Florida State University’s distinguished faculty are central to the mission of the university. Faculty excellence in scholarship, research, and creative activity is critical to the quality of student learning and makes a difference in the lives of others.

Throughout the year, honors and recognitions are awarded to individual faculty and staff members across campus. Faculty and Staff Briefs are produced monthly to recognize accomplishments and provide a space where honors, awards, bylines, presentations, grants, service and any other notable items can be showcased.

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HONORS AND AWARDS

Amber DeJohn, Ph.D. (Department of Geography) was awarded the NIH/NCATS-funded K12 Multidisciplinary Program Career Development Award for her project titled “Disentangling Mobility, Cognitive Function, and Digital Behaviors to Understand Social Isolation and Dementia Risk.” Her project aims to identify patterns of physical and digital social engagement and examine their associations with baseline cognitive function to determine whether digital social engagement mitigates social isolation or reinforces withdrawal from in-person social environments.

Val Wongsomboon, Ph.D. (Anne’s College) was awarded a College-sponsored CTSA Career Development Award for her project titled “Development and Feasibility Testing of a Brief AI Literacy Intervention to Improve Help-Seeking and Mental Health Outcomes in Adolescents.” Her project aims to develop and pilot test an intervention on AI digital literacy to teach adolescents about AI limitations for emotional support and help them build help-seeking skills. The goal of this intervention is to build help-seeking behaviors among vulnerable adolescents and prevent the escalation of depressive symptoms.

Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication) has been selected to take part in the 2026 Scripps Howard Leadership Academy hosted by Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications.

Nate Newton, Ph.D. (Wertheim College of Business), and two co-authors have been selected to receive the American Accounting Association’s 2026 Notable Contribution to Accounting Literature Award for their paper, “How do team workloads and team staffing affect the audit? Archival evidence from U.S. audits,” published in the July 2021 issue of Accounting, Organizations and Society. They will receive the award and a $2,500 prize at the 2026 AAA Global Connect in August in Las Vegas.

Cassandra Cole, Ph.D., Evan Eastman, Ph.D., and Kyeonghee Kim, Ph.D. (Wertheim College of Business), won the Les B. Strickler Innovation in Instruction Award for their work on “AI-Powered Simulation Games for Risk Management and Insurance Education.” They will receive the award during the national meeting of the American Risk and Insurance Association in August.

Deb Osborn, Ph.D. (FSU Career Center & Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) has been selected as the recipient of the Eminent Career Award bestowed by the National Career Development Association.

Paul Cohen, (College of Motion Picture Arts) produced Groundswell, a documentary directed by two FSU alumni, Joshua Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell. The film was awarded the Golden Globe Prize for Documentary at Festival De Cannes.

Elizabeth Ray, Ph.D., Felicia Jordan Jackson, Ph.D. (School of Communication), and Ph.D. candidate Trayana Kaleycheva received the Top Paper Award from the Public Relations division of the International Communication Association (ICA) for their paper, “When Smiles and Frowns Meet Sugar and Fat: Affective Cues, Risk Perceptions, and Nutrition Decisions.”

Jie Chen, Ph.D., RN (College of Nursing), received the Editor of Distinction Award for “Author Service Award 2026” from Springer Nature for serving on the editorial board of BMC Nursing, an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of evidence-based nursing care.

Rachel Duke, Ph.D., Research and Engagement Program Director (Libraries), received the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Foundation Annual Meeting Award to support her attendance at ARCHIVES*RECORDS 2026 in New Orleans, LA.

Javier Rosado, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) received the 2026 Alumni Award from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he did a doctoral internship in Clinical and Community Psychology.

GRANTS

Zhe He, Ph.D. (School of Information), and Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) received a CTS Pilot Award for their project, “A Reusable AI-Assisted Psychosocial Risk Synthesis Engine for Pediatric Transplant Evaluation,” from the UF+FSU Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Hub.

Stephanie Simmons Zuilkowski, Ed.D. (Learning Systems Institute) and Sana Tibi, Ph.D. (Department of Communication Science and Disorders) will serve as principal investigators on a project with IREX on the Early Grade Education Activity (ASAS) in Jordan. LSI will join the project to advance Jordanian-led teacher education initiatives.

Liz Dunne, M.S., and Michael Pritchard, M.A. (Libraries) received a $9,975 grant from the Florida Department of State Division of Library and Information Services for their project “FSU Libraries / Leon County Schools Cross-Sector Professional Learning Community (PLC)” supporting high school librarians and Leon County Dual Enrollment students’ research needs at FSU.

Gary Ostrander, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and Eric H. Holmes, Ph.D., (Research and Graduate Programs) were awarded a $365,437.52 grant from the Florida Department of Health Innovation Fund for “Enacting Niclosamide Activity for Cancer Treatment (ENACT).” 

BYLINES

Marissa Hershon, (John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art) authored the paper, “The Dwight James Baum Business Records: Rediscovering the Creatives Behind the Ringlings’ Vision for Ca’ d’Zan” which was accepted for the international academic conference, “On papers. Archives for Project, History and Prospects” at the ArCoD Department of Architecture Construction Design of the Bari Polytechnic University in Bari, Italy, in collaboration with A Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa and the Alma Mater Studiorum at University of Bologna HPA Lab, June 2026, and will be included in the peer-reviewed collective volume of the series Quaderni di ArchitecrA – Architettura attraverso gli Archivi dell’editore Quasar in Rome, Italy.

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Why Context Matters: An Exploration of How Sporting Characteristics Shape Coaching Practice,” published in the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education.

Timothy Baghurst, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) co-authored “Analysis of coach and athletic director turnover in the Florida school system,” published in the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching.

Joseph Watso, Ph.D. (Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences) and Ph.D. candidate Christin Domeier co-authored “Water intake mediates cross-sectional associations between urinary kidney injury biomarkers and race in emerging adults,” published in the American Journal of Physiology-Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology.

Jay Kesten, LL.M. and LL.B., (College of Law), has a forthcoming article, “Presidential Immunity: A Lesson from Corporate Law”, with the Georgia State Law Review.

