When biology professors Ginny and Reid Adams came to the 51��¥ in 2003, they had already established an impressive network of partnerships with governmental, private and public agencies, laying the groundwork for what would be The Adams Fish Ecology Lab. These connections through the last two decades, in addition to grant funding, have changed the face of ecological research for UCA’s undergraduate and graduate environmental science majors through immersive experiential fieldwork and impressive collaborative data collection and lab work. All this combined continues to change the face of our campus and our state as these scientists and their future scientists learn how to preserve our streams, rivers and waterways to track and save precious fish populations.

Reid Adams, a Mississippi native, and Ginny Adams, an Arkansas native, met during their undergraduate studies at Ole Miss. Reid, spurred by his interest in nature, was a biology major specializing in environmental science. Inspired by scientists at Ole Miss, Reid continued to conduct research and later obtained his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University. As he continued his research and fieldwork, he made connections that are maintained today.

“I’ve had a lot of inspirations through the years,” he said, “Growing up in Greenville, Mississippi, hunting and fishing with my dad and brother and all of our buddies was a great inspiration for me. It was that social attachment associated with the river and oxbows; these things inspired me to be a biology major and go on to environmental science.”

“During my master’s degree at Ole Miss,” he continued, “I worked with a great scientist named Glenn Parsons. Then, I worked with the Army Corps of Engineers and the Waterways Experiment Station in Vicksburg, Mississippi, with some amazing field scientists like Jack Kilgore, Jan Hoover and Stephen George. Then the Ph.D. involved work with more amazing scientists like Jim Garvey and Brooks Burr. So many people inspired me to continue to do heavily field-based research with direct applications to conservation and to give others opportunities to work in the field.”

Ginny Adams knew she wanted to work in biology but wasn’t sure which area she would choose. Her finances during her first year at Ole Miss played a crucial role in securing a passion and a lifetime career in changing the environment through education and hands-on learning experiences for her students. A freshman biology professor allowed her to do undergraduate research that changed her direction. She received a master’s from the University of Arkansas in cave research, furthering her drive for fieldwork, data collection and the challenge of proving herself in a male-dominated field.

“I started out pre-med, pre-pharmacy, pre-medical something,” said Ginny. “During my sophomore year, trying to make ends meet, I went to one of my professors I’d had for freshman biology, and I asked if he’d recommend me for tutoring because I needed the money. He offered me a lab and field position with students working with fish. The pivot point was the experience of seeing the fish, working with them and doing the lab work. Then, I could do undergraduate research, which wasn’t a thing back then, by asking for funding from the dean. With that, I could do a research project and publish it. That solidified that this was the field I wanted to be in – that this was my passion.”

“I had some great mentors along the way,” she continued, “There were not many women in the field, and that motivated me to keep doing fieldwork and getting those fellowships and grants. When I finished my master’s, Reid and I got married and went to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and I also worked with the Army Corps of Engineers. Then we went to Southern Illinois University, and I funded myself and side projects that Reid and I would work on.”

Grant writing and building partnerships through their dissertations helped the couple on their arrival at UCA, in addition to founding their lab. Reid said, “We had to be able to write grants, and that’s the genesis of why we are so involved with grant writing and trying to get the resources we need to do the impactful research we do while impacting our students with hands-on learning out in the field.” Ginny agreed, “Both of our dissertation projects involved working with agencies and external partners. Then the joint project we did with the Missouri Department of Conservation/National Forest Service allowed us to network and work within that grant framework as well.”

The Adams Fish Ecology Lab, housed in the Lewis Science Center, boasts equipment, computers, specimens and more to assist students in conducting research and entering data from fieldwork. This lab experience proves integral for student learning in keeping accurate records and findings, while the fieldwork element gives them hands-on experience in often difficult surroundings. That field experience, Reid related, makes a world of difference in their students’ learning.

“It’s one thing to read about stream ecology or ideology or watch a YouTube video or Google search. But it’s another thing to be out in the field, in the stream, observing and studying it in person. My mentors impressed me with that, and it stuck with me. That’s why we must take our students into the streams. Our students get to build connections, work on problem-solving and critical thinking, and see the results in real time. They can see the process,” he said.

Ginny added, “They get to participate. We push them to give their opinions and brainstorm with us because that’s how we learn. Plus, since many of our grant sponsors or partners are in the field with us, our students get to interact directly, not just with us, but directly with biologists with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) or the Nature Conservancy.” This provides even more opportunities for professional development for students before graduation.

“Because of these interactions, not at a conference or a symposium, but out in a stream, professionals get to know and interact with our students. That eases conversations, and that’s how our students can go out and get internships and jobs because of those interactions in the field,” Reid said.

When out in the field, the tasks include sampling fish and habitats, hauling equipment to and from the sites, collecting and recording data, solving any issues that may arise. These are carried out while adverse conditions present themselves. They must climb over logs, fight insects, work in the dark, work in the rain, work in the heat and concentrate on observations and data collection to “do it right,” said Reid.

The Adams Fish Ecology Lab currently employs four full-time employees, four graduate students and eleven undergraduates. While previous experiences with Ginny and Reid further the partnerships, the lab continues to garner a solid reputation for excellence because of its work ethic and the research it produces.

As the popularity of this innovative teaching and conservation effort continues to grow in UCA’s biology department, the Adamses added that there’s a personal side to the lab they created. They have fun. They teach. They “do it right” even when conditions aren’t ideal. The bedrock of this foundation is respect for each other and learning.

“It’s the intangibles,” Ginny stated. “We have a diverse group of people in the field, and there are times when there are eight to ten of us together. Managing those long days can be challenging, but we have amazing students. We are truly blessed.”

Reid said, “We all treat each other with respect and teach the value of teamwork. By experiencing these things, our students come out ready to be leaders, and Chance Garrett is a great example of one of ours who did well after the program.”

