Renee Collins, professor of educational studies and associate dean of the Irvin School of Education at Hardin-Simmons University, has published a book of devotionals, Happy Thursday. The book compiles weekly devotionals Collins has written and emailed to students each Thursday for the past four years. Others asked to be added to the distribution list, which now includes about 170 people. “We all need motivation to press on,” Collins said. “The whole point of the email was to be uplifting—to encourage people with hope and remind them of the goodness of God. I love encouraging and helping people see some glimmer of a silver lining.”
Howard Payne University named Dale Meinecke as vice president for development. Meinecke, a 1998 HPU graduate, oversees the university’s efforts in fundraising, alumni relations and other operations in the Office of Institutional Advancement. He returns to HPU from Dallas Baptist University, where he was professor of leadership and director of the Master of Arts in Leadership program. He previously served at HPU as assistant vice president for external affairs from 2012 to 2017. Earlier service at HPU includes experience on the football coaching staff and as chapel coordinator. He and his wife Christy have been married 20 years and have two daughters, Katie and Claire.
The Baptist Scholars International Roundtable attracted academics from as far away as Australia to its annual meeting at Oxford University, centered on the theme “Baptists and the Kingdom of God.” Laine Scales, professor of social work at Baylor University, and Beth Allison Barr, associate professor of history and associate dean in the Graduate School at Baylor, are co-directors of the roundtable. David Bebbington, the 2019 Visiting Distinguished Fellow and professor of history at the University of Stirling in Scotland, delivered the keynote address.
The Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing, a consortium of Hardin-Simmons University and McMurry University, received the maximum 10-year accreditation from the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. The baccalaureate and master’s degree programs in nursing received re-accreditation, and the postgraduate advanced practice registered nursing certificate program earned initial accreditation.
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