Kent State University is one of 61 organizations nationwide – and one of four organizations in Ohio – to be awarded a 2021-2022 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read grant. The university’s $20,000 grant will support the Big Read Northeast Ohio, a community reading program and related events focusing on “An American Sunrise” by Poet Laureate Joy Harjo from October 2021 through May 2022. Harjo, the first Native American poet laureate of the United States, will visit Kent State in March 2022 for a keynote event and book reading. The official title of this project is the NEA Big Read Nor...

Deborah F. Spake, Ph.D., dean of Kent State University’s College of Business Administration, has been named a 2021 recipient of the American Marketing Association (AMA) Marketing for Higher Education Special Interest Group (Higher Ed SIG) Lifetime Achievement Award. The Higher Ed SIG Lifetime Achievement Award honors a marketing scholar who has demonstrated distinct accomplishments and dedication to the area of higher education in the marketing discipline.  Spake is dean of the College of Business Administration and professor of marketing at Kent State. She serves on the Initial Acc...