Congratulations and best wishes to Dr. Ron Towery, professor of elementary education, who will retire at the end of this month. Towery has been instrumental in preparing countless educators for school classrooms in this region. With a doctoral degree from Mississippi State, Towery came to A-State in 1988. Previously he was a middle grades classroom teacher, an elementary principal, and lab school director at two universities.

Rebecca Hegger, project program manager, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) Resource Center, is coordinator of Project PEACE (Prevention, Engagement and Connection in Education), which is funded by a $1.93 million grant from the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance. Project PEACE, co-coordinated by Anne Merten, director of the PBIS Resource Center, will support middle and junior high schools in preventing violent behavior and improving school climate.

Dr. Andrea Junqueira, assistant professor of political science, is a co-author of an article forthcoming in the Journal of Politics. The study explores the impact of strengthening political parties on women's descriptive representation within democracies. Through the analysis of an electoral reform in Brazil, Junqueira and her co-author reveal that increased party strength widened the gender gap in votes, underscoring the unintended consequences of institutional engineering on gender equity.

An article co-authored by Dr. Jeongmin Oh, assistant professor of political science, was recently published in the journal Politics & Policy. Findings by Oh and fellow researchers suggest that internal stakeholders in public organizations can have negative influences on formulating organizational purposes in a racialized way. They also concluded that policy demands that have led to police militarization can be racially biased. The article is online.

Dr. Lance G. Bryant, professor of physical education and associate dean, Education and Behavioral Science, was invited to discuss the international perceptions and state of sport pedagogy and teacher education with a forum of university students from the Marjon Teacher Education Partnership in Plymouth, England. The forum centered around various issues related to sport pedagogy from a global perspective, along with teaching, learning and becoming an effective teacher.