Author: Marketing McMarketerface

Spalding has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana to fund the creation of a state-of-the-art Anatomy Education Center (AEC) in the new Kosair Charities School of Physical Therapy and Center for Interprofessional Education. 

The new anatomy education center, to be named in honor of the Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana, will house both a human dissection laboratory as well as a dry anatomy laboratory that incorporates technology for virtual dissection software and anatomical models to complement the instruction provided in the human dissection laboratory.  The modern, multidisciplinary space will be utilized by students across various health fields, including physical therapy, nursing, occupational therapy, athletic training and undergraduate health sciences. 

The Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana’s gift will not only support interprofessional collaboration, which is a critical to the future of the healthcare workforce and a signature of Spalding University, but will also create a humanistic and compassionate environment, where students are taught human anatomy and dissection in a way that values and respects the legacy of the human donors.

“Our objective at the Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana is to build healthy neighborhoods and support projects that integrate education, health and social services with the ultimate goal of sustainability and self-reliance,” said Leslie Buddeke Smart, CFRE, president, Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana. “We are proud to support Spalding University’s creation of a center to advance the education of students in health care fields.”

The Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana Anatomy Education Center project is led by Professor and Chair of Kosair Charities School of Physical Therapy Lisa Zuber, PhD.  Dr. Zuber’s education and passion for the delivery of physical therapy has been at the forefront for this project. The Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana’s gift and the creation of the AEC will open doors to new and future healthcare professionals. As a result, the training will prepare Spalding graduates to be compassionate and capable caregivers within our local community and beyond.

Spalding University presents the Fourth Annual Elmer Lucille Allen Conference on African American Studies this Thursday and Friday, Feb. 24-25. This year’s conference will be a hybrid event with both virtual and small, in-person sessions.

As in years past, Allen, a 1953 graduate of Spalding (then called Nazareth College) and the first Black chemist at Brown-Forman, will be a keynote speaker at the conference. Allen, an accomplished artist, will give a presentation about her art at 6 p.m. Friday. Stachelle Bussey, executive director of the Hope Buss, will give a keynote address followed by a panel discussion at 6 p.m. on opening night. Both keynotes will take place in person on Spalding’s campus for a limited crowd; the general public will be able to livestream via GoToMeeting or join by phone at +1 (872) 240-3212 with access code: 487-655-269.

Dr. Deonte Hollowell, Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies, will help lead the conference and kick things off with a virtual session, “The State of African American Studies” at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. He will also facilitate presentations for students of two African American Studies courses that he teaches: History of Socio-politics in Black Louisville (a course co-taught with former Mayor of Louisville and Spalding Executive-in-Residence Jerry Abramson) and African Civilizations.

In addition to Dr. Hollowell, this year’s evening is sponsored and supported by Dr. Mark Martinez, Assistant Professor in the School of Communication; Dr. Melissa Chastain, Chair of the School of Communication and Dean of Enrollment Management and Strategic Initiatives; Damian Botner, Department Coordinator for the School of Liberal Studies; Dr. Pattie Dillon, Chair of Liberal Studies & Professor of History; Community Organizer Tia Coatley; and the West Louisville Women’s Collaborative.

Guests and attendees will also enjoy a musical performance by Kat Coatley and video presentations by students at Louisville’s Coleman Prep Academy.

Day 1: Thursday, Feb. 24

2:30-2:45 p.m. – Dr. Deonte Hollowell: The State of African American Studies (Virtual)
2:45-4:25 p.m. – History of Socio-politics in Black Louisville presentations (Virtual)
4:30-5:30 p.m. – African Civilizations Class Discussions (Virtual)
5:30 p.m. – Doors open for all in-person events
6:00-6:30 p.m. – Stachelle Bussey: Keynote (Hybrid: Lecture Lounge)
6:30-7:15 p.m. – Spalding Administrators & Students Panel Facilitator Stachelle Bussey (Hybrid: Lecture Lounge)

