PERSPECTIVES
Sarah Dohle ’01 LEARNING ABOUT FOOD PRODUCTION FROM THE LIMA BEAN When Sarah Dohle ’01 talks about lima bean genetics, people laugh and feel comfortable asking questions and sharing their thoughts about food production, genetic engineering, and organic food choices. “If we all know a little more about what goes into food production, it helps us make informed decisions about how we eat and how
we can support agriculture,” explained Sarah, a speaker at TEDxGeorgeSchool. She spent some of her time as a graduate student with the Genetic Resources Group at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Columbia studying the diversity of lima beans. She is working to develop insect-tolerant varieties and to understand the mechanisms of resistance. Sarah is an assistant professor in the Plant Science Department at Delaware Valley University teaching crop science classes to the next generation of growers, researchers, and eaters.
Zachary Martinez ’09 Hilary Pearsall ’10 I N S P I R I N G P AT I E N T- F O C U S E D HEALTHCARE Zachary Martinez ’09 and Hilary Pearsall ’10 work for Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers, an organization with the mission of improving the health of Camden residents by enhancing the quality, capacity, coordination, efficiency, and accessibility of the healthcare system. The Coalition of Healthcare Providers uses a unique cross disciplinary approach with teams of data scientists, nurses, social workers, physicians, businessmen, and lawyers all working together to provide intensive case management and care coordination to some of the most vulnerable patients in the city.
The team focuses their work on systems change. For example, patients often do not have a car, and public transportation is lacking. This makes it hard for them to make an appointment or get to the pharmacy.” said Zachary. “Rather than simply filing complaints, or finding better ways for our patients to get rides, we requested and analyzed the data from the contractor currently providing transportation for them and discovered a pattern of service that could be improved.” The team advocated that a revised request for proposals be issued with new quality requirements. “We begin our work with the patients’ perspectives. We ask them what their goals are and what drives them, then create a shared vision of the progress we’ll make together,” said Zachary.
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