Chance Garrett ’18 ’23, a fish ecologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Aquatic Conservation Section, participated in a research study as an undergraduate while assisting graduate students with the lab, and the experience changed his life. “Ginny and Reid are extremely knowledgeable, and working with them opened my eyes to the waterways and the diversity of fish species we have in Arkansas. I learned a lot about science and conservation from watching them. They make sure to connect their students with their network. So, aside from getting fieldwork and research experience, students also get to work with professionals in the field. I still see these professionals in meetings. I still work with them. They’re not strangers to me, so I’m ready to jump in, and we’re ready to work together. Working with the Adamses helped me set up a network to facilitate my work being more productive today,” he said.

Current students also see the value of the experiences the Adams Fish Ecology Lab offers. Senior environmental science major Peyton Manry stated that the lab has taught her many things while opening opportunities to explore more. “I have learned to be a better team player and communicate efficiently and effectively. The collaborative element has helped me think over situations in new ways and has aided my critical thinking skills. Doing undergraduate research gives you the best chance to find your passion,” she said.

Tavis Taylor, a senior majoring in environmental science, agreed, “The brainstorming and collaborative sessions in the field have improved my learning and helped me work better with a team. You have to be able to see each other’s ideas and work together to see what will work best for the team. Even if you are not the most knowledgeable about a specific topic, you can still help and give a different perspective that could help. You can’t get this kind of learning in the classroom.”

Most recently, the Adamses were invited to attend an event to announce a $3.9 million grant to AGFC from the Department of the Interior through their America the Beautiful Challenge grant. The project includes the removal of a dam and three other barriers to aquatic passage. It represents one of the most significant stream restoration projects undertaken in Arkansas. Conservation of our resources in the Natural State includes training the next generation of conservationists and scientists, and the Adamses do just that.

The lab’s motto is “Play for keeps.” Playing for keeps in this respect means fieldwork, research, data collection and products that potentially save fish species that are being considered for listing on the endangered species list. It means respecting their students and serving as examples of professionalism in the field.

“The interactions and camaraderie with all the students and partners we’ve worked with over the years add a real joy to what we do. The science matters, and the students inspire us to carry on the legacy of continuing to inspire others and doing good science,” Reid said.

“We’ve had some amazing students through the years,” Ginny said. “They drive us. The groups we’ve been lucky enough to have kept us going, keep us motivated. It’s providing pathways for our students. It’s changing the trajectory of a student who didn’t know their passion.”

“We have trained and continue to train a diverse set of students, and then they’re going to go on and change the face of natural resource conservation through their careers and by being role models,” said Reid.

The Adams Fish Ecology Lab is genuinely playing for keeps as this dynamic pair continues building partnerships with agencies, individuals, students and other conservationists to save waterways and fish species in our state and beyond and change our awareness of the environment.

51��¥ alumna Beth Helms ’13, ’15 hadn’t considered pursuing a career in speech-language pathology (SLP) when declaring a major. Still, an early fascination with American Sign Language and a summer job led her to a career she loves. This path involves using innovative teaching methods while advocating for the students and families she serves at the Arkansas School for the Deaf. Her dedication to equity for deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) children and the connections she makes for her students are life-changing.

Helms knew she wanted to pursue a career in health sciences but needed to decide which field to focus on when it came time to start college. “The field of communication sciences disorders was not in my original career plan, and it was difficult to narrow down a major. I knew I wanted to pursue something in the health sciences field, and narrowed it down after getting a summer job as an office assistant at a local therapy clinic,” Helms said. After enrolling in pre-requisite courses, Helms realized “the role of the SLP is to improve clients’ interpersonal connections with the people around them by helping them engage and communicate across the lifespan.”

Her role as an educator and advocate for DHH children and their families came naturally from Helms’ early education experience. “I have always been fascinated with American Sign Language, even joining the ‘Singing Hands’ club in elementary school. I also took ASL I and II at UCA as my second language, so I shouldn’t have been too surprised when I found myself circling back to the Arkansas School for the Deaf’s table when attending the UCA Health Sciences Job Fair where I met my future boss,” Helms stated.

After graduating, Helms worked as an educator. She grew into an expert specializing in language and communication skills for those she serves by gaining a Listening and Spoken Language DHH Endorsement. This, coupled with her passion for the language, makes her teaching style one that benefits her students and their families. “The more I learned the language and immersed myself in the culture, the fascination quickly grew into a passion for serving the children of the DHH community,” Helms said.

She described her literacy teaching methods as centered around each child, using real-world connections as a team-supported effort with intervention models in small settings and branching out into the more extensive classroom. “It depends on the child,” Helms continued, “I support early literacy development through multisensory instruction and utilizing listening and spoken language strategies to improve foundational literacy skills. I really value experienced-based learning, making the connection between world knowledge and word/vocabulary knowledge.” This approach provides an integrated model into the classroom or social setting to foster and support skills that carry across environments and link language learning with meaningful experiences.” The students build communication skills based on classroom and real-world situations, thus opening more opportunities for connection for children and families in the DHH community.

This individualized, multi-modal approach is one of Helms’ favorite aspects of her dynamic teaching model and career. She compares this approach to a puzzle. “The most engaging aspect is figuring out how to fit the pieces of each child’s puzzle together to bring the picture of the whole child into focus so we can start working to fill in the missing pieces,” Helms said. Helms hopes this will lead to more innovations for this community thereby impacting more communities beyond the classroom.

“I hope that the relationships I forged and collaborative efforts with educators and leaders in the deaf community lead to a more cohesive and collective approach to the education of DHH children in our state, maximizing their access to quality language development so that they can develop quality personal relationships that allow them to engage as active members of their local communities,” said Helms.

Helms remains focused on those she serves, staying committed to the future and the impact of her teaching. She said, “I hope to continue serving the DHH children of the state I reside in, whether in a leadership or supervisory role.” Her passion for giving back, forming connections and giving support circles back to Helms’ fascination with ASL and her time at UCA. “UCA provided me with a community of support, socially, academically and professionally,” said Helms. “And I am forever grateful.”

