Communications

Dear NAU Faculty,

The early weeks of the new academic year are energetic. The kinetic and intellectual vibrancy of our university are on full display. This year the dynamism of our campus community is not only a manifestation of the regular academic cycle, but also of the opportunities that we will have as we navigate the four tests President Cruz Rivera presented to us in his Convocation address.

As we adapt to immediate and near-term changes, President Cruz Rivera has charged us to think and design for the long term. This calls upon all of us to be agile and forward-thinking in pursuit of NAU’s future success. The changes we are driving are multi-dimensional and must move at a pace that may exceed our comfort level. There are many reasons for urgency in this moment.

For those of us at the center of the academic enterprise of this university, I want to focus our attention on three areas of action that should be our highest priority this academic year.

First, we must continue to redouble our efforts to enhance the value of NAU degrees. Our 100% Career Ready initiative is receiving national attention as a model for how a university can prepare students for the myriads of careers they will pursue after graduation. We have accomplished a great deal, but there is more to do. I applaud the work of faculty and leaders across the university who have examined data and redesigned programs or made difficult decisions to let go of programs. NAU’s program portfolio should be dynamic and responsive to the evolution of academic disciplines, workforce opportunities and student demand. Thoughtful stewardship of our program portfolio is critical to both student success and NAU’s long-term sustainability. The redesign of General Studies is central to this work, ensuring that we adapt our offerings to provide enduring value for our students and a streamlined path to their development and success. Throughout, operational and financial realities must inform our work, with decisions made to benefit students, strengthen the value of an NAU degree and enable financial health and viability of our university into the future. It is not easy, but it is essential and touches every area of our academic enterprise.

Second, we must invest our best efforts in enhancing the excellence of the NAU learning experience and strengthening our “stickiness.” NAU has long considered its focus on teaching as one of its distinguishing strengths. The NAU Teaching Academy and Faculty Senate collaborated to create an evidence-based road map for advancing teaching excellence across the university: Inclusive Excellence in Teaching . Every academic unit should be guided by this framework to create communities of teaching practice that elevate expectations for teaching and learning.

The academic programs we offer and the quality experiences we provide are key attractors that are leveraged by our partners in Strategic Enrollment & Marketing throughout the recruitment process. We are also among the most important contributors to whether students stay and persist to graduation. This is what I mean by “stickiness,” and it is all of our responsibility.

In addition to creating compelling programs with curricular designs that support student academic success, our individual and collective presence is a vital part of the university experience. Many factors, including technologies for remote engagement and shifts in work patterns since the COVID pandemic, have reduced opportunities for direct interaction. Yet students consistently tell us they place the highest value on personal interactions and relationships with faculty. Increasing our presence and the direct engagement we offer on campus is one important factor that will contribute to increasing NAU’s retention and graduation rates, and the experiences and outcomes of our students are, in turn, one of the most compelling parts of the value proposition we use to recruit future classes. A rich, in-person experience is fundamental to our identity and must be embedded into all decisions for how we operate.

Finally, our collective response to rapidly evolving generative AI technology must be woven through our work to enhance the value of NAU degrees and the excellence of the NAU learning experience. It is our responsibility as an academic community to grapple with the complex implications of AI for learning, inquiry, and our society and humanity. It is not an understatement to say that AI requires us to reconsider and reformulate most, if not all, of the learning outcomes for our courses and programs.

As educators, we have long understood that what matters most is not simply the content we present but what we ask students to do with it. With AI we are forced to think even more deeply about learning design. What should students be able to do with and without AI? What knowledge, skill and judgment should they possess when they graduate?

Our students need to be prepared to think critically about effective and responsible use of AI, its applications, opportunities and effects on humans and our environment. Turning away from these challenges is not the right move. Leaning in with our diverse perspectives, expertise, creativity and intrepid sensibilities is the right move. I encourage you to participate in learning opportunities and engage with colleagues as we navigate this work together. Faculty are leading the way through the Institute for Advancing Applications of Artificial Intelligence.

There is a lot on our plates this year. I encourage you to focus your efforts where they will have the greatest impact and to approach this work with a spirit of curiosity and learning as we shape NAU’s future together.

Best,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear NAU faculty,

As we approach Commencement this week, I find myself reflecting on all we have accomplished this academic year. You have shown up for our students and one another through teaching, mentorship and scholarship. I want to take a moment to simply say: thank you.

This academic year has been one of remarkable dedication. In classrooms and labs, in studios and field sites, in office hours and hallway conversations, you have invested yourselves fully in the success of our students. Your commitment is the heartbeat of our university. At the end of this week, we will witness the powerful reminder of why all of it matters. Our students will cross the stage carrying the knowledge, skills, and confidence that you helped them build. Their accomplishments exemplify our belief in what higher education can do for a person’s life.

As our students prepare to begin their next journey, empowered by an NAU degree, our institution as a whole is also at an inflection point. We are preparing for a new chapter. The landscape is changing: the students we serve, the environment in which we operate, the public and private support we receive and much more. While the work won’t be easy, we have a strong foundation and are seizing this moment with agency. As President Cruz Rivera shared earlier this week, our confidence comes from our people and the demonstrated record of impact we have delivered for our students, together.

At this juncture, we are called upon to subtract what is not demonstrably impactful and strongly aligned with priorities. We will reflect on how some practices we have relied upon for many years may not be the most valuable use of our finite resources. We must think creatively about how we might better organize our efforts. Perhaps most important, we must have the courage to engage in rigorous analysis of the design of our curricula and how they serve our students and position NAU to thrive. Thriving means having capacity to be responsive, to innovate, and to create. Without the courage to question, to change, and to be willing to add to our impact through subtraction, we do not have the degrees of freedom to be the dynamic and thriving institution we aspire to be.

In the coming weeks, I will work with the President and other university leaders to develop the framework for how the university will meet this moment, and with our deans and academic leaders to shape our agenda for next academic year. Our work will require collaboration, receptivity to change, and a commitment to prioritize collective outcomes. In the meantime, I will share information as it becomes available.

This summer, I hope you will take some time to reset and reconnect with what drew you to be an academic and to NAU. You have given much, and you deserve a change of pace to replenish. I enter the summer with genuine optimism about your talents and our capacity to forge a path forward that will take NAU to greater impact and higher achievements toward realizing our vision. The work we do matters deeply to our students, our region and the broader community.

Thank you for an outstanding year. I look forward to seeing many of you at commencement to celebrate with our graduates.

Warm regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear colleagues,

I’m delighted to announce that Dr. Thomas Aicher will join NAU in August as the new dean of The W. A. Franke College of Business (FCB). Dr. Aicher brings an impressive record of academic leadership and innovation. He currently serves as dean of the College of Business at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs, where he provides strategic leadership across academic programs, faculty development, enrollment management and community engagement. His leadership experience spans complex public university environments, including prior roles as associate dean and faculty senate president, and is grounded in collaborative governance and data‑informed decision‑making.

An active scholar, Dr. Aicher’s research focuses on consumer behavior, sport and event tourism, and the economic and social impact of major events and industries, with publications in leading peer‑reviewed journals. Beyond campus, he is deeply engaged in strengthening partnerships between universities, industry and communities, having led and co‑led cross‑sector initiatives focused on workforce development and talent pipelines. His practical, mission‑driven leadership emphasizes ethical decision‑making, student opportunity and institutional impact.

I extend my sincere appreciation to Dean Ashok Subramanian for his leadership of The W. A. Franke College of Business over the past six years. During his tenure, the college achieved several milestones that strengthened its academic and organizational foundation, including launching its first online graduate program through the Healthcare MBA, expanding international enrollment, successfully completing an AACSB accreditation review, and advancing entrepreneurship through the creation of the Venture Studio. He also led a departmental restructuring that positioned the college for continued growth. These accomplishments laid important groundwork for the next chapter of FCB, and we are grateful for his lasting contributions to the college and the NAU community.

