Alvarado-Young guiding New Student Programs - Kelly Alvarado-Young brings great professional experience and a unique personal perspective to her new role as director of New Student Programs at WSU.

October 2020

Provost Perspective

Closeup of Kelly Alvarado-Young.

Alvarado-Young guiding New Student Programs

Kelly Alvarado-Young brings great professional experience and a unique personal perspective to her new role as director of New Student Programs at WSU. She is excited to join the Coug community and partner with faculty and staff to make a difference in students’ connection to the University and their sense of belonging.

Read more about Alvarado‑Young

New faculty features

More than 130 new faculty joined WSU this fall, bringing innovative teaching, research and creative activities to the community. Get to know Dingwen Tao and Kait Hirchak, who are featured in our New Faculty Spotlight series. Tao is a computer science faculty member who has already racked up three National Science Foundation grants in his short time at WSU. Hirchak is a product of WSU’s Research Assistantship for Diverse Scholars (RADS) program, who is focused on studying and implementing programs to prevent and treat alcohol use disorders.

Town Halls continue through Nov. 3

President Kirk Schulz and Provost Elizabeth Chilton are meeting with colleges and units throughout the WSU system in a series of town hall events throughout the fall. A total of 18 town hall meetings are scheduled, with the University leaders discussing institutional accomplishments and priorities for the year before engaging in question-and-answer sessions with attendees.

Read more about Town Halls 2020

Drive to 25

Colleges team up to help prevent opioid addiction

Faculty from the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, as well as the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine are working to help rural families and communities prevent opioid addiction through training and education. The new two‑year project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and includes implementation of the Strengthening Families Program 10–14, an initiative aimed at families, caregivers, and children ages 10–14.

Read more about the Strengthening Families Program

Student Success

WSU Vancouver offering in‑state tuition to students from 3 Oregon counties

Students residing in Oregon’s Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington Counties are being offered in‑state tuition at WSU Vancouver for the spring and fall 2021 semesters through the PDX Tuition Advantage program. WSU Vancouver enacted the program to help accommodate students impacted by COVID‑19 and Oregon’s historic wildfires in September.

Read more about PDX Tuition Advantage

Link Up

Faculty Development

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Summit slated for Nov. 5

Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to join a discussion about how the COVID‑19 pandemic has exposed inequities across the United States and how WSU students are impacted. The summit will explore how the pandemic can be a catalyst for long-lasting change in equity, justice, and community building, and how we can all contribute to this crucial work.

Register for the summit

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

ROAR boosted through DOE grant

WSU ROAR landed a $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to continue its work helping students with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The College of Education program is the first residential program of its kind in the Pacific Northwest.

Read more about ROAR

College Highlights

Mary Paine, professor in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and her team of researchers were awarded a $10.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund research over the next five years on dietary supplements and their interactions with medications. The grant is the largest ever awarded to a researcher at the WSU College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Don McMoran, director of WSU’s Skagit County Extension office in the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, landed a $7 million Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand farmer suicide prevention work to 13 western states and four U.S. territories. McMoran started a pilot program in farmer suicide prevention in 2019.

Connie Nguyen‑Truong, assistant professor in the College of Nursing at WSU Vancouver, is being honored with the 2020 Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Award from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). She is the first person from WSU to earn the honor, which recognized her “transformative, culturally sensitive advances in teaching and learning for the benefit of nursing and other disciplines,” according to AACN.