- University News Archive - UA ��Ƶlogo

UALR degree programs available at Texarkana campus

Shanna Fitzgerald — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 16:14:11 +0000

Texarkana, Ark. — This fall, Texarkana-area residents can start earning a University of Arkansas at ��Ƶlogo bachelor’s degree at a campus close to home. UALR faculty will teach courses for bachelor’s degrees at the as part of a partnership between the two higher education institutions. Through the program, students can pursue a degree at the community college and then transfer to UALR while remaining in Texarkana. Those interested might want to take note: A UALR-Texarkana onsite admissions, advising, and registration event is set to run from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5, at the community college campus, 3501 U of A Way, Texarkana. Attendees have a chance to win an iPad Mini. UALR will offer the following degree programs in Texarkana this fall:

Bachelor of Applied Science
Bachelor of Professional Studies
Bachelor of Business Administration in general business
Bachelor of Science in construction management

Fall classes begin Aug. 17. UALR will charge an admissions application fee of $40. For more information, contact UALR-Texarkana coordinator Lisa Davis at 501-516-2160 or at lhdavis@ualr.edu. Information also is available at ualr.edu/texarkana.

Hearing instrument donation to benefit students, patients

UA ��Ƶlogo — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:20:15 +0000

The at UALR and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will soon receive a new hearing instrument fitting system critical to achieving long-term benefits and satisfaction for hearing instrument wearers.

The Verifit® Real Ear system will be installed May 3 at the audiology and speech pathology department located on the UALR campus.

The system, manufactured by Audioscan®, is considered the “gold-standard” for fitting hearing instruments. It is valued at approximately $12,500. Audioscan, founded in 1989, is the number one manufacturer of hearing instrument fitting systems.

“In developing our new donation program, we had two criteria to satisfy,” said David Cole, Audioscan marketing and sales representative.

“First, the program had to benefit a nonprofit/educational entity that otherwise may not have the funds available to purchase. Second, the program had to benefit an outstanding Audioscan distributor.”

“Dave Stewart (the regional manager for distributors Gordon N. Stowe & Associates Inc.) was given the opportunity to carefully select a deserving recipient within his large territory. He selected the joint program at UALR and UAMS, and we are delighted that he did,” said Cole.

Verifit® offers hearing health care professionals a way to provide complete control of the fitting process and the outcome. The system provides fewer patient returns and higher patient satisfaction, said Cole.

Using the system, UALR-UAMS audiologists will be able to test and verify almost any hearing instrument in the world. The donated equipment offers full Speechmap® capabilities as well as simultaneous direction tests, noise reduction, feedback suppression, and frequency lowering tests.

“The Verifit Real Ear system allows us to provide valuable information to our clients about the performance of their hearing instruments,” said Dr. Nannette Nicholson, director of audiology in the joint UALR-UAMS program.

“One of the most important aspects of this donation is that it will allow us to do a better job of student training in the area of verification and validation of hearing aid fittings,” she said.

Nicholson added that if an individual is not receiving the full benefit from their hearing aids, the speechmap tool helps determine amplification adjustments that may optimize or improve the fitting.

Speechmap® is a visual representation of a patient’s hearing loss, which facilitates their comprehension of their own auditory area and the limitations imposed by their hearing loss.

“We are honored to be chosen as the recipient of this donation,” Nicholson said.

According to Consumer Reports, 66 percent of hearing aids are fit incorrectly. Without real ear measurement, the fitter cannot know whether speech is being rendered audible.

Audioscan’s real ear measurement equipment is designed to help health care provider’s address this problem. Audioscan officials say products such as Verifit measure the output of the hearing aid at the eardrum using speech as the test stimulus. This ensures that the hearing aid is adjusted correctly and is working as advertised.

The loss of hearing often occurs over many years. The brain rewires itself due to lack of auditory stimulus. At this point, the patient is no longer a good judge of how much amplification is required.

Many hearing aid wearers turn down their hearing aids so much that little or no benefit is provided. It is critical that the hearing healthcare professional use objective measures to guide the patient through the rehabilitative process to maximize the many benefits of today’s advanced hearing aids. For more information on the product, visit .

