January 17, 2026

EagleEye

A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff

Sad News Regarding a UMW Colleague

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It is with much sadness that we announce the death of UMW employee, Sherri Pickens, who passed away on January 15. Sherri was a valued member of the Facilities department where she had worked as a Building Attendant for nearly three years, and she will be greatly missed. We ask that you keep Sherri’s family and coworkers in your thoughts during this very difficult time.

If you would like assistance coping with grief, or need other emotional support, the Commonwealth’s health insurance plans offer individual counseling sessions through Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). Covered employees and their dependents qualify for up to four sessions at no charge. Confidential assistance is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Simply call the number below that corresponds to your health plan and you will speak to an EAP specialist who will assess your concerns and coordinate the appropriate assistance. This benefit is always available through your health plan.

 

COVA Care and COVA HDHP

Anthem
Member Services: 1-855-223-9277

EAP Brochure

EAP Website

(Select Member Login, then enter “Commonwealth of Virginia” as the company)

 

COVA HealthAware

Aetna – www.covahealthaware.com
Member Services:  1-888-238-6232

www.mylifevalues.com

(Username and Password:  COVA)

 

Kaiser Permanente HMO

Member Services:  1-866-517-7042
www.achievesolutions.net/kaiser

EAP Brochure

 

UMW Galleries Highlight Alumni and Faculty Artists Past and Present

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Origins

A retrospective of artwork from Mary Washington alumni and faculty past and present will be featured in one of two exhibitions hosted by the UMW Galleries, beginning on Thursday, Feb. 6. The other will honor the legacy of a former professor who was instrumental in cultivating the University’s art collection.

The exhibits, Origins: UMW Ceramics Faculty and Alumni in the duPont Gallery, and Julien Binford: A Legacy of Inspiration & Enterprise in the Ridderhof Martin Gallery, will open with receptions from 5 to 7 p.m. on Thursday.

Origins, which will be on display through March 29, showcases the diverse artwork of faculty and alumni from the University of Mary Washington’s ceramics program over the past 50 years. It is also a concurrent exhibition for this year’s National Conference on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA), to be held in Richmond Virginia in late March.

Julien Binford

By bringing together a variety of expressions, techniques and processes, the exhibition highlights the success of our former students and the strength of our department while illustrating the range and depth of contemporary ceramic art.  From sculptural objects and installations to functional pottery, Origins celebrates our community, and reiterates Mary Washington’s identity as an institution grounded in the liberal arts.

Julien Binford, on display through March 15, honors the legacy of former Mary Washington Professor of Art, Julien Binford. The show presents preparatory drawings that Binford created during the 1940s and early 1950s for important commissions he received from LIFE Magazine and The Greenwich Savings Bank. These works were graciously loaned by Maureen Paige (UMW, Class of 1970), a former student of Julien Binford. Also on display are artworks acquired by Binford during his tenure at Mary Washington.

Richardson Column in The Free Lance-Star

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UMW College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson

UMW College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson

College of Business Dean Lynne Richardson’s weekly column in The Free Lance-Star discusses TAKING THE HEAT FOR DOING THE RIGHT THING.

A FEW YEARS into my first job as a dean, I had to make a personnel decision that I knew was not going to be well received by the general public. It was not a hard decision to make, as the person had done some pretty bad stuff. Suffice it to say, the university attorney and president agreed that the action had to be taken. We were not firing the individual, but were removing supervisory authority.

I expected, however, that once the word got out, I would be vilified in the community. How dare I take this action? Why would I do such a thing to this person? The individual was such a resource. And on and on. Read more.

PCOW: Sleep Hygiene Workshop

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The President Council on Wellness (PCOW) is sponsoring a Sleep Hygiene Workshop facilitated by Dr. Wang and Dr. Zukor on Thursday, February 6th at 4:00pm on the 2nd Floor of the University Center. Our discussion will be on the importance of sleep, what can help us with sleep and what can interfere with our sleep. What do you do when you can’t sleep? Come join us for some great information and helpful tips. For more information, please contact us at wellness@umw.edu.

 

McClurken Interviewed by The Chronicle of Higher Education

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UMW's Chief of Staff and Professor of History and American Studies Dr. Jeffrey W. McClurken

UMW’s Chief of Staff and Professor of History and American Studies Dr. Jeffrey W. McClurken

UMW’s Chief of Staff and Board of Visitors Clerk Jeff McClurken was recently featured on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “What I Wish I Had Known” series. In the video titled ‘Teaching Gives Me Credibility with Students,’ McClurken, a Professor of History and American Studies, spoke about how continuing to teach complements his role as an administrator. It leaves him “better equipped to participate in the strategic and tactical conversations about the institution,” he said.  View the video here.

 

Teacher of the Year Shares Mission of Equity at UMW

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Rodney Robinson, the 2019 National Teacher of the Year, will speak to aspiring educators from UMW’s College of Education and the local community on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium.

