Tracy Farmer and Eric Dry, Dean B. Ellis Library, have received permission from the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)² to form the first (ISC)² chapter in Arkansas. Farmer will serve as the chapter’s first president, with Dry serving as vice president. Both have held Certified Information Systems Security Professionals certification from (ISC)² since 2015, with Farmer earning Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) from (ISC)² in 2017.

Congratulations to Kim Vickrey, professor of graphic design, for being selected to receive the 2021 Outstanding Advertising Educator Award from the American Advertising Federation District 10. Vickrey was selected from among peers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas for the award, which recognizes members of an AAF college chapter who have made outstanding and unselfish contributions to the growth and improvement of advertising through the academic process.

Dr. Manu Bhandari (left), associate professor of strategic communication, is the lead author, and Dr. Po-Lin Pan, professor of strategic communication, is a co-author of a paper to be published in the May issue of the peer-reviewed journal Telematics and Informatics. Through an experiment, their paper examines the effects of brand feedback (businesses’ written response to negative online consumer product reviews) on visiting consumers’ brand attitudes and purchase intentions.

Dr. Bruce Faske, assistant professor of music, has been invited to perform at the 50th annual International Trombone Festival, hosted by Columbus State University. He will play with the William F. Cramer Memorial Trombone Choir, comprised of 16 university trombone professors from across the country, in honor of Cramer, a pioneer of American trombone performance and education. This will be Faske's second time to perform with this ensemble.

Dr. Rick Stripling, associate professor of college student personnel services, was team virtual presenter for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators annual national conference. The topic was “Advancing in Student Affairs: How to use Continuous Quality Improvement to Guide Your Professional Development Plan.” When making professional presentations, Stripling often draws on the experiences of his 43-year career at A-State.