May News

As we wrap up the 2025-26 academic year, I want to take a moment to thank you for everything you’ve put into your teaching, scholarship/creativity activities, and service. It’s been a full year, and we’ve accomplished a lot together because of your care for our students and for one another. I hope you’re able to get some real rest this summer and step away when you can—you’ve earned it. Please know that we’re here to support you, and if you need anything or just want to check in, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Wishing you a restful, renewing summer ahead,

carol

Director of Faculty Development: Susanna Lopez-Legentil lopezlegentils@uncw.edu

Director of Faculty Administration: Susan Catapano catapanos@uncw.edu

Come and celebrate with our students and their friends and families!!

Friday, May 8, 2026

1:30 p.m. | All Graduate Programs

6 p.m. | Undergraduates in CHHS

Saturday, May 9, 2026

9 a.m. | Undergraduates in the CSB

1 p.m. | Undergraduates in the CSE

5 p.m. | Undergraduates in the CHSSA and WCE

Please remember to respond to this RSVP by May 1 so we will have adequate seating.

The deadline for regalia rental has passed.

Questions about Commencement: commencement@uncw.edu

🎉Congratulations to these award recipients! We are so happy to celebrate with you!

Chancellor's Teaching Excellence Awards

CSB - Dr. Alexandra Krallman Barnes

CHHS - Dr. Anka Roberto

CHSSA - Dr. David Houpt

CSE - Dr. Richard Pond

WCE - Dr. Sara Movahedazarhouligh

J. Marshall Crews Distinguished Faculty Award - Dr. Stephanie Duea

UNCW Library Faculty Engagement Award - Dr. Christopher Stuart

Excellence in Online Education Award - Dr. David Glew

Lecturer of the Year Award - Ms. Maggie Guggenheimer and Dr. Brandon Brice

Graduate Faculty Mentor Award - Dr. Daisyane Barreto

Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award - Dr. Alexander McDaniel and Dr. Michele Parker

Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching - Dr. Diana Ashe

Distinguished Scholarly Engagement and Public Service Award - Dr. Jesse C. Jarvis

Distinguished Teaching Professorship Award - Dr. Alison Taylor and Dr. Brian Chandler

Board of Trustees Teaching Excellence Award - Dr. Alison Taylor

We are sending a huge "thank you" to the following faculty members for many years of service at UNCW! You will be missed!

Babette Boyd - Department of Sociology and Criminology

Dr. Raymond Burt - Department of World Languages and Culture

Dr. Barbara "Suzy" Diggle-Fox - School of Nursing

Herr Professor Dave Graber - Dept of World Languages and Cultures

Dr. Charles Hardy - School of Health and Applied Human Sciences

Dr. Danny Johnson - School of Health and Applied Human Sciences

Dr. Andrea Jones - School of Social Work

Dr. Bart Jones - Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Dr. Xin Lu - Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Michelle Manning - Department of English

Dr. Nora Noel - Department of Psychology

Sonia Parker - Department of Mathematics and Statistics

Dr. Raymond Pitts - Department of Psychology

Dr. Kathleen Roney - Dept of Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle Grades, Literacy, & Special Educ

Dr. Penny Sauer - School of Nursing

Dr. Lorie Sigmon - School of Nursing

Edwin Wagenseller - Department of Theatre

• May 31: Deadline to enter all teaching, scholarship/creative activities, and service activities in order to be captured for the UNCW report to BOT and System Office

• Chairs/Directors meeting: June 25th, 10:00am-12:00noon
• New Chairs Orientation: July 7-8, 9:00am-4:00 pm
• Department Chairs/School Directors Retreat: July 14, 9:00am-5:00pm
• New Faculty Orientation: August 5-6, 8:30am-5:00pm

Morning Sessions
Zoom link: https://uncw.zoom.us/j/83735829950?pwd=hdNTw4tqmgMbktNkM8xfsNgglz6fQO.1
Meeting ID: 837 3582 9950

Passcode: 1947

Afternoon Sessions

Zoom link: https://uncw.zoom.us/j/86341099226?pwd=qAqLq3yL3hjsMJfSTv8h9bWb6b3zwI.1

Meeting ID: 863 4109 9226

Passcode: 1947

Enroll in the Faculty Affairs Canvas Course for all kinds of resources!

Find & Fill Out the New "Public" Syllabus

Video with step-by-step directions (5:05 run time)

Narrated Powerpoint Presentation with more info (6:36 run time)

❗Sign up HERE to be part of our Summer 2 Pilot for Concourse!!❗

Contact Lauren Wipfield at wipfieldl@uncw.edu

Thank you, Lauren, for all of your hard work to launch this System Office initiative!

🔗 Live Mentorship Mastermind sessions for faculty will be held on May 12 and June 9, from 4 to 4:30 p.m. via Zoom https://us02web.zoom.us/j/9031034580 OR click on picture above.

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

Participation is free but limited to ensure individualized attention, high-quality facilitation, and a strong sense of community within each group. Each session provides a half hour for focused work (writing, research, course creation, etc.) If you are interested, please fill this interest form by April 30. Participants will receive a UNCW digital badge and will be recognized during the Fall Faculty meeting. For more information visit FacultyThrive Summer Program.

CALL FOR FACILITATORS

We invite applications for three facilitators (tenured faculty). Facilitators will receive a $3,000 stipend and will facilitate 10 one-hour sessions (materials provided). If you are interested, please read and complete this interest form by April 30.

Practical strategies to mentor faculty colleagues with purpose, clarity, and care!