Kristy Anderson, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Caregiver employment changes and care coordination in families with children and autism,” published in the journal Research in Autism.

Sonnie Mayewski, MSW, and Michael Killian, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Integrating shiny web applications into pediatric transplant research: Development, implementation, and case application,” published in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.

Michael Killian, Ph.D. and Sonnie Mayewski, MSW (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Behavioral health and adherence factors driving emergency and inpatient care among pediatric transplant recipients,” published in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation.

Lisa Schelbe, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Corporal punishment in the U.S. Public Schools: A review of state bans,” published in the journal, Children & Schools.

JaNiene Peoples, Ph.D. (College of Social Work) co-authored the article, “Ecological momentary assessment of racial discrimination and same-day and next day alcohol use among Black college students,” published in the journal, Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Michaé Cain, Ph.D., Lauren Stanley, Ph.D., and Dina Wilke, Ph.D. (College of Social Work and Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the article, “An investigation of factors impacting job-stress-related presenteeism among child welfare workers,” published in the Children and Youth Services Review.

Kara Guinan, M.S., and Lauren Stanley, Ph.D. (College of Social Work and Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the literature brief “Understanding Disordered Eating in System-Involved Youths: A Trauma-Informed Overview for Child Welfare Professionals,” which will be published through the Florida Institute for Child Welfare.

Burcu Izci, Ph.D. (College of Social Work and Florida Institute for Child Welfare) co-authored the article “Guiding parents on young children’s digital technology use: Insights from preservice and in-service teachers”, in the Journal of Research in Childhood Education.

Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication), and graduate student Mitch Krueger co-authored “Are all uses of AI created equal? An experimental review of AI disclosure types on credibility” in Journalism.

Sun Young Park, Ph.D., Jaejin Lee, Ph.D., and Braidyn Lazenby, Ph.D. (School of Communication) co-authored the research article, “Gut health goes viral: analyzing influencer advertising for dietary supplements on TikTok,” in the International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing.

Zhe He, Ph.D., Mia Lustria, Ph.D. (School of Information), Obianuju Aliche, Ph.D. (College of Medicine), Kyunghye Kim, Ph.D. (School of Information), and doctoral student Lovinta Atrinawati co-authored the systematic review, “Patient Experiences With Online Laboratory Test Presentations From Access to Activation: Systematic Review”, in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing), co-authored “Lifestyle interventions for major depressive disorder (MDD): An expert consensus statement from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.” Published in the Journal of Lifestyle Medicine.

Brittany Lane, MPH, Ph.D., Casey D. Xavier Hall, MPH, Ph.D., Artur Queiroz, Ph.D., BSN, MS (College of Nursing), Rasheda Haughbrook, MS, Ph.D. (Center of Population Sciences for Health Empowerment), Umedjon “Umed” Ibragimov, Ph.D., Liying Wang, Ph.D., Eugenia Flores Millender, Ph.D., RN, PMH-APRN, FAAN, FAANP, Frank “Frankie” Y. Wong, Ph.D. and Amanda Gabster, Ph.D., MSc (College of Nursing),  co-authored “Healthcare Acceptability and Delayed Care Among Older People Living with HIV in the All of Us Program.”

Brendan Weaver, Ph.D. (Department of Art History) authored a chapter within The Oxford Handbook of South American Archaeology.

Brenda Wawire, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) co-authored “Understanding the Relations between the Component Skills of Reading Comprehension among English Language Learners from Kenya,” which was published in Reading & Writing quarterly.

Michelle Bumatay, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) edited a special issue of the journal Francosphères (Liverpool UP), vol. 15, Issue 1, titled “Francophone Afrotopias.” She also wrote the introduction, edited an interview with the Francophone Senegalese author Felwine Sarr, and contributed an article titled “Francophone comics by African digital natives: Forming (as) inclusive Afrotopias.”

Michael Neal, Ph.D. (Department of English) had his article, “Following the North Star: Movement Toward Universal Writing Assessment,” published in the Journal of Writing Assessment, a peer-reviewed publication dedicated to topics in writing assessment.

Jacquelyn H. Clements, Ph.D., Digital Projects Librarian (Libraries), authored a review of Welo Hou in the June 2026 issue of ARLIS/NA Multimedia & Technology Reviews.

Delaney W. La Rosa, EdD, MSN Ed, RN (College of Nursing), co-authored the textbook “Nursing Education in the AI Era: Practical Guidance for Educators to Provide Equitable Care”. The textbook has been adopted for use at Harvard University and will be featured in the window display at the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Karen Geletko, MPH, Jon Mills, Ph.D., Jeffrey Harman, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and three medical students published “Impact of Legislation on Adolescent E-Cigarette Use” in Public Health Reports.

Yang Hou, Ph.D., Dan Liu, Ph.D., and Xiaoli Zong, Ph.D., (College of Medicine) were among the global team of authors of “Age-varying associations between parent-reported executive function and internalizing/externalizing problems in children with neurofibromatosis type 1: an integrative analysis of data from nine institutions,” published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

Karen MacDonell, Ph.D., and Sylvie Naar, Ph.D. (Center for Translational Behavioral Science/College of Medicine) were two five authors who published “Blood Spot Biosampling Technology for HIV Viral Load Collection Among Youth with HIV” in AIDS and Behavior. 

PRESENTATIONS

Dillon Pruett, Ph.D. (School of Communication Science & Disorders) presented a poster, “The gene VRK2 is implicated in genome-wide analyses of stuttering, language, and rhythm traits,” at the Molecular Psychiatry Association Conference in Lihue, Hawaii.

JR Harding, Ed.D. (Wertheim College of Business) presented in May with FSU students Julian Dirani, Ashley Evans and Kristen Mancinelli at FSU Panama City’s 2^nd Annual Northwest Florida Disability Conference. Their topic was the Evolution of Higher Education and PWDs.

