In Dec. 2013, only two and a half years after South Sudan celebrated its first independence day, tensions between the countrys two main ethnic groups erupted into violence. Only 19 months into independence, the worlds youngest country was plunged into civil war.

In addition to giving monetary aid, the international community has stepped up in other ways, providing medical and media attention to the area. Contributing what they can through knowledge and expertise in their respective fields, three UC Davis alumni have been performing such work in South Sudan since the nations inception.

Dr. Matthew Fentress, who graduated from the UC Davis School of Medicine in 2008, currently works in South Sudan with Doctors Without Borders, a medical non-profit organization. Prior to this, Fentress worked with the Global Health Fellowship in developing countries.

The first part of that [Global Health Fellowship] I spent a total of six or seven months in South Sudan, Fentress said. I always knew I wanted to work either outside of the country in the places that didnt have a lot of resources and doctors, or, I wanted to work in areas in our own country where thats the case.

Although Fentress had strong and early convictions about working in a conflict-ridden area, UC Davis history and international relations alum Ismail Kushkush had no plans on working in South Sudan post-graduation. Kushkush now works for The New York Times, reporting in East Africa.

I did take a course in journalism at UC Davis, I just thought of it as a side interest, not something Id be doing for this long, Kushkush said. I thought Id be a history professor!

As an agricultural economics undergraduate student at UC Davis, Dr. Sue Lautze was similarly unaware of her future career in humanitarian aid. Lautze, a representative for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator for the United Nations, recently returned to South Sudan after giving talks internationally.

I wanted to go into the international grain trade, and so I had studied Mandarin as well as the economic aspects [of grain trade] when I was at Davis. I went off to China right after UC Davis on a program that put me in the ministry of culture, Lautze said. There, I met some people working for the United Nations (UN) and got to talking to them. I thought Id be working on that for just a little while but its now 26 years later and Ive gotten more and more deeply involved with humanitarian efforts.

Despite the broad range of their studies, all three alumni are working tirelessly in South Sudan, doing whatever they can to help.

The history of conflict in the three-year-old country predates its independence. Serious violent clashes between North and South Sudan began in the early 60s, and tensions ranging from small-scale violence to full-blown civil war continued up until 2011.

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Three UC Davis Alumni lend aid and a voice to South Sudan

UCS staff learn resusitation techniques and how to use a defibrillator at an after school training session. From left resusitation training officer Sam Wilcox Harriet Cheng , alumni development officer, Lauren Weston, head of PE at Phoenix, and Lindy Harper, senior school nurse co-ordinator. Picture: Polly Hancock

Imogen Blake Wednesday, October 8, 2014 9:00 AM

Life-saving medical equipment has been installed at a Hampstead school in the event of a teacher or pupil suffering a cardiac arrest in class.

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Staff members at University College School (UCS) in Frognal were trained to use defibrillators last Thursday by the London Ambulance Service.

The equipment, which deliver electric shocks to patients suffering a cardiac arrest through two pads, was funded by charity Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS) UK and is now on standby around the school.

It is part of the charitys Big Shock campaign to have defibrillators installed at all schools.

UCS vice master Chris Reynolds, said: University College School takes the medical conditions and the safety of our pupils, staff and visitors very seriously.

The addition of four defibrillators will ensure that we continue to provide a quick and appropriate response when lives are at risk.

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Students at a Springfield university are getting a chance to use their new skills to help a community that is under-insured.

Drury University and Jordan Valley Community Health Center are placing pre-health science students with health care professionals at the clinic.

Students will work side by side helping patients.

The goal of the Drury Health Service Corps is to help future professionals become patient-centered providers.

Edited from a press release from Drury University:

SPRINGFIELD, Mo., Sept. 30, 2014 As entry into professional health and medical schools becomes more competitive, a new partnership between Drury and Jordan Valley Community Health Center (JVCHC) gives undergraduates the chance to experience and work in a real-world medical setting well before they take that next step in their academic careers.

The Drury Health Service Corps places pre-health sciences students inside the federally qualified health center in downtown Springfield to work alongside the medical staff and interact with patients. This gives them valuable and increasingly, essential volunteer experience in a real clinical setting. The work includes helping patients navigate the building and sign up for the online patient engagement portal, as well as assisting the JVCHC staff with a variety of customer-service related tasks.

