A peer-reviewed article by Dr. Dixie K. Keyes, professor of education and reading, was published in the Kansas English journal. The article, "The Enlivened World of an Author of Middle Grades Novels: An Interview with Crystal Allen," offers an account of the characters in Allen's books and how readers have responded to them. Keyes' interview with the award-winning author displays possibilities for writing, service and publication.

Dr. Asela Wijeratne (left), assistant professor of bioinformatics, and two of his graduate students, Brett Hale and Sandarwuan Ratnayake, presented a workshop at the International Plant Biology meeting in Portland, organized by the American Society of Plant Biologists. Their workshop included analysis of high-throughput gene expression data. In addition, they also presented a poster session on their work regarding plant-pathogen interactions.

Congratulations to Tiffany Johnson, director, Career Services, who was recognized recently by her peers. Johnson received the Nola Holt Royster Distinguished Service Award during the Arkansas Association of Colleges and Employers annual conference. The award, considered the most prestigious award the group bestows on a member, is based on notable and significant contributions with distinguished achievement to the association, the profession of career services, and recruitment.

Dr. Scott Bruce, associate professor of athletic training and assistant dean for research, made a presentation at the National Athletic Trainers' Association Clinical Symposia and Athletic Training Expo in Philadelphia.  The presentation was “Whole-Body Reactive Agility Metrics to Identify Football Players with Core and Lower Extremity Injury Risk.” He also presented a research poster at the same meeting, titled “Sports Fitness Index Survey for Association with Sport-Related Concussion.”

Dr. Neal Ternes, assistant professor of sport management, was interviewed for an article published in Sportico and subsequently featured by Yahoo! Sports. The interview concerned the state of NIL (name, image, likeness) data availability, and what could be inferred by the release of information from NIL groups such as OpenDorse. Ternes contends athletes and potential business partners have had difficulty accessing accurate information in the NIL market.