May 2020

Public administration lecturer leads valuable training at Toyota headquarters

Leslie Roberts emphasized planning, multi-party negotiation and working with a variety of cultures in the one-day workshop.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Leslie Roberts, principal lecturer in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service Department of Public Administration, worked with Toyota Motor North America to provide negotiation training to a dozen members of the information technology vendor management team. The daylong workshop on March 4 concentrated on planning to negotiate in four situations:

  • Working more effectively with internal and external teams
  • Gaining an informal leadership role in negotiations when no clear leader is determined
  • Working with startups that have no experience working with large corporations
  • Working with original equipment manufacturers (OEM)

“Toyota works with a wide variety of parties with very diverse backgrounds and they noted that that they need to hone their skills when it comes to developing relationships and negotiating deals,” Roberts said. “In this training, there was an emphasis on planning and learning to not become positional with the other party if negotiations don’t go as expected.”

Wayne S. Heiler, manager of the team, says this was the best training investment he’s made in his career.

“This training significantly enhanced the skills of our team and has made our team more disciplined negotiators,” Heiler said. “Irrefutably, this training will lead to future significant cost savings and more valuable vendor engagements for Toyota.”

Roberts hopes this opportunity will lead to more training opportunities with Toyota and will further expand UNT’s strong relationship with the corporation.

https://hps.unt.edu/sites/default/files/news-thumbs/there_was_an_emphasis_on_planning_and_learning_to_not_become_positional_with_the_other_party_if_negotiations_dont_go_as_expected.png

UNT Ph.D. Graduate Offered Position at Tennessee University

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Federickia Washington, Ph.D. graduate of public administration and management from the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service has received a tenure track job offer from the Department of Public Administration at Tennessee State University (TSU).

Dr. Washington is enthusiastic about the position, where she will be able to show her talents.

“I am incredibly excited to have been offered a tenure track job opportunity at TSU in Nashville,” Dr. Washington said. “I am looking forward to being able to take my talents to TSU where they value educating and empowering leaders/future leaders in the public sector.”

For Dr. Washington, the position offers her the opportunity to put the rich knowledge and skills gained at UNT into action.

“This new position means that I will continue to be able to teach students and follow with my scope of research,” Washington said. “This is all very exciting.”

Dr. Hee Soun Jang, associate professor and graduate coordinator in the department, says she’s not surprised by Dr. Washington’s success.

“Dr. Washington is already a promising scholar,” Dr. Jang said. “Her excellence in research was acknowledge by two-time Ph.D. Student Fellowships from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action in 2019 and 2018. Also, in her early year of the Ph.D., program she won the Best Poster Research Award from ARNOVA. This is just another exciting step in her successful career.”

Dr. Washington’s grateful for UNT and her dissertation committee, who have helped prepare her for this new position.

“I would like to thank the UNT Department of Public Administration,” Dr. Washington said. “The faculty and staff have always been supportive and I will miss them. I am especially grateful for my committee, Drs. Jang, Dicke and Shi. This opportunity is UNT Ph.D. Graduate Offered Position at Tennessee University

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Federickia Washington, Ph.D. graduate of public administration and management from the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service has received a tenure track job offer from the Department of Public Administration at Tennessee State University (TSU).

Dr. Washington is enthusiastic about the position, where she will be able to show her talents.

“I am incredibly excited to have been offered a tenure track job opportunity at TSU in Nashville,” Dr. Washington said. “I am looking forward to being able to take my talents to TSU where they value educating and empowering leaders/future leaders in the public sector.”

For Dr. Washington, the position offers her the opportunity to put the rich knowledge and skills gained at UNT into action.

“This new position means that I will continue to be able to teach students and follow with my scope of research,” Washington said. “This is all very exciting.”

Dr. Hee Soun Jang, associate professor and graduate coordinator in the department, says she’s not surprised by Dr. Washington’s success.

“Dr. Washington is already a promising scholar,” Dr. Jang said. “Her excellence in research was acknowledge by two-time Ph.D. Student Fellowships from the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action in 2019 and 2018. Also, in her early year of the Ph.D., program she won the Best Poster Research Award from ARNOVA. This is just another exciting step in her successful career.”

Dr. Washington’s grateful for UNT and her dissertation committee, who have helped prepare her for this new position.

“I would like to thank the UNT Department of Public Administration,” Dr. Washington said. “The faculty and staff have always been supportive and I will miss them. I am especially grateful for my committee, Drs. Jang, Dicke and Shi. This opportunity is possible because of their amazing leadership, guidance and support!”

https://hps.unt.edu/sites/default/files/news-thumbs/frederikia.jpg

UNT well-represented at Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) convention

UNT faculty and students took home a variety of awards.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Over 40 graduate students from the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology headed down to Houston to attend the Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Association (TSHA) convention. The annual convention, held between February 20 and 22, is one of the largest of its kind.

While attending, many UNT students received awards. In the Praxis Bowl, a competition among 18 speech-language pathology (SLP) programs in Texas, UNT placed third.

The Texas Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation presented awards to individuals, with UNT’s Erin Bellue (SLP supervisor), Benjamin Kirby (assistant professor in audiology), and Rebekka Cassidy (graduate student in SLP) receiving honors. Bellue received the Award of Honors, Kirby received the Presidents’ Research Award and Cassidy received a Sandy Friel-Patti Research in Language International Travel Award.

The department’s faculty and students presented at the conference as well. Shannon Presley, senior lecturer in SLP, presented “What is ReST and how can I use it?” with two graduate SLP students – Aubrey Jurek and Katie Pordash. Cassidy and Kat Aoyama, associate professor in SLP, gave a poster presentation on “Place of articulation in consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) target words in German-speaking children.”

Apart from the presentations, Robyn Martin, SLP supervisor, was an invited speaker for a 3-hour short course titled, “If We Can’t Cure Stuttering –What Can We Do?” The course was sold out. Martin also ran for and is now president-elect of the TSHA executive board.

https://hps.unt.edu/sites/default/files/news-thumbs/annotation_2020-05-12_133923.png