NIU Today

The following is a list of  recent grants to NIU faculty researchers, including Richard King, James Dillon and Xueshu Song.

Posted Oct. 29, 2010

Professor Richard King of the Department of Biological Sciences has received a $34,755 grant from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to study the degree to which reptile distributions in the Great Lakes region are associated with climatic variables and to use that information to identify the future location of climatically suitable areas under existing climate change models. Professor King has received a second grant from the Fish and Wildlife Service for $128,899 to address gaps in the data available to create a species survival plan for the eastern Massasauga rattlesnake.

Adjunct Professor James Dillon of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has received a $350,455 grant from the National Eye Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health) to study oxygen levels in different positions and structures within the eye, under both normal and disease conditions, in order to improve knowledge of oxygen diffusion throughout the eye and its possible role in the etiology of disease. This grant was awarded with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Professor Xueshu Song of the Department of Technology has received a $139,655 subcontract from Highland Community College (with funds provided by the National Science Foundation) to support a collaboration between NIU and HCC to develop and field test a remote laboratory to train wind turbine technicians.

Posted Sept. 9, 2010

Associate Vice President for University Outreach John Lewis has received $9.4 million from the U.S. Department of Defense to support multiple research projects related to cancer treatment using proton beam therapy. The grant will support the development of a Proton Computed Tomography (pCT) detector system for installation at the Northern Illinois Proton Treatment and Research Center (NIPTRC) and will also study the effects of proton and photon therapies for increasing cancer survivorship.

Dean Promod Vohra of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology has received $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to conduct research in the composition and development of small scale bio-fuel production facilities to satisfy the needs of individuals’ who live in rural communities or areas not located near agricultural facilities. The project will also focus on how bio-fuels interact with engine materials and power production. Lessons learned from this research will be used to develop new educational programs in energy development and conservation.

Professor Gaylen Kapperman of the Department of Teaching and Learning has received $600,000 from the U.S. Department of Education to train graduate students to provide rehabilitation services for blinded veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Distinguished Research Professor Clyde Kimball of the Institute for Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology and the Department of Physics has received $486,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy to establish a high-speed/large memory desktop supercomputing cluster for simulation and modeling of dynamic processes important for energy and industrial applications. 

Associate Dean Mansour Tahernezhadi of the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology has received $250,000 from the Illinois State Board of Education as part of its Illinois Math and Science Partnerships program, to support a master’s degree program in engineering and technology targeted toward certified teachers in middle and secondary schools in Rockford and Aurora.

Professor Dhiman Chakraborty of the Department of Physics has received a subcontract for $122,760 from California State University, Fresno, as part of a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation grant. The project, which was funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, supports the purchase and installation of instrumentation at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The instrumentation, part of the ATLAS particle physics project, will be used to collect data resulting from head-on collisions of protons at extremely high energies in the search for new discoveries about the basic forces that shape the universe.

Assistant  Professor Federico Sciammarella of the Department of Mechanical Engineering has received $16,104 from the National Science Foundation to support a workshop on research and education in advanced manufacturing between NIU and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in the Republic of South Africa.

Associate Professor Lesley Rigg of the Department of Geography has received a $15,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to promote the participation of early-career faculty, postdoctoral researchers, and graduate students in the Biogeography Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers at the Fifth International Biogeography Society conference in Crete, Greece, next January.

Assistant Professor Nicholas Pohlman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering has received $14,300 from the Illinois Department of Agriculture to support research on the transport and processing of granular materials used as fuel in the generation of energy from biomass to make them more efficient to transport without the need for additional processing.

Posted Aug. 20, 2010

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Christopher McCord, Women’s Studies Director Amy Levin, Associate Professor Brianno Coller in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Professor Lesley Rigg in the Department of Geography will receive $161,284 from the National Science Foundation, effective Sept. 1, to fund planning efforts for the submission of a full proposal to NSF’s ADVANCE program. The program focuses on increasing the participation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers.

Assistant Professor Minmei Hou in the Department of Computer Science has received a three-year, $316,455 Academic Research Enhancement Award from the National Human Genome Research Institute.The project’s goal is to improve computer methodology for detecting small realignments or rearrangements in genetic sequences.

