Schools of Business faculty were honored for outstanding achievements during the annual Faculty Awards Recognition Ceremony held April 27 at the Paul J. Ciener Botanical Gardens in Kernersville.

Vice Dean Charles Iacovou welcomed attendees saying, “You are a very dedicated team of faculty members.  Our students are fortunate to have people like you helping them become the best they can be.”

Iacovou began the program by announcing the awarding of tenure to faculty members Kenny Herbst and Sean Hannah.

Herbst is a marketing professor whose research examines the effects of branding and trust on consumers. His history with Wake Forest dates back to his student days when he played basketball on back-to-back ACC Championship teams in 1995 and 1996.

Hannah is a leadership scholar and retired U.S. Army colonel. He was formerly the director of the Center for the Army Profession and Ethic (CAPE) at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Hannah will serve as a professor of management and the J. Tylee Wilson Chair in Business Ethics at Wake Forest Schools of Business.

Marketing professor Sheri Bridges announced the establishment of the Bob Fly Business and Enterprise Management Marketing Scholarship.  Bob Fly is a veteran advertising executive and has served as a marketing instructor at Wake Forest for 29 years.

Colleagues took time to celebrate the contributions of one of the longest serving faculty members of Wake Forest Schools of Business, Dr. Arun Dewasthali.  Deswasthali, who was described as “universally loved and adored by alumni,” is retiring after 37 years of service to the University.

Click to see a full list of faculty teaching, research and service awards »

Meri Silveri, a supervisor for Wake Forest Mail Services, has been named the Mail Manager of the Year for the Southeast region by the College and University Mail Services Association.

Silveri, who has worked at Wake Forest for more than 28 years, was honored for her work with the Wake Forest team during several transitions during the past seven years. The latest involved a merger of the mail operations on the Reynolda and Bowman Gray campuses.

“I don’t think this merger would have been possible without the help and support that Meri gave over the past year,” said Dave Pitts, the director of Mail Services for the Medical Center and for Wake Forest in nominating Silveri. “Meri’s constant inspiration and motivation that has kept staff together and focused on the bigger picture.”

The CUMSA Mail Manager of the Year Award is given to an individual who has:

• contributed to CUMSA in the past year, in an exemplary manner;
• contributed to their institution’s Mail Services Department;
• and contributed by their inspiration and continually inspires all around them.

Pitts said: “Meri has not only been a supervisor to her staff, but almost a mother or sister.”

Donna McGalliard, the dean of Residence Life and Housing, has been selected to serve as faculty for this year’s National Housing Training Institute (NHTI), being held at the University of Georgia, June 12-16, in Athens, Ga.

The James C. Grimm National Housing Training Institute provides a thorough professional development experience for less-experienced professionals looking to further their career in housing. Participants meet and interact with other colleagues, establish mentor relationships with experts in the field, develop professional development plans, and gain skills and competencies needed to meet the current and future demands of the profession. The institute recognizes the importance of the evolving housing field, and it strives to provide participants with the knowledge and skills they will need to be successful in the ever-changing field.

McGalliard joined Wake Forest in 2000 as associate director of residence life.

When associate vice president Maria Henson (’82) judged senior orations earlier this month she brought copies of the spring issue of Wake Forest Magazine with her. She didn’t leave with any. “The students said, ‘Can we take these?’ It was music to my ears.”

Henson, who oversees the magazine and its website, says the student compliments are rewarding, just as the magazine wins two top awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Wake Forest Magazine has won the Grand Award for District III (Southeast region) in two categories: Alumni Magazines (for schools with similar enrollment) and Magazine Publishing Improvement. The entries are judged on content, writing, design, photography, budget and resources.

The magazine has been working on a redesign since Henson returned to Wake Forest in June 2010. After a Pulitzer Prize-winning career in newspapers, Henson pored through 10 years’ worth of Wake Forest Magazines to learn where the publication had been and examined other college publications and general interest magazines. She, managing editor Cherin Poovey, deputy editor Janet Williamson, and freelance designer Julie Helsabeck, the daughter of an alumnus, brainstormed about what they wanted in the magazine’s redesign. Continue reading »

Cook

Smith

Wake Forest employees K. Carter Cook (’94, JD/MBA ’98) and Sarah R. Smith were named to the Triad Business Journal’s “40 Leaders Under Forty” list this year. Cook and Smith were recognized at an awards ceremony in Greensboro in February.

Cook is associate counsel in the legal department, and Smith is the director of marketing and communications for the Reynolda House Museum of American Art.

The awards honor 40 remarkable individuals, all under the age of 40, who have distinguished themselves in their careers and community and also hold promise of great things to come.

Taken from the Journal, here are the reasons each was selected:

• Cook: A skilled lawyer and leader at Wake Forest, he is also a skilled pianist. That led him to create Piano vs. Poverty, a faith-based nonprofit designed to fight hunger.
• Smith: She developed the first retail partnership for the museum and has created special events and social media to engage a younger audience. She is a founding member and current chair of Young Leaders United, an arm of the United Way of Forsyth County, and also vice president of the Forsyth County Tourism Alliance.

Read more about the announcement »

Read more about the awards ceremony »

Cherise James, the Residence Life Coordinator for South Campus, was presented with the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award during Nova Southeastern University’s 14th annual Celebration of Excellence banquet in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The 2011 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Awards were presented to graduates of the university’s schools, colleges and centers. Cherise is a 2009 M.S. graduate of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

At Wake Forest, she supervises six Graduate Hall Directors and 60 Resident Advisers.

Wake Forest University is among 32 organizations statewide to be recognized for conducting outstanding United Way campaigns.

The University received the Spirit of North Carolina Award for Campaign Excellence, given annually by the United Way of North Carolina. The award is based on employee participation and giving levels, leadership giving, volunteerism, incentive programs and campaign rallies.

Read more in the Wake Forest News Center »

Lisa Kiang, assistant professor of psychology, received the 2011 Emerging Scholar Best Article Award from the Journal of Youth and Adolescence (JYA) for her article, “Change in Ethnic Identity Across the High School Years Among Adolescents with Latin American, Asian, and European Backgrounds.”

The study tracked changes in ethnic identity among ethnically diverse adolescents during the four years of high school.

Kiang found that there was a lot of change exhibited among individual adolescents but, when examined as a group (as most studies have done in the past), the individual change was obscured.

“We also found that increases in ethnic identity were associated with increases in family closeness, having more same-ethnic peers, and feeling like ethnicity is central to who you are,” Kiang said.

The award was announced in the December issue of JYA.

Noted Southern historian Paul Escott, Reynolds Professor of History at Wake Forest University, received the Christopher Crittenden Memorial Award for contributions to North Carolina history at the annual joint meeting of the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association and the Federation of Historical Societies on Nov. 18.

Escott is the author of 13 books, including “North Carolinians in the Era of the Civil War and Reconstruction” (University of North Carolina Press, 2008).

He has twice won the Mayflower Cup, an award for the best non-fiction book written in North Carolina for his books, “Slavery Remembered” and “Many Excellent People.” Continue reading »

The American Bar Association’s Law Practice Management Section (LPM) announced the winners of its first-ever LPM Law Video Awards during the third bi-annual ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference on Nov. 8 in Philadelphia. The law school’s video, Wake Forest Law Alumni in New York City, received second place in the Legal Organizations/Legal Vendors category.

Read more about the award »