UCA occupational therapy clinical instructor Elizabeth LeQuieu received a scholarship from the Arkansas Council for Women in Higher Education recognizing outstanding women in the field of higher education.
LeQuieu has been practicing as an occupational therapist since 2002. She has been an instructor at UCA since 2005. Her clinical practice has been in the areas of physical disabilities in a rehabilitative setting and most recently in pediatrics
The Psi Chi officers at the University of Central Arkansas won the 2014-201515 Kay Wilson Officer Team Leadership Award.
This award honors Kay Wilson, Executive Officer of Psi Chi from 1991–2003, and her commitment to leadership and collaboration. Under Kay’s leadership, Psi Chi doubled its membership and increased its grants, awards, and national visibility. Like Kay, the UCA team has not only demonstrated excellence in leadership but also realized the role Psi Chi plays in developing future leaders in psychology.
Psi Chi presented the UCA chapter a check for $2,000 and an engraved plaque suitable for permanent honor in their department.
Dr. Alicia Cotabish, Assistant Professor of Teaching and Learning and Gifted Education Program Coordinator in the College of Education, has been elected to serve a two-year term as a board member of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Research on Giftedness, Creativity and Talent special interest group (SIG).
The SIG deals with research studies that focus on how giftedness, talent, and creativity are developed and nurtured. The group encourages both international and national studies involving qualitative and/or quantitative methods in a wide variety of topics: Conceptions, Models, Identification, Programs and Practices, Counseling, Creativity, Thinking Skills, Disabilities, Parenting, and Diversity. Their mission is to provide leadership that encourages and promotes high-quality scholarship addressing giftedness, creativity, and talent, creates a community of scholars and leaders in the field, facilitates communication and dissemination of research both within and outside the field, nurtures future scholars, and advances research in the field.
Currently, Dr. Cotabish is the President of the Arkansas Association of Gifted Education Administrators (AAGEA) and serves as an expert speaker for the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC). She is also serving a three year term on the highly selective Standards Committee for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).
The College of Education is honored to have Dr. Cotabish among our distinguished faculty.
Two electric car charging stations have been added to the UCA campus as a part of the HPER expansion.
A 2005 graduate of the University of Central Arkansas appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” at 7 p.m. April 24, 2015
Brittany (Jones) Hodak and her business partner, Kim Kaupe, pitched their company, ZinePak, on the show.
“For months, my business partner and I couldn’t tell anyone we even filmed an episode, because there was no guarantee it would air,” Hodak said.
The company is located in New York City in a coworking space called WeWork. Hodak said other entrepreneurs from WeWork, along with some New York City media and about 150 of the company’s clients will attend a watch party to view the show live.
“There is so much anticipation!” she said. “It’s really exciting, but intimidating at the same time! We’re really looking forward to finally seeing it.”
The Fort Smith native got the idea of ZinePak while a student at UCA. She was working as a college marketing representative for Warner Music group. National staff at that company often discussed declines of compact disc sales. It was then that Hodak said she envisioned a solution.
“If you want people to buy a physical music product, it should be superior to the same offering digitally,” Hodak said. “That’s where the idea for ZinePak came from, although I didn’t put it into action for several years later until I met my co-founder, Kim, at an advertising agency in NYC.”
ZinePak partners with celebrities and brands to create deluxe entertainment packages for super fans. The company has worked with artists such as Katy Perry, KISS and Luke Bryan and brands such as Unilever, MillerCoors and American Express. Since its founding in 2011, the company has grown into a multimillion dollar company with 10 full-time employees and several freelancers.
While at UCA, Hodak majored in communication, concentrating in public relations with minors in honors and marketing. She was a Presidential Scholar and UCA Academic Excellence Award Recipient all seven semesters. She graduated summa cum laude in 2005. She also led a group of students in setting a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest Christmas stocking.
