Everything Nac

As a kindergartener at an elementary school in southeast Houston, Dr. Michara Delaney-Fields fell in love with the world of education and aspired to hold an important position within it one day.

Her dream has since come true several times over, most recently when she was selected to serve as Stephen F. Austin State University’s new assistant dean of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

“In this role, it is my goal to create a network of caring responses to our diverse student body,” Delaney-Fields said. “This would be enacted by ensuring critical services and programs are accessible to all students, as well as increasing their knowledge of the resources available to them.”

The office houses a number of student service-based areas on campus, including, Counseling Services, Disability Services, Veterans Resource Center and Health Services.

“We want to ensure that we are meeting the students where they are, that we are providing our students with the skills necessary for this global society and equipping them with the ability to be culturally responsive and sensitive through our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.”

Delaney-Fields received a bachelor’s degree in health studies and two master’s degrees, one in health education and the other in human performance and kinesiology, from Texas Southern University. During her formative years in higher education, she saw what was once a passion grow into a future.

“The biggest educational transformation for me was the observation and teachings of my department head as a young professional,” Delaney-Fields said. “I watched her have a daily effect on students and administrators. It was then that I decided my goal, despite previous leanings and plans, was to obtain my doctorate in higher education.”

To that end, Delaney-Fields was successful, going on to receive a doctoral degree in educational leadership from Prairie View A&M University.

For more than 11 years, Delaney-Fields has served in various capacities as an educator, advisor and mentor. She began her professional career as a teacher in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, teaching in the K-12 public school system for two years before transitioning to higher education.

“I have formed an unbreakable bond with this career,” Delaney-Fields said. “Although it is challenging, it is far more rewarding. I fell in love with being able to connect with students, faculty, staff and others in ways that enhance, develop and encourage a positive experience. Education has always been my passion, but it is humbling when it becomes your purpose.”

In 2017, Delaney-Fields and her family, moved to Albany, Georgia, where she served as interim dean of students, interim vice president for student affairs, and assistant vice president for student affairs and student engagement at Albany State University. This also is where she met her husband, John Fields Jr., SFA’s new chief of police.

“Dr. Fields comes to us with Texas roots and senior-level leadership in the field of student affairs,” said Dr. Adam Peck, SFA’s dean of student affairs. “We had an impressive field of candidates, but she really stood out among this group. In addition to her remarkable qualifications, she also has the personal qualities that are going to assist her in our mission.”

Creation of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion officially puts a name to a long-held university mission that considers the student body’s ethnic, ability-centered, racial and background diversity first in all ways possible.

“This can include students who are in crisis, struggling with counseling issues, injured on or off campus, or who are part of our underrepresented populations,” Delaney-Fields said. “The intent of this position is to foster an open and welcoming environment where our students, faculty and staff of all backgrounds can learn, work and serve while embracing all human differences and building on the commonalities.”

SFA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is a revamped version of the university’s former Office of Student Support Services. As part of the office’s internal restructuring, it now houses the Office of Multicultural Affairs and no longer includes the direct responsibility of coordinating Title IX office operations.

However, regardless of the name’s alteration, “equity, diversity and inclusion have always been a part of the mission of areas like Disability Services, community standards, Counseling Services and other areas this position oversees,” Peck said.

“Though Dr. Fields has only been at SFA a short time, we’ve already had broad conversations about our short- and long-term goals for this position,” Peck added. “Our first priority is to help her meet and interact with as many members of our community as possible. Ultimately, our ‘north star’ is to make the experiences of all of our students better. We want to play a role in attracting diverse students, faculty and staff and ensuring that they feel well supported at SFA.”

Delaney-Fields is glad to be back in her home state and says she is already in love with Nacogdoches’ friendly community. She also is excited to help shape the restructured office in campus-wide, positive ways.

“Diversity is a call toward action,” Delaney-Fields said. “To enact diversity, we must be inclusive. To be inclusive, we must be equitable. Diversity and inclusion should not make a majority of our students feel intruded upon or a minority of our students feel neglected. It should be natural and business as usual. This position will create this network of caring responses for all of our students through the SFA Way, which highlights the five principles of respect, caring, responsibility, unity and integrity.”

By Christine Broussard, marketing communications coordinator at Stephen F. Austin State University.

