Board Accolades January-February 2017

Congratulations goes to Professors of Drama Kim Frederick and Carl Yowell with the Art and Drama Department. The Texas Educational Theatre Association (TETA) named Frederick as the recipient of their 2017 Junior/Community College Teacher of the Year award and honored him during their annual Theatre Fest Conference in Galveston in late January. A selection committee member noted that “Kim not only connects with his students at Del Mar, but he extends beyond that into his adjudication in the UIL One-Act Play contest. He is a sought after judge because high school theatre directors want their students to learn from his experience and wisdom.” And, Feb. 8-11, Yowell served as an adjudicator for the Irene Ryan Acting Scholarships of the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival Region IV hosted by Georgia Southern University. Approximately 460 nominees from 98 colleges and universities from southeastern states submitted performance entries, and successful candidates will advance to the nationals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in April. While at the festival, Yowell conducted an acting workshop titled “Impolite Acting” for student and faculty attendees. The College’s Drama Program holds memberships with TETA, the National Association of Schools of Theatre and the United States Institute for Theatre Technology.

Kudos to Diana Ortega-Feerick, Assistant Dean of Student Engagement and Retention, for her acceptance into the 2017- 2018 New Leadership Academy (NLA) Fellows program held by the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good at the University of Michigan and their partner, the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. Ortega- Feerick will participate in a series of activities that encompass retreats, online learning modules and case study analysis, along with the opportunity to interact with distinguished faculty, administrators and policymakers as part of building a network of future executive leaders who will be stewards for the future of higher education.

The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) elected Dr. Cynthia Bridges, Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Music Department, to serve a three-year term as a member of their Commission on Community College Accreditation. Dr. Bridges will volunteer her efforts to advance the quality of music teaching and learning in the United States. NASM’s Commission on Community College Accreditation consists of three elected offcials whose duties are to apply the Association’s accreditation and membership standards for community colleges and associate degree programs. Additionally, the Commission investigates the maintenance of standards and the observance of published commitments by any member institution under its jurisdiction. Thank you for your commitment, Dr. Bridges!

American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Coalition of (Dis)Ability named Brenda Garcia, Disability Services Specialist with the Transition Center’s Disability Services Office, as their 2017 Disability Service Provider Award recipient. The award, which ACPA will announce during their March conference in Columbus, Ohio, is given annually to an individual who is a disability service provider in a postsecondary education setting. The recipient promotes access and inclusion for people with disabilities by working to ensure equal access to curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular programs, activities and services. Way to go, Brenda!

Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) published findings by Department of Natural Sciences faculty Drs. John “Rob” Hatherill, R. Deborah Overath and Daiyun “Daisy” Zhang about the impact that their course-based research and teaching methods in their sequenced biology and biotechnology courses have on influencing DMC students to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines. The article, “Implementing Course-based Research Increases Student Aspirations for STEM Degrees,” appeared in the Winter 2016 issue of CUR Quarterly and covers specifically the success of Del Mar College’s participation with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s SEA-PHAGES (Science Education Alliance Phage Hunters Advancing Genomic and Evolutionary Science) program. To access a PDF file of the article, go to http://bit.ly/2kWU0u2.

DMC Biotechnology student John F. Ramirez continues to excel in the College’s collaboration with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Alliance (SEA) Phage Hunters Advancing Genomics and Evolutionary Science (PHAGES) project. During 2016, Ramirez’s independent research on “interesting tidbits” about bacteriophages, which are viruses that live on and attack bacteria, earned him first place during the student poster competition in the cellular and molecular biology category at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference. Ramirez also was selected to attend and present during the First World Congress on Undergraduate Research in Qatar in November and was among 150 undergraduate students from around the world and 62 Qatar University students who participated. He plans to pursue both a Ph.D. and medical degree after graduating from Del Mar College this May.