We are an inclusive academic community committed to excellence in the pursuit and dissemination of knowledge. We advance intellectual and creative discovery through transformative learning experiences that positively impact our lives and communities.
Dr. Bob Kolvoord
Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
A Message from the Interim Provost
Dear Colleagues,
Yesterday, we hosted the Academic Affairs Awards and Recognition Luncheon to celebrate faculty, staff and students for academic and service achievements. We recognized 58 faculty and staff members receiving 60+ awards in 25 categories. It was a great opportunity to salute the time and energy of our colleagues. May is the month where we usually focus on recognizing our students’ work, so I appreciated the chance to put faculty and staff in the spotlight as well.
As classes near the final sessions and exams are on the horizon, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all your efforts this term. The secret sauce of JMU is, and always has been, our people and the relationships we have with our students and each other. Thanks for keeping them strong as we navigate all the changes around us.
This is the penultimate edition of the Friday email for the spring. We’ll have one more next Friday, and then close up shop for the year. There’s still time to get your highlights in to provost@jmu.edu.!
As always, there are plenty more highlights to cover:
- Congratulations to Dr. Puzant Balozian, assistant professor of Computer Information Systems and co-author of “Cyberbullying: A multidisciplinary review and agenda for future research in the era of artificial intelligence,” just published by the International Journal of Information Management. After analyzing 83 articles, Puzant and co-authors synthesized key themes, including the attributes of workplace cyberbullying (WCB), its technological enablers, emotional drivers, environmental factors and organizational control mechanisms. By highlighting gaps in detecting and preventing WCB, the paper underscores the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in addressing WCB and offers actionable insights for future research and organizational practices to enhance employee well-being and workplace culture.
- Representing Graduate Psychology, Dr. Trevor Stokes received the Scott Geller Award for Distinguished Service in Applied Behavioral Science from the Virginia Association for Behavior Analysis at their annual conference. JMU undergraduate alum and current Psy.D. student Valencia Pankey won the VABA Early Career Award. Nice to see two of the three awards given by VABA go to JMU!
- Media Messages in the 2022 Midterm Election: Division, Deniers, Dobbs, and the Donald – by Dan Schill, Professor in the School of Communication Studies – has been released by Routledge. Co-edited with John Allen Hendricks from Stephen F. Austin University, the volume includes contributions from scholars at Georgetown, East Carolina University, University of Louisville, Texas State, UNF, CSUSB and more. The book was endorsed by Harvard’s Thomas Patterson as “A must-read for anyone… seeking to understand the media’s evolving election role.”
- My thanks go to the Haynes Scholars Program faculty mentors, Department of Mathematics and Statistics associate professor Dr. Alex Capaldi and assistant professor Dr. Laura Tipton, for their time and effort spent this year working with this STEM residential learning community. They guided undergraduates Kai Gizework, Chrishanna Johnson and Destiny Jones, who are part of the Haynes Scholars residential community, to winning First Place Oral Presentation at the 19th Annual Virginia State University Undergraduate Research Conference. The students’ presentation “Statistical Analysis of Bat Skin Microbiomes under White Nose Syndrome, according to the VSU Director of Undergraduate Research, “truly stood out and demonstrated exceptional scholarship, creativity, and hard work.”
Sincerely,
Bob
Have Question for the Provost?
Academic Affairs faculty and staff can use the options below to contact the provost directly.
This is an open line of communication allowing faculty and staff to ask questions, but it is not a substitute from the crucial interactions they have with their academic unit head, department head and dean.
Students should contact AcademicQuestions@jmu.edu with questions.
