Congratulations to Howard Straker and Reamer Bushardt for new positions with the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA). Straker received a ceremonial gavel at the PAEA 2019 Education Forum Business Meeting earlier this month. He will begin his term as PAEA president in January 2020. Bushardt won election as a director-at-large. His three-year term also starts in January. Lisa Alexander was recognized at the meeting for her leadership and service as immediate past president of PAEA. Straker is assistant professor in PA Studies, director of the PA/MPH Joint Degree Program, and assistant professor of Prevention and Community Health in the Milken Institute School of Public Health. Alexander is professor in PA Studies. PAEA is the only national organization representing PA educational programs. Founded in 1972, PAEA’s mission is leadership, innovation, and excellence in PA education.
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Publishing & Presenting
Marcia Firmani and co-authors published an article titled, "Colony-stimulating factor-1- and interleukin-34-derived macrophages differ in their susceptibility to Mycobacterium marinum," in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology in September. Firmani, Francisco Rentas, Rebecca Jones, Kevin Rhee and a colleague presented a poster titled, "Protein Retention Levels of Fresh Frozen Plasma and Cryoprecipitate Derived from Pathogen Reduced Fresh Whole Blood," at the American Association for Blood Banking (AABB) conference earlier this month. Firmani is chair of BLS, Rentas is an adjunct associate professor in BLS, and Jones and Rhee are recent graduates of the MSHS in Immunohematology Program in BLS.
Advancing Primary Care
Kevin O’Connor joined with Reamer Bushardt to lead plenaries and immersive educational sessions for an interdisciplinary conference of primary care professionals, including physicians, advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, and pharmacists. The team led sessions on the latest diagnostic approaches, evidence-based treatment, and strategies for population health management in pulmonary medicine, infectious diseases, endocrine disorders, and aging. O’Connor led a lively workshop on managing office emergencies. Bushardt led the group through developing models of care for patients receiving opioid therapy for chronic, nonmalignant pain, which included a 10-step system that addressed: when to initiate or continue opioids for chronic pain; appropriate selection, dosage, duration, monitoring, and discontinuation; assessing risk and addressing opioid-related harm; and best practices for clinical documentation to ensure compliance with state and federal regulatory authorities. O’Connor is senior medical advisor in HS, associate professor of medicine, and director of executive medicine for GW MFA.
Charleston Crew
Reamer Bushardt and several faculty members attended the Association of Schools of Schools Advancing Health Professions (ASAHP) conference earlier this month in Charleston, S.C. Bushardt presented two research posters. From the Governor’s Health Sciences Academy at T.C. Williams High School team, he presented “Innovative Public-Private Partnership to Advance Diversity in Health Professions Education and Practice,” first authored by Catherine Golden, associate dean for academic affairs in HS. From the GW HCOP team, he also presented “Academic Success Factors among Health Professions Students from Economically or Educationally Disadvantaged Backgrounds.” Cliff Cymrot presented a poster titled, "An Innovative Summer Program Aimed to Encourage Interest in Health Care with Emphasis in Laboratory Medicine." Yuliya Dobrydneva, Rohini Ganjoo, and Lisa Schwartz made a presentation titled, "Predictors of performance on Medical College Admission test for post baccalaureate pre-medical students: Analysis of educational metrics." Cymrot and Dobrydneva are both assistant professors, Ganjoo is assistant professor and Schwartz is an associate professor, all with BLS. ASAHP is a not-for-profit national professional association for administrators, educators, and others who are concerned with critical issues affecting health professions education. More than 100 academic institutions and four professional associations comprise ASAHP membership, and GW has joined as a new member this year.
Hip, Hip, Hooray!
The new Kudos program started by the HS Staff Culture and Morale Committee is off and running. The following staff members received one or more certificates of appreciation in August and September: Nurcan Basar, Allison Cannon, Kelly Carr, Linda Cotton, Desmond Edwards, Emma Levine, Alison McGuire, Whitney Milhouse, Miriam Okine Davies, Nahoemi Pablo, Heather Richards, Carmen Session, Janessa Silcox, Melanie Trask, Marsha White, Ernestine Yarborough, and Maggie Zhu. To recognize a staff member for exceptional work, you can submit this form. Basar is clinical placement coordinator and Cannon is lab manager, both with BLS; Carr is program manager with CRL, Cotton is senior instructional technologist with IMPACT, Edwards is program coordinator for records and registration in HS Administration, Levine is academic department administrator with BLS, McGuire is instructional technologist with IMPACT, Milhouse is manager of enrollment and advising services with CRL, Okine Davies is assistant director of admissions and enrollment with HHFR, Pablo is a data analyst in HS Administration, Richards is clinical education specialist with HHFR, Session is assistant director of admissions and enrollment services in HS Administration, Silcox is senior assistant director of admissions and student services in HS Administration, Trask is director of academic programs with CRL, White is program administrator with HHFR, Yarborough is academic department administrator with CRL, and Zhu is a data analyst in HS Administration.
