News

A significant proportion of Gaston County residents get their drinking water from private wells and other unregulated sources, particularly in the county’s northern and western rural communities. Yet, only a small fraction of residents test their water regularly. A UNC Charlotte team will work with residents and county health officials to boost the number of people doing tests regularly and improve the sharing of data, with new state funding to broaden the work.

A team including UNC Charlotte urban planning researcher Katherine Idziorek has received a nearly $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to advance research on how urban social and spatial systems can be organized to be more resilient and efficient.

UNC Charlotte health psychology doctoral student Jan Mooney is expanding her research in maternal health, with support from a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Intramural Research Training Award. The fellowship from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development will allow Mooney to work closely with NIH scientists.

UNC Charlotte Communication Studies Professor Dean A. Kruckeberg has earned the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Gold Anvil Award, the society’s highest honor for lifetime achievement in public relations. “This is certainly the greatest professional honor I have ever received during my career,” Kruckeberg said. “It’s particularly meaningful because it is awarded by a professional association that is comprised primarily of practitioners as well as of educators.”

Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society, has approved a chapter for UNC Charlotte. The University joins an elite group of just 10% of U.S. colleges and universities approved to shelter a chapter.

As a student attending rural North Carolina grade schools and a Raleigh high school that is majority white, Candace Silver saw just a few other Black faces in her classes, if any. Lessons and books paid little attention to telling Black people’s stories, she recalls. Now, as the inaugural recipient of the new Gregory Mixon-Sonya Ramsey Black Lives Matter Scholarship, Silver continues to grow her understanding and appreciation for a broader view that includes the contributions and struggles of Black people throughout history.

Annie Burchill has distinguished herself at UNC Charlotte as she completed majors in religious studies and criminal justice and a minor in urban youth and communities, graduating in May 2021 with ambitious plans to make a difference in the world. “I recently submitted my intent to enroll at UNC Charlotte for my M.A. in religious studies,” Burchill says. “After that… who knows?…. because my mentors, friends, and UNC Charlotte as a whole have equipped me with everything I need to change the world.”

UNC Charlotte Professor of Spanish Michael Doyle has received the top international award of the Hispanic honor society Sigma Delta Pi, with his induction into the Order of Don Quijote. Each year, the organization chooses no more than three people worldwide for the honor. Doyle’s work has significantly advanced Hispanic scholarship, particularly in translation studies and in shaping the field of business Spanish throughout the U.S.

Through one of the most competitive fellowship programs in the world, UNC Charlotte Africana Studies scholar Oscar de la Torre has been named the Anthony E. Kaye Fellow at the National Humanities Center in the coming academic year. De la Torre will join 35 other leading scholars chosen as fellows from 638 applicants from universities and colleges in 16 U.S. states and from Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Nigeria, and Taiwan.

UNC Charlotte faculty member and alumna Dina Massachi has followed a long and winding road to build her extensive knowledge and understanding of L. Frank Baum, author of the enduring classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She is one of the experts chosen to provide insights on Baum in a PBS documentary “American Oz,” which premieres on April 19.