Get Your Booster/3rd Shot Now: Week of December 3rd, 2021

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

Good morning from a blustery Elkins Park campus where most of our students begin finals. Wishing our students and faculty an successful end to a very full semester! Even as the final exam cycle of the semester commences, many other activities have been occurring on and off campus:

BLVS ADMISSIONS: In our latest podcast, we talk with Candida Mulligan, admissions officer in the University's Office of Admissions. She talks about the Blindness and Low Vision Studies (BLVS) program, and tips and tricks for applications. Listen to it here.

STAFF SPOTLIGHTS: Two new Staff Spotlights feature Stella Lee, who works in our Finance department, and Andrew Rohe, a security officer at Salus. Get to know more about Stella here as well as Andrew and his work beyond Salus as a performance coach here.

MEET THE CAST OF THE COLLEGE TOUR: In our next profile on the cast of The College Tour, meet Sonja Makitan ‘23OD. For the on-campus programs at Salus, a large percentage of the student body hail straight from undergraduate institutions with the average age being 23-years-old. But for Sonja, this is not the case. Although she is a traditional Doctor of Optometry student, she took a non-traditional route to the University’s Pennsylvania College of Optometry (PCO). Read more about Sonja here.

FACULTY AND STAFF GIFTS: Last year, Academic Affairs and Human Resources purchased Salus hoodie sweatshirts for all faculty and staff around Nov/Dec. Unfortunately, they took so long to come in, we decided to give them out this winter. This year, Human Resources purchased large Salus umbrellas for all (regular FT/PT) faculty and staff. Hoodies and umbrellas for faculty will be distributed by Academic Affairs sometime in the upcoming weeks. Hoodies and umbrellas for staff will be distributed by Human Resources around the same time. Be on the lookout for emails regarding distribution/pick up.

OT HOLIDAY FUNDRAISER: Pi Theta Epsilon, the Occupational Therapy honor society, is participating in the St. Catherine Challenge to raise money for OT research. The goal is to reach $1,000 with a holiday fundraiser through Gertrude Hawk Chocolates. To order your chocolates, place your order here. The fundraiser is underway now and runs through Dec 12.

A DAY IN THE LIFE: Check out “A Day In the Life” featuring second-year Physician Assistant (PA) student Lauren Wychowski. She is currently in her third rotation, which is pediatrics. Read more about a typical day for Lauren here.

SLI SUPPORT GROUP: Join Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, the chair and program director of the Speech-Language Pathology department, as he moderates a podcast that focuses on the Traumatic Brain Injury Group at the Speech-Language Institute (SLI). He is joined by one of its members as well as the supervisor and two students who have had the pleasure of working within the group. Click here to listen. 

COCHLEAR IMPLANT WORKSHOP: Thahira Kallumurikkal ‘22AUD was an audiologist in India for 14 years, but decided she wanted to upgrade her skills. That’s why she decided to enter the MSc in Clinical Audiology program in Salus University’s Osborne College of Audiology (OCA) where she had the opportunity to attend the College’s Cochlear Implant Workshop from Nov. 2-5. Read how beneficial the program was according to Kallumurikkal and other OCA students here. 

HOLIDAY TRADITION: For those who stayed local this holiday, the University provided a complimentary “Turkey Gobbler” dinner — prepared by the University Cafe’s Metz Culinary. Salus also continued its longtime Thanksgiving tradition of delivering meals to Jenkintown and Cheltenham police departments on Thanksgiving Day as well as AstraZeneca Hope Lodge in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania. Read more about the festive to-go feasts here.

AUDIOLOGY GRAND ROUNDS: The next Audiology Grand Rounds will be today, Dec. 3 at 12:15 p.m. Julie Jimenez and Renee Kochinski will present on “Seesaw Nystagmus.” Click here to join the meeting.

TOY DRIVE: From Nov. 29 to Dec. 13, NPASS is hosting a Marine Toys for Tots Drive to support children in our community. They are seeking new, unwrapped toys to donate to local children. The drop-off location is a large white Toys for Tots bin outside the cafeteria at the Elkins Park campus. Monetary donations can also be made via a QR code that's available on the collection box as well. For more information, please visit https://www.toysfortots.org/Default.aspx and consider making the holiday brighter for less fortunate children in our community.

FINAL THOUGHTS: If you’ve been to our Learning Resource Center and in most of our larger classrooms, you’ve seen some large, white devices placed around the rooms making a very soft swishing noise (see below). These custom-built air filters are the work of Mr. Rick Echevarria and our exceptional facilities team. The design for the filters was developed by the dean of Engineering at the University of California, Richard Corsi. Tested by several labs, they have been proven more effective than more expensive HEPA-based portable air cleaners on the market. These devices give us an additional level of protection against the spread of the virus.

While taking the extra step to filter out the virus from our environment is helpful, the most important things we can do to prevent spread remain the same: get vaccinated, wear a face mask, wash hands frequently and social distance. As studies are ongoing, most public health and infectious disease experts agree that getting a booster/3rd dose enhances our protection from the newly identified Omicron variant. If you haven’t gotten your booster, make a point to get one now, especially as you prepare to head home for the holidays. It’s only a matter of time when the third shot will be considered “fully vaccinated.” I’d like everyone to be ahead of that. Additionally, if you’re not feeling well, please stay home and get tested to ensure no one is bringing the virus to campus or our clinics.

