June 2019

This is the second consecutive year that Theresa Abah earned a P.E.O. Peace International Scholarship.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Theresa Abah, a second year doctoral student studying Rehabilitation and Health Services with a concentration in Gerontology in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS), has been awarded the P.E.O., or Philanthropic Educational Organization, Peace International Scholarship. The P.E.O. International Peace Scholarship Fund was established in 1949 to provide scholarships to women from other countries for graduate studies in the U.S. or Canada.

The scholarship awards up to $12,500 per year, providing not only help paying for her basic needs, but also enabling her to concentrate more on her studies.

 “The funds helped to pay for most of my personal needs from house rent, to groceries, books, professional association...


May 2019

The program is tied for number 24 in the nation.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – U.S. News and World Report has named the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) Department of Criminal Justice online graduate degree program number three in Texas and No. 24 in the nation on its 2019 list of Best Online Programs.

It noted the following as reasons for the high rankings:

  • All of the online graduate-level criminal justice classes are recorded and archived so that students can access lecture material at their convenience.
  • The admissions deadline for programs is rolling.
  • All courses are taught by Ph.D. level faculty who also teach campus-based courses.
  • Course offerings and flexible schedule are designed to suit the needs of both working professionals and full-time students.

“The continued...


May 2019

The two graduated from UNT on May 11.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Stephanie Ray and Graham Huether, both recent graduates of the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service Department of Emergency Management and Disaster Science (EMDS), earned third place at UNT Scholars Day for tornado research. They were both 2018-19 UNT Undergraduate Research Fellows.

Stephanie Ray’s research focused on the role of commemoration in the long-term recovery following the Joplin, Missouri, 2011 EF-5 tornado. She interviewed participants in the annual Joplin Memorial Run.

“I asked them about their motivation for participating in the race and learned that commemoration following disasters plays a large part in the overall recovery,” Ray said.

Ray’s mentor was Dr. Elyse Zavar, assistant professor in EMDS.

“...


May 2019

The University of North Texas is home to one of only two clinics in the nation – and one of only three in the world – that will offer auditory testing services specifically for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – The majority of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience some form of auditory processing issue, yet there are currently no set standard testing procedures for them. With the help of a $111,843 grant from Sonova USA, Inc., researchers in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service’s Department of Audiology and Speech Language Pathology hope to change that.

“Children with ASD can experience a variety of auditory processing problems that vary greatly from what occur in children without ASD, and they are a highly underserved demographic in audiology,” said Dr. Erin Schafer, professor and director of...


May 2019

UNT researchers say the method shows promise.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Tinnitus, which most people describe as ringing in the ears, is the sensation of hearing sounds in the ear without an actual external sound being present. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that nearly 15 percent of the general public — more than 50 million Americans — experience some form of tinnitus, often to a debilitating degree. While there is currently no scientifically-validated cure for most types of tinnitus, researchers in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) are hoping that by retraining the brain, they can lessen the severity of tinnitus.

Dr. Amrita Pal, postdoctoral researcher, and doctoral student Joshua Caldwell, under the supervision of Dr. Daniele Ortu, research assistant professor in the Department of Behavior Analysis, and Dr. Kamakshi...


May 2019

STEMParticipants will learn skills in computer science, computer engineering, electronics and more.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – The Texas Workforce Commission has awarded the University of North TexasWorkplace Inclusion and Sustainable Employment (UNT WISE), in conjunction with the UNT College of Engineering, $88,667 to offer the Explore STEM! Summer Program, a variety of summer camps for students ages 14-22 with disabilities.

“Our goal is to provide students with disabilities exposure to STEM fields through interactive, hands-on programming. We hope this piques interest in various STEM careers, which are in-demand and offer great opportunities,” said Lucy Gafford, director of UNT WISE, which is housed in the UNT College of Health and Public Service Department of...


May 2019

Dr. Bland will spend the summer teaching and mentoring faculty and students at Renmin University in Beijing.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Dr. Bob Bland, Endowed Professor of Local Government and interim chair of the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) Department of Criminal Justice has been selected to teach at Renmin University of China as part of their Recruitment Program of Top-Level Foreign Experts. The program is initiated as part of their State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs. Dr. Bland will teach and work with faculty and students in the School of Public Administration and Policy from May 28 to July 2.

“I was very fortunate to be selected and look forward to teaching a course at Renmin for their MPA and Ph.D. students,” Dr. Bland said of the honor.

Dr. Bland will teach a course titled “Public Finance Policy and...


May 2019

Their recently published research shows expectations are high for law enforcement to respond to and investigate cyberattacks.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Researchers in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) Department of Criminal Justice recommend that cybersecurity courses be integrated into criminal justice programs to bridge the gap between traditional law enforcement expectations and responding to new cyber threats. Dr. Scott Belshaw, associate professor; Dr. Brooke Nodeland, assistant professor and online master of science in criminal justice degree coordinator; and Dr. Mark Saber, lecturer, made the determination in “Teaching Cybersecurity to Criminal Justice Majors,” which was published in the distinguished Journal of Criminal Justice...


April 2019

 The data looks at education, race and gender in relation to opinion of capital punishment. 

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Researchers in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) Department of Criminal Justice have completed the first intersectional research on public opinion on capital punishment that incorporates measures of race, class and gender. The research was conducted by Andrekus Dixon, lecturer and director of undergraduate programs; Dr. Brooke Nodeland, assistant professor and online master of science in criminal justice degree coordinator; and Dr. Adam Trahan, associate professor and director of graduate programs.

