January 2016

Vol. 1, NumbeR 2

1.14.2016

Message from the Dean

Spring 2016 brings many new and exciting events taking place in our school and university. We welcome Dr. Kinsuk Maitra (see below) who chairs our occupational therapy program. Also, through the generous gift of the Lewis family, we have new teaching and research award opportunities ($10,000 each) – and I hope that many of you consider applying for one of these. As a university, we grew to over 52,000 students from our merger with Georgia Perimeter College. And – soon enough “The Ted” will become part of Georgia State’s campus!

At the end of Fall semester, we celebrated 118 graduates at the December 16th and 17th graduations. The graduates include our first Doctor of Nursing Practice cohort – all of whom showed up for both graduation ceremonies! At our ceremony, we were given great words of wisdom by Mr. Brent Robinson, our Lewis School convocation speaker, who motivated our alums to be bold in their careers!

As we begin our Spring semester, I wish all of you a great 15 weeks in classes, clinical experiences, and research undertakings. As with our first E-News, I know that you will find the achievements of our faculty and staff reported in this issue as interesting and impressive.

Nancy

Departmental News

Nursing

The School of Nursing is going through Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) accreditation for the Doctor of Nursing Practice program. The onsite visit was completed with no compliance concerns. The school expects to have an official/final response from CCNE this summer.

Nutrition

Nutrition professor Dan Benardot hosted two University of Copenhagen nutrition graduate students earlier in the fall. The students, Ida Lysdahl-Fahrenholtz and Sarah Staal, are working in the area of energy balance and athletes.

Occupational Therapy

Welcome to the Lewis School’s newest department and chair. Dr. Kinsuk Maitra has joined our faculty as professor and chair of the new Department of Occupational Therapy. He comes to Georgia State from Florida International University. Dr. Maitra and Carolyn Podolski, who joined the faculty in August, are preparing to open applications for the first class of Master of Occupational Therapy students in January 2017. Read more about Dr. Maitra on the website.

Physical Therapy

Thirteen PT students and two faculty traveled to the small farming village of Los Robles, Nicaragua on January 3, for the first PT international study aboard program. The students are learning about the culture and lifestyle of this rural Central American community, while providing physical therapy to local coffee farmers. This trip gives the students a remarkable learning experience while allowing them to care for residents in a medically underserved community. The PT students raised more than $13,000 via the Georgia State University Foundation’s Crowdfunding program for the study abroad program. Read more on the PT website.

Project Healthy Grandparents

Georgia State University and Project Healthy Grandparents hosted a public forum for the Georgia legislative committee which is studying the issues of kinship care. The meeting allowed grandparents who are raising grandchildren to speak to the committee about problems they face in kinship care families. Primarily, the grandparents asked for increasing the funds that grandparents receive from the state for raising children to match funds provided to non-relative foster parents. WSB-TV video

Respiratory Therapy

Dr. Yu Wang from Hebei University in China is joining the Department of Respiratory Therapy as a visiting professor. A medical doctor and faculty at Hebei, Wang is interested in pharmacology and respiratory therapy in the U.S. His research includes the use of Hydroxysafflor yellow A, a commonly used Chinese herb, to reduce tumor metastasis of human nonsmall cell lung cancer. Recently, he completed a doctor of pharmacology degree. He will be with the RT faculty throughout the spring semester.

Lewis School

Congratulations to the Fall 2015 graduates! The Lewis School graduated more than 115 bachelor's, master's and doctoral students in two December ceremonies.

Lewis School Co-hosts an International Brain Function Research Conference

The Lewis School co-sponsored, in conjunction with the College of Arts and Sciences, a successful BrainModes 2015 course and workshop in December. This international conference, held for the first time in the United States, brings together experts from various disciplines and seeks to explore innovative means of understanding complex brain activity and multimodal neuroscience data sets. Georgia State hosted more than 100 participants and speakers to the workshop and more than 20 at the two-day pre-event course, which included hands-on demonstrations of brain recording/stimulation technology.

PUBLICATIONS

Our faculty have been productive with publications. Seven new publications have been released since the November newsletter.

Arzu, A., Fink, J.B., Harwood, R., Sheard, M. “Pressurized Metered-Dose Inhalers Versus Nebulizers in the Treatment of Mechanically Ventilated Subjects With Artificial Airways: An In Vitro Study,” Respiratory Care, November 2015 60:11 1570-1574.

Mountjoy, M., Maughan, R., Burke, L., Benardot, D., et al. (2016) “Nutrition for Aquatic Athletes: A practical guide to eating for health and performance,” FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation).

Gardenhire, D.S. (2016). Rau's Respiratory Care Pharmacology, 9th Ed. Elsevier, St. Louis, Mo.

Gardenhire, D.S. & Hinski, S. (2016). Workbook for Rau's Respiratory Care Pharmacology, 9th Ed. Elsevier, St. Louis, Mo.