I also want to thank the search committee for their thoughtful work, including Honors Collage Dean Kevin Gustafson for his leadership as search chair and Mathilde Willis for her excellent support throughout the process.

Warm regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear colleagues,

Over the next few weeks and months, we’ll be engaging in a collaborative process to thoughtfully consolidate University Advising’s physical footprint on the Flagstaff mountain campus. Our central focus will remain offering students high-quality, consistent and reliable academic advising services.

Background

Our University Advising team is currently distributed across 10 buildings on the Flagstaff campus, in a configuration that reflects historical organizational patterns and presents obstacles to students who must master navigating this arrangement for their unique circumstances. These obstacles have only become more difficult as distinct department/school needs have led to an increased distribution of academic colleges across campus. This configuration also prevents students from experiencing a consistent level of service and support across physical locations. Further, many of our advising services are housed in aging, inefficient spaces. These friction points collectively challenge our ability to offer students a high-quality, consistent and predictable advising experience, therefore, it is essential that we act to address them.

Approach

While many of the specifics will be shaped through upcoming conversations, we will be consolidating into fewer advising spaces on the Flagstaff mountain campus to provide centralized service hubs for both north and south campus locations. This will result in changing where some of our University Advising team is located and our work patterns around shared spaces, while aligning with the New NAU Workplace’s hybrid-first approach. Through these efforts, we seek to realign our physical space use with our contemporary organizational structure in a way that allows us to create clear access structures for students, promote a sustainable operational model and make the most efficient possible use of campus facilities.

We are excited for the opportunities this change will offer us in strengthening our ability to serve our students consistently and reliably and are committed to sharing additional information and regular updates as our planning matures.

All the best,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

John Georgas
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Operations

Dear NAU faculty,

Change is in the air. As I write, there is a forecast of a return of more wintry weather in Flagstaff. Geopolitical dynamics dominate the news. Generative AI is reshaping just about everything, and NAU is moving rapidly to adapt to myriad factors that affect the pursuit of our important mission. We are changing at a pace that matches the speed of the world around us.

Universities are at once the driver of change and yet notoriously resistant to change. Our endeavors generate innovation, knowledge and learning that transform people, economies, technologies and the social world, at scale. I have pondered this paradox for many years. It may be that the relative stability and security of the university as a context for our teaching, creativity research and other endeavors is what allows us to cross boundaries, explore possibilities, innovate and take risks that generate outcomes that benefit society and our nation.

At a time when the value of universities is questioned by some, we are doubling down on delivering on our core mission and goals while adapting to the dynamic context in which we operate. This requires all of us to embrace change in a way that may challenge our sensibilities. I’ll admit that the pace of change has been challenging for me personally at times, yet as stewards of our university—a precious public asset—it is our duty to embrace the moment and be reflective about our responses and actions in the face of uncertainty. Ultimately, it is through our collective work and willingness to live our ideals as a university community—to question, engage and challenge—that NAU will be successful in transforming in ways that make us stronger and even more successful in the future. I know we have the wherewithal, compassion and commitment to common purpose that will embolden us on the journey ahead.

One place where changes will soon be evident is the physical landscape of our campus. At the end of the semester, we will initiate plans to vacate SBS West, shifting classes and offices from a building that has long strained our infrastructure due to extensive deferred maintenance costs to other locations on campus. We are also moving forward with a new facility for the College of Nursing, supported by state SPEED bonds, and continuing work on Cline Library to create space for academic units relocating from the Babbitt Academic Annex while addressing critical infrastructure needs. Together, these efforts will lead to changes in class scheduling and campus utilization patterns. Additional buildings are being carefully reviewed for efficiency, impact and utilization. In pursuit of more sustainable operations, we are rethinking our infrastructure and how we use space across our campuses and sites.

In parallel, many of you have also been deeply engaged with refining and adapting our portfolio of programs, implementing innovations in learning design and ensuring our students have access to opportunities that prepare them for the society and workforce of the future. It is only through this iterative, intentional and continuous work that we shape the NAU we want for the future. The university is not static; it is a dynamic organism that evolves to meet the demands of the day.

As we reflect on our individual and collective responses to change, let’s lean into the compassion, connection and curiosity that are central to NAU. President Cruz Rivera is leading us to distinctive accomplishments that will grow NAU’s impact and recognition. We are the team that will get this done!

Thank you for the care you bring to your work, and for all you do for our students and each other.

Warm regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear colleagues,

In alignment with NAU’s physical master planning goals and recommendations, we are working closely with leaders and partners across campus to close SBS West (Building #70) following the Spring semester. We will adapt our course schedule and space assignments to take this building offline for the Fall 2026 semester.

Background and rationale

Ceasing operations in SBS West—and planning for its likely demolition in Summer 2027—addresses one of the university’s most significant deferred maintenance liabilities and better aligns our campus footprint with student needs. With an estimated deferred maintenance cost of $11 million, SBS West has long been an area of focus for campus redesign efforts, and its demolition was a priority in our physical master plan. In the long term, this adjustment provides us additional flexibility to build on opportunities that improve the quality of our buildings and spaces.

Next steps and mitigating impacts

The SBS West building is home to many of our colleagues and hosts classes from departments and schools that span four academic colleges. In tandem with Capital Planning and Campus Operations (CAPCO), we worked through class reassignments to ensure student needs are met. While this is a prudent step for streamlining operations and reducing current and future costs, we recognize there will be an impact to our community. In the weeks ahead, we will work closely with academic leaders and faculty in units affected by this building closure, as well as with partners across campus, to chart a path forward. With our Fall 2026 course selection window fast approaching, our current priority is the reassignment of classes and labs for students, using available on-campus classrooms and avoiding any changes to meeting patterns. We will work with unit-level schedulers so room assignments meet student and faculty needs. We are continuing to work with our CAPCO partners and SBS college and unit leadership to identify the most appropriate plan by which to reassign offices and other spaces.

We will keep the university community as informed as possible, and we are grateful for your partnership and patience in helping us successfully navigate this change.

Warm regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

John Georgas
Senior Vice Provost for Academic Operations

Dear colleagues,

As classes for the spring 2026 semester get underway, we’re looking forward to expanding our work together in advancing our artificial intelligence (AI) empowerment goals. And we’re very excited to kick-off the new year by announcing two new additions to the Institute for Advancing Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAAI) leadership team.

Leadership team additions

Following parallel competitive search processes, we’re very happy to welcome Robert Buscaglia and Nick McKay to their new leadership roles with the IAAAI:

• Robert Buscaglia, Director of Research and Scholarship:In this role, Robert will lead efforts in integrating AI into our research and scholarship efforts. Robert Buscaglia is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Northern Arizona University. He holds PhDs in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Applied Mathematics, providing a foundation for interdisciplinary AI-driven research. His work focuses on applied machine learning, statistical learning, and data science, with an emphasis on developing robust, interpretable, and reproducible AI approaches for real-world problems in complex multidisciplinary systems. At NAU, he leads initiatives such as the American Statistical Association DataFest@NAU, promoting experiential, cross-disciplinary engagement with AI and data, and mentors the NAU Data Science Club. An active open-source developer, he builds tools and workflows that support responsible AI research, education, and collaborative scholarship.
• Nicholas McKay, Director of Curriculum and Learning: In this role, Nick will collaborate with faculty to drive curricular and pedagogical transformation that integrates AI. Nick McKay is a Professor in the School of Earth and Sustainability in the College of the Environment, Forestry and Natural Sciences. He is a climate scientist, whose research interests focus on large scale data synthesis, data analysis and data model intercomparison. Nick teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on climate change, earth systems, data analysis and scientific programming. He has been using generative AI in his teaching practice since 2023, exploring and implementing its use in the classroom, lab and field. He is also the chair of the Earth Science and Environmental Sustainability PhD program and serves on the Faculty Senate.

