Faculty/Staff Newsletter

Her expertise in occupational health and environmental epidemiology will help inform clinical recommendations for the 93,000 employees exposed to toxic aviation fuel at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in 2021. 

Help make the College's Degree Celebration a success for our spring 2025 graduates! The College needs help from faculty and staff during the ceremony and reception.

College Degree Celebration
Saturday, May 17 | 2–4 pm | Eagle Bank Arena

The College needs volunteers (marshals) from each department to lead in and sit with their students. Please note, these positions require regalia. We also need volunteers to help with the flow of the degree celebration and help in the hospitality room.

College Degree Reception
Saturday, May 17 | 11 am-1 pm, before the College's Degree Celebration | Peterson Hall 

Volunteers are needed on Friday, May 16 to help set up for the reception and for the reception on Saturday, May 17 before the College's Degree Celebration, and clean up after. This is a great way to help, especially if you can't make it to the Celebration on Saturday.

Faculty marshals are required to wear regalia at the Degree Celebration. If you need to rent regalia, please email Blaine Cytryn at bcytryn@bncollege.com by April 18. The university pays for any faculty volunteering to marshal at graduation, but orders after April 18 will incur a rush fee that the university will not pay for.

Reminder: the COACHE survey will close on or around March 31. We are hoping for 100% CPH participation from all instructional term and tenure-line faculty (faculty who started in January are not eligible until the next round of surveys). A personalized link was sent to each faculty's email. If you cannot find your link to the survey, please contact Cathy Tompkins, ctompkin@gmu.edu.

On March 18, the CPH Faculty Development Committee hosted a workshop outlining the basics of the CPH Tenure-line and Term Faculty Promotion and Review Processes. The slides and recording of the session are now available.

Term faculty, please note there has been a change in the declaration date for term faculty seeking to go up for promotion or for a multi-year appointment. The previously published date (July 1)  has been changed to May 15. Please discuss with your unit head and declare by May 15 if you plan to go up for either type review in the coming 2025-26 cycle.

(The Tenure-line renewal, promotion and/or tenure declaration date remains March 31, as previously published.)

Please contribute to the University’s understanding of the adjunct faculty experience here at George Mason University. If you have not yet done so, take 15 minutes to share your opinion. Your input is critical to informing the work of the University Adjunct Faculty Committee. All responses will remain confidential. Please use this link to take the survey. The survey will close on March 31.  

Don’t miss the next CPH Faculty Networking Session, today at 4 pm. Faculty should have a calendar invite with a Zoom link.

The next Adjunct Faculty Connections Program is on March 27 at 6:30 pm. All CPH adjunct faculty should have a calendar invite with a Zoom link. 

If you are missing either calendar invite, please contact Cathy Tompkins, ctompkin@gmu.edu.

Save the date for the third and final Lightning Talk of the semester on April 18 from 12 - 12:30 pm. More information to follow

Planning for a Productive Summer | April 16 | 1:30-3 pm | Zoom | Registration required

University’s May Faculty Writing Retreat | May 28 and May 29

Congratulations to Erin Maughn for receiving additional funding for her School Nurse Leadership Academy. 

Last week, Alison Cuellar shared a resource on communication around health equity themes from the Frameworks Institute. The Rippel Foundation also has a resource that asks the question, why do some populations thrive and prosper while others struggle and suffer? The Vital Conditions for Health and Well-Being framework seeks to address this question in a way that is understandable, relatable, and actionable. You might find both resources useful in your work.  

Welcome, Veggie Meter. Many of our faculty are engaged in research on healthy lifestyles and community-based interventions. You will be pleased to know that CPH now has a Veggie Meter® which is available to faculty as a shared research resource. Veggie Meter is a small, spectroscopy-based skin carotenoid measurement device that detects and quantifies skin carotenoids as a proxy for fruit and vegetable intake in humans. Here is an article on using the Veggie Meter in research settings. Let Alison Cuellar know if you would like to use it in your research (aevanscu@gmu.edu). 

Blackboard will be unavailable to students, faculty, and staff on July 15, 2025. Encourage your students to download course materials they’d like to keep. Archives will be maintained for two years, but not on a Blackboard platform. After July 15, faculty may submit a request to ITS to extract materials, grades, or a course export file. Learn more on the Blackboard Retirement Resources page.

In preparation for Blackboard’s closure, you can:

April 2 | 1-2 pm | Zoom | RSVP

CPH Canvas Faculty mentors Allison Miner and Lila Fleming, GCH Adjunct Faculty Kristen Vlaun, and CPH Instructional Designers Terri Ann and Barbara are ready to answer your questions about Canvas. Please RSVP to confirm your attendance and submit questions before the session.

Note: due to space limitations, not all events and reminders are listed every week. If you see an event you want to attend, please put it on your calendar.

March 31 | 12–12:30 pm | Peterson 2000

CPH Staff Council is holding 30-minute brown bag events for all CPH staff (which includes AP faculty, research faculty, and wage employees) twice per month throughout the rest of the semester. Next Monday is the return of drawing and coloring activities! Drawing supplies, paper, and pages to color will be provided. Do you enjoy knitting or crocheting? Bring your projects and enjoy a craft break. Learn more on the CPH Staff and AP/Research Faculty Community-GRP Team on Teams. Bring your lunch.

These events previously have been in the newsletter; to see full event descriptions, please consult previous newsletters.

HAP continues leading the units, with Nutrition and Food Studies in second place. Kimberly Redelsheimer had the most steps for an individual this past week. Report March 17 - 23 steps by midnight today, March 2.

March 25 | 11:30 am-12:30 pm | Zoom Link

Please share with your students! Submissions through this form for the College's Celebration of Student Scholarship are due April 4.

March 25 | 11:30 am | Mutitpurpose Room | RSVP here
Followed by lunch

Strengthening Health and Well-Being for Latinos: Considering the Cultural Context in Parenting within Latino Families

Presented by Cristina Mogro-Wilson, PhD, MSW, Zachs Endowed Professor and PhD Program Director, University of Connecticut School of Social Work

April 9 | 6 – 8:30 pm | Merten Hall Room 1202 | RSVP here

Join Dean Melissa Perry as she convenes national thought leaders for a panel discussion on social isolation and loneliness across the life span. This engaging dialogue will explore the true scope and severity of the issue—is it really a public health crisis? The panel will challenge assumptions, explore solutions, and highlight the role of individuals and communities in fostering connection.  

April 10 | 12 pm | Multipurpose Room | Followed by lunch | RSVP 

Join your colleagues to celebrate CPH faculty, staff, and retirees PJ Maddox, John "Jay" Shiver, and Stephen Brown. RSVP by April 3.

April 22 | 1:30-2:45 pm

The Term Faculty Committee updates term faculty colleagues on the identified priorities they have been working on. The committee provides a status update on goal achievement and work-in-progress, as well as future plans, and a Q&A.

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