James Hunt, Ph.D. (Office of Institutional Research) presented “Navigating Your Professional Development Through IR Organizations” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Katherine Gipalo, MPA and Samantha Nix, Ph.D. (Office of Institutional Research) co-presented “How Do I Say No? Discussing Strategies for Saying No to Stakeholders” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Heather Epstein-Diaz, MLIS (Office of Institutional Research) co-presented “Data Governance as a Service: Building Trust, Access, and Usability” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Heather Epstein-Diaz, MLIS and Eclipse Ramsey, MSI (Office of Institutional Research) co-presented “AI Readiness Starts with Context: Semantic Layers for Higher Education” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Lee Howell, MBA (Information Technology Services) presented “Metrics Strategies: Aligning Data, Tactics, and Purpose for IR Success” and “Beyond the Numbers: Faculty Achievement in Fine Arts” at the 2026 Association for Institutional Research in Washington, D.C.

Landon Weeks, (Division of University Advancement) presented “Maximizing our Joint Slay: Strategies to Effectively Leverage Campus Partnerships at the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) Recent Alumni and Student Engagement conference in Nashville, Tennessee.

Frederick Abbott, LL.M. and J.D., (College of Law), presented at the “Order and Disorder in International Trade: The Past and the Future,” meeting hosted by the European Free Trade Association, the World Trade Institute, and the University of Bern, in Bern, Switzerland.

Michael Morley, J.D., (College of Law), presented at the Florida Bar Government Lawyer Section’s first-ever Legacy & Leadership Symposium at The Florida Bar Annex Building in Tallahassee. He presented a “Survey of Recent Cases in Elections Law,” which reviewed court decisions affecting state and federal 2026 elections laws.

Ose Ndebbio, M.S. (Florida Institute for Child Welfare, College of Social Work), and Jessica Greil-Burkhart, MSW (College of Social Work), presented “Scaling Course Improvement Without Losing Instructional Judgment” at the Teaching and Learning with AI conference at the Gaylord Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

Machelle Madsen Thompson, Ph.D. (College of Social Work), Malaika Samples, Ph.D. and Tenille Taylor (Florida Institute for Child Welfare) and (Stoops Center for Communities, Families, and Children) presented a half-day training, “Advancing Child Maltreatment Interventions Through Case-Based Training and Virtual Reality,” at the Association of Professionals Solving the Abuse of Children 2026 conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Mona Bozorgi, Ph.D. (Department of Art) chaired a session, Materiality and Response-ability and presented her research titled Affective Matter: On the Exchange Between Image, Substance, and Bodies. She was also part of a juried group exhibition and served as a portfolio reviewer at the Society for Photographic Education Annual Conference in Atlanta.

Yelena McLane, Ph.D. (School of Design) presented a paper titled Generative Affordances in Permanent Supportive Housing: Applying Ecological Theory to Dignified Design at the annual Environmental Design Research Association conference in Amherst, MA.

Grace Aneiza Ali, MFA (Department of Art) was a featured speaker at the Donald Locke Symposium: Edge of Spirit in London.

Erin Morpeth-Provost (Counseling & Psychological Services) presented a general session “EMDR in a University Counseling Center: Client Outcomes and Practical Use in Response to a Campus Crisis” at the American College Health Association annual conference.

Mari Kay Avant (University Health) co-presented two general sessions at the American College Health Association annual conference: “Administration Hot Topics: Marketing Student Health Centers” and “Designing For Impact: Creative Strategies to Market College Healthcare to Gen Z Students.”

Nicole Lilly (Career Center) presented “From Stuck to Sprouting: Tools for Resilient Career Thinking” at the Graduate Career Consortium.

Amy Magnuson, Ph.D., R.D. and Kelly Dykes, BSN, RN, CHPE, CPHIMS (University Health Services) co-presented “The Business Backbone of Student Health” at the 2026 American College Health Association annual conference.

Carrie Meyers and Jim Reynolds (Learning Systems Institute/FSU InSPIRE) presented at the 4th annual Teaching and Learning with AI conference at UCF.

Laura Greene, Ph.D. (Mag Lab), Anna Romanova, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute), and Michael Shatruk, Ph.D. (Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry) presented as part of the U.S. Science and Education Forum at the Lviv Academic Bridge.

Rob Schoen, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “The human-in-the-loop: Navigating the intersection of AI limitations and expert pedagogy in mathematical task design” at the annual conference of the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Rob Schoen, Ph.D. and Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Impact of CGI on Teachers and Students in Florida” and “Using M-CLIPS to Detect Impact of CGI on Teaching: Results from a Randomized Control Trial” at the 2026 CGI Conference in Arizona.

Lakesia Dupree, Ph.D., Odalis Tavares, Ph.D., Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D., and Shanann Young (Learning Systems Institute) presented “Empowering Families to Support CGI Practices at Home” at the 2026 CGI Conference in Arizona.

Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented, “Patience and Political Asceticism,” as part of the Patience in Adversity Summer Seminar hosted by the Templeton Religion Trust funded grant at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

Tarez Samra Graban, Ph.D. (Department of English) presented her papers, “Cultural Lines of Sight: Reconsidering Historical Memory in and of the UN World Conference on Women at Beijing,” and, “Unsettling Expectations about the Resilience of South Africa’s Black Sash,” at the 22nd Biennial Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America in Portland, Oregon.

David Newheiser, Ph.D. (Department of Religion) presented, “Mysticism and Political Theory,” at the British International Studies Association 2026 Conference in Brighton and the invited lecture, “Critical Political Theology” at King’s College London, in the United Kingdom. He also presented, “Miracles and Democratic Imagination: The Power of an Impossible Hope,” at the International Network in Philosophy of Religion in Paris, France, and, “Religion, Wonder, and the Limits of Reason: Reframing the Debate over Miracles,” at Panteion University in Athens, Greece.

Silvia Valisa, Ph.D. (Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics) co-organized the panel, “Italian Ecopoetry in Translation: An Ecology of Attention,” and presented her paper, “Moving Encounters: Italian Ecopoetry Translation Workshop at FSU,” at the Poetry’s Environments Conference organized by Poetry@Leeds, the poetry center of the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom.

Alice Maxwell, M.A., Jessie Colegrove, M.A. and Evan Eisenstark (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) presented, “Before the Glow Up: Rebuilding Career Center Marketing for What Comes Next” at the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Annual Marketing and Branding Conference in Denver, Colorado.

