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Study: Intuitive introverts lead the most successful teams

An unwritten law of leadership states the loudest voices in the room are not always the wisest. Some of history’s most notable and successful leaders were known introverts who wrangled loads of information for sizable teams: Abraham Lincoln, Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey, to name a few. New research from the University of Delaware found introverted leaders who rely on intuition to handle this large bundle of information lead the most successful teams. The research, co-authored by professor Dustin Sleesman, explored the concept of intuition and when it's helpful for leaders who are in charge of large teams. Sleesman and his co-authors from Michigan State University studied more than 3,000 U.S. Air Force captains at a military base in Alabama. As part of their leadership training, the captains participated in a team-based battlefield simulation, which gave the researchers an opportunity to observe and analyze their behavior. Sleesman and his co-authors accurately predicted that teams performed better when their leaders were armed with high amounts of information. But they made two interesting findings they didn't expect:  • Introverted leaders led more successful teams when intuitively handling large amounts of information. • Intuitive leaders, in general, led more successful teams when they had to handle a lot of information. "Introverted people tend to be more reflective, more introspective, they tend to be more observational than extroverted leaders," Sleesman said. "So pairing intuition with introversion tended to be very effective for team performance." Sleesman, an associate professor of management in UD's Lerner College of Business & Economics, studies the psychology of decision-making, negotiation and conflict resolution, as well as team effectiveness. To set up an interview, click on the link below.

Covering the new Trump Administration - We can Help

With each day seems to come an new appointee to cabinet or significant role, a new policy twist and even the occasional walk back or withdrawal. The steps leading up to January 20, 2025 when Donald Trump resumes office as President of the United States will be getting a lot of coverage - and UC Irvine has it's own team of experts ready to lend their experience, perspective and expert opinion on what is happening. Louis DeSipio examines how democratic nations incorporate new members, including policymaking in the areas of immigration. Topics of Expertise: Foreign Affairs / NATO Immigration and Deportation Department of Education, EPA, Homeland Security, Department of Interior, NOAA, HHS and FDA Jeffrey Wasserstrom specializes in modern Chinese cultural history & world history, who has written on many contemporary as well as historical issues. Topics of Expertise: Foreign Affairs / NATO Free Speech Department of Education, EPA, Homeland Security, Department of Interior, NOAA, HHS and FDA Eric Swanson is an expert on inflation, recessions and what changes in interest rates mean for the economy. Topics of Expertise: Foreign Affairs / NATO Tariffs Impact of Downsized Government Senior's Health and Social Security Heidi Hardt is an expert on NATO, defense, security, foreign policy, organizations, the EU, UN, operations, gender, climate and change. Topics of Expertise: Foreign Affairs / NATO Climate Change Gender and LGBTQ+ Rights Tony Smith’s knowledge of politics includes Constitutional Law, the U.S. Supreme Court and election law. Topics of Expertise: Free Speech Department of Education, EPA, Homeland Security, Department of Interior, NOAA, HHS and FDA Jon Gould is a distinguished scholar in justice policy, social change and government reform. Topics of Expertise: Deregulation Gender and LGBTQ+ Rights All of these experts are available to speak with media - simply click on a profile now to arrange an interview time today.

Anger Over Handling of Israel-Hamas War Boosted Support of Trump

Lawrence Levy, associate vice president and executive dean of the National Center for Suburban Studies, explained in a Newsday article that Donald Trump’s re-election campaign got a boost from Muslim and Jewish communities angered over the Biden administration’s handling of the Israel-Hamas War.

Will TikTok Be Banned?

The social media platform TikTok is on the verge of a U.S. ban—unless it can be stopped by President-elect Donald Trump.  The policy will take effect on January 19, requiring that TikTok find a U.S. parent company or face a ban in the United States. This comes after concerns about user data falling into possession of the Chinese government and fears that they could use TikTok to spread misinformation. Derrick Green, communication expert at Cedarville University, has spoken about the motive behind this ban and why Trump may reverse it. Here are three key points from his recent interview: Trump has pointed out that he would not let TikTok be banned, if elected as president. How could he actually implement this and block this ban from taking effect? The President-elect used TikTok as a part of his campaigning strategy and found success on the app, this coming after he proposed to ban it in 2020. Did his use of TikTok influence his desire to save the app? The proposed ban of TikTok was based on national security and the mental health of young people in the United States. If TikTok was shut down in the United States, what would the effects be? If you are a journalist covering the TikTok ban or the effects of social media, our experts are here to help with all of your questions and stories. Derrick Green is the Chair of the Department of Communication at Cedarville University. Green is available to speak with the media regarding digital media and its effects. Simply click on his icon or email mweinstein@cedarville.edu to arrange an interview.

