Steeve Buckridge, professor of area and global studies and history, received a Fulbright Scholar award to Namibia.

Cáel Keegan, associate professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies, was selected as the Fulbright Canada distinguished research chair in arts and social sciences at Carleton University.

Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, assistant professor of multimedia journalism and Padnos/Sarosik Endowed Professor of Civil Discourse, worked with undergraduate students and USA Today's national investigative team on a reverse mortgage investigation that received a National Association of Black Journalists award in the Newspaper Investigative Category.

Ayana Weekley, associate professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies, was selected for a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute hosted by the Project on the History of Black Writing.

30-Year Award Recipients:

• Anne Caillaud, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Modern Languages and Literatures

20-Year Award Recipients:

• David Coffey, Design Thinking Academy and Mathematics
• David Stark, Area and Global Studies and History

10-Year Award Recipients:

• Laurence José, Digital Studies and Writing
• Kelly McDonell, Meijer Honors College
• Brent Smith, Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies
• Ayana Weekley, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Micah Fernando, Biochemistry in Honors, was awarded the competitive Goldwater Scholarship. The Goldwater Scholarship is a national award that supports undergraduates who want to pursue research careers in STEM fields. Micah has spent the past two years working with chemistry professors Rachel Powers and Brad Wallar, assisting with projects on bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Micah is spending Summer 2021 working with the Mayo Clinic as a research intern at their campus in Jacksonville, Florida. In the future, Micah would like to pursue a career in research involving drug design and discovery and is on his way to enrolling in a top graduate school.

Lilly Radke, Nursing in Honors, was one of five seniors across the university to receive the Thomas M. Seykoya Award for Outstanding Contribution. The Seykora Award recognizes seniors who, through their involvement, have made significant contributions to the GVSU campus community.

Allison Romanski, Biochemistry major with a Spanish minor in Honors, was awarded a NASA Space Grant Fellowship for Summer 2021. The grant grew out of her work in the Water for a Changing World first-year Honors sequence with professor Peter Wampler. Allison and Wampler are surveying different areas of the Grand River for water quality. They are classifying the quality based on the measured nutrients and biological indicators under conditions such as flow rates, season, temperature, and weather. They are also partnering with three different wastewater treatment plants to analyze the samples they collect.

Excellence-in-a-Discipline Award Winners:

• Sierra Barnes, Environmental and Sustainability Studies
• Emily Hermann, Frederik Meijer Honors College 
• Joshua Trierweiler, Global Studies and Social Impact
• Randee Broemmel, Integrative Studies
• Braeden Michael Homrich, Religious Studies
• Gabrielle Angel, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Kirsten Rydzewski, Social Innovation (M.A.)

Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies (IRIS) Outstanding Thesis Awards Winners:

• Grace Branding won the Fall 2020 Stanley Krohmer Senior Project Award for her work, "An Anti-Racist Reading Guide for White People."
• Madison Couch won the Winter 2021 Wendy J. Wenner Senior Thesis award for her work, "A Crisis at the Border."
• Ernest McClure won the Winter 2021 Religious Studies Senior Thesis award for his work, "The Path to Academic Enlightenment."
• Natasha Stewart won the Fall 2020 Wendy J. Wenner Senior Thesis Award for their work, "Returning to, Knowing, and Teaching the Old Ways."
• Lindsey Wylie-Gruen won the Winter 2021 Stanley Krohmer Senior Project Award for her work, "ABA Therapy: Controversy and Reconciliation."

Jeremiah Cataldo, associate professor of history, Meijer Honors College, published an article, "Lamenting Loss: A New Understanding of Trauma in Lam 1," in the Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament 34, no. 1 (2020). Cataldo also gave a presentation, "Bargaining Hosea's Children," at the virtual Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature/American Academy of Religion and wrote a chapter, "Postcolonial Readings of the Minor Prophets," in a book, Oxford Handbook of the Minor Prophets, published by Oxford University Press. In March, Catalgo was a panelist for a virtual conference, Padnos Public Engagement on Jewish Learning Event: "The Historical Jesus in His Jewish Context," hosted by the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.

David Coffey, director of the Design Thinking Academy and professor of mathematics, was a panelist on a webinar, "Learning Approaches to Science-based Education," hosted by the U.S. Department of Education's You for Youth.

Kurt Ellenburger, professor of music in honors, wrote a five-part article, "Ghosts in the Machine: Jazz Musicians and Popular Music," published on the website, All About Jazz.

Denise Goerisch, assistant professor of integrative, religious, and intercultural studies and IRIS assistant department chair, co-authored a book, The True Costs of College, published by Palgrave. Goerisch also wrote a chapter, "Live Like a College Student: Student Loan Debt and the College Experience," in a book,  Growing Up and Getting By: International Perspectives on Childhood and Youth in Hard Times, published by Policy Press and Bristol University Press.

Jim Goode, retired professor of history and founder of the Middle East Studies program in Brooks College, has received a 2020 Jere L Bacharach Service Award from the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). The award recognizes the contributions of individuals through their outstanding service to MESA or the profession. Jim will be honored at a virtual awards ceremony on October 11.

For the 11th year in a row, Grand Valley State University has been named one of the country’s most environmentally responsible colleges by The Princeton Review . In September, Grand Valley was also named one of the country's greenest universities by Sierra Club. Congratulations to the Office of Sustainability Practices on their efforts and commitment to sustainability.

The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) awarded Grand Valley a STARS gold rating in recognition of the university's sustainability efforts. Grand Valley became the first Michigan university to receive gold status in 2013, and has consistently maintained its gold status since. Congratulations to the Office of Sustainability Practices on this recognition.