Saanchi Shah, Ph.D., and Boris Kantor, Ph.D. (Institute for Pediatric Rare Diseases/ College of Medicine) presented at the A.J. Anderson Foundation & IPRD Rare Disease Conference in Palm Harbor, Florida. Shah spoke about presented “Sunshine Genetics Updates” while Kantor presented “Gene Therapy for Pediatric Rare Diseases: Current Status and Future Perspectives.”

Rebecca Carter, LCSW, and Karen Cramer, MSW (College of Medicine) spoke at the 2026 National Association of Social Workers-Florida Annual Conference in Orlando on “CBT for Nicotine Dependence: Better Behavioral Health and Recovery Outcomes in Social Work Practice.

Joseph Gabriel, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) and his two co-editors of “Dealing with Drugs: New Histories of Risk and Benefit” were guests on a University of Rochester Press podcast about their book, part of the Rochester Studies in Medical History book series.

Regan Bailey, Ph.D., and Patrick Stover, Ph.D. (Institute for Connecting Nutrition and Health/College of Medicine) presented at the 31^st Marabou Symposium in Stockholm, Sweden, with the theme “Dynamics of Nutrient Needs to Compensate for Metabolic Decline in Aging.” Stover moderated panel discussions and Bailey presented “Bringing it all  together: Nutrient needs throughout the life cycle.”

Heather Flynn, Ph.D., and Mike Drury, Psy.D., (College of Medicine) presented “Fundamentals of Psychological Treatments for Perinatal Behavioral Health” in a webinar for healthcare professionals.

EXHIBITIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Jamie Ho, MFA (Department of Art) had work featured in Fellowship 26 at Silver Eye Center for Photography in Pittsburgh, PA.

Katie Kehoe, MFA (Department of Art) has a series of 6 photographs exhibiting in “Unprecedented” at The Crown Gallery at Metro Art Studios in Bridgeport, CT, and is also in the group exhibition, “The Forest was Rebuilt with Scrap and Ply” at Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan, AL.

Alena Mehic, MFA (Department of Art)’s work “Za Mamu” will be on view at “somewhere i have never travelled”, an exhibition at Behind VA Shadows in Cambridge, MA.

Jiha Moon, MFA (Department of Art) exhibited “Collection, Reframed: Jiha Moon” at Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte, NC.

Meredith Lynn, MFA (Department of Art)’s work “Bad Outdoorsmen (Application Video)(Northeast Florida)” is on view at The Orlando Museum of Art for the 12th Annual Florida Prize in Contemporary Art exhibitions. Professor Meredith Lynn’s monograph is available at the Orlando Museum of Art store. 

Lilian Garcia-Roig, (Department of Art) is included in several traveling group shows including, “Let Us Gather In A Flourishing Way” at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York, which will be followed by a national tour including presentations at the Des Moines Art Center, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, the Phoenix Art Museum, and the Frye Art Museum, Seattle.

SERVICE

Kyeonghee Kim, Ph.D. (Wertheim College of Business), joined the Academic Advisory Council of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Center for Insurance Policy and Research, for which she will provide input and guidance on the center’s mission to advance understanding of insurance issues among policymakers, regulators, industry leaders and academia.

Latika Young, MA, Ed.M. (Center for Undergraduate Research and Academic Engagement) chaired the panel “Expanding the Scope of CUR: A Panel Discussion about Statewide Efforts to Support Undergraduate Research” and served as host for a lunch discussion table on “Statewide Support for Undergraduate Research” at the ConnectUR conference hosted by the Council on Undergraduate Research in College Park, Maryland.

Kathleen P. Wilson, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, FAANP, FNAP, DipACLM (College of Nursing), has been appointed as Member at Large to the Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP) Executive Committee. The FAANP program is dedicated to the global advancement of nurse practitioners (NPs) and the high-quality health care NPs deliver.

Jessica Bahorski, Ph.D., APRN, PPCNP-BC, WHNP-BC (College of Nursing) and BSN undergraduate students Kelsie Nyman and Madison Roy attended the Gadsden County Healthy Start Coalition Baby Bash. They offered height and weight measurement for infants with growth chart tracking.

Leah Sherman, Ph.D., Visual & Performing Arts Librarian (Libraries), was elected Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect of the Arts Section of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) for the 2026–2029 term, reflecting her ongoing leadership in arts librarianship.

Laurel Harbin, Ph.D., AICP, LEED-AP (Office of the Provost) and Rabieh Razzouk, MBA (Learning Systems Institute) have each been appointed by FSU President Richard McCullough to serve two-year terms on the Florida State University Schools, Inc. Board of Directors.

Alice Maxwell, M.A. (Division of Student Affairs Marketing and Communications) served as faculty for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education Annual Marketing and Branding Conference in Denver, Colorado. In addition to helping plan the conference, she moderated the student communications focused panel “What Students Wish You Knew” and served on the panel “AI in Marketing and Branding: What’s Working, What’s Not, and What’s Next” as a speaker.

Cheryl Porter, Ph.D. (College of Medicine) was appointed to the inaugural Research, Engagement, Growth and Scholarship Committee of the Association of American Medical Colleges.  AAMC restructured its groups and replaced the Group on Student Affairs with the Learner Access, Support, Opportunity and Retention Group, of which this new committee is a part.

Susan Epstein, MSLS (College of Medicine) was named to the Information, Discovery & Interchange Topic Committee of the National Information Standards Organization, a library access organization.

NOTABLE

Patrick Merle, Ph.D. (School of Communication) has been accepted to present at the 27^th annual congress of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association in September in Malaga, Spain.

Richard Morris, (School of Communication Science and Disorders) retired after serving Florida State University for nearly four decades (since 1988).

Giovanni Lopez, (Wertheim College of Business) served as a panelist at the 2026 Technology in Business Schools Round Table annual meeting, hosted by the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business, and offered insights about moving into a new building, including planning, design, construction, technology, implementation and more.

Maria Paula McIntyre Nwenyi (Center for Leadership & Service) is one of 15 FSU faculty and staff members who earned the Institutional Research Data Literacy and Analytics Certificate in Spring 2026.

