ACCOLADES AND PROFILES
We want to hear from you! This section provides news and information on our faculty, staff, students and alumni. Please send us your news, s.hudson@tcu.edu, and we will include it in the next edition of Harris College e-news.
Hartford Scholarship – The impact on Dr. Jenkins and Dr. Cohen
TCU social work professors Dr. Harriet Cohen and Dr. David Jenkins have a lot to brag about. They are two of 12 geriatric social work professionals named nationally as a Hartford Faculty Scholar by the Gerontological Society of America. The John A. Hartford Foundation grants a $100,000 scholarship to support the professional development and research of outstanding junior faculty striving to improve the well-being of older adults.
Cohen was selected in 2006, based on her expertise as a social work educator, researcher and practitioner with older adults. Her project focuses on the issue of forgiveness in older Holocaust survivors and their unresolved family issues.
Jenkins was selected in 2007. Also a social work educator, researcher and practitioner with older adults, his project focuses on the difficulties encountered by step-grandparents who are lesbian or gay and their family relationships.
The scholarship to fund Cohen and Jenkins’ career development and in-depth research in aging-related social work, is only part of what these professors gained since receiving the grant. Each scholar was assigned a national research mentor to provide in-person and long distance guidance, a travel stipend so that scholars can attended institutes, retreats, workshops, and professional conferences, and faculty development workshops focused on research, training and leadership skill development. (more)
A true ambassador: nursing student recognized with Spirit of Nursing Award
“Hey Kate, can you start an IV?”
This is not the typical question you would expect to be asked on an airplane flight from Central America back home to the States. However, Kate Lunati, a TCU junior nursing major from Atlanta, Ga., was suddenly faced with a life-altering situation.
“This 21-year-old patient was extremely dehydrated due to vomiting and diarrhea from a parasite. She was dizzy and confused, and she needed fluids, stat,” Kate was told.
“Even though I was a nursing student with just one semester of fundamentals and pharmacology, my faculty had warned that we were now prepared to assist on airplanes on the rare occasion that there was no one else available.”
Despite the terror and uncertainty Kate faced, she understood the need to assist the young woman. Sandy, a physician’s assistant who accompanied Kate on this medical mission to Central America, admitted she hadn’t started an IV bag in 15 years. Kate followed them to the back of the plane, confidently spiked the IV bag, and found a faint vein in the young lady’s arm, stabilizing her.
The only TCU nursing student nominated for the national “Spirit of Nursing Award,” Kate demonstrates passion and commitment to making a difference in her field. The award, given by the Army Nurse Corps and the National Student Nurses’ Association, recognizes and honors nursing students for their active involvement professionally, academically and in the community. The 2009 “Spirit of Nursing Award” was presented in April at the National Student Nurses’ Association convention in Nashville, Tenn. Her experiences on that plane, told in her words, were part of her application essay. (more)
Sebert Pate helps address nursing shortage through scholarships
The nationwide shortage of nurses is a critical problem for our society, particularly as the Baby Boom generation retires. For decades, Sebert L. Pate, retired chairman of the board of Texas Refinery Corporation, has been helping to meet this vital healthcare need through annual gifts to Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences. The scholarships he has funded, which are directed to undergraduate minority students majoring in nursing, have enabled TCU to educate new professionals since the early 1970s.
Now Mr. Pate has ensured that generations of students to come will benefit from his generosity by endowing the Sebert L. Pate Graduate Student Scholarship in Nursing.
Carla Crider, a seasoned nurse who lives in Palo Pinto County, is the first student to hold the scholarship. She is taking advantage of an innovative new online program in nursing education. “It’s 55 miles to TCU one way,” she says. “That’s why I’m in the online program. I can work at my own pace, at 3 a.m. if necessary.”
Carla says not only are there not enough nursing teachers, but the average instructor is also nearing retirement age. “We have to get new instructors in the field yesterday,” she says. (more)
Student's work opens hearts and ears to cause
As a child, Elizabeth Boschini said she read books which portrayed deaf children as different and passive. Now given the chance to write her own books, she wanted to portray them as normal people in control of their lives.
The senior speech pathology major has authored two books, Ellie's Ears in May 2008 and Happy Birthday to My Ears in June 2008. Ellie's Ears is about an 8-year-old girl with bilateral implants, a hearing aid placed partly behind the ear and a second part surgically planted under the skin. She explains them and her hearing loss to a new student in her third grade classroom, Boschini said.
Boschini, who is Chancellor Victor J. Boschini Jr.'s daughter, said her desire to work with the deaf started in fifth grade when she met a girl named Lauren Farnsworth. Farnsworth had a profound hearing loss and used a cochlear implant for hearing and listening in the classroom.