“Current DNA sequencing methods rapidly produce data with high precision, but current computer software that pieces those large volumes of data together into genomic sequences often misses such fine-scale detail,” Biological Sciences Chair Barrie Bode said. “This research project is significant in that it will provide improved fidelity in reading and interpreting entire genomes and facilitate more useful comparisons, both between species and within single species.”

Associate Professor Philippe Piot in the Department of Physics has received $590,910 from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The grant funds work on techniques in particle acceleration that could pave the way toward a table-top accelerator-based light source that could be used for remote detection of fissionable materials.

Assistant Professor James Horn in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has received $69,354 (the first installment of a four-year, $293,881 award) from the American Heart Association. The grant will support a study of the physical and chemical mechanisms by which antibodies recognize and bind to small target molecules, and also of ways to develop new antibody fragments that can be used to target specific molecules or structures for pharmaceutical or biological research.

Assistant Professor Dmitry Kadnikov in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has received $71,500 (the first installment of a three-year, $214,500 award) from the Greater Midwest Affiliate of the American Heart Association. The grant supports efforts to develop selective modulators that would activate only genes involved in transport of cholesterol out of liver cells, but not genes involved in the synthesis of fatty acids.

Distinguished Research Professor Peter Meserve in the Department of Biological Sciences has received $22,607 (the first installment of a four-year, $42,317 award) from the National Science Foundation. The grant will help him continue a 20-year study of interactions between plant and animal communities in a semi-arid region of Chile. The project, carried out in collaboration with Chilean researchers, also looks at the effects of climate change on the region and is expected to provide a baseline for comparison with other similar regions around the world.

Assistant Professor Christina Papadimitriou in the School of Nursing and Health Studies has received $65,000 from the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research at the U.S. Department of Education for research on the improvement of client-centered care for individuals with spinal cord injuries in inpatient rehabilitation centers.

Associate Professor John Bentley in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures received $6,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend program to use philological, linguistic and literary data from ancient Korean and Japanese texts to create a convenient dictionary of ancient Japanese for students and scholars of Asia. The Japanese language is a linguistic museum, preserving as it does Chinese linguistic data that has disappeared from other countries. Scholars and students who study Asia will now have access to a compact resource for historical linguistics.

Professor John Schaeffer in the Department of English received $50,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write a book on Giambattista Vico, which resolves the debate over natural law without provoking other debates over reason, religion, public good or individual rights.

Assistant Professor Ismael Montana in the Department of History received $11,000 from the British Library to rescue endangered archival materials and historical manuscripts threatened by overuse and the hazards of the tropical weather in northern Ghana. The materials will be digitized and made available to scholars and library patrons in Ghana, Britain and here at NIU.  NIU and the British Library will be co-repositors of this digitized material.

DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen, spokesperson for the DeKalb County Major Case Squad, issued the following statement this evening (October 28, 2010).

A person of interest is being questioned about the homicide of 18-year-old Antinette “Toni” Keller. This individual is in custody on charges of obstruction of justice and unlawful possession of a motor vehicle. The extradition of this person to the state of Illinois is pending. The investigation into the homicide of “Toni” Keller continues.

I want to thank the public for the numerous tips and leads they have provided in this case. To date, we have received approximately 210 leads, and our investigators are continuing to work diligently to solve this case. We are especially interested in any information about suspicious subjects and activities, especially fires, in Prairie Park between midday October 14th and the morning of October 18th.

Please contact (815) 748-8407, (815) 753-8477 or Crimestoppers at (815) 895-3272.

NIU history professor Brian Sandberg has a written a new book that explores warrior values and violence in French noble culture during the early modern era.

Sandberg will deliver a talk on the book – titled “Warrior Pursuits: Noble Culture and Civil Conflict in Early Modern France” (Johns Hopkins University Press) –  at 2:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 19, in the Thurgood Marshall Gallery of Swen Parson Hall.

The book offers a cultural history of civil warfare in early 17th-century France, examining how warrior nobles’ practices of violence shaped provincial society and the royal state between 1598 and 1635.

Sandberg’s extensive archival research on noble families in the southern provinces of Guyenne and Languedoc reveals that violence continued to be a way of life for many French nobles, challenging previous scholarship that depicts a progressive “civilizing” of noble culture.  He argues that southern French nobles engaged in warrior pursuits — social and cultural practices of violence designed to raise personal military forces and to engage in civil warfare in order to advance various political and religious goals.

