Greeting's From Optometry's Meeting: Week of June 25th, 2021

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

Greetings from Denver, CO, where several of us are attending “Optometry’s Meeting”, the annual meeting of the American Optometric Association. It’s the first major meeting any of us have attended since the beginning of the pandemic. Several of our faculty members are lecturing and Dr. Satya Verma and I are being inducted into the National Optometry Hall of Fame later today. Other than the 97-degree temperatures the other day, it’s been a great meeting. While we’ve been in Denver, lots of other things have been happening around campus:

DR. MULLIGAN LOOKING BACK: We recently bid farewell to Margaret Mulligan, MD, who retired after 10 years as an associate professor in the University’s Physician Assistant (PA) program. Dr. Mulligan discusses her time at Salus and what she plans to do in retirement. To read more, go to salus.edu/MulliganRetires.

FOCUS ON NEW FACULTY: The Faculty Focus this week is on James Kelly, MMS, PA-C, one of our newest assistant professors in the Physician Assistant (PA) program. Find out why Jim wanted to get into academia and what attracted him to Salus. Read more at salus.edu/JamesKelly.

NAVIGATING FINANCIAL AID — PART TWO: Check out part two of “How to Navigate Financial Aid as a Grad Student” a podcast Q&A featuring Jaime Schulang, MA, director of Student Financial Affairs. Jaime talks about the different loans, scholarships and financial aid that are available for students when they come to Salus University. To listen and read more, click here.

APHASIA SUPPORT GROUP: In the latest Speech-Language Pathology department podcast, program chair and director Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, talks to students and faculty about the Aphasia Support Group. Click here to listen and read more about it.

MIDDLE STATES ACCREDITATION: This week, we highlight Standard V - Educational Effectiveness Assessment. Our working group is led by Gregory Benjamin, PhD, MPH, Director, Institutional Research & Assessment, who is joined by Rachel Brackley, OD, Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Rachel Ditoro, MSPAS, PA-C, Associate Professor, director of Educational Competency and Strategic Innovation, Physician Assistant Studies Program, College of Health Sciences, Jonette Owen, AuD, AuD, FNAP, CH-AP, Assistant Professor, Assistant Dean; Practice and Assessment of Audiologic Medicine; Coordinator, External Clinical Education, Osborne College of Audiology, Caitlyn Foy, DOT, MOTR/L, Assistant Professor, Occupational Therapy Program; Director, Occupational Therapy Doctoral Program, College of Education and Rehabilitation, Jamie Maffit, MS, COMS, CLVT, Assistant Professor, Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies, College of Education and Rehabilitation, Beth E. Davidoff, PhD, CCC-SLP, Assistant Professor, Speech-Language Pathology Program, College of Education and Rehabilitation, and James F. Konopack, PhD, Dean and Associate Professor, College of Health Sciences, Education and Rehabilitation. Together they are documenting the continuous assessment of our academic offerings and how we use data-driven decision making to develop and implement curricula that prepare graduates for successful practice, influential participation and leadership positions within the current and future healthcare and education environments. All members of the Salus community are invited to review and provide feedback on the University's draft self-study report. 

FINAL THOUGHTS: Last week we announced we will be requiring all students, faculty, and staff to be vaccinated for COVID-19 by August 13th. As you’ve heard me say before, as healthcare providers and those preparing to work in an industry responsible for the health and wellness of others, it is incumbent upon all of us to not only set the example but also ensure we are doing everything in our power to keep our patients, colleagues, and all those around us healthy and safe. I applaud each one of you who have already gotten vaccinated. To those few of you who are still on the fence, I ask that you talk to those who have gotten the vaccine to help you feel more comfortable in getting the jab. All data strongly supports how safe and effective these vaccines are. Let’s start this next semester with 100% of us protected from this deadly disease helping to ensure we remain SALUS STRONG! Have a great weekend. Please stay safe, look out for one another and if you’re not vaccinated, remember to wear your mask when around others.