Day 2: Friday, Feb. 25

5:30 p.m. – Doors open for all in-person events
6:00-6:30 p.m. – Elmer Lucille Allen Exhibition Presentation (In-Person: Huff Gallery)
6:30-6:45 p.m. –  Musical Performance by Kat Coatley (Hybrid: Lecture Lounge)
6:45-7:00 p.m. – Video Presentations from Coleman Prep Academy (Hybrid: Lecture Lounge)
7:00-7:30 p.m. – Elmer Lucille Allen: Keynote (Hybrid: Lecture Lounge)
7:30-8:00 p.m. – Closing Remarks (Hybrid: Lecture Lounge) & Exhibition Reception (In-person: Huff Gallery)

The general public can livestream the virtual and hybrid events via GoToMeeting or join by phone at +1 (872) 240-3212 with access code: 487-655-269. If you have issues with the link or have any questions, email Damian Botner at abotner@spalding.edu.

For in-person registrants:

• Event Parking is located in front of the Egan Leadership Center – You can enter the parking lot from Breckinridge St or 3rd St.
• Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and will be held in the Spalding University Library (follow signs for entry and check-in)
• Masks are required for entry and will be provided if you do not have one.
• Light refreshments will be provided both evenings

Twenty years ago, Sena Jeter Naslund and Karen Mann founded Kentucky’s first Master of Fine Arts in Writing program at Spalding University. Now, as part of a $1 million gift from a Spalding MFA alumna, the university’s graduate school of writing is being renamed in their honor as the Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing. (Watch a live stream of the press conference.)

The $1 million gift from Spalding MFA fiction graduate Cindy Brady (Class of 2013) is one of the largest from an individual donor in Spalding University’s history. It will honor Naslund and Mann and support Spalding’s graduate writing programs, including the low-residency MFA, which is nationally recognized as a top-tier program and is noted for its emphasis on cross-genre study and interrelatedness-of-the-arts exploration.

Current School of Writing Chair Kathleen Driskell said, “We are wowed by Cindy Brady’s gift, which recognizes the importance of our creative community. We’re especially delighted Cindy Brady’s gift honors the innovative vision of our founders and will allow us to continue providing expert instruction, support, and flexibility to our graduate creative writing students.”

Notable graduates of the MFA program include Spalding President Tori Murden McClure (MFA ’05), whose creative thesis was her then-unpublished memoir, A Pearl in the Storm, later released by HarperCollins in 2009.

“Spalding University is deeply grateful to alumna Cindy Brady for her generous gift honoring the two women who pioneered Kentucky’s first MFA in Writing program,” McClure said. “As one of the program’s early students, I know first-hand the remarkable education it offers. Twenty years ago, Sena and Karen worked with Spalding to meet the needs of the times by providing an innovative creative writing education, delivered in an accessible low-residency format. Today, Cindy Brady meets the needs of the times in ensuring that Spalding’s graduate school of writing will endure, forever honoring its two visionary founders.”

Brady, who lives in Charleston, South Carolina, remains actively involved with the MFA program and has traveled abroad with the program as an alumna.

“The celebration of Spalding University’s Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing begins with the cooperation and imaginations of two women,” Brady said. “We honor the vision and life’s work of these women and make enduring the partnership between Spalding University and the Sena Jeter Naslund-Karen Mann Graduate School of Writing.”

Brady has long been a supporter of women’s excellence. Now retired from a career as a tennis professional, she coached elite women players in professional tennis. She previously established a scholarship at Spalding for female MFA students writing long-form fiction.

Her gift honors Naslund, bestselling author of Ahab’s Wife and other novels, who served as the MFA’s program director until her retirement in 2017.

“I’d simply like to thank Cindy Brady for her generosity and her high opinion of the Spalding MFA in Writing program that Karen Mann and I and all our mentors and students worked joyfully to create,” Naslund said. “After our first residency, when everyone but Karen and I had left campus, I turned to her and said, ‘It was all even better than I’d dared to imagine.’ While I’ve retired now, my best wishes go out to all those who continue to teach, to learn, and to practice the art of writing.”

