Student Profiles
Nita Tallent-Halsell, Ph.D., Life Sciences (and Jeffery N. Halsell, Ph.D., Educational Leadership)
Nita Tallent-Halsell and her husband Jeff earned undergraduate, master’s, and now doctoral degrees from UNLV. During their time at UNLV, Jeffery and Nita have demonstrated superior scholarship and a strong commitment to both the community and the university.
Tell us a little about your life before coming to UNLV - where you grew up, your family life, what interests did you have, academically and other wise? How did you end up attending UNLV?
Both Nita and Jeff have lead lives filled with adventure and challenge. Nita was born in Arkansas but spent the majority of her childhood and adolescence abroad. With her father working as an Engineer for Raytheon Corporation, Nita was fortunate enough to spend her youth in countries such as Saudi Arabia, Germany, and Austria. Living on the Red Sea in Saudi Arabia between 1967 and 1979 enabled Nita to realize her life’s work. It was while spending her days playing on the beach and snorkeling in the Red Sea that Nita decided, at age 10, that she was going to be a biologist. That decision has remained with her throughout her life.
Jeff spent the majority of his childhood and adolescent in western Ohio before moving to a rural community in Tennessee, where he graduated from high school in 1976. While always interested in entering the field of education, Jeff decided shortly after graduation to join the United States Air Force. It was the Air Force that eventually brought Jeff to Nellis Air Force Base and the Las Vegas area in 1980. While Jeff enjoyed the excitement and travel associated with being a member of the Armed Forces, he left the Air Force in 1983 to work in the Las Vegas area for EG&G Special Projects, a Department of Defense contractor. Although Jeff enjoyed the challenge of working in the defense industry during the Cold War era, his work required frequent travel that often took him away from his family for extended periods. Therefore, in 1989 Jeff left a promising career in the defense industry to pursue his undergraduate degree in secondary education.
Nita, her parents Robert and Evelyn Tallent, two sisters, and brother returned to the United States in the late 1970’s and settled in New Hampshire, where Nita began her academic career at St. Anslem’s College. In 1985, when Nita’s father transferred to Las Vegas to take a position at the Nevada Test Site, Nita and her young son Jeremiah soon followed and Nita continued her study of biology at UNLV. An added benefit of their relocation was that Nita met and married Jeff Halsell. A readymade family was formed with their union as Jeremiah was joined by Jeff’s children Jessecca and Adam. Together, Jeff and Nita later welcomed a teenage foster daughter, Carey. Their lives were filled with school activities, sports and exploring the outdoors. All the while Nita and Jeff attended UNLV to earn undergraduate, masters, and now their doctorates. Nita earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences in 1989, with Jeff earning his Bachelor pf Arts degree in Secondary Education in 1994. Nita followed with her Masters Degree in Biology in 1998 and Jeff with his Masters Degree in Educational Leadership in 1999. It was only when their youngest son graduated from high school in 2001 that Jeff and Nita decided to pursue their doctorates, Nita continued to work as a research scientist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Jeff worked as a statistician for the Clark County School District. And now, in 2008, Jeff Halsell and Nita Tallent-Halsell have both earned their doctorial degrees in Educational Leadership and Biological Sciences, respectively.
Concurrent with their academic progress their careers were also forming. Nita was hired by the EPA as a field biologist immediately after she received her undergraduate degree in 1989, to support research in Alaska following the Exxon Valdez oil spill. That project was the first of many research projects that took Nita throughout the United States and into Eastern Europe. Her work has included the study of water quality in New England lakes, forest health in the Pacific Northwest, rangeland grazing in the Colorado Plateau and amphibian decline in Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks. Following a similar path, Nita’s masters research concentrated on the impact of dams on native riparian woodlands at Lake Mohave.
Jeff went to work in 1994 as a Mathematics Teacher at Brown Jr. High School, which was consequently the same school his children attended. In 1996 Jeff changed school locations and began teaching mathematics at Basic High School, again the same school his children attended. After his last child graduated from high school Jeff spent a few years teaching mathematics at Coronado High School before taking a position in the Clark County School District Assessment and Accountability Department.
Please tell us about your research, including how you became involved in this field? What are the possible benefits/outcomes of your research?
Nita was fortunate to have earned a position with the EPA immediately after completing her undergraduate degree. However, she always wanted to know more. With every project she wanted to better understand the fundamental scientific principles and analytical techniques intricate to the studies. In particular, she was interested in the study of interactions among plants and their environment (plant ecology). Especially interesting to her was how the distribution of plants around the world by humans has changed ecosystems. Although she initially planned to conduct her doctoral studies in Nevada, her interest was diverted when the opportunity to study the impact of the invasion of a common garden plant, the butterfly bush, on New Zealand floodplains arose. The EPA permitted her multiple leave of absences to travel seven times between her home in Nevada and the South Island of New Zealand where she conducted field and shade house experiments between April 2004 and May 2007. With a loan from her retirement plan, scholarships from the International Study Program, a grant from Graduate and Professional Student Association, assistance from Landcare Research New Zealand and much financial and moral support from her husband Jeff she was able to complete a survey of several floodplains, an experiment where native plants were transplanted into dense thickets of butterfly bush and a shade house experiment. Her research has provided guidance to New Zealand and United States land managers on how to manage butterfly bush escapes from gardens in to natural areas and disrupts the establishment of native trees and shrubs.
Jeff’s research focus was a comparison of academic achievement for schools enrolling like populations. Current legislation designed to eliminate the academic achievement gap between discrete populations of students requires a standardized approach to measure and exact sanctions upon schools not achieving predetermined academic success, regardless of population served. Jeff’s research used the Two-Step Cluster Analysis procedure to identify homogeneous subgroups of schools, relative to populations served, and then used Analysis of Variance to determine which schools demonstrate statistically significant achieved above or below the subgroup universal mean.
What are your favorite/most important memories of UNLV and Las Vegas? People you have met, places you enjoy, classes you took...
We have so many wonderful memories of UNLV and its campus because it is where we have studied and Nita has worked for more than 25 years. Nita spent hours in White Hall attending lectures and working in the Walker Plant Science Lab while Jeff spent the majority of his time with Dr. Robert McCord at the William D, Carlson Education Building. As an undergraduate Nita worked for the food concessioner and in various biology labs while our son Adam attended the UNLV day care when it was housed in the Carlson Education Building. They would follow the large green shoeprints painted on the sidewalk from the Lily Fong building to the Chemistry building to the Biology Atrium. All four of our children enjoyed afternoons at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Natural History Museum and the UNLV Arboretum. We have attended plays, musical performances, and art exhibits at the many theatres and galleries located at UNLV. We have attended many university sporting events, cheering the Rebels at basketball, football, and soccer games. Nita has fond memories of classes taught by her advisor Dr. Lars Walker in addition to those taught by Drs. Stan Smith, Robert Dodge, Penny Amy, L. Storm and many, many others. Jeff spent many classroom hours enjoying instruction from professors such as Dr Robert McCord, Dr. Chad Cross, Dr, James Crawford, and many others. Nita was active in the Biological Sciences Graduate Student organization and the Graduate and Professional Student Association. We continue to be inspired by the new Lied Library and the massive growth that has occurred during our time here.
Nita’s time at UNLV has not ended. In addition to continuing her career as an Environmental Scientist with the EPA, she hopes to teach at UNLV. After teaching the Introduction to Environmental Science class for several semesters she now embraces the love of teaching and hopes to have the opportunity to teach other science courses in the future. UNLV has provided us an incredible home that has sheltered and nourished our minds and souls. Every building has added another room in our mansion.
What would people be surprised to know about you?
That I am so passionate about UNLV. Although I work on campus for the US EPA, I just can’t imagine spending my days any where else. Perhaps how academically non-traditional we have both been. While not intentional, we appear to have taken turns attending UNLV while supporting and raising our family. It is only in our final degree program that we were able to attend at the same time and consequently complete in the same academic year. While it has been a long and often time’s difficult struggle, we are proud of ourselves for completing and grateful to UNLV for providing the opportunity.
The College of Sciences offers research opportunities, including laboratory experience working side-by-side with professors.