State Representative Visits Salus: Week of October 26, 2018

Good morning from a cold morning in Elkins Park!

It’s been another great week at Salus. Here are some of our highlights:

On Monday, we hosted State Representative Marcy Toepel at our Elkins Park campus. We had the opportunity to discuss all of our programs, but concentrated on why the legislature needs to update the current optometric scope of practice laws to reflect what’s being taught at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and other optometry programs around the country. After a great discussion and tour of our facility, where Melissa Trego, OD, PhD, dean, Pennsylvania College of Optometry, had the opportunity to show Representative Toepel our virtual reality training lab first hand. I think Rep. Toepel came away with a renewed appreciation of what optometrists can and should be doing to care for their patients. These visits are important to ensure our legislators understand the high quality and comprehensive education our students receive, not just in optometry but in every profession we train. It’s also a great opportunity for elected officials to learn what services Salus provides to our local communities - often at no cost to the people we serve.

NBC-10 news spotlighted our School Vision Program, our doctors and students while they conducted screenings at McCloskey Elementary School in Philadelphia just the other day. TEI resident Dr. Ryan Kern and a team of third year optometry students did an excellent job showcasing the great work that we do through our school screening program.

Congratulations to Mitchell Scheiman, OD, PhD, director, Graduate Programs, Biomedicine and his team at New Jersey Institute of Technology for winning two of three Auggie Awards – the most recognized industry virtual reality awards in the world.  The awards were given for two projects - Excellence in collaborative projects between industry and academia and the most impactful breakthrough and honoring a Women XR Laureate. Congratulations Mitch!

The American Optometric Student Association (AOSA) will hold its annual Optometry Cares 5K run/walk on Sunday, October 28 from 9 a.m. to noon at Alverthorpe Park in Abington, Pa. All proceeds will benefit the American Optometric Association’s Optometry Cares foundation. Please try to get out there to support this great cause.

Our annual Looking Out For Kids (LOFK) charity fundraiser is only a week away! If you haven’t already purchased your tickets, it’s not too late. This year’s event is being held at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue which is a beautiful venue in a great location. If you can’t come, please consider donating on our website.

Finally, there’s been a good bit of distracting and distressing news this week about politics, mail bombs, general discord and the geopolitical fallout from the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. With all this swirling around us, it’s helpful for all of us remain mentally and morally focused on our mission at Salus – advancing integrated health care through innovative education, research and clinical services. Our students have enough to do between studying and going to class and labs and our faculty and staff are constantly working to ensure our students receive the best education possible in addition to ensuring the patient care provided in our clinics is nothing less than excellent. While it’s extremely important to be aware of the current events, it’s imperative for you to focus on our patients, clients and the education that will enable you to help others well into the future. 

The one thing that you all can do is to vote – no matter what your political affiliation is, that’s the one way we have, as Americans, to clearly express our opinion and desires as to how our government works. Tuesday, November 6 is election day. Mark it on your calendars and ensure that you either have an absentee ballet if you’re not going to be around or get to a polling place. Every vote counts, so please ensure you plan your time to exercise your constitutional right to choose who represents us.

On that note, I’ll close wishing everyone a safe and restful weekend. It looks like we’re going to have a nor’easter starting tonight, so please be careful if you’re going out and about. 

Mike

Midterms: Week of October 19, 2018

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Board Members and Friends,

Greetings from Salus where it’s a beautiful fall day!

This has been a week of midterms for many students. You could tell that testing was going on as the hallways were pretty quiet most of the week. I trust all of our students have survived their midterm week in stellar form and now are ready to start the second half of their terms.

I want to take a minute to offer congratulations to Donna Agnew, MSPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA on her recent appointment as the interim dean of the University's College of Health Sciences. 

On Wednesday evening, Salus Institutional Advancement hosted a social event at Yards Brewing Co. in Philadelphia to celebrate Salus University’s 10 year anniversary. Young alumni, students, faculty and staff came out to have a good time. The food and ambiance were great – as was the ping pong! Glad to see many of our students, faculty, alumni and staff attending and we’ll do this again next year.

Speaking of alumni, our Salus Alumni Association Board had their quarterly meeting last Sunday morning on campus. I had the opportunity to bring the board up to speed on many great things that are going on around campus as well as to share some strategic thoughts on the direction we’re moving the University. We spent a good bit of time discussing our upcoming Centennial Celebration for PCO and some of the events surrounding that. It’s great to see alumni involvement in this and many other things we’re doing here at Salus.

This coming Saturday, the Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI) will host an Open House from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be expert talks, tours, and complimentary hearing screenings. If you’re in the neighborhood I encourage you to stop by.

Don’t forget that November 3 is our annual Looking Out forKids Charity Fundraiser at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue. Purchase your tickets for the 12^th annual benefit here.

Speaking of Looking Out for Kids, the program has been acknowledged by the Montgomery County School Nurses Association for the important work it has been doing in the Montgomery County schools. Congratulations to the team of Susan Oleszewski, OD ’76, MA who began all of this, as well as to Brandy Scombordi, OD and Cathie Muhr for ensuring the program maintains its momentum.

Finally, it looks like another nice weekend so please take some time to get outside, exercise and enjoy the changing colors and nice crisp temperatures. Be safe and look out for each other.

Mike

115th Commencement: Week of October 12, 2018

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Today marks the end of an exceptionally eventful week at Salus. Yesterday marked the 115th Commencement ceremony at the University. For the first time, our Fall Commencement included graduates from all four of our colleges. We bestowed doctoral and master's degrees to over 65 students in the professions of Physician Assistant Studies, Audiology, Blindness and Low Vision Studies, Biomedicine, Occupational Therapy, Public Health and for our international students, Clinical Optometry with an International Advanced Studies Certificate. Special thanks to family members, significant others and friends for supporting all of our graduates and attending yesterday’s ceremony. I also want to thank those Board of Trustee members who took the time to participate. Congratulations to everyone!