Jordan Bellew ’20 endured a life-changing ordeal from ninth grade to his first year of college, marked by 24 hospital admissions due to a severe and progressive paralysis. This condition left him unable to perform even basic tasks like lifting a fork or spoon, despite his background as a young, healthy athlete. After extensive testing, Jordan was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease, Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP), which causes the immune system to attack the nervous system. Armed with this diagnosis, he embarked on a transformative journey to reclaim his health and inspire others, focusing on the profound impact of diet and nutrition in managing chronic illness and improving well-being.

As he journeyed through his condition and transitioned from high school to college, he made changes to his diet and lost more than 60 pounds. He credited this change and a few others with piquing his interest in studying nutrition.

“When I was going through that, I started changing my diet. That’s when I really started walking closer to the Lord. And the medicines I was on started making more of an impact then. I lost quite a bit of weight during that time. I initially lost more than 40 pounds. But what was interesting was that people around me were noticing that I was trying to make all of these changes, and they were noticing the results. They would come to me and tell me about their achievements after seeing what I’d done, so I was impacting them indirectly. So I wondered, ‘What can I do directly?’ And that made me go into this field,” Bellew stated.

That question led him to study nutrition at the 51��¥. Not long after graduation, he started working as a nutritionist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) with liver and kidney transplant patients, beginning a career he enjoys because of its impact. “I really enjoyed it,” Bellew stated. “Those patients were willing to change their diets to ensure their organs would stay healthy. They had to come in for checkups routinely, so I was part of their team. I was an outpatient nutritionist, so I could spend more time with them and get to know them.”

Bellew then moved to northwest Arkansas and is currently with ARcare Positive Connections, providing outpatient nutritional healthcare to HIV/AIDS patients as part of a holistic approach to their treatment. Even though medications have progressed in recent years, Bellew noted that nutrition plays a vital role in their treatment.

“Their medications do work very well to where they can become undetectable or to where they can’t even transmit it, but with that [the medications], they are more prone to develop diabetes or high cholesterol levels or hypertension. Some clients are usually 2% or less below the poverty line. So it’s trying to meet them where they are and helping them utilize what they have access to so that we can help them boost their immune system and just really help them feel better overall. I give them the educational tools they can use to build lifelong sustainable healthy habits,” Bellew said.

As part of a team of doctors, nurses and social caseworkers supported by the Ryan White Foundation, Bellew consults his patients on nutrition. He goes further by providing food bags or giving them guidance on how to apply for assistance. As an outpatient dietician, he can provide support and a place of accountability to ensure success for a population often overlooked or undersupported.

Bellew explained, “I can provide my clients with food bags or supplements. I can also give them little tips like what to look for when grocery shopping or going to local food banks. They also have caseworkers who help them with housing and things of that nature. Accountability isn’t just having them come in periodically; it is about checking in three or six months out to make sure everything’s going well, making sure they have what they need, and that can be enough motivation for them to maintain healthy habits.”

When asked about his hopes for his patients and his impact from bringing healthy nutritional change, Bellew stated, “I hope that the changes I’ve taught them are sustainable and maintainable. I want to leave them with the tools they need to feel confident and competent to maintain and keep it going.”

LaTeasha Davis ’06, ’08, the CEO and founder of Therapeutic Focus in West Memphis, Arkansas, impacts individuals seeking help and to mentor those seeking a career in therapy.

As a young child growing up in West Memphis, Arkansas, Davis experienced a speech delay at the age of three. With limited providers in the area, her family was told that she would not be able to receive help until she was five years old. Recognizing the importance of early intervention, Davis’ grandmother refused to accept “no” as an answer and found a new graduate speech therapist who agreed to work with Davis free of charge. For years, Davis worked with her therapist for two days a week, learning to articulate her words and express herself.

Years later, while Davis was in high school, her grandmother suffered a stroke and an aneurysm, which required her to undergo occupational, physical and speech therapy. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of her therapists, Davis witnessed her remarkable recovery as she regained her speech and mobility, ultimately achieving independence once again. Davis said these two moments were the initial spark for her passion for therapy.

“I was so intrigued with how occupational therapy helped her to become independent,” said Davis. “I was like, ‘Wow, I want to be able to help people like that.’ Just as that graduate speech therapist helped me overcome my delay, I also saw that occupational therapist helped my grandmother overcome her deficit. And I thought to myself, ‘This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.’”

After graduating high school, Davis enrolled at the 51��¥, knowing she wanted to be an occupational therapist. After her sophomore year, she applied for the university’s Occupational Therapy (OT) program and was accepted. Davis considers her time at UCA to be some of the best years of her life. She stated, “I met some lifelong friends and professors who were truly there for me. One particular professor, Dr. Lisa J. Mosley, really took me under her wing. She always saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself. She had the confidence for me that I didn’t even have, and so I was really grateful for her because I attribute a lot of my success to her because of what she saw in me.”

After graduating in 2008 with her occupational therapy degree, Davis chose to work as an OT in San Diego, California and later moved to Laredo, Texas. Having worked for a few years in hospitals, mental health settings, nursing homes, sports clinics and an outpatient pediatric clinic, Davis soon heard the call to return to her hometown of West Memphis, Arkansas.

“West Memphis is 68% Black minority in Crittenden County,” said Davis. “We are an underserved and impoverished area and are well below the national average when it comes to the median household income, which is around $26,000. I went to San Diego, and it was like a time warp. They were so far ahead and technologically advanced. So, when I moved back to Arkansas, I was able to bring some of those concepts and principles and techniques here to an underserved community.”

Davis continued, “When I moved to San Diego, and later Texas, I moved because I envisioned success to look like being in a larger city and a larger community. I did not think that success could be here in a small town, but I’m just very grateful that I got a chance to come back. My idea of success truly lies here in my community, and it was important for me to give back to it because of how underserved the Delta area is.”

In 2011, Davis created Therapeutic Focus to help individuals within her community. Therapeutic Focus is a medical service provider for pediatric occupational, physical and speech therapy.