Besides McClure, other notable Spalding alumni include current Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson, former Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X. Walker, author Silas House, former State Rep. Jim Wayne, Kentucky Humanities Council Executive Director Bill Goodman, Salon.com Editor in Chief Erin Keane, Louisville business icon Nana Lampton, and many Louisville writers and journalists, including Mary Lou Northern, Graham Shelby, Tara Anderson, and Ashleé Clark.

The school of writing, established in 2017 under the leadership of current chair Kathleen Driskell, includes the flagship MFA, a terminal degree, as well as a one-semester Graduate Certificate in Writing and a Master of Arts in Writing (MAW). All programs are taught on the low-residency model: Each semester begins with a weeklong residency in Louisville or abroad, followed by an independent study in which each student works one-on-one with a faculty mentor.

Students in any of the three programs may study fiction; poetry; creative nonfiction; writing for children and young adults; or writing for TV, screen, and stage.

“I am humbled to be honored in this way for only doing what I have loved for this past 20 years,” she said. “My heart is filled with gratitude to Cindy Brady for her generosity, to Sena for her trust in me to share her dream, and to the nearly 1,000 students, faculty, and alumni who have enriched my life through their passion for writing.”

“I am humbled to be honored in this way for only doing what I have loved for this past 20 years,” she said. “My heart is filled with gratitude to Cindy Brady for her generosity, to Sena for her trust in me to share her dream, and to the nearly 1,000 students, faculty, and alumni who have enriched my life through their passion for writing.”

Besides McClure, other notable Spalding alumni include current Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson, former Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X. Walker, author Silas House, former State Rep. Jim Wayne, Kentucky Humanities Council Executive Director Bill Goodman, Salon.com Editor in Chief Erin Keane, Louisville business icon Nana Lampton, and many Louisville writers and journalists, including Mary Lou Northern, Graham Shelby, Tara Anderson, and Ashleé Clark.

The school of writing, established in 2017 under the leadership of current chair Kathleen Driskell, includes the flagship MFA, a terminal degree, as well as a one-semester Graduate Certificate in Writing and a Master of Arts in Writing (MAW). All programs are taught on the low-residency model: Each semester begins with a weeklong residency in Louisville or abroad, followed by an independent study in which each student works one-on-one with a faculty mentor.

Students in any of the three programs may study fiction; poetry; creative nonfiction; writing for children and young adults; or writing for TV, screen, and stage.

Spalding University’s Festival of Contemporary Writing, the state’s largest fall-spring reading series, will take place Saturday, Nov. 13, through Friday, Nov. 19, with readings by faculty and guests of the low-residency graduate programs of Spalding’s School of Creative and Professional Writing. Critically acclaimed poet Kiki Petrosino, author of White Blood and winner of the Spalding Prize for the Promotion of Peace and Justice in Literature, headlines the festival as Distinguished Visiting Writer.

All readings and events are free, ticketless, and open to the public. The University’s Covid-19 protocols require all participants to be masked while indoors. Plenty of free parking is available for the campus readings.

6:30 – 7:30 p.m. Saturday, November 13. Faculty Reading. (Brown Hotel, Citation Room, ground floor.) Masks required for all in attendance.

• Lynnell Edwards (poetry), This Great Green Valley
• Rachel Harper (fiction), This Side of Providence
• Bruce Marshall Romans (TV writing), Messiah
• Ellen Hagan (writing for children and young adults), Watch Us Rise (with Renée
  Watson)
• Kathleen Driskell (poetry), Blue Etiquette

5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Sunday, November 14. Faculty Reading. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.) Masks required for all in attendance.

• K. L. Cook (fiction), Marrying Kind
• Kira Obolensky (playwriting), Why We Laugh: A Terezin Cabaret
• Dianne Aprile (creative nonfiction), The Eye is Not Enough: On Seeing and Remembering
• Leah Henderson (writing for children and young adults), A Day for Rememberin’ (virtual appearance)
• Sam Zalutsky (screenwriting), Seaside

6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 17. Distinguished Visiting Writer Kiki Petrosino discusses White Blood: A Lyric of Virginia. (Auditorium, Columbia Gym, 824 S. Fourth St.) Masks required for all in attendance.