NSF grant totaling more than $1.4 million helps jumpstart WCU Smoky Mountain Noyce Scholars Program

The past three years have been busy for Sloan Despeaux, professor in Western Carolina University’s Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, and her colleagues. Getting a grant to fund the Smoky Mountain Noyce Scholars Program took lots of meetings, lots of data collection — and lots of waiting. Getting the thumbs up from the National Science Foundation took a bit longer than expected, but their patience was rewarded. Despeaux, the grant’s principal investigator, and co-principal investigators and WCU faculty members Nathan Borchelt, Stacey Zimmerman, Kathy Jaqua and Pam Buskey were granted $1,449,913 from the foundation over five years to support the SMNS program at WCU. “It’s incredibly exciting, and it’s the result of a lot of work,” said Despeaux. “The grant was 100 pages long. It was a very big grant. Big money and big work.” The Smoky Mountain Noyce Scholars Program, which started this semester, is a stipend and scholarship program aimed at producing future high school math teachers at WCU. Students participating in the program can start as an apprentice during their freshman or sophomore years at WCU or any North Carolina community college. Apprentices receive a $2,000 stipend each year, and in return, they do 100 hours of field work per year. "Alison Carter, the mathematics department chair at Southwestern Community College serves as WCU's Noyce Community College coach, who will help apprentices from area community colleges plan out courses that will both meet the requirements of the associate’s degree and make the transition to WCU’s mathematics program as smooth as possible," Despeaux said. After their sophomore year, students can apply to become scholars, who can get up to $18,026 per year, up to the cost of attendance at WCU. Scholars also receive supplemental instruction for challenging upper-level math courses, and they participate in the Transformative Rural Urban Exchange with North Carolina A&T and the Smoky Mountain Math Teachers’ Circle’s annual summer “Math Camp.” Following graduation, for every year of support they received in their junior and senior years, scholars must teach for two years in a high needs district within eight years. However, the program’s help doesn’t stop there, as Noyce beginning teachers receive funds and support after graduation. “You don’t ever finish being a Noyce Scholar because we really want them to feel like they're a part of this cohort and part of this community, and that they can keep coming back to us for resources,” Despeaux said. This grant has paved the way for future SMNS students for the next five years, but it took a great deal of work to make it become a reality. Despeaux and her team wrote a capacity building grant worth about $130,000 from the National Science Foundation in order to conduct surveys, collect data and find out the biggest needs to help create the best possible program. Once the group submitted their request for the more than $1.4 million grant in August 2023, patience was key. “It's been a lot of suspense because we didn't actually get it until this fall,” Despeaux said. “We were pretty sure we were going to get it, but when school started in August, we still hadn’t gotten the official announcement.” But the Office of the Provost stepped in to assist the program so scholarships could be given to get the program up and running. “That was really, really helpful,” Despeaux said. “It was a lot of trust put in us.” Despeaux is confident the program will attract prospective students interested in teaching high school math, a cornerstone of WCU in its early years. “Western’s roots were a normal school. This is what Western’s heart is, preparing teachers and just being a part of a project like this that can help us reconnect with our core mission, it couldn’t make me happier,” Despeaux said. Looking to know ore about the WCU Smoky Mountain Noyce Scholars Program or the other amazing things happening at WCU - then let us help. Sloan Despeaux is available to speak with media - simply click on her icon to arrange an interview today.