VIDEO: Drury University Health Service Corps The Drury Health Service Corps seeks to go beyond a mere shadow internship and to truly place undergraduates in the midst of the patient-provider dynamic. It will help them cultivate the empathy, understanding and skills necessary to build relationships with the medically underserved, so that they are better prepared to become patient-centered health care providers in the future.

Medicine is certainly a people business and thats something medical schools are looking for individuals who are not only academically prepared but are able to go out and interact with people in a really positive way, says Dr. Beth Harville, assistant professor of biology and chemistry and director of Drurys pre-health sciences program.

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Drury University Teams Up With Jordan Valley Community Health Center To Promote Patient-Centered Care

Two alumni from the Moravia Central School District will be inducted into the district's Hall of Achievement Saturday.

The honor recognizes alumni whose personal and professional lives have distinguished them as personifying the type of role model the school district celebrates.

"It is our hope that this is another step in providing our students with positive role models individuals who have walked the same halls as our current student population," Superintendent Michelle Brantner said in a statement. "Through the recognition of these outstanding individuals, we show our sense of pride in our school district, community and our students past, present and future."

This year's inductees are Michelle Hartnett Lyon and William James Newhart.

Lyon, a member of the Class of 1988, received a two-year degree at Cayuga Community College after graduating from Moravia. She continued pursing her education by receiving an bachelor of science degree in accounting from SUNY-Oswego.

For more than 20 years, Lyon has worked at Cornell University and is currently the Director of Budget & Finance for the College of Human Ecology. She married in 1997 and her children attend school in the Moravia district.

Lyon served on the Moravia school board for three terms, served as president of the Moravia Youth Basketball League and enjoyed coaching youth.

According to the district's statement, "Michelle believes that MCS wasn't too big to be a number and wasn't too small to limit the opportunities of education."

A member of the Class of 1956, Newhart played football for Moravia and enjoyed acting in school plays.

After high school, Newhart spent four years in the U.S. Navy, Air Transport Squadron 22, in Norfolk, Virginia. He married Marjorie Keagle and has two children.

Original post:
Moravia hall of achievement to induct two alumni Saturday

Joshua Smith graduated from LSA in 1997 and Universitys medical school in 2006.

University Athletic Director Dave Brandon admitted in a statement Sunday night that Shane Morris sustained a concussion but claims that Brady Hoke was not apprised of this before his Monday noon press conference where he denied the concussion and even said Shane could have practiced Sunday were it not for his high ankle sprain.

Brandon then goes on to detail his thorough investigation into the matter:

"I have had numerous meetings beginning Sunday morning to thoroughly review the situation that occurred at Saturday's football game regarding student-athlete Shane Morris. I have met with those who were directly involved and who were responsible for managing Shane's care and determining his medical fitness for participation."

Yet, at Mondays press conference Brady Hoke said he hadn't spoken to Dave Brandon.

I don't think Brady Hoke is a bad man. I don't think he knowingly played Shane despite a concussion. I do, however, think that he's in way over his head, and, now is becoming complicit in Dave Brandon's attempt to sweep this under the rug.

Brandon is playing puppet master and sent his stringed creation into a field of scissors at Monday's press conference. Unfortunately for him, ties are not so easily cut and his future should be inextricably linked to Hoke's.

A 1 a.m. statement?! Really Brandon? How about standing by your coachs side and owning the problem instead of sacrificing him at the podium? Even if you're already packing your bags.

-------

Josie Ann Lee graduated from the University in 1996.

Original post:
Letters to the editor: Alumni response to Shane Morris incident

October 2, 2014 12:00 AM Share with others:

By Jill Daly / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jeffrey I. Gordon, professor and director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, will receive the University of Pittsburghs 2014 Dickson Prize in Medicine during Pitts Science 2014 event starting today and running through Friday. The event in Alumni Hall, 4227 Fifth Ave., Oakland, is free to the public

Dr. Gordon is a scientist whose lab has studied the microbes that live in humans gastrointestinal track and studies how their genes may be linked to human obesity, metabolic abnormalities and child nutrition. After earning his medical degree he did postgraduate work in biochemistry, molecular biology and gastroenterology. At 11 a.m. today, Dr. Gordonwill deliver the Dickson Prize Lecture, titledA Microbial View of Human Development: The Gut Microbiota and Childhood Undernutrition.