We hope everyone is looking forward to the spring term and the return to working with our students in our classrooms, labs, and studios and online. We invite you to partner with us and the IAAAI and will remain committed to sharing opportunities for participation and updates through communications such as this one and our web portal (available on in.nau.edu/provost/academic-operations/iaaai/).

All the best,

—

John Georgas
Senior Vice Provost, Academic Operations

Michelle Miller
Co-Executive Director, Institute for Advancing Applications of Artificial Intelligence

—

Institute for Advancing Applications of Artificial Intelligence
iaaai@nau.edu
PO Box 4120, Flagstaff, AZ 86011 in.nau.edu/provost/academic-operations/iaaai/

Dear colleagues,

While we continue to enjoy beautiful winter weather that has not significantly impacted our campus operations, we wanted to offer some reminders that may be useful in mitigating the potential impacts of future storms that are bound to happen in wintry northern Arizona.

Winter closure guidelines

Useful guidelines and notes that will be helpful in the event of a winter closure:

• We recommend against asking students to attend synchronous virtual meetings when in-person classes are cancelled. This is driven by an appreciation for the disruptions to life that a major winter storm brings to us all, the different ways in which these disruptions impact our diverse body of students, and the importance that students have as consistent an experience as possible across all their classes;
  • We instead advise that you consider creating videos that substitute for cancelled in-person lectures, along with accompanying exercises and discussion board threads, and deploying these resources through Canvas so students can asynchronously catch up when they’re able. Where possible, consider converting in-person exams to online exams or take-home assignments or projects to account for or reclaim lost in-person meeting time;
• Provide additional flexibility with due dates that are proximate to a closure, to account for the varied impacts of winter storms on students (e.g., power outages, snow removal demands, child-care needs);
• On the rare event of a midday closure, faculty may continue with in-person classes that have already started and are ongoing when our closure notice is shared with the community. Unless otherwise noted, classes impacted by a closure are those that start on or after the indicated closure time;
• Given that we experience regional variability in the impacts of winter weather, members of our community may be unable to safely travel to campus even in the case when we maintain regular operations. Please always prioritize life and safety for yourself and your students—you may cancel your individual classes if it is unsafe for you to travel and please extend this same flexibility to your students who may also experience comparable impacts;
• We’re most likely to experience winter closures during the spring term, so it’s particularly important to plan classes with some flexibility in mind. This will make it easier to recover from what might be omitted without fundamentally compromising course learning outcomes and student preparation for future coursework;
• Clearly communicate to students any class-specific plans around winter closures through the course syllabus, so there are established expectations for each class that may minimize the need for communication on the day of a closure; and,
• Finally, please recall that our buildings may automatically lock in the event of a campus closure: While we plan for a time cushion between closure times and when buildings are locked, it is particularly important during winter weather that you keep your keys and JacksCard accessible.

Helping students manage illness

With winter also comes the increased prevalence of contagious illnesses that may lead to students needing to be absent from class. As always, faculty should manage any such absences that are not covered through our Institutional Excuse policy directly with students.

When working with students, we advise against asking for medical documentation that verifies an absence. During periods like flu season, such a requirement can diminish the ability of our Campus Health Services to serve our community effectively and efficiently, contribute to the spread of illness for students who might have otherwise safely recovered at home, and impose additional costs on students that may not be necessary. Such requests also carry the risk of compromising health information privacy constraints. Helpful information can be found in the “Support and guidance for faculty” section of institutional guidance on absences.

While the cancellation of in-person classes and other absences are always disruptive and often give rise to concerns about impacts on student learning, we are confident that our community of faculty and students is resilient and more than able to adapt successfully.

All the best,

—

John Georgas
Senior Vice Provost, Academic Operations

Dear colleagues,

I’m delighted to announce that Dr. Yojanna Cuenca-Carlino will join NAU in July as the new dean of the College of Education (COE). Dr. Cuenca-Carlino brings an impressive record of academic leadership and innovation. As chair and professor of special education at Illinois State University, she led Illinois’ largest special education program, serving more than 800 students across multiple licensure and graduate pathways. Her strategic approach to faculty development, inclusive teaching and institutional transformation has advanced statewide teacher preparation initiatives and promoted inclusive excellence.

Dr. Cuenca-Carlino has secured more than $2.6 million in philanthropic commitments to support program innovation and scholarships, and has overseen nearly $8 million in state and federal grants for research and educator preparation. Her work includes developing fully online licensure pathways, expanding access to special education and strengthening partnerships with school districts and community colleges. In addition, she has held university-wide leadership roles focused on faculty development and learning, and is a prolific scholar in writing interventions, culturally responsive practices and teacher preparation for multilingual learners with disabilities.

I extend my sincere appreciation to Dean Ramona Mellott for her leadership of the college in the past 11 years. Under Dean Mellott’s guidance, COE has flourished—expanding innovative programs, supporting faculty and student success, and strengthening the college’s reputation for excellence. Her dedication and vision have left a lasting impact on the college and the broader NAU community, and we are deeply grateful for her service.

I also want to thank the search committee for their thoughtful work, including Dean Perez-Granados for her leadership as search chair and Mathilde Willis, executive assistant in the Office of the Provost, for her excellent support throughout the process.

Warm regards

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear NAU Faculty,

As we approach the end of the fall semester, I want to thank you for your continued dedication to our students and NAU. This semester has been filled with remarkable achievements, innovative work and a deep commitment to student success.

Throughout the fall, NAU faculty advanced groundbreaking research, earned national awards and secured prestigious grants. You also continued to elevate teaching excellence through the Inclusive Excellence in Teaching framework. You strengthened career readiness for every graduate while contributing to new academic programs in engineering, health and forestry, and launching new international partnerships. We also launched our new General Studies curriculum—reflecting our shared commitment to providing relevant, high-quality learning experiences.

I am especially grateful for the strong turnout and thoughtful dialogue at last month’s Coffee and Conversation with the Provost. Your candid insights and questions were invaluable. Please watch for additional Coffee and Conversation opportunities this spring! These gatherings are essential in helping me understand your experiences and priorities. I look forward to continuing these conversations in the months ahead.

I am also pleased to share the launch of our new website showcasing the exceptional faculty who joined our community this fall. Please explore the site to learn more about our newest colleagues across all colleges and departments, and join me in welcoming them as they become part of our academic community.

As we prepare for the new year, let’s carry forward the spirit of innovation, collaboration and care that defines NAU. Thank you for your commitment to excellence in teaching, research and service. Together, we are shaping the future of NAU and making a meaningful difference in the lives of our students.

Wishing you a restful winter break and a joyful holiday season.

Warm regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear colleagues,

As we work to wrap up the semester and enter the holiday season, we invite you to join us in celebrating the remarkable progress we’ve achieved together toward advancing our artificial intelligence (AI) empowerment goals, supported through the work of the Institute for Advancing Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAAI).