“Our number one goal and priority is providing good quality ethical therapy intervention to children, whether that be occupational therapy, physical therapy, or speech therapy, because our goal is to help them become the best version of themselves that they can be and also to empower not only them but empower their families and loved ones,” said Davis. “As a leader in the business realm and in the state, I think, ‘What if someone would have overlooked me as a child and had not given me a chance?’ I was thinking that I could be the same light to other children. We serve 450 patients on a weekly basis. The reality is that the children of the Delta need to at least have a chance.”

Davis continued, “My grandmother, being a nurse, always told me that you treat everyone as family and you’ll never go wrong in life, and that’s what I do. So, when I come to work each day, I’m coming home. For me, one of the biggest successes is being able to provide therapy to my family, friends and people I know. Knowing that they can come and receive good quality therapy intervention is worth more than gold.”

Aside from running and operating her clinic, Davis also serves as a board member on the West Memphis Chamber of Commerce and oversees the Educational and Leadership Committee. She has created an internship program for high school students at her facility. Currently, she is working with the committee to develop a pilot project where high school students will be paired with local businesses.

“There’s a saying, ‘You cannot become what you cannot see,’” said Davis. “It’s so important that the high school students are able to see other therapists, as well as other occupational, physical and speech therapists entrepreneurs. That is imperative because we can help shape them; we can help change the trajectory of their life. Being in an underserved area, we need more entrepreneurs. We need more businesses. We need more leaders within our community, and this [the internship program] is one way that I can contribute back to the community that I live and grew up in and help shape the community and the world to become a better place.”

Davis has built an impressive career, earning widespread recognition for her achievements. In 2021, she became an alumnus of the Small Business Administration Emerging Leaders Initiative and Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Small Businesses program and was highlighted in an article in the Memphis Business Journal.

Her success continued in 2022, when she won first place in the Women’s Business Center Pitch Competition, was a finalist for the Small Business Awards Executive of the Year, and was named Enterprising Women magazine’s Woman of the Year 2022. She was also featured in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and advocated for Arkansas entrepreneurs on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

In 2023, Davis was recognized in the prestigious Arkansas Business 40 Under 40 list, celebrating notable business and political leaders under 40 in the state. Her accomplishments reflect her dedication, leadership, and advocacy for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

More recently, Davis has decided to further her impact by joining UCA’s Occupational Therapy program as an educator, where she will continue to inspire and instill a passion for helping others.

“I want to be able to ignite a passion for therapy in students,” said Davis. “I want to be able to talk to them about my experiences, tell them about how amazing and awesome therapy is, and how we can be used to improve the livelihood of others.”

Chance Garrett ’18, ’23 grew up near Conway and has always loved the outdoors. Still, it wasn’t until a chance meeting at the 51��¥ that he knew his passion was conservationism for fish species in the southeast. Now, Garrett serves as a fish ecologist in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) Fisheries Division in the Aquatic Conservation Section. He has made it his mission to educate and build connections to preserve waterways and endangered fish species in the natural state.

Growing up in Holland, Arkansas, Garrett was accustomed to being out in nature. Initially, he wanted to major in the study of mammals. After graduating from Conway High School, he traveled to Florida to study environmental science but found that the program didn’t quite fit.

“I was really interested in nature and knew a lot about nature as a child. When I graduated, I went to Florida to study mammals, specifically cats, such as bobcats and ocelots. After my sophomore year, I decided to come back home and go to UCA, which had a much more extensive environmental program since Florida’s biology program was geared more towards pre-med,” Garrett said.

The shift from mammals to fish came rather unexpectedly during his undergraduate years at UCA after he attended a club meeting and volunteered to get involved out in the field. He said, “I happened to go to a Fish and Wildlife Society meeting, a biology department club. It was run by graduate students in the Adams Fish Ecology Lab. I volunteered to go out into the field with them. And this changed my focus.”

Volunteering with the club and going out to assist graduate students with their fieldwork in Arkansas’ waterways opened his eyes to more than he’d noticed while out in nature growing up, and this got him hooked. “I had grown up fishing in Arkansas,” he said, “catching bass and sunfish and things like that, but I’d never seen the diversity of minnows and darters and other fish species that are so beautiful. It was incredible. It opened my eyes to many beautiful things in our state, right in my backyard where I’d grown up.”

After working on undergraduate research of his own through the Adams Fish Ecology Lab, Garrett decided to stay and complete his master’s as well. He credits his experiences with professors Ginny and Reid Adams with preparing him to move from more conservation roles as his career progressed. “I learned a lot about conservation and science from watching Ginny and Reid. They make sure they connect their students to their network so that the students are prepared when they are present at meetings. They also give students opportunities for hands-on experiences out in the field so that they know what it’s like to be a professional in that field. Those experiences and connections made me confident during undergraduate studies and my decision to pursue graduate studies.”

He continued, “I met many professionals through the Adams’ network. In graduate school, I worked on a project for the Nature Conservancy. I got to network with some of them. I still see these people at meetings and work with them. This connection and others have benefited me now that I am a professional in the field. I am working with them to conserve species within the state.”

The work is extensive. He began working with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality on Rule Two regarding state water laws. Garrett was there for three years after finishing his graduate degree at UCA. He credits his time there with providing him with more connections with the public and an understanding of how the state government works. It also broadened his knowledge of what he wants to do for Arkansas’ environment. “I expanded my knowledge and built upon skills I already had. I started to think about projects on a larger time scale. I learned that there are a lot of people who are really passionate about working hard to protect water for the public in Arkansas. That was a big takeaway for me,” he stated.

As a fish ecologist in the AGFC’s Fisheries Division in the Aquatic Conservation Section, Garrett is excited to witness his and his team’s progress in the coming years. “It’s been an exhilarating, rewarding experience,” he said of his first four months in the position. “I learn something new every day, and I can see our program’s vision, how it’s grown, and how ready we are to jump into a new era. It’s fascinating to see what we’re building right now.”

