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KU Institute for Leadership Studies announces 2023 civic leadership training program for Kansas women
LAWRENCE — Ready to Represent, a women’s leadership training series designed to empower Kansas women to participate more fully in civic life, will return in a four-session online series beginning Jan. 14, 2023. Ready to Represent trains women who are interested in running for political office, serving on civic boards and commissions, or who are interested in learning how to better advocate for issues and communities.
Two educators receive Chancellors Club Teaching Professorships
LAWRENCE — KU Endowment has announced the 2022 Chancellors Club Teaching Professorships. Mark Mort, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, and Cynthia Colwell, professor of music therapy & music education, are this year’s recipients. Each honoree will receive an annual $10,000 honorarium for each of the next five years. The Chancellors Club Teaching Professorship recognizes faculty members who have demonstrated excellence in teaching over a period of years.
KU junior receives Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence
LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas student from Overland Park who is researching vocalizations in children with autism spectrum disorder is the recipient of the Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence through KU’s Center for Undergraduate Research. Mackenzie Bravence is a junior in speech-language-hearing.
Full stories below.
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Contact: Emily Vietti, Institute for Leadership Studies, [email protected]
KU Institute for Leadership Studies announces 2023 civic leadership training program for Kansas women
LAWRENCE — Ready to Represent, a women’s leadership training series designed to empower Kansas women to participate more fully in civic life, will return for the third time in January 2023. The series is hosted by Ready to Run Kansas, a member of the national network of bipartisan candidate recruitment and training programs created by the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, and it is housed in the KU Institute for Leadership Studies. This year’s Ready to Represent kicks off Jan. 14.
Ready to Represent, which was first held in 2021, has trained more than 100 women from Kansas, Missouri and across the United States. The four sessions of the 2023 program will take place on Zoom.
“The goal of our program is to help women achieve the knowledge, skills and confidence necessary to run for public office and to be more active in civic life in their communities,” said Emily Vietti, director of Ready to Run Kansas and program associate/lecturer in the Institute for Leadership Studies. “Women are often underrepresented in these spaces in Kansas and around the country. When we have more women and more diverse voices in the spaces where decisions are made, we see more collaboration and better outcomes for more people. Everybody wins.”
Ready to Represent trains women who are interested in running for political office, serving on civic boards and commissions, or interested in learning how to better advocate for the issues and communities they care about. The program also has sessions specifically for collegiate women in Kansas who are interested in civic leadership, engagement and mentorship opportunities. Participants also have the opportunity to receive further leadership training for no additional cost through the Kansas Leadership Center after they complete Ready to Represent.
Ready to Represent will take place over four Saturday mornings: Jan. 14, Feb. 4, March 4 and April 1, in three-hour online sessions. The sessions will cover topics such as media training, political fundraising, Kansas open meetings laws, the importance of diversity and inclusion in leadership, imposter syndrome and more. Each session also includes small-group mentorship circles to build networks among Kansas women from across the state.
The price for the program (four sessions) is $99, and need-based scholarships are available. Kansas college students can attend the full program for only $12. More information and registration for the program can be found at https://womenlead.ku.edu/programs/.
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Contact: Michelle Keller, KU Endowment, 785-832-7336, [email protected]; @KUEndowment
Two educators receive Chancellors Club Teaching Professorships
LAWRENCE — KU Endowment has announced the 2022 Chancellors Club Teaching Professorships. Mark Mort, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, and Cynthia Colwell, professor of music therapy & music education, are this year’s recipients.
The professors were selected for their dedication, outstanding teaching careers, and recognition from students, peers and other faculty for their contributions to the university and their students while at the University of Kansas. Brief bios of the recipients follow.
Cynthia Colwell
As an educator and researcher, Cynthia Colwell has made strides for change within the KU music therapy program. She joined the School of Music in 2000 as the director of the Music Therapy Clinic and later became the program director for music therapy.
In her 22 years at KU, Colwell has taught freshman through master’s/doctoral coursework and serves as an academic adviser for both undergraduate and graduate students. She has been the committee chair for 55 master’s theses/projects and 11 doctoral dissertations.
Colwell developed a clinical practicum placement in pediatrics at KU Medical Center and later a comparable one at The University of Kansas Cancer Center, working with patients during chemotherapy infusion. She skillfully guided the music clinical therapy program through the COVID-19 pandemic, making it possible for students and faculty to continue their clinical work and learning virtually.
