Dear Academic Affairs colleagues,
This is the kind of message I love to send because it is full of good news for all the work you do.
First, I am proud to announce that we reached 100% participation in U-grade submission this semester. This is great news. Unsatisfactory grade reporting lets students know when they are not performing well at the halfway mark of a course, and lets our Student Success team know to reach out to them for support to keep them on track. Thank you all for making this possible.
Next, I want to give praise for these honors, awards and grants that demonstrate how you bring distinction to your work and TCU.
Honors
- Jan Lacina, Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education, has been honored with the Judy Richardson Literacy as a Living Legacy Award from the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers, for the work of the Starpoint Critical Literacy Book Club, a three-year research/teaching project.
- Rhiannon Mayne, professor of environmental & sustainability science and curator of TCU’s Monnig Meteorite Collection, has been honored with the 2025 Meteoritical Society Service Award for her outstanding leadership, service and dedication to advancing meteoritics and planetary science. Mayne is the Oscar and Juanita Monnig Endowed Chair of Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
- Jackie Rowles, director of the Advanced Pain Management Fellowship and associate professor of professional practice in nursing, has been recognized for The Global Anesthesia Workforce Survey: Updates and Trends in the Anesthesia Workforce, which was awarded First Place in the Editors’ Choice category by Anesthesia & Analgesia, the world’s leading anesthesia journal.
- In communication sciences and disorders, a seminar by Jean Franco Rivera Perez, associate professor, and Alison Prahl, associate professor, was honored by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association as a Centennial Session. In addition, Dr. Prahl’s poster was awarded as a Meritorious Poster out of more than 1,586 submissions.
- Marcela Fuentes, associate professor of English. won the American Book Award, a literary award that annually recognizes books and people for outstanding literary achievement, for her first novel, Malas, which was also chosen as a Good Morning America book club selection.
- Rhonda Schaller Wolverton, assistant professor of design, earned the Gold Award from Graphis and Hermes Creative Awards for “Light Up Cowtown.” Her poster, “Justice Is Indeed Blind,” received a Silver Award in the Graphis Poster 2026 Annual Competition.
- Associate Professor of Latin American History Alex Hidalgo received the prestigious James Alexander Robertson Prize for the best article published in the Hispanic American Historical Review for his article “The Echo of Voices after the Fall of the Aztec Empire.”
- The AddRan College of Liberal Arts’ New Faculty Mentorship Program, led by Ariane Balizet, has been honored as a Best New Faculty Program by Academic Impressions for its innovation and impact in higher education. The award celebrates initiatives that foster leadership, professional development and meaningful growth on college campuses.
- The TCU Neeley School of Business Full-Time MBA program achieved a national rank of #29 by Bloomberg Businessweek, #10 for Networking, #12 for Learning, #19 for Entrepreneurship (#1 in Texas).
- The Criminal Justice program was ranked #6 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.
Grants
- Mary Twis, associate professor of social work, received a $16,000 grant from the Texas Bar Foundation to support her research on enhancing law enforcement response to human trafficking, including training law enforcement across the state of Texas.
- Associate Professor of Religion Patricia Duncan has been awarded a prestigious $15,000 Life Worth Living Faculty Course Development Fellowship from the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.
- Daxton “Chip” Stewart, professor of journalism, was awarded a $13,846 grant from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression for his research on how audiences respond to disclaimers on AI-generated images shared on social media, and whether these warnings are perceived as censorship.
- Assistant Professor of Music Juliette Herlin’s debut cello album, Dialogue: Debussy & Schumann, has been on the Apple Classical Top 100 Worldwide for 13 consecutive weeks with over 800,000 streams.
- The Department of History in the AddRan College of Liberal Arts has been named a partner in the Department of Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency’s initiative to locate and identify unaccounted for American servicemembers from World War II through today. Through the partnership, TCU now hosts a postdoctoral fellowship that places early-career historians at the intersection of academic research and a critical national mission.
- Weizi Liu, assistant professor of strategic communication, was awarded a grant from the American Academy of Advertising for her research on gendered AI and consumer trust.
I am sure there are many more not listed here. I encourage you to send your awards, honors, grants and rankings to Elaine Cole, director of communications for the Office of the Provost, at e.cole@tcu.edu, so we can heap praise on you, too.
I look forward to seeing you next week at the many events for Values in Action Week, Nov. 3-8, including the Higher Education Summit, Fogelson Honors Forum with Kendra Scott, Drone Show, Research and Creative Activity Showcase, and the Inauguration of Chancellor Daniel W. Pullin on Nov. 6. More information is on the attached flyer and this website: www.tcu.edu/inauguration.
Thank you for all you do here at TCU, for our students and each other. Go Frogs!
Best wishes,
Floyd
Floyd L. Wormley Jr.
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Texas Christian University