Mariachi Los Leñadores, a student-run organization and ensemble at Stephen F. Austin State University, will present “Una Noche De Serenatas” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 11, in the Music Recital Hall in Wright Music Building on the SFA campus.

“One of the traditions in the Mexican culture is to serenade a loved one with a mariachi,” said Dr. J.D. Salas, associate professor of tuba in the SFA School of Music. “This recital will serve as a serenade to the SFA and Nacogdoches communities following the group’s fall semester of rehearsals and performances.”

Los Leñadores will perform several well-known mariachi favorites, such as “Amor Eterno,” “Volver” and “Hermoso Cariño,” in addition to other traditional mariachi favorites.

The group was formed during the fall of 2018 by senior music education major Danny Chavera Jr. Originally from Dilley, Chavera drew from his own experiences performing in high school, where almost every school in predominantly Hispanic areas had a mariachi ensemble as part of the music education experience. The SFA group consists of student musicians on trumpet, guitar and violin, accompanied by the traditional mariachi string instruments, including the vihuela and guitarron.

Los Leñadores has performed at several local and area events, such as the Nacogdoches Dia de los Muertos Fiesta, the Texas State Forest Festival in Lufkin, and the Nacogdoches Multicultural Festival.

The concert is free to attend; donations will be accepted. The group has been fundraising to purchase instruments that will remain with the SFA student ensemble as its members graduate. Most recently, enough funds were raised to purchase a guitarron. Future fundraising will aid in purchasing mariachi uniforms.

For more information, call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407 or visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host the monthly Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series at 7 p.m. Dec. 12 in the Brundrett Conservation Education Building at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, located at 2900 Raguet St.

Dr. David Creech, professor emeritus and SFA Gardens director, will present “Reconnaissance in the Pursuit of Knowledge is Seldom Wasted: New Plants for a 21st-Century East Texas.”

Creech has been at SFA since 1978. He received his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees in horticulture from Texas A&M University and a master’s degree in horticulture from Colorado State University. Following a long teaching career, Creech retired in 2007 and returned to direct SFA Gardens in a part-time position.

His areas of interest include fruit and vegetable research, ornamental evaluation, endangered plants, salinity studies, woody tree and shrub evaluation, and investigating the potential of kiwifruit as a specialty crop for Texas. He has authored numerous scholarly and trade articles, and he lectures widely.

Creech has accumulated a long list of international work since 1981 in Pakistan, Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal, Israel and China. In the last 20 years, he has undertaken over 25 consultancies in China working with the Blueberry Improvement Program and Taxodium Improvement Program at the Nanjing Botanical Garden, as well as connecting with the new plants arena in the China nursery and landscape industry. He is an advocate of increasing forest cover and smart use of land and plant resources.

Creech has served as president of the Native Plant Society of Texas in 1991-92, president of the Southern Region American Society of Horticulture Science both in 2012-13 and 2017-18, and past president of both the Texas Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta and International Plant Propagation Society Southern Region.

The Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series is held the second Thursday of each month and includes a rare plant raffle after the program. The lecture is free and open to the public, but donations to the Theresa and Les Reeves Lecture Series fund are always appreciated.

Parking is available at the PNPC and Raguet Elementary School, located at 2428 Raguet St.

For more information, call (936) 468-4129, or email sfagardens@sfasu.edu.

The planetarium in Stephen F. Austin State University’s Cole STEM Building will offer two shows on Saturdays starting Dec. 7.

The planetarium has public shows every Saturday with group shows available throughout the week upon reservation.

“The Secrets of Gravity – In the Footsteps of Albert Einstein” will be presented at 3 p.m., and tickets are $3. Geared toward children but open to all ages, the show takes viewers on a journey through space and time to learn about gravity.

“Solar Superstorms” is scheduled for 4:30 and 7 p.m. Tickets to this show are $6 for adults and $4 for children, students, and faculty and staff with ID.

“This show contains some of the best visualizations of the inner workings of the sun that I’ve ever seen,” said Ed Michaels, planetarium director. “Brace yourself for the onslaught of the next solar superstorm.”

The shows will be offered weekly through Jan. 25, except for Dec. 28 through Jan. 4.

For more information, to make a group reservation or view the schedule, visit planetarium.sfasu.edu.

By Joanna Armstrong, marketing communications specialist at Stephen F. Austin State University.