Mike

Juneteenth National Independence Day and a Change in Our Vaccine Policy: Week of June 18th, 2021

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

Good morning on a cool and sunny Juneteenth National Independence Day. As we pledged to do last Fall, today was designated a University holiday in commemoration of the June 19, 1865 announcement of General Order No. 3 by Union Army General Gordon Granger, proclaiming freedom from slavery in Galveston, Texas. Just yesterday, President Biden signed a bill making this a Federal Holiday to allow all Americans to have the time to reflect on the significance of the day. Closer to home, here are some of the things happening around campus:

NEW VACCINE POLICY: As I hope you have all seen by now, we have updated our Salus Safety Strategy to require all students, faculty, residents and staff to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by August 13, 2021. You can view the video I recorded explaining our rationale on our website and read a copy of the updated guidelines here.

OCA APPOINTMENTS: Two internal appointments have been announced at Salus University’s Osborne College of Audiology (OCA) by Radhika Aravamudhan, PhD, dean of OCA. Bre Myers, AuD ‘06, PhD, CH-AP, three-year track program coordinator and associate professor, has been named assistant dean for Foundations; and Jonette Owen, AuD ‘03, MS, assistant dean for Clinical Education and assistant professor, has been promoted to associate dean for Clinical Education. Congratulations to Dr. Myers and Dr. Owen! 

GENEROUS CONTRIBUTION: Kenneth Newton, MS, CCC-SLP, wanted to find a way to memorialize some of the people he loves in a unique way. After a lot of thought, he decided the best way to do that was to give something back to the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) program at Salus University in which he’s been an assistant professor for the past six years. Read more about Ken’s generous contribution here.

FRIEND AND MENTOR: It’s not unusual, according to Landon Godsey III, program director and fitness guru at the Hafter Center, that fitness trainers and their clients develop personal relationships. That’s because fitness training can be a highly personal journey for some people. Read more about how Landon has become a friend and mentor to several Salus students here.

MIDDLE STATES ACCREDITATION: This week, we highlight Standard IV - Support of the Student Experience. Our working group is led by James Caldwell, OD, EdD, Dean, Office of Student Affairs, who is joined by John Fitzgerald, III, DO, FACOG, Associate Professor, Associate Program Director, Medical Director, and Clinical Director, Physician Assistant Studies Program, College of Health Sciences, Laine Higa, OD, FAAO, Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Monica Maisto, MS, Director, Office of Admissions, Andrea Tyszka, OTD, MS, OTR/L, SIPT, Associate Professor, Occupational Therapy Program, College of Education and Rehabilitation, Darryl Horn, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry, Andrew Muckin, student, Pennsylvania College of Optometry. Together they are documenting the litany of student services provided by the University to support their academic studies and provide extracurricular opportunities to enrich their experience. And please don't forget to join Dr. Kruemmling's virtual information session next Wednesday, June 23rd, at noon, to learn more about the self-study process and how you can review and provide feedback on the University's draft self-study report. 

PRIDE MONTH: June is Pride Month, a celebration that demonstrates how LGBTQA+ Americans have helped strengthen the country by using their talent and creativity to help create awareness and goodwill. Visit loc.gov/lgbt-pride-month to learn more about LGBTQA+ histories well as view artistic work, musical compositions and novels from the community.

FACULTY FOCUS: Daniel Pavlik, DMS, PA-C, CAQ-EM, associate professor and director of didactic education for the Physician Assistant (PA) Studies program at Salus University, is this week’s Faculty Focus feature. Dr. Pavlik is currently serving as interim director of the PA program. Read more about him at salus.edu/DanielPavlik.

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’: When Salus University alumni, Rachel Plavnik, MS ‘19, Shannon LaSalle, MS ‘17, Amanda Kaufmann, MS ‘17, and Alexa Gutman, MS ‘17, embarked on their academic journeys, despite all the guidance and direction they would receive as students enrolled in the University’s Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) program, none of them anticipated their degrees leading them to the West Coast. Read more about their respective journeys here.

NAVIGATING FINANCIAL AID: Check out “How to Navigate Financial Aid as a Grad Student” in part one of this podcast Q&A featuring Jaime Schulang, MA, director of Student Financial Affairs. Jaime talks about the different loans, scholarships and financial aid that are available for students when they come to Salus University. To listen and read more, click here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Over the course of this week we’ve passed on a great deal of information between the change in our vaccine policy to the recognition of Juneteenth National Independence Day. As a final thought, please take the time today to reflect on the reasons you’ve chosen to become healthcare providers or educators and how you’re going to leverage all you have learned or are learning to make other lives better. After all, isn’t that why we’ve all decided to enter into the professions we offer here at Salus?