In addition to research presentations, a career workshop and a new technology showcase at Science 2014, other noted scientists will also deliver plenary lectures:

-- Jonathan Rothberg, founder of Ion Torrent Systems, Inc., onThe Development of High-Speed DNA Sequencing: Neanderthal, Moore, and You, 4 p.m. Thursday.

-- Stuart Orkin, pediatrics professor at Harvard Medical School, onBringing Genetics and Epigenetics to the Fetal-Adult Hemoglobin Switch, 11 a.m. Friday.

-- Jeannie T. Lee, professor of both genetics and pathology at Harvard Medical School,X-Chromosome Inactivation as a Model for Epigenetic Regulation by Long Noncoding RNA, 2 p.m. Friday.

Jill Daly: jdaly@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1596.

Read more:
Pitt honors St. Louis professor during 3-day science event

For tickets: Tickets are $25 per person and may be reserved by contacting Michelle Callahan by email at mxcallahan@lo well.k12.ma.us or by calling 978-937-8964. For more info, call the headmaster s officec at 978-937-8901.

LOWELL -- A high-ranking attorney, a Secret Service agent, an economic-development specialist, a military man and a police officer turned successful businessman will all join the ranks of Lowell High School's Distinguished Alumni this year.

Honorees chosen by the LHS Distinguished Alumni Board of Directors for 2014 include:

* James F. Linnehan, Class of 1939. Linnehan served his country during World War II, and later served his state as an assistant attorney general.

* John J. Lardner, Class of 1949. A former Marine, Lardner joined the Secret Service in 1959, serving on presidential details from Dwight Eisenhower through Ronald Reagan, but had a special attachment to John F. Kennedy and wife Jacqueline.

Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

* Marilyn Swartz-Lloyd, Class of 1962. Swartz-Lloyd has spent 40 years identifying Boston's economic growth centers and working with stakeholders from all sectors to bring them success, and currently serves as president and CEO of the Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization.

* Robert J. Kilmartin, Class of 1976. A lawyer and Marine, Kilmartin was ordered to Washington, D.C. in the days after 9/11 to mobilize in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

He also became a first responder in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami when his ship, en route to Iraq, was redirected to Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

* Michael J. Kuenzler, Class of 1979.

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Distinguished alumni, remarkable stories: Lowell High to induct five

........................................................................................................................................................................................

Everyone knows the old saying Put your money where your mouth is, but few live up to it.

That is not the case at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, where faculty members regularly reach into their own pockets to support an annual scholarship program.

This year, La Tierra Sagrada Society the fundraising arm of the School of Medicine is more than doubling its scholarship support for medical students, to just under $100,000. Behind the effort is the desire to help deserving students make it through medical school and one day hopefully apply their knowledge and skills caring for New Mexico patients in need.

La Tierra Sagrada The Sacred Earth Society has chosen 12 students from the class of 2015 for its 2014 merit scholarships. Chief among them is Sean Peterson, who will receive the Dean Endowed Scholarship Award of $15,000.

I believe in the role of disease prevention, long-lasting relationships, and the power of communication in healing, Peterson said, providing a brief glimpse into his personal philosophy of medicine. Im eager to practice family medicine and hope to work in underserved areas, where I feel the most good can be done.

Peterson has served as a volunteer medical Spanish language interpreter. He spent his third-year rotations polishing his grasp of Spanish at such local clinics as the Young Childrens Health Center, Clinica One Hope, and the Albuquerque Opportunity Center. He also tutors for the Clinical Applications of Spanish in Allied Health class at the School of Medicine.

The other 11 scholarship recipients will all get $7,500. They are Kwasi Addae-Mensah, Lauren Coleman, Richard Collier, Alyssa Dye, Jamie MacArthur, Heidi Overton, Kaitlin Petranovich, Jessie Rodgers, Sophia Stroud, Felicia Taylor and Anna Vesting.

