Monthly Memo--September 6, 2009

Monthly Memo from the Desk of
Dean Joseph Steiner
94th Edition
September 9, 2009

A Message from Dean Steiner

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and provide an update regarding the administration of the University of Wyoming College of Health Sciences. As you probably know, Robert O. Kelley, Ph.D., served as the dean of the college until the spring of 2008 when he moved to Grand Forks to become the president of the University of North Dakota. As you would expect from someone of his caliber, Bob did an excellent job guiding the college over the 10 years he served. While his accomplishments are too many to mention here, two prominent ones are his work in the building of the college's first true physical home in the renovation and addition to the old Biochemistry Building and his efforts to stimulate research and scholarship. In the interim, Beverly Sullivan, Pharm.D. from the School of Pharmacy admirably served as the dean of the college. Bev guided the college through a number of challenges during the last year, including the loss of funding imposed by the current economy. They have both dynamically contributed to the strengths of this college, and I am fortunate to assume this dean's position after their excellent leadership.
Upon the announcement of Dr Kelley's leaving, a search committee was formed. The committee included faculty, staff, administrators, members of the Dean's Advisory Council, and others with ties to the college. I am told there were a number of well-qualified applicants. This past February I was offered an interview and visited during a wonderful March blizzard. At that time, I was given the opportunity to visit with many of the college's constituents and came away impressed by the growth of the college and the potential for the future. I am extremely happy to say I was offered the position in April. As you will see below, I have a strong relationship with UW and the college. I have worked closely with all four of the former deans and have always had a strong interest in serving in the position I now hold. I am looking forward to associating with an excellent administration; the strong, committed faculty and staff; and the wonderful alumni who together make UW and this college great.
Now I would like to introduce myself. I grew up on a farm in southeastern Michigan and still have a bit of the farm boy in me in that I prefer to live in more rural environments. Even in Laramie, I still enjoy having a garden. I attended the University of Michigan where I received bachelor's degrees in zoology and pharmacy and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. I also completed a residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center. My wife, Susan, and I met at Michigan while she was a nursing student. When I finished my residency, Susan and I decided we wanted to do something different, and a job with the University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy fit the description. The job was located off campus in Casper, and I had the responsibility of developing one of the school's first practice sites at the Natrona County Memorial Hospital, the future Wyoming Medical Center. My wife and I thought we would probably live and explore Wyoming and the Rocky Mountains for a few years and then head back to family and more common environs in the Midwest. However, we fell in love with the Rocky Mountain West and could not leave. About the same time I took the position in Casper, a family practice residency program being developed asked if I would work with them. I agreed because of the incredible potential that existed. Family medicine was a relatively new specialty, and clinical pharmacy was primarily practiced in hospital settings. Health care was just starting to see the importance of providing comprehensive services in the ambulatory setting. It was exciting to help develop these areas.
At the UW residency program, I was given administrative responsibility that increased over the years, and it was there that I began to hone my administrative skills. When the UW School of Pharmacy first departmentalized, I was offered the position of Director of the Division of Pharmacy Practice in Laramie and the opportunity to further develop my administrative skills. I have had excellent mentors over the years, and I am very grateful for their guidance and support. When my career moved toward administration, a position as a dean became the goal. That was met when I was offered and accepted the position of the Dean of the College of Pharmacy at Idaho State University. In the eight years I spent at ISU, my colleagues and I had many accomplishments, too many to elaborate here. However, I do have the same expectations for my new responsibilities at UW. I feel very fortunate to have had the experiences that I have had.
Besides Sue, my immediate family consists of two daughters and a grandson. Sue is a nurse practitioner-educator. She has a Ph.D. in education and is board certified in Women's Health Care and in Family Practice. At Idaho State University, she was the director of the graduate programs in nursing. She is joining the UW nursing faculty as the Associate Dean for Clinical and Community Affairs. My oldest daughter, Kate, has a bachelor's degree in family and child health from UW and a master's in student affairs and counseling from Idaho State University. She returned to Laramie and is now the Program Coordinator for Student Affairs. My youngest daughter, Josie, graduated from Laramie high school, attended cosmetology school, and is employed as a beautician in Laramie. She gave us our first grandchild in July of 2008.
I am honored and appreciative that I was selected to join and lead this fine faculty and college. Both Susan and I are thrilled to return as members of the UW family.
If you have any thoughts, questions, or concerns regarding the UW College of Health Sciences, please feel free to contact me.

