Appointments and Awards

School of Nursing Faculty Member Awarded Fellowship
Laura Opton, DHS, R.N., CNE, has been selected as a 2015-2016 American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Leadership Fellow. AACN is an annual program for aspiring executive nursing leaders to experience development of leadership skills, opportunities for strategic networking and consultation to achieve long-term goals. Opton will be the fifth fellow from the School of Nursing to be awarded this opportunity.

School of Allied Health Sciences Graduate Students Receive Aid Awards
Allison Coltisor, first year Doctor of Audiology program student, and Christopher Hall, first year doctorial student, both received a student aid award for the 2015 Conference on Implantable Auditory Prostheses (CIAP). The students will each present their research, “Consonant Perception Enhancement Using Signal Processing in Electric Acoustic Stimulation” by Coltisor, and “Finding the Consistent Contributor Leading to Bimodal Benefit” by Hall, at the conference this July. Yang-soo Yoon, Ph.D., assistant professor of speech, language and hearing sciences department, is the mentor in Coltisor and Hall’s laboratory research.
Coltisor also received the 2015 Student Research Forum Award presented by American Academy of Audiology (AAA), which is one of the largest audiology clinical conferences in the world. She was one of five awardees, but was the only student to be in the first year of a doctor of audiology program.

School of Medicine Associate Dean Accepted into Leadership Program
Jannette M. Dufour, Ph.D., associate dean of research for School of Medicine and associate professor for cell biology and biochemistry, was accepted into the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM). ELAM is a core program of Drexel University’s International Center for Executive Leadership in Academics, housed at the Institute for Women’s Health and Leadership® at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The institute continues the legacy of advancing women in medicine that began in 1850.

School of Nursing Faculty Awarded Mentor of the Year
The Lauro Cavazos & Ophelia Powell-Malone Mentoring Program (Mentor Tech) purpose is to enhance the quality of the educational experience of students from underrepresented populations through programs, services, advocacy and campus and community involvement. This year’s Mentor of the Year award was presented to Rebecca Geist, MSN, R.N., APHN-BC. At the beginning of each semester, Geist and other mentors are matched with students in order to involve students at Texas Tech University and the Lubbock community through service and events, dedicated to academic success, leadership development and campus unity.