Dr. Blackwell was honored on Saturday April 15th, 2023 as the recipient of the UCF College of Nursing 2023 Outstanding Knight Nurse Award in Education. The award:
Recognizes nursing educators and/or faculty for sharing knowledge, creating and cultivating an environment that supports life-long learning, using innovative teaching strategies, utilizing evidence-based practice in clinical areas, and focusing on scholarly research and dissemination within clinical settings.
A decades-long educator and four-time alumnus of the UCF College of Nursing, Christopher Blackwell is currently an associate professor and program director for the Adult/Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Program, which he established in 2014. Blackwell is well known for his student-centered teaching philosophy, using innovative course materials, interactive resources and multimedia presentations to engage students and ensure the best possible learning experience. His students consistently give him high praise for making difficult material easier to understand. Blackwell’s dedication extends beyond the classroom as he mentors students to help them achieve their academic and professional goals. As a Knight nurse, he shines bright in his dedication to his students, his commitment to academic excellence, and in mentoring future generations.
In addition, Dr. Blackwell is a recipient of the 2023 Teaching Incentive Program Award from the College of Nursing, an award he has also received in 2011 and 2017.
Robert Vendetti, an alumni from the University of Central Florida’s College of Graduate Studies, sees the release of the motion picture based on his graphic novel on comic book series Surrogates released this Friday in movie theaters nationwide. Entertainment Weekly called this tale of people who live vicarious lives through their artificial (and artificially gorgeous) “surrogates” “a resplendently grimy commentary” on our times. “The minute I heard Bruce Willis was cast was the first moment I allowed myself to hope that this might actually get turned into a movie,” Venditti says with a laugh. “A producer who had just hung out his shingle called me up [Max Handelman]. He shopped it around, ran into a studio guy who had just seen Sin City and wanted ‘something edgy, comic-booky’ like that. So Mandeville Films got involved, then Jonathan Mostow [director of U-571, Terminator 3], with screenwriters from Terminator 3. “I’ve been involved, at least in the loop,” he says. “I looked at it from the perspective that these other people were creative minds in their own right. If they’re inspired by something I did to bring their own creativity to it, I’m taking that as a compliment and letting them do what they want. They were staying true to the themes and adding their own ideas and plot lines and characters. You know they’re going to add explosions. That’s Hollywood.” Surrogates releases Friday from Touchstone Pictures. To visit the ridiculously cool official Site for Surrogates: 