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• Ken Lorek, the Ralph M. Bilby Professor of Business Administration, presented a paper, "New Evidence on Financial Analyst Superiority in Forecasting Earnings," at the American Accounting Association meeting in Chicago on Aug. 7.

  Lorek also had an article, "Statistically-Based Quarterly Earnings Expectation Models for Nonseasonal Firms," accepted for publication in the journal Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting.

• Sheilah M. Wilson, adjunct instructor in educational psychology, has received her certification as a master addiction counselor from the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors, the association for addiction professionals. Wilson teaches Drug and Alcohol Abuse: Prevention and Treatment.

• J. Judson Wynne, cave research scientist of Merriam-Powell Center of Environmental Research and biology doctoral student, presented two invited papers at the National Speleological Society's annual convention in Marengo, Ind., July 22-27. His papers were, "Mars Analogue Sites and Their Importance in the Search for Caves on Mars," and "Thermal Behavior of Earth Caves and Possible Cave-like Structures on Mars."

• The W.A. Franke College of Business building was recently awarded the Arizona Public Service 2006 Energy Award. The award was presented in 2007 by the American Institute of Architects-Arizona to Carter & Burgess, a national engineering and architectural firm.

  The building, which opened in January 2006, has "mission driven" architecture with many distinctive features designed to promote personal interaction. Included in the flexible design are wide, cushioned stairwells that encourage casual conversations on its steps, seating that allows students to configure their desks to promote working together in groups, and faculty offices close to classrooms.

• All of NAU's 2007 dental hygiene graduates passed their national written board examination with scores above the national average in 13 of the 14 areas. The same students passed the western regional board exam with a mean score of 95.27 percent.
• Gary L. Emanuel and Mary I. Dereshiwsky, associate professors of educational leadership, and Bill Wright, professor of educational leadership, presented their paper, "A Matter of Trust: A Formative Evaluation of the NAU Risk/Retention Trust Academy for Legal Preparation of Educational Administrators," at the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration annual conference in Chicago last week. Emanuel and Dereshiwsky also presented "Quality Has A Quantity All of Its Own: A Mixed-Methods Study of Student Perceptions of Qualitative and Survey Research," at the same conference.