July 2025 Announcements

NC State’s Parents and Families Services and East Carolina University’s Office of Parent and Family Programs have partnered for A House Divided in Service Together. This fundraising effort will combine the net proceeds of all pre-order t-shirt sales and divide equally to directly support Appalachian State University and UNC Asheville as they continue their recovery from Hurricane Helene’s impact. T-shirts are on sale now through July 31 and will arrive in time for the Aug. 28 football game when NC State takes on ECU at Carter-Finley. T-shirts can be pre-ordered here.

From the Office of Academic Strategy, Innovation and Solutions:

• The Office of Instructional Programs is the Office of Academic Strategy, Innovation and Solutions, effective July 1. Senior Vice Provost for Instructional Programs Helen Chen will become the senior vice provost for academic strategy and innovation. The current reporting units—including NC State Continuing and Lifelong Education (NCSCaLE), Digital Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA), the Institute for Advanced Analytics, the Peter A. Pappas Real Estate Development Program and other core academic planning and operational functions—will remain within the renamed office.

From Continuing and Lifelong Education:

• NC State Continuing and Lifelong Education is excited to announce the launch of Learning Without Limits, our new online news site. This site showcases the people, programs and partnerships that extend the reach of NC State beyond traditional classrooms — supporting learners of all ages, at every stage of life and career. You’re invited to explore stories highlighting innovative initiatives, community impact, and opportunities to engage with our work. Visit the site regularly for fresh features, spotlights, and insights into how NC State is advancing lifelong learning across North Carolina and beyond.
• Get certified as a North Carolina Notary Public in just six hours! Our program includes the official NC Notary Public Manual, supplies, and the state exam. Expand your skills with our four-hour E-Notary Certification for remote online notarizations. Enroll now through NC State Continuing and Lifelong Education and advance your career while serving the Wolfpack community!

From the Data Science and AI Academy:

• Mark your calendars for October 6-10! Data Science and AI Week is your ultimate opportunity to learn, connect, and experiment. A detailed schedule will go live on the official Data Science and AI Week webpage.

From DELTA:

• NC State and DELTA are proud to announce that they will serve as official hosts of the 2025 Education Technology Collaborative (ETC) Conference. A highlight of the event will be a keynote address by Dr. Donna Petherbridge, Vice Provost for DELTA. NC State staff are encouraged to attend and can take advantage of the early bird registration rate through July 31. Read the press release.
• Ready to Roll: What’s New in Moodle will take place Aug. 8 from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Ensure your Moodle course is ready to hit the ground running! This hands-on workshop will guide you through a quick but thorough check-up of your course to make sure all elements are ready to roll. We’ll help you understand Moodle updates made in May 2025, verify key settings such as due dates, content visibility, hyperlink functionality and accessibility to enhance your students’ experience from the start. No heavy lifting — just practical, efficient tweaks to ensure a smooth semester. Register today!
• Save the date for DELTA Express Grants; submissions will be accepted Aug. 11 – Sept. 5. Looking to tackle specific pedagogical challenges in your existing course? DELTA Express Grants can help! These grants can assist you with:
  • Incorporating instructional technologies to boost engagement;
  • Guiding your course to meet national quality standards;
  • Implementing accessibility practices for student success; and
  • Leveraging digital media to solve instructional challenges.

From the Office for Faculty Excellence:

• Sign up to participate in the Office for Faculty Excellence’s award-winning, free, asynchronous summer program! This year’s theme is Building your Network: Mentors, Coaches, and Sponsors for Faculty Success. It is designed to help faculty, staff and graduate students discern their current needs and strategically cultivate a powerful network of mentors, coaches and sponsors to achieve career goals at every stage. NC State will embark on a partnership with Georgia Tech to provide all the materials for a robust program.

If you sign up, you will receive a weekly email with materials for the SPARK: Summer Program. No commitment on your part, we just link you to all the resources and you read/listen at your convenience! We will have four weeks of content, delivered to your inbox in weekly installments during July, starting Wednesday, July 9. Each week you will get a themed package that includes a podcast, a blog post, related readings and printable handouts. Weekly content will also be posted on the SPARK webpage.

• The 2025-26 Reflective Educational Design certificate applications are open! The Office for Faculty Excellence offers three different certificates based in Reflective Educational Design |RED|.  |RED| is designed to provide support and recognition for faculty members at NC State who are dedicated to reflective teaching and learning. The certifications help faculty members advance toward becoming scholarly teachers. The three certificate offerings are Core Teaching Certification, Universal Course Design Certification and TH!NK: Cultivating Critical & Creative Thinking Certification. Apply now!

From the Global One Health Academy:

• The Global One Health Academy is excited to announce the new Master of Science in Global One Health. This interdisciplinary graduate program will be housed within the Graduate School and will begin enrolling students for the 2026-27 academic year. By enrolling in this program, students will be trained in the One Health framework, a recognized interdisciplinary approach that integrates human, animal, plant and environmental health to tackle global issues ranging from the relationship between zoonotic disease outbreaks and climate change to sustainable agriculture and clean water access.
• In 2024, the Global One Health Academy offered Seed Grants to support NC State faculty and EHRA professionals for seed funding for novel, interdisciplinary One Health research projects. Saad Khan, Ph.D., (COE), was a recipient of the 2024 Seed Grant Awards for a project on using sustainable agriculture to enhance food security. Learn more about Khan and how the Global One Health Academy helped support his research on custom emulsions to promote plant growth and reduce waste through his spotlight here. 