I know how frustrating this is. Just as we thought things were getting better, along comes a new variant. This is the nature of pandemics, especially when such a large portion of the world’s population remains unvaccinated. Things will get better. We need to continue holding our course. Thank you for all that you’re doing to help us stay the course.

Please take some time to relax during your study breaks. Get outside, if you can and just enjoy the fresh air! Continue to look out for one another and be safe. You are SALUS STRONG!

Mike

A Thanksgiving Message: Week of November 19th, 2021

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

Good morning of the longest lunar eclipse (see below)in over 568 years from our Elkins Park campus. I was crazy enough to get up to see part of it, which was well worth the extra cup(s) of coffee! Even as the earth eclipsed the sun from the moon, our students, faculty and staff have been extremely busy administering and taking practical exams, sitting in both virtual and face to face lectures and providing world-class care to our patients and clients. Below are items of merit to share with you:

DISTINGUISHED CAREER: After half a century of excellence, Dr. Satya Verma is retiring at the end of the year. During his long and distinguished career at PCO/Salus, Dr. Verma has served in various capacities stacking accolades during his tenure. Read more about Dr. Verma’s storied career and future plans here and join me in wishing him fair winds and following seas as he prepares for retirement.

NEW DIRECTOR: Dr. Chad Killen has been named the new director of PCO/Salus’ On-Campus Residency Programs where he will oversee all residents at The Eye Institute (TEI) in Primary Care/Ocular Disease, Low Vision Rehabilitation/Ocular Disease, Cornea/Contact Lenses, Neuro-Ophthalmic Disease and Pediatrics/Vision Therapy. Currently, there are 12 on-campus residents. Congratulations, Dr. Killen! Click here to read more.

INSIDE AUDIOLOGY AND SLP, PART II: In part two of our latest podcast, we talk with Dr. Lindsay Bondurant, director of the Pennsylvania Ear Institute (PEI) and associate professor for Salus University's Osborne College of Audiology, and with Robert Serianni, chair, program director and associate professor for the Speech-Language Pathology program, about the audiology and speech-language pathology professions. Listen to the podcast here.

STAFF SPOTLIGHT: This week’s Staff Spotlight features Ruby Singleton, who has been with the University for 35 years in the Technology and Learning Resource Center Services department. Find out more about Ruby, what she enjoys about her job and what she does in her free time by clicking here. 

FLU SHOTS: Many of you probably have read about the flu outbreak at the University of Michigan. None of us would like to see that replicated here. If you have not already gotten your flu shot, please take the time to get it done prior to next week’s holiday. They are available throughout our region at most pharmacies as well as healthcare institutions.

ACTIVE SHOOTER TRAINING: As an unfortunate requirement of the times, the University will host an active shooter training for the Salus community from noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 24, in the Toland Classroom at TEI. Philadelphia Police Detective Joseph Rovnan will lead instructor our training. He is nationally recognized as a subject matter expert in active shooter strategies, programs and response. Detective Rovnan will talk about safety both in and around the workplace, communications and tips for preventing, preparing and responding to situations including unauthorized visitors and threats to our Salus community. 

AUDIOLOGY GRAND ROUNDS: This week’s Audiology Grand Rounds begin at 12:15 p.m. today, Nov. 19. Kathleen McGovern and Maria Kirifides will present on “Cochlear Implantation Candidacy after Two Decades Without Sound Stimulation.” Click here to join the meeting.

FUNDRAISER FOR PHILABUNDANCE: Our chapter of the Student Occupational Therapy Association (SOTA) is conducting a fundraiser for Philabundance from now through Dec. 1. Boxes are outside the cafeteria for donations of nonperishable food and drinks. The top 10 items most needed are: peanut butter and jelly, cooking oil, canned tuna or meat, canned fruits and vegetables, canned stew and soups, oatmeal/breakfast cereal, whole grain pasta, 100% juice, rice, and boxed non-refrigerated milk. Foods low in sodium and sugar, and free of high fructose corn syrup, are preferred. SOTA is also accepting money donations for the organization. 

STUDENT ACADEMY OF AUDIOLOGY FUNDRAISER: Stop by CycleBar, 1470 Old York Road in Abington, at noon Saturday, Nov. 20, to ride and raise money for the Salus chapter of the Student Academy of Audiology (SAA) organization.

GRANT AWARDED: Anna Grasso, OTD, MS, OTR/L, CAPS, ECHM, assistant professor and academic fieldwork coordinator in the Occupational Therapy (OT) program at Salus University, was recently awarded a subgrant in partnership with Rebuilding Together Philadelphia (RTP) to help low-income older adult homeowners in the Philadelphia area age in place. The grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Older Adults Home Modification Grant Program (OAHMP), which gave the project more than $824,000 to apply safety and functional home modifications and limited repairs to meet the needs of the local aging population. Read more about it here. 

