Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board of Trustee members and Friends,

It’s been a really hot and steamy week in Philadelphia and all up and down the East Coast. It’s also been a week to welcome back all those returning students from rotations or summer breaks. It’s really fun to walk around campus and feel the energy everyone brings to campus this time of the year! Our goal is to keep that energy level going throughout the year!!!

I’d like for all of our students, but especially our new ones, to take full advantage of the healthcare services we provide at Salus. To that end, I’d like each new student to make appointments at The Eye Institute, Pennsylvania Ear Institute and Speech-Language Institute.  For those returning students, if you haven’t already done this, please make the time to get it done. Even if you don’t feel like you need to have your eyes and ears checked or you don’t have any speech, swallowing or associated problems, it’s a great idea to learn a little about what your colleagues at Salus are doing. While you may not be able to get a same day appointment, please be patient and schedule something soon. It doesn’t cost you anything but time unless you need glasses, contacts or some other device - and those are provided close to “cost."  Your visit will allow your colleagues to experience patient contacts while you learn about their professions. 

While November doesn’t seem all that close right now, it will be here right before we know it. To that end, I’d like to remind everyone that the twelfth annual "Looking Out For Kids" Charity Fundraiser will be held at the Philadelphia Hilton, City Line Avenue on November 3^rd. Building on last year’s successful event this year’s will be even bigger and better!  We will be honoring Donna Frisby-Greenwood with our third annual Lighthouse Award. Ms. Frisby-Greenwood is the first president and CEO of the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia. Her work with the children of Philadelphia over the years has made a significant impact in their lives.  

This week students in our Physician Assistant (PA) program began the first in a series of three “The Art of Observation” workshops at the Philadelphia Museum of Art as part of their Physical Diagnosis 1 course. Half of the Class of 2020 and several faculty attended the gallery sessions yesterday and the other half is scheduled for later in September. Two museum educators are conducting the sessions, which are highly interactive, and involve individual and group exercises. PA faculty are also involved in the sessions in order to bring a clinical/medical perspective to the workshops. The curriculum in the first in the series covers Observing & Describing; the second session in the Spring will cover Interpreting, and the last session in the Summer will cover Empathy, Perspective Taking and Recognizing Bias. The art museum program was originally developed for Penn medical students, and is based on a Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero.  It’s great to see this innovative education model being leveraged for our students!

The Salus Scoop will be held from 12:30 – 2:30 P.M. later today in the Hafter Center gymnasium. It will be a great way for students (especially new students) to get to know clubs and organizations on campus. There will be FREE FOOD, including some pretty awesome food trucks, lots of games and prizes.  

Also, today, Dr. Eric Branda, the Director of Product Management for Sivantos, Inc. who has provided audiological, technical and product training support in the area of audiology for over 20 years will be defending his PhD dissertation in W400 at 1:00 PM.  Dr. Branda earned his audiology degree from the Arizona School of Health Sciences and has been working on his PhD at Salus for the past few years.His dissertation is titled,  “Effects of Working Memory on the Degree of Benefit for Speech Understanding in Noise with Binaural Wireless Beamforming”.  Even if you’re just curious as to what the name of his dissertation actually means, I encourage you to attend!

Did anyone see a camera crew on campus the last few days?  We're working on a virtual tour of campus, and can't wait to share it with you when its complete!  So if you see a camera crew, smile!

For all of our Jewish friends, I’d like to wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year or the traditional “Shanah Tovah” as you prepare to celebrate Rosh Hashanah Sunday evening.  May this year bring good health, happiness, prosperity and for our students, good grades!  

Have a great weekend. It it looks like it will certainly be much cooler than the rest of the week. Please get outside, exercise, relax (I purposefully used those words in the same sentence) and have fun. Looking forward to seeing you back on campus ready to learn on Monday!

Mike

Labor Day Weekend: Week of August 31st

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

Well, the heat is finally gone, at least for now, as we get ready to celebrate Labor Day weekend!

For those of you who might be curious as to the origins of Labor Day, according the Department of Labor, the holiday is that originated with the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883. In 1884 the first Monday in September was officially selected as the holiday in New York and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "working men's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country. Labor Day was designated a Federal holiday in 1894. Today the holiday also symbolizes the end of summer and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events.

