A contingent of RFU faculty and students traveled to the Caribbean island of St. Lucia as part of a global health partnership recently finalized with St. Jude Hospital (SJH) in the town of Vieux Fort.

Three third-year doctor of physical therapy students, Laura Calgaro, Samantha Helgesen, and Cydney Lee completed their required professional practicum course during the visit under the supervision of April D. Newton, PT, DPT, assistant professor of physical therapy. Laura focused on issues involving the pediatric population, Samantha on health promotion and wellness, and Cydney on health promotion and patient nutrition. The students interacted with clinicians and health profession students from other disciplines at SJH, Comfort Bay Senior Center and Vieux Fort Health Center, providing an interprofessional dimension to their projects.

Dr. Newton, who also serves as RFU director of interprofessional education and clinical practice, and Cat Myser, PhD, RFU director of global health and ethics, met with SJH leadership and management during the Jan. 17-19 trip to discuss collaborative educational and practice opportunities for SJH clinicians and RFU students and faculty.

St. Jude Hospital is the fourth such partnership forged by the Office of Global Health. Global health partnership sites also include Hospital Bernard Mevs in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Hope of Women and Children Victims of Violence in Ndejje, Uganda, and Mexico.

• RFU Provost Wendy Rheault, PT, PhD, will present during the Association of Academic Health Centers' “Regional Roundtable Series on Graduate Medical Education Reform: Interprofessional Training.” Register for the fifth webinar in the series, which airs March 3 and features a discussion of the merits and best practices of interprofessional training. Dr. Rheault is a national expert on interprofessional health sciences education and team-based practice.
• A team of five RFU students who help run the Interprofessional Community Clinic (ICC) presented at the annual Society of Student-Run Free Clinics Conference held Jan. 30-31 in Phoenix, AZ. Sam Choi, CMS '18, and Nick Fox, a DePaul University nursing student at RFU, presented a poster titled “Adaptation of Programs and Care from Patient Feedback at a New Student-Run Clinic.” Faryal Ahmad, CMS '19, and Kelsi Swanson, CMS '18, delivered a poster presentation about the “Effectiveness of Community Outreach Health Screenings for Referring Patients to the Interprofessional Community Clinic.” Nick also presented on behalf of Katie Derbyshire, CHP '21, a clinical psychology PhD student and Lori Thuente, PhD, assistant director of DePaul University's Master's Entry to Nursing Practice program at RFU, on the “Improvement of Interprofessional Attitudes in Students: Review of a Student-Run Free Clinic One Year Later.” Justin Krautbauer, CMS '19, president of the Interprofessional Community Initiative, the student organization that operates the ICC under faculty supervision, also participated in the conference.
• RFU celebrated Black History Month with a variety of events, beginning with a Motown-themed show in Rhoades Auditorium on Feb. 6. Hosted by the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA) and the Student National Podiatric Medical Association (SNPMA), the evening paid tribute to Motown's founder, Berry Gordy. A choral presentation sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion on Feb. 17 included a performance of gospel songs by the Rosalind Franklin Voices.
• Natalie Ravnikar, COP '17, will represent RFU at the National Patient Counseling Competition during the American Pharmacists Association's (APhA) upcoming annual meeting in Baltimore, MD. Michael Hildebrandt, COP '17, will compete in the IPhA-sponsored statewide competition in the fall. Natalie, Michael and Mark Sundh, COP '18, earned the top three places in the preliminary local Patient Counseling Competition organized by the APhA-ASP (Academy of Student Pharmacists) Executive Board and judged by Sean Kane, PharmD, BCPS, assistant professor of pharmacy practice and Bradley Cannon, PharmD, director of experiential education in the Department of Pharmacy Practice.
• Members of the medical fraternity Phi Delta Epsilon recently hosted the second annual Dr. Rosalind Franklin pageant to raise money for the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. Chicago Medical School, College of Pharmacy and School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies student contestants raised $500 for the cause.
• The RFU chapter of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA), led by Keneshia Berkley, COP '17, past president of the group, was selected a runner-up for its entry in the Remember the Ribbon November Infographic Competition.
• Accepted Student Visit Days, held Jan. 22-23, drew 182 registrants including students and their families. Represented programs included the Chicago Medical School, College of Health Professions, College of Pharmacy and the Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine. The event included program overviews and student panels; a mixer sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs and Inclusion; a presentation on student organizations led by Executive Student Council President Gabe Arom, CMS '18; and a lecture on interprofessional education by William Gordon, DMin, director of resources and operations for the Baldwin Institute. One-on-one financial aid appointments were attended by 44 students.
• “Cultural Awareness in Patient Care,” a panel presentation hosted on Feb. 25 by Chicago Medical School, included the following experts: Jay M. Behel, PhD, assistant dean of academic medicine, Rush University Medical Center; Hector Rasgado-Flores, PhD, CMS associate professor of physiology; Karona Mason, DPM, Scholl College associate professor and associate dean of clinical experiences; and David Lowry, PhD, MA, CMS and CHP assistant professor.
• The Baldwin Institute recently sponsored a Merit Badge Day for the Boy Scouts of America, attracting more than 90 scouts from across Chicagoland and Wisconsin to RFU's Rothstein Warden Centennial Learning Center. The scouts were led in small groups by more than 100 RFU HMTD interprofessional student groups. Each badge required a health-related field trip. RFU students guided scouts in an exercise in the Department of Healthcare Simulation, while other scouts, pursuing a badge in public health, toured the campus' Food for Thought kitchen and listened to a presentation by Daniel Weiss, MPH, with the Lake County Health Department. RFU students completed more than 440 interprofessional service hours during the event and scouts completed more than 80 badges.

