Appointments, honors and activities

• Appointments and promotions:

- Jerry Martin has been promoted to patrol sergeant with the Purdue University Police Department. Martin has been a patrol officer with the department since May 2011. He previously worked with the Colorado State Police, West Lafayette Police Department, and the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office.  (BP)

- Todd Wetzel has been appointed assistant vice provost for Student Life. Wetzel will continue to oversee Purdue Convocations, and will add the Purdue Memorial Union, Student Activities and Organizations, and the Hall of Music Productions to his responsibilities. His work will focus on the energy of “people, place, and program,” as he aims to build synergies across those four organizations. Wetzel has worked at Purdue since 1997, starting in Purdue Convocations and becoming its director in 1999. Prior to working at Purdue, Wetzel was director of the Valparaiso University Center for the Arts. He is an executive board member and treasurer of the Association of Performing Arts Professionals, and has worked on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Indiana Arts Commission, among other agencies.  (BP)

• Faculty and staff honors:

- Shelley Claridge, an assistant professor in Purdue University’s Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Department of Chemistry, is among eight faculty researchers selected internationally for the 2016 Class of DuPont Young Professors. The company will provide this group of outstanding young faculty with more than $350,000 during the next two years to support research that advances basic science knowledge to address various global challenges. Claridge’s work involves using the design principles of cell membranes as a means of “patterning interface chemistry” to address emerging needs in areas form electronics and renewable energy to human health. (EV)

- Linnette White, director of the Office of Multicultural Programs, has been selected as a 2017 Executive Journey Fellow. Funded by the Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Journey Fellowship was created in 2002 in response to a growing need for ongoing professional and personal renewal in the field of youth work. The Executive Journey Fellowship provides Indiana’s youth workers greater opportunities to bring more meaning to their lives and make stronger commitments to the field of youth work. Fellowship recipients were chosen from executives at youth-serving organizations across Indiana and will receive support to make a difference within their local organizations or communities. (MH)

- Crain's NewsPro named Carolyn Curiel, executive director of the Purdue Institute for Civic Communication, one of the 10 best journalism educators. She is the first professor from Purdue to be recognized by Crain's NewsPro. Curiel was an Emmy-nominated producer and writer for Ted Koppel at ABC's "Nightline," head of the Caribbean Division for United Press International, and an editor at The Washington Post before serving as President Clinton’s senior speechwriter and later, ambassador to Belize. She returned to media in 2002 as a member of The New York Times editorial board, directing the paper’s election endorsements before arriving at Purdue in 2008, where she is now a clinical professor in the Brian Lamb School of Communication. A full release is available at http://www.piccstudents.org/carolyn-curiel-is-named-a-top-journalism-educator.html.

• Rankings:

- The Krannert School of Management’s Executive MBA program has been recognized as one of the top 5 in the Midwest by the Ivy Exec Inc.’s second annual rankings, the organization’s first effort to rank programs regionally. The rankings are based on a survey-based study by Ivy Exec. Purdue’s program ranked fifth in the Midwest. The survey included 5,200 participants globally.