On Monday, we dedicated the Marco Family Foundation Classroom (classroom W111) with a plaque unveiling and a champagne toast. It was great to have David and Julie Marco on campus as well as representatives from Marco Ophthalmic, so we could thank them in person for their incredible generosity. 

In our Osborne College of Audiology, the class of 2020 held its Class BBQ on Thursday evening at the Hafter Center as an end of the semester event. It’s really nice to see these events on campus.

Yesterday we had the honor of hosting State Representative Mark Mustio and members of his staff on campus to show him how the Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO) trains today’s optometrists and prepares them for the future. We had the opportunity to tour both the Elkins Park campus and The Eye Institute (TEI). A high point of the visit for Representative Mustio was his instruction on our binocular indirect ophthalmoscopy (BIO) virtual training device. Dr. Trego instructed him on how to view the fundus through both a direct ophthalmoscope and a Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscopy (BIO). I think he left with very realistic impression of how difficult this skill was to acquire! It’s always great to bring legislators to campus so we can educate them about our professions and impress upon them that we teach to the highest standards in each profession we train. Seeing it first-hand makes a huge difference. Representative Mustio certainly left with a much more informed impression of optometry than he had before he came.

Just a reminder that our annual Looking Out For Kids (LOFK) charity fundraiser will be held on November 3, 2018 at the Hilton Philadelphia City Avenue Hotel. Official invitations will be going out shortly and I wanted to ensure you had this on your calendars. It’s a fun event that helps to ensure we can continue to care for all those children in need of our vision and other health care services.

Finally, yesterday was a sad day for me and many on the staff as we bid farewell to Dr. Janice Scharre who officially began her retirement. It really hit home when I saw her husband wheeling all of her pigs with wings out of her office. We will miss her greatly and wish both Dr. Scharre and Dave “fair winds and following seas” as they begin their next adventure in Northern Virginia where they’ll be much closer to their family.

As you all get ready to celebrate the long weekend, please take some time to relax and recharge. I also ask that you reflect a bit on the events of this week and some of the many comments that were made in association with the death of Senator McCain. Without touching upon political views, I believe he represented what’s best in America – honor, courage, commitment, integrity, grit, dignity, the ability to forgive and move on and a true spirit of patriotism placing country above all else.

Take care and respect each other and come back ready to hit those books!

Mike

Farewell Dr. Janice Scharre: Week of August 24th

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

All of our new students now have the first week of studies under their belt!  From what I can see, everyone has been working hard getting into their new routines, which is great. In a couple of weeks the parking lot will be entirely full as the majority of our other students arrive on campus for the Fall term.

Yesterday and today, Salus faculty members participated in the University Faculty Development Day – an event that spans two days and is comprised of lectures to advance the faculty’s knowledge in several areas including creating tests to providing student support for personal and professional development. This year we were lucky to have a return visit from Johanna Inman, director of Temple University’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching. This year’s topic of “Creating Tests worth Taking: Evidence-Based Assessment” was extremely well-received during yesterday’s very informative session.

Thursday’s event was followed by an emotional faculty social and farewell to Dr. Janice Scharre who officially begins her retirement at the end of this month. Happily, Jan and her husband Dave both were able to be there for the event. I’m not going to go over all of the testimonials from the evening but rather say how much she is loved, respected and admired and will be missed by all of us here at Salus. I know I speak for the faculty, staff and Board of Trustees when I say that. In addition to celebrating Jan’s tenure at Salus, we also welcomed a host of new faculty members and acknowledged others who have recently been promoted. It was a very nice evening.

Today we continue with the University Faculty Development Day where experts from University Committees will discuss the judicial process for students and how to provide student support through the Center for Personal and Professional Development.

On Monday, we’ll dedicate the Marco Family Foundation classroom (W111 - next to the Learning Resource Center) at 3:30 PM. David Marco, from Marco Ophthalmic and the Marco Family Foundation, have been strong, generous and continuous supporters of the Pennsylvania College of Optometry and Salus as well as the optometric profession for many years. I have known David Marco for over 30 years and I can tell you first hand, that there is no greater supporter of optometry and moving the profession forward than David. The cutting-edge technology that Marco Ophthalmic has pioneered is changing the way we can perform exams, collect data and ultimately care for our patients. David and his wife Julie will be on hand for Monday’s ceremony and I’m very much looking forward to thanking them and showing them all the great things we’ve accomplished over the last few years with their help. 