Focusing on Fatigue
Liana Wooten has hung up her soccer cleats – three torn ACLs will do that – but her love of physical activity is now played out in her research. Wooten, who joined HS as assistant professor in the Department of Health, Human Function, and Rehabilitation Sciences (HHFR) last summer, is eager to continue her research in applied physiology. “I want to get my own research agenda up and running in clinical exercise and applied physiology,” she said. She’s especially interested in excessive fatigue – fatigue that’s not relieved by rest or napping. “You see it in older adults, autoimmune compromised patients and in patients with cancer. We’re not sure where the origin is.” In addition to research, Wooten is keen to improve her teaching skills through experience and working with mentors. GW is her first full-time faculty position. “The faculty here is just excellent in a lot of ways,” she said. “I knew that by coming here I would have good mentorship. I also like that there’s the exercise physiology lab that bridges my clinical degree and my research degree.” Next semester, she’ll teach Applied Physiology, followed by Clinical Medicine and Pharmacology in the summer. A native of Fairfax, Va., Wooten will defend her dissertation for her PhD in rehabilitation science at George Mason University in January. Before joining GW, she was a clinical instructor in the outpatient setting and an adjunct professor at Marymount University and George Mason. Away from work, Wooten is all about the beach and her dog, Nike, a miniature golden doodle. “Anytime I can be near the water, I’m happy.” Her torn ACL ended her soccer career (she doesn’t usually mention that she played professionally), so now hiking and swimming are her workouts. “I used to be more exciting, but now I just hang out with my dog.” Wooten has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond and earned her DPT from Duke University’s School of Medicine.
Board Game Master
Katherine “Katie” Sanchez loves playing board games, but don’t ask her to explain the rules. “My husband is the one who got me into board games, and I like them now for the social aspect - but I hate reading the rules,” Sanchez said. “Someone has to explain them to me.” Sanchez is happy to explain why she chose to join HS as a program associate in the Department of Physician Assistant (PA) Studies. “This position was unique – a lot of growth opportunity and the ability for me to put my stamp on it,” she said. As program associate, she’ll work on department and program initiatives and assist with special events, research, grant proposals, and coordination of teaching schedules. Sanchez grew up in Northern Virginia, but spent the last five years in Missouri, where she worked at Columbia College, most recently as a systems analyst. “I wanted to get out of the tech side. I like technology, but I wanted to step back and have more of a connection with people. It’s been really enjoyable being in a specific department and learning how to navigate that. I’m enjoying learning about health sciences.” Away from work, if she’s not playing board games with her husband and friends, she’s spending time with her one-year-old son Theo. “A lot of my time is dedicated to hanging out with that little goober and my husband,” she said. Sanchez has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and earned a master of business administration degree from Columbia College.
Advising & Rugby
There’s a new Terri in town. Her email address may say “Theresa,” but Terri Bevilacqua prefers two Rs and an I, please. Bevilacqua joined HS in September as manager of enrollment and advising services for the Department of Biomedical Laboratory Sciences (BLS). She was drawn to the position because she enjoys helping students achieve their personal and academic goals, and she was ready to increase her impact as an advising manager. “I’m enjoying the newness to the parts of this role that I haven’t been exposed to previously,” she said. “I like working with students and others to problem solve and trouble shoot. I enjoy the collaborative nature.” Bevilacqua joined GW from George Mason University, where she was an academic advising effectiveness specialist. She previously spent 12 years at the University of Maryland’s main campus, working in student advising, retention, programming, and assessment. Away from work, Bevilacqua is a proud rugby mom. And rugby wife. She loves to cheer for her rugby-playing sons, Cole, 13, Dylan, 11, and her husband Mark, who plays and coaches. “If I’m not watching the boys play rugby, I’m watching my husband play rugby,” she said. Bevilacqua has never played the game herself, though she says she’d like to try. For now, she’s content to be on the sideline with the family’s four-year-old golden lab, Tucker. Bevilacqua earned a master’s of science in educational psychology and methodology from the State University of New York.