Torabi, S. & Mo, H. (in press) “Trans, trans-Farnesol as a mevalonate-derived inducer of murine 3T3-F442A preadipocyte differentiation,” Experimental Biology and Medicine (Maywood).

White, S. J. & Minick, P. (2016). “The Perceptions of Non-Palliative Care Hospitalist Physicians Referring Patients to a Hospital Palliative Care Program’” The Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, 18 (1).

Smoliga, J.M. & Zavorsky, G. (2015) “Faces and fitness: attractive evolutionary relationship or ugly hypothesis?” Biology Letters, November 2015 11 (11).

Cortes-Telles, A., Torre-Bouscoulet, L., Silva-Ceron, M., Mejia-Alfaro, R., Syed, N., Zavorsky, G., Guenette, J. (2015) “Combined effects of mild-to-moderate obesity and asthma on physiological and sensory responses to exercise,” Respiratory Medicine, November 2015, 109 (11), pp. 1397–1403.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Nominations are being accepted now for the Lewis School faculty research and teaching excellence awards. Nominations for both awards are due January 12 and details can be found on the Lewis School intranet, under “Documents and Policies” and then “Excellence Awards.”

EVENTS

First seminar of the spring Lewis School seminar series

Tuesday, January 26, 9:30 a.m., Room 124, Petit Science Center
“The effect of Protandim supplementation on oxidative stress and endurance
performance”
Dr. Gerald Zavorsky, associate professor, Department of Respiratory Therapy

Honors Day

Save the date! Honors Day 2016 is scheduled for Monday, March 28, in the
Student Center East Ballroom. Details will be available in the next issue of
the e-newsletter.

Faculty NEWS

After a decade and a half of teaching in the Georgia State University School of Nursing, JoAnn Bacon, academic professional, has retired. She handled external affairs for nursing, undergraduate clinical placements, and taught numerous new undergraduate nursing students in their first classes of their nursing profession. JoAnn is a community health nurse who was also active in the school’s outreach programs, including back-to-school physicals. She holds a B.S.N. and an M.P.H., both from the University of Tennessee.

Student News

Jordan Reynolds, president of the Nursing Students at Georgia State, recently received the Board of Director's Student Scholarship from the American Psychiatric Nurses Association's during the annual convention. She is one of nine undergraduate nursing students in the country to receive the award. Awardees receive a one year membership in the APNA and the opportunity to participate in a research project of APNA.

EMERITI News

The Department of Physical Therapy, along with the Lewis School, mourns the passing of Marylou Barnes, retired chair of physical therapy and professor, in late November.

Barnes joined the Georgia State University faculty in 1979 as professor and chair. By the time she ended her chair position in 1986, the department had grown in prestige and produced graduates with a 100 percent pass rate on the licensure examination. She retired as a professor emerita in 1995. Read more about Dr. Barnes' life on the PT website.

Media Clips

Our faculty provide expertise to the local and national media, with the Department of Nutrition leading the media responses once again.

"Nutrition is a science, not a belief system," Skating, December 2015, Dan Benardot – Nutrition

"Election 2016: How Nurses Can Use Their Voices & Their Votes," Nursing Zone, November 2015, Katherine Evans – Nursing

"Fat-burning fat exists, but might not be the key to weight loss," The Conversation, December 16, 2015, Desiree Wanders – Nutrition

Kudos

Arzu Ari was elected vice president of the Inhalation Therapies Networking Group for the Turkish Respiratory Society.

Karis Casseus received the Marilyn Chew Lunn Memorial Nursing Leadership Award from Georgia Regents University College of Nursing.

Doug Gardenhire has been appointed to the manuscript review board of the Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association.

Lynda Goodfellow sworn to serve the second year term as Vice-President for Internal Affairs for the American Association of Respiratory Care.

Megan McCrory was named to the editorial board for Advances in Nutrition.

Nomeli Nunez and Desiree Wanders received joint appointments in the Department of Chemistry.

Presentations

Ari, A. (2015) Patient-focused aerosol therapy in adults. 59th International Respiratory Congress. Tampa, FL.

Ari, A. (2015) Patient-focused aerosol therapy in critical pulmonary care. 59th International Respiratory Congress. Tampa, FL.

Ari, A. (2015) Inhalation therapy during noninvasive ventilation and in patients with tracheostomy. 41st International Congress of the Turkish Respiratory Research Society, Cesme, Ismir, Turkey.

Beck, E., Lewinson, T. & Kropf, N. P. (2015). Restorative justice with older adults. 68th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. Orlando, FL.

Kropf, N. P. (2015). Using gerontology students as interprofessional dialogue facilitators: Lessons learned. 68th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. Orlando, FL.

Lou, V. W. Q. & Kropf, N. P. (2015). Family caregiving resilience in an Asian context. (Co-Convener and Discussant). Symposium at 68th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America. Orlando, FL.

Porter, H. & Moore, M. (2015). Evaluating client-focused mobile applications in an unregulated world. Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo, Nashville, TN.

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