From the Office of Information Technology:

• The 2025 UNC CAUSE conference has been moved to Sept. 24-26 in Wilmington. UNC CAUSE is an IT conference with an emphasis on networking, collaborating and solving problems that affect higher education. Register today.
• The NC State IT Service Portal has a new look and feel. While the core functionalities that users rely on remain consistent, the portal unveiled its new look last month.

From Innovation and Entrepreneurship:

• Entrepreneurship thrives at NC State Innovation and Entrepreneurship, where students and alumni push boundaries, build businesses and shape industries. The Miller Fellowship Program plays a critical role in this mission by supporting promising graduates as they transition from students to full-time entrepreneurs. Learn more about the 2025 Miller Fellows.
• A team of students from the Entrepreneurship Clinic traveled to Moldova. The high-impact experience allowed students to present their final deliverables in person to their partner company. Students also volunteered with the company. Along with visiting their partnership company, students experienced entrepreneurship in Moldova including the winemaking industry, social entrepreneurship with Ukrainian refugees and more.
• Join us at the Entrepreneurship Clinic for the Andrews Launch Accelerator Demo Day on August 19 where this year’s cohort will share their progress with the Clinic’s key stakeholders, community members and investors. We hope that you’ll join us as the teams share the progress they’ve made and their goals for after the program.

From the Institute for Emerging Issues:

• Two new podcast episodes — Designing Our Futures: Sustainable Cities and Urban Planning; and The Pappas Effect: Building Resilient Communities — are now available! In the former episode, a student-led episode of The Connector podcast, IEI interns speak with three urban planning experts about empowering the next generation to shape sustainable cities. In the latter episode, IEI Director Sarah Hall speaks with NC State University Peter A. Pappas Real Estate Development Program Director Chuck Flink about this unique educational program and how it equips students and professionals with the skills to build resilient communities and promote sustainable land use through practicum-based academics, sponsored research and real-world application.
• Thought leaders recently convened at Emerging Issues Forum to explore the future of energy. This event brought together nearly 500 attendees representing a range of key sectors and regions to examine the demands on North Carolina’s evolving energy infrastructure. Discussions centered on critical factors such as rapid population growth, an aging electric grid, extreme weather events and more.
• Faith leaders, advocates and community partners from across the state gathered recently to reflect on conversations from the 2025 Emerging Issues Forum, discuss how energy issues impact their communities and collaborate on solutions. 

From Institutional Effectiveness:

• Effective July 1, the Office of Assessment and Accreditation is Institutional Effectiveness, with the university’s strategic planning efforts moving from Institutional Strategy and Analysis to the Institutional Effectiveness unit. Additionally, General Education Assessment efforts will move from the Division of Academic and Student Affairs to Institutional Effectiveness. As part of this change, Vice Provost for Assessment and Accreditation Fashaad Crawford will become the senior vice provost for institutional effectiveness. Crawford has been in his current position since 2019 and naming him as a senior vice provost acknowledges the increasing scope, complexity and impact of his role and unit at the university.
• Implementation Insights is a regular article series providing initiative updates and cross-cutting observations related to NC State’s implementation plan. This month we acknowledge the recent relocation of strategic planning and implementation functions to Institutional Effectiveness. Read more here.
• Congratulations to our 29 (and counting) pilot year Packways Recognized High-Impact Experiences! La’Toya Cesar (Global Leadership Experience), Cas Saroza (Ask Us Student Assistant), Erica Kosal (Life Sciences First Year Program), Aisha Williams (Exploratory Studies Village), Dustin Evatt (Leadership: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives Minor Capstone Course), Hannah Kriner (Exploratory Studies Mentoring Program), Mary Yemma Barnhart (NC State Wellness and Recreation Student Employment), Sean Foley (NC State Wellness and Recreation Student Employment), Tori Prati (NC State Wellness and Recreation Student Employment), Patrick Stephenson (Transfer Connections Village), Colin Nickels (Student Employment in the NC State University Libraries Studios), Wanya Ward (Ronald E. McNair Summer Research Experience), Pooneh Lari (Closing the Gap: From Classroom Learning to Real-World Application), Stephanie Reiley (Peer Leaders for the Poole College of Management), Trevis Belle (Multicultural Leadership Challenge), Melissa Srougi (Inquiry-Guided Research Experiences in Biotechnology), Maru Gonlalez (Spain: Culture & Community Engagement in Barcelona and the Camino de Santiago), Alice Lee (Utilizing COIL to Advance Student Engagement in Microbiology and International Perspectives), Alice Lee (Utilizing Study Abroad to Advance Student Engagement in Microbiology and International Perspectives), Julio Teran (Introduction to Engineering and Problem solving: Ecuador), Ignacio Dominguez (Computer Science Senior Design Experience), Chris DePerno (​​Piedmont Wildlife Ecology and Management: Field-Based Conservation and Research Experience), Hailey Queen (Engineering First-Year), Sara Queen (First Year Experience College of Design), Patrick Murray (ISE Senior Design Project), Paula McAvoy (Facilitating Dining with Democracy), Christina Freeman (Rising Leaders), Kate Saul (Wolfpack Engineering Unleashed Mentored Teaching for Graduate Students), Mara Blake (Data Science Consulting Program), Pieter Verhallen (NC State International Case Competition Program) and Cindy Rosenfeld (COM 436: Environmental Communication: “Telling Multimedia for/about the Environment” Semester Project) completed Packways professional development and submitted an action plan for their HIE. 