News from the Divisions

     Social Work
With grant funding from the Children's Bureau of the U.S. Department of Human Services, members of the Division of Social Work and the Wyoming Department of Family Services (DFS) have joined with the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver to address the needs of professionals who work with children and families in the child welfare arena. The newly funded Wyoming Workforce Project (WWP) selected the Natrona County DFS to examine ways to strengthen the needs of casework staff in the specialized area of child and family practice. According to Mona Schatz, Division Director, casework staff in this particular sphere become strained and at times overworked, resulting in high burnout and turnover often in less than 24 months on the job. Mona says, "Caseworkers need to be highly skilled in working with families in crisis. Families today are experiencing very challenging times economically, and children may become abused or neglected when families are highly stressed." Using a unique study design, the WWP will assess the organizational environment of Natrona County's DFS by talking with public and private organizations and internal staff and managers to identify ways to address and improve the situation. Through the grant, the division will provide $2,000 and $3,000 stipend awards to enable UW undergraduate or graduate social work students who are interested in a child welfare career to have field practicum intern experience. Jennifer Gray, a social work graduate student and caseworker in Natrona County, is the program's first award recipient.
Wyoming INstitute for Disabilities (WIND)
The number of WIND's services to the citizens of Wyoming continues to grow with the recent publication of a ready reference card—UTSE Personal Readiness and Go Bag Information for People Unable to Self Evacuate (UTSE)—to be given to people or organizations to be contacted if/when a UTSE requires evacuation assistance. One side of the card provides general instructions for the information to be supplied by the UTSE—medications, recent medical history, doctor's name, special food needs, service animal supplies, etc. On the other side of the card is an easy-to-read fact sheet. While the card is intended for UTSEs, it is also valuable to anyone wishing to plan ahead for an emergency situation. A companion piece—"First Responders: Medics, Firefighters, Law Enforcement Personnel, and Any Emergency or Disaster Responder"—with essential information such as instructions for helping and moving people with mobility impairments, mental illness, and cognitive disabilities is also available. Please contact WIND's Dave Schaad (307-766-2095 or dschaad@uwyo.edu) to obtain copies of these documents.
During a reception held on September 1st, WIND welcomed its new director, William "Bill" MacLean, Jr., Ph.D. In 1996, Bill came to UW's Department of Psychology after serving on the Vanderbilt University faculty in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was a scientist at the John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development and co-directed the Mental Retardation Research Training Program. He is a Fellow of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and the American Psychological Association and recently completed a six-year term as editor of the American Journal on Mental Retardation. Bill considers the opportunity to lead WIND's efforts an honor and pledges to "support WIND's efforts to increase its visibility through research and scholarship, enhance collaboration among WIND personnel and university colleagues, strengthen the institute's educational mission, and collaborate with state agencies and organizations. The future looks bright for WIND and its new director.
WIND's Wyoming Adult Protection Training program held training sessions in Salt Lake City, Utah, intended to increase identification and prosecution of elder abuse and neglect. Representatives from the Salt Lake City Police and Sheriff's Departments and law enforcement officers from Las Vegas, Nevada, were among those attending. The conference, which addressed elder abuse dynamics; statutes and remedies; initial response; investigative strategies; physical and sexual abuse; and financial exploitation, is made possible by a multi-agency grant received by WIND and the Wyoming Geriatric Education Center.