Message from the Assistant Dean
The Office of Student Life and Academic Support (OSLAS) team is hard at work on several projects to enhance student success. Patrick Corr, director of student programs, Nick Atlas, senior academic advisor, and I are conducting learning and study skills assessments and partnering with students to improve their time management, study and test taking skills, and other identified challenges to academic success. Our support services focus on fostering personal, professional, and educational excellence among residential, online, and blended-learning students in the Health Sciences. The OSLAS mission is to provide programs and services designed to support and encourage students to reach their full potential, and we are mindful of student diversity and strive to support a welcoming and inclusive learning environment. We believe in bridging personal responsibility with institutional support to encourage individual growth, nurture servant leaders, and foster an environment of interprofessional collaboration and teamwork.
We welcome input and feedback about our services and ideas about enhancing the student experience. In response to faculty concerns about student writing skills, we brought Garrett Butler, an adjunct instructor in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership (CRL), on board in September as a writing tutor. Butler has been working with students to improve their writing through interactive one-on-one sessions. In addition, the OSLAS team is building a centralized repository of tips, guides, videos, and links to SMHS, GW, and external resources. A link to this new tool will be shared with faculty and staff in late fall, so members of the HS community can access it at any time and include it in their courses and/or syllabi. The team is also planning to use the Target X retention center, once fully implemented by the university, to track and document student encounters. Finally, we are developing evaluation tools to assess satisfaction and efficacy of the services we provide and brainstorming within Health Sciences Administration to identify other viable ways to enrich student retention.
If you would like to refer a student for assistance or writing support, please complete a referral form or email us at raisehighHS@gwu.edu. And if you have ideas for other ways OSLAS can best serve students, please let us know.
Karen A. Wright
Assistant Dean, Student Life and Academic Support
Program Director, Physician Assistant Studies
Assistant Professor, Department of Physician Assistant Studies
Message from the Senior Associate Dean
The fall is already off to an exciting start. Highlights include -- more than 1,460 students enrolled in HS courses this semester, new academic programs and inventive partnerships abound, and Barbara Bass being named vice president for health affairs and dean of SMHS.
Among the new initiatives is the launch this semester of our innovative MSHS in Correctional Health Administration, led by Newton Kendig who brings rich policy and practice experiences from his tenure in the US Public Health Service and Federal Bureau of Prisons. Reaching out globally, a delegation of HS faculty and staff recently traveled to Budapest, Hungary, with colleagues from the GW School of Nursing to kick-off the new partnership with Semmelweis University. During a series of activities, the multidisciplinary GW delegation met extensively with Semmelweis faculty and administration to prioritize areas for education and research collaboration and began developing a joint grant application for Erasmus+ to fund faculty and student exchanges between the two universities. The timing of the trip also allowed us to help celebrate Semmelweis’ 250thanniversary and jubilee academic year. Back at home, I was thrilled to hear Bass was selected as the next SMHS dean. During the search process, it was clear she was the ultimate “triple threat” with an extensive record of accomplishments in education, research, and clinical practice leadership. On a personal level, I was inspired by her commitment to interprofessional collaboration, affinity for and knowledge of disruptive educational technologies, and advocacy for equity and diversity for women and underrepresented groups in health professions and science. During the search process, she was enthusiastic about returning to GW where she began her surgical career. Bass’ appointment is also a historic one as she becomes the first woman to lead SMHS.
Finally, HS is kicking off its strategic plan and begins implementation this fall. During the summer, an organizational readiness and workplace culture assessment was conducted, and the results and early actions under way are being shared and discussed through a series of meetings with HS leaders and department teams. While we advance an internal campaign and implementation this fall, we are targeting external communications for January 2020 in conjunction with our new dean coming onboard. I hope you will enjoy the latest issue of Heartbeats, which has been redesigned based on readership feedback. This month’s stories speak to how we are already making a positive difference through Investing in People, Living our Social Mission, Catalyzing Innovation and Entrepreneurism, and Influencing Health Professions Education, Healthcare Policy and Practice.
—Reamer Bushardt