Innovating (Western) North Carolina

NCInnovation may sound like a catchy name for a craft beer, but it is much more than a name. NCInnovation is a nonprofit organization created to unlock the innovative potential of North Carolina’s world-class public universities. While the state of North Carolina is a well-recognized leader in research and development, the output does not measure up to the state’s size and historically, most of the state’s research efforts have stemmed from the Research Triangle Park. Today, other regions of North Carolina are making a name for themselves with innovative concepts that University of North Carolina System schools are developing through academic-industry partnerships every day. This is where NCInovation steps in — to bridge academia and industry, to move inventions to market and create long-term economic benefits for all regions of the state. This is done by supporting researchers with grant funding, mentorship and partnership development to commercialize applied research breakthroughs and accelerate the transition from the classroom to the production floor. NCInnovation’s focus is on supporting North Carolina public university research that has commercial promise. Four regional networks are located at UNC System campuses in Charlotte, Cullowhee, Greensboro and Greenville. WCU is part of NCInnovation’s Western Regional Network, led by Meagan Coneybeer, regional innovation network director. “We are tech agnostic, which means that we are open to any faculty member here in the western part of the state at our institutions which include WCU, UNC Asheville, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Morganton and Appalachian State,” Coneybeer said. The program supports faculty working on industry-led, program-based innovations in partnership with industry or those who are interested in collaborating on large scale regional economic development projects that would be anchored in research, experience and excellence of a university collaboration. As part of the pilot grant funding, Brian Byrd, WCU’s mosquito expert and professor in the environmental health sciences program, along with Scott Huffman, professor in WCU’s Department of Chemistry and Physics, have been approved for grant funding from NCInnovation to continue their work in developing tools that utilize spectroscopy to analyze vibrational signals from mosquitoes. “Using spectroscopy, we are developing tools that analyze chemical signals from mosquitoes to tell us the species, sex, age of the mosquitoes and if they are infected,” Byrd said. “Using our approach, we can rapidly assess the risk of infection in the Aedes mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever and Zika.” Currently, it takes days or weeks to conduct this type of risk assessment, but the approach Byrd and Huffman are developing will make the work much quicker and more efficient. “There is a similar Aedes mosquito in Western North Carolina that transmits La Crosse virus causing encephalitis in children every year,” Byrd said. “This tool gives us a platform to improve risk assessments and opportunities to reduce human disease.” For Huffman, this project hits close to home. “When I was a boy, I almost died from a vector-borne disease,” he said. “This experience impacted me. While I have no skills or ability to address the particular disease that I experienced, working with Brian for the past six years has given me the opportunity to contribute in a small way to the field of pediatric vector-borne diseases. This funding from NCI will help us translate some of our fundamental laboratory research into an applied tool that hopefully will benefit society.” The grant approval is conditioned on standard next steps, including executed grant agreements and formal notification to government partners. The funding is part of NCInnovation’s larger mission to unlock the innovative potential of North Carolina’s world-class universities. “Dr. Byrd and Dr. Huffman’s award from NCI is a testament to the exemplary dedication to teaching and applied research by the outstanding faculty at Western Carolina University,” WCU Chancellor Kelli R. Brown said. “This funding serves as a catalyst for additional innovative exploration by our faculty as we strive to bolster economic condition in Western North Carolina and indeed the entire state. I would like to thank the General Assembly for supporting exciting, applied research underway here at WCU and across the UNC System.” The grant funding from NCInnovation’s larger effort to support the development and commercialization of university research in North Carolina. The campus-to-industry pipeline has been the foundation of American innovation for decades. There is so much applied research happening and this gives us the oppertunity to support that journey to commercialization and to partner with universities to bring successes to market. - Bennet Waters, President and CEO of NCInnovation “We are consistently blown away by the applied research innovations coming out of North Carolina’s public universities,” said Michelle Bolas, NCInnovation executive vice president and chief innovation officer. “Dr. Byrd’s and Dr. Huffman’s work has promising applications throughout the state and country and we’re excited to watch this research continue to develop.” Bennet Waters, president and CEO of NCInnovation; is excited about the opportunities that will stem from these partnerships. “At its core, NCI is a regional economic development opportunity and the concept is to use the existing or potentially applied research from our university campuses and not just those that are in the RTP,” said Waters. “There is so much applied research happening and this gives us the opportunity to support that journey to commercialization and to partner with universities to bring their successes to market. NCInnovation puts boots on the ground to foster these relationships. This is not a Raleigh-centric model; this is about helping folks that live beyond population centers to develop economic opportunities.” The organization received $500 million in state funding as an endowment to accelerate the commercialization of research at universities. NCInnovation will deploy the interest earned on the endowment to provide grant funding and support services to university researchers. By doing so, NCInnovation will support the growth of new businesses and licensing revenue from commercialized research, helping boost economic development in the region. The program supports faculty working on industry-led, program-based innovations in partnership with industry or those who are interested in collaborating on large scale regional economic development projects that would be anchored in research, experience and excellence of a university collaboration. “The partnership between WCU and NCI presents incredible opportunities to promote research-based entrepreneurship, product development and commercialization, and bolsters the likelihood of new job creation in the western portion of the state,” said Rich Price, WCU’s chief marketing and strategic partnerships officer. “The investment potential presented by NCInnovation removes so many barriers to university-led product and concept realization and the creation of intellectual property that will fuel economic growth.” Looking to know more or cover this topic - we can help. Brian Byrd and Scott Huffman are both available to speak with media - simply click on either expert's icon now to arrange an interview today.