     Laramie's Downtown Clinic
Laramie's Downtown Clinic is celebrating 10 years of medical service to citizens of Laramie and Albany County. Since its founding in 1999, the clinic has provided free or low-cost professional non-emergent primary acute and chronic services to thousands of people without the financial resources to access medical care. According to board member L. J. Guthman, "The clinic is important for a healthier community." A non-profit organization, the clinic is funded by United Way, individual donors, grants, etc. On Wednesdays from 3-7 pm, a team of medical and highly trained volunteers from the Laramie and university communities meets the physical, emotional, and social health needs of its clients. For more information about this outstanding community health care service, please visit www.downtownclinic.org.
School of Pharmacy
Our students are among the best in the country. Kendra Van Grinsven from Powell; Elizabeth Higdon, Mark Harmon, and Joseph Poling from Laramie; Cory Officer from Evanston; Morganne Smyth from Cheyenne; and Jared Underdahl from Owatonna, Minnesota, were among the top 10 finalists in the 2009 National Community Pharmacists Association's (NCPA) Shutte-Pruitt Business Plan Competition. Their business plan, "Stone Drug: Pharmaceutical Care ‘At Its Peak,'" described a five-year plan for purchasing Stone Drug in Jackson and adding a pain management clinic, a veterinary medication compounding and flavoring service, and a medication adherence program featuring Medicine-on-Time® to the company. The students and their faculty project advisor, Kem Krueger, Associate Professor, will be recognized during the awards ceremony of the NCPA's Annual Meeting in New Orleans.
Although UW's School of Pharmacy is one of the smallest schools/colleges of pharmacy in the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), we made our presence known at the association's 2009 annual meeting in Boston. Mary Emashowski Onysko, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, served as the faculty delegate to the AACP House of Delegates; Linda Gore Martin, Associate Dean and Associate Professor, was the administrative delegate; and Christy Weiland, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice, and John Vandel, Dean, were the alternate delegates. During the convention, Linda began her tenure as Chair of the Social and Administrative Sciences Curriculum Committee; Kem Krueger, Associate Professor, was sworn in as Chair of the Pharmacy Ethics Special Interest Group; and John completed his year as a dean facilitator for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Academic Leadership Fellows Program, a year-long program designed to develop the nation's most prominent pharmacy faculty for roles as future leaders in academic pharmacy and higher education. Three faculty members—Carol Kobulnicky, Associate Professor; Kem, and John—participated in live presentations, and nine faculty members and four Pharm.D. students—Jason Bischoff from Lovell; Mark Russell from Smithfield, Utah; and Stephanie Buck-Crolla and Aislinn McBeth from Laramie—presented a total of eight posters.

   UW Family Medicine Residency Program at Cheyenne (FMRP Cheyenne)
Pamela Oiler, LCSW, who brings additional training to residency education and assets to patient care, was welcomed to the FMRP Cheyenne team in June. Pamela has served the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center as a long-term care social services director, case manager of in-patient units, and provider of social services in the Emergency Department.
As part of the program's recruiting efforts, Deb Frew, Residency Recruiting Coordinator; James Broomfield, M.D., Program Director; Pat Yost, M.D., Faculty Physician; residents Rosa Zareie, Cara Johnson, and Anna Wilkins; and WWAMI medical students Kris Schamber and Brian Meadhaus attended the AAFP National Conference of Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students held in Kansas City at the end of July. With nearly 500 medical students from across the country attending, the conference was an excellent venue in which to showcase the FMRP and the fact that Wyoming is a great place to live and practice family medicine.

     Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing (FWWSON)
The "Friends of the Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing" was recently formed to help direct the school's development plan and support current initiatives. Board members Guardia Banister, Mary Behrens, Mary Burman, Marcia Dale, Ed Henry, Veronica Taylor, and Fay Whitney are enthusiastic and bring a range of expertise to their mission to meet FWWSON needs. The school Web site is currently featuring each member in turn. Please visit www.uwyo.edu/nursing and click on "Friends of FWWSON" to meet these dedicated folks.
The FWWSON is pleased to welcome three new faculty members. Susan Steiner, Ph.D., RN, FNP, is proud to be a two-time UW alumna, having earned her master's as a family nurse practitioner and her Ph.D. in education from UW. She will serve the school as its associate dean for clinical and community affairs, teach a beginning class—The Intellectual Community in Nursing—and oversee a graduate thesis section. Ronda Kinsey, MSN, RN, who will teach with the accelerated BSN Outreach program, will complete her doctoral research—"Contextual and Intrapersonal Factors in Adolescent Smoking Behavior"—early next year. Anne Bowen, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist with specific interest in health psychology, pediatric and behavioral medicine, and public health, has joined the nursing faculty as a half-time director of the Nightingale Center for Nursing Scholarship.
The FWWSON, along with the Wyoming Community Foundation, is progressing with the creation of the Wyoming Center for Nursing and Health Care Partnerships. The center's mission will be to strengthen the nursing workforce through ongoing collaboration, communication, and consensus building to meet the health needs of the people of Wyoming. Five pilot projects across the state have been funded. For more information about the center and its programs, please contact Matthew Sholty (msholty@uwyo.edu).
The scholarship and research of FWWSON faculty has a wide audience. "Processes Inherent in Mammography-screening Decisions of Rarely or Never-screened Women" by Mary Anne Purtzer, Assistant Professor, will soon be published by Western Journal of Nursing Research. In early October, Carrie Deselms, Associate Lecturer, will present a poster—"University of Wyoming Accelerated Nursing Program: Pioneering with Distance Delivery Strategies"—during the New Careers in Nursing Summit sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

