Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?
E-mail your announcements to Inside@nau.edu.

• Paul Beier, professor of forestry, along with several other project contributors, has been selected for a Federal Highway Administration 2007 Environmental Excellence Award. Beier and his collaborators were selected for their work on the Arizona's Wildlife Linkages Assessment, which identifies large blocks of protected habitat in the state, the potential wildlife movement corridors through and between them, and the factors that could possibly disrupt these linkage zones. The project could be a powerful tool for incorporating wildlife considerations into a wide range of different types of development and conservation projects.
• Betsy Kerr, left, director of NAU's Employee Assistance and Wellness, received the Service Professional Advisory Council Leadership Award at the 2007 summer conference, Mountains of Possibilities, on May 16. Dina Barnese, PC Support for ITS and chair of the council, presented the award, which recognizes employees who have demonstrated leadership and service to the university, who have served as role models and mentors for others, and who demonstrate involvement with students and programs.
  
  More than 300 NAU employees attended the conference, which offered 32 sessions ranging from career development to retreat planning to sustainability. The conference was a collaborative effort between the Service Professional Advisory Council, Human Resources and Enrollment Management & Student Affairs.
• Annette McGivney, lecturer in the School of Communication, had a story published in the May edition of Backpacker magazine investigating the 2006 murder of Japanese tourist Tomomi Hanamure in Arizona's Havasupai Canyon. The article, "Free Fall," tells the story of Hanamure's killing, and explores a deeper crisis for the Havasupai tribal culture.
• Five graduate students in history presented papers at the Arizona-New Mexico Joint History Convention in Pinetop on April 29.
  • Master's student Cody Ferguson presented "Wet and Wild: The Designation of Three Unlikely Wilderness Areas in Central Arizona in 1984."
  • Doctoral student Kendra Moore presented "Fiends and Members of the Underworld: Arizona Territory's Construction of the Female Criminal from 1878-1909." Moore won a scholarship for her work from the Colonial Dames and has earned the William H. Lyon U.S. History Award.
  • Doctoral student Helen Peterson presented "Constructed Social Order: Clarkdale, Arizona, Built Environment and the City Beautiful Movement, 1913-1920." Peterson won the Don Bufkin Prize for the best paper dealing with the territorial period of Arizona history.
  • Doctoral student Scott Risley presented "Grand Canyon Caverns: A Small Business Show Cavern in Bypassed Northern Arizona." Risley also received the G.M. Farley Scholarship and the Garland and Evelyn R. Downum Award.
  • Master's student Michael Weeks presented "Winter on the Margins: Flagstaff and the Post-WWII Promotion of Seasonality in an Arid Climate." Weeks won the Valeen T. Avery Collegiate Award for the best paper on an Arizona topic written by a college student.
• The Department of Educational Specialties in the College of Education recently published its annual edition of The Journal of the International Association of Special Education.
  
  Greg Prater, professor of educational specialties, is the editor. Jamie Timmerman, managing editor, is a doctoral student in educational psychology. Kate Haynes, Chizuko Yamada and Howard E. Zlamal, assistants to the editors, are graduate students in special education.
  
  Extended reviews of the journal are translated and published in the Polish journal, Czlowiek-Niepelnosprawnosc-Spoleczenstwo, meaning "Man-Disability-Society." The editors are also exploring translating and publishing the journal in the Mandarin dialect.