You can find a list and description of Packways Recognized HIEs on this spreadsheet. Faculty, staff, and advisors interested in completing Packways professional development can complete this short survey to join our waitlist.

From Outreach and Engagement:

• Early one Wednesday morning this June, about 30 new faculty and staff stood in a large circle in front of the Hunt Library to introduce themselves to each other. They (and some seasoned guides) were about to have an intensive professional development and bonding experience…on a bus. The 2025 Connecting in North Carolina Tour was moments from hitting the road for the 19th time in 30 years. Learn more.

From the N.C. Plant Sciences Initiative:

• Gear up for 2025 Hackathon: Set for Sept. 12-14, this annual N.C. PSI provides students with the chance to spend three days tackling real-world agtech problems. Undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs are invited to put their data analytics, machine learning and hardware fabrication skills to the test.

From the Shelton Leadership Center:

• Save the date for the 2025 Shelton Leadership Forum: Ethical Leadership in an Interconnected World. The forum will be held Thursday, October 23 from 9 a.m.–12:45 p.m. EST and will be streamed live virtually for all registrants. The forum equips attendees with practical strategies to foster effective engagement through mutual respect, analyze leadership actions that promote ethical considerations, and prioritize the shared values and perspectives of their communities both locally and globally. Expert speakers and thought leaders will engage the audience by providing resources that drive ethical decision-making and produce collaborative connections.
• Join our leadership community of practice today! Interested in connecting with leadership practitioners and educators across campus? We’re cultivating a vibrant, interdisciplinary and collaborative community where faculty, staff and students passionate about leadership can connect, share expertise, co-create actionable resources, and collectively advance leadership understanding and practice to drive positive impact and ensure accessible, high-quality leadership development across the university. The group meets in person every other month, and we’re looking to expand our community! 

All are invited to join us for our next gathering on July 29 from 9:45-10:30 a.m. in Hunt Library 4101. Stay informed about Leadership Community of Practice meetings as well as get insights and resources directly to your inbox by joining our Google Group. Request to join the Google Group by visiting https://groups.google.com/all-groups and searching “leadershipcommunityofpractice”.

From University Data and Analytics:

• Effective July 1, 2025, Institutional Strategy and Analysis (ISA) is now University Data and Analytics (UDA). This change reflects the increased emphasis that NC State has placed on data and analytics as a university business function, including the development of framework and operating models for university data governance, institutional analytics and analytics enablement. As part of this transition, strategic planning efforts previously housed in ISA have moved to Institutional Effectiveness. McKinney Austin will lead UDA as interim vice provost for university data and analytics. Visit uda.ncsu.edu to learn more.

• Earlier this spring, NC State updated its list of official peer institutions. The 12 institutions now identified as NC State’s official peers include: Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus, Michigan State University, Purdue University-Main Campus, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Texas A&M University-College Station, University of Arizona, University of California-Davis, University of Georgia, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Maryland-College Park, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Keeping a list of official peers is useful to gauge institutional performance and inform strategic planning efforts. Read more about NC State’s updated official peers here.

From the NC State University Libraries:

Epic battles took place at the Hunt Library’s NC State Gaming and Esports Lab in the 2025 Championship Grand Finals for College League of Legends and College Valorant. The League of Legends final featured Maryville University versus Ole Miss on May 31 while Maryville competed against Winthrop University for the Valorant title on June 1. Maryville won both titles. The Libraries hosted the official Riot Games collegiate esports competitions through a collaboration between NC State and Visit Raleigh, with naming rights partner ExitLag, and tournament organizer GGTech.

The Libraries welcomes five new members to the Friends of the Libraries Board of Directors for 2025. Catherine Stuart, Douglas Edwards, Scott Mabry, Barbara Griggs, and Erkang Zheng join the board to promote student success, research excellence and community learning through the Libraries’ outstanding services, programs, and spaces.

The NC State University Libraries is pleased to announce the establishment of the Betsy Etheridge Brown Open Education Resource and Pedagogy Endowment. The endowment will provide support for the work of the Open Knowledge Center (OKC) at the Libraries, particularly the center’s Open Pedagogy PIT STOP and its development of the UNC System’s Open Pedagogy and AI Faculty Learning Community. This is the Libraries’ first OER/AI support endowment.