Idaho State University Outstanding Service Award recipients announced

Five Idaho State University faculty have received 2011 Outstanding Service Awards and will be honored at a reception on April 27. One will receive the 2011 ISU Distinguished Service Award to be announced at the reception. Receiving 2011 Outstanding Service Awards are Colden Baxter, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences; Jim DiSanza, Ph.D., professor and chair of communication and rhetorical studies; Caroline Fauré, Ed.D., assistant professor of sports science and physical education; Jean Pfau, Ph.D., associate professor of biological sciences; and Bethany Schultz Hurst, associate lecturer of English.
"Idaho State University is extremely fortunate to have faculty on staff with such dedication in to serving their disciplines, our students and the entire University community," says Gary Olson, Idaho State University Provost.

Colden Baxter, an associate professor of biological sciences, has varied public service. "I do not know of any faculty who have achieved as great as breadth, depth, quantity and quality of service efforts as Dr. Colden Baxter," said a colleague in a nominating letter.

At the university level, Baxter has served on the ISU Faculty Senate, University Research Council, University Library Committee and helped establish departmental seminars.Professionally, Baxter participates on manuscript and proposal peer-review for the National Science Foundation and numerous journals. He has made active contributions, such organizing meetings, to a variety professional organizations he belongs to such as American Fisheries Society. He also works closely with government and tribal agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Internationally, he has organized events for fellow scientists; for example, he has twice garnered funding and organized research workshops for scientists from around the Pacific Rim.

In his community, Baxter makes regular presentations to schools, and to community groups and community events, especially those devoted to protecting the Portneuf watershed. His less traditional public outreach includes participating in the creation of the documentary film “Riverwebs,” which has aired nationally on public television and will be distributed in a classroom version. On behalf of ISU and his department, he helped establish a Memorandum of Agreement and a student internship program with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.

Jim DiSanza has been at Idaho State University for 22 years and has made significant contributions to the University and the community. As chair of the Communication and Rhetorical Studies Department for the past six years, DiSanza helped the program grow from 40 majors, minors, and graduate students to more than 90. He also helped secure a $250,000 gift to build, furnish, and supply a new speech laboratory for ISU students.

DiSanza is the co-founder and business manager of the journal “Relevant Rhetoric: A New Journal of Rhetorical Studies,” an online publication that recently released its second issue.

In the community, DiSanza has made a tremendous effort to successfully create competitive hockey opportunities for the area's youth. Hockey has been a major part of DiSanza’s life and his efforts to bring hockey to the Pocatello-Chubbuck area have been extremely successful.  In 2006 he helped construct an inline hockey rink in Chubbuck, and in 2011 he worked with the City of Chubbuck, various local businesses, and dozens of volunteers, to build an NHL-size ice rink."

Caroline Fauré earned her Doctor of Education Degree in Educational Leadership from ISU. Fauré dissertation, "An Examination of the General Understanding of Idaho High School Football Coaches Relative to Concussion," earned her the prestigious Kole-McGuffey Award at ISU. Since then, she has worked extensively with Idaho sport administrators, coaches and parents to increase educational awareness about the potential risks involved with concussion.

In the past three years, Fauré has secured more than $60,000 in grants and has established The Center for Sports Concussion on ISU's campus.  The Center provides educational outreach to Idaho’s schools and youth sports program and offers free neurological concussion testing to area athletes. In 2010 Fauré worked with the Idaho Legislature to draft a bill to mandate concussion education for all school sport coaches and parents of school-aged athletes. She continues to work with sport leaders statewide on the implementation of concussion management guidelines. She is also a founding member of the Idaho Sports Concussion Association.

In 2010, she was recognized as Idaho's Top Health Care Hero Educator by the Idaho Business Review. Fauré has also created and promoted several community events to promote healthy lifestyles and physical activity. She has coordinated numerous events including the Bengal Triathlon, the Pocatello Kids Triathlon and the Santa Claws Fun Run – all of which raise money for various civic charities. She and her husband also own and operate Tri Med Sports Medicine – a community outreach that provides free sports medicine care to athletes throughout the region.

Jean Pfau is an active researcher and she has served or held positions on 10 ISU committees or professional service organizations. Her service positions have ranged from being a graduate faculty representative to being the director of the Flow Cytometry Core Facility and a member of the Molecular Research Core Facility Advisory Committee.Nationally, she serves on the editorial boards of four peer-reviewed journals. She is also very active in professional service, holding or having held a variety of national and regional positions for the Society of Toxicology, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other entities.  

Pfau's community activities are many. She was one of three ISU faculty to help plan and host the Idaho Science & Engineering Festival, a satellite event of the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington D.C. This event was held last October and attracted more than 1,000 K-12 students from Southeast Idaho and Wyoming to ISU to learn about science. She is also involved in planning the event for next year.  

In addition, last September, Pfau participated in the Libby Research Rally and Community Advisory meetings in Libby, Mont., educating the community on asbestos health effects. She has also delivered guest lectures and been a volunteer at area schools and been an EPA CARE grant participant.

Bethany Schultz Hurst, for the last five years, has served as the co-director of the Rocky Mountain Writer’s Festival, a long-standing Pocatello community tradition. This multi-day event features readings and presentations by local and regional authors. It requires many months of preparation work, including grant writing and community organizing. Since she has been co-director, the festival has added a "visiting writers" component, and the festival has hosted writers who have wide critical acclaim and established national profiles. The visiting writers have also created opportunities for different community and student groups.

Schultz Hurst's other community service activities include organizing, hosting and participating in a variety of literary readings that have featured prominent community and regional writers. While serving on the Pocatello Arts Council she served on the Literary Pavers Project, which selects literary excerpts to be engraved in the sidewalks of Old Town Pocatello.

On campus, Schultz Hurst has served on several committees and has been a faculty advisor for the English Graduate Students Association.

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