Guadalupe Cruz, assistant director of The Maddy Institute, helped successfully promote the most recent Gubernatorial Candidate Forum at Fresno State, running a full-court press and promotional operation on behalf of The Maddy Institute. The event had nearly 600 in-person attendees, was live-streamed and received statewide press attention.

Cruz started four years ago at The Maddy Institute as a program coordinator before transitioning to her current role as assistant director. In this role, she supports the executive director with organizational operations and strategic planning implementation. She also oversees the institute’s internship programs and handles marketing and communications to promote the institute’s initiatives.

Suzanne López, Library Special Collections staff, was selected to join the 2026 California Inclusive Preservation Program Training Cohort, an education and training program offering in-depth training on collections care, including art handling, preventative conservation and emergency response for cultural heritage workers. The selected cohort consists of just 15 collections caretakers from throughout the state of California and represents collections from a variety of entities including community archives, educational institutions, museums and local governments.

Dr. Felipe Mercado, assistant professor in the Department of Social Work Education, led students from SWRK 265 in a meaningful community-engaged learning experience in Southwest Fresno. Students joined residents, community leaders, elected officials and local partners at Legacy Commons for a gathering focused on healing, repair and restoration. The event was developed in partnership with the Central Valley Community Foundation and Southwest Fresno POWER.

Mercado and his graduate social work students were also recently recognized by the Global Compassion Coalition for their work in Compassion Cultivation Training, an eight-week program that helps students serve from wholeness rather than depletion.

Julie Renee Moore, Special Collections Catalog librarian, was selected to receive the California Academic & Research Libraries 2026 Gayatri Singh Award for Inclusive Excellence in Library Programs and Exhibits. This award honors those who demonstrate excellence in programming or exhibits that foster diversity, equity and inclusive excellence in an academic library setting. Moore was recognized at the CARL Conference on April 3.

Dr. Peter Robertson, Advancement Services, presented “Contemporary Philanthropy: LGBTQ+ Allyship Affiliations and Donor Motivations” to the board and staff of The Source LGBT Center in Visalia as part of the organization’s 10-year anniversary celebration.

Dr. Jesse Scaccia, associate professor in the Department of Media, Communications and Journalism, published his book, “Media Literacy and Mental Health Care Access,” with Bloomsbury Academic Publishing. Drawing from both scholarly research and his personal experience, Scaccia explores the critical role of media literacy in helping young adults navigate the often-confusing path to mental health care, demonstrating that media is not just a potential cause of mental health challenges; it is also a crucial part of the solution. The book calls on educators, legislators and health professionals to treat media literacy as a public health imperative that must equip young adults with the skills to understand the media around them and use it to reach the help they need.

L to R: Dr. Cheryl Hickey, Dr. Caio Sarmento, Dr. Jennifer Roos, Dr. Nupur Hajela, Dr. Jennifer Adame Walker, Dr. Deb Walker

Faculty and students from the Department of Physical Therapy proudly attended and represented Fresno State at the APTA Combined Sections Meeting 2026, the largest national conference in physical therapy, held in Anaheim in February. Their scholarly contributions showcased a diverse range of cutting-edge research and clinical innovation. Presentations included investigations into gait velocity as a predictor of inpatient rehabilitation outcomes, immersive virtual reality–based neurorehabilitation for underserved rural populations with Parkinson’s disease, and emerging insights into multifidus corticospinal excitability in individuals with low back pain. Additionally, faculty highlighted novel perspectives on improving chronic low back pain management through enhanced utilization of neuromuscular electrical stimulation retraining. A large cohort of physical therapy students also attended the conference, gaining valuable exposure and fully engaging with the breadth of learning and networking opportunities it offered.

Row one L to R: Helen Miltiades, Leslie Zarrinkhameh, Cheryl Hickey, Tara Reed. Row two L to R: Candy Madrigal, Tanisha Garcia, Marie Gilbert.

On March 12, the College of Health and Human Services hosted the “Interprofessional Education Palliative Event: One Team, Many Roles” on campus. Developed by college faculty, in conjunction with CSU San Marcos, the case-based learning experience brought together 150 graduate students from across five academic disciplines to learn from, with and about each other while collaborating on a fictional palliative care scenario. The event is designed to strengthen interprofessional education teamwork, enhance communication skills and promote person-centered collaborative care.

Participating students included those from gerontology, nursing, public health, physical therapy and social work. Faculty that helped coordinate the event were Drs. Helen Miltiades (gerontology and social work), Leslie Zarrinkhameh (physical therapy), Cheryl Hickey (physical therapy), Tara Reed (nursing), Candy Madrigal (social work), Tanisha Garcia (public health) and Marie Gilbert (Central California Center for Health and Human Services).

Fresno State is partnered with the California State University Shirley Haynes Institute for Palliative Care, which provides high-quality education to health care professionals and students, with the goal of promoting research to advance the care of those living with serious illness.