Kudos

Natalie Simpson, associate professor of operations management and strategy in the School of Management, has received the prestigious 2013 Wickham Skinner Teaching Innovation Award from the Production and Operations Management Society (POMS).

An expert in emergency services and emergency response, Simpson also is the academic director of digital access education in the School of Management. The digital access program captures lectures through digital recording so students can access instruction from other locations.

The Wickham Skinner award recognizes Simpson for her impact and innovation in production and operations management instruction, and is based on instructional excellence, evidence of creativity and/or innovation and evidence of impact.

Simpson is a past recipient of the Dean’s Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in recognition of her exceptional work in the classroom and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

She will receive the Wickham Skinner award in early May at the POMS national meeting in Denver.

“Seed Trees,” an exhibition of work by Reinhard Reitzenstein, associate professor and head of the sculpture program, Department of Visual Studies, will on display from April 6-27 in the Olga Korper Gallery, 17 Morrow Ave., Toronto.

An opening reception will be held from 2-6 p.m. April 6.

The exhibition features new work in bronze and stone, images of mosses from the forest floor and a series of drawings representing seed trees. Seed trees are presumably left standing to provide seedlings in forest areas after clear-cut operations.They also may provide a sense of hope for the recovery of the forest. Reitzenstein’s drawings depict the trees as iconic, solitary, survivors, both heroic and vulnerable.

The Buffalo Niagara Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America has named John DellaContrada, assistant vice president in the Office of University Communications, as president of its board of directors for 2013. Other officers include Jacqueline Ghosen, assistant dean and director of communication, UB School of Management, treasurer; and Kevin Manne, assistant director of communication, School of Management, director-at-large.

The Western New York chapter of the New York State Commercial Association of Realtors recently honored Robert G. Shibley, dean of the School of Architecture and Planning, with its Meritorious Service Award.

The award recognizes a “prominent public servant who has exhibited leadership and devoted his or her career in service to the commercial real estate community.”