It looks like this weekend's forecast will be the nicest of the month, so I encourage you all to get outside and enjoy the great weather. There are so many great places to explore in the greater Philadelphia area that are not too far from campus. These include Valley Forge, Center City, and Fairmont Park (which is huge) just to name a few. I always enjoy running on Forbidden Trail in Chestnut Hill on Saturday mornings as it’s shaded and there are usually lots of other runners enjoying the great scenery! Whatever you decide to do, stay safe, lookout for one another and come back Monday ready to tackle whatever is thrown your way!

Mike

White Coat Day: Week of August 17th

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

It’s been a fantastic week at Salus. While I know I did this in person the other day, I’d like to again welcome our more than 300 entering students who attended orientation this week. Thanks to the great work of our admissions and student affairs departments as well as each program for making this week unbelievably productive and chock full of great information for our new students. During the course the of the week, these young professionals had the opportunity to learn more about Salus, each of our programs, as well as their own programs and the culture here at the University.

Associated with Orientation Week, we had a wonderful turn out at the Alumni Epic Trivia Night on Tuesday where new students, current students, and alumni had a chance to socialize and enter into a friendly competition. It looked like everyone had a great time.

Today, Orientation Week culminates with our traditional White Coat Ceremony. This will be held at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Center City at 2:00 PM. We are excited to welcome the families and friends of our new students as they participate in this annual rite of passage from being a layperson to becoming a healthcare professional. It’s a wonderful venue to celebrate the achievements of these great students as they begin the next chapter in their professional lives. We’re very disappointed that Dr. Janice Scharre, who was supposed to be our keynote speaker (as I mentioned in last week’s update), now will not be able to join us.

The Pennsylvania College of Optometry and now Salus has always played an important advocacy role for each of our professions. This has not changed as we have been strongly advocating in favor of an optometric scope of practice bill that is currently in the legislative process in Harrisburg. We have been asked to host Commonwealth legislators on campus to highlight what and how we teach future optometrists to prepare them to practice anywhere in the country. I have been asked to meet with several key legislators to do the same, which I’m excited to do. Advocating for each of our professions, based on the education we provide them, is an important part of the Salus mission that we take very seriously. We’re hopeful that our involvement in the process will help to move our professions forward.

Finally, it looks like we might actually have a dry weekend, so that’s good. I may even get to run on Forbidden Trail without ending up a muddy mess! I encourage all of our new students to get settled in, do some exploring, hopefully get some exercise and be ready to hit the deck running on Monday. Be safe, be respectful of each other and have fun! See you all next week!

Mike

Orientation Prep: Week of August 10th

Greetings from a very hot and steamy Elkins Park! 

It’s been relatively quiet this week around campus as we prepare for next week’s very busy orientation week where we will welcome approximately 330 students to campus from all over the country and the world. 

It’s an exciting time for our new students, their families, faculty and staff. We will open up both sides of the Lombardi Classroom for the very first time for the official orientation program which commences at 8:30 on Tuesday morning. I’m really looking forward to it. 

The week will culminate with our White Coat Ceremony to be held in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Center City on Friday at 2:00 P.M. This year’s White Coat will be extra special as we’ll be honoring our outgoing provost, Dr. Janice Scharre, as she prepares to begin her well-deserved retirement, with an honorary degree. Dr. Scharre will also be our keynote speaker. Knowing Dr. Scharre, I anticipate a very thoughtful, sincere and insightful talk.

In the College of Education and Rehabilitation, Brianna Brim, MOT, OTR/L, CPAM, CLIPP, academic fieldwork coordinator for the Occupational Therapy (OT) program, recently returned from a ten-day immersion in a Clinical and Translational Research course for PhD students at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center. She was one of only 30 in the country selected to participate and she’s brought back a host of great ideas that will be integrated into our OT and other programs. Congratulations, Brianna! 

I spent the last couple of days up in New York City visiting with some of our very distinguished alumni and emeritus Board members. It’s always fun to be able to sit down with our graduates who have not been to campus for a while and tell them about all the great things our faculty and staff have been accomplishing. As a bonus, I even got in an early morning run around Central Park yesterday, which is always great, even with 90 percent humidity! 

So, as you prepare for the upcoming weekend and next week’s activities, get some rest, make sure you drink plenty of water if you’re outside and come back to campus ready to welcome all of our new students and kick off the academic year the right way. Be safe and look out for each other.

