MESSAGE FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, HUMAN FUNCTION AND REHABILITATION SCIENCES
Editor’s Note: In our continuing efforts to improve Heartbeats and make it an informative and enjoyable newsletter, this month we introduce a lead-in message from one of our department chairs: Joyce Maring of the Department of Health, Human Function and Rehabilitation Sciences. Each year, we invite the HS chairs to write about their teams’ work and share departmental updates. Joyce is our longest serving chair, so it’s fitting that she starts this initiative. If you have suggestions for Heartbeats, please email tcapshaw@gwu.edu. We hope you enjoy this October issue – no tricks, just treats!
In fall 2017, the Department of Physical Therapy and Health Care Sciences adopted a new name: Health, Human Function, and Rehabilitation Sciences (HHF&RS). The updated designation reflects the expanded vision and progress of the department to foster and grow programs that address the health, function, and rehabilitation/habilitation needs of individuals and populations. We have been working hard to operationalize our vision.
The Doctor of Physical Therapy Program is our most established and largest program in the department. Effectively led by nationally recognized faculty and supported by excellent staff, the program graduates approximately 45 service-minded clinicians each year. Our graduates are trained as movement scientists who achieve the vision of the PT profession to transform society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience.
A relatively new program is the Doctor of Health Sciences – Leadership in Clinical Practice and Education, which soft launched in spring 2020 and has since enrolled about 60 part-time students. Students who represent a number of health professions, geographic regions, and backgrounds, collaborate to drive improvements in education and practice, as well as advance knowledge through action-oriented research. Many of you have contributed to our current success; thank you!
The newest program is our entry-level Occupational Therapy Doctorate. The program leaders and supportive staff are working hard to build a curriculum, a state-of-the-art educational space in the Watergate, and a clinical network that meets our ambitious mission to graduate practitioners who will be changemakers, empowering people and communities across the lifespan to be fully included in society. The inaugural class of 32 will start the program in fall 2022.
All of these initiatives and activities require the commitment and support of our very best resource, our people. The faculty, staff, and students of HHF&RS and of Health Sciences are dedicated and creative leaders of their professions. Although we bade farewell to a number of contributors who embraced new opportunities during the COVID-19 pandemic, we welcomed and continue to welcome new people and talent committed to our vision. Raise high!
--Joyce Maring, chair, Department of Health, Human Function and Rehabilitation Sciences
PEOPLE
ON THE MOVE. While some might balk at a 1.25-hour commute to work, Alexandra Dacey doesn’t mind her bus ride from Haymarket, Virginia. “I end up sleeping for about 30 minutes,” she said with a laugh. “I look forward to that morning nap.” Being well-rested is a good thing for her role as administrative associate in HS Administration. Dacey manages scheduling and correspondence for the senior associate dean and provides fiscal and operational support for the division. “I’ve always liked the academic setting,” she said. “I like that it’s structured and offers lots of opportunity to help others. I like learning new things and being the point-of-contact for the departments.” One of the GW perks she looks forward to is the tuition benefit. “I want to go back to school for a master’s degree in health data,” she said. Before joining GW in September, her previous experience included working as a disaster recovery specialist for the U.S. Small Business Administration and as a patient care coordinator for a dental practice. In her spare time she enjoys yoga, outdoor activities, reading self-help books, and teaching Greek. She designs and teaches Greek language lessons for kindergarteners through fourth-graders at the Nativity of Our Lord Greek School in Manassas, Virginia. Dacey’s mother started the language school and Dacey enjoys teaching alongside her and her siblings. She appreciates being able to share her Greek heritage with the students. Dacey has relatives in Athens and enjoys visiting them for a couple weeks every summer. At home in Haymarket, Virginia, she lives with her parents, older sisters, and younger brother. “I like being able to spend time with my family,” she said. She is considering getting an apartment closer to Washington, D.C., eventually. “It will be nice to have a place in this fun city and go for broke for a bit,” she said. “There’s so much to do here.” Dacey has a bachelor’s degree from George Mason University.