Updates and highlights

Throughout the fall term, we focused our attention on building foundational structures through which the IAAAI consults and engages with the broader University community and in recruiting faculty to provide leadership for further efforts that will fully realize the Institute’s vision. In addition, we partnered with stakeholders across the institution to support a wide range of efforts. Particularly notable highlights of our work from this past fall term include:

• Conducting open internal searches to recruit strong faculty executive leadership for the IAAAI’s efforts, culminating in the recruitment of Dr. Michelle Miller as Co-Executive Director, and ongoing efforts to recruit faculty leaders for the roles of Director of Curriculum and Learning and Director of Research and Scholarship;
• Assembling and convening the inaugural IAAAI Advisory Council, composed of stakeholders that will help ground our work through diverse perspectives that are shaped by a breadth of disciplinary lenses, institutional roles, and campus locations;
• In collaboration with Dr. Jason Wilder and the Office of the Vice President for Research, launching a second wave of AI-focused faculty recruitment, led by an interdisciplinary search committee and chaired by Dr. Diana Elder;
• In partnership with our Faculty Senate and Drs. Luis Fernandez, KT Thompson, and Gioia Woods, hosting an open townhall meeting to discuss the potential future impacts of AI on higher education, led by a panel of expert NAU faculty from diverse disciplines;
• With the leadership of Dr. John Doherty and the Cline Library team and partnering with Information Technology Services, supporting the development of the AI Hub, slated to launch in mid-January and planning on offering support for exploring and experimenting and engaging with practical applications of AI;
• In partnership with Amy Rushall and our Teaching and Learning Center, supporting a variety of AI-focused programs to help faculty, including the AI Starter Kit, Integrating AI into UDL Course Design, AI Resilient Assessments, and AI-focused book discussions;
• Supporting Information Technology Services in their development of our AI Literacy at NAU course, which we continue to encourage all faculty and staff to complete and consider integrating into courses (https://canvas.nau.edu/courses/32968); and,
• Launching our support of speaker engagements in partnership with the College of Arts and Letters and Department of Philosophy.

We hope that the holidays bring you all a chance to rest and rejuvenate, and we’re looking forward to the AI-related work ahead for our community in the spring term. We invite you to partner with us and will remain committed to sharing opportunities for participation and updates through communications such as this one and our web portal (available on in.nau.edu/provost/academic-operations/iaaai/).

All the best,

—

John Georgas
Senior Vice Provost, Academic Operations

Michelle Miller
Co-Executive Director, Institute for Advancing Applications of Artificial Intelligence

Dear colleagues,

Fall is a season of abundance—colors, harvests, beaver moons and gatherings of family and friends over sumptuous meals. Inspired by the theme of the season, I’ve been thinking about the cornucopia of faculty achievements.

Over time I get glimpses of the abundance of contributions and achievements of our faculty. Lurking in our FAAR system are data that comprehensively document all the activities, impacts and accomplishments of NAU faculty. The data aren’t perfect, nor do we have an effective way to extract data in a way that would tell the real story about NAU faculty. Yet, the sampling of what is shared and publicized is indicative of the scope and magnitude of what NAU faculty accomplish through their teaching, mentoring, scholarship, professional and community engagement. It is a spectacular display that rivals the celebrated colors of fall. Please join me in a brief pause at this busy time of year to celebrate the outstanding faculty of NAU. Your work directly supports our vision to be a premier institution known for student success, impactful research and community engagement.

Cornucopia also connotes nurturance. NAU faculty are widely recognized and beloved for their personal engagement and transformative impact on students. Alumni return to Flagstaff this season for Homecoming and gather to express their love of NAU and deep appreciation of our faculty and staff. (Some also like to party!) Your unwavering commitment to excellence in teaching and creation of exceptional educational experiences shapes the lives of our graduates. I join our Homecoming celebrants in thanking you for all the ways in which you have contributed to what is distinctive and meaningful about how NAU impacts our students.

The breadth and depth of recent faculty achievements showcase the remarkable talent and dedication present across our campus. The highlights below illustrate just a few of the innovative, collaborative and impactful ways our faculty distinguish themselves—both within NAU and beyond.

• A study from assistant professor Luke Auld-Thomas (Anthropology, SBS) uncovered a stunning 6,674 never-before-studied ancient Maya structures in Campeche, Mexico.
• Professor Jani Ingram (Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, CEFNS) received the 2025 Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science Distinguished Scientist Award.
• Associate professor Zach Lerner (Mechanical Engineering, SCE) and colleagues created and shared an open-source system that provides instructions for building an exoskeleton that could help more people with disabilities walk on their own.
• Professor Kate Ellis (Theatre, CAL) draped “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder for the 2025 summer season,” and “The Taming of the Shrew” for the 2024 summer season, at the national Tony Award-winning Utah Shakespeare
• Associate professor Olivia Lindly (Department of Health Sciences, CHHS), Benjamin Lucas (Department of Mathematics & Statistics) and David Folch (Department of Geography, Planning & Recreation), with a co-principal investigator from Oregon Health and Science University received a NIH grant to study ways to improve the health and quality of life among people living with
• Professor Andrew Richardson (SICCS and ECOSS, SCE) has been named a 2025 Fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
• Professor and associate dean Alexandra Carpino (Comparative Cultural Studies, CAL) was elected as a Corresponding Member of Istituto Nazionale di Studi Etruschi ed Italici in November 2024.
• Associate professor Jeff Hovermill (Mathematics & Statistics and CSTL, CEFNS) and co-PIs were awarded a $1.1M NSF grant titled “Arizona Data Science ” Arizona Data Science Corps will design and research pathways that deepen 6th-12th grade teachers’ and 6th-16th grade students’ understanding of and participation in the full data investigative cycle.
• Aimee Quinn, Librarian (NAU-Yuma), received the 2024 Catharine Reynolds Research Award from the American Library Association which honors an individual who has made a lifetime and significant contribution to the field of librarianship.

These accomplishments are only a glimpse of the outstanding work happening at NAU every day.* Each achievement is the result of countless hours of dedication, collaboration and intellectual rigor. They exemplify the excellence that defines our academic community and remind us that NAU’s success is built on the creativity, expertise and commitment of our faculty.

(* Apologies to all those with important accomplishments we do not have the space here to highlight.)

I am sincerely grateful for your ongoing dedication to advancing knowledge, mentorship of future scholars and leaders and contributions to our shared mission. Our values—student-centeredness, integrity, collaboration, inclusive excellence and sustainability—are reflected in your daily efforts and achievements.

You, together with NAU staff, are shaping the future of NAU and making a meaningful difference in the lives of our students and the broader community.

With deep appreciation and admiration,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear NAU Faculty,

As autumn settles in and the semester moves forward, I’d like to share some reflections and updates from recent faculty engagement and ongoing initiatives.

On Friday, Sept. 26, the Arizona Board of Regents shared a breakfast with faculty senators from across the university. The Faculty-Regent Breakfast is an opportunity for regents to engage with our faculty directly and learn about their critical work inside and outside the classroom. This year’s focus was 100% Career Ready and the efforts of faculty to enhance our graduates’ career readiness. I was filled with pride to hear faculty describe the many ways that they ensure our students are well prepared for their postgraduate pursuits in a dynamic world. And it was moving and affirming to hear the regents praise NAU faculty for their distinctive commitment to students and their success. I want to extend my sincere thanks to the Faculty Senate for facilitating this conversation and to all of our faculty for their commitment to 100% Career Ready.

Another priority for this year is deepening and refining distinctive teaching excellence at NAU. I firmly believe that the quality of our teaching is the centerpiece of our value proposition and institutional identity—distinguishing NAU from other similarly situated universities. University-wide adoption of Inclusive Excellence in Teaching: NAU Best Practices for Teaching Effectiveness, developed through a collaboration between the NAU Teaching Academy and Faculty Senate, sets a strong foundation. With this framework for course design and pedagogy in place, we are creating a university-wide community of practice that informs how we conceptualize and foster outstanding teaching, propelling our students toward their goals.

As I reflect on our institutional priorities of career readiness and teaching excellence, I am reminded often of how these endeavors are situated in a larger context. In this historical, cultural and political moment, we are necessarily focused on how we cultivate capacities for critical thinking—rigorous intellectual dialogue and analysis that engage students with an array of disciplinary or professional perspectives and debates. This fundamental project of our university is more challenging than ever in an environment where polarization and controversy are heightened in ways that frequently obscure genuine understanding. Against this challenging backdrop, we must redouble our commitment to academic inquiry and the open exchange of ideas. Universities are unique in how they couple this formal embrace of free expression with the pursuit of knowledge through disciplined inquiry that fuels discovery, innovation, and the positive social impacts we seek.