The Ukraine Task Force, led by Vilma Fuentes, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute), hosted Dmytro Dyadin, Ph.D. and Oleksandr Hrytsyna, Ph.D. as part of the Bridge USA Ukraine Program for Resilience and Reconstruction, which connects Ukrainian and U.S. scholars to foster research, develop education, and rebuild resilience through impactful international partnerships.

Rick Burnette (Sr. Vice Provost & Chief Strategy Officer) participated in “The Higher Education AI Reality Check” IREX webinar discussing FSU’s approach to AI and the broader questions surrounding its use in higher education.

Lakesia Dupree, Ph.D., Odalis Tavares, Ed.D., and Amanda Tazaz, Ph.D. (Learning Systems Institute) worked with educators in Hillsborough County on the Successful Start: Cognitively Guided Instruction project, providing training and support to math teachers serving students in foundational grades.

Please send items for Faculty and Staff Briefs to tfordyce@fsu.edu. We publish monthly.

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As Florida State University celebrates its 175th anniversary, the milestone coincides with the national observance of America 250, offering an opportunity to reflect on how the university’s history has unfolded alongside that of the United States.

Since its founding, FSU’s evolution from a regional seminary into a preeminent public research institution has been closely connected to many of the defining events and transformations that shaped the nation.

The post FSU’s 175-year journey along the road to America 250 appeared first on Florida State University News.

Florida State University secured more than $180 million for nearly all of its top legislative priorities in Florida’s 2026-27 state budget, including major investments in engineering, research, FSU Health, student success and campus infrastructure.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed the state’s $117.6 billion budget, approving dozens of Florida State initiatives that will support teaching, research and service across the university while advancing major capital projects.

Among the largest investments is $92 million for Building C at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, a long-awaited expansion that will increase research capacity, support enrollment growth and help meet Florida’s workforce needs.

“This year’s budget positions Florida State University to move strategic priorities forward and build on our momentum as one of the top public universities in the nation,” President Richard McCullough said. “It will expand opportunities for students, strengthen our ability to attract and support exceptional faculty and staff, and deepen our impact across Florida and beyond. We appreciate the continued confidence of the Florida Legislature, including Speaker Daniel Perez, and Gov. Ron DeSantis in FSU’s ability to deliver meaningful results for the people of Florida.”

Other approved projects include investment in the Veterans Legacy Complex, the Middleton Center, Moore Auditorium, Rovetta Hall, the Basketball Training Facility, deferred maintenance for FSU Health facilities, life safety improvements and planning for FSU’s future dental school.

Collectively, these investments strengthen FSU’s academic, research, student life, health and athletic missions while positioning Florida State to meet continued enrollment growth and expand its national prominence.

FSU also secured about $26 million in operational support, including $17.4 million in recurring funding. The Legislature maintained funding for numerous recurring and nonrecurring university programs, reflecting continued confidence in Florida State University’s mission and priorities.

While several individual projects were vetoed, the overwhelming majority of the university’s priorities were approved. Most notably, the historic investment in capital infrastructure will shape FSU’s physical campus, research enterprise, student experience and academic mission for decades to come and stands as one of the defining accomplishments of this legislative session.

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Florida State University to launch national search for successor

Ted Ellis, the inaugural director of Florida State University’s Civil Rights Institute, will step down June 30 after helping expand the institute’s programming, partnerships and community engagement.

Housed in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, the Civil Rights Institute (CRI) commemorates, celebrates and studies the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. The institute brings together students, faculty and staff from across academic disciplines, including sociology, public health, urban and regional planning, criminology, social work, medicine, nursing and education.

The CRI was conceived in 2018 by FSU alumni and siblings Doby and Fred Flowers, with support from a volunteer board of faculty, staff and community leaders. In 2023, the CRI expanded its operations with the backing of President Richard McCullough and Provost James Clark and hired Ellis, a nationally recognized artist and scientist, as its first full-time director.

“I am very grateful to Ted Ellis for so ably leading CRI,” said Jim Clark, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “He has made a lasting and positive impact. FSU is deeply committed to searching for and hiring a new director to build on Ted’s legacy.”

During his more than two-and-a-half years as director, Ellis advanced the institute’s mission by engaging students, faculty, staff and the community through programming, research and partnerships that foster civil rights education and dialogue.

“Director Ellis has made a lasting impact on the Civil Rights Institute and on Florida State University,” said Tim Chapin, dean of the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy. “His passion, vision and commitment to expand the work of the CRI have helped the institute grow in meaningful ways, both on campus and in the broader Tallahassee community. I’m deeply grateful for all he has contributed during his time as director, and I wish him the very best in his future work to celebrate and promote civil rights for all.”

Under Ellis’s leadership, the CRI expanded its programming and community engagement efforts, including the launch of the C.K. Steele Speaker Series, named for Tallahassee civil rights leader Rev. Charles Kenzie Steele. The speaker series honors Steele’s legacy through lectures, workshops and discussions that explore civil rights issues, historical perspectives and contemporary challenges.

“While this chapter of my service concludes, my commitment to preserving, promoting, and advancing African American history remains unwavering,” Ellis said. “I will continue my work with the 400 Years of African American History Commission under the U.S. Department of the Interior and proudly support the ongoing growth and impact of the Florida State University Civil Rights Institute. The work of educating, inspiring, and empowering future generations through history, culture, and justice must continue — and I remain dedicated to that mission.”

A nationally acclaimed visual artist, Ellis holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Dillard University and a master’s in museum studies from Southern University in New Orleans. His work includes portraits of civil rights icons such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks and has been displayed in the halls of Congress.

Florida State University will launch a national search for the next director for the Civil Rights Institute. More information will be announced in the coming weeks.

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A career dedicated to translating research into policy and practice has earned Thomas G. Blomberg, dean of Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, the 2026 August Vollmer Award from the American Society of Criminology (ASC).

Widely regarded as one of the field’s highest honors, the award recognizes an individual whose “scholarship and professional work have made outstanding contributions to justice and the treatment or prevention of criminal or delinquent behavior.”

