Dear Faculty Colleagues,

After the whirlwind of last week’s snow and ice storm, and the pivot to remote teaching, it’s great to be back on campus together. It feels wild to say, but as we reach Wednesday in this first full week of classes for the Spring 2026 semester, thank you for your earnestness through the chaos! Here’s hoping the days ahead bring clearer weather, steadier routines, and an energized start to the term. 

First-Year Faculty Cohort
We’ve had just one FYF session thus far this semester, due to last Monday's closing.

On February 2, we welcomed Dr. Uma Iyer, Professor of Psychology, who spoke with the cohort about RTP policies and procedures in her presentation, "Understanding the RTP Process at APSU: Role of RTP P&G and Beyond." She guided participants through faculty performance review areas, departmental criteria, the RTP calendar, and more. Dr. Lisa Sullivan, Senior Vice Provost and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, was also present to answer questions and give practical advice to our junior faculty.  I'm so grateful for their expertise and energy in helping our faculty navigate this important process in their careers at APSU. 

August 2026 Annual Meeting Keynote Speaker Announcement
I’m thrilled to announce that Todd Whitaker will be our Keynote Speaker for the August 2026 Annual Meeting! Todd is one of the nation’s leading experts on teacher effectiveness, morale, leadership, and school culture. He has authored over 65 books, including the national bestseller What Great Teachers Do Differently, as well as Shifting the Monkey, School Culture Rewired, Your First Year, Motivating & Inspiring Teachers, and How to Get All Teachers to Become Like the Best Teachers. As in previous years, Todd will deliver the keynote, join us for lunch, and then lead an afternoon workshop. We are excited to welcome him to campus! Find out more about Todd here.

Upcoming Events
Here’s a quick look at upcoming opportunities for and by faculty:

• Green Zone Training - Feb 4
• TechBytes Session - Feb 5 
• AP Navigate Sessions - Feb 5, 10, 12
• TechBytes Session - Feb 12
• Mission Accessible lunch sessions - Feb 16 & 17 
• Lunch & Learn, Dr. Emily Pica - Feb 17
• Outcomes Extravaganza - Feb 18
• CAFE Session, Integrating Emotional Intelligence into Teaching Practice - Mar 2 

CAFE Calendar 
I'll continue to update our CAFE Calendar as more events and sessions become finalized.  Be sure to bookmark it and add any events directly to your Outlook calendar. 

As always, I welcome your ideas on how CAFE can better serve you.  Please don't hesitate to reach out at williamsjj@apsu.edu or 931-221-7648.

I wish everyone a productive and meaningful month ahead. Thank you for the energy and care I know you will bring to your teaching and students each day in February and here’s hoping you’re able to stay warm, safe, and well as winter lingers a bit longer.

Yours always,
Jeff 

A place develoted to celebrating the achievements of our APSU faculty colleagues!

Gargaillo Releases New Book on the Role of Allusion in Queer Poetry

Dr. Florian Gargaillo, Associate Professor of English, has released a new book, Queer Allusion, published last month by Louisiana State University Press. The book explores how literary allusion shaped queer poetry in Britain and the United States from Oscar Wilde’s 1895 trial through the Stonewall Riots of 1969.

In Queer Allusion, Gargaillo argues that allusion enabled LGBTQ poets to interpret their identities, build connections within often-hidden communities, and construct a parallel queer literary canon. By examining the interplay of secrecy and openness in queer writing, the book offers a new framework for reading LGBTQ poetry and re-maps literary history through unexpected connections among poets across periods and styles.

Huang Publishes Research Calling for a “Beyond Labels” Approach to Childhood Adversity

Dr. Rong Huang, Assistant Professor of Psychological Science and Counseling, is rethinking how early life adversity is understood through two recently published research articles that emphasize looking beyond labels and isolated events. Her work demonstrates that broader environmental conditions and patterns of risk—such as poverty, parenting stress, and family conflict—have a stronger influence on children’s long-term outcomes than single experiences like a father’s incarceration.

