"Andrea Ellis" Archive

Transdisciplinary projects sought to represent Wake Forest at festival

February 28, 2020

The following is a guest post from Tim Pyatt, dean of Z. Smith Reynolds Library, and Assistant Vice President Andrea Ellis, Office of Personal and Career Development:

Wake Forest University will be participating in the third ACCelerate: ACC Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival to be held in Washington, D.C. on April 9-11, 2021 during the cherry blossom festival. Attendance is expected to exceed 60,000.

We are seeking exciting transdisciplinary projects to represent the University at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.  Projects involving WFU/faculty/student/community teams are highly encouraged. Projects submitted will be evaluated based on completion/readiness and the potential to actively engage the festival audience.

The timeline is as follows:

• April 17, 2020: Application deadline for project consideration for the upcoming festival.
• May 12, 2020:  Projects will be reviewed by the Festival Steering Committee.
• June 23, 2020:  Representatives from all ACC schools meet to prioritize projects
• September 2020:  Notifications of final acceptance for the festival will be sent.

Support from the Office of Provost will be available to help with the creation and transportation of the exhibits and exhibitors.

The first ACCelerate festival was on October 13-15, 2017 and second was held April 5-7, 2019. To learn more about the previous Festivals, please visit http://acceleratefestival.com/. 

Please complete this form with as much detail as you can provide.  We understand that you may not be able to answer all questions by the deadline. For more information, contact Tim Pyatt at tpyatt@wfu.edu or 758-5094, or Andrea Ellis at ace@wfu.edu or 758-4322.

Provost announces Campus Connections to be held Jan. 10

January 10, 2020

Provost Rogan Kersh emailed the following announcement to faculty and staff on Jan. 10:

Dear Wake Forest faculty and staff,

On Thursday, January 16, Hof Milam, Executive Vice President, and I will be hosting the second Campus Connections of the academic year. We look forward to seeing you in Benson 401 from 8:45-10 a.m. for a light breakfast and presentations by members of our Wake Forest community.

• “Online Update,” Kami Chavis, Associate Provost for Academic Initiatives, Professor of Law, and Associate Vice President
• “Plan for Academic Excellence Update,” Andrea Ellis, Assistant Vice President of Innovation, and Ellen Murphy, Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Professor of Practice in the School of Law
• “Wake Will Lead | Campaign Update,” Mark Petersen, Vice President of University Advancement

Campus Connections will be available via Webex; instructions will be sent out next week.

Wake Forest receives Silver Anvil Award from PRSA for Call to Conversation program

June 7, 2019

Wake Forest staff with Silver Anvil Award in New York City

PRSA, the nation’s leading professional organization serving the communications community, presented Wake Forest University with the Silver Anvil Award at a ceremony in New York City on June 6.

Wake Forest won the award in recognition of its Call to Conversation program, which began in 2017 and has become an international movement with one goal: to spark more meaningful conversations.

From its first days as a pilot program of moderated, small-group dinner conversations with alumni and parents, Call to Conversation now reaches out to the entire Wake Forest community—on- and off-campus.  In such gatherings, participants “share a meal, discuss a single timely topic and form relationships based on empathy and mutual respect,” according to a story posted online last fall.

The Call to Conversation website explains that “the immediate impact of the Call to Conversation will be new relationships and a stronger community.  Long term, a culture of conversation will be a recognized signature of the Wake Forest Experience.”

At the June 6 awards event, PRSA handed out 50 Silver Anvil Awards and 62 Awards of Excellence.  The full list, which includes Wake Forest, is available here.

“This year’s entries were among the most innovative we’ve seen in the history of the awards, truly reflecting the rapid transformation that technology, social media and myriad cultural forces are bringing to the communications industry,” said Debra Peterson, 2019 PRSA chair.

Wake Forest’s award was in the category of internal communications for associations/government/nonprofit organizations.  Many of the recipients included some of the best-known companies in the world, whose communication projects were managed by top international public relations and design agencies.

Staff representing Wake Forest at the awards event were Brett Eaton, Melody Miller, Hannah Duane, Hannah McGee, Megan Donovan, Lindsay Hudson Ortyn, Andrea Ellis and Shakinah Simeona-Lee.

Projects sought for second ACCelerate festival

March 7, 2018

This is a guest post from the organizers of the ACCelerate: ACC Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival:

Wake Forest  is seeking projects for the second ACCelerate: ACC Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival to be held in Washington, D.C. on  April 5-7, 2019 (dates still tentative).

We are seeking exciting transdisciplinary projects to represent the University at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.  Projects involving WFU/faculty/student/community teams are highly encouraged.  Projects can be submitted through an online survey. They will be evaluated based on completion/readiness and the potential to actively engage the festival audience.

The timeline is as follows:

• May 11, 2018: Application deadline for project consideration for the upcoming festival.
• August 2018:  Projects will be reviewed by an internal Smithsonian Committee who will select the top five projects.
• September 2018:  The top five projects will be sent to the ACC Review Committee, comprised of leaders from each of the ACC schools, who will then select the top three projects from each ACC school.
•  September 2018:  Notifications of final acceptance for the festival will be sent.

Support from the Office of Provost will be available to help with the creation and transportation of the exhibits and exhibitors.

The first ACCelerate festival on October 13-15, 2017 drew a crowd of 36,000 participants. We are anticipating and equally impressive turnout in 2019.  To learn more about the 2017 Festival, please visit http://acceleratefestival.com/.

For more information, contact:

Tim Pyatt (typatt@wfu.edu) or at (336) 758-5090
Andrea Ellis (ace@wfu.edu) or at (336) 758-4322

Much preparation leads to Wake Forest participation in ACCelerate

October 6, 2017

After a year of much planning, Tim Pyatt and Andrea Ellis are looking forward to a special Atlantic Coast Conference event in mid-October that showcases Wake Forest in a setting other than on a playing field or a court.

Pyatt, dean of Z. Smith Reynolds Library, and Ellis, assistant vice president of innovation, served on the ACC steering committee that helped organize the first “ACCelerate: ACC Smithsonian Creativity and Innovation Festival.”  Presented by Virginia Tech and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the ACCelerate Festival is a three-day celebration of creative exploration and research at the nexus of science, engineering and design.

It will be held at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 13-15 from 10 a.m. to 5:30 pm. each day.

The event is free and showcases the 15 universities of the ACC.  It gives all of the universities an opportunity to display their work to each other and to the public.  In addition to the 47 featured interactive installations, the festival will include panel discussions and performances through the three days.

Representing Wake Forest, Pyatt and Ellis began last October serving on the steering committee comprised of members from all ACC universities.  By November, they had proposed the Wake Forest projects for the festival.  And, after considerable deliberation, the final decisions were made later on which projects would be selected for showcasing at the festival.  Throughout the summer, they have worked to settle the numerous details and logistics required to make it a successful event.

Asked how the public will respond to the Wake Forest exhibits and presentations, Pyatt replied, “All are amazing in their own way.”

The Wake Forest exhibits and presentations include:

• IMPROVment: Improvisational Movement for Brain and Body Health
• Wake the Vote
• The Story of My Life
• What is Language? Challenging our Intuitions and Assumptions

“Wake the Vote is so relevant and timely while IMPROVment epitomizes the Wake Forest ethos — bringing liberal arts and medicine together for the good of society. The Story of My Life celebrates six disabled adults and their personal stories. And What is Language combines humanistic research with data analysis. I think the public will be impressed by the impact of research at Wake Forest on society,” Pyatt said.

For more about ACCelerate, read here.