November 2009

Transylvania alum chosen as Presidential Management Fellow in the Federal Transit Administration

Posted on November 11, 2009July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Transylvania University alum Erik Weber ’07 has been named a Presidential Management Fellow in the Federal Transit Administration in Washington, D.C. Through the fellowship, Weber works with the United We Ride agency, which focuses on helping communities provide safe, affordable and easy access to public transportation. “My work revolves around human service transportation issues, especially those of lower-income, disabled and older Americans,” said Weber. “These transportation-disadvantaged populations require more specific attention because they may not have the same access to standard transit services that are available in their communities.” For 29 years, the Presidential Management Fellows Program has been used by federal agencies to attract outstanding graduate students from a wide variety of academic disciplines to public service. The two-year fellowship offers extensive formal classroom training and rotational assignment opportunities. “Former Fellows at FTA have rotated within the administration or the department or gone outside of federal government altogether,” Weber said. Weber took the position in Washington, D.C., after being offered a teaching position in Austria through the prestigious Fulbright Program. He is fluent in German and has taught German to high school students through Kentucky Educational Television. Weber graduated from Transylvania cum laude with a double major in political science and mathematics and a minor in music and said both his majors have served him well. “I took the political science into graduate school to get my master’s in public administration, but throughout that program, and now in

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Transylvania’s director of human resources receives Distinguished Service Award at national conference

Posted on November 9, 2009July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Jeff Mudrak, director of human resources at Transylvania University, received the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) Distinguished Service Award at the association’s national conference in Las Vegas in October. The award, sponsored by Kronos Incorporated, is given to CUPA-HR members who have given outstanding service to the association through constituent activities, including service in governance or leadership roles or through professional development contributions in support of the association. Kronos donated $1,500 to Transylvania in honor of Mudrak. Mudrak has been a member of CUPA-HR for 18 years and began his leadership in the association in 1999 when he joined the Kentucky Chapter board of directors. He served as chair for two years and past chair for two years. From 2001 to 2008, he served in several capacities on the association’s Southern Region board, including secretary/treasurer, chair and past chair. During that time he also served a three-year term on the national board of directors and on several committees and task forces, including the Building Task Force, the Policy Committee and as chair of the Chapter Task Force, where he helped establish CUPA-HR’s on-line chapter leader resources. Mudrak has been a chapter advocate during his entire tenure of volunteer service. He helped strengthen the Kentucky Chapter by finding ways to increase corporate partner support, which led to improvements in chapter programming; helped increased attendance at chapter conferences by offering free registration to first-time attendees and led

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Transylvania music faculty present: “A Veterans Day Concert,” November 11 at 7:30 p.m.

Posted on November 4, 2009July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—On Wednesday, November 11, members of Transylvania’s music faculty will present a concert in gratitude to all veterans and active military for their selfless service to our country. The concert, at 7:30 p.m. in Carrick Theater, is free and open to the public and will feature the world premiere of two new compositions from Transylvania faculty, Timothy Polashek’s “Micro-Coastings” for video and computer-generated sounds and Larry Barnes’ “Galway Blues” for viola and piano. The concert also features performances from professors Joanna Binford (violin and viola), Rachel Robertson Cox (soprano) and Gregory Partain (piano and composition). Partain will present his composition “Come to the Garden in Spring” for soprano and piano, and “Sonata for Violin and Piano,” from great American composer Aaron Copeland, will be performed. For more information, contact the fine arts office at (859) 233-8141.

Richard Taylor, Kentucky Poet Laureate and Transylvania’s Kenan Visiting Writer, will sign newest release Friday, Nov. 6

Posted on November 3, 2009July 14, 2020 by Office of Marketing and Communications

LEXINGTON, Ky.—Richard Taylor, Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 1999-2001, and current Kenan Visiting Writer at Transylvania, will sign his newest release, Rail Splitter, a collection of poems based on Lincoln’s life, Friday, November 6, from 3-5 p.m. at Transylvania’s bookstore in the Glenn Building. The event is open to the public. “We are delighted to have a former Poet Laureate of Kentucky teaching in our English and Foundations of the Liberal Arts programs,” said William F. Pollard, vice president and dean of the college. “Richard Taylor knows Kentucky and Kentucky history, but—more importantly—he knows the talent that continues to come from Kentucky writers and how to help develop that talent in his students through an appreciation for literature and the encouragement to write well.” This term, Taylor is teaching a Foundations of the Liberal Arts class and an English class, Prospectives on Literature. During winter term, he will again teach Prospectives on Literature and will also lead a fiction workshop in the writing, rhetoric and communication program. Taylor has won a variety of honors for his extensive publications in both poetry and prose. As director of Poetry in the Schools for the Kentucky Arts Commission, he served as poet-in-residence at a dozen public elementary and secondary schools across Kentucky. He has also served as a professor of English at Kentucky State University for many years. Taylor earned a B.A. in English from the University of Kentucky in 1963, an M.A.

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