UNC Charlotte

MPA student Peter Grisewood is an expert in the art and science of trees, with a focus on bridging the gap between trees, policy, and economic development in local government. His knowledge and his commitment have led the Town of Davidson to hire him as its first town arborist.

A book by UNC Charlotte History Professor Christine Haynes has been chosen the best book in modern French history (post 1815) over the previous two years, receiving the inaugural Weber Book Prize from the UCLA Department of History.

Stephanie Stenglein did not know what a 501c3 was when she started the Master of Public Administration program at UNC Charlotte. Today, she is transforming lives in her role as vice president of institutional advancement for Arts+, and colleagues have yet again honored her for her work.

When the Jamil Niner Student Pantry opened on campus in 2014, professor Nicole Peterson decided to focus a research project on campus, working to determine the depths of the food insecurity problem on the UNC Charlotte campus.

A book by UNC Charlotte Africana Studies associate professor Oscar de la Torre, The People of the River: Identity and Environment in Black Amazonia, 1835-1945, has received the inaugural Outstanding First Book Award from the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora.

Education students at UNC Charlotte are now using virtual reality (VR) to prepare for real life classrooms, in a program that looks to reshape the way future teacher candidates learn about how students and teachers interact. Meghan Barnes, an English education professor from the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and Hilary Dack from the Cato College of Education developed the program, which allows students to interact with videotaped K-12 classes through VR headsets.

Jon Venable will cross the stage during Fall 2019 Commencement to accept a bachelor’s degree in geology. This milestone was 20 years in the making, as he left UNC Charlotte in August 1998 just four credit hours shy of finishing. Now, two decades later, he will be the 1,000th former student to return to UNC Charlotte through the 49er Finish Program.

Two infants unearthed in ancient burial mounds in Salango, Ecuador were buried wearing helmets crafted from the skulls of other children, in what researchers believe was a unique practice perhaps intended to protect the infants’ souls during their journey to the afterlife. The research team – composed of UNC Charlotte’s Juengst and Abigail Bythell and Richard Lunniss and Juan José Ortiz Aguilu of Universidad Técnica de Manabí in Ecuador – published their findings in November in the journal Latin American Antiquity.

UNC Charlotte junior Rebecca De Luna has been recognized for outstanding leadership and service by North Carolina Campus Compact, a statewide network of colleges and universities that are committed to community engagement. She is a psychology major in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences.

A book by UNC Charlotte history professor Karen L. Cox about Confederate monuments is one of the first four books under contract in the newly created Marcie Cohen Ferris and William R. Ferris Imprint for high-profile, general-interest books about the American South. Authors chosen are considered among the nation’s leading authors.