FINAL THOUGHTS: As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday next week, COVID-19 cases have been increasing in certain parts of the country. Thankfully, our region is still doing pretty well. Thanks to the miraculous vaccines that have been developed, this year we can, once again, celebrate the holiday with friends and loved ones. If you do decide to travel during the holiday, please take appropriate precautions: know what the spread of the virus is where you are going, wear your facemask when appropriate and test yourself prior to returning to campus.

Thanksgiving is traditionally a holiday when family and friends gather to recount the joys and blessings of the past year. I hope you use this time to take stock of the kindnesses we have shared; grateful for all that enriches our lives every day, even in the midst of the pandemic. With all that’s happening in our country and the rest of the world, we have much to reflect on, and also much for which to be thankful. During this challenging year, I offer thanks to our extremely dedicated faculty, residents, staff and trustees for your professional excellence, energy, compassion, enthusiasm in support of our students and our institution. You’ve accomplished so much, often without fanfare, but with great impact on our mission. It’s an honor and pleasure to work with such a committed group of professionals! I also thank our students for selecting Salus to pursue your chosen professions and for trusting us with your health and safety as we have navigated through the pandemic. You are the reason we’re here. We are extremely thankful.

As neighbors and friends pause to lend a hand to those in need, we are reminded of the indelible spirit of compassion and mutual responsibility. This spirit is alive and well here at Salus daily -- whether taking care of patients or clients in our Eye, Ear, Speech and Language or Occupational Therapy Institutes, caring for children in schools or serving clients in the many clinical settings we support. Salus people live the Thanksgiving spirit every day. I sincerely thank and admire you for that.

As we prepare for next week’s holiday, thank you for all that you do every day to make Salus the special place it is to learn, work and support our community.

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

Looking Out for Kids

I'm taking this Blog in a different direction from my past messages. This message is about philanthropy and how frustrated I've been about getting folks to both notice and support our outstanding Looking Out For Kids campaign.  This one charity singularly supports the efforts of the University to care for thousands of children in the Philadelphia and Montgomery county school districts who would otherwise not be able to obtain vision, hearing and other health-related screenings.  Furthermore, this fund provides glasses to underprivileged children who cannot afford them.  Needless to say Salus has changed lives through this extremely beneficial service.   

Unfortunately, all of these interventions cost money.  While we've been able to subsidize most of these efforts through the Looking Out For Kids campaign the University often must augment these services with human and fiscal resources that normally would be dedicated to other necessary functions.  Compounding all this, we have a 14-year old vision screening van that is outdated and in need of replacement so we can provide integrated health screenings, not just vision screenings.

I'm frustrated because as much as we publicize our efforts and people talk about the importance of helping children, there's relatively little to show in terms of philanthropic support for these efforts.  We have a fundraising event the beginning of November (invitation and link below) but the amount of money it raises barely covers the cost of gas for our van and a few pair of glasses.  I need your help in the form of suggestions, support and contacts so we can gain some traction on raising the necessary funds to support the youth of our communities.  I'm hoping someone who might be reading this can help provide some additional insights as to how we can best sustain these important functions.  I'd hate to see any support we're giving to children diminish due to lack of funding.

www.teivision.com/lofk

An Extremely Successful Event

I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate Sue Oleszewski and her Looking Out For Kids team in making this year's event extremely successful and enjoyable. Philadelphia Eagles legend and Villanova graduate Brian Westbrook and Dr. Janet Samuels, Superintendent of the Norristown Area School District honored us by co-hosting the event. Helping to make the event even more successful was our own Andy Gurwood, who served as our masterful emcee for the evening. I don't think there's a hat he doesn't own (you'd have to have been there to see it!). What a great turnout - over 300 people to include several of our Board of Trustees, many faculty, community leaders and alumni. I understand this is the best attendance over the 7 years we've been doing this wonderful event!  When all was said and done, most of the items up for auction were gone and folks were loading up their cars with all their goodies at the end of the evening (I particularly like the Ryobi tools I won :-)),  thus making this a huge success.

I want to personally thank everyone involved in this great effort, especially our corporate and private sponsors - who without their support and generosity, this never would have been possible. This year we were lucky to have an extra-special participant, local (and very accomplished) artist Elynne Rosenfeld Allenson, who donated one piece of her very beautiful work to the silent auction and contributed 30% of the proceeds for anything she sold during the evenings festivities. Due to popular demand (and the fact that her artwork looks so great in the Hafter Center), Elynne has agreed to keep her work at the Hafter Center for this coming week with the same offer to contribute 30% of her proceeds to the Looking Out For Kids charity!  Thanks Elynne!!!  I would encourage anyone who's local to check out her work.

Finally, as we begin our week at Salus, I will be working closely with the President's Council to complete our preparatory work for the upcoming off-site this coming Thursday and Friday.  I sense a good deal of excitement (at least I know I'm excited about it) about the off-site as we take the input from my 100 Days of Listening, combine that with already established University priorities to forge our path into the future.   I will be sure to keep everyone informed about the progress we make.   Wishing you all a great week!