Led by the efforts of Dr. Paynter, of the Department of Political Science, East Carolina University received a $1 million award from the Golden LEAF Foundation to support rural economic prosperity through innovation and entrepreneurship.
The grant, awarded on Feb. 7, will support ECU’s recently launched university-wide program focused on creating a new generation of business owners in the 29 counties of eastern North Carolina, reflective of its name RISE-29.
Graduating senior, Madie Fleishman, presented her research at the Virginia Commonwealth University’s 13th Annual Politics and Government Student Research Conference this past Friday. The work titled “Humanitarian aid and its Effects on Civil Conflicts with Multiple Rebel Factions” was presented on the Peacekeeping, Genocide, and Human Rights panel with 4 other student works.
New research by Dennis McCunney: “Preparing students for what lies ahead”: Teaching dental public health leadership with simulated community partners.”
Dental school curricula increasingly emphasize training in leadership, public health, community engagement and collaboration. Leadership may be defined as a relational process for inspiring and influencing positive change. Leadership training focused on effectively building relationships and partnerships to improve community health is particularly important with the increased emphasis on dental primary care, holistic care, rural care and health disparities. Dentists and other health care providers are encouraged to engage with communities and community partners and organizations to improve healthcare and overall health. To better educate and train dental students to meet these challenges, new and innovative methods of didactic and experiential coursework are needed. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
The current study describes the development, delivery and preliminary evaluation of a community-engaged leadership training program for dental students. The program incorporated student-developed public health project proposals and sessions with simulated community partners based on a simulated rural community with specific oral and general health needs.
Overall, students felt the training was realistic and valuable for developing leadership skills and preparing them for challenges that could not have been learned through didactic instruction alone. Students gained a better understanding of their own leadership styles, their strengths and weaknesses and their level of developed leadership competencies.
This program is an innovative way to develop leadership applied to public health and community needs and should have implications for ways of teaching leadership to improve oral health outcomes.
See: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/full/10.1108/JARHE-07-2018-0137
Dr. Baumgartner has lent his expertise on the vice presidency to a movement to run an independent candidate for the vice presidency. He has offered his knowledge about the office to the project in a series of videos and a FAQ. Check it out at vice.run.
For the record, Baumgartner’s involvement in the project is not an endorsement of either the candidate or the movement – although he has stated that the idea is certainly an intriguing one.
John Sarantos Laliotes, age 71, passed away peacefully at his home on April 9, 2019. Part of Laliotes’ legacy includes the recently completed renovation and overhaul of the student political science library in the Brewster Building. We are both grateful for his generosity and very saddened by his passing.
The family has asked that donations be made to ECU’s Pirate Club in John’s name in lieu of flowers.
ECU’s Model United Nations Club competed in the Southern Regional Model United Nations conference in Charlotte May 28-30, 2019. Representing the country of Equatorial Guinea, students debated issues ranging from Improving Access to Quality Healthcare for Children to Preventing Violent Extremism by Non-State Actors.
Committee awards were earned by Molefi Henderson and Morgan Musumeci (General Assembly First) and Nandi Mulagha and Menna Abdel-Salam (Commission on the Status of Women). Paula Acevedo, Gray Childress, Gabriela Morales, Kelly Brown, and Jacob Blizzard rounded out the team earning the entire club a conference-wide Honorable Delegation Award. SECS Graduate Assistant Kaitlyn Rose attended as their advisor.
East Carolina University’s Department of Political Science honored John and Ann Laliotes for their generous support during the dedication of the newly renovated John Laliotes Political Science Library on March 28.
Dr. Alethia Cook, department chair, welcomed guests and officially thanked the Lalioteses for their contribution, Provost Ron Mitchelson and Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Dean William M. Downs for their support of the project, and others involved in the process.
“It has been a huge improvement of this space,” Cook said. “It will be great in helping to teach our students about professionalism and professional conduct in the workplace and in recruiting new students and faculty.”