He explained that his job is to monitor some of the 230 non-game species of fish in the state to ensure that some of those at risk aren’t lost. “I’m responsible for some of the monitoring of these species. We want to ensure that we’re not losing any taxa or anything we’ve identified that is ‘at risk’ or declining. It’s my responsibility to work on conservation actions and do what can be done to help these species.”

Those actions can include designing projects, securing funding, filling knowledge gaps, working out in the field identifying fish and much more. He also works with diverse people, from landowners to watershed groups, all wanting to protect fish in the Natural State and beyond. He is excited about sharing and educating others about this work.

“I think it’s something many people don’t know about, not just fish in Arkansas, but in the southeast. As a region, we’re a global diversity hot spot for the world. The southeastern United States is one of the places where you can find the most freshwater fish. And so, not just in Arkansas, but as a region, I think preserving all of these different species is important,” Garrett said.

From using propagation projects to help declining species to AGFC’s nature centers providing education about our state’s fish, Garrett stated that the future for Arkansas’ waterways looks bright. His passion is preserving the state’s waterways so that people can experience the beauty of fish and the importance of a healthy environment right in their backyards.

He said, “I’m a public servant. My job is not only to protect the species but also to preserve that heritage for the state of Arkansas and make sure that future generations can go out there and see these fish too, and that their water is clean to drink and swim in, and that all those things are so important.”

The BEAR Life (Bridging Economic and Academic Resources) freshman transition program celebrated its first cohort this year, with 80 students successfully completing the program with an average GPA of 2.8.

This grant-funded initiative supports and empowers first-year, Pell-eligible students transitioning from high school to college with its Summer Bridge program, a team of dedicated Peer Guides, campus locations for study and sharing community. While this year saw its first cohort succeed, the program has been years in the making and promises success in the years ahead.

BEAR Life Director Nadia Eslinger related how this program began. “We celebrated our first year of having a cohort, but we’re in our second year of funding. The first year was planning, programming and setting it all up. Then, we got our first group of students in the fall of 2023. It began with Julia Winden Fey and Sponsored Programs writing and applying for a grant funded by the U. S. Department Title III Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) grant. That took some time since we didn’t know we had the grant until September 2022. We didn’t start until January 2023 when I began hiring our staff, and our first cohort came in the fall of 2023.”

The first year of college is a great time for change, but some students face unique challenges during this time of transition. BEAR Life is a five-year grant dedicated and designed to connect these first-year students to the resources and community they need to make that first year successful. The program offers peer coaching from upper-level students and professional coaches, the Summer Bridge program, workshops on topics to empower students with real-world knowledge and skills, service learning projects and academic assistance.

Pell-eligible students make up more than 40% of UCA’s student population, and many are low-income, first-generation college students or both. While many are somewhat prepared, equity gaps make that first year of college very difficult, and this program seeks to bridge those gaps. Eslinger said, “I think it’s important to understand that not all students come in at the same level on the same playing field. Sometimes, these students are academically prepared and can do the work but need support. If they have parents who maybe didn’t attend college or are unfamiliar with how college life works, that can be a barrier. Sometimes, financial barriers caused them to step out or leave the university.”

She continued, “So I think, for us, it’s essential that they have a support structure here at UCA that understands all those challenges, and we do what we can to help them through that. Access to money and resources opens many doors; when you don’t have that, you feel like those doors can’t be opened. But they can, and there are still possibilities. You just need the support network to help you.”

The Summer Bridge program is one benefit of this specialized support network through BEAR Life. This program brings new students to campus early. It seeks to acclimate them to campus life by providing connections through team-building activities, seminars on adulting, leadership and service-learning opportunities. It also gives students more knowledge about the academic environment at a university. They move in, tour the campus and learn about resources like tutoring and Student Health. They settle into their dorm rooms and meet their peers, fostering connections through community service-learning projects.

Eslinger stated, “UCA provides a ‘liberal education,’ which means we educate the whole student. This is not a training program where you can learn just one thing and be ready for a job. We feel that doing service-learning projects helps the students grow, connect to our community and understand central Arkansas’ different cultures and populations. It’s so they can feel like they’re a part of the community and so they will want to continue to give back and serve after earning their degree.”

Another benefit of the Summer Bridge program is that students learn the “hidden curriculum,” a series of implied rules, social norms of the college campus and classroom expectations that students may not know about. Eslinger explained, “The way I define it is that it is a set of expectations that we don’t necessarily try to hide from students, but it’s a set of expectations that we know, and we expect them to know, but, through no fault of their own, they don’t know. It’s just them coming into a new culture. They don’t know that they are supposed to go to faculty office hours or check their account to ensure everything is paid for. They don’t know about the 80/20 principle, which states that they should do most of their learning on their own now and enrich that learning in the classroom. Summer Bridge does just that. It helps bridge those potential gaps to get them acclimated to college life and ensure they’re ready to start and be successful.”

Eslinger continued, “Students have described the experience as ‘transformative.’ They feel like they’ve got a better start to college life. They made friends, learned about campus and felt more comfortable attending Welcome Week.”

The overall success of the BEAR Life program is also linked to academics, which is supported by a team of guides, coaches and requirements that help students learn a new way of studying in college. Success coaching is a required part of BEAR Life and comes in the form of upperclassmen peer guides and professional coaches. Eslinger said they had five peer guides for this first cohort, and each guide was assigned a group of 20 to 25 students. These extensively trained guides met with their students at least once monthly and inquired about their grades, how they were adjusting to college life and more. It was an opportunity for more support for the students. She explained, “It’s just the accountability piece, like they know someone is going to be checking up on them, making sure they’re doing what they need to do.”

Other program requirements include tracking at least five study hours per week, completing learning modules during each semester, attending a wellness coaching session and remaining in good academic standing with the university. These program elements are also supported by academic counseling and coaching from academic advisors and locations specially designed for study hours.

