Awards and honors

Category winners and finalists received more than $20,000 at the 2018 Charlotte Venture Challenge; this year’s event featured 13 innovative startup finalists.

UNC Charlotte’s Celine Latulipe, Sybil Huskey, David Wilson and Vikash Singh are the researchers behind Video Collaboratory, a recent winner of the Blue Diamond Award from the Charlotte Area Technology Collaborative.

Ana-Isabel Aliaga-Buchenau, associate professor of German, is the 2018 recipient of the International Education Faculty Award. The honor was presented at the 24th annual UNC Charlotte International Education Celebration, held in the Atkins Library Halton Reading Room.

Aliaga-Buchenau, also associate chair of the Department of Languages and Culture Studies, has been a UNC Charlotte faculty member since 2002. During her tenure, she has embraced international education in her teaching, service and research.

Joyce Dalsheim, a cultural anthropologist in the Department of Global Studies, was named a 2018 Luce/ACLS Fellow in Religion, Journalism and International Affairs.

She will use her ethnographic research in Israel/Palestine to engage in a critical examination of the relationship between sovereignty and liberation, focusing on questions of religion and religious freedom. Her work adds new perspective to a broad set of interdisciplinary conversations on secularism and citizenship in the modern world.

Phil Jones, associate vice chancellor for the Facilities Management Department, recently received the prestigious Frank B. Turner Award at the 37th annual State Construction Conference.

Diane Browder, Lake and Edward P. Snyder Distinguished Professor of Special Education, has received the 2018 Special Education Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children. This award recognizes an individual whose research has significantly advanced the education of children and youth with exceptionalities.

Charlotte baseball head coach Loren Hibbs will be one of six individuals to be inducted into the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame. Hibbs, a 1984 graduate of Wichita State, is set to begin his 26th season as the Charlotte 49ers skipper in February.

“What a tremendous honor,” began Hibbs. “It is always great to be recognized for your achievements. Not only for the accomplishments during my time playing and coaching at Wichita State but also for the caliber of the program we have built and maintained here at Charlotte.”

Ted Elling, associate vice chancellor for student affairs for research and systems development, received the 2017 Champion Award from Campus Labs for “utilizing data to influence a change in student success initiatives across the institution and inspiring a generation of assessment professionals.” 

Michelle Guobadia, associate dean of students and director for fraternity and sorority life, received the Angela C. Guillory Outstanding Fraternity/Sorority Advisor Award presented by Sigma Kappa Sorority.

This national award recognizes an individual in the field of higher education who has demonstrated a commitment to fraternities and sororities, exhibited high professional standards, promoted the inter-fraternal community and worked with Sigma Kappa to strengthen and/or foster change in a local collegiate chapter and/or Greek community.

During the summer, Virginia Fuentes, a SafeRide driver with the Parking and Transportation Services Office (PaTS), was training recent hire Monique Woodard, when she observed an oddity. The Police and Public Safety Department (PPS) vehicle she was following veered suddenly to the left, crossed the oncoming traffic lane and came to rest near a stop sign north of Craver Road.