June 14, 2021  |  News & Events, Provost's Updates, Timely Announcements

Good morning, colleagues. Here is this week’s update from Academic Affairs.

Kudos

Rachel Bloom-Pojar (English) delivered a keynote address with Maria Barker (Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin) at the virtual 2021 conference for the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW). Their talk, entitled, “The Power of Language in Building Confianza with Communities,” featured the story of their partnership, work with promotores de salud (health promoters), and a call for making higher education and scholarship more accessible to communities. Congratulations, Rachel!

Rina Ghose (Geography) published two articles on topics of interest to us all. “Geospatial Analysis of Misinformation in COVID-19-related Tweets,” in Applied Geography, was co-authored with her doctoral student Amir Forati; and “Examining Opioid Overdose Deaths Across Communities Defined by Racial Composition: A Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression Approach,” co-authored by Amir Forati and J. Mantsch, appeared in Journal of Urban Health. Well done, Rina, Amir, and John!

Karyn Frick’s (Psychology) UWM-sponsored company, Estrigenix Therapeutics, Inc., won second place (out of 251 applicants!) in the 2021 Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan contest. Congratulations, Karyn!

Claire de la Cova (Biological Sciences) received an NIH R03 grant for $152,000 from the National Cancer Institute titled, “Mechanisms of protein degradation that control signal transduction by Ras-Raf-MEK-ERK.” The research uses the animal model C. elegans to identify novel cellular mechanisms that promote destruction of Raf, a protein kinase commonly found to be hyperactive in human melanomas. Well done, Claire!

Michelle LaBerge (Anthropology graduate student) won first prize for a poster on her PhD thesis research at the Iron Age Research Student Symposium, an annual event held in the UK that provides postgraduate researchers with the opportunity to present their current work and receive feedback from fellow PhD students and early career professionals. Congratulations, Michelle!

Milwaukee Athletics

Save the date! The Milwaukee women’s basketball team has set the date for the 21st Annual Golf Classic on Friday, July 30 at Silver Spring Golf Club. All participants will receive an exclusive Panther item, can meet current players and coaches, and participate in silent and live auctions with proceeds going to the women’s basketball program.

The Week

Monday

I start the week with the Coronavirus Management Team (CMT) Leadership meeting, followed by my standing meeting with Brian Thompson, and my weekly staff meeting.

Tuesday

In the morning, I have the monthly Moon Shot for Equity check-in, an M3 update with the Chancellor, my monthly meeting with Dave Clark and Kay Eilers, and a meeting with 2030 Action Team Chancellor’s co-designees Dev Venugopalan and Jennifer Haas. In the afternoon, I have my one-on-ones with Michael Doylen and Jonathan Hanes, a CEMAT Leads meeting, and my weekly meeting with Chancellor Mone.

Wednesday

Today, I have the quarterly Global Inclusion and Engagement update, the Deans Morning Meeting, my bi-weekly meeting with Mark Harris, a meeting with Student Association leadership, my standing meeting with Chia Vang, my one-on-one with Nancy Nelson, and the monthly Integrated Support Services Project Executive Sponsors update.

Thursday

In the morning, I have another CMT Leadership meeting, a meeting regarding textbooks for dual enrollment, and my monthly meeting with Kim Litwack and Amy Harley. In the afternoon, I have the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute Core Team meeting, a Campus Budget Planning meeting, and my one-on-one with Pat Borger.

Friday

Today, I have a meeting regarding the McNair Scholars, meetings with direct reports, and I’ll attend to administrative tasks.

Announcements

Adopt-A-River

The UWM Center for Community-Based Learning, Leadership, and Research invites you and your family to volunteer as part of our summer Adopt-A-River & Parks Clean Up events. All materials will be provided to the volunteers, including gloves, pickers, and trash bags. Sign up.

Virtual Tutors Needed

Sign up to tutor a local kid this summer! The summer session of the Virtual Tutoring Program will begin in early June and will continue until the end of August. All tutors will be trained and go through a background check process. Send questions to Sam De Forest-Davis (defores2@uwm.edu). Information and sign up.

Rise Up Weekend

Join the Andrew Goodman Foundation in supporting inclusive democracy and voting rights for all Americans. The virtual summit is free, and Friday’s session (6/25) is open to the public. Information and registration.

Behavioral Intervention Name Change

Formerly known as the CARE Team, the UWM Behavioral Intervention Team (BIT) is a multidisciplinary team that intervenes when there are behaviors that threaten the campus or health and safety of others. To report matters to the BIT, please use the Dean of Students Report It form. If it is an emergency or you need immediate assistance, call 911.

Other

And yet another record in the 10000 meter event!

Take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz

Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs