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arts festival moves downtown
The YSU Summer Festival of the Arts is moving a few blocks south from the YSU campus to the new Wean Foundation Park in downtown Youngstown. The free festival, started in 1999, annually attracts more than 80 artists and 15,000 visitors. This year’s event is July 17 and 18.
“We hope this move will help further grow the festival and will also help further introduce the community to this beautiful new downtown recreational area,” YSU President Jim Tressel said at a news conference announcing the switch. Youngstown Mayor Jamael “Tito” Brown agreed. “We look forward to thousands of artists, performers and festival-goers from throughout the region coming to downtown Youngstown,” he added.
The new Raymond John Wean Foundation Park, a community complex with over 20 acres of recreational green space and walking paths, is located along the Mahoning River at the Market Street bridge in downtown Youngstown.
prez, provost contracts extended
YSU’s top executive team is staying put. The YSU Board of Trustees in March approved contract extensions for President Jim Tressel and Provost Brien Smith. “We are happy to have the leaders of our executive team securely in place to continue their great work,” Board Chair Anita Hackstedde said.
Tressel was named YSU’s ninth president in 2014, agreeing to a three-year contract and then one-year extensions through June 2021. The latest extension says that, starting July 1, 2021, Tressel’s contract as president will continue until terminated by either party with 180 days prior written notice.
Smith was named YSU provost and vice president for Academic Affairs in 2019, becoming the university’s second-highest ranking officer and overseeing all academic operations. He came to YSU in 2019 from Indiana State University, where he was dean of Business. His contract at YSU was extended to 2025.
Preparing for "Near normal"
Doctor, Doctor-to-Be named trustees
A student studying to be a doctor and a graduate who is already a doctor have been appointed to serve together on the YSU Board of Trustees.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced the reappointment of Anita Hackstedde of Columbiana, Ohio, president and chief executive officer of Salem Regional Medical Center, to the board, and also named Elsa Khan, a Biology major in the BaccMed program at YSU to a two-year term as a student trustee.
Khan is a student assistant in the Honors College and a member of several YSU student organizations, including Student Government, Muslim Student Association, STEM Leadership Society and Freshguins Leadership Program.
Hackstedde was originally appointed to the board to fill the unexpired term of James B. Greene of Canfield, who died in 2016. Her new term will expire April 2030. Hackstedde earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology, with a minor in Chemistry, from YSU in 1990 and a medical degree from Ohio State University College of Medicine in 1994. She was director of Student Health at YSU from 1998 to 2006 and was named president/CEO of Salem Regional Medical Center in December 2013.
fifth avenue construction nears completion
The overhaul of Fifth Avenue through campus, including a new roadway, lane configuration, sidewalks and lighting, is expected to be completed by the end of July. This drone photo shows construction from the intersection of Fifth Avenue with Armed Forces Boulevard north to the Madison Avenue Expressway. Landscaping is expected to follow in the Fall, with plans for an autonomous vehicle along the roadway sometime in the near future.
Dana - "Just what the Doctor ordered"
YSU’s Dana School of Music teamed up with the Mercy Health Foundation earlier this year to bring music to patients at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital and help soothe these stressful pandemic times.
“Music is very powerful in addressing the well-being of the whole person,” said Paul Homick, president of Mercy Health Foundation. “It calms the mind and lifts the spirit, so the body can heal. That is especially important right now, when many of our patients can’t be with their families.”
The project was called “Just What the Doctor Ordered” and included four prerecorded video performances by Dana students broadcast to patient rooms at St. Elizabeth Youngstown.
"Sharing our music with the patients and staff at Mercy Health is one small way we can give back to the community of health professionals who have done so much for the Valley this year,” said Randall Goldberg, Dana director.
YSU, rodef sholom partner
And speaking of partnerships, YSU’s History program is partnering with Congregation Rodef Sholom to create an archive for the oldest Jewish congregation in Youngstown.
“As we dream about and plan for the future of Rodef Sholom and the Jewish community in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys, the archive project will provide a better understanding and appreciation of our past and strengthen the foundation upon which we strive to grow and prosper,” said Bethany Goldberg, a trustee and music historian at the 154-year-old temple on Elm Street just north of the YSU campus.
The partnership grew from meetings between Sarah Wilschek, executive director of Rodef Sholom, and Kayla Metzger, the AmeriCorps Ohio History Service Corps member hosted by the YSU History program.
Graduate students in YSU’s History practicum will assist in the first steps of a multi-stage process to develop the archive at the synagogue.
a workforce for a high-tech future
Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted joined YSU President Jim Tressel and other state and local officials on a frigid February afternoon to highlight the Mahoning Valley’s numerous multi-million-dollar initiatives to develop a skilled workforce to meet the growing needs of the region’s emerging high-tech markets, including electric vehicle, battery and additive manufacturing.
The news conference, which also included Lydia Mihalik, director of the Ohio Development Services Agency, was held inside the new Excellence Training Center on the YSU campus and came three weeks after Husted announced a $12 million community investment in the Mahoning Valley as part of General Motors’ repayment of tax credit incentives. The investment includes $5 million to YSU for workforce development and for the creation of the YSU Energy Storage Innovation and Training Center.
“A skilled workforce is the cornerstone of Ohio’s economic development strategy,” Mihalik said. “This new training center will make Youngstown State a leader in workforce development and prepare students in the Mahoning Valley for high-tech jobs of the future.”
“Throughout our 113-year history, YSU has focused on creating opportunities for the people of the Mahoning Valley region,” Tressel said. “As we move into the third decade of the 21st century, we will keep that focus by playing a leading role in providing the training, research, innovation and workforce development to transform the economic future of our area.”
Among the workforce development initiatives at YSU:
- The Excellence Training Center, a 54,000-square-foot facility that will provide high-tech space for machining, metrology, CT scanning, advanced mold making, additive manufacturing and automation/robotics. Ribbon-cutting in July.
- YSU IT Workforce Accelerator, in partnership with IBM, designed to align workforce with industry in-demand skills.
- YSU Energy Storage and Innovation Training Center, part of a $1 million partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to advance workforce development for the battery manufacturing industry.
- Virtual Career Fair, a 24/7/365 digital experience designed to showcase the Mahoning Valley region as a great place to live, work and do business.
- YSU Center for Workforce Education and Innovation, oversees all of the university’s workforce initiatives.
fifth doctorate introduced
If you’re a nurse interested in making nearly $200,000 a year – and who wouldn’t? – then you might want to take a look at YSU’s new Doctorate in Nursing Practice program.
The 36-month degree, in collaboration with the St. Elizabeth Health Center School of Nurse Anesthetists, prepares students to become Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists. And, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CRNAs make an average annual salary of $181,040.
The DNP in YSU’s Centofanti School of Nursing’s is the fifth doctoral-level program at YSU, joining Educational Administration and Physical Therapy, and PhD programs in Health Sciences and Materials Science/Engineering.
Business dean TO retire
In its century-plus history, many memorable folks have graced the campus of Youngstown College, Youngstown University and today Youngstown State University. There are those, however, who come and leave a mark. Betty Jo Licata would be one of those.
Licata came to YSU in 1995 as dean of the Williamson College of Business Administration and has been on a winning streak ever since – international accreditation, a new state-of-the-art building, a nationally-recognized Small Business Development Center and a slew of innovative academic centers, initiatives and successes across the college and university.
Licata retires at the end of the calendar year. In a statement, she used words like “privilege” and “grateful,” but she finished with the word “students” – “It is working with our students that brings the greatest joy, and I will truly miss watching them grow and succeed.”