Throughout the academic year, the Teaching and Learning Center will offer opportunities for you to advance your practices for facilitating dialogue and inquiry. In recognition of the dynamics around us, there will be attention to practices for de-escalation of heated discussions in our classrooms. We should not shy away from what is important and productive for our students’ learning. Instead, I hope we master the best of practices and intellectual courage to continue to distinguish NAU as a university with distinctive teaching excellence.

Thanks to all of you for your commitment to and care for our students. We are developing them for the future.

Warm regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear colleagues,

We’re excited to announce a major milestone in our launch of the Institute for Advancing Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAAI)—the formation of the IAAAI advisory council.

Mission

Members of the advisory council will guide and support the Institute’s work in accelerating our pace of thoughtful adaptation to the emergence of artificial intelligence technologies by collaborating with IAAAI leadership and grounding our work in diverse perspectives from across the institution, identifying emerging opportunities and risks, recommending strategic priorities, advising on policies and guidelines, reviewing and assessing the progress of our work and its impact, facilitating connections with external partners, and championing our initiatives and programs across multiple communities.

Membership

Selected based on nominations from our academic deans and Faculty Senate, our advisory council members will help inform the IAAAI’s work through a wide breadth of perspectives, disciplinary lenses, institutional roles, and locations. We’re grateful to the inaugural members of the IAAAI Advisory Council:

• Shadow Armfield, Associate Dean and Professor, Department of Educational Specialties, College of Education
• Kara Attrep, Associate Dean and Associate Teaching Professor, Honors College
• Peggy Bradley, Director and Assistant Clinical Professor, College of Nursing
• Michelle Carpenter, Executive Director and Professor, School of Communication, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Charles Chadwell, Dean and Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Construction Management, and Environmental Engineering, Steve Sanghi College of Engineering
• Bettie Coplan, Faculty Senator and Associate Professor, Department of Physician Assistant Studies, College of Health and Human Services
• Kate Ellis, Faculty Senate President and Professor, Department of Theatre, College of Arts and Letters
• Roger Haro, Dean and Professor, School of Earth and Sustainability, College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences
• Joseph Little, Associate Dean and Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Finance, and Accounting, W. A. Franke College of Business
• Jeff Meeks, Interim Chair and Associate Teaching Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, College of Health and Human Services
• Erik Nielsen, Chief Sustainability Officer and Professor, School of Earth and Sustainability, College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences
• Gioia Woods, Chair and Professor, Department of Comparative Cultural Studies, College of Arts and Letters

Please join me in congratulating and thanking members for their service to this important institutional initiative.

We invite each of you to join us in this effort—we’ll continue to share opportunities for participation and updates through communications such as this one and our web portal (currently available on legacy.nau.edu/provost/academic-operations/iaaai/) and have created the iaaai@nau.edu email address, which you can use to reach out to IAAAI leadership.

All the best,

—

John Georgas
Senior Vice Provost, Academic Operations

Dear NAU Faculty,

Welcome to the start of the Fall 2025 semester. As we begin this academic year, we do so with a deep sense of pride in our shared accomplishments and a clear-eyed view of the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Under President Cruz Rivera’s leadership, we are embracing the concept of antifragility—that we will grow stronger through stress and uncertainty. Instead of seeking return to a prior state, it’s a call to redesign how we work in pursuit of our mission and goals.

We enter this year riding a wave of achievement:

• Raised over $68 million in fundraising last year, including the naming of the Steve Sanghi College of Engineering and the establishment of new endowed professorships
• Achieved a strong undergraduate retention rate of 77%, matching our highest year on record in 2018.
• Expanded health and behavioral health programs, putting us on track to double the number of graduates by 2030.
• Advanced program expansion and global reach through new academic offerings in engineering, health, forestry, and more—while growing international partnerships that now include NAU degree programs delivered by faculty in China and Singapore.
• Surpassed $100 million in research expenditures, setting a new benchmark for scholarly impact.
• Strengthened career readiness initiatives with the support of a Strada Foundation grant for the 100% Career Ready program.
• Celebrated a record year for national and international scholarships, including three Fulbright recipients, two Goldwater recipients, a Boren Scholarship recipient heading to Brazil, and a Udall recipient who is also among this year’s Goldwater honorees.
• NAU’s Oxford debate team took first place in the 2025 Regents Cup.

These and your many other accomplishments reflect the strength of our academic community and the values we share. They also position us to move forward with confidence, even as we navigate changes in federal funding, enrollment trends, and evolving expectations for higher education.

This year, we are called to think differently about success—not in terms of growth, but in terms of quality, impact, and relevance. We are a regional public research university with a powerful mission: to serve first-generation students, and to prepare all our graduates for meaningful and productive lives and careers. That mission is more important than ever.

As we look ahead, I encourage you to reflect on how your work contributes to our shared goals. Whether through innovative teaching, impactful research, or thoughtful leadership, each of you plays a vital role in shaping the future of our university. In the coming year, I ask you to continue to build on NAU’s distinctive teaching excellence and the degree programs that prepare our graduates for their futures.

The NAU Teaching Academy and Faculty Senate created Inclusive Excellence in Teaching, an evidence-based framework for course design and pedagogy. This articulates what we mean by “teaching excellence” and distinguishes the learning experience at NAU. Please be informed by the Inclusive Excellence in Teaching framework in your teaching.

100% Career Ready, now empowered with grant funding and dedicated leadership, will support your individual and collective efforts to strengthen alignment of our degree program curricula with what is requisite for graduate success in their careers. Curriculum and course embedded career support, from exploration to strategy, will ensure NAU graduates are equipped for success and impact in their careers. Faculty are the key drivers of this signature initiative. This year we welcome the leadership of Assistant Vice Provost Jersus Colmenares López for this signature initiative. I recognize and am grateful for all you’ve accomplished and look forward to seeing NAU’s robust career ecosystem take shape in the coming year.

This is also a time when our researchers and scholars are navigating substantial changes in funding and other opportunities to secure support for scholarship. Your strategic acumen, agility and creativity will cultivate anti-fragility in our research endeavors. Our team collaborates with academic leaders and the Vice President for Research to support you. We invest in your success and celebrate your achievements.

Thank you for your dedication, your leadership, and your belief in the transformative power of education. I look forward to all we will accomplish together this year.

Warm regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear colleagues,

As we all launch into the Year of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Empowerment, we’re excited to announce an academic affairs-homed effort aimed at accelerating our pace of adaptation to the emergence of AI technologies—the launch of the Institute for Advancing Applications of Artificial Intelligence (IAAAI).

Goals

As artificial intelligence technologies continue to offer us opportunities to responsibly and thoughtfully adapt and innovate in our courses, curricula, and scholarship, the IAAAI will serve as a hub that harnesses our collective expertise and coalesces our actions across the institution. Adapted from proven organizational models used by other institutions, this effort will engage with and collaborate broadly across our colleges and departments to facilitate the development of AI-infused courses and curricula, support programs that serve the learning needs of faculty and the broader community, and create opportunities for interdisciplinary scholarly collaborations. Through these initiatives, the IAAAI will serve as an important part of our institutional strategy in preparing students for evolving career readiness demands and innovative scholarly possibilities, ensuring that we remain at the forefront of innovation and educational excellence.

Governance and advisory council

Our approach to designing the IAAAI’s governance structures recognizes the essential need that our planning and implementation efforts are led by faculty and guided by input from a broad set of stakeholder voices. We will soon be announcing internal searches for the IAAAI’s co-executive director, director of curriculum and learning, and director of research and scholarship—these three faculty leaders will partner with the Office of the Provost to shape the Institute’s trajectory, direct high-impact projects, and lead taskforces and working groups. An advisory board composed of academic leaders across colleges, departments, and our Faculty Senate will help offer strategic guidance to the IAAAI’s activities. In the coming weeks, we will also be sharing more details about other opportunities to get involved in the IAAAI’s work through taskforces and functional groups, calls for pilot initiatives, open discussion forums, and other ways to engage.

