The Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA) ranked the LIU Gymnastics Team – The Sharks – in the top 50 in the country in overall team GPA, and 12 LIU gymnasts were recognized as WCGA Academic All-America Award winners. The Sharks earned this national recognition during its first season.

Suffolk County Sheriff Dr. Errol Toulon Jr. ’09 has become a national figure in law enforcement as a member of the Major County Sheriffs of America’s Intelligence Commanders Committee. Sheriff Toulon will help provide sheriff departments around the country with timely and accurate intelligence, focusing on foreign and domestic terrorism, human and narcotics trafficking, and cyberattacks.

LIU professor of pharmaceutical sciences Dr. Bhaskar Das and his team are conducting groundbreaking research that could lead to an eventual treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease. His findings thus far earned him a federal grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue testing his hypothesis.

Inspired by Jones-Bey, the late vice president of patient care at Meriter Hospital and an LIU graduate, UnityPoint Health-Meriter Hospital in Wisconsin is helping more people of color enter the nursing ranks. The new Gloria Jones-Bey Nursing Assistant Program provides classroom and clinical training to employees who identify as people of color, paid time to complete the training, and fees waived for licensure exams.

Long Island University researchers have encouraging news about Long Island’s scallop population in the Peconic Bay fishery. Dr. Stephen Tettelbach, professor of biology and head of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Peconic Bay Scallop Restoration Program, identified no signs of scallop die-offs this summer after significant declines the previous two years. His team investigates possible die-off causes, including high water temperatures, low dissolved oxygen levels, and a newly discovered bay scallop parasite.

Michael Petroutsas ’97, vice president of the US Oncology Business Unit of GSK, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, joined the Washington Post’s “Chasing Cancer” speaker series to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on cancer care. Petroutsas is delivering transformational medicines and programs that provide enduring impact and hope for cancer patients.

Cynthia Turnquest-Jones, a renowned librarian and student of the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at LIU, gave a presentation on “Civic Engagement in the Community From the Classroom and Beyond” at a School Library Journal leadership summit titled Build a Racially Equitable Collection. The seminar preceded the 11th National Conference of African American Librarians and encourages students to be actively engaged in their communities.

Professor Philip Wong, director of the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program, spoke in front of more than 100 White House and government staff members about the psychology of equity. His presentation was organized by the Office of Management and Budget after President Joe Biden’s January 2021 executive order to advance racial equity and support for under-served communities.

Kayleigh Ferguson ’20 received the Hume Scholarship at Maynooth University in Ireland, where she will research to promote improved access and preservation of cultural heritage sources. Ferguson’s fully funded PhD work will enhance the metadata, then catalog and digitize a collection of music in the university’s Russell Library. She gained valuable digital archiving experience as a Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation grant recipient at the Palmer School of Library and Information Science.

The Honorable Robert S. Bowers ’80 will be the new presiding judge for Solano County Superior Court in California. Appointed in 2003 by Governor Gray Davis, Judge Bowers has served as the court’s supervising judge for criminal matters, supervising judge of the Vallejo branch court, and assistant presiding judge. He will oversee the executive management of the court serving more than 450,000 county residents.