Public Opinion of Capital Punishment: An Intersectional Analysis of Race, Gender and Class Effects” was published in...


April 2019

The group is meant to help reduce feelings of uncertainty and isolation for parents of preschoolers who stutter.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – The UNT Speech and Hearing Center, located at 907 W. Sycamore St. in Denton, is offering a Support for Parents of Preschoolers who Stutter (S-POPS) group at 3 p.m. on May 5 for parents of preschoolers who stutter or show signs of stuttering. The group, which provides educational resources about stuttering and serves as a place of support, was developed by five speech-language pathologists who specialize in stuttering.

“If your preschool aged child is stuttering, this can be a very stressful time for parents,” said Robyn Martin, clinical supervisor of speech-language pathology in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service (HPS) Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology. “This group will help parents feel empowered and we hope to reduce the...


April 2019

 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 TCMA's various...


April 2019

Melinda Sapaugh worked under the mentorship of Dr. Norman Dolch, adjunct professor in the UNT College of Health and Public Service Department of Public Administration.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Melinda Sapaugh, a senior at the University of North Texas who is minoring in Nonprofit Leadership Studies in the College of Health and Public Service (HPS) Department of Public Administration, presented research she completed as a UNT Undergraduate Research Fellow at UNT Scholars Day on April 2.

“I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to work alongside Dr. Dolch during my senior year at UNT,” Sapaugh said. “My research extends the original three-year longitudinal study by Dr. Dolch and his associates to nine years and will examine which strategies...


April 2019

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...


April 2019

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...


March 2019

The clinic helps children struggling with eating, swallowing and other food-related problems.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – The University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service’s Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (ASLP) is now providing services to children of all ages with feeding and eating challenges. The UNT Feeding Clinic is currently serving children who not only have eating problems, but have associated medical needs.

“There are parents who are desperately pursuing services for their children based on a variety of difficulties,” said Dr. Theresa Kouri, director of the UNT Speech and Language Clinic. “It’s important to address feeding or eating issues early to guarantee adequate nutrition and hydration to support a child’s physical, mental and emotional development.”

In the clinic, Dr. Kouri and her clinicians work with children who experience any of the following issues while eating: breathing difficulties,...


March 2019

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...


March 2019

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...


January 2019

While students create an ePortfolio to present their verified, real-world experience to employers, UNT program coordinators are able to track and present competencies to their accrediting body.

DENTON (UNT), Texas – Faculty in the University of North Texas College of Health and Public Service’s Masters in Health Services Administration Degree Program have found an innovative way to combine the tracking of degree accreditation competencies with student career-readiness. They are part of a pilot program with UNT Career Connect – a campus-wide initiative that works with every UNT department as well as community partners to improve UNT students' written and oral communication skills, teamwork and critical thinking. They worked with UNT Career Connect’s Meena Naik and Adam Wear to develop a customized, online platform that integrates Canvas – UNT’s learning management system – with Badgr, a digital credentialing system. Badgr also automatically tracks students’ coursework achievements in...


March 2018

More than 96,000 nonprofit organizations are located in the state of Texas, the second largest number in the nation behind California, according to the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Nonprofits in the Dallas-Fort Worth region generated more than 27 billion in total revenue and employed approximately 103,000 individuals in 2012, as reported by Dallas’ CNM Connect.    

Beginning with the 2018 fall semester, a new undergraduate degree program at the University of North Texas will prepare students for careers in the nonprofit sector. The bachelor of science degree in nonprofit leadership studies, offered in UNT’s Department of Public Administration, will expand on courses already offered through a minor in leadership of community and nonprofit organizations and an academic certificate in volunteer and community resource management....


February 2018

LabUnder the leadership of Scott Belshaw, Ph.D., lab director and associate professor of criminal justice, the UNT Cyber Forensics Lab  has built a fully-functional digital forensics lab to serve law enforcement since opening in early 2017.

  • The Lab can examine cell phones, SIM cards, tablets, computers, external storage devices and other forms of digital media to detect any files and data of evidentiary value on a wide array of crimes.
  • To bring together training and a greater awareness to law enforcement regarding online child exploitation crimes, the Lab is involved in initial talks with federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and local detectives with the North Texas Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
  • The Lab is developing courses that law enforcement officers can take for TCOLE credit on the areas of the basics of digital forensics, social media...

January 2018

apply nowHPS undergraduate and graduate students enrolled for classes in 2018-2019 are eligible to apply for HPS scholarships.

Some scholarships are open to all HPS students while others are available only to specific majors through the academic departments.

Thousands of dollars in scholarships are awarded to HPS students each year thanks to generous support from HPS donors.

Learn more and find applications at HPS.unt.edu/scholarships

Most applications due Thursday, March 1.


January 2018
Manish Vaidya, associate professor in the University of North Texas Department of Behavior Analysis, and graduate student Maria Otero are using a motion monitoring computer program to teach young children to stay mostly motionless during radiation treatments for cancer. They are currently testing the technology on healthy children.

Watch the 1-minute video from NBC 5 News: UNT Program Could Help Children During Radiation.

While radiation therapy is the most common cancer treatment for children under age 10, preparation for it may cause great stress for a child and...


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