Blomberg, the Sheldon L. Messinger Professor of Criminology, earned three degrees from UC Berkeley, including a doctorate in criminology. He became dean in 2003 and helped elevate the college into the world’s top-ranked criminology program.

Bringing research to life

In his work as a researcher, Blomberg pursued a goal as simple as it was ambitious: reducing the pain and suffering caused by crime by ensuring research informed policy and practice.

One of the clearest examples of that philosophy was the Juvenile Justice Educational Enhancement Program (JJEEP), which Blomberg helped develop to improve educational outcomes for justice-involved youth.

Associate Professor George Pesta, director of the College’s Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research, called JJEEP one of Blomberg’s most impactful projects.

“His research conceptualization and implementation of JJEEP was truly translational and, for those involved, transformative,” Pesta said. “He embedded researchers in a statewide accountability system for the education of incarcerated youth where we worked with state agencies, local school districts, and private providers of juvenile justice services.”

From 1998 to 2010, JJEEP developed, implemented and maintained a research-driven system that guided policy and improved educational program performance for thousands of Florida delinquent and at-risk youths. At its peak, there were more than 200 juvenile justice education programs in Florida serving 30,000 youths each year.

“Through JJEEP, Tom influenced state policy, helped enshrine research into state statute, improved services for incarcerated youth and, most importantly, he made a difference in the lives of tens of thousands of youths in Florida and the country,” Pesta said. “For me, and many others, JJEEP fundamentally shaped our career trajectories. It trained us in how to participate in translational research and use it to improve lives. The lessons I learned at JJEEP guide me today. Without it, I would not have spent a career in research.”

Citing his unparalleled and “outstanding contributions to justice and to the treatment and prevention of crime,” the three authors of his nominating letter noted Blomberg’s prolific rate of publication, his promotion of evidence-based policy and his efforts to strengthen the field of criminology and criminal justice.

Dan Mears, Mark C. Stafford Professor of Criminology in the college, co-authored the nominating letter. Mears called Blomberg an essential reason he came to Florida State and said the diversity of Blomberg’s contributions to the field of criminology set him apart.

“He’s led a college, won teaching and mentoring awards, presented before legislatures, written books and given presentations internationally,” Mears said. “Tom’s longevity, his diversity of contributions and his persistent framing of science to inform policy and practice are unique. The Vollmer Award is clearly about all those things and Tom checks all those boxes.”

Malcolm Feeley, Claire Sanders Clements Dean’s Professor of Law Emeritus at UC Berkeley and a co-author of the nominating letter, noted that the award’s namesake, August Vollmer, founded both UC Berkeley’s School of Criminology and the ASC.

“The list of winners includes a U.S. senator, eight federal judges, two former longtime directors of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and a handful of the most honored police chiefs in the history of the country,” he said. “It’s a mind-boggling list, and Tom certainly deserves to be on it.”

Blomberg has authored or co-authored scores of studies and co-authored American Penology: A History of Control, a seminal book in the field that was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court. He has lent his expertise to the U.S. Congress, foreign governments and state and local policymakers.

Under his leadership as dean, the college has climbed national rankings and today ranks as the top criminology program in the world.

“Through the years, I’ve been the beneficiary of some fortunate circumstances,” Blomberg said. “This award is a surprise and an incredible honor but ultimately it’s a reflection of this university, college, our wonderful faculty and staff and, of course, our students.”

Building a college into a national leader

Todd Clear, professor at Rutgers University, worked at the college for several years and co-authored the letter nominating Blomberg for the Vollmer Award.

“Tom is an accomplished scholar and he made his mark through his research and creating a framework and an energy behind what was then a new idea of translational criminology,” Clear said. “But he also made his mark in the many of (the college’s) alumni who have made exactly the contributions that the Vollmer Award stands for. He set a tone for the school to care about that kind of work, and the students who leave there carry on that vision.”

Clear is the founding editor of the Journal of Criminology and Public Policy and said Blomberg’s help was instrumental in helping grow the journal from a promising publication to an influential source for policy-relevant research.

Assistant Professor Julie Brancale first met Blomberg as a criminology undergraduate student preparing to take the next step in her education in law school.

Brancale said she sought Blomberg’s advice and a letter of recommendation for law school. He agreed to write the letter and asked her a question that changed her life.

“He asked me what I wanted to do with my law degree,” she said. “I knew I liked school and I was good at school but the directness of that question showed me it was something I hadn’t really thought through.”

Subsequent conversations with Blomberg and an invitation to join him on a research project opened a new path for Brancale.

“I wanted to help people, to make a difference and to leave a positive mark on the world,” she said. “Tom really took me under his wing and showed me what translational research was and what kind of impact it could have on society and how it could make positive change. These were all things I wanted to do with my life.”

A capstone but not an end

Beginning this year, FSU’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice is set to embark on a renovation of the Kellogg Building, located next door to its current home. The project, which will add 50,000 square feet of space to the college, is set to happen 75 years after the first criminology courses were offered at FSU.

Blomberg has shaped the course of the college more than any other figure. But the Vollmer Award puts the spotlight on his long-held desire to make a difference.

“It’s the thread through all of his work,” his wife Jeanine said. “It’s the connection between research and policy and he’s still so excited to make it.”

“I was at my computer and it was 2:30 in the morning when I got the news about the Vollmer Award,” he said with a laugh. “I love my job and the cumulative experience of my life, the memories I’ve made, the happy faces of students graduating, faculty earning tenure, what more could anybody ask for? What an honor. What a privilege.”

Blomberg added: “If there is one single thing that’s salient in any success I’ve had, it’s Jeanine. When I think about how brilliant she is, the wise counsel she’s given me, and how she’s able to help me see things I’d never otherwise see, I am humbled.”

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Florida State University’s education and educational research program ranks No. 25 globally, No. 2 among public universities in the United States and No. 1 in Florida in the 2026-27 Best Global Universities rankings released by U.S. News & World Report.

Florida State also ranked among the world’s top 100 institutions in psychiatry and psychology (No. 80), social sciences and public health (No. 89) and arts and humanities (No. 92).