Colwell has been described as a “role model” and “inspiration” by many of her students throughout the years. Former student Jennifer Welch said, “She serves the music therapy department, the students and KU with incredible dedication and wisdom. Any time I’ve had questions or requested support, she’s been available, supportive and helpful. Her guidance, thoughtfulness and respect for me, for her peers and the students are palpable.”
Career highlights:
1. Colwell has served on editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Music Education, Update: Applications of Research in Music Education, Music Therapy Perspectives and Journal of Music Therapy, and she has contributed five book chapters, more than 30 articles, and over 100 clinical and research conference presentations.
2. Colwell serves as the committee chair for the American Music Therapy Association national research committee.
3. She has been awarded the KU Ned Fleming Award for Excellence in Teaching, the AMTA National Research Publications Award, and both the MW-AMTA Regional Service and Research awards.
Mark Mort
Mark Mort is a professor in the KU Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Mort’s research involves using DNA sequence data to estimate evolutionary relationships among members of the angiosperm families Crassulaceae (stonecrops) and Asteraceae (sunflowers), especially the species present in Macaronesia and South Africa.
Throughout Mort’s 22 years with KU, he has taught graduate and undergraduate courses and transformed large entry-level STEM courses. Mort served as co-director of the Undergraduate Biology Program for three years (2019-2022) before accepting a position as an associate director in the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) in August 2022. In addition to mentoring teaching postdoctoral researchers, Mort has served as co-PI on multiple external grants supporting research on best practices in STEM education.
“Dr. Mort is an exemplary professor in the classroom, working to enhance the learning of students in a supportive manner. He is a true scholar in teaching who garners funding to support the development of the most advanced learning approaches at KU and beyond,” said Lena Hileman, professor and chair of ecology & evolutionary biology, in her nomination letter.
Career highlights:
1. Mort has written and co-written more than 60 peer-reviewed journal articles throughout his career.
2. Mort has been a co-principal investigator on external grants to support teaching innovation, including a National Science Foundation (NSF) IUSE collaborative grant (2015-2020), Association of American Universities (AAU) mini grant (2017-2019), Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence 3 (IE3) learning grant (2021-2022).
3. In 2007, Mort was awarded both the J. Michael Young Academic Advisor Award in the Natural Sciences and W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence awards. In 2018, he was awarded the Ned Fleming Trust Award for teaching innovation.
Each honoree will receive an annual $10,000 honorarium for each of the next five years. The Chancellors Club Teaching Professorship recognizes professors who have demonstrated excellence in teaching and exemplary teaching over a period of years.
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Contact: Matt Downen, Center for Undergraduate Research, [email protected], @ugresearchKU
KU junior receives Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence
LAWRENCE — A University of Kansas student from Overland Park who is researching vocalizations in children with autism spectrum disorder is the recipient of the Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence through KU’s Center for Undergraduate Research.
Mackenzie Bravence is a junior in speech-language-hearing with a minor in applied behavioral science and certificate in learning and communication in children with autism. She is mentored by Jena McDaniel, postdoctoral researcher with the Life Span Institute.
“Children with autism are often less communicative in their vocalizations than their typically developing peers,” Bravence said. “My project looked at an intervention to increase communicativeness in their vocalizations. The long-term goal of this line of research is to increase the effectiveness of the interventions used with children with autism who are not yet talking.” A poster titled “Increasing Quality of Child Vocalizations to Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Examining Communicativeness” about her research can be found online in the 2022 Fall Undergraduate Research Showcase.
The Courtwright Award for Undergraduate Research Excellence was established at KU Endowment in 2020 through the contributions of David (c’74) and Chris Courtwright (c’83, j’83). The Courtwright Award seeks to recognize undergraduate students with majors in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences whose research and creative work stand to make meaningful contributions to their fields of study.
Courtwright Award finalists are selected from applications for the Undergraduate Research Awards each semester. This is the fourth iteration of this award.
Other finalists for the Courtwright Award for fall 2022:
1. Charlie Johnson, a sophomore from Lawrence, “Is the Druze a Sect of Islam? A Systematic Literature Review,” mentored by Rami Zeedan, assistant professor of Jewish studies
2. Rachell Orce, a junior from Lawrence, “Investigating Right-Wing Extremism in Former East Germany,” mentored by Andrea Meyertholen, associate professor of German studies.
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