Huang’s research includes two complementary studies published in Early Child Development and Care and Development and Psychopathology. Together, these studies highlight the importance of cumulative and contextual factors in early childhood development and call for sustained family support and policy approaches that address structural risks rather than individual labels.

Damron, Giboney, and Woods Publish Study on Inclusive Imagery in Leadership Organizations

Drs. Terry Damron and Kathryn Woods, along with Keshia Giboney, have published a new study in the Global Journal of Management and Marketing examining the use of inclusive imagery on leadership organizations’ social media accounts. The research investigates how Chamber of Commerce subgroups represent racial and ethnic diversity in their social media imagery as an indicator of cultural competency and organizational commitment to diversity.

Analyzing more than 95,000 individuals depicted on Civic Leadership and Young Professionals Facebook and Twitter accounts over a one-year period, the researchers found that White individuals were overrepresented, while Black and non-White Hispanic individuals were consistently underrepresented relative to community demographics. Grounded in Uncertainty Reduction and Signaling theories, the study underscores the importance of intentional and inclusive social media communication—particularly amid ongoing federal efforts in 2025 to dismantle DEI frameworks.

Boone and Button Present on Grow Your Own and Teacher Apprenticeships in Tennessee

Dr. Erica Boone, Instructor in the College of Education, and Amber Button, Coordinator, Academics - Teacher Residencies (both pictured right below), along with representatives from UT-Knoxville and UT-Chattanooga, presented on "The Evolution of Grow Your Own and Teacher Registered Apprenticeships in Tennessee from the University Perspective," during the 3rd Annual National Convening on Registered Apprenticeships in Teaching in New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 29, 2026.

Samadi-Dana Presents Research at the International Conference on Electrical, Computer and Energy Technologies

Dr. Saeid Samadi-Dana, Associate Professor of Computer Science & Information Technology, presented a peer-reviewed research paper at ICECET 2025: International Conference on Electrical, Computer and Energy Technologies held in Paris, France. His paper, “Development of a Virtual Reality Software for Visualizing Mass Spectrum Fragmentation of Simple Molecules in Organic Chemistry,” explores how virtual reality tools can enhance visualization and learning in organic chemistry education. 

The paper has been submitted for publication and was co-authored by Dr. Anuradha Pathirinage, Dr. Cody Covington, and recent graduate Kaleb Scott.

From the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs,

We invite you to register today for our upcoming Green Zone Training.

Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026

11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Location: MUC 303

What is Green Zone?

Green Zone is an APSU initiative that helps support student veterans and military-affiliated students by:

• Designating locations recognized as safe places.

• Identifying faculty and staff who are knowledgeable about military-affiliated student issues and campus resources.

• Displaying the Green Zone emblem outside offices and on syllabi to show support.

• Ensuring military-affiliated students receive the services necessary to succeed academically, adjust to campus life, and transition to civilian employment.

Support Austin Peay’s military-affiliated students by taking an active role in being Green Zone certified.

These sessions will be 10 minutes of content followed by Q&A.
We will record the content part and post it on the
AP Navigate Faculty Resources site.

The Office of Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), in partnership with the Center for Advancement of Faculty Excellence (CAFE), seeks faculty interested in participating in the Peay Composed Faculty Community of Practice for Spring 2026.  

The Spring 2026 Peay Composed Faculty Community of Practice will begin February 9th and continue until April 30th, 2026. 

Participation in the Peay Composed Faculty Community of Practice is asynchronous via MS Teams, with two face-to-face Zoom meetings and an in-person, catered debrief luncheon at the end. 

The Peay Composed Faculty Community of Practice is open to full-time faculty who teach undergraduate courses with a significant writing component in any discipline or level that aligns with the QEP Student Learning Outcomes, fits into the broad genres of argument or analysis, requires students to write at least 1000 words or about two pages, and is central to the learning outcomes of the course and/or program. 

