Dr. Fatemeh Afghah, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has won the North Carolina Space Grant program’s New Investigator Award for her research in inter-satellite communications in autonomous small satellite networks. The New Investigators Program is designed to strengthen North Carolina’s aerospace-related research infrastructure by providing startup funding to early career university faculty who are conducting research that is directly aligned with NASA's Strategic Framework. Afghah is the director of Wireless Networking (WiNet) Laboratory in the ECE department.

Dr. Sherrie Drye Cannoy, associate professor in the Department of Business Education, presented a technology workshop, What’s New in Office 2013, April 15, at the National Business Education Association convention in Los Angeles, California. 

Dr. Jorge Gaytan, associate professor in the Department of Business Education, presented a paper, “Comparing Faculty and Student Perceptions Regarding Factors that Affect Student Retention in Online Education,” April 16, at the Business Education Research Conference, which was held in conjunction with the National Business Education Association convention in Los Angeles.

Dr. G. Scott Jenkins has been named vice provost for academic affairs and undergraduate programs, effective April 1. In this role Jenkins will provide "strong" academic and administrative leadership, function as a representative and is authorized to act on behalf of the provost, interact closely with academic deans, and actively engage in developing and supporting processes and policies that enhance undergraduate education and student success. In addition, the vice provost has direct oversight responsibility for pre-collegiate and undergraduate study, exercises administrative oversight for the university's two campus based public high schools, chairs the Provost Committee on Intercollegiate Athletics and serves as an ex-officio member of the Faculty Senate.

Jenkins formerly served as assistant vice chancellor for institutional research. Prior to coming to N.C. A&T, Jenkins was the chief academic officer and associate academic officer at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He also served in several administrative roles for UNC General Administration.

Dr. Muktha Jost and Bryon D. Turman were speakers at the 2014 Youth and Media Festival (YAMFest), which was April 5 at Grimsley High School. YAMFest sets out to explore the arts and engage the world through technology and foster a more self-aware approach of technology usage in Greensboro, N.C. Jost is a professor of instructional technology and interim director of digital learning, planning and assessment. Turman is a lecturer of humanities and hip hop in the Department of English.

Dr. Kathryn Kisska-Schultze, an assistant professor in the Department of Management, has published an article, “The Future of E-mail Taxation in the Wake of the Expiration of the Internet Tax Freedom Act,” in the American Business Law Journal (Vol. 51, No. 2, pp. 315-363).

“Strengthening Industry and Academia Partnerships in Manufacturing,” a white paper by Dr. Alton L. Kornegay, assistant professor in the Department of Applied Engineering Technology, Dr. Dominick Fazarro, University of Texas-Tyler, and Dr. James Wright, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, appears on the website of The Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (ATMAE), February 2014. The paper was selected second among 15 white papers accepted nationally by ATMAE. One author of each of the top three papers received a complimentary full conference registration to attend the association’s 2013 annual conference that was Nov. 18–23 in New Orleans. Kornegay, principal investigator, accepted the award.

Dr. Beryl C. McEwen, vice provost for strategic planning and institutional effectiveness has been awarded the 2014 Distinguished Service Award for an Administrator by the National Business Education Association (NBEA) at its annual convention in Los Angeles, April 18. The award recognizes outstanding contributions to business education by a senior college or university business educator. Prior to her current position, McEwen was an associate dean in the School of Business and Economics. Before that she was chair of the Department of Business Education.

McEwen presented a paper, “Assessing Business Education Programs,” and served as a panelist for “Research for the Profession: Toward a Vibrant Business Education Future,” as part of the Business Education Research Conference that was held in conjunction with the NBEA convention.

“To thine shareholders be true?: Linking large corporate ownership to the firms’ use of commitment human resource practices,” a manuscript written by Dr. Frank I. Mullins, assistant professor of management, along with co-authors Pamela Brandes and Ravi Dharwadkar, has been accepted for publication in Human Resource Management. HRM has a 6-10 percent acceptance rate and is one of the 45 business journals on the noted Financial Times list.

Dr. Trisha Sain, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, has won the 2014 North Carolina Space Grant Award, which will fund a research project titled, “Numerical modeling of constitutive behavior of ice at high strain rates.” The study will focus on the development of a constitutive method for capturing high-rate response of “ice,” potential harmful debris that can damage aircraft and space structures.

Dr. Lisa Gueldenzoph Snyder, interim associate dean in the School of Business and Economics and chair of the Department of Business Education, was installed as the 2014-2016 president of the Association for Research in Business Education during the National Business Education Association convention in Los Angeles. During the convention, Snyder also served as the chair of the Policies Commission for Business and Economic Education and presented the commission’s session report on “New and Emerging Instructional Strategies” and “The Importance of Business Education in the Curriculum.”

Dr. Daniel Webb, chair of the Department of Human Performance and Leisure Studies, will be the keynote speaker for the Max Caleb Wilson Second Annual Scholarship Banquet. The event will be Saturday, May 10, at Little Joe’s Chapel and Enrichment Center in Troutman, N.C. The Maxx Caleb Scholarship Foundation awards scholarships to first generation college students to assist them in changing their socio-economic plight. Webb’s keynote speech will focus on mentorship as a method to increase first generational ethnic minorities’ matriculation in college (with particular emphasis on HBCUs).