Kelli Listenbee (left), director, Learning Support Services, and coordinator, First Year Experience, and Tabatha Simpson-Farrow (right), director, Writing Center, prepared a successful grant proposal to the Kays Foundation. The foundation will provide $22,500 toward a project to complete the Academic Hub, a center comprised of library and faculty resources, along with three student-tutoring centers, on the third floor of Ellis Library.

The Kays Foundation has awarded a $10,000 grant to Bradbury Art Museum in response to a proposal from Haley Voges, education coordinator at BAM. The grant will be used as matching funds for a project in which BAM will develop a mobile extension of the museum. The BAM van will enable staff to share the art collection across a wider region, benefiting those who might not otherwise have access.

The March award recipient in the PROPS (Proudly Recognizing Our Pack Staff) program is Rita Retz, a Facilities Management staff member. Retz was nominated because of her excellent care and maintenance of the Computer Science and Mathematics Building. A native of Kyiv, Ukraine, Retz came to the U.S. about 10 years ago. With an art background, she hopes to find more opportunities for travel. Her interview is online.

Dr. Saul Esparza, assistant professor of management, Campus Querétaro, is co-author of a recent publication in the professional journal Revista legislativa de estudios sociales y de opinión pública. The research shows a classification model for the regional innovative vocation index with gender perspective, considering variables relatives to training, manager’s higher education level, and personnel gender at the directive and supervisor level.

An invited review article by Dr. Jonathan Merten, associate professor of chemistry, has been published in Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy. The article pertained to laser-ablation atomic absorption spectroscopy. Merten also recently presented research posters with undergraduate authors Hannah Bariola, Shawnda Ethridge and Erin Nicholas at the Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry in Tucson.