LEADERS
In February, Ula Lukszo Klein, UWO’s Women’s and Gender Studies program director, published the academic book Sapphic Crossings, which explores why cross-dressing women were popular in 18th century British literature.
Chancellor Andrew Leavitt announced plans to add the Titan Thunder Marching Band to the repertoire of UWO’s music department in fall 2022. Students from all three campuses will be eligible to take part in the 100-piece unit that will be an integral part of UWO’s Titan game days and other campus and community events.
Art professor Gail Panske is a founding member and president of ArtSpace Collective, a co-operative gallery launched in Oshkosh in 1995. In January, an exhibition of her work Passing Time, inspired by both Canadian thistle and chaos at the U.S. Capitol, was on display at the gallery.
The UWO Counseling Center and the Veterans Resource Center (VRC) partnered to launch the United We Stand campaign that focuses on suicide prevention among service members on all three campuses. Former VRC coordinator Timber Smith encourages veterans to take the first step in having open and honest conversations about mental health.
Mai See Thao, UWO’s new Hmong Studies director, led creation of The Battlefields of Memory, a community-based exhibition open at the Annex Gallery on the Oshkosh campus in April as part of Asian Heritage Month. Artifacts on display testified to the consequences of America’s Secret War in Laos from 1964 to 1973.
A capstone course for her undergraduate psychology degree led Rebecca Timmins ’15, ’20 MS, to open a unique child care center in Appleton that specializes solely in respite care for children on the autism spectrum. Timmins, who began her UWO journey on the Fox Cities campus, opened the doors to Celebrate Neurodiversity! Autism & Resource Center in 2019.
All three UW Oshkosh campuses are recognized by the Arbor Day Foundation for promoting healthy trees and engaging students and staff in the spirit of conservationism. The Oshkosh campus has earned the Tree Campus Higher Education designation for 11 consecutive years; Fox Cities the past nine years; and Fond du Lac earned its second designation in 2020 after holding an Arbor Day Celebration.
RESEARCHERS
New professional counseling faculty member Teysha Bowser wrote her dissertation on Gendered Racial Microaggressions, Racial Battle Fatigue and Intergenerational Learning with Three Generations of Black Women. Her research considered the personal experiences of three generations of Black women from two families.
Students in associate anthropology professor Jordan Karsten’s spring interim class used archeological methods to search for the body of Starkie Swenson, who was presumed murdered in 1983 in Winnebago County.
Meghan Krueger, a geology student on the Fox Cities campus, earned an unprecedented second $2,000 undergraduate scholarship from the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium for the promotion and retention of students in STEM (science, technology, engineering or math) fields. Krueger is studying an ichthyosaur skull fossil, a marine reptile that lived in the Jurassic period.
UWO environmental microbiologist Sabrina Mueller-Spitz recently published a story in the Journal of Applied Toxicology about how a high dose of the nanoparticle titanium dioxide—used to brighten white foods like candy, coffee creamer and frosting—altered the gastrointestinal tract in young mice.
Interim director Jeff Sachse, of UWO’s Center for Customized Research and Services, tracked the economic impact of COVID-19 on Wisconsin businesses though a yearlong survey. Project partners included the state’s nine Regional Development Organizations and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
CHAMPIONS
The Advance-Titan received 22 awards in the 2020 Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation’s Collegiate Better Newspaper Contest and took third-place honors for overall publication. The print and online paper’s coverage of the pandemic and its impact on UWO and beyond earned first-, second- and third-place finishes for coronavirus coverage.
Thirty-five high-achieving UWO seniors who exemplify top academic and leadership qualities and a deep commitment to serving others earned recognition as 2021 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence recipients. The criteria include academic performance, University-related service and community involvement.
Fox Cities campus staff members Elizabeth Bloedow, an information specialist in Student Services; and Sarah Christensen, an international student coordinator, have earned the Larry White University Staff Award and the Marilee White Instructional Academic Staff Award, respectively.
The renovated Fletcher Hall on the Oshkosh campus has been certified LEED Silver by the U.S. Green Building Council, the most widely used green building rating system in the world. The more than 50-year-old residence hall underwent a series of updates, including a fully renovated building with a new entryway off Elmwood Avenue.
UWO students took top honors in the March WiSYs Quick Pitch Showcase in which they impressed judges by racing against the clock to give three-minute presentations about the importance of their research to society. Brianna Roberts, a kinesiology major from Beaver Dam, placed first in the Science and Technology Division; and Julia Thompson, an economics major from Kimberly won the Social Sciences and Humanities Division.
Wendy Potratz, a senior accounting lecturer, was honored as a 2021 Excellence in Education Shining Star in the Fox Cities for demonstrating an outstanding commitment to student success and advancing knowledge in higher education.
Kristi Wilkum, an associate communication studies professor on the Fond du Lac campus, received an Alliant Energy James R. Underkofler Excellence in Teaching Award. Over the past two years, she has delivered 18 peer-reviewed conference presentations about high-impact teaching practices.
UW Oshkosh’s Model UN team, representing the Western African country of Benin, brought home the top award in the nation again in 2021, continuing the team’s tradition of success.
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