The Bear Burrow is one such place. Located in the newly renovated Student Success & Veterans Resource Center, it is a room set aside just for BEAR Life students for study time; Eslinger describes it as “an ‘everything area.’ They study there. They meet, they chat, have group sessions and play games. It’s their space, and they use it for everything. There are always two or three students in there every day. It’s always stocked with snacks and supplies they can use, like pencils and paper. It’s a cozy space we try to make comfortable for them – a place of their own.”

As UCA celebrated this first cohort, Eslinger reflected on the changes she witnessed in the students. “I’ve seen a big change in confidence. Many of these students came in with some level of imposter syndrome, not sure about themselves and their abilities or who they were and who they wanted to be while they were at UCA. By the end of the year, we have people running for Student Government Association (SGA) positions or getting leadership positions in their fraternities or sororities. So I saw a big change from them coming in as timid, unsure freshmen to these strong, successful sophomores ready to lead the next generation of students. They’re ready to tell their own story and determine the kind of student they want to be and the kind of leader they want to be, not just on campus, but out in the community.”

Stephanie Rose was the first in her family to go to college. For her, pursuing higher education also meant she could help her family.

“I’m the oldest of six, so community college made sense for me,” Rose said. “And I wanted to get the fastest degree so that I could help support my siblings.”

So, she decided to pursue nursing and attended what is now National Park College in Hot Springs. It was during the early years of her career that she realized her true calling.

“I learned that, ‘No, I don’t want to be a nurse,’” she said. “I had always had a passion for social work, but there was a lot of negative stigma surrounding social work. ‘Oh, you’re gonna just take babies away.’

“When I actually met with social workers in the field, I learned that the field is so vast and you can do so much with it.”
With an associate degree, Rose returned to school at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and earned a bachelor’s and master’s in social work. She later earned a Doctor of Social Work from Capella University.

Rose chose to focus on addiction studies and currently serves as director of UCA’s addiction studies program. She started in this role in 2018.

Through this role, she serves as an adviser and mentor to students and earned tenure as an assistant professor. Of course, she also pens research projects solely or with other faculty; however, the work is personal to Rose, so she takes it far beyond the classroom.

At 18, Rose herself could have fallen victim to dependency, recalling a physician prescribing a medication that can be habit-forming.

“I went into this knowing I don’t wanna become addicted. I want to change that narrative, and I see how easily this can happen just from visiting our own doctors, whom we trust,” Rose said.

Since becoming program director, Rose has spearheaded efforts to bring naloxone boxes to campus, making UCA the first Arkansas institution to participate in the Collegiate Naloxbox Bystander Rescue Program. Launched in August 2022, wall-mounted Naloxboxes were placed in areas on campuses in high-traffic areas or where a student may experience an overdose. Each Naloxbox can accommodate up to two doses of naloxone and is equipped with a mask for rescue breathing, gloves, and information on how to obtain personal naloxone and how to access addiction treatment.

In 2023, Rose helped to secure nearly $24,000 in opioid settlement dollars to provide naloxone doses and training to students, faculty and staff.

Through the Naloxone Hero Project, the funding comes from the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership.

Rose has conducted countless trainings on using naloxone with students at UCA by visiting dozens of Recognized Student Organizations, such as sororities and fraternities, as well as other local campuses. She maintains a rigorous schedule of several training sessions each semester to ensure that any student or student group that wants to be trained has the opportunity.

“I’m so passionate about this because I’ve personally been impacted,” she said. “I lost a cousin to a Fentanyl overdose by smoking marijuana that was laced with Fentanyl, and I started losing people the older I got. I’m like, ‘This is getting worse.’”
Just this year, UCA was awarded over $202,000 in opioid settlement dollars from the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership (ARORP). This funding will be used to establish and operate a peer support and recovery specialist program at UCA and within Faulkner County, Conway and surrounding areas.

With all of Rose’s activities at UCA and across the state, Rose has been honored with a named, fully endowed scholarship. Named the “Stephanie Rose Addiction Studies Program Scholarship,” this funding will support a full-time undergraduate or graduate student in addiction studies with a preference for nontraditional students who do not qualify for traditional financial aid.
Rose never expected the funding, but she is hopeful it will create more advocates for this work.

“I want to be that generational changemaker,” Rose said. “And we need champions, and we need people to be passionate because stigma has gotten us to the point where people are afraid to reach out for help.”

Northwest Arkansas has become a prime destination for residents, tourists and businesses alike. President Houston Davis decided to close the two-and-a-half-hour gap between UCA’s campus and this dynamic, growing metro by investing in a full-time employee to represent the university. He found the perfect fit with Paul Gatling.

Gatling is a native of Bald Knob, growing up in the same small town as UCA Distinguished Alumna and beloved professor Dr. Emogene Fox and her family. In fact, Gatling calls Fox’s son Jay, one of the state’s winningest amateur golfers and a UCA Hall of Fame inductee, a childhood idol.

“When I was 13 or 14 years old, I got to caddy for him, and I thought that was the best thing,” he said. “Jay is the most gregarious guy, and to get to tag along with him as he played golf, well, those are some of my best memories as a kid.”

In high school, Gatling and his twin sister moved with their mom, Diane (Newkirk), a 1968 graduate of State College of Arkansas (now UCA), to Bryant, where she was a school teacher. Gatling followed in his older brother’s footsteps and attended Henderson State University (HSU), where he majored in communications and had a work-study job in sports information until he graduated in 1998.

He stayed in Arkadelphia for a few years, working first for the Daily Siftings Herald newspaper and then as a media relations specialist for HSU. He eventually got an opportunity to interview for the sports editor position at the Benton County Daily Record in Bentonville.

“The thought of that was like moving to Alaska,” he said. “It was so far north and seemed so far away.”

But on Jan. 15, 2001, he loaded up a U-haul, and with the help of his mother and older brother, Gatling drove from Arkadelphia to Bentonville. He’s been there ever since.

His stint at the Benton County Daily Record ended when it merged with a competing area newspaper in 2009.

