The beginning of September brings; a new artist exhibition at the UT Downtown Gallery; UT Extension names a new interim assistant dean; Haslam College of Business selects a new director of Aerospace and Defense Partnerships; the director of the UT Herbarium is awarded a National Science Foundation grant; a UT doctoral candidate receives the Hazel Taylor Spitze Graduate Fellowship from the College of Education, Health, and Human Science; the inaugural cohort of the Academy for Global Scholars is announced.
Salt of the Earth, print by Steve A. Prince
Steve A. Prince to Visit during Exhibition at Downtown Gallery
Steve A. Prince will present Living Epistle, an exhibition of large-scale prints and drawings, September 4-26 at the UT Downtown Gallery. In conjunction with the exhibition, Prince will present several activities on Zoom and Instagram Live, including a watercolor monotype demonstration, a gallery talk, and an artist talk.
New Leadership Roles within UT Extension
UT Institute of Agriculture has chosen a familiar face across Tennessee agriculture to serve as an interim assistant dean of UT Extension. Rob Holland will step into the role on September 1 while maintaining responsibilities as director of the UT Center for Profitable Agriculture.
Holland, a native of Giles County, has devoted his professional life to Tennessee agriculture. In 1998, Holland joined the UT Agricultural Development Center, where his financial expertise was applied to developing UT Extension resource materials and educational programming pertaining to value-added agriculture for farmers and agri-entrepreneurs statewide. Value-added enterprises are those that allow producers/growers to earn a greater portion of consumer expenditures by processing, packaging and/or marketing crops, livestock or other farm resources, including agritourism enterprises and direct marketing ventures.
New Director of Partnerships Appointed for Haslam Aerospace & Defense
Byron Risner has been named director of Aerospace and Defense Partnerships for the Haslam College of Business. In his new position, Risner will be responsible for establishing and maintaining partnerships with both commercial and DoD organizations for graduate and executive education. Additionally, he will serve as a lecturer in Aerospace & Defense programming.
Risner comes to UT from Leonardo Electronics US, a U.S. subsidiary of the Leonardo Company located in Arlington, Virginia. As director of business development, Risner led the company in conducting DoD and commercial avionics sales and support in the U.S. Before that, he served as senior analyst and site lead for Alion Science and Technology. Risner retired from the U.S. Air Force with the rank of colonel after a 26-year career.
Budke Receives NSF Collaboration Grant to Digitize Lichens and Bryophytes
Across the planet’s terrestrial surface lives a layer of organisms that cannot be seen with the naked eye. Lichens and bryophytes are hosts to these cryptobiotic communities that play a critical role in stabilizing soil, preventing erosion, absorbing rainfall, and providing nutrients for the growing plants around them. This hidden life creates a critical miniature forest that serves as an important habitat for tiny animals and forms a “living skin” found throughout the world, from canyon deserts to polar icecaps.
Jessica Budke, director of the UT Herbarium and her colleagues from 25 institutions across the United States received a grant from the National Science Foundation to image and digitize associated metadata for close to 1.2 million lichen and bryophyte specimens housed in their collections.
Spitze Graduate Fellowship Awarded to Kayley McMahan, CFS Doctoral Candidate
The Department of Child and Family Studies is pleased to announce that Mrs. Kayley D. McMahan, a doctoral candidate in CFS, has been awarded the Hazel Taylor Spitze Graduate Fellowship from the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, for the 2020-2021 academic year. This prestigious fellowship is awarded to one doctoral student in CFS, who has demonstrated an outstanding academic ability and record, proven commitment to the field of CFS, and holds a Master’s degree in a related field.
Kayley earned her M.S. in CFS from UT in May 2018, and is scheduled to graduate with her Ph.D. in May 2021. Kayley’s primary focus in her research and teaching is the sexual and relationship health and well-being of young adults. Her dissertation focuses on the individual and relationship processes associated with receiving a sexually transmitted infection (STI) disclosure from a sexual partner.
UT Announces the Inaugural Cohort of the Academy for Global Scholars
The Academy for Global Scholars (AGS), a program for first-year students that provides them with a unique opportunity for global engagement and individual growth, welcomed 23 students to its inaugural class.
Participants join AGS by invitation and engage as a cohort in a summer workshop, service activities, general education courses, and a study abroad experience. The Academy is a collaboration between the Division of Enrollment Management and the Center for Global Engagement.