AMAZING ACCOLADES AND AWARDS

FAU faculty, staff and students go above and beyond in the community and throughout the world to make a difference. Their work has not gone unnoticed.

Here’s a look at some of the prestigious accolades and awards earned from across colleges and institutes.

ANNETTE LAROCCO, PH.D., assistant professor in the Department of Political Science in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, received the 2022-23 Fulbright Scholar Award for the Africa Regional Research Program. Her project, titled “Mother’s Nature?: What All-Female Conservation Initiatives Can Tell Us About Gender, the Environment, and Power,” enables her to conduct research in two sub-Saharan countries: in Botswana, with host institution Okavango Research Institute in Maun, a center of the University of Botswana and one of the leading research hubs for critical conservation studies in the region; and in Zimbabwe, with host institution the Gender Institute at Midlands State University in Gweru.

CASSANDRA ATKIN-PLUNK, PH.D., associate director and associate professor in the College of Social Work and Criminal Justice, was elected executive counselor for the Division of Corrections and Sentencing within the American Society of Criminology.

RACHEL S. HARRIS, PH.D., an Eminent Scholar in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, received a Fulbright Scholar Award for her project titled “With a Wider Lens: Recovering Lost Israeli Cinema 19471967.” The project examines the dozens of feature films, documentaries and informational broadcasts made in the first years of Israeli cinema. Working with scholars and archivists at Tel Aviv University, this award provides Harris the opportunity to research this foundational period in film history. Many of these films have been hidden away for decades to preserve the fragile filmstock, but now are available to view due to new digitization and restoration projects undertaken by the Israel Film Archive.

DANIEL GROPPER, PH.D., dean of FAU’s College of Business, was honored with the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award from Florida State University’s College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. Gropper earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in economics at FSU.

CLAUDIA MONTAS, master’s student in the College of Social Work and Criminal Justice, is a 2022-23 Minority Fellowship Program Master’s Fellow with the Council on Social Work Education, the national association representing social work education in the U.S. The program aims to reduce the effects of substance abuse and mental illness by increasing the number of individuals trained to work with underrepresented and underserved racial/ethnic minority persons with or at risk for mental health and/or substance abuse disorders.

CHERYL A. KRAUSE-PARELLO, PH.D., associate dean and the Schmidt Family Distinguished Professor in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing is among 22 honorees worldwide who will be inducted into the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing’s “2023 International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.” Her innovative work on the human-animal bond has helped to improve countless lives, especially among U.S. military veterans.