     WWAMI Medical Education Program
UW's WWAMI Medical Education Program is pleased to welcome the following 16 students to its 2009 entering class: Scott Bibbey and Michelle Cassidy from Cheyenne; Clayton Brown from Star Valley; Steven Clements and Travis Pecha from Gillette; Kimberly Cranford from Alpine; Greg Dolan from Laramie; Eli Harris from Green River; Eric Howell and Elise Lowe from Sheridan; Mary Mrdutt, Tyler Quest, and Kevin Sun from Casper; Tony Pedri from Rock Springs; Sandra Smylie from Douglas; and Megan Woodward from Torrington. The class began an intensive three-week anatomy course on August 3rd. Their remaining courses began August 24th with UW's fall semester.
Many graduate and professional programs begin the school year with a day or two of orientation and group teambuilding. Medical education is no different. WWAMI students spend up to eight hours a day in classes with each other. The small class size of 16 students is an advantage in many ways, but it also means that feeling like part of a team and having strong communication skills within the classroom are very important. With that in mind, UW's WWAMI developed a new approach to orientation this year as students embarked on an exercise called "Teambuilding through Cooking." The students, who were required to shop, cook, set up, and clean up a four-course meal for 20 people, were separated into teams of four, armed with recipes, and given directions to a grocery store. Kelly Hubbell, WWAMI faculty member and director of Wyoming Area Health Education, graciously offered her home as the kitchen and dining area for the exercise. Cooking may not typically be thought of as a teambuilding activity, but in order for the group to complete the meal in a family-style kitchen, members had to communicate with their team members and the other students in the class to set the menu, organize shopping lists, assemble ingredients, and work in a relatively small space. Timing in the kitchen was important: "When will Team 1 need the oven and at what temperature and for how long?" "Who has the olive oil?" "Did we forget the eggs?" "May I wash those measuring cups now so Team 2 can use them?" Although the first 10 minutes seemed hectic, the pace soon leveled out as communication increased and all 16 students worked together as a team. After all the hard work in the kitchen, the group enjoyed a delicious meal and a heightened sense of community. In the weeks of intense study since orientation, the entering class has shown it has what it takes individually and as a team.

     Wyoming Geriatric Education Center (WyGEC)
On June 10th, Mary Ellen Geist, author of Measure of the Heart, was a guest speaker during the two-day Foundations of Dementia Care training held at Sheridan Memorial Hospital. With the 29 participants, Ms. Geist shared her care giving experiences during her father's arduous journey with Alzheimer's. A copy of Ms. Geist's book is available at WIND's Resource Library (307-766-2932). Since 2008, WyGEC and the Alzheimer's Association Chapter of the Great Plains (AACGP) have held over 10 trainings across the state of Wyoming. Participants in the sessions have been health care professionals such as registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, senior companions, social workers, and certified nursing assistants and family care providers of older adults. In turn, the participants have trained over 312 health care providers who work with the elderly. WyGEC and AACGP are currently scheduling two trainings to be held this fall in Cheyenne and Evanston. For more information, please contact Angela Lavery Benson (307-766-2829 or alavery@uwyo.edu).