Jewish Guys Return for Holiday ‘Shtick’

UA ��Ƶlogo — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:23:53 +0000

��Ƶlogo attorney Phil Kaplan and adman Leslie Singer will team up with KUAR FM 89.1 to present the 12th annual “Jewish Guys Chanukah Special” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27, at the Clinton Presidential Center. The show will be recorded before a live audience and broadcast on FM 89.1 on Monday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. and on Christmas Day at 1 p.m. A reception, sponsored by the Clinton Presidential Center and the Clinton Museum Store, will kick off the festivities at 6:30 p.m. The special celebrates cultural Judaism and features skits, music, and general shtick. Musical guests will include the Meshugga Klezmer Band and the Bauman Brothers. The featured guest will be Eli Evans of New York, author of “The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South.” “The Clinton Center is generously providing their Great Hall for the show, and the Clinton Museum Store is sponsoring the Jewish food, wine, and other considerations. We’re so happy and appreciative that they do that,” Singer said. Admission is $4.99, and pre-paid reservations are required. Information and reservations are available at or by calling 501-569-8485. “It’s a great night of entertainment at a wholesale price,” Singer says. Kaplan and Singer started identifying themselves as the Two Jewish Guys during KUAR’s semi-annual on-air fund drives more than 10 years ago. In 2001, the Two Jewish Guys and UALR Public Radio began producing an annual recorded Chanukah special that evolved into a live event. The “Jewish Guys Chanukah Special” has become a ��Ƶlogo holiday tradition for both Jews and gentiles and has sold out for the past several years. “Interesting enough, at least two-thirds of our audience are not Jewish,” Singer said. “That really inspires me that they are interested in the religious and cultural part of Judaism. They enjoy a peek into another culture. And they like it.”

Communicator Applauded at Penn State

UA ��Ƶlogo — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 14:22:58 +0000

Tonya Oaks Smith, director of communications at the UALR William H. Bowen School of Law, delivered a presentation on communicating during a crisis, “We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat,” to a standing room only crowd at Penn State University June 12. Her presentation took its theoretical basis from the book, “Effective Crisis Communication” by UALR Professor Robert Ulmer, the University of Kentucky’s Professor Tim Sellnow, and Wayne State’s Professor Matt Seeger, and applied the authors’ work to web communication during a crisis. The Web 2012 Conference is an annual event for web communication professionals. The conference was “sold out” six weeks prior to the event. Her slide show is being featured on and has already had more than 2,100 views. It was also featured in . Her presentation was repeated on June 25 at the 2012 HighEdWeb New York Regional Conference in Syracuse, N.Y. Smith, who has a bachelor’s degree in English from Louisiana State University and a master’s degree in applied communication studies from UALR, has lectured at seven higher education web conferences during the past year. On Oct. 8, she will present “There’s life beyond the four-year university,” with co-presenters Aaron Rester and Shari Erwin, another UALR alum, at the 2012 HighEdWeb Association Conference in Milwaukee, Wis.

