WMU

When Kalamazoo Schools Superintendent Michael Rice takes on the job of State Superintendent he will tasked with the job of improving education in the state. Western Michigan University Professor of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology Brett Geier says Rice is up to the challenge. 

Geier was a teacher, principal and Superintendent of Bloomingdale Public Schools, before he became a professor. He says Rice is very intelligent, a good listener and understands the challenges and dynamics of public education. Geier says Rice will be a champion and advocate for marginalized student populations.

In Unblinking (Wayne State University Press, 2019), her new collection of stories, Lisa Lenzo writes about her native Detroit as well as race, class, disability, aging, and family. Her earlier novel-in-stories, Strange Love, was a 2015 Michigan Notable Book Award winner. Unblinking is part of the Made in Michigan Writers Series.

Austin McWilliams, a candidate for a masters degree in choral conducting from Western Michigan University, has turned his master's recital into a musical event with a message: HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. Along with Dave Watt of CARES - Community AIDS Resource and Education Service - McWilliams discusses how he put the program together to highlight different aspects of the HIV story, with John Corigliano's Of Rage And Remembrance serving as the centerpiece. During the program, speakers from CARES will share information and poetry between musical selections. Panels from the AIDS Quilt will be on display at the concert, which begins at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, April 17 in the Dalton Center Recital Hall at Western Michigan University.