Led by UNCW’s CLIMB Team

Please register by May 1, 2026

💡 Grab your spot now using your @uncw.edu e-mail address → bit.ly/webinar2026-4

Thanks to those of you who submitted course enhancement or new course proposals! We had over 25 thoughtful ideas that were submitted to the System Office!

Five UNCW faculty members will be attending the Common Ground convening in Charlotte on May 15:

• Diana Ashe

• Emily Baxter

• Addie Sayers China

• Gulustan Dogan

• Layla Ghaz

Director of High Impact Practices: Jeanne Persuit persuitj@uncw.edu

Want to link your course to a high impact practice for students? Check out Engage UNCW! Email engageuncw@uncw.edu to set up a consultation.

The Office of High Impact Practices and CTE are co-sponsoring the High Impact Practices Pedagogy / Project Initiative Awards are designed to advance the development and integration of new or substantially improved innovative curricular and co-curricular learning opportunities across campus. The purpose of this award is to increase the quantity and quality of transformative learning for UNCW students through the 8 high-impact practices prioritized at UNCW. Link is here: https://uncw.infoready4.com/#freeformCompetitionDetail/2013905

Associate Director of CSURF: Katherine Liu Liuk@uncw.edu

Are you recruiting for undergraduate researchers this fall? CSURF is compiling a list for incoming undergrads (particularly for transfer students). Submit your information HERE.

• (Distinguished) Undergraduate Research Scholar Distinctions: Graduating seniors may apply here. Scholars will receive cords and/or a charm to wear at graduation. Preferred deadline is April 20, 2026. Final deadline is May 3, 2026.

• Travel grants: Get up to $1000 to present at a conference. Apply here.

• If you have a student applying for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program in the Fall, have them consider registering for BIO485-003 for guidance and support throughout the process. Reach out to Dr. Buck (buckj@uncw.edu) with questions.

The Center for the Support of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships (CSURF) is in full celebration mode as we come to the end of an incredibly busy and productive year, including a successful National Undergraduate Research Week (April 20-25 2026) and our largest Showcase of Student Research and Creativity ever. Some highlights from both events can be found on CSURF’s Instagram. Thank you to everyone who came to the Showcase on Saturday April 25. It was our biggest one ever (in terms of number of presenters and space) with over 200 student presenters. Congrats to everyone who presented and to all the mentors who help our students shine!

Congratulations to Marrianna Alfonso who was named a 2026-2028 NOAA Hollings Scholar! We are excited that Marrianna is continuing our legacy of Hollings Scholars at UNCW.

Congratulations to faculty who were awarded CSURF's inaugural Undergraduate Research Mentoring Awards.

• Jamie Clark (PhD student, Integrative and Comparative Marine Biology)
• Dr. Melanie Cohn (postdoc, Tolar lab)
• Dr. Laurie Minns (Clinical Research)
• Dr. Chris Dumas (Environmental Sciences)

Congratulations to our FYRE Summer Scholarship winners:

• Presley Kay Schettler (mentor: Nsikanabasi Umo)
• Keira Flaviano-Reynolds (mentor: Deborah Tyndall)
• Eric Jiroutek (mentor: Matthew Peterson)
• Nicole Butz (mentor: Meagan Rainock)
• Christian Cuevas (mentor: Timothy Black)

Congratulations to our SURCA award winners:

• Skander Abboud (student: Sarah Kiglics)
• Antje Almeida (student: Cole Ashley)
• Cuixian Chen (student: Ceci Woodruff)
• Nick Chiappini (student: Grace Boughton)
• Joseph Covi (students: Chris Hitchman and Grace Koch)
• Ryne Crout Jones (student: Alleigh Pelletier)
• Sarah Faussett (students: Leane Fantes and Jack Matistic)
• Nicole Fogarty (student: Katherine Rowley)
• Ai Ning Loh (student: Abbie Engrassia)
• Caroline Owens (student: Julissa Montalban-Petatan)
• Matthew Ramirez (student: Samantha Paul)
• Fred Scharf (student: Claire Luft)
• Wendy Strangman (student: Nia Kane)
• Lori Sutter (student: Claire Wallsch-Drury)
• Bradley Tolar (student: Matty Richter)
• Sridhar Varadarajan (student: William Lara Fonseca)
• Ying Wang (student: Caitlin Kosse).

Director of QEP/SAIL: Beverley McGuire mcguireb@uncw.edu

We are excited to announce our SAIL faculty scorers! They will assess student work from SAIL courses from the 2025-2026 academic year.

• Edzordzi Agbozo
• Angela Barr
• Patience Brooks
• Jennifer McCall
• Yiyi Yang
• Shira Pilarski
• Michael Turner
• Yang Song

Director of Honors College: Eva Mehl mehle@uncw.edu

On Monday, April 13, Honors came together with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute for visiting professor Jiwon Heo's "Generational Empathy and Cultural Exchange through K-Culture" event. Professor Heo introduced participants to the cultural significance of food in the popular genre of K-Pop, and then participants formed inter-generational teams to prepare kimbap. As part of an ongoing collaboration between Honors and OLLI, the event used cross-cultural exchange to foster dialogue, understanding, and teamwork across generations.

Honors students are involved in a wide variety of leadership and service roles across campus and beyond. The Community Engagement Award celebrates that work by recognizing the graduating honors student who most exemplifies sustained practices of working with local and regional communities and organizations on common problems and shared goals. If you are on a thesis committee for a graduating student, and believe that student should be recognized, please submit a nomination by emailing honors@uncw.edu with a description of their community work.