Dean Heads to Western Carolina

UA ��Ƶlogo — Tue, 15 May 2012 16:40:20 +0000

Angela Laird Brenton, UALR’s dean of the College of Professional Studies who has been at the university for the past 29 years, has accepted a new position as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Western Carolina University. The appointment, effective Aug. 1, was announced by WCU Chancellor David O. Belcher, who previously served as UALR’s vice chancellor and provost. “Dr. Angi Brenton has been an excellent dean and is one of the most talented people I know. She has exhibited an ability to provide effective leadership for major undertakings both on and off campus,” said UALR Chancellor Joel E. Anderson. “It won’t be long before Western Carolina University and the region of North Carolina around the university feel the good effects of her presence. I am most grateful for her service as dean here, and I wish her and her family all the best as she becomes provost at WCU.” Brenton cited Anderson as well as former chancellor Charles Hathaway, interim Provost Sandra Robertson, Vice Chancellor Charles Donaldson, and former Professional Studies dean John Gray as “generous mentors.” “I came to UALR in the fall of 1982 with a new Ph.D., and in many ways this institution has formed and shaped me,” Brenton said. “My views on access to education, putting student success first, community engagement, and fostering innovation were nurtured here. It is hard to leave the faculty, staff, and students who have become like my family. I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had for growth and leadership, and will always have a special place in my heart for UALR.” Dean at UALR since 2001, Brenton was responsible for the departments of audiology and speech pathology, criminal justice, and speech communication, the School of Social Work, the School of Mass Communication, the Institute of Government, public radio stations KLRE-KUAR, and the Mid-South Center, which is responsible for all child welfare training in the state of Arkansas. She oversees 150 faculty and staff in a college with an annual budget of $12 million. She has been awarded $7.7 million in annual grants and contracts for UALR, with a grant-writing success rate of 84 percent, and has helped raise approximately $7.2 million in endowments and external support for scholarships, research equipment, clinical programs, and faculty development. Under her leadership, UALR developed three new doctoral programs and graduate certificate programs in conflict mediation and nonprofit management. Brenton spearheaded the creation of a Leadership Academy to nurture future faculty and staff leaders and led several initiatives aimed at improving race relations within the community. She developed six centers within the college to serve as a focus for research and community outreach, including the Center for Environmental Criminology, the Center for Senior Justice, the Center for Juvenile Justice, the Center for Stuttering Treatment and Research, the Center for Public Collaboration, and the Center for Nonprofit Organizations. Prior to joining the administration at UALR, Brenton was dean of the Graduate School and associate provost for research and service at Abilene Christian University and head of the department of communication and mass media at Southwest Missouri State University, now Missouri State. She holds a doctorate in communication studies from the University of Kansas, master’s degree in communication from the University of Oklahoma, and bachelor’s degrees in mass communication and speech communication from Oklahoma Christian College. She earned a management and leadership in higher education certificate from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.

Criminology Theorist Felson to Lecture Feb. 6

UA ��Ƶlogo — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:53:17 +0000

Dr. Marcus Felson, co-creator of the criminological theory of routine activities, will inaugurate the UALR Department of Criminal Justice Sheriff Orval Walker Lecture Series from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 6, in Arkla Room 116 in Ross Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Felson, currently a professor of criminology at Texas State University, has spent over four decades studying neighborhood factors in crime. He developed the routine activity theory of criminology with Lawrence E. Cohen that says crime is normal and its rate depends on opportunities available. According to the theory, crime does not need hardened offenders, super-predators, convicted felons, or wicked people to occur. Crime just needs an opportunity. The theory has created controversy among sociologists who believe in the social causes of crime, such as poverty and other social factors. Felson has taught at Rutgers, the University of Illinois, and the University of Stockholm. He received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He has lectured in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. He also has authored more than 80 professional papers and multiple books. The UALR Sheriff Orval Walker Lecture Series honors a police officer of Mena and sheriff of Polk County. He was one of the first American paratroopers, serving in the 501st Airborne Division and was on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He died last August at the age of 92. He was the father of Dr. Jeffrey Walker, chair of the Department of Criminal Justice. The family of Sheriff Walker created the lecture series in his memory.

UALR Senior Wins National PR Awards

UA ��Ƶlogo — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:41:48 +0000

UALR Senior Gabriella Corriere, a strategic communication major with a minor in advertising, won the national Silverman Award and the group’s at the association’s annual conference in Orlando. Corriere is only the second recipient of the award, named for former Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide Chair Marsha Silverman. Corriere is believed to be the first UALR student to win a national PRSA prize. Announcement of the award came at the 2011 national PRSA student society convention held in Orlando with the national PRSA conference. Corriere was at the national convention to receive the Gary Yoshimura Scholarship when she was surprised by receiving the Silverman. “I am still in shock,” said Corriere, who accepted the award from Mickey G. Nall, managing director of Ogilvy’s Atlanta division. “I am incredibly honored to have won such a prestigious award and am excited about the career opportunities it will offer me at the national level.” Corriere, a UALR McNair Scholar, is president of the UALR student chapter of PRSSA. The native of Flushing, N.Y., competed in a national pool of applicants and was the only winner of the $2,400 Yoshimura scholarship based on a 1,000-word essay on how she overcame adversity. It is rare that PRSA confers more than one award to the same student. Earlier this year, she won the $1,200 . “I have always been fascinated by the way people communicate,” she said. “I learned how words can be powerful weapons and useful tools.” After leaving the University of Florida, she worked as an Alltel customer relations representative. An offer of a promotion brought her to ��Ƶlogo. When Alltel and Verizon merged, Corriere thought it was a good time to return to school. She enrolled in UALR’s School of Mass Communication studying strategic communication and advertising while continuing to work at Verizon. The created the Silverman award in 2010 for high-potential minority students entering their senior year and was made possible by donations to the PRSA Foundation and Ogilvy. During her tenure as chair of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Marcia Silverman tripled the agency’s U.S. size, expanded it into a global powerhouse, and revolutionized public relations through initiatives, including such campaigns as CDC’s “America Responds to AIDS” and U.S. Fire Administration’s “Stop Drop and Roll.” Many clients from her early days are still with the agency. The award comes with a $5,000 scholarship and will help Corriere establish valuable contacts with one of the nation’s leading public relations firms.

