National media outlets are covering the COVID-19 efforts of Lisa Shultis, Director of Respiratory Care. The Huffington Post, CNN, National Public Radio, The Center for Public Integrity and The Post-Standard featured Shultis’ expert insight into the shortage of ventilators in the Strategic National Stockpile. Shultis and other faculty members have been training students how to operate the ventilators. LIU’s bachelor of science in respiratory care program is one of only four accredited baccalaureate programs in respiratory care in New York.

Felicia Thomas-Williams (MS, ’96), principal at West Middle School, has been named a 2020 New York State Secondary Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York State. The annual award recognizes a member the Association who has succeeded in providing high-quality learning opportunities for students, as well as demonstrating exemplary contributions to the profession.

World-renowned chemist Dr. Lawrence Rocks, Professor Emeritus, was featured in an article in USA Today. Rocks advised Major League Baseball on appropriate measures to take in response to COVID-19. In 2017, Rocks and his lab assistant Paul DeJong, an All-Star shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals, studied the effect of temperature on a baseball.

Signature Healthcare named Kevin G. Murphy (MPA, ’96) as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Signature Healthcare is Southeastern Massachusetts’ premier local provider of quality, personalized medical services. Murphy has 40 years of experience in the healthcare industry, including executive positions at New York-Presbyterian Hudson Valley Hospital, Richmond University Medical Center and White Plains Hospital Center.

National Public Radio’s “All Songs Considered” featured new music from Alex Lynn (BS, ’17), highlighting her new project “Alex the Astronaut.” Lynn created demos in her dorm as a student-athlete on the LIU women’s soccer team. She was recently tapped as one of “Australia’s most powerful and important songwriters” by Pilerats.com.

Long Island University was named institute of the month by The National Council for Science and the Environment. LIU maintains a global partnership with the Council to advance the shared priority of LIU’s role in work on science policy internationally. The Council highlighted the importance of sustainability and informed environmental decision-making.

Dr. Rachel Szekely, Associate Professor of English, Philosophy, and Foreign Languages, received a Fulbright award for the 2020-2021 academic year. Dr. Szekely will teach and conduct research with Technology and Communication Sciences faculty at Tampere University, one of the largest and most popular universities of applied sciences in Finland.

Dr. Bill Schutt (BA in Biology, ’78), Professor of Biology, scripted a TED-Ed video entitled “How Blood Transfusions Work.” The video gained over 250,000 views in the first ten days. Dr. Schutt has scripted two other videos for TED-Ed, which gained more than 5.5 million combined views and ranked in the site’s top ten most watched videos of the year for 2018 and 2019.

First Responders Children’s Foundation, founded by LIU Board of Trustees member Alfred R. Kahn (’84, H’05), is teaming up with Fox Corporation and iHeartMedia for a special benefit concert that will pay tribute to front line first responders of COVID-19. “FOX Presents the iHeart Living Room Concert for America” will be hosted by music legend Elton John and airs on Sunday at 9 p.m. on all FOX platforms and iHeartMedia radio stations nationwide. It will feature at-home performances by Alicia Keys, Backstreet Boys, Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mariah Carey, Tim McGraw and others.

The LIU women’s ice hockey team, conference champions in their inaugural year, has garnered national media coverage as the first ever Division I ice hockey team on Long Island. Greg Wyshynski, ESPN’s senior NHL writer, wrote an article that cited LIU in his explanation for why New York City is one of the “Centers of the U.S. hockey universe.”