The rankings evaluate more than 2,250 universities in more than 100 countries based on academic research performance and global and regional research reputation. The methodology emphasizes factors such as publications, citations and international collaboration.

“These rankings across crucial professions and disciplines reflect the quality of our faculty and the impact of their scholarship,” said Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Jim Clark. “The recognition earned by our education program, along with strong performances in psychology, the social sciences and the humanities, demonstrates the public value proposition of the academic excellence across Florida State University.”

FSU’s performance reflects the university’s continued growth as a leading research institution. The university recorded a record $488 million in research expenditures, a 50 percent increase since 2021, and surpassed $1.2 billion in research funding proposals in 2025.

U.S. News uses data from Clarivate’s Web of Science Core Collection and InCites Benchmarking & Analytics to evaluate universities. The Best Global Universities rankings focus primarily on institutions’ research performance and scholarly impact rather than undergraduate education.

For more information and the complete rankings, visit the U.S. News & World Report Best Global Universities website.

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As a nationally recognized leader in supporting student veterans, Florida State University is further empowering those who served through a new merit scholarship offered in partnership with the Stamps Scholars Program.

Launching this fall, the Stamps Veteran Scholars Program will honor the service, leadership and sacrifice of U.S. military veterans by providing transformative educational and leadership opportunities. It will be the nation’s first Stamps Scholars Program designed specifically for undergraduate student veterans.

“Stamps Veteran Scholars at FSU will be individuals of exceptional intellectual curiosity, demonstrated leadership and a deep commitment to service,” said Billy Francis, director of the FSU Student Veterans Center. “We are looking for students who seek not only to succeed academically, but to contribute meaningfully to our campus community and the world beyond.”

The SVSP at FSU will launch with an inaugural cohort of up to five Stamps Veteran Scholars, each receiving a merit scholarship and enrichment support package. Through a dollar-for-dollar funding match between Florida State University and the Stamps Scholars Program, the SVSP is designed to provide select student veterans with education and networking opportunities that provide a foundation for future growth.

Each veteran scholar will receive a total of up to $26,000 toward the completion of an undergraduate degree. That includes covering any remaining balance of Florida State’s estimated cost of attendance, up to $8,000 per year. It also includes up to $10,000 in enrichment funding that can be applied toward professional and scholarly enhancement opportunities, including study abroad experiences, undergraduate research, leadership programs and national conferences.

Stamps Veteran Scholars will also join a national network of Stamps Scholars and alumni, gaining access to a community of accomplished student leaders, mentorship opportunities and experiences that extend far beyond the classroom.

“The SVSP will build upon FSU’s foundation of veteran student support by helping to eliminate financial barriers, empowering recipients to fully dedicate themselves to their academic goals, undergraduate research and leadership development as they transition into impactful civilian careers.”

– Billy Francis, FSU Student Veterans Center director

E. Roe Stamps IV is a businessman, private investor and philanthropist who, with his late wife Penny, has supported students through their philanthropic work since 2000. They founded the Stamps Scholars Program in 2006 to help exceptional students achieve their education and life goals. Through partnerships with universities across the country, the program supports high-achieving students through scholarship funding, leadership development and enrichment experiences.

The Stamps Scholars Program currently supports more than 1,330 Scholars, with 39 partner institutions nationwide. Together with alumni, the Stamps community includes more than 4,400 exceptional leaders.

“We are honored to partner with Florida State to recognize and support veterans whose service, leadership and sacrifice have strengthened our country,” Roe Stamps said. “The Stamps Veteran Scholars Program reflects our commitment to helping these exceptional students pursue their educational goals, develop their talents and continue making meaningful contributions in their communities and professions. We look forward to welcoming them into the broader Stamps Scholars community.”

In establishing the SVSP at FSU, the Stamps Scholars Program has recognized FSU’s stature among peer institutions in veteran support, retention, graduation and career-placement metrics. Central to this success is FSU’s commitment to providing students with comprehensive services, dedicated facilities and robust campus relationships. The Student Veterans Center hosts more than 30 annual veteran-centered programs and events to cultivate a deep sense of community and belonging among military-affiliated students.

“The SVSP will build upon FSU’s foundation of veteran student support by helping to eliminate financial barriers, empowering recipients to fully dedicate themselves to their academic goals, undergraduate research and leadership development as they transition into impactful civilian careers,” Francis said.

For more information about the SVSP, visit veterans.fsu.edu/stamps-veteran-scholars-program.

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Florida State University Libraries Special Collections & Archives has acquired a collection of rare legal documents donated by independent Emmett Till researchers Kevin Murphy and Colleen FitzPatrick. The collection expands public access to historical records tied to one of the most significant civil rights cases in American history.

The acquisition consists of copies of records from the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant were tried for the kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till. Till’s murder and the subsequent trial became pivotal events in the Civil Rights Movement. The collection strengthens FSU’s extensive holdings in regional and Southern history.

“Preserving primary sources from pivotal moments in our nation’s history is at the very core of our mission. By making these rare courthouse records accessible digitally, FSU Libraries provides scholars and the public with resources to examine the legal landscape of the civil rights era and ensure these histories are never forgotten.”

— Katie McCormick, associate dean for Special Collections & Archives

Among the donated records are Circuit Court case files for each charge against Milam and Bryant, including records related to witnesses called to trial. The documents provide new resources for scholars studying the 1955 murder case.

“Preserving primary sources from pivotal moments in our nation’s history is at the very core of our mission,” said Katie McCormick, associate dean for Special Collections & Archives. “By making these rare courthouse records accessible digitally, FSU Libraries provides scholars and the public with resources to examine the legal landscape of the civil rights era and ensure these histories are never forgotten.”

Recovering the records from the Mississippi courthouse required extensive preparation, including the use of K95 masks, protective gloves and portable lighting.

In the courthouse basement, researchers found the Emmett Till documents in varying states of preservation. Some remained in relatively good condition within leather-bound volumes, while others showed significant deterioration from decades of exposure to moisture, mold and rodents.