MidSOUTH Offers Motivation, Inspiration

UA ��Ƶlogo — Fri, 27 May 2011 14:50:19 +0000

Clifton Taulbert, author of “Eight Habits of the Heart,” will kick off a week of motivation and inspiration to promote healthy lifestyles at the 38th annual June 5 to 10 on the UALR campus. MidSOUTH is a community service and outreach agency initiated in 1973 that responds to local and state needs for education, training, evaluation, and professional services for counselors and others who deal with people fighting addictions. The annual event is organized by UALR’s School of Social Work and the Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Prevention in the Division of Behavioral Health Services in the Arkansas Department of Human Services. It offers 24 hours of continuing education and six hours of workforce development for therapists, alcohol and drug counselors, community organizers, prevention specialists, family service workers, educators, employee assistance program personnel, mental health professionals, and others. Taulbert, who grew up in the segregated Mississippi Delta, is president of Clifton Taulbert and Associates and the Building Community Institute. The institute offers instruction in organizational effectiveness at all levels for its clients, “unleashing the power of community” around the world. He will speak at the first of four general session from 10:30 to noon Monday through Friday in the University Theatre in the Center for Performing Arts. At Tuesday’s general session, Pat Stilen, LCSW, CADAC, of the Mid-America Addictions Technology Transfer Center (MATTC) will present “Looking to the Future of Behavioral Health: New Designs for Service Delivery and Implications for the Workforce.” Stilen has directed projects at MATTC since 2000. She has successfully designed and administered substance abuse and mental health treatment services for public and private organizations for over 20 years. Stilen has served on the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment committee responsible for revising the Addiction Counselor Competencies. Wednesday’s general session speaker will be Mark Sanders, president of On the Mark Consulting, who will discuss “Tired, Wired, and Mired: Preventing Burnout and Compassion Fatigue in the Midst of Change.” Sanders, LCSW, CADC, is a member of the faculty of the Addictions Studies Program at Governors State University. He is an international speaker in the addictions field. Once homeless and living on the streets, Roy Juarez Jr. rounds out the general session speakers on Thursday. Juarez battled to leave the streets and graduated from Hardin-Simmons University, only to return to them. Now an entrepreneur, Juarez is a role model for thousands through his work as an advocate of education in communities across the country. Cost of attending all days of the summer school is $245. Tuition for three days of the MidSOUTH school is $170; $125 for two days, and $80 for one day. To and for a full schedule of speakers, workshops, and other activities, visit the or contact MisSOUTH Program Manager Charlotte Besch at 501-569-8459.

