2.25 Good afternoon from the SPH Building. We're going to run a live blog covering the more interesting aspects of the SPH Assembly, which starts in just about five minutes. During the two-hour meeting, we'll meet new faculty members, get updates on the building renovation and mock site visit, learn about changes to the school and new programs, and close the day with presentation of faculty and staff awards.
For the posts themselves, both myself and Shannon Hoffman, our new Graduate Assistant for Communications and Media Outreach, will be posting to the live-blog. Welcome.
Check back often for updates, and we look forward to seeing you in just a few.
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3.03 Here are the highlights from the presentations by each of the department chairs:
Epidemiology and Biostatistics: Chair Dr. Deborah Young began by saying "I am pleased to announce that we are a row and a half," thanks the addition of two new faculty members. She also highlighted Dr. Tong Tong Wu's involvement in a multi-million dollar grant, as well as the continued success of the UM Star program.
Family Science: Dr. Elaine Anderson announced that the FMSC has been joined by Amanda Bowsher. Amanda, whom we profiled on the blog during the summer, will serve as the undergraduate coordinator for the department. Among other achievements and goings-on, she also announced that FMSC will be starting a book club, which will encourage all students and faculty within the department to read.
The selected book will be "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures" by Anne Fadiman, and Dr. Anderson expressed excitement about the book as it cuts across many of the issues that their students and faculty interact with everyday--the health care system, the challenges of family life and the intersection of cultures.
Health Services Administration: Dr. Wilson announced that the department's notable achievements are also their two new faculty members. She also announced that the department's two graduates--the first for the Health Services--have been successful in finding gainful employment. One is studying natural pathic medicine in Arizona, and the other is working in Health Services for the Federal Government.
Kinesiology: Dr. Clark announced that KNES had one notable hire, Polly Sebastian, who will be the coordinator for the school's graduate program, and noted that Drs. Marcio Oliverio and Ana Palla-Kane will now cover the work left by Dr. Coke Farmer when she moved to the Dean's Office (Dr. Clark: you know you're doing too much when you need two people to replace you). Dr. Clark also highlighted the work of Dr. Jae Shim, who received honors from both the American Society of Biomechanists and the International Society of Biomechanists in the same year.
Environmental Health: Dr. Sam Joseph announced that the MIAEH had two notable additions: Mary John will serve as the new office coordinator, and Dr. Don Milton will serve as the new director. Dr. Milton comes from UMASS-Lowell, and has done extensive research into asthma, including a CDC sponsored study as to whether people should wear surgical masks to prevent the spread of influenza. Preliminary results show that while it'll prevent the spread if you already have the flu, it wouldn't protect you if you're not sick.
Public and Community Health: Dr. Elbert Glover announced that Public and Community Health, because of the growth of the program, has had to hire several adjunct professors. He also noted the department had 26 active grants--"The dollars in grants keep coming to the department," Dr. Glover said, highlighting in particular the Prevention Research Center grant received by Dr. Brad Boekeloo.
Through the chair presentations, there's a dominance of Big 10 schools in the room--Wisconsin, Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State--making those of us who went to smaller schools feel a bit out of place.
We're back in a few...
(Just a note: if I missed something or misspelled something, it's because my limited typing skills only allow me to put up so much information).
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3.20 The Building Renovation:
Adam Shervanian, the SPH's director of facilities, outlined the latest developments to the school's ongoing multi-million dollar renovation. The project is on schedule, with 204 days of the renovation project remaining and 43 percent of the job completed as of 8/17. Substantial completion is scheduled for January 11, 2010.
Adam says that, if everything goes according to plan, these are the completion dates for these specific parts of the building: Second floor (Epi/Bio offices, new entrance/lobby, Dean's Suite) should be completed mid-November, the GA offices and labs (what used to be the old south racquetball courts) should be completed early December, and Family Science and the Center for Healthy Families should be completed early January.
Adam also outlined how the new offices will be set up (Karen Tysen will coordinator phones and computers, movers will handle the big stuff, Adam can answer questions), and noted that the spaces for graduate assistants and building common areas will receive new furniture.
One FYI: As part of the ongoing renovation, the building will experience an electrical outage tomorrow (8/26) evening. Faculty and staff are encouraged to talk with Adam if they have any questions.
Thanks to Adam and Chris Kosecki for all their hard work on the ongoing renovation project.
