91´ÎÔª

Dr. Dan Lee, dean of the 91´ÎÔª's Phyllis J. Washington College of Education, has been named the 2025 Montana School Counseling Association (MSCA) Advocate of the Year. This prestigious annual award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of school counseling programs, positively impacting counselors and students at the local, state, and national levels. 

Kristin Dahl Horejsi, director of the UM Phyllis J. Washington College of Education Learning and Belonging (LAB) School, was presented with an award for Excellence in Early Childhood Demonstration at the 3rd Annual Early Childhood Institute on Thursday, April 3rd. Kristin has spent over 30 years advancing high-quality early childhood education. A UM alum and a leader in inclusive, play-based learning, Kristin has mentored countless pre-service teachers across Montana. Her work continues to shape the field through intentional practice, innovation, and deep commitment to children and families. 

 In addition to her duties as the director of the Franke Global Leadership Initiative, Gillian Glaes has maintained her work as a scholar and instructor. Earlier this year, " She also accepted an invitation to join the editorial board of French Historical Studies, a leading journal in the field of French History. And this semester, she was selected to participate in ISEP's COIL Academy, where she is working to globalize her class on immigration and refugees through an international partnership with a faculty member in Australia. 

January 16th 2025 marked the official release of “Jan Smeterlin: Forgotten Piano Virtuoso” co-authored by Prof. Andrzej Kucybała of Bielsko-Biała, Poland, and Prof. Aneta Panusz who serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor at the 91´ÎÔª’s School of Music in Missoula.

The release was marked by a grand ceremony in Bielsko-Biała (the city of birth for both Panusz and Smeterlin), attended by regional dignitaries and representatives of the National Fryderyk Chopin Institute, with a special performance by rising star Mateusz Dubiel, recent winner of the grand prize at the 53rd Fryderyk Chopin National Piano Competition.

Prof. Kucybała, conductor and long-time educator, has been honored nationally with numerous high order awards from the Polish Ministry of Culture and local governments. Prof. Panusz completed her graduate studies in Music Theory at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków, Poland, studying with renowned professors and musicians. Having emigrated to Montana in 2002, she completed a masters in Piano Performance at the 91´ÎÔª and currently teaches Aural Perception, Counterpoint, and Orchestration, also performing on harpsichord with the String Orchestra of the Rockies.

The recently published biography represents a long-overdue attempt to resurrect the memory of one of history’s greatest and most original interpreters of Chopin, Jan Smeterlin (1892–1967). Born of Jewish descent and a pupil of the renowned Leopold Godowsky, Smeterlin’s pianistic success had already taken him around the world in the 1930s, but he remained in the United States during World War II, performing widely at leading concert halls like Carnegie Hall. Leaving behind a relatively sparse but legendary and daring legacy of recordings, Smeterlin died in London at the age of 75.

As part of her research, Ms. Panusz spent a week at the International Piano Archives at Maryland (IPAM) in College Park, analyzing rare unpublished materials and recordings offering an exclusive glimpse into the artist’s life and work. Published in Polish, the authors eagerly await a future translation of their biography into English.

Dr. Michael Ruybalid, Music Education Coordinator, recently presented a peer-reviewed session for the 4th Biennial Disability Studies and Music Education (DS&ME) Symposium. The title of the session was "Ableism, Accommodations, and Student Teaching: A Mixed Methods Study of Experiences of Student Teaching Accommodations." His co-presenters were Nerissa R.M. Rebagay (University of Miami), Lorelei Batisla-ong (Baldwin Wallace University), & Jesse Rathgeber (University of Wisconsin-Madison). DS&ME is an online conference with several satellite locations located throughout the world, and, per the symposium organizers, "is an international gathering of scholars exploring disability and inclusion in music education through disability studies, DisCrit (disability and critical race studies), and Disability Justice perspectives." 

Earlier this week Environmental Studies associate professor Robin Saha published a co-authored paper: “” in Oxford Open Climate Change. The review paper synthesizes extensive research showing that fossil fuels are causing the climate crisis and public health harms, environmental injustice, biodiversity loss, and the plastics and agrochemical pollution crises.  

The review notes that fossil fuels are heating the climate, acidifying oceans, and increasing climate disasters. Air pollution from fossil fuel combustion causes hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in the U.S. annually. The climate crisis causes additional deaths and physical and mental health harms from escalating climate disasters, diseases, food insecurity, and displacement of people.  

Dr. Saha, who authored the environmental justice section with Dr. Robert Bullard at Texas Southern University, notes, “While fossil fuels harm everyone, communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionate harmed by the “life cycle” of fossil fuels. These fenceline communities should be prioritized for clean energy investments and removal and cleanup of fossil fuel infrastructure.”  

The authors urge governments to immediately stop fossil fuel expansion and phase out existing fossil fuel development. They have created a website scientistswarningonfossilfuel.org with a link to a scientists’ sign on letter to decision-makers. 

, Missoula Current

features ElevateU, Inside Higher Ed, Nov. 18, 2024

features Stephanie Geyer, UM AVP for Marketing and Brand Strategy

, Jenny Petty, VP for Marketing Communications, Experience and Engagement

Leslie Web, UM VP for Student Success and Enrollment Management, cited in Hechinger Report article, , republished on NPR as

- Pippa Browde, Law

- Rodney Coates, Miami University and Lee Banville, Journalism

- Justin Angle, Management and Marketing

- Erik Guzik, Management and Marketing

, Keith Jakob, Accounting and Finance

, Keith Jakob, Accounting and Finance

- Christopher T. Migliaccio, Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

- Anya Jabour, History

- Tobin Miller Shearer, History

- Kyle Volk, History

- Soazig Le Bihan, Philosophy

by Christopher Preston, Philosophy, won the !

- Bryan Cochran, Psychology

Anisa Goforth, Psychology, and colleagues published .

, Voices of Montana podcast, February 14, 2025

, NBC Montana, December 21, 2024

, Montana Free Press

features John Sommers-Flanagan, Counseling

- article on Northern AgNet features Kelsey Jencso, W.A. Franke Endowed Professor of Hydrology at the 91´ÎÔª and the Montana State Climatologist

- Will Rice, Society and Conservation

- features Chad Bishop, Wildlife Biology