Good Luck with Finals: Week of November 30, 2018

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

Greetings from our Nation’s capital where Melissa Vitek, OD, FAAO, interim provost and vice president of Academic Affairs; Brooke Kruemmling, PhD, COMS, associate provost; and I are attending the annual meeting of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s (MSCHE). MSCHE is the overarching accrediting body for Salus. It’s always enlightening to learn about trends in accreditation and to see what other colleges and universities are doing as well as ensuring we remain in compliance within the standards we are accountable for. 

Later today, I head up to New York along with Dennis Washington, vice president for Institutional Advancement and Don Kates, CPA, vice president for Finance, to represent Salus at the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Society. Most of our regional politicians head up to New York City this time of the year to network and learn about constituent needs and wants. This presents a great opportunity for us to market the University and lobby for state funding for some of our most important projects. By keeping our local legislators informed about all the great things we’re doing for our students and the local communities we serve, we’ve been successful in the past in obtaining significant state grant funding for things such as the renovation of The Eye Institute, to include the lower level and our newest primary care clinic.  This time we’re hoping to lobby for funds towards making improvements at the Elkins Park campus.

Around campus, lots of great things are happening as well. 

Rachel Ditoro, MSPAS, PA-C, associate professor in the Physician Assistant Program, was interviewed by the Physician Assistant Education Association about the work our PA program is doing in Competency Based Education (CBME). 

We’re always trying to enhance our current academic partnerships and develop new ones. We're happy to announce that we have signed two new articulation agreements with the University of the Sciences:  a 3 + 4 Doctor of Audiology Degree Program and a 4 + 4 Doctor of Audiology Program. These help to develop pipelines of qualified students for all of our programs. 

I’m very proud to inform everyone that the University's Veteran’s Readiness Initiative (VRI) was recently awarded the Union League Veteran’s Club Table 2018

Philanthropy Award. The award was accompanied with a nice monetary donation to the program. Karen Hanson, PhD, program development ; Linda Casser, OD, FAAO, coordinator of Interprofessional Education, and I were all on hand to accept the award during a special ceremony at the Union League of Philadelphia just prior to Thanksgiving. 

As we prepare to enter finals week at the University, I want to wish everyone lots of luck (although I know you won’t need it because you all have been studying so hard) and thank the faculty for the great job they’ve done in preparing everyone so well! Have a great weekend. Be safe and look out for one another. 

Mike

Happy Thanksgiving: Week of November 20, 2018

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

As we prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving this week with friends and family, I want to take a moment to offer my gratitude to our extended Salus family – students, faculty, residents, staff, alumni and board members – for the energy, compassion, enthusiasm and cooperation that has made this past year so very successful for our University. What an honor and pleasure it is to work with such a committed group of professionals as we envision new ways to keep Salus moving forward. The spirit of improvement and dedication to excellence is truly inspiring.

It can sometimes be too easy for us to take for granted the freedoms afforded by this great country in which we live, which provides us the very opportunity we have during this holiday to gather peacefully with our friends and loved ones;  a situation brought into sharp focus over the past few months with the extraordinary challenges facing others in so many regions of our country and the rest of the world.

As we prepare for this week’s holiday, I want to thank you for what you do every day to make us a very special place to learn, work and support our community.  I also want to thank you for what you do to keep Salus University on its continued path of progress and innovation.

Tanis and I wish you all a very safe and restful Thanksgiving. 

Mike

Blogging in the Clouds: Week of November 16, 2018

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

Greetings from the air as I head up to Boston to join our speech-language pathology and audiology colleagues at their annual American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) conference. Isn’t technology great?! I’m excited to see their posters and interact with many of our students, faculty and alumni! Dr. Aravamudhan represented OCA at the convention attending her CAA board meeting and making a presentation on her research project with mild Traumatic Brain Injury patients.

I hope everyone survived our first taste of winter weather yesterday. It was quite a surprise! Even with our pre-winter surprise, things remained busy at Salus.

On Tuesday evening our staff from The Eye Institute was honored with the Montgomery County School Nurse Association’s (MCSNA) School Health Partnership Award in recognition for the School Vision Programs. Tanis and I had the honor of attending, along with Dr. Brandy Scombordi, Dr. Luis Trujillo and Cathie Muhr.

Last week I mentioned that Dr. Bisant Labib became the 15th diplomate in the Comprehensive Eye Care section of the AAO. What I didn’t’ know at the time was that Dr. Labib made history by being the youngest female to ever attain this historical achievement - many congratulations to her!

Given the almost total devastation of the town of Paradise, California from the terrible fires out there, I felt compelled to mention that in this week’s update. Here are some staggering stats as of yesterday:

California officials said they've identified most of the 59 people known to have died in wildfires that started a week ago. Searchers recovered eight more victims of the "Camp Fire" north of Sacramento on Wednesday along with a third victim of the "Woolsey Fire" near Los Angeles. In the "Camp Fire," 130 other people are still unaccounted for. The blaze has destroyed nearly 9,000 homes and forced at least 52,000 people to evacuate.

If you are interested in assisting those affected by devastating California fires, the Red Cross has a separate pull down item "California Wildfires" for this purpose on their "Donate Now" page.

As we approach this weekend, please keep the folks in California in your thoughts and prayers. Have a safe and restful weekend!

Mike

Greetings from San Antonio: Week of November 9, 2018

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

Greetings from San Antonio where I’m attending the annual meeting of the American Academy of Optometry, along with many of our PCO faculty and students.  It’s been a great meeting with several of our faculty and students attaining professional recognition in the form of academy diplomate status and practice excellence recognition.  Congratulations to Dr. Bisant Labib, Co-Chief of Suite 3, who earned her Diplomate in Comprehensive Eye Care and to Susan Barnes and Kathrine Boas, both from the PCO class of 2019, for receiving a VSP Practice Excellence Award.  We’re extremely proud of all of you!  Also, several of our faculty and students are presenting lectures and posters throughout the meeting. PCO is making a huge splash in San Antonio!!!

