Recent accomplishments by the university community include honors earned by Jeff Bradshaw, John Shrader, Sonya Bhatia, Amy Colgrove and Howard W. Buffett.

Faculty/Staff

Jeff Bradshaw, associate professor with the Panhandle Research and Extension Center, was named vice president-elect of the plant-insect ecosystems section of the Entomological Society of America. Bradshaw will be welcomed into the office at the society’s annual meeting in November in Denver. He will serve four years within society leader — one year each as vice president-elect, vice president, president and past president. The Entomological Society of America is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and individuals in related disciplines. Founded in 1889, the society has more than 6,000 members affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry and government. Learn more about this honor.

John Shrader, assistant professor of broadcasting, wrote the first chapter of the new book “Perspectives on the US-Mexico Soccer Rivalry: Passion and Politics in Red, White, Blue, and Green.” Shrader’s chapter is titled “The Border War for Young Mexican American Soccer Players: How Family and National Identity Play Out on the Field.” Learn more about the book.

Students

Sonya Bhatia, a graduate teaching assistant in educational psychology, and Amy Colgrove, a graduate research assistant in child, youth and family studies, have earned Buffett Early Childhood Institute Graduate Scholars grants. The program provides financial support and mentoring and is designed to foster the growth of diverse, exceptional graduate students conducting research about young children and their families. Bhatia’s research will examine conjoint behavioral consultation’s effects on teacher-student interactions. Conjoint behavioral consultation is an evidence-based, family-school partnership intervention designed to promote positive teacher-child interactions and support the learning and development of young children with challenging behaviors. Colgrove will study the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention designed to provide strategies and skills for stress management and increasing general well-being among teachers. Teachers play a vital role in promoting the learning and social-emotional development of their students, and high levels of stress make teachers’ important work more difficult and may even lead some to leave the profession. Learn more about these achievements.

Departments/Colleges/Units

The Robert B. Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute announced that Howard W. Buffett has joined its board of directors. Buffett lectures on international food security, foreign aid, and agricultural policy in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Nebraska. He is also a lecturer in international and public affairs at Columbia University. He was previously the executive director of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which distributes more than $100 million annually to initiatives that improve the lives of impoverished and marginalized populations across the world. Buffett also led agriculture-based economic stabilization and redevelopment programs in Iraq and Afghanistan for the U.S. Department of Defense. Learn more about the appointment.

This column is a regular Friday feature of Nebraska Today. Faculty, staff and students can submit their achievements to be considered for this column via email to achievements@unl.edu. For more information, call 402-472-8515.