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Congratulations to Dr. Danilo M. Baylen, associate professor of Instructional Technology and Design. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Visual Literacy Association (IVLA) at the association's annual conference in Limassol, Cyprus. It is a three-year term. He has also been appointed as chair of the IVLA’s awards committee.

Dr. Baylen was also a recipient of the Donald H. Wulff Diversity Travel Fellowship from the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education at the organization's annual conference in St. Louis, Mo. He presented two sessions: "Teaching Diversity: Building Gateways or Gated Communities" and "Managing the Changing Learning Space: Understanding Faculty in Transition."

Please congratulate Christy Lock, EXCEL Center Coordinator for Learning and Tutoring Programs, and Tessa Gromoll, and an EXCEL Center athletic tutor. They made a presentation in February at the 11th Annual Georgia Tutoring Association Conference in Macon.

In the presentation, "Triple Threat: Tutoring Student Athletes," they addressed the demands and challenges of student athletes. They also discussed how to teach tutors and other tutoring professionals motivational techniques and strategies that can help student athletes achieve their academic goals.

Congratulations to Carolyn Maddox and Karen Hulsey of the Business and Finance Division, who received Customer Service Employee Recognition awards in January.

Carolyn works in Auxiliary Services. “Her courteous approach, high level of competency and friendly attitude all help Carolyn connect with students and provide an outstanding level of customer service!”

Karen works in Budget Services where “even during stressful times, she remains calm and kind in her responses to tough situations, and sometimes the right personality can be just enough to diffuse a difficult situation.”

Kudos to Dr. Mautusi Mitra, assistant professor of biology. Her student, Surangi Perera, submitted her research abstract to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Her abstract was one of the few selected, out of 3,500 submitted, for an oral presentation at the annual NCUR meeting in New York at Ithaca College in April.

Perera has been also asked by the NCUR organizers to submit a research paper for the Proceedings of the NCUR journal. Perera, who was 4.0 GPA, has been selected by the UWG Biology Department as the outstanding graduating senior in Spring 2011 convocation.

In addition, Dr. Mitra was asked by the NCUR committee to act as a reviewer for the research papers that will be published at the Proceedings of NCUR journal.

The Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs have also awarded Dr. Mitra a summer seed grant of $10,778. The grant supports her research project, “Employing functional genomics to study oxygenic photosynthesis in the unicellular eukaryotic model green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.”

Please join us in celebrating: UWG has won a prestigious Telly Award for its “Go West” branded television commercials.

The Telly Awards are the premier honors for outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs. The competition draws more than 11,000 entries annually from all 50 states and many foreign countries.

UWG received a bronze Telly in the 32nd annual competition in the Local TV Campaign: Not-for-Profit category. The Tellys consist only of silver and bronze awards in each category.

This honor follows a Best of Show ranking UWG recently garnered for the branding campaign in the coveted Educational Advertising Awards national competition, sponsored by the Higher Education Marketing Report.

The Best of Show honor is the competition’s highest award, and this year was given to just 17 institutions nationally. More than 1,000 institutions submitted more than 2,500 entries.

In addition to Best of Show, UWG won three category awards: a gold in the Total Advertising Campaign category, a bronze in Television Advertising/Series and a bronze in Radio Advertising/Series. UWG was joined by Emory University and Savannah College of Art & Design among Georgia institutions that made the top ranks.

Kudos features UWG faculty and staff articles and book publications, conference attendance and presentations, grants, organizational leadership and awards. E-mail your news to the Campus Chronicle editor.