Introduction by Kathleen Driskell. Book signing to follow.

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Friday, November 19. Faculty Reading. (Egan Leadership Center, 901 S. Fourth St.)  Masks required for all in attendance.

• Jason Kyle Howard (professional writing and editing; creative nonfiction), A Few Honest Words: The Kentucky Roots of Popular Music
• Maggie Smith (poetry), Goldenrod
• Elaine Neil Orr (creative nonfiction; fiction), Swimming Between Worlds
• Silas House (fiction), Southernmost

The reading schedule may change without notice. Check Facebook for updated information: Facebook.com/SpaldingSchoolofWriting. For more information, email schoolofwriting@spalding.edu.

The School of Creative and Professional Writing at Spalding University offers three low-residency programs, including the flagship 65-credit-hour MFA in Writing program; a 35-credit Master of Arts in Writing, offering tracks in creative writing and professional writing & editing; and a 15-credit graduate certificate in writing, also with two tracks. The School of Writing offers concentrations in fiction; poetry; creative nonfiction; writing for children and young adults; writing for TV, screen, and stage; and professional writing and editing. Students begin the semester in the spring, summer, or fall with a residency in Louisville or abroad, then return home for an independent study with a faculty mentor for the rest of the semester. Students may customize the location, season, and pace of their studies. See spalding.edu/writing for more information, or find us on Twitter @SpaldingWriting

During National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in September, the administration, faculty and staff of the Spalding University School of Nursing unanimously took a meaningful step toward equipping themselves to address the most serious of mental health crises.

All 20 employees within the School of Nursing became certified in the suicide prevention method known as QPR, or Question, Persuade, and Refer.

Spalding Associate Professor Dr. Erica Lemberger, who helped organize the initiative among her colleagues, said she thinks Spalding is likely the first school of nursing in the state to have 100 percent of faculty, staff, administration and students trained in QPR. Spalding nursing students have for years already been receiving training to become QPR gatekeepers as part of their mental health curriculum.

Lemberger is the Co-Chair of the Behavioral Health Committee of the Louisville Health Advisory Board, which has a goal of increasing education in the public about suicide prevention, particularly during this time of stress, trauma and anxiety caused by the pandemic. Nurses working on the front lines have been especially vulnerable.

Lemberger decided the first step she should personally take would be to spread the word within her own professional community at Spalding. She proposed to her colleagues a goal of 100 percent QPR training among themselves in the School of Nursing.

“I gave this proposal so that we could be that light to recognize those individuals who are at risk for suicide,” Lemberger said. “It could be your parent, your sibling, your coworker, your student, you neighbor. It could be anyone. As nurses, because we have increased clinical demands and a difficult work environment and workforce stress, nursing and nurses’ mental health are all related. I thought, ‘Let’s do this. Let’s get 100 percent. Let’s be all in.'”

Every School of Nursing employee took part in the free virtual QPR training offered by the Louisville chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), which is a partner of the Louisville Health Advisory Board.

“Spalding University faculty members are dedicated to the mental health improvement of the community, and one of the steps in the process is being prepared to support and address mental health issues,” said Dr. Lana Watson, Chair of the School of Nursing. “Completing this training provides faculty the tools needed to save a life of someone considering suicide. The training is open to those interested, and we encourage anyone who would like to complete the training to contact NAMI to complete this free training!”

Lemberger, who is a certified QPR instructor, said she hopes other academic and support departments and student organizations on campus will follow the School of Nursing’s example and work to get all their members trained in QPR. She encourages any department to contact her or visit the NAMI Louisville website. Counseling and Psychology Services Director Dr. Allison From-Tapp has also offered training to the campus community.

“You can be the person to save a life; that’s a really big deal,” Lemberger said. “You don’t have to have a nursing degree to know how to save a life; anyone can save a life. You just have to be able to identify the risk factors, know how to ask the questions, know how to persuade someone to get help and know who to refer someone to get help.”