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4.09 As a follow up to the one and one-half day mock accreditation site visit, Dean Gold expressed the visitors' reactions and primary recommendations. He recognized first the team of faculty (the CEPH Action Team) who produced the required self-study, "a three-pound document" as it was referred to by PCH's Dr. Brad Hatfield, who then dropped the study on the desk with a thud.
Dean Gold also recognized those who had been involved in the visit; when he asked for those who'd been involved be recognized, about one-third of the room stood up. "It's a pretty substantial number of people who've been involved at one point or another," said Dean Gold. He also noted the contributions of the four student ambassadors who manned the door and provided support for the mock site visit during the day and a half. Those students were Monica Machado, Jimmy Shah, Paiker Sayed and Ginelle Jurlano. Dean Gold: "Anyone who got into the (conference) room got into the room with their permission."
Thomas Garson, chair of the Board of Visitors, was also thanked for his involvement. Dean Gold said that the board has been very active in the self study and accreditation process.
The visiting public health professionals performing the site visit, who are experienced in the accredition process, were impressed with the individuals at SPH and their preparation for the visit. The performance wasn't perfect, explained Dean Gold, but "overall we did a very, very good job."
Of the 27 criteria that are considered by the visitors, 25 of them were designated with the highest mark (criteria "met"). The remaining two achieved the second highest designation possible (criteria "met with comments").
Though SPH will not recieve official word of the school's accreditation status until June 2010, there will be indicators by October 21, said Dean Gold.
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4.19 Dean Gold is currently outlining the Passport Program, which will be launching this Fall. In past posts, we've provided information about the program and highlighted the upcoming lecture by Dr. Jaime Flores (link here), but for more information, check out the Web site (which will be live soon) and the brochure distributed to each department for more information.
Dean Gold encourages students as well as faculty, staff and community members to attend events, and students can be begin registering for the first event by the end of the week. A schedule of events will be announced soon.
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4.30 As the assembly drew to a conclustion, Dr. Hatfield and Dean Gold presented awards for faculty and staff.
The George F. Kramer "Practitioner of the Year Award" was given to Dr. Kerry Green for her work in putting theory into practice. Among her research efforts, she worked with urban communities in Baltimore to understand pathways to healthy living, collecting data from child-to-adult-hood, evaluating risk at each life stage. The overall goal of her research in this area is to decrease poor health behaviors like drug use and other plagues of the inner cities.
Dr. Kerry Green is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public and Community Health, and just received an RO1 from the National Institutes of Health-National Institute on Drug Abuse for a project entitled "Substance Use and Psychological Problems in African Americans into Midlife.
"The Muriel R. Sloan "Communitarian Award" was presented to Dr. Elizabeth Brown for taking up the reins of one of the most important outreach programs for SPH, the summer sports camp. Brown has directed the program for over a decade now.
Dr. Elizabeth Brown has been on the faculty in the Department of Kinesiology for the past twenty years. Her major research interests focus on parental influences on children's psychology development through sport as well as the pressures children face in youth sports, and was honored this year for her mentorship through the Philip Merrill Presidential Scholars program.
Next came the Research and Development award, which was awarded to Family Science faculty member Dr. Kevin Roy. His work examines adult development of individuals in under-served areas and is nationally and internationally recognized for his research and writing, including his notable nomination for the Ruben Hill Award.
The recipient of this year's Leda Amick Wilson Award, which was established in 2003 to honor a faculty member in family science, was awarded to Dr. Susan Kogut of the Kinesiology Department. She was unable to attend today as she is at a conference. After 10 years of teaching and mentoring, it is "long overdue" that Kogut receive it, sait Dr. Hatfield. She takes up to 40 students to meetings and conferences each year and also sponsors Hoops for Heart with the American Cancer Society.
"Students who graduate from the program tell us year after year how much they learned" from Dr. Kogut, said Dr. Hatfield.
For the final award, the room came to a standing ovation in recognition of Adam Shervanian, facilities manager, who has just been given the brand new Award in Excellence for Staff Performance, officially called the Viki Annand Award."Both (Viki) and I feel this person ought to get his award," said Dean Gold. "There is some staff who contribute mightily to this school, and it's about we bring that status up to the rest of these awards. This first award will go to someone who, from the last seven years, I have had more comments from people about how lucky we have this person working for us."As he gave the award to Adam, Dean Gold joked, "The award doesn't have any engraving in it, because Adam gets all the awards engraved."
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