Just a reminder that Dr. Trego and PCO will be hosting an Alumni and Friends reception in the Grand Hyatt, Texas Ballroom F, 4th Floor later today at 6:30 p.m.  We hope everyone who’s in San Antonio for the Academy meeting can join us!

Congratulations to Radhika Aravamudhan who has just been named the Dean of the Osborne College of Audiology!

Rachel Ditoro, MSPAS, PA-C, associate professor, College of Health Sciences, presented three talks to Physician Assistant Program educators at the annual Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) Forum in Anaheim, CA: “Competency-based Medical Education (CBME): Beginning with the End in Mind” parts one and two, which provided an overview of CBME, its core components, and its utilization in PA education.  Ditoro also co-presented a third talk, “Early Remediation Using a Competency-based Education Model” with Donna Agnew, MSPAS,PA-C,DFAAPA, interim dean, College of Health Sciences, addressing targeted remediation for identified deficits.  It’s great to see our folks lecturing on the national stage.

Congratulations to our Looking Out For Kids charity fundraiser team for orchestrating what has been our best event to date last Saturday night.  We had over 300 people in attendance including Senator Vincent Hughes and our Lighthouse Award recipient, Donna Frisby-Greenwood.

Special thanks to Kate Braemer and the team in Institutional Advancement and Alumni Relations for putting all this together. Special thanks to Rosemary Connors from NBC10 who served as our co-host and to all of our sponsors, including National Vision, Lindy Property Management Co., Conicelli Toyota, Fox Rothschild, E.B. Reilly, MyEyeDr, Office Depot, T3 Construction, U.S. Vision and many others.  Also, special thanks to our Board of Trustee members for your attendance as well to all those who contributed time, wine, money and artwork to the silent auction.  It looked like everyone had a great time! For more info, check out our website.

The Keneseth Israel Reform Congregation is holding a concert featuring the Main Line Symphony Orchestra with Maestro Don Liuzzi, 68-member musicians, a guest narrator, and soloists on Sunday at 7:15 p.m. Salus students, faculty and staff have been invited to attend this great event.  Admission is $10 and tickets will be available at the door.

It looks like it’s going to be a nice cool weekend in Philadelphia! Get out the hot chocolate and settle in with your books if you’re studying, or try to get outside and enjoy what’s left of the fall leaves.  There will be snow on the ground before we know it!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Mike

Looking Out for Kids Fundraiser: Week of November 2, 2018

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

It’s been another productive week at Salus with preparations for our LookingOut For Kids charity fundraiser being completed for tomorrow night’s event. So far over 300 people have registered to join us at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue to help raise money for this very worthy charity. We’ll also be honoring our Lighthouse Award recipient, Donna Frisby-Greenwood, at the event.

On Wednesday, I was interviewed by Rosemary Connors, who will co-host the event, at the brand-new NBC 10 studio in the Comcast Innovation Center in Center City.

Also on Wednesday, the office of Student Affairs held The Ultimate Treat Event in the afternoon outside of the Café with treat bags, baked goods, and raffle prizes – and plenty of students donning Halloween costumes. It was great to see everyone enjoying all those treats. I suspect there are many hours of gym time scheduled to offset the goodies we all enjoyed. 

Dennis Washington, our vice president for Institutional Advancement, and I spent Monday and Tuesday in Florida visiting several of our alumni. We had the opportunity to spend some time with our oldest alumni, Dr. Morey Powell who is 103 years old. It was great to catch up and hear Dr. Powell’s insights on what the country was like almost a century ago as compared to now. Our conversation made the “good ole days” sound pretty good!  We had named one of our new classrooms after Dr. Powell and used this opportunity to present him with a picture of the plaque that is now outside the Powell classroom. He was extremely excited. We also visited Dr. Michael Hecht and Dr. Ronnie Snyder. Dr. Hecht is a classmate of mine and Dr. Snyder is a graduate of the class of 1967.

Last week the StudentOccupational Therapy Association (SOTA) celebrated World OT Day by tabling outside of the café. World OT Day (which was on October 27) aims to spread awareness about what occupational therapy is and the importance of OT worldwide. The SOTA officers provided their peers and faculty members with an interactive “two truths and a lie” game to test knowledge and see what the Salus community already knew about OT. SOTA gave out lollipops with fun facts about OT, baked goods, and OT balloons. Overall, SOTA successfully engaged and educated the Salus community about the scope and importance of occupational therapy.

 

At last week’s Academy of Doctors of Audiology annual conference, the meeting opened with an all-day symposium on comorbidities in the audiology patient. This has been a major project for Dr. Victor Bray as the symposium's organizer. Dr. Bray delivered the opening and closing talk as well as covering one of the content areas in a panel discussion. We believe this was the first time there has been an all-day symposium focused on the topic of comorbidities in an audiology patient. Congratulations Dr. Bray for helping to get the Salus name out there!

Later today, during Salus Time, we’ll roll out our Interprofessional Clinical Care initiative in room S305A. Dr. Karen Hansen has been leading the charge on this initiative for the past few months, working with clinic directors in each college, in an effort to tie together our clinics in a meaningful way that enhances inter-clinic communication as well as patient referrals. The staff will be unveiling our new Salus Interprofessional Questionnaire and explaining its significance to the process. This is open to everyone and I would encourage you to attend if you’re going to be on campus. 

Finally, Daylight Savings Time ends early Sunday morning, so don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour Saturday night. That gives us an extra hour of sleep as well as an extra hour to raise money for Looking Out For Kids Saturday evening. Have a great weekend!

Mike