SOLVING PUZZLES. It’s probably safe to say that of all the physicians in Health Sciences, Phillip Ma studied in the most tropical location. Ma, who joined the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL) and the Biomedical Informatics Center (BIC) as an assistant research professor, attended the University of Health Sciences Antigua School of Medicine and the American University of Integrative Sciences School of Medicine in Barbados. “It was quite an adventure,” he said of his studies in the Caribbean. “Barbados is great for vacations, but it’s different to live there. You don’t get to live on a resort – you have an apartment and cook for yourself,” he said with a laugh. “I got to try a lot of different flavors.” Island life also changed the New Jersey native culturally. “In New Jersey and New York City you don’t greet people on the street. In Barbados, if you don’t say good morning or good afternoon then they refuse to serve you. They think you’re rude.” Ma pursued medicine because of his love of science. “Medical school seemed like the natural place for me to go,” he said. “I enjoy solving puzzles.” While he thought he wanted a career as a clinician, he realized there was more he could do with his degree. He joined BIC after volunteering there for a year and considers the position a perfect marriage of his medical and computational interests. “There are a lot less limits of what research you can run,” he said. “The computational work is fascinating to me and combining that with my medical background is great. In informatics, the world is your oyster and you can study whatever you want. I’m having a great time.“ His research interests are in Alzheimer’s, dementia, dementia-related diseases, addressing the needs of underserved populations, and leveraging social media to better inform clinical decision-making. His most recent project explored reasons for COVID hesitancy using topic modeling on Twitter data. Before joining GW, Ma worked as a scribe/consultant at Ficus Medical, a start-up in Washington, D.C. He lives in Baltimore with his wife Sophia, who is a nurse. Away from work, he enjoys skiing and golf – “I’m awful. I just enjoy playing it.” He added, “I’m also an avid tv and film consumer.” Ma doesn’t have any favorite genre but lately he’s enjoying re-watching the Sopranos. Besides his medical degree from the American University of Integrative Sciences School of Medicine, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
A NEW SCRIPT. D’Shaun Vance doesn’t mind admitting his guilty pleasure is watching romance movies. In fact, Vance, who recently joined HS Administration as program supervisor in academic affairs, is writing a script for a love story --and scripts for tragic and horror movies. Working on his dissertation, however, is eating into his passion for scriptwriting. “Up until last year, I was aggressively writing scripts,” he said, noting that he took a film writing course from Spike Lee. “Now any spare time has to go to my dissertation; figuring out how to do both is a challenge.” Vance doesn’t shy away from challenges. He pivoted from a career in finance to education and came to GW to focus on academic affairs. “I knew higher education was my calling,” he said. “I don’t look at academic affairs as a one-stop situation. What works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for another. I thrive off ambiguity and that’s what academic affairs gives me.” An accounting major, Vance started his career as a risk management consultant with Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina. He became involved in recruiting college graduates for Wells Fargo, and that’s what led to his career change. “I felt a shift for higher education come over me,” he recalled. The Upper Marlboro, Maryland, native headed north and joined Howard University’s School of Business as a student services coordinator. He went on to work as a college prep coordinator with the D.C. Public Schools before joining GW. Vance enjoys spending time with his girlfriend who is a fourth-year medical student at Howard. He also loves to cook – a pastime he shares with his father who taught culinary arts in the Prince Georges County Public Schools for 13 years. “I don’t have a favorite dish to cook. I like to try to recreate recipes – I have more successes than failures,” he said with a laugh. Vance has a bachelor’s degree from Norfolk State University and a master of education degree in higher education administration from Pennsylvania State University. Next July, he expects to complete his doctor of education in higher education leadership from Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta.
KUDOS! Three HS staff members have received “Kudos” from coworkers for going above and beyond. Desmond Edwards, Karen Foote, and Vicky Wu all of HS Administration have been recognized by the HS Staff Culture & Morale Committee for their commitment to excellence and collaboration. Notice a staff colleague doing a great job? Nominate them today!
