Former Marketing and Communications employee Wade Marbaugh, now a staff reporter, helped the Newton Citizen and Rockdale Citizen newspapers win Georgia Press Association awards announced in June. Two of Marbaugh’s stories were included in the three Newton Citizen stories that won the first-place award in the Investigative Reporting category for Division C. Marbaugh earned third place for the Newton Citizen in Feature Writing. His articles were included as the Rockdale Citizen took second place in the Local News Coverage category and third place in the Page One competition. Division C represents the competition among daily newspapers with a circulation of less than 8,000. 

Students participating in the PSLAMP-STEP Summer Bridge program received research advising from Georgia Perimeter professors Dr. Boubacar Bah, Fred Buls, Mark Graves, Dr. Mark Hollier, Dr. Anant Honkan, Dr. Seyed Housseini, Diane Lahaise, Dr. Cynthia Lester, Dr. Vivian Mativo, Dr. Carl McAllister, Dr. Mike Nelson and Pablo Pedroso. Also serving as advisors were former GPC students Yash Lee Logan, Richard Flowers and Gedeon Nyengele, all now students at Georgia Tech, and Shantonio Birch, who is pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan.

Randy Sheppard, OIT, and some of his deletctable baked goods were featured during a segment of WXIA-TV’S “Atlanta and Company” in May. The program focused on the food of the Georgia Renaissance Festival. Sheppard is the chef and owner of the Peacock Tea Room, open seasonally during the annual fair. The fair closed for the season June 5 but will reopen in April. 

Georgia Perimeter professors Susan Westfall, communications and journalism, and Michael Bradley, philosophy and religion, were selected as 2015 Governor’s Teaching Fellows for the summer symposium program. They attended a two-week program at the University of Georgia in May; the fellows program is an outreach of UGA’s Institute of Higher Education. As two of 14 faculty members from institutions of higher education across the state, Westfall and Bradley were selected after a highly competitive application and selection process. The Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program was established in 1995 by former Gov. Zell Miller to provide Georgia’s higher education faculty with expanded opportunities for developing important teaching skills.

Kysa Anderson Daniels, Marketing and Communications, delivered the keynote address for the DeKalb School of the Arts commencement at Emory University’s Schwartz Center in May. She encouraged the 55 graduates to maintain their high level of academic excellence and creativity as they venture past high school.

India Blackburn, interim dean of student services at Clarkston Campus, received a scholarship to attend the 2015 College Connections for Student Success Conference which was held this spring. She also was inducted into Kappa Delta Pi on April 27 as a member of the Beta Kappa chapter which chartered at the University of Georgia in 1929.​​  Kappa Delta Pi is the International Honor Society in Education, founded in 1911 to foster excellence in education and promote fellowship among those dedicated to teaching. Blackburn currently is pursuing a Doctor of Education in Student Affairs Leadership at the University of Georgia with an expected graduation date of May 2016.

The Georgia Association of Economics and Finance recognized new and past officers—including several from Georgia Perimeter College—during its spring meeting at the Jekyll Island Club Hotel. Among those honored were Mark Flowers, economics instructor and GAEF director of communications; James Kahiga, business online professor and GAEF past president; and business professor Richard Kirk, GAEF vice president for programs.

Newly elected members of the Georgia Perimeter College Staff Senate are:  India Blackburn, James Bohanon, Christopher Churchill, Simone Clay, Mary Davis, Rosalind Ferrell, Rejer Finklin, Kara Gardner, Betsy Hardy, Brittany Jackson, Patricia Kemp, Christle Murphy, Sandra Scott and Samantha Walkes.

William Gregory Johnson, a computer science professor on Clarkston Campus, received the Advisor of the Year award for his work with the Clarkston Computer Science and Engineering Club during the annual Celebration of Excellence. Johnson is part of the Clarkston Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering.

Mark Eister, director of GPC’s Military Outreach program, presented “Military Friendly: Strategies for Serving Student Veterans” at the annual ACPA (American College Personnel Association) Convention in March, and at the annual AACRAO (American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers) Conference in April.