Monthly Memo - April 29, 2008

Monthly Memo from the Desk of
Dean Robert O. Kelley

81st Edition

April 29, 2008

A Message from Dean Kelley:
The efforts of the college to enhance education in geriatrics have been strengthened by a substantial endowment$260,000 to be doubled to $520,000 through state matching fundsfrom the John P. Ellbogen Foundation to establish the John P. Ellbogen Excellence Fund for Geriatric Education. The net income from the endowment will be used each year to infuse geriatric/gerontology themes in UW courses, develop faculty expertise in geriatric topics, and expand resources in geriatric training to health professionals across the state. The endowment will also fund the establishment of an interdisciplinary minor in aging and human development within the college. Furthermore, the Ellbogen funds will enhance many of the activities of the School of Pharmacy's Wyoming Geriatric Education Center (WyGEC) begun last October by a Health Resources Services Administration grant. As a result of the generosity of the Ellbogen Foundation, the WyGEC will establish a speaker's bureau of geriatric experts, develop a cadre of retired health professionals to assist in the classroom, and create an on-line certificate in aging for both students and health professionals working in the field.

Did You Know?
Did you know there are many exciting ways you can support the College of Health Sciences, have your gift doubled, and still receive income for life? Under the Wyoming State Legislature endowment challenge program, if you make a qualifying gift to any endowment at UW, you are eligible to have your gift matched dollar-for-dollar by the state. The good news is that many types of gifts, including planned gift opportunities such as charitable remainder trusts or gift annuities, qualify for the state match. (A charitable remainder trust, for example, allows you to give money, securities, or other assets to a trust you create that will then pay you an income for life or for a period of years.) With these options, state matching funds can be secured when the value of the gift is at least $50,000 and the UW Foundation is the irrevocable trustee of the charitable trust or annuity. Why is this a win-win for you and the college? When you make your planned gift to UW, you will receive income and tax benefits, and the college will receive state matching funds immediately. Traditionally, the impact of planned gifts is not realized until well in the future, but the state match now makes it possible for your gift to work right away for many worthwhile programs, including college and division excellence funds, graduate and undergraduate scholarships, technology/equipment, and facilities. To learn more about planned gifts, please contact Jane Barghothi, Development Director for Health Sciences (307-766-6751 or jbarghot@uwyo.edu).

News from the Divisions
Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing
Congratulations are in order for Virginia Conley, Assistant Professor, recipient of the 2008 American Academy of Nurse Practitioner's (AANP) State Award for Excellence for Wyoming. This honor recognizes a nurse practitioner (NP) who demonstrates excellence in practice, research, NP education, or community affairs. Virginia will be recognized during the AANP's national conference to be held in late June in National Harbor, Maryland.

Since 1998, the school has been involved in the online teaching and learning platform of eCollege as administered through UW's Outreach School. Over the past 10 years, nursing courses have been developed in the RN/BSN completion program and the Graduate Nurse Educator program, making both programs fully online. The school is also using the eCompanion platform as a course supplement for all undergraduate nursing courses. For more information about the online RN/BSN completion program, please contact Lee Ann Carpenter (307-766-3907 or lcarp@uwyo.edu). For more information about the online Graduate Nurse Educator program, please contact Claire Hitchcock (307-766-4291 or claire@uwyo.edu).

Nursing is proud to place Patti Gardner in its Alumni Spotlight. Patti received her bachelor of nursing and master of nurse education degrees from the FWWSON and recently completed our psychiatric mental health NP post-master's certificate program. She also graduated from the University of Colorado's nurse midwifery program and received intensive training at the Kempe Center of the Children's Hospital of Denver learning to care for the depressed infant. Currently, she is an advanced practice psychiatric mental health NP on the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center's behavioral health unit, specializing in perinatal psychiatry and caring for both inpatient and outpatient clients. Please visit www.uwyo.edu/nursing to learn more about Patti's many achievements and activities.

Spring Commencement
The college's spring commencement will be held May 10th beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Arena Auditorium. Procession formation will begin at 8:15 a.m. in the Multi-purpose Gym (also called the UniWyo Sports Complex). Please contact the student affairs person in your division if you have questions.

WWAMI Medical Education Program
On April 4th, WWAMI medical students attended a workshop to learn skills in intra-venous insertion in preparation for their four-week summer Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program. Volunteer leaders of the workshop included Will Smith, M.D., former WWAMI student and current emergency physician in Jackson; WWAMI faculty member Don Swiatek, M.D.; Ty Battershell, M.D., an emergency physician in Wheatland; Ron Malm, D.O., a faculty member at the UW Family Medicine Residency Program in Cheyenne ; residents Peter Hanna, M.D., and Paul Monie, M.D.; Ivinson Memorial Hospital emergency nurses Bettye Coon, Jeannie Haines, and Donna Palat; and Laramie Fire Department paramedics Dusty Joy and Matt Stroot.

Communication Disorders
Gwen Stout from Cheyenne, a recent graduate of the division's master's program, and Mary Hardin-Jones, Division Director, presented a poster"An Analysis of the Frame-content Theory in Babble of Nine-month-old Babies with Cleft Lip and Palate"at the annual meeting of the American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association held in Philadelphia in the mid-April. Krisztina Zajd, Assistant Professor, and Kathy Chapman, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies of Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Utah, co-authored the research.

