Early Bird

Kudos

Applaud the MSU Denver faculty, staff, students, and alumni sharing their talents and energy.

By Lindsey Coulter

April 24, 2019

In addition to Faculty Citings, the Early Bird shines a spotlight each month on the accomplishments of Metropolitan State University of Denver faculty and staff. This month, we’re celebrating outstanding contributions made by our world-class faculty, the commitment of our talented staff, and the innovation and hard work of both current students and alumni.

Faculty accolades

In March, the Rose Community Foundation announced that Metropolitan State University of Denver President Janine Davidson, Ph.D., was selected to join the foundation’s Board of Trustees. The organization works to enhance the quality of life of the greater Denver community through leadership, grant-making and donor engagement – stewarding philanthropic resources and investing in strategic and innovative solutions to enduring challenges and emerging issues.

Kishore Kulkarni, Ph.D., professor, Economics, received the “Indian Overseas Best Faculty Award (Male)” by the International Academic and Research Excellence Awards 2019 committee. The award recognizes Kulkarni’s “exceptional caliber and outstanding performance” in academics and research.

Rosemarie Allen, Ed.D., assistant professor of teacher education, was profiled by Essence’s She the People Series, highlighting her education expertise and efforts to end classroom bias. The article chronicles Allen’s own experiences of racial bias throughout her education, which “inspired her to fight for the elimination of systemic inequalities that target the most vulnerable and marginalized groups of children.”

Keith Fevurly, Ph.D., senior lecturer, Finance, was featured recently in a WalletHub article on credit-card comparison.

Deborah A. Wilcox. Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Health Professions; Program of Integrative Health Care, was appointed to serve on the Advisory Council for the National Cross-Cultural Counseling and Education Conference for Research, Action and Change. Sponsored by Georgia Southern University, the conference focuses on racial identity development, ethnic identity development, and gender and sexual orientation, from infancy through adult maturity.

Michael Wray, Ph.D., has been appointed to the Society of Wine Educators’ Board of Advisors. Wray will serve as one of four advisors to the organization’s executive director, helping to brainstorm solutions to problems, insert new ideas and provide feedback on new opportunities.

David Kish, Ph.D., director of Bands and professor of Music at MSU Denver, was recently elected to the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. Membership in the ABA is by invitation only and recognizes the significant achievement and contributions of its members to the advancement of the concert band and its literature. The association was founded in 1929 by famous band directors Edwin Franko Goldman, John Philip Sousa, A.A. Harding, Charles Benter, Victor Grabel and Arthur Pryor. The current membership comprises approximately 300 band conductors and composers in the United States and Canada as well 80 associate members from music-business organizations. Membership in this organization is considered a significant honor and is offered only to leaders in the profession. Kish will be formally inducted into the organization next March at the 86th annual convention in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Terrific teamwork

Congratulations to all faculty and staff involved in the planning and execution of Open House: The Experience on April 13. The event surpassed both spring and fall 2018 attendance numbers, attracting 454 prospective Roadrunners.

Student successes

MSU Denver student Kori Dover was recently published by the Center for Advancement of Foodservice Education. Dover and co-author Lisa Parrish, editor of Café Meeting Place, compared U.S. food-preparation and safety standards with those in other countries, drawing on a Farm-to-Table Sustainability study-abroad experience in Oaxaca, Mexico. Dover expanded her research in an academic paper titled “Mexico vs. USA in Sanitation.”

On April 18, MSU Denver students once again took the top prize at the Greenway Foundation's annual Clean River Design Challenge. A team of four Roadrunners beat several teams from the School of Mines and the University of Denver to develop an innovative solution to collect trash in Denver's urban waterways. The students spent the first semester of the 2018-2019 school year developing preliminary designs, which were then built and tested in a hydraulic lab flume that simulates waterway conditions.

One of MSU Denver’s ProStart classes (Adams City High School) won the 2019 Colorado ProStart Invitation and received a quarter of a million dollars in scholarships (approximately $29,000 per student). Colorado ProStart is a junior/senior high school hospitality-education program of the Colorado Restaurant Foundation, the Colorado Restaurant Association and the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation. The program is a restaurant/hospitality-management, culinary-arts and business-economics curriculum that provides high school and college academic credit, scholarships and paid work-experience opportunities for students. The program provides high school and college academic credit through MSU Denver.

Students in the Brewing Quality Analysis course, taught by Lecturer Ethan Tsai, Ph.D., submitted their brews to the Peak-to-Peak ProAm last month. Matt Ortiz took bronze in the Strong American Ale category, and Larry Altshuler, David Choate, Nick Anderberg and Sam Goertz claimed bronze in the Strong Belgian Ale category for their Belgian saison. The Strong Belgian Ale was also featured during the event in the “How to Taste Beer” education segment with the Foundation members.  

Applause for alumni

The Colorado Aviation Business Association announced its new leadership for 2019-20. Vice Chair Chris Swathwood (’06) will advance to the organization’s chair. Swathwood has been a CABA board member since 2011 and served for most of that time on the Legislative Affairs Committee representing CABA’s interests at the Colorado State Capitol. Recently named to the National Business Aviation Association’s Inaugural Top 40-Under-40, he is a pilot and the broker-owner of Altivation Aircraft Sales & Acquisitions.