The cochlear implant allowed Farnsworth to listen and interact like a normal fifth-grade student, Boschini said.
There was a large population of students who didn't have the opportunity to receive cochlear implants to listen or talk, Boschini said. She learned sign language to communicate with the students. (more)
Accolades
Lynn Flahive and Janet Lanza (COSD) presented “Successful Strategies for the School SLP: A Materials Review” at the 12th annual Birdville ISD Bridging the Gap Seminar.
David Jenkins (social work) was co-presenter of “Recovery and Resiliency in Older Gay Addicts” at the annual meeting of the Gerontological Society of America in Washington, DC. He also published “LGBT faculty, research, and researchers: Risks and rewards” in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 20(3), 253-267, 2008 and “Changing family dynamics: A sibling comes out” in the Journal of GLBT Family Studies, 4(1), 1-16.
Suzy Lockwood (nursing) received the 2008 Oncology Nurse of the Year award for Fort Worth from Cancer Care Services. She also received the Ruth Eloise Sperry Teaching Excellence Award from TCU-HCN Alumni Association in October. Dr. Lockwood presented “I have a headache… “Sexuality and Sexual dysfunction in catastrophic and life-limiting illness” presented at A Common Thread 2008 Conference, Texas Partnership for End-of-life Care in Dallas. She presented at two conferences: “Cancer Prevention, Screening & Early Detection” for the LVN Association of Texas in Austin and “Ovarian Cancer Update” at the 24th Annual Update in Medicine conference in Laredo. She also was the editor for Contemporary Issues in Women’s Cancer Dec. 2008.
Linda Moore (social work) presented “Social workers and Civil Rights in the Progressive Era” at the 54th annual program meeting of the Council on Social Work Education in Philadelphia.
Helen Morrison (COSD) presented “Local and remote avenues for LSLS Certification” for the Texas Education Agency Teleconferencing Network. Helen Morrison (communication sciences and disorders) published “The locus equation as an index of coarticulation in syllables produced by speakers with profound hearing loss” in Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 22 (9), pp. 726-240 and “Auditory-Verbal therapy: Principles, practices, outcomes” in The Educational Audiology Review, Fall, 22-26.
Maria L. Muñoz, and C. D. Qualls (COSD) presented an invited short course on “Treatment for aphasia and dementia: cross-cultural considerations” at the American Speech Language and Hearing Association convention in Chicago. Maria Muñoz (communication sciences and disorders) published “The Quality of Life of Patients with Malignant Gliomas and their Caregivers” in Social Work in Health Care, 47(4), 455-478 (2008).
Raul Prezas (COSD) did a seminar presentation on “Measuring intelligibility of bilingual (Spanish-English) children” in both languages at the same convention.
Meena Shah (kinesiology) presented “Effect of high dietary fiber intake on calcium and other mineral absorption in subjects with type 2 diabetes” at the 49th annual meeting of the American College of Nutrition. She also chaired a symposium on diabesity during the meeting and was elected a board member. Dr. Shah made an oral presentation at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American College of Nutrition - Shah M, Chandalia M, Adams-Huet B, Brinkley L, Garg A. Effect of high dietary fiber intake on calcium and other mineral absorption in subjects with type 2 diabetes. The abstract was published in the J Am Coll Nutr 2008; 27(5):605.
Christopher Watts (COSD) was co-presenter of “The Elastin Gene, Elastic Fibers, and Vocal Fold Biomechanics: Evidence from Connective Tissue Disorders” at the UCSF Voice Conference in San Francisco.
The following students were winners of the Harris College Research Symposium 2009
Melanie Addison, Marie Auxier, Katherine Felker, Kandice Frost, Christopher Martinez, Jessica Thomas, Jennifer Turner and Emily Wessell - Are you prepared? Disaster preparedness in a faith-based community
Chelsea Albritton, Jessica Creel, Brittany Dickenson, Natalie Hodge, Erin Kelley, Sara Lyons, Alicia Michaelsen, Wendy Pack, Sheridan Smith, and Mary Wooldridge - Are you prepared? Disaster preparedness in a faith-based community
Jennifer Zemplinski - Hispanic perspectives regarding organ donation
Aaron Evans - Previous sexual encounters and confidence in ability to resist future encounters
Ashley Wiederkehr - Risk indicators for parents at-risk of child maltreatment
Kristen House and Kara Weaver - The effects of a single bout of aerobic exercise on measures of endothelial function
Jessica Goulder - Examining the effects of high intensity sprint training on endurance performance
Rebecca Schroeder and Walker Winn - Effects of plate size on energy consumption in lean individuals versus overweight individuals
