• Assistant Professor of Business Dr. Kelly La Venture, along with Bemidji State alum Lisa Kittleson (pictured, above) traveled to London from Nov. 14-17 to present at the London International Conference on Education. Kittleson presented “The Student Perspective: An Exploratory Study to Understand the Skills Gap in a Midwestern Community,” recapping the results of a Marketing Assistance and Research Solutions project to examine Bemidji’s skills gap from the perspective of the city’s employers. Fellow alumna Hanna Moher was involved in the research, but could not get time away from her professional hockey career in Sweden to attend the presentation.
La Venture and Kittleson also attended a one-day workshop, “Digital Scholarship and Social Media,” at the University of Reading in Berkshire on Nov. 16.
• La Venture’s courses BUAD 4467 Marketing Research and BUAD 4468 Marketing Management have been certified by Quality Matters. Quality Matters is a faculty-centered peer review process designed to certify the quality of online and blended-delivery courses. La Venture teaches five courses which have received Quality Matters certification.
• Dr. Mahmoud Al-Odeh, associate professor of technology, art and design, has published “Emphasis Related Capstone Class: The Use of Real-Life Experience to Enhance Workforce Readiness” in the British Journal of Education. The article is based on his course TADT 4873, Emphasis Related Capstone.
• Erika Bailey-Johnson, BSU sustainability coordinator, presented at the Association for the Advancement and Sustainability of Higher Education’s annual conference held Oct. 9-12 in Baltimore. She partnered with North Hennepin Community and Technical College to present a workshop entitled “Sustainability, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Across the Curriculum”; joined Dr. Laurie Desiderato, professor of psychology, on a panel presentation entitled “Assessing Course Impact: Three Models of Sustainability Evaluation”; and joined Elizabeth Taylor of LHB Architects to deliver a workshop entitled “Campus Resilience: Prioritizing Goals and Strategies Through Collaborative Gaming”.
• Andy Bartlett, associate director of communications and marketing, presented on project management software used by BSU’s Office of Communications and Marketing at the Minnesota State system office’s fall marketing conference, Nov. 17-18 in St. Paul.
• Dr. Misty Wilkie, assistant professor of nursing, attended Higher Learning Commission Peer Reviewer Training from Oct. 19-21 in Chicago. She is now able to visit other HLC-accredited institutions as a reviewer, and she will assist BSU’s accreditation as a member of its assessment committee. Wilkie also spoke at the College of Pharmacy’s Convocation in St. Louis, Mo. on Oct. 25 about a documentary film she participated in titled, “Essence of Healing: Journey of American Indian Nurses,” and also was the keynote speaker at the Second Annual Native Nations Nursing Summit, held Nov. 4 in Lac du Flambeau, Wis. Her keynote presentation was titled “Capture the Future: Nurture the Spirit — Preparing Successful indigenous Nurses.”
• Dr. Marty Wolf, professor of computer science, has written an article for Communications of the ACM, a monthly publication of the Association for Computing Machinery, describing the importance of the organization’s code of ethics. Wolf is on the leadership team for a group of computing scientists who are revising the association’s code of ethics, which was last updated in 1992. Wolf and three co-authors published “Making a Positive Impact: Updating the ACM Code of Ethics” in the same issue of the publication, which describes the proposed changes to the code and the motivation for making those changes.
New Hires
- Camille Brandt will join the College of Professional Education as an adjunct instructor, effective Jan. 4.
- David Strandlein has joined the Department of Housing and Residence Life as a general maintenance worker, effective Nov. 7.
- Jesse Farris has joined the Department of Housing and Residence Life as a general maintenance worker, effective Nov. 7.