Featured News & Events

• Richmond Retail Merchants Association president & CEO to be Executive-in-Residence, March 4

  
  

  William H. Baxter, president and CEO of the Retail Merchants Association (RMA), will be the Executive-in-Residence speaker Tuesday, March 4, at 7 p.m. in Hiner Auditorium. Baxter, who will speak on “No One Really Needs What We Are Selling,” has been in his position for 15 years. Under his leadership, the Richmond-based RMA has grown from a “local” retail trade association representing greater Richmond to a regional organization directly servicing more than half of Virginia’s retail business community. Previously he worked for Thalhimers Department Stores for 27 years, beginning as a trainee and ending as senior vice president responsible for store operations and budgets for 27 department store branches in four states with 3,700 employees.

• Creativity expert to speak as Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, March 27

  
  

  Dr. Andrei G. Aleinikov, a creativity specialist who has been called “the world’s most creative man,” will speak Thursday, March 27, at 7 p.m. in Wygal Auditorium as a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. His talk, which will be followed by a reception, will cover the topics “Are you a hidden genius?” and “Ideal student and ideal professor – advanced methods of learning and teaching.” Aleinikov, who will be on campus during the week of March 24-28, is a scientific pioneer, educational leader, consultant, author and speaker who “believes there is genius in every person” and has “devoted his life to creating a nation of geniuses,” according to his web site. A Russian native who lives in Monterey, Calif., he founded the National Academy of Genius; is the father of novology, the science of newness and innovation; and the author of numerous books, including MegaCreativity: Five Steps to Thinking Like a Genius; and holds a Guinness World Record for the fastest written, printed and published book.

• Social work professor to give Sankofa Lecture, March 27

  
  

  Dr. Lynn Nybell, professor of social work at Eastern Michigan University, will give a Sankofa Lecture on Thursday, March 27, at 7 p.m. in Orr Auditorium (Hull 132) on “Reaching Back, Looking Forward: Constructing Childhood and Youth in the 21st Century.” Dr. Nybell’s teaching and research interests include the social construction of childhood in social work policy and practice; the changing nature of social work and employment and its effects on workers; and race, gender and class in social work practice. She has presented her research nationally and internationally, and her writings include numerous articles, book chapters and books. Her latest book, Childhood, Youth and Social Work in Transformation, will be published in 2009. The Sankofa Lecture Series is sponsored by the College of Education and Human Services (CEHS) and was established by Dr. Deneese Jones, dean of CEHS, as a forum to discuss diverse ideas in the education field today.