Guerrero named Associate Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence - Lisa Guerrero joined the Office of the Provost this month as associate vice provost for inclusive excellence.

December 2020

Provost Perspective

Closeup of Lisa Guerrero.

Guerrero named Associate Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence

Lisa Guerrero joined the Office of the Provost this month as associate vice provost for inclusive excellence. She is currently a professor of comparative ethnic studies in WSU’s School of Languages, Cultures, and Race and has been an active advocate for diversity and inclusion in higher education since joining the faculty in 2004. Guerrero will remain in her professor position while serving as associate vice provost in a half-time appointment.

Read more about Guerrero

Racism and Social Inequality in the Americas cluster hire proposals initiated

The Office of the Provost welcomed 27 proposals from across the University system for the Racism and Social Inequality in the Americas cluster hire program. Five of the proposals will be funded for the fall 2021 program, allowing the respective units to recruit faculty that will broaden and deepen the University’s commitment to racial equality in a wide variety of disciplines.

Read more about the cluster hire program

New faculty features

WSU welcomed more than 130 new faculty members in 2020 across all colleges and campuses. This month, get to know Paul Bolls and Jennifer Duckworth in our New Faculty Spotlight Series. Bolls was a graduate student at WSU and then a faculty member in the early 2000s, before returning this fall as an associate dean in the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. Duckworth is new to the Department of Human Development and her research is inspired by her experiences as a teacher in Indianapolis, Indiana, working with underserved students.

Drive to 25

Ellenwood joins Center for Native American Research and Collaboration

Cheryl Ellenwood will take on the mission of expanding Tribal Nation Building Leadership programs aimed at developing Native American students’ leadership skills and knowledge based on tribal principles and values in her new roles with the Center for Native American Research Collaboration and the Institute for Research and Education to Advance Community Health (IREACH).

Read more about Ellenwood’s role

Student Success

Freshman retention rises in 2020

First-time, full-time freshman students in the fall of 2019 were retained at a rate of 80.6% in 2020, an increase of 1.6% over the previous year. The retention rate increased at three of the four WSU campuses that admit full-time freshman students, including jumps of 1.6% on the Pullman campus, 1.4% on the Tri‑Cities campus, and 1.9% on the Vancouver campus.

Read more about freshman retention

Link Up

Faculty Development

LIFT Faculty Fellowship applications open through January 12

Faculty from across the WSU system are invited to apply for the LIFT Faculty Fellowship, designed to support instructors in improving the student experience. The program uses teaching methods and modules shown to improve student engagement, connection and learning to decrease course withdrawal and fail rates, and to increase retention.

Learn more about the LIFT Faculty Fellowship

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Black Lives Matter Artist Grants awarded

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, in partnership with the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation, announced 20 recipients of grants to fund the creation of art that communicates the voices, experiences, and artistic expression of social justice efforts in response to systemic racism. Each artist will receive $2,500 to fund their artwork. More than 70 artists, working in all visual mediums, submitted proposals.

Read more about the BLM grants

College Highlights

Clarice Coyne and Anthony Nicola were selected by their peers as Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Coyne, an adjunct faculty member in the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, was recognized for her work in legume plant genetic resource conservation. Nicola, the Engle Distinguished Professor of Infectious Diseases in the College of Veterinary Medicine, was recognized for his contributions to the field of herpes simplex virus biology.

Professors Dan “Annie” Wu, Kris Kowdley, and Yuehe Lin were named as Highly Cited Researchers for 2020. The annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their fields through publication of multiple highly cited papers in the last decade. Wu is a research professor and Lin is a professor and laboratory fellow in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture. Kowdley is a clinical faculty member in the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine.

Buddy Levy, scholarly professor of English in the College of Arts and Sciences, won the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity’s 2020 Banff Mountain Book Competition Award in the Adventure Travel category. Levy’s Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition was one of eight books awarded, out of 137 submissions.