Texas Tidbits

Fifth Buckner shipment to Haiti slated. Buckner International has dispatched four shipments of emergency aid to Haiti since an earthquake hit the country in January, and a fifth shipment will arrive this summer. The first shipment included 12 tons of hygiene kits, shoes and humanitarian aid that were distributed to a children’s hospital, an orphanage and needy families in early March. The second shipment—nine tons of medical supplies, tents, linens, shoes, baby supplies and water—arrived a couple of weeks later. Two shipments arrived in April—one with medical provisions, school supplies, water and other aid, and the other with baby food valued at more than $59,000.

BUA provides training for alternative teacher certification. Baptist University of the Américas will provide classes for the training of everyone seeking alternative teacher certification with Texas Education Agency Region 20 under the terms of a new agreement between the two institutions. Region 20, based in San Antonio, encompasses 50 school districts with 300,000 students in 15 South Texas counties. Region 20 will provide the course material and the technological platform to offer online courses, as well as scholarships for BUA graduates enrolled in the program when the next program cycle begins next January. BUA will provide and contract for online course facilitation and final grading and will develop on-campus courses. The agreement advances the school’s goal of equipping students for bivocational ministry, BUA Provost Javier Elizondo said.

HBU benefits from Cullen Trust. Houston Baptist University was granted $1.5 million from the Cullen Trust for Higher Education to help the university upgrade its information technology and communications infrastructure. The grant, payable over three years, will allow HBU to protect its existing information assets while expanding the capacity and reach of its technological infrastructure, allowing HBU to implement several recommendations resulting from a civil engineering infrastructure study of the campus conducted in the summer of 2009. Created by a Cullen Foundation trust agreement in 1978, the Cullen Trust for Higher Education has supported HBU with gifts and pledges totaling more than $14 million, benefiting the university’s programs in the sciences, nursing, business, education and the performing arts.

ETBU names new provost. Following a nationwide search, Sherilyn Emberton has been named provost and vice president for academic affairs at East Texas Baptist University, effective July 1. ETBU President Dub Oliver described her as “a very talented and capable leader whose Christian commitment, academic experiences, and winsome personality will help us more fully realize our mission and vision.” Emberton comes to ETBU from Lincoln Memorial University in Tennessee, where she has served as provost and vice president for academic affairs since 2007. She served previously as associate vice president for academic affairs and dean of the School of Education at LeTourneau University in Longview. Emberton earned undergraduate and master’s degrees from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches and a doctorate from Texas A&M University-Commerce.