For all you dads out there - I hope you have a Happy Father’s Day. Please be safe, take some time for relaxation and reflection and remain SALUS STRONG!

Mike

Celebrating Our Summer Enrichment Program: Week of June 11th, 2021

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

Greetings from a very busy Elkins Park campus where our hot and muggy weather is finally gone, although it’s a bit soggy this morning! We have our summer cohort of Blindness and Low Vision Studies students on campus for their face-to-face learning experience in addition to students from all our other programs. It’s fun watching our BLVS students navigate around with their blinders and canes. In addition to this, here are some other activities that will be of interest to you:

THE COLLEGE TOUR: We had a great time last night at the launch party for the Salus segment of The College Tour, a TV series produced by Emmy-nominated and multi-award-winning producers featuring individual episodes on colleges and universities across the country. Special thanks to Dr. Juliana Mosley-Williams for serving as our Mistress of Ceremonies and to Alexis Abate and her communications team for putting the event together. I’d also like to thank the stars of the show, those students and faculty who made the production come to life, for sharing their stories with all of us. The evening included a viewing of the show, which streams on Amazon Prime and Roku, a meet-and-greet with the “stars”, refreshments and a DJ. To read more about The College Tour experience, go to salus.edu/TheCollegeTour.

OTI DIRECTOR: Brianna Brim, assistant professor of Occupational Therapy, has been named director of the Occupational Therapy Institute (OTI), located at The Eye Institute. James Konopack, PhD, dean of the College of Health Sciences, Education and Rehabilitation (CHER) made the announcement this week. Brianna brings a unique blend of clinical expertise, legislative and advocacy leadership, interprofessional education, and a strong record of scholarship and student mentorship to OTI. Congratulations Brianna! I know the OTI will be in great hands!

SPECIAL RECOGNITION: I’d like to extend our congratulations to Joel Silbert, OD ‘73, FAAO, former director of the Contact Lens Program and former chief of the Cornea and Specialty Contact Lens Service at TEI, who was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association of Optometric Contact Lens Educators (AOCLE); and to Brooke Kruemmling, PhD, COMS, Associate Provost, who was presented with the Salus coin on June 2 in recognition of her leadership on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. 

FACULTY FOCUS: This week’s Faculty Focus features Christine McCormick, MS, MMS, PA-C, an assistant professor in the University’s Physician Assistant (PA) Studies program. Find out how she went from wanting to be a professional dancer to becoming a PA and which Disney character “influenced” her wedding dress. To read more, go here.

SLP PODCAST SERIES: The next installment of our podcast series about the Speech-Language Pathology program at Salus University features department chair and program director Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, as he speaks with a clinical educator and three students about about their field experience in the preschool setting. To listen to the podcast, click here.

ARTICULATION AGREEMENT: Salus University and Manhattan College recently signed an articulation agreement creating a pathway for Manhattan College students to earn their master’s degrees in occupational therapy. Under the agreement, students who gain admission into Salus via the 4+2 program will be able to complete their Master of Science in Occupational Therapy (MSOT) degree program in two years. Read more about it here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: On Monday we will be welcoming 15 students into our revitalized Robert E. Horne Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) thanks to a very generous grant from America’s Best/National Vision Inc. The initial SEP was developed by Dean Robert Horne in 1977. It was funded by a government grant to support, “disadvantaged students”. Since then, the mission of the program has shifted to help assure that Salus continues to attract talented students of color who want to pursue health professions. As a testimony to the success of the SEP program, Pennsylvania College of Optometry remains one of the most diverse optometric programs in the country with the largest black student enrollment. Of note, while PCO may be number one, we still have a great deal of work to do to ensure that all of our programs, to include optometry, are representative of those communities we live and work in.

Finally, I want to once again, address the importance of getting vaccinated. As we survey our current student body as well as incoming students, while we’re doing fairly well, we are not at levels I would expect a university specializing in the health sciences to be. If any of you who have not yet gotten vaccinated and need to get more information about these very safe and effective vaccines, here are some links you can reference: The Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), WebMD, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, to name just a few. Additionally, the Black Doctors Consortium has been extremely successful in decreasing vaccine hesitancy amongst the African American community in Philadelphia. You can learn more about their efforts here. Keeping the Salus community healthy and safe is our primary concern. Because we also work closely with patients and clients, we have an additional responsibility to keep them safe, as well as protect ourselves and our loved ones. Thus, it is our expectation that unless people have a medical or religious reason not to get vaccinated, they do the right thing and get the jab. Please, if you’re not vaccinated do it now. As you prepare for this weekend, try to get out and enjoy the nice weather. If you are unvaccinated, wear your mask when indoors or outside around others. Please watch out for one another and stay SALUS STRONG!