More information on the book can be found on the publisher’s Web site.

The following resources are available to the NIU community in response to the developments this weekend in the disappearance of Toni Keller.

Counseling for Students

• Monday through Wednesday, counseling services will continue to be available at the Counseling and Student Development Center from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Call (815) 753-1206 for more information.

Support for Faculty and Staff

• Appointments are available at the Employee Assistance Program (Holmes Student Center, 7th floor). Call (815) 753-9191.

Information Hotline

• Call (815) 753-4NIU (4648) from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Late Night Ride Service Extended

• The Late Night Ride Service provides free door-to-door rides to NIU students.
• Service hours are extended daily from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. until further notice.
• Call (815) 753-2222 to request a ride.

Security Escorts Available On Campus

• Security escorts for NIU students, faculty, staff and visitors are available in and around campus on a 24-hour basis.
• Call (815) 753-1212 to request a security escort.

Restricted Access to Residence Halls

• Until further notice, campus residence hall access will be restricted to hall residents only.
• Students will need their official NIU OneCard to gain access.

Safety Tips

• Avoid walking alone after dark and always walk with others.
• Use the NIU Huskie Patrol (815-753-9658) or Late Night Ride (815-753-2222) services.
• Don’t wear headphones or use other electronics that distract you.
• Tell people where you are going and when you expect to return.
• Keep to well-lit, busy routes.
• Avoid shortcuts and isolated areas.
• Have your keys ready as you approach your vehicle, and look inside before getting in.
• Additional safety and security information is available online. 

NIU students can meet with counselors in the Counseling and Student Development Center in the Campus Life Building room 200 until 6 p.m. today, and counseling hours have been extended for the coming days.

Counseling services will be available at the Counseling and Student Development Center from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. For more information, call (815) 753-1206.

Additionally, faculty and staff seeking support can make appointments at the Employee Assistance Program (Holmes Student Center, 7th floor). For more information, call (815) 753-9191.

Northern Illinois University today was named recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Veterans Education, recognizing the university’s exemplary efforts in providing educational and informational resources to students who are U.S. military veterans.

About 800 student veterans attend NIU, which earlier this year also was cited by two military-related magazines for excellence in its outreach and support efforts.

“We must do everything we can to make sure that our service men and women, who have served our country proudly, have all the tools they need to further their education,” said Gov. Pat Quinn. “I applaud Northern Illinois University for their outstanding efforts to provide student veterans with access to on-campus resources and benefits that will help them make the transition back to school.

“I strongly encourage other public schools in Illinois to keep working toward making their campuses as veteran-friendly as NIU,” Quinn said.

NIU is only the second university statewide to receive the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Veterans Education, established last year after the governor signed into law the Higher Education Veterans Service Act. The Governor’s Award honors institutions that have best responded to the spirit and requirements of the new law by centralizing resources for veterans and easing their transition to college.

“Northern Illinois University has shown outstanding leadership in providing resources that best serve student veterans, like the Military Student Services office,” said Dan Grant, director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs. “NIU not only meets but far exceeds our expectations in offering student veterans the tools they need to successfully transition to the university environment.”

The newly opened NIU Military Student Services office provides a shining example of how the university is working to make the campus veteran friendly.

Located in Gilbert Hall, the office provides student veterans with a one-stop place to go with questions on available programs and services, such as academic support and individual student advocacy. The office also houses a Veterans Service Officer who assists students in accessing state and federal veterans’ programs.

NIU President John G. Peters and Dan Grant, director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs

“I believe this award recognizes two very important dimensions of our university community,” NIU President John Peters said. “It is an acknowledgment of NIU’s commitment to the success of its veteran students, and it is a reflection on the outstanding students who have joined our institution after serving our country.

“These student veterans are outstanding role models who exemplify character, leadership, service to the community and academic success,” Peters added, noting that the overall grade point average of NIU student veterans is 10 percent higher than the overall GPA of the student body.  “We are proud and honored to have them as part of our community.”

Earlier this year, Military Times EDGE magazine ranked NIU 49th on its list of 101 top colleges for veterans, out of a total 4,000 institutions. G.I. Jobs magazine editors also named NIU for the second consecutive year as being among 1,120 top military friendly schools in the country, out of 8,000 colleges.

