Processing, Healing, Progressing: Week of April 23rd, 2021

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

Once again, there’s lots going on around campus. Here are just some of the things that I’d like to highlight:

LOFK SUCCESS STORY: Unlike many of Philadelphia’s children, Colbie and Addyson Sparks were able to attend school this year in-person at Our Lady of Port Richmond (OLPR). With the help of The Eye Institute (TEI) of Salus University’s School Vision Program their school year was made a little easier. Read more about their experience at salus.edu/SchoolVision. And don’t forget to get your tickets to the University’s 14th annual “Looking Out for Kids” fundraiser, held virtually at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 1. To purchase virtual tickets or VIP reception boxes online, visit here. 

PROCESSING, HEALING, PROGRESSING: I hope you got a chance to tune into the DEI forum “Processing, Healing and Progressing After the Verdict” last evening via WebEx. It featured Lisa Croft, DO, who shared personal perspectives and how traumatic events impact our work in health care. A second speaker, Jaison Freeman, PhD, Chestnut Hill College assistant professor of psychology, also shared personal perspectives and how faculty can assist in facilitating difficult dialogue around these events in the classroom/clinical setting. We recognize these forums will not solve our societal ills, but they do provide an opportunity for members of our community to be together to dialogue, listen and support.

MATCH DAY 2021: Resident Match Day is when all residency programs and candidates who applied receive their results on where they ultimately are matched after a season of residency interviews that begins in October and closes the end of February every year. Read more about the excitement and anxiety surrounding this year’s Match Day at salus.edu/MatchDay2021.

PA OLYMPICS 2021: Salus students joined other PA students from Arcadia University, DeSales University, Drexel University, Jefferson University, the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) and Temple University to participate in “The Amazing Race,” April 10, 2021, in Philadelphia. Read more about how our PA students had some fun and raised money for a good cause by going to salus.edu/PAOlympics.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW: This week’s Where Are They Now features Devin Williams, OD ‘17, who was attracted to PCO/Salus because we emphasized early clinical exposure and placed students in our clinical facility, The Eye Institute (TEI), earlier than most optometry schools. Find out how Dr. Williams’ career has progressed at salus.edu/DevinWilliams. 

ONGOING PODCAST SERIES: Join Robert Serianni, MS, CCC-SLP, FNAP, the chair and program director of the department of Speech-Language Pathology at Salus University as he speaks with a clinical educator and three current students about their collaboration with the members of the Breastfeeding Resource Center and their work in the population of infants, toddlers and families. Click here to listen. 

LUNCH AND LEARN: I hope you had a chance to attend, via Zoom, our latest Lunch and Learn event yesterday on “Environmental and Behavioral Factors Associated with Refractive Errors in Israeli Boys” presented by Ariela Gordon-Shaag, PhD, FAAO, chair of the Department of Optometry and Vision Science at Hadassah Academic College in Jerusalem, Israel. If you missed it, contact Dr. Melissa Vitek at mvitek@salus.edu for more information.

FINAL THOUGHTS: This past week many of us recorded our parts for the upcoming virtual commencement exercise. We’re extremely excited that Congresswoman Madeleine Dean is our Keynote speaker and former Dean of Students, Robert Horne will be receiving an Honorary Degree, the Doctor of Humane Letters Degree, for the work he did in establishing and growing the Summer Enrichment Program during his tenure at Salus. While all of us would have preferred to do this in person, the pandemic is continuing to throw us curves. I am happy that we’re able to do the in-person drive by ceremony next month but also realize it’s not what many of you (and me) would have preferred, but given the current situation, it is the responsible course of action to take at this time. As more people get vaccinated, hopefully, this will be the last time we’ll have to go down this road. In the meantime, I’m hoping all of you are either vaccinated or have appointments to get vaccinated as that is the only way we will contain this virus. We are working on having a vaccination event here on campus sometime next week for those who still need it – more details to follow on that. 

In the meantime, please continue to wear your face masks, socially distance and wash your hands frequently. Please be safe, look out for one another and remain SALUS STRONG as you prepare for the weekend!

Mike

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

Preparing for Commencement: Week of April 27th, 2020

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

We’re preparing to enter week eight of online learning, social distancing and other things that have required a monumental change in the way we teach, learn and provide patient care.  As I’ve said before, the speed in which you all have responded to a rapidly evolving medical emergency has been impressive and very humbling. 

Later this week many of us will be recording parts of our virtual commencement ceremony. This represents another significant adjustment we’ve all had to make that puts the scope and reach of this pandemic into very personal terms as to how it has affected us all. Preparing for commencement also signals the end of many of your academic careers and the beginning of your professional ones. The next few months will present many challenges and opportunities to you as you prepare for your boards and get ready to launch your careers. We’ll be with you every step of the way. 

The next month also allows us to focus on the successful completion of our spring semester and prepare to transition to our summer semester, which will also require online teaching and learning. We’re planning, with the hope that we will are permitted to access our campus, to begin limited labs and clinical experiences, but much of that depends upon how the pandemic subsides in our region. 

Like many of our counterparts in the area, we are watching conditions very closely and developing plans that can meet multiple contingencies. Working with my President’s Council, the Dean’s Council, our Board of Trustees, as well as seeking outside advice, we have been engaged in rigorous analysis and planning for what the next academic year will look like. All of the decisions that are being made are guided by local conditions, science, safety and our mission. Our focus has been on balancing the enormous value of face to face educational experiences with our responsibility to protect the health of every member of the Salus community. Overall, our goal is to maintain the excellence for which our academic programs are known.

As we move through all this, it’s clear that no one has all the answers, especially as the pandemic crisis continues to evolve. We will always be informed by the science and local conditions and will act decisively if we need to change course to protect our university community. I want to assure you that our planning will continue and, as they have throughout this emergency, your deans and program directors will be providing program-specific guidance and details as these plans develop. While we don’t yet know exactly how all this will look, we are agile enough to pivot as conditions dictate.  I promise you that I will do everything I can to keep everyone informed.

As we do move forward, I also want you to know that, in addition to the educational component of what we’re planning, we’re also developing rigorous prevention protocols to keep everyone safe. Everything we’re doing is based on CDC and other evidence-based guidance, addressing institutional and clinic cleaning, personal protective equipment, hygiene, facility use and more.

Candidly, no one expects us to be back to “business as usual” in August. Our classes and classrooms will almost certainly look different, given the requirement to maintain social distancing and our clinics will be less populated than we’d like.

Out of adversity comes great opportunity and I see many opportunities for us at Salus. As we plan and anticipate what people are calling a “New Normal” I like to think of this as developing the “Next Normal”. PCO and Salus have always led health science education to the next level – now is our time to harness that creativity and resourcefulness that’s in our DNA and find new, innovative and even more effective ways to educate the next generation of professionals.   

We are SALUS STRONG! While we have challenges ahead of us, I have no doubt, whatsoever, that we will not only survive these unparalleled challenges, but when this ends, we will come out on the other side stronger, more resilient and able to meet our mission as we have for over 100 years. 

Stay safe and healthy, continue to practice social distancing and keep those comments coming!

Mike