Last year, La Tierra Sagrada presented five students all women a total of $45,000 in scholarships.

Dr. Paul Roth, dean of the School of Medicine, established La Tierra Sagrada in 1996. Since then, it has awarded worthy students more than $750,000. The society is supported by about 70 UNM medical school alumni, faculty and staff members, along with non-affiliated community members. It also gets financial assistance from corporate members Tricore Reference Laboratories and UNM Health System, with matching gifts from Merrill Lynch & Co. and Ricci, Porch & Co.

Link:
Society boosts scholarships for med students

Swartz-Lloyd

Sun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

LOWELL -- A high-ranking attorney, a Secret Service agent, an economic-development specialist, a military man and a police officer turned successful businessman will all join the ranks of Lowell High School's Distinguished Alumni this year.

Honorees chosen by the LHS Distinguished Alumni Board of Directors for 2014 include:

* James F. Linnehan, Class of 1939. Linnehan served his country during World War II, and later served his state as an assistant attorney general.

* John J. Lardner, Class of 1949. A former Marine, Lardner joined the Secret Service in 1959, serving on presidential details from Dwight Eisenhower through Ronald Reagan, but had a special attachment to John F. Kennedy and wife Jacqueline.

* Marilyn Swartz-Lloyd, Class of 1962. Swartz-Lloyd has spent 40 years identifying Boston's economic growth centers and working with stakeholders from all sectors to bring them success, and currently serves as president and CEO of the Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization.

* Robert J. Kilmartin, Class of 1976. A lawyer and Marine, Kilmartin was ordered to Washington, D.C. in the days after 9/11 to mobilize in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He also became a first responder in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami when his ship, en route to Iraq, was redirected to Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

* Michael J. Kuenzler, Class of 1979.

"I think they represent the success stories of the past," said LHS Headmaster Brian Martin. "They are from different generations, and different career paths, but they all started at Lowell High School, and we're very proud of them all."

Excerpt from:
Five to join Lowell High's Distinguished Alumni this year

Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, which opened 108 years ago in Charlotte, will close after current students graduate in 2016.

Officials of Carolinas HealthCare System, which has two other nursing schools in Charlotte and Concord, said the decision has nothing to do with the quality of Mercys program but was the result of an assessment of what is best for the system.

This was not easy, said Dr. Mary Hall, senior vice president for medical education and chief academic officer. The school has been around for a long time. Theyve had a high-quality school.

Hall notified faculty members, students and alumni of the school on Sept. 12. She said officials at Carolinas HealthCare have been reviewing nursing programs for the past year or two.

The decision comes as the system looks for ways to trim costs. Earlier this month, Carolinas HealthCare CEO Michael Tarwater announced the elimination of more than 100 management positions as part of a goal to cut $110 million in expenses from next years budget. He said the cuts are necessary, in part, because of declining reimbursements from federal programs and the refusal by both Carolinas to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act.

Carolinas HealthCare came to own the Mercy nursing school in 1995, when it purchased Mercy Hospital and Mercy Hospital South (now Carolinas Medical Center-Mercy and Carolinas Medical Center-Pineville, respectively) from the Sisters of Mercy, based in Belmont. The school has graduated almost 3,000 nurses over the years. The last class of 30 was enrolled in August.

The Mercy school, near Interstate 77 and West Arrowood Road, has 19 faculty members, including 17 registered nurses. Hall said shell encourage them to remain as long as the school has students.

Carolinas HealthCare also operates nursing schools at Carolinas College of Health Sciences on the campus of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte and at Cabarrus College of Health Sciences, which it acquired with the purchase of CMC-NorthEast (formerly NorthEast Medical Center) in Concord in 2007.

Hall said those two schools produce a total of about 200 graduates a year, more than enough to supply nurses needed for Carolinas HealthCare facilities. We didnt hire all of the nurses that graduated, she said. They definitely go other places, too.

Mercy is one of two remaining North Carolina nursing schools that issue diplomas instead of college degrees. The other diploma program is at Watts School of Nursing in Durham.

Read more:
Charlottes century-old Mercy nursing school to close