Carnegie Mellon University

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May 19, 2016

Personal Mention

Rodney McClendonRodney P. McClendon, a senior administrator with more than two decades of leadership experience in higher education, has been appointed vice president for operations, effective July 1. In this reconfigured role, McClendon will lead the university’s work in key areas of human, physical, and technological infrastructure and services, including human resources, facilities management, enterprise risk management, parking and transportation, campus infrastructure management, computing services, campus services, environmental health and safety, real estate services, campus design and facilities development and university police. McClendon currently is a strategic partner for Forward Motion, a consulting firm that advises universities and not-for-profit organizations on issues of leadership and governance, strategic planning, diversity, change management, risk mitigation and crisis management. Before joining Forward Motion in 2013, he was vice president for administration at Texas A&M University, where he led a division with more than 1,500 employees in 12 units.  Find out more.

Joe BernardingCMU police officer Joe Bernarding is a husband, father, soccer coach and now an alumnus of the university. He recieved his bachelor's degree in ethics, history and public policy at Sunday's commencement ceremony, making him the first on his side of the family to receive a four-year degree. CMU Police Chief Tom Ogden said he hopes that Bernarding will become a role model for others. “We are all very proud of Joe, his perseverance and accomplishment. I hope he will serve as an example for other CMU Police Department employees to take advantage of the educational benefit and environment we have available to us here at CMU,” Ogden said. Learn more.

Maria CuellarMaria Cuellar, a Ph.D. student in statistics, has won the 2016 Wray Smith Scholarship from the American Statistical Association (ASA). The scholarship is awarded to promising young statisticians considering a future in government statistics. Her project relates to the relationships among multiplicity sample, capture-recapture models and network sampling. Cuellar also has received the Heinz College's Duncan Award for her second paper dealing with shaken baby syndrome. The award was established by George Duncan, who was an early faculty member of the Department of Statistics and later in the Heinz College with a cross appointment in Statistics.

Julian ShunJulian Shun, who received his Ph.D. from the Computer Science Department, is the winner of the Association for Computing Machinery’s (ACM) 2015 Doctoral Dissertation Award for his work describing new approaches for designing and implementing scalable parallel programs. His dissertation, “Shared-Memory Parallelism Can Be Simple, Fast and Scalable,” also was awarded the SCS Doctoral Dissertation Award last year. Shun is now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was awarded a Miller Research Fellowship. He will receive the Doctoral Dissertation Award and its $20,000 prize at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on June 11, in San Francisco, Calif.

CMU’s 2016 Fulbright Award Winners:

CMU's four Fulbright Award winners will research, study and report across three continents. Last year's recipient has recently begun his study abroad. Read about their interesting assignments below.

Laura BerryLaura Berry, Class of 2016, Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and Japanese Studies. Berry will travel from her hometown of Ridgewood, N.J., to Japan on a Fulbright Study/Research Grant. She plans to explore literature written by women during the economic slump of the 1990s, known in Japan as the “Lost Decade.” She will continue her language studies and audit courses at Hokkaido University in Sapporo.

Daniel FonnerDaniel Fonner, Class of 2016, Master of Arts Management. Fonner, of New Martinsville, W.Va., will study access to and the availability of creative arts therapies for U.K. military personnel suffering from mental illnesses. The recipient of a Fulbright-University of Warwick Award, he will enroll in the Master of Arts program in International Cultural Policy and participate in the Think Tank Society and Cultural Value Initiative. He also plans to join the Heart of England Co-operative Concert Orchestra as a percussionist.

Chelsea KolbChelsea Kolb, Class of 2018, Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Kolb, of Cloquet, Minn., received a Fulbright Study/Research Grant to investigate how projected climate change will impact aquifer levels in northwestern Costa Rica. Working with a hydrologist, she plans to develop water management strategies for local stakeholders, whose water supply has been impacted by increased development and changing agricultural practices. She will be affiliated with the National University of Costa Rica, Liberia’s Center for Hydraulic Resources for Central America and the Caribbean.

Lauren MobertzLauren Mobertz, Class of 2012, Bachelor of Arts in Professional Writing. Mobertz, who resides in New York, received a Young Professional Journalist Award to report on the work experience of Millennials in Germany and the current state of labor in the country. She plans to cover mental health taboos in the German workforce, internships and job placement for recent high school and college graduates, and work options for young refugees.

In addition, the 2015 Fulbright recipient has recently begun his work:

Juan Acosta

Juan Acosta, Class of 2015, Bachelor of Arts in Hispanic Studies and Global Studies. Acosta began his Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Brazil this past February. He is teaching English language and U.S. culture workshops, studying Portuguese and working virtually as a Re-imagine Learning associate with Ashoka, the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs.