Around the State: ETBU softball team serves in Australia

East Texas Baptist University’s Tiger softball team traveled to Australia in December for the university’s 14th Tiger Athletic Mission Experience trip. Led by Lisa Seeley, director of global education and Great Commission Center, Vice President for Athletics Ryan Erwin and Head Softball Coach Janae Shirley, 41 athletes and staff partnered with the International Sports Federation. The team participated in a 23-and-under tournament in Adelaide hosted by Softball Australia, finishing the tournament with six wins. Players also led a softball clinic at Hills Christian Church and Community School, where they taught softball skills and shared their faith with more than 30 children. The ETBU group also partnered with Mission Australia and SecondBites, a Christian ministry in Sydney that seeks to minimize food waste and provide groceries to alleviate hunger and food insecurity. The team packed more than 950 meal bags for the Christmas holiday weekend. The team also served in Sydney at the Living Hope Church at Camperdown. Half of the student athletes helped wrap Christmas gifts for church members, while the others canvassed neighborhoods, inviting people to the church’s food pantry and other outreach activities. Since 2016, ETBU has sponsored Tiger Athletic Mission Experience trips to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Serbia, Israel, Jamaica, Slovakia, France, Japan, Greece and Scotland.

The National Association of Social Work posthumously awarded its Pioneer Award to Diana R. Garland, founding dean of the School of Social Work at Baylor University that now bears her name. Although the award initially was announced in 2021, the ceremony was postponed until last October due to the COVID pandemic. Laine Scales, who chaired the committee from the Garland School of Social Work who submitted Garland’s nomination for the award, accepted the award on behalf of the school. “Dean Garland was exactly the kind of social worker the NASW Foundation seeks to honor,” Scales said. “She was a true pioneer in social work, particularly in the area of church social work, and when we first learned of the award, we knew she would be an excellent candidate.”

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will speak at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 26 at Dallas Baptist University at an event sponsored by the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth and DBU’s Institute for Global Engagement. Pompeo will deliver the lecture in the Hillcrest Great Hall of the John G. Mahler Student Center. Ticketed attendees will receive a copy of Pompeo’s most recent book, Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love. Before he became secretary of state in 2018, Pompeo was director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Previously, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was the founder of Thayer Aerospace, where he served as CEO more than a decade. He later became president of Sentry International, an oilfield equipment manufacturing, distribution and service company. For more information on this special evening event and to purchase tickets, click here.

The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor’s College of Visual and Performing Arts has several events planned throughout January. The art department is showcasing the Deb Barnes memorial art exhibit Monday through Friday through Feb. 9, with a reception and gallery talk at the Baugh Center for the Visual Arts at 5 p.m. on Jan. 12. The music department will host the Meehan/Perkins Percussion Duo for a guest artist concert at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 17 at the Sue and Frank Mayborn Performing Arts Center. Tickets are required for the show and are available at the box office. Call (254) 295-5999 for information.

Hardin-Simmons University named Bob Brooks as senior development officer. Brooks most recently was director of choral activities and ensemble arts in the College of Fine Arts at Dallas Baptist University. Brooks was founding dean of the Graduate School of Ministry at DBU. He previously served as dean of the College of Fine Arts at HSU from 2011 to 2013, and he was an assistant professor of church music at HSU from 1998 to 2001.

Dallas Baptist University named Sue Kavil as 2022 Piper Outstanding Professor of the Year. The university presents the award to a professor who displays the mind of a scholar and the heart of a servant, both inside and outside the classroom. Kavil teaches doctoral-level research and leadership classes and serves as associate dean and director of research in DBU’s Cook Graduate School of Leadership. She and her husband Steve served previously as Southern Baptist missionaries in Thailand. In addition to working with a women’s prison ministry, she helped develop Thai Country Trim, a business that enables Thai women to help provide income for their families by selling handcrafted ornaments to suppliers overseas. The Kavils are members of Matthew Road Baptist Church in Grand Prairie and volunteer with Mission Arlington.

Baylor University named Daniel J. Pack as dean of its School of Engineering and Computer Science, effective June 1. Since 2015, Pack has served as dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and he is a 2005 Carnegie U.S. Professor of the Year. Previously, he was professor and the Mary Lou Clarke Endowed Chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at San Antonio and of electrical and computer engineering at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Pack received his Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University, a Master of Science degree in engineering sciences from Harvard University and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Purdue University. He also spent a year as a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Lincoln Laboratory.