Jazz, Juleps to Benefit Eaton Scholarship Fund

UA ��Ƶlogo — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:41:19 +0000

UALR’s will mark the springtime tradition of the Kentucky Derby at the second annual “Jazz and Juleps” reception from 6 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 24, at the , 1800 Center St. The event in May – which is Better Hearing and Speech Month – will feature hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, a live auction with Craig O’Neill, and musical entertainment provided by Bishop, Davies, Jackson, and Winter. Loris Fullerton is the event chair. Tickets are $50 and benefit the the Beth Butler Eaton Student Scholarship Fund for the Audiology and Speech Pathology Department. For reservations and more information, contact Angela Elizandro at 501-683-7501 or ajelzando@ualr.edu. “Beth Eaton has been a guiding force in providing services for families of children with language development delays,” said Dr. Angela Brenton, dean of the UALR College of Professional Studies. “She was instrumental in establishing a preschool for children, and for forming a partnership with the Scottish Rite Masons to provide scholarships for children in the program.” Over the years, hundreds of children have been helped in the program, and hundreds of graduate students have had the opportunity to learn the latest techniques of working with language development in children. “Over the years, Beth Eaton has shaped the department through her dedication to educating students, her curiosity in seeking to understand communication disorders, and her loyalty to the department and to her profession,” said Dr. Thomas Guyette, chair of the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology. “Beth is someone all our students seek to emulate.”

Chastain to be Celebrated at Governor’s Mansion May 17

UA ��Ƶlogo — Tue, 03 May 2011 17:35:04 +0000

Members of the law enforcement community will join students, faculty, and colleagues of Dr. Charles Chastain for a reception and dinner at the May 17 to celebrate the UALR professor of criminal justice, who has been a guiding force in the department since the program was established 1973. Chastain, the 2006 Faculty Excellence Award winner in teaching, has announced that he will retire at the end of the academic year. The 6 p.m. reception and 6:30 p.m. dinner at the Governor’s Mansion Grand Hall at 1800 Center St. in ��Ƶlogo will celebrate Chastain’s legacy in the central Arkansas law enforcement community, his lasting contributions to the state of Arkansas, and his leadership in UALR’s departments of criminal justice and political science. Seating is limited, and attendees are urged to make reservations as soon as possible. Tickets are $40 per person, and proceeds will benefit the Charles Chastain Scholarship Fund. Checks made to the fund should be sent to the UALR Office of Development, 2801 S. University Ave. ��Ƶlogo, Ark. 72204 no later than May 9. For more information, contact Dr. Mary Parker, chair of the Criminal Justice Department, or Beth McDuffie at 501-569-3076. “I do not believe anyone has made greater contributions than Dr. Chastain in the professionalization of law enforcement in Arkansas,” said UALR Chancellor Joel E. Anderson. “Few, if any faculty, could claim great influence on a larger number of students than Dr. Chastain. He was always interested in the success of his students in the classroom, and he then stayed in touch with them and helped them as professionals. “Throughout his career as a faculty member, he has believed persons working in law enforcement, corrections, and the courts needed a liberal arts education, not just narrow professional training for the job. To that end he probably exposed criminal justice students to more lessons from the classics than they received in some of their humanities classes. The university will not be the same without him.” Chastain coordinated or chaired the UALR criminal justice program from 1975 to 1997, and then served as the primary undergraduate student advisor, the criminal justice alumni chapter advisor, and the pre-law and legal studies advisor for the university. During his UALR career, Chastain served on the Arkansas State Parole Board from 1993 to 2003. He also served on the board of the Law Enforcement Training Academy, and was appointed by then-Gov. Bill Clinton to the Governor’s Task Force on Crime and Justice. He served on the board of the Substance Abuse Treatment Clinic at UAMS, the Arkansas Assisted Housing Network, and the Inmate Council of the Department of Correction Pine Bluff Unit. His primary academic interests have been in the area of constitutional law and criminal justice careers. He also developed a course based on the “Inside-Out” model, where UALR students and prison inmates share a classroom and study the major issues in criminal justice today. For the past decade or more, Chastain has conducted the Prison Library Project, which involves gathering books donated from UALR faculty, staff, and friends and giving them to the Arkansas Department of Correction libraries. His accomplishments with this project have been publicized in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and USA Today newspapers. He also developed a reentry into society program for inmates at the Wrightsville Unit of the Department of Correction. Born in Ventura, Calif., Chastain earned a B.A. degree in sociology and a minor in political science from Arkansas Polytechnic College – now Arkansas Tech University. He received an M.A. degree in political science and sociology from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and earned a Ph.D. in political science and the administration of justice from Southern Illinois University.

- University News Archive - UA ������Ƶlogo