In addition to establishing the new Military Student Services office, NIU has developed orientation programs designed for and led by veterans. The university offers a special course (UNIV 201) on the college experience for veterans, has enhanced its mental health services for veterans and works to educate faculty and staff about the unique needs of veterans and students who are still in the military.

“The Chicagoland area has a high concentration of veterans who are returning home after their time in the military, and we’re committed to serving those who have served,” said Kelly Wesener, NIU assistant vice president for student services. “We have been very intentional, particularly over the past year and a half, to focus on veterans needs and coordinate existing services to enhance their experiences.”

NIU has five full-time staff members plus graduate students and a team of veteran student workers dedicated to providing veteran services, including assistance with applying for educational benefits.

“We connect as liaisons between the different institutions that provide benefits, so we can go to bat for other student veterans if they’re running into walls,” said student worker Dan Tsutsumi, a 25-year-old former Marine Corps sergeant who served two tours of Iraq. He’s now a junior studying broadcast journalism. “There’s always room for improvement, but we are trying our best to provide guidance, counseling and educational services that go above and beyond.

“One thing that veterans enjoy about this school is the large veteran community here, so we can connect with people who have shared similar experiences,” Tsutsumi added. “The concern from faculty for the happiness and performance of student veterans also has really grown.”

NIU boasts the longest standing student veterans club in the state, established in 1954. The club is active in sponsoring social events, networking opportunities and community service projects.

“As one of the oldest clubs on campus, and one of the oldest university veterans clubs in the country, we have a strong history of serving the veteran and local communities,” said NIU Veterans Club President Jose Alferez, 25, a former U.S. Marine Corps infantry squad leader and platoon guide who was twice deployed to Iraq. He is now an NIU senior studying international politics. “Since our main focus is helping returning veterans with their transition into the college lifestyle, we try to ensure they feel welcome when reentering civilian life.”

Professor Philippe Piot in the Department of Physics is working on a plan to build a portable device that could be taken to airports, sports stadiums or subway stations to detect radioactive material.

Professor Philippe Piot (center) with graduate assistants Mohamed Radwan (left) and Christopher Prokop.

A $591,000 grant from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency is funding Piot’s project.

The agency’s goal is to help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to thwart terrorism attempts.

“The equipment we have now is large and difficult to transport,” Piot said. “We hope to develop a tabletop detection system based on a compact electron accelerator that could be used at places such as airports.”

Piot and two graduate assistants, Mohamed Radwan and Christopher Prokop, will work on the project during the next three years. If successful, the portable accelerator could become a crucial tool in fortifying the nation’s security system, he said.

Piot also is working on a project at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia to develop a technique enabling the production of bright electron beams to drive next generation coherent X-ray free-electron lasers. The University of Chicago provided a $56,000 seed grant to Piot in support of the project.

He is working with colleagues from Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab to develop instruments capable of characterizing the unprecedented parameters of the produced bright electron beam at a facility in construction at Fermilab.

Since 1983, the Friends of the NIU Libraries group has been purchasing materials for the library that have otherwise been too expensive for the library’s budget, based on the recommendations of library faculty.

Now Friends of the NIU Libraries is expanding its program to enhance the library by opening up its suggestion box to the NIU community.

Instead of purchasing expensive items on a case-by-case basis as was the practice in the past, Friends of NIU Libraries has created an Awards Program, whereby members of the NIU community can submit applications to have specific materials purchased for the library.

Details, and application instructions, can be found online.

All members of the Friends and other NIU faculty and staff members, including the faculty and staff of the University Libraries, are eligible to submit proposals.

Individuals may submit as many as three proposals, provided that each is for a different purpose and fulfills all other proposal requirements. The proposal should contain an abstract (250 words or less), description of the proposed expenditure, rationale for purchase and a cost proposal.

Submitted proposals, no more than five pages long, should be sent to Lynne Thomas, faculty liaison for the Friends of the NIU Libraries, Founders Memorial Library 402. They can also be e-mailed to lmthomas@niu.edu.

The deadline for proposals for this fall is Monday, Nov. 1. Another round of proposals will be accepted for spring 2011 purchases.

The Women’s Resource Center at Northern Illinois University has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to enhance services to victims of stalking, dating violence, domestic violence and sexual assault.

Center director Jill Dunlap said the Women’s Resource Center will use the grant, announced recently by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to hire a full-time victim advocacy coordinator.