Patrick Johnson, Director of the Fred Meijer Writing Center, co-wrote a chapter, "Nothing is Permanent Except Change: The Adaptive Writing Center Training Model," published in a book,  Training Research Consultants: A Guide for Academic Libraries published by the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

Writing faculty members Laurence Jose and Dauvan Mulally, and Lisa Knapp, career advisor for the Career Center, invited Grand Valley alumni to a virtual networking workshop for students who are writing majors or digital studies minors.

Cáel Keegan, associate professor of women, gender, and sexuality studies and integrative studies, gave a talk, "In Praise of Bad Transgender Objects” on Zoom for Chair in Transgender Studies & The Transgender Archives on October 27.

Lynnette Keen, integrative, religious, and intercultural studies office coordinator, and her husband, retired U.S. Army 1st Sgt. Gerald Keen, were featured in a WOOD TV 8 story about their efforts to bring an Afghan interpreter and his family to the U.S.

Sarah King, director of Environmental and Sustainability Studies (ENS) and associate professor of integrative, religious and intercultural studies and ENS, spoke with Shelley Irwin on the WGVU Morning Show about the ENS program.

Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, Padnos/Sarosik Endowed Professor of Civil Discourse and assistant multimedia journalism professor, was a co-author on an investigative project published in USA Today detailing how reverse mortgages in Puerto Rico are failing at nearly double the U.S. national average. Grand Valley was a partner on the analysis done by USA Today and the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, with support from the McGraw Center for Business Journalism and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Lowenstein also wrote an opinion piece, "How a little-known incident in 1956 unnerved MLK," for CNN.com and spoke to Shelley Irwin on the WGVU Morning Show about the 2021 Civil Discourse Symposium.

Jack Mangala, Chair of the Area and Global Studies Department and professor of area and global studies and political science, received a $2000 Course Enhancement Grant from the African Studies Center at Boston University to revise GSI/PLS 205 “Global Migration” to increase its coverage of Africa-focused materials.

Kim McKee, director of the Kutsche Office of Local History, spoke to Shelley Irwin on the WGVU Morning Show about the 12th Annual Local History Roundtable. McKee was also interviewed by NPR for the story, "'Am I Asian Enough?' Adoptees Struggle To Make Sense Of Spike In Anti-Asian Violence." McKee was also interviewed by the Los Angeles Times for a story about how adoptees experience anti-Asian discrimination and multiple other outlets, including KCBS Radio, for a story on trans-racial adoption and microaggressions.

Andrea Riley-Mukavetz, assistant professor of integrative, religious, and intercultural studies, presented at a virtual event, "An Indigenous Way of Being," hosted by Groundswell. Riley-Mukavetz also co-authored a book,  You Better Go See Geri, which will be published in November by Oregon State University Press.

Darrien Ripple, assistant professor of integrative, religious, and intercultural studies, spoke to Shelley Irwin on the WGVU Morning Show about a design thinking beer collaboration with Founders Brewing.

Crystal Scott-Tunstall, affiliate professor of environmental and sustainability studies, was a panelist on a food justice webinar hosted by the NAACP Grand Rapids Environmental Justice Committee. Scott-Tunstall was also selected to serve on Kent County's Food Policy Council. Crystal was also a panelist on Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition's May Day Popular Education & Day of Action Webinar. Scott-Tunstall was recognized by the West Michigan Sustainable Business Forum for her work with environmental justice and food access groups.

Gayle Schaub and Hazel McClure, associate librarians, co-edited a book, Engaging Students through Campus Libraries, published by ABC-CLIO. Mark Schaub, Brooks College Interim Dean, co-wrote a chapter with Hazel McClure, "Flipping the Script: Students as Authors of an Open-Access Business Communication Textbook," about a cohort of ALP students who published an open education resource (OER) which has been downloaded over 25,000 times worldwide.

Melanie Shell-Weiss, chair and professor of Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies, discussed the LEADS program with Shelley Irwin on the WGVU Morning Show.

Two episodes from WGVU's “Shaping Narratives” TV series were nominated for Emmys by the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The series, supported by a W.K. Kellogg grant, was a collaboration between WGVU and Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies. Integrative Studies faculty members Melanie Shell-Weiss and Andrea Riley-Mukavetz; Lin Bardwell, NAAC program coordinator; and Steve Chappell, grants manager for WGVU, were among the people who worked on these episodes. Emmy winners will be announced on June 19.

Naomi Silas, a social innovation (SI) graduate student, spoke with Shelley Iriwn on the WGVU Morning Show about her experience with the SI grad program.

Mike Vrooman, Interim Chief International Officer of the Padnos International Center, discussed the impact of COVID-19 on inbound and outbound students on the WGVU Morning Show.

Peter Wampler, professor of geology, Meijer Honors College, spoke about the Making Waves initiative and safe and sustainable water in Haiti on the SustainabiliME podcast.

Christine Yard, adjunct faculty member for integrative, religious, and intercultural studies and women, gender, and sexuality studies, wrote a book,  Private Love, Public School: Gay Teacher Under Fire, published by Penning History Press, LLC. Christine spoke about her book at an event hosted by the Meijer Honors College on March 11.

Craig Benjamin, professor of history in the Meijer Honors College, retired in May 2021, after 18 years at GVSU.

Anita Benes, Office Coordinator in the Brooks College Advising Center, retired in December 2020. Anita had served GVSU for over 10 years.

Gary VanHarn, Office Assistant in the Padnos International Center, retired in Septmeber 2020. Gary had been at GVSU since 1997.