Mike

Another Busy Week at Salus: Week of August 3, 2018

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

It’s been another busy week at Salus. Here are some of the highlights:

For those of you on campus today, Student Council’s August Open Meeting is scheduled from 1 p.m to 3 p.m. in S305. I would encourage you to attend.

Our Physician Assistant students completed a pediatrics exam workshop on Thursday, August 2, that helped the students provide initial exposure to the pediatric patient population, prior to the start of their clinical rotations coming up in September. Great way to get ready for “the real thing”!

On Monday, July 30th, the Learning Resource Center hosted four-legged friends for students and faculty to come pet to de-stress from finals. If dogs aren’t your thing, there will be yoga with kittens on Saturday at the Hafter Center!

One of our original plans when helping to open a primary care clinic in The Eye Institute was to facilitate student rotations in the clinic. As the City Life Clinic recently marked its one-year anniversary, it also celebrated the success of our pilot program where one of our PA students completed a first hands-on clinical rotation at the facility. These rotations will continue as the clinic evolves.
 
This week we hosted Donna Frisby-Greenwood, the Lighthouse Award recipient to be honored at this year’s Looking Out For Kids Annual Charity Fundraiser on 3 November. Ms. Frisby Greenwood serves as the first president and CEO of the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia and has previously served as the director of college and career awareness for the School District of Philadelphia and program director for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation where her work focused on retaining talented people and expanding economic opportunity in the city. Donna has a love for teaching and has made a significant impact in the lives of many of Philadelphia's underprivileged young people. We’re extremely honored and proud that she will be this year’s honoree.
 
Finally, just a reminder about our $100 to commemorate 100 years of PCO challenge I mentioned last week. We’re beginning to pick up some steam on this so if any of you are so inclined, especially our alumni out there, please give. These donations are being used for important scholarship dollars we need to help off-set tuition driven by the high cost of providing world-class clinical training programs. I’d like to see each of our prior graduating classes compete to see who comes out on top! Personally, I’m pulling for the PCO Class of 1980 - let’s get this moving!
 
Looks like half of the weekend will not be rainy so I encourage you all to get out and keep moving! Summer is passing quickly and before we know it, we’ll be shoveling snow! Have a safe and relaxing weekend!

Mike

Salus Proud: Week of July 27th

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

Another week has quickly passed. Thanks to all of you who commented on the triathlon I participated in last week. It turned out to be a perfect day for a race – relatively cool, overcast and not too windy. I ended up finishing 8^th in my age group, which had 24 participants. I was happy with the results, given that I was in Budapest the week prior to the race.

Closer to home, congratulations are in order to Alexis Abate, Lesley Westerfer and the rest of our marketing and communications team for winning the gold award for best Website Element – Microsite of 2018, from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. Check out the award-winning site. And while you’re at it, please consider our $100 for 100 challenge where we are attempting to have as many alumni, faculty and staff donate $100 to commemorate our 100th anniversary of PCO next year.

I’d like to extend a warm welcome of all of our Osborne College of Audiology Summer Workshop students. It’s great to have you all on campus this week. 

Along the same lines, please join me in welcoming the undergraduate students and their chaperonesfrom Montclair State University to Salus. These students are here to learn more about our programs. They’ll attend a panel discussion, tour the Elkins Park campus, participate in clinical skills demonstrations, and hear from various faculty, students and staff. It should be a fun day for all!

The Salus Campus Activity Committee (CAC) hosted a movie night on Wednesday at the Hafter Center complete with popcorn and a candy bar. This is a fun summer event that students have enjoyed.

Congratulations to Dr. Kathleen Youse, director of the Speech- Language Pathology (SLP) program, who was recently elected as the next president of the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences (ANCDS). It’s great to see our academic leaders recognized in this fashion! 

Speaking of our SLP program, they are having a Send Off party later today from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Magerk’s Pub & Grill in Fort Washington as a thank you to the supervisors and professors before students head off to externships. Come and join in the festivities if you can!

Congratulations to Dr. Caitlin Foy on being promoted to Director of the Occupational Therapy Doctoral (OTD) program. We know the program will continue to flourish under her leadership.

Finally, it looks like most of the weekend is going to be nice, so I encourage all of you to get outside and enjoy the nice weather. Be safe, have some fun and look out for one another.

Mike