Rodney Robinson, the 2019 National Teacher of the Year, will speak to aspiring educators from UMW’s College of Education and the local community on Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium.

Rodney Robinson was inspired to become a teacher because of his mother. Growing up in rural Virginia, segregation and poverty hindered her own education, but it didn’t stop her from finding her calling teaching young children in her home daycare.

“She always taught us that every child deserves the proper amount of love to get where he or she needs,” Robinson said.

Named 2019 National Teacher of the Year, he will share his teaching philosophies, and his support of economic and cultural equity in the classroom, with aspiring educators from UMW’s College of Education and the local community. The talk will take place next Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 6 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium.

Robinson said he took his mother’s lesson, which he shared recently with his alma mater, Virginia State University (VSU), to heart. Since 2015, he’s taught history at a juvenile detention center in Richmond, believing that access to a quality education and empathetic teachers can be keys to success for these students.

“Mr. Robinson is making a positive difference in the lives of students who need it the most,” said Pete Kelly, Dean of UMW’s College of Education. “As the National Teacher of the Year, he has an important story to tell, and I encourage everyone to come hear him speak.” Read more.

Al-Tikriti Delivers Iraq Lecture at the Foreign Service Institute

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Associate Professor of Middle Eastern History Nabil Al-Tikriti

On Wednesday, January 8, Middle East History Professor Nabil Al-Tikriti delivered a lecture entitled “US-Iraqi Relations since 1979” at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, VA. This lecture was delivered as part of the “Iraq Familiarization Course,” targeted at State Department professionals and contractors scheduled to serve in Iraq.

Tuttle Presents at APPLE Training Institute in Charlottesville

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Ray Tuttle, Director of UMW's Office of Student Conduct and Responsibility

Ray Tuttle, Director of UMW’s Office of Student Conduct and Responsibility

Ray Tuttle, Director of UMW’s Office of Student Conduct and Responsibility (OSCAR), presented to an audience of student athletes and athletics professionals at the APPLE Training Institute in Charlottesville on January 18, 2020. The title of his presentation was “Engaging Campus Partners: Fostering Relationships for Success.” Tuttle’s presentation addressed how departments of athletics can create and maintain relationships with other offices on their campus, and why these relationships are mutually beneficial.

The annual training institute, organized by the University of Virginia’s Gordie Center and funded by the NCAA, welcomes colleges and universities across the country, and assists their student athletes, athletics staff, and administrators in preventing substance misuse and in promoting healthy behaviors and attitudes within their departments.

Great Lives Series Continues with Tiger Woods, D-Day Girls

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The 17th season of the William B. Crawley Great Lives Lecture Series continues this evening, Jan. 23, with a look at PGA Champion and one of the greatest golfers of all time, Tiger Woods. This series is open to the public free of charge and no admission tickets are required. Programs begin at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium in George Washington Hall. Each lecture concludes with an audience Q&A session with the speaker and a book-signing. The sPower Lecture.

In their 2018 New York Times bestselling biography Tiger Woods, authors Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian wrote that “in 2009, Tiger Woods was the most famous athlete on the planet, a transcendental star of almost unfathomable fame and fortune, living what appeared to be the perfect life. Married to a Swedish beauty and the father of two young children, he was the winner of fourteen major golf championships and earning more than 100 million dollars annually. But it was all a carefully crafted illusion. As it turned out, Woods had been living a double life for years – one that unraveled in the aftermath of a Thanksgiving night car crash that exposed his serial infidelity and sent his personal and professional lives over a cliff.”

In their book, based on hundreds of interviews with people from every facet of Woods’ life, and extensive and careful research, the authors have uncovered new and surprising details about the man behind the myth. The resulting biography—upon which Benedict’s presentation is based—presents a sweeping, revealing, and defining biography of an American icon.

The Great Lives series will continue on Tuesday, Jan. 28 with D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II, with author Sarah Rose. The Chancellor’s Village Lecture.

In 1942, the Allies were losing, Germany seemed unstoppable, and every able man in England was fighting. Churchill believed Britain was locked in an existential battle and created a secret agency, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), whose spies were trained in everything from demolition to sharp-shooting. Their job, he declared, was “to set Europe ablaze!” But with most men on the frontlines, the SOE did something unprecedented: it recruited women. Thirty-nine women answered the call, leaving their lives and families to become saboteurs in France. Half were caught, and a third did not make it home alive.

Sarah Rose draws on recently declassified files, diaries, and oral histories to tell the story of three of these women. There’s Odette Sansom, a young mother who feels suffocated by domestic life and sees the war as her ticket out; Lise de Baissac, an unflappable aristocrat with the mind of a natural leader; and Andrée Borrel, the streetwise organizer of the Paris Resistance. Together, they derailed trains, blew up weapons caches, destroyed power and phone lines, and gathered crucial intelligence—laying the groundwork for the D-Day invasion that proved to be the turning point in the war.