“We experienced emotions that ran the gamut from exhilaration in finding them to such deep sadness that the records, in the state that we found them, served as a metaphor for the burying of truth and justice in one of the worst moments in American history,” Murphy said. “The entire experience was profoundly moving; to rub our fingers over the actual signatures of Mose Wright, Willie Reed, Mandy Bradley, et al in the State Witness Fee Book, brought us right back to those days of 1955.”

FitzPatrick and Murphy credited Tallahatchie County Circuit Court Clerk Daphane Neal and her assistant, Angie Clark, with helping facilitate their work in the Sumner Courthouse archives. The research team spent four days examining and digitizing records during visits in June and August 2025.

“Finding these records was both a technical challenge and a profound historical responsibility,” FitzPatrick said. “By digitizing this collection, we are preserving the tangible proof of a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement, making sure these voices are never silenced by time.”

FSU College of Communication and Information Professor Davis Houck, the Fannie Lou Hamer Professor of Rhetorical Studies whose research helped establish FSU’s Emmett Till Archives, said the records “add to our understanding of decision making in how the case was both prosecuted and defended. From the voir dire process to prospective witnesses, their discovery of these extremely rare documents helps round out our understanding of this grave miscarriage of justice.”

The digitized collection is available to the public through the FSU Libraries digital repository. Visit the Emmett Till Trial Collection webpage to view the latest findings of this historic case.

For more information, visit the FSU Special Collections and Archives website or contact the department staff via email at lib-specialcollections@fsu.edu or by phone at 850-644-3271.

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Florida State University art historian Stephanie Leitch has been named a 2026-2027 Berlin Prize Fellow by the American Academy in Berlin for research that examines how copied images shaped early modern knowledge of the world.

Leitch, professor and chair of FSU’s Department of Art History, will use the fellowship to complete a book exploring how recycled images influenced perceptions of distant peoples, places and animals during the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Berlin Prize is awarded annually to U.S.-based scholars, writers, composers and artists who represent the highest standards of excellence in their fields.

“This highly competitive honor reflects both the strength of Dr. Leitch’s scholarly work and the national and international reputation of our faculty,” said James Frazier, dean of the College of Fine Arts. “This recognition underscores the caliber of research and creative activity taking place among our faculty and the global impact of their work.”

During her residency in Berlin, Leitch will conduct research for a co-authored book, New Worlds, Recycled Images: The Imprint of the Copy in Early Modern Travel Narratives, written with Yale University scholar Lisa Voigt.

The project examines how printers reused woodblock images in books about newly encountered places, peoples and animals. As those images circulated across different publications, they often carried assumptions and inaccuracies into new contexts, helping shape how readers understood the wider world.

“I have the great fortune of finally getting a fellowship at the perfect stage for a writer,” Leitch said. “The chapters have been mostly written, and I get to reshape the book while being close to my primary sources.”

Leitch will work with the Derschau Sammlung at Berlin’s Kupferstichkabinett, home to one of the world’s best-preserved collections of early modern woodblocks. The collection includes nearly 2,000 woodblocks from the 16th and 17th centuries and offers rare insight into how printers created, modified and reused images in the early days of mass communication.

One of the book’s central examples is Dürer’s famous rhinoceros woodcut, which became one of the most widely reproduced images of the animal in Europe. Although Dürer never saw the rhinoceros himself, his image was repeatedly copied and repurposed in books about natural history, geography and travel.

“Printers worked in a very sustainable fashion,” Leitch said. “They reused blocks whenever they could instead of carving new ones. Our book looks at the repercussions of using images again and again and the stereotypes that emerged from that repetition.”

The project makes a significant contribution at the intersection of art, science and technology by illuminating a period when knowledge was more holistically conceived, before modern academic disciplines emerged as separate fields.

Although the project focuses on early modern print culture, Leitch sees its questions as newly urgent in an age of rapid image circulation. Her research shows that concerns about copied images, visual authority and the relationship between media and belief long predate the digital era.

“As obscure as 16th-century printmaking has felt at times, I think our particular historical moment makes it especially relevant,” she said. “It’s instructive to look at this earlier moment of technological development and ask how it shaped what people believed about the world.”

Leitch, who has taught at Florida State for 20 years, credits the university’s Special Collections and Archives with helping shape her scholarship. She regularly introduces students to rare books and early printed materials, allowing them to engage directly with historical artifacts.

“Once students have these materials in their hands, they understand just what an important role images have in our understanding of history,” she said.

Leitch said she is also looking forward to joining a cohort of scholars, artists and journalists from a range of disciplines.

“To be able to put my head together with people like that is an unparalleled opportunity,” she said.

Leitch’s residency begins in August and concludes in December.

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Long before Florida State University became known for its research enterprise and nationally ranked academic programs, the arts were helping shape the life of the university.

Music, theater and visual arts were among the earliest academic offerings at the institution that would become FSU, predating many of the STEM and professional programs taught at the university today.

Over the decades, those programs have grown into nationally recognized schools in music, film, theater, dance and design while bringing world-class artists, exhibitions and performances to campus.

Today, as Florida State celebrates its 175th anniversary, the arts remain central to the university’s identity by enriching campus life, connecting the university with the community and preparing generations of artists, performers and creators.

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Florida State University alumni are using artificial intelligence to help make legislation easier to understand.

Their startup, Delilah, is an AI-powered platform that summarizes complex bills and allows users to ask questions about proposed laws through a conversational interface.  Founded by recent FSU graduates with experience in government and public policy, the company has gained national attention, reaching the Top 100 on the App Store.

Delilah, short for Dashboard for Economic and Legislative Insights with Live Analytics and History, grew out of founder Joseph Visconti’s experience as a gubernatorial fellow at the Florida Capitol.

Working closely with legislation, he saw firsthand how difficult it can be for citizens to navigate bills that can span hundreds of pages.

“We have these really long bills that do important things, but they’re extremely hard to read and understand,” Visconti said. “We wanted to make these bills accessible and comprehensible for people who aren’t working in government.”

Delilah allows users to ask questions about federal, state and local legislation, receive summaries and access links to the original bill text. The team says the platform is designed to help users research public policy without specialized legal or legislative expertise.

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