“I was driving down to Little Rock for the Arkansas State Golf Association Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Jay Fox, and I got a call that I had been laid off,” he said.

In February of 2011, Gatling got an opportunity to work for the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, whose owner he had met several years prior at a golf tournament.

“He had offered me a job on two separate occasions to work for the business journal, and I had turned him down because I enjoyed what I was doing as the sports editor, but when I needed him the third time, he came through,” Gatling said.

A couple of years after joining the journal, Gatling was promoted to editor in May of 2013, a position he held until UCA came calling earlier this year.

“I had a lot of fun covering business news in Northwest Arkansas for 13 years,” he said. “There’s been incredible development and growth in that area of the state.”

Now, as the senior director of northwest Arkansas engagement, Gatling will strengthen relationships with alumni and business partners and share UCA’s story.

“UCA needs to be here [in Northwest Arkansas] in the same way that Arkansas Children’s needs to build a hospital up there, so they did, or a Little Rock-based construction company needs to have an office in Northwest Arkansas,” Gatling explained. “Even though there’s another construction company up there, we’re still going up there too. UCA provides a service, and there is a market for UCA in the Northwest Arkansas business community. We want those employers to be aware of all that is happening on this campus and what we have to offer.”

When he’s not meeting with alumni and business leaders to share information about UCA and build partnerships, Gatling is busy helping plan a “51��¥ Blitz” next spring to introduce the university to Northwest Arkansas further. Campus officials will host a series of events for alumni, incoming freshmen, parents, business leaders and others during the week of April 21.

When he joined the 51��¥ in 2006 as an assistant professor in management for the College of Business (COB), central Arkansas native Michael Hargis felt that it was an opportunity to rejoin the community after earning his graduate degrees in Michigan and teaching at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. What he couldn’t have predicted was becoming UCA’s newest appointed provost and executive vice president of Academic Affairs, a role he began on July 1, 2024.

“My wife and I are from Arkansas, so this was an opportunity to rejoin the community. Coming to UCA got us close to home. We had a connection with the university. My paternal grandmother attended when it was the Arkansas Normal School for teacher training. She always thought highly of this institution,” he said. “Back in 2006, when UCA was hiring an assistant professor in management, I knew that was what I wanted to do. So I applied, and luckily for me, they hired me.”

Hargis and his wife both grew up in Little Rock. He earned his bachelor’s in psychology from Hendrix College and a master’s and Doctor of Philosophy in industrial-organizational psychology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. As an undergrad, he majored in psychology with a minor in economics. Discovering a new area of study materializing in psychology, he opted for that field of study in graduate school.

“I was an undergraduate psychology major with an economics minor, and I learned early on that the clinical setting for psychology was not going to be a place where I would thrive, but there was a relatively new area in psychology at the time that was emerging called industrial-organizational psychology. It’s a kind of psychology applied to the workplace,” he said.

As an assistant professor in management at the COB, Hargis worked to bring real-world problems to the classroom. His goal was to keep the classroom engaging while focusing on applying what his students learned in the workforce.

“My approach to all of the classes I teach, and I’m still trying to teach at least once a year, even now, is to try to make the classroom engaging and focus on real-world problems. I teach a wide variety of management courses, primarily in the organizational behavior or general management area, which lends itself to taking things from the headlines and moving them into classrooms. The focus is on application, and I try to add in a little fun as well.” he said.

After serving as interim dean of the COB, Hargis became the dean of COB in 2014. In that role, he saw many innovative changes, all of which he credits to the collaborative efforts of the college and its focus on student success. “I feel that there were a lot of changes in the college because of the team. Over the past ten years, the college has grown in a number of ways,” he said.

He continued, “Every degree program modified their curriculum meaningfully to help ensure students were prepared for whatever the future brought them. There was also a shared focus on experiential learning across the college and university curriculums. It is focused on ensuring that our students can relate to how they’ve learned something and why it’s important.” He further related that because of these changes, the COB has continued its success and increasing enrollment and will continue to have a bright future.

As provost, Hargis serves as the campus’ chief academic officer. He oversees UCA’s five academic colleges, the Graduate School, the Norbert O. Schedler Honors College, and other academic departments. He plans to take much the same approach as provost as he did while he served as dean.

Additionally, he plans to continue cultivating connections and relationships with the community and economic development within the business sector. With an interdisciplinary study background, Hargis also looks forward to working across the university to provide a holistic approach to serving students, faculty and staff.

“My approach to higher education is focused on providing a transformative education across all of the disciplines available at our institution. Our goal is to provide a transformative education for students; to do that, we have to facilitate a holistic approach. I believe we’ve got the means to expose our students to a broad cross-section of academic disciplines, leadership opportunities, and service opportunities to help them see how they can influence their communities,” Hargis said.

Hargis’ leadership style is based on working across disciplines to further UCA’s success. He reflected, “I hope that people would describe me as anything but a top-down leader. I’m a participative and collaborative leader of the belief that our fundamental role as leaders on campus is to help faculty, staff, and students chase their dreams. That means I have to listen and hear those dreams and then partner with everybody on campus to try to find ways to achieve those goals.”

Riva Brown, an award-winning associate professor of public relations and global learning specialist at the 51��¥, is transforming the campus experience. Through service-learning projects and globally focused activities, she is empowering students and fostering a culture of engagement and innovation.

Brown is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi’s School of Mass Communication and Journalism. She first developed a passion for teaching as a journalist covering Mississippi’s public universities and community colleges. Brown fell in love with higher education after touring these college campuses, making connections and developing relationships. After leaving journalism, Brown began working in a university’s public relations office. From there, she was a clinical assistant professor at Jackson State University, teaching news reporting and public relations courses. In the fall of 2013, she was hired as an assistant professor of public relations at UCA.

For Brown, it’s always been about giving her students real-world experiences within her classroom. One way she accomplishes this is by implementing service-learning into her teaching. Over the years, her classes have completed service-learning projects with more than 15 nonprofits, including those serving citizens in Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and Syria.