Pharmacy
Ji Li, Clinical Assistant Professor of Biochemical Physiology and Pharmacology, has been chosen to participate in the Sixteenth Annual Summer Training Course in Experimental Aging Research to be held in the middle of June at the Fred Hutchinson Research Center at the University of Washington in Seattle. During the five-day course, Ji and a select group of 15 to 20 research scientists will receive extensive exposure to modern experimental gerontology by attending lectures, student research development workshops, and faculty research seminars. Ji is looking forward to this valuable opportunity to network with researchers on topics such as the evolution of aging; genetic, disease, and aging relationships; the endocrinology of aging and the reproductive system; and caloric restriction and aging.

Student Affairs
Pharmacy students Dax Rice and Shanna O'Connor from Laramie are this year's recipients of the College of Health Sciences Interprofessional Service Award to recognize and reward the spirit of interprofessional leadership, volunteerism, and community service so valued by the college. Dax and Shanna are the president and secretary, respectively, of Phi Lambda Sigma, the pharmacy honorary, that sponsored the college's November health fair. According to Linda Gore Martin, Associate Professor of Social and Administrative Pharmacy, the fair was Dax's idea and together, he and Shanna provided the impetus and led to the successful completion of the complex activity. Each unit within the college participated in the carefully-thought-out activity that attracted members of the Laramie and UW communities. Dax and Shanna were directly responsible for the unique learning experience for all who participated. The two will be honored with a cash award and public recognition during commencement on May 10th.

Mortar Board, UW's senior honorary, recognized five College of Health Sciences staff members for their "exceptional contributions to the university and inspiration of students." Congratulations go to Maria Bennett in the School of Pharmacy who was nominated by Ashley Colyer from Lander; Cathy Valades-Flynn of WWAMI who was nominated by Kate Messer from Cheyenne; Craig Vaske, Undergraduate and Preprofessional Advising, who was nominated by Kathleen Porter from Cheyenne; Virginia Cole in the Dean's Office who was nominated by Ann Stebner from Rawlins; and Claire Hitchcock in Nursing who was nominated by Lindsey White from Laramie.

Social Work
New health and mental health certificate programs are now available to address shortages of social workers in Wyoming. The infrastructure of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's interactive course exchange has now made two new certificate programs available for on-line delivery to post-graduate social workers. The Rural Behavioral/Mental Health Social Work Certificate better prepares social workers for mental health professional settings. The Health and Medical Social Work Certificate, also a post-graduate program, supports new knowledge and skills for social workers in a range of health and medical arenas in both institutional and community settings. Both certificate areas respond to the serious social workforce shortage in Wyoming. To register for these programs and to gain more information about them, please visit www.uwyo.edu/socialwork or contact the Division of Social Work (307-766-4933).

Wyoming INstitute for Disabilities (WIND)
Families living in rural and frontier communities lack an integrated system to provide services and support that assure the best quality of life for their children with epilepsy. They face geographic isolation; travel outside their communities can be hindered by weather and road conditions; some face extensive travel, often out of state, to access specialty services; and parents and health care providers have limited opportunities for training and education related to childhood epilepsy. Currently, WIND, through Project Access, a multi-state collaborative, is working to improve access to health care and related services for children with epilepsy or seizure disorders. The objectives of this valuable program are to assemble a statewide team to define barriers to care for children with epilepsy and implement and evaluate activities to promote systems change; provide training, education, and information to health care professionals and parents; assure that children with epilepsy have access to medical care; and improve public awareness of epilepsy and thereby reduce the stigma of the condition.
Kinesiology and Health

On Tuesday, April 15th, over 130 students, parents, and faculty gathered in the Wyoming Union's Yellowstone Ballroom to congratulate division majors on their achievements. Kinesiology and Health Foundation Scholarship Awards were presented to Brook Yearsley from Cheyenne, Brian Bartow from Gillette, Lauren Harris from Rock Springs, and Charli Youngberg from Saratoga. Suni Brown from Afton received the Emily J. Smith Memorial Scholarship Award, and Sommer Schaefer from Cheyenne received the John Corbett Scholarship Award. Floyd Hart Memorial Scholarship Awards were presented to Brianna Ramsey from West Haven, Utah, and Bryan Dugas from Cheyenne, and the Campbell-Thouin-Marburger Scholarship Award was presented to Brooks Fry from Laramie. Dusty Dinnel from Evanston received the Pax Ricketts Scholarship Award, and Jessica Kimball from Jackson and Beth Mullins from Laramie received Vernon K. Gale Memorial Scholarship Awards. During the ceremony, Kinesiology and Health Promotion Program students Sonja Hanson and Chris Sundberg from Laramie, Kinesiology and Health Promotion-Athletic Training Program student Brandon Deromedi from Worland, and Physical Education Teacher Education Program student Tiffany Thunselle from Laramie were honored as 2007-2008 Outstanding Seniors. University, regional, and national presenters and Discovery Days speakers were recognized, students accepted into professional and graduate schools were recognized, and those organizing the 3rd Annual Cowboy Fitness Round-up were thanked. College Student Research Awards were presented to Karissa McNiven from Riverton, Beth Mullins and Sachin Thorat from Laramie, and Shannon Cooney from Ogallala, Nebraska; Luc Carr from Laramie received a post-doctoral fellowship award; NSF Undergraduate EPSCoR Fellowships were presented to Kevin Bretting from Loveland, Colorado, Maria Long from Torrington, and Lyle McKissick from Laramie. It's always a pleasure to honor student successes.
 

Posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2008