The Community of Practice is a community of faculty who are interested in  

 - reflecting on significant writing assignment(s) in a course where students often  struggle  
 - identifying and implementing new and innovative pedagogical and assessment approaches to support student success 
 - sharing and supporting colleagues within the community of practice and beyond 
 - disseminating and showcasing writing best practices in their discipline 
 - participating in Peay Composed in future semesters 

A faculty stipend of $750 will be paid to faculty who complete the community of practice requirements, including attendance and engagement in community of practice activities, and a completed course implementation/action plan that identifies ways to improve and enhance student learning related to the Peay Composed outcomes. 

For more information or an expression of interest, please complete this brief form or contact Troy Priest at priestt@apsu.edu 

Associate Professor,
Psychological Science and Counseling

Recipient of the 2024 Richard M. Hawkins Award
for Excellence in Research

Recipient of the 2025 Tenured Faculty Award
for Excellence in Teaching

It can happen to you! What if being in the wrong place at the wrong time altered the course of your life forever, through no fault of your own? Since 1989, there have been 3,772 exonerations, accounting for more than 35,166 years of freedom lost. The three broad areas that will be discussed are: (1) contributing factors to wrongful convictions; (2) the lived experiences of the wrongfully convicted; and (3) layperson perceptions of the wrongfully convicted.

Lunch will be provided, so please RSVP by
Feb. 10, 2026 so we can plan accordingly!

Have questions about assessment for your degree program?

We’ve got answers! Join us as your schedule allows for a drop-in Outcomes Extravaganza on Wednesday, February 18 from 10:00am-2:00pm in MUC 308.

We can help with writing and/or revising outcomes and assessment measures, getting your program set up in Watermark, Major Field Test questions, and more!

For more information, please reach out to
Allie Michael, Director of Institutional Effectiveness & Assessment at michaela@apsu.edu. 

The Woodward Library is excited to announce that a new data management plan tool (DMPTool) is now available to the university community!

DMPTool is an online platform that helps researchers create, review, manage, and share data management plans (DMPs), a key requirement for many grant proposals, including those from NSF, NIH, DOE, and other major funders.

DMPTool provides funder-specific templates and step-by-step guidance for writing DMPs that align with funder requirements. Instead of starting from scratch, faculty, staff, and students can use customized templates, built-in guidance, and best practices to quickly produce high-quality, funder-compliant DMPs.

Distance Education has updated its website with a Digital Accessibility Basics page that includes accessibility video recordings. It offers more resources and guidance than ever before! 

Direct links:

Digital Accessibility Basics

Accessibility Training videos 

Did you know that about 30% of APSU students are first-generation? Many of them don’t realize how many faculty and staff share that same experience. Help us change that by completing the First-Gen Faculty and Staff Survey.

Your responses will help highlight the strong first-gen presence at APSU on the G1Govs website and guide future opportunities like mentorship programs, panels, and speaking engagements. Help us make APSU a more supportive place for first-gen students!

Health and Counseling is available to provide presentations on various topics for your class. Presentations cover a range of topics, including stress management, physical and mental well-being, and bystander training.  

To request a presentation, please complete the form at https://www.apsu.edu/wellness/. 

For questions or concerns, please contact Dr. Quianda Harris at harrisq@apsu.edu or Jill de Graauw at degraauwj@apsu.edu. 

To help us assess this offering and plan future programming, please take a moment to fill out our survey.

Have you bookmarked the CAFE Calendar yet?  We’re constantly adding new events!  Stay up to date with all CAFE-affiliated programming happening across campus.  Don’t forget - you can easily add any event directly to your Outlook calendar with a click! 

Do you have an event that you would like promoted in CAFE's bi-monthly newsletter?

Feel free to email us at cafe-fac@apsu.edu with the information. We will review it and inform you if the request is appropriate for the CAFE audience.