Tiffany Bromfield, associate director of residence life and inclusion in the Residence Life Office, has been elected to the 2024 executive board of the Association of College and University Housing Officers - International (ACUHO-I). She will serve a two-year term as regional affiliation director.
Hermen Díaz III, assistant professor of higher education administration, recently published the article “Beloved Place: A Latinx/a/o Cultural Center and Undergraduate Latino Men” in the Journal of Latinos and Education.
Sourav Biswas, assistant professor of chemistry, published the article “Unconventional Rapid Synthesis of Layered Manganese Dioxide Nanostructures for Selective Oxidation of 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural to 2,5-Diformylfuran” in the peer-reviewed journal ACS Applied Nano Materials. This is Dr. Biswas’s first publication as a faculty member of Buffalo State University and involved collaborations with Kennesaw State University and with Saquib Ahmed, assistant professor of engineering technology and founding director of the Center for Integrated Studies in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Buffalo State. Dr. Biswas is the center’s associate director.
Thomas J. Reigstad, professor emeritus of English, recently published “Mark Twain Shuffles Off to Buffalo” on the website of the Center for Mark Twain Studies (CMTS) at Elmira College. The essay on Twain’s prolific period in Buffalo includes images and suggestions for further reading. Professor Reigstad is one of six Twain scholars invited to contribute to the CMTS resource pages, designed to provide “accurate, accessible information related to Mark Twain, his literature, his circle, and his world.”
Lorna Perez, associate professor of English, was appointed a SUNY Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice Fellow for academic year 2023–2024. The DEISJ Fellowship Program is envisioned as an implementation support for the new SUNY General Education Framework, which includes DEISJ as a requirement for all SUNY undergraduate degrees. DEISJ fellows help develop DEISJ resources and hold open office hours for faculty-to-faculty guidance in developing and teaching DEISJ courses, among other duties. She is one of 16 fellows selected from across SUNY.
Mark Warford, associate professor in the Modern and Classical Languages Department, has just published his book Mantha: Alchemies of the Cultural Turn with Vernon Press.
Thomas J. Reigstad, professor emeritus of English, published the article “Ed Delahanty’s Last Trip: Baseball Star Mysteriously Plunged to His Death over the Falls,” in the summer 2023 issue of Western New York Heritage magazine, Western New York’s illustrated history quarterly 26 (2): 62–69. The article tells the story of the death of Major League Baseball Hall of Fame player Ed Delahanty and the controversy surrounding his disappearance over the International Railway Bridge and into the Niagara River in July 1903. His body was recovered a week later, 20 miles downstream at the base of the Horseshoe Falls.
Graziela Rondón-Pari, assistant professor in the Modern and Classical Languages Department, was invited to present at the plenary session of the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) Leadership Institute on June 27.
Buffalo State’s Spanish court interpreter certificate received a grant and an award from the MLA and serves as a model in the field of languages for the professions by applying language learning to the field of court interpreting. The Buffalo Immigration Court employs interpreters daily who come from other areas of the country with all expenses paid and a salary that exceeds $500 a day. Buffalo State students visit this court several times a semester and get the chance to interact with judges, attorneys, and on-the-job interpreters.
Lydia Tang, MLA’s head of world language programs, said, “Your grant-winning project perfectly fits the plenary’s vision of demonstrating how language competency can have a real impact on our communities. The feedback we received in response to your plenary session has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are grateful for your engaging, informative, and inspiring remarks. The depth of knowledge, pedagogical innovation, and concrete models you offered was truly impressive.”
Buffalo State’s court interpreter certificate aims to provide practical solutions to the lack of qualified court interpreters while enabling students to pursue a well-remunerated career that is very much in demand.
Cate Vivacqua, career counselor in the Career and Professional Education Center, received the Building Bridges Award from the Western New York Association of College Career Centers (WNYACCC) at the group’s 2023 annual meeting.
WNYACCC’s Building Bridges Award highlights the collaborative aspect of the career development profession. The award showcases the work of two or more offices, colleges, or departments working together to promote career success for students.
Ms. Vivacqua regularly demonstrates her commitment to building bridges by developing quality programming to contribute to students’ personal and academic development. She has a significant role on the UNC 100 Steering Committee, which is designed to improve retention rates of Buffalo State’s first-year students. A much sought-after presenter, she helps students explore their career options by facilitating fun, interactive exercise and discussions to help students understand how values play a role in career decision making.
Ms. Vivacqua employs high-impact practices with social media, and she partners with student-facing departments on campus and consults with employers within and outside of higher education to maximize CAPE’s social media presence.
She participates in professional development opportunities to connect with other professionals, ultimately to better serve students. Ms. Vivacqua is an active member of WNYACCC and the SUNY Career Development Organization (SUNYCDO). She also plays a key role in CAPE’s Bengal Career Champion training with campus partners and has trained CAPE staff members on how to best use social media to better serve students.
Kim Chinquee, associate professor of English, participated and completed a half Ironman (70.3 mile) competition in Geneva, New York, on July 9. Ms. Chinquee has been a marathon runner since 1994, and her first triathlon was in 2013. She’ll be competing in the USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 4–6, participating in three individual races: Open Water Swim Competition, Olympic Triathlon Distance, and Sprint Triathlon Distance. In 2022, she became a USA Triathlon certified official. She’s been an athlete longer than she’s been a writer, though she uses a lot of her experiences as an athlete as fodder for her work and in her various roles at the university and beyond.