The Creative Services team in Buffalo State's Marketing and Communications Office won three awards in the 2024 State University of New York Council for University Advancement (SUNYCUAD) Awards for Excellence:

• Excellence in Design (Magazine or Periodical)—1300 Elmwood Magazine
• Excellence in Design (Multi-Page Publications)—Admissions Travel Brochure
• Excellence in Design (Single-Page Publications)—Bengala Invitation

The annual SUNYCUAD Awards for Excellence program recognizes top marketing work from SUNY's 64 campuses. All judging is performed by peers working in marketing and development offices across the system.

1300 Elmwood, Buffalo State University's magazine for alumni and friends, has been honored with a peer-reviewed SUNYCUAD award in six of the past eight years and nine times since 2012—making it the most decorated university magazine in the entire SUNY system during that period.

Thomas J. Reigstad, professor emeritus of English, was interviewed recently on two local radio stations, talking about his new book, The Illustrated Mark Twain and the Buffalo Express: 10 Stories and Over a Century of Sketches (Globe Pequot/North Country Books, 2024).

The first interview, conducted by program director Tom Berich on WBFO-FM 88.7, aired on May 25 and 26. The other was a half-hour segment on Art Pappas's WEBR-AM 1440 Northtown News show on June 6.

Amitra Wall, interim provost and vice president for academic affairs, participated virtually as a panelist at the 2024 SUNY Technology Conference session titled "Landing Your Dream Job" on June 5. Maria C. Garrity, senior systems programmer in Information Technology, participated in person, while Andrew T. Garrity, associate database administrator in Information Technology, and Celestine Simmons, administrative assistant for the Muriel A. Howard Honors Program, both participated as video panelists. The panel also featured in-person panelists Denise Burbey, ITEC consultant and CIO for Corning Community College, and Krista Lynch from the SUNY Center for Professional Development, Technical Program. The discussion was moderated by Holly Heller-Ross from SUNY Plattsburgh, founder of SUNY Women in Technology (WIT) and Maria Garrity. The SUNY Technology Conference was held June 4-6 in Lake Placid, New York.

Additionally, the session was enriched by contributions from the following video panelists:

Tyler Billings, IT Administrator for Auxiliary Campus Enterprise and Services (ACES), Alfred State College
Sean Moriarty, CTO, SUNY Oswego
Romeyn Prescott, Service Delivery Manager, ITEC, and CIO, Fulton-Montgomery Community College
Kim Scalzo, Interim Senior Associate Provost, SUNY System Administration
Aimee Swan, Assistant Director for Application Services, SICAS Center
Diana Voss, Director of Academic Technologies, SUNY Stony Brook
Eileen Wirley, CIO, Monroe Community College

The panelists shared their career journeys and the paths that led them to their current positions, covering a range of insightful topics. They discussed the importance of identifying your passion and aligning your career with your interests, setting clear goals and outlining actionable steps to achieve them, and pursuing certifications and leadership training programs to acquire necessary skills. Emphasis was also placed on staying updated with the latest trends and developments in the field, gaining experience, and giving back to the community through committee involvement, volunteering, and community service work. They also highlighted the importance of effectively communicating and managing relationships with superiors (managing up) and developing adaptability and empathy to adjust to new situations and understand others' perspectives. These insights and more provided valuable guidance for anyone looking to advance their career.

Karen Saxon, lecturer of music in applied voice, is a 2024 recipient of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Diversity Council IDEA Award. This award honors those in the Buffalo community who create an inclusive, diverse, equitable, and accessible environment in which music flourishes. Mrs. Saxon will be honored in a special ceremony on June 21. More information about the IDEA Award is available on the BPO website.

Angela Thering, lecturer in the Social and Psychological Foundations of Education and Adult Education Department, was accepted for the inaugural cohort of Carnegie Mellon's Data Science for Education (DS4EDU) Fellows Training Program. This fellowship is offered through a partnership between SUNY OER Services and Carnegie Mellon University.