WCU’s Karayaka, Yu receive $45K grant for research

Western Carolina University College of Engineering and Technology professor Bora Karayaka knew it was a shot in the dark — but that shot ended up paying off. Karayaka and WCU affiliate faculty member Yi-Hsiang Yu received a $45,000 grant from the Coastal Studies Institute. The grant was also received by M.A. Gabr and Anderson Rodrigo de Queiro at North Carolina State University. “In terms of grant search, you should try whatever you can,” Karayaka said. “Nothing is guaranteed, so I said, ‘Sure, let’s give it a try,’ and we tried and then it worked out at that time, so we were happy.” The grant will be used toward a project Karayaka and his colleagues are working on. The team is looking to see whether placing wave energy converters around wind farms on the coast would reduce the impact of environmental loading into the wind farms. Karayaka, Yu and two WCU graduate students will be responsible for making models for the wave energy converters while they meet with their NC State partners on a biweekly basis. In the spring, the team will head to the Coastal Studies Institute in Wanchese for the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Research Symposium to present their results. Along with the chance of advancing research on the North Carolina coast, Karayaka also views this as an opportunity for WCU to continue to lend a hand in these research projects. “I don’t think we have received grants before (from the North Carolina Renewable Ocean Energy Program,) so it kind of opens the door to us to collaborate with other folks and get to know other folks, NC State, UNC Charlotte,” Karayaka said. “Maybe in the later stages, we will look into more physical aspects of the system. How can we put together a prototype? Not just models and make it real in a way.” Looking to know ore about this important environmental project or the other amazing research happening at WCU - then let us help. Bora Karayaka is available to speak with media - simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today

Project Discovery earns $175K grant to help expand resources

Project Discovery director JennieV. Sorrells has seen her program impact the lives of tons of students. The project, hosted by Western Carolina University, has given secondary students the opportunity to explore careers and colleges and partake in adventure-based learning. And thanks to a six-figure grant, Project Discovery’s reach to students will be expanded. Sorrells and co-principal investigator Eric Klein of the University of North Carolina Asheville received a $175,000 grant from the Dogwood Health Trust. “I love working for talent search, but there are certain limitations to it and what we’re able to do, what services that we’re able to provide, just based on the structure from the Department of Education, but we knew that there were other means there,” Sorrells said. “We’ve seen these things through our practice. We know it’s an area of need, so when I saw the opportunity, it made sense to pursue it as a way to continue to build our body of work.” Project Discovery is an educational talent search program funded by the U.S. Department of Education that assists students in 15 schools in Western North Carolina. The program encourages students, who are primarily income limited and potential first-generation, college-bound students, to complete their secondary education and pursue a college one. With the grant from the Asheville nonprofit, Project Discovery will start a bridge program to support former participants in their transition into college and through their postsecondary studies. “A lot of times, we find that that’s where students can struggle and are trying to get to know new systems, new folks, build new relationships, so I like to think of this as the idea of the ‘warm handoff,’” Sorrells said. Project Discovery also hopes it can assist in reenrolling students who stopped their education, and it will aim to build the Higher Education Access and Success collaborative. HEAS, which started last year, includes several organizations across Western North Carolina. “(HEAS) is really kind of the idea of building upon the depth of knowledge that we already have in our region,” Sorrells said. “We have incredible college access programs and folks doing this kind of work, but a lot of times, we work in really siloed environments, “This is going to give us an opportunity to come together, build a community of practice and kind of learn from each other because there are a lot of things specific to our region and population.” Looking to know more or cover this topic - we can help. JennieV. Sorrells is available to speak with media - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today