PROGRAMS
SEMINAR SERIES. Join the Office of Integrative Medicine and Health, CRL, and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine for a virtual lecture series on metabolic syndrome research. The 2021-22 GW Biomedical Cross-disciplinary Seminar Series seeks to promote networking and collaboration in translational health among researchers, health care providers, and policy makers from different disciplines to shift the paradigm—from seeking a cure to developing a strategy of prevention. The seminar series runs from September 2021 through May 2022. Registration required.
MONEY TALKS. The GW Raise “Changing Futures” campaign to benefit the Community Medi-Corps Program (Medi-Corps) has launched and will run until mid-November. GO Virginia provided seed money for the program but more is needed for operational costs, so feel free to share the campaign link. Medi-Corps is an HS initiative with the Alexandria City Public Schools, Arlington Public Schools, and Fairfax County Public Schools.
APPLAUSE
MINI CLINICS. Marisa Birkmeier, Matthew Garber, both of HHF&RS, and Amy Phillips of GW University Hospital presented, “Inpatient Mini-Clinics: Innovative Short-Duration Full-time Clinical Education Experiences to Meet the Contemporary Needs of all Stakeholders,” at the Educational Leadership Conference this month.
POSTDOC STUDIES. The newly funded T32 Primary Care Research Training Program in SMHS has finished recruitment of its first cohort of three postdoctoral trainees to begin later this fall. The group represents a diverse, interprofessional cadre of early career scientists spanning advanced practice nursing, preventive sciences, and linguistics. The grant, led by Reamer Bushardt of HS Administration and Trudy Mallinson of HS Administration and CRL, will support up to 10 postdoc fellows over the five-year award with partnerships across GW Schools of Medicine and Health Sciences, Nursing, and Public Health as well as the GW Medical Faculty Associates and Children’s National Hospital.
MEDI-CORPS MESSAGE. Teri Capshaw and Linda Zanin of HS Administration made a presentation on the Community Medi-Corps Program to the GO Virginia Region 7 Board this month. A grant from GO Virginia launched the $1.6 million Medi-Corps project. Capshaw is the PI on the grant and Zanin, Kevin O'Connor of HS Administration, and Qing Zing of CRL and BIC are co-investigators.
MACHINE LEARNING. Yan Cheng, Yijun Shao, and Qing Zeng, all of CRL and BIC, presented, “Accuracies of Training Labels and Machine Learning Models: Experiments on Delirium and Simulated Data,” at Medinfo 2021 this month.
INNOVATORS. Patrick Corr of CRL and HS Administration and Catherine Golden of HS Administration presented, “Innovative Academy: Leveraging Technology & Project Management to Improve Stakeholder Management,” at the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions meeting this month.
MIXED DIETS. Leigh Frame of CRL presented, “Mixed Diets and the Microbiome – Challenges with Complexity,” at the Linus Pauling Institute earlier this month. Frame also took part in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s as a member of the GW Institute for Brain Health & Dementia this month. Her mother, Connie Frame, also took part.
NEW ROLE. Andy Garrett of CRL has been named co-director of the Disaster Medicine Program at SMHS.
HIV TESTING. Mountasser Kadrie of CRL co-authored, “Knowledge of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV as a Predictor of HIV Testing in Some Women of Childbearing Age in Nigeria,” in the October issue of Science World Journal.
EVALUATING INTEGRATION. Gaetano Lotrecchiano, Joan Butler and Kevin Bugin of CRL co-authored, “Evaluating integration in collaborative cross-disciplinary FDA new drug reviews using an input-process-output model,” in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science last month. The article was from Bugin’s dissertation in the PhD in Translational Health Sciences Program.
CHAPTER AUTHOR. Samar Nasser of CRL and co-authors published a chapter, Cardiovascular Disease in Minorities: Unique Considerations: Hypertension in African and Hispanic Americans, in Cardiovascular Disease in Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations published in September.
SHARK WEEK. Kevin O’Connor of HS Administration took a break from his White House duties and HS earlier this month and swam with sharks in Guadalupe Island, Mexico, to help raise money for the Historical Diving Society. “To visit an ancient creature such as great white sharks for several days in their natural habitat was an incredible opportunity,” he said. “The majesty of this beautiful apex predator was sublime. Eye to eye, I saw no hint of ‘frenzy’ or ‘menace’ or ‘aggression.’ They were graceful, inquisitive, and extremely deliberate.” O’Connor, a retired U.S. Army colonel, took part in the fundraising trip with former military colleagues. Guadalupe Island is a protected habitat for sharks.