  
     Division of Communication Disorders (ComDis)
Douglas Peterson, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, has joined the division's faculty. Doug recently arrived from Utah State University where he did his doctoral studies and will very soon defend his dissertation. With his specialty areas of reading assessment, narrative intervention, and bilingual Spanish/French children, he has worked as a speech-language pathologist in Utah, Washington, and California.
Teresa Ukrainetz, Division Director, and Ron Gillam of Utah State University co-wrote imaginative narratives by children with specific language impairment, which appeared in the August issue of Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

     Center for Rural Health Research and Education (CRHRE)
The CRHRE looks forward to the fall semester as it continues to work with various health, technology, and engineering experts across campus and around the state. In the coming months, the center's mission of improving the quality of health care and services in rural areas will be focused on improving access to mental health care. This is an important matter for Wyoming because mental health care is sorely lacking in many areas despite the significant need. For example, Wyoming averages one suicide every four days, and suicide is the second-leading cause of death among the state's college students.
The statewide rural health care pilot program funded by the Federal Communications Commission has completed its vendor selection and has chosen Qwest to build the network. With this project, nearly 50 hospitals, clinics, and mental health/substance abuse centers throughout the state will receive high-speed telecommunications connections to support telehealth applications.
The CRHRE is proud of its staff. In early September, Bob Wolverton, Assistant Research Scientist, spoke about telehealth at the Annual Rocky Mountain Geriatrics Conference held in Midway, Utah. Congratulations are in order for graduate student Anthony Wallace who completed the preliminary exam for his doctorate in computer science. Tony is joined by the center's newest graduate assistants: Christina Hassija and Britnee Brost. Christina is a graduate student in clinical psychology; her position is supported through the Maude J. Mueller endowment. Britnee, a graduate student in public administration, will continue her work in project management and research with rural health care programs.

     Kinesiology and Health (K&H)
K&H faculty add to their outstanding publication and research. Tami Benham-Deal, Associate Professor, published "The Road to Health Literacy—Principals Take the Wheel" in a recent issue of Principal. She is also the chief investigator on the $140,000 grant "Physical and Health Education in WY Schools" funded by the Wyoming Department of Education. "Influence of High School Physical Education on University Students' Physical Activity" by Jayne Jenkins, Associate Professor, and Tristan Wallhead, Assistant Professor, is scheduled for publication in European Physical Education Review. Tristan was also invited to present "Understanding Peer Teaching Through a Didactic Lens" at Leeds Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom and with Derek Smith, Assistant Professor, awaits the appearance of "Sports Education and Extra-curricular Sport Participation: An Examination Using the Trans-contextual Model of Motivation" in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. Derek also published "Eight-month Follow-up of Physical Activity and Central Adiposity: Results from an Internet-delivered Intervention in Overweight Adults" in Journal of Physical Activity and Health and "Care of Biological Samples in a Rural Setting" in Clinical Nursing Research. D. Paul Thomas, Professor, has been invited to serve on the editorial board of the new periodical International Journal of Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Pharmacology. Qin "Arthur" Zhu, Assistant Professor, was appointed to a consulting team for High Performance Coaching by the USA Badminton Coaching Education Department and has a journal article in press—"Learning to Throw Maximum Distances: Do Changes in Release Angle and Speed Reflect Affordances for Throwing?" at Human Movement Science—and a chapter, "Investigating the Information Used to Detect an Affordance for Maximum Distance Throwing," to appear in Studies in Perception & Action published by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Division students continue to succeed. Brett Shelton from Ft. Collins, Colorado, was accepted into the Doctorate of Physical Therapy program at Creighton University, and Megan Ramsey from Broomfield, Colorado, has entered the master's program at the University of Washington.

     Student Affairs
As part of the university's new Summit Freshman Orientation Program, a group of students from the Preprofessional and Exploring Sciences Freshmen Interest Groups went on a walking tour of the downtown and Optimist Park areas of Laramie. Led by Craig Vaske of the college advising office and student residents from Resident Life and Dining Services, the students were encouraged to think critically about everyday features such as businesses, curb cuts, benches, and housing in an effort to make connections between their environment and health issues.

 

Posted on Thursday, September 10, 2009