Blake Anderson, head football coach, will receive the 2019 Capital One Orange Bowl-FWAA Courage Award on Dec. 30 in Miami. Now in his sixth year at A-State, Anderson lost his wife Wendy in August after her two-year battle with breast cancer. He took a leave of absence just before Wendy died, then returned to coach the Red Wolves in their win over UNLV. The Football Writers Association of America makes the selection.

Tiffany Johnson, director, Career Services Center, and 2019-20 president of the Arkansas Association of Colleges and Employers, hosted the group’s winter conference last week at A-State. She facilitated the young alumni and current student panel during the conference, the group’s best-attended in five years. Johnson also co-facilitated the emerging leaders workshop at the Southern Association of Colleges and Employers conference and facilitated an administrators’ breakout discussion.

Dr. Win Bridges, instructor in philosophy, will conclude 30 years at A-State with retirement Dec. 31. Starting in 1989 as an MA teaching assistant in English, Bridges progressed to instructor the next year. With a seminary degree and experience in the ministry, he soon was assigned classes in philosophy, which he has taught ever since. Fellow Faculty Senate members will miss Bridges' counsel as parliamentarian. Future plans include writing and publishing.

Dr. Veena S. Kulkarni, associate professor of sociology, wrote an invited opinion piece on the Japanese response to one of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals, which is to minimize food loss along the supply chain. The article, published by Inter Press Service, a global news agency affiliated with the UN, highlights the multipronged approach that appears to be bringing positive results in curtailing food loss.

Dr. Shawn Bayouth, assistant professor, disaster preparedness and emergency management and department chair, is lead author of research published in the 2019 edition of the International Fire Service Journal of Leadership and Management. In the article, he and fellow researchers study quantitative methods used to link cue recognition to a firefighter’s ability to predict structural occupancy in a virtual environment.