PA PRESENCE. Several faculty and a staff member from the Department of PA Studies presented recently at the virtual meeting of the Physician Assistant Education Association. Participants and their work included: Debra Hermann and Nate'le'ge' Wardlow, “Deliberate Direct Observation and Assessment of Clinical Skills” (presentation); Susan. LeLachuer, “How Do Geographic and Demographic Factors Influence Physician Assistant Faculty Salary? (poster); LeLacheur, Howard Straker and second-year PA student Edith Tseng, “Teaching About Race, Power, and Privilege in Healthcare Settings (presentation); LeLacheur was a panelist on Understanding and Meeting the Diversity Accreditation Standards; Maura Polansky, Leocadia Conlon, Straker, Karen Wright, LeLacheur, Katie Sanchez, C.N. Bartz, S.O. Akinola-Hadley, J. Molaiy (all adjunct faculty), Kofi Essel of the Department of Pediatrics, and Bopper Deyton, senior associate dean for public health, “Clinical Public Health Summit: Developing PAs to Advocate for Communities” (poster); Polansky, Herrmann, and Uli Koch of CRL, “How Professional Identity May Influence Resident Perceptions of APP Roles” (presentation); Tami Ritsema, “Emergency Physician and Advanced Practice Provider Diagnostic Testing and Admissions Decisions in Chest Pain and Abdominal Pain” (presentation); Annie Wildermuth, “Comparing Admissions Interviews: Are the Applicants We Select Successful?’ (presentation), “Get the Applicants You Want: Creating Maximally Effective, Mission-Based Interview Stations” (workshop with colleagues), “ABC's of Diabetes Education: An Interprofessional Education Model” (poster with colleagues).
SITE VISITOR. Lisa Schwartz of the Department of Biomedical Laboratory Sciences served as a member of the reaccreditation review team for the Accreditation Council for Genetic Counseling. She made a site visit to the University of Minnesota’s genetic counseling program.
AWARD WINNERS. Geoff Shapiro and Andy Garrett of the Emergency Health Services Program in CRL received the 2021 Cooperative Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG). The award was presented for their collaborative efforts supporting the HHS OIG COVID-19 Organizational Readiness and Agile Response Teams. This program empowered OIG enforcement employees to continue to perform their mission-critical field work while mitigating the risk from COVID-19.
TRAINING OTHERS. Maranda Ward of CRL co-directed a new micro-minor in health equity in CCAS and took part in a DC Health-funded training, “Implicit Bias: A Practical Guide for Healthcare Setting,” for health care practitioners/trainees. She also co-authored two posters, “Creating Community-Centered Modules on Structural Racism for Health” and “Health and Racial Equity Toolkit for Clinical Investigators,” for the American Medical Association Change MedEd Conference in September and lead a training earlier this month, “Moving Beyond Bystanding to Disrupting Racism, Part II,” for staff, faculty, and fellows in the GW Presidential Fellowship program.
RESOURCES. Check out an online course, “Health Equity Series,” hosted by Maranda Ward of CRL. Eligible clinicians can earn CME. Also, a workshop Ward co-facilitated, “Moving Beyond Bystanding to Disrupting Racism,” is now an online asynchronous course.
SAVE THE DATES. Upcoming Foggy Bottom campus events include:
- Oct. 29 from 12-3p: POP! A thrift store pop-up at the GW Textile Museum. POP! was started by GW undergraduates whose goal is to promote a culture of sustainable fashion by reducing textile waste and contributing to a circular economy of campus.
- Nov. 4 @ 2p: Conflict Styles: A Session for Faculty & Staff. A workshop where participants will identify different styles of conflict resolution and learn how to optimally use various conflict resolution skills. Learn more.
- Nov. 14 @ 1p: Corcoran Music Festival. This final concert of the annual Corcoran Music Festival features orchestra, choir, and band students of the Corcoran School for Arts & Design.