“The funding will strengthen victim services campus-wide and will truly have a positive impact on the entire campus,” Dunlap said.

“The federal government recognizes that these are issues on all college campuses and awards the grants annually,” she added. “It is a highly competitive award, based the strength of your plan to improve coordination of services and heighten collaboration among community agents.”

Jill Dunlap

Dunalp said the Women’s Resource Center expects to hire the new victim advocacy coordinator by January.

In addition to helping coordinate services for victims, the victim advocate will collaborate with Safe Passage, the domestic violence and sexual assault agency serving DeKalb County, to provide advanced training to NIU personnel throughout campus.

The victim advocate also will be responsible for further developing protocols and policies for victims on campus, creating a campus-based advocacy manual and creating a website for coordinated community responses.

“We already provide services to victims on the NIU campus, but the goal is to strengthen the existing coordinated community responses and ensure that police, counseling, legal advocacy and other community services are seamless and centralized,” Dunlap said. “We also want to avoid the potential for a victim to be re-traumatized by having to repeat his or her story.”

The grant also provides funding to build on existing prevention and education efforts and purchase new equipment that will assist police in their investigations.

Funding for the new grant comes through the landmark Violence Against Women Act, which became law 16 years ago. It aims to improve the criminal justice system’s response to violence against women and to increase services available to victims.

Historian Ramón Gutiérrez — an award-winning author and director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago — will visit Northern Illinois University later this month to deliver the seventh annual W. Bruce Lincoln Lecture.

Ramón A. Gutiérrez

The lecture, titled “Thinking About Race in a Post-Racial America: From Plessy v. Ferguson to Barack Obama,” will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 28, in the Altgeld Hall Auditorium. The event is free and open to all. It is sponsored by the NIU History Department and the W. Bruce Lincoln Endowment.

A 1983 winner of the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship (popularly referred to as the “genius award”), Gutiérrez serves as the Preston & Sterling Morton Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago.

Gutiérrez first established his reputation with an ambitious chronicle of the Spanish conquest of New Mexico in the award-winning book, “When Jesus Came the Corn Mothers Went Away: Marriage, Sexuality and Power in New Mexico, 1500-1846.” He also has authored numerous publications on race and ethnicity in American life, Latino Studies, Mexican immigration and Indian-White relations in the Americas. 

“Professor Gutiérrez’s scholarship has continued to enrich our understanding of the interaction of race, culture and religion in the Americas, the history and culture of Latinos in New Mexico, and race relations in the United States,” said NIU Distinguished Research Professor of History Michael Gonzales.  

Over the course of his career, Gutiérrez has received many academic awards, including the John Hope Franklin Prize from the American Studies Association and the Frederick Jackson Turner Prize from the Organization of American Historians. Gutiérrez also served as associate chancellor in the University of California system and was a faculty member at the University of California, San Diego, where he founded the Ethnic Studies Department in 1989. He served as founding director of U-C-San Diego’s Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity.

Beginning in 2004, the W. Bruce Lincoln Endowed Lecture Series has brought such notable speakers to NIU as renowned religion scholar Martin Marty, journalist Mark Danner and prominent historians Walter LaFeber, Lizabeth Cohen, Matthew Connelly and Jonathan Spence. The endowed lecture series is named in honor of the late W. Bruce Lincoln, a world-renowned historian of Russia who taught on the NIU faculty for more than three decades until his retirement in 1998.

Lincoln was among the first group of NIU faculty members awarded Presidential Research Professorships in 1982. The recipient of many grants and awards, Lincoln possessed a lifelong passion for learning and a gift for writing. He authored a dozen books that gained a wide audience among students, scholars and the general public alike.

Far from the stereotypes many people envision, the most common faces of homelessness in the United States belong to women and children.

And NIU communication professor Laura Vazquez, partnering with nationally known homeless advocate Diane Nilan, has spent the last four years working to tell their stories.

Laura Vazquez

The result is “on the edge,” a powerful new one-hour documentary. It takes viewers deep into the nomadic lives of seven women who reveal the complex and often poignant stories of their fall from housing and independence, the traumatic effects on their children and their struggles to escape homelessness.

A premiere screening of the documentary will be held during a tribute this month to the late Mary Lou Cowlishaw, a longtime state representative who championed the rights of homeless students. Cowlishaw died this past June at the age of 78.