As our work progresses, we will continue to offer frequent updates over email communications and the IAAAI’s web portal that is currently available on legacy.nau.edu/provost/academic-operations/iaaai/. We invite each of you to join us in shaping the future of this effort—your perspectives are essential in helping NAU appropriately leverage AI technologies in serving our students and mission.

All the best,

—

John Georgas
Senior Vice Provost, Academic Operations

Dear colleagues,

As we settle into summer and reflect on another successful academic year, I am writing to share news about an exciting career opportunity for one of our valued colleagues.

Vice Provost for Global Affairs Yimin Wang has accepted the position of dean of the College of Extended Education and International Programs at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). She will begin this new chapter in July, following three years of dedicated service to NAU.

During her tenure, Yimin has made a lasting impact on our institution. She led the reconfiguration of international recruitment strategies, broadening our global reach through partnerships, expanding Interdisciplinary Global Programs and increasing international student enrollment. Yimin also expanded global learning opportunities for our students across a wide range of disciplines. The high level of first-generation student participation in study abroad brought national recognition to NAU.

Yimin also has been a leader for the 100% Career Ready initiative. Notably, she played a key role in securing the Strada Education Foundation grant, which awarded NAU nearly $300,000 to advance this initiative. Her vision and commitment to global engagement have enriched our academic community and enhanced the student experience.

While we will greatly miss Yimin’s leadership and expertise, we are proud to see her take this next step and confident that CSUMB will benefit from her insight and experience.

In light of this transition, I am pleased to announce that Cesar Flores, Associate Vice Provost for the Center for International Education, will be appointed to succeed Yimin as Vice Provost for Global Affairs. Cesar brings a wealth of experience in global engagement and recruitment and will continue to build on the strong foundation Yimin has established.

Additionally, Yvonne Luna, Vice Provost for Academic and Workforce Alliances, will assume responsibility for the 100% Career Ready Initiative. Yvonne’s current portfolio and leadership make her well-positioned to guide this important work forward.

To support this work, we will be launching an internal search for a faculty member to serve part-time as the Assistant Vice Provost for Career Readiness Strategy. This 40% appointment will focus on advancing the initiative in collaboration with Yvonne, with particular attention to integrating career readiness across academic programs and strengthening faculty partnerships. Additional details about this position, including how to apply, will be sent out next week.

Please join me in congratulating Yimin on her new role, welcoming Cesar to his expanded leadership position, and supporting Yvonne as she takes on the important 100% Career Ready initiative. I am grateful for the continued dedication and collaboration of our academic community as we move forward together.

Warm regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear colleagues,

I am pleased to share several important updates, including the appointment of a new dean and key organizational changes. Following a thorough assessment of institutional priorities and extensive consultation with stakeholders, we have made strategic leadership appointments and implemented targeted reorganizations to better support our mission, strategic finance goals, and long-term academic success. These changes reflect our continued commitment to academic excellence, student success, and responsive administration.

College of Health and Human Services

I’m delighted to announce that Dr. Janelle Chiasera will join NAU in July as the new dean of the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS). Dr. Chiasera brings extensive academic leadership experience, a deep commitment to student success, and a strong passion for advancing health and human services education, with a focus on supporting faculty achievement and fostering impactful research.

She currently serves as professor of biomedical sciences at Quinnipiac University and previously served as dean of the School of Health Sciences. Her prior leadership roles at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and The Ohio State University, along with her research in renal complications related to Type 2 diabetes mellitus, leadership practices, and community health, speak to her depth and breadth of experience. A 2015 ACE Fellow, Dr. Chiasera has also completed multiple prestigious leadership development programs. I am excited to welcome her energy and vision to CHHS.

I extend my sincere appreciation to Interim Dean Matthew Ford for his leadership of the college this past year. I also want to thank the search committee for their thoughtful work, including Dean Roger Haro for his leadership and Mathilde Willis for her exceptional support throughout the process.

Office of Graduate and Professional Studies

 Vice Provost for Academic Programming and Graduate Studies Maribeth Watwood has announced her retirement at the end of this academic year. After nine years as chair of the Department of Biological Sciences and nine years leading graduate education, Vice Provost Watwood has been an instrumental part of NAU’s advancement and the growth of graduate education at NAU. Maribeth has been the enthusiastic leader orchestrating our 100% Career Ready initiative extending her impact across all NAU programs. The entire NAU community is deeply grateful for her contributions and will miss her very much. I am personally thankful for her leadership and partnership over the past four years.

Following a review of both the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies (OGPS) and the Provost Office’s leadership structure, I’m pleased to share that in FY26, Laura Bounds will continue in her role as Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Studies, leading OGPS. As leader of OGPS, Laura will report to Senior Vice Provost for Academic Operations John Georgas. This transition strengthens alignment between graduate programs and other areas within John’s portfolio, supporting improved collaborations to strengthen support for graduate programs and students, and operational efficiency.

John’s extensive experience in graduate education and academic operations, along with Laura’s deep knowledge and expertise within OGPS, will ensure a smooth transition. In addition, OGPS will work closely with Curriculum, Assessment and General Studies to streamline and strengthen graduate curriculum processes.

100% Career Ready

With Vice Provost Watwood’s retirement, I am transitioning oversight of the 100% Career Ready initiative to Vice Provost Yimin Wang, whose title will change to Vice Provost for International and Experiential Education. Vice Provost Wang collaborated closely with Maribeth on the successful Strada Education Foundation grant, which brought nearly $300,000 to NAU to support student career readiness. Her passion for innovation in career development, integration of experiential learning, and strong industry partnerships make her exceptionally well-suited to advance this work.

Thank you for your continued partnership as we work together to support our students, faculty, and the broader university community.

Warm regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and Provost

Dear colleagues,

With continued change in the capabilities of technologies come evolutions in how we use software tools to support student academic momentum and success. We wanted to write with information on one such evolution: Replacing the Faculty2Student (F2S) outreach tool with built-in Canvas capabilities to facilitate sharing timely feedback to students regarding their grade performance starting in summer 2025.

Canvas: Expanded analytics and student communication capabilities

One of the most impactful changes in the ecosystem of technologies we use to support student learning was our recent adoption of the Canvas learning management system. Through a collaborative selection process that started in summer of 2021, we successfully launched our use of the Canvas platform in the fall 2023 term. Faculty and students have continued to welcome this transition to a more user-friendly and feature-rich platform.

Since this launch, we have been further evaluating the set of features available through Canvas—features that go beyond mirroring those previously available through Blackboard Learn with which we were all previously accustomed. Two of those additional features include (a) expanded analytics that help faculty review the grade trajectories of students in their classes and (b) built-in communication tools that allow faculty to send students a variety of messages through Canvas, including communications that are programmatically based on student grade performance.

Replacing the Faculty2Student Outreach tool after spring 2025

These two Canvas capabilities provide largely duplicative and expanded functionality to our homegrown F2S system currently in use and do so with key advantages: These capabilities are integrated into the Canvas LMS, which provides a real-time integration with grade and attendance data already a part of Canvas gradebooks—this relieves faculty from the overhead associated with having to use multiple software platforms to send messages to students. Furthermore, these capabilities are robustly supported by Instructure as part of the Canvas product, which relieves us from the technical debt associated with the F2S tool and allows us to strategically redirect our software developers toward developing and improving other systems. As a result, the F2S tool will be deactivated at the end of the spring 2025 term, as we pivot our attention toward using Canvas to offer students. Our Teaching and Learning Center team will offer faculty robust learning resources and guides on how to use these Canvas-based capabilities in the months to come and integrate these resources into our regular professional development offerings over the coming years.

