The Clarence E. Ridley Scholarship is awarded to only two Texas graduate students per year.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Christopher Byrd and Sylvia Ordeman, both first-year master of public administration students in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service, have earned the coveted Clarence E. Ridley Scholarship from the Texas City Management Association (TCMA). They each received $3,500 to use for tuition. In addition, UNT will receive $3,000 in credit toward Texas City Management Association and Texas Municipal League (TML) education events.

“I am ecstatic to have received this scholarship and greatly appreciative of the Texas City Management Association for this honor,” Byrd said. “I am also eagerly looking forward to attending...

The event is part of Better Hearing and Speech Month.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – The UNT Speech and Hearing Center, located at 907 W. Sycamore St. in Denton, is offering free speech and hearing screenings on May 1 as part of Better Hearing and Speech Month.

Hearing screenings will be offered from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“Hearing tests will determine the presence or absence of hearing loss and the need for amplification,” said Dr. Cassie Thomas, senior lecturer in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology and clinical director of audiology. “If needed, hearing amplification can help people improve relationships with friends and family and can lead to overall better health and quality of life.”

Speech and language screening will be available from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“About one out of every six Americans suffer from some form of speech, language or hearing problem,” said Dr. Theresa Kouri, senior lecturer and clinical director of speech-language...

The team beat out 15 other graduate schools to take home this year’s Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association Praxis Bowl title.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – The University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (ASLP) is the proud winner of the 2019 Texas-Speech-Language Hearing Association Praxis Bowl. The team – made up of second year speech-language pathology (SLP) graduate students Katie Chesnutt (alternate), Shanielle Henslee, Kristin Ransom and Krystin White – took the top honor at the 63rd Annual Convention and Exhibition February 28 through March 2. The Jeopardy-like competition pitted 15 speech-language pathology graduate schools in Texas against each other in a knowledge bowl based on potential questions for the...

DENTON (UNT), Texas – U.S. News and World Report has named two graduate program concentrations in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) number one in Texas and fifth in the nation on its 2020 list of Best Graduate Schools – local government management, and homeland security and emergency management. Rehabilitation counseling was also named first in Texas – and sits at no. 11 among public universities and no. 12 overall.  

“These stellar rankings further build on the reputation of our faculty and quality of our staff, alumni and students,” said Dr. Neale Chumbler, dean of the college. “It’s an honor to be recognized with such a high standing among peer institutions and I believe that our talented faculty members have earned these accolades and deserve to be held in such high esteem.”  

The Master of Public Administration (MPA) program specialization in local government management jumped three spots...

Vaswati Chatterjee received the recognition at a January conference in Austin.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – The Southern Political Science Association recognized Vaswati Chatterjee, doctoral candidate in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service Department of Public Administration, with their 2019 Emerging Young Scholar Award at the third annual Conference Within a Conference in Austin. She earned the honor for her paper entitled “Impact of Smart Growth on Economic Resilience.”

“It’s been an honor to not only watch Vaswati mature as a student, but to see her accomplishments be recognized by leaders in the field,” said Dr. Simon Andrew, professor of public administration. “Her research stands out among doctoral students and is innovative in the sense that she applies the institutional analysis to examine smart growth policies...

She met the woman while interning for her social work degree program and felt a need to help publish the woman’s life’s work.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Dellandra Adams has always felt a strong calling for service. Placed in foster care as a young child, Adams says she had a kind social worker who made her feel important and special. That, she says, is part of the reason she decided to pursue a degree in social work from the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service. Adams participates in and serves at UNT as part of the University of North Texas Persevere UNTil Success Happens (PUSH) program, which supports young adults impacted by the foster care system to help them achieve educational success at UNT by focusing on academic, financial and career success, as well as the social well-being, of each student.

“Dellandra was impacted by a social work professional...

The research will be used to determine best practices for a country with unregulated mental health services.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Students in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) will travel to India this summer with Dr. Dhru Mukherjee, associate professor of social work for the Joint Masters of Social Work Program, to study the country’s delivery of mental health services. The project is sponsored by UNT International’s India Venture Fund 2019.

“Dr. Mukherjee’s project is an exciting initiative for UNT,” said Dr. Pia Wood, vice provost and dean for International Affairs. “In addition to advancing the university’s global partnerships with India, the project provides UNT students with a unique opportunity to enhance their global perspectives through a research experience abroad.”

Students will spend a week in Mumbai conducting fieldwork and directly engaging with focus groups of...

Of their 180 volunteers and advocates for children in foster care in Denton County, only 28 are men, while 190 of the 346 children being served are male.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Students in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service hope a service learning project they completed with CASA of Denton County in their volunteer management course last semester has a lasting impact on the lives of Denton County foster children. They developed a strategy to support the recruitment of males and ethnically diverse volunteers.

“CASA of Denton County provides trained community volunteers to advocate for the best interest of abused and neglected children. We strive to reflect the children that we serve and our community,” said Debbie Jensen, executive director for CASA of Denton County. “Over 50 percent of children in foster care are boys, while only 15 percent of advocates are men. If we are to truly reflect the...

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Students in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service Social Work Practice 3 class are celebrating their achievements from the fall semester. They combined skills they learned in their Social Work Practice 1 and 2 courses to create an organization that served Lewisville Independent School District's School Age Parent Program called UNT Advocates for...

They brought together leaders of four North Texas municipalities for the first time in determining the next steps in their unique partnership.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Dr. Bob Bland, Endowed Professor in Local Government and the faculty director of the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service’s Center for Public Management, and city management graduate student Chris Byrd facilitated a planning retreat for executive leaders and department heads of the Lake Cities. Lake Cities consists of the cities of Corinth and Hickory Creek and the towns of Lake Dallas and Shady Shores.

“Lake Cities is unusual in that all four communities and their utility district, the Lake Cities Municipal Utility Authority, are geographically constrained by a large lake and a major interstate highway. Yet their proximity makes collaboration in service delivery a cost-effective alternative,” Dr. Bland said. “The four cities and authority also currently cooperate in providing fire protection...

This is the first year SR Education Group, a leading education research publisher, has ranked online colleges based on degree-specific return on investment.

DENTON (UNT) –
The University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service’s Criminal Justice program has been named to the 2019 SR Education Group list of “Most Affordable Master’s in Criminal Justice Online.” UNT’s degree ranks no. 15 of 25 colleges and universities that earned the designation, each costing less than $9,000 per year.

“Providing high-quality, affordable graduate education is a core value at the University of North Texas,” said Eric Fritsch, chair and professor in the Department of Criminal Justice. The methodology for these rankings employs median mid-career salary data, as well as manually researched tuition rates. UNT’s degree is offered 100 percent online and examines criminal justice from theoretical, practical and empirical perspectives.

The students will attend the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action conference in Austin this November.

DENTON (UNT) – Czarina Muñoz and Aries Nuño, nonprofit leadership studies students in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service, were awarded the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA) Undergraduate Diversity Scholarship to attend the 47th annual conference in Austin November 15 to 17, 2018. The ARNOVA Conference is meant to create a public conversation on, as well as opportunities for, presenting research about pressing issues and vital...