The tribute reception, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 29, in the lobby of Madden Theatre at the Fine Arts Center of North Central College in Naperville, where Cowlishaw served as an adjunct professor.

The screening of “on the edge” will begin at 7:15 p.m.

Making the film was an eye-opening experience for Vazquez, a veteran documentary maker and professor who teaches courses at NIU in media production. She traveled the country with Nilan while filming interviews, spent hundreds of hours editing videotape and even lived for a week in an Opelousas, La., shelter.

“The people there were so sweet and welcoming, but a shelter is what it is. I found it very depressing,” Vazquez says.

Her spirits were buoyed, however, working with Nilan.

“It’s not just respect that I have for Diane, it’s awe,” Vazquez says. “She has an incredible passion and energy for this — nothing stands in her way.

“This whole experience made me realize how lucky I am to have a home,” Vazquez adds. “We often take our comfortable lives for granted, but for many single mothers and their children, life is extremely difficult and the security of a home is very tenuous. They live day-to-day, not knowing how they’ll pay the rent or what will happen if the car breaks down or the kids get sick.”

Diane Nilan

Nilan is all too familiar with the complexities surrounding the issue of homelessness. A former Aurora shelter director, she has spent 25 years advocating for the homeless.

In 2005, Nilan founded the non-profit Hear Us, a Naperville-based organization that aims to raise awareness about homelessness.

That same year, she sold her home, took out a mortgage on an RV and embarked on an eight-month, cross-country odyssey, logging more than 20,000 miles in eight months. Along the way, she videotaped interviews with homeless children, teens and their parents in places not typically associated with homelessness — small towns, rural areas, resort communities and affluent mid-sized cities.

Upon her return, Nilan first met Vazquez, and the pair partnered to produce a series of short documentaries on the rights of homeless children in public schools. They knew a larger story was in the making.

“We both realized the incredible potential these stories had to enlighten, inspire and reshape the way Americans viewed families and youth without homes,” Nilan says.

The work of the filmmakers was endorsed and encouraged by each of the women portrayed in the documentary. All seven are expected to be present for a second screening of “on the edge” in November during the Annual Conference of the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth in Houston.

“Their spirited contribution to a greater understanding of homelessness is and will continue to be significant,” Nilan says. “With their unwavering faith in this four-year process bolstering us, Laura and I can only hope that our determined effort to get this film seen by as many people as possible will be realized.”

A DeKalb screening of “on the edge” is in the works as well. Ultimately, the documentary will likely be used in university-level social work and education programs. DVDs will be available for purchase, probably in early 2011, through HEAR US and other outlets.

“My hope is that ‘on the edge’ brings about positive change in current policies on homelessness, which typically target men on the street even though the most typical homeless person in our country today is a child,” Vazquez says.

More information on the new documentary, including trailers and short biographies of the women featured in the film, is available online.

by Tom Parisi

Related:

• NIU professor, student hope to help raise voice of homeless children, teens
• NIU student creates educational video to help inmates keep their kids in school
• Professor writes curriculum to enable future teachers to recognize, assist homeless children in their classrooms

The Women’s Resource Center will host the second annual NIU LUNAFEST from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20, in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium at Holmes Student Center on NIU’s DeKalb campus.

LUNAFEST is a fundraising film festival that seeks to promote women filmmakers, raise awareness for women’s issues and support worthy women’s non-profit organizations.

Tickets for the NIU event are $5 and can be purchased in advance at the Women’s Resource Center or at the door. All students, staff, faculty and community members are welcome to attend.

The unique film festival features 10 short films, all directed by women filmmakers. A variety of genres are represented, including animation, documentary and fictional drama. The films address a variety of topics such as women’s health, motherhood, body image, aging and cultural diversity.

More information on the films is available online.

The festival is in its 10th year nationally and has raised more than $1 million for various non-profit organizations. This will be the second year that NIU hosts the event.

The Women’s Resource Center credits community businesses such as Pepsi, China House, Jewel and Amanda’s Spa and Beauty for supporting this year’s LUNAFEST film festival. Snacks will be provided during the films and all ticketholders are eligible for raffle prizes at the festival. 

All proceeds from LUNAFEST will benefit the Breast Cancer Fund and the Women’s Resource Center’s Lending Library.