Academic Achievement
Dr. Carrie Huntsman-Jones earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree, specializing in Population Health Leadership, from New Mexico State University.
Grant Awards
The National Cancer Institute awarded a $666,739 R01 grant to Dr. Deanna Kepka, Kaila Christini, Erin Rothwell, Ben Haaland, David Turok, and Dr. Echo Warner for their study titled PREVENT – Practice-based Approaches to Promote HPV Vaccination.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute awarded a $52,794 supplement award to Dr. Youjeong Kang for her study titled Symptom Care at Home-Heart Failure: Developing and Piloting a Symptom Monitoring and Self-management Coaching System for Patients with Heart Failure. These funds will allow Dr. Kang to pilot the Symptom Care at Home Heart Failure mobile health tool.
The National Institute on Aging Imbedded Pragmatic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and AD-Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) Clinical Trials (IMPACT) Collaboratory announced Dr. Gail Towsley as a 2023 Health Care Systems (HCS) Scholars Program awardee. The HCS Scholars program offers investigators an opportunity to partner with HCS to develop embedded pragmatic clinical trials focused on improving the care provided to persons living with dementia, and their care partners. Dr. Towsley will receive $120,000 for her study titled Building an Academic Long-Term Care System Coalition to Improve Palliative Care. She will partner with Nexion Health to nurture a meaningful collaboration that blends research and clinical care expertise to better understand how palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care is implemented in the long-term care system. Together, they will learn what needs to be done to conduct an embedded pragmatic clinical trial. Using community engagement approaches, they will identify 1) key details of how the HCS currently provides palliative and EOL care for people living with dementia, 2) essential elements of how the HCS would implement a new process, 3) outcomes that are important to all levels of the HCS related to palliative and EOL care, including how they are or can be integrated into the electronic health record, and 4) relevant data available via the Long-Term Care Data Cooperative.
Recognition
The Salt Lake Tribune recognized the 2023 Utah Top Nurses, including Althea Martinez – College of Nursing staff member and Lead Nurse at the Mill Creek Youth Center. Althea oversees the medical needs of the youth who are in custody for criminal offenses. College of Nursing alumna Lynette Clements – Nurse Manager for Infusion Services at Intermountain Medical Center, Alta View, Riverton, Heber, and Park City Hospitals – also was recognized.
Brett Peterson, Director of the Utah Division of Juvenile Justice and Youth Services, wrote “Thank you CoN for the AMAZING partnership! We are so blessed to have y’all in the work with us!” Brett tweeted about a ceremony during which he thanked registered nurses Althea Martinez and Amy Miller for their excellent work at the Mill Creek Youth Center in Ogden.
Scholarship Award
First-year international nursing PhD students Malek Alnajar (Advisor: Dr. Kathie Supiano) and Wen Tu (Advisor: Dr. Lisa Taylor-Swanson) are breaking boundaries. Both received scholarships to attend quantitative methods courses at the University of Michigan Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. Malek Alnajar received the Jerome M. Clubb Scholarship, which will allow him to further his understanding of measurement, item response theory, and regression models. Wen Tu received a diversity scholarship, and will attend mathematics courses, and introduction courses to Python, R, regression analyses, measurement, and machine learning.
Presentations
Star Jones, Alexia Harrist, Jay Middleton, Dr. Deanna Kepka, and Cassandra Walkama were invited speakers for the HPV Panel at the Wyoming Immunization Conference in Casper, WY.
Dr. Kara Dassel will co-facilitate a workshop titled What if? The importance of Planning Ahead at Lynden Legacy Foundation's Caregiver Seminar & Workshops 2023 on May 20, 2023.
Faculty, students, and alumni presented at the American College of Nurse-Midwives 68th Annual Meeting & Exhibition on May 7-9, 2023, in Orlando, FL. The conference theme was Reimagine & Rebuild.
- Dr. Gwen Latendresse, Dr. Eli Iacob, Dr. Ryoko Kausler, Uma Dorn, Dr. Sara Simonsen, Dr. Xiaoming Sheng, Marcela Smid, Marcia Williams, and Kristen Weissinger delivered a podium presentation titled Randomized Trial of Telehealth Group Intervention to Reduce Perinatal Depressive Symptoms in Diverse Populations.
- Dr. Ryoko Kausler, Dr. Gwen Latendresse, Dr. Eli Iacob, Dr. Marcela Smid, Jane Grassley, and Dr. Kathie Supiano presented a poster titled Feasibility and Acceptability of a Remote-Access Intervention among Women with Perinatal Depression/Anxiety and Substance Use Risk.
Publication
Waters AR, Weir C, Kramer HS, van Thiel Berghuijs KM, Wu Y, Kepka D, Kirchhoff AC. Implementation barriers and considerations for recommending and administering the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in oncology settings. J Cancer Surviv. 2023.
Community Engagement
Members of the Green Team – Donnie Benson, Dr. Eli Iacob, Dr. Youjeong Kang, and Dr. Brenda Luther – did yard and garden work at the Valor Apartments, a veteran transition program funded through Veterans Affairs. Given that working for hours next to a donut shop was more difficult than weeding and raking leaves, the team celebrated by enjoying donuts. Look for an invite in the Fall when they will return to plant bulbs.
Professional Service
After a long and rigorous nomination review process, the Director of the Center for Scientific Review approved Dr. Kathy Sward as Chair of the Clinical Informatics and Digital Health (CIDH) Study Section. Her first CIDH meeting as Chair will be in September 2023.
In June 2023, Dr. Kara Dassel will serve on two scientific review sections: 1) The National Institute on Aging Pragmatic Trials for Dementia Care and Caregiver Support Scientific Review Group, and 2) the Alzheimer's Association Research Grant to Promote Diversity Scientific Review Group.
In the Media
Dr. Kara Dassel was interviewed for a Lynden Legacy Foundation The Long Goodbye Podcast. In episode 4 – Alzheimer’s Care: From Diagnosis to Daily Life, Here's What You Need to Know – Dr. Dassel shared valuable insights and practical tips on how to diagnose and care for those with Alzheimer's disease. Her advice can help improve the daily lives of those affected by Alzheimer’s disease.