Remaining committed to communication moving forward

We know that timely communication is pivotal to student academic momentum, either by validating and encouraging students to continue and build on their success or by offering them constructive feedback that prompts them to reach out for additional support and to recommit and redouble their academic efforts. The use of these Canvas tools, as with F2S previously, is an important complement to the rich ways in which faculty communicate with students and offer feedback. This change is merely a technical one that modifies the tools we use to support this work while maintaining our steadfast commitment to offering students timely feedback and critical insights into their academic progress and trajectory.

We are excited to continue partnering to support our students’ academic momentum and creating a supportive learning environment that helps students thrive.

All the best,

John Georgas
Senior Vice Provost, Academic Operations

Dear NAU faculty,

It has been a long journey to NAU’s new designation as a R1 institution. Faculty over many years have created doctoral programs and pursued research that has attracted growing investment from external sponsors. In the early years, faculty pursued scholarship with very little material support or assigned time. With passion for inquiry and learning and later with substantial institutional investment, NAU built a productive research enterprise and a portfolio of doctoral degree programs. Congratulations to all who have contributed to this accomplishment!

I’m often asked about what it means for NAU to now be in this “very high spending and doctorate production” classification. NAUs’s R1 designation is a collective accomplishment that reflects more than narrow research metrics—it represents our commitment to education, student success and engagement with Flagstaff and communities throughout Arizona. We are proof that meaningful, transformative research happens not just with abundant resources, but with strategic vision, dedication, and collaborative spirit.

This designation means that we have an external identity that is reflective of our collective commitment to scholarly excellence, innovation, and impact. Our R1 designation is particularly meaningful for a regional public university like ours. We understand that research excellence is not about competing with well-resourced private institutions, but about meaningful scholarly work that addresses regional challenges, supports Arizona communities, and provides impactful educational experiences for our students.

NAU faculty are teacher-scholars. All are highly qualified so that their teaching and other work is informed by disciplinary expertise, and many are engaged directly in the many forms of research and scholarship that build knowledge and develop applications and innovations that shape the world of the future.

Over time NAU has gained recognition for strategically focused areas of research, which drive our impact and the expenditures that are required for R1 designation. Areas such as environmental sciences and forestry, health and biomedical sciences, informatics and cyber systems, astronomy and planetary sciences are designated by ABOR for investment of TRIF funds and will continue to benefit from that distinct form of support.

We will continue to build NAU’s research capacity, especially where we can make distinctive contributions, prioritizing interdisciplinary work that leverages our faculty’s diverse expertise and addresses critical regional needs. We have a strong interdisciplinary bench across the university in areas such as health and environmental sciences. Two recent cluster hire initiatives were focused on bringing in talent in remote sensing and AI applications. These investments will advance research and teaching in many areas across the university.

We remain committed to creating research opportunities that directly benefit our student learning. NAU scholars create undergraduate and graduate research experiences, recognizing that student engagement is as important as publication outcomes. Our undergraduate student research efforts will be showcased at the 2025 Undergraduate Symposium from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 25 in the High Country Conference Center.

Our R1 designation is not a finish line, but a beginning. We are committed to:

• Redoubling our efforts to provide teaching excellence across all disciplines to best serve our students
• Supporting faculty scholarly and creative activities in alignment our mission and goals
• Celebrating varied forms of scholarly contribution
• Expanding opportunities for students to have meaningful research experiences in courses, communities and labs

Thank you for your continued commitment to our academic mission. Your work shapes our students’ futures and our university’s trajectory. Wishing you a productive and inspiring semester.

Warmest regards,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear NAU faculty,

I hope this message finds you well during another busy semester at NAU. As the autumn leaves color our campus, I want to express my gratitude for your continued dedication to our students. You continue to reaffirm our mission to impact Arizona’s students and communities by creating access to opportunity, propelling mobility and having positive social impact.

As we approach the end of another semester, I wanted to write to you on the importance of faculty well-being and workload management. As we continue to navigate our institutional responsibilities, I acknowledge the dedication you bring to your teaching, research and service commitments while recognizing the very real challenges inherent to faculty work and for maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Our commitment to academic excellence remains unwavering, even as our financial resources are constrained. We are continuing to evaluate how we prioritize and invest our resources—most importantly our individual and collective efforts. We are working with the deans to implement several strategies to help manage workload, including but not limited to:

• Encouraging departments to review service commitments and eliminate redundant or excessive committee work to recover effort that can be directed to high-impact, high-priority activities
• Developing clear guidelines for equitable distribution of departmental responsibilities across all faculty
• Optimizing curriculum design by reducing complexity
• Prioritizing student progression in course schedule planning
• Ensuring a dynamic program portfolio that is responsive to student interests and employer needs and focuses effort on programs that will contribute most substantially to realizing NAU’s goals

As we consider the crucial balance of faculty workload and institutional resources, I want to pivot to a closely related priority: maintaining strong academic momentum for our students. To assist with this priority, we started First Year Together (FYT) with the first courses being offered in Fall 2024. FYT provides a distinctive academic experience for NAU first-year students, leveraging faculty expertise and adding support for courses that significantly impact student momentum. Through FYT, faculty course coordinators are linked with student partners whose voices provide important input for refining course designs and practices for these key courses.

Supporting student momentum doesn’t necessarily require more faculty time—often, it’s about being more strategic with the time we have. Please see the resources and programming offered through the Teaching & Learning Center for ideas about how to manage strategically what can be the most time consuming of teaching responsibilities—logistics and assessment. Our goal is to enhance student success while ensuring faculty well-being remains a priority.

Please share your insights about effective practices that support both manageable faculty workload and student momentum with your colleagues, chair/director or dean. Thank you for your dedication to excellence at NAU.

Best,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear NAU Faculty,

The excitement of the new academic year is contagious. This is a special time infused with the energy of curiosity and possibilities. Students new to NAU across all our locations and online are exploring, connecting, and learning. NAU faculty are their intellectual guides on a journey to reach their full potential and goals. When I see students with their families hauling belongings across campus for move-in and students route finding the first week of classes, I am reminded of our purpose. It is energizing to center on “why.”

At the same time, our commitment to academic excellence in pursuit of our vision to create opportunities that open doors and propel our students to success in careers and rich lives, we do need to think deeply about the “how.” This year our collective work will have us reflecting critically on how we teach, support learning, design curriculum and courses, sustain a dynamic program portfolio, balance our most important work in teaching, scholarship, and community engagement, and orchestrate processes of shared governance and peer review. These efforts are investments in the future. Guided by our vision and goals, we will lay the foundation for the next era of NAU.

President Cruz Rivera’s convocation address was a tour through the history of NAU and a forecast of where we are headed. He launched us into this era of impact and innovation with high aspirations and the maturity to discern the key challenges the lie ahead.

Together we will marshal our talent, expertise, and capacity to innovate and forge a path to sustainability as we realize our vision. NAU will offer high-value programs that elevate students’ professional success and impact on communities. NAU will contribute discoveries relevant to our region and translate them into practice to benefit the people of Arizona. NAU will collaborate with communities to engage our students and faculty in endeavors that enhance vitality and well-being.

If it sounds to you like I am signaling change, you are right. We are in a moment in NAU’s history that calls upon us to adapt and prepare for greater achievements. Our work will have us centering on “why” as we reflect on “how” to fulfill our collective mission.

Academic leadership is a collaborative project. I am grateful to our academic leaders, deans, associate deans and chairs/directors, and the Faculty Senate for their collaboration on our journey to Elevating Excellence . Together we are pursuing greater impact as we strengthen our programs with career relevant outcomes. We are accelerating academic momentum by refining design of our curricula and courses. We are reaching for teaching excellence with best practices from Inclusive Excellence in Teaching. Lastly, we are investing in our future with efforts to explore uses of Artificial Intelligence in teaching and scholarship, while we seek to recruit faculty talent with AI expertise across the university.

In the coming year we will also implement policy and process changes we have adopted over the last two years. I invite all to reflect on “why”, as we ask questions about legacy practices, and seek courageous decisions that will ensure our future success.

