Dr. Lucy Diala, assistant professor in accountancy, has been honored by the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), an initiative of the United Nations Global Compact. The initiative awarded business and management school faculty in the United States, Brazil, Hungary and India with the 2024 Faculty Teaching Award for excellence in teaching sustainable development and responsible management practices in business education.

Earlier this month, she also received honorable mention for the George Krull/Grant Thornton EDGE in Teaching Award. The award was granted by the American Institute of CPAs and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants for leading-edge practices in the teaching of junior- or senior-level accounting courses.

Read more at FresnoStateNews.com.

Dr. Manideep Tummalapudi, assistant professor, Department of Construction Management, is a speaker for the webinar, "Demystifying AI for the Construction Industry". He will delve into the promises, the shortfalls, the possibilities, and how true Artificial Intelligence will be deployed.

Juan Carlos Mantilla, assistant professor, Department of English, will be giving a presentation, "The Tiahuanaco ruins and the early modern Andean creation of a global Antiquity" at the Antiquaires voyageurs conference in Rome.

Randa Jarrar, associate professor, Department of English, published the eBook “You Are a Teen Mom: Instructions” as part of the Everand Originals series curated by Roxane Gay. She was also an invited featured speaker for The People’s Graduation at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.

Additionally, she was included in the GLAAD list “Celebrating Arab LGBTQ+ Creatives Making Waves in Entertainment Today.” Her novel “A Map of Home” was included in the Electric Literature list of “8 Coming of Age Novels About Immigrants and First Generation Americans.”

Dr. Michele McConnell, assistant professor, Department of English, presented the research paper “Connecting to our communities with responsive literacy research practices” at theAssociation of Teacher Educators [ATE] Annual Meeting in Anaheim, CA. She was voted in as California Council on Teacher Education [CCTE] vice president for the ATE.

Also, three book chapters have been accepted for publication: “Portraiture in literacy research,” in the Oxford Press book; “Encyclopedia for Social Justice Vol. 6: Language, Literacy, Youth, and Culture”; “Making feedback social: Humanizing assessment and feedback in writing instruction” in the U of Michigan Press book “Responding to Writing: A Practical Sourcebook for Instructors”; and a co-authored CCTE white paper, “ScienceS of reading.”

James T. Morrison, graduate student success center support specialist, Division of Research and Graduate Studies, published the essay “One More Day” in the magazine Slate.

Dr. Samina Najmi, professor, Department of English, published the essay “One Summer in Gaza” in the Doubleback Review.

Mai Der Vang, assistant professor, Department of English, was named the recipient of a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship, and was included in a Columbia University feature on Guggenheim fellows. Her invited talk for the Verse Like Water program at Central Lakes Colleges in Minnesota was featured on Lakeland PBS. Her poetry collection “Yellow Rain” was mentioned by the author Viet Thanh Nguyen in the Irish Independent.

Laura Ramos, interim director, California Water Insititute, has joined the UPWARD Advisory Group to engage with experts and interested parties who are willing to lend their skills, guidance, and knowledge to help with modernizing access by the public to water rights records.

The UPWARD Advisory Group will serve as the public voice of the UPWARD project. The group will facilitate development of the Board's new water rights data system by providing advice and feedback to ensure the new system accommodates the various needs of California's water rights communities.