devices -- perhaps superconducting switches for logic gates.

"It's possible we could get a low-temperature switch out of this," Valles said. "Or if we could get this behavior out of a high-temperature superconductor, we might get a higher-temperature version, which might have even more practical use."

Valles's co-authors on the paper are Xue Zhang, James C. Joy, Chunshu Wu, Jin Ho Kim and J. M. Xu. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation (DMR-1307290, DMR-1408743) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

Montana Tech's Rayelynn Brandl Receives Award From National Science Teachers Association

BUTTE, Montana, April 24 -- Montana Tech issued the following news release, dated April 22:

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) announced the winners of the 2019 NSTA Teacher Awards program, which honors K-12 teachers, principals, professors and other science education professionals for their outstanding work and achievement in science education.

"Through their hard work and dedication, these outstanding educators are making a difference," said NSTA President Christine Royce. "They make science come alive for their students and help them realize the importance of science in their ... Show Full Article BUTTE, Montana, April 24 -- Montana Tech issued the following news release, dated April 22: The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) announced the winners of the 2019 NSTA Teacher Awards program, which honors K-12 teachers, principals, professors and other science education professionals for their outstanding work and achievement in science education. "Through their hard work and dedication, these outstanding educators are making a difference," said NSTA President Christine Royce. "They make science come alive for their students and help them realize the importance of science in theirdaily lives."

"I am honored to be selected by NSTA for this award," noted Brandl. "This award is truly a reflection of the work of the entire CFWEP staff team. The members of my team have been tireless in their efforts to reach thousands of students and hundreds of teachers across our state. I hope to continue a legacy of excellence in programming long into the future. Thank you to NSTA and Linda Rost for nominating me."

Brandl, the Program Director of the Clark Fork Watershed Education Program (CFWEP) at Montana Tech was honored along with a number of other top science educators from around the country. She received the NSTA Distinguished Informal Award sponsored by the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP).

Brandl has worked for CFWEP for 11 years. CFWEP's mission is to foster environmental stewardship and scientific-decision making through direct experiences in the classroom and local environments CFWEP's core programming enlists students in learning about the damages to their watershed, the clean-up and restoration efforts, and the future land-use planning. CFWEP partnered with Dr. Marisa Pedulla for the Bringing Research Into the Classroom (BRIC) Science Education Partnership Award from that National Institute of Health. The BRIC project partners visits classrooms throughout the state of Montana and engage students in Dr. Pedulla's phage research program.

Ms. Brandl and her project team lead the Montana Partnership with Regions for Excellence in STEM (MPRES) Project, which has trained highly qualified teachers to provide training for teachers throughout the state of Montana. In 2018, Rayelynn was recognized by the Montana Science Teachers Association for exemplary service to science education in 2018 and in 2016 was awarded the Award of Excellence in Education by MSU Billings.

"We are delighted that the hard work of Rayelynn Brandl and her CFWEP team has caught the eye of the National Science Teachers Association," explained Amy Verlanic, Executive Director of the Institute for Educational Opportunities at Montana Tech. "They certainly have tested and proven that placed based science pedagogy is an effective intervention to keeping students in the STEM pipeline. Ms. Brandl's work is reflective of Montana Tech's high standard of excellence in STEM disciplines and extends our reach from the university setting to K-12 in an important way."

Brandl will be presented with the award at a special banquet and ceremony on Friday, April 12, 2019, at the NSTA National Conference on Science Education in St. Louis, Missouri. A complete list of all those honored can be found by visiting http://www.nsta.org/about/awards.aspx.

A reception honoring Rayelynn will be held on Monday, April 29, 2019 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Butte Brewing.

LU Grad Selected to Texas Rising Stars 2019

BEAUMONT, Texas, April 24 -- Lamar University issued the following news, dated April 22:

For the fifth year, Lamar University graduate and trial lawyer Ronnie Turner Jr. has been named to the 2019 Texas Rising Stars list of top young attorneys.

Turner, who graduated from LU in 2007 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a minor in Political Science, represents plaintiffs in personal injury cases for Provost Umphrey Law Firm.

"I'm truly grateful to be recognized among so many talented lawyers," said Turner. "Since selection involves nominations from our peers, it's a great honor to ... Show Full Article

Alumna Appointed Leader in Higher Education

WHITTIER, California, April 24 -- Whittier College issued the following news release, dated April 22:

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- Marty J. Alvarado '99 was recently appointed executive vice chancellor for educational services at California Community Colleges Chancellor's office.

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In her new role as vice chancellor for educational services, Alvarado will be responsible for agency-wide policies and programs that are linked to student support, instructional delivery, and curriculum with the ultimate goal of increasing student completion rates and decreasing achievement gaps.

Alvarado was previously senior director ... Show Full Article

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