Fall 2016

Q&A with Nursing Professor Teresa Valerio: Secrets of sleep

Teresa Valerio is an assistant professor in the Mennonite College of Nursing, a family nurse practitioner, and a sleep specialist. She has a clinical practice in sleep disorders at Illinois State University’s Student Health Services, and in 2012, she became the first nurse practitioner to be board certified in behavioral sleep medicine by the American Board of Sleep Medicine.

Powerful pen: Lauded faculty poet redefines, advances old genre

Gabriel Gudding is a poet, essayist, and translator.[

Scare tactics: Messages of fear, anger popular in 2016 campaigns

From immigration and employment, to terrorism and loss of patriotic pride, savvy politicians can employ messages to stir fear (and offer themselves as the solution).

After Hillary: If America elects its first female president, what changes?

Hillary Clinton’s election would be loaded with significance, but one thing it wouldn’t mean is that men and women are suddenly on a level cultural playing field come November 9.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Unprecedented fight: Scalia’s death puts Supreme Court on trial during election

The sudden death of Justice Antonin Scalia on February 13 not only left a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court, but it also pulled the very future of the court into the turmoil of a heated presidential election.

Which polls should you trust? Redbird scholar offers tips for understanding polls

Did you vote in the last election?

What campaign logos can tell us about our next president

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama wasn’t just a politician. He was a brand.

Kristi Probst with a student and a teacher

Doctoral student researches ways to educate deaf-blind children with autism

Research into how to best teach a child who is blind, deaf, and autistic is scant. There is not even a reliable estimate of how many students have all three disabilities. Kristi Probst ’96, M.S. ’98, is working to fill those gaps.

Lauretta Schaefer and Professor Doris Houston sitting

Former foster youth research how to help peers succeed

Lauretta Schaefer is a dance education major who spent her early childhood in the foster care system before being adopted. Now she is working with Social Work Professor Doris Houston, director of Illinois State’s Center for Child Welfare and Adoption Studies, to investigate the factors that influence academic success for Illinois students who have spent time in foster care.