Best wishes for the academic year!

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

Dear Colleagues

We are hopeful this overview of the Professional Project Reassignment Program (PPRP) is helpful for you and your units. For frequently asked questions, read this FAQ Guide. Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Take care,

Dr. Sara R. Rinfret
Associate Vice Provost, Faculty Affairs
Professor of Public Administration
Babbitt Administration Center

Dear Faculty,

At the start of this academic year, President Cruz Rivera challenged all of us to take actions to increase student academic momentum. This sharpened our focus and has us reflecting critically on several aspects of our operations, including curricular and course design, and pedagogical practices that impact student learning and progression.

From conversations with faculty, I know that learning, development, and the success of our students is our collective priority. We are all challenged to understand fully how the lived and recent pandemic experiences of our students affect how they transition to our campuses, make connections, and engage in our classrooms and online learning spaces. We know that we need to meet them where they are. We know that in pursuing their education, traditional-aged students have a different project than our older students who are returning to an educational pursuit while employed and often supporting families. We know that our Indigenous and Latine students are embedded in distinct cultural and community contexts while they engage with and navigate the learning environment and institutional practices of the university. We know that our students present an array of histories, circumstances, strengths, and challenges.

We launched this semester with our annual Teaching Day. This year, the NAU Teaching Academy and the Teaching & Learning Center hosted Dr. Cia Vershelden, author of Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty. Dr. Verhelden led Teaching Day participants through an exploration of how social, economic, and political contexts for student development and learning play out. How can we—you in your classrooms and the university in how it structures the learning environment at an institutional level—create conditions that maximize inclusiveness and benefit our students, allowing them to achieve their college degree aspirations?

Dr. Vershelden explored with Teaching Day participants strategies to draw out, celebrate, and cultivate the strengths and resources of our students so they may achieve their goals. If you were not able to participate, access the materials from Teaching Day 2024 online.

Student momentum is key to achieving our goals to increase equity in educational attainment across communities in Arizona. Thank you for everything you do to support the success of our students.

Best,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost

The Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (OURCA) has several opportunities available to support faculty engaging students in research and scholarship.

• Interns-to-Scholars (I2S): Now accepting faculty requests for spring 2024 (closes November 6)
• Submit your application for a research intern to assist with your current research or scholarship. OURCA will fund approved I2S positions for up to six hours per week for up to two semesters.
• Pathways to Research Speaker Series (New): Now accepting faculty requests for spring 2024 invited speakers (closes November 15)
• Pathways to Research is intended to help students connect the dots between their course content and potential career opportunities – all while understanding how research can intersect with the pathway of someone in their field. Faculty can request a speaker for their spring class by November 15. Three speakers will be selected from faculty requests and invited to the Flagstaff-Mountain campus to share their pathway in spring 2024. OURCA will cover speaker expenses and coordinate the event.
• Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) Development Grants: Apply December 15 – March 1
• The CURE Development Grant is designed to increase the institution’s capacity to offer research experiences to all students through the integration of research in the curriculum. Faculty proposals to redesign of an existing course that incorporates the key elements of a CURE will be accepted from December 15 – March 1. Recipients will receive up to $7,000 to support the development and implementation of a CURE.
• Save the Date: 2024 Undergraduate Symposium to be held on April 26, 2024
• NAU’s Office of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activity is pleased to announce the 16th Annual Undergraduate Symposium to be held on Friday, April 26, 2024.  The deadline for student registration will be March 15.

This is a great opportunity to engage our students in meaningful research experiences and help them see the pathways into graduate school and career. For questions or more information, please reach out to the OURCA team at ug-research@nau.edu

All the best,

—

John Georgas
Senior Vice Provost, Academic Operations

Good Afternoon,

All individuals serving on faculty hiring committees are required to complete the on-demand course “The Influence of Unconscious Bias in Decision Making”. To access this course please log in to the Vector Solutions LMS. You will be directed to the CAS login screen.

• Log in with your NAU credentials.
• Once logged in, select “Extra Training” from the left side tool bar.
• On the extra training page, select “Faculty search Committees”, then select the course title (the only course on the page).

To retrieve your completion certificate:

• Select ‘Training History’ from the left side tool bar.  If the course is not showing, adjust the date range to ensure the date of completion is included.
• Choose ‘View Certificate’ next to the course.
• Right click on the certificate to print (either a hard copy or to PDF to save).

These certificates should be stored within the College.

For committee members or admin staff assisting with the faculty hiring process we also have an optional HR led training, “Overview of the Faculty Hiring Process”.

To access this training, please log in to LOUIE and register by following this path.

• LOUIE > Learning and Development > Request Training Enrollment >
• Search by Course Name: “Faculty Hiring Process” OR > View Available Sessions
• Search by Course Number: “HR923” > View Available Sessions

This information is all available on the Faculty Hiring Webpage.

Please let me know if you have any questions,

Meagan Decker, MPA, SHRM-CP, PHR

Dear NAU Faculty,

Welcome to another academic year! The rhythm of the academic year punctuates our coming together annually for collaborative endeavors—educational, scholarly, creative, and community focused. I hope you begin with enthusiasm for the new school year and for efforts that bring us closer to our collective and individual aspirations.

We welcome many new faculty to our university this fall. Please join me in supporting our new colleagues to make a smooth transition, develop a sense of belonging, and achieve success at NAU. I encourage you to peruse our portfolio of new faculty, introduce yourself, and get acquainted. New faculty bring fresh ideas, expertise, and expanded opportunities for collaborations.

We start another academic year with a strong sense of purpose and many accomplishments on which to build. After one year of efforts to advance the goals of Elevating Excellence, we have accomplished a great deal. The University Strategic Planning Advisory Board has issued its first annual report documenting all that our community has accomplished. The scope of activities across the university is indicative of our shared commitment to be an engine of opportunity, vehicle of upward mobility, and driver of social and economic impact. Thanks to all of you who have contributed to advancement of our mission.

Last year we launched 100% Career Ready–an ambitious initiative to strengthen the alignment of our degree programs with what is required for entry and advancement in the careers pursued by our graduates. We have committed to a universal practice of making explicit to students the relevance of course learning outcomes for career success. And we are building into curriculum and courses opportunities for our students to explore, plan, and strategize their entry into varied career paths. Following a year of orientation, learning, and building infrastructure for the project, we now turn to the work of shaping our academic programs and student learning to ensure post-graduation success. We want our graduates to be successful in life; this encompasses career, graduate or professional education, and, importantly, their contributions to communities, professions, and the larger world. Thank you in advance for your work on 100% Career Ready!

If we are to be successful in achieving our goals, we must ensure that our new students get off to a productive start. We know that the first year of college lays the foundation for the path to academic success and progression to graduation. The academic momentum that students gain in their first year is predictive of their continuation and progress to degree attainment. Prioritizing the first year experience, in the coming academic year we will focus on executing and initiating a wide array of efforts intended to strengthen guidance, support, and facilitation of academic momentum. Experiences in courses, especially first year courses, and interactions with faculty in and out of the classroom set the stage for academic success, connection, and commitment to educational goals linked to aspirations beyond graduation. This year, as we bring fresh perspective to the first-year learning experience, we will draw on the expertise of our outstanding teachers and insights from research on student learning and academic momentum.

As we launch a university-wide commitment to RAISE higher education participation and attainment, I invite all of you to reflect on how you are present for our students. NAU students value their in-person interactions and relationships with faculty and staff above all else. I’d like us all to double down on our commitment to personally engage with our students in and, equally important, out of the classroom. As a university, our highest priority is serving our students. This year we will bring this priority to the forefront of our deliberate commitment to ensure that more of our new students complete their first year with a solid foundation for progress through to graduation. We are successful when our students achieve their goals. Let’s work together to launch them on a productive trajectory.
Best wishes for the start of the year,

Karen Pugliesi
Executive Vice President and University Provost