• J. Amiel Rosenkranz, PhD, MS, associate professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology, was awarded a $1.1 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study “Effects of repeated stress on amygdala function during adolescence.” The study is funded from Feb. 16, 2016 through March 31, 2021.
• Kuei Y. Tseng, MD, PhD, associate professor of the Department of Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology, was awarded a five-year NIH grant in the amount of $1.95 million for the study “Afferent Regulation of Prefrontal Maturation during Adolescence. The study is funded from Feb. 15, 2016 through Dec. 31, 2020.

• A visit to Waukegan High School by an interprofessional team of RFU students on Feb. 20 was publicized in recent editions of TribLocal. The students participated in a healthcare careers fair led by Franklin Fellow physician assistant student Lauren Golding, CHP '17. More than a dozen RFU students pursuing degrees in medicine, physician assistant, pharmacy, pathologists' assistant, podiatry and research discussed their academic paths and career goals and answered questions.

Accepted Student Visit Days

38th Annual Midwinter Seminar

Student Wellness Week

Future Healthcare Professional Club

Black History Month Showcase

Alumni Visit: Dr. Kerur '11

Black History Month Choral Presentation

WHS Healthcare Careers Fair

Global Health Initiative: Saint Lucia

• Albert Brown, DPM '49, was profiled for the Sun Sentinel (FL) for his more than six decades in the field of podiatric medicine.
• Arthur Levine, MD '64, participated in a panel discussion on the importance of humanities in education at the University of Pittsburgh.
• Daniel Evans, DPM '82, was elected president of the American College of Foot and Ankle Orthopedics and Medicine.
• Matthew Garoufalis, DPM '82, is quoted in a story on the problem of dry skin for people with diabetes in the publication Diabetes Self-Management.
• Frederick Opper, MD, '83, was appointed clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
• Andrew Bronstein, MD '89, was profiled by a columnist in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
• Colleen Napolitano, DPM '89, was elected treasurer of the American College of Foot and Ankle Orthopedics and Medicine.
• Cynthia Joy Cotharn, MD '90, was appointed to the California Health Professions Education Foundation Board of Trustees.
• Victor Pinkes, MD '93, was appointed chief of emergency medicine at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island.
• William Blake, DPM '99, was re-elected as vice president of the New Mexico Podiatric Medical Association.
• Kerur Nagaraj, DVM, PhD '11, NIH-funded assistant professor at the University of Kentucky, visited RFU on Feb. 9 to present “Innate immune mechanisms of age-related macular degeneration” as part of a seminar sponsored by the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

• The RFU student-led Future Health Professionals Club at North Chicago Community High School (NCCHS) participated in an after-school dissection session on Feb. 2. The high school students were assisted by members of the RFU student Ophthalmology Interest Group. Students in the NCCHS group STEP UP, Serving to Educate Potential Upcoming Professionals Program, led by RFU student mentors, who provide tutoring and ACT preparation, also participated.
• RFU's Division of Strategic Enrollment Management sponsored a morning-long tour for Zion-Benton Township High School AP biology students on Feb 24. The event included a presentation by Kuei Y. Tseng, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology; a Gross Anatomy Lab (GLA) experience led by GLA Director Adam Jansen and Trisha Rowland, CHP '16, the lab's deiner; and a session in the Simulation Lab with Lawrence Wood, clinical simulation educator.
• The university represented the Health Professions Education Consortium (HPEC) at the third annual Illinois 60 by 25 Network meeting held Jan. 26-27 in Springfield, IL. RFU is a lead partner in HPEC, which strives to meet regional healthcare needs by improving the college and career readiness of students matriculating into higher education. North Chicago Community High School, an HPEC member and RFU pipeline partner, also participated in the event.