“With service-learning, you’re doing something for a non-profit organization,” said Brown. “You are doing the work that they need to help advance their cause. Because nonprofits cannot pay anybody to do public relations or any other type of work, if they have specific needs that align with the course objective, then the class can do the real work as part of the course and as part of their grades. So, the nonprofit benefits by getting work that they’ll hopefully be able to implement in their initiatives, and the students benefit because they’re doing work for a real organization.”

In addition to providing real-world experiences for her students, Brown has been committed to exposing them to international perspectives. Since 2021, she has been actively engaged in Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), an initiative designed to empower students and instructors to connect and collaborate on online projects with other classrooms around the globe. She has partnered with other classes in countries such as Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Ukraine and more.

According to Brown, her passion for programs such as COIL enabled her to obtain her current position as UCA’s global learning specialist. “I took that role in the fall of 2023,” said Brown. “The Associate Vice President for Global Learning, Dr. Phillip Bailey, saw my passion for that type of work, and he wanted to expand global learning initiatives across campus, so he asked me about that role, and that’s how it came about.”

“I first started to get to know Dr. Brown in 2018, when she went to our partner university in Mexico, which is the Jesuit University of Guadalajara, and was attending one of their programs,” said Bailey. “Her resilience and cultural savvy were on display at that event, and as I moved further initiatives in the office, she served on the Study Abroad Advisory Committee and in other roles. I started focusing on ways to engage more UCA students in global learning and expanded new initiatives for COIL. She was in the first cohort of global learning fellows. She’s had some profound experiences. With her expertise as a public relations professor and her travels, I got the provost’s support to have her work in my office half-time as the global learning specialist.”

“When I became a global learning specialist,” said Brown. “I wanted students to see that the world is so much bigger than UCA, it is so much bigger than Conway, and bigger than the South United States. There’s a whole world out there, and I can do some small things in my classroom to expose students to a world much bigger than themselves. I know that they may not see it at first, but I guarantee that at some point in life, it will hit them. We need that exposure, and whatever they choose to do with that, it’s on them, but the fact that they got that exposure is key.”

In February 2024, Brown proposed that the university consider joining the University Global Coalition (UGC), an international initiative aimed at advancing the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—a shared framework for fostering global peace and prosperity now and for future generations.

“Part of my job is to spearhead campus-wide global learning initiatives,” said Brown. “The SDGs was something that I learned about when I was doing COIL. While I was researching, I was like, ‘There must be something bigger that I can do, something that we could connect to that’s larger than ourselves.’ So, in March, we held the SDGs Action and Awareness Week under the UGC.”

Additionally, Brown and her students have launched various globally focused campus activities within the last year, including the International Day of Peace and a World Mental Health Day observation. Brown’s students also worked closely with organizations such as the Green Bears Coalition, Feminist Union and Circle K International to demonstrate how UCA students can make a difference globally by acting locally.

Brown’s Public Relations classes have also completed service-learning projects with the Syrian Emergency Task Force’s (SETF) Wisdom House in the fall of 2019 and spring of 2020. In the fall of 2022, after a conversation with President Houston Davis, Brown created the SETF-UCA Chapter, allowing the university to become the SETF’s first college affiliate. The SETF is a non-profit organization established in 2011 to aid individuals affected by the ongoing unrest in Syria. As the organization’s service-learning partner, UCA connects students in an international grassroots effort to assist impacted individuals. Brown and her students recently held a news conference providing communication materials for supporting Syrian refugees.

“It’s all about building partnerships to make things bigger and to make it reach other audiences because we can’t do things solo,” said Brown. “We all have to work together to achieve these goals. I want to align everything I do in my personal and professional life towards something bigger than myself.”

In addition to implementing service-learning and globally focused events for the university, Brown is also involved in multiple outreach organizations, such as the American Red Cross and Bear Boots on the Ground, for disaster relief.

Brown’s passion for disaster relief was sparked during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when she was still working as a journalist. At the time, most of her family lived in New Orleans, including her mother, while other relatives resided along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The storm caused significant damage to her mother’s house and yard. Reporting on Katrina victims three hours away, Brown was unable to assist her mother with the cleanup. When she finally visited her mother’s home, she was surprised to find all the damage and debris had been cleared. Curious, she asked her mother who had done the work. Her mother explained that disaster relief volunteers had taken care of it. Deeply moved by their kindness, Brown declared, “I’m gonna do this,” setting her on the path to helping others in disaster-stricken areas.

“As a journalist covering that hurricane and other natural disasters, I always had a sense of guilt that I’m here interviewing people, asking them questions during one of the most difficult times of their lives, and then I have to leave,” said Brown. “I always wanted to be that person to help, but couldn’t. So being involved with Bear Boots on the Ground was just like ‘it doesn’t get any better than this.’”

Over the years, Brown has served multiple communities through her disaster relief efforts, having been deployed to places such as Louisiana, Florida, Guam, and her home state, Arkansas. In recent years, she has begun serving on the board of directors as a volunteer for the American Red Cross.

Brown continued, “I decided to get involved with the American Red Cross because of their principles and values that align with mine. People know the American Red Cross for blood drives, but it’s so much more than that. I wanted to do disaster relief for that type of organization. As a result, I was able to go to Guam last year after a typhoon, and I spent three weeks there working in a shelter. After I got back, I was asked to join and become a member of the board of directors, and so I have been able to do a different level of work doing things beyond disaster relief.”

More recently, Brown traveled to Turkey to the SETF’s House of Healing, located on the border of Syria, where she was able to help some of her students with their efforts to help internally displaced Syrians have a better quality of life. One of these efforts included getting baby formula to a camp in Syria.

“As a professor, you’re supposed to do teaching, research and service, in that order,” said Brown. “Meaning that service is last for professors. Personally, service comes first; it is who I am and what I do. I will find a way to infuse service into my teaching and research, but it will always be first for me.”

“When I say I’m blessed to work with Dr. Brown, that is profoundly sincere. She’s an incredible asset to this university,” said Bailey.