Awards and honors

Phil Jones, associate vice chancellor for the Facilities Management Department, recently received the prestigious Frank B. Turner Award at the 37th annual State Construction Conference.

Diane Browder, Lake and Edward P. Snyder Distinguished Professor of Special Education, has received the 2018 Special Education Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children. This award recognizes an individual whose research has significantly advanced the education of children and youth with exceptionalities.

Charlotte baseball head coach Loren Hibbs will be one of six individuals to be inducted into the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame. Hibbs, a 1984 graduate of Wichita State, is set to begin his 26th season as the Charlotte 49ers skipper in February.

“What a tremendous honor,” began Hibbs. “It is always great to be recognized for your achievements. Not only for the accomplishments during my time playing and coaching at Wichita State but also for the caliber of the program we have built and maintained here at Charlotte.”

Ted Elling, associate vice chancellor for student affairs for research and systems development, received the 2017 Champion Award from Campus Labs for “utilizing data to influence a change in student success initiatives across the institution and inspiring a generation of assessment professionals.” 

Michelle Guobadia, associate dean of students and director for fraternity and sorority life, received the Angela C. Guillory Outstanding Fraternity/Sorority Advisor Award presented by Sigma Kappa Sorority.

This national award recognizes an individual in the field of higher education who has demonstrated a commitment to fraternities and sororities, exhibited high professional standards, promoted the inter-fraternal community and worked with Sigma Kappa to strengthen and/or foster change in a local collegiate chapter and/or Greek community.

During the summer, Virginia Fuentes, a SafeRide driver with the Parking and Transportation Services Office (PaTS), was training recent hire Monique Woodard, when she observed an oddity. The Police and Public Safety Department (PPS) vehicle she was following veered suddenly to the left, crossed the oncoming traffic lane and came to rest near a stop sign north of Craver Road.

A highlight of commencement is the recognition of individuals for exceptional and distinctive service to the University or the greater community through the awarding of an honorary degree from UNC Charlotte. The Faculty Honorary Degree Advisory Committee is seeking assistance in nominating persons for this honor.

The University’s Board of Trustees has established the following criteria regarding prospective nominees:

The Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in Information Technology (CMD-IT) is honoring Manuel Pérez Quiñones, associate dean for the College of Computing and Informatics, with the 2017 Richard Tapia Achievement Award for Scientific Scholarship, Civic Science and Diversity in Computing.

This award is bestowed annually to an individual who demonstrates significant leadership, commitment and contributions to diversifying computing.

Erik Saule, an assistant professor in the College of Computing and Informatics’ Department of Computer Science, has been awarded a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award for his research in graph analytics.

In the last two decades, graphs have been applied to virtually all parts of human activity, such as health, literature, national defense, GPS systems and traffic analysis for urban planning.

For a film that illustrates how the arts can promote healing in health care settings, UNC Charlotte researcher Margaret Quinlan and colleagues Lynn Harter and Evan Shaw have earned a regional Emmy nomination from the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.