This one-year fellowship is designed to support learning professionals with a diverse set of skills and experiences. It provides training in both educational data science methods and the types of ed tech tools that are best suited to generating and analyzing robust learning data. Supported by the Department of Education's Institute for Education Sciences (IES), the DS4EDU program supports cohorts of 25 participants who spend their fellowship working closely with a team of CMU learning and data scientists. The program combines foundational skills in data science and instructional design with training on advanced methods and tools to instrument and research learning. The program emphasizes a trainee-designated project that is the focus of each individual's work over the year. This approach ensures that the program has real-world relevance and capitalizes on the vision, ingenuity, and experiences of the cohort. Fellows emerge from the program as leaders, with expertise in the tools and methods needed to advance their projects and the field. 

Tiffany L. Bromfield, associate director of residence life and inclusion, will serve as a panelist for The Placement Exchange June Rap Session to discuss her experience as a first-generation #SAPro on Thursday, June 6, at noon.

The panel discussion will address the following questions: What's it like being a first-gen #SAPro? How has being a first-gen student shaped your career trajectory in student affairs? Is our field providing the capital and resources needed to retain our current first-gen #SAPros and recruit future ones?

Learn more and register online.

Dana Faye Serure, assistant professor of history and social studies education, co-presented with three social studies education graduate students—Christina Birt, Jennifer Kingsley, and Abby Marks—at the Beyond the Classroom: Deepening Campus Community Partnerships Conference held at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, May 30-31.

Their presentation, titled "Taking Informed Action: Revitalizing the Buffalo Black Rock Historical District with Third Places," expressed a service-learning project and process that took place during the fall 2023 semester in the graduate course SSE 513: Seminar in Secondary Social Studies. The graduate students' conference participation was sponsored by the Civic and Community Engagement Office at Buffalo State University.

Dr. Serure, SSE 513 course instructor, facilitated the presentation's context and led a panel discussion about taking informed action with community partners. Ms. Birt, Ms. Kingsley, and Ms. Marks offered insights about their research of the Black Rock historical district and third places. The aim sought to revitalize the Black Rock neighborhood by focusing on young peoples' needs for third places while also meeting the Black Rock community priorities. Graduate students worked with William Butler, president of the Black Rock Historical Society, and Sue Cholewa of the Grant-Amherst Business Association.

Third places are important for young people who seek places to socialize with friends or a quiet space to complete schoolwork, such as collegiate commuters seeking a campus-like experience or neighborhood youth needing a space to meet friends. For members of the Black Rock district, finding ways to enrich their community and spur economic growth is welcoming, especially for small- and micro-business owners who compete with other areas of the city.

Nancy Weekly, Burchfield scholar, head of collections, and Charles Cary Rumsey curator at the Burchfield Penney Art Center, was honored to present "Charles Burchfield's Synesthetic Art Legacy" at the joint conference of the United Kingdom Synaesthesia Association and American Synesthesia Association (UKSA/ASA), held at Somerville College, University of Oxford, in Oxford, England, May 10-12.

Presenters at this prestigious international conference included synesthetes, artists, musicians, historians, and neuroscientists, among other professions, from the United Kingdom/England (10), the United States (7, including Ms. Weekly), Germany (6), Canada (5), Denmark (3), The Netherlands (3), Spain (3), Belgium (2), China (2), Uganda (2), Australia (1), Greece (1), Ireland (1), Japan (1), Luxembourg (1), Mexico (1), Peru (1),  Scotland (1), Sweden (1), Switzerland (1), and Taiwan (1).

Catherine Cardina, professor and chair of the Health, Nutrition, and Dietetics Department, recently published a research study in the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education in collaboration with colleagues Xiaoping Fan, Sheri M. Treadwell, and Taemin Ha. Their manuscript was titled "Teaching Physical Education Post-COVID-19: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment." Findings suggested that phys ed teachers shifted their instructional focus from primarily the psychomotor domain to the affective domain during post-COVID-19.

Angela Thering, lecturer in the Social and Psychological Foundations of Education and Adult Education Department, was awarded a 2024 Teach Access Grant to support the creation and delivery of accessibility-infused college curricula.

Teach Access is an active collaboration among education, industry, and disability advocacy organizations to address the critical need to enhance students' understanding of digital accessibility as they learn to design, develop, and build new technologies with the needs of people with disabilities in mind. Teach Access envisions a fully accessible future in which students are equipped to enter the workforce with knowledge of and skills in the principles of accessible design and development and the needs of people with disabilities, which results in technology products and services that are born accessible.