Preceding commencement on Wednesday evening, the Physician Assistant program held its traditional Long White Coat Ceremony, along with the honoring the PA Alumnus of the Year Award, Jennifer Heibel, MMS'15, PA-C. Since graduating in 2015, Jennifer has already established herself as a skilled and passionate provider at the Mayo Clinic where she currently works. She has become an expert in palliative care and has even taken a very creative idea and launched a foundation to better care for those in need of that type of care called “ReMEmber” which is pronounced, “Remember Me”. I invite you to read more about Jennifer’s accomplishment.

Victor Bray, PhD, associate professor, Osborne College of Audiology, was elected to a second term as Secretary of the National Academies of Practice during their 2019 Fall Council Meeting in Grand Rapids, Mich. Dr. Bray’s term will begin following the 2019 forum in March. We are very proud of this accomplishment as it continues to maintain the Osborne College of Audiology on the national stage.

Rebecca Blaha, AuD, clinical educator at PEI, was interviewed by KYW for a story about over the counter hearing aids. I encourage all of you to take a couple of minutes to listen to this.

On Sunday, we’ll be holding our quarterly meeting of the Salus Alumni Association Board. I’m looking forward to bringing board members up to speed on all the great things going on at the university, to include our new scholarship initiatives.

A couple of reminders for you:

• Next week we’ll be holding our Young Alumni event at Yard’s Brewery on Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. to celebrate the Salus University’s 10th anniversary. This event is open to everyone so I encourage you to join us for what should be a fun evening.
• The Looking Out for Kids annual charity fundraiser will be November 3 at Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue. This event is always fun and as most of you know, proceeds all go to our Looking Out For Kids charity, which has been expanded to not only include vision care but now also includes support for audiology and speech-language pathology services. Please get your tickets now.

Finally, it’s going be a nice fall weekend around here so I hope you have a chance to get out and enjoy the nice weather. Be safe and look out for each other!

Mike

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

I hope everyone has had a fruitful week.  I’ve been away for most of it, participating in the Greater Philadelphia Leadership Exchange in Seattle, WA.  Abbreviated as GPLEX, the leadership exchange is an initiative of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia to develop leaders of business, civic, and government organizations into more informed leaders, dedicated to making Philadelphia and surrounding areas into a world class region. Through out-of-region learning visits, like this week’s to Seattle, the Leadership Exchange exposes folks to new insights and ideas, as well as establish connections across sectors and industries. During this year’s exchange in Seattle we were able to see how they address key issues such as homelessness, education, healthcare, crime and the growing influence of Amazon, whose headquarters is located right downtown.  It was very insightful to see how Seattle has developed a Global Health Alliance to help deconflict competing resources and conversely, how the number of homeless people have grown significantly due to the rise in housing costs in the city, primary driven by the tech industry there. I also had the opportunity to network with many of our greater Philadelphia community leaders who hopefully will help to market our Salus brand regionally and provide new opportunities for us to leverage our programs and clinics. All in all, it was a great experience but it’s also great to be back home!

Closer to home, I’d like to congratulate Patricia Mayro, Assistant Professor in the University's Speech-Language Pathology Program, who has been selected from hundreds of applicants across the nation to serve as one of only 15 Apraxia Kids Volunteer Outreach Coordinators. Those selected are highly qualified and dedicated individuals willing to advocate in their communities so that children with apraxia of speech have optimal opportunities to achieve functional speech. Well done Trish!

In our College of Education and Rehabilitation, The Nebraska Center for the Education of Children who are Blind or Visually Impaired’s newsletter dedicated one page to highlight Salus Orientation and Mobility cohort. 

Congratulations to Donna Agnew, MSPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA, Director of our Physician Assistant program, who has recently assumed the role of Interim Dean of College of Health Sciences.

Our Osborne College of Audiology was well represented at the Pennsylvania Academy of Audiology this week, with three Grand Rounds presentations and one poster by students Jenna Fenton ‘20AUD, Elisa Hoyos ‘20AUD, Deidre Creegan ‘20AUD, Olivia Bologna ‘20AUD, Maura Kelly ‘20AUD, Maria Ragonese ‘20AUD, and Christi-Marie Williamson ‘20AUD.  Victor Bray, PhD, associate professor, also gave a presentation on Depression and Hearing Loss at the meeting.

Congratulations to Martin Pienkowski, PhD on publishing his article on Tinnitus in the journal, Neuroscience.  

We also congratulate Radhika Aravmudhan, PhD, interim dean, Osborne College of Audiology, who has been elected as the vice-chair for Audiology on the Council on Academic Accreditation (CAA) Board and will serve on the executive committee of the CAA Board. 

 

A couple of reminders:

• Fall commencement is next Thursday at 2:00 p.m. at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Center City.  In addition to celebrating the achievements of our students, we’ll be presenting Dr. Janice Scharre with her honorary degree and she will also be our commencement speaker. It should be a wonderful event. 
• The 12^th Annual Looking Out For Kids Charity Fundraiser is on November 3rd at the Philadelphia Hilton, City Line Avenue. The committee has done a great job in planning this event which should be lots of fun – and most importantly, raise lots of money for this very worthwhile charity.  
• As we continue to celebrate the Salus 10 year anniversary, join us at Yards Brewing and let's toast to many more years to come.  Invite your colleagues and friends , it only costs $20 (includes food and drinks). It should be a fun party!

As you can see, it’s been a busy week with some busy times to come.  A good reason to get some rest this weekend and get out and enjoy some of this nice Fall weather. Be safe and have fun.

Mike