Last issue we told you that Dr. Bartell will be on sabbatical for the 2012-2013 academic year and Dr. Burns will be on sabbatical for the Spring 2013 semester.  What will they be working on during their sabbaticals?  Dr. Bartell will be working on projects related to the First Year Seminars and the WiRE relationship education project.  Dr. Burns will be writing some journal articles and compiling a reader for statistics.  Please join us in wishing them both a most productive and rejuvenating sabbatical! 

We’re pleased to share some good news for faculty members as well.  Dr. Noppe Cupit has started her term as president of Association of Death Education and Counseling (ADEC).  Dr. Wilson-Doenges has won best student group adviser for her work with Zeta Omega Tau, a service-based sorority here on campus.  Finally, many Psychology and Human Development faculty members were nominated for the Student Nominated Teaching Awards: Dr. Bartell, Dr. Holstead, Dr. Lorenz, Dr. Martin, Dr. Vespia, and Dr. VonDras.  Three Psychology and Human Development faculty members are finalists for these awards.  Dr. Zapf is a finalist for the early career award and Dr. Gurung and Dr. Wilson-Doenges are finalists for the experienced teaching award.  The winners of these awards will be announced at the University Leadership Awards Program on May 11^th.  Here at The Pink Flamingo we’ll be crossing our feathers and hoping they win!

As you examine the schedule of classes both for fall and next spring, you will notice some familiar names missing and some returning to the line-up. We are excited to announce that Dr. Bartell will be on sabbatical for the entire 2012-2013 academic year, and Dr. Burns will be on sabbatical for the Spring 2013 semester. What is a sabbatical, anyway? As a student, you will notice that those professors do not teach classes when they’re on sabbatical, and they might even be in a far off place like New Zealand. Sabbaticals are a chance for faculty to work on projects like writing books or journal articles that they wouldn’t normally be able to complete during the semester while they’re busy teaching, researching, grading papers, etc. Stay tuned next time for more information on what Drs. Bartell and Burns will be working on during their sabbaticals. Meanwhile, we also look forward to welcoming back Dr. Regan Gurung, who will be returning from his full-year sabbatical this year, and we are pleased that Dr. Illene Noppe Cupit is already back with us after a Fall 2011 sabbatical. Both of them have at least one new book to show for their time away, and we will feature some of their exciting work in a future issue, as well.

For those who have not visited the UWGB homepage lately, please check out the front-page story about Dr. Gurung and his award-winning teaching.  The photo also includes some of our wonderful students. We are so fortunate to work in a unit with such dedicated teachers and students. Congratulations again on your well-deserved teaching honor, Prof. Gurung!

Jenell Holstead, Ph.D., joins the Human Development faculty this fall as a new Assistant Professor. She attended the Pennsylvania State University, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in psychology. From there, she attended Indiana University, where she earned a Master’s in Educational Psychology and a Doctoral degree in School Psychology. Currently, she is teaching the Intro to Human Development and Middle Childhood and Adolescence courses. Dr. Holstead’s primary area of research is on the effectiveness of after school programming.

Although Dr. Holstead is not from Wisconsin, she has spent considerable time in Green Bay, as her husband’s family resides here. As such, she’s already a Packers’ fan! She is also the mother of a 5-month old daughter, Audrey, and two Yorkshire terriers, Bentley and Brea.

It’s with mixed emotions that we at the PF write this particular story.

As formally announced in our last issue, Professor Lloyd Noppe will be retiring from UW-Green Bay this summer. Although we are very happy for him, we are very sad that we won’t see our valued colleague of so many years on a daily basis.

You all know Dr. Noppe as a wonderful educator, but you may not be aware of the many ways he has contributed to UW-Green Bay during his time here. He began his work on campus in 1980 and was promoted to the highest academic rank of “full professor” in 1997. He has taught courses ranging from Introduction to Human Development and the Human Development Senior Seminar (in fact, he was one of the creators of our old seminar series) to upper-level classes such as Tests and Measurements, Middle Childhood and Adolescence and Creative and Critical Thinking. He has authored or co-authored four textbooks and many more chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, and book reviews. He served as Chair of Human Development for more than a decade (12 years in total!), and he also once worked as the Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In fact, he was honored by the University in 2001 for his outstanding service to the institution with the Founder’s Association Award for Excellence in Institutional Development.