A Reminder to Get Vaccinated: Week of June 4th, 2021

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

Good morning. It’s a bit gray outside but I can assure you that inside things are bright and cheery. As a testimony to the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines, many of our students and faculty have been participating in face-to-face classes and continue to work hard in clinical labs and our patient-centric clinics. Here are some events happening around campus: 

COMMENCEMENT WEEK: Wrapping up Commencement Week that led into the Memorial Day weekend, here are some stories on the Salus website that you may have missed: 

— The 122nd commencement ceremony, which recognized a total of 303 students, was unique in that it offered both a virtual and an in-person option for the graduates and their families. Read about the first-ever drive-thru ceremony here. And read about the virtual ceremony here. Barring any unforeseen circumstances with the pandemic, we should be back to our traditional in-person commencement venue in the fall.

PRIDE MONTH: June is Pride Month, a time to celebrate progress, inclusion, to affirm members of and raise awareness about efforts for equal justice and opportunity for the LGBTQ+ community (and the communities within). Pride Month began due to a riotous rejection of oppression known as the Stonewall Uprising. This event was a turning point in the movement to outlaw discriminatory laws and practices against LGBTQ+ Americans.

MIDDLE STATES ACCREDITATION: This week, we highlight Standard III - Design and Delivery of the Student Learning Experience. Ethics & Integrity. Our working group is led by Elizabeth Tonkery, OD, MPH, Assistant Professor, Associate Dean, Accelerated Scholars Program, Pennsylvania College of Optometry, who is joined by Samantha DiPinto, student, Osborne College of Audiology, Bhawan Minhas, OD, FAAO, Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania College of Optometry; Director, On-Campus Residency Programs; Primary Care/Ocular Disease Residency Coordinator, and Fabiana Perla, EdD, COMS, CLVT, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Blindness and Low Vision Studies, College of Education and Rehabilitation. Together they are documenting how we design and deliver world-class curriculum and learning experiences for future healthcare professionals.

INITIAL TENURE RECIPIENTS: Congratulations to Dr. Victor Bray and Ms. Kerry Lueders on receiving their initial 5-year tenure approval from the Board. This represents a significant professional achievement.

FACULTY FOCUS: This week’s Faculty Focus is on Christin DeMoss, OD ‘17, Resident ‘18. While a student at PCO/Salus, Dr. DeMoss was vice president of her class and was also involved with the American Optometric Student Association (AOSA) as a trustee and trustee-elect, and during her fourth year, was the national AOSA secretary. Now she’s an assistant professor at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry at Salus University. To read more about Dr. DeMoss, go to salus.edu/ChristinDeMoss.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: Featured in this week’s Where Are They Now is Frank Mai, OD ‘16. Dr. Mai has trained under some other PCO/Salus alums — Gary Fishberg, OD ‘78 and Robert Wang, OD ‘10, FAAO — and now is a clinical supervisor at the Ernest Childers VA Outpatient Clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And he just got married last month! Read more about Dr. Mai at salus.edu/FrankMai.

FINAL THOUGHTS: As the number of Covid cases in our area continues to decline more and more people will feel comfortable getting out and about. While that is very encouraging, it does not minimize the importance of getting vaccinated. I know I sound like a broken record, but we are the ones who need to set the example for others to do the right thing and get the Covid vaccine. The safety and effectiveness of these vaccines has been well-documented with the millions of people who have already received them. More importantly, as populations have become increasingly vaccinated, the numbers of Covid cases have decreased proportionally. Vaccines work - they keep us safe and they keep all those around us safe. Please, if you’re not already vaccinated and don’t have a medical or religious reason not to be, get that jab! We don’t want anyone getting sick. Looking ahead, I am optimistic that our incoming class will follow suit, act professionally, and arrive on campus vaccinated. As you prepare for the weekend, please continue to act responsibly, wear a face mask indoors when required or if you’re not yet vaccinated. Continue to wash your hands frequently and look out for one another. Stay safe and remain SALUS STRONG!

Mike