Cabin Fever: Week of May 1st, 2020

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

Good morning from a damp and relatively warm Horsham, PA! It’s been another busy virtual week at Salus. We’ve completed our 8^th week of distance teaching and learning. On Tuesday, we recorded several segments of our virtual commencement ceremony. While not even close to ideal, Dr. Jim Caldwell and his staff, Ms. Alexis Abate and her staff, and our great facilities and security teams all worked together to help us celebrate the hard-earned successes of the graduating class of 2020. We are trying to make this as special and memorable as possible.

Around our virtual campus, we’re continuing with our observance of National Occupational Therapy Month. I encourage you read the Faculty Focus feature on Anna Grasso, assistant professor and the OT department’s academic fieldwork coordinator. If you’re like me, you might be surprised to learn about her love of the rough-and-tumble sport of rugby. No wonder all the students really listen to her! We’ve got a firsthand account from one of our OT graduates, Katlyn McCaw, MSOT ’16, detailing what it’s like on the front lines battling COVID-19 at the 182-bed nursing home where she works.

Congratulations to Kathryn Dowd, AuD ’08, who has been named the Audiology Alumna of the Year by our Alumni Association. Kathryn has dedicated years of service to the profession of Audiology, promoting awareness of chronic and infectious diseases and ototoxic medication and the impact of hearing loss among patients, diabetes educators and audiologists nationally. Bios for all the 2020 alumni award winners can be found the alumni page of our website.

I’ll be participating in a special meeting of the Sunday Breakfast Club this coming Wednesday evening. The club originated during the Great Depression to attempt an understanding of the economic happenings causing unemployment in the city. It has evolved into an influential group of current and emerging leaders from the Greater Philadelphia Region’s business, non-profit and government sectors who come together to learn from each other, as well as other thought leaders, and engage in conversation about the issues of our time. In 1935 they moved their meetings from Sunday mornings to Wednesday evenings, but kept their original name. They are holding a special Zoom event to discuss region's response to and recovery from the pandemic. I’ll be representing the Higher Education sector with speakers from other sectors addressing their areas of expertise. They include Steve Mullin, President of Econsult, who will discuss how the pandemic affects the economy, Donna Cooper, Executive Director, of Public Citizens for Children and Youth will discuss the effects on Children and Families, Dr. Harvey Rubin, Professor, Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania, will address the Public Health impact of the pandemic, Pedro Ramos, President and CEO, Philadelphia Foundation will discuss the effects on our community and cultures and finally, David Thornburgh, President and CEO, Committee of Seventy will address how this might affect our democracy and future elections. It should be a fascinating evening. 

Finally, as you get ready to enjoy the weekend, I realize that many of you are getting cabin fever and just want to be done with sheltering in place. This will end but it’s going to take a little more time before we can resume even some “normal” activities. As I noted in my message on Monday, the “next normal” is going to require us to continue to practice social distancing, frequent hand washing (that’s always been a good idea) and not gathering in large groups. We are preparing for all this as we plan to reopen our campus and clinics in what I hope will be the near future. In the meantime, please be safe, continue with your social distancing, hand washing and sheltering in place.

We are all SALUS STRONG, with the emphasis on US! We are one team - ONE SALUS – working as a team, we will come out of this stronger and ready to take on any challenges that may come our way. Have a great weekend! 

Mike