Professor Noppe shared with us recently that he will “miss most the interactions with students who were truly interested in learning about human development, particularly their own.”

Please join us in wishing Dr. Noppe well in his retirement and take the opportunity when you see him this week to thank him for the many ways he has contributed to the lives of our students, his colleagues and UW-Green Bay!

Of course, we already know what a wonderful teacher Professor Regan Gurung is, but it’s great to see that more and more people outside of UW-Green Bay are recognizing that, as well.

Dr. Gurung’s most recent teaching honor is as the recipient of the 2011 Regents Teaching Excellence Award. Congratulations, Professor Gurung! We should also share that after Dr. Gurung picks up his award in June, he will be headed to Nigeria in July, where he has been invited to speak on the scholarship of teaching and learning at a major conference.

Fall 2011 will bring with it a new Chairperson for the Psychology department. Dr. Ryan Martin will assume the role from Dr. Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges, who has provided outstanding service as Psychology Chair for six years! Never fear–she is not leaving us. She will simply be turning her full attention to teaching, research and her numerous service responsibilities next year.

Please make Professor Martin welcome in his new role in the Fall (see how many course substitution forms you can throw his way in the first week of classes!).

Right now, though, please make sure to thank Professor Wilson-Doenges when you see her for all the wonderful things she has done for Psychology in her years as Chair. She has overseen major changes in the curriculum, the adoption of APA’s national standards as our department learning objectives, and much more! What you have seen most as students, though, is the amazing dedication and care she has put into every interaction with students, as well as her willingness to go far above and beyond the call of duty in providing advising to so many of our majors and minors. We here at the PF can only raise our pink feathers in awe of her great work.

Also announced in our last issue were the upcoming sabbatical leaves of Drs. Regan Gurung and Illene Noppe. Both will be pursuing exciting plans during their time away from campus.

Dr. Gurung hopes to spend most of the Fall writing in Green Bay while also concluding responsibilities as President of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology. He will then be leaving for New Zealand, where he has been invited to the University of Auckland to do workshops and share research on teaching and learning. He will take a short side trip to Australia, where he has another invitation to do work at the University of Melbourne. If all goes well, he will be able to do some cultural exploring in Fiji on the way home. The year away will allow him to complete some major writing projects, and he will have a wealth of information to share in the classroom when he returns!

Dr. Illene Noppe’s sabbatical plans for the Fall 2011 semester also have a decidedly international flair. Dr. Noppe is hoping to continue her research on college student bereavement at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa (check it out!).  She plans on spending about a month during the early Fall collecting and analyzing data that could be used to compare to the bereavement experiences of American college students (especially those here at UW-Green Bay).  While she is in South Africa, Dr. Noppe also plans to offer workshops and/or short term courses in  Dying, Death and Bereavement; travel around this beautiful country; and finalize plans to bring another group of students to South Africa for the Human Development in South Africa short-term travel course (most likely to take place in May 2012).  In addition, Dr. Noppe will continue to prepare to assume the Presidency of the Association for Death Education and  Counseling in 2012, finish up other pending projects and see what she is like with more than five hours of sleep a night (truly a scary thought!).

Careful readers of the Fall 2011 Schedule of Classes will notice some familiar names missing from the “instructor” column. There’s a good reason for this. After more than 30 years of distinguished service at UW-Green Bay, Dr. Lloyd Noppe will retire this summer, and although we will miss him greatly, we are also very happy for him and will celebrate his career with an in-depth profile in our year-end issue of the PF. Students should also know that Dr. Illene Noppe will be on sabbatical in Fall 2011 but will return to full-time teaching in Spring 2012. Dr. Regan Gurung will be on sabbatical for Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 but will rejoin us in Fall 2012. Our next issue will feature more information about the exciting plans for their sabbaticals, which should both result in fabulous information and experiences to share with students in future semesters. Please congratulate all of these wonderful faculty members when you see them!