NAU News: COVID-19 special edition —President Cheng discusses NAUFlex, the hybrid learning model NAU will use in Fall 2020

NAU-TV’s Mitch Strohman talks with President Rita Cheng, CIO Steven Burrell and Vice Provost of NAU Online Gayla Stoner about NAUFlex and the unique opportunities it provides for learning, lab work, group activities and student-faculty interaction for the Fall 2020 term. Learn more about NAUFlex online or visit the Jacks are Back website to explore what NAU is doing to promote a safe and healthy learning environment this fall. Watch the full video online.

C. Todd French will lead the grant-funded research for the Pathogen and Microbiome Institute, which is studying ways to treat COVID-19, while Julie Baldwin and Joe Mihaljevic will lead the CHER research that is modeling spread of the disease in rural settings. Read more online.

Administrators from the Economic Policy Institute and School of Hotel and Restaurant Management educators combined their expertise and, in conjunction with county health officials, created a curriculum that brings together recommendations and best practices from the CDC and FDA. Businesses and employees who complete the training, which is available for free, will be listed online as a Certified COVID Aware Business and be given a certificate to put in the business’ window. That label communicates to customers how seriously that establishment takes individual and community health and safety. Read more online.

The Diné Institute for Navajo Nation Educators is a partnership between NAU and Navajo schools that aims to strengthen teaching in K-12 schools serving Diné and other Indigenous students. Despite the pandemic, the program is working with its third cohort of teachers and developing the Institute for Native-serving Educators to expand the goals of the program. Read more online.

With the transition to online in the spring, the NAU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic had to come up with innovative ways to deliver care and stay connected to their clients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Equipped with wigs, fun Zoom backgrounds and scavenger hunts, the clinicians, which include graduate students in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, are able to continue their mission of improving quality of life for people of all ages. Read more online.